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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to hoops tonight here at the volume.
Speaker 1: Have you money? Everybody? Hope all of you guys had
Speaker 1: an incredible weekend. Well, in case you missed it earlier today,
Speaker 1: me and Jovan Buja went for about an hour on
Speaker 1: the Lakers. I did say in that video that I
Speaker 1: was going to do a update on the Clippers, who
Speaker 1: are oh and four since the hard and trade and
Speaker 1: then a Power Rankings video. But my crazy ass can't
Speaker 1: do a Power Rankings video without doing like a deep
Speaker 1: dive on every team. So I got through like five
Speaker 1: of the teams, and then it's already five o'clock local time,
Speaker 1: and I'm supposed to be going to a friends giving
Speaker 1: thing tonight. So we're gonna run the entirety of the
Speaker 1: Power Rankings video tomorrow. I'm gonna be hitting on ten
Speaker 1: teams and a good amount of detail. I just didn't
Speaker 1: have enough time to get through that today. So in
Speaker 1: this video, we're just gonna do a deep dive on
Speaker 1: the Clippers in their zero to four start in the
Speaker 1: James Harden era, and then I have four mail bag
Speaker 1: questions as well for the end of the show that
Speaker 1: we'll hit that are going to allow us to bounce
Speaker 1: around to a couple of different topics. You guys know
Speaker 1: the joke before we get started. Subscribe to our brand
Speaker 1: new YouTube channel in case you didn't realize, we have
Speaker 1: moved over away from the Volumes feed. The Volumes feed
Speaker 1: is now the Colin Cowherd Feed just for him, and
Speaker 1: all the shows are now on their own channel. So
Speaker 1: as we try to get this thing off the ground.
Speaker 1: It would mean a lot to me if you guys
Speaker 1: would take a second to scroll down and hit that
Speaker 1: subscribe button. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcast under hoops tonight my Twitter feed at
Speaker 1: underscore jsonlt. That's where I post show announcements and I
Speaker 1: post video as I'm going through my film sessions every morning,
Speaker 1: and the last but not least, keep dropping mail back
Speaker 1: questions in the YouTube comments so we can hit them
Speaker 1: at the end of these shows. All right, let's talk
Speaker 1: some basketball. So the Clippers are zero to four since
Speaker 1: the Hard and Trade compared to all other NBA teams
Speaker 1: in their last four games, they are twenty eighth in offense,
Speaker 1: twenty fifth in defense, and twenty seventh in net rating,
Speaker 1: so basically terrible at everything. They're also only securing sixty
Speaker 1: four percent of available defensive rebounds, which ranks twenty eighth
Speaker 1: in the league over that span. We're gonna spend a
Speaker 1: good amount of time talking about rebounding here later on,
Speaker 1: because the Clippers are more or less the same construct
Speaker 1: as they used to be, and they were a great
Speaker 1: rebounding team. Seeing the difference between having rangey wings all
Speaker 1: over the floor when it comes to grabbing rebounds and
Speaker 1: having guards that aren't necessarily as dialed into the dirty work,
Speaker 1: and how quickly that can kind of turn things in
Speaker 1: the wrong direction. But you know what's interesting is I
Speaker 1: pulled up the video this morning because, as you guys know,
Speaker 1: like I'm covering all these different teams, and I'm doing
Speaker 1: deep dives on teams, and I'll watch two three games
Speaker 1: at a in a sitting, and I haven't had a
Speaker 1: chance to really to really check in on the Clippers yet.
Speaker 1: And so this morning I went back and I watched
Speaker 1: the Clippers, and I am expecting this like total shit
Speaker 1: show of James Harden and Russell Westbrook mistakes kind of
Speaker 1: driving the issues that they're having, and that could not
Speaker 1: have been further from the case. It's not to say
Speaker 1: that there aren't issues with Russell Westbrook and James Harden.
Speaker 1: We're going to discuss those, but really, like there are
Speaker 1: some guys in house that just aren't playing very good
Speaker 1: basketball right now, and so I think it's important to
Speaker 1: differentiate between those two things. Why are the Clippers zero
Speaker 1: in four in their last four games? And was the
Speaker 1: James Harden trade a terrible idea? That's submarine to their season.
Speaker 1: Those are like two kind of different topics in my opinion.
Speaker 1: So let's start with why are the Clippers zero and
Speaker 1: four in their last four games? Their stars are playing
Speaker 1: like shit and they can't secure a defensive rebound to
Speaker 1: save their lives. Kawhi Leonard was bad again against the Grizzlies.
