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Speaker 1: good to hoops tonight. You're at the volume heavy Monday.
Speaker 1: Everybody of both of you guys, had a great weekend.
Speaker 1: I got a dampackshow for you today. We're doing our
Speaker 1: first edition of Power Rankings today as we rank the
Speaker 1: top ten teams in the league and dig a little
Speaker 1: bit into each one of the those teams. And then
Speaker 1: at the tail of the show, I got a mail bag.
Speaker 1: We're gonna hit a couple of different teams that we're
Speaker 1: not in the Power Rankings.
Speaker 2: This week.
Speaker 1: You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe
Speaker 1: to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any
Speaker 1: more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore
Speaker 1: JSNLT so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget
Speaker 1: about our podcast feed where you get your podcasts under
Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight. Also, we're running a couple of new Hoops
Speaker 1: Tonight social media feeds on Twitter, on Instagram, and on Facebook,
Speaker 1: so make sure you guys follow there where we release
Speaker 1: more content. And then, last minute least keep dropping mail
Speaker 1: bag questions and those YouTube comments so we can keep
Speaker 1: hitting them throughout the remainder of the season. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So with power rankings, I think
Speaker 1: it's very important every time I do a list to
Speaker 1: kind of lay out criteria for you guys. I intend
Speaker 1: to use our weekly Monday power rankings as an opportunity
Speaker 1: to talk about who's been playing well as of late. Okay,
Speaker 1: so this is not our contender's list, the contenders list.
Speaker 1: It would take a lot of information for me to
Speaker 1: change how I feel about it.
Speaker 2: Team.
Speaker 1: For instance, like most of the teams have only played
Speaker 1: between five and seven games for the most part every team.
Speaker 1: If you cherry pick a specific stretch of the season,
Speaker 1: you can find a five or seven game stretch where
Speaker 1: they look awesome, and you can find a five to
Speaker 1: seven game stretch where they look like shit, right Like,
Speaker 1: that's kind of part of the deal.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I will say at the beginning of the season, in particular,
Speaker 1: I'm a little more tuned in because this is when
Speaker 1: everyone's playing hard. No one's bored in October, right Like,
Speaker 1: you don't get bored until later into the season. So
Speaker 1: there's a little bit more to learn now. But I'm
Speaker 1: never going to overreact to any five or seven game
Speaker 1: sample to change my contender rankings. Those are large sample
Speaker 1: sized types of changes. We'll check in on our contender
Speaker 1: rankings periodically throughout the season, especially when something changes, right.
Speaker 1: But I want Power Rankings to be an opportunity for
Speaker 1: us to shine a light on teams that are playing
Speaker 1: well as of late. So obviously, this first edition is
Speaker 1: going to cover the entire season, but as we get
Speaker 1: deeper into the season, the Power Rankings are gonna kind
Speaker 1: to focus more on who's playing well in the last.
Speaker 2: Week or two.
Speaker 1: It'll be like the entire season, but an extra emphasis
Speaker 1: on the last week or two. So that just gives
Speaker 1: you a little an idea of how I'm going to
Speaker 1: structure those power rankings. So if we're like a couple
Speaker 1: months into it, and there's like a team that's like
Speaker 1: five hundred, but they go five and one over a
Speaker 1: two week span and have a bunch of impressive wins,
Speaker 1: even though I might not necessarily think they're one of
Speaker 1: the ten best teams in the league, they might crack
Speaker 1: into the top ten of our top ten of our
Speaker 1: power rankings, so that we have an opportunity to shout
Speaker 1: them out. Hopefully that makes some sense. One other note
Speaker 1: on this week's rankings, seven of my ten teams ended
Speaker 1: up being from the Western Conference. The gap between the
Speaker 1: East and the West is a parent right away. To
Speaker 1: start this year, the West has eleven teams that are
Speaker 1: five hundred or better. The East has five teams that
Speaker 1: are five hundred or better. Now that should level out
Speaker 1: a little bit, but also the West is fifty and
Speaker 1: forty three head to head against the Eastern Conference, which
Speaker 1: is actually an even higher win percentage cross conference than
Speaker 1: they had last year. So only three Eastern Conference teams
Speaker 1: made the Power rankings this week. However, there's one team
Speaker 1: in particular, the Bucks, that I wanted to touch briefly
Speaker 1: on today that will hit in the mail bag. All right,
Speaker 1: without any further ado, let's get to the rankings. Number ten,
Speaker 1: the Houston Rockets. They're off to a three and three start,
Speaker 1: but they've had some impressive wins. They blew out a
Speaker 1: full strength Grizzly squad. They went into Dallas and controlled
Speaker 1: the game from wire to wire. Dallas never took a
Speaker 1: lead in that game. Dallas did an incredible job defending
Speaker 1: Luca and Kyrie in that game, just making things difficult.
Speaker 1: They still got the numbers, but they didn't overhelp. They
Speaker 1: kept them playing a lot of isoball. Dallas only generated
Speaker 1: eight wide open threes in the entire game, per NBA
Speaker 1: dot Com, and that's well down from what you expect
Speaker 1: from that Dallas offense. They forced them into a bunch
Speaker 1: of tough, contested jumpers. Ball pressure is the strength of
Speaker 1: this Houston Rockets team. I've talked a lot about this
Speaker 1: concept in the early part of the season, but I
Speaker 1: find ball pressure to be one of the most underappreciated
Speaker 1: traits of a good basketball player, and an underappreciated like
Speaker 1: ability that a team has to change the pace of
Speaker 1: basketball games. Get up into the ball handler's jersey, make
Speaker 1: it so that it's difficult for him to get across
Speaker 1: half court. Pressure off the ball, to fighting guys off
Speaker 1: of spots. Think of it like this. A team runs
Speaker 1: a horn set, they're used to everyone, you know, getting
Speaker 1: to where they want to get to the ball handler,
Speaker 1: getting to the middle of the floor. You know whatever
Speaker 1: that cross screen that you're running around the elbows before
Speaker 1: you flow into whatever action, you're running out of horns,
Speaker 1: if you can like disrupt that by pressuring the ball
Speaker 1: and like fighting guys off a spot so that if
Speaker 1: he catches at the high post instead of catching at
Speaker 1: the elbow, he catches like extended out or in a
Speaker 1: different spot. You blow up a screening action with physical pressure.
Speaker 1: You do that kind of stuff. It gets the other
Speaker 1: team out of their offense. It makes them uncomfortable, it
Speaker 1: makes them play a way that they don't want to play.
Speaker 1: And so I am always going to be kind of
Speaker 1: keeping an eye out for teams that can really pressure
Speaker 1: the ball, and like Houston can really pressure the ball.
Speaker 1: The Warriors game, then a game gets the Warriors of
Speaker 1: the weekend that the Warriors won in overtime where the
Speaker 1: Warriors took a big lead early and the Rockets crawled
Speaker 1: all the way back actually took a brief lead in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter and ended up sending the game to overtime.
Speaker 1: But in large part because of their ball pressure, they
Speaker 1: are picking up full court causing issues. Tarr Easton at
Speaker 1: one point had like back to back pick sixes, and
Speaker 1: he's like literally on his back, hyperventilating on the ground
Speaker 1: after getting the second one while they're playing five on
Speaker 1: four the other way. Because they're just playing so hard
Speaker 1: and they're so young, and they're so athletic, and they
Speaker 1: leverage that to make the games kind of messy, right
Speaker 1: Like their offense can bog down from time to time.
Speaker 1: We know that they're kind of inconsistent shooting the ball,
Speaker 1: but they make you uncomfortable and they can make these
Speaker 1: games messy, and that is where they can find opportunities
Speaker 1: to get wins. Their metrics right now, they're eleventh in
Speaker 1: offense eleventh and defense ninth, and net rating second, offensive
Speaker 1: rebounding kind of an intriguing staff for them, eleventh and
Speaker 1: overall rebounding. Jalen Green is off to an intriguing start,
Speaker 1: He's taking ten threes a game and hitting thirty nine
Speaker 1: percent of them. In the Dallas Luca hits a step
Speaker 1: back three, cuts it to three, and Jalen Green ends
Speaker 1: up hitting a massive step back three kind of off
Speaker 1: the dribble combination three on the left wing.
