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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to hoops tonight here at the Volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Friday, everybody. I hope all of you guys had
Speaker 1: an incredible week and that you had a good holiday.
Speaker 1: It feels good to be back. I sincerely appreciate all
Speaker 1: of you guys who offered condolences after the passing of
Speaker 1: my grandmother in the YouTube comments. It means a lot
Speaker 1: to me. I'm glad we were able to get out there. Specifically,
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving is the holiday I think about the most when
Speaker 1: I think about my grandmother, because my family lives out
Speaker 1: here in Tucson, my mom and dad, but both of
Speaker 1: their families are in the Dallas Fort Worth area, and
Speaker 1: so when we were kids, we went to Texas every
Speaker 1: single year for Thanksgiving, sometimes driving sixteen hours if the
Speaker 1: flights were too full, right, And we had Thanksgiving at
Speaker 1: my grandma's house, and she was this amazing cook from
Speaker 1: the Midwest. And I still have these like vivid memories
Speaker 1: of me like playing with my cousins in the yard
Speaker 1: or in the living room as my grandmother was directing
Speaker 1: traffic in the kitchen. I just hear her voice in
Speaker 1: the background. And she was this truly incredible woman and
Speaker 1: a rock for my dad's family. And so obviously it
Speaker 1: was sad for her for us all to not have
Speaker 1: her there. But at the same time, I think we
Speaker 1: did what she would have wanted us to do, and
Speaker 1: we kind of just had a throwback timp gathering for
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving out in Texas, and so I think that was
Speaker 1: important for everybody in my family to be out there.
Speaker 1: I'm really thankful that I was able to get out there,
Speaker 1: and then we came home and we celebrated Thanksgiving with
Speaker 1: my wife's family as well. Got to have a little
Speaker 1: bit of a break. Obviously, we haven't worked since last Friday.
Speaker 1: As you guys know, it's not just me, it's everyone
Speaker 1: behind the scenes as well that makes the show tick.
Speaker 1: And we've just been going crazy, like We've done almost
Speaker 1: seven shows a week since I got back from Japan
Speaker 1: in July. That's just the pace that we've been going.
Speaker 1: And so obviously it was important for us to take
Speaker 1: a little bit of a break, and I'm glad we
Speaker 1: were able to do so. But I'm excited to be
Speaker 1: back and I'm excited to talk some basketball today. We're
Speaker 1: going to be hitting briefly on all six of our contenders.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be like a contender check in show today.
Speaker 1: So we had six teams in our contender list to
Speaker 1: start the season. If you remember, it was number one,
Speaker 1: the Nuggets, two Bucks, three Celtics, four Lakers, five Sons,
Speaker 1: six Warriors. Briefly touch on all of them. Then there
Speaker 1: are five teams that I considered to be surprises here
Speaker 1: early in the season with how successful they've been we're
Speaker 1: gonna do brief brief touches on all of them as well.
Speaker 1: And then there's one of those teams that we're gonna
Speaker 1: be bumping into the contender tier to increase the size
Speaker 1: of that tier up to seven teams. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: be hitting on eleven teams today. Then we're gonna take
Speaker 1: Saturday Sunday off, and then we'll be back Monday to
Speaker 1: get back into our power rankings and back into our
Speaker 1: usual routine as we move forward from there, you guys
Speaker 1: are the job. Before we get started, subscribe to our
Speaker 1: brand new YouTube channel. We mean a lot to me
Speaker 1: if you guys would take a second to scroll down
Speaker 1: and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast
Speaker 1: feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight, follow
Speaker 1: me on Twitter at underscore json lt for video analysis
Speaker 1: as well as showing announcements. And then, last but not least,
Speaker 1: don't forget to keep dropping mailback questions in the YouTube
Speaker 1: comments so we can keep hitting them at the end
Speaker 1: of our shows. All right, let's talk some basketball, all right,
Speaker 1: Before we get to our contenders, I want to take
Speaker 1: a quick look at these five surprises. There are five
Speaker 1: teams this year that I think have exceeded expectations in
Speaker 1: a big way. The Minnesota Twerwolves at eleven and three,
Speaker 1: the Oklahoma City Thunder at eleven and four, the Magic
Speaker 1: at ten and five, the Mavericks at ten and five,
Speaker 1: and then the Sixers after the hard and trade. Having
Speaker 1: them at ten and five, I would say is a
Speaker 1: little bit of surprise this early in the season as well. Now,
Speaker 1: four of those five teams are teams that I talked
Speaker 1: about before the season. I talked about the Timberwolves as
Speaker 1: being a team I expected to be better this year.
Speaker 1: Same for OKC, same for Orlando, same for Dallas. That said,
Speaker 1: even within that context, I think all four of those
Speaker 1: teams are ahead of where I even expected them to
Speaker 1: be at this point. So I want to take brief
Speaker 1: touches on all five of those teams, and then one
Speaker 1: of those teams I'm going to be moving into our
Speaker 1: contender tier, and that team is the first team on
Speaker 1: that list, the Minnesota Timberwolves. So they still have the
Speaker 1: best defense in the league by defensive rating, allowing just
Speaker 1: one hundred and six point two points per one hundred possessions.
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards has cooled off a little bit in terms
Speaker 1: of efficiency from where he was to start the year,
Speaker 1: but that was kind of to be expected because he
Speaker 1: was hitting his shot, his pull jump shot in particular,
Speaker 1: at just a preposterous rate to start the year, and
Speaker 1: so THELF was inevitable. But it hasn't really mattered. They've
Speaker 1: kept winning. Carl Towns has been a huge bright spot
Speaker 1: the you know, Carl Town's was one of the guys
Speaker 1: before the season that I talked about is kind of
Speaker 1: the odd man out because if you look at this
Speaker 1: group as a identity, it's this combination of perimeter defense
Speaker 1: and rim protection rights. It's what Anthony Edwards and Jaden
Speaker 1: McDaniels and Kyle Anderson and Nikhil Alexander Walker and all
Speaker 1: these guys are capable of on the perimeter anchored by
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert at the rim, and when you put Kat
Speaker 1: in there at the for it kind of fundamentally changes
Speaker 1: the overall foot speed of the lineup and what they're
Speaker 1: capable of in rotation and a bunch of different things. Right,
Speaker 1: But it's worked really well for two reasons in my opinion.
Speaker 1: First of all, he's been much needed for them on
Speaker 1: the offensive end, of the floor as a shot creator,
Speaker 1: especially in static situations when the defense is loaded up
Speaker 1: on him. In fact, he's run ninety five post ups
Speaker 1: and ISOs this year, and including passes, that's amounted to
Speaker 1: one hundred and two points, which is very good. Anytime
Speaker 1: you're getting over a point per possession in static half
Speaker 1: court shot creation, that's a legitimate boost to any offense
Speaker 1: when you're trying to break a defense down right. But
Speaker 1: most importantly, his defensive effort, not just on not just
Speaker 1: in like help side situations, but also on the glass
Speaker 1: as well, has been better than where it was in
Speaker 1: recent years. He's been good as a low man, offering
Speaker 1: help at the rim and cleaning up the defensive glasses.
