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Speaker 1: dot co slash b ball. All right, welcome to hob
Speaker 1: tonight here at the volume heavy Friday. Everybody. Hope all
Speaker 1: you guys are having a great week so far. Got
Speaker 1: a quick show for you guys today. The Memphis Grizzlies
Speaker 1: beat up on the Milwaukee Bucks yesterday, so one of
Speaker 1: you check ins on both of those teams are gonna
Speaker 1: do a little bit of a deep dive in the
Speaker 1: early season for both of those teams that at the
Speaker 1: tail end of the show, I've got a longer mail bag.
Speaker 1: I think I've got twelve or thirteen questions about a
Speaker 1: bunch of teams around the league that we're going to hit.
Speaker 1: You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe
Speaker 1: to the Hoops to Night YouTube channel so you don't
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Speaker 1: at underscore JSNLT so you guys don't miss show announcements.
Speaker 1: So forget about podcast feed where we get your podcast
Speaker 1: under Hoops Tonight. Also, we have new social media accounts
Speaker 1: that we're going to be using a lot more for
Speaker 1: content this year on Twitter, Instagram, and on facebooks. Make
Speaker 1: sure you follow Hoops Tonight on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Speaker 1: And the last but not least, keep dropping mail back
Speaker 1: questions in those YouTube comments so that we can keep
Speaker 1: hitting them throughout the remainder of the season. I was
Speaker 1: talking with Paul this morning. He's our lead producer, and
Speaker 1: we're going to be kind of tweaking some things in
Speaker 1: terms of the layout of the show so that we
Speaker 1: can have some more consistency in terms of like the
Speaker 1: plan and what you guys can expect. Last year, we
Speaker 1: used to do power rankings on Friday, but I actually
Speaker 1: we're gonna move it to Mondays. From now on. And
Speaker 1: the main reason why there is Mondays are like one
Speaker 1: of the hardest days to do instant reactions to games
Speaker 1: because we have games on Friday night, on Saturday night,
Speaker 1: and on Sunday night, so it's like three nights worth
Speaker 1: of games, and sometimes, like you know, a team wins
Speaker 1: on Friday and then loses on Sunday or vice versa,
Speaker 1: and it can get a little tricky to hit on
Speaker 1: individual teams or individual games, I should say, so, I
Speaker 1: actually think that Mondays are the perfect day to do
Speaker 1: power rankings because then I can hit at least ten
Speaker 1: teams and talk about the whole weekend at large. So
Speaker 1: we're gonna do power Rankings on every Monday from now on,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna do mail bags on every Friday, so
Speaker 1: make sure you keep dropping mailbag questions in those YouTube comments.
Speaker 1: Those will come around every Friday, and then we'll do
Speaker 1: Power Rankings on Monday, our first edition coming up on
Speaker 1: this coming Monday. And then obviously as we get into
Speaker 1: the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday stretch, that's when we'll do instant
Speaker 1: reactions to games. Timp's tape where we do some film
Speaker 1: that sort of thing as we kind of get into
Speaker 1: our normal cadence here throughout the season, and during football season,
Speaker 1: we're not going to do as many shows at night,
Speaker 1: just because so many of them clashed with NFL games.
Speaker 1: But once we get into January and the NFL starts
Speaker 1: to slow down, we're going to be doing a lot
Speaker 1: more instant reactions live on YouTube after games. And we
Speaker 1: still will occasionally do instant reactions after games over this
Speaker 1: early part of the season. When we get really big
Speaker 1: national TV matchups, I'll keep you guys posted. That's where
Speaker 1: it's good to follow me on Twitter because I always
Speaker 1: send out announcements before we do that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So the Grizzlies just
Speaker 1: beat up on the Bucks last night. Really, it was
Speaker 1: just a transition track meet type of game. For example,
Speaker 1: Memphis had thirty one points in transition just in the
Speaker 1: first half. That is like a completely insane stat right there.
Speaker 1: They went into the half up twenty two, and there
Speaker 1: just wasn't really anything that the Bucks could do to
Speaker 1: regain control from there. Part of it was the Bucks
Speaker 1: shot really poorly, and that's kind of one of their
Speaker 1: early season trends that we'll get into when we talk Bucks.
Speaker 1: But they generated thirteen unguarded catch and shoot jump shots
Speaker 1: in that first half and only made one of them.
Speaker 1: So like, that's where I can get a little discouraging
Speaker 1: and start to kind of snowball on you and get
Speaker 1: into some bad body language and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: But again, we'll talk about the Bucks in a little bit.
Speaker 1: But the Memphis Grizzlies made them look slow, they made
Speaker 1: them look old, they made them look like they didn't
Speaker 1: feel like competing with them the way that they were
Speaker 1: trying to play. Again, like, the Bucks are a bottom
Speaker 1: five transition defense. I've been talking about this with the
Speaker 1: Lakers too. With teams like the Lakers and the Bucks,
Speaker 1: they have no choice but to try to figure their
Speaker 1: shit out in transition because it's a game plan thing. Now,
Speaker 1: it's the worst kept secret in the league that you
Speaker 1: can run on these guys. And so as a result
Speaker 1: of that, like every one of these teams when they're
Speaker 1: in their hotel room, if they're on the road, or
Speaker 1: if they're at home, or just in their home locker
Speaker 1: room planning before the game, doing a shoot around, whatever
Speaker 1: it is they're doing. When they're talking game plan, it's like,
Speaker 1: run on these guys. They're lazy, they slow, they don't
Speaker 1: want to run. This is a consistent thing that we're
Speaker 1: going to see in Memphis. Really took it to them
Speaker 1: in that game last night. John Morant just put on
Speaker 1: an absolute masterpiece last night, his best game of the
Speaker 1: season so far. Had twenty six points and fourteen assists
Speaker 1: with only ten missed shots and turnovers combined. Absolutely fried
Speaker 1: Gary Trent Junior. It should be a crime what he
Speaker 1: did to him. He figured out early in the game
Speaker 1: that Gary Trent really couldn't hang with his first step,
Speaker 1: and so he really started to use fakes, and Gary
Speaker 1: Trent was just biting on every single fake that he
Speaker 1: was throwing. There was a three that John Morant hit
Speaker 1: in the right corner where he caught and just did
Speaker 1: like a hard jab step towards the baseline. That's literally
Speaker 1: all he did, and Gary Trent damn near ran out
Speaker 1: of the frame for how hardy bit on that fake is.
Speaker 1: Obviously with Gary Trent, he's giving up so much foot
Speaker 1: speed there. It didn't really have a choice but to
Speaker 1: try to overplay that first move, and Job was just
Speaker 1: doing a ton of damage to him in ball screens
Speaker 1: and in ISO. But it was an insane playmaking game
Speaker 1: from Jah. It wasn't just the fourteen assists, it was
Speaker 1: the way that he was getting those assists and a
Speaker 1: playmaking is always been one of John Rant's underrated talents,
Speaker 1: but it was beautiful playmaking and pick and roll he
Speaker 1: had about Like you know I talk about the most
Speaker 1: important read in the ball screen is the lowman. Right, Like,
Speaker 1: as you come off the ball screen, you could pretty
Speaker 1: much assume that the guard is going to be pursuing
Speaker 1: one way or the other, whether that's chasing over the
Speaker 1: top or that's ducking underneath. But the guard's going to
Speaker 1: stay attached as best as he can. And then the
Speaker 1: screen defender in most cases is either coming up higher
Speaker 1: to the level or dropping back. Right, there's the dynamic
Speaker 1: on the back side of the defense is the lowman
Speaker 1: and the screen defender. Right when the screen defender goes higher,
Speaker 1: the lowman typically comes over, and when the screen defender
Speaker 1: drops back, the lowman usually stays home. That is the
Speaker 1: dynamic of help defense in ball screens. And so the
Speaker 1: read that you're primarily making as the on ball creator
Speaker 1: is that second guy, that lowman when he steps over
Speaker 1: to the rollman. The read is the skip right to
Speaker 1: the shooter in the corner that he's not guarding when
Speaker 1: he stays home, the red is the roll man, right,
Speaker 1: or if they both stay home, that's when his read
Speaker 1: is to look to score. And like he had I
Speaker 1: think at least three of each where he like hit
Speaker 1: the rollman when the low man stayed home, or through
Speaker 1: the skip pass when the lowman came over, and just
Speaker 1: was consistently like just baiting those guys one way or another.
Speaker 1: There was one play in particular, I clipped this pass
Speaker 1: and I put it on my Twitter feed for you
Speaker 1: guys to see at Underscore JSONLT. But it was the
Speaker 1: one where they're on the left side of the floor
Speaker 1: and Gary Trent Junior does tag the roller, but as
Speaker 1: John Morant comes off, he makes like a head fake
Speaker 1: towards Gary Trent Junior's man. If you look really closely
Speaker 1: on the video I posted, you can actually see his
Speaker 1: head turn to the left and look off Gary Trent.
Speaker 1: Gary Trent lunges back out to the shooter and he
Speaker 1: was even he wasn't even the right place because the
Speaker 1: shooter had relocated to the corner. So that's how bad
Speaker 1: the relocation in the head fake fooled Gary Trent. But
Speaker 1: as a result of Gary Trent leaving and with brook
Speaker 1: Lopez being somewhat higher, he's able to make the pass
Speaker 1: to the roleman easy bucket, right. But then there was
Speaker 1: another play where like Bobby port was out there. Bobby
Speaker 1: Portis has done this all year, but Bobby Portis will
Speaker 1: like overhelp on low man rotations all the time where
Speaker 1: he just like sits in the paint even when it's
Speaker 1: not necessary. And Joe was just burning him with skip
Speaker 1: passes right and so doing a lot of damage in
Speaker 1: ball screens, but also incredible playmaking in the open floor.
