Speaker 1: The volume. We're back with another week of football, and
Speaker 1: DraftKings sports Book is keeping us in on the NFL
Speaker 1: action with great offers. Every single game day. New customers
Speaker 1: can bet five dollars and get two hundred dollars instantly
Speaker 1: in bonus bets. Throw five down on any of this
Speaker 1: week's epic matchups and walk away an instant winner, and
Speaker 1: DraftKings isn't stopping there. All customers can take advantage of
Speaker 1: two new offers every single game day this September. Football's
Speaker 1: more fun when you're in on the action, so download
Speaker 1: the app now and sign up with code Hoops. New
Speaker 1: customers can bet just five dollars to get two hundred
Speaker 1: dollars instantly in bonus bets only on the DraftKings Sportsbook app,
Speaker 1: an official sports betting partner of the NFL with Code Hoops.
Speaker 1: That's Hops. The Crown is yours. Gambling problem called one
Speaker 1: eight hundred gambler or visit www dot one eight hundred
Speaker 1: gambler dot net. In New York call eight seven seven
Speaker 1: eight hope and why, or text hope and why to
Speaker 1: four to six seven three sixty nine. In Connecticut, help
Speaker 1: is available for problem gambling called eight eight eight seven
Speaker 1: eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org.
Speaker 1: Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort
Speaker 1: in Kansas. License partner Golden Nugget, Lake Charles and Louisiana
Speaker 1: twenty one plus age varies by jurisdiction void in Ontario.
Speaker 1: See Sportsbook dot DraftKings dot com, slash Football terms for
Speaker 1: eligibility terms and responsible gambling resources. Bonus bets expire seven
Speaker 1: days after inach issuance. Eligibility and deposit restrictions apply. All right,
Speaker 1: welcome to tonight here at the Volume, Happy Thursday. Everybody
Speaker 1: of all of you guys are having a great week
Speaker 1: so far. We are live on app so if you're
Speaker 1: watching on YouTube or listening on the podcast feeds, don't
Speaker 1: forget that NAMP is the very first place that you
Speaker 1: guys can get these shows. Continuing our Power rankings today
Speaker 1: with number eight eight, the Philadelphia seventy six er is
Speaker 1: going to do a season preview on them. Then I've
Speaker 1: got a couple of male bad questions for the end
Speaker 1: of the show as well. You guys are the joke
Speaker 1: before we get started. Subscribe to our YouTube channel, follow
Speaker 1: me on Twitter at Underscore JSNLT. Don't forget about our
Speaker 1: podcast feed under Hoops tonight. Then I need mail back questions,
Speaker 1: so continue to drop those in the YouTube comments so
Speaker 1: that we can keep hitting them at the end of
Speaker 1: these shows. All right, let's talk some basketball so quick
Speaker 1: off season recap for the Philadelphia seventy six ers. They
Speaker 1: lost Dwayne Deadman and Jalen McDaniels. They also lost two
Speaker 1: of their better shooters in Shake Milton and George's Niang.
Speaker 1: They added mop bomba a backup center, deadly above the
Speaker 1: break three point shooter, but he leaves a lot to
Speaker 1: be desired everywhere else. He'll put up rebounding numbers, but
Speaker 1: he'll struggle to grab certain types of rebounds. He can
Speaker 1: get shoved off of his box out spots a lot defensively,
Speaker 1: Like again, you're expecting him to be more impactful than
Speaker 1: he actually will be. But he is a deadly above
Speaker 1: the break three point shooter, and so when he's used
Speaker 1: as a pick and pop player, that's a legitimate weapon.
Speaker 1: Patrick Beverly got signed by the Sixers, covered in with
Speaker 1: the Lakers last year. Still a very good point of
Speaker 1: attack defender against small guards when you put him in
Speaker 1: a position where his specific set of tools are most useful.
Speaker 1: He can still be deeply impactful if famously last year
Speaker 1: had a really big defensive game against Tyrese Haliburton. But
Speaker 1: the narrative that he can switch up in guard wings
Speaker 1: is overstated, at least in my opinion, as having covered
Speaker 1: him with the Lakers last year. He just really struggles
Speaker 1: with those physical mismatches, and so I think a big
Speaker 1: key is going to be giving him the right types
Speaker 1: of matchups. But he can still be a very impactful
Speaker 1: point of attack defender against smaller guards on offense. Just
Speaker 1: from my personal experience rooting for a team that he
Speaker 1: was on, he was a little bit of a ball stopper,
Speaker 1: Like the ball be popping around and then it'll end
Speaker 1: up in Patrick Beverly's hands in the corner and he'll
Speaker 1: pump fake and then jab step and then pump fake again,
Speaker 1: and then whatever advantage there was is lost. Now, he
Speaker 1: did shoot a lot better with the Timberwolves the year
Speaker 1: before last than he did with the Lakers last year
Speaker 1: or the Bulls last year. So maybe if he's making
Speaker 1: a higher percentage of his shots, that ends up being
Speaker 1: less of a problem and he's more of a positive offensively,
Speaker 1: but I found him largely to be a frustrating player
Speaker 1: rooting for him last year. But also it's important to
Speaker 1: acknowledge that Lakers team had a lot of other problems
Speaker 1: before the deadline that go above and beyond Patrick Beverley.
Speaker 1: So again, if they use him right, I do think
Speaker 1: he can be a useful player for them. And again
Speaker 1: in the team that struggles with point of attack defense,
Speaker 1: I think that's a legitimate asset. Danny Green shot really
Speaker 1: well for Cleveland last year, but wasn't moving super well,
Speaker 1: so he didn't play a ton, but he'll be an
Speaker 1: interesting shooting option for them. And then the big, probably
Speaker 1: splashiest signing of this summer for the Sixers, they get
Speaker 1: Kelly Ubre, who put up massive numbers for bad team
Speaker 1: last year. He averaged twenty points a game last year.
