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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to hoops and I here at the volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Wednesday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are
Speaker 1: having a great start to your week. We got fun
Speaker 1: show today from Christmas evening the Dallas Mavericks on the
Speaker 1: strength of a fifty point game from Luka Doncic. Kind
Speaker 1: of you au miliated the Phoenix Suns in Phoenix, and
Speaker 1: so I want to talk a lot about both teams
Speaker 1: from that particular game. We're gonna be doing a deep
Speaker 1: dive there. And then because of Christmas Day in the
Speaker 1: jovonn video yesterday, we haven't had a chance to do
Speaker 1: our power rankings yet for this week, so we're gonna
Speaker 1: be doing an update on our power rankings. You guys
Speaker 1: have the drill before we get started. Subscribe to a
Speaker 1: brand new YouTube channel. It mean a lot to me
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Speaker 1: and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feeds.
Speaker 1: Wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight. Follow me
Speaker 1: on Twitter at Underscore Jason Lts. You guys, don't miss
Speaker 1: any show announcements or the film threads I do from
Speaker 1: time to time, and keep dropping mail bag questions. This weekend.
Speaker 1: I'm taking Friday through Monday off, but I want to
Speaker 1: have some content coming out over the weekend. So on Thursday,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be recording a long mail bag episode that
Speaker 1: will kind of release over the course of the New
Speaker 1: Year holiday. So drop a bunch of basketball related questions
Speaker 1: about whatever you guys want, and then let's get weird too.
Speaker 1: Any non basketball stuff. Drop it in the mail bag
Speaker 1: in this YouTube videos comments. We'll put together the out
Speaker 1: from this video and we will record that on Thursday,
Speaker 1: so that we have some content over the weekend before
Speaker 1: we head into the stretch before the trade deadline and
Speaker 1: then the stretch before the playoffs. Things are going to
Speaker 1: be heating up here over the course of the next
Speaker 1: couple of months, all right, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 1: this game. It was interesting because that last night I
Speaker 1: turned it on after a long day, you know, Christmas,
Speaker 1: after I finished recording those two episodes, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's funny. Obviously, so many people work on Christmas Day.
Speaker 1: It's not just me. So I'm not complaining to buy
Speaker 1: any stretch. But obviously it was a weird day for
Speaker 1: me because like, I'm like at one Christmas event, then
Speaker 1: I'm driving back to go record, and then I'm going
Speaker 1: over to my parents' house to see my family in
Speaker 1: town and we're trying to find time to celebrate, but
Speaker 1: that I like have to run back to record after
Speaker 1: Lakers Celtics, and then I finally go back to my
Speaker 1: parents and we finished celebrating, and then finally I get
Speaker 1: home last night and my wife's passed out in the
Speaker 1: bed and it's like ten thirty and I'm just like, oh, look,
Speaker 1: the Suns are playing, and I turn it on and
Speaker 1: it was pretty bad. Specifically, when I turned it on,
Speaker 1: it was one sixteen to one ten if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: and the wheels came out. I won sixteen to one twelve,
Speaker 1: I think. And Devin Booker has like a driving right
Speaker 1: handed layup and then the wheels just come off. They
Speaker 1: give up a bucket on almost every trip down the floor,
Speaker 1: having trouble blitzing and rotating off of Luca, and then
Speaker 1: just like a bunch of really careless turnovers on the
Speaker 1: other end. They looked somewhat disinterested, and so I was like, ah, man,
Speaker 1: like Luca putting up fifty suns, are in some trouble.
Speaker 1: This is the game that I need to do a
Speaker 1: deep dive on today. And so sat down today and
Speaker 1: I just watched the entire game, and the truth of
Speaker 1: the matter is is Luca just broke Phoenix's defense. And
Speaker 1: you know, for all the struggles Phoenix have had has had,
Speaker 1: it's primarily on the offensive end of the four. They've
Speaker 1: actually been one of the best rebounding teams in the
Speaker 1: league over this recent span. And they've been a slightly
Speaker 1: above average defense for most of the year, and that
Speaker 1: you know, in that middle of the pack range. I
Speaker 1: think before last night's game they were fourteenth. Even during
Speaker 1: the stretch that they were struggling, they've been a decent defense,
Speaker 1: not good, but they've been a decent defense, and they
Speaker 1: were in shambles in that second half against Dallas. And
Speaker 1: you know, one of the things I thought was super
Speaker 1: interesting that Luca was doing is he was taking advantage
Speaker 1: because they were loading up on him in the half court,
Speaker 1: blitzing pick and rolls. They had kd zoning up on ISOs. Remember,
Speaker 1: zoning up means ignoring his man entirely, but going on
Speaker 1: the opposite side of the painted area so that he
Speaker 1: doesn't get a defense of three seconds. So he's basically
Speaker 1: like it's like a soft double team, essentially allowing the
Speaker 1: primary on ball defender to press up on the jump shot,
Speaker 1: knowing that Kadie's waiting behind him in help. And so
Speaker 1: in the half court, Luca wasn't really getting opportunities to
Speaker 1: look to be aggressive, at least as a score, not
Speaker 1: as frequently, right, But he was having a lot of
Speaker 1: success in semi transition. Now we talk about this concept
Speaker 1: a lot, but semi transition is like whatever is not
Speaker 1: a runout layup, meaning like a one on zero, two
Speaker 1: on one, you know, pass past layer, you know the
Speaker 1: stuff you do in high school for drills when you're
Speaker 1: working on layups and transition, right, something that is not
Speaker 1: that but also not a half court possession. It's like
Speaker 1: between the two. It's like usually off of a miss,
Speaker 1: usually it starts as like a four on three with
Speaker 1: the other three guys kind of lingering back into the play.