Speaker 1: And this is where jaw is so much fun. It's
Speaker 1: like the hard transition pushes and drawing the rim protector
Speaker 1: up to drop off for guys cutting along the baseline
Speaker 1: for dunks. He had this like insane pass to Jaron
Speaker 1: Jackson where he went up the floor hard and like
Speaker 1: it came up with crazy pace and then hit like
Speaker 1: a boom boom dribble combination and it brought brook Lopez
Speaker 1: over and out of the dribble combination. He just seamlessly
Speaker 1: whipped it to Jaron Jackson with his left hand on
Speaker 1: like this like spin away pass and Jared Jackson just
Speaker 1: went right over Giannis and finished tried to like it
Speaker 1: went up like he was gonna dunk it. Yiannis walled
Speaker 1: him up pretty good, but Jaren was able to finish
Speaker 1: anyway with the foul. It just it's beautiful basketball that
Speaker 1: John Rample. He's one of the most aesthetically appealing players
Speaker 1: in the league at this point, has so much fun
Speaker 1: doing it. Literally looks like an artist that's like painting
Speaker 1: a specific basketball masterpiece of every single game, just with
Speaker 1: the different things that he can do that are so
Speaker 1: exciting and that looks so different than what other basketball
Speaker 1: players in the league can do. It's just good to
Speaker 1: have jam Morian back. But anyway, yeah, the Bucks had
Speaker 1: no chance. So the one other thing I wanted to
Speaker 1: hit on the playmaking piece. Jah has like a really
Speaker 1: special connection you can tell with Santi al Dama. And
Speaker 1: there's this thing that happens with basketball players sometimes where
Speaker 1: like they almost have like a mental connection where they
Speaker 1: have this firm understanding of where each other are all
Speaker 1: the time, and it's natural. It's not something that can
Speaker 1: get coached. It is something that develops over time. But
Speaker 1: like that's the interesting thing is like Santi al Dama
Speaker 1: and Jamray have experience playing together, but they don't have
Speaker 1: a ton of experience playing together, and so sometimes it's
Speaker 1: like a natural organic basketball fit, and like part of
Speaker 1: it is there is like Jamran is great at it,
Speaker 1: attracting attention and passing out of it, and Santi al
Speaker 1: Dama is one of the more gifted off ball all
Speaker 1: scorers in the league. He's just excellent transition in particular,
Speaker 1: He's been doing a ton of damage there and running
Speaker 1: the floor right, but he brings a vertical spacing element,
Speaker 1: like you can throw the ball up at the rim.
Speaker 1: I think Jaw hit him for four lobs last night,
Speaker 1: if I'm counting properly, Like that's insane, right, But then
Speaker 1: like he also can shoot the ball well, he can
Speaker 1: drive close outs. He's like a guy who's an expert
Speaker 1: at capitalizing on defensive attention devoted elsewhere away from him,
Speaker 1: and then a guy who's an expert at getting defensive
Speaker 1: attention devoted to him and passing out of it. And
Speaker 1: so the two of them just kind of like seamlessly
Speaker 1: fit together. The Bucks had no chance. We'll talk about
Speaker 1: them in a minute, but quick check in at the
Speaker 1: Grizzlies at large. They're three and three. Had a huge
Speaker 1: win against Orlando last week. They had sixty six points
Speaker 1: off the bench. They went on a huge run to
Speaker 1: end the second quarter where they basically went like stop bucket,
Speaker 1: stop bucket, stop, bucket, stop bucket. Next thing you know,
Speaker 1: they're up twenty six points going into the half on
Speaker 1: a finished with like another one of those John Morant
Speaker 1: kind of like gets everybody's attention in the middle of lane,
Speaker 1: drops it off to Marcus Smart. He lays in and
Speaker 1: at the buzzer going into halftime. So really impressive win
Speaker 1: against a new Orlando Magic team that had been playing
Speaker 1: really good basketball. And then they dropped two games to
Speaker 1: Chicago and Brooklyn. But injuries played a huge role there, right,
Speaker 1: Like John Murran misses the Chicago game, and then both
Speaker 1: Desmond Bain and Marcus Smart got hurt in the Brooklyn
Speaker 1: Nets game. Marcus Smart tweaked his ankle and then Desmond
Speaker 1: Bain is dealing with an oblique injury. But then they
Speaker 1: come they go without those two guys and beat the
Speaker 1: shit out of the Bucks. And now they're three and three.
Speaker 1: So obviously the injuries make the data kind of sketchy,
Speaker 1: and Memphis is one of those teams too that when
Speaker 1: they're playing at home and they're playing hard, even when
Speaker 1: they're down bodies, they have a certain amount of depth
Speaker 1: that allows them to continue to compete, right, But they
Speaker 1: I want to try to zoom in for a second
Speaker 1: just on the core four guys. They haven't played that much,
Speaker 1: but Desmond Bain, Marcus Smart, John Moran, Jared Jackson have
Speaker 1: only played thirteen minutes together over the course of the
Speaker 1: entire season, but they have looked very good in those
Speaker 1: thirteen minutes. They've got had a one to twenty four
Speaker 1: offensive rating obviously very good, eighty three defensive rating that's excellent,
Speaker 1: forty one points per one hundred possessions net, eighty percent
Speaker 1: defensive rebound percentage. They've been really really good with that group,
Speaker 1: and a good chunk of those minutes was against Orlando
Speaker 1: in a game where they looked really really good. And
Speaker 1: I like that grouping. Like starting on the defensive end,
Speaker 1: Jared Jackson is just kind of the versaal guy that
Speaker 1: ties everything together. He's a versatile front court defender that
Speaker 1: you can put on someone like a Pala Bancaro, right,
Speaker 1: but then you also can use him as a rim
Speaker 1: protector and a bunch of different you know, kind of
Speaker 1: basic traditional defensive coverages, right, But Desmond Bin and Marcus
Speaker 1: marter A the two that make the whole thing go.
Speaker 1: They're both just like two of my favorite types of defenders,
Speaker 1: which is like that shorter, stockier defender that instead of
Speaker 1: constantly obsessing with contesting shots, focuses more on disrupting the
Speaker 1: rhythm of the scorer or the shooter before the shot.
Speaker 1: This is something I talked about all the time. But
Speaker 1: like Desmond Bin and Marcus Smart are masters of playing
Speaker 1: physical defense, fighting guys off of their spots, meaning like
Speaker 1: making them catch out of places where they typically catch,
Speaker 1: and then from there attacking the base and attacking the pocket.
Speaker 1: What that means to me is like again, if I I,
Speaker 1: for instance, I work a ton on off the dribble shooting,
Speaker 1: and I'm sixty six and I have a six ten wingspan,
Speaker 1: So like if I get into my in and out
Speaker 1: crossover whatever I'm whatever dribble combination, I'm going into a
Speaker 1: pull up jump shot. Once I get into the pull
Speaker 1: up jump shot, like I don't see your hand, Like
Speaker 1: I have too high of a release point, And I
Speaker 1: practice shooting contested shots all the time, So like your
Speaker 1: hand just doesn't mean anything to me if I get
Speaker 1: to my rhythm. But if like as I'm making those
Speaker 1: that dribble combination or trying to get to my footwork,
Speaker 1: if you're reaching at the ball and you can find
Speaker 1: a way to disrupt before I get it up into
Speaker 1: my shot, and maybe as a result, I like fumble
Speaker 1: the ball a little bit or on my gather one
Speaker 1: of my hands is kind of in like a slightly
Speaker 1: different spot than it normally would be because you managed
Speaker 1: to disrupt my rhythm. Then it doesn't matter if you
Speaker 1: don't even contest my shot. Now as I'm rising up,
Speaker 1: I'm rising up into a shot that is unorthodox or
Speaker 1: awkward because it's different than the stuff that I do
Speaker 1: when I'm practicing in the gym by myself. Right, Like
Speaker 1: this is actually not to go too much deeper, but
Speaker 1: this is one of my big beliefs about like the
Speaker 1: best scorers in the world. They're all very improvisational. They're
Speaker 1: all very good at like when their rhythm gets disrupted.
Speaker 1: They're good at like figuring shit out on the fly
Speaker 1: and finding a way to get like a decent look
Speaker 1: off anyway. But again, good defense. The best defense you
Speaker 1: can play, in my opinion, on a score is actually
Speaker 1: before the shot. And that's what makes this type of
Speaker 1: defender so useful is they're big, they're strong, they're good
Speaker 1: at getting up underneath professional scorers in disrupting everything they
Speaker 1: do before they get to the shot. Right, that's the key.
Speaker 1: Like I mean, look at Kevin Durant shooting a right
Speaker 1: shoulder fade away over a double team against the Clippers
Speaker 1: on not Opening night, but the night after Opening night. Right,
Speaker 1: Like Katie doesn't see the hand because once he gets
Speaker 1: to his fade away, that's that he's just he's in
Speaker 1: his bag at that point. Like, you have to find
Speaker 1: a way to disrupt these guys before. And so des
Speaker 1: Bean and Marcus Smart, they're ball pressuring, they're fighting guys
Speaker 1: off of spots. They're making them catching different spots. They're
Speaker 1: both switchable in a lot of these situations. They bring
Speaker 1: that point of attack defense or defending the other team's
Speaker 1: best players. And then John Muran has been pretty solid,
Speaker 1: Like he just competes, He hedges hard, he sprints back
Speaker 1: to recover to shooters. He can dig down into the
Speaker 1: lane and recover like John Moran, Like he has his
Speaker 1: defensive limitations, but that dude tries and he's got some
Speaker 1: tools and that makes him pretty impactful, and so that
Speaker 1: all pieces together into a really useful defensive group. Then
Speaker 1: on offense, we know how John Moran plays, we talked
Speaker 1: about it earlier. We know how Desmond Bane plays. He's
Speaker 1: your traditional five out or i should say modern five
Speaker 1: out offensive player in the sense that he's constantly coming
Speaker 1: off of screening actions as a threat to score, but
Speaker 1: really good at making the reads out of it. Like
Speaker 1: when the screen defender pops up, he's gonna drop it off.
