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Speaker 1: iight here at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Hope all
Speaker 1: you guys are having a great week. Just gonna do
Speaker 1: a really quick show this morning because we're going live
Speaker 1: again tonight, a very important game for both teams. Sacramento
Speaker 1: King's got a massive win over the Milwaukee Bucks last night.
Speaker 1: They will be facing off against a Lakers team that
Speaker 1: also desperately needs that game and has lost three straight
Speaker 1: to the Kings. And Anthony Davis has got his bike
Speaker 1: kicked by Duvani Sabonis, so it should be a really,
Speaker 1: really fun matchup on ESPN tonight. We will be going
Speaker 1: live on YouTube right after the final buzzer of that game.
Speaker 1: But today's show a little short quick show. We're gonna
Speaker 1: hit one game. The Indiana Pacers have been pretty impressive
Speaker 1: on the road as of late, but they got a
Speaker 1: big win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Oklahoma City,
Speaker 1: largely on the strength of their defense. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the Pacers new starting lineup
Speaker 1: and some of the defensive success they've been having, a
Speaker 1: little bit more about Pascal Siakam's fit, some notes on
Speaker 1: Tyree Saliburton because I always love watching him, and then
Speaker 1: we'll hit a little bit on the thunderside. After that,
Speaker 1: I've got a couple of big picture stuff that I
Speaker 1: want to hit on. Andrew Wiggins and Brandon Pitzemski had
Speaker 1: a little bit of a yelling match in the middle
Speaker 1: of their win the other night, and I think that
Speaker 1: I have some perspective to add to that because I've
Speaker 1: been in a similar kind of situation back when I
Speaker 1: was playing in college. That I wanted to give my
Speaker 1: thoughts on the whole We're done with the nineties trend
Speaker 1: that's going around on social media, just kind of have
Speaker 1: the nineties back a little bit. And then at the
Speaker 1: very end of the show, we had one mailbag question
Speaker 1: having to do with kind of the format of our
Speaker 1: channel and how it's laid out. So I wanted to
Speaker 1: kind of help explain why we do things the way
Speaker 1: we do in terms of the way we roll out content.
Speaker 1: You guys know the joe before we get start to
Speaker 1: subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel, I mean a
Speaker 1: lot to me. If you guys are take a second
Speaker 1: to scroll down and hit that subscribe button, don't forget
Speaker 1: about o podcast feet wherever you get your podcast under
Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight. It's also really helpful if you leave a
Speaker 1: rating and a review on that front. Follow me on
Speaker 1: Twitter at underscore JSNLT, where you guys can see show
Speaker 1: announcements as well as film threads, and the last but
Speaker 1: not least, keep dropping mail back questions in the YouTube comments.
Speaker 1: We'll probably have at least one more, if not a
Speaker 1: couple more mail bags this week. All right, let's talk
Speaker 1: some basketball so quick note on this one, no Jalen
Speaker 1: Williams for the thunder, although again, like you're not going
Speaker 1: to get a whole lot of sympathy from other NBA
Speaker 1: fan bases about guys missing games. It's kind of just
Speaker 1: something that happens, and the thunder have been kind of
Speaker 1: uniquely healthy in a lot of ways this particular but
Speaker 1: obviously not a full strength thunder team. Jalen Williams two
Speaker 1: is not only has he been playing just incredibly well,
Speaker 1: has been one of the best pull up jump shooters
Speaker 1: in the league. But without him, it's a pretty steep
Speaker 1: dropoff in overall shot creation. Guys like Josh Kitty can
Speaker 1: make plays. Guys like Chet Holmern can make plays. Guys
Speaker 1: like Gordon Hayward who slotted into the starting lineup, they
Speaker 1: can make plays off the bounce, but they're not really
Speaker 1: high level shot creators the way that Jalen Williams and
Speaker 1: Shake Gilds of Alexander are. And so that is what
Speaker 1: allowed Indiana to really leverage their defensive strengths on Shay
Speaker 1: and to kind of wear him down and make things
Speaker 1: tough on him. Had a really good, strong defensive performance
Speaker 1: and they get a big win. Now. This starting line
Speaker 1: up that they've been using for a little while now
Speaker 1: since the trade, Tyres Alliburton at the one next to
Speaker 1: Andrew Nemhard, Aaron Nee Smith and Pascal Siakam and Miles Turner.
Speaker 1: The big key there being going with your defensive minded
Speaker 1: perimeter players, the two knees so to speak, Andrew Nemhard
Speaker 1: and Aaron Neie Smith and then putting your obviously your
Speaker 1: core three foundational around that. But like again, I really
Speaker 1: like the idea of having defensive minded role players out there.
Speaker 1: That group, that group of five players so far this
Speaker 1: season has logged a one hundred and eleven defensive rating,
Speaker 1: which is solid. That's something you can win with when
Speaker 1: you're an elite offense, like the Pacers are cable, being
Speaker 1: that they have not been we're going to get into that,
Speaker 1: but that one to eleven defensive rating to me with
Speaker 1: that group is a really strong indicator that that is
Speaker 1: their best configuration defensively. And again you've got in that
Speaker 1: group a really good perimeter defender and Aaron NEI Smith
Speaker 1: in my opinion, he's one of my favorites. Really really
Speaker 1: physical player that can defend bigger wings as well, good
Speaker 1: low center of gravity, good at beating people to spots.