Speaker 1: And usually what it is is it's a gap where
Speaker 1: you don't have an opportunity to like just necessarily drive
Speaker 1: unimpeded to the basket. But at the same time, the
Speaker 1: defense isn't in their configured half court set. Right. We
Speaker 1: just talked about all the things that Frank Vogel was
Speaker 1: doing to Luca in the half court, but if before
Speaker 1: they even get set up to do those things, he
Speaker 1: was finding some opportunities, mainly just to attack an iso.
Speaker 1: Like there was a play in the fourth quarter where
Speaker 1: he just was dribbling down the floor and his on
Speaker 1: ball defender is Grayson Allen, and he's kind of opened
Speaker 1: up with his left shoulder open and there's no help
Speaker 1: side defense because guys aren't matched up, and Luca just
Speaker 1: hits him with like a basic hesitation move, gets all
Speaker 1: the way to the basket and lays it in. That's
Speaker 1: step back three that he's been taking a lot. He
Speaker 1: was hunting that in that semi transition phase. These were
Speaker 1: not like, oh, get a switch, pull the big out
Speaker 1: take a step back three with five on the shot clock.
Speaker 1: He was taking quick fire step back three's in semi transition,
Speaker 1: and those have like a whole debilitating, discouraging element to them,
Speaker 1: because your defense just feels hopeless when he's when you're
Speaker 1: getting him to take one of the tougher shots that
Speaker 1: he takes the step back three early in the possession,
Speaker 1: and he just keeps making it. And then you know,
Speaker 1: one of the things I've talked about with Lucas is
Speaker 1: a lot of his pull up shooting is the same angle.
Speaker 1: Like his post up fadeaways always fades over his right
Speaker 1: shoulder right. If he's gonna take a turn around jumper,
Speaker 1: it's over his right shoulder step back, he's always going
Speaker 1: to step back going to his left. But then in
Speaker 1: that stretch he had a ball screen that they set
Speaker 1: in semi transition where the MAVs just weren't or the
Speaker 1: Sons just weren't even matched up. Chimezi Metu was guarding nobody,
Speaker 1: and so they were able to go up and set
Speaker 1: a quick screen on Luca and it was basically like
Speaker 1: a two on one offensive possession, and he actually went
Speaker 1: into like a like one of those pull up threes.
Speaker 1: You see the hyper athletic guards take where he like
Speaker 1: comes off the screen to his right, plants left right,
Speaker 1: elevates pretty high off the ground for a Luca jumpshot
Speaker 1: and he sticks that too, And it just got to
Speaker 1: the point where I think when I turned it on
Speaker 1: and or one sixteen one twelve, the damage was already done.
Speaker 1: Like the Sons didn't really have any belief in their
Speaker 1: ability to win the game at that point, and so
Speaker 1: it was interesting to go back and look and be like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's why. It's because you couldn't do anything with the guy.
Speaker 1: Like as soon as they the Sons went on their
Speaker 1: little run in the late third quarter, which was primarily
Speaker 1: fueled by Grayson Allen who just got super hot shooting
Speaker 1: the basketball and Katie was making some good passing reads
Speaker 1: as well. They get hot, they take a brief like
Speaker 1: five point lead, and every single time Phoenix got the
Speaker 1: lead to five, Luca would just go down and hit
Speaker 1: another step back three and it's two again. Oh, they
Speaker 1: got it back up to four, Luca hits another shot,
Speaker 1: it's one again. It was just this onslought that just
Speaker 1: sapped the Sons of any sort of belief, which I
Speaker 1: think directly led to their discouraged effort there down the stretch.
Speaker 1: It was just a really, really impressive psychological domination by
Speaker 1: Luka Doncicz. And again the theme of the game was
Speaker 1: the Suns had to blitz Hi pick and roll, and
Speaker 1: when they blitzed him pick and roll, they were just
Speaker 1: getting a lot of really key contributions. Derek Jones Junior
Speaker 1: was doing a great job in that short role position
Speaker 1: of attacking the rim athletically and finishing over Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: at the rim. Derek Lively had some possessions in the role.
