Speaker 1: The volume NBA fans. The weight is over. Basketball is back.
Speaker 1: In DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA,
Speaker 1: is celebrating with an unbeatable offer. New customers can score
Speaker 1: two hundred dollars instantly in bonus bets for throwing down
Speaker 1: five dollars on the NBA. Win or lose, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: You'll start the season with an instant dub. And with
Speaker 1: DraftKings parlays, everyone's got a shot at an even bigger
Speaker 1: basketball win. Strain together multiple bets from the same game,
Speaker 1: or build your parlay across multiple games for a shot
Speaker 1: at making your payday even sweeter. Basketball is more fun
Speaker 1: when you're in on the action. Download the Draftking Sportsbook
Speaker 1: AP now and use code hoops. That's hops. New customers
Speaker 1: can get two hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly for
Speaker 1: betting just five dollars only on Draftking Sportsbook with code hoops.
Speaker 1: The crown is yours gambling problem called one eight hundred
Speaker 1: gambler or visit www dot one eight hundred gambler dot
Speaker 1: net in New York call eight seven seven eight hope
Speaker 1: and why or text hope and Why to four six
Speaker 1: seven three sixt nine in Connecticut. Help is available for
Speaker 1: problem gambling called eight eight eight seven eight nine seven
Speaker 1: seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play
Speaker 1: responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas.
Speaker 1: License partner Golden Nugget, Lake Charles and Louisiana twenty one
Speaker 1: plus age varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets
Speaker 1: expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. See
Speaker 1: Sportsbook dot DraftKings dot com, slash Basketball terms for eligibility
Speaker 1: and deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. All right,
Speaker 1: welcome to hoops tonight here at the ball. You have
Speaker 1: you Wednesday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having
Speaker 1: a great week so far. We had no NBA games
Speaker 1: last night, so I figured today would be a great
Speaker 1: day to take a step back and hit five biggest
Speaker 1: takeaways from the early stretch of the NBA season. And
Speaker 1: then after that we're gonna do a deep dive on
Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks, who are shockingly off to a six
Speaker 1: and one start. And then last but not least, we
Speaker 1: have five mail bag questions for the end of the
Speaker 1: show as well. You guys are the Joe Before we
Speaker 1: get started, subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel. Actually,
Speaker 1: we're running in promotion right now for those of you
Speaker 1: guys who live in Los Angeles. Sell We're giving away
Speaker 1: Laker tickets to somebody who subscribes to the channel. It's
Speaker 1: on my Twitter feed. I tweeted out the link. It's
Speaker 1: on the Volumes feed, but I quote tweeted it. The
Speaker 1: all you have to do is post a picture that
Speaker 1: says that you're subscribed to the channel. We're giving away
Speaker 1: tickets to the Lakers and the Rockets, which I believe
Speaker 1: is early November. Excuse me, it's Lakers Blazers and I
Speaker 1: think it's November twelve if I remember correctly. But we're
Speaker 1: giving away Laker tickets, So subscribe to the channel, even
Speaker 1: if you're outside of LA. It would mean a lot
Speaker 1: to me if you guys would take a second to
Speaker 1: just roll down and hit that subscribe button. As we
Speaker 1: try to get this channel off the ground, been blown
Speaker 1: away by the support over the first couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: but obviously we have big goals for the season. In general.
Speaker 1: Don't forget about o podcast feed. Wherever you get your
Speaker 1: podcast under hoops tonight. Don't forget about social media twitters,
Speaker 1: where I post a lot of the clips when I'm
Speaker 1: sorting through footage. Did that again this morning when I
Speaker 1: was going through the Mavericks tape. So follow me there
Speaker 1: at Underscore json LT. And then last, not least, keep
Speaker 1: dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments so we
Speaker 1: can hit them throughout the season. All right, here we go.
Speaker 1: Five biggest early season takeaways from a highly entertaining start
Speaker 1: to the NBA season. First, the Lakers and the Bucks
Speaker 1: both will eventually need a backcourt upgrade to contend for
Speaker 1: a championship this season, in my opinion, when you have
Speaker 1: a offensive folkrum in the back court that has shortcomings
Speaker 1: in terms of size and athleticism, in this case, Damian
Speaker 1: Lillard for the Bucks. Austin Reeves for the Lakers. Obviously
Speaker 1: a much much, much lesser version, but he is basically
Speaker 1: the primary backcourt ball handler for the Lakers outside of Lebron. Right,
Speaker 1: when you have something like that, the guy flanking him
Speaker 1: can't also be a undersized athlete that's going to struggle
Speaker 1: to contend defensively and on the glass. And we've seen
Speaker 1: we saw that for the Lakers. Come to roost with
Speaker 1: the Angelo Russell and the Nuggets series, right, it was
Speaker 1: like one of those things where they played a backcourt
Speaker 1: that wasn't over lee athletic in the Warrior series and
Speaker 1: they got away with it, right, And then in general
Speaker 1: with the Grizzlies, they were able to pack the paint
Speaker 1: enough to kind of make up for it. But when
Speaker 1: they ran into a Nuggets team that presented the ability
Speaker 1: to both space them out and attack them with athleticism,
Speaker 1: they had severe issues in the backcourt at the point
Speaker 1: of attack. Right. Then we go over to the Bucks
Speaker 1: and early in the season, I mean, they've got a
Speaker 1: couple wins in a row. They're four and two. It
Speaker 1: certainly is not a catastrophe by any stretch of the imagination.
Speaker 1: But even over the course of this most recent two
Speaker 1: game stretch, since they switched up their pick and roll
Speaker 1: coverages to drop being Brook Lopez back further, they're still
Speaker 1: giving up way too many points on the defensive end
Speaker 1: even in those two wins. So like for both of
Speaker 1: these teams, these are teams that elsewhere on the roster
Speaker 1: check all the boxes. The Lakers have an incredible depth
Speaker 1: in the front court between different types of forwards like thinner,
Speaker 1: perimeter oriented forwards on the defensive end like Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: and Ruey hot excuse me, Jared Vanderbilt and Torrian Prince
Speaker 1: and Cam Reddish, and then they've got a bigger size
Speaker 1: up forwards guys like Lebron James and Ruy Hatchamura, even
Speaker 1: Christian Wood, and then obviously Anthony Davis and Jackson Hayes
Speaker 1: at the center position. They're stacked there. Lebron James looks
Speaker 1: way better than he did last year, particularly as a
Speaker 1: shot creator and as a late game kind of initiator.