Speaker 1: When people help from the weak side, he can make
Speaker 1: those kickout pass He's very good at like driving past
Speaker 1: the rim and shooting those like kind of drifting scoop
Speaker 1: shots up off the glass right like they're just we
Speaker 1: know how those guys function. But Marcus Smart is the
Speaker 1: connective piece. He's the one that makes everything work in
Speaker 1: terms of like bridging that gap between the attention that
Speaker 1: Desmond Band and John Morant garner and play finishing, whether
Speaker 1: that's hitting John Morant or Jared Jackson on rolls or
Speaker 1: shooters in spot up situations. In between that Marcus Smart
Speaker 1: as your advantage extender. He's the guy that can catch
Speaker 1: and make that next read, or drive that close out
Speaker 1: and make that next decision that turns a good shot
Speaker 1: into a great shot. I again, we haven't seen anywhere
Speaker 1: near as much of it as we'd like, but I
Speaker 1: like that core a lot. I think it works. And
Speaker 1: I know that the Marcus Smart injuries are piling up
Speaker 1: and it's been a little frustrating. But if you can
Speaker 1: get to the point where he's healthy for an extended
Speaker 1: amount of time and we get a long look at
Speaker 1: that group, I think they're gonna win a lot of games.
Speaker 1: Lots of guys have been stepping up with the injuries,
Speaker 1: like Scotty Pippen. Junr. Has been getting a lot of
Speaker 1: burn and pouring in eleven points and six assists per
Speaker 1: game on fifty one percent shooting and forty percent from three.
Speaker 1: But I think the most impressive thing that Scotty Pippen
Speaker 1: is doing is changing the like kind of the pace
Speaker 1: of the game through his ball pressure. Like when he
Speaker 1: comes in, he just starts picking up guy's full court
Speaker 1: starts poking at the basketball. This is something he's done
Speaker 1: consistently throughout this season. He's been doing it to Orlando
Speaker 1: in their guards. He did it to Damian Lillard last
Speaker 1: night and like straight up like like was giving Damian
Speaker 1: Lillard fits in the bench groups with that in that
Speaker 1: particular game, Like that's been a really useful pick up
Speaker 1: for them. Santi al Domo we talked about earlier, just
Speaker 1: a classic off ball score. He's giving fourteen points on
Speaker 1: sixty three percent true shooting. Jalen Wells has been playing
Speaker 1: a lot with the injuries to the guards, and he's
Speaker 1: just bringing aggressive three point shooting like he's just and
Speaker 1: he's been missing some of the ones when he's guarded,
Speaker 1: but he's been hitting most of the ones when he's
Speaker 1: open or when he's off the dribble. The big thing
Speaker 1: there is like he's being guarded like a shooter. His
Speaker 1: aggressive three point shooting provides spacing that goes beyond even
Speaker 1: what the shooting percentage says as far as the bigs go.
Speaker 1: Zach Edies off to a weird start, like he hasn't
Speaker 1: been able to make his hook shot. He's just one
Speaker 1: for ten on hook shots. That has obviously limited his
Speaker 1: effectiveness in the post, and the team hasn't defended well
Speaker 1: with him on the floor. But I don't think we've
Speaker 1: had nearly a large enough sample of him with the
Speaker 1: actual core of this team. And in the Orlando game,
Speaker 1: he started with the starters and they got off to
Speaker 1: a really good start. So like I would want to
Speaker 1: see a little bit more before we jump to any
Speaker 1: conclusions with Zach Edy and Zakid's going to make more
Speaker 1: than ten percent of his hook shots in the long run.
Speaker 1: And then Jay Huff he's played so well to start Deer,
Speaker 1: he got himself a new contract. He's shooting fifty percent
Speaker 1: from three, He's converting spot up possessions at one point
Speaker 1: five to three points per possession in the early going.
Speaker 1: That's obviously very good. And the main thing with him
Speaker 1: is his mobility has been a differentiator, cutting along the
Speaker 1: baseline and running in transition and just like out running
Speaker 1: other bigs, which is ironic for a guy who's as
Speaker 1: big as he is, but he's done a lot of
Speaker 1: damage this season as a cutter and in transition. Overall
Speaker 1: metrics from Memphis their twelfth in offense, sixteenth in defense,
Speaker 1: thirteenth and net rating and tenth and rebounding, so a
Speaker 1: lot of middle of the pack stuff there, But again
Speaker 1: that data is being influenced a lot by injuries, so
Speaker 1: not too much to take out of that. On the
Speaker 1: Bucks front, they're bad everywhere right now twenty fourth and
Speaker 1: offense twenty fourth and defense twenty eight in net rating
Speaker 1: and twenty eighth in rebounding in their one and four start.
Speaker 1: We'll get into some of the basketball details later, but
Speaker 1: like everything starts with this team with their willingness to
Speaker 1: compete right now, they look lifeless. And when you're older
Speaker 1: and slower already just in terms of the personnel that
Speaker 1: you have compared to the rest of the league, you
Speaker 1: have to make up for it by being an effort
Speaker 1: execution team. You have to because if like the young
Speaker 1: if the faster, the younger, faster team also plays much
Speaker 1: harder than you and is much more smarter in discipline,
Speaker 1: you're just gonna get your butt kicked every single night.
Speaker 1: And that's basically what's happening right now. They're not just losing,
Speaker 1: they're getting ran off the floor in a lot of
Speaker 1: these games like this is this is this is really
Speaker 1: really ugly, and like the effort and focus level with
Speaker 1: this team is embarrassing. Their transition defense, they have bad
Speaker 1: floor balance. Every time they gave up a dunk against Memphis.
Speaker 1: I think it was the Santiel Dama on a made
Speaker 1: layup by Damian Lillard, where as Dame was driving everybody
Speaker 1: who was sunk into the corners and was below the
Speaker 1: foul line, and it's like, what are you doing. You're
Speaker 1: never going to get a like you're never going to
Speaker 1: get stops in transition if you don't have guys above
Speaker 1: the break that actually get back on defense, that's just
Speaker 1: undisciplined basketball. That's sloppy, right, But even then it's like,
Speaker 1: guys aren't sprinting. I had a coach when I was
Speaker 1: in college who always used to talk about like your
Speaker 1: first two steps being super important in transition, Like you
Speaker 1: when you turn your body and get your momentum going
Speaker 1: from scratch. Once you get running, you can kind of
Speaker 1: ride that wave back and then it's all about just
Speaker 1: your transition defense principles. But like if you jog your
Speaker 1: first step or if you hesitate for a second, you're
Speaker 1: dead to rights against these fast teams, especially when you're
Speaker 1: on the road and they're playing in front of their
Speaker 1: home crowd, all juiced up with energy, and so it's
Speaker 1: like bad floor balance, guys not running back and then
Speaker 1: missing basic execution details, like the only two things that
Speaker 1: really matter and transition defense is take away the rim
Speaker 1: and take away and stop the ball. If you can
Speaker 1: stop the ball and take away the rim, you'll at
Speaker 1: least force them to make a jump shot. And when
Speaker 1: guys are sprinting up the floor into jump shots, might
Speaker 1: it might get one point one points per attempt, and yeah,
Speaker 1: you're you're gonna have stretches where maybe they hit a
Speaker 1: couple of threes on you, and it can get and
Speaker 1: they can go on a little bit of a run.
Speaker 1: But like really bad transition defenses, they give up lots
Speaker 1: of dunks, and that's where it can get. That's where
Speaker 1: it can become problematic, Like you have to at least
Speaker 1: if your transition defense is compromised, make them make a
Speaker 1: jump shot. Make them make a jump shot, and at
Speaker 1: automatically you'll improve your transition defense by limiting their efficiency
Speaker 1: in those situations. And they're just they're not stopping the ball.
Speaker 1: That was a huge problem against Memphis, like straight up
Speaker 1: just not stopping the ball as guys were dribbling up
Speaker 1: the floor and getting where they wanted to go, and
Speaker 1: then in those transition situations, not protecting the rim, and
Speaker 1: they were giving up cutters along the baseline for easy basket.
Speaker 1: So like they've been one of the worst transition defenses
Speaker 1: in the league. I don't know how they're gonna fix
Speaker 1: that problem until they start competing, because I mean, that's
Speaker 1: like the bare minimum is give a shit, then you
Speaker 1: can work on the execution pieces, and like none of
Speaker 1: that's there right now, and it doesn't look good. They're
Speaker 1: on ball defense is terrible. Pick and roll ball handlers
Speaker 1: are getting one point one to one points per shot
Speaker 1: attempt against them. That's dead last in the entire NBA.
Speaker 1: They brought in Gary Trent Junior into lawn Wright specifically
Speaker 1: to help with that, and so far they've only gotten worse.
Speaker 1: Gary Trent was straight up awful against John Moran last night.
Speaker 1: I know it's a tough matchup, but like he didn't
Speaker 1: do anything to make him feel uncomfortable. They've in a
Speaker 1: bottom ten ISO defense as well. They're not forcing any turnovers.
Speaker 1: It's just they're not getting anything out of their ball
Speaker 1: pressure in on ball defense. Their help side defense guys
Speaker 1: are sinking in the paint when it's completely unnecessary. We
Speaker 1: talked about that earlier with Bobby Portis. You have brook
Speaker 1: Lopez and Giannis and Tanakumpo down there. You do not
Speaker 1: need to pack the the the paint with guys that
Speaker 1: need to be guarding shooters out on the perimeter. Again,
Speaker 1: Bobby Portis is the main culprit here, but it's everybody.
Speaker 1: I've seen everybody in their role player corep make that
Speaker 1: specific mistake. Again, Like, if brook Lopez is in a
Speaker 1: drop coverage and he can reasonably protect with the role man,
Speaker 1: you do not need to be digging down from the
Speaker 1: weak side and giving away easy kickout threes. Their defensive
Speaker 1: rebounding statistically is okay, like they're giving up the ninth
Speaker 1: fewest offensive rebounds per game, but again, when you factor
Speaker 1: in they have such a massive frontline, the problem there
Speaker 1: is they're still giving away about a half dozen types
Speaker 1: of offensive rebounds a game that are long three point
Speaker 1: shot rebounds that come out towards the foul line area,
Speaker 1: and they're just not crashing from the corners. And that's
Speaker 1: where Dame has had an issue there. Gary Trent's been
Speaker 1: losing a lot of fifty to fifty balls to start
Speaker 1: this year like that. He's supposed to be a more
Speaker 1: athletic version of what they had in that position last year.
