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Speaker 1: welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Monday, everybody.
Speaker 1: Hope all of you guys had an incredible weekend. We've
Speaker 1: got a theam packed show for you guys again. Today.
Speaker 1: We're gonna hit five games just like we did on Saturday. Lakers, Kings, Warriors, Rockets, Nuggets,
Speaker 1: Thunder Hawks, Bucks, and then finally the Sixers and the Raptors.
Speaker 1: We're gonna hit all ten teams and their matchups from
Speaker 1: this past weekend. And then I've got four mailbag questions
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Speaker 1: so we can keep hitting them throughout the season. All right,
Speaker 1: Lakers King, So the Kings end up beating the Lakers
Speaker 1: in ot Lakers looked like they were gonna come away
Speaker 1: with it there in the middle of the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: They were going on a run Lebron hits to pull
Speaker 1: up three to put them up by four, But then
Speaker 1: Dearon Fox took over the game down the stretch and
Speaker 1: then Malik Monk took it over in ot as the
Speaker 1: Kings notched an impressive win over the Los Angeles Lakers. Now,
Speaker 1: if you guys remember after last year's postseason run. I
Speaker 1: talked a lot about how they're they're as discouraging as
Speaker 1: certain things were for the Kings, right, like Sibonis kind
Speaker 1: of being mostly ineffectual over the course of that Warrior series,
Speaker 1: Harrison Barnes really struggling over the course of the Warrior series,
Speaker 1: and it kind of dawning on you that the front
Speaker 1: court really just isn't gonna be good enough to contend
Speaker 1: with the best teams in the league. And that's a
Speaker 1: real problem. And that's something that even as optimistic as
Speaker 1: I feel about the Kings at this point and some
Speaker 1: of the other elements of their roster, you're just not
Speaker 1: going to win at the highest levels in the NBA
Speaker 1: with those front court shortcomings, right, But that doesn't take
Speaker 1: away from the huge positives that this team brings to
Speaker 1: the table. I talked a lot about how after that
Speaker 1: Warrior series, I was blown away by how impressive both
Speaker 1: Malik Monk and Deer and Fox were with their ability
Speaker 1: to get the defense into rotation to either beat people
Speaker 1: off the dribble or make shots over the top to
Speaker 1: draw multiple defenders into their ball screen. They just did
Speaker 1: a really good job generating quality shots throughout the series
Speaker 1: and It's specifically valuable in that Western Conference because both
Speaker 1: Malik Monk and Dearon Fox bring this crazy combination of
Speaker 1: downhill speed to beat people off the dribble and over
Speaker 1: the top shot making. As Deeron Fox has developed into
Speaker 1: a jump shooter at this phase in his career. Hit
Speaker 1: several big jump shots down the stretch last night to
Speaker 1: pull up three in Anthony Davis's face, another pull up
Speaker 1: mid range shot in Torrian Prince's face down the stretch
Speaker 1: of that game. So like they're both now high level
Speaker 1: shot makers, and in the Western Conference in particular, a
Speaker 1: lot of the teams at the top. As a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, I'll just put it plainly, all of the
Speaker 1: teams at the top of the conference that I consider
Speaker 1: to be championship contenders are bad perimeter defense teams. As
Speaker 1: you go to the Denver Nuggets, for instance, I really
Speaker 1: like Aaron Gordon as an option to attack or to
Speaker 1: put on other big scoring wings around the league. But
Speaker 1: like with Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Junior on the floor,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have your opportunities if you can beat people
Speaker 1: off the dribble, right. Same thing goes for the Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors right with Chris Paul and Steph Curry and
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson at this phase in his career, You're gonna
Speaker 1: have opportunities if you can beat people off the dribble.
Speaker 1: Going forward to the Phoenix Suns right like, obviously Joshakogi
Speaker 1: and Jordan Goodwin have been exciting early season perimeter weapons,
Speaker 1: but especially when Bradley Beal and Devin Booker are on
Speaker 1: the floor, they're gonna you're gonna have a lot of
Speaker 1: opportunities to beat people off the dribble. And the last
Speaker 1: but not least, the Los Angeles Lakers with Austin Reeves and
Speaker 1: and Di'angelo Russell and and Gabe Vincent as their primary
Speaker 1: back court options, like, you're just gonna have an opportunity
Speaker 1: to beat people off the dribble if you have the
Speaker 1: guards that can do that. And so, in a weird way,
Speaker 1: the Sacramento Kings are a bad matchup for a lot
Speaker 1: of the teams at the top of the Western Conference
Speaker 1: on the perimeter. Now, again, those front core court issues
Speaker 1: add a certain ceiling to that, which we'll get to
Speaker 1: in a little bit. But that Fox Monks monk pairing
Speaker 1: is a real weapon, and we've seen that already in
Speaker 1: last year's postseason, but it's it's you're seeing that come
Speaker 1: to the surface and this year's regular season as well.
Speaker 1: Last night, the Lakers just could not contain any screening
Speaker 1: action with Malik Monk er dearon Fox, even in it's
Speaker 1: just like an easy ghost screen with Kevin Herder on
Speaker 1: Malik Monk as he pops to the left wing and
Speaker 1: Gave Vincent is just too slow to recover. And that's
Speaker 1: the thing. The Lakers don't have that type of real
Speaker 1: athleticism in the backcourt to physically contain the quicker guards
Speaker 1: in the league. And when you pair that with what
Speaker 1: they've got on the wing with Keegan Murray and Kevin Herders,
Speaker 1: guys that are like real athletes with real size and
Speaker 1: length who also can shoot the basketball, it kind of
Speaker 1: is a perfect pairing in terms of that perimeter kind
Speaker 1: of like the perimeter identity that this team has, right Like,
Speaker 1: You've got these off ball movement shooters that kind of
Speaker 1: contribute in the athleticism areas of the game, and then
Speaker 1: you've got these on ball quickness, pull up jump shooters
Speaker 1: that can get the defense into rotations. You can play
Speaker 1: drive and kick basketball and that's the thing, Like you
Speaker 1: saw a lot of those perimeter mismatches manifest down the
Speaker 1: stretch of this Laker game, where on one end of
Speaker 1: the floor, every time the Lakers miss and they're missing threes. Right,
Speaker 1: We're gonna get to it in a little bit, but
Speaker 1: the Lakers miss some great looks down the stretch of
Speaker 1: this game. They're missing threes long off the back of
Speaker 1: the rim, and Kevin Herder and Keegan Murray and these
Speaker 1: guys are coming flying in to get rebounds. Kevin Herder
Speaker 1: had four defensive rebounds in crunch time last night, as
Speaker 1: the Kings were able to keep for the most part,
Speaker 1: the Lakers off the offensive glass. Ad had like a
Speaker 1: tip dunk with about like what twenty five seconds left
Speaker 1: or so that tied the game. But other than that,
Speaker 1: they get a good job of keeping the Lakers off
Speaker 1: the glass. And then on the other end of the floor,
Speaker 1: Keegan Murray's just running right by D'Angelo Russell, running right
Speaker 1: by Torrian Prince and grabbing huge defensive rebounds, both of
Speaker 1: which led to wide open threes for Malik Monk that
Speaker 1: he made both of. And so you're kind of seeing that,
Speaker 1: like they have real speeding, quickness advantages at the guard position,
Speaker 1: and then they have real length and athleticism on the
Speaker 1: wing to get long rebounds, to contest shots in rotation,
Speaker 1: to on the offensive end, gather and tip out offensive rebounds.
Speaker 1: They just have a really good core of perimeter players.
Speaker 1: And again, like there's there's gonna be some sort of
Speaker 1: limitation to them as a high level playoff team as
Speaker 1: it comes as it comes down to their front court,
Speaker 1: but you have a real foundation there. And like again,
Speaker 1: in the big picture, and I don't know what they're
Speaker 1: looking at, especially being that they just reupt with Sabonis,
Speaker 1: but eventually, if you can imagine a universe where they
Speaker 1: get real rim protection into this system, they could be really,
Speaker 1: really good in the big picture. I thought they did
Speaker 1: a really nice job too of avoiding the Laker half
Speaker 1: court defense whenever they could by pushing the ball in
Speaker 1: transition every single time they had a long rebound or
Speaker 1: a turnover or anything along those lines. I thought both
Speaker 1: Keegan Murray and Kevin Hurder did a nice job identifying
Speaker 1: when Anthony Davis was out on deeron Fox on a
Speaker 1: switch that they had an opportunity to try to crash
Speaker 1: the glass because the Lakers didn't have much athleticism on
Speaker 1: the back line. I thought they played a really smart
Speaker 1: game as they out executed the Lakers down the stretch
Speaker 1: last night to get a win. And again, like where
Speaker 1: you're seeing the downside is on that defensive end. You
Speaker 1: saw the Lakers get a lot of really good looks
Speaker 1: down the stretch of that game, and they missed them
Speaker 1: all for the most part, right, And a big part
Speaker 1: of that is that because of your front court's limitations,
Speaker 1: you're having to throw two to the ball in post
Speaker 1: ups and ISOs, you're having to throw a defend pick
Speaker 1: and roll actions three on two, and so you're existing
Speaker 1: in rotation too much on the other end of the floor,
Speaker 1: which is what's allowing smart teams that have skilled like
Speaker 1: the Lakers to make that drive and kick pass to
Speaker 1: find that open shooter. So again, like there's a limit
Speaker 1: to what they can do until they figure out that
Speaker 1: front court and kind of build a defensive foundation on it.
Speaker 1: But you saw a lot of the exciting perimeter potential
Speaker 1: of this team against the Lakers last night. Moving on
Speaker 1: to the Lakers the Lake game issues, I thought like
Speaker 1: a lot of Laker fans, in particular were kind of
Speaker 1: missing the boat on what went down down the stretch
Speaker 1: of that game, Like, yeah, they missed a lot of
Speaker 1: open shots, and yeah, Anthony Davis wasn't overly involved in
Speaker 1: the offense, and we'll talk about that in a minute.