Speaker 1: He also had some possessions where he wasn't the roller.
Speaker 1: He was in the dunker spot and as guys got
Speaker 1: up and missed shots, he was cleaning things up on
Speaker 1: the offensive glass. Derek Jones hit a couple of big
Speaker 1: corner threes. Grant Williams had a turnaround jumper in the lane.
Speaker 1: Tim Hardaway Junior had one of those semi transition driving
Speaker 1: layups that he got. I can't remember who's guarding him
Speaker 1: on that particular play, but gets an easy bucket there.
Speaker 1: They were getting lots of contributions down the line, and
Speaker 1: that there is the key because this to me feels
Speaker 1: like a real MVP type of campaign from Luka Doncics. Now,
Speaker 1: whether or not he wins it is dependent on so
Speaker 1: many other things, mainly because the league is so damn
Speaker 1: stacked with talent that it's just really difficult to separate
Speaker 1: yourself these days. But Luca looks like an MVP, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about all these specific basketball things, but
Speaker 1: most importantly, the biggest element of the case, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: is he has instilled his teammates with a sense of
Speaker 1: belief and confidence that what they're doing will lead to
Speaker 1: victories in basketball games. And this is a team, by
Speaker 1: the way, that was limited in talent when they were
Speaker 1: fully healthy. But Kyrie's missed significant time, Josh Green's missed
Speaker 1: significant time, Maxic Cliba dislocated his toe has been out forever.
Speaker 1: That's three of their most important rotation players and their
Speaker 1: secondary creator arguably easily their second most important player, and
Speaker 1: he's kept them afloat they're eighteen and twelve, They're right
Speaker 1: in the mix of things, and a huge part of
Speaker 1: it is just every single guy on that team has
Speaker 1: a belief that what they're doing is going to work,
Speaker 1: and as a result, they're incredibly bought in, They're incredibly focused.
Speaker 1: It's interesting to see the juxtaposition of the kinds of
Speaker 1: extra efforts that you're seeing guys on the Mavericks make,
Speaker 1: and then you're seeing Devin Booker yelling at his teammates
Speaker 1: for not getting back after turning the basketball over, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, Devin's correct to be upset about. But
Speaker 1: the point is is you're seeing similar types of supporting casts.
Speaker 1: These are all castaways. The Sun's got all these veteran
Speaker 1: minimum guys and the Mavericks got all these veteran minimum guys. Really,
Speaker 1: Grant Williams is the one guy we can point to
Speaker 1: is like, Okay, they got him to a sign and
Speaker 1: trade and got him at a decent salary number. But
Speaker 1: the difference is they're the guys on the MAVs they're
Speaker 1: locked into their roles, and the guys on the Suns
Speaker 1: it just it's just not coming together the same way.
Speaker 1: And that, to me is the is the strongest part
Speaker 1: of Luca's MVP case that set. By the way, before
Speaker 1: we get to the Lucas stuff, they're thirteenth in defense
Speaker 1: over the last fifteen games, and like Luca has been
Speaker 1: making solid defensive rotations. He's closing out with an intensity
Speaker 1: that you're not accustomed to seeing from Luca. He's been
Speaker 1: found found himself in a lot of low man situations
Speaker 1: and weak side situations where he's like guarding two guys
Speaker 1: and having to kind of like split the difference and
Speaker 1: try to bait a guy into making a pass and
Speaker 1: then closing out. And he's doing a really nice job
Speaker 1: of it. And it's from the top down, it's trickling down.
Speaker 1: It's outstanding leadership in my opinion, very very different from
Speaker 1: the Luca that we saw that was so disengaged towards
Speaker 1: the tail end of last year. And I think it's
Speaker 1: a direct you know, it's a direct driving force between
Speaker 1: a lot of the success for a lot of the
Speaker 1: success they've had this season on the Luka Doncis front.
Speaker 1: Everything starts with pull up shooting. He has made forty
Speaker 1: four more pull up jumper or taken excuse me, he's
Speaker 1: taken forty four more pull up jumpers than anyone else
Speaker 1: in the league. He's the only player in the NBA
Speaker 1: he's taken over three hundred pull up jump shots and
Speaker 1: he's getting one point zero nine points per shot on them.
