Speaker 1: The volume. Who's scoring big in the NBA this season?
Speaker 1: You are with all the new ways to get in
Speaker 1: on the action at Draft Kings sports Book, an official
Speaker 1: sports betting partner of the NBA. From Monster Slams to
Speaker 1: dishing the rock to cleaning the glass, get behind your
Speaker 1: favorite players and the prop bets you can make on DraftKings,
Speaker 1: the home of NBA player props. Ready to place your
Speaker 1: first bet? Try betting on something simple like picking how
Speaker 1: many points your favorite player will have. Go to the
Speaker 1: Draft Kings Sportsbook app and make your pick right now.
Speaker 1: The Oklahoma City Thunder have supplanted the Boston Celtics as
Speaker 1: the favorites to win the title on DraftKings at plus
Speaker 1: two to twenty five, with the Celtics right behind them
Speaker 1: at plus two thirty five. First time, here's something special
Speaker 1: just for you new DraftKings customers. Bet five dollars to
Speaker 1: get one hundred and fifteen bonus bets instantly take it
Speaker 1: to the rack with DraftKings sports Book, Every point counts.
Speaker 1: Download the Draft Kings sports Book app and use code
Speaker 1: hoops that's hoops, that's code hoops for new customers to
Speaker 1: get one to fifteen bonus bets when you bet just
Speaker 1: five bucks only on DraftKings. The Crown is yours. Gambling
Speaker 1: problem called one eight hundred gambler and New York call
Speaker 1: eight seven seven eight hope and why our text hope
Speaker 1: and why to four six seven three six nine. Connecticut
Speaker 1: help is available for problem gambling called eight eight eight
Speaker 1: seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG
Speaker 1: dot org. Please play responsibily on behalf of Boothill Casino
Speaker 1: and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus. Age in eligibility
Speaker 1: varies by jurisdiction, void and Ontario. Bonus bets expire one
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms
Speaker 1: and responsible gaming resources, see dkang dot co slash b ball.
Speaker 1: All right, well Coon doobes tonight you're at the volume.
Speaker 1: Happy onesday, everybody, hope all you guys are having a
Speaker 1: great week. On a jampacks show for you. Today, we're
Speaker 1: hitting three games from last night, as Luka Doncic gets
Speaker 1: some revenge on the Dallas Mavericks in the interesting game
Speaker 1: that showcase two very good switching defenses. After that, an
Speaker 1: absolute crazy game between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Phoenix
Speaker 1: Suns as Jammer with a couple of brilliant stretches of
Speaker 1: basketball basically steals victory from the jaws of defeat. There,
Speaker 1: I want to talk a little bit about John Morant
Speaker 1: and just how important he is to the foundation that
Speaker 1: Memphis is trying to build. Then, at the tail end
Speaker 1: of the show, I guess I lie, it's not a
Speaker 1: game from last night. At the tail end of the show,
Speaker 1: we're gonna do a deep dive on the Detroit Pistons.
Speaker 1: You've got to win over the Los Angeles Clippers on
Speaker 1: Monday night for their seventh win in a row. I
Speaker 1: want to talk about how they've been succeeding on both
Speaker 1: ends of the floor. You guys are the job. Before
Speaker 1: we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops to not YouTube channels.
Speaker 1: You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
Speaker 1: on Twitter at underscore JSNLTS. You guys don't miss show announcements.
Speaker 1: Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your
Speaker 1: podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if
Speaker 1: you leave a rating and a review on that front.
Speaker 1: Then don't forget about our new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram,
Speaker 1: and Facebook. We're We're releasing content throughout the year, and
Speaker 1: the last but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions
Speaker 1: and the YouTube comments. We can get to them in
Speaker 1: our mail bags throughout the remainder of the season. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So MAVs Lakers was a game
Speaker 1: that I was really interested in watching on the Lakers
Speaker 1: front because in the Hornets game, and in the or
Speaker 1: the Blazers game, the Hornets game and in the Jazz game,
Speaker 1: the the Lakers ran into a lot of switching. The
Speaker 1: Jazz switch everything. The Blazers with Robert Williams, are willing
Speaker 1: to do more switching in those types of situations. It
Speaker 1: gets rid of that dynamic we talked about in the
Speaker 1: Denver Nuggets video, which was when you bring up Yo
Speaker 1: kicch to the ball every single time, there's like easy
Speaker 1: reads for Luca to make in terms of am I
Speaker 1: hitting the lob threat, the roller down the middle of
Speaker 1: the laner, am I hitting the skip pass to the
Speaker 1: weak side corner. It's more of a simplified process, whereas,
Speaker 1: again switching, it becomes so much more about like picking
Speaker 1: on mismatches and handling double teams, which are a different
Speaker 1: spacing principle than a trapped pick and roll right, and
Speaker 1: so in these types of situations, it's a very different
Speaker 1: style of offense to go up against a team like this. Now,
Speaker 1: Dallas will run a lot of drop coverage when their
Speaker 1: bigs are healthy, but in this situation with Derek Lively hurt,
Speaker 1: with Daniel Gafford hurt, with Anthony Davis hurt, they're running
Speaker 1: a lot of switching, especially with Kessler Edwards kind of
Speaker 1: functioning as the big man in those lineups. And by
Speaker 1: the way, Dallas is in the same way that the
Speaker 1: Lakers have been running really good five out or five
Speaker 1: man switching concepts with a lot of crowding the ball,
Speaker 1: making one on one situations feel tight and congested and
Speaker 1: gang rebounding and all those things. Dallas has been doing
Speaker 1: that really well for the most part. And I thought
Speaker 1: both of those teams put on good examples of switching
Speaker 1: defense last night. Both teams were able to hunt mismatches
Speaker 1: within that context that led to double teams, which led
Speaker 1: to a bunch of interesting stuff in terms of the
Speaker 1: weak side rotations. The MAVs were doubling Luca and Lebron
Speaker 1: all over the place in the post, sometimes doubling them
Speaker 1: when they had a live dribble thirty feet from the basket,
Speaker 1: and then the Lakers they got a little spooked of
Speaker 1: Clay because Dalton connected and ruey Ha Chamura completely lost
Speaker 1: control of him for a little while there and he
Speaker 1: got hot. So they started putting two on the ball
Speaker 1: when Clay was coming off of actions in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: and then with Kyrie Irvit when he was attacking Luka Doncic,
Speaker 1: they were putting two on the ball a lot. So
Speaker 1: it was a good example of like a lot of switching,
Speaker 1: a lot of matchup attacking, and then dealing with double
Speaker 1: teams on each team's best player. The MAVs shot the
Speaker 1: ball extremely well in this game. They got one point
Speaker 1: one to three points per catch and shoot jump shot
Speaker 1: on thirty on thirty two attempts, is about twenty percent
Speaker 1: better than the Lakers ended up shooting, especially in the
Speaker 1: second half. The MAVs got one point three to one
Speaker 1: points per catch and shoot jumper. The Lakers shot poorly
Speaker 1: all night, but in the second half they got just
Speaker 1: zero point six points per catch and shoot jumper. That
Speaker 1: was a big difference in that second half as the
Speaker 1: MAVs kind of worked their way back into the game.