Speaker 1: His deflections are up, his steels are up, his blocks
Speaker 1: are up, his defensive rebounds are up. Like he just
Speaker 1: all in all has been more active on that side
Speaker 1: of the floor. And so when you combine him being
Speaker 1: kind of like a good offensive number two next to
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards with him just being better defensively and on
Speaker 1: the glass than we're accustomed to seeing, it's actually made
Speaker 1: him a very useful part of this team. He's hitting
Speaker 1: fifty seven percent in effective field goal percentage on catch
Speaker 1: and shoot jump shots. He's consistently drawing double teams on
Speaker 1: post ups than the posts where he's been most effective.
Speaker 1: He's been a little bless effective in ISO, but he's
Speaker 1: been pretty good there as well. And you know, that
Speaker 1: kind of thing is just it's still early. I'm really
Speaker 1: curious to see where we're at with the Cat dynamic
Speaker 1: when we get closer to the trade deadline, because I think,
Speaker 1: like all signs still point to him as being like
Speaker 1: the one guy that kind of doesn't necessarily make sense
Speaker 1: within the identity of the team, But if he keeps
Speaker 1: defending like this and he keeps being a productive offensive player,
Speaker 1: I mean, it just makes sense to keep him there
Speaker 1: as that number four next to Ruby Gobert. Right, Jada
Speaker 1: McDaniels has been out with this Grade one ankle spraining.
Speaker 1: We're expecting to see him back within a week or two.
Speaker 1: Nas Reid is still giving them consistent double figure production
Speaker 1: off the bench, and they're starting to force more turnovers.
Speaker 1: If you guys remember at the beginning of the season
Speaker 1: that was my one critique in their defense is that
Speaker 1: with as good as they are on the ball, they
Speaker 1: should be more disruptive than they are, but in recent
Speaker 1: weeks they've been better. Now they're all the way up
Speaker 1: to tenth in opponent turnovers per one hundred possessions. Now
Speaker 1: I am moving the Timberwolves into that top tier of contenders.
Speaker 1: Here's why number one, This defense is real. It's not
Speaker 1: Foogle's goal. This is a real, top tier, championship level defense.
Speaker 1: They are nearly perfect in terms of defensive personnel. They
Speaker 1: don't have point of attack defenders, but they have multiple
Speaker 1: different kinds of point of attack defenders. You could literally
Speaker 1: take Nikhil Alexander Walker, Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, and Kyle
Speaker 1: Anderson and they all kind of slot into a different
Speaker 1: type of position group. Right, Like Anthony Edwards is a
Speaker 1: guard defender, but he also is so damn strong and
Speaker 1: has such a low center of gravity, and as such
Speaker 1: top tier athlete, he can guard bigger wings. We've seen
Speaker 1: him have success on bigger Star wings this year. Right,
Speaker 1: Nikhil Alexander Walker is more of a traditional guard defender,
Speaker 1: a little slider, but he's good navigating screens and has
Speaker 1: tons of length. Then you have Jaden McDaniels, who's your
Speaker 1: stereotypical perimeter wing and then you have Kyle Anderson, who's
Speaker 1: your stereotypical bigger wing, right, and so they kind of
Speaker 1: have a body for everybody, you know. And then even
Speaker 1: when we look in the front court, as you look
Speaker 1: into like athletic front court players, Rudy Gobert is, you know,
Speaker 1: arguably one of the very best options you could have
Speaker 1: in a situation like that when you get into the
Speaker 1: bigger bodies and stuff like we saw in the Nuggets game.
Speaker 1: They've even been able to use Karl Anthony Towns. Essentially
Speaker 1: is that big, you know, that fire hydrant version of
Speaker 1: the post defender that can kind of prevent bullyball plays
Speaker 1: from happening. And when you slot Rudy Gobert behind him
Speaker 1: as a help defender, that can be impactful. So in
Speaker 1: terms of defensive personnel and versatility, I don't think there's
Speaker 1: a team right now that marches out the type of
Speaker 1: personnel that they put out there. And so the defense
Speaker 1: is real that's not going anywhere, and I think that's
Speaker 1: a big indicator of the fact that this team has
Speaker 1: championship potential because they flat out have a championship defense
Speaker 1: and that is not going anywhere on any given night.
Speaker 1: And if you want to beat this team four times
Speaker 1: out of seven, you're going to have to contend with
Speaker 1: what they're capable of on the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: They are also thriving in a very difficult schedule. The
Speaker 1: opponent winning percentage from Minnesota is fifty five percent, that's
Speaker 1: the third highest in the league. And they're seven to
Speaker 1: two versus teams that are five hundred or better, which
Speaker 1: is the best record in the league against teams that
Speaker 1: are five hundred or better. So again, like just in
Speaker 1: terms of what they've accomplished within the scope of this
Speaker 1: regular season so far, they are passing every test along
Speaker 1: the way. And then lastly, the biggest thing that stands
Speaker 1: out to me on film, and this has been for years,
Speaker 1: but it's even more so this year. And when you
Speaker 1: couple that with what this defense is capable of capable of,
Speaker 1: it gets me excited. And that is the simple fact
Speaker 1: that nobody can stop Anthony Edwards from getting to his spots.
Speaker 1: His ability to as an athlete get to spots makes
Speaker 1: it so that defenders have to give him space, which
Speaker 1: is effectively conceding to him high quality pull up jump
Speaker 1: shots that he's been hitting at a high rate in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, right, And so what I imagine is this
Speaker 1: incredible defense that can throw you into your worst tendencies,
Speaker 1: while on the other end of the floor, Anthony Edwards
Speaker 1: is gonna get great looks and it's just a question
Speaker 1: of whether he can make enough pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: or if he can make enough reads when the defense
Speaker 1: loads up on him, and there's still is occasional possessions.
Speaker 1: There's a play. There was a play the other day
Speaker 1: in the Sixers game when they played the Sixers without
Speaker 1: Embiid where he drove down into the lane and tried
Speaker 1: to attack three Sixers in the paint when Shake Milton
Speaker 1: was completely unguarded on the right wing and he missed
Speaker 1: that kickout. And I'm like, Okay, these are little things
Speaker 1: you can do that will make the game easier for you.
Speaker 1: Just make that pass because you're just gonna get the
Speaker 1: ball next possession, and then that dude won't help as
Speaker 1: much and then you'll have more opportunity to work, right,
Speaker 1: And like, even then, though, he's doing better with that
Speaker 1: stuff than he did in years past, and so like,
Speaker 1: I just see all signs pointing to the fact that
Speaker 1: this team is every bit as good even within the
Speaker 1: playoff context as the teams that are in that championship tier,
Speaker 1: and so I think they belong there for the time being.