Speaker 1: And then Andrew Nemhard is a really good guard defender
Speaker 1: in my opinion, good physical on the ball defender, navigates
Speaker 1: screen as well. And then again the key there is
Speaker 1: like Aaron Nesmith legitimately a good catch and shoot three
Speaker 1: point shooter, a real like slashing threat like I get
Speaker 1: a nasty driving dunk out of the left corner this
Speaker 1: game where he put Shake Gildas Alexander on a poster,
Speaker 1: but like he brings like real slashing, like real rim
Speaker 1: pressure and slashing from that position. And then Andrew Nemhard
Speaker 1: I became a big fan of him after a game
Speaker 1: last year against the Warriors. I can't remember the exact details,
Speaker 1: but he ran something like thirty five pick and rolls
Speaker 1: in a game against the Warriors and scored like fifty
Speaker 1: five points on them, just absolutely dissected the Warriors in
Speaker 1: a game. And I was pouring over the film on
Speaker 1: that one, and I'm like, this guy's got all this stuff.
Speaker 1: He's got to pull up three point shot out the dribble,
Speaker 1: he's got to pull up mid rang shot off the dribble.
Speaker 1: He can make all the reads out of pick and roll.
Speaker 1: Like this dude's this dude's just a hooper, And like
Speaker 1: that's translated. This year, he's been a guy that can
Speaker 1: run action and run it efficiently. He's a guy that
Speaker 1: can knock down catch and shoot threes at a high rate.
Speaker 1: Hasn't been as good in pull up situations, but still
Speaker 1: has been pretty good. Like he's a really good two
Speaker 1: way basketball player. And so Essentially, you take your skill
Speaker 1: guard right in Tyree Saliburton, a guy that you can't
Speaker 1: really count on a lot in defensive situations, but the
Speaker 1: guy that's the hub of your entire offense. Got your
Speaker 1: mismatch tacking forward in Pascal Siakam. Then you've got your
Speaker 1: classic rim protecting center that can do a little bit
Speaker 1: of switching. Now he's not an outstanding switch defender, but
Speaker 1: he can do a little bit of switching. And then
Speaker 1: you've got these two way role players that are willing
Speaker 1: to do the dirty work and that can maintain there
Speaker 1: being a threat on the offensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, you have a pretty useful
Speaker 1: lineup there. And like one eleven defensive writing, like I said, solid,
Speaker 1: also seventy four percent in defensive rebounding percentage. Early in
Speaker 1: the year, defensive rebounding was not a strength for this
Speaker 1: particular group, especially because they were so weak at those
Speaker 1: forward positions, and they've been rebounding really well with that
Speaker 1: specific group. To me, once you get up over that
Speaker 1: seventy two to seventy three percent, that's tenable. That's something
Speaker 1: that you can succeed with in a bigger picture. Now,
Speaker 1: big drawback. They have struggled to score in that group.
Speaker 1: They have a one to eleven point five offensive rating,
Speaker 1: and that's a specific pieceell they'll need to figure out.
Speaker 1: But I'm not particularly worried about that. I think that
Speaker 1: I think that there's plenty of offensive skill in that group.
Speaker 1: I think it's kind of similar to what happened to
Speaker 1: the Clippers early on after the James Harden trade, where
Speaker 1: like it's more just putting all the pieces together and
Speaker 1: making it work in the big picture. And I have
Speaker 1: little doubt that by the time they get to mid
Speaker 1: April that they will be able to figure out those
Speaker 1: things on the offensive end of the floor. But from
Speaker 1: the opening tip of this game, Andrew Demhar did an
Speaker 1: amazing job on Shake Gilders Alexander just being really physical,
Speaker 1: holding up on his bully ball moves to the basket,
Speaker 1: getting great contests, disrupting the dribble pocket. And then Aaron E.
Speaker 1: Smith as well. He spent a lot of time on
Speaker 1: Gordon Hayward in this game, but they basically kept him
Speaker 1: on in waves so that Shay always had a good
Speaker 1: perimeter defender on him. And then from there, like obviously
Speaker 1: without Jalen Williams on the floor. They were, you know,
Speaker 1: conceding and digging down off of Josh Giddy a lot,
Speaker 1: and they don't have to worry too much about Gordon
Speaker 1: Hayward hurting them. Chet Holmgren did have his three point
Speaker 1: shot going in this game, but was struggling to finish
Speaker 1: inside the three point line, which kind of helps sold
Speaker 1: things down for them offensively. Just a really strong defensive
Speaker 1: effort for the Pacers, and then on the other end
Speaker 1: of the floor. I thought this game was a great example.
Speaker 1: I know he only had sixteen points, but it was
Speaker 1: a great example of Pascal Siakam's skill and matchup attacking.