Speaker 1: The main thing that shrunk the Laker lead in the
Speaker 1: second half, though, was exacerbated by Ruby Hatchamura and Dalton
Speaker 1: Connect losing Klay Thompson. So the Lakers are switching everything, right,
Speaker 1: that's what they do. And there were two times in
Speaker 1: a row where Lay Thompson was in an action where
Speaker 1: he's guarding rue Hatchamura, Dalton Connect's man would come up
Speaker 1: and screen and it's just a basic switch, right, Dalton
Speaker 1: should jump out on Clay, Ruey should take Dalton's man.
Speaker 1: Everything's fine, right, But two times in a row, Dalton
Speaker 1: Connect just wasn't paying attention and lost track at Klay
Speaker 1: Thompson and hits two big threes, and then Ruy hot
Speaker 1: Chimura ends up losing Klay Thompson for the third three
Speaker 1: on an offensive rebound. And then there was another drive
Speaker 1: where Austin Reeves was fully in control of a Max
Speaker 1: Christie drive and Ruey Hatchamura was just sitting on the
Speaker 1: lane line, leaving Najie Marshall wide open in the left corner,
Speaker 1: who hit another three. And again, I always think it's
Speaker 1: important when you see a team struggle to identify the
Speaker 1: stuff that's kind of circumstantial and the stuff that's like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is something this team actually has some issues with,
Speaker 1: and like, I think the Lakers are a better shooting
Speaker 1: team than they demonstrated last night. I think that's a
Speaker 1: little bit circumstantial, but there are some realities to the
Speaker 1: kinds of players that the Lakers have in their extended
Speaker 1: regular season rotation and even in their playoff rotation in
Speaker 1: Ruy hot Chimura when it comes to tracking shooters. Even
Speaker 1: going back to the Jazz game, if you remember, Ruey
Speaker 1: had a really hard time with Lori Markinen losing him
Speaker 1: off ball and helping recover situations. And so as we
Speaker 1: look at different matchups that the Lakers could run into
Speaker 1: in the postseason, it's important to acknowledge that Rui's ability
Speaker 1: to track shooters is something that could potentially be an issue.
Speaker 1: I don't think Dalton Knneck's gonna play when they get
Speaker 1: into the postseason, but that is something that stood out
Speaker 1: to me down the stretch in the fourth quarter of
Speaker 1: this game. That was twelve really easy points for the
Speaker 1: MAVs in a game where the Lakers otherwise defended really well,
Speaker 1: But as a result of that, it put the Lakers
Speaker 1: into a tie game with the MAVs in crunch time
Speaker 1: with Kyrie Irving on the other side, potentially dangerous situation, right,
Speaker 1: But I thought down the stretch the Lakers played their
Speaker 1: best basketball. They logged a two hundred offensive rating and
Speaker 1: a seventy five defensive rating in the clutch last night
Speaker 1: versus the MAVs. Dorian Finney Smith was huge in this stretch.
Speaker 1: He made two absolutely brilliant defensive rotation. We talked earlier
Speaker 1: about the Lakers having to double Kyrie and Clay coming
Speaker 1: off of screens late in the game. That's going to
Speaker 1: put you into rotation. There were two clean catches, one
Speaker 1: for PJ Washington in the left corner and one for
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson in the right corner, where Dorian Phinney Smith
Speaker 1: identified it a pass in advance and started sprinting from
Speaker 1: like twenty five thirty feet away to chase those guys
Speaker 1: off the corner. He chased PJ Washington out of the
Speaker 1: left corner as PJ drived and then Lebron drove, and
Speaker 1: then Lebron had a really nice additional defensive rotation to
Speaker 1: meet PJ Washington at the ram and force him into
Speaker 1: a miss, and then he chased Klay Thompson so hard
Speaker 1: out of that right corner that Clay tried a side
Speaker 1: step three but he completely lost his base ended up
Speaker 1: missing badly. Two just absolutely massive defensive rotations from Dorian
Speaker 1: Phinney Smith, who was great, and then Lebron and Luca
Speaker 1: were masterful offensively. I don't know how teams are gonna
Speaker 1: be able to guard these guys. At the end of games,
Speaker 1: Luco was posting up and drawing it down team and
Speaker 1: kicking it back to Lebron for a catch and shoot
Speaker 1: three on a play where they passed it back and
Speaker 1: forth like four times, like it was semi pro. Both
Speaker 1: Lebron and Luca did a great job of kind of
Speaker 1: meandering into the middle of the floor and drawing the
Speaker 1: under the basket help defender forward, whether it was PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington or Dwight Powell, and that was opening opportunities for
Speaker 1: lobs or for offensive rebounds, like Lebron drove drew Dwight
Speaker 1: Powell in and threw a nice lob to Jackson Hayes.
Speaker 1: Lebron and Luca both missed short shots in the middle
Speaker 1: of the lane there, but it brought in help so
Speaker 1: Dorian Finney Smith was able to get an easy little
Speaker 1: tap in put back. Lebron James got a tip dunk
Speaker 1: off of one of those Luca misses that came from
Speaker 1: help that was drawn by Lebron and Luca in the
Speaker 1: middle of the floor, and then DFAs made another really
Speaker 1: nice play setting a backscreen on PJ Washington in the
Speaker 1: lane when he was about to help on a Luca
Speaker 1: Doncic drive that allowed Luca to just meander right in
Speaker 1: there and make a layup. For all of the struggles
Speaker 1: that the Lakers had against the Dallas switching, guess what
Speaker 1: a two hundred offensive rating is. That's two points per possession.
Speaker 1: To put it very simply, they scored every time down
Speaker 1: the floor when they needed to. So for all the
Speaker 1: struggles that they've had against switching in the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks, it kind of came together there down the stretch.