Speaker 1: The second team on our Surprises list at eleven and
Speaker 1: four is the Oklahoma City Thunder. You're seeing a lot
Speaker 1: of the outstanding, you know, offensive potential of this team
Speaker 1: with all their ball handling, shooting and passing in their
Speaker 1: five out attack right like you're seeing the potential of
Speaker 1: the the potential of the defense anchored by excellent perimeter defenders.
Speaker 1: When you've got lou Doord out there, Jalen Williams and
Speaker 1: Shake Kills of Alexander with all that length and athleticism
Speaker 1: and size on the perimeter, they can cause a lot
Speaker 1: of problem for teams at the point of attack, right
Speaker 1: And then we've even seen that with Keason Wallace as
Speaker 1: an additional perimeter defender off the bench, and so lots
Speaker 1: of exciting stuff there. They're protecting the paint well. Chet
Speaker 1: Holmgren has helped them anchor down a good paint defense,
Speaker 1: which they did not have last year. They are eighth
Speaker 1: in opponents points in the paint per one hundred possessions.
Speaker 1: But the reason why I don't have super high expectations
Speaker 1: for this team in the big picture is they're still
Speaker 1: too small on that front line. They're twenty ninth in
Speaker 1: defensive rebounding, and again I still think that ideally you
Speaker 1: need to have a really big forward slotted next to
Speaker 1: chet Holmgren to physically hold up against some of the bigger,
Speaker 1: stronger teams that you have to contend with at the
Speaker 1: top of both conferences. Now, question is why are they
Speaker 1: still winning despite being twenty ninth and rebounding easy schedule.
Speaker 1: The Thunder have an opponent winning percentage of forty seven
Speaker 1: point nine percent. That is one of the somewhere in
Speaker 1: the bottom ten I can't remember exactly where. And they've
Speaker 1: played eight games against blow five hundred teams and they're
Speaker 1: seven in one of those games. So that's given them
Speaker 1: enough on the in the standing, so to speak. But
Speaker 1: we've seen consistently when they've run into better teams, specifically
Speaker 1: teams with bigger front lines, that they've struggled to contend physically.
Speaker 1: Max is the Dallas Mavericks a ten and five same
Speaker 1: type of thing as the Thunder, Right, Like, you're seeing
Speaker 1: the incredible just how difficult it is to guard this
Speaker 1: team when they spread you out and all their top
Speaker 1: tier ball handling, and they're shooting better than you've expected.
Speaker 1: They're defending a little better than I expected them to
Speaker 1: this year, but they're still too small and and that
Speaker 1: to me, is going to continue to cause problems as
Speaker 1: they play better teams. They played seven teams that are
Speaker 1: five hundred or better at this point. They're just three
Speaker 1: and four in those matchups, and they were down two
Speaker 1: against the Lakers until that Kyrie Irving jumps out. Otherwise
Speaker 1: they'd be two and five against teams that are five
Speaker 1: hundred are better. So a lot to be excited about
Speaker 1: with Dallas. They're better than where I expected them to
Speaker 1: be in the standings at this point. But more or less,
Speaker 1: they're demonstrating what I expected to this point, which is
Speaker 1: they are a lot better than they were last year.
Speaker 1: And they're certainly gonna have a puncher's chance to beat
Speaker 1: anybody in any one series. It's just in order to
Speaker 1: win four of them, to beat great teams four times
Speaker 1: in a row, four out of seven times, I'm a
Speaker 1: little worried about that. Overall personnel shortcoming in the front
Speaker 1: court in terms of size and athleticism, the Dallas, excuse me,
Speaker 1: the Orlando Magic ten to five, coming off a huge
Speaker 1: win over Denver, albeit without Jamal Murray. Their third in defense,
Speaker 1: fifth and offensive rebounding. They're huge, and they're athletic, and
Speaker 1: they're a royal pain in the ass to deal with
Speaker 1: in the regular season because of what they do to
Speaker 1: you at the point of attack, because of their overall
Speaker 1: size on the front line, because of how relentless they
Speaker 1: are attacking the offensive glass, because of how relentless they
Speaker 1: are in transition. They're just a difficult team to deal with.
Speaker 1: A young and big and athletic, right, they just really
Speaker 1: struggle to score in the half court. Only the Detroit Pistons,
Speaker 1: Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Memphis Grizzlies, and Portland Trail Blazers
Speaker 1: have scored worse in the half court according to Cleaning
Speaker 1: the Glass. So that's the big thing holding me back
Speaker 1: from taking them, like really seriously as a contender, right
Speaker 1: but obviously having a ton of success this season. They
Speaker 1: were a team that I expected to go up the
Speaker 1: level this year and to make the playoffs, and it
Speaker 1: looks like they're on track to do so. Pallo in
Speaker 1: his last eleven games twenty two points seven rebounds and
Speaker 1: four assists with two stocks on fifty percent from the
Speaker 1: field and fifty one percent from three, So really encouraging
Speaker 1: play from him as well. The three point shooting in
Speaker 1: particular is exciting because that was one of the big
Speaker 1: knocks on him coming into the draft. Right. And then
Speaker 1: lastly the Philadelphia seventy six Ers again ten and five,
Speaker 1: and the Sixers were, you know, traditionally a good team.
Speaker 1: That said, without James Harden, I think it's a little
Speaker 1: bit of a surprise. Now. Some of it is is
Speaker 1: their schedule has been a little light, and as they've
Speaker 1: gone into a tougher schedule, they've looked a little bit
Speaker 1: more limited, right, Like, they've lost four of their last six.
Speaker 1: They beat the Hawks and Nets in that span, and
Speaker 1: they lost to Indy, Boston, Cleveland and Minnesota, four really
Speaker 1: good teams. Right, So again to me, it's firepower issue. Defensively,
Speaker 1: they've regressed a little bit over the course the last
Speaker 1: couple of weeks, not as good at the point of attack,
Speaker 1: not as good in rotation in particular, But overall, this
Speaker 1: is gonna be something you see consistently throughout this season,
Speaker 1: is they're gonna be one of those teams is we'll
Speaker 1: coach and as good players, but they just lack that
Speaker 1: little bit of extra offensive firepower to be able to
Speaker 1: beat the best of the best. And that's going to
Speaker 1: be something I think we continue to see throughout the season.
Speaker 1: That said, I think a trade, the right trade, could
Speaker 1: go a long way towards propelling them into the contender
Speaker 1: tier at some point during the season. All right, moving
Speaker 1: on to our list of contenders. So again, this is
Speaker 1: going to be very very different than my power rankings.