Speaker 1: In this four game span, he's averaging nineteen points per
Speaker 1: game on forty six percent, shooting thirty percent from three
Speaker 1: and now. It doesn't sound terrible, but compared to star
Speaker 1: Kawhi not very good right and certainly not near as
Speaker 1: efficient as you're expected to seeing from him. And honestly,
Speaker 1: when I watch him on tape, he looks a little
Speaker 1: like stuck in the mud right now. He's not getting
Speaker 1: great lift on his jump shots, he's not getting great separation,
Speaker 1: not really getting to his spots as well as he
Speaker 1: usually does. I'm not sure if he's dealing with a
Speaker 1: nagging injury, or if it's related to rhythm or just
Speaker 1: a random down patch in his athleticism, or what the
Speaker 1: deal is. He doesn't look very good. Paul George in
Speaker 1: the last four game seventeen points per game on thirty
Speaker 1: four percent from the field twenty three percent from three
Speaker 1: in his averaging more turnovers than assists. So like at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, I always say about the Lakers, right, like,
Speaker 1: when Lebron James and Anthony Davis aren't playing well, it's
Speaker 1: impossible for role players to kind of make up for
Speaker 1: that around them, right you know what I mean? Like,
Speaker 1: regardless of what James Harden does or what Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: does or any specific role players do, if your two
Speaker 1: best players are playing like shit, you're gonna have a
Speaker 1: really hard time winning basketball games. And right now, Paul
Speaker 1: George and Kawhi Leonard are not playing well. And then
Speaker 1: the second part is the defensive rebounding part. And we're
Speaker 1: gonna get to the to the offense in a little
Speaker 1: bit because like, again, there's there's a case to be
Speaker 1: made that why are Paul George and Kawhi Leonard not
Speaker 1: playing well? Well? Maybe the rhythm of the offense is
Speaker 1: thrown off. Now you've added this super complicated piece in
Speaker 1: James Harden that kind of changes the dynamic of everything.
Speaker 1: And the answer to that is, like you usually get
Speaker 1: for me, a little bit of both, right, Like it's
Speaker 1: some of it is the new guys. Some of it
Speaker 1: is rhythm and some of it is those two guys
Speaker 1: just aren't playing well either. And like I said, KWHI
Speaker 1: doesn't look particularly explosive right now. So again we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about that more in a minute. But that's not
Speaker 1: the only part of it. The other half of it
Speaker 1: is essentially the Zubac problem, and it really just has
Speaker 1: to do with overall roster size, but it kind of
Speaker 1: starts with Zubak. So obviously Plumbly gets hurt and now
Speaker 1: Musa Diabat is getting your backup center minutes and he's
Speaker 1: a borderline, you know, he's a guy that you don't
Speaker 1: want to have in your rotation if you're a serious
Speaker 1: basketball team. Right, But the other half of it is
Speaker 1: a Zubac piece, right. Tylu insists on going small a
Speaker 1: lot of the time. Why because Zubax is one of
Speaker 1: many centers in the league that is a guy that
Speaker 1: can eat some regular season innings. But when push comes
Speaker 1: to shove, you can't necessarily have him on the floor
Speaker 1: because it's easy enough to space him out and on
Speaker 1: one end of the floor and drive by him and
Speaker 1: then on the offensive end of the floor. It can
Speaker 1: kind of cause problems for your spacing, and Tyler has
Speaker 1: shown us over the years he wants to go down.
Speaker 1: So with small ball, he wants to space you out,
Speaker 1: he wants to pick you apart. With drive and kick basketball.
Speaker 1: He wants to switch everything and fly around with ball
Speaker 1: pressure on defense. And that's more often than not the
Speaker 1: strategy he's gonna fall back on when things are going bad.
Speaker 1: Even against Memphis, when things were going bad late third quarter,
Speaker 1: early fourth quarter, We're going small and we're just gonna
Speaker 1: switch everything and apply a ton of ball pressure and
Speaker 1: run it down your throat and transition like that was
Speaker 1: the way they got back into the game against Memphis.
Speaker 1: But there's a huge difference between this version of that
Speaker 1: small ball lineup and what we saw in the past.
Speaker 1: Like you keep forgetting that it was usually a small
Speaker 1: ball lineup that had Kawhi and Paul George alongside Nick Patoum,
Speaker 1: another six foot eight guy who could grab long rebounds
Speaker 1: and could defend on the perimeter. Right Marcus Morris last year.