Speaker 1: But your defense gave up twenty six points and ten
Speaker 1: minutes of crunch time basketball the final five minutes of
Speaker 1: regulation and in ot you gave up twenty six points
Speaker 1: in crunch time a defensive rating of one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty four when the score was within five with less
Speaker 1: than five minutes left. You're not beating anybody if you're
Speaker 1: giving up like crazy, you know, best offense in the
Speaker 1: league offensive ratings during the final five minutes of the game.
Speaker 1: That's the problem. The problem is is every single time
Speaker 1: you got to stop, they got an offensive rebound. The
Speaker 1: problem is your guys on the perimeter can't defend a
Speaker 1: basic ghost screen action. The problem is is every single
Speaker 1: time Anthony Davis ends up on a switch, he gets
Speaker 1: a stop and then no one boxes out. Those are
Speaker 1: the issues that they're having on that end of the floor.
Speaker 1: That's what cost them the game. Despite shooting horrifically on
Speaker 1: the other end, and they still had an offensive rating
Speaker 1: of ninety five in the crunch time on the other
Speaker 1: end of the floor. And that's with them missing every
Speaker 1: seemingly every single open shot that they generated. And that's
Speaker 1: an issue like the Lake when it comes to the
Speaker 1: late game offense, like that was an issue all year
Speaker 1: last year, and it's definitely something that we're gonna have
Speaker 1: to keep an eye on over the course of the season.
Speaker 1: But when I watched the tape today, like it was
Speaker 1: just wide open shots. It was wide up and shots
Speaker 1: every time down the floor. It was Lebron, you know,
Speaker 1: ripping through to the right, drawing a second defender and
Speaker 1: kicking to Torreon prints on the right wing for a
Speaker 1: wide open three. It was Lebron kind of posting up
Speaker 1: and drawing Gabe Vincent's defender in and kicking out to
Speaker 1: Gabe Vincent on the left wing for a wide open three.
Speaker 1: It was the Lakers running a ball screen with Ad
Speaker 1: and eight rolling to the basket on a switch and
Speaker 1: drawing two defenders and d Lo throwing a skip to
Speaker 1: Torrean Prince in the left corner and in Pump faking
Speaker 1: and ripping through the baseline and making a kickout pass
Speaker 1: to D'Angelo Russell wide open on the right wing and
Speaker 1: he missed the three. Like at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: these are wide open looks that you're missing, and like,
Speaker 1: I get it. Maybe you find a way to get
Speaker 1: Ad more involved in the offense. But do you think
Speaker 1: Mike Brown is going to allow Anthony Davis to just
Speaker 1: work on an island against the Kings, or do you
Speaker 1: think he's going to be sending multiple defenders which is
Speaker 1: gonna lead to the defense being in rotation, which is
Speaker 1: going to lead to driving kick basketball, which is gonna
Speaker 1: lead to wide open threes. Like at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, you're gonna get the same damn shots, Like
Speaker 1: you just have to make the shots. It really is
Speaker 1: that simple. And like even specifically from the same point
Speaker 1: of schematics, like after Sabonas fouled out of the game,
Speaker 1: Harrison Barnes slid over onto Anthony Davis, and every single
Speaker 1: possession offensively, he either ran to the opposite block to
Speaker 1: basically operate in the dunker spot, ran to the corner,
Speaker 1: or to the wing to spot up. There was not
Speaker 1: a single possession when Ad had Harrison Barnes on him.
Speaker 1: When he ran down the floor buried him and said,
Speaker 1: give me the damn ball, and then someone threw in
Speaker 1: the ball and he made a post move that literally
Speaker 1: never happened. The only time he called for post ups
Speaker 1: were on switches after ball screens. There was one coming
Speaker 1: off of a ball screen where Deer and Fox switched
Speaker 1: on to him and he fronted the post and they bracketed,
Speaker 1: so there was no post entry and so there was
Speaker 1: no opportunity to get him the ball. And then there
Speaker 1: was another transition possession in ot where Lebron where Ad
Speaker 1: ran the floor and had Kevin heurdr sealed right under
Speaker 1: the basket on the left side, and Lebron opted to
Speaker 1: throw his swing pass over to the right to D'Angelo Russell,
Speaker 1: who was wide like completely unguarded on the right wing.
Speaker 1: And so even the one time I thought Ad had
Speaker 1: a guy buried for a post up, Lebron made a
Speaker 1: read to probably your best spot up shooter, like Delo's
Speaker 1: probably your best guy on the team to take a
Speaker 1: wide open three, and he just missed it. So like,
Speaker 1: even though you could argue, yeah, Lebron probably should feed
Speaker 1: Ad against Herder there, it's not like he made a
Speaker 1: bad decision. He just made a different decision for a
Speaker 1: shot that, like you know, is a great look for
Speaker 1: that team. Right. And then again, as I always say,
Speaker 1: I will defend AD to the bitter end, his impact
Speaker 1: goes far beyond what his offensive production is. I always
Speaker 1: point out the obvious reasons why he's different from the
Speaker 1: stars at the very top of the league, and some
Speaker 1: areas of opportunity that he has. One of those is
Speaker 1: that half court shot creation piece. But like you have
Speaker 1: to count account for what he does defensively, Anthony Davis's
Speaker 1: defensive impact extends so far beyond what you see on
Speaker 1: the box score. But the reality is is like there
Speaker 1: is basically no evidence an AD's career where you could
Speaker 1: just dump the ball to him and run the offense
Speaker 1: through him and it's gonna go well like that. That's
Speaker 1: just not a thing. And I didn't see anything on
Speaker 1: tape that really screamed at me as like missed opportunities
Speaker 1: on that end, except for the fact that AD probably
Speaker 1: should have just buried Harrison Barnes a few times, which
Speaker 1: is which is on AD. It's not on the players
Speaker 1: who didn't even have an opportunity to throw it to
Speaker 1: him down there. So, like I think focusing on the
Speaker 1: offensive end down the stretch of that Lakers loss to
Speaker 1: the Kings is silly. They ran great offense. I think
Speaker 1: Lebron has done an excellent job of making decisions in
Speaker 1: crunch time of games so far this year and generating
Speaker 1: super high quality shots for his teams and for his team,
Speaker 1: and good shooters are just not making shots, and that's
Speaker 1: the problem. Austin Reeves this year five for twenty three
Speaker 1: on jump shots, D'Angelo Russell seven for twenty three on
Speaker 1: jump shots, Gabe Vincent three for fifteen on jump shots.
Speaker 1: As a group, those three guys are three for fourteen
Speaker 1: on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots, so nobody's standing
Speaker 1: around them. They catch with all day to sit and
Speaker 1: think and take the shot, three for fourteen, and they're
Speaker 1: not making their pull up jump shots either. They're ten
Speaker 1: for thirty three. So like at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: That was the roster construct. The idea was, teams are
Speaker 1: packing the pain against Ad and Lebron. Lebron's drawing doubles
Speaker 1: and all his drives AD every time he tries to
Speaker 1: post up a mismatch. They're bracketing and they're fronting, and
Speaker 1: their offering backside help, you've gotta hit shots. Like, to me,
Speaker 1: settling is I have a guy on a swich and
Speaker 1: I take a step back jump shot, or I'm running
Speaker 1: pick and roll and I'm taking floaters and pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots. That's settling. But when the team is taking
Speaker 1: away the paint and you are driving and making the
Speaker 1: right read to wide open shooters, that's not settling. That's
Speaker 1: especially when they're good shooters. It's one thing when the
Speaker 1: team's ignoring Jared Vanderbilt and you keep getting Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: count catch and shoot threes, and you have to start
Speaker 1: thinking about what you got to do offensively, because that's
Speaker 1: a shot the defense can afford to give up. But
Speaker 1: if your crunch time offense is generating wide open threes
Speaker 1: for Gabe Vincent, Austin Reeves, D'Angelo Russell, you're gonna win
Speaker 1: a lot of games. And Torrean Prince is one of
Speaker 1: the better wide open, catch and shoot three point shooters
Speaker 1: in the league, and he missed at least three wide
Speaker 1: open threes in crunch time last night. So like again, like,
Speaker 1: I think focusing on the offense is the wrong thing there.
Speaker 1: Because it was one twenty four to one twenty three
Speaker 1: with what two minutes left in ot despite all of
Speaker 1: those missed shots, but you couldn't get a damn stop.
Speaker 1: And when it was one twenty four to one twenty three,
Speaker 1: Malik Monk ran a ghost scream with Kevin Herder, and
Speaker 1: Kevin Herder slipped it to the left wing and got
Speaker 1: a wide open three and he made it. Because that's
Speaker 1: bad defense, because they couldn't just communicate a switch properly
Speaker 1: or hedge and recover whatever it was that they planned
Speaker 1: on doing in that situation. Like it just at a
Speaker 1: certain point, this team's identity is defense. That's how they
Speaker 1: have to win games. They didn't do a good enough
Speaker 1: job a couple other things. Rebounding issues again, like some
Speaker 1: of it's personnel, Like some of it is Dangel Russell's
Speaker 1: giving up a lot of length and athleticism to some
Speaker 1: of these guys. Right, there are some things that, uh
Speaker 1: that darvinham can do. We saw in the Suns game
Speaker 1: in particular, put Christian Wood on the floor. He can
Speaker 1: really help you with your backside rebounding when Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: gets switched onto a perimeter player like he did on
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant in those games. Right, in this game, no
Speaker 1: Christian wood in crunch time, ad gets switched onto Derren
Speaker 1: Fox Fromer League Monk. You can't rebound on the backside, right.
Speaker 1: But a lot of it is just personal shortcomings. Because
Speaker 1: even if you had Jared Vanderbilt in for Torrian Prince
Speaker 1: or Christian Wooden for Torrian Prince, there were a couple
Speaker 1: plays where Gabe, Vincent and Dilo got beat for rebounds.
Speaker 1: So like at a certain point, it's a personnel weakness.
Speaker 1: And this is why I've been talking so much about
Speaker 1: how the Lakers need to find a real athletic guard.