Speaker 1: I also liked like with exception of the Lebron three,
Speaker 1: it wasn't like they were relying on jump shots. They
Speaker 1: were getting stuff closer to the rim. They were doing
Speaker 1: damage on the back line. We're going to get into
Speaker 1: some of the issues they had with their switching, with
Speaker 1: the switching defense that gave them some issues in this game.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about it in a big picture, but I
Speaker 1: really thought it functioned more than fine when they needed
Speaker 1: it to at the end of the game. Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: It was a game where I thought the Lakers mostly
Speaker 1: didn't play well and they got the win comfortably down
Speaker 1: the stretch. So that to me as a hallmark of
Speaker 1: a good NBA team, and I did think it was
Speaker 1: a step forward and a nice learning lesson for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: A couple of shoutouts Lebron. I thought he was really
Speaker 1: rough on offense in the first three quarters, and it
Speaker 1: was part of what was hurting them against the Dallas switching.
Speaker 1: We'll get into that further in a minute, but I
Speaker 1: thought he was absolutely incredible in the fourth quarter. He
Speaker 1: immediately turned up the aggression on the very first possession
Speaker 1: of the quarter. Had sixteen points, five rebounds, and two
Speaker 1: assists with zero turnovers. He had five turnovers in the
Speaker 1: first half, only one in the second half, so he
Speaker 1: cleaned that up. I thought he played off of Luca
Speaker 1: beautifully down the stretch. Again, the post entries and the
Speaker 1: help the one pass away knocking down that shot, the
Speaker 1: work he did along the baseline when Luca was driving
Speaker 1: for that last little fadeaway that he missed. One of
Speaker 1: my favorite things about basketball. As long as there's time
Speaker 1: on the clock, or there's games remaining in a playoff series,
Speaker 1: there is time for you to make a play or
Speaker 1: a series of plays that can help your team and
Speaker 1: flip the script for how things have been going. Lebron
Speaker 1: was rough for three quarters, but he stayed in it mentally,
Speaker 1: and he completely made up for it in that fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: JJ had a comment after the game, because I thought
Speaker 1: Lebron was great on defense that entire game. JAJ had
Speaker 1: a comment after the game. He said, this is not
Speaker 1: an exaggeration. If you watch our basketball team every night
Speaker 1: for the last six weeks or so, Lebron is playing
Speaker 1: at an all defense level. And he's right. This is
Speaker 1: one of the biggest reasons why the Lakers defense has
Speaker 1: been turned around. It's not just getting Dorian Phiney Smith
Speaker 1: Doran Phinney Smith back for D'Angelo Russell. It's not just
Speaker 1: getting Jared Vanderbilt back healthy. You got a consistently disengaged
Speaker 1: defender in Lebron James, at least in the regular season context,
Speaker 1: into a consistently engaged Lebron James and I've consistently said
Speaker 1: over the years that Lebron is a very good defender
Speaker 1: when he needs to be, even at his age, it's
Speaker 1: just a question of about of him making that commitment.
Speaker 1: He's making that commitment now, and it's paying dividends for
Speaker 1: this team on the defensive end of the floor. This
Speaker 1: is what's crazy about it, though JJ's talking about this.
Speaker 1: Last six weeks since January fifteenth, a nineteen games fan,
Speaker 1: Lebron is averaging twenty seven points, eight remounds, and nine
Speaker 1: assists on sixty three percent true shooting. So you're getting
Speaker 1: all defense on one end of the floor twenty seven
Speaker 1: to eight to nine on super high efficiency on the
Speaker 1: other end of the floor, all at age forty, all
Speaker 1: for the team that has the very best record in
Speaker 1: the NBA over that span. For you to be an
Speaker 1: all defense player and averaging nearly a thirty point triple
Speaker 1: double on insane efficiency, that's MVP level production. He's playing
Speaker 1: at the same level now as the very best basketball
Speaker 1: players in the world. It's completely ludicrous. He's not gonna
Speaker 1: win MVP for obviously, but like he's gonna get votes.
Speaker 1: You could argue him as high as third. I think
Speaker 1: he will finish in the top five. Just unbelievable. Twenty
Speaker 1: second season and he's playing at this level. It's just
Speaker 1: a tip of the cap to the greatest basketball player
Speaker 1: that's ever touched the floor, peaking again at a phase
Speaker 1: of his career that doesn't really make any sense. I
Speaker 1: want to talk about Luca for a minute. I thought
Speaker 1: he did a wonderful job attacking Dallas's switches in doubles.
Speaker 1: He managed a won twelve offensive rating in his minutes,
Speaker 1: which was the better offense the Luca led Lunitz and
Speaker 1: units in that particular game, despite the fact that they
Speaker 1: didn't shoot very well. His defensive rebounding, though, was the
Speaker 1: big that stood out to me, and he has thirty
Speaker 1: six rebounds in the last three games. He just has
Speaker 1: a remarkable ability to kind of predict where the ball
Speaker 1: is going to come off the rim, and then he's
Speaker 1: a scrapper. He'll get in there in the crowd and
Speaker 1: there'll be a bunch of athletes around him and he'll
Speaker 1: just come away with the basketball. He's still struggling to shoot.
Speaker 1: That will come in time. So far with the Lakers,
Speaker 1: he's eleven for fifty one on jump shots. It's obviously
Speaker 1: really bad. That will get better. But he looks like
Speaker 1: he's in much better shape. He literally looks smaller than
Speaker 1: he did a couple of weeks ago. He's competing and
Speaker 1: doing his job on defense, even though he has his
Speaker 1: obvious limitations there. He had three steals and two blocks
Speaker 1: last night. He's rebounding, he's generating advantages. He's already helping
Speaker 1: the team so much, and he's not even close to
Speaker 1: his ceiling yet. It was kind of like a mediocre
Speaker 1: Luca game last night, and he had nineteen points, fifteen rebounds,
Speaker 1: twelve assists, three steals, and two blocks. It's unreal. But
Speaker 1: let's talk a little bit about the Laker space. They
Speaker 1: had some issues scoring in this particular game. I want
Speaker 1: to talk about some of the specific things that were
Speaker 1: causing them problems. Spacing is the big one. JJ Reddick
Speaker 1: talked a lot about this after the game. Lebron's first turnover,
Speaker 1: Luca gets double teamed on the right side of the
Speaker 1: floor and Lebron, Austin, and Ruey are all standing within
Speaker 1: like ten feet of each other each other. On the
Speaker 1: left side of the floor. Lebron's like left lane line
Speaker 1: extended up to the three point line, Ruey's like ten
Speaker 1: feet to his left, and then Austin's in the corner,
Speaker 1: and they're all kind of standing really close to each other.