Speaker 1: Marcus Morris has gotten a lot older, but last year
Speaker 1: was another big body that was out there in a
Speaker 1: lot of those groups. The Clippers are small now outside
Speaker 1: of their core two guys like non center. So we
Speaker 1: got to take Mussa Diabate and if Ita Zubac out
Speaker 1: of the equation, and we take Kawhi and Paul George
Speaker 1: out of the equation. Here are the other four guys
Speaker 1: who played minutes for the Grizzlies last night or for
Speaker 1: against the Grizzlies last night. James Harden who's six ' five,
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook who's sixty three, Terrence Man who's six 's five,
Speaker 1: and Norman Powell who's six three. So now these small
Speaker 1: ball lineups are like preposterously small. We're talking three guys
Speaker 1: six to five or smaller. And then Kawhi Leonard and
Speaker 1: Paul George right. And it's funny because you're even seeing
Speaker 1: Kauhi and Paul George struggle physically because they keep getting
Speaker 1: matched up with gigantic players in the front court that
Speaker 1: otherwise you'd have a Marcus Morris matched up with Right.
Speaker 1: Otherwise you'd have a bigger, more athletic forward matched up
Speaker 1: with Right. And so that was kind of where that
Speaker 1: like even that Kenyon Martin junior piece when he was
Speaker 1: included in the sixers deal, You're like, man, that's another
Speaker 1: front court athlete that the Clippers let out the door
Speaker 1: in this deal in addition to all the draft compensation
Speaker 1: and stuff, and like again down the stretch, the Clippers
Speaker 1: got a lot of stops against Memphis, but there was
Speaker 1: you know what was a ninety eight ninety eight after
Speaker 1: the corner three from James Harden in the right corner,
Speaker 1: and the Clippers go down and get another stop, but
Speaker 1: you ended up with You end up with Norman Powell
Speaker 1: in a switch on Bismack Biambo underneath the basket, and
Speaker 1: he tries to box him out and commits a foul
Speaker 1: because he's dead to rights underneath the basket, and Beyonmbo's
Speaker 1: gonna end up getting that and putting it back up
Speaker 1: and in right like when push comes to shove. They
Speaker 1: are struggling on the defensive glass because of the aggregate
Speaker 1: size of those groups. Again, in this four game sample,
Speaker 1: they're securing just sixty four percent of defensive rebounds. They
Speaker 1: give up twenty one second chance points to the Memphis Grizzlies.
Speaker 1: So part of the issue here is like you don't
Speaker 1: trust your centers to play, but you don't have the
Speaker 1: aggregate size to play small, and that puts them in
Speaker 1: a real predicament, and that kind of brings you back
Speaker 1: to the crux of the James Harden trade and the
Speaker 1: kind of predicament it puts you in because again, like,
Speaker 1: what would you had this? You had assets, right, because
Speaker 1: you had what two first round picks, a first round
Speaker 1: pick swap, and two second round picks that you included
Speaker 1: in the James Harden trade. Right, So you threw a
Speaker 1: lot of draft compensation at this deal, including your front
Speaker 1: court depth. Right, So you gave up your front court
Speaker 1: depth and all your draft compensation. Now, the counterpoint for
Speaker 1: the Clippers is, like, you know, Nick patom was kind
Speaker 1: of on his last legs, Marcus Morris was like literally done,
Speaker 1: Roco's literally done. You know, Kennon Martin Junior wasn't really
Speaker 1: getting that many minutes for us, So we don't really
Speaker 1: need those guys. And I understand that, I understand the
Speaker 1: thought process there, But why aren't you then trying to
Speaker 1: upgrade those guys if those guys are important parts of
Speaker 1: your ability to contend in your small ball units and
Speaker 1: now they're outdated and not doing the job for you,
Speaker 1: which I would argue Nick Patum was fine, at least
Speaker 1: in the terms of the regular season, right, and I
Speaker 1: certainly don't think he was an issue even if you were, like,
Speaker 1: I want to upgrade Marcus Morris, Go upgrade Marcus Morris.
Speaker 1: Go find another big athletic forward or maybe a center
Speaker 1: that Tylu trusts to play at the end of games.
