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Speaker 1: and I here at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody, hope
Speaker 1: all if you guys are having an incredible week, got
Speaker 1: a fun show for you today. We got another NBA
Speaker 1: Finals rematch last night between the Denver Nuggets and the
Speaker 1: Miami Heat. We're gonna break that game down from the
Speaker 1: perspective of both teams. After that, a super entertaining overtime
Speaker 1: game between the Bulls in the Indiana Pacers, Tomato rows
Speaker 1: and goes crazy. Bulls get a big win. We're gonna
Speaker 1: break that game down from the perspective of both teams.
Speaker 1: Then I got four or five male bad questions for
Speaker 1: the end of the show. You guys know the jope
Speaker 1: for we can started subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel.
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Speaker 1: we keep hitting them throughout the rest of the regular season.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So, just like every other,
Speaker 1: seemingly every other Denver Miami matchup, Aaron Gordon dominated the
Speaker 1: game early by just bullying some of the Heat players,
Speaker 1: and you know, Miami, for whatever reason, is kind of
Speaker 1: content to let Aaron operate in single coverage a lot
Speaker 1: to start these games to see if they can handle it,
Speaker 1: and each time they kind of get bullied. There was
Speaker 1: a double team of Jokichen the post where Aaron Gordon
Speaker 1: just had a quick duck in on Jimmy Butler. That's
Speaker 1: how he got the scoring started. Then he just blew
Speaker 1: right through Duncan Robinson in kind of like a semi
Speaker 1: transition possession and had like a nasty dunk. He slapped
Speaker 1: the backboard and flexed after and then he came up
Speaker 1: the right wing and just took Nikola Yovic detas just
Speaker 1: and straight. Iso just dropped his shoulder, beat him to
Speaker 1: the spot and drew a foul, got to the free
Speaker 1: throw line, hit a pull up jumper. In that stretch
Speaker 1: as well, Aaron Gordon is moving really confidently offensively right now,
Speaker 1: at least in his aggression. And then KCP early on
Speaker 1: was playing the passing lanes. He had two picks sixes,
Speaker 1: and the Nuggets were defending well. Jimmy Butler was missing
Speaker 1: his jumper. Denver takes an early lead and then Miami.
Speaker 1: You know how it is with them, They never kind
Speaker 1: of relent in terms of their effort and focus and energy,
Speaker 1: and so they just kind of worked their way back
Speaker 1: into the game, especially in that stretch when Jokic was
Speaker 1: off the floor. Eric Spolser knows how Denver likes to
Speaker 1: play when Jokic is off. It's a lot of Jamal Murray.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of him just dribbling around looking for
Speaker 1: his own shot. He's usually going to target whoever he
Speaker 1: thinks the worst individual defender and go after him. This case,
Speaker 1: it's Patty Mills in these Miami lineups, and they were
Speaker 1: just they Caleb Martin on Jamal. Caleb was doing a
Speaker 1: really nice shot. They were hedging and recovering with Patty
Speaker 1: rotating out of it well. And then whenever Jamal did
Speaker 1: go to work and Iso, they were just sending late
Speaker 1: double teams. And so they like in a lot of
Speaker 1: these possessions. Specifically in that first half stretch, the ball
Speaker 1: was ending up in Justin Holliday's hands and he was
Speaker 1: missing his jump shot at that phase in the game.
Speaker 1: Now Jamal made a couple of shots, you know, like
Speaker 1: it's he has these like zero pass possessions. They kind
Speaker 1: of remind me of Kyrie Irving back when he was
Speaker 1: with the Cleveland Cavaliers with Lebron, where it was like
Speaker 1: where it's like there's just these possessions where Kyrie would
Speaker 1: get the inbound pass on the baseline and dribble up
Speaker 1: the floor and just you know, maybe call for a
Speaker 1: ball screen, maybe pick on a guy in a switch,
Speaker 1: but it's just like a few dozen dribbles and then
Speaker 1: he's going into a pull up two point shot. There
Speaker 1: was a possession I clocked where he had Caleb Martin
Speaker 1: on him, and he called a screen to try to
Speaker 1: get Paddy Mills into it to they he hedged and
Speaker 1: recovered out of it. That he called Thomas Bryant into
Speaker 1: the screen he had recovered out of it. He ended
Speaker 1: up taking twenty one dribbles on the possession without a
Speaker 1: pass and hit a pullback to a really nice little
Speaker 1: like kind of half spin pullback dribble against Caleb Martin,
Speaker 1: knocked down a two point shot, hit a step back
Speaker 1: three on Jimmy Butler in ISO as well, so he
Speaker 1: hit a couple of shots. But Miami kind of worked
Speaker 1: their way back into the game and then something to
Speaker 1: kind of put a pin in for the end of
Speaker 1: the game. After Jamal Murray goes out, what the Nuggets
Speaker 1: typically do is they'll let Jamal Murray run that unit,
Speaker 1: and then they'll bring all the starters in and pulled
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray out and put Reggie Jackson, and in the
Speaker 1: middle of the second middle of the fourth quarter, they'll
Speaker 1: run Reggie Jackson with the starters, and Reggie in that
Speaker 1: second quarter stretch had a kickout pass to Michael Porter
Speaker 1: Junior for three, and then he had a nice little
Speaker 1: elbow jumper in a ball screen. So just put a
Speaker 1: pin in that because that's going to be a big
Speaker 1: element in this game when we get into the second half.
Speaker 1: So we're going to the third quarter, Miami starts the
Speaker 1: third quarter on a run. Just really tense defense, defense,
Speaker 1: ball pressure and in rotation. Just classic, you know, Miami
Speaker 1: just being a pain in the ass, right, Terry Roziers
Speaker 1: chasing Jamal around, doing a really nice job. Bam and
Speaker 1: a bio. I've talked about this on the show before,
Speaker 1: but he's one of the best guys in the league.
Speaker 1: Aet fronting the post against Nikole Jokic. He's just really
Speaker 1: quick and has great footwork to kind of whip around
Speaker 1: and get in front, and then he squats down low
Speaker 1: and he can kind of stay in front, but he
Speaker 1: also has the length to get over the top. And
Speaker 1: what ends up happening a lot to Denver when Miami
Speaker 1: does that is they'll find themselves in a late clock situation,
Speaker 1: like they'll run in action try to get the ball
Speaker 1: into yokicchen the post, and they can't because he's getting fronted,
Speaker 1: and next thing you know, there's six or seven seconds
Speaker 1: left on the shot clock and it's Michael Porter Junior,
Speaker 1: or it's KCP or it's Jamal Murray, just kind of
Speaker 1: having to throw up a shot, right, And so they
Speaker 1: were doing a good job kind of sending them into
Speaker 1: the worst parts of their offense. Denver was missing some shots.
