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Speaker 1: to hob tonight here at the volume heavy Thursday. Everybody
Speaker 1: hope all you guys are having a great week. We
Speaker 1: were doing an instant reaction to last night as the
Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors not their seventh win against teams that
Speaker 1: have top six records in the NBA beating the Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City Thunder. We're gonna break that game down. The We're
Speaker 1: going to continue our trade deadline content with my three
Speaker 1: favorite destinations for Jimmy Butler. You guys know the drill
Speaker 1: before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube
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Speaker 1: also super helpful if you leave a rating and a
Speaker 1: review on that front. Also, don't forget about our new
Speaker 1: social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing
Speaker 1: content throughout the year and then last but not least,
Speaker 1: keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments for
Speaker 1: our mail bags that we record on Fridays throughout this season.
Speaker 1: I do want to hit pacers and I also want
Speaker 1: to talk about that Nuggets Knicks game from last night,
Speaker 1: but I need more time to go back and watch films,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna be covering that in the mail bag tomorrow.
Speaker 1: We also have a really nice game tonight to react
Speaker 1: to between the Houston Rockets and the Memphis Grizzlies. So
Speaker 1: more to get into tomorrow today, just or yours Thunder
Speaker 1: and the Jimmy Butler trade destinations all right, let's talk
Speaker 1: some basketball. So shake Gil Just Alexander was absolutely frying
Speaker 1: everyone to start this game. He outscored the Warriors by
Speaker 1: himself in the first quarter, a good chunk of picking
Speaker 1: on specific matchups on the floor. But he was also
Speaker 1: giving it directly to Andrew Wiggins. He hit him with
Speaker 1: this ridiculous, like high hesitation move like he was gonna
Speaker 1: go to his left, and then just scissor dribbled over
Speaker 1: to his right and went right around him to the basket.
Speaker 1: He was hitting jumpers, He's getting to the rim, he
Speaker 1: was getting to the foul line. The Warriors offense was
Speaker 1: also in a funk in the first quarter. Both Buddy
Speaker 1: Hill and Steph Curry got off to really rough starts.
Speaker 1: Andrew Riggins Wiggins was the only guy really hitting shots,
Speaker 1: and so they ended up going down by fourteen. Just
Speaker 1: an absolute disaster start to the game for the Warriors,
Speaker 1: a continuation of a lot of the things that they've
Speaker 1: struggled with over the course of the last few months.
Speaker 1: But in the first shift, without Steph on the floor,
Speaker 1: the Warriors finally got a good bit of offensive production
Speaker 1: from Andrew Wiggins and Dennis Schroeder. Wiggins like post up
Speaker 1: on the left block, gets into the middle, hits a
Speaker 1: little hook shot over his left shoulder. Dennis Schroeder comes
Speaker 1: downhill in a ball screen and just hits a little
Speaker 1: foul line jump shot. Andrew Wiggins gets Isaiah Hartenstein on
Speaker 1: a switch on the left wing, hits a little step
Speaker 1: back three in his face. Guys were creating offense, and
Speaker 1: when guys create offense for the Warriors, it unlocks the
Speaker 1: strength of this roster, which is that the Warriors have
Speaker 1: a depth of really good role players that can defend,
Speaker 1: that can play in transition, and that can play with
Speaker 1: an advantage. They were scoring so they could set their
Speaker 1: defense so that they could get more stops so that
Speaker 1: they can force more turnovers. They held OKC to twenty
Speaker 1: four points in that second quarter. They turned OKAC over
Speaker 1: five times, and they scored eleven points in transition. Just
Speaker 1: in the second quarter. They got the lead back to four.
Speaker 1: Okay See goes on a little run capped by a
Speaker 1: Shae Gills as Alexander three off of an offensive rebounder
Speaker 1: that puts the lead back up to gets a lead
Speaker 1: up to thirteen. And then Andrew Wiggins it's a big
Speaker 1: three on the right wing that cuts it down to ten.