Speaker 1: That's all good. The Austin Reeves has kind of got
Speaker 1: it going in the last few days. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff to get excited about with the Lakers, but
Speaker 1: with Ruey Hachimura being out, with Jared Vanderbilt being out,
Speaker 1: it's shined a really bright light on their life act
Speaker 1: of backcourt athleticism, and it's been a legitimate problem for
Speaker 1: them to start this year. And quite frankly, they're just
Speaker 1: not playing very good basketball right now at three and four.
Speaker 1: So for both of these teams, they're kind of one
Speaker 1: tweak away there from being what they could potentially be
Speaker 1: if you upgrade that Pat connottan Malik Beasley spot to
Speaker 1: a player that can contend at the point of attack
Speaker 1: and help you on the glass. And the same sort
Speaker 1: of thing with that D'Angelo Russell spot for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: That could go a long way towards kind of patching
Speaker 1: the biggest hole in otherwise very dangerous rosters for both
Speaker 1: of those teams. Both those teams obviously have to play
Speaker 1: better elsewhere as well. The Bucks have to get better defensively.
Speaker 1: Dame still isn't quite where he needs to be in
Speaker 1: terms of his pull up shot making. God knows, the
Speaker 1: Lakers have seventeen different issues, but those are issues that
Speaker 1: should rectify as the season goes along, just as guys
Speaker 1: start playing better. But then there's big picture roster shortcomings
Speaker 1: that will not get better even as you start to
Speaker 1: play better. And to me that back court athleticism is
Speaker 1: a big one. So look for both of those teams
Speaker 1: to be really aggressive at the deadline to try to
Speaker 1: find a good role player in the backcourt. Number two,
Speaker 1: never underestimate the value of compatible role players to a
Speaker 1: basketball team, And in here I'm referencing the Warriors in
Speaker 1: the MAVs, these are two teams that had incredibly disappointing
Speaker 1: seasons last year relative to expectations. Right, Warriors win the championship,
Speaker 1: then they go have this weird, funky year. Draymond Green says,
Speaker 1: it's not even fun to go to work. They're terrible
Speaker 1: on the road. They end up losing in the second
Speaker 1: round to the Lakers. Right, the Mavericks go to the
Speaker 1: conference finals and end up losing Jylen Brunson replacing him
Speaker 1: with Kyrie Irving in the ensuing trade, losing most of
Speaker 1: their athleticism and having issues defensively and on the glass
Speaker 1: as they miss the playoffs. Right, So both of those
Speaker 1: teams kind of went into the summer with a lot
Speaker 1: of pessimism surrounding them. Right, Like, I was higher on
Speaker 1: both than most. Like, I kept the Mavericks pretty high
Speaker 1: in my power rankings relative to where they were last year.
Speaker 1: I said the Warriors were a top tier contender. Those
Speaker 1: are two of the predictions that I've actually been somewhat
Speaker 1: on the point a bit with I've been wrong about
Speaker 1: a bunch of other stuff, as is always the case.
Speaker 1: But like when it comes to the general consensus of
Speaker 1: public opinion, most people did not include the Warriors in
Speaker 1: that list of top tier contenders. Most people thought the
Speaker 1: Mavericks would more or less be like what they were
Speaker 1: at the end of the year last year. But what
Speaker 1: happened small tweaks on the margins. Just finding more compatible
Speaker 1: role players to what your stars bring to the table
Speaker 1: can go a long way to turning the fortunes of
Speaker 1: a basketball team. For the Warriors, getting rid of a
Speaker 1: super super you know, I would just call him like
Speaker 1: volatile guard and Jordan Poole meaning like really high hides
Speaker 1: but also really low lows and that inconsistency being a problem,
Speaker 1: especially with the other youth in that lineup. Going from
Speaker 1: him to a grown ass adult in Chris Paul has
Speaker 1: gone a long way to kind of orienting their bench
Speaker 1: lineups right. And then Darium Saraz just as like another big.
Speaker 1: Remember last year was like, are we gonna play Jamichael Green?
Speaker 1: It's like, okay, we can't play Kevon Looney Andre Montgreen.
Speaker 1: At the same time, Okay, now we're trying Gary Payton
Speaker 1: basically as a big man. In these looks, they needed
Speaker 1: a big that could shoot as a counter to teams
Speaker 1: that caused those sorts of problems sagging off of their
Speaker 1: non shooters in the paint, and he's been primarily used
Speaker 1: as a bench option so far this season, but don't
Speaker 1: be surprised if you see him used in playoff series
Speaker 1: as a chess piece to try to generate more spacing
Speaker 1: for that team. But just the CP three trade getting
Speaker 1: rid of a malcontent and Jordan Poole bringing in someone
Speaker 1: that can help kind of steady the ship without Steph
Speaker 1: on the floor, and then bringing in a quality, compatible
Speaker 1: role player as a bench big, and Dario Sarrez has
Speaker 1: gone a long way towards transforming the Warriors to back
Speaker 1: closer to what they were in the year that they
Speaker 1: won the title. On the mass front, they drafted a
Speaker 1: rim runner, a legitimate drop coverage big that could also
Speaker 1: catch lobs rolling to the basket. JaVale McGee just wasn't
Speaker 1: very good at that for them last year, and Derek
Speaker 1: Lively has been better than you could ever hope from
Speaker 1: a rookie in that respect so far this year. And
Speaker 1: then the sign and trade for Grant Williams, just using
Speaker 1: the tools that are available with you for you and
Speaker 1: the CBA to go target a good front court player
Speaker 1: that can do a lot of dirty work things that
Speaker 1: was undervalued with the Celtics and bringing him in has
Speaker 1: gone a long way towards bolstering the front court with
Speaker 1: a two way player, and then hitting on veteran minimums.
Speaker 1: You always have to hit if you're going to succeed
Speaker 1: when you don't have the ability to go out and
Speaker 1: free agency and sign expensive players, you have to hit
Speaker 1: on veteran minimum contracts. And the Derek Jones junior pick
Speaker 1: in particular, I shouldn't say pick. The Derek Jones Jr.
Speaker 1: Signing at the minimum contract has been a home run
Speaker 1: for the Mavericks this year. They're getting legitimate point of
Speaker 1: attack defense. He's helping them on the glass and is
Speaker 1: knocking down a respectable amount of three pointers, and is
Speaker 1: slashing off of catch and shoot opportunities as well to
Speaker 1: generate openings. And so hitting on all three of those,
Speaker 1: hitting on a draft pick, hitting on a sign and trade,
Speaker 1: hitting on a veteran minimum signing has transformed what was
Speaker 1: an overmatched physical roster to a roster that suddenly can
Speaker 1: compete in these games. And as a result, the Warriors
Speaker 1: are six and two and the MAVs are six and one.