Speaker 1: Like they're just not competing enough again in these like
Speaker 1: loose ball situations. They're losing on the margins every single night,
Speaker 1: and that just puts them at a massive disadvantage. On offense,
Speaker 1: it really is mostly just extremely poor shooting. Like they're
Speaker 1: just one for thirteen on unguarded attempts in the first
Speaker 1: half last night against Memphis. That's always going to give
Speaker 1: you some issues. They're shooting just twenty nine percent total
Speaker 1: on all catch and shoot jump shots this year, so
Speaker 1: below thirty percent on catch and shoot jump shots. That's tough.
Speaker 1: Only the Spurs have been worse last year. They were
Speaker 1: top ten in that category with basically the same roster.
Speaker 1: I mean Malik Beasley. I would say Malik Beasley in
Speaker 1: the aggregate aggregate has been a better shooter than Gary
Speaker 1: Trent junior. But Gary Trent shot just as well as
Speaker 1: Malik Beasley last year, and he should shoot better than
Speaker 1: he's been shooting. A lot of guys are just shooting
Speaker 1: really really poorly. That tends to influence other things in
Speaker 1: the game, right, Like basketball is a we talked about
Speaker 1: basketball as a rhythm sport all the time, everything kind of
Speaker 1: feeds into the next thing in line. And so like
Speaker 1: you can imagine a scenario where it's like you run
Speaker 1: offense and you get a wide open three and the
Speaker 1: guy misses it and it's a long rebound. They get it,
Speaker 1: they sprint it down your throat and they get a
Speaker 1: dunk because you're not running back on defense. Then you
Speaker 1: run up the floor again, you run another play and
Speaker 1: you generate another wide open three, and that one misses two,
Speaker 1: but maybe it's a better rebound, and so you're actually
Speaker 1: able to get back and set your defense. But your
Speaker 1: point of attack defense is so bad that the ball
Speaker 1: screen just generates another wide open look and they score again,
Speaker 1: and then you go down, you generate another wide open look.
Speaker 1: Like it just kind of snowballs. The body language gets bad,
Speaker 1: guys are less willing to compete because they can feel
Speaker 1: the game slipping away, and it just kind of like
Speaker 1: snowballs into a massive problem, right, And so like that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff I think could turn around just by
Speaker 1: some shots going in. You imagine the exact same situation,
Speaker 1: wide open look. This time it goes in. Gary Trent
Speaker 1: just hits the shot that he's been missing all season.
Speaker 1: Now you have a chance to set your defense. Gary
Speaker 1: Trent feels better about himself because he just hit a shot.
Speaker 1: Now he's really getting into the ball. You defend a
Speaker 1: little bit better in your ball screen. You get a stop,
Speaker 1: Now you get a rebound, you go back down the
Speaker 1: other end. Now you're starting to build that snowball in
Speaker 1: your direction. That's that rhythm and momentum battle in basketball games.
Speaker 1: And just you missing a bunch of wide open and
Speaker 1: looks is certainly going to affect that. And so again
Speaker 1: it doesn't look good. There's a lot of bad body language.
Speaker 1: Dame in particular looks super disengaged on both ends. He's
Speaker 1: obviously just an awful defensive player, but he's also shooting poorly.
Speaker 1: He's just six for thirty three from three in his
Speaker 1: last four games, and like last night, it was like
Speaker 1: one of the worst body language games I've seen from him.
Speaker 1: He looked like he just didn't want to play. He
Speaker 1: didn't really look to score with the starting group. And
Speaker 1: then he's just getting picked up full court by Scotti
Speaker 1: Pippen Junior and he's just like fumbling the ball everywhere
Speaker 1: and just really really sloppy. Their bench is giving them
Speaker 1: nothing like Bobby Portis is cold to start the year,
Speaker 1: and he's a damaging defender. Pat Content is getting targeted
Speaker 1: every single time he's on the floor and he's not
Speaker 1: hitting threes. But I do want to give this a
Speaker 1: larger sample before we jump to any conclusions, because like,
Speaker 1: if they start hitting their open looks, that could just
Speaker 1: start making everything easier for them. But it doesn't get
Speaker 1: any easier from here. They have the Calves twice after this,
Speaker 1: the Calves that are an excellent defensive team that forces
Speaker 1: a ton of turnovers and is always looking to run
Speaker 1: the floor in transition, Like, the Calves are a real
Speaker 1: bad matchup for the Bucks. They initiate a ton of
Speaker 1: offense from the guard position, and you're talking about the
Speaker 1: worst pick and roll ball handler defense in the league. Like,
Speaker 1: there's a chance that the Calves win both of those games. Now,
Speaker 1: the first one is in Milwaukee, and so like that's
Speaker 1: the one you got to target. If you're Milwaukee, you
Speaker 1: have to beat the Calves at home. You have to
Speaker 1: rise your home crowd to just get some momentum there
Speaker 1: and see if you can't figure it out. But like
Speaker 1: there's that that's two really tough games, Okay, then you
Speaker 1: play the Jazz, that's probably a win. But then it's
Speaker 1: the Nicks and the Celtics, So like, there's a chance
Speaker 1: if they get beat by the Calves twice, there's a
Speaker 1: chance they could be sitting at two and eight by
Speaker 1: the time they get through their first ten games. That
Speaker 1: is why they have to get their shit together. That
Speaker 1: could be absolute crisis mode. Then you're looking at like,
Speaker 1: I mean, I saw a clip of Yiannis like sitting
Speaker 1: along the baseline in garbage time yesterday, Like you want
Speaker 1: to try to avoid that sort of storm cloud kind
Speaker 1: of forming over the team because that could be a
Speaker 1: runaway freight train in no time. But again, let's give
Speaker 1: it more, Let's give it a larger sample. All of
Speaker 1: these teams have only played, you know, basically a half
Speaker 1: dozen games or less, so let's give them some time
Speaker 1: to figure their shit out. All right, let's get to
Speaker 1: the mailbag. Hi, Jason Big, thanks for the great content.
Speaker 1: For a relatively new NBA follower like me, your videos
Speaker 1: are really helpful in understanding the context of each playing situation.
Speaker 1: Wanted to ask, what is the ceiling and the floor
Speaker 1: this season for the Warriors in your opinion? So they're
Speaker 1: so good in terms of their depth of quality role
Speaker 1: players that always play hard and fly around on defense.
Speaker 1: That and they're so well coached that I think their
Speaker 1: floor that's been the biggest change for me. Like I
Speaker 1: coming into the season viewed them as like in that
Speaker 1: like nine to ten seed range, and now I think
Speaker 1: like the absolute basement for them is like a home
Speaker 1: home court playing game. So like I think you're looking
Speaker 1: at like seven seed as the bottom, Like they're just
Speaker 1: gonna win so many regular season games on the strength
Speaker 1: of their depth of talent and how hard they play.
Speaker 1: The NBA just has First of all, you have these
Speaker 1: like ten teams at the bottom that the Warriors should
Speaker 1: beat basically every time they play because they're sloppy and bad,
Speaker 1: and the Warriors are deep, well coached and play hard. Right.
Speaker 1: Then you have the next twenty teams, and there are
Speaker 1: a lot of serious teams, and they're like dead serious teams.
Speaker 1: Teams that are in that like top five to six group,
Speaker 1: that are super sharp and that have lots of talent.
Speaker 1: They're gonna give the Warriors some issues. That's something I
Speaker 1: do believe because of their lack of firepower. But in
Speaker 1: that next fifteen teams there's a lot of teams like
Speaker 1: the Bucks, like the Lakers, you know, like the Sixers.
Speaker 1: There's the Suns are kind of in this group too,
Speaker 1: where it's like they have some older veteran guys, their
Speaker 1: effort inconsistency of execution could be an issue with them
Speaker 1: throughout the season. And those are the groups of teams
Speaker 1: that I think the Warriors will fare pretty well against,
Speaker 1: even though like they might struggle against a team like
Speaker 1: that in a playoff series where the firepower becomes a
Speaker 1: bigger issue. In the night and night out schedule of
Speaker 1: their regular season, they're just pain in the ass speed
Speaker 1: and execution and ball pressure and all the shit that
Speaker 1: they do is gonna just cause them to upset those
Speaker 1: teams a lot. And so, like, I really do think
Speaker 1: they're gonna win a good amount of regular season games.
Speaker 1: So I'd say at this point I would be surprised
Speaker 1: if the Warriors didn't finish above the play in just
Speaker 1: simply because of that super super high floor. But if
Speaker 1: I had to choose like their absolute floor with this group,
Speaker 1: if they made absolutely no trade, I think we're looking
Speaker 1: at like that seven to eight seed as the bottom.
Speaker 1: But I do believe that they'll finish above the play
Speaker 1: in as far as their ceiling goes, it's entirely dependent
Speaker 1: on whether or not they can make a trade. Like
Speaker 1: I know, Warriors, I know there is a segment of
Speaker 1: Warriors fans who disagrees with me about this and thinks
Speaker 1: that the Warriors arebstantially better than they're kind of like
Speaker 1: roster on paper looks, but like I'm of the opinion
Speaker 1: that if the Warriors ended up in let's say a
Speaker 1: five or six seed, they had to go on the
Speaker 1: road and win a playoff series against one of the
Speaker 1: top four teams in the West. I don't think they
Speaker 1: could so, like I think as I think, this current
Speaker 1: roster kind of has a first round exit as a ceiling.
Speaker 1: But in order to reach their ultimate ceiling, it all
Speaker 1: comes down to what kind of player they can get
Speaker 1: back into trade. And then two, what level can Steph
Speaker 1: Curry get to this year? If Steph Curry can get
Speaker 1: to the level that he was at in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: or maybe not quite that high, because I'm not sure
Speaker 1: he can get there anymore, but if you can get close,
Speaker 1: like if you can like legit play at a top
Speaker 1: ten level all season and you bring in a high
Speaker 1: powered number two. There's so much good in terms of
Speaker 1: the role players and the execution and the experience and
Speaker 1: the defensive ceiling with Draymond Green that I do think
Speaker 1: that there is a chance for them to get out
Speaker 1: of the Western Conference. And then again, like get put
Speaker 1: a bunch of a ris scrappy defenders against Boston that
Speaker 1: can cover ground in space, and maybe Steph reaches a
Speaker 1: crazy level and he gets good contributions from his number two.