Speaker 1: In the third quarter, Steph finally gets going hits a
Speaker 1: couple of threes. Steph was amazing down the stretch of
Speaker 1: the game too. I want to get into in a minute,
Speaker 1: but I really want to zero in on the non
Speaker 1: State four Riors tonight because it's kind of indicative of
Speaker 1: the flawed in this roster, which is that top end
Speaker 1: shot creation beyond Steph Curry, it really was from a
Speaker 1: bunch of different guys like Andrew Wiggins and Dennischroder were
Speaker 1: amazing all night, even into clutch time. Both of them
Speaker 1: were creating shots all night. Schroeder more is like a
Speaker 1: playmaker and Wiggins more is like a score but they
Speaker 1: were doing it throughout. But even when it got into
Speaker 1: crunch time, which by the way, the Thunder didn't go
Speaker 1: down easily in this game. Shay and Jay Dub were
Speaker 1: both fantastic down the stretch as they continued to generate
Speaker 1: offense for the Thunder to keep them close and every
Speaker 1: time someone came up and hit a big shot. Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins hit one of the biggest shots of the game
Speaker 1: out of the right corner, a really nice pinin flare
Speaker 1: from Dennis Schroeder where Dennis Schroeder saw that his man
Speaker 1: was helping, and so he screened Andrew Wiggins man to
Speaker 1: create a little passing angle into the right corner. Steph
Speaker 1: hit him. Wiggins hits a big three. Wiggins hit a
Speaker 1: floater off of a euro step and a ball screen
Speaker 1: that was a big shot. In the fourth quarter of
Speaker 1: this game, again, Schroder only had nine points, but they
Speaker 1: were all self created mid range jump shots, driving to
Speaker 1: the basketball Isaiah Joe for a layup. He had a
Speaker 1: movement three that he hit on the right wing off
Speaker 1: of a post split for the Warriors where they they
Speaker 1: had the ball. I think it was Looney, kind of
Speaker 1: around the right elbow area, and Looney just handed it
Speaker 1: off to Schroeder coming off of a wide screen and
Speaker 1: he set his feet moving to the right, which is
Speaker 1: a shot you almost never see Dennis Schroeder take, and
Speaker 1: he knocked it down from three point land. But it
Speaker 1: was his shot creation, getting downhill and generating openings that
Speaker 1: really kept things flowing for the Warriors on offense. He
Speaker 1: had a play late in the game. The Warriors were
Speaker 1: trying to get the ball to Steph at the top
Speaker 1: of the key, but the Thunder were doing a good
Speaker 1: job of denying him, and so Dennis kind of had
Speaker 1: to turn and self create. He had Shay on him.
Speaker 1: Just beat Shay off the dribble to the right, Drew
Speaker 1: Hartenstein up in a low man help situation, dropped it
Speaker 1: off to GP two, and he dunked on Hartenstein bad.
Speaker 1: It was a really really impressive athletic play from Gary Payton.
Speaker 1: But like those two guys, through Andrew Wiggins scoring and
Speaker 1: through Dennis Schroder's playmaking kind of roughly approximated a second
Speaker 1: star shot creator would look like. And the Warriors looked awesome.
Speaker 1: The announcers were talking early in the game, They're like,
Speaker 1: you know, Buddy healed in the last two months. He's
Speaker 1: shooting thirty percent from three after his hot start. And
Speaker 1: then one of the guys that I can't remember who
Speaker 1: it was, but said like, oh, well, well, when Buddy
Speaker 1: was shooting well, the Warriors were winning. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: no shit. This Warriors roster has actually a plethora of
Speaker 1: really good role players that can play on both ends
Speaker 1: of the floor when they have roles that are manageable,
Speaker 1: but they just don't have that reliable secondary shot creation.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna share the stats with you guys later here
Speaker 1: in a minute. But the Warriors pretty consistently are good
Speaker 1: when they score the basketball. That's why I always talk
Speaker 1: about the idea of value in a vacuum versus value
Speaker 1: for your specific team. Like Jamal Murray is immensely valuable
Speaker 1: to the Nuggets in a way he wouldn't be for
Speaker 1: someone else because his specific skill set helps the two
Speaker 1: man game with Jokic in such a way that makes
Speaker 1: them unguardable in the half court right. Similarly, on a
Speaker 1: Warriors roster, a secondary shot creator is going to be
Speaker 1: immensely valuable there in a way that they wouldn't be
Speaker 1: elsewhere in the league because it's such a need on
Speaker 1: that specific roster. Again, we're gonna circle back to that
Speaker 1: in a minute. But it naturally just created easier opportunities
Speaker 1: for everyone. Randon pajamskate eleven points. He had a couple
Speaker 1: of nice self creation shots too. He had a second
Speaker 1: half three off the dribble on the right wing. Moses
Speaker 1: Moody had a couple of nice buckets, one driving a
Speaker 1: close out, one off of an offensive rebound. I thot
Speaker 1: Kevon Looney was amazing in terms of his physical leverage,
Speaker 1: creating passing angles on seals and just catching everything in
Speaker 1: traffic and either finishing it or drawing a foul. And