Speaker 1: So it goes to show you like as long as
Speaker 1: you have the foundational pieces, you can make slight tweaks
Speaker 1: that end up pushing things in the right direction. If
Speaker 1: that should be a piece of optimism for the Bucks
Speaker 1: and the Lakers who have struggled a little bit in
Speaker 1: those areas to start the season, to know that, like, hey,
Speaker 1: it doesn't need to be a great player, but if
Speaker 1: you bring in a compatible player into that two guard spot,
Speaker 1: it could go a long way towards fixing your problems,
Speaker 1: all right. Number three, Jason Tatum looks poised to take
Speaker 1: the final leap into bona fide, top tier superstardom. It's
Speaker 1: kind of been a crescendo of two different factors over
Speaker 1: the last several years that have kind of come to
Speaker 1: fruition this year, and what looks like a very dominant
Speaker 1: Celtics team to start the year. They have made smart
Speaker 1: tweaks to the roster that made it the best group
Speaker 1: of supporting role players in the league right now in
Speaker 1: my opinion. And then Jason Tatum appears to have taken
Speaker 1: a leap in some key areas that I think translate
Speaker 1: well to him in the playoffs, because again, no matter
Speaker 1: what happens with the Celtics in this roster. We know
Speaker 1: that they have issues in slow down, half court playoff environments.
Speaker 1: Right well, Jason Tatum so far this year thirty one
Speaker 1: points and nine rebounds, just an astonishing sixty seven percent
Speaker 1: true shooting percentage, seventy one percent effective field goal percentage
Speaker 1: on catch and shoot jump shots, fifty six percent effective
Speaker 1: field goal percentage on pull up jump shots, seventy eight
Speaker 1: percent in the restricted area on five point three makes
Speaker 1: per game, that is sixth in the entire league. Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum is finishing in the paint more than everybody in
Speaker 1: the league except for five players, and going back to
Speaker 1: last year, he ranked seventeenth on that list and shot
Speaker 1: nine percent worse in the restricted area. So he's knocking
Speaker 1: down his pull up jump shot at a significantly higher rate.
Speaker 1: He's getting into the paint and finishing there at a
Speaker 1: significantly higher rate, not just compared to himself, but compared
Speaker 1: to the vast majority of the league. And then, last,
Speaker 1: but not least, he's added a legitimate post up in
Speaker 1: ISO attack that has been devastating. He's been the best
Speaker 1: ISO player in the league so far this year. There
Speaker 1: are thirteen players in the NBA that have run at
Speaker 1: least thirty ISOs is one point two to two points
Speaker 1: per possession including passes, ranks first out of those thirteen players,
Speaker 1: and he's posting up about twice as often as he
Speaker 1: did last year and has been very efficient there. That
Speaker 1: sort of like static creating a shot against the defense
Speaker 1: loaded up on you is something that Jason Tatum has
Speaker 1: struggled with in the past, and that is a good
Speaker 1: indicator that he could potentially take a leap in this postseason.
Speaker 1: I do not have them as my championship favorite right now.
Speaker 1: I don't think they've demonstrated enough to take that specific spot,
Speaker 1: but I think they could be trending in the direction
Speaker 1: to be that pick potentially when we get down the line.
Speaker 1: Very very very good start for the Celtics and Jason Tatum.
Speaker 1: You know, Sam Vassini said when I went on his show,
Speaker 1: he views him as a top three MVP candidate. I
Speaker 1: had him as a top four MVP candidate. I included
Speaker 1: Steph curR in that list because I think he's been
Speaker 1: incredible as well, But it's basically Steph Tatum, Jokich and
Speaker 1: Luca those have been the four best players in the
Speaker 1: league to start the year. Tatum's like just on that tier. Now.
Speaker 1: That's what we're seeing from him as a player. All right.
Speaker 1: Number four, the Denver Nuggets are still the best team
Speaker 1: in basketball. Here's a simple stat to demonstrate that the
Speaker 1: Nuggets are still the best team in the league. The
Speaker 1: Nuggets have played the seventh toughest schedule in the NBA
Speaker 1: based on opponent winning percentage to start this year. The
Speaker 1: other nine teams in the top ten for strength of
Speaker 1: schedule difficulty have combined to lose twenty nine games, none
Speaker 1: of them fewer than two, in an average of three
Speaker 1: point two losses. Okay, that's what you're seeing from the
Speaker 1: rest of the teams in the league that have had
Speaker 1: a tough schedule to start the year. The Nuggets are
Speaker 1: seven and one, and they're the only team in that
Speaker 1: top ten to only have one loss. So they've played
Speaker 1: an incredibly tough schedule and they've been dominant in that schedule.
Speaker 1: Of those seven wins, only two of them required crunch time,
Speaker 1: meaning the score was within five with less than five
Speaker 1: minutes left, so they've been dominating in their wins as well.
Speaker 1: They're playing the best defense we've seen out of this
Speaker 1: team in a regular season so far in the Jokic
Speaker 1: Murray Porter era, they're allowing just one hundred and seven
Speaker 1: point five points per one hundred possessions so far this year.
Speaker 1: They were at one thirteen point five for the season
Speaker 1: last year, one fifteen point seven in October last year,
Speaker 1: which was through seven games, So even just within the
Speaker 1: window of starting the season out of camp, they're defending
Speaker 1: at a significantly higher level. They were at one eleven
Speaker 1: point five in twenty twenty two, one eleven point five
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one, one ten point four in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty So this one oh seven point five to start
Speaker 1: this season, especially when you factor in the difficulty of
Speaker 1: their schedule, is a very clear indicator. In addition to
Speaker 1: everything else this team has going for it. Best offense
Speaker 1: in the league in my opinion when it comes to
Speaker 1: slow down playoff basketball, best player in the league in
Speaker 1: my opinion in Nikola Jokic Jamal Murray is sending to
Speaker 1: become a top fifteen player in the league. Aaron Gordon
Speaker 1: legitimately being one of the most versatile defensive do everything
Speaker 1: Swiss Army Knife forwards in basketball, Contavious Cup of Pope
Speaker 1: and Michael Porter Junior and what they bring to the table. Legitimately,
Speaker 1: in addition to all of that, they are now defending
Speaker 1: better than they've ever defended, and that, to me is
Speaker 1: a really really strong indicator that this team is at
Speaker 1: least starting to check the boxes that you want to
Speaker 1: see checked for a team to repeat one of the
Speaker 1: most common things you'll see from a team that has
Speaker 1: won a championship as they'll come into the next season
Speaker 1: and there's a significant dip in defense and rebounding and
Speaker 1: you know, transition defense. Clear indicators that they're just not
Speaker 1: quite as locked in on the details because their motivation
Speaker 1: is not as high as some of the other teams.