Speaker 1: Miami goes on a little bit of a run. Their
Speaker 1: largest lead was with one minute left in the third quarter.
Speaker 1: Duncan Robinson ran a dribble hand off with Thomas Bryant
Speaker 1: on the right wing. Jokic showed high, Jamal Murray chased
Speaker 1: over the top, Thomas Bryant slipped. The Nuggets were not
Speaker 1: set up in their backside defense in the low man position,
Speaker 1: and so Thomas Bryant got an easy little floater in
Speaker 1: the lane and Miami leads seventy one to sixty seven.
Speaker 1: That was the lead with one minute left. Denver from
Speaker 1: there went on a thirty three to fifteen run to
Speaker 1: put the game away. They had the lead in command
Speaker 1: within a couple of minutes. Seventy one sixty seven with
Speaker 1: about a minute left in the third started with the
Speaker 1: post up double team of Jokic on the other end
Speaker 1: that got Aaron Gordon a right corner three. Remember Aaron
Speaker 1: Gordon's not a good three point shooter, but he is
Speaker 1: out of the right corner. He makes like half of
Speaker 1: them over there, hit a big one, got it to one.
Speaker 1: Then Miami ran that exact same dribble handoff that they
Speaker 1: typically run, the one that I just talked about where
Speaker 1: Thomas Bryant got the slip for the layup, except for
Speaker 1: this time Aaron Gordon was loaded up as the low man.
Speaker 1: The action got shut down. They had to run it
Speaker 1: reverse going back the other way. Jokicic got a really
Speaker 1: good contest on Duncan Robinson. This time he missed it.
Speaker 1: They go down, they go down to the other end
Speaker 1: of the floor and Jamal Murray hits like a driving
Speaker 1: layup on the baseline. So they go into the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter with the lead. They literally went from seventy one
Speaker 1: to sixty seven when a minute left, and the third
Speaker 1: now they're up seventy two to seventy one, and then
Speaker 1: Christian Brown Brown excuse me, quickly extends the lead, hits
Speaker 1: a transition three in the right corner. He had a
Speaker 1: close out play where Caleb Martin was kind of digging
Speaker 1: down to the elbow and he drove out of the
Speaker 1: left wing or excuse me, the right wing and like
Speaker 1: bumped Caleb with his shoulder and just hit a little
Speaker 1: floater over the top. Then, you know, one of the
Speaker 1: things that Denver's really good at is just identifying when
Speaker 1: they have in a matchup the advantage and just quickly
Speaker 1: wearing it out. In this early fourth quarter stretch, there
Speaker 1: was a play where he had Patty Mills on him,
Speaker 1: and so he just brought Aaron Gordon up in a
Speaker 1: ball scring because Thomas Bryant was guarding Aaron Gordon and
Speaker 1: he just got right down hill. Thomas Bryant was really
Speaker 1: bad at his pick and roll defense, was like way
Speaker 1: out of an any position to be able to help
Speaker 1: on the drive. And so Christian Brown just went all
Speaker 1: the way to the basket and made a little left
Speaker 1: handed layup, and so pretty quickly it went from again
Speaker 1: in a matter of a couple of minutes, from Denver
Speaker 1: being down four to Denver being up for now. Miami
Speaker 1: fought back. Duncan Robinson hit a three coming off of
Speaker 1: a screen. Jimmy Butler had to put back dunk off
Speaker 1: of a bam Miss layup. Bam Anda Bye also had
Speaker 1: like a short roll possession where he hit jimehawkez right
Speaker 1: under the basket. But then Reggie Jackson comes in and
Speaker 1: this is that same stretch I was talking about from
Speaker 1: the middle of the second quarter, where it's basically Reggie
Speaker 1: with the starters and they just start spamming Yoki's pick
Speaker 1: and roll and he just hits pull up jumper after
Speaker 1: pull up jump after pull up jumper, starts with like
Speaker 1: a really nasty left to right crossover to get Terry
Speaker 1: Rozier out of position. Terry Rozier just dies on the
Speaker 1: screen as a result of the nice move, gets downhill,
Speaker 1: hits a jumper at the right elbow. Next possession, same
Speaker 1: exact things. After going to the left elbow, hits a
Speaker 1: pull up jumper. Miami adjust by putting Jimmy Butler on
Speaker 1: on Reggie, just to put some extra length on him.
Speaker 1: They run another one, this time Jimmy Butler, though they
Speaker 1: set the screen further out from the basket and Jimmy
Speaker 1: just gets caught on the screen anyway, and he walks
Speaker 1: into a pull up three and knocks it down just
Speaker 1: like that. It's a ten point game and the game
Speaker 1: is basically over at that point, and it was kind
Speaker 1: of an ugly game. For Denver. But like to me,
Speaker 1: I've always been more impressed by ugly wins than by
Speaker 1: pretty wins when things aren't going well, right like they
Speaker 1: threw the kitchen sink at Jokic like they always do,
Speaker 1: and so you know, Yokic kind of had to play
Speaker 1: facilitator all night. Jamal Murray was only five or fourteen
Speaker 1: from the field, but he hit key shots, had five assists,
Speaker 1: zero turnovers. He did what he needed to do in
Speaker 1: a poor shooting night. Michael Porter Junior scored twenty five,
Speaker 1: hit two big shots late in the game and a
Speaker 1: pull up jump shot to put them up by seven
Speaker 1: in the early fourth, and then he hit the dagger
Speaker 1: on a skip pass and a play where they were
Speaker 1: pressuring out high to try to just basically get the
Speaker 1: ball out of Jamal Murray's hands. I think it might
Speaker 1: have been a Yokic double team right around the top
Speaker 1: of the key, but rifle skip passed to Michael Porter
Speaker 1: Junior in the left corner basically hit the dagger at
Speaker 1: that point that put him up eleven. But they won
Speaker 1: with their defense. Aaron Gordon could take Can Tavis called
Speaker 1: what popea great is always KCP again, always playing passing lanes,
Speaker 1: getting out in transition, and getting those easy baskets that
Speaker 1: kind of just invigorate the team allow them to reset
Speaker 1: their defense. Big thing I wanted to call attention to too,
Speaker 1: is this is something that really stood out to me
Speaker 1: in the Boston Celtics game too. Denver's just really good
Speaker 1: at closing out on shooters. And this is something that
Speaker 1: I think is highly underrated because like a lot of
Speaker 1: times we just look at like nearest defender, and this
Speaker 1: is one of the problems with analytics is they'll just
Speaker 1: take like tracking data and just how close the defender
Speaker 1: is and basically equate that to a contest, Whereas there
Speaker 1: is a difference between like a like running up on
Speaker 1: a shooter and offering a token late hand up versus
Speaker 1: a real contest of a three point shot. And like
Speaker 1: you can see, Denver like is actually trying to bother
Speaker 1: these shooters from the top down too, Like Yokic when
Speaker 1: he's showing on these screens like he's got length, he's
Speaker 1: getting his hands up there and he's getting good contests.