Speaker 2: That ice is that game.
Speaker 1: Three point shooting is exciting from him early, and it
Speaker 1: still feels like they have some room to improve on
Speaker 1: the offensive end, like Fred van Vliet doesn't really have
Speaker 1: it going. Shan Gun post up is a big part
Speaker 1: of their offense that hasn't really started clicking yet. That
Speaker 1: will ultimately determine whether or not they can make any
Speaker 1: noise like actually get a real playoff spot in the
Speaker 1: stacked Western Conference. But really really like what I'm seeing
Speaker 1: in terms of their ball pressure on the perimeter right now.
Speaker 1: Number nine, the Memphis Grizzlies. They're off to a four
Speaker 1: and three start. There are two losses. They had two
Speaker 1: ugly losses in there to the Bulls and Nets. But
Speaker 1: it was kind of weird if you look at the context,
Speaker 1: Like John Morant misses the Bulls game, Marcus Smart and
Speaker 1: Desmond Bane both get hurt early in the Nets game.
Speaker 1: They have a couple of really impressive wins surrounding that.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm kind of looking at them as a
Speaker 1: team that's a little better than their record. They blew
Speaker 1: out a full strength Orlando Magic team. They beat that
Speaker 1: shit out of the Bucks without Desmond Bain or Marcus
Speaker 1: Smart on the floor. Just ran them off the floor
Speaker 1: and transition all day long in that game. They also
Speaker 1: defended Dame really well in that game. Shout out to
Speaker 1: Scotti Pippen Junior, who has been an exciting kind of
Speaker 1: piece that's popping for them this year. Then they went
Speaker 1: into Philly and blew out the Sixers, albeit without Joel
Speaker 1: Embiid and Paul George. They're metrics right now. They are
Speaker 1: eighth in offense, fourteenth in defense, tenth and net rating
Speaker 1: fifth and rebounding. The injuries to Baine and Marcus Smart
Speaker 1: especially are like discouraging, just because they're such an important
Speaker 1: part of what makes this team tick on both ends
Speaker 1: of the floor. Obviously, Desmond Bain, who can really run
Speaker 1: action off the ball next to Job, but also take
Speaker 1: over the offense when jaws off the floor. Marcus Smart
Speaker 1: is this important connective piece. He gives them another way
Speaker 1: to get the defense in rotation by posting up. He's
Speaker 1: both Bain and Smart, in my opinion, are two really
Speaker 1: good physical perimeter defenders. And it's just discouraging because Marcus
Speaker 1: mart just hasn't been able to stay on the floor
Speaker 1: for this team, and I kind of just want to
Speaker 1: see what it looks like in a larger sample. But
Speaker 1: this team is really deep and they have a lot
Speaker 1: of guys that are stepping up. The rookie Jalen Wells
Speaker 1: has popped right away. Is a guy who can provide
Speaker 1: aggressive off ball scoring, which is super valuable with John Morant,
Speaker 1: like just doesn't need a ton of space and is
Speaker 1: super aggressive in catch and shoot situations, which kind of
Speaker 1: makes him a useful off ball offensive player. Santi al
Speaker 1: Dama is hooping career highs in scoring volume and efficiency.
Speaker 1: He's got great chemistry with John Morant as a baseline cutter,
Speaker 1: as a transition runner and relocating around the three point
Speaker 1: line as a shooter. They've taken a couple of guys
Speaker 1: that the Lakers' front office saw no value in in
Speaker 1: Scottie Pippen Junior and Jay Huff, and they've turned him
Speaker 1: into useful rotation players. Both have looked flat out good
Speaker 1: at different parts this year. Jaren Jackson's off to a
Speaker 1: great start this year. He's averaging twenty points per game
Speaker 1: on sixty five percent true shooting. So depth has helped
Speaker 1: carry them, But the story of their success to this
Speaker 1: point in the season has been John Morant's playmaking, and
Speaker 1: I wanted to take a second to put a light
Speaker 1: on that. He is third in the league and assists
Speaker 1: per game, behind Trey Young and James Harden. The way
Speaker 1: he's getting his assist reminds me a lot of prime
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook, like way back like twenty sixteen, seven Team
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, where it's like he starts to mix with
Speaker 1: the ball and all eyes are on him and there's
Speaker 1: a lot of guys sneaking along the baseline. He's hitting
Speaker 1: cutters along the baseline a lot. He's hitting corner three
Speaker 1: point shooters a lot. So he's kind of like gearing
Speaker 1: everybody towards him and finding those openings on the back line.
Speaker 1: But he's also doing some super advanced stuff in ball screens.
Speaker 1: Talked about this the other day, but he's doing a
Speaker 1: really good job using his eyes to manipulate the lowman,
Speaker 1: which is the guy who's guarding the shooter in the
Speaker 1: weak side corner who typically comes over to help on
Speaker 1: the roll right, And he's doing a good job of
Speaker 1: manipulating that guy and finding openings to either skip the
Speaker 1: pass to that shooter or to hit the role man.
Speaker 1: But he's making that read based on how he can
Speaker 1: manipulate the defense with his eyes. Jaws off to a
Speaker 1: great start. I'm not sure how much more injury luck
Speaker 1: the injury bad luck. I should say that the Grizzlies
Speaker 1: can handle. But the Grizzlies are off to a good start.
Speaker 1: Number eight the New York Knicks. After the catastrophe on
Speaker 1: opening night against Boston, they've won three out of four.
Speaker 1: Had a decent second half lead against Cleveland in the
Speaker 1: game they lost, but they had pretty bad stretch And
Speaker 1: shout out to the Cleveland Cavaliers are playing good basketball.
Speaker 1: They played really well in the late third, early fourth.
Speaker 1: They ended up taking that game from them. They had
Speaker 1: a blowout win against the Pacers that was impressive. A
Speaker 1: blowout win against the Pistons that was impressive. They had
Speaker 1: a big second half comeback against the Miami Heat in
Speaker 1: Miami where Karl Anthony Towns went bonkers. Was doing a
Speaker 1: ton of work in the post, was just cooking Nikola
Speaker 1: Yovich and then did some damage one on one to
Speaker 1: Bam and crunch time. They were spamming pick and pop
Speaker 1: where Kat just kept catching at the top key and
Speaker 1: either shooting at three or driving the close out. Did
Speaker 1: a lot of damage there. His best game of the season.
Speaker 1: Their metrics so far their third in offense, sixteenth in defense,
Speaker 1: but a one oh six defensive rating. If you take
Speaker 1: out the Boston game. Now, you can't take out the
Speaker 1: Boston game. It's part of the deal. But the point
Speaker 1: is is they've defended well since that Boston game. Their
Speaker 1: fifth in net rating and eighth in rebounding. Although they
Speaker 1: are not the offensive rebounding force that they were last year.
Speaker 1: It's a different type of team. Mckal bridges all the
Speaker 1: concern about his shooting, it's been okay. He's been forty
Speaker 1: two percent from three since the Boston game, averaging eighteen
Speaker 1: points a game.
Speaker 2: So even if it doesn't.
Speaker 1: Necessarily look the way that we want it to as
Speaker 1: jumpers going in and overall, I just like the new
Speaker 1: dimension that Karl Anthony Towns brings to the offense. The
Speaker 1: pig and pop is a real weapon that they can
Speaker 1: go to at the end of these games. And again,
Speaker 1: I like when they use it almost as a mains
Speaker 1: with which to set up driving kick, where it's like,
Speaker 1: even though guys are going to close out to cat
Speaker 1: like get let him beat that guy off the dribble,
Speaker 1: just attacking the close out and then play driving kick
Speaker 1: from there, You've got all of this talent. Really really
Speaker 1: like the dimension and the variety that we're seeing in
Speaker 1: that New York Knicks offense.
Speaker 2: Number seven.