Speaker 1: So when Luca throws the pass to Lebron, Lebron has
Speaker 1: an easy read to Austin Reeves in the corner. But
Speaker 1: because they're all just kind of packed in on each other,
Speaker 1: klay Thompson was able to guard Rui while also sitting
Speaker 1: in the passing lane for Austin, and Lebron ends up
Speaker 1: throwing a dart that Klay Thompson just intercepts. But even
Speaker 1: if Lebron throws it over the top, like with a
Speaker 1: little bit more pace like a lob on it, it's
Speaker 1: just an easier rotation at that point because the ball's
Speaker 1: in the air longer. There was another possession later in
Speaker 1: the game where that exact same configuration Lebron, Austin, Rui
Speaker 1: was spaced out to where Luca took his took the
Speaker 1: double team closer to the baseline. Lebron came all the
Speaker 1: way over to the right lane line extended, Austin was
Speaker 1: closer to like the left lane line extended a little
Speaker 1: bit further over in the wing, and Rui was in
Speaker 1: the corner. All three guys were, you know, seventeen eighteen
Speaker 1: feet apart instead of ten feet apart, and it was
Speaker 1: like an easy kickout pass to from Luca to a
Speaker 1: wide open Austin Reeves and he knocked it down. Those
Speaker 1: are like little details, like you want to clear the
Speaker 1: side to give Luca room to work. But Luca's a
Speaker 1: good tight space operator. You don't need to literally clear
Speaker 1: the side. You just need to give him enough space
Speaker 1: to operate. You can spread your shooters out on that
Speaker 1: three point line a little bit more. Dealing with double teams,
Speaker 1: there were several double teams in this game where Dallas
Speaker 1: came with the second body and the Lakers got rid
Speaker 1: of the ball and didn't even get an advantage out
Speaker 1: of it. And a lot of that also came down
Speaker 1: to spacing. There was a double team of Luca that
Speaker 1: went nowhere. It was up around the right wing because
Speaker 1: Lebron and Vando both flashed up to the right elbow,
Speaker 1: and when you're both standing in the right place, it
Speaker 1: makes it easy for one player to guard too. They
Speaker 1: just need to have better execution of their spacing in
Speaker 1: those situations. Flashing to the ball is good. It creates
Speaker 1: effectively like a short role opportunity, but you only need
Speaker 1: one person there. Off Ball shooters need to relocate to
Speaker 1: make themselves harder to guard. If you see your man
Speaker 1: sinking down to the baseline and you're in the corner,
Speaker 1: kind of slide up the slide up that three point
Speaker 1: line a little bit to create an easier passing angle.
Speaker 1: Ruby got a good one, a good three in the
Speaker 1: right corner in the first half out of an action
Speaker 1: like that, relocating, cutting and moving without the ball. There
Speaker 1: needs to be better activity against those double teams to
Speaker 1: make it so that you at least get an advantage
Speaker 1: out of it. Another interesting one that stood out to
Speaker 1: me last night is Vandam made two threes and he
Speaker 1: continually has struggled underneath the basket as like a cutter
Speaker 1: dunker spot threat. This is interesting because it's the exact
Speaker 1: opposite of what happened two years ago, i should say
Speaker 1: last year before he got injured, where he was really
Speaker 1: struggling shooting out of the corners, but he was kind
Speaker 1: of doing pretty well as like a cutter. Now, mind you,
Speaker 1: that was much more of like a ive out motion
Speaker 1: style of offense. This is more of a four out
Speaker 1: one in spacing style of offense, where Vando is just
Speaker 1: literally standing in the dunker spot, whereas like he was
Speaker 1: setting screens and rolling a lot more in that system
Speaker 1: under Darvin Ham, Right, So part of that is that
Speaker 1: is part of the reason. But also like Vando's shooting
Speaker 1: four for eleven on catch and shoot three so far,
Speaker 1: that's twelve points. That's one point zero nine points per possession.
Speaker 1: He's logged nine possessions as a cutter and only scored
Speaker 1: six points. And there are so many examples where he's
Speaker 1: just not even getting a shot off because he's in traffic.
Speaker 1: Teams are putting big athletes or centers on him and
Speaker 1: kind of splitting the difference, feeling like they can step
Speaker 1: up to help, but then recover back to Vando and
Speaker 1: prevent him from getting a shot off around the rim.
Speaker 1: I'm wondering, in this context, strictly, in this context of
Speaker 1: having more of a four out one in matchup, attacking, spread,
Speaker 1: pick and roll style of off that you might actually
Speaker 1: be better leaving Vando in the corner to shoot threes
Speaker 1: because he's literally not making anything around the basket. He's
Speaker 1: barely even getting opportunities around the basket because he struggles
Speaker 1: to control the ball sometimes on the catch, and finishing
Speaker 1: in traffic over bigger bodies is not a strength of
Speaker 1: his Now It's way too small of a sample to
Speaker 1: react one way or the other. But I'm just wondering
Speaker 1: if an easy way to visualize it is, right now,
Speaker 1: when Vando catches the ball in the cut, he's getting
Speaker 1: zero points sixty six points per possession. When he's catching
Speaker 1: it in the corner and shooting, he's getting one point
Speaker 1: zero nine points per possession. Over the course of the
Speaker 1: next few weeks. I'm just curious to see how that
Speaker 1: dynamic plays out, because it may be that Luca partnered
Speaker 1: with Vando just makes it work. Luca did get Vando
Speaker 1: for a cut in this game, and it's like, maybe
Speaker 1: Luca figures it out to where that's the best option.
Speaker 1: But I'm just curious because there are ways to work
Speaker 1: around that where you can put a guard in the
Speaker 1: dunker spot, so you can have they Gabe Vincent or
Speaker 1: an Austin Reeves in the dunker spot, so you have
Speaker 1: a smaller defender in help and if they do help
Speaker 1: off a Vando, at least he can make them pay
Speaker 1: out there in a way that he's been struggling to
Speaker 1: make them pay underneath the basket. Again, way too small
Speaker 1: of a sample size either way, but I just want
Speaker 1: to keep an eye on that in the next few weeks.