Speaker 1: You know, Oklahoma City does a lot of switching in
Speaker 1: guard guard actions, and so as a result of that
Speaker 1: of Siakam got a lot of like Shakos Alexander on
Speaker 1: a switch down on the block. There was like a
Speaker 1: transition cross match where he beat everybody down the floor
Speaker 1: and he had Isaiah Joe on him in the post
Speaker 1: and they're just able to throw the ball down to
Speaker 1: him there and he's able to go force his way
Speaker 1: close to the basket and score. There even was a
Speaker 1: pivotal stretch there in the middle of the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: where the Thunder had Cason Wallace on him and like
Speaker 1: Keason Wallas is a really good defensive player who can
Speaker 1: defend bigger than his size, but he's just giving up
Speaker 1: a lot in terms of length in that matchup Toakam,
Speaker 1: and Siakam was able to just bury him under the
Speaker 1: rim again and that was a big part of that
Speaker 1: run that they went on after a case on Wallace
Speaker 1: hid to three in the right corner that got it
Speaker 1: down to one and that the Pacers just immediately blew
Speaker 1: it open from there. And a lot of it was
Speaker 1: that Siakam matchup with Cason Wallace in his ability to
Speaker 1: create quality shots is a mismatch attacking forward. Now, that's
Speaker 1: where I wanted to kind of dive into this concept
Speaker 1: as it pertains the team construction, because this is something
Speaker 1: we've talked about a lot on the show, and ironically
Speaker 1: the Nuggets to me are a really interesting example of this.
Speaker 1: But like we've seen this particular kind of configuration of
Speaker 1: like skill guard and matchup attacking forward work really well.
Speaker 1: Right Like the original one was was Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving right where it's like Lebron is doing all
Speaker 1: of the high level playmaking and getting the defense and
Speaker 1: rotation and it kind of managing more of the offense.
Speaker 1: But he was this guy that could really pick on
Speaker 1: mismatches around the floor, whereas like Kyrie just kind of
Speaker 1: brought this high level scoring piece. Like there were a
Speaker 1: lot of possessions during those Cavs playoff runs where Lebron
Speaker 1: will walk up the floor and just go stand on
Speaker 1: the wing, and then Kyrie would just dribble up the
Speaker 1: floor and take seventeen dribbles into a step back two
Speaker 1: point shot and he make it fifty five percent of
Speaker 1: the time or whatever. And that was basically like a
Speaker 1: release valve to get quality offense while also letting Siakam rest.
Speaker 1: Now with this par or notaam excuse me, Lebron rest.
Speaker 1: This configuration's a little different because the skill guard is
Speaker 1: the primary playmaker in Tyres Alliburton, where a Siakam is
Speaker 1: more of the on the island score. But it's the
Speaker 1: same kind of thing where it's like Tyre's Halliburton can
Speaker 1: really just rest now for entire possessions on offense, where
Speaker 1: Siakam is like taking seventeen dribbles the back of a
Speaker 1: guy down into the post, and then take his patented
Speaker 1: little spin move hook shot over his left shoulder right
Speaker 1: or spin move a little jump shot over his right shoulder.
Speaker 1: He just that is the same kind of luxury it is.
Speaker 1: It's not just the matchup attacking element of it, because
Speaker 1: that's the key, right, Like a skill guard can impact
Speaker 1: winning as a score in X y Z ways, right,
Speaker 1: But then the matchup attacking forward impacts winning on offense
Speaker 1: in the ABC ways right, Like it's like this guy's
Speaker 1: too small for me. I'm going to back him down.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get a really high percentage look close to
Speaker 1: the basket, whereas like where Tyros Halliburton, it's a lot
Speaker 1: of like shot value in the bigger picture type of
Speaker 1: stuff where it's like constantly catching the low hanging fruit
Speaker 1: and basketball which we're going to dive into it in
Speaker 1: a little bit, but like getting the high qual catch
Speaker 1: and shoot threes and transition opportunities, kicking the ball up
Speaker 1: the floor like he's managing the larger workflow of the offense,
Speaker 1: whereas Siakam is like, on this possession, I can get
Speaker 1: you a fifty five percent type of shot right by
Speaker 1: the rim because I got this matchup. And again like
Speaker 1: between Jokich and Murray, same kind of thing. Like Yokic
Speaker 1: obviously is a center, but he's this big, giant, playmaking forward,
Speaker 1: and then Jamal Murray plays this skill guard position right,
Speaker 1: and like there's some other examples of it around the league.
Speaker 1: I think Luca and Kyrie is kind of another example.
Speaker 1: Luca's kind of your mismatch attacking forward and Kyrie is
Speaker 1: like your skill guard. But I've always liked that configuration.
Speaker 1: It's something I've been a fan of. I think those
Speaker 1: two specific offensive styles compliment each other really really well.
Speaker 1: I think you need to be able to do both
Speaker 1: to win in the playoffs. I think you need to
Speaker 1: be able to run a high volume amount of pick
Speaker 1: and roll and just get quality shots out of it.
Speaker 1: But I also think you need to be able to
Speaker 1: play bullyball and to get shots close to the rim.
Speaker 1: And so I just really liked that configuration. And I
Speaker 1: thought last night and seeing Siakam really taking some of
Speaker 1: the smaller thunder guards to task was a great example that.