Speaker 1: You have a puncher's chance there, right, But like, in
Speaker 1: order to get there, they've got to have that ceiling,
Speaker 1: and that ceiling is dependent on Steph and who you
Speaker 1: get as the number two. Next question, what archetype of
Speaker 1: player should Golden State target in a consolidation trade to
Speaker 1: take them over the top. Let's take a look at
Speaker 1: the strengths and weaknesses of the roster. Okay, they're super
Speaker 1: deep at guard and they're deep on the wing, right,
Speaker 1: Like that's that's that is a position group where there's
Speaker 1: not really much opportunity for anybody to play anyway. Right,
Speaker 1: they have plenty of athleticism, they have plenty of defense.
Speaker 1: The main position groups where they're a little weak is
Speaker 1: like at that like power forward spot for small ball groups. Right,
Speaker 1: Like when Draymond's at center, it's like, okay, there's cominga,
Speaker 1: but like we we have our question marks about cominga
Speaker 1: in high leverage situations against the best teams in the league.
Speaker 1: And then Kyle Anderson is like your other option there.
Speaker 1: And then when they go big, like do they have
Speaker 1: a big enough center? Do they have like a big
Speaker 1: enough center to actually give themselves an ability to hang
Speaker 1: with some of the huge front lines in the league,
Speaker 1: teams like Denver, teams like Minnesota, teams like the Lakers,
Speaker 1: so on and so forth. Right, So, like it's like
Speaker 1: a backup center that is a legitimate big body that
Speaker 1: they can play, and then a ford that can score.
Speaker 1: And so that to me is what I would really
Speaker 1: be targeting, is a ford that can score the basketball
Speaker 1: from the perimeter. This is why I was so high
Speaker 1: on Lori Markenen for them over the summer. Like, I
Speaker 1: don't think you want another skill guard next to Steph
Speaker 1: because then you run the trouble of like if I
Speaker 1: have Steph and another skill guard, I'm not super athletic
Speaker 1: in the backcourt anymore. I like those athletes that the
Speaker 1: Warriors are constantly playing at the two and three. The
Speaker 1: two and three between Pods and Wiggins and the Anthony
Speaker 1: Melton and Gary Payton, like all of those athletes that
Speaker 1: they have at the two and three. You're golden. Ideally,
Speaker 1: you want a forward that can score the shit out
Speaker 1: of the basketball. There's a bunch of options there that
Speaker 1: could be available this year, like Laurie Markin and I
Speaker 1: don't think he becomes available for trade until the deadline,
Speaker 1: but he's a potential option even though you missed out
Speaker 1: on him the summer. There's Jeremy Grant, There's Brandon Ingram,
Speaker 1: there could be Jimmy Butler. Like there are a bunch
Speaker 1: of guys that could become available in that grouping. Now,
Speaker 1: imagine a scenario orre you make that type of deal, right,
Speaker 1: you trade depth and draft compensation for one of those big,
Speaker 1: versatile scoring forwards. Now you can imagine a scenario where
Speaker 1: the and let's just say they managed to pull off
Speaker 1: a trade for a big bodied center. I don't think that.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's as complicated of a deal. I
Speaker 1: think you're looking I don't think you're looking for a
Speaker 1: you know, a starting level player, because I think ultimately
Speaker 1: this team goes down with Draymond at the five. I
Speaker 1: mean not in the large sample eating regular season innings,
Speaker 1: but when push comes to shove in a playoff setting,
Speaker 1: you're going down with Draymond Graan at the five. I
Speaker 1: felt the same way about the Lakers. It's like everyone
Speaker 1: wants to put Ad next to a center, and that's
Speaker 1: cute and all, but like, get a bench center of
Speaker 1: whatever you want to do to improve that situation. But
Speaker 1: when push comes to shove, you're going down with Ad
Speaker 1: at the five. Like you're you're playing your You need speed.
Speaker 1: It's it's just the way the league is. You need speed,
Speaker 1: you need to cover ground, you need to play five out,
Speaker 1: you need to create space. So you can imagine a scenario.
Speaker 1: Let's say it's Steph Curry and whichever two guard Steve
Speaker 1: Kerr feels like playing in those high leverage situations, whether
Speaker 1: that's Brandon Pajemski, maybe that ends up being a Gary Paige,
Speaker 1: Maybe that ends up being a d Anthony Melton, right like,
Speaker 1: maybe that ends up being a Buddy Healed. But then three,
Speaker 1: I think I think Andrew Wiggins kind of is just
Speaker 1: the ideal three for this team. He's you can score
Speaker 1: the ball, he can defend the other team's best player,
Speaker 1: can do all that stuff. Then you imagine Raymond Grand
Speaker 1: at the five, and then you have this big scoring
Speaker 1: forward basically, just imagine a better, more reliable veteran version,
Speaker 1: a grown man version of Jonathan Kaminga at the four.
Speaker 1: That's where it gets exciting, because now as I look
Speaker 1: at that group, like, let's say that at the two,
Speaker 1: we are looking at Brandon Pajemski and Andrew Wiggins at
Speaker 1: two and three. I've got Brandon Pajemski and Andrew Wiggins can
Speaker 1: guard the other the other team's best two perimeter players. Right,
Speaker 1: I've got Draymond Green anchoring things at the five, and
Speaker 1: then Steph and whoever it is that you get at
Speaker 1: the four can bring the real offensive firepower piece. And
Speaker 1: then you've got this bench group that has Buddy Healed,
Speaker 1: Andy Anthony Melton, and Gary Payton, was this Moody whoever,
Speaker 1: John mccamingo, whoever it is that you have remaining after
Speaker 1: that trade with Kevon Looney, kind of anchoring that as
Speaker 1: like a bench center. You have all of that there
Speaker 1: or whatever center you get back in that deal as
Speaker 1: Draymond's backup there's all of this potential for like piecing
Speaker 1: together a useful bench group because you're so damned deep
Speaker 1: and you have so many good basketball players that you
Speaker 1: can fit into that spot, right And so like that
Speaker 1: to me is like the direction that I see this
Speaker 1: going is like a forward that can really score the
Speaker 1: basketball that I think is so important for this team.
Speaker 1: One is reliable backup scoring to Steph. Two being able
Speaker 1: to actually generate offense against the best defenses so you
Speaker 1: don't have that problem you had against the Clippers, or
Speaker 1: you go up against another team that has a bunch
Speaker 1: of fast guards and so suddenly they're fast guards can't
Speaker 1: slat your fast guards, and you're not able to generate shots. Right, Like,
Speaker 1: a big scoring forward is a great counter to that,
Speaker 1: because then even if you run into a team like
Speaker 1: the Clippers that are doing a bunch of switching and
Speaker 1: they have a bunch of small guys, you have a
Speaker 1: guy who can dump the ball down to like ideally,
Speaker 1: like ideally it'd be Jonathan Kaminga in like four years,
Speaker 1: that would be like the perfect guy for that spot.
Speaker 1: But you don't have four years because Steph is getting older.
Speaker 1: And so again I'm always looking at this through the
Speaker 1: context of like the reality that the Warriors have to
Speaker 1: make some attempts to try to contend with Steph. I
Speaker 1: know there's a kind of the schism that's happening with
Speaker 1: the Warriors fans where there's like a segment of Warriors
Speaker 1: fans it's like, I would rather, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: just stay status quo and try to make something work
Speaker 1: with the young players. Here's what I think is gonna happen.
Speaker 1: If you do that, you're gonna be mediocre in the
Speaker 1: short term because you don't have enough firepower, and they're
Speaker 1: gonna be mediocre in the long term because none of
Speaker 1: these young players are superstars. A lot of them are good.
Speaker 1: I think Jonathan Kmica can be a star. I think
Speaker 1: there's all star potential there. Here's what Jonathan King is not.
Speaker 1: Jonathan Kming is not Anthony Edwards, Shake Gildess, Alexander Jannison, Tenakumpo,
Speaker 1: Nicola Joka, Luka Dancic. He is not going to be
Speaker 1: one of the very best players in the league. You
Speaker 1: are a reputable franchise in this league because you had
Speaker 1: one of those guys. You had Steph Curry for his
Speaker 1: entire career, and he won you four championships. He is
Speaker 1: the guy that gave you that potential. As soon as
Speaker 1: he's gone, that potential is gone. You can pretty quickly
Speaker 1: become a team that's just kind of interesting and exciting
Speaker 1: and has a lot of young players. But it's like,
Speaker 1: who's the guy, right, who's the exciting piece that turns
Speaker 1: all of this around? And there's just unless you had that,
Speaker 1: that would be the one thing that would change my mind.
Speaker 1: If there was one of these guys, if Moody or
Speaker 1: Kaminga or Prizemski or Trace Jackson Davis had true MVP potential,
Speaker 1: then I would totally understand your guys's point about not
Speaker 1: wanting to cash in things for this year. But you
Speaker 1: can either choose to be mediocre in the future or
Speaker 1: mediocre now and mediocre in the future. Or you can
Speaker 1: move assets to try to improve your ceiling now, or
Speaker 1: you can move Steph and try to be better in
Speaker 1: the future, which you're not gonna do because he's the
Speaker 1: heart and soul of the franchise. So like, mediocre now,
Speaker 1: mediocre in the future, or give up some of your
Speaker 1: future flexibility and asset trove to try to drive something
Speaker 1: that gives you a chance to contend with this group.
Speaker 1: That's kind of my outlook on the Warriors through the
Speaker 1: early part of the season. At this rate, would it
Speaker 1: surprise you if Ryan Dunn plays himself into the sun
Speaker 1: starting lineup. Lineups with Dunn have a plus sixteen net
Speaker 1: rating so far. It's early, but if he's making the
Speaker 1: long ball, he's exactly what they need. Their traditional starting
Speaker 1: five just seems to be too flawed. I think he
Speaker 1: should start. I don't think it's gonna happen. And the
Speaker 1: main reason why it's not going to happen is this
Speaker 1: Highest Jones thing, which there's a politics element. He took
Speaker 1: a discount basically to get a starting spot. I don't.