Speaker 1: If Vando keeps hitting like thirty five percent of his
Speaker 1: catch and shoot threes, that's a better option than him
Speaker 1: finishing around the basket because he's just not finishing around
Speaker 1: the basket right now. And you can still get some
Speaker 1: of that benefit with him crashing the offensive glass after
Speaker 1: the shot goes up. So if he doesn't get a jumper,
Speaker 1: or if the ball ends up going somewhere else, or
Speaker 1: Luca takes a little step back jump shot or something
Speaker 1: in the mid range, Vando can still come flying in
Speaker 1: and if anything, he's got more of ahead of steam
Speaker 1: in that situation. He's got a better chance to win
Speaker 1: some of those jump ball situations. Lastly, Jackson Hayes, I
Speaker 1: think it's worth leaning into him a little bit more,
Speaker 1: getting his minutes up a little bit, because he's been
Speaker 1: a really valuable vertical spacer in this context. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of times over the course of the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks where I'm seeing Luca and Lebron and kind
Speaker 1: of work to the middle of the floor, and they
Speaker 1: like having Jackson as that release valve. In the last
Speaker 1: two games, the Lakers have a one to twenty offensive
Speaker 1: rating with Jackson Hayes on the floor. Something to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on is another thing that could help them
Speaker 1: with their spacing in the switching groups. And then lastly,
Speaker 1: Lebron like in order for switching to not work against
Speaker 1: this Laker offense, in order for the Lakers to make
Speaker 1: teams pay for it, they need forty eight minutes of
Speaker 1: Lebron and Luca constantly applying pressure. And I thought in
Speaker 1: the first three quarters, even though Lebron is defending, during
Speaker 1: that time, I thought he was pretty sloppy. He knew
Speaker 1: the doubles were coming, so he's like picking up his
Speaker 1: dribble too early sometimes like before the double would even
Speaker 1: get there. So then that would lead to a lack
Speaker 1: of openings for him to get rid of the ball too.
Speaker 1: That was part of the turnover problem early. His job
Speaker 1: is to attack enough that that double team fully commits
Speaker 1: and it happens in a place on the floor where
Speaker 1: Lebron can actually make teams pay for it, which I
Speaker 1: know Lebron can do. He's one of the best ever
Speaker 1: at it. He just was sloppy for thirty for the
Speaker 1: first three quarters. And it's something to keep in mind again.
Speaker 1: For the Lakers to succeed against switching defense, they need
Speaker 1: Lebron and Luca to be able to apply pressure for
Speaker 1: forty eight minutes. They gotta have proper spacing off of it,
Speaker 1: and then guys gotta hit shots. And so part of
Speaker 1: their struggles where Lebron didn't have that great of a
Speaker 1: first three quarters, Luca obviously still doesn't have his jump shot.
Speaker 1: Guys are missing shots, and the spacing wasn't good. They've
Speaker 1: been a little shaky in these situations, but they have
Speaker 1: the personnel to be great against it. It's just one
Speaker 1: of the main areas of development we're gonna want to
Speaker 1: keep an eye on here the rest of the way.
Speaker 1: All right, moving on to Suns Grizzlies. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna talk very briefly about the Suns here before we
Speaker 1: get to the Grizzlies. The Suns are descending into irrelevance
Speaker 1: now and that's a whole other issue. But like, it
Speaker 1: was so interesting watching them because one of my biggest
Speaker 1: issues with the Suns is their team construct is built
Speaker 1: around these high level offensive shot creators and Devin Booker
Speaker 1: and Kevin Durant and like they are actually like pretty good,
Speaker 1: detail oriented players, like Devin Booker tries and tries to defend,
Speaker 1: and Kevin Durant's a really good defender. And those guys
Speaker 1: do their jobs and they're disciplined and they don't make
Speaker 1: as many mistakes. Bradley Bealle can make his fair share
Speaker 1: yet another big offensive rebound. He gave up an overtime
Speaker 1: last night where he was just standing around and not
Speaker 1: competing for the ball. That's the kind of thing that
Speaker 1: drives me crazy with him. But the real issue is
Speaker 1: they're anchoring Kevin Durant and Devin Booker with a bunch
Speaker 1: of really undisciplined players that make a lot of mistakes.
Speaker 1: And it was crazy on a night when when the
Speaker 1: Suns were playing so well on offense, how many mistakes
Speaker 1: they made to undercut their success. In the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: Tias Jones just not paying attention off ball gets back
Speaker 1: cut by Vince Williams Junior for an easy layup. I
Speaker 1: don't think he played again after that. There was a
Speaker 1: play where Desmond Baying got an easy driving layup in
Speaker 1: transition because the Suns just didn't stop the ball. They've
Speaker 1: been consistently one of the worst transition defenses in the
Speaker 1: league this year. Devin Booker although like a not many
Speaker 1: mistakes from Katie and Devin Booker down the stretch on
Speaker 1: this one, but he had a really bad foul on
Speaker 1: John Morant with three minutes left in regulation where he
Speaker 1: just gifted them two points. He fouled out of the game.
Speaker 1: He had a couple of bad ones on Desmond bayin
Speaker 1: two like those are just like little basic things that
Speaker 1: he can improve. Bow Bull in overtime, just not paying
Speaker 1: attention when he's guarding one of Memphis's most aggressive catch
Speaker 1: and shoot guys in Jalen Wells. Lost him coming off
Speaker 1: of a pinon Flair in the right corner, knocked down
Speaker 1: to three. Lost him again on the same action on
Speaker 1: the very next play where he got into like just
Speaker 1: was not paying attention, was in trail position, left off
Speaker 1: of his feet for a simple pump fake and Jalen
Speaker 1: Wells just stepped through and got an easy layup. They
Speaker 1: go up four on a nice KD jump shot in overtime.
Speaker 1: Looks like they're in control, and on the very next
Speaker 1: possession on a made basket. They don't get matched up
Speaker 1: in transition and leave Santi al Dama wide open on
Speaker 1: the left wing and he makes a three. Brandon Clark
Speaker 1: has a really nice putback that puts them up one
Speaker 1: what ended up being the game winner with like what
Speaker 1: thirty eight seconds left, and instead of Phoenix having an
Speaker 1: opportunity to take the lead back, Grayson Allen gets pissed
Speaker 1: off about some physicality from Jalen Wells and shoves him
Speaker 1: off offensive foul. Now they're going the other way. I
Speaker 1: actually like, I actually think they have more talent than
Speaker 1: their record would lead you to believe. They're just super undisciplined.
Speaker 1: Katie and Devin Booker need to be surrounded by smart,
Speaker 1: hard playing athletes, and instead they're surrounded by sloppiness. And
Speaker 1: it's just not a good winning formula with that core.
Speaker 1: And as a result, they look like a basketball team
Speaker 1: that is just completely off the rails on the Grizzlies front,
Speaker 1: though several guys made huge plays down the stretch of
Speaker 1: this game that I wanted to shout out Jalen Wells
Speaker 1: in overtime we talked about burned Bull Bull twice on
Speaker 1: off ball screening actions. He also made the dagger which
Speaker 1: was beating a press in on the final possession where
Speaker 1: he ended up getting a dunk right underneath the rim.