Speaker 1: On the Tyre Saliburton front, I'm always just impressed by
Speaker 1: Tyre Saliburton's game management. He's a guy that we've talked
Speaker 1: a ton about on the show. Over the course of
Speaker 1: the season, I've said, I actually think that he's the
Speaker 1: next great offensive engine in the league. I think he's
Speaker 1: the next guy that's gonna be that guy that we
Speaker 1: look at that's like there's just nothing you can do
Speaker 1: with to stop him from finding a quality shot somewhere
Speaker 1: on the court. Like he's just the ultimate read maker
Speaker 1: in the sense that, like in transition, he's always going
Speaker 1: to hit that kick ahead pass and get something out
Speaker 1: of it. He's that guy that if you run pick
Speaker 1: and roll, whatever cover he bullets him, he's gonna hit
Speaker 1: the role man every single time developed the four on three.
Speaker 1: If you drop he can hit pull up jump shots,
Speaker 1: and he can hit floaters right. If you switch it,
Speaker 1: he can beat the big man off the dribble and
Speaker 1: make the scoop shots off the glass. If you run
Speaker 1: a kind of like a a three on two coverage,
Speaker 1: he's consistently gonna make that skip pass to the corner,
Speaker 1: or get a little bit downhill and throw a lob
Speaker 1: pass to obi top and cutting out of the corner
Speaker 1: pass Galsiakam cutting out of the corner. He's the ultimate
Speaker 1: reed maker, right, But specifically I wanted to highlight the
Speaker 1: idea of low hanging fruit. This is something I talked
Speaker 1: about a lot as we were talking about Victor women
Speaker 1: Yama yesterday, and just like what makes a basketball player
Speaker 1: the best version of himself is like there's this high
Speaker 1: level shot making piece which is super valuable, and we've
Speaker 1: seen Victor Wimenyama hit just some completely ridiculous step backs
Speaker 1: and multiple dribble combination types of shots, right, But like
Speaker 1: the best version of Victor is only gonna rely on
Speaker 1: that for small portions of games. It's gonna be just
Speaker 1: a lot of like easy dunking lobs on rolls to
Speaker 1: the basket, either on lobs or pocket passes and things
Speaker 1: like that. It's gonna be a lot of picking and
Speaker 1: popping to the top of the key, knocking down wide
Speaker 1: open threes or driving closeouts in making plays. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be a lot of him playing with a high level
Speaker 1: guard one day, ball screen switch, take him down to
Speaker 1: the post, and then easy basket over the top. Like
Speaker 1: he's just gonna get a lot of low hanging fruit,
Speaker 1: Yo Kitchen, my opinion is the master of low hanging
Speaker 1: fruit in the NBA right now, Like he could do
Speaker 1: all this crazy difficult stuff. But he just is gonna
Speaker 1: get fifteen easy shots a game for himself, right, like
Speaker 1: in first inmates, Like that's just what in probably more
Speaker 1: than fifteen when you factor in his teammates. Like that's
Speaker 1: just what he does. Well, that's what Tyres Saliburton does
Speaker 1: to me, or does in my opinion, Like he's a
Speaker 1: low hanging fruit capitalizer, so to speak. Like every single
Speaker 1: kick ahead pass he sees, he's gonna push it up,
Speaker 1: He's gonna get an easy shot out of it. There's
Speaker 1: big play in the fourth quarter. I can't remember who
Speaker 1: it was that was running the left wing, but just
Speaker 1: I think it was Niesmith. But just the thunderfell asleep
Speaker 1: or back in transition. I think Josh Giddy was slow
Speaker 1: getting back. Just easy kick adad pass, get an easy layup. Right,
Speaker 1: He's if you make any mistake in your coverage, oh
Speaker 1: you're dropped too far back. I can make this shot
Speaker 1: you helped out of the weakside corner. I can hit
Speaker 1: this cutter along the baseline, or I can throw that
Speaker 1: skip pass to the shooter in the corner, Like I'm
Speaker 1: gonna run a go screen and if you defend it, well,
Speaker 1: I'll just run it again, and if you botch it
Speaker 1: in any way, shape or form, I'm just gonna make
Speaker 1: the right read and we're going to capitalize on it.
Speaker 1: He capitalizes on all that low hanging fruit, which is
Speaker 1: what makes him such a beautiful fit with a matchup
Speaker 1: attacking forward because those are the guys that can go
Speaker 1: get the ugly stuff. Those are the guys that can
Speaker 1: bully their way to the basket and fish spight of
Speaker 1: a basketball game and get easy shots close to the rim.
Speaker 1: So I really do like the direction that Indiana is heading.
Speaker 1: I really like the starting lineup they're using right now.