Speaker 1: Being that they're at the mountaintop. We're not seeing any
Speaker 1: of that from the Nuggets so far this season. They're
Speaker 1: still the most unguardable offense in basketball. Jokic is the
Speaker 1: best basketball player live. Here's an insane stat for you.
Speaker 1: Nikola Jokich is seventeen for eighteen ono shots in sixteen
Speaker 1: for twenty on floaters, so he's thirty three for thirty
Speaker 1: eight on all of those little short range pop shots
Speaker 1: in the lane. That's eighty seven percent. It was already
Speaker 1: insane when he was making two thirds of them, and
Speaker 1: now he's making literally almost ninety percent of them. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: Their defense has been excellent in clutch situations. They have
Speaker 1: an eighty defensive rating in the final five minutes of
Speaker 1: games that are within five points. Again, only two games
Speaker 1: like that, but their defense has been very good there.
Speaker 1: They're just clearly the best team in the league in
Speaker 1: my opinion, at least from the same point of what
Speaker 1: we can expect from them in the playoffs until further notice.
Speaker 1: I think they deserve that spot. I think we'd have
Speaker 1: to see a significant change in the circumstances to feel
Speaker 1: differently about them. Also, Julian strawther career high twenty one
Speaker 1: the other night against the Pals, got hot and catch
Speaker 1: and shoot situations in the first half, then started to
Speaker 1: get aggressive with the ball in his hands in the
Speaker 1: second half. He's been an incredibly exciting player through preseason,
Speaker 1: the clear guy that could kind of slot into that
Speaker 1: If you look at the starters that are all kids
Speaker 1: except for kcpkcp's kind of the old elder statesman in
Speaker 1: that group. Straw there could be that shoe and fit
Speaker 1: into that two guard spot in the future, which just
Speaker 1: makes that team even more exciting in the big picture.
Speaker 1: All right, last takeaway from the early part of the season,
Speaker 1: we are just about guaranteed to get a very active
Speaker 1: trade deadline. The ingredients you need for an active trade deadline,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, are a wide open field, meaning a
Speaker 1: lot of teams thinking they can win the title, Teams
Speaker 1: that had high expectations coming out the gates struggling, right.
Speaker 1: That's why I look at teams like the Bucks and
Speaker 1: the Lakers as teams that are like not where they
Speaker 1: need to be, clearly from the standpoint of personnel, but
Speaker 1: both clearly will view anything other than a championship as
Speaker 1: a failure. That's a good indicator classic teams that would
Speaker 1: be targeting stars. So teams like the Philadelphia seventy six
Speaker 1: ers who moved hard and basically for draft capital and
Speaker 1: if one and will definitely want to put another star
Speaker 1: next to Tyrese Max and Joel Embiid, they're going to
Speaker 1: be a candidate for that. The Miami Heat are almost
Speaker 1: guaranteed to make a strong push for a star at
Speaker 1: some point during the season. That's a strong indicator of
Speaker 1: a busy trade deadline. And then, lastly, teams that are
Speaker 1: close to being willing to blow it up a little
Speaker 1: bit right Like the Chicago Bulls. They're off to another
Speaker 1: mediocre start. DeMar derozen Zach Lavine, and Nikola Vucevic could
Speaker 1: all potentially be trade targets this year. The Toronto Raptors
Speaker 1: Scottie Barnes looks incredible, but the rest of the team
Speaker 1: and the fit doesn't make a ton of sense because
Speaker 1: they don't have a lot of shooting around him and
Speaker 1: he's a big room pressuring forward. So like, don't be
Speaker 1: surprised if guys like Pascal Siakam and og In Andobi
Speaker 1: become available for trades during the season. So I think
Speaker 1: we're gonna get a really active trade deadline this year,
Speaker 1: which is a big reason why there's just a lot
Speaker 1: still up in the air in terms of the finish line.
Speaker 1: In sports, the scoreboard doesn't tell the full story, but
Speaker 1: Netflix does. Stories about dads who happened to be world
Speaker 1: class quarterbacks, untold tales of athletes you thought you knew,
Speaker 1: the heart racing, pressure for the heart soul, and survival
Speaker 1: of the multi billion dollar business of F one. Stories
Speaker 1: about college kids who were given a last chance at redemption.
Speaker 1: David Beckham's meteoric rise to not only becoming a global
Speaker 1: soccer phenomenon, but also becoming one of the biggest celebrity
Speaker 1: couples in pop culture. From upsets to injuries, from comebacks
Speaker 1: to victories, we get to see it all with Netflix Sports.
Speaker 1: These are the stories that turn us all into fans
Speaker 1: and give everyone something to cheer for, to feel for,
Speaker 1: to hold your breath for, and to get up out
Speaker 1: of your seat for. Whether you're a diehard fan or
Speaker 1: you're brand new which shows like f One, Drive to Survive, Quarterback,
Speaker 1: Full Swing, Untold Beckham, and so many more. Netflix has
Speaker 1: the stories for every type of fan. Netflix turns us
Speaker 1: all into fans. All right, we are going to do
Speaker 1: a deep dive on the Dallas Mavericks, who are off
Speaker 1: to a six and one start. I clipped some stuff
Speaker 1: from my film this morning and uploaded to my Twitter feed,
Speaker 1: so you'll want to check that out as well. Continue
Speaker 1: throughout the season doing that as well, because every time
Speaker 1: I cover a game, I will clip stuff and put
Speaker 1: him on six and one start. Now, to be clear,
Speaker 1: five of the seven teams they played are currently below
Speaker 1: five hundred and they're five to oh in those games.
Speaker 1: So they are benefiting a little bit from a from
Speaker 1: an easy schedule to start the year. But to be clear,
Speaker 1: they were fifteen and sixteen, so they were below five
Speaker 1: hundred last year against teams that were below five hundred,
Speaker 1: So going five to oh in those games to me
Speaker 1: is a strong indicator of a good basketball team. The
Speaker 1: offense has predictably been awesome right They're one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty points per one hundred possessions, fourth best in the
Speaker 1: NBA second and half court offense according to Cleaning the Glass.
Speaker 1: Lucas playing like an MVP forty three percent on step
Speaker 1: back jump shots this year or step back three's excuse
Speaker 1: me this year, which is insane. He's made twenty three
Speaker 1: of them already, which is the most in the league.
Speaker 1: That's been a huge boost to their offense, especially late
Speaker 1: in games. Kyrie Irving has been a little off to
Speaker 1: start the year, but it's mostly his jump shot. He's
Speaker 1: just not hitting his pull up jump shot at the
Speaker 1: rate that we're customed to seeing with Kyrie. But he
Speaker 1: still looks explosive, he still has these crazy acrobatic finishes.