Speaker 1: The Dallas Mavericks relative to their expectations coming out of
Speaker 1: an NBA Finals appearance, it's a little bit of an
Speaker 1: up and down start for them, But Luka Doncic has
Speaker 1: been hurt and so he hasn't really looked like the
Speaker 1: Luca that we expect him to be. In the long run,
Speaker 1: they've taken care of business when they're supposed to, Like
Speaker 1: they beat Orlando without Palo, a nice wire to wire
Speaker 1: victory last night. They beat San Antonio, they beat Utah,
Speaker 1: but they're one and two against some of the higher
Speaker 1: teams that they've played against. So they lost to Phoenix
Speaker 1: in Phoenix. They beat Minnesota in Minnesota, classic way that
Speaker 1: they always dominate Minnesota, but they had a really ugly
Speaker 1: performance at home against the Houston Rockets where they never
Speaker 1: took a lead and trailed by as many as twenty
Speaker 1: three in the second half. Didn't move the ball well
Speaker 1: in that game, and that's going to be kind of
Speaker 1: one of the things that we talk about over the
Speaker 1: course of the season is they clearly, through what I've
Speaker 1: seen on film, implemented a lot more variety in their offense,
Speaker 1: but they still have a tendency sometimes to start spamming
Speaker 1: stuff and like really really get into some like old
Speaker 1: fashioned lack of ball and player movement type of offense.
Speaker 1: And again it's really early and they're still figuring some
Speaker 1: shit out and it'll take some time. But they didn't
Speaker 1: move the ball well in that Houston game. They only
Speaker 1: generated eight wide open threes, which again that's their bread
Speaker 1: and butter, is like getting a ball moving, getting all
Speaker 1: their skill involved generating high quality catch and shoot situations.
Speaker 1: But still, again it's a lot of new players, it's
Speaker 1: a lot of new stuff that they're running. It's and
Speaker 1: Lucas not in peak shape right now, so like, give
Speaker 1: it some time, they'll be fine.
Speaker 2: And all of that.
Speaker 1: They're foreign too, they're foreign two, and most excitingly, they're
Speaker 1: third in defense right now. They do a really good
Speaker 1: job of protecting the rim, but they also chase teams
Speaker 1: off the three point line. It's an analytically smart approach
Speaker 1: to defense. It's keeping them in a very very good
Speaker 1: defensive foundation that's going to help them win a lot
Speaker 1: of games. Seventeenth in offense, that's going to improve in time.
Speaker 1: The only real red flag right now is are twenty
Speaker 1: third in rebounding, but I think that'll stabilize over the
Speaker 1: course of the season. And again, the defense stuff is
Speaker 1: super encouraging and Luca is going to continue to get
Speaker 1: better in time. And new system, new players always give
Speaker 1: it time to get their footing. Wait till that offense
Speaker 1: gets cooking. When that offense gets cooking, they're gonna start
Speaker 1: racking up some wins. And they're already four and two.
Speaker 1: Number six, the Los Angeles Lakers played the toughest schedule
Speaker 1: in the NBA to start the season. Their opponent win
Speaker 1: percentage so far as sixty seven percent. But they've done
Speaker 1: pretty well. They're four and two out the gates. They
Speaker 1: beat three straight teams to start the season that are
Speaker 1: all in the Western Conference. Playoff mix. They beat the
Speaker 1: they beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, kind of controlled that game
Speaker 1: from start to finish. Really impressive come from behind win
Speaker 1: against the Phoenix Suns, and then another impressive win against
Speaker 1: the Kings where they kind of fell behind in a
Speaker 1: third quarter run where their athleticism started to rise to
Speaker 1: the surface as an issue, and then Lebron pulled that
Speaker 1: game out. Then they lost a tough crunch time game
Speaker 1: in Phoenix, and then they laid an absolute egg in Cleveland.
Speaker 1: It just got ran off the floor and that one
Speaker 1: was not pretty at all. They did right the ship
Speaker 1: in Toronto, but there were some athleticism issues that kind
Speaker 1: of started to rise to the surface in that game
Speaker 1: as well. And so more or less, the Lakers are
Speaker 1: kind of exactly what I thought they would be to
Speaker 1: this point. Like I think they're a good team that's
Speaker 1: a good offense, which is what they have been. Their
Speaker 1: starting lineup is awesome. They're seventy five minutes of Austin
Speaker 1: di Lo Ruie Lebron ad they're plus ten net rating
Speaker 1: in those seventy five minutes. Again, against the toughest schedule
Speaker 1: in the league. They've been good on both ends of
Speaker 1: the floor. That lineup is crushing people in the glass.
Speaker 1: They're grabbing fifty seven percent of available rebounds. But as
Speaker 1: we've seen, when they're starting, their starting lineup is so
Speaker 1: big and so skilled that they can kind of make
Speaker 1: up for their perimeter athleticism weaknesses. But as soon as
Speaker 1: they start to mingle the bench group with the starting lineup,
Speaker 1: they get smaller. And when they get smaller and less skilled,
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, the off their perimeter athleticism
Speaker 1: issues rise to the surface. You guys have seen it,
Speaker 1: and again we've talked about ball pressure and how it's valuable,
Speaker 1: but this team doesn't handle it well. Like look at
Speaker 1: the Minnesota game, Dante DiVincenzo to kill Alexander Walker to
Speaker 1: super athletic guards, they start picking up full court and
Speaker 1: causing problems for the Laker guards. The offense bogs down
Speaker 1: for a little bit. The King's game, late third quarter, again,
Speaker 1: it's always like, right when that starting lineup comes out
Speaker 1: in that late part of the third quarter, when they're
Speaker 1: a little bit more tired, they've been playing for a while,
Speaker 1: the lineups are smaller, less skilled. That's when the athleticism
Speaker 1: comes to the surface as an issue. The Kings cause
Speaker 1: problems for them there, even that Raptors game, Like they're
Speaker 1: young and they're athletic, and they started playing really hard
Speaker 1: because they're down and they're trying to work their way
Speaker 1: back into the game, and the Lakers just kind of
Speaker 1: struggle in those environments. So again, like they're fine, they're
Speaker 1: a good team. They're gonna win lots of games. They're
Speaker 1: going to be as long as Lebron and Ad stay
Speaker 1: relatively healthy, I think they'll be above the play in.
Speaker 1: That's all good, But this perimeter athleticism issue is a
Speaker 1: real problem that they're going to have to address this
Speaker 1: this year. There's two main ways that it's showing up.
Speaker 1: One transition defense. This is one stat for you guys
Speaker 1: to drive home just how bad the Lakers transition defense
Speaker 1: has been. The Lakers are eleventh in half court defensive rating,
Speaker 1: so according to Cleaning the Glass, they've been the eleventh
Speaker 1: best half court defense, but in overall defense defensive rating
Speaker 1: for all possessions regardless of where they take place, the
Speaker 1: Lakers are twenty seventh in defensive rating, so they are
Speaker 1: the fourth worst defense in the NBA despite being the
Speaker 1: eleventh best half court defense. And it's because they're getting
Speaker 1: absolutely shredded in transition. Lebron and Ad are not running
Speaker 1: the floor well enough to start the year. That is
Speaker 1: a huge problem. And then two, they do not have
Speaker 1: athletes in the back court that can make up for
Speaker 1: the fact that they're constantly in the these disadvantage situations
Speaker 1: with their guards back in transition. It's a real problem.
Speaker 1: It's gonna take better commitment from Lebron and Ad and
Speaker 1: it's gonna take an upgrade in perimeter athleticism. The second
Speaker 1: place where you're seeing that issue pop is where other
Speaker 1: teams leverage their athleticism, which is what I talked about earlier,
Speaker 1: what the Kings did, what the Wolves did, what the
Speaker 1: what the Toronto Raptors did in the second half of
Speaker 1: their game. Like, when teams really start to leverage their
Speaker 1: athleticism is when the Lakers start to have those issues.
Speaker 1: So they're off to a good start four and two, again,
Speaker 1: four and two with the toughest schedule in the league.
Speaker 1: You had to take that ten times out of ten
Speaker 1: if you're a Laker fan. But there definitely are some
Speaker 1: issues that they're gonna have to address in the long run.