Speaker 1: The defensive stuff is encouraging. Just got to get the
Speaker 1: defense or got to get the offense up to full
Speaker 1: speed on the thunderside. Obviously, you know, Jalen Williams is
Speaker 1: a huge loss. The one thing that really stood out
Speaker 1: to me was like Shae kind of struggled with some
Speaker 1: of the physical defense at the point of attack from
Speaker 1: nem Hardeni Smith and so like you could tell there's
Speaker 1: a lot of like pull up, turn around jump shots
Speaker 1: that he was leading short as they were just kind
Speaker 1: of wearing him down a little bit. Now, again, it's
Speaker 1: just one game and players are allowed to have bad games,
Speaker 1: and Shay is on the short list of guys where
Speaker 1: it's like, when he has a bad game, You're like, WHOA,
Speaker 1: that's weird. You don't see Shay do that very often, right, Like,
Speaker 1: So I'm not coming down on Shae. All I'm saying
Speaker 1: is like, I am really curious to see what Shae's
Speaker 1: first playoff run looks like as the number one guy.
Speaker 1: Just want to see it. Just want to see what
Speaker 1: it looks like. I want to see if he's the
Speaker 1: kind of guy that really weathers that physicality well and
Speaker 1: is consistently great the way that he is in the
Speaker 1: right other season, or if inconsistency kind of creeps into
Speaker 1: his game a little bit as that physicality is ratcheted up.
Speaker 1: The officiating around the league has become more physical in
Speaker 1: general as of late, which I think is great. I
Speaker 1: think it's better for the playoffs to for the regular
Speaker 1: season to mimic the playoff setting. I think it would
Speaker 1: just help us identify what teams can thrive well in
Speaker 1: that environment. I just think it's good for the game, right.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I am curious to see because Shade did
Speaker 1: struggle a little bit against those Pacers guards last night.
Speaker 1: All right, I've got three quick ones before we get
Speaker 1: out of here. First one like three kind of side topics,
Speaker 1: I should say, so. Andrew Wiggins on a fast break,
Speaker 1: running along the middle of the floor. Brandon Pazamski is
Speaker 1: running his lane on the right side. He's open, but
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins is open too. And I didn't think Wiggins
Speaker 1: made a bad read in this case going up anyway.
Speaker 1: But Pazamski gets frustrated, is like past the ball, Wiggans
Speaker 1: starts yelling at him. They get into it with each other,
Speaker 1: and I didn't think it was a big deal. Didn't
Speaker 1: think two seconds about it after it happened. And later
Speaker 1: in the game when Pazemski and Wiggins were on the
Speaker 1: floor together, they seemed totally fine. Wiggins was cheering Pazemski
Speaker 1: on when he was making shots and vice versa. Like
Speaker 1: I didn't think it was an issue. And then I
Speaker 1: started to look on social media and saw a lot
Speaker 1: of people talking about Pazemski is a rookie that has
Speaker 1: got too much dip on his chip, so to speak,
Speaker 1: and needs to be put in his place. And Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins doesn't need to be taken that from him, and
Speaker 1: all this kind of stuff and all these people like
Speaker 1: Galaxy braining that conflict in my opinion, So here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I have seen this exact type of dynamic dozens and
Speaker 1: dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of times playing basketball.
Speaker 1: I've seen it in like college basketball locker rooms multiple times.
Speaker 1: This is such a normal part of basketball in the
Speaker 1: sense that, like in the heated competitive environment, guys can
Speaker 1: get frustrated. Example, we just saw Travis kelce running up
Speaker 1: on Andy Reid in the Super Bowl. Andy Reid is
Speaker 1: one of the very best coaches, if not the best
Speaker 1: coach in the NFL. Travis Kelcey is a legendary tight end.
Speaker 1: He is. Both of those guys are extremely experienced. Travis
Speaker 1: Kelsey's been in the Super Bowl multiple times before. Andy
Speaker 1: Reid's been in the Super Bowl even more frequently than
Speaker 1: Travis Kelcey has. They're not in any sort of like
Speaker 1: truly problematic predicament. There. There was no reason for that
Speaker 1: other than Travis Kelsey's a competitor, super competitive dude. He's
Speaker 1: fired up and he wanted to be involved more, and
Speaker 1: he ran up on his coach and yelled something, and like,
Speaker 1: here's the thing. Should Travis Kelce have done that? No?
Speaker 1: Should you watch that and be a little annoyed and
Speaker 1: be like, man, I got to have more self control. Yes,
Speaker 1: And I guarantee you. Brandon Pazemski feels the exact same way.
Speaker 1: I guarantee you. After that, he saw the tape and
Speaker 1: was like, shit, man, like, I get it. I frustrated.
Speaker 1: Should not have yelled at Andrew Wiggins like that, But
Speaker 1: it's over. It was over in five seconds and it's
Speaker 1: a total non issue. This exact same thing happened to
Speaker 1: me when I was in junior college my second year
Speaker 1: plan and I was up in Utah and it was
Speaker 1: two on one fast break. I was trailing the play.
Speaker 1: Miles Gatewood, our guard, our starting guard, was driving the
Speaker 1: right wing and shout out to milesgate would excellent three
Speaker 1: level scoring guard, one of my favorite players that I
Speaker 1: played with in my time in college, and running his
Speaker 1: right lane and him and I never had any issues,
Speaker 1: like we were not people that had beef at any
Speaker 1: point over the course of the season. And there was
Speaker 1: a it was a two on one, I was trailing him,
Speaker 1: he missed a layup. I yelled at him to pass
Speaker 1: me the ball. After the play. Mind you again, I'm
Speaker 1: twenty one years old at this point, so I'm a
Speaker 1: little I'm I'm still a competitive hothead now at thirty two,
Speaker 1: so you can imagine what I was like when I
Speaker 1: was twenty one years old and didn't know any better.