Speaker 1: Power rankings are very much just within the scope of
Speaker 1: the regular season. This is my list of contenders, ranked
Speaker 1: in order of how likely I think they are just
Speaker 1: to win the championship. So this is strictly within the
Speaker 1: postseason context. And again, as you guys know, I am
Speaker 1: not mister overreact to regular season basketball, never really have been,
Speaker 1: so not a lot of changes. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: we've added one new team, but everyone else is in
Speaker 1: the same order, except or I flipped two teams. And
Speaker 1: so again that's just a good indicator to you guys
Speaker 1: of the fact that, like, even just through fifteen regular
Speaker 1: season games, I'm not ready to redefine completely the way
Speaker 1: that I view some of these teams that said, as
Speaker 1: we go through the list, I'm gonna give brief touches
Speaker 1: on all of them and just talk about how they've
Speaker 1: been playing as of late. All Right, so number seven
Speaker 1: on this list the Golden State Warriors. It's seven and nine.
Speaker 1: So the obvious question is, Jason, the Warriors are below
Speaker 1: five hundred, they've lost seven of their last eight games,
Speaker 1: how in the world would you consider them to be
Speaker 1: a contender. And the answer is really simple. Things have
Speaker 1: gone horribly, horribly wrong and they're seven and nine. So no,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to freak out. Now. I've seen a
Speaker 1: lot of freak out from Warriors fans. A lot of
Speaker 1: people calling for curR to be fired, which is ridiculous,
Speaker 1: He's the second best coach in the NBA. A lot
Speaker 1: of people saying that massive trades need to be made,
Speaker 1: and Klay Thompson should be traded, and Andrew Wigans should
Speaker 1: be traded. Basically everybody that's not Steph Curry should be traded. Right,
Speaker 1: I've just seen all sorts of negativity. Now here are
Speaker 1: four reasons why every single Warriors fan needs to just
Speaker 1: take a deep breath and relax. Number One, Steph hurt
Speaker 1: his knee and missed two games, and they were both losses.
Speaker 1: So they're actually seven and seven when their best player plays.
Speaker 1: Number two, Draymond Green, has barely played. The Warriors have
Speaker 1: played seven hundred and seventy three minutes this year. Draymond
Speaker 1: has only played two hundred, and he's your defensive anchor.
Speaker 1: He's probably your second or third best player, depending on
Speaker 1: who you ask. With how poorly Wiggins has been playing,
Speaker 1: he's probably your second best player. Right, So your second
Speaker 1: or third best player overall has missed basically three fourths
Speaker 1: of the season. That's a huge punch to the gut.
Speaker 1: Right third, Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins will both play
Speaker 1: much much better over the course of the season. Through
Speaker 1: thirteen games, So, going into the Oklahoma City game, through
Speaker 1: thirteen games, neither one of them had logged a single
Speaker 1: twenty point game. I saw that stat the other day
Speaker 1: and I was completely mind blown. But in their last
Speaker 1: three games they've done it three times. So Klay Thompson
Speaker 1: is back to back twenty point games. They're clearly trending
Speaker 1: in the right direction. And then, lastly, this schedule will
Speaker 1: get a lot easier. The Warriors' opponents so far this
Speaker 1: season have won fifty seven percent of their games, which
Speaker 1: is by far the highest market in the league. They've played,
Speaker 1: by far the hardest schedule. They've played one below five
Speaker 1: hundred team all season. It was the Detroit Pistons and
Speaker 1: they beat him. So again. Steph missed two games, so
Speaker 1: that's two losses. Draymond Green's missed three fourths of the season.
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson and Injrew Wiggins have played like crap. And
Speaker 1: you've played an impossible schedule and you're still seven to nine.
Speaker 1: So everybody just relax and take a deep breath. What
Speaker 1: if I always said about good and bad stretches in
Speaker 1: the NBA. Good stretches typically are a confluence of getting
Speaker 1: your guys healthy and playing a lighter schedule. Whenever you
Speaker 1: win eight, nine, ten games in a row, that's what happens.
Speaker 1: Nobody just goes on the road and beats the Cells
Speaker 1: and beats the Bucks, and then beats the Sixers and
Speaker 1: then beat like No one just rips off winning streaks
Speaker 1: against all the best teams in the league. No one does.
Speaker 1: Doesn't happen. Win streaks are almost always lighter schedule, good health, luck.
Speaker 1: Bad stretches like when you lose seven out of eight,
Speaker 1: they're usually bad health, luck, tough schedule, and Steph miss
Speaker 1: time and Draymond's been missing time, and you've played really
Speaker 1: tough games, and some other guys aren't playing well. They
Speaker 1: lost some games. As a matter of fact, ESPN's RPI,
Speaker 1: which is basically just like the standings ranked based on
Speaker 1: strength of schedule, has them at ninth right now. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be making any giant, sweeping declarations or
Speaker 1: significant calls about the Warriors and what they're capable of
Speaker 1: in the big picture after this fifteen games or sixteen games,
Speaker 1: Like maybe in the long run, maybe we can have
Speaker 1: another conversation at the deadline, But this is the wrong time.
Speaker 1: Now is the absolute worst time to make serious decisions
Speaker 1: about the Warriors future, because Draymond will come back from
Speaker 1: his suspension, and Klay Thompson will play better, and Andrew Wiggins
Speaker 1: will play better, and they will face a normal schedule.
Speaker 1: I think they have the second easiest remaining schedule in
Speaker 1: the NBA, So like I would imagine they're gonna rip
Speaker 1: off some wins soon and then maybe we'll see how
Speaker 1: things go. Now, again, what did I say before the season.
Speaker 1: My biggest concern with the Warriors was offensive firepower outside
Speaker 1: of Steph. Have we seen anything this year that makes
Speaker 1: us think that they fix that problem. No, So that's
Speaker 1: why I have him down to seven. And that's why
Speaker 1: I'm not more optimistic about the team than I was
Speaker 1: to start the year. We need to see key offensive
Speaker 1: players start to play better, but there's just no reason
Speaker 1: to remove them from this tier over really bad evidence.
Speaker 1: Just evident, Like you know what I've learned about the
Speaker 1: Nuggets over the course in the last few weeks, that
Speaker 1: they can't win the title without Jamal Murray. That's not
Speaker 1: a sweeping declaration. That's not some sort of huge surprise.
Speaker 1: I've learned about the Warriors that they can be pretty
Speaker 1: bad when they play a bunch of good teams in
Speaker 1: a row without their second or third best player and
Speaker 1: with a bunch of their key guys not playing well,
Speaker 1: it doesn't reveal anything. And so that's why I still
Speaker 1: have them in my contender tier for right now. Number
Speaker 1: six Minnesota Timberwolves. We already discussed the main reason why
Speaker 1: I have them this low is their half court offense.
Speaker 1: Eighteenth and a half court offense, and you know, a
Speaker 1: championship run from this team would basically require Anthony Edwards
Speaker 1: to have an all time great playoff run, which is
Speaker 1: certainly on the table. But there are better likely i
Speaker 1: should say more likely things to happen higher up on
Speaker 1: the list, which is why I have them down at
Speaker 1: number six, but in the contender tier where I didn't
Speaker 1: have them to start the year. Number five the Phoenix Suns.