Speaker 1: He's still getting to his spots, and his playmaking has
Speaker 1: been off the charts, so to me, the SHOT's going
Speaker 1: to come and it's going to be fine. I'm encouraged
Speaker 1: on the Kyrie irving front. And then they're getting great
Speaker 1: contributions from their role players. Grant Williams is shooting fifty
Speaker 1: four percent from three. Tim Hardaway is shooting thirty nine
Speaker 1: percent from three on nine point three attempts per game.
Speaker 1: He's been great in spot of situations and just really
Speaker 1: aggressive pull up shooting to just kind of boost the
Speaker 1: offense a little bit, especially with bench groups. Josh Green
Speaker 1: is shooting forty percent from three, and then even Derek
Speaker 1: Jones Junior, particularly in his above the break threes. He
Speaker 1: did make a corner three against the Magic the other day,
Speaker 1: but he's been struggling a little bit from the corner.
Speaker 1: But Derek Jones has had enough success knocking down threes
Speaker 1: and driving closeouts to be kind of a spacing threat
Speaker 1: in and of himself, which is important because he's been
Speaker 1: their best point of attack defender to start the year.
Speaker 1: But we knew this team would score. The most impressive
Speaker 1: element is they've made a little bit of improvement they
Speaker 1: needed to make in their ability to hang in the
Speaker 1: physicality areas of the game, so particularly defense and rebounding.
Speaker 1: Right last year post Kyrie trade, they were twenty seventh
Speaker 1: in defensive rating, twenty ninth in defensive or in rebound percentage.
Speaker 1: This year so far, nineteenth in defensive rating, twenty sixth
Speaker 1: in rebound percentage, so just a marginal improvement there. They
Speaker 1: went from being the one of the worst defenses in
Speaker 1: the league to a middle of the pack defense. And
Speaker 1: they went from being a team that basically grabbed forty
Speaker 1: six percent of available rebounds to grabbing about forty eight
Speaker 1: percent of available rebounds, which can make a significant different difference.
Speaker 1: Now again not great, still want to see them improve
Speaker 1: a little bit rebounding. They started the year super well,
Speaker 1: but they've declined a little bit there. But they needed
Speaker 1: to make a little bit of an improvement to give
Speaker 1: themselves a fighting chance for their offense to push over
Speaker 1: the top, and it's worked now. To be clear, they
Speaker 1: have some good defensive personnel here, like Derek Jones has
Speaker 1: been a good perimeter defender to start the year. Josh
Speaker 1: Green is good, but there's some other guys. Again, like
Speaker 1: in order to get a respectable defense from limited defensive personnel,
Speaker 1: you need buy in and that means even guys that
Speaker 1: have been inconsistent perimeter defenders in their career have to
Speaker 1: play to their ceiling. Like Kyrie. Irving is known as
Speaker 1: being a bad defensive player, but in the twenty sixteen
Speaker 1: playoff run with the Cavs, he was actually their best
Speaker 1: defender on Steph Curry whenever he would go to the bench,
Speaker 1: and like Emon Shumpert would come into the game, they
Speaker 1: would actually Even though Emon Shrumpert was considered a better
Speaker 1: perimeter defender in terms of reputation, he struggled to guard
Speaker 1: Steph in a way that Kyrie did not. Because Kyrie
Speaker 1: is capable of that, He's a very good defensive playmaker.
Speaker 1: There were a couple of plays against the Magic where
Speaker 1: like you'd see him come from off ball to sniff
Speaker 1: a play out. There was a Cole Anthony spinning fade
Speaker 1: away right in the middle of the floor where Kyrie
Speaker 1: just made an extra effort because he knew Cole wasn't
Speaker 1: going to throw the pass and just bailed out and
Speaker 1: got a late contest and forced an air ball on
Speaker 1: the shot. There was another one where he was guarding
Speaker 1: in the left corner and he sniffed out a back
Speaker 1: door cut and jumped it and poked the ball free.
Speaker 1: Because he does have good anticipation, he does have quickness
Speaker 1: in good hands. He is capable of being an impact
Speaker 1: defensive player. You got to get that from those guys.
Speaker 1: Tim Hardaway, Jun Your The same thing. Kind of reminds
Speaker 1: me a lot of j. R. Smith in the sense that,
Speaker 1: like he had a reputation as being a bad defender,
Speaker 1: but in that twenty sixteen season, he was a good defender.
Speaker 1: In this season he's had stretches of really good perimeter defense,
Speaker 1: and especially in that third quarter run. I encourage you
Speaker 1: guys if you haven't done so yet. They're in that
Speaker 1: third quarter run against the Magic, he did a really
Speaker 1: nice job staying glued and applying ball pressure, navigating screens.
Speaker 1: As a team, they have better commitment on the glass
Speaker 1: and help and recover situations. Luka Doncic has flashed a
Speaker 1: lot in that area compared to where he was last year.
Speaker 1: And then they just have that little bit of rim
Speaker 1: protection from Derek Lively in the minutes that he's on
Speaker 1: the floor. There was a play in the first half
Speaker 1: of the Magic game where Pala Boncaro just got going
Speaker 1: downhill right at Derek Lively and Derek just like has
Speaker 1: really good instincts and he backed up and instead of
Speaker 1: trying to vertical, which Palow would have gone right around him,
Speaker 1: he kind of like leaned back and anticipated and reached
Speaker 1: back and blocked him at the top of the square.
Speaker 1: Derek Lively provides just that little bit of extra rim
Speaker 1: protection when they go into that look, and so as
Speaker 1: a result, they're capable of making defensive runs. They allowed
Speaker 1: just seventeen points in the third quarter against the Magic
Speaker 1: and just nineteen in the fourth. They contained the ball,
Speaker 1: they forced tough jumpers. I thought Grant Williams did a
Speaker 1: really nice job avoiding screens on Palo because one of
Speaker 1: the things they were doing is just running early screens
Speaker 1: in the possession to get Palo switched on to a
Speaker 1: smaller defender and just have him post up until he
Speaker 1: got the defense into rotation and then they'd play out
Speaker 1: of that. Well, Grant Williams in the third quarter was like,
Speaker 1: screw that, I'm not getting screened, and he just stayed
Speaker 1: on Palo the whole time, stayed in front of him,
Speaker 1: forced him into a bunch of tough shots, and their
Speaker 1: defense just completely took over that game and then down
Speaker 1: the stretch, it's just the steady diet of Kyrie and
Speaker 1: Luca making plays. Now when the schedule does get tougher,
Speaker 1: and it will in their next ten games, Raptors, that's
Speaker 1: a relatively easy game, although they're going to face a
Speaker 1: lot of physical mismatches in that game. But Clippers, that's
Speaker 1: tough Pelicans. Pelicans, those are tough Wizards. That's an easier game.