Speaker 1: I got we got into an argument. Miles did the
Speaker 1: exact same thing that Andrew Wiggins. Dad was like, shut up,
Speaker 1: you know, as he should have right and uh. And
Speaker 1: then our coach actually pulled both of us out of
Speaker 1: the game and we ended up having to sit ie
Speaker 1: for like it was either for the re I can't
Speaker 1: even remember exactly how long we sat, but we had
Speaker 1: our little like discipline disciplinary measure from the coach. I
Speaker 1: went back and watched the tape after the play. I
Speaker 1: wasn't open. I was. I thought it was a two
Speaker 1: on one from my angle, but Miles had a better
Speaker 1: angle because he was coming from the right wing. There
Speaker 1: was a player trailing me. Had he hit me, there
Speaker 1: was another guy that could have made a defensive play.
Speaker 1: So I would just flat out in the wrong. But
Speaker 1: here's the thing, Like Miles and I buried it and
Speaker 1: moved on right away. I was wrong. I apologized to him,
Speaker 1: and we moved on, Like it's just such this kind
Speaker 1: of stuff is so incredibly common in basketball games because
Speaker 1: like the competitive energy just gets kind of like ramped up.
Speaker 1: And Steph Curry had an interesting comment earlier on in
Speaker 1: the season about Potzemski and his like kind of fire
Speaker 1: that he plays with, and he's like, I would much
Speaker 1: rather have a guy like that that I need to
Speaker 1: tell to calm down a little bit, then a guy
Speaker 1: that doesn't have that, And I'm trying to get him
Speaker 1: to show some of that care, to show some of
Speaker 1: that fight. And I could not agree more with Steph
Speaker 1: in the sense that, like, like I mean not to
Speaker 1: go out Andrew Wiggins here, but there are some times
Speaker 1: with Andrew Wiggins where you're like, come on, dude, like
Speaker 1: like you're the best athlete on the floor, Like show
Speaker 1: some fight, show me what you got, man. Like there's
Speaker 1: some times that you get like that, and like that's
Speaker 1: the thing, like I would much rather have in my
Speaker 1: foxhole in a basketball game a dude who's a little
Speaker 1: bit of a hot head than a dude who is
Speaker 1: like that can go catatonic for extended stretches, And that's
Speaker 1: the thing, Like Paziemski is definitely a little bit of
Speaker 1: a hot head. He definitely has that really high level
Speaker 1: competitive energy. But that, to me is one of his strengths.
Speaker 1: It's something he will have to learn to control over
Speaker 1: the years. Like, yeah, you're right, you can't. You can't
Speaker 1: yell at your teammate for missing a red. By the way,
Speaker 1: that's another thing that we haven't even mentioned. Guess what
Speaker 1: happens all the fucking time in basketball games. Guys miss
Speaker 1: open teammates. It happens all the time. Even the best
Speaker 1: I've I've seen the best passers in the NBA misreads.
Speaker 1: From time to time it happens. It is. So that's
Speaker 1: the thing, Like, that's the lesson on the Pozemski side
Speaker 1: of it, is like you've got to learn to just
Speaker 1: kind of control your emotions a little bit better when
Speaker 1: you're in those situations. But my bottom line is that
Speaker 1: I'm getting at here. There is no crisis, there's no
Speaker 1: festering dislike between teammates. There I guarantee you if you
Speaker 1: want to around the locker room. Pazemski'sen struggling a little
Speaker 1: bit as of Lady's going through a little bit of
Speaker 1: a rookie wall concept. We talked about yesterday when we
Speaker 1: were talking about Victor women Yama. It is I guarantee
Speaker 1: you they all have his back, and I guarantee you
Speaker 1: they all view him as somebody that they need get
Speaker 1: the I thought it was really interesting what Steve Kerr
Speaker 1: said after It was either in after their last game
Speaker 1: or it was an a presser, but where he was like,
Speaker 1: I really do think this team has a chance to
Speaker 1: make a playoff run. Like that, to me is encouraging
Speaker 1: because it's the same Steve Kerr that said last year
Speaker 1: very differently that he did not think that they were
Speaker 1: that type of team. So I think that that's encouraging.
Speaker 1: I don't view this as a speed bump at all whatsoever.
Speaker 1: And I just wanted to kind of give my two
Speaker 1: cents on what those kinds of arguments mean to me
Speaker 1: in terms of what basketball games look like in reality. Nextly,
Speaker 1: the next question, I should say, the done with the
Speaker 1: nineties trend. So apparently there's all these clips going around.
Speaker 1: I've seen a few of them, but just like showing
Speaker 1: specific examples of like like Muggsy Bogues ripping Michael Jordan
Speaker 1: or Michael Jordan getting the Ben Simmons treatment. Getting like
Speaker 1: ignored at the three point line, or just various stretches
Speaker 1: of bad basketball that are being displayed and being like,
Speaker 1: we're so done with the nineties. These guys are the
Speaker 1: are being portrayed as the golden age of hoops, and
Speaker 1: and it clearly isn't like that. I want to push
Speaker 1: back against that a little bit, because for Charters, you
Speaker 1: can take any basketball game, including some of the best
Speaker 1: basketball games that have ever been played. For instance, like,
Speaker 1: let's take like that Celtics just for the sake of
Speaker 1: sticking with somebody something that's recent that we all remember.