Speaker 1: I've been from the beginning of this process. Do not
Speaker 1: understand the Ties Jones thing. Like, you're right, they struggled
Speaker 1: with ball pressure against Minnesota. You're right. There are times
Speaker 1: that Bradley Beal, Kevin Durant and Devin Booker struggled to
Speaker 1: like get the defense in rotation and like just trust
Speaker 1: each other to play drive and kick basketball. Those things
Speaker 1: are true, But by far the biggest issue with this
Speaker 1: team is there like physical element, like their ability to
Speaker 1: win rock fights, their ability to handle just ugly basketball,
Speaker 1: and so I always thought that going the direction of
Speaker 1: someone like Ryan Dunn like putting if you have you know,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal on the floor, and
Speaker 1: you have a center of some kind, because that's the thing.
Speaker 1: I don't think they're going to start Ryan Downe at
Speaker 1: center long term. I think that would just be too
Speaker 1: much to ask Kevin Durant defensively to help Brian down
Speaker 1: on that back line with like just size and physicality.
Speaker 1: But like, I think we'll see some more small ball
Speaker 1: groups with Ryan Dunn and Ties Jones both out there.
Speaker 1: But in terms of the starters, if it's gonna be
Speaker 1: the three stars in a center, your options there are
Speaker 1: like put another guard out there, or put a big
Speaker 1: forward that doesn't much a dirty work and can shoot threes,
Speaker 1: and so like I totally would go that direction. I
Speaker 1: would just start Booker, bokd Ryan Dunn, and then whichever
Speaker 1: centers not currently soiling himself like the Sun centers have
Speaker 1: been most of the year. I do think their centers
Speaker 1: will play better over time. Like Nurkis is just playing
Speaker 1: really the shitty right now, but I think he'll get
Speaker 1: I think he'll be better than he has been. But like,
Speaker 1: the the thing with the Tyes Jones thing is like
Speaker 1: he does help you a little bit with managing ball
Speaker 1: pressure and managing the flow of the game, but he
Speaker 1: does not help you on defense. And I also do
Speaker 1: believe in diminishing returns off the ball, and so like
Speaker 1: there's just not that big of a gap off the
Speaker 1: ball between Tis Jones and some of these other role
Speaker 1: players that they have on the bench. And so my
Speaker 1: thing is like, by the way that's manifested in the
Speaker 1: numbers for all the talk about Tis Jones. And I
Speaker 1: saw another article it this morning where people are acting
Speaker 1: like it was the most magical decision ever. They've been
Speaker 1: better without Ties Jones this year. They're negative with ties
Speaker 1: Jones on the floor, and they're like plus eleven net
Speaker 1: with ties Jones off the floor. And again that's small
Speaker 1: sample size that'll leaven out a little bit. I do
Speaker 1: think they'll have moments where they look great with Ties Jones.
Speaker 1: But to me, that was like there was a small
Speaker 1: hole that you could plug there with Tyas Jones, and
Speaker 1: you chose to, but there's a giant hole, which is
Speaker 1: like your inability to hang in the physical areas of
Speaker 1: the game. Ryan Dunn is a massive like like he's
Speaker 1: Ryan Dunn. Developing this quickly into a useful offensive player
Speaker 1: is one of the biggest swing factors for a franchise
Speaker 1: that I've seen relative to what the deal seemed like
Speaker 1: at the time, which is just a mid first round
Speaker 1: pick in recent NBA history. Like this is crazy, Like
Speaker 1: the Sun's got a like a wrecking ball of a
Speaker 1: defensive forward that is knocking down three. You say they
Speaker 1: got him in the tail like the latter portion of
Speaker 1: the first round, Like that is crazy, guys, that is crazy.
Speaker 1: That is like a soon super fortunate thing that happened
Speaker 1: to this team. And like I just I in the
Speaker 1: long run would like to see the Sun's gear more
Speaker 1: towards like Hey, Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, and Devin Booker,
Speaker 1: how about you guys figure out ball pressure and actually
Speaker 1: just hold yourselves accountable as decision makers to consistently make
Speaker 1: the right reads, get the defense in rotation, and play
Speaker 1: drive and kick basketball. And that way, Ryan Dunn can
Speaker 1: be out there helping you kick everyone's ass in the
Speaker 1: rock fight areas of the game. And I think you're
Speaker 1: gonna do a lot more winning, So I'm hoping that's
Speaker 1: the direction they go in the long run. But again,
Speaker 1: they're four and one, so there's that too. The Cavs
Speaker 1: have been debatably the most debatably the most impressive team
Speaker 1: in the league this year, even with Donovan Mitchell playing
Speaker 1: well below his standards. What is their ceiling with him
Speaker 1: playing like Donovan Mitchell? So this is the thing I
Speaker 1: talked about this yesterday, Like everything with Kenny Atkinson, has
Speaker 1: been about trying to improve their play on the margins, right,
Speaker 1: like forcing more turnovers, getting out in transition a ton,
Speaker 1: just in general, like hunting transition opportunities as much as possible,
Speaker 1: doing more switching. All these little things that they've done
Speaker 1: that have helped them build advantage on the margins. But
Speaker 1: one of the things I talked about in yesterday's show
Speaker 1: is when you get to the later rounds of the playoffs,
Speaker 1: you inevitably run into other good teams, Like when you
Speaker 1: get to the conference finals and finals, or hell, let's
Speaker 1: just call it the conference semis and on. When you
Speaker 1: get to the top eight teams in the league, most
Speaker 1: of them are well coached, most of them are disciplined,
Speaker 1: most of them have good habits. Most of them also
Speaker 1: do their best to win on the margins, and so
Speaker 1: suddenly it kind of turns into this, like how is
Speaker 1: your half court offense versus our half court defense? And
Speaker 1: how is your half court defense versus our half court offense? Right?
Speaker 1: That is where Donovan Mitchell is the ultimate ceiling razer. Right, Like,
Speaker 1: if you can get Donovan Mitchell playing at or near
Speaker 1: the superstar level, and then the modest improvements we've seen,
Speaker 1: like Darius Garland played one of his best games as
Speaker 1: a pro the other day against the Knicks, that's exciting.
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley is having a really interesting start to the
Speaker 1: offensive season, getting more on ball reps. If you can
Speaker 1: piece all of that together into a higher quality half
Speaker 1: court offense, that is where the ceiling lies for this
Speaker 1: Cliff and Cavaliers team. Why can't everyone just reacts to
Speaker 1: the career Wenby is having instead of reacting to the
Speaker 1: career they think Wenby is going to have. He's not
Speaker 1: anywhere near anywhere close to the top twenty five players
Speaker 1: in the league right now. Some of y'all are high
Speaker 1: on your own predictions. This is a confusing one to me.
Speaker 1: Victor Weben Yama just had a twenty five five, five,
Speaker 1: five and five game last night, which I think has
Speaker 1: only been has only been done a handful of times
Speaker 1: in the history of the NBA. It also had only
Speaker 1: been a handful of games, and over the tail end
Speaker 1: of last year, he was like literally awesome and turned
Speaker 1: a bad Spurs team into a net positive when he
Speaker 1: was on the floor over the tail end of the year, Like,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to just sit here and like rewrite
Speaker 1: the history of Victor Wembenyama over a bad week and
Speaker 1: a half, Like, yeah, I'm disappointed in how he's looked,
Speaker 1: talked a bunch of shit this summer about no one
Speaker 1: as hard as he does, and he came out playing
Speaker 1: like shit, it's not a good look. But it's been
Speaker 1: a week and a half. Let's give him some time, guys,
Speaker 1: it'll be I would imagine that we're gonna see a
Speaker 1: lot more of like what we saw last night from
Speaker 1: Victor women Yam in the long run. The anticipated Luca
Speaker 1: Shake Gilless Alexander MVP race this year hasn't fully manifested
Speaker 1: itself yet. Have you noticed anything with either of them
Speaker 1: that's worth monitoring beyond shooting luck Luca got hurt to
Speaker 1: start training camp. Anytime you go away from the game
Speaker 1: for a while and then come back, it takes a
Speaker 1: while to get your legs back underneath you. He's clearly
Speaker 1: just like playing his way into shape right now. He also,
Speaker 1: more or less in terms of physical conditioning, looks like
Speaker 1: where he was last year, and so Luca just has
Speaker 1: a tendency to play his way into shape. And so
Speaker 1: that's always the thing with Luca is like, is he
Speaker 1: gonna play his way into shape before he gets banged up,
Speaker 1: because if he gets banged up, that's where it can
Speaker 1: start to snowball on him a little bit. But like
Speaker 1: him getting hurt to start camp is really the only
Speaker 1: reason that went the way it did on the shave front.
Speaker 1: He's really just trying to build out a part of
Speaker 1: his game that's new. He's attempting more than twice as
Speaker 1: many pull up three point shots this year as he
Speaker 1: did last year, and so as he's working, that's investing.
Speaker 1: He knows that if there was a must win playoff
Speaker 1: game tomorrow, Shay's probably going to not take seven pull
Speaker 1: up threes a game. Right He's trying to invest in
Speaker 1: that now so that he has that in his bag
Speaker 1: when he gets to the postseason this year, I would
Speaker 1: imagine that Luca and SGA will be our front runners
Speaker 1: for MVP in the long run, given the plethora of picks,
Speaker 1: depth of Kurt roster, and the need to pay young
Speaker 1: stars in the not too distant future. If you were
Speaker 1: the Thunder, would you consolidate assets sooner than later? It's
Speaker 1: tough to rock about this sturdy, but they won't slash
Speaker 1: can't play everybody. This is where you got to look
Speaker 1: at the difference between deadline deals and deals over the summer.