Speaker 1: Desmond Baine hits a big shots lady and a pull
Speaker 1: up against drop coverage along the left wing. He had
Speaker 1: that driving layup and transition that we talked about, but
Speaker 1: he was also a big part of getting Devin Booker
Speaker 1: into foul trouble and getting him out of the game
Speaker 1: twice in the fourth quarter. He just made strong left
Speaker 1: handed drives at Devin Booker and drew fouls on him.
Speaker 1: And they were kind of interesting situations because Desmond Bain's
Speaker 1: a little bigger and stronger than Devin Booker is and
Speaker 1: Booker was sliding with him, and it was kind of
Speaker 1: like a contact defense situation. But like, if Desmond Bain
Speaker 1: just like takes the contact and then sprays the ball out,
Speaker 1: it's not going to get called. But Desmond Bain forced
Speaker 1: the official to make a call by meeting Devin Booker's
Speaker 1: physicality by just trying to power through it. And as
Speaker 1: he kept driving through it, it forced Devin to be
Speaker 1: a little more handsy and to hold on just a
Speaker 1: second too long. That led to those foul calls as
Speaker 1: a big part of the issue down the stretch of
Speaker 1: this game. It's a huge downgrade going from Devin Booker
Speaker 1: to a different player that ended up being a big
Speaker 1: part of the of the late game issues that the
Speaker 1: Suns had in this one. Great work from Desmond bang
Speaker 1: there and then Brandon Clark had some good switches against
Speaker 1: Evin Booker and kd in ball screens. He had the
Speaker 1: biggest play of the game in my opinion, what it
Speaker 1: ended up being essentially the game winner. John Morant's working
Speaker 1: through the lane. He draws Mason Plumley in help. Plumbley
Speaker 1: makes a unbelievable defensive play, gets a hand up and
Speaker 1: blocks John Morant on the shot. But again because John
Speaker 1: Morant drew the center in, Brandon Clark had a big
Speaker 1: advantage underneath the basket and size. He jumped up and
Speaker 1: grabbed it with one hand and just guided it softly
Speaker 1: into the basket for what ended up being the game winner.
Speaker 1: Huge time, big time play from Brandon Clark. Santi al
Speaker 1: Dama hit the huge transition three that ended up being
Speaker 1: the eventual game winner. Jared Jackson, even though he fouled
Speaker 1: out in this game, and he wasn't down the floor,
Speaker 1: down the stretch. I thought he was magnificent all night,
Speaker 1: Like nobody in the Sun Jersey could even guard him.
Speaker 1: And it was a really, really impressive come from behind
Speaker 1: win there for the Memphis Grizzies. But I want to
Speaker 1: zero in on John Morant for a minute. There was
Speaker 1: a report that came out last week that said that
Speaker 1: we should all keep an eye on John Morant as
Speaker 1: a potential trade tard get this summer, and I immediately
Speaker 1: disagreed when I saw it. And the main reason why
Speaker 1: is a concept that I've talked a lot about in
Speaker 1: recent weeks, which is the idea that if you want
Speaker 1: to win at the absolute highest levels, if you want
Speaker 1: to win four playoff rounds, if you want to hoist
Speaker 1: Hilari O'Brien Trophy, you need to have a problem that
Speaker 1: you present to other teams that they cannot truly solve,
Speaker 1: that they have to build their entire game plan around.
Speaker 1: I think Jared Jackson's an awesome player. You could make
Speaker 1: an argument he's been the best Grizzly this year, and
Speaker 1: I think I'd probably agree. He's a nightmare fat matchup
Speaker 1: for Phoenix. He has a much higher floor than John
Speaker 1: Morant because of his ability on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor. But Jared Jackson will eventually inevitably run into
Speaker 1: a big front line that can match his size and
Speaker 1: strength that he can't just bulldoze over everyone, and at
Speaker 1: that point some of his limitations come to the surface.
Speaker 1: He has a higher floor than a guy like Job,
Speaker 1: but the ceiling is lower. He's not a superstar level
Speaker 1: player on the offensive end of the floor. I'm still young,
Speaker 1: and he's raw, and he's got a long way to
Speaker 1: go to get to where he needs to be to
Speaker 1: be that type of NBA champion level talent. But when
Speaker 1: he starts getting going downhill at teams, he has a
Speaker 1: ceiling he can get to on the offensive end that
Speaker 1: causes real problems for even the best teams in the
Speaker 1: league that nobody can really solve, and you just have
Speaker 1: to hope that he either misses or that he sprays
Speaker 1: it out to a shooter who misses, And that to
Speaker 1: me is just a non negotiable, absolutely mandatory, foundational trade
Speaker 1: for NBA champions throughout the history of the league. You
Speaker 1: either need to have an otherworldly defense that nobody can
Speaker 1: handle or an offense that presents a problem that teams
Speaker 1: can't solve. I don't think this Memphis team is that
Speaker 1: type of defense, and John Moran is the only guy
Speaker 1: on the roster that could reach that point as an
Speaker 1: offensive player. I would argue that trading Jaw would literally
Speaker 1: just cut the championship potential off the top of this team.
Speaker 1: There isn't anyone else on the roster that has that
Speaker 1: type of upside, and it's extremely unlikely that you get
Speaker 1: something back in a Jaw trade that can reach that level.
Speaker 1: Even if a DRAFTO panned out, it wouldn't fit the
Speaker 1: timeline of the current roster. How thought, Jaw was unbelievable
Speaker 1: down the stretch of that game. He had seventeen points
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter in overtime. He was going right
Speaker 1: at Bradley Beal in regulation and giving him buckets. He
Speaker 1: made two gigantic plays that sent the game to overtime,
Speaker 1: to extremely high degree of difficulty jump shots, a three
Speaker 1: at the top of the key in a little pull
Speaker 1: up jumper around the left elbow where he literally against
Speaker 1: like great defense like Bradley Beal was there on the
Speaker 1: transition three. He was smothered on the game tying shot.
Speaker 1: He just elevated over the top of his man as
Speaker 1: the supreme athlete and knocked a shot down. He made
Speaker 1: great reads. In overtime, he set Baying up for a
Speaker 1: wide open three in the left corner that he ended
Speaker 1: up just missing. He was the one who identified the
Speaker 1: Jalen Well's ball ball matchup, and instead of hijacking possessions
Speaker 1: and taking high degree of difficulty shots, he trusted his
Speaker 1: teammate to make plays, even the game winner from Brandon Clark.