Speaker 1: But instead you gave up everything you had in the
Speaker 1: front court for a redundancy another offensive minded shot creator
Speaker 1: on a team like never really had offensive issues when
Speaker 1: Push came to show, right, when we look at it, yes,
Speaker 1: in the bubble, it was a catastrophe. They completely crumbled
Speaker 1: and fell apart offensively against the Nuggets and got picked
Speaker 1: apart on defense. It was bad in that series. But
Speaker 1: outside of that, in the four year sense, it's either
Speaker 1: been injuries or you know, the offense looking fine in
Speaker 1: spite of that. Right, So, essentially twenty twenty one they
Speaker 1: looked great, and then Kuhi got hurt, and then they
Speaker 1: still looked great, spacing teams out, switching, defending, doing all
Speaker 1: those things. Paul George leads them to within two wins
Speaker 1: of the finals. Right then injuries submarine you in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two, Right, twenty twenty three, they look great, they're
Speaker 1: about to They're literally on the verge of taking a
Speaker 1: two to zero lead against the Suns in Game two
Speaker 1: when Kawhi Leonard gets hurt. So like again, like they were,
Speaker 1: everything was fine offensively in the last few years. It
Speaker 1: was injuries that kept submarining you. You did is you
Speaker 1: kind of like mischaracterized the problem as a superstar depth
Speaker 1: problem when the reality is is you can't win when
Speaker 1: Kauhi gets hurt anyway. So you have to build the
Speaker 1: roster around the idea that Kuhi is gonna be healthy
Speaker 1: and just hoping that he's healthy when it matters, and
Speaker 1: then you have the rest of the things to push
Speaker 1: you over the top. Instead, they won a different direction.
Speaker 1: They gave up all their front court depth for a
Speaker 1: redundancy in the back court, and so now they look bad.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. They will get better. They will
Speaker 1: have better offensive stretches than what they've shown in the
Speaker 1: last four days. There's too much talent there. They're gonna
Speaker 1: figure some things out. We got to see a little
Speaker 1: bit of the James Harden Kawhi Leonard pick and roll
Speaker 1: in the second quarter of this Grizzlies game. There was there.
Speaker 1: I guess it was in the first quarter. If I
Speaker 1: remember correctly, but they ran that same picking kind of
Speaker 1: like soft roll to fifteen feet that he used to
Speaker 1: run with em beat all the time and set Kawhi
Speaker 1: entered up with the wide open jumper on the left side,
Speaker 1: and honestly, the chemistry was a little off because he
Speaker 1: threw the bounce pass too far ahead of him. Like,
Speaker 1: they'll get better at that in time. There was another
Speaker 1: one on the right wing or Kawi popped to the
Speaker 1: three point line, but Qui didn't set a very good
Speaker 1: screen because he hasn't done a lot of screen setting
Speaker 1: in his career. So like, again, he'll get better at
Speaker 1: that and they'll figure that stuff out. Like the Kuhi
Speaker 1: James Harden pick and roll is gonna be something that
Speaker 1: they have some success with. Obviously they've had a lot
Speaker 1: of offensive success with Russell Westbrook and Kawi, Leonard and
Speaker 1: Paul George. There's gonna be more lineups like that where
Speaker 1: they kind of put those three together with James off
Speaker 1: the floor and let him go to work. They basically
Speaker 1: did that through the entire middle of the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: against Memphis. So like they're gonna be better on the
Speaker 1: offensive end of the floor. There are good times that
Speaker 1: will come from this over the course of this regular season.
Speaker 1: The problem is is, like those other issues, the issues
Speaker 1: defensively and on the glass, those aren't going away, and
Speaker 1: those will eventually have to be rectified if this team
Speaker 1: has any hope of winning a championship, right, because at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, you don't trust Zubac and
Speaker 1: you aren't big enough on the front line to go small,
Speaker 1: and that puts you in a really tough position. And
Speaker 1: you just burned all your draft capital going after James Harden,
Speaker 1: which handcuffs your ability to make a trade at the
Speaker 1: deadline relative to what you would have been able to
Speaker 1: do otherwise. And again, like if you're if you're saying
Speaker 1: to me, like, oh, it's because we can't trust Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook in the playoffs, so we needed a better guard
Speaker 1: to play in that spot. Okay, fine, but then how
Speaker 1: how is this the way you went about it? Bringing
Speaker 1: Russ back, having him run the team, then bringing James
Speaker 1: in all the problems that come from that. James checks
Speaker 1: in for Russell Westbrook in the final two minutes yesterday
Speaker 1: and Russ like like basically pounts on the bench with
Speaker 1: the towel over his head and won't even celebrate when
Speaker 1: James Harden makes a three in the corner right in
Speaker 1: front of him to tie the game, Like you just