Speaker 1: I've said multiple times like my dream trade for the
Speaker 1: Lakers this year is like a trade with the Bulls
Speaker 1: to bring back Alex Crusoe and Demarta Rozen, because you
Speaker 1: solve your over the top shot making and you get
Speaker 1: a real big athlete at the guard position that can
Speaker 1: help you in these late game situations, securing the fifty
Speaker 1: to fifty balls, defending those late game ball screen actions
Speaker 1: like you wouldn't you probably wouldn't have to switch ad
Speaker 1: onto Deern Fox if you can guard him with Alex
Speaker 1: Cruso at the point of attack and those are that's
Speaker 1: a severe limitation in this roster, and that's something that
Speaker 1: they're gonna have to look at when they get closer
Speaker 1: to the deadline. Last note on the Lakers over the
Speaker 1: top shot making Lebron he made a pull up three
Speaker 1: with the about halfway through the fourth quarter that put
Speaker 1: the Lakers up four, but he missed a couple more
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots that were easy in pick and
Speaker 1: roll down the stretch. He did make a bailout three
Speaker 1: in the left corner, but he's three for ten on
Speaker 1: pull up jumpers this year, and overall on jump shots
Speaker 1: he's zero point eight to one points per jump shot.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis zero points seventy five points per jump shot,
Speaker 1: one for four on pull up jump shots. So, like
Speaker 1: we talked about how they're gonna have to keep an
Speaker 1: eye on that over the top shot making piece, and
Speaker 1: so far, again small sample size three games. Don't want
Speaker 1: to overreact to anything, but so far, through three games,
Speaker 1: their stars still can't make shots, and unless they start
Speaker 1: making shots, that's gonna be something that severely hinders them
Speaker 1: in the late rounds of the playoffs. Now, some of
Speaker 1: you guys out there are probably thinking Jason said the
Speaker 1: Lakers are gonna win a lot of regular season games
Speaker 1: there one and two right now. Sometimes teams lose two
Speaker 1: games and three tries. And the Lakers are not playing
Speaker 1: good basketball right now. Dangel Russell Austin Reeves gave Vincent
Speaker 1: those guys are offensive skill guards. They're not athletic, dirty
Speaker 1: work guards who play defense, right So if they're not
Speaker 1: making shots, they're impact craters and the Lakers are going
Speaker 1: to be a pretty inferior basketball team. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I expect them to make shots this year. Again, those
Speaker 1: guys are shooting atrociously bad. They're going to make shots.
Speaker 1: It's only a matter of time. As a group, the
Speaker 1: whole team, Anthony Davis and Lebron aren't playing well enough
Speaker 1: as half court shot makers right Like overall, the team
Speaker 1: isn't defending well enough. Their offensive skill guards are not
Speaker 1: making any shots. As a team, they're just not playing well.
Speaker 1: But you play eighty two games, and I think the
Speaker 1: Lakers are going to figure it out and play a
Speaker 1: lot better. And I still feel very strongly that they're
Speaker 1: going to win a lot of regular season games. They're
Speaker 1: just not playing well right now, which is a thing
Speaker 1: that happens over the course of the NBA regular season.
Speaker 1: All right, moving on to the Warriors and the Rockets,
Speaker 1: so the bench lineup carries them again. Steph Curry checks out.
Speaker 1: I think it was eighteen to fifteen, about halfway through
Speaker 1: the first quarter of like mid late first quarter, and
Speaker 1: they bring in their bench lineup which they've been using
Speaker 1: so far the season, which is Chris Paul with Gary
Speaker 1: Payton kind of managing the point of attack assignments, Moses Moody,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Kaminga, and Dario Sarich, and that group just completely
Speaker 1: took over the game. And by the time Steph came
Speaker 1: back in in like middle second quarter ish, the Warriors
Speaker 1: were up by double digits. I think they were up
Speaker 1: by thirteen if I remember correctly. And that's just a
Speaker 1: huge advantage to be able to go from down without
Speaker 1: Steph or with Steph on the floor, to Steph coming
Speaker 1: back into the floor with the double digit lead. And
Speaker 1: that's why you make the Chris Paul trade. You make
Speaker 1: the Chris Paul trade to improve the organization of those
Speaker 1: bench groups. But to be clear, it's defense that's winning
Speaker 1: those those shifts for that group. They have a ninety
Speaker 1: two defensive rating in those possessions. Gary Payton's doing an
Speaker 1: amazing job at the point of attack. He made a
Speaker 1: lot of plays defensively in pick and roll. In that
Speaker 1: bench run at the end of the first quarter. In
Speaker 1: early second quarter yesterday, Jonathan Kamena brings that down hill
Speaker 1: rim pressure slashing from the wing. He's basically like playing
Speaker 1: on that week side. Chris Paul's running pick and roll,
Speaker 1: and whenever he sees that low man come over, he's
Speaker 1: just throwing it to kaming on the wing, and Kaminga
Speaker 1: is either shooting to catch and shoot three or jab
Speaker 1: and drive to the left. He's just applying that downhill
Speaker 1: rim pressure right. Moses Moody has kind of taking the
Speaker 1: role of like the three and D guy. He's attacking closeouts,
Speaker 1: taking open threes when they're there, and he's playing physical
Speaker 1: point of attack defense. Dario Sarich is the kind of
Speaker 1: like the offensive fire power in the Chris Paul pick
Speaker 1: and roll, and they're still having a lot of success
Speaker 1: in pick and pop situations with him just like dropping
Speaker 1: back to the to the wing or to the key
Speaker 1: off of ball screens with Chris Paul, so like it's
Speaker 1: it's a sensical lineup. We talk a lot about, just
Speaker 1: like the list of responsibilities on a basketball court. Chris
Speaker 1: Paul feels that point of attack offense, like getting the
Speaker 1: defense into rotation. Kaminga's like kind of your like a
Speaker 1: second side creator slash, real rim pressure guy. Moses Moody's
Speaker 1: your three and D guy, right, like Gary Payton's basically
Speaker 1: operating is your primary point of attack defensive player, but
Speaker 1: he's operating off the ball on offense kind of out
Speaker 1: of the weakside corner and as a cutter right. And
Speaker 1: then Dario Sarich is your skilled big that allows you
Speaker 1: to kind of play five out offensively. Right, Like it
Speaker 1: all they just fill all the positions, and they don't
Speaker 1: need an outstanding rim protector in that lineup, so they
Speaker 1: can play sarage because you've got great point of attack
Speaker 1: defenders out there and Gary, Gary Payton and Moses Moody
Speaker 1: and Jonathan Kimiko who can be a great point of
Speaker 1: attack defender when he's locked in, and so it all
Speaker 1: just makes sense. And that's what allows the Warriors bench
Speaker 1: lineup to provide more consistent production like they have so
Speaker 1: far through the season. Again, forty two possesions really small
Speaker 1: sample size, by that lineup has been working really well
Speaker 1: and again, like the starters are not playing super great
Speaker 1: right now. Andrew Wiggins not playing very well right Draymond
Speaker 1: Green coming back from an injury, playing on a minute's restriction,
Speaker 1: so like they need consistency off of their bench to
Speaker 1: give their starters time to get their shit together, you know.
Speaker 1: And then here's the thing. You just got to keep
Speaker 1: that you keep it close. That's what allows Steph Curry
Speaker 1: to carry you home late. And that's what happened in
Speaker 1: this game. The Rockets took a late lead in this game,
Speaker 1: and then Steph Curry just unbelievably like just got unbelievably
Speaker 1: hot and took over late. I swear every like heat check,
Speaker 1: run of three point shooting is coming in fours these days.
Speaker 1: That's been a theme so far in this regular season.
Speaker 1: Steph hit back to back to back to back pull
Speaker 1: up threes. Well some of them are on the move,
Speaker 1: but like back to back to back to back threes
Speaker 1: to basically put the game away. Then there was a
Speaker 1: fun one for all us basketball fans out there. Like,
Speaker 1: for the record, like Dylan Brooks as a basketball player,
Speaker 1: I think he's legitimately very good, very good defensive player.
Speaker 1: He actually is a little better offensively in the last
Speaker 1: six months than I think he was in previous years,
Speaker 1: which is encouraging for the Rockets. He's actually become a
Speaker 1: decent playmaker off the bounce, too, good basketball player, probably
Speaker 1: even deserving of his contract, right, But I just don't
Speaker 1: like the guy. I think he's downright disrespect to better
Speaker 1: basketball players than him. Like talking shit on the court,
Speaker 1: to me is a normal part of competitiveness. But like
Speaker 1: going into the press and just talking shit about people
Speaker 1: for no reason, it is disrespectful, unlikable, pointless. I think
Speaker 1: it's inauthentic too. Like I think I don't think Dylan
Speaker 1: Brooks is actually wired that way. I think he's just
Speaker 1: being a dick because it he thinks it. I think
Speaker 1: you think he's trying to build that villain brand up right,
Speaker 1: So like like just not my favorite dude, you know.
Speaker 1: So like I'm always gonna enjoy when when uh Steph
Speaker 1: Curry as a moment at his expense, and I didn't
Speaker 1: even mention all the dirty player stuff, like like Dylan
Speaker 1: Brooks has hurt guys, like has actually hurt guys making
Speaker 1: dirty plays on the court. I'm just just not a
Speaker 1: Dylan Brooks fan. But when Steph Curry hit him with
Speaker 1: like the behind the back crossover, back to the left
Speaker 1: and back behind the back again to the pump fake
Speaker 1: because Dylan Brooks goes flying by and hits a shot
Speaker 1: in his face and Steph is freaking out as he's
Speaker 1: running down the floor. That those are the things that
Speaker 1: I love about basketball, because regardless of what you end
Speaker 1: up saying at the end of the day, like you
Speaker 1: still gotta you can't talk all that shit and then
Speaker 1: just get your ass bust by Steph Curry, right like
Speaker 1: the that's the downside. You talk, you got to back
Speaker 1: it up. And basketball is very much a results sport,
Speaker 1: and like all you always live to fight another day
Speaker 1: and you always have another chance to try to make
Speaker 1: someone pay. And Steph got the better of Dylan Brooks
Speaker 1: in a big way down the stretch of that game.