Speaker 1: The start has not been super encouraging in my opinion
Speaker 1: nine and six. They are seventh in offense, but they've
Speaker 1: played the second easiest schedule in the NBA so far.
Speaker 1: Sun's opponents have just a forty four percent winning percentage,
Speaker 1: just one win in five tries against teams that are
Speaker 1: five hundred or better, and their defense is tailing off.
Speaker 1: Their twenty seventh in their last five games and they've
Speaker 1: dropped to twentieth for the season, and then also for
Speaker 1: the season, they're twenty sixth in defensive rebounding, so a
Speaker 1: lot of concerns on that front, right, But once again,
Speaker 1: not a lot of this is relevant to the potential
Speaker 1: playoff sealing of this team. Their big three is yet
Speaker 1: to play a single minute together. Bradley Beal had an
Speaker 1: aggravation of his back injury, it repairs to be potentially
Speaker 1: even getting worse. So but they shout him down for
Speaker 1: like three weeks. My guess is they're gonna take a
Speaker 1: sweet time getting back, which is smart. Devin Booker and
Speaker 1: KD have shared the floor for just five of their
Speaker 1: fifteen games and just one hundred and eight minutes out
Speaker 1: of the seven hundred and thirty five minutes the Sons
Speaker 1: have played. And in those minutes, they're killing people. They're
Speaker 1: outscoring teams by twenty one point four points per one
Speaker 1: hundred possessions. The defense is okay and the offense is
Speaker 1: off the charts good. Those two are scoring together one
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty four points per one hundred possessions as
Speaker 1: a team. That's so like, I'm not again with this
Speaker 1: particular team. Once again, we have to think within the
Speaker 1: big picture of what this team is gonna look like
Speaker 1: in May. And in May, they very well could possibly
Speaker 1: have Bradley Beal, Devin Booker and Kevin Durant on the
Speaker 1: floor together, which has demonstrated to be a different beast
Speaker 1: than some of the stuff that we've seen in recent weeks. Right,
Speaker 1: So don't overreact to that. Eric Gordon has been really
Speaker 1: good for them, and likely in all likelihood, I think
Speaker 1: he's going to be like your fifth guy alongside the
Speaker 1: big three in Nurkic. That's been kind of the question
Speaker 1: early in the season, who's going to be that fifth guy.
Speaker 1: Eric Gordon's giving them reliable spot up shooting, reliable production,
Speaker 1: and he's a better defensive option and more virtatle defensive
Speaker 1: option with his ability to switch on to bigger players
Speaker 1: than some of the other guys they have in that lineup.
Speaker 1: So right now, I think in the big picture, there's
Speaker 1: still a lot of potential there, but I haven't seen
Speaker 1: anything that that would push me to believe that they
Speaker 1: should be higher on this list based simply on the
Speaker 1: fact that they're not rebounding and they're not defending as
Speaker 1: well as they need to win at this point in
Speaker 1: the season. Now, again, we saw at the start of
Speaker 1: the season they did defend it at a much higher
Speaker 1: level that to me as an indicator of what this
Speaker 1: team is capable of. Right Also, that Minnesota game in particular,
Speaker 1: they did an excellent job defensively in that game. They
Speaker 1: took an elite defense in Minnesota and spaced them out
Speaker 1: and got a lot of easy shots. They looked pretty
Speaker 1: unguardable on offense in that game, so a lot there
Speaker 1: are enough indicators kind of mixed in in that nine
Speaker 1: and six stretch, despite the week schedule, despite the struggles
Speaker 1: against good teams for me to especially given the return
Speaker 1: of Bradley Beal in the long run and how good
Speaker 1: the team has been with KD and Devin Booker, to
Speaker 1: not write this team off and so again you're not
Speaker 1: gonna get overreactions out of me from regular season basketball.
Speaker 1: I still have them as a top five contender at
Speaker 1: this point in the season. Number four. The Los Angeles
Speaker 1: Lakers still have them at four. They had a disappointing
Speaker 1: loss to Dallas the other night on the tail end
Speaker 1: of a back to back. Also their third game in
Speaker 1: four nights played a significant role in my opinion. They're
Speaker 1: also missing their two best point of attack defenders for
Speaker 1: that game. If you're gonna play Dallas, you really want
Speaker 1: your point of attack defenders, and Jared Vanderbilt and Cam Reddish,
Speaker 1: who have been the two best point of attack defenders
Speaker 1: for the Lakers to start the season, miss the game.
Speaker 1: So obviously tough handed cards, but they still had a
Speaker 1: chance late and ended up losing on that Kyrie Irving
Speaker 1: game winner, but they are playing some solid basketball, like
Speaker 1: the Lakers have won six of their last eight games.
Speaker 1: Some similarities to what I was talking about in terms
Speaker 1: of good and bad basketball, like ruiy Hachimura coming back
Speaker 1: really helped Anthony Davis missed some time he came back.
Speaker 1: They're playing some easier opponents in this stretch whilst the
Speaker 1: wins start coming right. So again, that's kind of the
Speaker 1: natural pathway of the regular season that we need to
Speaker 1: get used to. They are third in defensive rating and
Speaker 1: sixth in net rating over their last eight games, have
Speaker 1: a couple of quality wins in there as well, against
Speaker 1: Phoenix and against Houston. They are up to nine and
Speaker 1: seven for the season. They are up to ninth in
Speaker 1: defensive rating for the season, which I think is encouraging,
Speaker 1: and when you consider how poor the point of attack
Speaker 1: defense has been with Jared Vanderbilt being out, for them
Speaker 1: to be at ninth and defensive rating is super super encouraging.
Speaker 1: They are slowly but surely making progress in a bunch
Speaker 1: of key areas, but they still have a long way
Speaker 1: to go. They've played a pretty tough schedule, but they
Speaker 1: haven't fared well against the bad teams. Eleven of their
Speaker 1: sixteen games against have been against teams that are five
Speaker 1: hundred or better, but they're just four and seven in
Speaker 1: those games. And it's been a pretty consistent theme, like
Speaker 1: what you saw in that Dallas game, with exception of
Speaker 1: the Houston game, which was the one time where like
Speaker 1: from start to finish, they looked competitive in a game
Speaker 1: against a good team. Outside of that, it's been the
Speaker 1: same thing. They come out and get slacked for three quarters,
Speaker 1: and they look up and they're down like fifteen to
Speaker 1: twenty points, and then they either lose by twenty like
Speaker 1: they did against Orlando or against Sacramento, or they have
Speaker 1: this hillacious effort in the late third fourth quarter to
Speaker 1: come back and make it a really close game. And
Speaker 1: they've won a lot of those games, like most of
Speaker 1: their wins have looked like that. But you know, like
Speaker 1: that Dallas game, sometimes it goes the other way. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they fight all the way back and they lose, like
Speaker 1: they did to Dallas. Sometimes they fight all the way
Speaker 1: back and they lose like they did to the Kings
Speaker 1: earlier in the season. And so that's been kind of
Speaker 1: their mo at this point is whenever they play a
Speaker 1: good team, they come out laxa daisical, they come out
Speaker 1: low energy, they don't play with a lot of force.