Speaker 1: He also average won assist per game. Last year's fifty
Speaker 1: three percent true shooting, which is really low. He's still
Speaker 1: one of the best athletes in the league. He just
Speaker 1: struggles to put the ball in the basket. He was
Speaker 1: below fifty percent in effective field goal percentage on jump
Speaker 1: shots last year, and anytime you're converting jump shots at
Speaker 1: less than less than a point per possession. That's not good.
Speaker 1: He was barely over sixty percent in the restricted area,
Speaker 1: which for an athlete like him, you're hoping for something
Speaker 1: closer to like sixty five percent. But I do like
Speaker 1: the fit in Philly because, like with Philly, again, if
Speaker 1: we look back at what happened in the Celtics series,
Speaker 1: they had some highs in that series. Again, like, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of lows that we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: with Philly in this series and or in this episode,
Speaker 1: and some of them aren't going away right, Like we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about a schematic thing here in a second
Speaker 1: that hurt the Sixers at the end of the Celtics series.
Speaker 1: But there was another thing that hurt them at the
Speaker 1: end of the Celtics series, and it's James Harden and
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid in their offensive struggles, which we'll get to.
Speaker 1: But the reality is is that they were unable to
Speaker 1: play PJ. Tucker without suffering the offensive limitations of Boston
Speaker 1: ignoring him and offering a ton of extra help. And
Speaker 1: so ideally you have a forward that you can slot
Speaker 1: between Tobias Harrison and Joel Embiid that can handle a
Speaker 1: lot of the physical asks that you were giving to PJ. Tucker,
Speaker 1: but be more of an offensive threat. And so from
Speaker 1: that standpoint, like it's I like the risk. It's a
Speaker 1: low risk signing with Kelly Ubray that has a lot
Speaker 1: of upside, and it's about it's about buy in. Like
Speaker 1: like I'm not I'm never gonna say a freaky athlete
Speaker 1: can't become a good defender, not after what happened with
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins. So maybe Nick Nurse can come in and
Speaker 1: and and get him to buy in. We've from Nick
Speaker 1: Nurse's book, We've learned that he's particularly hard on his
Speaker 1: forwards defensively. He was famously really hard on Stanley Johnson
Speaker 1: and Rondi Hallis Jefferson when they were struggling to commit
Speaker 1: to the defensive end and make the impact that he wanted.
Speaker 1: And so maybe Nick Nurse will be the guy that
Speaker 1: can get Kelly Ubray to bring that next level of
Speaker 1: defensive intensity that we haven't seen from him in his career.
Speaker 1: But to put it simply, if Kelly embraces his role
Speaker 1: and plays hard in it, I think he'll help the
Speaker 1: Sixers a lot. All Right, let's take a look at
Speaker 1: the depth chart, So at guard James Harden, Tyrese Maxi,
Speaker 1: d Anthony Melton, Patrick Beverley, and Jaden Springer. At forward
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris, PJ. Tucker for Concork Maas, Daniel House Junior
Speaker 1: and Danny Green. And then they're big Joel Embiid, Paul Reid, Montrez,
Speaker 1: Harrald and Mobamba. So about the James Harden situation, who
Speaker 1: the hell knows what's going to happen. Obviously, you guys
Speaker 1: know my opinion. My opinion on this kind of stuff
Speaker 1: is like just make the move because it's not worth
Speaker 1: a distraction. I think that continuity from day one of
Speaker 1: training camp is ideal if you unless you're absolutely you know,
Speaker 1: like for instance, like if you're if you're stuck in
Speaker 1: a position where you signed a bunch of guys and
Speaker 1: you can't trade them until the deadline for whatever reason.
Speaker 1: That's one thing. But like if you have the ability
Speaker 1: to bring in the team you want to finish the
Speaker 1: season with today one of camp, that's ideal because they're
Speaker 1: over the course of the NBA season. It's gonna get
Speaker 1: even harder now with the addition of the of the
Speaker 1: mid season tournament. But you need to have, you know,
Speaker 1: time to practice, and it's just really difficult to find
Speaker 1: time to practice during the season. And so training camp
Speaker 1: is literally when you ablish your identity as a basketball team,
Speaker 1: and it's when you build that continuity through practice. And
Speaker 1: so in my opinion, it's better for you to resolve
Speaker 1: these sorts of problems during training camp. And Darryl Moray
Speaker 1: sees it very differently. He's much more of a a
Speaker 1: analytical type of thinker and he's looking at it as
Speaker 1: championship ods and so for him, like he views James
Speaker 1: Harden trades as only acceptable if they bring back, you know,
Speaker 1: some sort of of package that increases their championship bods.
Speaker 1: So my guess is Daryl Moury is going to be patient.
Speaker 1: And we also know from his experience with the Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons situation that he has been rewarded for his patients
Speaker 1: in the past, and so my guess is that he's
Speaker 1: going to drag this thing out. I have no idea
Speaker 1: how that's gonna manifest. I have no idea if James
Speaker 1: Harden's gonna show up and pout. I have no idea
Speaker 1: if he's gonna be a professional and show up and
Speaker 1: play obviously, like I think James Harden's trade value is
Speaker 1: really low, probably even lower than Darryl Morriy probably thinks.