Speaker 1: A couple of things. He's taking these pull up jump
Speaker 1: shots as threes instead of twos, which is driving up
Speaker 1: the efficiency, right, and that step back three one of
Speaker 1: the things I like. He's quickened his release a little
Speaker 1: bit too. He's making it more of like an athletic
Speaker 1: move is as opposed to kind of like a user
Speaker 1: size and lean back move. His release looks a little
Speaker 1: bit quicker, but he's just dialed in and he's locked
Speaker 1: in with that pull up jump shot. And again we
Speaker 1: talk about making the shot at a at a at
Speaker 1: a phase that's untenable. If you're taking a lot of
Speaker 1: long twos, for for instance, like Kevin Durant does, and
Speaker 1: even if you're shooting a higher percentage in LUCA, they're
Speaker 1: worth fewer points. It can be something where the defense
Speaker 1: is like, ah, we can live with that shot, right,
Speaker 1: But when it's one point zero nine points per shot,
Speaker 1: it can get to the point, especially on a night
Speaker 1: like last night, where he's so locked in, it can
Speaker 1: get to a point where it's like it's untenable. We
Speaker 1: have to zone up on this guy and iso blitz
Speaker 1: him in pick and rolls, just find a way to
Speaker 1: get the ball out of his hands. That's the primary
Speaker 1: driving force with him from the perimeter, and then he
Speaker 1: handles pressure extremely well. So the smaller, at like quick
Speaker 1: defenders that are handsy, they don't bother him. A lot
Speaker 1: of that is just he's really good at protecting the
Speaker 1: basketball and he's big as hell, and then he can
Speaker 1: beat anyone off the dribble right now. We talked about
Speaker 1: this when they beat the Lakers a while back. But like,
Speaker 1: like it doesn't matter if he's starting from a triple
Speaker 1: threat from the elbow or off the dribble from thirty feet,
Speaker 1: if he uses a ball screen isolation, it just doesn't
Speaker 1: matter because of his size in his command of the basketball,
Speaker 1: he's gonna get an angle and he's gonna shoot that gap,
Speaker 1: and he's gonna get dribble penetration, and then from there
Speaker 1: he's got every shot in the book. I was pulling
Speaker 1: up the Synergy sheet today and Synergy has this page
Speaker 1: called shot types, and when you pull it up is
Speaker 1: where I get a lot of there's different there's play
Speaker 1: types and there's shot types. Those are the two primary
Speaker 1: screens that I use on Synergy. And you know, play
Speaker 1: types are gonna sort it through to like spot up possessions,
Speaker 1: pick and roll, ball handler, transition, cutting, offensive rebound, putbacks,
Speaker 1: ISO post up, all these different play types, right, and
Speaker 1: then even then you can sort him out to different
Speaker 1: sides of the floor, different driving angles, that all these
Speaker 1: different things. Synergy is a great tool. But on the
Speaker 1: shot types element, like there's they have jump shot, and
Speaker 1: then it's split down and then it's like there's catch
Speaker 1: and shoots, and there's unguarded catch and shoots, there's guarded
Speaker 1: catch and shoots. There's off the dribble jump shots, there's
Speaker 1: what they call early jumpers, which is basically like when
Speaker 1: you isolate and you shoot it quick in the possession.
Speaker 1: There's floaters, there's hook shots, there's layups, there's dunks. That's
Speaker 1: sorted all out there. And what was crazy is every
Speaker 1: single shot a type shot type on that list, including contested, uncontested,
Speaker 1: catch and shoot, off the dribble, floater, hook everything, He's
Speaker 1: up over a point per possession, every single shot type.
Speaker 1: Luca's shooting fifty nine percent on floaters this year, seventy
Speaker 1: eight percent at the rim. And so it's just an
Speaker 1: incredibly efficient set of shot making that makes it untapnible
Speaker 1: to leave him in any sort of basic traditional coverage
Speaker 1: or single coverage. As a result, career high in points
Speaker 1: per game, career high in true shooting percentage. This is
Speaker 1: just the best we've ever seen from Luca, And like
Speaker 1: I said, when you combine that with the leadership and
Speaker 1: the way it's held this team together through some pretty
Speaker 1: tough circumstances. I mean, we'll see. We got to do
Speaker 1: our MVP rankings later on this week or next week,
Speaker 1: and he's going to be higher than where he was,
Speaker 1: and we'll see again. A lot of things have to
Speaker 1: break right for him with in terms of competition, like
Speaker 1: other people that are up for the award, But this
Speaker 1: looks like an MVP type of season from Luka Dancics
Speaker 1: to this point. For Phoenix, there are some personnel limitations there,
Speaker 1: but I do see a lot of improvement, a lot
Speaker 1: of room for improvement, I should say, all over the floor.
Speaker 1: The defense can be better. One of the big issues
Speaker 1: in this particular game is Kevin Durant, who's been a
Speaker 1: very good low man throughout his career, especially after he
Speaker 1: went to Golden State. He had a really bad game.
Speaker 1: He was particularly the two things that stood out to me.
Speaker 1: He was slow in that low man rotation, so he's
Speaker 1: getting there too late in a lot of cases, and
Speaker 1: then when he got there, he wasn't using his verticality
Speaker 1: to make guys make shots over the top. A lot
Speaker 1: of the times He's like trying to get him down
Speaker 1: low or he'd have his hands down and guys were
Speaker 1: just going over the top and finishing. And it's like
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant when vertical is a pretty damn big obstacle
Speaker 1: to try to go through. And so by virtue of
Speaker 1: Katie just being a little more focused, getting there a
Speaker 1: little bit earlier and then using his verticality to make
Speaker 1: guys make tough shots over the top of him, I
Speaker 1: think that could help a lot in their help side defense.