Speaker 1: what that does is it puts Steph Curry in a
Speaker 1: position where instead of needing to create everything, he can
Speaker 1: just focus on making the big shots that put the
Speaker 1: team over the top, which is something that at his
Speaker 1: even at this phase in his career, he can be
Speaker 1: excellent at. Like they he had there was the league
Speaker 1: got cut to three after shayet I think it either
Speaker 1: Shay or JDub got a couple of buckets in a
Speaker 1: row after they had been up seven or eight, they
Speaker 1: cut it down to three. One possession game. Steph comes
Speaker 1: off and it's a thirty foot bomb off of a
Speaker 1: ball screen, and it's like like, yeah, Steph didn't have
Speaker 1: the biggest scoring game of the night, but he was
Speaker 1: able to get the big shots when they needed him,
Speaker 1: and that really is all that matters. Right, Like, if
Speaker 1: you have Steph in a position where his offensive trades
Speaker 1: can be used as a little bit more of a
Speaker 1: ceiling razor instead of like the primary offensive engine of
Speaker 1: everything that you do, that's a more useful way to
Speaker 1: make to make use of Steph at this phase in
Speaker 1: his career, and I thought that kind of screamed off
Speaker 1: of the screen last night. And then on defense, the
Speaker 1: Warriors got better with their game plan discipline as the
Speaker 1: game went along. One of the things I noticed about
Speaker 1: on film and once again I did a whole film
Speaker 1: thread on this game, So you guys can go over
Speaker 1: to my Twitter feed at Underscore Jason LT and just
Speaker 1: look for the video of it starts with Andrew Wiggins
Speaker 1: hitting a spin move on Shay and it just kind
Speaker 1: of goes through. I just got a bunch of clips
Speaker 1: from the game. But one of the things I was
Speaker 1: calling out in the film thread this morning was the
Speaker 1: concept of gifting driving angles or defending with an open stance.
Speaker 1: So a lot of times, what will happen when you're
Speaker 1: guarding a guy like Shae. You're not keeping Shae in
Speaker 1: front throughout the entire game. He's just too good with
Speaker 1: the dribble drive. His first step is too quick, his
Speaker 1: dribble combinations, and his ability to just completely pause and
Speaker 1: hesitation moves in freeze defenders. He's just too good as
Speaker 1: a drible drive guy. So if you set your defense
Speaker 1: up in a way that says like, hey, you contain
Speaker 1: Shae like that, That's just that's not going to work
Speaker 1: right Like, more more likely it's going to be Shae
Speaker 1: getting downhill into the teeth of your defense. And that
Speaker 1: way is fine as long as you have a plan
Speaker 1: for it. And so one of the things I noticed
Speaker 1: early in the game when Shae was playing really, really well,
Speaker 1: they were a lot of guys were defending Shae with
Speaker 1: an open stance towards his left hand, so they were
Speaker 1: like playing up on his right hand and kind of
Speaker 1: funneling him towards the left and hopes that he'll be
Speaker 1: more willing to take a This is kind of a
Speaker 1: just a general thing with most basketball players. When they
Speaker 1: drive right handed player when they drive left, are most
Speaker 1: likely going to take a pull up jump shot. When
Speaker 1: they drive right, they're most likely going to go all
Speaker 1: the way to the rim. Now, a guy like Shaye
Speaker 1: is really good shooting or going to the rim both ways,
Speaker 1: but still that tendency tends to exist regardless. It's it's
Speaker 1: as a game plan thing, your best bet. Even though
Speaker 1: obviously Shay is so damn good that he can hit
Speaker 1: pull up jumpers going right and he can hit layups
Speaker 1: going left. But the Warriors were doing a lot of
Speaker 1: like kind of shading Shaye towards his left hand side.
Speaker 1: But in the first quarter, he was getting that dribble
Speaker 1: penetration and there was nobody there like there'd be. There
Speaker 1: was a play where he got a dunk where there's
Speaker 1: just literally no one even in the picture and help
Speaker 1: side defense. There was a play in the post where
Speaker 1: I think Pods was like overplaying him towards the middle
Speaker 1: and giving up the baseline and Shaye just ripped baseline
Speaker 1: but there was no help there. Looney was all the
Speaker 1: way on the opposite block, and Shae just made a
Speaker 1: little left handed shot in the lane, and so it
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, we're not doing our job here within
Speaker 1: the game plan, which is like if we're going to
Speaker 1: give up dribble penetration, we're sending him left and we
Speaker 1: need to have the help ready. And you could just
Speaker 1: visibly see a difference in their help side and how
Speaker 1: on time they were in the second, third, and fourth
Speaker 1: quarters where guys were still kind of opening up to
Speaker 1: the left and letting Shay go, but he was running
Speaker 1: into the running into bodies, like no further than ten feet,
Speaker 1: sooner than ten feet from the basket, so like he
Speaker 1: was running into traffic, which is gonna test one of
Speaker 1: Shay's weaknesses as a playmaker, which is that he is
Speaker 1: a good playmaker, but he does he will sometimes shoot