Speaker 1: They're also getting into an easier part of their schedule.
Speaker 1: They're at Detroit tonight, at Memphis, Philly, Toronto, Memphis at home,
Speaker 1: than at San Antonio, at New Orleans, and then home
Speaker 1: for Utah, and then they have Orlando without Palo most likely,
Speaker 1: so like then things get tougher again. So like I
Speaker 1: think there's a good chance to go seven to two
Speaker 1: in that stretch. I think that they'll drop one of
Speaker 1: the Memphis games. They'll probably lose in Memphis, and they'll
Speaker 1: probably beat mem at home, and then I don't know
Speaker 1: if it'll be the game at New Orleans, although Lakers
Speaker 1: have always had their number, the game at New Orleans
Speaker 1: or one of these other teams that's younger an athletic
Speaker 1: might just get them on a game when they're being lazy.
Speaker 1: But I think they'd probably go seven to two in
Speaker 1: that stretch, and so we could be looking at an
Speaker 1: eleven and four Lakers team in two weeks, which would
Speaker 1: unquestionably be a very good start for that team. Number five,
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors easily the biggest surprise out in
Speaker 1: the Western Conference. There's two big surprises this year, Cleveland
Speaker 1: Cavaliers at the top of the East and the Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors again, if you look at the tail end
Speaker 1: of last year, they were bad against teams that were
Speaker 1: five hundred or better. Steph didn't look like a top
Speaker 1: ten player anymore. At the tail end of last year,
Speaker 1: they again huge high leverage games, like gotta beat the
Speaker 1: Pelicans at home, and then they lose, like here we are,
Speaker 1: we're in Sacramento, we have a chance to get a
Speaker 1: playoff spot, and they get their butts kicked like. It
Speaker 1: looked bleak for the Warriors after last season, so bleak
Speaker 1: that you could argue that it wasn't even worth really
Speaker 1: investing in them in terms of a trade. They have
Speaker 1: completely flipped the script to start this year. Just a
Speaker 1: couple of key signings, much better. Buying a training camp
Speaker 1: seems to have worked wonders for like setting roles for
Speaker 1: all these guys. They're super deep, they're super fast. This
Speaker 1: is a crazy staff for you. They have just fifty
Speaker 1: five points scored by Steph Curry through six games in
Speaker 1: they're five and one. That's awesome. Now, they've played a
Speaker 1: very light schedule out of the gates, but they when
Speaker 1: you factor in the fact that Steph is out, it's
Speaker 1: still pretty impressive. To beat the Pelicans twice without Steph
Speaker 1: and without Wiggins and without the Anthony Melton, that's impressive.
Speaker 1: To beat the Rockets without Steph, without the Anthony Melton,
Speaker 1: that's super impressive. And that was a fun game too,
Speaker 1: Like the Rockets are a good team. They jumped them early,
Speaker 1: but the Rockets are a good team. They battled back.
Speaker 1: They got back in the game with ball pressure, and
Speaker 1: it was really cool to see the way different Warriors
Speaker 1: step up at different parts in the game. In crunch
Speaker 1: time in regulation, Buddy Healed and Brandon Pazemski made like
Speaker 1: created shots in one on one situations against good defenders
Speaker 1: and scored, you know, like that like really high level
Speaker 1: schock creation from them. And then in overtime, Jonathan Kaminga
Speaker 1: had like just three jaw dropping plays. He had a
Speaker 1: left shoulder fade away that was like a tough, like
Speaker 1: Kobe style fadeaway that he hit. He had like two
Speaker 1: ridiculously athletic drives to the basket where he got buckets
Speaker 1: of one in transition where he was like shot out
Speaker 1: of a cannon. It was unbelievable. They end up getting
Speaker 1: a big win, But the story of this team is depth.
Speaker 1: They don't have a single player aside from Steph Curry
Speaker 1: that anyone would rank among the top fifty players in
Speaker 1: the NBA. But they have thirteen players that are all
Speaker 1: good NBA rotation players and specifically as an athletic trait,
Speaker 1: they have an incredible amount of speed on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins is fast, Jonathan Minga is fast, Moses Moody
Speaker 1: is fast, Brandon Pazemski's fast as bigs, Tray Jackson Davis
Speaker 1: is fast, Draymond Green is fast, Lindy Waters is, Gary
Speaker 1: Payton is fast. They have a lot of fast guys.
Speaker 1: They have a lot of speed. And then the other
Speaker 1: thing too is many of those guys can run action.
Speaker 1: They have a liked Anthony Melton, who I didn't mention it.
Speaker 1: He's fast as well. He can run action. Brandon Pajemski
Speaker 1: can run action. Lindy Waters can come off of a
Speaker 1: screen and hit a shot. Moses Moody can come off
Speaker 1: of a screen and hit a shot. Like these guys
Speaker 1: are they all can shoot on the move, dribble over
Speaker 1: these actions and make reads like that. They just are
Speaker 1: really really talented on the back end of their roster,
Speaker 1: makes them very deep and gives them a very very
Speaker 1: high floor. This has allowed Steve Kerr to do what
Speaker 1: he does best, which is apply structure to a situation.
Speaker 1: They're running a super structured offense, especially with Steph out
Speaker 1: of the lineup, and then on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor, they're playing Steve's Steve's preferred style. Remember Steve
Speaker 1: wants to switch, contain, play passing lanes. That's like Steve
Speaker 1: Kurr's bread and butter on the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: And because they have so much defensive talent, they can
Speaker 1: keep waves in waves of that style regardless of which
Speaker 1: lineup is on the floor, and that's allowing them to
Speaker 1: force a ton of turnovers, and that's allowing them to
Speaker 1: do a ton of damage with their speed in transition.
Speaker 2: Off of it.
Speaker 1: I talked about this a lot with the Calves, but again,
Speaker 1: switching containing, playing passing lanes, that is a great way
Speaker 1: to force turnovers in the NBA. This team has an
Speaker 1: incredibly high floor, and I think they're gonna win a
Speaker 1: lot of regular season games. They are heading into a
Speaker 1: tougher part of their schedule though. After the Washington game tonight,
Speaker 1: they go on the road to Boston. On the road
Speaker 1: to Cleveland, on the road to Oklahoma City and then
Speaker 1: home for Dallas. So I think at that point Warriors
Speaker 1: fans will see a little bit more of my point
Speaker 1: as it pertains to their offensive ceiling and the fact
Speaker 1: that they'll need to add more firepower to contend with
Speaker 1: the top of the league. But it's hard not to
Speaker 1: be excited about their start. Their fourth and offense, second, defense,
Speaker 1: tenth and rebounding, and our number one net rating team
Speaker 1: through this Monday, November fourth, I should say through Sunday,
Speaker 1: because it's not counting Monday's games.
Speaker 2: Number four.
Speaker 1: The Phoenix Suns another team that had a brutal schedule
Speaker 1: to start the year. They've had the third toughest schedule
Speaker 1: in the league to start, yet their five and one,
Speaker 1: sixteenth in offense, sixth in defense, eighth, and net rating
Speaker 1: seventeenth in rebounding by far the most exciting stats coming
Speaker 1: from Phoenix in this early part of the season.
Speaker 2: I've got two of them for you.
Speaker 1: One seventy one percent assist percentage, number one in the
Speaker 1: entire NBA. That means seventy one percent of their made
Speaker 1: field goals are assisted. Last year, they were fourteenth in
Speaker 1: the NBA at just sixty three percent, So they've dramatically
Speaker 1: improved how many of their baskets are coming out of
Speaker 1: actually moving the basketball around. Again, Like, this is something
Speaker 1: I've talked about a lot. If they're a pull up
Speaker 1: jump shooting team, they have a certain ceiling on them.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying they shouldn't take pull up jump shots,
Speaker 1: but if they rely on that too much, it puts
Speaker 1: a certain ceiling on them. If they become a drive
Speaker 1: and kick team like Boston and they generate high quality
Speaker 1: three point attempts off the catch, that's where their true
Speaker 1: offensive ceiling is. And like that, to me, that seventy
Speaker 1: one percent indicator or assists percentage is a really strong
Speaker 1: indicator that they're playing the right style. They're also the
Speaker 1: second big stat that's positive coming out of Phoenix. Last
Speaker 1: year they were nineteenth in three pointers made per one
Speaker 1: hundred possessions. This year they're sixth, generating a lot more
Speaker 1: high quality three point attempts off of that drive and kickball.