Speaker 1: And so from that standpoint, I actually think it behooves
Speaker 1: James Harden to come into camp and play hard, because
Speaker 1: if you want to get out of there, you got
Speaker 1: to find a way to rehab your trade value. We're
Speaker 1: going to talk about it in a little bit. But like,
Speaker 1: James Harden had the worst postseason of his career to
Speaker 1: follow up one of his better regular seasons of the
Speaker 1: last couple of years, and so I don't think his
Speaker 1: value is in a position where he's easy to move,
Speaker 1: and so I don't know what's going to happen. But
Speaker 1: for the purposes of this particular show, in this season preview,
Speaker 1: I'm going to preview the Sixers as though James Harden
Speaker 1: is going to stay with the Sixers. All right, Let's
Speaker 1: take a look at the offensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: So they were third in offense in the regular season
Speaker 1: by offensive raiding, fourth and half court offense. According to
Speaker 1: Clean the Glass, they were the best spacing team in
Speaker 1: the league. They shot thirty eight point seven percent from three,
Speaker 1: That was the best mark in the league. They were
Speaker 1: also tenth and three pointers made per one hundred possessions,
Speaker 1: and they were the best spot up team in the
Speaker 1: league when you factor in attacking closeouts by points for possession.
Speaker 1: They converted spot possessions at one point one to three
Speaker 1: points per possession, which is the best mark in the league.
Speaker 1: Roughly twenty percent of their three pointers made are gone
Speaker 1: now though George Kneeing and Shake Milton are out of
Speaker 1: the rotation, and then they added some inconsistent shooters in
Speaker 1: Kelly Ubray and Patrick Beverly into those spots. So I
Speaker 1: would say that chances are they're going to go down
Speaker 1: a little bit of a level from the standpoint of
Speaker 1: their overall spacing that they offer their stars. The Danny
Speaker 1: Green option that is there, but I just don't think
Speaker 1: he's physically gonna be able to do what they need
Speaker 1: him to do. So I have a feeling you got
Speaker 1: to almost look at it straight up as you turned
Speaker 1: Shake Milton into Patrick Beverley, and you turned George Kneeing
Speaker 1: into Kelly Ubray, and those guys are probably gonna take
Speaker 1: those spots in the rotation, and they're inconsistent shooters. So
Speaker 1: that's just the reality of that situation. They were the
Speaker 1: very best post offense in the NBA last year on
Speaker 1: the strength of Joel Embiid. They were the second best
Speaker 1: ISO offense in the NBA on the strength of both
Speaker 1: Embiid and James Harden, and they were the seventh best
Speaker 1: pick and roll offense in the league by points per possession.
Speaker 1: But here's the problem. They had a one to seventeen
Speaker 1: offensive rating in the regular season that dropped pretty quickly
Speaker 1: to one fourteen against the Nets, and then that crater
Speaker 1: down to one oh eight against the Celtics. As a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, against the Celtics, they averaged just ninety
Speaker 1: five points per one hundred half court possessions. So for perspective,
Speaker 1: that would rank twenty fifth in the regular season among
Speaker 1: half court offensive ratings on cleaning the glass. So to
Speaker 1: put it simply, their offense, as great as it was
Speaker 1: in the regular season, just completely fell apart in the postseason. Now,
Speaker 1: we said before the postseason, if you guys listened to
Speaker 1: the show, I said, I believe in what this Sixers
Speaker 1: team is capable of. But everything comes down to their
Speaker 1: two best players, James Harden and Joel Embiid, two players
Speaker 1: who historically have suffered big drop offs when they get
Speaker 1: to the postseason. It's going to come down to those
Speaker 1: two players reversing that trend and playing up to their
Speaker 1: regular season level in the postseason. And we were gonna
Speaker 1: see if it would finally happen this year, right, Well,
Speaker 1: it didn't happen. As a matter of fact, it got worse,
Speaker 1: way worse than I think even anybody could have expected.
Speaker 1: James Harden went from twenty one points and eleven assists
Speaker 1: on sixty one percent true shooting in the regular season
Speaker 1: to twenty to eight on fifty four percent true shooting
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, and that was bolstered by two incredible
Speaker 1: games and James Harden, for the record, two absolutely incredible games.
Speaker 1: They have no chance to beat the Celtics if they
Speaker 1: don't get these two games out of James Harden. He
Speaker 1: had two forty plus point games, both of them resulting
Speaker 1: in a game winning shot at the end of the game.
Speaker 1: Can't do much better than those two. But here's some
Speaker 1: other James Harden's playoff games. In this playoff run, two
Speaker 1: for fourteen from the field, three for fourteen from the field,
Speaker 1: four for eighteen from the field, three for thirteen from
Speaker 1: the field, four for sixteen from the field, three for
Speaker 1: eleven from the field all in this playoff run. That's
Speaker 1: six of their eleven games, all six of those he
Speaker 1: shot below thirty percent from the field. So I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't care how good he played to lead the
Speaker 1: team to those two particular wins, that's downright damaging. In
Speaker 1: the other six games he shot just seventeen for forty
Speaker 1: eight in this playoff run at the rim. That's thirty
Speaker 1: five percent. Is ISO efficiency tanked, And quite frankly, if
Speaker 1: it wasn't for those two incredible games it was, it
Speaker 1: could have been so much worse. It was literally the
Speaker 1: worst playoff run of his career. So like you needed
Speaker 1: a change from his own personal history, and instead you
Speaker 1: got an exaggerated version of it. And for Joe Embiid
Speaker 1: it wasn't much better. Joel Embiid tanked way further below
Speaker 1: his regular season mark thirty three points and ten rebounds
Speaker 1: on sixty six percent trough shooting in the regular season
Speaker 1: twenty four and ten on fifty six percent through shooting
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. His jump shot completely fell apart. He
Speaker 1: was right around fifty percent in EFFECTI field goal percentage
Speaker 1: on jump shots in the regular season, he was just
Speaker 1: fifteen for fifty nine in the playoffs, just twenty nine
Speaker 1: nine point seven percent in effective field goal percentage. Those
Speaker 1: of you guys who listened to the show, you probably
Speaker 1: remember me saying, will Joe elmbid be able to make
Speaker 1: his jump shot? Everything comes down to that, and he
Speaker 1: just couldn't do it again, And it's been a recurring
Speaker 1: theme throughout his playoff career. Uh. He was seventy percent
Speaker 1: at the rim in the regular season, just sixty percent
Speaker 1: at the rim in the playoffs. And embiid Iso was
Speaker 1: worth one point one five points per possession in the
Speaker 1: regular season, it was worth just zero point eighty five
Speaker 1: points per possession in the postseason. That's a thirty point
Speaker 1: drop per one hundred possessions. And you can't blame the
Speaker 1: role players. The sixer spot up shooting was every bit
Speaker 1: as good in the playoffs as it was in the
Speaker 1: regular season. Their two best players just fell apart. Again. Now,
Speaker 1: in terms of addressing that issue, let's just separate it.