Speaker 1: jumbled up all of that stuff too with the chemistry,
Speaker 1: So it's a it's a confusing it was a really
Speaker 1: confusing team building method for them to target. And I
Speaker 1: think this is the latest in a long line of examples,
Speaker 1: from the Nets with the K D. Harden and Kyrie,
Speaker 1: to the to even the Sun so far this year,
Speaker 1: to the Clippers in this post James Harden trade experiment,
Speaker 1: Like when you load up on stars, there is a
Speaker 1: diminishing return. That first star brings full star value, that
Speaker 1: second star brings full star value, that third star, it's
Speaker 1: usually a diminishing return that fourth star. The bottom can
Speaker 1: fall out in a lot of cases. If you guys
Speaker 1: have been listening to the show for the you know,
Speaker 1: year and a half or whatever I've been with the
Speaker 1: volume or longer since before I started with the volume,
Speaker 1: you hear a pretty consistent theme from me. There's a
Speaker 1: list of responsibilities on the basketball court. Stars fill different
Speaker 1: responsibilities than role players typically do, and when you load
Speaker 1: up on stars, you start to have overlap and redundancy,
Speaker 1: whereas when you have stars that take the two main
Speaker 1: you know, star responsibilities, and then you have professional role
Speaker 1: players who do nothing but learn how to win game
Speaker 1: or help win teams win games alongside stars. When you
Speaker 1: have those guys out there, that's when that meter gets
Speaker 1: full and you start to rack up wins. It's when
Speaker 1: you get cute and you start to try to think
Speaker 1: about the names rather than the compatibility of the roster
Speaker 1: that you start to have problems. I do believe Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 1: James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, and Paul George will find a
Speaker 1: way to win a good amount of basketball games this
Speaker 1: year in the regular season just by virtue of their talent.
Speaker 1: But the fact remains, they don't trust any of their
Speaker 1: centers and they can't play Kawhi Leonard and Paul George
Speaker 1: at the four and five. They're way too damn small,
Speaker 1: and so they there's a significant roster need that they
Speaker 1: that they opened up or exacerbated with the James Harden
Speaker 1: trade and the player they got back they're getting a
Speaker 1: diminished return from because of the fact that they already
Speaker 1: have two superstars and they already had a guard that
Speaker 1: could help get them set up in better position. So
Speaker 1: it's definitely off to a rough start. It's definitely gonna
Speaker 1: get better. But I do think that this this recent
Speaker 1: sequence has been a great, you know, kind of expression
Speaker 1: of the of the reality of the roster's limitations in
Speaker 1: the front court. And I don't think that they're going
Speaker 1: to be fixed anytime soon. And I don't think that
Speaker 1: there's a veteran minimum guy that can solve this problem
Speaker 1: or a buyout candidate. I mean, maybe they get lucky,
Speaker 1: but things look pretty rough right now for the Clippers.
Speaker 1: All right, moving on to the mailbag, I got four
Speaker 1: questions for you guys today. First one, what teams do
Speaker 1: you think could benefit from a player like d Lo
Speaker 1: and would also give the Lakers a player in return
Speaker 1: that's more fitting. So again, like we talked about this
Speaker 1: a little bit with Yovann Boujai earlier today, but Dangel
Speaker 1: Russell is a good basketball player. He is just a
Speaker 1: redundancy on the Lakers right in the same way that
Speaker 1: you have two stars and Lebron James and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: and Austin Reeves. Is like this skill guard that's not
Speaker 1: a top tier athlete, Well, you have another skill guard
Speaker 1: who's not a top tier athlete next to him, and
Speaker 1: so their backcourt is like if you just took those
Speaker 1: winning responsibilities and you shrunk it down to just what
Speaker 1: the backcourt is responsible to, they have a redundancy there
Speaker 1: and that's their issue, right. But Dangel Russell is a
Speaker 1: good player, especially within the context of the regular season,
Speaker 1: So how would you make him work in a vac
Speaker 1: You want to put him alongside lots of great athletes, right,
Speaker 1: and a team that would need his high level shot creation.
Speaker 1: D'Angel Russell is a very very good passer in pick
Speaker 1: and roll, especially in the regular season when things are
Speaker 1: a little more fast and loose. He's pretty consistently been
Speaker 1: a good playmaker for the Lakers in terms of like assist,
Speaker 1: the turnover ratio, and things like that. So the four
Speaker 1: teams I wrote down were like the Toronto Raptors, a
Speaker 1: team that has a ton of athleticism but lacks shot creation.
Speaker 1: The Orlando Magic, a team that has a ton of
Speaker 1: size and athleticism, but their guards are a little bit
Speaker 1: inconsistent creating shots. Right. The Memphis Grizzlies another team that
Speaker 1: could really use another shot creator, so they have a
Speaker 1: better chance of succeeding when Desmond Baine is off the floor.