Speaker 1: Steph's been fantastic so far this season and that you
Speaker 1: can kind of see things kind of coming together for
Speaker 1: this team. Kaminga's been really good again yesterday, just making
Speaker 1: a higher level offensive plays and you're expecting him to
Speaker 1: make at this phase in his career. The bench fit
Speaker 1: that we went over is perfect. You're pairing that with
Speaker 1: the best starting lineup in the league last year. Right
Speaker 1: there's just a lot of stuff coming together for this team.
Speaker 1: Very small sample size. I'm not going to get too
Speaker 1: excited until we get about twenty games in, but the
Speaker 1: Warriors look a lot closer to the twenty twenty two
Speaker 1: version of them so far than they do the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three version, and that's exciting. On the Rockets front,
Speaker 1: the only thing I really want to hit on here is, uh,
Speaker 1: the Fred van Vliet thing is so confusing to me,
Speaker 1: and like I remember that was the basis, Like if
Speaker 1: this is what you were gonna do, like largely give
Speaker 1: the keys to uh a guard, to a veteran guard
Speaker 1: who's a little bit past his prime, Like why didn't
Speaker 1: you just pay James Harden, Because like, the Van Vleet
Speaker 1: thing's not going well, zero point eight seven points per
Speaker 1: pick and roll, he's co opting the offense too often.
Speaker 1: He's uh four ISOs just scored once on him, four
Speaker 1: for twelve at the rim. They finally let Jalen Green
Speaker 1: be more aggressive in last night's game, but like it's
Speaker 1: it's it's a little too many hands in the pot
Speaker 1: right now. It's a little a lot of guys at
Speaker 1: a rhythm sort of thing going on. The only real
Speaker 1: reliable point in their offense right now is Shangoun, who
Speaker 1: is pretty good again yesterday seven assistants, zero turnovers, like
Speaker 1: they they I just wish I could understand what the
Speaker 1: big picture goal is for this Rockets team, and here
Speaker 1: you are at zero and three. So if the move was, hey,
Speaker 1: we're gonna bring him in and we're gonna win games,
Speaker 1: that's not working either, all right, Moving on to the
Speaker 1: nugt in the Thunder, I thought this was the most
Speaker 1: impressive win that I saw so far from a team
Speaker 1: this season. The Thunder two to zero at home, all
Speaker 1: full of piss and vinegar, ready to try to get
Speaker 1: a big win against the Denver Nuggets, and they just
Speaker 1: get their ass kicked like it's funny, because like I
Speaker 1: really do believe that the Nuggets are only a little
Speaker 1: bit better than the teams at the top of the
Speaker 1: league when they're fully formed. But you're seeing like the
Speaker 1: Lakers are working shit out with their rotation in their rhythm,
Speaker 1: and most of their guys aren't playing very well. Damian
Speaker 1: Lillard came into camp out of shape, and the Bucks
Speaker 1: look pretty bad here early on right, Like the Celtics
Speaker 1: are really good, but you know how it goes with
Speaker 1: the Celtics are always worried about them in the late
Speaker 1: rounds of the playoffs. Like the Sixers are are We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about them later, but they're kind of working
Speaker 1: some things out. Devin Booker and Bradley Beal are are
Speaker 1: injured and not available to play. So it's like, right now,
Speaker 1: if the season ended today, the Nuggets are way better
Speaker 1: than the rest of the teams in the league. But again,
Speaker 1: I do think in the big picture, everyone's gonna catch
Speaker 1: up to a certain extent. I don't think the Nuggets
Speaker 1: have that significant of a talent advantage. But the Nuggets
Speaker 1: are the best team in the league right now and
Speaker 1: it's not particularly close, and they just have like an
Speaker 1: inevitability to what they do offensively. Nicole jokis just burying
Speaker 1: chet Holmengred under the basket a few times early in
Speaker 1: the game, just to show him like, hey, you literally
Speaker 1: cannot guard me down here, right like they can punish
Speaker 1: mismatches elsewhere on the floor. We saw Eric Aaron Gordon
Speaker 1: do it in the post a bunch of times already
Speaker 1: this season. We've seen Jamal Murray more in the postseason
Speaker 1: last year, but we know he can do that too.
Speaker 1: And then one of the things that was really impressive
Speaker 1: to me about the Thunder where they were throwing pretty
Speaker 1: aggressive coverages at the two man game that the Nuggets
Speaker 1: were running, and the Nuggets are just so good at
Speaker 1: countering your counters, right, and so like you can kind
Speaker 1: of see, like the Thunder every single time, there'd be
Speaker 1: like a ball screen on the right side of the
Speaker 1: floor and the defender would start getting The defender would
Speaker 1: chase over the top and Jamal Murray or Reggie Jackson
Speaker 1: or somebody would start getting going downhill a little bit right,
Speaker 1: and you would see the classic defensive rotation take place.
Speaker 1: So like you got, let's call it, you know, a
Speaker 1: shooter in the corner and a shooter on the wing,
Speaker 1: and like you'll literally see the Thunder players rotate. So
Speaker 1: the guy guarding the guy in the corner will come
Speaker 1: over underneath the basket to basically guard the pick and
Speaker 1: roll three on two, and then the guy guarding the
Speaker 1: wing will drop to the corner to take away that
Speaker 1: skip pass and pick and roll, and like the Nuggets
Speaker 1: are just like, oh, like this is easy. We're just
Speaker 1: gonna stash an athlete on the left wing every single
Speaker 1: time and have him cut down the lane. And you've
Speaker 1: seen that BEKCP a lot with the starters, but in
Speaker 1: the bench group, you're seeing Peyton Watson have a lot
Speaker 1: of success with that. He's gotten really good at just
Speaker 1: identifying as soon as his man drops down to essentially
Speaker 1: replace the low man who comes over and pick and roll,
Speaker 1: Peyton Watson's just cutting to the basket. And again, like
Speaker 1: how often can you get away with putting an athlete
Speaker 1: above the break who's not a great shooter. Although Peyton
Speaker 1: Watson's been making some threes this season too, but like
Speaker 1: he you put an athlete there because you hit him
Speaker 1: as he's running full speed to the basket and he
Speaker 1: could just jump over everybody and put it home. And
Speaker 1: like that, the Nuggets just know exactly what they want
Speaker 1: to do every single time down the floor. They know
Speaker 1: exactly how to get baskets if you defend their action
Speaker 1: two on two in their ball screen game, right, and
Speaker 1: then they know exactly how to counter every single aggressive
Speaker 1: defensive coverage that you throw at them. It's too easy
Speaker 1: for them. And then again, like it just felt like
Speaker 1: every single time the Nuggets wanted an easy basket. They
Speaker 1: just throw it to Yokic and heat buryed Chet homegrin
Speaker 1: and put it up underneath the basket. You know, there's
Speaker 1: even a transition play where Jamal Murray like looks up
Speaker 1: and Yokic is running along the left lane line and
Speaker 1: Chet's kind of waiting underneath the basket, and Jokic is
Speaker 1: just calling for the ball. Jamal just throws a rifle
Speaker 1: pass hits him. Yokics just literally just bodies Chet once
Speaker 1: and shoots a little floater in the lane. They just
Speaker 1: make it look so unbelievably easy. And then on the
Speaker 1: other end, they're actually defending at an extremely high level
Speaker 1: to start the season their seventh in defensive rating. Teams
Speaker 1: are shooting just twenty eight percent from three against the Nuggets.
Speaker 1: SGA had a night shooting game in this thunder game.
Speaker 1: Now again, like in the big picture, are team's gonna
Speaker 1: shoot twenty eight percent against the Nuggets all season? No,
Speaker 1: But this is the kind of thing that they can
Speaker 1: do to teams when they physically pulverize you on the
Speaker 1: other end. You know, I talk a lot about how
Speaker 1: the mental element of basketball, the confidence element, it actually
Speaker 1: throws other teams out of rhythm when they see you
Speaker 1: scoring so easily, like you start to get in your
Speaker 1: head about shots because they're making everything and like that.
Speaker 1: That that directly affects your confidence. And I don't think
Speaker 1: it's a coincidence that teams shoot as poorly as they
Speaker 1: do against the Nuggets. Some of it, again is the
Speaker 1: teams they've played, right the Lakers who have been shooting
Speaker 1: like shit all season, the Timberwolves who don't have great
Speaker 1: off ball shooting, and this Thunder team who can struggle
Speaker 1: a little bit with spot up possessions as well. Guys
Speaker 1: like Shay and guys like Josh Giddy are not outstanding
Speaker 1: spot up shooters, so like they can have their issues
Speaker 1: there as well. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it is in the big picture. It has a lot
Speaker 1: to do with what they're doing on the other end
Speaker 1: of the floor. They got Michael Porter Junior in this
Speaker 1: game as well. I think they're gonna run away with
Speaker 1: the one seed in the West in the regular season,
Speaker 1: and I think they have a good chance to win
Speaker 1: the midseason tournament, which I think would be great for
Speaker 1: the NBA because they're trying to build this This NBA
Speaker 1: Cup as like a second tournament that's different from the
Speaker 1: playoffs in that it's single elimination and that has some
Speaker 1: certain amount of prestige. That's why they're calling it the
Speaker 1: NBA Cup. That's why they're putting the trophy on the
Speaker 1: courts for the courts that they swap at every single game.
Speaker 1: They're leaning hard into this NBA Cup thing, and in
Speaker 1: order for it to be legitimate, it needs to go
Speaker 1: to the best team more often than not, right, And
Speaker 1: so like, like, I think it'd be good for the
Speaker 1: league if the Nuggets just went and won the mid
Speaker 1: season tournament, because that'd be that indicator of like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're just better than all of you guys, and this
Speaker 1: tournament is another way to show that. And if that's
Speaker 1: what it turns into, if the tournament just becomes another
Speaker 1: area for teams to express themselves as the best, that's
Speaker 1: where that tournament can gain some prestige and if again
Speaker 1: some prestige teams will care about it. If teams care
Speaker 1: about it, like you want to get to the point
Speaker 1: where it's like we're talking fifteen years from now, Like
Speaker 1: man Jokic has five NBA Cups to go with three
Speaker 1: NBA champions and you know Giannis only has three NBA cups.