Speaker 1: They find themselves down big, and then they just lock
Speaker 1: in and play this crazy, frightening defense, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, it's like, holy shit, Lebron James and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis with with their perimeter players playing hard is actually
Speaker 1: kind of a pain in the ass to deal with,
Speaker 1: and they start to have some success. But I think
Speaker 1: I think it's a bad trend for this Lakers team
Speaker 1: that they're not taking the beginnings of games particularly seriously.
Speaker 1: This has been again we're not talking like two or
Speaker 1: three times, like we've had almost ten games this year
Speaker 1: where the Lakers have played bizarre basketball for two or
Speaker 1: three quarters and then suddenly they lock in in the
Speaker 1: second half and next thing you know, you're playing a
Speaker 1: tight game in crunch time. And so that's been kind
Speaker 1: of the identity of the team here. Early they're giving
Speaker 1: up a lot of wide open threes. Be part of
Speaker 1: that as their point of attack defense, they're losing shooters
Speaker 1: off ball. It's a big example of that at the
Speaker 1: end of the Dallas game when Austin Reeves so to
Speaker 1: his credit, owned it after the game, but dug down
Speaker 1: on Luca when when Torre and Prince had him kind
Speaker 1: of sort of contained and gave up a wide open
Speaker 1: catch and shoot three to Kyrie Irving. That's been an issue,
Speaker 1: but Jared Vanderbilt coming back should help. Cam Reddish has
Speaker 1: been pretty solid as a point of attach defender. Hopefully
Speaker 1: he's growing injury doesn't keep him out too long. The
Speaker 1: rebounding is improving. They are seventy two percent in defensive
Speaker 1: rebounding percentage over their last eight games, which ranks twelfth
Speaker 1: in the NBA. And again, the one thing that makes
Speaker 1: me super optimistic about this team compared to last year
Speaker 1: is Lebron James just looks incredible. And it's not about
Speaker 1: the statistics, because I know the statistics are not, you know,
Speaker 1: incredibly stand out statistics compared to what we've seen in
Speaker 1: recent years. But I think this version of Lebron James
Speaker 1: is better than any version of Lebron we saw in
Speaker 1: each of the last two seasons in terms of overall
Speaker 1: winning impact. His command of the game has just at
Speaker 1: a much much higher level than it was in the
Speaker 1: last couple of years. I think that that's incredibly encouraging
Speaker 1: for this team's potential playoff ceiling. And the stats have
Speaker 1: been pretty impressive last thirteen games. Twenty seven points, eight rebounds,
Speaker 1: and seven assists for Lebron in thirteen games on fifty
Speaker 1: eight percent of the from the field and forty four
Speaker 1: percent from the three point line. That's incredible. He's been
Speaker 1: especially great in clutch situations. He made a bad read
Speaker 1: at the end of that MAVs game that Lobb to ad.
Speaker 1: Had he thrown it a little bit higher, he might
Speaker 1: have had a chance, but a higher percentage played. In
Speaker 1: my opinion, is that right shoulder fade that I keep
Speaker 1: begging him to take. He had Kyrie Irving. It's a
Speaker 1: size mismatch, he had space. Take that little right shoulder fade.
Speaker 1: That's a shot that you can make. You've been shooting
Speaker 1: jump shots really well this season, So again, that was
Speaker 1: not his best decision. But for the most part this season,
Speaker 1: he's been incredible in the clutch. He was incredible in
Speaker 1: the clutch before that play. So, like, I don't think
Speaker 1: it's much worth overreacting to, and I think in general,
Speaker 1: second guessing Lebron's crunch time decision making is just stupid.
Speaker 1: He still has the most clutch field goals made in
Speaker 1: the league with fifteen, shooting sixty five percent from the
Speaker 1: field in clutch situations, which is outrageous. His jump shot
Speaker 1: in general this season is awesome. He's been one of
Speaker 1: the best jump shooters in the league. To start this year.
Speaker 1: A Lebron James jump shot has been worth one point
Speaker 1: one point eight points per shot. Out of fifty nine
Speaker 1: players in the NBA to attempt at least a hundred
Speaker 1: jump shots, that ranks fifth. So Lebron's jump shot and
Speaker 1: how good he's been in crunch time and just how
Speaker 1: good he's been in general is a huge encouraging note.
Speaker 1: Because a lot of this other stuff is fixable. Jared
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt will come back. This team is positioned to be
Speaker 1: able to make a trade to upgrade their point of
Speaker 1: attack defense. Anthony Davis is playing like shit on the
Speaker 1: offensive end of the floor since his injury, so like
Speaker 1: a lot of other stuff is gonna erectify itself. Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis thing is clearly still being bothered by his hip injury.
Speaker 1: Before the injury, he scored twenty six points or more
Speaker 1: in five consecutive games. Since the injury, he failed to
Speaker 1: score at least twenty six points in six of the
Speaker 1: nine games, so clearly is dealing with that. Kind of
Speaker 1: looked like he was coming out of it there. He
Speaker 1: had twenty seven against Houston, in the twenty six against Utah,
Speaker 1: but then third game in four nights dealing with an injury.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have a bad night in there. Ten points
Speaker 1: against Dallas, right, One thing with him just ten for
Speaker 1: thirty seven on jump shots this year at zero points
Speaker 1: six to two points per jump shot. Out of the
Speaker 1: two hundred and seventeen players in the NBA to log
Speaker 1: at least thirty five jump shots, he ranks two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifteenth. Only A sar Thompson and Theo Maladan are
Speaker 1: behind him. So that obviously is concerning because he's getting
Speaker 1: a lot of these like and he got a couple
Speaker 1: of them late against Dallas. He's like easy pocket passes
Speaker 1: for these like twelve foot jump shots and he just
Speaker 1: can't make them, and he has to make that shot.
Speaker 1: It's just so important for your roleman to be a
Speaker 1: threat there in the middle of the floor in order
Speaker 1: for anything to work and pick and roll, and he
Speaker 1: just hasn't been doing his part there. So Hopefully he'll
Speaker 1: get it together, but I think the Lakers will continue
Speaker 1: to improve over the course of the coming month. Number
Speaker 1: three the Milwaukee Bucks. This is my one big switch
Speaker 1: on this list, besides moving to the Timberwolves on board.