Speaker 1: Denver allows just eleven point three made three point shots
Speaker 1: per game. That is not a coincidence. That is a
Speaker 1: top down habit that they have of offering good contests
Speaker 1: on three point shooters on the Miami Front say consistent
Speaker 1: themes that we've been talking about all season. Another bad
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler game against Denver. He was seven for seventeen
Speaker 1: back in February. He was six for sixteen last night,
Speaker 1: just one for six on pull up jump shots. And
Speaker 1: this has been a season long issue. Last year, a
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler pull up jump shot was worth zero point
Speaker 1: nine to four points per possession. That's in the fifty
Speaker 1: fifth percentile, so slightly above average for his volume. This
Speaker 1: year zero point eight to two points per Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: pull up jump shot. That's in the thirtieth percentile, so
Speaker 1: like well below average at that point. Big difference. And
Speaker 1: again a lot of times, especially against Denver, those are
Speaker 1: the shots that their coverages are giving up. That's why
Speaker 1: they can sometimes struggle against Phoenix, because they have guys
Speaker 1: that can hit those shots consistently. Bam once again missed
Speaker 1: seven shots in and around the paint. That's been an
Speaker 1: issue all season. And then no reliable secondary scoring. Terry
Speaker 1: Rogier just fourteen points on thirteen shots. He's had just
Speaker 1: two twenty plus point games in Miami in eighteen tries.
Speaker 1: In thirty games with Charlotte, he had twenty one twenty
Speaker 1: plus point games. Now, I know, obviously that's a different
Speaker 1: situation in Charlotte, but even accounting for that, they need
Speaker 1: more out of him than what they've been getting. That's
Speaker 1: four straight losses for the Heat and they're just twenty
Speaker 1: sixth in offense over that span. You know, I feel
Speaker 1: the same way about Miami that I did last year.
Speaker 1: They have the personnel and the collective basketball IQ from
Speaker 1: the coaching staff down the roster to upset any of
Speaker 1: the twenty seven other teams in the league that are
Speaker 1: not Boston in Denver. They can beat any of those
Speaker 1: teams in a series. That means yes, I think they
Speaker 1: could beat Milwaukee. Yes they could. Obviously those are the
Speaker 1: only teams in the East that you're really looking at
Speaker 1: right like Milwaukee and Boston. But yes, I think they
Speaker 1: can beat Milwaukee. Yes, I think I'd be inclined to
Speaker 1: pick them against just about anybody else in the East
Speaker 1: if they got out of the East and they went
Speaker 1: in the NBA Finals and there was a Clippers there,
Speaker 1: if there was a Suns there, like, I think they
Speaker 1: could win, but they could also just as easily lose
Speaker 1: to any of those teams because of their lack of firepower.
Speaker 1: And if they did run into Boston or Denver, they
Speaker 1: will lose just simply because they do not have the firepower.
Speaker 1: Even compared to last year's Boston team. This year's Boston
Speaker 1: team has just so much more firepower, and that's just
Speaker 1: an even bigger gap that exists there that nearly cost
Speaker 1: them in the series last year and very well might
Speaker 1: have if it wasn't for Jimmy or excuse me for
Speaker 1: Jason Tatums spraining his ankle. So again, like Miami is
Speaker 1: always somebody that's got to be taken seriously, but like
Speaker 1: more often than not, it's their personnel limitations that come
Speaker 1: to the surface, and at a certain point, like I
Speaker 1: just kind of want to see what this looks like
Speaker 1: when they have some real significant talent advantages, like most
Speaker 1: of the good teams in the league do, all right.
Speaker 1: Moving on to Bulls Pacers, So the Bulls win in overtime. Now,
Speaker 1: before we even get into any sort of like why
Speaker 1: are we talking about the Bulls thing? Since November thirtieth,
Speaker 1: the Bulls are twenty seven and twenty that's the eleventh
Speaker 1: best record in the NBA. They've been a really good
Speaker 1: team for most of the season. They have a ton
Speaker 1: of perimeter speed, a lot of guards who can defend
Speaker 1: multiple positions as well. Tomart de Rosen is hooping in
Speaker 1: his life sixteen games, is averaging twenty seven to five
Speaker 1: and five on fifty percent from the field, thirty five
Speaker 1: percent from three to ninety percent from the line. Kobe
Speaker 1: White Nikola Vusovich over that same span are both also
Speaker 1: averaging twenty iodasson moves given them some really good three
Speaker 1: and D play from the guard position. He's also got
Speaker 1: like a lot more off the dribble pop than you'd
Speaker 1: think as well. They're hooping. This is a real a
Speaker 1: real team, right, and obviously the Pacers are as well.
Speaker 1: I want to kind of focus on crunch time in
Speaker 1: this game, Uh, the going into the clutch period, whether
Speaker 1: we were inside of five minutes, inside of five points,
Speaker 1: Pacers were up one oh four to one oh three.
Speaker 1: Akruso had been hitting threes all night long, and so
Speaker 1: they end up getting a dunk for Nicola Vusovich on
Speaker 1: a play where Nie Smith on the weak side did
Speaker 1: not want to tag Vusovich on the roll just because
Speaker 1: he had already made so many threes. Vusovich gets a dunk,
Speaker 1: the Bulls go up one oh five to one oh four. Yeah,
Speaker 1: both teams had specific actions that they were targeting on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor, So like for the Pacers,
Speaker 1: they knew that the picking pot for Miles Turner was
Speaker 1: gonna be wide open all night. Miles Turner hit a
Speaker 1: bunch of threes at the top the key also had
Speaker 1: some threes off of doubles, but it hit a bunch
Speaker 1: of threes at the top of the key in the
Speaker 1: in that pick and pop situation. Also, there was a
Speaker 1: stretch at the end of the fourth quarter where the
Speaker 1: Bulls took Tory Crag out. Tory Craig had been guarding
Speaker 1: Pascal Siakam. They took him out and put Ayot Assummu
Speaker 1: on Siakam and then they started just attacking uh with
Speaker 1: Siakam on Iyo Desumo in the post and he was
Speaker 1: just drawing double teams and kicking out. Actually, Miles Turner
Speaker 1: hit a three to tie the game at one twelve
Speaker 1: that came off of a double team of Pascal Siakam
Speaker 1: in the post and then on the other end of
Speaker 1: the floor. It was kind of similar stuff like the
Speaker 1: uh DeMar DeRos in picking on Miles Turner in screens obviously,
Speaker 1: like the Kobe White Nikola Vucevich pick and roll was
Speaker 1: a big one. We talked about the play where they
Speaker 1: didn't tag the roller, Vusivic gets a dunk. There's another
Speaker 1: one where they do tag the roller. It gets kicked
Speaker 1: out to Caruso on the left wing. Extra pass to
Speaker 1: the corner to uh Tory Craig and he ends up
Speaker 1: knocking down a three. So like they both teams were
Speaker 1: kind of just going to their pet actions again and
Speaker 1: again and again, and then it just turned into absolute chaos.