Speaker 1: Like that's what you want. You want team people counting
Speaker 1: that accomplishment in the same breath as MVP and the
Speaker 1: same breath as the Larry O'Brian. It may never get
Speaker 1: to the Lario Brian, but if it can get into
Speaker 1: the same breath as MVP as an accomplishment, that would
Speaker 1: go a long way towards adding legitimacy to the award.
Speaker 1: On the thunderfront, I think you really saw the lack
Speaker 1: of a big, strong fore man in this game. Again,
Speaker 1: Like I talk a lot about the different kinds of wings,
Speaker 1: and you want to have like slender, athletic wings that
Speaker 1: can navigate screens and move quickly and bother guys on
Speaker 1: the perimeter. But you also need, especially next to Chet,
Speaker 1: who is going to be a little bit of a
Speaker 1: thin player at the center position, right, you need to
Speaker 1: have somebody who's of Aaron Gordon's type of archetype, somebody
Speaker 1: that's between six eight and six ' ten who's really
Speaker 1: physically strong that can handle some of the bigger, stronger matchups.
Speaker 1: Because they didn't really even have an option to put
Speaker 1: Chet off of Jokic in this game. Because there was
Speaker 1: just not anybody strong enough to bang with him in
Speaker 1: those situations. And I like Jalen Williams, but he's a
Speaker 1: little too short, right, And like lou Dort is very
Speaker 1: physically strong, but he's too short to bother a guy
Speaker 1: like Jokic. I think that's the next move for this
Speaker 1: team is they need to take a look at that
Speaker 1: starting lineup and see if there's somebody out there that
Speaker 1: can kind of be their big strong four. In the
Speaker 1: bigger picture, don't think they'll do it this year. This
Speaker 1: team doesn't have urgency. They're not trying to win the
Speaker 1: championship this year. But in the big picture, I think
Speaker 1: that I think last night kind of showed you. Yesterday
Speaker 1: in the afternoon, I should say, kind of showed you
Speaker 1: the ultimate ceiling of this team. Like you can imagine
Speaker 1: this team, this Thunder team. Imagine they win fifty five games.
Speaker 1: That's way too much. They're not gonna win fifty five,
Speaker 1: but just say they win fifty five games and they
Speaker 1: go on this playoff run and they beat the Timberwolves
Speaker 1: in the first round, and then they head into a
Speaker 1: second round series and it's the Denver Nuggets, or it's
Speaker 1: the Let's say the Los Angeles Lakers and Lebron's just
Speaker 1: picking on him in the post, and they just don't
Speaker 1: have anybody who can physically hang with him, you know,
Speaker 1: like that's where it can be. Or Anthony Davis, for instance,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis would probably cause chet Holmgrens some problems burying
Speaker 1: him under the basket. So like that, that's an example
Speaker 1: of the ultimate ceiling they can run into if they
Speaker 1: don't eventually get a more physically imposing forward next to
Speaker 1: chet Holmgren. In the long run, the Nuggets were just
Speaker 1: too much of a bad matchup for them in that regard.
Speaker 1: All right, Hawks, Bucks, We've got two more games, guys,
Speaker 1: and then we'll get out of here, and then our
Speaker 1: mail back questions. They the Hawks went into Milwaukee and
Speaker 1: just kicked the Bucks ass early and often. In this game.
Speaker 1: They doubled Dame on every single ball screen and forced
Speaker 1: a lot of turnovers and got out in transition. The
Speaker 1: Hawks scored thirty eight points in transition in this game,
Speaker 1: which is like insanely good. That's like that, that's about
Speaker 1: as high as you'll see in an individual game that
Speaker 1: they Their team speed is what is the most impressive
Speaker 1: post John Collins trade slide Jalen Johnson in at the four.
Speaker 1: Jalen Johnson is just a rangy athlete that can get
Speaker 1: up and down the floor super quick, finish at the rim,
Speaker 1: above the rim traffic. They are. Jalen Johnson by himself
Speaker 1: has seventeen points in transition already this season. That's the
Speaker 1: eleventh most in the entire league so far. Jalen Johnson
Speaker 1: also is five for eleven on jump shots and his
Speaker 1: converting spot up possessions at one point twenty five points
Speaker 1: per possession. You know, it was funny we talked before
Speaker 1: the season about whether or not it was gonna be
Speaker 1: Sadik Bay in that starting spot, but Jalen Johnson's doing
Speaker 1: a really nice job there and he's making plays on defense.
Speaker 1: He's got a block and his steel in every single
Speaker 1: game so far this year, I think as a team,
Speaker 1: and you saw this, they didn't defend well in their
Speaker 1: first two games this year, but you kind of saw
Speaker 1: what they're capable of defensively in this game when they're
Speaker 1: really aggressive on the perimeter, because like they forced a
Speaker 1: lot of turnovers and got out and run in and
Speaker 1: they just looked like they had arms everywhere and that's
Speaker 1: what can happen with this lineup. When you've got Dejonte Murray,
Speaker 1: when you've got Jalen Johnson, when you've got DeAndre Hunter,
Speaker 1: when you've got Sadik Bay, You've got athletes that can
Speaker 1: make plays on the perimeter. And so especially when you
Speaker 1: partner that with a pretty solid rim protector in Clint Capella,
Speaker 1: this team is capable of being much better defensively than
Speaker 1: they have been. And they have not been good defensively
Speaker 1: in the big picture this season, but in that first half,
Speaker 1: in particular against the Bucks, I thought they were really
Speaker 1: impressive defensively, and I think that's replicable if they take
Speaker 1: that on as an identity. And again, like you gotta
Speaker 1: look at it in the big picture too, because offensively
Speaker 1: they're not where they need to be right right, Like
Speaker 1: they're tenth in offense. But that's despite both Trey Young
Speaker 1: and de Jontay Murray playing horribly to start the season.
Speaker 1: Dejontay Murray's below forty percent from the field, Trey Young's
Speaker 1: below thirty percent from the field. Trey Young is seven
Speaker 1: for twenty one on pull up jump shots and one
Speaker 1: for eleven at the rim. Now, everybody else in the
Speaker 1: lineup is actually playing really well in making shots. And
Speaker 1: that's the exciting part in the big picture, because if
Speaker 1: your core guys get going, that's where you can really
Speaker 1: put together an elite offense. And so I think this
Speaker 1: Hawks team is capable of being really good. I had
Speaker 1: them going up a level this year for those of
Speaker 1: you guys you remember in the season preview. But the
Speaker 1: Jalen Johnson thing is something I even missed in my
Speaker 1: preseason prediction and scouting this team. I didn't realize how
Speaker 1: good he was. And they just have a ton of
Speaker 1: depth on the wing and like theoretically with that spacing
Speaker 1: with their shot craters, when they get going, they can
Speaker 1: be really really good. On the bucks front, they look
Speaker 1: like a team that doesn't even practice, and again I
Speaker 1: know they do, but they just look really sloppy and
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor right now. On offense, they
Speaker 1: had no idea what to do when Dame was getting trapped,
Speaker 1: and a lot of it was on Dame. Dame's just
Speaker 1: not playing well. He was turning it over against the blitz,
Speaker 1: just throwing it into passing lanes and throwing and not
Speaker 1: even getting it over the guy who's blitzing him, and
Speaker 1: some of that's like not even about the schematic side
Speaker 1: of things, Like if Dame can't actually get the pass
Speaker 1: off in a trap, which he's been doing his entire
Speaker 1: career in Portland, that's obviously gonna bite you in the
Speaker 1: butt for you can't even get started right. So I'm
Speaker 1: not particularly concerned in the big picture. They're just playing
Speaker 1: shitty right now and both ends of the floor. Dame
Speaker 1: is can't hit a shot. He came into camp out
Speaker 1: of shape. Clearly, he's not even getting the ball over
Speaker 1: the front of the rim on most of these shot attempts,
Speaker 1: and a lot of their offensive approach just doesn't make
Speaker 1: any sense. There was a stretch in the first quarter
Speaker 1: where Yannis took a turnaround fade away in the post
Speaker 1: and missed it right after missing a free throw, and
Speaker 1: he's been shooting free throws like shit so far the season,
Speaker 1: so those jumpers clearly not there. Then Dame goes down
Speaker 1: in the very next possession and shoots a pull up
Speaker 1: thirty foot three in transition and barely grazes the side
Speaker 1: of the rim, and then the very next possession, Yannis
Speaker 1: stripples up and just takes a three from above the
Speaker 1: break and misses it like bricks it, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: what are you guys doing, Like this doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be that complicated. Just get your four out one in spacing,
Speaker 1: have Giannis comes set a ball screen and have Dame
Speaker 1: throw the ball to Yanni's rolling hard downhill against the Blitz.
Speaker 1: Like a lot of this is just they're not They
Speaker 1: don't look like a team who knows how they want
Speaker 1: to play right now. And then on the defensive end,
Speaker 1: the rotations have been really shitty so far, which is surprising,
Speaker 1: especially from the back line guys, Like there were two
Speaker 1: possessions in the first quarter in particular where Trey Young
Speaker 1: and de Jante Murray were able to feed to guys
Speaker 1: directly under the basket for dunks because Giannis was leaving
Speaker 1: the paint to rotate somewhere else, and no one rotated
Speaker 1: on Giannis's behalf to the to underneath the basket like
Speaker 1: they just Again, we talked about this before the season.