Speaker 1: Grayson Allen and Devin Booker in particular, were really sloppy
Speaker 1: in their off ball rotations, which is like absolutely crucial
Speaker 1: to running a successful blitz in pick and roll because
Speaker 1: you end up with these four on threes in the backside,
Speaker 1: and like Kevin Durant can protect the rim for you,
Speaker 1: but in order to take away the three point shots elsewhere,
Speaker 1: you need to get more solid rotations out of those guys.
Speaker 1: So I think the defense can be a lot better
Speaker 1: on offense, Devin Booker's just not playing very well. He
Speaker 1: doesn't look comfortable getting to his spots, which leads me
Speaker 1: to think he doesn't have his legs underneath them all
Speaker 1: the way. He's not shooting well. He's forty three percent
Speaker 1: from the field in twenty one percent from three in
Speaker 1: his last five games. Kevin Durant all season has been
Speaker 1: kind of inefficient in ISO, which is tough because that's
Speaker 1: one of their most frequent play types. Kevin Durant's getting
Speaker 1: only zero point eighty to eight points per possession in
Speaker 1: ISO this year, which is down from what we expect
Speaker 1: from Kevin Durant. Right and then as a team, the
Speaker 1: Sons are not converting spot up possessions. They're getting just
Speaker 1: one point zero three points per possession in spot up situations,
Speaker 1: which ranks twentieth in the NBA. Brad Beal returning should
Speaker 1: help in a ton of these areas because a big
Speaker 1: part of what makes a big part of what makes
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant a little bit less quick in his rotations
Speaker 1: on the backside as a low man is he still
Speaker 1: is being leaned on for the majority of the offensive creation.
Speaker 1: I know there's been a lot of talk about Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant being more featured in the offense. And there's no
Speaker 1: doubt that Devin Booker seems like he has the ball
Speaker 1: a lot, But Kevin Durant is still very very much
Speaker 1: involved last night notwithstanding, and he's actually leading the Suns
Speaker 1: in usage percentage over the course of this recent stretch
Speaker 1: when they've been struggling. So like that to me, when
Speaker 1: Bradley Beale can come back and actually remain on the floor,
Speaker 1: it just makes so many things easier because one, you're
Speaker 1: adding a ton of aggregate ball handling and shooting to
Speaker 1: the lineup, which is going to help you in every
Speaker 1: single play type. It's gonna make Katie's ISOs easier, it's
Speaker 1: gonna make get Devin Booker's pick and rolls easier. It's
Speaker 1: gonna make the team spot up efficiency skyrocket. It's going
Speaker 1: to allow for more resources to be devoted to the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor for guys like Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: and Devin Booker who haven't been as good as they need.
Speaker 1: And so here's the thing, like I've seen a lot
Speaker 1: of people talking about, like, oh, you know, because Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant had there there was that report that out came
Speaker 1: out that the Suns are monitoring Kevin Durant's mood. And
Speaker 1: here's the thing. I don't think Kevin Durant's going to
Speaker 1: be on a different team before the end of this year,
Speaker 1: not unless it turns into an absolute catastrophe. And I
Speaker 1: think Kevin Durant knows that he kind of has to
Speaker 1: make it work with what he's got in this situation,
Speaker 1: and I expect him to. They have the tools. The
Speaker 1: problem is, and this is important context, Like it's easy
Speaker 1: right now to be like, go, they're two week off
Speaker 1: of KDE and Devin Booker because they leaned too much
Speaker 1: into these stars. But it's like that was never the
Speaker 1: design of the team. The design of the team was
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal. Right, that was
Speaker 1: the way this was supposed to work. And so again,
Speaker 1: like I think it's a little unfair to be like, oh,
Speaker 1: this whole thing is a failure when it was never
Speaker 1: intended to work like this. It was intended to work
Speaker 1: with Bradley Beal in the picture. Now, once Bradley Beal's
Speaker 1: in the picture, are they suddenly going to become a
Speaker 1: great team. We'll see we've barely seen it, so I
Speaker 1: have my skepticism, but I'm not gonna jump to that
Speaker 1: conclusion until I see them play. And you know, it
Speaker 1: doesn't like as long as they can continue to linger
Speaker 1: around that play in and kind of and just remain
Speaker 1: within striking distance of the playoffs, if Bradley Beal can
Speaker 1: come back in a few weeks and they can go
Speaker 1: on a run, everything's gonna be fine. So at least
Speaker 1: within the context of what this team was capable of
Speaker 1: throughout the regular season. So I think it's a little
Speaker 1: too early to come completely consider this a failure. That said,
Speaker 1: there is a harsh reality here. Yes, the Suns have
Speaker 1: a lot of room for improvement within the locker room,
Speaker 1: but there is not anything really else that they can
Speaker 1: do with the roster. They might be able to make
Speaker 1: an ancillary trade for somebody like a PJ. Tucker, or
Speaker 1: maybe they can go get an athlete from somewhere else
Speaker 1: in the league. It turn one of their bench skill
Speaker 1: guys into an athlete. They might be able to get
Speaker 1: a buy out guy here or a buyout guy there,
Speaker 1: but there's no high level reinforcements coming here. That's the
Speaker 1: harsh reality. So it's up to the guys in that
Speaker 1: locker room, specifically Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley bial
Speaker 1: to be like, what do we gotta do to make
Speaker 1: this work? Man? Because like you can get mad at
Speaker 1: Schimezi Metu, you can get mad at you know, Joshua
Speaker 1: Kogi for doing something. You can get mad at Jordan
Speaker 1: Goodwin for doing something. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: those are your teammates for this season for the most part.