Speaker 1: So you've got two main issues. You have the hardened
Speaker 1: problem and you have the embiid problem. Right, say a
Speaker 1: look at the hardened problem last year was supposed to
Speaker 1: be James Harden's revenge campaign. I predicted that before the season,
Speaker 1: and he actually did have very good year again, over
Speaker 1: sixty percent true shooting, led the league and assists super
Speaker 1: efficient ISO and pick and roll. But he's thirty four
Speaker 1: now and he just had the worst playoff runt of
Speaker 1: his career, So it's very unlikely that you're going to
Speaker 1: suddenly get high level playoff production ever out of him
Speaker 1: at this point. So the way I see it, there's
Speaker 1: two options you have to look forward. One, you can
Speaker 1: do what I expect Darylmore to do, which is hold
Speaker 1: him hostage, look at him as like a regular season
Speaker 1: innings Zeter. And then you know, never find the trade
Speaker 1: that ends up materializing into a star, because I don't
Speaker 1: think you're gonna get a star back for James Harden,
Speaker 1: and then you're gonna go into the postseason and chances
Speaker 1: are he'll have the same exact struggle that he had
Speaker 1: last year, right Or you can move him. I don't
Speaker 1: think you're gonna be able to replace him in the
Speaker 1: regular season context. Right There's no package that you can
Speaker 1: get back for James Harden right now that makes you
Speaker 1: better regular season team. James Harden's just a really good
Speaker 1: regular season player. But I would argue, if you look
Speaker 1: at those shooting numbers that just put out and you
Speaker 1: look at the defensive limitations that James Harden has, I
Speaker 1: would argue one or two quality role players actually would
Speaker 1: impact winning at a higher level in the postseason than
Speaker 1: James Harden would. And so from that standpoint, I almost
Speaker 1: think you're better off moving James Harden now and trying
Speaker 1: to get just pieces that can help, because I mean,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, you can't afford to
Speaker 1: punt this season, and what have we seen in the
Speaker 1: last few years that leads you to believe that James
Speaker 1: Harden's going to suddenly have postseason success this year. And again,
Speaker 1: it's not a drop off, it's a cratering. They legitimately
Speaker 1: fall apart and all of a sudden they don't functionally
Speaker 1: operate the way they do in the regular season. But again,
Speaker 1: like the reason why I think he is going to
Speaker 1: hold him hostage is because he's done that before in
Speaker 1: its worked. He did that Ben Simmons and he ended
Speaker 1: up getting James Harden out of it, and so you know,
Speaker 1: I think that probably gives him the hope and who knows. Like,
Speaker 1: and here's the thing, Like, if it works out, like
Speaker 1: if he manages to flip dere if Darrel Mory manages
Speaker 1: to flip James Harden into Drew Holliday or some other
Speaker 1: high level, like star ish level player, then I will
Speaker 1: be amazed and I'll have to eat my words, and
Speaker 1: Daryl Moury will be the evil genius that pulls it off.
Speaker 1: Once again, I just find it unlikely, you know, Like
Speaker 1: cause we're not the only ones who got to see
Speaker 1: what happened to James Harden in the playoffs. So did
Speaker 1: everybody else, and they saw him healthy, in rhythm, going
Speaker 1: into that postseason run and playing like shit again. All
Speaker 1: the other twenty nine gms in the league saw that.
Speaker 1: And like when we're talking about contenders making moves, like
Speaker 1: cause if you're gonna go after James Harden, it's because
Speaker 1: you think he's gonna push you over the top into
Speaker 1: a championship team. Like, after what you've seen from him
Speaker 1: in the postseason, what makes you think that that's going
Speaker 1: to be the piece that pushes you over the top,
Speaker 1: you know, So, like, I think it's more than likely
Speaker 1: that his best opportunity to play for a contender is
Speaker 1: with Philly. But even if even from Philly's perspective, like,
Speaker 1: do you want to do this again? Do you want
Speaker 1: to have another great regular season and watch it all
Speaker 1: come together in February March and then get to April
Speaker 1: and he can't make a step back jump shot and
Speaker 1: he's not getting the same whistle that he got in
Speaker 1: the regular season, can't finish at the rim, and in
Speaker 1: general just isn't the same impactful player he was in
Speaker 1: the regular season, Like, do you want to see that
Speaker 1: happen again? Especially in an East that's getting better? The
Speaker 1: Bucks got better, a lot better. The Celtics got better.
Speaker 1: They brought in a legitimate, you know, more reliable big
Speaker 1: man than Robert Williams and Al Horford. Right, So, like
Speaker 1: I look at this as like a step back in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways. The Embid problem is something only
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid can solve. And there's two issues. One is
Speaker 1: his health. He keeps getting banged up every postseason. Like
Speaker 1: I pointed out the obvious dip in numbers, but there's
Speaker 1: context there, Like Joel Embid was hurt, but like that's
Speaker 1: been a consistent issue. He and the Sixers have to
Speaker 1: find a way to take better care of his body.
Speaker 1: And there's a couple different things to look at there.
Speaker 1: Maybe stop flopping all the damn time it's not good
Speaker 1: for you. Maybe a minute's restriction in the regular season.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is. You gotta find a way.