Speaker 1: through multiple bodies instead of making kickout passes, and you
Speaker 1: can force him into some misses in situations like that. Now,
Speaker 1: I want to be clear, like Shay cooked him all
Speaker 1: night long, but they just did a much better job
Speaker 1: of making him less efficient and less impactful over the
Speaker 1: last three quarters than they did in the first quarter,
Speaker 1: just simply by doing a better job in their game
Speaker 1: plan discipline of rotating earlier as you were sending Shay
Speaker 1: into help. The Warriors now have two wins against all
Speaker 1: Lahoma City, a win against Boston, two wins against Houston,
Speaker 1: and two wins against Memphis. That's seven wins against teams
Speaker 1: with top six records in the NBA. According to Cleaning
Speaker 1: the Glass, Golden State now has eleven total wins against
Speaker 1: teams in the top ten in point differential. Only Houston
Speaker 1: and Oklahoma City have more. No other team in the
Speaker 1: league has double digit wins against teams in the top
Speaker 1: ten in point differential, and one of the things that
Speaker 1: consistently stands out in these situations. When they score, they
Speaker 1: can beat anyone because they play really good defense and
Speaker 1: they get out in transition. In those eleven wins against
Speaker 1: teams in the top ten in point differential, the Warriors
Speaker 1: have a one to nineteen offensive rating. When they score,
Speaker 1: they can beat anyone, and that extends throughout their entire
Speaker 1: schedule when they score at least one hundred and eighteen
Speaker 1: points just total points in a game. This year they're
Speaker 1: fourteen and two. They lose almost every time they fail
Speaker 1: to get a hunt. It's a consistent trend. And so
Speaker 1: like when I'm talking about the Warriors and I'm pitching
Speaker 1: things like, hey, this is why it's worth making a
Speaker 1: move for a secondary shot creator, it's based on two
Speaker 1: simple concepts. One, I don't think you should be in
Speaker 1: the Steph Curry Draymond Green business unless you're trying to
Speaker 1: win now. I just don't see the point. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's fair to Steph to try to rebuild while
Speaker 1: he's on the roster. There's time for that in the future.
Speaker 1: You may never have a player like Steph again, let
Speaker 1: alone for a very long time. So One, if you're
Speaker 1: in the Steph and Draymond business. It's got to be
Speaker 1: a win now business. And then two, I really do
Speaker 1: think there's a kind of a mischaracterization of this Warrior's
Speaker 1: roster is bad when what it really is is deficient
Speaker 1: in a key area. Right now, all of their subsidiary
Speaker 1: offensive talent, guys like Wiggins and schroeder Pods, Buddy Healed,
Speaker 1: these guys are all playing up a role like Wiggins
Speaker 1: should really be your third or fourth best offensive player
Speaker 1: on the team, not your second best offensive player. Dannis
Speaker 1: Schroderz should still be your third or fourth best player
Speaker 1: offensive player on the team, not your second or third
Speaker 1: best offensive player on the team. You need to slot
Speaker 1: these guys down. When you slot these guys down, they
Speaker 1: were lying, like think of it like this. Where you
Speaker 1: land in the hierarchy is how often you have to
Speaker 1: rely on difficult shot making. Right the superstar, he's gonna
Speaker 1: have to rescue a lot of possessions, he's gonna face
Speaker 1: the toughest coverages, he's gonna have to take and make
Speaker 1: a lot of really difficult shots. The secondary shot creator,
Speaker 1: he's going to be leaned on in that type of
Speaker 1: role when the superstars off the floor. So he's gonna
Speaker 1: have to do that for like fifteen minutes a game.
Speaker 1: He's gonna have to take a lot of the rescue
Speaker 1: shots and the tough shots at the end of possessions
Speaker 1: that coverage the coverage beating shots. Right, But then he's
Speaker 1: also gonna have to occasionally take tough shots when he's
Speaker 1: on the floor the superstar and that guy's tired. Right,
Speaker 1: go down to the third guy. It's like he's never
Speaker 1: gonna lead a unit, but he will occasionally have to
Speaker 1: take a tough shot when the main shot crater on
Speaker 1: the floor is tired or in a bad matchup and
Speaker 1: you have to try to rescue that possession. Right, go
Speaker 1: down to the fourth guy. He's probably never gonna take
Speaker 1: a super tough shot or very rarely going to take
Speaker 1: a super tough shot. Everything is with an advantage, second
Speaker 1: side action, all that kind of stuff, right, and so
Speaker 1: on and so forth. As you get down the hierarchy,
Speaker 1: the difficulty in your shot diet goes down. It's not
Speaker 1: exactly hard to figure out. So just for example, if
Speaker 1: you were to take a let's say a guy like
Speaker 1: Cam Johnson, who's just a better offensive player than Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins and Dennis Schroeder. Okay, if you were to put
Speaker 1: him into that second role and everyone goes down a role,
Speaker 1: everyone's shot diet gets easier. Not to mention, Cam Johnson's
Speaker 1: shot diet in Brooklyn is harder than the types of
Speaker 1: shots that he'll be getting in the Golden State system.