Speaker 1: Like you might be able to make slight tweaks, but
Speaker 1: even the guys you bring in are gonna be castaways
Speaker 1: from elsewhere, which means they're going to come with flaws.
Speaker 1: And so it's on the stars in that locker room
Speaker 1: to try to figure out a way to make it work.
Speaker 1: All right. Moving on to our power rankings, So may
Speaker 1: one team drop out this week? The Orlando Magic. Both
Speaker 1: Pala Moncaro and Franz Wagner have cooled off considerably, which
Speaker 1: has caused their offense to crater and as a result,
Speaker 1: they've lost six of their last nine games. So the
Speaker 1: Magic are out of the rankings for this week. But
Speaker 1: at number ten, we have a new team, a team
Speaker 1: that hasn't made the list yet this year. They may
Speaker 1: have made it once earlier in the year, but the
Speaker 1: Miami Heat. They're six and two in their last eight
Speaker 1: games and their offense is cooking. There'scoring one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty points per one hundred possessions. Tyler Harrow's been on
Speaker 1: fire since returning from his injury twenty six points, six rebounds,
Speaker 1: and four assists per game, forty eight points or excuse me,
Speaker 1: forty eight percent from the field, forty six percent from
Speaker 1: three to eighty five percent from the line. So really
Speaker 1: really high level efficient scoring from Tyler Harrow. Bam Adebayo
Speaker 1: is back and has looked great. Two other guys I
Speaker 1: want to shout out Duncan Robinson. I every time I
Speaker 1: watch the Heat, I'm blown away by how him fixing
Speaker 1: a simple flaw has made his greatest strength even better.
Speaker 1: Always was outstanding shooter and a guy that could shoot
Speaker 1: on the move, but the ability to chase him off
Speaker 1: the line and some of his limitations defensively causes impact.
Speaker 1: A creator struggled in the rotation for a while, learned
Speaker 1: how to dribble and make plays. And by the way,
Speaker 1: before we go any further, that's not like a oh
Speaker 1: I went to I called up piquim olaju Wan and
Speaker 1: learned how to be a post player in one weekend. No,
Speaker 1: that's not what this kind of stuff is. When it
Speaker 1: comes to ball handling and shooting footwork as well, for
Speaker 1: whatever that's worth, which is what makes the Hakeem Camp
Speaker 1: always so funny, But that kind of stuff does not
Speaker 1: get developed in a month, doesn't get developed in two months.
Speaker 1: Like you can go do ball handling drills every single day,
Speaker 1: one hundred straight days, and you're only going to see
Speaker 1: a marginal improvement. Same goes for every sort of shooting drill,
Speaker 1: same goes for footwork stuff. Like I know because I've
Speaker 1: done this myself, Like you know what I mean. Like
Speaker 1: it just it's it's very incremental progress. And like so
Speaker 1: when I see stuff like Duncan Robinson going from a
Speaker 1: guy who couldn't dribble to two years later being a
Speaker 1: guy who does a pretty decent job of it, it's
Speaker 1: just a testament to the relentless amount of work that
Speaker 1: Duncan Robinson has put in to turn himself into a
Speaker 1: viable off the dribble threat. When you combine that with
Speaker 1: people having to panic chase him on the perimeter to
Speaker 1: chase him behind dribble handoffs and screens and to basically
Speaker 1: put them in a trail position constantly. Now you've got
Speaker 1: Duncan Robinson going downhill and making decisions, which is putting
Speaker 1: the defense in rotation and getting Miami good shots. And
Speaker 1: then he's also just made a lot of leaps as
Speaker 1: an off ball defender. He's got good size and length,
Speaker 1: and so just by being a player with good instincts
Speaker 1: that can read plays out on the weak side, which
Speaker 1: a lot of times those plays on the weakside, like
Speaker 1: we talked about earlier with Kevin rant with it's a
Speaker 1: lot or Luka Doncrich just to say, a lot of
Speaker 1: it has to do with like splitting the difference and
Speaker 1: like making it feel like you're guarding both guys when
Speaker 1: you're not closing out to passing lanes, like stunting and recovering.