Speaker 1: Kings are excuse me, Bucks, that's tough Kings, Tough Lakers,
Speaker 1: tough Clippers, tough Rockets. They're playing some better basketball as
Speaker 1: of late as well. So it's gonna get a little
Speaker 1: tougher here in the next two and a half weeks
Speaker 1: or so. In order for them to win over that stretch,
Speaker 1: they're going to need Kyrie to get his jump shot going,
Speaker 1: and they're going to need to rebound the ball better
Speaker 1: than they have been. But great start for the MAVs
Speaker 1: through seven games. I don't think you can be more
Speaker 1: satisfied considering where they were at the end of the
Speaker 1: year last year. All right, before we get out of
Speaker 1: here for the day, we're going to do our five
Speaker 1: mail bag questions. First one, Jason Love your breakdowns question.
Speaker 1: Maybe you can mail bag this, But how do you
Speaker 1: watch the games with breakdowns and positional slash types of
Speaker 1: plays on offense? You isolate pick and roll plays and stuff.
Speaker 1: I know you talked about Synergy and the Cleaning the
Speaker 1: Glass app, but looking to just find out what you
Speaker 1: use to make these breakdowns. So I do use a
Speaker 1: tool called Synergy. It's extremely expensive. It is an analytics
Speaker 1: platform that NBA teams use, that college teams use, that
Speaker 1: even high school teams use, and so it's incredibly in
Speaker 1: depth play clip sorting and things like that. I am very,
Speaker 1: very lucky to have access to that platform. It makes
Speaker 1: my job a whole lot easier, but it is not
Speaker 1: easy to get access to. Cleaning the Glass is a
Speaker 1: lot easier. It's like, I think it's like five bucks
Speaker 1: a month, and they have great lineup data. They sort
Speaker 1: for half court sets, They with each individual team. They
Speaker 1: have a lot of really interesting metrics that you can
Speaker 1: dig into. I find that to be a useful platform,
Speaker 1: and then learn how to use the NBA site. The
Speaker 1: NBA site, if you really take some time to sort through,
Speaker 1: you can get lineup data there as well. It's hard
Speaker 1: to do on off stuff on there, but you can
Speaker 1: at least put piece together two three, four five man lineups.
Speaker 1: You can track play types there as well, so you
Speaker 1: can actually go look up pick and roll, ball handler,
Speaker 1: pick and roll roll man, off screen actions, that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. That all you can't get the video and
Speaker 1: the sorting from it, but you can at least see
Speaker 1: the data. So if you want to at least kind
Speaker 1: of see points per possession in pick and roll or
Speaker 1: in post ups or ISOs, you can still get that
Speaker 1: for free on the NBA website. They do miscellaneous stats
Speaker 1: so like second chance points, you know, points in the
Speaker 1: paint allowed per possession, defensive rebounding percentage, offensive, Like, there's
Speaker 1: literally hundreds of useful pieces of data that are that
Speaker 1: is available for free on the NBA site. So like again, Synergy,
Speaker 1: I don't think is a cost effective way for any
Speaker 1: fan to to get the you know, NBA data, But
Speaker 1: you can get most of the same data without the
Speaker 1: footage on the NBA website. So again, like I think,
Speaker 1: I think think there's plenty out there that's affordable to
Speaker 1: kind of learn more about the league without having to
Speaker 1: get too crazy. Second mail back question from Shane would
Speaker 1: bringing del off the bench fix the guard's skill set
Speaker 1: redundancy problem. So obviously, if you could bring Delo off
Speaker 1: the bench with another athlete. So if it was like
Speaker 1: if you had Austin in an athlete in the back
Speaker 1: court with the starters, and then you had Dlo and
Speaker 1: Max Christy off the bench, I think that could work.
Speaker 1: But then it becomes a problem with the delineation of resources,
Speaker 1: or I should say the disbursement of resources. So like
Speaker 1: if you're if you're gonna have a contract circa twenty
Speaker 1: million a year for a player that you know you
Speaker 1: can't play alongside you're starting, you know, better point guard
Speaker 1: in Austin Reeves, who's going to play thirty five minutes
Speaker 1: a night, then there's only thirteen minutes available there without
Speaker 1: having to play them together, which presents those problems. So
Speaker 1: it's not so much like like whether or not Dlo
Speaker 1: would be successful with this Lakers team coming off the bench,
Speaker 1: because of course you would. It's a redundancy problem and
Speaker 1: it's a misuse of resources, and so you're actually better
Speaker 1: off trading D'Angelo Russell, having Gabe Vincent be essentially the
Speaker 1: skill guard in your bench groups who plays more limited minutes,
Speaker 1: and when you have the ability to play two guard
Speaker 1: line or two small guards against specific matchups. Then you
Speaker 1: could play Gabe and Austin together, but you need to
Speaker 1: bring in an athletic guard to slot next to d'angela Russell. Alright,
Speaker 1: Third mail by question. Hey, Jason, here's a mail back question.
Speaker 1: I've recently started playing basketball by myself again, not with people, sadly,
Speaker 1: ever since my asthma started and I've been unable to
Speaker 1: sprint up and down the court, and I started working
Speaker 1: on my pull up mid range, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: hear your thoughts about the way about the correct way
Speaker 1: to set your feet. Is it better to do a
Speaker 1: jump stop or to step into the shot? So jump
Speaker 1: stop shooting again? So, like, just imagine if I am
Speaker 1: running into a shot. Let's just say off the catch
Speaker 1: or off the bounce. But for the sake of this,
Speaker 1: I make this easier. Let's say off the catch. Okay.
Speaker 1: So I'm running the right wing and the ball is
Speaker 1: on the left wing, and I'm wide open trailing the
Speaker 1: play and the guy throws me the pass as I'm
Speaker 1: running into a three point shot. And I know you
Speaker 1: specifically mentioned mid range shooting, but this is the exact
Speaker 1: same footwork. So we'll get to that. So if I
Speaker 1: can say I'm running and I run off my left
Speaker 1: foot and then I just land on both feet at
Speaker 1: the same time and rise into a shot, that's like
Speaker 1: a jump stop into a three point shot, doing a split,
Speaker 1: a footwork, or call it a one. I refer to
Speaker 1: it as a one to two. And what I mean
Speaker 1: by that is like you plant your one foot first
Speaker 1: and then you bring your other foot around and plant,
Speaker 1: and that's the one you actually stop yourself with. And
Speaker 1: you can do that left right or you can do
Speaker 1: it right left. And generally speaking, if you're moving to
Speaker 1: the right, you want to do it left right, and
Speaker 1: if you're moving to the left, you want to do
Speaker 1: it right left. So essentially, as I'm running into a
Speaker 1: shot on the wing, instead of doing a jump stop,
Speaker 1: I would chot my feet a little bit and basically
Speaker 1: plant left right on the catch and elevate and shoot it.