Speaker 1: You gotta find a way to get Joel Embiid to
Speaker 1: the middle of April feeling good in his body. And
Speaker 1: then the second issue is his approach. Joel Embiid has
Speaker 1: built his game around a lot of mid range jump
Speaker 1: shots and a lot of free throw attempts. And here's
Speaker 1: the problem. Every year he gets to the postseason, the
Speaker 1: jumper stops going in and he stops getting the calls.
Speaker 1: Once again, last year, Joel Embiid's seventeen free throw attempts
Speaker 1: per one hundred possessions in the regular season thirteen free
Speaker 1: throw attempts per one hundred posessions in the playoffs. That's
Speaker 1: a twenty four percent drop. That's substantial. That's a significant
Speaker 1: chunk of his offense. That's several points a game. So like,
Speaker 1: if he's not gonna get the whistle and he's not
Speaker 1: gonna be able to make the jump shot, he's going
Speaker 1: to have to build an offensive game that is more
Speaker 1: reliable when he gets to the postseason. Obviously, he's capable
Speaker 1: of being a dominant defender. The Celtics, and we'll talk
Speaker 1: about this in a minute. The Celtics had some success
Speaker 1: stretching him out and pick and roll, but like, the
Speaker 1: reality is, everybody can do that to every center in
Speaker 1: the league. And after seeing Jokic win the title and
Speaker 1: Embiid just clearly being a better defensive player than Jokic,
Speaker 1: then I don't think that that's going to be the
Speaker 1: thing that breaks makes or breaks the Sixers team. But
Speaker 1: so let's put the defensive end aside for a minute.
Speaker 1: Let's focus on the offensive end. He's got to find
Speaker 1: a way to get higher percentage shots closer to them.
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid last year just made thirty four hooks and floaters.
Speaker 1: So again, like these are shorter range shots, most within
Speaker 1: five feet of the rim. You know, maybe a floater
Speaker 1: out to six or seven feet on the short roll.
Speaker 1: These are all close range shots that are much easier
Speaker 1: to make it a higher percentage. Like think of it
Speaker 1: like this, like KD is the very best mid range
Speaker 1: jump shooter in the world. Joel Embiid has no chance
Speaker 1: to ever become as good as a pull up jump
Speaker 1: shooter as KD. He makes sixty percent of them last year,
Speaker 1: KD sixty percent of his twos pull up twos. As
Speaker 1: insane as that is, but he's the alien. Joel Embiid's
Speaker 1: probably gonna make fifty percent on his best day. I
Speaker 1: shouldn't say his best day, but in his best season, Like,
Speaker 1: he's gonna peak around fifty percent as a pull up
Speaker 1: jump shooter at the best possible outcome, right, chances are
Speaker 1: probably a little lower. So in that case, that's a
Speaker 1: point per possession that's not enough. A defense is gonna
Speaker 1: live with that. Like we talked about earlier, zero point
Speaker 1: ninety five points per possession in the half court is
Speaker 1: like one of the worst marks in the league, right,
Speaker 1: So that goes to show you how inefficient a pull
Speaker 1: up mid range jump shot is in the big grand
Speaker 1: scheme of things. I think it's an important part of
Speaker 1: a player's game. You need to have that for rescue
Speaker 1: possessions and when it's what the defense is giving you.
Speaker 1: But it's it's embiids bread and butter, and that's the difference.
Speaker 1: It can't be your bread and butter. Unless you're hitting
Speaker 1: it at sixty percent, which is one point two points
Speaker 1: per possession. See the difference. That's a one twenty offensive rating.
Speaker 1: That's untenable for a defense to live with. And I
Speaker 1: would argue, I mean, if you look at the Suns
Speaker 1: last year and the year before, or Suns last year
Speaker 1: in the nets of the year before, Kd's mid range
Speaker 1: jump shot has become less efficient in the postseason, and
Speaker 1: it's been a problem. But like what makes the Jokic
Speaker 1: thing work, it's because he's making those floaters and hooks
Speaker 1: two out of three times. He If you let Jokic
Speaker 1: get looks and don't double him, he's gonna make them
Speaker 1: at an incredibly efficient rate because he's not relying on
Speaker 1: tougher jump shots. He's taking floaters and hooks in by
Speaker 1: the basket. Again, these numbers are crazy. Joel Embiid made
Speaker 1: just thirty four hooks and floaters all season last year,
Speaker 1: Nikole Jokic made one hundred and eighty one of them.
Speaker 1: Jokic ha just built his game around things that he
Speaker 1: can rely on in the postseason. He knows, come hell
Speaker 1: or high water, he's gonna be able to get to
Speaker 1: and make those hooks and floaters with Embiid, it's like
Speaker 1: he didn't even trust himself anymore after he missed a
Speaker 1: bunch of them early in the playoff run. He like
Speaker 1: kind of didn't he didn't take them as often and
Speaker 1: beat like legit lost confidence in it. And that's a
Speaker 1: shot that he hit all the time in the regular season.
Speaker 1: And so that's the thing, Like if it's a hook
Speaker 1: or a floater, he's always gonna feel good about those chances.
Speaker 1: So I mean, I think that's I think that's the
Speaker 1: important area offensively that he has to build out a
Speaker 1: little bit more of a bully ball and a little
Speaker 1: bit less of a finesse approach. And then lastly, playmaking.