Speaker 1: I am a huge believer in the Bucks ultimate playoff ceiling,
Speaker 1: but I said, I think they're gonna go down a
Speaker 1: level in the regular season, and I said, don't be
Speaker 1: surprised if there's a huge gap between them and the Celtics,
Speaker 1: and if they end up being a middle of the
Speaker 1: pack team in the regular season, and I really do
Speaker 1: think that's a possible outcome here, because they're just really
Speaker 1: far right now from where they need to be to
Speaker 1: be a good basketball team. In the big picture, it's
Speaker 1: going to be fine. There's too much talent there. Chris
Speaker 1: Middleton missed this game. Chris Middleton obviously improves your ability
Speaker 1: to play off of Dame double teams. In general, You're
Speaker 1: the Dame Giannis pick and roll is gonna gain a
Speaker 1: lot more traction as the season progresses. Dame eventually is
Speaker 1: gonna start making shots. I promise you he will. So like,
Speaker 1: everything's going to be fine. But we can't really judge
Speaker 1: the Bucks right now because they kind of, like what
Speaker 1: I was saying about the Lakers, they're just playing shitty
Speaker 1: basketball right now. And when a team's playing shitty basket ball,
Speaker 1: try not to overthink it. Try to understand that. Like
Speaker 1: we're looking at thirty NBA teams that are all on
Speaker 1: various levels of progress from like what they could be
Speaker 1: and where they are, and like there are teams like
Speaker 1: the Nuggets who like know exactly what they are and
Speaker 1: they're already playing at their individual standing, Like the Nuggets
Speaker 1: right now are playing like a championship team, right. And
Speaker 1: then you've got teams towards the bottom where it's like
Speaker 1: Bucks still trying to figure out what they want to do, right,
Speaker 1: the Lakers still playing well below what they're capable of doing.
Speaker 1: Then you have teams that are kind of like up
Speaker 1: in the middle, right, like the Warriors are kind of
Speaker 1: one of those teams that like they look like they're
Speaker 1: a little further along and where they want to be
Speaker 1: compared to some other teams around the league. Right Sacramento
Speaker 1: Kings right now look a little bit further along than
Speaker 1: some of the other teams and what they want to be.
Speaker 1: We all are kind of evaluating these teams on this
Speaker 1: sliding scale. But this top piece here is the only
Speaker 1: one that really matters, right cause, like this Bucks team
Speaker 1: right now, if you put them in a playoff series
Speaker 1: against the Miami Heat, they probably lose, right, just like
Speaker 1: they did last year. But I mean, they've probably lose
Speaker 1: if they started a season even with a series even
Speaker 1: with them right now, they're just not ready. But we're
Speaker 1: talking about who's going to be the best basketball team
Speaker 1: in the middle of April, not in the middle of October,
Speaker 1: and so it's not crisis mode. But this team looks
Speaker 1: really far away, and Bucks fans be prepared. They could
Speaker 1: lose a lot of regular season games in the meantime
Speaker 1: while they're shorting the stuff out, and it could be
Speaker 1: a little closer to like the Warriors last year, where
Speaker 1: like they're scrounging away at the bottom of the playoffs,
Speaker 1: top of the play in tournament type of area the
Speaker 1: bracket if they're not careful. All right, moving on to
Speaker 1: Sixers Raptors. So the Sixers blew out the Blazers last night,
Speaker 1: but I want to focus on this Raptors game because
Speaker 1: I thought it was a little bit more interesting of
Speaker 1: a game. They trailed by double digits at four different
Speaker 1: points in the first half. The Raptors were putting a
Speaker 1: halacious defensive effort on them getting out and transition a lot,
Speaker 1: which can be an issue for the for the Sixers
Speaker 1: if you guys remember, But right about two and a
Speaker 1: half minutes left in the first half, the Tyre Smaxy
Speaker 1: Joelinbi two men started to click. And this is the
Speaker 1: upside of James Harden's absence, Like you want to get
Speaker 1: a look within this season, this version of Tyree Maxy
Speaker 1: what he looks like as your top perimeter option in
Speaker 1: the event that you have to flip James Harden for
Speaker 1: role players, which is a very distinct possibility under the circumstances. Right,
Speaker 1: and so far through three games, Maxie's averaging thirty points,
Speaker 1: seven rebounds, six assists on sixty nine percent through shooting.
Speaker 1: He's shooting seventy one percent in effective field goal percentage
Speaker 1: on jump shots. Tyree's looks incredible. Now again it's three
Speaker 1: games sample size. You want to see more, but like,
Speaker 1: this is what he's capable of. He already was one
Speaker 1: of the best shooters in the league, like Tyre s
Speaker 1: Maaxy is flat out one of the best jump shooters
Speaker 1: in the league now he was last year and he's
Speaker 1: shooting guns blaze him to start this year. Like when
Speaker 1: you combine that with his downhill athleticism, it really was
Speaker 1: just about can he ever get to the point where
Speaker 1: he can run the two man game with Joel Embiid
Speaker 1: and set him up with those ISOs and pick and
Speaker 1: pop opportunities that he needs to at easy shots. And
Speaker 1: I thought he did a really nice job of that
Speaker 1: in this game like, he's got the kind of like
Speaker 1: swoopy over the back pass to Embiid when he pops
Speaker 1: to the top of the key. He's got that little
Speaker 1: pocket pass to Embiid, and he's got the timing down
Speaker 1: now where he knows the proper time to get it
Speaker 1: to him so that he actually gets a decent look there.
Speaker 1: He's starting to see the back line a little bit better.
Speaker 1: There was a play where they came up with a
Speaker 1: third defender to take away the pocket pass to Embiid
Speaker 1: and Kellyubrace stuck along the baseline and Tyree's just hit
Speaker 1: him on the bounce for a dunk. Like to you
Speaker 1: need to see in the big picture what Tyree's is.
Speaker 1: Playmaking can be like right, and for the record, it
Speaker 1: can be a lot better. He's run fifty one ball
Speaker 1: screen so far and they've only led to forty eight points,
Speaker 1: so he's a hair under a point for possession in
Speaker 1: pick and roll, and he's seven for twenty three on
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots so far. So like, it looks good,
Speaker 1: really really good, and he can still go up a
Speaker 1: level from there. And by the way, the pull up jumpers,
Speaker 1: that's that's off the dribble there are several shots that
Speaker 1: Maxi has made so far this year two man game
Speaker 1: off of Embiid off the catch. That's the thing that
Speaker 1: he had that that Harden doesn't have, Right, max he
Speaker 1: can come flying off a dribble handoff, not put the
Speaker 1: ball on the ground and just rise up and shoot
Speaker 1: going both ways. And that's kind of like an interesting
Speaker 1: almost Warriors esque DHO action or King's esque DHO action
Speaker 1: that they can run that they couldn't run with James Harden.
Speaker 1: And so like again, James Harden's value is not good.
Speaker 1: He's probably not gonna bring back a star barring some
Speaker 1: sort of other distressed star, right, and so more than
Speaker 1: likely you're gonna get a quality role player or two
Speaker 1: in that exchange. And in order for that to work,
Speaker 1: you need Tyrese Maxy to flash as a as a
Speaker 1: legit number two next to Joel Embiid. And it could
Speaker 1: not have gone much better than it did. Over the
Speaker 1: course of the first three games of the season. They
Speaker 1: just started like Maxi had the three point shot going,
Speaker 1: he had like by the time I stopped watching the game,
Speaker 1: he had already made like six threes, and then Joel
Speaker 1: Embiid in the process as everyone chasing Maxie around. He's
Speaker 1: getting great looks. Joel Ebid's got his jump shot going
Speaker 1: now is three point shot looks great too. Like they
Speaker 1: just kicked the Rafters ass in this game, and like
Speaker 1: just manhandled him down the stretch, and so like all
Speaker 1: on the strength of maxim bid two man game, Like
Speaker 1: those two absolutely torched them. The Sixers right now are
Speaker 1: fifth in offensive rating one hundred and nineteen points per
Speaker 1: one hundred possessions without James Harden, fifth best offense in
Speaker 1: the league without James Harden. And again, like that was
Speaker 1: against a Raptors team that has been one of the
Speaker 1: best defenses in the league so far this year. That
Speaker 1: was against a Bucks team which should, in theory be
Speaker 1: a great defensive team. The Blazers are the only kind
Speaker 1: of cupcake in that group. Right that's not a slouch.
Speaker 1: The defense isn't where it needs to be, but it's
Speaker 1: a transition issue. The Sixers are allowing just ninety points
Speaker 1: per one hundred half court possessions embiads. Rim protection has
Speaker 1: been excellent, but they can still get a lot better.
Speaker 1: They're still having some issues with like Maxie getting switched
Speaker 1: and then trying to scram him out of switches, but
Speaker 1: they're rotating in time. So there were a couple plays
Speaker 1: against the Raptors where like Maxi would leave his man
Speaker 1: to scram out of a switch, but then they would
Speaker 1: just make the feed and he'd score to the guy
Speaker 1: Maxi was guarding because they didn't rotate fast enough. So, like,
Speaker 1: they've got some stuff to work out with their half
Speaker 1: court defense, but for the most part, they've been pretty good.
Speaker 1: It's the transition defense that's continued to kill them. On
Speaker 1: the Raptors front defense looks great. They're fifth in defensive
Speaker 1: ratings so far. Scottie Burnes and ogn Andobi are combining
Speaker 1: the average four point five blocks and two point seven
Speaker 1: steals per game, and they're doing a really nice shot
Speaker 1: getting out in transition. Off their defense, they're third and
Speaker 1: fast break points per one hundred possessions twenty six points
Speaker 1: per game in transition according to Synergy, that's seventh most
Speaker 1: in the NBA, and they're really efficient in those situations
Speaker 1: one point three points per transition shot attempt, which is
Speaker 1: fifth in the NBA. But their half court offense is
Speaker 1: absolutely atrocious. They are scoring just seventy eight points per
Speaker 1: one hundred half court possessions that is dead last in
Speaker 1: the NBA, and they are the only team in the
Speaker 1: NBA right now with a half court offensive rating below
Speaker 1: eighty so, and we kind of called this before the season.