Speaker 1: The New York Knicks is another team. I put down
Speaker 1: that it has a ton of point of attack defense
Speaker 1: and size and athleticism, and maybe could use one more
Speaker 1: shot creator on the floor, you know, so that you
Speaker 1: know it's not just a manual quickly himself trying to
Speaker 1: create shots in the bench unit, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1: So those are four examples. Next mail back question, I
Speaker 1: know you forecasted that Jonathan Minga will be a star
Speaker 1: in the NBA. I was curious as to how you
Speaker 1: can tell. As a Dubs fan, I see his insane
Speaker 1: athleticism plus work ethic, but I also don't know how guaranteed,
Speaker 1: barring injury, that he reaches superstardom. The stardom, I should say,
Speaker 1: the main thing that I'm looking at with Jonathan Minga
Speaker 1: is that people can't guard him without fouling him. It's
Speaker 1: literally that simple. He had another two big free throw
Speaker 1: games over the weekend. He is averaging I want to say,
Speaker 1: nine free throw attempts per thirty six minutes in this
Speaker 1: what'says his third season if I remember correctly. So like
Speaker 1: that to me is a strong indicator of like consistently
Speaker 1: getting defenders out of position. From there, it's basically a
Speaker 1: combination of your ability to actually make shots and your
Speaker 1: ability to see the floor. And he's demonstrated through through
Speaker 1: these three years a steady line of improvement in shot
Speaker 1: making and a steady line of improvement decision making. Still
Speaker 1: is a long way to go on the viision making side.
Speaker 1: I think he's probably a solid, you know, three four
Speaker 1: years away from truly reaching any sort of fringe star
Speaker 1: type of level. But he's such a good athlete. He
Speaker 1: has such good size, and you can see that with
Speaker 1: every time he makes a movie as defenders out of
Speaker 1: position and they start hacking him, and he's getting to
Speaker 1: the line a ton, And I think that's a really
Speaker 1: strong indicator of like his ability to get to his
Speaker 1: spots and get defenders out of position. And then again,
Speaker 1: there's enough progress in terms of his shot making and
Speaker 1: decision making over this young stretch of his career. Like again,
Speaker 1: he's still just a kid relative to the rest of
Speaker 1: the league. Imagine this kid at twenty six, twenty seven
Speaker 1: years old, when he has the you know, when he's
Speaker 1: seen three hundred NBA games worth of of you know,
Speaker 1: defenses loaded up on him and facing double teams in
Speaker 1: the post He's I don't have the numbers in front
Speaker 1: of me, but he's still up over one point two
Speaker 1: points per possession in post ups this year, including passes.
Speaker 1: That to me is a strong indicator of just how
Speaker 1: difficult it is to handle him down there. It's like
Speaker 1: he's making a lot of mistakes down there, but he's
Speaker 1: still hitting shot and drawing fouls, and that's pushing him
Speaker 1: into productivity. And so the Warriors have trusted him a lot,
Speaker 1: especially at the end of games, compared to where he
Speaker 1: was in previous years. I think there's plenty there from
Speaker 1: Jonathan Kminga that demonstrates again nine free throw attempts for
Speaker 1: thirty six minutes is insane. And it's not like foul
Speaker 1: grifty stuff. He's straight up just getting defenders out of position.
Speaker 1: All right. Third question, Jason, could you give your thoughts
Speaker 1: on Adam Silver's disappointment in NBA commentary and how he
Speaker 1: wishes it was covered, how he wishes it covered more
Speaker 1: x's and o's. Also, do you have a favorite NBA commentator,
Speaker 1: So for those of guys who missed it, Adam Adam
Speaker 1: Silver went on with JJ Reddick and he basically was
Speaker 1: like he's sick of the whole, like one team tried
Speaker 1: harder type of commentary. And it's tough because like effort
Speaker 1: is a significant factor in NBA regular season games, it
Speaker 1: just is. There's over the course of eighty two there
Speaker 1: are nights where like one team just is just locked
Speaker 1: in and the other team's not. We I refer to
Speaker 1: it through force, right, Like a player playing with more
Speaker 1: force goes a long way towards him holding up better
Speaker 1: at the point of attack, holding up better at the glass,
Speaker 1: his ability to beat people off the dribble. All of
Speaker 1: that is kind of related to the overall force you
Speaker 1: play with, and that can ebb and flow right, like
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves playing with tons of horse like he did
Speaker 1: last year. Average to above average defender, certainly not a
Speaker 1: negative defender, someone that held up well in the Lakers
Speaker 1: scheme this year, not playing with much force on the
Speaker 1: defensive ender on the glass, he's been like a problem
Speaker 1: defensively and on the glass. So you could see like
Speaker 1: that stuff does matter. However, that's only one small part
Speaker 1: of the equation. The other part of the equation is
Speaker 1: like how naturally basketball players fit together like different you know,
Speaker 1: good offensive process versus bad offensive process, the chess match
Speaker 1: that takes place at the end of games, and I think,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe I'm biased because I'm a nut job
Speaker 1: with this stuff, but like, I find that to be
Speaker 1: incredibly fascinating, and I think that I think that there's
Speaker 1: a lot in the fan experience that could be improved
Speaker 1: by making it easier for fans to understand some of
Speaker 1: the more detailed things that are taking place on the court.