Speaker 1: Joelanbid once again way more turnovers than assists. In this
Speaker 1: playoff run, he had thirty five turnovers to just twenty
Speaker 1: four assists. In his playoff career, he has one hundred
Speaker 1: and ninety three turnovers to one hundred and forty eight assists. Now,
Speaker 1: he actually had forty eight more assists than turnovers in
Speaker 1: the regular season. This is a playoff problem. Teams double him,
Speaker 1: and they stunt at him, and they jump passing lanes
Speaker 1: and they sneak along the baseline and he has no
Speaker 1: idea how to handle it. Like twenty four assists for
Speaker 1: an MVP caliber offensive folkrum in eleven playoff games is
Speaker 1: not going to get the job done. He has got
Speaker 1: to figure out how to read defenses at a higher level,
Speaker 1: and to me, like that is about actually hunting and
Speaker 1: looking for those opportunities. He almost needs to make that
Speaker 1: his goal during the regular season to shoot less, make
Speaker 1: reeds more, because it's a skill he has to build
Speaker 1: out in order to become a more impactful playoff player. Now,
Speaker 1: defensive versatility was an issue as well. The Sixers were
Speaker 1: eighth in defense in the regular season. They were twelfth
Speaker 1: and half court defense according to Cleaning the Glass, tenth,
Speaker 1: protecting the paint seventh, protecting the three point line fourteenth,
Speaker 1: and defensive rebounding. They did foul a lot. They were
Speaker 1: twentieth in opponent free throw attempts per hundred possessions. But
Speaker 1: mostly good not great. Right. The problem was is they
Speaker 1: had a good base scheme that worked in the regular season,
Speaker 1: right like emb playing a pretty deep drop, he'd occasionally
Speaker 1: come up to the level of screen against more pull
Speaker 1: up shooting heavy guys, and he was pretty good at
Speaker 1: riding at Yo yo, getting up and down back to
Speaker 1: the basket after showing high and like they last year,
Speaker 1: they would just give tougher perimeter assignments to guys like
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris and Anthony Milton and Daniel House and PJ.
Speaker 1: Tucker right and then they would hide James Harden and
Speaker 1: Tyres Maxi whenever they could. And that worked in the
Speaker 1: regular season, but then they ran up like Boston lit
Speaker 1: them up one hundred and seventeen points per one hundred posessions.
Speaker 1: I was one to seventeen offensive rating against the Sixers
Speaker 1: in that series. Now, I don't really blame him beat
Speaker 1: here we like we mentioned earlier, Yes, Tatum cooked him
Speaker 1: and switches in Game seven. In general, embiid got lit
Speaker 1: on fire and pick and roll in Game seven. But
Speaker 1: I think it's a team wide issue cause, like I
Speaker 1: mentioned before, every rim protector in the league is going
Speaker 1: to struggle on switches against NBA superstars, except for maybe
Speaker 1: like Jannis and Ad Right and guys like Bam, But
Speaker 1: the vast majority of defense bigs are going to struggle
Speaker 1: in those situations like flip the rolls like Yo kich
Speaker 1: Is getting barbecued and pick and roll By Tatum too.
Speaker 1: That's just a fact. As a matter of fact, I've
Speaker 1: seen him do it in the regular season. I did
Speaker 1: a whole video on it last year. So, like, that's
Speaker 1: not what I'm worried about it. To me, it's an
Speaker 1: overall aggregate defensive talent issue. Like I think you need
Speaker 1: to improve your point of attack defense. Patrick Beverley will
Speaker 1: help there, but ideally he's not starting, right. I think
Speaker 1: the big one is Kelly Ubray. If Kelly Ubray can
Speaker 1: kind of become the defensive element that PJ. Tucker brought
Speaker 1: with some of the offensive element that George's Kneeing brought.
Speaker 1: And George Kneeing is a way better shooter than Pat Kelly,
Speaker 1: but Kelly can be a much better offensive player than PJ. Tucker.
Speaker 1: But like, that's where it can get more interested as
Speaker 1: a group. You need to improve on the perimeter in
Speaker 1: your overall athleticism and ability to cover ground. But like
Speaker 1: I start to look at it from the standpoint of, like,
Speaker 1: if I'm not getting anything out of Harden in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: wouldn't I be better off having a really good two
Speaker 1: way guard in that spot, wouldn't I? Like, what if
Speaker 1: it was Alex Crusoe, and I'm just putting just don't
Speaker 1: even think about the machinations of a deal. Let's just
Speaker 1: look at the lineup just for the sake of basket
Speaker 1: cake ball. Let's say I've got Alice Crusoe and d
Speaker 1: Anthony Melton with Tobias Harris, and let's say Kelly Ubray
Speaker 1: buys in defensively and it has become a legitimate perimeter weapon. Defensively,
Speaker 1: I've got Alex Cruso outstanding point of attack defender, d
Speaker 1: Anthony Melton, pretty good point of attack defender, Tobias Harris,
Speaker 1: pretty good point of attack defender, Kelly youu Bray. Let's
Speaker 1: imagine in this scenario he becomes a pretty good point
Speaker 1: of attack defender. Then you can do things like switch
Speaker 1: and pick and roll with and beat if you need to,
Speaker 1: and just have him simply press up a little bit,
Speaker 1: and you have the athleticism on the back end to
Speaker 1: rotate right, because Cruso is just better at making rotations
Speaker 1: than James Harden. Then you might not be able to
Speaker 1: switch at all and just actually have him beats, sit
Speaker 1: and drop because you trust your point of attack defenders
Speaker 1: to get over to the top of screens better, Like
Speaker 1: an overall increase in aggregate defensive talent might actually be
Speaker 1: a better playoff weapon than what the heart and situation was,
Speaker 1: because if you're not if you're getting two for thirteen
Speaker 1: out of James Harden literally every other playoff game, Like
Speaker 1: what does he bring it? How much more imposing are
Speaker 1: you as a team if you run everything through Maxi
Speaker 1: embi it on one end and you have better defense
Speaker 1: on the other end. Right, And that's part of the
Speaker 1: issue too, is like Tyree Maxy, we didn't even talk
Speaker 1: about him, but like Tyras, Maxey legitimately like and he
Speaker 1: took a leap last year, averaged a career high twenty
Speaker 1: points per game, sixty one percent for shooting. It's the
Speaker 1: best pick and roll season of his career. He's legitimately
Speaker 1: turned himself into a reliable jump shooter. I've told you
Speaker 1: guys this story before, but one of my favorite Maxi
Speaker 1: memories is I've bumped into him in Vegas and he
Speaker 1: was out there working his ass off, like coming out
Speaker 1: of the gym, just doing a workout like every other
Speaker 1: NBA player I saw. Not to say that they weren't
Speaker 1: working out there, but like it was kind of cool
Speaker 1: to see that Tyras Maxey was out there taking his
Speaker 1: job seriously. And I don't think it's a coincidence that
Speaker 1: he's experienced the leaps that he's experienced in his career.