Speaker 1: Now here's the thing. Statistically, the offense hasn't even really
Speaker 1: taken off yet, but it's a strong indicator that it
Speaker 1: will because they're moving the ball and they're generating threes
Speaker 1: and when it does. I think they'll be able to
Speaker 1: reach a higher ceiling than they were in years past.
Speaker 1: I'm seeing some of the most beautiful driving kick possessions
Speaker 1: in the modern MBA coming out of this Phoenix Sun's
Speaker 1: offense because of how talented their perimeter players are, and
Speaker 1: I'm really really excited to see where they can get
Speaker 1: to by the.
Speaker 2: End of this year.
Speaker 1: I'm not as high on the ties Jones fit as
Speaker 1: everyone else. I've kind of elaborated on that in the show.
Speaker 1: I won't get too far into it today, but the
Speaker 1: gist of it is, I think navigating ball pressure, bringing
Speaker 1: the ball at the floor is a pretty small issue
Speaker 1: in the grand scheme of what had caused the Sun's
Speaker 1: issues last year. I thought it mostly came down to
Speaker 1: athleticism and strength and physicality and handling rock fights.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm so stoked about the Ryan dunpick. Hitting
Speaker 1: on the Ryan Dunpick has helped them hit an athletic
Speaker 1: level that they didn't have previously. And I don't think
Speaker 1: people will really understand what he's doing offensively yet, Like
Speaker 1: he's actually scoring at volume minutes. He's hitting thirty nine
Speaker 1: percent of his threes, but he's doing it at a
Speaker 1: rate of nine attempts per thirty six minutes. Like that,
Speaker 1: that's like that's like high usage player type of stuff
Speaker 1: that you're seeing at Like, that's like, I'm a knockdown, aggressive,
Speaker 1: green light shooter type of aggressive shooting that we're seeing
Speaker 1: out of Ryan Dunn, and he's making them in forty
Speaker 1: five minutes of Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, and Bryan Dunn
Speaker 1: sharing the floor together, they have a one to seventeen
Speaker 1: offensive rating in a one hundred defensive rating. That's plus
Speaker 1: seventeen per one hundred possessions. Mike Budenolzer is a better
Speaker 1: offensive coach than Frank Vogel. He has stabilized them on
Speaker 1: that end of the floor, and they've actually defended in
Speaker 1: a very analytically sound way. Again, they're chasing teams off
Speaker 1: the three point line. They're never going to be an
Speaker 1: elite paint defense because they don't really have a legitimate
Speaker 1: rim protector, but they're doing a decent job there and
Speaker 1: they're guarding the three point line well, they're forcing teams
Speaker 1: into mid range jump shots. They're forcing over ten opponent
Speaker 1: mid range attempts per game. That's top five in the
Speaker 1: NBA right now. They just look like a sharper better
Speaker 1: version of last year's team, Number three, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Speaker 1: They're six and zero out of the gates, although they've
Speaker 1: played a somewhat light schedule, but they're undefeated and there's
Speaker 1: a Nass kicking and the Nuggets in there. So I
Speaker 1: don't want to make two light of it. But a
Speaker 1: lot of the same trends from last year. They're forcing
Speaker 1: a lot of turnovers, They're playing in transition, a lot
Speaker 1: two major changes. I'm noticing. Chet is playing at an
Speaker 1: insanely high level and is getting more usage. His usage
Speaker 1: rate is up. He's blocking well over three shots per game.
Speaker 1: He's having an incredible defensive start to the season. And again,
Speaker 1: like when you increase, he's increased his scoring volume and
Speaker 1: usage with a dip or without a dip, excuse me,
Speaker 1: in his efficiency, Like that's tough to do, especially for
Speaker 1: a young player. To do more while also maintaining your
Speaker 1: efficiency is like the challenge of a young player developing,
Speaker 1: and he's doing that well. And then both Jalen Williams
Speaker 1: and Shake Kilvis Alexander are working extensively to change their
Speaker 1: shot profile. They're both taking about double the pull up
Speaker 1: three point shots that they took last year, and shay
Speaker 1: In particularly struggling a little bit with it. They're investing
Speaker 1: time and repetition in getting those guys to the point
Speaker 1: where they're more comfortable shooting from three off the dribble,
Speaker 1: just trying to increase their efficiency, which I admire, and
Speaker 1: playing against this light schedule, this is the time to
Speaker 1: do it. But they are heading into a tougher stretch
Speaker 1: of their schedule.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: They have Orlando tonight, although that'd be a tougher matchup
Speaker 1: if Powow is actually healthy. But after that they go
Speaker 1: to Denver, then home for Houston, home for Golden State,
Speaker 1: and then they have a couple of easier games and
Speaker 1: then they go They play Phoenix in Dallas later the
Speaker 1: following week at home, So we're gonna get to see
Speaker 1: them play some tougher teams and see how they stack
Speaker 1: up at that point in time. Number two the Boston Celtics.
Speaker 1: They dropped a game in Indie where they somehow looked
Speaker 1: more impressive. They erased a twenty one point fourth quarter
Speaker 1: lead to send that game to overtime. Jason Tatum hit
Speaker 1: a ridiculous step back three at the top that sent
Speaker 1: that game to overtime, but then Pascal Siakam ends up
Speaker 1: hitting a couple more shots than the Celtics do in
Speaker 1: ot and the Pacers end up getting that win. But
Speaker 1: they're six and one first and offense again, thirteenth in defense,
Speaker 1: which we'll talk about in a minute, their fourth and
Speaker 1: net rating in fourteen and rebounding, which again we'll talk
Speaker 1: about a minute. So with the defense and rebounding stuff,
Speaker 1: they're also struggling to protect the paint a little bit,
Speaker 1: like they're nineteenth and opponent paint points allowed.
Speaker 2: But some of this is to be expected.
Speaker 1: Like they're holding out Horford's minutes relatively low so that
Speaker 1: they don't wear them out in the early part of
Speaker 1: the season. That means there's a lot of cornet. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of nemus quetta out there, Like they're playing
Speaker 1: their end of the bench guys that like I shouldn't
Speaker 1: say end of the bench guys, but they're playing back
Speaker 1: into the rotation guys that would not be in their
Speaker 1: playoff rotation if they're healthy. And so some of these
Speaker 1: rebounding and defense woes are somewhat to be expected. Their
Speaker 1: transition defense has also been pretty bad, which usually Boston's
Speaker 1: transition defense is really good, So I think part of
Speaker 1: that is a lot of these games have been blowouts,
Speaker 1: so these games are loose a lot of the time.
Speaker 1: But again, I let's just put it this way, I'm
Speaker 1: zero percent worried about Boston's defense. I when I watch them,
Speaker 1: anytime they want to tighten the screws, I feel like
Speaker 1: they can and in clutch situations, although they've only been
Speaker 1: in two of them this year, they have an eighty
Speaker 1: six defensive rating, which is excellent, So I have no
Speaker 1: doubt that Boston's going to be able to get the
Speaker 1: stop that they need when they need to get them.
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown is slumping a little bit, but I'm not
Speaker 1: worried about it. The biggest thing I'm watching is Tatum
Speaker 1: and is shooting. Like if Tatum goes up a level,
Speaker 1: then I think this Boston team becomes unbeatable. They're already
Speaker 1: a favorite with Tatum kind of status quo. But if
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum can go up a level and just reach
Speaker 1: that next level of reliable three level scoring, if he
Speaker 1: can get to that point, that's where I think this
Speaker 1: team becomes legitimately unbeatable. He started the season super well.