Speaker 1: That's why I emphasize that right now, the Warriors have
Speaker 1: excellent coaching. I still think Steph is capable as a
Speaker 1: top tier superstar of lifting a team over the top
Speaker 1: with the right type of team, and you've got this
Speaker 1: incredible depth of role player talent that can play on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor as long as they're in
Speaker 1: roles that are manageable. But you just simply do not
Speaker 1: have a guy that can consistently create shots off of
Speaker 1: Steph and every time the guys that are in their
Speaker 1: roles that they're a little underqualified for but they thrive
Speaker 1: every time, they thrive, which is inconsistent. Why because they're
Speaker 1: not qualified for those roles. Andrew Wiggins is an inconsistent
Speaker 1: number two, you know why, because he shouldn't be a
Speaker 1: number two. So, like with that being the case, if
Speaker 1: you can slot everybody down properly and put someone in
Speaker 1: that role, it is literally the one gaping weakness on
Speaker 1: this team. There are other moderate weaknesses, Oh yeah, you
Speaker 1: could probably use a little bit bigger of a center, right, Like,
Speaker 1: there are little things that you can get into in
Speaker 1: terms of moderate improvements here or there. But there's one
Speaker 1: gaping hole in this Warriors roster and it is in
Speaker 1: secondary shot creation or secondary star behind Steph Curry. And
Speaker 1: that's why I've been harping on that as much as
Speaker 1: I have this year on the thunderfront, Shay is truly unbelievable.
Speaker 1: He had fifty two and even with the better game
Speaker 1: plan discipline that the Warriors showed in the later portions
Speaker 1: of the game, they still couldn't really do anything with them.
Speaker 1: Shay has a trait that I think is something that
Speaker 1: makes him really gifted at getting to the foul line,
Speaker 1: in the sense that, like, when he sees a small
Speaker 1: gap that he can't necessarily get through, but that he
Speaker 1: has enough of an angle to have the defender out
Speaker 1: of position, He'll just keep attacking that gap with physicality.
Speaker 1: So like the defender will slide over and kind of
Speaker 1: hold him on the like kind of give him some
Speaker 1: contact on that first drive, but Shaye will just keep
Speaker 1: pounding and trying to get through that gap, and inevitably
Speaker 1: the leverage angle he has where the guy's kind of
Speaker 1: on his side, that guy ends up holding or hanging
Speaker 1: on to him a step too long, and then the
Speaker 1: reff will blow the whistle. He just kind of puts
Speaker 1: the refs in predicaments where they have no choice but
Speaker 1: to blow the whistle. The pump fakes where he gets
Speaker 1: someone out of position and jumps into him, that sort
Speaker 1: of thing. He just is a complete master of his
Speaker 1: craft and single facet. But the Warriors counted on something
Speaker 1: that many teams count on when playing the Thunder, that
Speaker 1: other guys will just misshots. And with the exception of
Speaker 1: Isaiah Joe who's been shooting really well as of late,
Speaker 1: and Jay Dubb who put up twenty six although he
Speaker 1: took him twenty six shots, every other Thunder player struggled
Speaker 1: in this game. Isaiah Harden signed Lou Dort, Keeson Wallace,
Speaker 1: Jay du or Jay will I should say, Ken ridg
Speaker 1: Williams and Aaron Wiggins combined to make five shots they
Speaker 1: attempted it looks like twenty thirty two, so they were
Speaker 1: five for thirty two from the field. Between those guys,
Speaker 1: that's just not going to get the job done. And
Speaker 1: you know, and like, as a result of that, over
Speaker 1: the final three quarters, the Thunder offense generated just zero
Speaker 1: point eighty four points per half court possession. And look,
Speaker 1: I've been preaching all season with the Thunder that this
Speaker 1: team is prone to offensive lulls. I want to I
Speaker 1: want to emphasize this because I get into this sort
Speaker 1: of discussion. A discussion is the wrong word, but I
Speaker 1: get this kind of feedback from fans and the comments.