Speaker 1: At the end of the game we had uh So
Speaker 1: the Pacers go down to Siakam in the post against
Speaker 1: to soon move. Again the Bulls double team and it's
Speaker 1: a kickout pass to Andrew Nemhard at the top of
Speaker 1: the key. By the way, at this point, at this point,
Speaker 1: the I want to say, the Bulls were up one
Speaker 1: fifteen or the Pacers were up one fifteen to one fourteen.
Speaker 1: So the Pacers they they go to Siakam in the
Speaker 1: post against the soon move. There's a double team. It's
Speaker 1: gets kicked out there and Andrew Nemhard. He misses the three,
Speaker 1: and on the play, DeMar derozen Try is engaging in
Speaker 1: a rebound with Aaron E. Smith I think, and it
Speaker 1: ends up getting knocked out of bounce. They review it
Speaker 1: stays stays with Indiana. They run the exact They run
Speaker 1: a Haliburton turner two man game, which is one of
Speaker 1: the actions they'd been running so much. At the end
Speaker 1: of the game, the on ball guy falls over, so
Speaker 1: we end up with Vusivich switched on to Halliburton again.
Speaker 1: They double team. That was a big thing that was happening,
Speaker 1: is like when they'd run those ball screens. Vusavich was
Speaker 1: essentially having to switch out on Halliburton, and then Haliburton
Speaker 1: would start mixing up and then the Bulls would have
Speaker 1: no choice but to come with a late double team.
Speaker 1: But one of the things that was happening with Indiana's
Speaker 1: their spacing wasn't super sharp. And Andrew Emhard was spacing
Speaker 1: out pretty far away from the basket, like twenty five
Speaker 1: to twenty six feet, and so these double teams were
Speaker 1: turning into like long three point shots for Andrew Nemhard.
Speaker 1: He missed another one miles turner goes up and taps
Speaker 1: the ball out, but on the tap out, everyone kind
Speaker 1: of goes to the basketball and Kobe White gets it.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, he's got ahead of team going
Speaker 1: the other way and only Andrew Nemhart's in his way.
Speaker 1: Andrew Nemhart sprints and gets back into the play, forces
Speaker 1: him to change his shot, but Siakam comes flying in
Speaker 1: from behind and it comes in and blocks it, nearly
Speaker 1: goes out of bounds, and Nemhart saves it right to
Speaker 1: aaron Ne Smith. He gets fouled to go to the
Speaker 1: line to make both free throws. It's one seventeen, one
Speaker 1: to fourteen. Indiana intentionally fouls. Demarta Rozen makes the first
Speaker 1: free throw, misses the second obi top and fails to
Speaker 1: secure the rebound, taps it out of bounds, and then
Speaker 1: Demarta Rozen just hits a ridiculous right shoulder fade to
Speaker 1: send it to overtime. There's a cool quote from DeMar
Speaker 1: Dea Rosen after the game talking about how clutch situations
Speaker 1: kind of become like survival mode, and that's literally what
Speaker 1: it is. And it's something that I've always loved about
Speaker 1: the game of basketball. Is like when you get into
Speaker 1: those situations where it's all on the line and everyone's
Speaker 1: playing super hard, it almost becomes about survival in the
Speaker 1: sense that it's very improvisational. It's a lot of like
Speaker 1: like even talked about, he was like in the time
Speaker 1: out they had called for him. They kind of had
Speaker 1: set up a screening action and the key for him
Speaker 1: to come up towards the top of the key, and
Speaker 1: they were basically top locking it and preparing to switch.
Speaker 1: So Tomart Dorozen did a really smart counter. He ran
Speaker 1: up like he was gonna go off that screen, and
Speaker 1: then he kind of just gave a little push and
Speaker 1: then cut back towards the basketball along the baseline, got
Speaker 1: just enough separation, and then we're talking about arguably the
Speaker 1: best fade away jump shooter of this era, depending on
Speaker 1: who you ask. He's definitely like, this is this guy
Speaker 1: who's made his entire living in the NBA off of
Speaker 1: right shoulder and left shoulder fades in that mid range area,
Speaker 1: hits that right shoulder fade over the hits the right
Speaker 1: shoulder fade along the baseline, sends the game to ot
Speaker 1: when we go into overtime. Really became about Demart Rosen
Speaker 1: picking on Myles Turner and switches, setting ball screens, getting
Speaker 1: Turner on switches, and he was just hitting those classic
Speaker 1: crossover moves to just get a little bit of separation
Speaker 1: to elevate knockdown mid range jump shots. Then as a
Speaker 1: result of that, the Pacers had to start doubling, which
Speaker 1: is something we'll come back to in a second. On
Speaker 1: the other end of the floor, Pacers hit a couple
Speaker 1: of pick and pop threes for Miles Turner. It was
Speaker 1: the one action that they just could not figure out.
Speaker 1: Saliburn's coming off. Uzovich is having to show and many
Speaker 1: times switch and then the only way they could avoid
Speaker 1: that kickback past the Turner was to switch, which would
Speaker 1: then end up in a double team anyway. So they
Speaker 1: were in a real predicament on that specific front, just
Speaker 1: guarding and dealing with Tyris Alburt and pick and roll.
Speaker 1: But the couple of Turner threes keep the Pacers in front,
Speaker 1: and then to Marta Rosen just hits a nasty hesitation
Speaker 1: pull up three over Pascal Siakam to put the bulls up.