Speaker 1: All of these things are important elements of help side
Speaker 1: defense that Duncan's gotten considerably better at. And then Hi
Speaker 1: may Hawk has junior. He's just he's bigger and stronger
Speaker 1: than a lot of NBA perimeter defenders and he's weaponizing
Speaker 1: that to get quality shots despite not being the type
Speaker 1: of prospect that we're accustomed to seeing in the lottery,
Speaker 1: and it's he can bully his way to the rim
Speaker 1: in transition when he's slashing. He's been an excellent post
Speaker 1: up player this year and so getting essentially when you
Speaker 1: put it all together, their core guys have been playing
Speaker 1: well and they're getting key contributions from role players and
Speaker 1: as a result, they're winning game six and two in
Speaker 1: their last eight Miami Heat. At number ten, number nine,
Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks utterly decimated by injuries, but a bona
Speaker 1: fide MVP season from Luca Doncis just kept them afloat
Speaker 1: in the standings. Help is on the way. We talked
Speaker 1: a lot about the MAVs earlier today, so if you're
Speaker 1: just watching this Power Rankings video, hit the first clip
Speaker 1: that we released from this particular episode. We did a
Speaker 1: deep dive in the MAVs in on Luca's MVP case
Speaker 1: number eight, the Oklahoma City Thunder. They beat the Grizzlies
Speaker 1: without jaw and the Clippers without Kawhi. Then they got
Speaker 1: manhandled by the Lakers, and that continues to be the
Speaker 1: biggest weakness. They're small, and that's a death sentence in
Speaker 1: the Western Conference. In my opinion, I don't think they're
Speaker 1: capable of beating the Nuggets, the Wolves, or the Lakers
Speaker 1: four times out of seven as currently constructed, and so
Speaker 1: I'd like to see them get aggressive at the deadline
Speaker 1: to try to get someone like a Pascal Siakim or
Speaker 1: Jeremy Grant. Lori Markin is a guy that I think
Speaker 1: actually fits them best because of how good their perimeter
Speaker 1: defenders are, a guy that could really help them and
Speaker 1: help side defense and rebounding and as an outstaining play
Speaker 1: finisher that I'll just push their offense up another level.
Speaker 1: I'd like to see them get aggressive because this is
Speaker 1: a really good team with a fatal flaw, and you
Speaker 1: want to give yourself as many opportunities to try to
Speaker 1: push over the top as you can. Number seven Sacramento Kinks.
Speaker 1: They beat the Washington Wizards and Phoenix Suns this week,
Speaker 1: but then they got crushed at home by the Celtics
Speaker 1: and the Wolves. And this is a theme that we've
Speaker 1: been talking about all year. What have I been saying
Speaker 1: about the Kings specifically against teams that have outstaining perimeter
Speaker 1: defenders that can contain the easy dribble penetration that Daron
Speaker 1: Fox and Malakmunk bring to the table. It causes their
Speaker 1: offense to stagnate and then they're not good enough to
Speaker 1: defensively to make up for it. Once again, Boston and
Speaker 1: Minnesota are two of the very best perimeter defense teams
Speaker 1: in the league. They're not really in a trouble in
Speaker 1: a troublesome position in terms of Sacramento's foot speed. It's
Speaker 1: an interesting example, and that's another team. That's another team
Speaker 1: that I think should be looking to upgrade the four
Speaker 1: for that reason. They need to find another way to
Speaker 1: break defenses down when their dribble penetration gets contained. Number
Speaker 1: six the Los Angeles Clippers. Their winning streak ended with
Speaker 1: back to back losses to the Thunder and Celtics, but
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard has been out for both of those and
Speaker 1: his MVP play has been a huge driving force for
Speaker 1: this team. So I wouldn't read too much into it
Speaker 1: other than it's just a bummer that we didn't get
Speaker 1: to see the Clippers like It would have been great
Speaker 1: to see them play okay see in Boston at full
Speaker 1: strength with how well the Clippers were playing, because it
Speaker 1: would have helped us learn more about them, but that's
Speaker 1: just kind of the nature of the NBA regular season
Speaker 1: at this point. Number five the Philadelphia seventy six Ers,
Speaker 1: same thing. Embiad's ankle injury kind of stopped us from
Speaker 1: getting to see another measuring stick game against the Heat
Speaker 1: on Christmas. But I thought the Minnesota win was super impressive,
Speaker 1: that that was the best defense in the league still
Speaker 1: is the best defense in the league, and they had
Speaker 1: no answer for Joel Embiid, And like, we can talk
Speaker 1: about officiating all we want, but as I've said, that
Speaker 1: has nothing to do with Joel. That is that's a
Speaker 1: take I have about the league. I've had Sixers fans
Speaker 1: ripping me new ones and mentions and YouTube comments for
Speaker 1: like a week and a half now, and it's funny
Speaker 1: because it's literally an opinion that has nothing to do
Speaker 1: with Joel or the Sixers. It's one hundred percent focused
Speaker 1: on the NBA and the officiating. I don't think Joel
Speaker 1: Embiid is the only foul grifter in the league. I've
Speaker 1: been calling it out league wide for everybody, so Sixers fans,
Speaker 1: it's not an anti Sixers take. He's my front runner
Speaker 1: for MVP right now. The sixers are fifth in my
Speaker 1: power rankings. Just you know, what he did to Minnesota
Speaker 1: obliterating the best defense in the league was super impressive.