Speaker 1: But now we're seven games in and Jason Tatum's getting
Speaker 1: one point zero three points per jump shot and he's
Speaker 1: shooting thirty six percent overall, which is actually a tiny
Speaker 1: bit down from where he was last year. In the
Speaker 1: regular season, he was at one point zero four points
Speaker 1: per jump shot, and that was with him lighting the
Speaker 1: world on fire against the Knicks in the first game. So, like,
Speaker 1: I'm just curious to see where that stabilizes. My guess
Speaker 1: is it'll stabilize slightly above where it was last year,
Speaker 1: because I do think he's a better shooter than he
Speaker 1: was last year. But we'll see in the larger sample,
Speaker 1: and if it ends up well above where it was
Speaker 1: last year, that's when we all need to, you know,
Speaker 1: start being really scared that this could end ugly for
Speaker 1: everybody as Boston runs away.
Speaker 2: With it again.
Speaker 1: One last Celtic I wanted to shout out Peyton Pritchard.
Speaker 1: I think he's arguably been their fourth past player this year.
Speaker 1: He's scoring at real volume and efficiency, and he's become
Speaker 1: one of the best dirty work guys in the league.
Speaker 1: He's changing games by coming in and really picking up
Speaker 1: the ball and applying a ton of ball pressure, which,
Speaker 1: as we've talked about, is super valuable. He sneaky, seems
Speaker 1: to win every fifty to fifty ball. He rebounds well
Speaker 1: for a small guard. He just looks better and that's
Speaker 1: he got another talent boost for an already stacked Boston roster.
Speaker 2: But number one the surprise of the season.
Speaker 1: The Cleveland Cavaliers league best seven to zero, some really
Speaker 1: impressive wins. They beat the Nixon Madison Square Guarden. They
Speaker 1: blew out that Lakers team, which I think is a
Speaker 1: good team. They went into Milwaukee in one despite Damian
Speaker 1: Loather going off for forty plus. They're kicking ass their
Speaker 1: metrics right now. Their second, offense fifth and defense third
Speaker 1: and net rating. Three main things that I've seen them
Speaker 1: change under Kenny Atkinson. One, they're doing more switching and
Speaker 1: containing and staying home off the ball, which is allowing
Speaker 1: them to force turnal. Remember Kenny Akinson came from working
Speaker 1: with the Golden State Warriors for the last several seasons,
Speaker 1: so he's bringing over some of that Steve Kurs style
Speaker 1: of defense, switching and forcing more turnovers. Basic stats for
Speaker 1: you guys. They were thirteenth and opponent turnover rate last year.
Speaker 1: This year they're fourth, they were eleventh last year, and
Speaker 1: scoring off of turnovers. This year they're number one in
Speaker 1: the NBA and scoring off of turnovers, which leads to
Speaker 1: our next biggest change. They're playing much much faster, as
Speaker 1: we talked about, they're scoring off of turnovers, but they're
Speaker 1: also fifth in transition points scored per game. Last year
Speaker 1: they were seventeenth, so that's a substantial improvement. They're just
Speaker 1: actually playing to the strengths of this roster. Garland's fast,
Speaker 1: Mitchell's fast, whether it's Struser, Dan Wade, whoever it is,
Speaker 1: they played the three, they have a speed there. Mobile
Speaker 1: is one of the most mobile bigs in the league.
Speaker 1: Jared Allen is a very mobile big. They should be
Speaker 1: running and they are running now, So shout out to
Speaker 1: Kenny Atkinson. He's maximizing what this roster is bringing to
Speaker 1: the table. They're staying out of the half court whenever
Speaker 1: they can, and they're making life easier on their stars
Speaker 1: as a result. The third biggest change is a lot
Speaker 1: more Evan Mobley on the ball. His usage rate is
Speaker 1: up about four percent. It's averaging eighteen points per game
Speaker 1: on sixty two percent for shooting, running a lot of
Speaker 1: inverted action. There's stretches of the game where Donovan Mitchell's
Speaker 1: out and they're just like playing him with same Maryl
Speaker 1: and just having Merrill like they've run like a horn set,
Speaker 1: where like Merrill will set like a screen for Mobley
Speaker 1: at the left elbow and he'll come off and Maryll
Speaker 1: will pop and they'll just play driving kick basketball out
Speaker 1: of that. They're getting a lot of really good stuff
Speaker 1: out of it. In all of this, the transition scoring,
Speaker 1: the improvement of Evan Mobley and his usage, that's making
Speaker 1: it so that Donovan Mitchell can pick his spots more.
Speaker 1: So as a result, his minutes are lower because they're
Speaker 1: beating people by more. His efficiency is up because he
Speaker 1: can pick his spots more. Yeah, his scoring volume is
Speaker 1: down a little bit, but who cares. You're winning. It's
Speaker 1: all just making life easier for Donovan Mitchell and the Calves.
Speaker 1: This is just a really damn good basketball team and
Speaker 1: they've got a favorable schedule coming up. I think they're
Speaker 1: going to beat the Bucks tonight at home. They go
Speaker 1: to New Orleans, then they're home for Golden State in
Speaker 1: Brooklyn to Chicago, Philly, back for Chicago Charlotte to Boston
Speaker 1: back for the Pelicans, the Raptors and the Hawks than
Speaker 1: to Atlanta. I think they got a chance to go
Speaker 1: nine and.
Speaker 2: Three in that stress.
Speaker 1: So we could be looking at a sixteen and three
Speaker 1: Calves team by the end of November, which is really
Speaker 1: exciting stuff if you're a Cleveland Cavaliers fan. All right,
Speaker 1: let's get into our mailbag real quick before we get
Speaker 1: out of here. So first question, this was in relation
Speaker 1: to a thread of defensive Milwaukee Bucks.
Speaker 2: Clips that I put together. They had a really.
Speaker 1: Ugly defensive fourth quarter against the Calves the other night.
Speaker 1: This first question, it's impossible to win games with Bobby
Speaker 1: Portis and Pat Conninson playing meaningful minutes on your roster.
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty four, Jannis and Dame combined with seventy
Speaker 1: five points and eighteen assists to one turnover and lost.
Speaker 2: So here's the thing. It's ugly. I put a whole
Speaker 2: thread of these clips together.
Speaker 1: Go to my Twitter feed at underscore JSNLT you can
Speaker 1: see the thread that I'm talking about.
Speaker 2: But yeah, Bobby Portis is bad.
Speaker 1: He was matched up with Georgia Kneeing in that early
Speaker 1: stretch of the fourth court was overhelping, he was losing
Speaker 1: him off the ball. It was just it was ugly, right,
Speaker 1: But it's not just Bobby, Like a lot of good
Speaker 1: defenders are making mistakes in the system, like Yiannis is
Speaker 1: out of position a lot. Brook Lopez had a big
Speaker 1: crunch time overhelp where he stepped over and left Jared
Speaker 1: Allen wide open for like a little bank shot when
Speaker 1: he shouldn't have been helping. The lawn wright who's a
Speaker 1: career good defender at the guard position, botched a switch
Speaker 1: and gave up a layup. Like they're just not sharp
Speaker 1: as a team, And that screams coaching to me. It
Speaker 1: screams to me that, like from day one of training camp,
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of accountability and there's not a
Speaker 1: lot of attention to detail because that thing sort of
Speaker 1: thing becomes contagious and it leads to good habits and
Speaker 1: it trickles down guys like there are a lot of
Speaker 1: teams out there, like the Lakers defense is twenty seventh
Speaker 1: in the league, but they're eleventh and half court defense
Speaker 1: even though they have a ton of bad defenders because
Speaker 1: they're at least like trying hard. They're locked in right.
Speaker 1: Denver put together a championship level defense with Michael Porter
Speaker 1: Junior and Jamal Murray and like in Nicole okicch like
Speaker 1: coaching is huge part of constructing a viable defense. You've
Speaker 1: got to take your talented defensive players and you've got
Speaker 1: to direct them into like large things that make life
Speaker 1: easier so you can construct these small, achievable defensive roles
Speaker 1: for the players around them. Again, it's going to be difficult.