Speaker 1: Then the Pacers start f garding to Rosen because he's
Speaker 1: got forty five points at this point, so they need
Speaker 1: someone else to get a bucket. Musevich just takes Turner
Speaker 1: to task in ISO, hits a right shoulder fade. Then
Speaker 1: I would assume move drove right by Tyre. Saliburton in
Speaker 1: an ISO just dusted him off the dribble and got
Speaker 1: a layup, And then again on the other end of
Speaker 1: the floor whenever they went back to switching that pick
Speaker 1: and roll to stop Turner from getting those picking pop threes,
Speaker 1: and when they did that once again, it just kept
Speaker 1: ending up at Andrew Nemmar's hands too far away from
Speaker 1: the basket. So the Pacers need to do a little
Speaker 1: bit of work on how to deal with just late
Speaker 1: double teams on ISOs when Helliburton's picking on the big man,
Speaker 1: just like maybe having nem hard instead of sitting out
Speaker 1: that far from the three point line, having somebody flash
Speaker 1: cut to an opening that's closer to the ball so
Speaker 1: that maybe they can get something that's a little bit
Speaker 1: more going towards the rim. Siakam did hit a move
Speaker 1: on Craig on a baseline out of bounds to get
Speaker 1: it to two with forty two seconds left. One of
Speaker 1: the things that kind of sucked in this game is
Speaker 1: on that crazy Siakam block at the end of regulation.
Speaker 1: He landed on top of Kobe White. Looked like he
Speaker 1: tweaked his knee. I couldn't find any information on what
Speaker 1: the injury update was with Kobe White, so hopefully he's okay.
Speaker 1: But Toy Craig came back into the game with h
Speaker 1: with Uh in overtime and Uh Siakim hit a bucket
Speaker 1: on him to put it back to two. DeMar DeRozan
Speaker 1: dribbling at the kind of out by half court, they
Speaker 1: throw a late double team, Adam Cruso slips the ball
Speaker 1: screen throws in his cruise. So it's a textbook four
Speaker 1: on three situation. I had assume we just kind of
Speaker 1: sneaks along the baseline and finds a little opening on
Speaker 1: the left side of the basket, gets a layup, and
Speaker 1: the game is over. A couple of things. Hopefully Kobe
Speaker 1: White is okay. Like we talked about earlier, I wanted
Speaker 1: to focus before we get a move on from this game.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about just something that Rick Carlisle
Speaker 1: talked about after the game, the idea of like minor mistakes,
Speaker 1: and you know he mentioned after the game we were
Speaker 1: one rebound away from winning and he's right. If they
Speaker 1: if Obi topping instead of tapping out that free throw rebound,
Speaker 1: if he just grabs it and gets fouled, the Pacers
Speaker 1: win this game. Now is how well they played. And
Speaker 1: you know, you know, when we look at games like this,
Speaker 1: in particular, game that are just super back and forth
Speaker 1: and both teams have multiple leads late, it's kind of
Speaker 1: harder to focus on big picture things because, like, you know,
Speaker 1: either team could have won this game. Again, like Pacers
Speaker 1: do a basic thing like grabbing a free throw rebound,
Speaker 1: they just win and then it's an entirely different vibe
Speaker 1: coming out of this game. And so what I like
Speaker 1: to focus on when we look at games like this
Speaker 1: is why attention to detail is so important on the
Speaker 1: little things, because, yes, you're right, in these kinds of games,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of like maybe Demarta Rosen makes the
Speaker 1: crazy right shoulder fade, maybe Miles Turner is making the
Speaker 1: pick and pop three. There's a lot of like make
Speaker 1: and miss type of stuff going on that's a little
Speaker 1: bit outside of your control. Obviously, it's inside of your
Speaker 1: control to work for the best possible shots. It's inside
Speaker 1: of your control defensively to make as many things as
Speaker 1: difficult as possible, but there are also some things in
Speaker 1: that element that are out of your control in terms
Speaker 1: of makes and misses as far as the details go, though,
Speaker 1: that's where if you are sharp on the little things,
Speaker 1: you buy yourselves the margin for air, for maybe for
Speaker 1: someone to make a big shot for the other team,
Speaker 1: or maybe for you to miss a big shot for
Speaker 1: your team. For example, the free throw rebound, that's a
Speaker 1: we don't need to get any further into it, just
Speaker 1: sticking to your fundamentals. Having someone box out the shooter,
Speaker 1: pinching on the best, pinching on the the best, bigger
Speaker 1: you know, kind of forward that they have on the block,
Speaker 1: bringing the guy in, crashing from behind the free throw shoot,
Speaker 1: or whatever you gotta do. You got to secure your
Speaker 1: rebound there, right, Also a missed rotation on the double team.
Speaker 1: When they double team tomart Rosen out tops a two
Speaker 1: point game, they get to stop there, they have a
Speaker 1: chance to go down. They all eyes are on the ball,
Speaker 1: though no one's tracking the other off ball defenders, and
Speaker 1: dessu Mo sneaks along the baseline, and like the one
Speaker 1: thing you can't give up in a four on three
Speaker 1: is a layup. You got to make someone make a
Speaker 1: jump shot in that situation. Even on the bulls front,
Speaker 1: like that lineup decision, Tory Craig I actually thought was
Speaker 1: doing a solid job on Pascal Siakam and at the
Speaker 1: very least you could leave him in single coverage. He
Speaker 1: had actually stonewall Desiakam a couple of times there down
Speaker 1: the stretch, and regulation they take out of the game
Speaker 1: and going with dis Soon Mu put them at the four.
Speaker 1: And one of the biggest possessions of the game was
Speaker 1: when it was one twelve, one oh nine in Siakam
Speaker 1: just because de Soon was at the four has to
Speaker 1: has a huge mismatch in size on dis Soon. MoU
Speaker 1: just takes him down to the block and draws a
Speaker 1: double team and the ball gets worked around a Miles
Speaker 1: Turner for three on the left wing. So even on
Speaker 1: the coaching side of things, like a little decision here,
Speaker 1: a little decision there, goes a long way in these
Speaker 1: kinds of games. And that's why when you see me
Speaker 1: harp on on on teams like Denver and their execution,
Speaker 1: that's why because like a lot of playoff games look
Speaker 1: like that, a lot of playoffs series look like that.
Speaker 1: They are determined by the slightest of margins, and so
Speaker 1: you know, the execution piece, the the like, attention to
Speaker 1: detail piece, those sorts of things tend to be difference makers.
Speaker 1: And when you get to the latest levels of the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and that's why I focus on those things so well,
Speaker 1: they're really fun game like just like classic NBA regular
Speaker 1: season gem there from the Pacers and the Bulls. Really
Speaker 1: enjoyed watching that game this morning. All right, let's move
Speaker 1: on or a mail bag and then we're gonna get
Speaker 1: out here for the day. Hey, Jason, love your show.