Speaker 1: Look at that nugget Celtics game from last week on Thursday.
Speaker 1: That game was an awesome basketball game. I guarantee you
Speaker 1: I could find two or three thirty second stretches of
Speaker 1: that game that look embarrassing bad, where like guy takes
Speaker 1: a bad shot, guy other team goes over and turns
Speaker 1: it over, other team dribbles to the other end and
Speaker 1: run someone over and commits an offensive foul. You know,
Speaker 1: every basketball game has ugly stretches in it. If you're
Speaker 1: hunting out of an entire decade, I guarantee you you
Speaker 1: will find some hilariously ugly stretches of basketball that to me,
Speaker 1: like basketball is very much a read and react sport,
Speaker 1: and so there are stretches where both teams are really
Speaker 1: sharp with their reads and it can look super fluid
Speaker 1: and both teams can look super competent. But then you
Speaker 1: can also go through stretches where guys make a few
Speaker 1: bad reads and it can look really bad pretty quickly,
Speaker 1: or a guy that ends up in a situation where
Speaker 1: he has to do more than his skill set's capable
Speaker 1: of and it can look ugly. And so I don't
Speaker 1: think that that's a really fair way to kind of
Speaker 1: display that sort of era. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: like I do think it's important to acknowledge that the
Speaker 1: game is improved. I do think basketball players are better
Speaker 1: now than they were in the nineties. I think basketball
Speaker 1: players are better in the nineties than they were in
Speaker 1: the eighties, in the seventies, and vice versa. I think
Speaker 1: that this league is in perpetual improvement. I think that's
Speaker 1: kind of the reason that explains that MJ Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: clip where MJ's being ignored at the three point line.
Speaker 1: What's happening there is like MJ doesn't want to take
Speaker 1: a three because like at that point in NBA history,
Speaker 1: you didn't take that shot very often. Like just go
Speaker 1: to just go into your Google search bar and type
Speaker 1: NBA league averages. Basketball Reference has a page that just
Speaker 1: takes every single season of NBA history and just puts
Speaker 1: team averages during that era, So like offensive raiding, defensive
Speaker 1: or offensive rating, field goal percentage, three point percentage, volume,
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff, right, and just go look
Speaker 1: and how many threes are taken now compared to how
Speaker 1: many threes were taken in the eighties and nineties. It's
Speaker 1: not comparable. So like, yeah, like Ben Simmons getting ignored
Speaker 1: at the three point line because he literally cannot shoot
Speaker 1: is very different than like, like we know MJ wants
Speaker 1: to get to the mid range and he's probably gonna
Speaker 1: hunt that for this possession, and then if he has
Speaker 1: to take a three at the end of the shot clock,
Speaker 1: you will. Like that's fundamentally different. That's not something that's
Speaker 1: just the game changing, right, And like that's the thing,
Speaker 1: like if you watch skill players from thirty years ago,
Speaker 1: you're right, they're not gonna have the advanced footwork and
Speaker 1: advanced shot making as skill players from the year twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four. Like, again, you gotta think we've all learned
Speaker 1: from these guys. I literally watch NBA players and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's interesting. I want to try that. That's how I
Speaker 1: learned my step back three point shot footwork. I stole
Speaker 1: it from James Harden. Like a lot of my dribble
Speaker 1: combinations I stole from Luca in the sense that, like,
Speaker 1: I've always been fan of the way he uses his
Speaker 1: body language to get guys open, right, Like, just recently,
Speaker 1: I've been really impressed by Shay Gillers Alexander in the
Speaker 1: way that he ball handles in traffic, and there's some
Speaker 1: elements to like the the real like way he sells
Speaker 1: every single move even when he's in traffic, and just
Speaker 1: how sharp his handle is. There's some stuff there that
Speaker 1: I'd like to steal. And like what's happening is over
Speaker 1: the generations, every young basketball player is stealing from the
Speaker 1: previous generation and stealing, and like, like we're gonna have
Speaker 1: some you know, new things that Anthony Edwards does over
Speaker 1: the course of his career that the next great two
Speaker 1: guard is gonna steal. But Anthony Edwards is stealing stuff
Speaker 1: from Dwayne Wade and from Kobe Bryant and from Michael Jordan,
Speaker 1: and it just builds on itself in perpetuity. So of
Speaker 1: course they're getting better, which is exactly why, Like I
Speaker 1: don't see the point in like when Lebron fans are like, oh,
Speaker 1: MJ played against plumbers, It's like, no, MJ played against
Speaker 1: the NBA in his era and Lebron played against the
Speaker 1: NBA in his era, and so it's it's impossible to
Speaker 1: compare across eras as the league has improved, as the
Speaker 1: game has changed. So the most fair way to rate
Speaker 1: these players, in my opinion, is to look at specifically
Speaker 1: how they played in their era. Because as much as
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan had to play against the nineties NBA, Michael
Speaker 1: Jordan didn't also didn't have the advantage that modern modern
Speaker 1: NBA prospects to do in terms of training. We just
Speaker 1: talked about all the footwork and moves that they can
Speaker 1: steal from modern players, just the tools that are at
Speaker 1: their disposal. It's a completely different universe now than it
Speaker 1: was when j MG is coming out of college nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty four. Guys, that's literally forty years ago. Like this
Speaker 1: is an entire that's half a century so like, it
Speaker 1: doesn't make sense to compare him to this era because
Speaker 1: he just didn't play in this era. And so that's
Speaker 1: why I kind of look at it in that sense.