Speaker 1: I told you, guys, I saw the Raptors is the
Speaker 1: worst backcourt in the NBA. And that's how you get
Speaker 1: defenses into rotation, right, And so you've got a bad
Speaker 1: front court backcourt, in my opinion, combined with a front
Speaker 1: court full of athletic players that have a lot of
Speaker 1: defensive potential and are somewhat raw offensively, right, guys a
Speaker 1: go Jiananobi, guys like Scottie Barnes, guys like Pascal Siakam, Like,
Speaker 1: You're just gonna struggle to score in the half court
Speaker 1: with that group. And they really really have Like I
Speaker 1: love Dennis Schroeder, great point of attack defender, can generate
Speaker 1: rim pressure. Gary Trent Junior is a really interesting player,
Speaker 1: can run gribble handoffs and ball screens, can hit pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots and floaters. They are a They're both
Speaker 1: okay players. But if you're gonna have a back court
Speaker 1: without stars, you better have like a bona fide half
Speaker 1: court surgeon in the front court and they just don't,
Speaker 1: and so they don't have any high, high end half
Speaker 1: court shot creators on this team, and they're just really
Speaker 1: going to struggle to score until they address that. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're another team where you're like, why don't you guys
Speaker 1: go after someone like James Harden to just try to
Speaker 1: bring some sort of higher level half court shot creation
Speaker 1: to the situation, especially when you have a defense that's
Speaker 1: that good. When you've got that defense and the ability
Speaker 1: to get out in transition, if you give them a
Speaker 1: reasonable ability to score in the half court, they could
Speaker 1: win a lot of games. All right, let's move on
Speaker 1: to our mailbag. Got four questions for you guys today.
Speaker 1: First one, how many games do you think is enough
Speaker 1: of a sample science to say a player has made
Speaker 1: real improvement in a given era, for example, shooting, playmaking, defense.
Speaker 1: I've seen only two games from Luca, but he looks
Speaker 1: like a totally different player on the defensive end compared
Speaker 1: to previous seasons. I want to make sure I temper
Speaker 1: my expectations adequately. So when it comes to skill things
Speaker 1: like the ability to handle pass shoot, I would say
Speaker 1: like at least twenty games, but really it could even
Speaker 1: extend to seasons, because guys can have a hot shooting
Speaker 1: season and then not shoot well after that, right, But
Speaker 1: around like we've seen twenty game samples where you know,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, for instance, in the bubble just makes a
Speaker 1: ton of jump shots and then he can't shoot anymore. Right, So,
Speaker 1: like it it's tough to say when it comes to
Speaker 1: skill stuff if it's not clearly apparent over several seasons
Speaker 1: that a guy has become reliable in some specific area.
Speaker 1: But right around twenty games is at least an opportunity
Speaker 1: to be encouraged. So, like there's a player that's not
Speaker 1: shooting well and then he has a twenty game stretch
Speaker 1: where he shoots forty two percent from three, that's at
Speaker 1: least a reason to be excited about him potentially progressing
Speaker 1: in that direction. On the defense and rebounding front, it's
Speaker 1: really like you can physically do it or you can't.
Speaker 1: And that's the thing with this Lucas stuff, Like Luca's
Speaker 1: always been capable of being an average team defender, Like
Speaker 1: he's always been capable of that, but like he was
Speaker 1: really bad defensively last season, like downright atrocious down the stretch.
Speaker 1: I had a lot of Mavericks fans again being like, like, oh,
Speaker 1: you ranked Luka Doncic's tenth. Yeah, but I told you
Speaker 1: in a vacuum, I think he's the fourth best player
Speaker 1: in the world. That tenth ranking was based on his
Speaker 1: performance from last season, which was not good. Like, that's
Speaker 1: just the reality. My player rankings are more of like
Speaker 1: an awards ceremony based on the actual basketball that took place.
Speaker 1: I know what Luke is capable of. Love Luca think
Speaker 1: he can be the best player in the world. Think
Speaker 1: he is the fourth best player in the world in
Speaker 1: a vacuum. But he has to play team defense, he
Speaker 1: has to take care of the basketball, he has to
Speaker 1: boxing out was a huge problem for him last year.
Speaker 1: Just wouldn't do it on a lot of possessions. So like, again,
Speaker 1: you either can do it or you can't. Luca always
Speaker 1: has been able to, It's just been a question of
Speaker 1: whether or not he will do it next one. Roughly,
Speaker 1: how many games does it take for you to gauge
Speaker 1: the process of rebuilding of a rebuilding team. I'm a
Speaker 1: Pistons fan and love and loving the changes Monty has
Speaker 1: made to our play style, and of course Caid coming
Speaker 1: back with a vengeance. We should have beat Miami if
Speaker 1: not for the daily five stupid turnovers per game. But
Speaker 1: Monty has emphasized physicality, rebounding and defense combined with more
Speaker 1: ball movement less standing around off ball. I've be coming
Speaker 1: off the bench. I don't like with Bogdanovic injured, we
Speaker 1: need to spark off the bench. Plus his defense is terrible.
Speaker 1: But I'm confidente when Bogie comes back and him learning
Speaker 1: to use his physical gifts on d he'll at least
Speaker 1: be able to be a neutral defender and join the starter.
Speaker 1: So I have noticed the Pistons have played well too.
Speaker 1: I've just had to cover some other teams first. I
Speaker 1: will hit a Pistons game at some point in the
Speaker 1: next week or so. Specifically, Cad Cummingham looks amazing and
Speaker 1: that's that like big playmaking guard right, Like he's technically
Speaker 1: a guard, but he kind of has the body of
Speaker 1: a forward, and that that gives you that ability to
Speaker 1: put defenders in jail easily, to score around the paint efficiently,
Speaker 1: to be the size to be able to see over
Speaker 1: the top of the defense and make the passes. And
Speaker 1: he's made enough pull up jump shots, which is obviously
Speaker 1: a monumentally important part of that side of the ball.
Speaker 1: Right the thing. Ivy is one of my favorite young
Speaker 1: players in the league. You guys know, ever since Summer
Speaker 1: League two years ago, I've been super high on him.
Speaker 1: It's just a weird roster for him in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways, obviously because he's coming off the bench now
Speaker 1: they're running two big lineups. You think of a situation
Speaker 1: where like Ivy with the starters wouldn't make a ton
Speaker 1: of sense anyway, because he's a slack sure, and you're
Speaker 1: putting him alongside two bigs Jalen Deurn, who obviously operates inside.
Speaker 1: You got Isaiah Stewart taking a lot of threes, but
Speaker 1: he's obviously not going to be a guy that teams
Speaker 1: guard out there, right Asar Thompson, who's flashing huge perimeter
Speaker 1: defense potential, which is super exciting, but like, he's not
Speaker 1: a non shooter in most in most cases right now
Speaker 1: not being guarded as a shooter, and so like, it
Speaker 1: actually makes a lot of sense to have Ivy come
Speaker 1: off the bench with this particular group. But as far
Speaker 1: as like the Pistons in the big picture, and we'll
Speaker 1: talk about them when I covered them later this week,
Speaker 1: but I would look at them like the same way
Speaker 1: we looked at the Magic last year. What you're looking
Speaker 1: for is like these five six game spurts where because
Speaker 1: young players struggle to replicate what makes them successful, So
Speaker 1: like you're not going to get them just overnight becoming
Speaker 1: a fifty win team, right, But what you're looking for
Speaker 1: is five six game stretches where they look like a
Speaker 1: really good team, right, And that was what we got
Speaker 1: from the Magic last year. They were out of the playoffs,
Speaker 1: they what do they win thirty five games or whatever
Speaker 1: it was, they had like this random stretch where it's like, whoa,
Speaker 1: they won six games in a row and they beat
Speaker 1: the Celtics twice, Like clearly they're capable of doing more,
Speaker 1: you know, like, oh, they won eight out of ten games,
Speaker 1: like this looks like a really good team in terms
Speaker 1: of potential. That's what you're looking for, And so just
Speaker 1: kind of look for little two week stretches where the
Speaker 1: Pistons beat a couple quality teams and go four and two.
Speaker 1: Those are the times to be excited about what the
Speaker 1: potential can be in the bigger picture. All right, next question, Jason,
Speaker 1: I'm a recent subscriber, so bear with me. But have
Speaker 1: you ever tried going pro? If so, what happened your
Speaker 1: knowledge of the game of basketballs maybe look at basketball
Speaker 1: completely differently. Thank you for the kind words. By the way,
Speaker 1: I've told the story of the show before, but I'll
Speaker 1: tell it again for people who haven't heard it. So, like,
Speaker 1: I just wasn't a very good basketball player when I
Speaker 1: was in college. I was good enough to get my
Speaker 1: school paid for, and I did little things well right,
Speaker 1: like I could score at the JUCO level at put
Speaker 1: up big numbers there as a score and I always
Speaker 1: was a very good rebounder. But then when I went
Speaker 1: to play it the AA level, which is more organized,
Speaker 1: it kind of exposed me for being a limited offensive
Speaker 1: player just with the ability to navigate really good defenses.
Speaker 1: And so I basically just guarded the other team's best
Speaker 1: player and took spot up threes. And so I was
Speaker 1: good athlete. I could defend and I could rebound. I
Speaker 1: was really all and I was a streaky shooter. That's
Speaker 1: what I was in high school. And so I wasn't
Speaker 1: good enough to play pro right out of high school.