Speaker 1: Often when I'm talking about teams, I'm talking about them
Speaker 1: with respect to the tier that they're in. So when
Speaker 1: I'm talking about flaws and strengths for a third tier contender,
Speaker 1: call it like the Lakers, for instance, It's going to
Speaker 1: be different than the way I discuss the second tier
Speaker 1: contender teams like Dallas or Denver, New York, versus the
Speaker 1: way I discuss a top tier contender like Cleveland, Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City in Boston. I know Oklahoma City is a lot
Speaker 1: better than Golden State. I think even Warriors fans would
Speaker 1: admit that if they face Golden Okay See in a
Speaker 1: first round playoff series, that they would get beat. It's
Speaker 1: not about that we're talking about Oklahoma City has real
Speaker 1: championship pressure, and so when I discuss them, I'm discussing
Speaker 1: them as in terms of like what could get them
Speaker 1: beat in the conference finals or in the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1: What could get the Thunder beat if they ran into
Speaker 1: a game six against Dallas or a game six against Denver,
Speaker 1: or a game six against Boston or a game six
Speaker 1: against Cleveland if they make it to the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1: That's what I talk about there. There has been a
Speaker 1: trend from last year's playoffs into the n season tournament
Speaker 1: into some of these high leverage games this season that
Speaker 1: Shay is resilient in those situations. He might have a
Speaker 1: game where he struggles to shoot a little bit, but
Speaker 1: like Shae seems resilient and Jada sometimes but everyone else
Speaker 1: it's like you don't know what you're getting when it
Speaker 1: gets into those situations, which is to be expected. These
Speaker 1: are young players, all of these guys at Hartenstein, dort
Speaker 1: case I, Wallace, Jawill, Kenrick Williams, Aaron Wiggins. Like, there
Speaker 1: are some guys in there that have there are veterans
Speaker 1: with some playoff experience, but like it's a lot of
Speaker 1: youth that you're depending on in those sorts of situations.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. Lou Dort has offensive upside, but
Speaker 1: he is a little bit streaky. Case On Wallace has
Speaker 1: offensive upside, He's a little bit streaky. Aaron Wiggins is
Speaker 1: a little bit streaky. These guys are capable of being
Speaker 1: really hot and they are capable of being really cold.
Speaker 1: And so again, like I want to be clear, like
Speaker 1: the thunder to me, are have played better than anybody
Speaker 1: in this regular season. I'm not trying to deny that
Speaker 1: in any way, shape or form. I view them as
Speaker 1: a top tier contender. Earlier in the season, I viewed
Speaker 1: Boston on a tier by themselves. I have moved Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City into that tier. I'm a believer in what Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City can do. But will they win the championship this year?
Speaker 1: That's in doubt to some extent. And if they lose,
Speaker 1: this is what I think it will look like. If
Speaker 1: they lose, it will look like their half court offense
Speaker 1: falling apart because everyone not named Shay struggles to find
Speaker 1: a level of comfort on the offensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: It's just something to keep it up, all right. Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler my top three trade destinations. Jimmy had one goal
Speaker 1: when he decided he was going to make a giant
Speaker 1: mess of things in Miami. He wanted to force pat
Speaker 1: Riley's hand into trading him before this year's deadline, and
Speaker 1: according to all of the reports that I've seen, it
Speaker 1: has worked and he are at least intent on getting
Speaker 1: him moved before next Wednesday's deadline. So with that being
Speaker 1: the case, here are my top three destinations. Number three,
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Bucks not necessarily the greatest fit in the world,
Speaker 1: putting him next to Gianni's teams would likely guard any
Speaker 1: action that involves Jimmy and Giannis directly by switching, which
Speaker 1: means that they would have to be able to be
Speaker 1: off ball threats for each other, because if they're both
Speaker 1: in the action, that's great, but if they switch, one's
Speaker 1: going to have to go create space for the other,
Speaker 1: which means they're gonna have to play off of each other. Now,
Speaker 1: Jimmy has become a knockdown, catch and shoot guy, but
Speaker 1: he has a slow release and he doesn't take many
Speaker 1: of them. Jannis obviously would be more of a dunker
Speaker 1: spot guy off of Jimmy, which is a form of spacing,
Speaker 1: but it's not great, so like it's not necessarily the
Speaker 1: perfect fit, but it is a massive talent play. The
Speaker 1: deal with likely center around Chris Middleton and Bobby Portis.
Speaker 1: Now both of those guys have been valuable to Milwaukee
Speaker 1: in different ways throughout this year. Chris Middleton, for instance,
Speaker 1: hasn't shown much in terms of top end offensive talent,
Speaker 1: but his ability to handle a ball in the half
Speaker 1: court and kind of set up his teammates with some
Speaker 1: advantages has been really helpful. He had like another seven
Speaker 1: assistant game the other day, and Bobby Portis is scoring.