Speaker 1: The opportunity for Brandon Clark came from the fact that
Speaker 1: John Morant kept drawing Mason Plummeley in help. That wasn't
Speaker 1: even the only offensive rebound opportunity that John Morant generated
Speaker 1: down the stretch. He straight up stole that game from
Speaker 1: the Suns twice with his remarkable offensive gifts. And if
Speaker 1: this team ever hoists the Larry O'Brien Trophy, it will
Speaker 1: be with John Moran leading the way on offense. You
Speaker 1: cannot take that element away from this team. It is
Speaker 1: a prerequisite for winning at the highest levels. Let's move
Speaker 1: on to the Detroit Pistons, to have won seven in
Speaker 1: a row. They got a nice win against the Clippers
Speaker 1: on Monday night, Kate had a couple of issues with
Speaker 1: Chris Dunn, but the Pissons generally did a good job
Speaker 1: of using early screens to get Chris done off of him,
Speaker 1: and Kate ended up putting up another monster thirty two,
Speaker 1: nine and seven night the Pistons did an incredible job
Speaker 1: on a Kazubats. They're both Jalen Duran and Isaiah Stewart.
Speaker 1: They're just big and strong enough to handle Zoo's base
Speaker 1: And like one of the big things that I talk about,
Speaker 1: when you're battling post up threats, specifically post players that
Speaker 1: are trying to play bully ball and that have a
Speaker 1: size advantage, you don't want to try to bother them
Speaker 1: up top. You're not going to bother them up top,
Speaker 1: they're bigger than you. You want to bother them down low.
Speaker 1: You want to disrupt the energy transfer of the shot.
Speaker 1: Every shot has a transfer of energy from the floor
Speaker 1: through your feet, through your knees, through your hips, through
Speaker 1: your shoulders, your elbow and wrist, all the way up
Speaker 1: through the finish. And when guys are working on their
Speaker 1: games in the gym in the summertime, they have a
Speaker 1: certain flow that they have on those shots, and if
Speaker 1: you can disrupt their base and push them off their base.
Speaker 1: You can make them miss and like those two guys
Speaker 1: straight up shut down Zubach's post ups in that game
Speaker 1: just by disrupting his base. It's a great option to
Speaker 1: have for the Pistons that they just can play forty
Speaker 1: eight minutes of a big, strong, hard playing center that
Speaker 1: can cause problems for teams. I did a whole film
Speaker 1: thread on Twitter. You can follow me there at Underscore
Speaker 1: Jason lt I did a whole film thread on that game.
Speaker 1: So if you want to see some video options are
Speaker 1: some video examples of the things we talked about. You
Speaker 1: can find that there. But I want to zero in
Speaker 1: for a minute on their perimeter defense because that's the
Speaker 1: thing that has really stood out to me in the
Speaker 1: last couple of weeks. JB. Bickerstaff has these dudes guarding,
Speaker 1: and they have some legit perimeter defenders. Sar Thompson did
Speaker 1: a great job on James Harden all night. Dennis Schroeder
Speaker 1: can guard the ball. Ron Holland is guarding. But I've
Speaker 1: been especially impressed by some of the guys that reputationally
Speaker 1: have not been good defenders in the historical context, Like
Speaker 1: I cannot believe how hard Tim Hardaway Junior is playing
Speaker 1: on defense right now. He's been a really good off
Speaker 1: the ball. He was a big part of them disrupting
Speaker 1: Zubach's catches on like in pick and roll, Isaiah Stewart
Speaker 1: and Tim Hardaway Junior had some incredible role Maan defense
Speaker 1: reps against Zubas where they just disrupted him and caused
Speaker 1: problems in those situations. Kate is playing hard on that end.
Speaker 1: Even Malik Beasley, who's been maligned as a perimmeter defender
Speaker 1: over the years, is like trusting the game plan, doing
Speaker 1: his job funneling guys into help. They're really really competing
Speaker 1: on that end of the floor, and they're anchored by big,
Speaker 1: strong athletes underneath the basket, a couple of wings that
Speaker 1: they can trust, and then just a bunch of guys
Speaker 1: that are guarding on the ball. They are number three
Speaker 1: in defensive rating over this seven game span, but they're
Speaker 1: also number three in offense. Kate Cunningham has just been
Speaker 1: doing a wonderful job running the team on that end
Speaker 1: of the floor. He's already over one thousand pick and
Speaker 1: rolls this year. If you guys remember when we do
Speaker 1: our summertime lists. A thousand pick and rolls is what
Speaker 1: I consider to be high volume. He's already there. He's
Speaker 1: getting one point zero nine points per possession in those
Speaker 1: ball screens that put him up with the top pick
Speaker 1: and roll guys in the league this year. For example,
Speaker 1: Shake KOs as Alexander is about is less than one
Speaker 1: point per one hundred possessions better in pick and rolls
Speaker 1: this year than Kay Cunningham is. He's just so good
Speaker 1: at using his size and strength defend off defenders in
Speaker 1: ball screens. He's Luca esque with his ability to use
Speaker 1: physical leverage to generate dribble penetration. Again, like half the
Speaker 1: battle is getting the defender trapped onto your backside, and
Speaker 1: the only way you're gonna do that is getting them
Speaker 1: properly set up for the screen so that your center
Speaker 1: can set a good screen. By the way, both Isaiah
Speaker 1: Stewart and Jalen Duran set monster screens, And that's a
Speaker 1: huge part of what unlocks. It's such an underrated detail
Speaker 1: in offensive execution, and it gets Kaid's defender behind him.
Speaker 1: Once Kid's defender is behind him or on his side,
Speaker 1: he's got the size and strength advantage. That's when he
Speaker 1: can kind of keep them pinned behind him and start
Speaker 1: to slowly work down the lane line. When he slowly
Speaker 1: works down the lane line, he just to wait for
Speaker 1: the defense to react. And it's the same set of
Speaker 1: reads that we've talked about when we talk about Luca
Speaker 1: and the Lakers. When he's going downhill, if the big
Speaker 1: man steps over and the low man doesn't rotate to
Speaker 1: the lob threat, it's an easy drop off to Jalen
Speaker 1: durn Or as a Stuart right under the basket. If
Speaker 1: they do tag the roller, then it's the skip pass
Speaker 1: to the corner where they've consistently kept Caid surrounded by
Speaker 1: guys that can knock down shots. But if they don't react,
Speaker 1: if they let him play one on one there in
Speaker 1: the middle of the floor. What is the thing that
Speaker 1: unlocks the high level efficiency in ball screens that we
Speaker 1: see from the best players in the world, efficient short range,
Speaker 1: in mid range shot making. It's becoming one of those
Speaker 1: underrated traits that we see in the best shot creators
Speaker 1: in the league. It's not about, oh, a mid range
Speaker 1: jumper is bad. It's about what can you find inside
Speaker 1: of seventeen feet that you can hit at least half
Speaker 1: the time. Yeah, he's taking a bunch of mid range
Speaker 1: jump shots and you're hitting forty two percent of them,
Speaker 1: it's bad. But if you can get to a point
Speaker 1: where you're making half or better of those shots, that's
Speaker 1: when it becomes untenable for the defense. Because in the
Speaker 1: half court, anything over a point per possession is pretty good.