Speaker 1: Have you noticed that almost all of the best teams
Speaker 1: in both conferences have most or all of their core
Speaker 1: players in their prime twenty five to thirty two Denver, Boston, Cleveland, Minnesota, Phoenix, Dallas,
Speaker 1: New York, et cetera. Okay, See and the Clippers are
Speaker 1: the exceptions, but Shay's clearly in his prime as well
Speaker 1: as the Clippers' role players. Looking at Golden State and
Speaker 1: the Lakers, it's no coincidence that they have struggled so much,
Speaker 1: since the Dubs only have Wiggins in his prime and
Speaker 1: the Lakers just d Loan reefs Ad is clearly on
Speaker 1: the decline since twenty twenty. It seems that constructing a
Speaker 1: roster with all the court players on the same timeline
Speaker 1: is the biggest factor twinning, which means Oklahoma City, Orlando,
Speaker 1: and Indiana could dominate in the late twenty twenties. Curious
Speaker 1: about your thoughts on this. Yeah, so a couple things.
Speaker 1: First of all, and this is a big thing that
Speaker 1: kind of shoot out to me just watching Pacers Bulls
Speaker 1: as the way the game has changed, the sheer amount
Speaker 1: of perimeter talent and speed has made it so that
Speaker 1: older teams, I think struggle just to keep up defensively
Speaker 1: now in a way that they didn't used to. Like,
Speaker 1: you really got to get up for these games defensively
Speaker 1: against some of these quicker teams on the perimeter. So
Speaker 1: many teams around the league now are running five out offense.
Speaker 1: I won't get into it right now, because we did
Speaker 1: a little bit we did like two summers ago, I
Speaker 1: think we did a breakdown on five out offense. But
Speaker 1: like the gist of it is the in a five
Speaker 1: out offense, you're leaving the paint unoccupied and you're getting
Speaker 1: into the paint on rolls and drives. What that means
Speaker 1: is is like your big man, whoever your vertical spacer is,
Speaker 1: he's operating out on the perimeter, running dribble handoffs and
Speaker 1: ball screens and then rolling into the paint rather than
Speaker 1: waiting in the paint and then coming up to set
Speaker 1: a ball screen or waiting in the paint, you know,
Speaker 1: to sit in the dunker spot. And then there's tons
Speaker 1: of different actions and entries like you can get into
Speaker 1: five out from pistol, you can get into five out
Speaker 1: from horns, you can do that kind of thing. But
Speaker 1: the gist of it is all five players are on
Speaker 1: the perimeter and the paint is left open so that
Speaker 1: guys can roll into it and guys can drive into it,
Speaker 1: and then from there it's everyone's involved. They're interchangeable spots.
Speaker 1: You know, all of your perimeter players are able to
Speaker 1: run a dribble handoff or to run a ball screen.
Speaker 1: Whereas like a four out offense is much more like
Speaker 1: think about like what like what Dallas runs. It's much
Speaker 1: more of like a brute force. Like our primary ball
Speaker 1: handler and our secondary ball handler, two guys in the corner.
Speaker 1: They do nothing but shoot, and we're gonna come set up.
Speaker 1: We're gonna come and set a ball screen, and we're
Speaker 1: from the guy starting under the basket to come set
Speaker 1: the screen. It's just brute force basketball. And usually there's
Speaker 1: only four perimeter spots occupied. It's not equal opportunity. The
Speaker 1: guys in the corners are just in the corners the
Speaker 1: guys at top or the guys running the action, and
Speaker 1: so that's kind of the difference. And as most of
Speaker 1: the league has gone into five out style of play,
Speaker 1: or at least it's trending in that direction, you had
Speaker 1: five out basketball with a ton of quick guards and
Speaker 1: a ton of speed and skill. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: the dudes that are in their thirties that their legs
Speaker 1: don't get as warm as they used to on a
Speaker 1: nightly basis. They struggle to guard. Now that is something
Speaker 1: to keep in mind as well, then when we get
Speaker 1: to the postseason, because when we get into the postseason,
Speaker 1: the effort gap shrinks, and then those veteran teams do
Speaker 1: have advantages vperience and skill. So I think it's I
Speaker 1: don't think it's smart to write off all those veteran teams,
Speaker 1: but I do think it's something to keep in mind
Speaker 1: when we're talking about regular season basketball. Older, slower teams
Speaker 1: are going to really start to struggle in the NBA
Speaker 1: regular season. I truly believe that. Next question, Hi, Jason,
Speaker 1: I'm curious to know how you assess off ball three
Speaker 1: and D cutting players. For example, archetypes like ball dominant
Speaker 1: shot creators or rim runners shot blockers. Is easier to
Speaker 1: see how they affect the game, and there's always the
Speaker 1: usual metrics that are used to measure their efficiency and usage.
Speaker 1: For the off ball archetype, those usual metrics and eye
Speaker 1: tests don't always work. Just because you come off of
Speaker 1: these curl screens and back doors doesn't mean you always
Speaker 1: receive the pass or the passes and screens aren't great. Plus,
Speaker 1: your team context matters. If your team is a heavy
Speaker 1: ISO or post upcentric team, your effectiveness likely won't be
Speaker 1: as good or as a similarly graded off ball player
Speaker 1: whose team is, say, driving kick centric. Every championship team
Speaker 1: has prioritized off ball threats, so quality players that fit
Speaker 1: this molder super valuable. I just feel that often the
Speaker 1: archetype is undervalued in the draft, and perhaps a reason
Speaker 1: why it's not clear how to measure this this style
Speaker 1: compared to other archetypes. Thanks again for all the content,
Speaker 1: so I think like when it comes to the way
Speaker 1: I look at it. We talked about five out offense
Speaker 1: a second ago. So let's take two offenses. For example,
Speaker 1: Let's say Golden State five out offense and let's take
Speaker 1: Dallas more of a brute force four out one in offense.
Speaker 1: Right in, the role players you need in both systems
Speaker 1: are very different. Okay, so five out basketball is primarily
Speaker 1: read and react. Well that means is there's a ton
Speaker 1: of like improvisational basketball going on. I'm gonna backdoor cut
Speaker 1: here when he's overplaying me, right, Like this is the
Speaker 1: two man action coming off of a screen. If I
Speaker 1: see this, I slip. If I don't see this, I
Speaker 1: go over the top. Like if I see this, maybe
Speaker 1: I turn a pin down for the other guy to
Speaker 1: run off and then I slip or whatever. It is,
Speaker 1: Like there's a lot of read and react basketball taking place.