Speaker 1: I have the Bucks at third in the Celtics at second,
Speaker 1: and I'll explain why in a minute. A big picture
Speaker 1: for Milwaukee ten and five, fifth in offense, twenty second
Speaker 1: in defense, eighth in defensive rebounding, four and four against
Speaker 1: teams that are five hundred are better. Nothing that's insanely
Speaker 1: concerning there. Obviously, the defense has to get better, but
Speaker 1: we have a feeling they will. Right really not a
Speaker 1: bad place to be considering the newness of the roster construction.
Speaker 1: Right Like, Dame has started to play a little better,
Speaker 1: but he still hasn't quite figured out where he fits
Speaker 1: in offensively with his team. Still isn't hitting his pull
Speaker 1: up jump shot at the rate that he did last year.
Speaker 1: I still think they need to upgrade the two spot.
Speaker 1: Molik Beasley's been shooting the shit out of the basketball,
Speaker 1: shooting way better than he did in a Laker jersey.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I think defensively and from
Speaker 1: an athleticism standpoint, you need something a little bit more
Speaker 1: in that position, and he's better coming off the bench.
Speaker 1: Giannis has been better from the perimeter. That's exciting is
Speaker 1: four for twelve on catch and shoot threes this year.
Speaker 1: That's a point per shot, so if that's exciting. In general,
Speaker 1: he's been better outside of the restricted area. He shot
Speaker 1: nineteen hooks this year. That's already more than half as
Speaker 1: many as he took all year last year. He took
Speaker 1: thirty seven all year last year. Now he was only
Speaker 1: eight for nineteen, which is just forty two percent. But
Speaker 1: if he can just get that up to fifty percent
Speaker 1: and keep leaning on that shot a little more frequently,
Speaker 1: I think that's going to be a huge weapon for
Speaker 1: him in the playoffs. Bobby Portis has been playing really
Speaker 1: well over this recent stretch. He's giving him like a
Speaker 1: what I think about fourteen and eight a game coming
Speaker 1: off the bench, but dropping them behind Boston. And here's why.
Speaker 1: They simply have way more that needs to go right
Speaker 1: in order for them to get out of the Eastern
Speaker 1: Conference in my opinion, right like Dame has to consistently
Speaker 1: get back to where he was last year, and he
Speaker 1: just hasn't been even in this five and one stretch.
Speaker 1: Twenty five points per game on forty percent from the
Speaker 1: field in thirty six percent from three. That's good, but
Speaker 1: that's not Dame, right. Chris Middleton, his knee has to
Speaker 1: hold up long enough for him to get into a groove.
Speaker 1: They're limiting his minutes a lot, but that the high
Speaker 1: firepower that we saw from Chris Middleton in the playoffs
Speaker 1: just isn't there. He hasn't had a single twenty point
Speaker 1: game yet this season. They need to anchor their perimeter
Speaker 1: defense with an upgrade at the two spots. So that
Speaker 1: has to get That has to be a hit at
Speaker 1: some point, and they straight up cannot afford an injury
Speaker 1: to any of their core players. Like if Dame or
Speaker 1: Chris or Giannis or go down, they're so weak in
Speaker 1: those position groups that they're basically screwed. That's just not
Speaker 1: the case with Boston. Like, first of all, for the
Speaker 1: Dame thing, Jason Tatum's been so good this season that
Speaker 1: I'm not even sure there's as much of a gap
Speaker 1: as we're used to seeing in a playoff series. In
Speaker 1: overall superstar play between Jason Tatum and whoever the other
Speaker 1: guy is that gap has been shrinking every year and
Speaker 1: it very well might be non existent at this point, right, So,
Speaker 1: like that's part of it. They don't need to make
Speaker 1: a trade to anchor any sort of position group. They
Speaker 1: can afford an injury basically to anybody, but Jason Tatum, Like,
Speaker 1: if they lose one of the guards, they're still a
Speaker 1: championship contender. If they lose Porzingis, there's still a championship contender.
Speaker 1: If they lose Horford, there's still a championship contender. They
Speaker 1: lose Brown, they're still a championship contender. It's they have
Speaker 1: so much more margin for error. They're a little thin
Speaker 1: on the front line, but you still would need to
Speaker 1: see both of those guys to get get hurt for
Speaker 1: them to be in any real trouble. Right, So, like
Speaker 1: they're just in they're just in a better spot. And
Speaker 1: beyond all of that, they're just flat out playing better
Speaker 1: basketball right now than Milwaukee. And so to me, like,
Speaker 1: and look, we're gonna reevaluate this over the course of
Speaker 1: the season, and we'll see how we feel when we
Speaker 1: get to the playoffs. But at this point, doesn't Boston
Speaker 1: just feel like it's safer bet even if we all
Speaker 1: agree that if all those things go well, if Chris
Speaker 1: Middleton gets back to twenty twenty one form, if Damian
Speaker 1: Lillard gets back to last year's form, if they anchor
Speaker 1: that two guard spot, if they stay healthy throughout the season,
Speaker 1: and they were going into a series against Boston, like,
Speaker 1: do I think they could beat Boston? Absolutely might even
Speaker 1: pick them, But the odds of all that stuff going right,
Speaker 1: it just is a longer shot than Boston's version of
Speaker 1: that story right, And so for me, I just think,
Speaker 1: like again, we'll make a call when we get closer,
Speaker 1: But for right now, I've seen enough to within my
Speaker 1: contender tier move Boston past Milwaukee for the time being.
Speaker 1: Boston twelve and three, despite playing the fifth toughest schedule
Speaker 1: in the league so far, There's sixth and offense second
Speaker 1: in defense. They got revenge on the Sixers last week.
Speaker 1: They beat up the Bucks the other night. I watched
Speaker 1: that game this morning. They look very clearly like the
Speaker 1: best team in the Eastern Conference. They beat They beat
Speaker 1: Milwaukee in the way that I expected them to beat Milwaukee, right,
Speaker 1: Like Drew Holliday and Derek White just hounding Damian Lillard
Speaker 1: all over the floor, forcing him into extremely difficult shots.
Speaker 1: Like again, Dame can make difficult shots, but what makes
Speaker 1: him Dame is he can also generate a lot of
Speaker 1: really easy ones and hit those at a high rate.