Speaker 1: And like I think JJ Reddick, ironically, for the purpose
Speaker 1: of this question, who's your favorite NBA game commenter right now?
Speaker 1: It's JJ Reddick. I feel like when I'm watching broadcast
Speaker 1: on ESPN, and it's kind of a good vibe because
Speaker 1: you know, JJ and Richard Jefferson kind of are bouncing
Speaker 1: off each other, you know, making jokes and having fun.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, like you can tell JJ's
Speaker 1: intently watching the game, trying to pick up on the
Speaker 1: little chess pieces that are moving around, and he's putting
Speaker 1: that information out there. He's not the only one, but
Speaker 1: he's my personal favorite. I think he's doing an amazing
Speaker 1: job and is adding a lot to that experience. But
Speaker 1: in general, I think, like that's my goal with this show.
Speaker 1: I'm not the only guy who does this. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of guys that have shows that kind of a
Speaker 1: similar vibe in the sense that, like this is what
Speaker 1: makes the game fun. What makes the game fun is
Speaker 1: getting into the weeds of how a basketball team is
Speaker 1: winning or losing, how a player is succeeding or failing. That,
Speaker 1: to me is what makes the game fascinating. And like
Speaker 1: basketball is unique in the sense that, like the best
Speaker 1: team doesn't always win, and you can outperform your t
Speaker 1: talent by you know, continuity, chemistry, execution, all those little
Speaker 1: things can make a big difference, and I think that
Speaker 1: it's important to translate that experience to the fan. One
Speaker 1: last question, what happened to the Warriors this weekend? So
Speaker 1: the Warriors lost their second game to Cleveland at home
Speaker 1: on Saturday, and then they turned around had to play
Speaker 1: the next night against the Timberwolves, and the Timberwolves beat
Speaker 1: them too, And in both games they were kind of
Speaker 1: it kind of looked like they were struggling to hang,
Speaker 1: especially in terms of perimeter quickness. There's a very consistent
Speaker 1: theme that I've talked about with the Warriors ever since
Speaker 1: last year's playoff run, is like the Lakers kind of
Speaker 1: put together a book for how to slow down the
Speaker 1: warrior offense, which is like, if you have legitimate rim protection,
Speaker 1: you straight up ignore the Looney Draymond front court and
Speaker 1: in terms of scoring ability, and you basically tell all
Speaker 1: your perimeter players to top lock, meaning like you deny
Speaker 1: them the use of the screen and force them to
Speaker 1: back door cut into your rim protection. And then your
Speaker 1: rim protectors basically have to ride the loeo of kind
Speaker 1: of like seeing where their perimeter defenders are and if
Speaker 1: they're caught on a screen, they need to show high
Speaker 1: and offer a contest. And if not, if the defenders
Speaker 1: kind of lingering behind and staying attached, they'll sag back
Speaker 1: and constantly have to go up and down to the
Speaker 1: level of the screen and back. Like if you've got
Speaker 1: athletic centers that can protect the rim and get up
Speaker 1: and down in your drop coverages and your perimeter defenders
Speaker 1: are engaged and deny the use of screens, you can
Speaker 1: completely stifle the warrior defense. And there's a very specific
Speaker 1: reason why, which we'll get into in a second, but
Speaker 1: you saw that with the Jared Allen Evan Mobley front
Speaker 1: court alongside their perimeter defenders. That third quarter run that
Speaker 1: they went on in that Warriors game on Saturday night,
Speaker 1: great example of this. Like when they are just flying
Speaker 1: around on the perimeter, they are very very difficult to
Speaker 1: get open against. You got Carousel Vert could be impossible
Speaker 1: to screen sometimes, Max Strus is flying around making extra efforts.