Speaker 1: You're right if you make some sort of giant deal
Speaker 1: over the course of this season that has the potential
Speaker 1: to rock the boat, so to speak, and mess with
Speaker 1: the rock solid chemistry that this team has. Right, deals
Speaker 1: over the summer though, that's just part about being a
Speaker 1: professional athlete. And then, no matter what happens, if guys
Speaker 1: come in and out of the door over the summer,
Speaker 1: you have the ability to from the start of training
Speaker 1: camp re establish your culture and move on, which, by
Speaker 1: the way, they've done with Alex Crusoe in Isaiah Hartenstein
Speaker 1: this year. Right, So like the offseason is the best
Speaker 1: time to make deals, right, here's the only thing that's
Speaker 1: tricky though, There is a certain amount of like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you do have a lot of talent now, and you
Speaker 1: might not have as much talent in the future, and
Speaker 1: you might lose some of these assets for nothing, right,
Speaker 1: So that's where you have to make a call based
Speaker 1: on this season. That's what deadline deals are for. When
Speaker 1: we get to February, Isaiah Hartenstein will hopefully have returned
Speaker 1: and played a good amount of basketball. You'll have a
Speaker 1: lot of exposure to Alex Caruso. You'll get to see
Speaker 1: where Chet Holmgren is, Like Chet Holman has been playing
Speaker 1: like one of the top fifteen players in the league
Speaker 1: to start the year. By the way, side note, I
Speaker 1: had a lot of people upset, like I do player
Speaker 1: rankings in the summer as like a very in depth
Speaker 1: look at how I expect things to go this season
Speaker 1: once we start playing basketball. I'm only going to talk
Speaker 1: about the way guys are actually playing. Like you're right,
Speaker 1: I had Victor wemen Yama ranked eighteenth and Chet wasn't
Speaker 1: in my top twenty five. Chet's playing better basketball than
Speaker 1: him to start this year. I'm trying to acknowledge that,
Speaker 1: Like the purpose of these shows is to react to
Speaker 1: the basketball that's actually happening. It's very different than in
Speaker 1: the summer. In the summer, everything is very big picture,
Speaker 1: it's theoretical, it's a lot of that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: Right during the season. I really am only interested in
Speaker 1: covering what's actually happening in these games. And so like
Speaker 1: when I talk about, oh, this guy's playing at a
Speaker 1: top ten level, this guy's playing at a top fifteen level,
Speaker 1: I don't care about my power rankings in the past
Speaker 1: or player rankings. I'm talking about what's actually happening. We're
Speaker 1: talking about the actual games that Like, there's games on
Speaker 1: tonight that no one's gonna care about what the player
Speaker 1: rankings were back in August in this particular game, games
Speaker 1: that are happening tonight. Okay, so like that's just a
Speaker 1: little side Dia tribe. But anyway, on the thunderfront, Chet's
Speaker 1: been playing at a top fifteen level to start this year.
Speaker 1: Let's see if it lasts. If we get to February
Speaker 1: and CHET seems kind of limited and the stuff at
Speaker 1: the start of the year was kind of fluky, and
Speaker 1: there appears to be a substantial hole somewhere on the roster.
Speaker 1: This is a team with real championship potential, you kind
Speaker 1: of owe it to your team to make the investment
Speaker 1: to try to give them what they need to win.
Speaker 1: Like last year, they were just kind of a cute
Speaker 1: story in a lot of ways. They were one seed.
Speaker 1: I never thought they were gonna win multiple playoff rounds,
Speaker 1: and they did it. They lost in the second round.
Speaker 1: They actually impressed me by pushing Dallas the way that
Speaker 1: they did in that second round. Series this year is real.
Speaker 1: They came into the year as one of the biggest
Speaker 1: championship favorites. They have huge pressure and expectations. Shake kills.
Speaker 1: Alexander is in his late twenties now, like this is
Speaker 1: winning time for the Oklahoma City Thunder. And so when
Speaker 1: you get to February, if you sit there and you're like,
Speaker 1: I like our point of attack defense. I like the
Speaker 1: depth and versatility of our point of attack defense. I
Speaker 1: like our defensive front line. I like our defensive versatility.
Speaker 1: In terms of the scheme, I think our shot creation
Speaker 1: is good. Shay Jalen and Chets seem totally up for it.
Speaker 1: We have tons of shooting. I like our transition speed.
Speaker 1: We're holding up well on the glass. Our size is good,
Speaker 1: like if you look at it and you go, everything's good,
Speaker 1: then yeah, you don't make a deal, yeah, like because
Speaker 1: it's not worth messing with the chemistry, right, But yeah,
Speaker 1: if you get to February and it's like, all right,
Speaker 1: everything looks good. But like this Isaiah Hartenstein thing at
Speaker 1: the five next to Chet really isn't solving that problem
Speaker 1: at the power forward spot. Guys, we got to go
Speaker 1: get a power forward. You know what, we talked about
Speaker 1: this forever. We never really thought it was worth pulling
Speaker 1: the trigger. I think I think we should pull the
Speaker 1: trigger on Lorii market In. Let's just go let's just
Speaker 1: call Danny Ainge and let's offer him everything, and let's
Speaker 1: try to make this thing happen, right, Like, because at
Speaker 1: that point, you have a gaping hole in your roster
Speaker 1: and you have real championship pressure and expectations, and yeah,
Speaker 1: you've got some assets that are burning a hole in
Speaker 1: your pocket. You better do something with them, right, and
Speaker 1: you take the risk of whatever could happen with team
Speaker 1: chemistry at that point. But like that, that is a
Speaker 1: decision you make in February, and you only do it
Speaker 1: if you feel like you have a big hole that
Speaker 1: you have to fix. In order to actually reach the
Speaker 1: promised land in the playoffs. Do you believe the Orlando
Speaker 1: Magic can stay around five hundred while Pala while Pallo
Speaker 1: is out and who do you believe needs to step
Speaker 1: up in doing so? So? Yes? I think they can.
Speaker 1: Main reason why is they're a really good defense and
Speaker 1: rebounding team. That's like another extremely high floor concept. Right.
Speaker 1: If you defend hard and you rebound well, you're going
Speaker 1: to be in a lot of basketball games from there.
Speaker 1: It's just about the fact that you still have a
Speaker 1: high level shot creator. In this case, Franz. Franz Wagner
Speaker 1: is the guy that's got to step up. If Franz
Speaker 1: Wagner can maintain the high offensive floor, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: he's been shooting the ball really well to start this year.
Speaker 1: He's such a gifted playmaker at the forward spot. If
Speaker 1: Franz can be a decent offensive engine and you defend
Speaker 1: well and you rebound well, you got a chance to
Speaker 1: stay around five hundred in that Eastern Conference schedule. Should
Speaker 1: we have seen this coming with the Bucks? They were
Speaker 1: a mess since the Dock hiring, and with their effort
Speaker 1: this year, it seems more like a continuation rather than
Speaker 1: a new issue. Is this core really lost in needing
Speaker 1: a change or is this something that can be rectified
Speaker 1: by playing more. I kind of I didn't see this
Speaker 1: bad of a start this year, but like I did
Speaker 1: talk a lot this summer about how the Bucks were
Speaker 1: below fifty wins last year and a week Eastern Conference,
Speaker 1: despite the fact that Damon Honest both played seventy three games,
Speaker 1: and there was a good segment of Bucks fans that
Speaker 1: were like all over my case about that, because oh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna big bounce back year, We're gonna win fifty
Speaker 1: something games. We're a top tier championship contender. And I
Speaker 1: just was like, if you were, you would have won
Speaker 1: more with Damon Giannis last year than you did. And
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about like, oh, they should have won
Speaker 1: sixty games last year, but they didn't even get to fifty.
Speaker 1: Like if they I would have been more on board
Speaker 1: with that, if they were like a fifty three fifty
Speaker 1: four win team last year, and you're like, Okay, we're
Speaker 1: a fifty three to fifty four win team. We're adding
Speaker 1: in another training camp with Dame. Dame's in a better
Speaker 1: place emotionally and mentally. We made these roster upgrades, Let's
Speaker 1: go do it. I was kind of under the impression
Speaker 1: that they would be more or less the same team
Speaker 1: that they were last year, which is a mediocre regular
Speaker 1: season team that has somewhat of a high playoff ceiling
Speaker 1: because of Dame and Giannis. They even worse than that
Speaker 1: to start this year. But mostly that comes down to
Speaker 1: they're shooting the ball like shit, and as they're shooting
Speaker 1: the ball like shit, it's exacerbating their transition defense issues,
Speaker 1: and it's manifesting in a lot of bad body language
Speaker 1: and the vibes are really bad. So, like, I think
Speaker 1: it's way too early to completely write the Bucks off
Speaker 1: because they might just start making shots and that might
Speaker 1: just snowball into a bunch of good for them. But
Speaker 1: right now, definitely a bad look. But I will say
Speaker 1: I didn't understand any of the Bucks fans that had
Speaker 1: like really high expectations for this particular team. I just
Speaker 1: didn't see where they were getting that sense of optimism from.
Speaker 1: Do you think that Lakers might have a legitimate chance
Speaker 1: to go to the finals this season, or at least
Speaker 1: the second round of the playoffs. I don't think they
Speaker 1: have any chance to go to the finals. Is currently constructed.
Speaker 1: They just are too slow on the perimeter. This is
Speaker 1: a big thing that I've been talking about for years now,
Speaker 1: Like your ability to move and cover ground on the
Speaker 1: perimeter is one of the most important parts of the game, right, Like,
Speaker 1: that's how you guard, that's how you pressure the ball,
Speaker 1: that's how you chase shooters around, That's how you get
Speaker 1: up and down the floor in transition. That's how you
Speaker 1: generate dribble penetration, which is one of the big sources
Speaker 1: of wide open three point looks. Like perimeter athleticism is
Speaker 1: one of the most important elements of modern NBA basketball,
Speaker 1: and the Lakers just don't they're athletic. Perimeter players are
Speaker 1: either rookies like Dalton connector Brownie James, or a guy
Speaker 1: that is super young and inexperienced like Max Christi, who
Speaker 1: has been a disaster on offense to start the year. Right, So, like,
Speaker 1: those are your athletes at the guard position. The Lakers
Speaker 1: are actually really strong in so many ways on their roster.