Speaker 1: And Boston's got the point of attack defense to really,
Speaker 1: really really make Dame work right, And that goes a
Speaker 1: long way. You saw on the other end of the
Speaker 1: floor of their ability to just space out Milwaukee and
Speaker 1: you know, punish. Porzingis had a big game in this
Speaker 1: particular game. Every single time Jannis or Brook Lopez or
Speaker 1: or Bobby Portis would help off of Chris Tops Porzingis,
Speaker 1: he's open at the three point line. It's not just
Speaker 1: shooting he's making he's making shots that made a big
Speaker 1: one in the fourth quarter, but it's also driving those
Speaker 1: closeouts and getting into the lane and knocking down shots
Speaker 1: like that. Porzingis piece just goes a long way towards
Speaker 1: their ability to really space the Bucks out. Tatum was
Speaker 1: matchup hunting the smaller Milwaukee guards and having success. And
Speaker 1: I even thought Tatum held up pretty well guarding Giannis
Speaker 1: on a couple of specific possessions. He's just a lot
Speaker 1: bigger and stronger than he used to be. And he
Speaker 1: can actually hold up physically up against Giannis in a
Speaker 1: better way than he used to be able to. Right now,
Speaker 1: still some of the same stuff, right, Like in that
Speaker 1: late first quarter run where Milwaukee kind of made it
Speaker 1: a game. You see, it's like Derek White and Drew
Speaker 1: Holliday take like three transition threes and six possessions, and
Speaker 1: you're like why, Like why? You know, that's the curse
Speaker 1: with the Celtics team is they're so damn good that
Speaker 1: they sometimes settle for shots that are not great shots.
Speaker 1: You know, Doris Burke, I thought in the broadcast, did
Speaker 1: a really nice job explaining the difference between a good
Speaker 1: shot and a great shot. Right, I'll give you an example.
Speaker 1: Like I play pick up basketball at Tucson, Arizona. There's
Speaker 1: a good amount of talent here, but it's not like
Speaker 1: as talented as when I lived in Phoenix or in Charlotte, Right,
Speaker 1: and so like, I'm big and more athletic than most
Speaker 1: of the players I go against. Right, and so like,
Speaker 1: I can dribble up the floor and shoot a pull
Speaker 1: up three every time I want, and I could probably
Speaker 1: hit it at a decent percentage because I can get
Speaker 1: good separation. But like, does that mean that's what I
Speaker 1: should do every time? Probably not. I'ld probably use that
Speaker 1: as a fallback, right, Like I should probably hunt easier
Speaker 1: shots along the way and then use that as kind
Speaker 1: of a counter, right. And the Celtics have a tendency
Speaker 1: to fall victim to their own talent in a lot
Speaker 1: of different ways, where like they're so much better down
Speaker 1: the roster than other teams that like, you've got guys
Speaker 1: that are dribbling up the floor and it's like, man,
Speaker 1: he's kind of backpedaling on me. And I have a
Speaker 1: decent look here, and I practice this shot, I can
Speaker 1: hit this and it'll be Derek White rising up into
Speaker 1: a pull up three. And it's like Boston's at their
Speaker 1: best when they drive and kick for fantastic shots, for
Speaker 1: wide open catch and shoot threes in for layups, and
Speaker 1: again like those the tough shot making piece that's a
Speaker 1: ceiling razor, but it should never be your foundation. And
Speaker 1: so there's a little bit of that stuff there, but
Speaker 1: overall it's just their marching for error is so massive
Speaker 1: as a virtue of their big talent advantage that they
Speaker 1: have and their overall depth and ability to build functional
Speaker 1: basketball lineups. Even when core players are out of the lineup,
Speaker 1: like they're just they're just really freaking good, for lack
Speaker 1: of a better term, And I think at this point
Speaker 1: they're very clearly the best team in the Eastern Conference. Again,
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum playing like a bona fide superstar goes such
Speaker 1: a long way towards alleviating some of the other concerns
Speaker 1: surrounding that team and all of the you know takes
Speaker 1: that we had this summer about half court shot creation
Speaker 1: and whether or not Dame could push the team over
Speaker 1: the top against Boston. It's like, none of that really
Speaker 1: matters if Jason Tatum becomes that guy, and I'm still
Speaker 1: seeing a ton from him that is super encouraging on
Speaker 1: that front. And we LA's not at least the Denver
Speaker 1: Nuggets ten and five, ninth in offense, tenth in defense,
Speaker 1: still so still defending at a high level. Just four
Speaker 1: and four since the Jamal Murray injury. Reggie Jackson's done
Speaker 1: an okay job filling in for him fourteen points per game,
Speaker 1: forty eight percent from the field, thirty seven percent from three.
Speaker 1: Jokic has been missing his three point shot, a big
Speaker 1: one He's taken high volumes, taking over five of them
Speaker 1: a game over this span. That's been a big way
Speaker 1: that he's been trying to bolster the scoring without Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray in the lineup. But yeah, I remember he's hitting
Speaker 1: him close to fifty percent in the playoffs and he's
Speaker 1: been hitting about a fourth of them in this span,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of a long way towards kind of
Speaker 1: limiting their offensive potential without Jamal Murray in there. But
Speaker 1: what does this recent stretch tell us Nothing, really doesn't
Speaker 1: really tell us anything. They can't win without Jamal Murray,
Speaker 1: like a championship, of course not. There's not a team
Speaker 1: in this league that can lose their second best player
Speaker 1: and win the championship, except for maybe the Boston Celtics.
Speaker 1: And it's because they've got six guys that are really,
Speaker 1: really really good, right, So, Like, I don't really think
Speaker 1: that says much. And in the big picture, their core
Speaker 1: five players still look every bit is good, if not
Speaker 1: better than they did last year. Christian Brown has been
Speaker 1: awesome and has provided a lot of that like athletic
Speaker 1: force that Bruce Brown did last year. Their bench sucks,
Speaker 1: but it did last year too, Like they're getting outscored
Speaker 1: by fourteen points per one hundre possessions without Nicole Yocic
Speaker 1: on the floor this year. They got outscored by twelve
Speaker 1: points per one hundred possession Withoutyokic last year. So it's
Speaker 1: not really that much of a difference, right, And like again,
Speaker 1: this has been a long road trip on the road
Speaker 1: in Houston without Jamal Murray. That's a tough game to win.
Speaker 1: And they lost it on the road in New Orleans
Speaker 1: without Jamal Murray. That's a tough game to win. And
Speaker 1: they lost it on the road in Cleveland without Jamal Murray.
Speaker 1: That's a tough game to win. And they lost it
Speaker 1: on the road in Orlando without Jamal Murray. That's a
Speaker 1: tough game to win. And they lost it tonight. They're
Speaker 1: on the road in Houston again without Jamal Murray. That's
Speaker 1: a tough game. They might lose it. That doesn't again
Speaker 1: take his deep breath, zoom out core players missing tough
Speaker 1: stretch of the schedule, probably gonna drop some games, and
Speaker 1: that's what they're doing. And even then, they've been five
Speaker 1: hundred over this spin. So I haven't seen anything to
Speaker 1: persuade me that Denver is no longer the top tier
Speaker 1: I should even say just championship favorite that they were
Speaker 1: to start the season. All right, guys, that is all
Speaker 1: I have for today. As always, I appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: for supporting the show. We're gonna take the rest of
Speaker 1: the weekend off and we'll be back Monday with power rankings,
Speaker 1: and then we're gonna do ins and reactions and deep
Speaker 1: dives of teams as we go throughout the week. As always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys, and we'll see you then. M
Speaker 1: the volume m HM.