Speaker 1: Same thing goes for the the big guy on the ball, right, Like,
Speaker 1: if he sees and if he sees his defender sagging
Speaker 1: back and he has an opportunity to set a good screen,
Speaker 1: you want to throw the dribble pit if you see
Speaker 1: your defender showing high and the guy's chasing you want
Speaker 1: to fake the dribble hand off and then turn and
Speaker 1: go to the basket. That's a read that Draymond Green's
Speaker 1: really good at, for instance. Right, So everything in the
Speaker 1: five out is read and react, and the four out
Speaker 1: one in it's way less about read and react and
Speaker 1: way more about play finishing. What that means is like,
Speaker 1: the only guy really making reads is the Luca or
Speaker 1: the Kyrie in that situation. Right, he's got the ball,
Speaker 1: he's dribbling up at the left wing. He's calling Derek
Speaker 1: Lively to come up and set the screen. All of
Speaker 1: the other guys have the exact same job. Left corner.
Speaker 1: If it's Josh Green, he's spotting up, right corner. If
Speaker 1: it's PJ. Washington, he's spotting up Kyrie Irving second side creator.
Speaker 1: He's in the right wing, he's spotting up Derek Gliley's
Speaker 1: going to come set a ball screen. As soon as
Speaker 1: he sets the screen, he's rolling hard to the basket. Okay,
Speaker 1: if the action gets shut down, maybe Luca will swing
Speaker 1: to Kyrie. Luca will run back out to the left wing.
Speaker 1: Two guys will stay in the corner. Derek Gliveley will
Speaker 1: up and set the next screen. It's the exact same
Speaker 1: damn thing, right Like, that's it's very brute force, right,
Speaker 1: So the only thing Derek Lively has to do is
Speaker 1: screen and roll hard and have the vertical spacing element.
Speaker 1: The only thing Josh Green needs to do is hit
Speaker 1: a corner three or attack of close out. The only
Speaker 1: thing PJ. Washington needs to do is hit a three
Speaker 1: or attack to close out Kyrie Irving hit a three
Speaker 1: attack to close out, or if the ball gets swung
Speaker 1: to you run the next ball screen. So it's super simplified.
Speaker 1: So what matters so much more in that four out
Speaker 1: one end system is those guys that are spacing hand
Speaker 1: they knock down threes in attack closeouts, much more simplified.
Speaker 1: For the screen and roll guy, does he have the
Speaker 1: ability to set good screens and roll hard to the
Speaker 1: rim and provide vertical spacing with good hands and verticality? Right? Like?
Speaker 1: Does he have those abilities? So like, when I'm evaluating
Speaker 1: a role player for that system, I'm really going to
Speaker 1: be looking at things like, you know, spot up points
Speaker 1: per possession, just like a simple thing that just evaluates
Speaker 1: how good this guy is at converting spot up opportunities.
Speaker 1: A guy who's a great spot up player is not
Speaker 1: necessarily a great read and react player. Those are two
Speaker 1: potentially different things. I'm going to be leaning on metrics
Speaker 1: a lot more there for reading reacted so much more
Speaker 1: about the eye test. In my opinion, it's so much
Speaker 1: more about watching a player play in his system, seeing
Speaker 1: whether or not he's good at interpreting what's happening on
Speaker 1: the floor quickly. And then if you're looking at him
Speaker 1: in free agency and you're a five out offense, maybe
Speaker 1: that's the kind of guy that you want to target.
Speaker 1: But again, read and react, everybody's got to be able
Speaker 1: to do so many different things versus brute force. I've
Speaker 1: got play starters and play finishers, and that's pretty much it.
Speaker 1: Hopefully that's an explanation that kind of hits at what
Speaker 1: you were getting at in that question. Have you noticed
Speaker 1: a change in NBA players shot making in the last
Speaker 1: two years. Seems like there's been a breakthrough in sports
Speaker 1: psychology and these players can enter and stay in a
Speaker 1: flow state, allowing the offense and shooting efficiency to explode.
Speaker 1: Hope you can ask an NBA player if you ever
Speaker 1: get the chance. I will if we ever get an
Speaker 1: NBA player on the show, as hard as shot making goes.
Speaker 1: I talked about this a little bit yesterday. You know,
Speaker 1: every single bit of shot making is actually just fundamental
Speaker 1: basketball attached in chains. What that means is like, let's say,
Speaker 1: for instance, I hit a James Harden style, you know,
Speaker 1: like in and out out crossover, aggressive step forward, step
Speaker 1: back to my left, pull up jump shot right Like,
Speaker 1: that's an advanced piece of shot making put together by
Speaker 1: James Harden. Right, But if you really break it down,
Speaker 1: it's a hard in and out dribble that's a fundamental thing.
Speaker 1: It's a crossover dribble that's a fundamental thing. It's an
Speaker 1: advanced dribble with a hard right foot step to step back.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at it from James Harden. He's a lefty.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at it for me as a righty. But
Speaker 1: that hard right step forward in that step back, and
Speaker 1: then there's a footwork element to getting my base sets
Speaker 1: so that I can go straight up and down on
Speaker 1: the move. And if I make the move properly, I
Speaker 1: will go straight up and down. And if I took
Speaker 1: a video of just the end of that shot, it's
Speaker 1: going to look just like a catch and shoot jumper
Speaker 1: at least that's the way it is for me. So
Speaker 1: like that is a bunch of fundamentals attached together. There
Speaker 1: are certain things in basketball that have existed forever, and
Speaker 1: what's happening is NBA players are finding new ways to
Speaker 1: kind of daisy chain those things together and make new
Speaker 1: ways to score the basketball. It's like even like just
Speaker 1: the idea of like hitting three point shots in ball screens,
Speaker 1: which is a thing that used to just basically not
Speaker 1: be a thing in the NBA fifteen years ago, and
Speaker 1: now it's like a must for any sort of primary
Speaker 1: ball handler to be able to punish teams that die
Speaker 1: on screens or go under screens. Right. Really, it's the
Speaker 1: same exact thing your high hesitation, which is a fundamental thing.
Speaker 1: And then oh the defender got caught, or oh I
Speaker 1: have maybe a little bit of space. If the defender
Speaker 1: got caught, I could just elevate from there. If I
Speaker 1: need to advance to get a little further up so
Speaker 1: that he can't back pressure, it's a wonderable pull up.
Speaker 1: It's just a wonderable pull up. These are all fundamental
Speaker 1: things that people have attached together. But over time, everyone's
Speaker 1: got the existing manual from the last group of players,
Speaker 1: so like you know, the like the new generation learned
Speaker 1: from Lebron's generation. Lebron's generation learn from Kobe's generation. Kobe's
Speaker 1: the generation learn from MJ's generation. MJ generation learn from
Speaker 1: Bird and Magic and so on and so forth, and
Speaker 1: so they're all just building on each other and it's stacking,
Speaker 1: and it's stacking, and that's how basketball players are getting better.