Speaker 1: I'm not expecting you to turn Bobby Portis into a
Speaker 1: lockdown defensive player. But like Doc Rivers has this team
Speaker 1: legitimately bad in so many different ways on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor right now that this was a
Speaker 1: stat I checked like two days ago, but they're giving
Speaker 1: up the highest efficiency to pick and roll ball handlers
Speaker 1: in the entire league right now. Like these you went
Speaker 1: and got Gary Trent Junior and Delon Wright to try
Speaker 1: to improve things at the point of attack, and somehow
Speaker 1: you got worse Like this is. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of this ends up coming back to Doc Rivers, and
Speaker 1: I think he's got to do a better job coaching
Speaker 1: these guys up on a possession by possession basis, because
Speaker 1: right now they're just not sharp they don't look like
Speaker 1: a serious basketball team, and I think that extends beyond personnel.
Speaker 1: Even though we can all agree that there are some
Speaker 1: major personnel weaknesses on this team, What are some legitimate
Speaker 1: moves you can see the Nuggets making to strengthen their bench.
Speaker 1: They are the main reason I don't see them making
Speaker 1: it out of the conference, But it feels like they
Speaker 1: don't have enough trading power to fix it. So for me, like,
Speaker 1: I actually think Denver kind of falls into that category
Speaker 1: where it's less about finding like super high end players
Speaker 1: and it's more about finding functional role players because they're
Speaker 1: a team that's going to stagger their bench, right Like,
Speaker 1: this is a team that everything in terms of their
Speaker 1: talent equity is invested in their starting lineup, right, Like,
Speaker 1: that's the core of this team, and most of their
Speaker 1: issues come down to the starter's not playing well enough,
Speaker 1: right Like Jamal Murray is not playing like Jamal Murray yet,
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior is not playing like Michael Porter junior yet.
Speaker 1: I think they will in time. Okay, then you stagger
Speaker 1: them with those bench groups, right, and so Jamal is
Speaker 1: going to be the guy who's determining a lot of
Speaker 1: those possessions. When yokiches off the floor, Michael Porter Junior
Speaker 1: is going to be determining a lot of those possessions.
Speaker 1: What you need are useful role players that have some
Speaker 1: veteran experience and that just know how to play alongside
Speaker 1: other good basketball players.
Speaker 2: That could be like a.
Speaker 1: Cam Johnson from Brooklyn or Dorian Finney Smith, like the
Speaker 1: just a useful role player that comes in that is
Speaker 1: that knows how to play NBA basketball at a high level.
Speaker 1: Like there's got to be an option there for Malone
Speaker 1: to go to in the event that these young guys
Speaker 1: don't pan out. It's when you playing with these young
Speaker 1: guys where it's like it's just such a cluster every
Speaker 1: single a cluster f every single game because you don't
Speaker 1: know what you're gonna get that it becomes very difficult
Speaker 1: to build consistency there. But eventually the Nuggets starters will
Speaker 1: play better. Eventually they'll be able to piece together at
Speaker 1: least again with the Nuggets pinch, it's not about being positive.
Speaker 1: It's about not completely combusting every single time Nikole Jokic
Speaker 1: steps off the floor all these previous years where the Nuggets,
Speaker 1: when the Nuggets won the championship. Even they typically lose
Speaker 1: the non Jokic minutes by about eleven points per one
Speaker 1: hundred possessions. This year, they're getting absolutely shredded when Yokic
Speaker 1: is off the floor. They've got to find a way
Speaker 1: to even that out a little bit. Had a lot
Speaker 1: of questions about from Warriors fans regarding this is the
Speaker 1: never ending debate we have about whether or not the
Speaker 1: Warriors should make a trade at some point this season.
Speaker 1: It's like the most common mail bad question I get.
Speaker 1: Right now, I'll read a couple of them, and I'll
Speaker 1: just kind of give some thoughts and then we'll move
Speaker 1: on the first one. Dubs need to stand pat. They
Speaker 1: just learned a lot from the Houston game. It's about
Speaker 1: the defensive end understack, which understack will improve. Houston attempted
Speaker 1: to emulate the Clippers. Curve made some mistakes with regard
Speaker 1: to the fourth quarter lineup. Should have won there, and
Speaker 1: in the future there will be less success with what
Speaker 1: Houston did and what the Clippers are. The d will
Speaker 1: get better and then their offense is sufficient. A different
Speaker 1: mail back question. All these analysts spend their off season
Speaker 1: disrespecting the Warriors, saying that they won't make it to
Speaker 1: the playoffs. But now they see the Warriors are actually clicking,
Speaker 1: even winning games without Steph. All of a sudden, the
Speaker 1: talk has shifted to the Warriors need to make a
Speaker 1: trade for them to compete. Spare the Warriors, please admit
Speaker 1: you were wrong and analyze the game that are pestering
Speaker 1: us with the trade talks. Twenty twenty two is a
Speaker 1: case study, but you never learn, so, guys, Like, here's
Speaker 1: the thing. I tried not to be two results based, right, Like,
Speaker 1: for instance, like I'm a Lakers fan. You guys know
Speaker 1: that I don't hide from that on this show. I'm
Speaker 1: a Lakers fan. And the Lakers have played the toughest
Speaker 1: schedule in the league and they're four and two. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of reason to be excited if you're a
Speaker 1: Lakers fan. There are a lot of Lakers fans that
Speaker 1: are starting to talk reckless a little bit, right. I
Speaker 1: have through it all, looked at the games and been like, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're wins here, like there's a win against Minnesota. But
Speaker 1: in the win against Minnesota, there was a long stretch
Speaker 1: in the second half where Dante DiVincenzo and Nikile Alexander
Speaker 1: Walker started really ball pressuring, and the Laker offense kind
Speaker 1: of fell apart because the guards aren't very athletic. And
Speaker 1: then it happened again in the Kings game, and then
Speaker 1: it happened again in the Raptors game. And so I'm
Speaker 1: looking at it and I'm going, Okay, yeah, four and
Speaker 1: two good. This is great for the standings. It's great,
Speaker 1: great start for the standings. They are heading into an
Speaker 1: easier stretch of their schedule. Now, I think the Lakers
Speaker 1: have a chance to be eleven and four after fifteen games,
Speaker 1: like that'd be you gotta be thrilled if you're a
Speaker 1: Lakers fan about that. But I also know that if
Speaker 1: you're gonna get out of the Western Conference, you gotta
Speaker 1: beat in Oklahoma City, you gotta beat a couple of
Speaker 1: these teams from that other tier like Memphis and Denver
Speaker 1: in Minnesota and Dallas and all these different teams, right Like,
Speaker 1: it's just tough. And then should you get out of
Speaker 1: the conference, Boston's probably gonna be waiting for you on
Speaker 1: the other side. And so I look at it and
Speaker 1: I go, like, gues is good start for the Lakers,
Speaker 1: But I don't think they're athletic enough in the backcourt
Speaker 1: to really cause problems at the highest level of the game.
Speaker 1: I have to look beyond what their results have been
Speaker 1: to this point and look into the depth behind the results.
Speaker 1: That's kind of how I feel about the Warriors. The
Speaker 1: Warriors have five wins. That's great, five and one with
Speaker 1: Steph Curry playing three games scoring fifty five total points
Speaker 1: this season, and you're five and one, that is a
Speaker 1: huge cause for celebration. But let's take a closer look.