Speaker 1: Is probably the single most impressive game I've seen from
Speaker 1: a superstar player this season. Number four the Denver Nuggets.
Speaker 1: How about a five and oer week. They're up to
Speaker 1: seventh in defensive rating for the season. Now I happen
Speaker 1: to catch three of those five wins, and late game
Speaker 1: execution just continues to be their biggest advantage over other
Speaker 1: teams When they get into a close game late, I
Speaker 1: just feel like they're going to win the vast majority
Speaker 1: of the time because of their ability to consistently generate
Speaker 1: quality shots. Number three the Milwaukee Bucks. Lots of things
Speaker 1: are falling into place for them. Their overall defensive effort
Speaker 1: is improving in terms of just execution within what their
Speaker 1: personnel is capable of. The Dame Giannis pick and roll
Speaker 1: is getting used more often and more effectively. They're running
Speaker 1: it on an empty side more frequently, Dames making higher
Speaker 1: level reads out of it. Chris Middleton, after going for
Speaker 1: twenty plus points zero times in his first seventeen games
Speaker 1: this year, he's done so four times in the last
Speaker 1: eight games, so that's super encouraging. But in a weekend
Speaker 1: split against the New York Knicks, they got absolutely cut
Speaker 1: to pieces by Jalen Brunson, who averaged thirty seven points
Speaker 1: per game against them and had three total turnovers in
Speaker 1: two games. That continues to be their biggest flaw. They
Speaker 1: are not capable of making opposing ball handlers uncomfortable. We
Speaker 1: saw this in the Pacers game as well, and in
Speaker 1: my opinion, especially with a team like Boston waiting for
Speaker 1: them at the top of the Eastern Conference, I don't
Speaker 1: think they're capable of beating Boston. I shouldn't say capable.
Speaker 1: They're just a significant underdog in my opinion against Boston
Speaker 1: unless they can upgrade at the two at this point,
Speaker 1: which we'll see what they can do at the deadline.
Speaker 1: Number two the Minnesota Timberwolves. They beat the Miami Heat,
Speaker 1: the Lakers, and the Sacramento Kings. Then they lost to
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia seventy six Ers in the EMBIID game that
Speaker 1: we talked about. I want to shout out Rudy Gobert
Speaker 1: here for a second. I think he's having the best
Speaker 1: defensive season that he's had since twenty nineteen. He's been
Speaker 1: incredibly active on a night a night in, night out
Speaker 1: basis and has anchored that defense that has created a
Speaker 1: lot of more achievable roles for the other players on
Speaker 1: that team. He also has thirty six offensive rebound putbacks
Speaker 1: this year, which is tied for Nicole Jokic with the
Speaker 1: third most in the NBA. Combined that with his active
Speaker 1: screening and him rolling hard to the rim and his
Speaker 1: vertical spacing, he's been a really, really impactful player and
Speaker 1: has been one of the primary driving forces between Minnesota
Speaker 1: or behind Minnesota in their break out season this year.
Speaker 1: Number one the Boston Celtics obviously a disappointing loss on
Speaker 1: Tuesday Night against the Golden State Warriors, but then they
Speaker 1: kicked the shit out of the Kings on the road,
Speaker 1: kicked the shit out of the Clippers on the road,
Speaker 1: then go into the Los Angeles against the Lakers, team
Speaker 1: that really wanted to win that game, and one comfortably.
Speaker 1: They are clearly the best team in basketball right now,
Speaker 1: at least within the context of the regular season. Chris
Speaker 1: tops Porzingis fundamentally changes the geometry of that team and
Speaker 1: I think could end up buying them the margin for
Speaker 1: error to overcome some of their late game offensive execution issues.
Speaker 1: Right now I have them at number one in the
Speaker 1: Power rankings. All right, guys, that's all I have for today.
Speaker 1: Remember to drop mail back questions for the episodes this weekend.
Speaker 1: We have the Nerd Sash guys coming on on Thursday
Speaker 1: to talk some league wide stuff. I will see you guys.
Speaker 1: Then the volume