Speaker 1: So I just went to work and then I was
Speaker 1: a late bloomer. I didn't start playing basketball until I
Speaker 1: was like halfway through high school. So I rapidly escalated
Speaker 1: post college. Like I literally couldn't dribble or shoot when
Speaker 1: I was in college, and then like suddenly, little by
Speaker 1: little became a good shooter, little by little became a
Speaker 1: good ball handler. Then I like learned how to play
Speaker 1: with the ball in my hands, and like now I
Speaker 1: play as like this big like playmaking forward who operates
Speaker 1: as like the guy with the ball in his hands,
Speaker 1: who's making every decision and can score and can pass
Speaker 1: and do those sorts of things. Like I just wasn't
Speaker 1: that player when I was in college and when I
Speaker 1: tried to play pro, so right around the time, because
Speaker 1: when I got out of college, I started working at Verizon,
Speaker 1: and then I one day was like, I would really
Speaker 1: like to try to play Pro one last time before
Speaker 1: I just hang them up for good, right, And this
Speaker 1: was when I was about like twenty four, and I
Speaker 1: was definitely better than I was in college, but I
Speaker 1: still wasn't very good, and I didn't have the statistical
Speaker 1: evidence to be able to go get a contract easily
Speaker 1: for real money. I could only do it for like
Speaker 1: small amounts of money. So like I'd get these offers
Speaker 1: to like go play in a lower level league in
Speaker 1: France for two hundred bucks a week. I had like
Speaker 1: two or three offers like that. I had one where
Speaker 1: like I had one where like a professional team in
Speaker 1: Brazil was like, well, we'll pay your room and board
Speaker 1: if you come down here and play. And like I
Speaker 1: was already making money in the States like a lot
Speaker 1: more than that, and so like I'm and I'm married,
Speaker 1: and I have two dogs and my wife and I
Speaker 1: had a house, and so it was like, what was
Speaker 1: I gonna do, like leave my house to go to
Speaker 1: Brazil to play for room and board, And like that's
Speaker 1: the thing is, like there are a lot of people
Speaker 1: who do that, and there's no shame in that, but
Speaker 1: it's easier when you're single and you're right out of college,
Speaker 1: because then what those guys do is they'll take that
Speaker 1: deal in France for two hundred bucks a week, and
Speaker 1: they'll and they and they're like, I don't have kids,
Speaker 1: I don't have a wife. I can just go over
Speaker 1: there and just lean into basketball. And then they have
Speaker 1: a good season and then they go to like a
Speaker 1: different team in the lower level league that pays him
Speaker 1: five hundred bucks a week, and then they have an
Speaker 1: even better season, and then they get on with one
Speaker 1: of the top leagues in France, and now they're playing
Speaker 1: as one of the two American players in the top
Speaker 1: league in France for twelve hundred dollars a week, right,
Speaker 1: and then the two or three more good seasons, suddenly
Speaker 1: you could sign one hundred and fifty thousand dollars contract
Speaker 1: in like the NBL, or in with some other league
Speaker 1: in Europe, right and so like that's the pathway that
Speaker 1: a lot of players take when they go overseas. You
Speaker 1: pretty much have guys that like come right out of
Speaker 1: d one who signed big deals right away. Right Like,
Speaker 1: guys like a guy who uh didn't get drafted and
Speaker 1: didn't make an NBA roster is going to go play
Speaker 1: in the top league in Germany and he's gonna make
Speaker 1: like one hundred and seven twenty five thousand a year,
Speaker 1: right like because he was All Conference in the Big
Speaker 1: twelve last year or something like that. Right. But I
Speaker 1: wasn't that type of talent coming out of college, and
Speaker 1: so I pretty much had to go through the working
Speaker 1: up through the ranks process, and by the time I
Speaker 1: actually got good enough to do that, I was already
Speaker 1: twenty four to twenty five, and I had too many
Speaker 1: roots set up at home, and so I had to
Speaker 1: look for things that were like super lucrative. And so
Speaker 1: I finally got my break, so to speak. There was
Speaker 1: a league called the Uba in India and they run
Speaker 1: a shorter season. It was only like a three month season.
Speaker 1: But they offered me a deal for one thousand dollars
Speaker 1: a week, and I was like, oh my gosh, like
Speaker 1: this would be perfect. Like I could tell my wife,
Speaker 1: I'm basically just going for a couple of months. I'll
Speaker 1: make some decent money while I'm over there. It'd be
Speaker 1: great experience for me. This league had like an excellent
Speaker 1: production company that ran their television network, so like they
Speaker 1: had great film to use and everything as well, and
Speaker 1: like I was super excited. They paid me for two
Speaker 1: weeks and then the league folded because of some like
Speaker 1: international incident involving the Indian government and some of the
Speaker 1: players that local from India or something like that. And
Speaker 1: so when that happened, I just kind of like I
Speaker 1: looked at my wife and I was like, it's just
Speaker 1: not meant to be, you know, And it's sad because,
Speaker 1: like I always played basketball with a chip on my
Speaker 1: shoulder post high school because I was so bad, like
Speaker 1: worst player on my high school team, legitimately couldn't didn't
Speaker 1: become a decent player until I was like twenty one,
Speaker 1: and even then I wasn't that good. And so like
Speaker 1: I've always been obsessed with like finding what the best
Speaker 1: version of myself as a basketball player looks like and
Speaker 1: trying to kind of like unpack that a little bit.
Speaker 1: But like, at the end of the day, like you
Speaker 1: got to weigh that against the practical nature of what
Speaker 1: it's like being a human being and having to pay
Speaker 1: bills and manage relationships and stuff, and so you know,
Speaker 1: there's always going to be a part of me that
Speaker 1: wishes that I could have had a better kind of
Speaker 1: pathway there. For instance, like I didn't play basketball at
Speaker 1: all until I was halfway through high school. Like what
Speaker 1: if I'd started when I was ten, what I have
Speaker 1: reached a lot of these milestones earlier and had a
Speaker 1: better chance. Like yeah, maybe, but like what do I
Speaker 1: always talk about on the show, Like hypothetical doesn't mean anything,
Speaker 1: And hypothetically there's a version of my basketball career that
Speaker 1: could have gone differently, But it didn't, and so I
Speaker 1: kind of just have to be at peace with that.
Speaker 1: And you know, for me, like I just kind of
Speaker 1: redirected that energy into being the best basketball player that
Speaker 1: I can be for myself, and so like I take
Speaker 1: great joy in the game now, and I still train
Speaker 1: like a pro because I'm a psychopath in that sense,
Speaker 1: and like, I like being good. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, like, like I put a ton of
Speaker 1: respect on the guys who actually did it, And the
Speaker 1: truth of the matter is like like to to navigate
Speaker 1: that a situation overseas the difficult practice schedule, the being
Speaker 1: away from home, the training, all of that stuff. I
Speaker 1: have so much respect for the guys who actually did it,
Speaker 1: and and I'm kind of at peace with the fact
Speaker 1: that this is the way my story went. And I'm
Speaker 1: just very thankful that I get to be around the
Speaker 1: game still. Like how lucky am I that despite all
Speaker 1: of that, I'm still around the game every single day
Speaker 1: because this is what I do for a living. And
Speaker 1: so I just like I'm at peace with it. It is
Speaker 1: what it is. But I guess the short version of
Speaker 1: that answer is I tried got paid for two weeks.
Speaker 1: League folded so no, I guess the short answer to
Speaker 1: make it easy. All right. Last mail bag question from
Speaker 1: Benjamin always hear you talking about how the Celtics are
Speaker 1: unquestionably the most talented team in the league, and to
Speaker 1: be honest, I don't see it even when you compare
Speaker 1: them to Phoenix JT or KB, JB or I'm guessing
Speaker 1: that's Jason Tatumer, Kevin Durant, Jalen Brown or Devin Booker
Speaker 1: or Drew Holliday or BB that's Bradley Beal. I'm guessing
Speaker 1: even Chris hops porzingis although he has great upside, there's
Speaker 1: a good chance he gets hurt. And Nurkic is just
Speaker 1: more mature thoughts. Also, I think you're sleeping on the
Speaker 1: Nuggets again and then possibly being a dynasty. Also early call,
Speaker 1: where do you think Wemby will end up when all
Speaker 1: things are said and done. So here's the thing. I
Speaker 1: do think Christops is way better than use of Turkic.
Speaker 1: And then we're also forgetting Derek White there Again, it's
Speaker 1: with the Celtics. What makes the most talented roster in
Speaker 1: the league is their top six is insane. They're all
Speaker 1: above average starters. Between Horford persingis Tatum Brown, Drew Holliday,
Speaker 1: and Derek White. Right. Then you go past that and
Speaker 1: it's like, like Peyton Pritchard is like a really good
Speaker 1: backup guard. Right. So, like they just have in terms
Speaker 1: of their top six, seven, eight guys, they are the
Speaker 1: most talented team in the league in my opinion. For
Speaker 1: Phoenix after their top three, it's a pretty big drop
Speaker 1: off in my opinion. I do think though, Devin Booker
Speaker 1: and Kevin Durant is probably the best duo in the
Speaker 1: league right now in all likelihood, either them or Damon Giannis,
Speaker 1: depending on if Dame can ever find a shot again.
Speaker 1: I sleep the quest. I can't talk second question about
Speaker 1: the Nuggets also, I think you're sleeping on the Nuggets again.
Speaker 1: Thoughts on them potentially being a dynasty. I talked about
Speaker 1: them earlier today, so hopefully that answers your question. I
Speaker 1: think the Nuggets are by far the best team in
Speaker 1: the league right now, and that even if everyone kind
Speaker 1: of reached their fully formed levels, I still think the
Speaker 1: Nuggets are still a tiny bit better than everybody. Whether
Speaker 1: or not they can be a dynasty. The hardest part
Speaker 1: with that is, like typically when there's a dynasty, there's
Speaker 1: a truly great team and then a big chasm and
Speaker 1: then everyone else. I just think there's too many other
Speaker 1: great teams for the Nuggets to like really rank off
Speaker 1: a bunch of like just rep out championships. But I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be surprised at all if they won three of
Speaker 1: the next six, Like I certainly think that's on the table,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of like a little mini dynasty, right.
Speaker 1: And then last question, also early call, but where do
Speaker 1: you think Wenby will end up when all things are
Speaker 1: said and done. If he's healthy, he could be the
Speaker 1: best player of all time. That's certainly his potential. It's
Speaker 1: just really gonna come down to health at that point.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, that is all I have for today.
Speaker 1: As always, I sincerely appreciate your support. Quick breakdown to
Speaker 1: the schedule for the rest of the week. We're gonna
Speaker 1: be going Tomorrow breaking down Monday night's games, Wednesday breaking
Speaker 1: down Tuesday night's games, Wednesday night breaking down Lakers Clippers,
Speaker 1: and then the early game I can't remember who plays
Speaker 1: in the early game the ESPN slate that night. Then Thursday,
Speaker 1: we're gonna hit a couple other games from Wednesday Friday,
Speaker 1: a couple games from Thursday, and then Friday night we're
Speaker 1: gonna go. So we're actually doing seven shows this week
Speaker 1: in total. All right, that's all I have for right now.
Speaker 1: I will see you guys tomorrow. The Volume