Speaker 1: But like that's another issue. Is like Tyre's Maxi right
Speaker 1: now is blow average point of attack defender. So like
Speaker 1: if you run Hardened and Maxi together, you have severe
Speaker 1: limitations there. Maybe you're better off with one guy like
Speaker 1: that Tyrese Maxi and then really good point of attack
Speaker 1: defense around him. Maybe that gives you a better chance
Speaker 1: to contend. But I don't I don't think that. I
Speaker 1: don't think they're good enough in the playoff context on
Speaker 1: either end of the floor right now, as a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, it feels like they took a step back,
Speaker 1: like I mentioned earlier, and Boston's just better, Milwaukee's just better.
Speaker 1: Both of them got better, like Miami has gotten no better.
Speaker 1: But you know they're better than Philly. So like right now,
Speaker 1: they're firmly the fourth best team in the East. And
Speaker 1: so this season just kind of screams of another fifty
Speaker 1: wins and another second round exit, is what it looks
Speaker 1: like to me. All Right, let's talk mailbag before we
Speaker 1: get out of here today, what do you think of
Speaker 1: Jabari Parker's take on leaving the NBA to play in
Speaker 1: Europe wherever game matters. The quote from Jabari Parker was
Speaker 1: there are ten to twelve teams to try to win
Speaker 1: every game and the other half try to get a
Speaker 1: draft pick. Where does that leave good players? It's no
Speaker 1: excuse to see Boogie Dwight or John Wall, guys who
Speaker 1: are potentially going into the Hall of Fame. Seeing those
Speaker 1: guys not have a job end quote. This one was
Speaker 1: funny to me, first of all, because the whole way,
Speaker 1: the whole interview is framed, it's like I'm leaving the NBA.
Speaker 1: It's like, I something tells me, if your agent actually
Speaker 1: got you an offer, you would have stayed in the NBA. Also,
Speaker 1: he's just wrong. The NBA is incredibly stacked with talent.
Speaker 1: I pointed it out earlier in our series. But like
Speaker 1: I think, there are nineteen teams in the league that
Speaker 1: are legitimately very good. And the night in, night out
Speaker 1: schedule in the NBA is tougher and it's ever been.
Speaker 1: And even as we go down the line, it's like
Speaker 1: you're gonna have an easy matchup against the San Antonio
Speaker 1: Spurs have fun with Victor Weman Yama and Jeremy Sohan
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, like uh Keldon Johnson and like
Speaker 1: you get they even picked up Reggie Bullock as like
Speaker 1: a veteran lock and trail defender, and yeah, like like
Speaker 1: it's it's not gonna be easy, you know, like going
Speaker 1: to Portland in front of their home crowd to play
Speaker 1: against Shadon Sharp and and it's Scoot Henderson and Anthony
Speaker 1: Simons and DeAndre Ayton not gonna be an easy game.
Speaker 1: It's just not. So like the league is tougher than
Speaker 1: it's ever been and that probably has a lot to
Speaker 1: do with why Jabari Parker doesn't have a spot in
Speaker 1: it right now. But like his take is just flat
Speaker 1: out wrong. Like the NBA does have a tanking issue
Speaker 1: in the big picture, like there is tanking, but it's
Speaker 1: usually just a handful of teams at the bottom the
Speaker 1: playing team. Is that the play tournament has done a
Speaker 1: really nice job of engaging the league from top to
Speaker 1: bottom in a way that it hasn't in the past.
Speaker 1: I just disagree with with Jabari and it strikes me
Speaker 1: as a kind of a deflection from a bigger issue,
Speaker 1: which is that he just doesn't have a spot in
Speaker 1: the league. Obviously, he's a great fit for Milwaukee with
Speaker 1: his skill set, but as far as chemistry, what does
Speaker 1: it take for a new star player to successfully integrate
Speaker 1: into an already contending team. This was in our Dame video,
Speaker 1: so it's a Dame question. This is interesting. I you know, again,
Speaker 1: when you're coming into a situation like this where you're
Speaker 1: less of a foundational piece and more of like a
Speaker 1: mercenary edition, it's all about communication with the coaching staff,
Speaker 1: finding out exactly what they need from you. And I
Speaker 1: think the big one is going to be defensively, Like
Speaker 1: if you're Damian Lillard today, you woke up and you're
Speaker 1: like feeling good, right, Like, I have an opportunity to
Speaker 1: go play with the second best player in the league
Speaker 1: in my opinion, and an opportunity to or third best
Speaker 1: player in the league behind Staph But regardless of what
Speaker 1: you want to call it, bona fide top tier superstar defending.