Speaker 1: He's shooting fifty percent on floaters this year, he's shooting
Speaker 1: fifty five percent on hooks, and then on the jump
Speaker 1: shots that he's taking inside of seventeen feet he's shooting
Speaker 1: forty nine percent. So he's on all of his short
Speaker 1: to mid range shot making. If you put it all together,
Speaker 1: he's over fifty percent. That's the conundrum he presents for you.
Speaker 1: If you want to stay home on the roll man,
Speaker 1: if you want to stay home in the corner, he's
Speaker 1: going to get over a point per possession in the
Speaker 1: middle of the floor. If you help. They've got guys
Speaker 1: that can finish under the rim. They got guys that
Speaker 1: can finish off those skip passes. It also manifests a
Speaker 1: post up threat, where he's been great this year. Kate
Speaker 1: has run one hundred and thirty post ups, including pass
Speaker 1: leading to one hundred and forty two points. That's one
Speaker 1: point zero nine points per possession. He's really starting to
Speaker 1: get to the foul line. Now. This stood out to
Speaker 1: me in that Clippers game. I started digging into it.
Speaker 1: Kate has logged double digit free throw tips in four
Speaker 1: of his last eight games. In his entire career before then,
Speaker 1: in one hundred and eighty three games, he did it
Speaker 1: just nine times, and he's done it four times in
Speaker 1: the last eight games. He's just blossoming into a foundational
Speaker 1: superstar right before our eyes. I like his attitude and competitiveness.
Speaker 1: He's got a little bit of a mean streak. I
Speaker 1: like that he competes on defense. He brings a certain
Speaker 1: physicality to the position that I love. He's constantly trying
Speaker 1: to go through people and talk shit and let him
Speaker 1: know that they know that they can't guard him. And
Speaker 1: now they have surrounded him with the talent that allows
Speaker 1: his gifts to rise. Everybody up to the surface. Malik
Speaker 1: Beasley's having one of the best shooting seasons in the
Speaker 1: history of the league. I saw a tweet from Zach
Speaker 1: Low the other day, the Great Zach Low. Shout out
Speaker 1: to Zach. Only one player in NBA history. This is
Speaker 1: Zach's tweet. Has hit over forty two percent on threes
Speaker 1: while attempting at least eleven per thirty six minutes. According
Speaker 1: to Basketball Reference, Steph Curry has done it five times.
Speaker 1: Someone else is on pace to become the second player
Speaker 1: ever in this group, Malik Beasley. That's the type of
Speaker 1: shooting they're getting out of Melik. He brings like a
Speaker 1: really aggressive brand of movement shooting to where he just
Speaker 1: comes flying off of screens to the left and to
Speaker 1: the right. He's aggressive in transition. He'll miss a lot
Speaker 1: of threes that are like bad threes, but it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter because it's part of the overall threat that he
Speaker 1: brings and it brings a lot of spacing benefits to
Speaker 1: this team. Tim Hardaway Junior is not shooting the ball
Speaker 1: as well as Malik is, but he's shooting it really well.
Speaker 1: He's at thirty eight percent on six attempts per game
Speaker 1: this year. Just gives kid two options that he can
Speaker 1: constantly be hunting, especially on his transition pushies. He's been
Speaker 1: so good at hunting them in transition this year. Tobias
Speaker 1: Harris is like legit having a renaissance right now in
Speaker 1: the win streak, he's averaging nineteen points per game on
Speaker 1: sixty percent from the field and forty two percent from three.
Speaker 1: He's giving them an additional point of entry when they're
Speaker 1: going on offense because he can post up. He's torching
Speaker 1: teams a spot up player. He's just been great. And
Speaker 1: then Dennis Schroeder, like, he's not shooting the ball well
Speaker 1: yet since he joined the Pistons, but he's such a
Speaker 1: competitor and he's another guy who just like finds a
Speaker 1: way even when he's not playing well to make big plays.
Speaker 1: They went to him down the stretch on a huge possession.
Speaker 1: The Clippers had cut the lead to five with about
Speaker 1: three minutes left, and against a mere Coffee on the
Speaker 1: right wing, he just hit him with a nasty left
Speaker 1: to right crossover, a great push ahead dribble to beat
Speaker 1: him off the dribble, and then rifle to pass across
Speaker 1: the court to Malik Beasley in the left corner, who
Speaker 1: knocked down three. You ended up putting him up by
Speaker 1: eight with a little under three minutes left. They have
Speaker 1: a clear nine man rotation that I think they can
Speaker 1: shrink to eight for the playoffs. My guess is that
Speaker 1: they'll end up dropping Ron Holland when they get into
Speaker 1: the postseason. But like everyone knows your role. You have
Speaker 1: the two centers, Dennis Schroeder is your backup ball handler.
Speaker 1: You know, you have Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway Junior
Speaker 1: as like the constant, like aggressive shooting threat on the
Speaker 1: floor at any given moment. They're a good NBA team
Speaker 1: and I'm excited to watch them play some playoff basketball.
Speaker 1: If you look at the situation right now, they're holding
Speaker 1: down that sixth seed, so like if the season were
Speaker 1: to end today, they would end up playing the Knicks.
Speaker 1: Like you don't think Kaid Cunningham is a threat to
Speaker 1: put cat and ball screens or to punish a guy
Speaker 1: like Jalen Brunson over and over again like that, They're
Speaker 1: absolutely a threat. We'll see when we get a matchup
Speaker 1: how if they end up being a team that I
Speaker 1: picked to win a series or not, And that'll matchups
Speaker 1: will play a big role. We're gonna learn a lot
Speaker 1: about them tonight they play the they play the Celtics tonight.
Speaker 1: But they're a good NBA team and I'm really really
Speaker 1: excited to watch them play in the playoffs and hopefully
Speaker 1: learn some more about them. All right, guys, that's all
Speaker 1: I have for today. Is always, as sincerely appreciate you
Speaker 1: guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We'll be
Speaker 1: back tomorrow with more reactions. I'll see you guys then
Speaker 1: the volume. What's up guys. As always, I appreciate you
Speaker 1: for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight. It would actually
Speaker 1: be really helpful for us if you guys would take
Speaker 1: a second and leave a rating and a review. As always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could
Speaker 1: take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.