Speaker 1: So generally speaking, I think it's easier to go from
Speaker 1: moving full speed to stopping and elevating with a one
Speaker 1: two than it is a jump stop. It doesn't mean
Speaker 1: you can't do a jump stop. It doesn't mean there's
Speaker 1: no place for it. I do occasionally do it, but
Speaker 1: I find that in order to actually get separation, doing
Speaker 1: a left right or right left one two takeoff is
Speaker 1: the easiest way to get separation on the move. Now
Speaker 1: imagine it you a pull up jump shooting situation. So
Speaker 1: like I've come off of a ball screen, I've got
Speaker 1: a little bit of separation, but there's back pressure. So
Speaker 1: I want to get one more escape dribble to get
Speaker 1: to the right elbow to elevate for a shot. In
Speaker 1: that case, I want to do that hard push ahead dribble,
Speaker 1: plant left and right and elevate and get a bunch
Speaker 1: of lift as I'm taking that shot right. And if
Speaker 1: I do a jump stop, I'm probably gonna slow myself
Speaker 1: down and probably not be as balanced when I go up.
Speaker 1: So again, you want to be able to do both.
Speaker 1: And there's a really simple drill that you can do
Speaker 1: that kind of trains your body to balance yourself as
Speaker 1: you're doing this. And this is a drill I do
Speaker 1: with my high school players all the time. So start
Speaker 1: at the free throw line, spin the ball out to
Speaker 1: yourself at the top of the key so you're facing
Speaker 1: away from the basket when you roll it out to yourself.
Speaker 1: Jump stop with both feet facing away from the basket.
Speaker 1: Then reverse pivot and shoot a jump shot. So keep
Speaker 1: your left foot pivot foot, swing that right foot around
Speaker 1: the inside, rise up and take a shot. Do that
Speaker 1: till you make two of them. Then do a reverse
Speaker 1: pivot with your right foot. So now you're in that
Speaker 1: jump stop. Bring your left foot back towards the basket
Speaker 1: as you square for a shot. Do that till you
Speaker 1: make it twice. Then do two over the top pivots.
Speaker 1: So jump stop start with my left foot is my pivot.
Speaker 1: Bring my right foot away from the basket, swing it
Speaker 1: around and shoot. Do that till I make it twice.
Speaker 1: Same thing, left foot around away from the basket until
Speaker 1: I shoot. Then I do jump stops, so flip it
Speaker 1: out to myself, catch it with a jump stop facing
Speaker 1: away from the basket, then jump and spin in mid
Speaker 1: air and land facing the basket on two feet. Shoot
Speaker 1: a three. Do it till you make it twice, then
Speaker 1: jump spin the other way. That's like a really easy
Speaker 1: way to train your body from the standpoint of balance
Speaker 1: when you're doing weird footwork into shots, because you'll notice
Speaker 1: each way you go your body has a tendency to
Speaker 1: try to lean one way or the other. It'll force
Speaker 1: you to keep a wide base and get really strong
Speaker 1: lift into the shot as you're rising up. Okay, two more.
Speaker 1: What do you think of the Lakers reaching out to
Speaker 1: the NBA League office to complain about officiating in the
Speaker 1: Lakers Heat game and the Lebron tweet in reply to
Speaker 1: the conclusion that there were no wrong calls in the
Speaker 1: last two minutes. Are the Lakers Lebron's concerns legitimate or
Speaker 1: was that another case of you always say loser mentality
Speaker 1: when it comes to complaints about officiating. I literally thought
Speaker 1: it was super lame. Logan, who's our ahead of content
Speaker 1: here at the volume, is also a big Lakers fan,
Speaker 1: and we both texted each other immediately after, and we're like,
Speaker 1: what the like, what are these guys like? Come on, like,
Speaker 1: you're playing like shit and under no circumstances should you
Speaker 1: have lost that game, even with any of the circumstances
Speaker 1: surrounding injuries and things like that, Like, the Heat just
Speaker 1: aren't playing very good basketball and the Lakers are just
Speaker 1: better than them. They should have won that game. The
Speaker 1: Lakers are playing bad basketball and blaming it on officiating,
Speaker 1: to me is very much a loser mentality. So I
Speaker 1: agree with you Lebron tweeting it out like he's right, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't think they were referring necessarily to the last
Speaker 1: two minutes. I didn't think when I go through the
Speaker 1: possessions at the end of the game, I didn't think
Speaker 1: there was a foul that should have been called. Like
Speaker 1: the Kyle Lowry play, technically is still a charge. I
Speaker 1: hate that play. I hate when a dude just falls
Speaker 1: down when a guy's running full speed. I think it's
Speaker 1: bad for the game. I wish they'd get rid of it.
Speaker 1: But by the book, that's a good call. So like,
Speaker 1: I don't think I think what Lebron was saying it
Speaker 1: was more of a big picture issue as far as
Speaker 1: Lebron and in the way he's officiated. Lebron doesn't get
Speaker 1: a lot of calls, that's true, but he also commits
Speaker 1: more uncalled offensive fouls than most players do. He uses
Speaker 1: a lot of off arm, he initiates a ton of contact.
Speaker 1: I'm one of those guys that's like, I want Lebron
Speaker 1: to be able to do that. So I'm okay if
Speaker 1: he doesn't get as many calls at the rim, and
Speaker 1: so to me, Lebron's always been officiated more or less
Speaker 1: fairly because he is a bully ball player that also
Speaker 1: gets fouled and most of it goes uncalled, which is
Speaker 1: the way it should be in my opinion. Last mail
Speaker 1: back question the same quote the Lakers lost, but they'll
Speaker 1: figure it out, and quote narrative is tiresome. They're not
Speaker 1: winning the championship this season. This isn't really a male
Speaker 1: bad question. It's more just someone talking shit in the comments.
Speaker 1: But this happens every single day and I wanted to
Speaker 1: address it, so I I don't think, as currently constructed,
Speaker 1: the Lakers will win the championship. I agree with you.