Speaker 1: His spot up shooting and particularly his rebounding have been
Speaker 1: missed on this road trip where the Bucks have been
Speaker 1: struggling a little bit. But neither of those guys have
Speaker 1: been particularly good, and both of them have large salaries
Speaker 1: that can be used to facilitated deal as long as
Speaker 1: pat Conington can be moved in order to get out
Speaker 1: from underneath that second apron. So if you make that
Speaker 1: sort of move, there's a drawback, which is Yannis basically
Speaker 1: becomes your backup center. But you have a player in
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler that is much much better at basketball on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor than either of Bobby Portis
Speaker 1: or Chris Middleton. He gives you another athlete to deploy
Speaker 1: on the perimeter defensively for a team that desperately needs
Speaker 1: these types of athletes. He gives you a better chance
Speaker 1: of surviving Yannis off minutes. This is one of the
Speaker 1: more exciting parts of it. Both the offense and defense
Speaker 1: have been bad this year. When Dame is on the
Speaker 1: floor without Yannis, Jimmy just gives you a better chance
Speaker 1: to survive or maybe even thrive in those minutes when
Speaker 1: Yannis is sitting. And then in the playoffs, Jimmy is
Speaker 1: still just one of the most versatile weapons in the league.
Speaker 1: There's a very specific reason why Jimmy is always great
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, and no, it's not just because he
Speaker 1: has that dog in him or any other meaningless platitude.
Speaker 1: It's because he's big, he's strong, and he's really good
Speaker 1: at a lot of different things on a basketball court.
Speaker 1: The size and strength makes him less vulnerable to the
Speaker 1: playoff physicality when you get into that setting, and then
Speaker 1: his versatility allows him to adjust his approach on either
Speaker 1: end of the floor from opponent to opponent. This is
Speaker 1: a team I'm gonna run a lot of high ball screens.
Speaker 1: It this is a team like. If you need Jimmy
Speaker 1: to run high ball screens and pick teams apart, he
Speaker 1: can do that. If you need Jimmy to attack mismatches
Speaker 1: in the post, he can do that. If you need
Speaker 1: Jimmy to stand in the corner and knock down wide
Speaker 1: open stains still jump shots, he can do that. If
Speaker 1: you need Jimmy to be a transition player, he can
Speaker 1: do that. If you need Jimmy to defend on the ball,
Speaker 1: he can do that on a variety of different guys.
Speaker 1: If you need Jimmy to defend off the ball, he
Speaker 1: can do that. He can rebound. He is such a
Speaker 1: versatile player that he can plug and play into anything
Speaker 1: his team needs him to do. And he's big and strong,
Speaker 1: which allows him to thrive in the physicality. That's what
Speaker 1: makes him such a unique playoff player. So I think
Speaker 1: bringing him in would be just a talent play for
Speaker 1: Milwaukee that would give him a better chance to hang
Speaker 1: with the top team in the conference, number two, the
Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors. Now, this would be much more complicated
Speaker 1: to pull off because the Warriors have six players that
Speaker 1: make between five and ten million dollars so it's just
Speaker 1: really tough for them to match salary, and any deal
Speaker 1: would likely have to include would basically have to include
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins or Draymond grad My guess is Miami would
Speaker 1: want Andrew Wiggins because he would be able to immediately
Speaker 1: help Miami at the same position Jimmy place right now,
Speaker 1: Hey what high Smith is in that role? So Miami
Speaker 1: would be getting an upgrade in the form of Andrew Wiggins,
Speaker 1: who just had another great game last night against the Thunder.
Speaker 1: So the deal would in all likelihood center around some
Speaker 1: combination of Wiggins and Cominga plus another two salaries, probably
Speaker 1: Buddy Healed and Kyle Anderson. Maybe you can convince them
Speaker 1: to let you keep Kaminga if they like to draft
Speaker 1: compensation enough. I would sert again every time I talk
Speaker 1: about this with Warriors fans. I don't think you give
Speaker 1: up Kaminga just for poops and giggles. You try to
Speaker 1: keep Kaminga out of the deal. I'm just saying, if
Speaker 1: that's what it takes, that's what you gotta pay. You'd
Speaker 1: get back something like Jimmy Butler and Josh Richardson something
Speaker 1: along those lines, and the Heat obviously get plenty of
Speaker 1: talent that can help right away with their goals. And
Speaker 1: apparently I was reading a Mark Stein piece yesterday that
Speaker 1: said that Miami really needs to make the playoffs this
Speaker 1: year in terms of future draft compensation that they owe
Speaker 1: to other teams. So if you were to make that deal,
Speaker 1: this is what you'd be left with. In this case,
Speaker 1: we'll call it Buddy Heald and Kyle Anderson plus Kaminga
Speaker 1: just for the sake of the worst case scenario. Obviously,
Speaker 1: if you get to keep Kaminga and you get to
Speaker 1: include a different player, that's ideal. But in that case,
Speaker 1: you'd be left with Steph Jimmy and Draymond Dennis and
Speaker 1: tray Jackson Davis probably your starting five right off the bench.