Speaker 1: Even their guards, even Garb and Mitchell, are really trying
Speaker 1: on the defensive end. And then Minnesota is like a
Speaker 1: way better version of what Cleveland brings to the table.
Speaker 1: They've got Rudy Gobert, who's a better rimp protector than
Speaker 1: Jared Allen or Evan Mobley, and they have way better
Speaker 1: perimeter defenders than Cleveland. They've got Jaden McDaniels, who's the
Speaker 1: best perimeter defender in the league in my opinion, Anthony
Speaker 1: Edwards who's capable of that, although he doesn't always give
Speaker 1: that level of effort to Kaile, Alexander Walker, Kyle Anderson.
Speaker 1: You guys get the point, Like they just are like
Speaker 1: a kind of like a more dramatic version of that.
Speaker 1: And so how do you beat that if you're the Warriors,
Speaker 1: Because the Warriors are still a good team. This is
Speaker 1: a matchup thing. So how do the Warriors solve that
Speaker 1: specific matchup issue. Well. Once again, just like in the
Speaker 1: Lakers series, there was nothing in terms of offensive production
Speaker 1: outside of Steph Right in that playoff series, they couldn't
Speaker 1: get anything out of Clay, they couldn't get anything out
Speaker 1: of Jordan Poole, and they didn't use Andrew Wiggins enough
Speaker 1: and it ended up being an issue. Right, same kind
Speaker 1: of thing in this weekend. They got thirty points per
Speaker 1: game out of Andrew Wiggins, Klay Thompson and Chris Paul.
Speaker 1: That's not enough you need. Like again, Andrew Wiggins was
Speaker 1: the second best player on the title team in that
Speaker 1: seventeen to eighteen point per game area. Klay Thompson needs
Speaker 1: to be up around eighteen points per game in order
Speaker 1: for him to provide the offensive punch that's necessary. Chris Paul,
Speaker 1: you need to be getting ten to twelve points per
Speaker 1: game out of him. That trio needs to be giving
Speaker 1: you about fifty points a game in order for Like
Speaker 1: in rhythm those whether it's Wiggins attacking close outs, knocking
Speaker 1: down spot up three is occasionally posting up a mismatch,
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson creating shots in his off ball action, in
Speaker 1: his on ball action, Chris Paul making shots in pick
Speaker 1: and roll and beating switches in pick and roll. Like,
Speaker 1: those guys have to provide offensive punch. It can't just
Speaker 1: be Steph. And once again, you have thirty four points
Speaker 1: per game out of Steph this weekend, but the offense
Speaker 1: is completely inapt. I think they were at like a
Speaker 1: one oh six or one oh seven offensive rating in
Speaker 1: the two games. And so at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it's not so much that they can't beat teams like this.
Speaker 1: In order to beat this type of matchup, the heavy
Speaker 1: perimeter defense with rim protection type of team, that's that's
Speaker 1: kind of denying them their screening actions. They've got to
Speaker 1: get static half court shot creation out of Wiggins, Clay
Speaker 1: and Chris Paul to have any chance to hang offensively. Again,
Speaker 1: it's not like they're getting just utterly blown out in
Speaker 1: these games. They just don't have enough firepower to hang
Speaker 1: against this specific type of matchup right now. But this
Speaker 1: is a problem that can be fixed within the locker room.
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins is just a shell of himself this year.
Speaker 1: Andrew like, for lack of a better way to describe it, basically,
Speaker 1: since he got back from his personal absence, last year,
Speaker 1: he hasn't been the same guy. That's been a problem.
Speaker 1: Going back to the Clippers topic from the beginning of
Speaker 1: the show, when you're not when your best players aren't
Speaker 1: playing well, it's hard to win. Your best player's playing great,
Speaker 1: but the guy who is your second best player on
Speaker 1: the championship team is not playing well right now, that's
Speaker 1: a significant hurdle that you have to overcome. And then again,
Speaker 1: Chris and Clay, they gotta give you offensive firepower. That's
Speaker 1: literally what they collect paychecks for. You've got to get
Speaker 1: more out of them. I'm not worried about the Warriors
Speaker 1: in the big picture. I think this again is matchup related,
Speaker 1: and I do think they have the firepower to handle this.
Speaker 1: In the locker room. They just got to get better
Speaker 1: play out of those guys. All right. That's all I
Speaker 1: have for today is always a sincerely appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1: We'll be back tomorrow with power rankings, maybe a game
Speaker 1: reaction or two, depending on how the night's night goes.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you guys, and I will see
Speaker 1: you then. The volume