Speaker 1: Two more and then we're out of here. Hey, Jason,
Speaker 1: can you explain how Delo's dribbling is legal? To me,
Speaker 1: as a relatively unexperienced fan, it seems like every few
Speaker 1: dribbles he holds the ball, Remember he's not supposed to
Speaker 1: do that, and then he lets it go and it
Speaker 1: drops back to the floor. I hope you can picture
Speaker 1: what I mean in my head. I see it clearly.
Speaker 1: Thanks for these mailbag sessions. I know you can't get
Speaker 1: to everything, but I wish you. But I wish you could.
Speaker 1: Since I have a ton more questions, keep asking them.
Speaker 1: Like again, I'm not gonna get to every single question,
Speaker 1: but we're gonna keep doing them throughout the season, and
Speaker 1: so I will try to eventually get to as many
Speaker 1: as I can. Over time, every NBA player carries like
Speaker 1: it's if you really slow down the ball handling for literally,
Speaker 1: and like some guys are worse than others, like Katie's
Speaker 1: another guy who like really kind of holds it under
Speaker 1: his hand when he does his high hesitation. But the
Speaker 1: thing is is like it it's legal by interpretation, meaning
Speaker 1: like the refs just allow it around the league, and
Speaker 1: so like again, like I don't get upset about anybody
Speaker 1: around the league doing it because it's literally something that
Speaker 1: every single team has two or three guys that do,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. Last question, after their twenty two championship,
Speaker 1: you praise the Warriors for roster praise the Warriors roster
Speaker 1: building in patience, and you said that you appreciated that
Speaker 1: good process from owner's front office and coaching staff and
Speaker 1: even players that led to success. Do you feel like
Speaker 1: the Warriors are still abiding by that process or do
Speaker 1: you feel like they've been winging it since things have
Speaker 1: gone south after the punch, especially after Bob Meyers, who
Speaker 1: you praised in that June twenty two video left, If
Speaker 1: you do trust that they're still abiding by that process.
Speaker 1: JK has been bolling, Moody's been good drafting Brandon Pitzamski
Speaker 1: and Trace Jackson Davis. How much of a chance compared
Speaker 1: to back in twenty twenty two do you give them
Speaker 1: to reach their ultimate goal again this year or next
Speaker 1: year or however long Steph, Drey and Clay may still
Speaker 1: play a couple of things. So, first of all, you know,
Speaker 1: I was critical of the Warriors after the during the
Speaker 1: twenty two run, just because I'm a big pusher chips
Speaker 1: in the middle of the table guy. I'm a big
Speaker 1: believer that like, winning an NBA championship is super hard,
Speaker 1: and the last thing you want to do is lose
Speaker 1: in a series where you didn't have enough firepower and
Speaker 1: you had trade assets available that you held on too.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing, like the winner gets to tell
Speaker 1: the story. There's a version of that where they lose
Speaker 1: to Boston and you're like, we didn't play Jonathan Kamingo,
Speaker 1: didn't play James Wiseman, we didn't play Moses Moody. This
Speaker 1: was this was a waste. We didn't get anything out
Speaker 1: of this, right, Like, there's a version of that where
Speaker 1: that's what happened. That's not what happened. Though Steph Curry
Speaker 1: was amazing in Game four. They they won the series,
Speaker 1: and so now you get the trophy and you get
Speaker 1: all of the assets that come from it. From there,
Speaker 1: it's been tricky because they have not had enough firepower
Speaker 1: in the twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four season. Now,
Speaker 1: for the first year and a half of that stretch,
Speaker 1: I was a big advocate of making a trade because
Speaker 1: I thought Steph, you know, think Steph is still at
Speaker 1: the top of that you know, kind of seven or
Speaker 1: eight players in the NBA, and you got to give
Speaker 1: that dude a chance to win a championship because he's
Speaker 1: one of the rare players who's capable of doing it.
Speaker 1: But what happened was is in the middle of this season,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Kaminga took a leap. And once Jonathan Kaminga took
Speaker 1: a leap, a real leap, a leap that makes you
Speaker 1: believe legitimately he can be probably the second best player
Speaker 1: on a championship team one day at some point in
Speaker 1: his career. Once you see that, that changes the calculus,
Speaker 1: and now all of a sudden, it's like, ugh, like
Speaker 1: whatever minuscule improvement we get through making some sort of trade,
Speaker 1: it actually makes more sense to kind of hang on
Speaker 1: to these guys and see what they how it develops.
Speaker 1: And so again, like there might have been a point
Speaker 1: before Jonathan Aminga's you know, seven straight twenty plus point
Speaker 1: games or whatever, there might have been a point during
Speaker 1: that phase where it made sense to move him to
Speaker 1: try to bring in more firepower. But you know, at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, new information came into the equation,
Speaker 1: and now the Warriors are kind of in a situation
Speaker 1: where like, here's the deal focusing on this season, Do
Speaker 1: I think they have much of a chance? No, there
Speaker 1: they don't have a legitimate secondary, like a reliable secondary
Speaker 1: option at this point in terms of a guy that
Speaker 1: you can count on for four playoff rounds to give
Speaker 1: you reliable scoring, which that was kind of Andrew Wiggins
Speaker 1: and Jordan Poole combined in the twenty twenty two playoff run.
Speaker 1: Jordan Poole's not here anymore, and Klay Thompson is not
Speaker 1: the same player that he used to be. Andrew Wiggins
Speaker 1: is not the same player that he used to be,
Speaker 1: and so they just don't have the same amount of
Speaker 1: firepower that they had then. Even like little things like
Speaker 1: a guy like out of Porter Junior, who was super
Speaker 1: valuable in that particular season, right, Like they just aren't
Speaker 1: as as deep with like reliable playoff guys. That said,
Speaker 1: I still think it's a really encouraging time to be
Speaker 1: a Warriors fan. Because Jonathan Minga is so good, Because
Speaker 1: Steph Curry still has years left, right, because Tray Jackson
Speaker 1: Davis has been a revelation, because Moses Moody is a
Speaker 1: guy that can defend on the perimeter and has them
Speaker 1: off the dribble popp and can knock down spot of three.
Speaker 1: It's like they've got a lot of encouraging stuff. It's
Speaker 1: more of a big picture move at this point where
Speaker 1: you're kind of hoping that you can overlap some of
Speaker 1: these young guys getting into their prime with the tail
Speaker 1: end of Steph's prime and maybe find a year in
Speaker 1: there where you can sneak to the top. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today has always been
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you for supporting the show when we're we
Speaker 1: have two more shows this week. We're going tomorrow morning
Speaker 1: breaking down Celtic Suns and then on Saturday night Lakers
Speaker 1: Warriors Live on YouTube. After the final buzzer, I will
Speaker 1: see you guys tomorrow morning. The volume,