Speaker 1: You still have Kavon Looney, you still have Moses Moodie,
Speaker 1: you still have Gary Payton. Second, you still have the
Speaker 1: gem Ski, you still have Lindy Waters, Gee Santo's, Quinton
Speaker 1: Post and Pat Spencer. Again, this is the advantage of
Speaker 1: having the depth of role player talent that they have,
Speaker 1: and Josh Richardson would be in that mix too. You
Speaker 1: just have so many damn good players that you can
Speaker 1: afford to lose a few in order to bring back
Speaker 1: a primary shot creator. You get a star to anchor
Speaker 1: units with Steph off the floor, you get an offensive
Speaker 1: star to run two man game with Steph that teams
Speaker 1: will not want to swim, so you can get teams
Speaker 1: into rotation consistently. And most importantly, on this team that
Speaker 1: has an enormous amount of role player depth but a
Speaker 1: complete lack of top end talent, you turn some of
Speaker 1: that role player depth into star talent to better balance
Speaker 1: out your roster. I also don't think Golden State would
Speaker 1: have to include much in the way of draft compensation
Speaker 1: to make it work, especially if Kamingo was in the deal.
Speaker 1: I would actually be trying to include draft compensation at
Speaker 1: the expense of keeping Kaminga out of the deal, just
Speaker 1: for the talent. Now, again, the biggest challenges for the
Speaker 1: Warriors to make this work will be matching salary. The
Speaker 1: Heat apparently do not want to take back any contract
Speaker 1: that lasts past next season. Andrew Wiggins has a player option,
Speaker 1: but I have a feeling he might be willing to
Speaker 1: opt out and resign somewhere else or maybe even with
Speaker 1: the Heat. At that point. Kyle Anderson's last year is
Speaker 1: non guaranteed, so You're good there, Buddy. Heeld is the
Speaker 1: tough one Buddy held has. But I think it's possible
Speaker 1: that I read something that his deal might not be
Speaker 1: guaranteed after last year either, so that might work. But
Speaker 1: I would just do everything I can to not include
Speaker 1: Gary Payton second, because I think he's an excellent rotation
Speaker 1: piece in the playoffs. And then I would try like
Speaker 1: hell to leave Kaminga out of it. But again it's
Speaker 1: a long shot, but I actually think it pieces together
Speaker 1: kind of nicely for the Warriors if they could pull
Speaker 1: it off. Number one, though by far from me, is
Speaker 1: my favorite destination for Jimmy Butler, is still the Phoenix Suns. Now,
Speaker 1: there's a huge roadblock in this deal. You got to
Speaker 1: get a team that is willing to take on Bradley
Speaker 1: Beal and that Bradley Beal is willing to waive his
Speaker 1: no trade clause for now. That makes things tough, which
Speaker 1: is why other teams like Milwaukee, like Golden State are
Speaker 1: in the mix right now. But I think this is
Speaker 1: the team that Jimmy can help the most. By far.
Speaker 1: Jimmy is everything that the Sons don't have. He can
Speaker 1: legit pressure the rim on offense, as both a bullyball
Speaker 1: player and as just an overall matchup attacker. But in
Speaker 1: a way that's more impactful because he's also excellent at
Speaker 1: passing out of those situations, and the Sons can provide
Speaker 1: him with real spacing thanks to what Kevin Durant and
Speaker 1: Devin Booker do. He's a star that can play on
Speaker 1: both the floor in a way that Bradley Beale can't,
Speaker 1: but that Devin Booker and Kevin Durant can. He can
Speaker 1: meet them at that level, and then he fundamentally alters
Speaker 1: their physical profile. As currently constructed, the Suns are too thin.
Speaker 1: They can be pushed around. But if you get a
Speaker 1: frontline that has Jimmy Butler, Kevin Durant, Nick Richards, it's
Speaker 1: just more physically imposing in terms of length, athleticism, and
Speaker 1: size and strength. I also think it can help them
Speaker 1: with their ball pressure issues. Part of the reason why
Speaker 1: Devin Booker and Kevin Durant can struggle with ball pressure
Speaker 1: from time to time is they're a little thin. They
Speaker 1: can struggle under physicality. Jimmy Butler thrives under physicality. Now
Speaker 1: they're going to have to find another team to help
Speaker 1: facilitate that. But that's a type of deal that I
Speaker 1: think could really really help the Sons get to another
Speaker 1: level that they can't reach at this point under their
Speaker 1: current roster restrictions. All right, guys, it's all I have
Speaker 1: for today. Like I said, be back tomorrow with the
Speaker 1: mailbag and a bunch of the game reactions that I
Speaker 1: wasn't able to get to today. As always, sincerely appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. I'll
Speaker 1: see you guys then the volume. What's up guys? As always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight.
Speaker 1: It would actually be really helpful for us if you
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