Speaker 1: You know, guy who's won a championship in a multiple
Speaker 1: time MVP got an opportunity to go play with this
Speaker 1: guy and they already have good role players around him, right,
Speaker 1: like Brook Lopez and Chris Middleton, Like, you're not gonna
Speaker 1: do much better than that around the league. So the
Speaker 1: question becomes do you feel good about your chances to
Speaker 1: win a title? And my guess is Dame does. But
Speaker 1: then you start to think about it and you go
Speaker 1: reality sets it. Excuse me, reality sets in and you realize, like,
Speaker 1: in order to win a championship, we're going to have
Speaker 1: to beat other great teams and those series are going
Speaker 1: to come down to the smallest of margins. So I,
Speaker 1: Dame have to have the best season of my career
Speaker 1: in all of the winning details. So I think Dame
Speaker 1: is aware of the narrative about his defense, and I
Speaker 1: think he's aware that he's going to have to be
Speaker 1: the best defensive version of himself to put the Bucks
Speaker 1: over the top. So from there, it's about communication with
Speaker 1: the coaching staff to find doubt what they need from
Speaker 1: you in the defensive scheme, and then from day one
Speaker 1: of training camp demonstrating it on the court. And like,
Speaker 1: if you see Dame from day one make that commitment,
Speaker 1: then it could trickle down. It's a leadership thing, and
Speaker 1: that could be the beginning the foundation of a defensive
Speaker 1: culture that allows you to win a championship. So that's
Speaker 1: what I expect, and my guess is we'll end up
Speaker 1: seeing quotes coming out of Milwaukee's training camp four or
Speaker 1: five days after they get started about how Dame has
Speaker 1: been competing defensively and has been an impact player there.
Speaker 1: He's too good of an athlete and has too good
Speaker 1: a law of like a strong low center of gravity
Speaker 1: to not at least be able to do a job defensively,
Speaker 1: and so I think he will end up last question
Speaker 1: from John, how is this referring to the Dame trade?
Speaker 1: How is this that much different than Katie to Golden State,
Speaker 1: which Dame said he'd never do. It is so so,
Speaker 1: so so so much different. Again, Like, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of examples of stars joining great teams in NBA history.
Speaker 1: This is another example of them, right, And yeah, Milwaukee
Speaker 1: became the favorite, but there's nothing that comes remotely close. Two, Literally,
Speaker 1: Kevin freaking Durant going and signing straight up as a
Speaker 1: free agent for a team that won sixty seven games
Speaker 1: in a championship two years prior seventy three games and
Speaker 1: was literally one shot away from a championship one year
Speaker 1: prior there's nothing close to that, and everyone goes like,
Speaker 1: it's so funny when I hear guys go like, oh,
Speaker 1: kat and Steph, Katie and Steph. Yeah, it was crazy
Speaker 1: to see Katie and Steph together literally the second and
Speaker 1: third best players in the world in my opinion. But
Speaker 1: it wasn't just that. It was Katie and Steph and
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson in the heart of his prime Andreamond Green
Speaker 1: in the heart of his prime and Andre Guadala at
Speaker 1: the tail end of his prime. Like literally, like does
Speaker 1: not compare. The KD Warriors are by far the most
Speaker 1: talented team ever assembled. It's not close. They literally went
Speaker 1: into the season as a negative favorite, like you had
Speaker 1: to give up points or money I should say, like
Speaker 1: you had to bet one hundred and something in dollars
Speaker 1: to win one hundred bucks. When the Warriors signed KD.
Speaker 1: It was not the same. Like, this is another example
Speaker 1: of a star joining a great team, right, It's like
Speaker 1: Bradley Beale joined in the Suns. Maybe a higher level
Speaker 1: than that, but this is another example of a great
Speaker 1: player joining a great team. But there is there, there
Speaker 1: is It's KD to the Warriors, gigantic chasm. Everything else
Speaker 1: like even even the Lebron Wade Bosh thing was different,
Speaker 1: Like like when you really factor in that that Mike
Speaker 1: Bibbie was starting for that team and and their problems
Speaker 1: at the set position, in the spacing and everything, like
Speaker 1: they were so much easier to guard, it was a
Speaker 1: totally different thing. Like even Lebron wasn't close to the
Speaker 1: player that he was going to become at that point.
Speaker 1: Like the heat I think were better than their performance showed,
Speaker 1: because I think Wade's declined kind of undercut that. But
Speaker 1: like to me, it's the Katie to the Warriors giant
Speaker 1: chasm than everything else. I've not seen anything close to it,
Speaker 1: and I don't think this is close to it. And
Speaker 1: it's hard to even conceptualize something that would be crazier,
Speaker 1: like it would literally be like I'm trying to think
Speaker 1: of a team that would that was already loaded, Like
Speaker 1: it'd be like if the Denver Nuggets literally just had
Speaker 1: cap space and just signed Giannis and Tenecumpo into the
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon spot. That's what that would be like, because
Speaker 1: Jannis and Jokic would be two of the top three
Speaker 1: players in the league, just like Katie and Steph were
Speaker 1: and you'd have three other really really good role players
Speaker 1: next to them, and a dynamic guard that could score
Speaker 1: a million points like Klay Thompson or Jamal Murray. Like,
Speaker 1: I think we have to be careful with comparing things
Speaker 1: to that, because there really wasn't anything like it. Like go,
Speaker 1: just for fun, go google preseason title odds in twenty
Speaker 1: seventeen in twenty eighteen, just go look at them and
Speaker 1: compare them to what we saw now with the Bucks,
Speaker 1: who I think are still like a plus three to
Speaker 1: fifty favorite, like their favorite, but it's still considered somewhat
Speaker 1: of a long shot in the fact, in the sense
Speaker 1: that if I bet one hundred bucks and the Bucks
Speaker 1: win the title, I win three hundred and fifty bucks.
Speaker 1: It's a totally different situation. All right, guys, That is
Speaker 1: all I have for today. We will be back tomorrow
Speaker 1: with number seven. My power rankings got all jumbled by
Speaker 1: the Dame trade, so a couple of different teams. The
Speaker 1: team I was gonna do tomorrow got moved up. A
Speaker 1: team that was involved in the trade in a vicarious,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of tangential way is gonna end up
Speaker 1: being number seven. So hang tight, we have number seven.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow and then training camp literally starts next week, so
Speaker 1: lots of good basketball ahead. I appreciate you guys, and
Speaker 1: i'll see tomorrow. The volume