Speaker 1: They're huge, The Ruy Lebron ad front line is awesome.
Speaker 1: They're excellent scoring in the paint. Big shout out to
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Anthony Davis. There. Their defensive front line
Speaker 1: when they need to be is really good. When when
Speaker 1: Lebron is engaged in flying around, when Ruey is engaged,
Speaker 1: when Ad is being ad their defensive front line is great.
Speaker 1: I think they have plenty of shooting. I think they
Speaker 1: have plenty of ball handling. I think they have plenty
Speaker 1: of playmaking talent. They have all of those boxes checked,
Speaker 1: and then they just have like an empty box for
Speaker 1: perimeter athleticism, and it's just like a death sentence for
Speaker 1: this particular team. And that's why that's why I keep
Speaker 1: talking about them needing to upgrade that D'angela Russell spot
Speaker 1: into an athletic guard. As far as their ceiling goes,
Speaker 1: that's really like that's the first got to do something
Speaker 1: to upgrade the perimeter athleticism. After that, it's like Lebron
Speaker 1: and Ad right, Like, can Lebron get like if you
Speaker 1: can do that, if you can bring in a real
Speaker 1: athlete at the two for d Low and you get
Speaker 1: the same Lebron you got last year in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and you get the same Anthony Davis who got last
Speaker 1: year in the playoffs, and to start this year, and
Speaker 1: you have JJ Reddick adding that focus and attention to
Speaker 1: detail over the course of the season so that the
Speaker 1: established championship habits. Now we're talking about a team that
Speaker 1: I think can win the conference and who knows what
Speaker 1: would happen in the NBA Finals, But like the lebron
Speaker 1: hasn't been very good to start this year, that's a
Speaker 1: little tricky. And then that guard athleticism piece is just
Speaker 1: a huge problem. And so again I think that we're
Speaker 1: gonna learn Again, it's super early in the season still,
Speaker 1: so I think we're gonna learn a lot more about
Speaker 1: the Lakers in the long run. But no matter what happens,
Speaker 1: because I think I think JJ Reddick's is really good,
Speaker 1: and I think that this roster is pretty good, and
Speaker 1: so I think that they're gonna win a lot of
Speaker 1: games no matter what. But like they could be, let's
Speaker 1: say we fast forward and they're you know, twenty and twelve.
Speaker 1: You know, once we get through the first thirty two
Speaker 1: games of the season, I will still be sitting here
Speaker 1: at twenty and twelve saying this is cute and all,
Speaker 1: but they're not going to be able to beat four
Speaker 1: good teams without real guard athleticism, which they don't have
Speaker 1: right now. So That's kind of where I'm at. Do
Speaker 1: you think the way Ruey is playing can be suitable
Speaker 1: next to Lebron if they upgrade the two? Also, do
Speaker 1: you think the Lakers one through four shooting pack a
Speaker 1: switching package will change once they get a defensive minded too.
Speaker 1: So a couple things. So, first of all, I think
Speaker 1: Ruey has been much better this year than he was
Speaker 1: towards the tail end of last year. He had a
Speaker 1: really rough playoff series against Denver. A bad matchup too,
Speaker 1: because it's Michael Porter Junior as a movement shooter, and
Speaker 1: his biggest weakness on defense right now is tracking shooters
Speaker 1: on the perimeter. But here's the thing, excuse me, if
Speaker 1: you turnd Lo into a real perimeter athlete. Now, I
Speaker 1: think Austin Reeves is actually a good perimeter defender, He's
Speaker 1: just miscast as a lead perimeter defender. You can't have
Speaker 1: him guarding Donovan Mitchell or the best perimeter player on
Speaker 1: the other team every night. He needs to be guarding
Speaker 1: the second best perimeter player. So at that point, if
Speaker 1: you have two of those guys, because right now you
Speaker 1: also have to hide d Lo, that's the fucking problem.
Speaker 1: So like, if you find a way to where you
Speaker 1: have a guard at the two that can guard the
Speaker 1: other team's best guard, and you have a guard at
Speaker 1: the one in Austin that can guard the second best
Speaker 1: perimeter player or the movement shooter. Chances are you'll find
Speaker 1: somebody for Ruiy to guard that kind of fits more
Speaker 1: into his skill set. But like everything comes down to
Speaker 1: the upgrade at the two for that specific reason. But
Speaker 1: I've been happy with Rui. I think he's a rebounding better.
Speaker 1: His decision making is getting crisper. He brings all of
Speaker 1: that waves of athleticism that the Lakers can bring from
Speaker 1: their front line. He's off to a good start this year.
Speaker 1: Three more, Hey Jason, do you think the Celtics can
Speaker 1: be stopped? And how high is their ceiling with chrisops
Speaker 1: Porzingis coming back? Love the show, Keep up the good work.
Speaker 1: The ceiling is enormous with this particular team. With chrisops Porzingis,
Speaker 1: he brings the rim protection that they don't have without him.
Speaker 1: He brings the ability to attack switches on the other
Speaker 1: end with size, which is something they don't have without him.
Speaker 1: And then he's just like one of the better above
Speaker 1: the break shooting bigs that we have in the league. Right,
Speaker 1: So he's a huge ceiling raiser for them. How can
Speaker 1: they be stopped? It would require a team that can
Speaker 1: match them in perimeter speed, that can contain the ball,
Speaker 1: stagnate their offense, and at least allow your best player,
Speaker 1: whoever that is, to go toe to toe with Tatum
Speaker 1: and Brown and hopefully out execute them. But that's only
Speaker 1: going to happen if you have such a strong defense
Speaker 1: that you can force Tatum and Brown to play a
Speaker 1: lot of one on one. That's going to require switching, right, So,
Speaker 1: any team that has five players that can all reasonably
Speaker 1: well guard on the perimeter, you start switching everything. If
Speaker 1: you switch everything, you shut down the Celtics pet actions.
Speaker 1: If you shut down the Celtics pet actions, you can
Speaker 1: make them play io ball. If you make them play
Speaker 1: iceo ball, you might be able to outexecute them. The
Speaker 1: problem is you have to be There's a lot of
Speaker 1: different elements that it's actually very complicated, right, Like, the
Speaker 1: Celtics attack a lot of switching with inside seals right
Speaker 1: where they screen on the bottom side and slip into
Speaker 1: the open end of the floor. So you have to
Speaker 1: be a switching team that has a good amount of
Speaker 1: physical size, and you have to be really sharp in
Speaker 1: terms of like little details like navigating those actions and
Speaker 1: getting out in front of them, in terms of like
Speaker 1: avoiding those inside seals. So like, there's so many different
Speaker 1: elements that go into it. It's so much easier said
Speaker 1: than done. But if Boston loses this year, it will
Speaker 1: probably be to a team that can switch everything and
Speaker 1: has a lot of good perimeter defenders that will force
Speaker 1: Tatum and Brown to play a lot of one on
Speaker 1: one and that that team, the team that's beating Boston,
Speaker 1: would need to have a player that can outplay those
Speaker 1: guys in slow down half court environments. Right now, the
Speaker 1: only roster I look at that I really think has
Speaker 1: a good chance to do it is Oklahoma City, And
Speaker 1: even then I would pick Boston, but at this point
Speaker 1: in time, we'll see how it goes over time. But
Speaker 1: they're the only team that I think can really defend,
Speaker 1: can get away with switching looks. And yeah, I do
Speaker 1: think that Shay is a better half initiator in the
Speaker 1: Tatum and Brown, so that would be the advantage for
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City there. Once your take on the future of
Speaker 1: the Pelicans, the way I see it, the entire decade
Speaker 1: of rebuild and resources have led to such a whatever outcome,
Speaker 1: and it makes me wonder if they just end up
Speaker 1: the way they did at the end of the Eight Days.
Speaker 1: The problem is is the Zion the concept Zion is
Speaker 1: such a bad defensive player that you have to put
Speaker 1: an athletics center next to him that can anchor a defense.
Speaker 1: But Zion at his best has always played with space
Speaker 1: as a driving kick player, and that's why they keep
Speaker 1: going away from their big looks. And that's why Larry
Speaker 1: Ants was so important to them last year. That's why
Speaker 1: youonas Valentiunis was off the floor in every big, high
Speaker 1: leverage moment like that. That's the main issue is like
Speaker 1: if you bring in a stretch five, a guy that
Speaker 1: spaces the floor for Zion, then you're not as good
Speaker 1: defensively as you need to be. If you bring in
Speaker 1: the athletic center that can anchor a defense, then you
Speaker 1: don't have the benefit that comes from Zion and his
Speaker 1: driving kick potential. So it's kind of just like Zion's
Speaker 1: kind of like unique build making him a difficult player
Speaker 1: to build around. But I do want to see again,
Speaker 1: guys don't over evaluate the Pelicans right now. They had
Speaker 1: I talked about this with the Lakers a lot of
Speaker 1: times in star trades, when you send out multiple good
Speaker 1: role players, you need your star to come in and
Speaker 1: play really well to justify it. Right, as are happening
Speaker 1: to the Lakers. They give up kuzmun KCP, they bring
Speaker 1: in Russell Westbrook. Russell doesn't play well. It looks really bad.
Speaker 1: Right in this case, you give up Dyson Daniels, you
Speaker 1: give up Larry Nance Junr. You bring in to Jontey Murray,
Speaker 1: but now he's hurt, so you're not getting anything from him,
Speaker 1: and you've lost your depth and you're just not as
Speaker 1: good as your defensively, and so that's what ends up
Speaker 1: being the problem. And so let's give them some time
Speaker 1: to get healthy and see what they look like. All right.
Speaker 1: So that's gonna be it for today, guys. As always,
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We'll be
Speaker 1: back on Monday with Power Rankings. I sincerely appreciate you
Speaker 1: guys for rocking with me and I'll see you on
Speaker 1: Monday the volume. What's Up? Guys? As always, I appreciate
Speaker 1: you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would
Speaker 1: actually be really helpful for us if you guys 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.