Speaker 1: Three of those wins are against teams that completely missed
Speaker 1: the play in picture last year. Were against the Pelicans,
Speaker 1: who were the eight seed in the West last year,
Speaker 1: and they just traded two of their good role players
Speaker 1: for de Jontay Murray, who is now hurt, so like,
Speaker 1: and they don't know what to do with the center
Speaker 1: position right now. They're kind of a mess. The Pelicans
Speaker 1: are kind of a mess. They just lost to Atlanta
Speaker 1: at home, and they lost to the Blazers earlier this year,
Speaker 1: so like, look, it's still all very exciting. Last year
Speaker 1: they had Steph out of the lineup for eight games,
Speaker 1: they went three to five. You've won more. You've won
Speaker 1: the same amount of games without Steph already this year
Speaker 1: as you did the entire season last year. That is
Speaker 1: super exciting. It's they're clearly demonstrating that they have a
Speaker 1: much higher floor than they did last year. I would
Speaker 1: even go as far as to say that this team
Speaker 1: is cooking up something kind of special. Everyone seems to
Speaker 1: be buying into their roles, which was not the case
Speaker 1: last year. Johnathan Kaminga, it seems to be taking well
Speaker 1: to his bench role. He's been playing better since he
Speaker 1: went to the bench. The basketball character of this team
Speaker 1: is through the roof like. They're resilient, they're selfless, they're
Speaker 1: hard working, they're coachable. It's all coming together. These are
Speaker 1: the ingredients of a special basketball team. Even further, and
Speaker 1: I talked about this earlier in the show, you could
Speaker 1: argue last year after they had a rough end of
Speaker 1: the season again like they start. They went twenty two
Speaker 1: to thirty one against teams that were five hundred or
Speaker 1: better last year. Steph didn't look like a top ten
Speaker 1: player over the final third of the season. And then
Speaker 1: at the end of the season they had two really
Speaker 1: big games that they had to win at home against
Speaker 1: the Pelicans, they lost on the road in Sacramento with
Speaker 1: a chance to go to the second playing game. They
Speaker 1: got their butts kicked. Coming out of last season, there
Speaker 1: was a lot of people arguing, like, this team's not
Speaker 1: worth making a trade for this team. The core isn't
Speaker 1: good enough to justify really and really investing in. Now
Speaker 1: it's like, hell, yeah, they're worth investing in. They've completely
Speaker 1: turned it around. Now they seem close. They didn't seem
Speaker 1: close last year. Now they seem close. That makes it
Speaker 1: worth the aggression. It's all together a positive trend. It's
Speaker 1: a reason to be excited. I'm now just looking at
Speaker 1: it beyond that. Okay, now we have an exciting team.
Speaker 1: We have a five and one team, we have a
Speaker 1: real team. Let's take a look at the roster. Let's
Speaker 1: take a look at what their strengths and weaknesses are.
Speaker 1: Let's be honest. Okay, against the best defenses in the league,
Speaker 1: Steph is the only guy I trust on this team
Speaker 1: to create his own shot against the best defenses in
Speaker 1: the league, against the highest levels, like I was talking
Speaker 1: about earlier with the Lakers, That's what I'm fact focusing
Speaker 1: on here. The best indicator of future performance is past performance.
Speaker 1: People were kind of down on the Warriors because in
Speaker 1: the past they didn't look as good. So that's what like,
Speaker 1: I always think it's funny when people get upset about
Speaker 1: media underrating or overrating their teams. All of us are
Speaker 1: just trying to make predictions, and last year it didn't
Speaker 1: look like this team was in there. This has been
Speaker 1: a surprise. This in the Calves. These are the two
Speaker 1: biggest surprises of the season. Nobody was picking the Calves
Speaker 1: to go seven and oh. Did any of you Warriors
Speaker 1: fans pick the Calves to go seven and oh this year?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: Because you looked at them last year and you're like,
Speaker 1: they're middle of the pack Eastern Conference plaoff team, Right,
Speaker 1: This is an exciting trend. It is a reason to
Speaker 1: be excited. You guys have demonstrated that you were close
Speaker 1: in a way that did not seem to be the
Speaker 1: case last year. Last question, my man is so good
Speaker 1: he can predict the future. Kamina is twenty two. The
Speaker 1: last time I checked, you had no idea Shay or
Speaker 1: Aunt or Yannis would be at that level. Again, guys,
Speaker 1: let's just be honest. I really like Jonathan Kaminga is
Speaker 1: an exciting young player. The plays he made in overtime
Speaker 1: of the Houston game. They're freakiously talented type of plays. Yannis,
Speaker 1: at twenty two years old, average twenty three to nine
Speaker 1: with four stocks per game, finished seventh in MVP voting,
Speaker 1: made the All Star team and was second team All
Speaker 1: NBA and average twenty five to ten in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Anthony Ewards, his age twenty two season, was just last year,
Speaker 1: seventh in MVP voting, All Star, Second Team All NBA.
Speaker 1: Averaged twenty eight seven and seven on sixty percent true
Speaker 1: shooting as a number one option for a Western.
Speaker 2: Conference Finals team.
Speaker 1: Shake Gilses Alexander Are twenty two, averaged twenty four points
Speaker 1: per game on fifty one percent from the field, forty
Speaker 1: two percent from three, and eighty percent from the line.
Speaker 1: Guys like Kaminga is an exciting young player, He's not
Speaker 1: those guys.
Speaker 2: There is no.
Speaker 1: Foundational, transcendently great superstar among the young players in this
Speaker 1: Warriors group. That doesn't mean trade them for pennies, But
Speaker 1: if you have the opportunity to give this roster an
Speaker 1: opportunity to compete for a championship, I feel like you
Speaker 1: owe it. You owe it to Steph, you owe it
Speaker 1: to Draymond, you owe it to Steve Kerr now, because again,
Speaker 1: if you do nothing, it's not like you fast forward
Speaker 1: five years and this is a championship team. There's no
Speaker 1: found there's no championship foundation. There you go lokot NBA history.
Speaker 1: You don't win a championship unless you have a top
Speaker 1: ten player. So again, like, it's not about and I'm
Speaker 1: not even necessarily saying you have to trade one of
Speaker 1: the young guys.
Speaker 2: You have depth.
Speaker 1: You have thirteen rotation players help piece together three mediocre
Speaker 1: salaries that are not the young guys that you so
Speaker 1: desperately want to keep. You are uniquely equipped guys. Like
Speaker 1: I'm worried about the Lakers. The Lakers have like seven
Speaker 1: rotation players that I trust, and that's if Vando's healthy.
Speaker 1: It's like Gabe and Vando are the only two that
Speaker 1: I trust. I don't trust Aalton Connect he's a rookie,
Speaker 1: Max Chrissy's looked awful. Jackson Hayes fouls too much and
Speaker 1: is legitimately a bad defensive player. Van Doh and Gabe
Speaker 1: are the only two guys that I kind of trust
Speaker 1: in the Lakers' rotation. So if the Lakers have to
Speaker 1: trade guys and they have to give up two rotation
Speaker 1: pieces to get somebody back. I'm worried that they won't
Speaker 1: be deep enough anymore. You guys, the Warriors have like
Speaker 1: seven different configurations of trades they could make that send
Speaker 1: out two or three players to bring back somebody high powered,
Speaker 1: where they still are deep, where they still are talented,
Speaker 1: where they still have everything they need to contend. You're
Speaker 1: in a great spot. It's not about talking about how
Speaker 1: you don't have enough just for the sake of being negative.
Speaker 1: It's just the realistic kind of nature of looking at
Speaker 1: what the NBA landscape is. Last question, Jason, I love
Speaker 1: you and your content, but man, it is too soon
Speaker 1: to know which team is and isn't a contender. Guys,
Speaker 1: it's my job to have an opinion on the season.
Speaker 1: It'd be boring if I came out here every single
Speaker 1: day and was like, yeah, none of this matters.
Speaker 2: Talk to me in April. None of this matters. Talk
Speaker 2: to me in April.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, this is content, and
Speaker 1: my job is to have an opinion. So yeah, like,
Speaker 1: you're right, everything here as a footnote it's early, but
Speaker 1: I add that in here. But like, my job is
Speaker 1: to have an opinion to be to have a take.
Speaker 1: I'm going to come out with power rankings, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: come out with contender rankings, I'm gonna come out with
Speaker 1: player rankings, even though technically we don't really know what
Speaker 1: any of this shit looks like until we get further
Speaker 1: into the season, but that's just kind of the nature
Speaker 1: of how this goes. All right, guys, it's all I
Speaker 1: have for today is always I sincerely appreciate.
Speaker 2: You for supporting the show.
Speaker 1: We will be back tomorrow for some game reaction and
Speaker 1: an episode of Tips tape.
Speaker 2: I'll see you guys.
Speaker 1: Then the volume