Speaker 1: But again, are the nineties as beautiful of basketball as
Speaker 1: twenty twenty? No? But are they as ugly as they
Speaker 1: can be made to appear in short, little highlight films.
Speaker 1: Obviously not. And so I think it's more important for
Speaker 1: us to respect each of those eras in the way
Speaker 1: that they built on each other than to with them
Speaker 1: down just so that we can elevate players from now
Speaker 1: when that's not the point. We know they're better, We
Speaker 1: know they're better now. That's just like the players in
Speaker 1: twenty thirty four are going to be better really quickly
Speaker 1: before we get out of here. I had a mailback
Speaker 1: question yesterday that I wanted to kind of clarify. Someone says,
Speaker 1: I love you bro best NBA content on YouTube, but
Speaker 1: I've never seen someone have so many duplicate videos. It's weird.
Speaker 1: So we kind of talked yesterday in the mail bag
Speaker 1: about kind of modern podcasting and kind of the way
Speaker 1: that its structured. I just wanted to explain to you
Speaker 1: guys why we do things the way that we do
Speaker 1: them just so that you guys know and some a
Speaker 1: little hints that'll help you guys. Our full episodes are
Speaker 1: always under a different thumbnail than our breakout clips. So
Speaker 1: the full episodes, first of all, when you go to
Speaker 1: the YouTube channel on the homepage, we just list the
Speaker 1: full episodes, so that's where you can see everything I
Speaker 1: recorded on that particular day. Right, and again, the thumbnails
Speaker 1: they have that like yellow giant yellow font mixed with
Speaker 1: the white font. I think if I remember correctly, but
Speaker 1: there's dead giveaway. It's obvious that that's a full episode.
Speaker 1: We do the breakout clips because of the way YouTube's
Speaker 1: algorithm works. On YouTube, there's only so much information you
Speaker 1: can put in a title, and there's only so much
Speaker 1: information you can put in a thumbnail. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: if I hit five topics and one of them is
Speaker 1: an obscure game in terms of market size, like Thunder Pacers,
Speaker 1: then like I, if I market the show around bigger
Speaker 1: things that are gonna get more clicks like Lakers and whatever, Warriors, whatever,
Speaker 1: no one's gonna click it if they're a Pacers fan.
Speaker 1: No one's gonna click it if they are a Thunder fan. Right,
Speaker 1: Because there's nothing that says Pacers and Thunder on it.
Speaker 1: So our workaround for that is we will brand the
Speaker 1: full episode around whatever the most urgent, you know, popular
Speaker 1: topic is, but then we put out breakout clips so
Speaker 1: that we can get out to those fans. We want
Speaker 1: a clip that says Thunder Pacers on it. That's a repeat,
Speaker 1: Yes it's a repeat, but the purpose it serves is
Speaker 1: so that Thunder and Pacers fans can find it and
Speaker 1: so that we can take advantage of the YouTube algorithm
Speaker 1: to capitalize on that. And that's honestly, that's a piece
Speaker 1: of advice that I would give to other people that
Speaker 1: are trying to launch a podcast. If you sit down
Speaker 1: with your buddy and you talk about four things, and
Speaker 1: two of them are bigger picture things, and you broadcast
Speaker 1: those in the main episode, do a breakout of the
Speaker 1: other two topics so that you can have another crack
Speaker 1: at the algorithm with a different topic. So again, we're
Speaker 1: not doing duplicate videos to just like inundate you with videos.
Speaker 1: The whole point is we want to make it really
Speaker 1: easily digestible. Full episodes on the homepage. You can find
Speaker 1: them all there. If you're looking for a specific topic.
Speaker 1: You can find it under the videos page with all
Speaker 1: those breakouts, but the primary purpose they serve is on
Speaker 1: the algorithm. We want the search engine. If you just
Speaker 1: watched Pacers a thunder last night and you want to
Speaker 1: see a breakdown and you type in thunder, Pacers reaction
Speaker 1: or like thunder or whatever, then that video might pop
Speaker 1: up and we might have an opportunity to reach those people.
Speaker 1: So that's why we do it that way, and hopefully
Speaker 1: just by giving that quick breakdown, you guys have a
Speaker 1: better understanding it. All right, guys, that's all I have
Speaker 1: for today or for this part of today's show. We
Speaker 1: will be back tonight on YouTube Live. After the final
Speaker 1: buzzer of Lakers Kings, I'll see you guys. Then the
Speaker 1: volume