Speaker 1: The only thing within the roster that would potentially fix
Speaker 1: the problem is if Jared Vanderbilt turned out to be
Speaker 1: a good offensive player this year, Like if he just
Speaker 1: lived in the gym all summer, shooting corner threes and
Speaker 1: improving his hands and finishing around the basket, and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden he was playable, then they can win
Speaker 1: the championship because Jared Vanderbilt solves so many of their
Speaker 1: problems in terms of perimeter defense and crashing the defensive
Speaker 1: glass from the perimeter, and it honestly would potentially allow
Speaker 1: you to get away with having D'Angelo Russell, even though
Speaker 1: I still think they should trade him. But like, at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, like I expect the Lakers
Speaker 1: to make a deal. They're equipped for it. They have
Speaker 1: two perfect salaries in Dangel Russell, who doesn't fit with
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves, and in Ruey Hatchamura, who plays the same
Speaker 1: position as Lebron And so those two guys are good
Speaker 1: players that have some value around the league, that are
Speaker 1: in fair contract numbers. Dlo Is literally gonna be expiring
Speaker 1: next year, so like they're gonna be tradable contracts, and
Speaker 1: then they have two first round picks that they have
Speaker 1: access to to trade at the deadline this year. So like,
Speaker 1: do I think the Lakers are like done? No, but
Speaker 1: they're certainly in a worse position than I expected them
Speaker 1: to be at this point. And you're absolutely right. I
Speaker 1: don't think they're gonna win the title as currently constructed.
Speaker 1: They're just not athletic enough. They have serious personnel shortcum.
Speaker 1: But like at the end of the day, like I
Speaker 1: hate early season victory laps for anybody, and that's why
Speaker 1: you won't see me take early season victory laps because
Speaker 1: it's seven damn games, guys, Like, did you know that
Speaker 1: the Nuggets who won the title last year lost four
Speaker 1: out of seven four different times last year. So like again,
Speaker 1: we have a tendency to take a small window of
Speaker 1: games at the beginning of an eighty two game season
Speaker 1: and define a team based on that when the reality
Speaker 1: is it's an eighty two game grind and like a
Speaker 1: lot of the like, every single team that got off
Speaker 1: to a great start this year will have several stretches
Speaker 1: this year where they look bad. That's called NBA basketball.
Speaker 1: That's how it works. The best team in the league
Speaker 1: last year that beat everyone's ass in the playoffs had
Speaker 1: four stretches identical to this Laker stretch. What usually happens
Speaker 1: when team goes and loses four out of seven when
Speaker 1: they're good, it's usually injuries and some tough games on
Speaker 1: your schedule, And that's literally what it's been for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Two of their four losses were to the two teams
Speaker 1: that played in the NBA Finals last year. Right then
Speaker 1: they lost to a Sacramento Kings team that is difficult
Speaker 1: to beat in Sacramento, and that went to overtime, and
Speaker 1: then they lost to an Orlando Magic team on the
Speaker 1: road when they were missing all their forwards. They're injured,
Speaker 1: they're playing a tougher stretch of their schedule, and they're
Speaker 1: also not playing good basketball. That's what happens. Good teams
Speaker 1: usually also have good stretches in toughest parts of their schedule,
Speaker 1: where they rip off for four wins in five tries
Speaker 1: against all playoff teams or something like that. Right now,
Speaker 1: in the big picture, if we get to fifty games
Speaker 1: and the Lakers are, you know, a twenty three and
Speaker 1: twenty seven, then yeah, we can have a larger conversation
Speaker 1: about whether or not it's over. I had like a
Speaker 1: half dozen of you guys in the comments talking about
Speaker 1: how like, oh, like Jason's gonna go down with the
Speaker 1: Lakers to the dirty end. It's like, dude, it's been
Speaker 1: seven games. It's been seven games, guys, And I like,
Speaker 1: as much as I am a fan of the Lakers,
Speaker 1: I'm always going to call it the way I see
Speaker 1: it and what I see right now as a team
Speaker 1: that can't win the title is currently constructed but as
Speaker 1: well positioned to make a mid season trade and really
Speaker 1: only need to fix one massive flaw in order to
Speaker 1: fix most of their problems. So again, like I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm pretty clear with this show. Is in terms
Speaker 1: of my motivations and my biases, I try to fight
Speaker 1: them actively. Lakers fans. Like for those of you guys
Speaker 1: who are not Lakers fans, which is most of you,
Speaker 1: obviously Laker fans, a lot of them dislike me because
Speaker 1: I'm not a propagandist, because I won't just sit there
Speaker 1: and talk about how great they are. I will talk
Speaker 1: mostly about the things that they have to get better
Speaker 1: at because I think like a coach, right, That's just
Speaker 1: my approach to the game. And so I look at
Speaker 1: the Lakers is like, these are the things they need
Speaker 1: to fix in order to reach the promised Land. I
Speaker 1: would imagine most of you guys think the same way
Speaker 1: about your teams. I I haven't been up here saying
Speaker 1: that the Lakers are are gonna run away with the
Speaker 1: championship this season. I never said that. I you know,
Speaker 1: I literally said they'd lose to the Nuggets if they
Speaker 1: played again in a playoff series. I said that in preseason,
Speaker 1: saying it again now like I I. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, like guys, this is a team that went
Speaker 1: eighteen and eight post deadline without Lebron James, with Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves and D'Angel Russell in the backcourt. This is a
Speaker 1: team that went to the conference finals and beat the
Speaker 1: defending champs and beat the two seed in the Western
Speaker 1: Conference without home court advantage in both series. So like
Speaker 1: that matters more than seven games in October, when Ruey
Speaker 1: Hachimura is out, when Jared Vanderbilts out, when Gabe Vincent
Speaker 1: is out, when Jackson Hayes is out. Like, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: it's just it's just the truth. So no, you're not
Speaker 1: gonna get me to write an obituary about how the
Speaker 1: season is over for the Lakers. That's not how it works.
Speaker 1: But again, I understand it's fun and it's you know,
Speaker 1: talking basketball is fun, Talking shit is fun. Taking victory
Speaker 1: lapse is fun. I'm not hating on you guys. I'm
Speaker 1: just going to explain my position, and my position is
Speaker 1: the Lakers suck right now, but I don't think they're
Speaker 1: gonna suck when they get healthy, and then I think
Speaker 1: they could be really, really good if they make the
Speaker 1: right mid season trade. And I feel like that's a
Speaker 1: pretty fair take. The surrounding what that Laker team is
Speaker 1: capable of. All right, guys, that is all I have
Speaker 1: for today. We were playing it on going tonight after
Speaker 1: Nuggets Warriors, but we're actually gonna put that off and
Speaker 1: go Thursday morning. My house is getting painted and so
Speaker 1: I can't get into my studio right now, and so
Speaker 1: as a result of that, like this room it's nice
Speaker 1: and lit up right now, but it very much won't
Speaker 1: be at eleven pm local time, so I can't record
Speaker 1: in here at night, but I will be able to
Speaker 1: on Friday when we cover the late night slate. So
Speaker 1: tonight's slate we're gonna hit Thursday morning. I will see
Speaker 1: you guys. Then the volume