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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to tonight here at the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody.
Speaker 1: Hope all you guys had an incredible weekend. We are
Speaker 1: live on AMPS, so if you're watching on youtubeer listening
Speaker 1: on our podcast feeds, don't forget that AMP is the
Speaker 1: very first place that you guys can get these shows.
Speaker 1: We are continuing our Power rankings today with Number eleven
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Mavericks. A full season preview on them
Speaker 1: coming up. And then I've got two male bag questions
Speaker 1: as well. You guys are the Joe Portaget started and
Speaker 1: subscribe to our YouTube channel, follow me on Twitter at
Speaker 1: Underscore Jason lt. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight, and I need
Speaker 1: mail bag questions, so continue to drop those in the
Speaker 1: YouTube comments so we can hit them at the end
Speaker 1: of the shows. All right, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 1: this was one of the ten worst teams in the
Speaker 1: league last year, and I have them all the way
Speaker 1: up at eleven. And there are three reasons for that number. One,
Speaker 1: I think lucas amazing. I know Mavericks fans are all
Speaker 1: mad at me for putting him down at ten, but
Speaker 1: I try to be clear with the way my player
Speaker 1: rankings work. My player rankings are not vacuum player rankings. Obviously,
Speaker 1: if there are vacuum player rankings where we forget about
Speaker 1: what happened with the specific teams and their result last
Speaker 1: year and we purely look at who a basketball player
Speaker 1: is and what he's capable of, Luca's gonna be a
Speaker 1: lot higher for me. But last year obviously was not
Speaker 1: a pretty year for the Mavericks, specifically down the stretch
Speaker 1: of the season. Wasn't Luca's best basketball of his career,
Speaker 1: and so obviously the guys that were ahead of him
Speaker 1: were guys at all made deep playoff runts. My player
Speaker 1: rankings are more of like a recognition, Like think of
Speaker 1: him as like almost like an award ceremony from that season, right, So,
Speaker 1: like that's the way my player rankings worth of work.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a shot at Luca. It's just the way
Speaker 1: my system works. If I was ranking players in a vacuum,
Speaker 1: Luca would be either three or four, depending on how
Speaker 1: I feel about Yanis on any given day. And lately
Speaker 1: I've been pretty down on Yannis because I think he's
Speaker 1: declining a little bit in some pivotal areas. So obviously
Speaker 1: I think very highly of Luca. He's not perfect. There
Speaker 1: are some things that he does that drive me a
Speaker 1: little crazy. I wish he'd let up on the refs
Speaker 1: a little bit. The way he's been going after the rest,
Speaker 1: especially in FIBA this summer, is not a good look
Speaker 1: in my opinion, and I think it's a distraction for him.
Speaker 1: So there are some things that I think he needs
Speaker 1: to improve his overall effort and focus on the defensive end.
Speaker 1: I think obviously he needs to improve his conditioning and
Speaker 1: things like that, but like those are just little things. Obviously,
Speaker 1: as a basketball player, Luca is one of my favorites,
Speaker 1: and he represents an archetype of player that is my
Speaker 1: personal favorite archetype, the archetype that I think is the
Speaker 1: most impactful, which is the big, rim pressuring, playmaking forward.
Speaker 1: I've always been drawn to that type of player. It's
Speaker 1: why Lebron is my favorite type of player. It's a
Speaker 1: big reason why I believe in Lucas so much in
Speaker 1: the big picture. But to be clear, there are three
Speaker 1: reasons why I have the Mavericks so high despite them
Speaker 1: missing the playoffs last year. And it's one. I think
Speaker 1: Luca is amazing and I think he's very much capable
Speaker 1: of flipping the script off of what happened last year.
Speaker 1: Second reason, I love the Kyrie Irving fit. Not only
Speaker 1: has he had experience winning a championship alongside another rim pressuring,
Speaker 1: playmaking forward, but he's playing a really high level of
Speaker 1: basketball right now, played a really high level of basketball
Speaker 1: with the MAVs last year, and I think him and
Speaker 1: Luca compliment each other very well. He also brings some
Speaker 1: different change of pace stuff that I think will really
Speaker 1: help the Mavericks in the long run. We'll talk about
Speaker 1: that when we get to the offensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: The third reason is they've had massive roster eternal. They've
Speaker 1: swapped out a bunch of players that are not necessarily
Speaker 1: known for being guys who excel in the dirty work
Speaker 1: for high motor athletes, and those high motor athletes should
Speaker 1: help them specifically in the areas they struggled last year.
Speaker 1: This was one of the worst defenses in the league.
Speaker 1: Last year. This was the worst rebounding team in the league.
Speaker 1: Last year. They needed an influx of athleticism and motor
Speaker 1: and they made that happen. So let's start with an
Speaker 1: off season recap and take a look at what specifically
Speaker 1: changed over in the roster. So they lost Davas Burton's,
Speaker 1: Reggie Bullock, Justin Holliday, JaVale McGee, Frank Milakeina, Theo Pinson,
Speaker 1: Christian Wood, and McKinley Wright. That's eight players off the
Speaker 1: roster that all played at a specific points during the
Speaker 1: season last year. Right, they added a bunch of different guys.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the perimeter guys in a minute.
Speaker 1: Let's focus on the dirty work guys, the athletes to start.
Speaker 1: So they brought in Derek Jones Junior, obviously a freak athlete,
Speaker 1: one of the freakiest athletes in the league. He'll help
Speaker 1: them with some contested rebound situations, and he's a good
Speaker 1: defensive playmaker. Actually gets a lot of steals and blocks
Speaker 1: per thirty six minutes. He just doesn't play as much
Speaker 1: as some of his peers around the league, but he
Speaker 1: will help them with some specific things in the defensive
Speaker 1: and rebounding areas of the game. Rashaun Holmes didn't play
Speaker 1: much last year obviously in Sacramento, but he is an
Speaker 1: excellent rebounder that there was like a five year stretch
Speaker 1: in a row where he averaged over ten rebounds per
Speaker 1: thirty six minutes. And he's a very good short role player.
Speaker 1: He's got a really accurate floater that he makes about
Speaker 1: two thirds of the time, and that specifically, I think
Speaker 1: is a really nice fit with Luca because so many
Speaker 1: teams blitz him in and pick and roll or hard
Speaker 1: hedge on him and pick and roll, which opens up
Speaker 1: that short role pass Having a guy that can make
Speaker 1: plays there's there is valuable. I think Rashawn's a really
Speaker 1: nice fit there. Derek Lively, we did a full breakdown
Speaker 1: of him in our draft reaction, So if you want
Speaker 1: the full scouting report on Derek Lively, just go bick
Speaker 1: a bit further back in our feed. But to make
Speaker 1: a long story short, he's a young raw center prospect
Speaker 1: and he has the potential to become the fulcrum of
Speaker 1: a great defense. But obviously he's young. We'll see how
Speaker 1: much he ends up playing this year. Later in the
Speaker 1: first round, they took Olivier. I'm assuming that's how you
Speaker 1: pronounced it. Olivier. Maxon's prosper a freaky athletic wing that
Speaker 1: has a great motor. Specifically, will excel with the things
Speaker 1: that the Mavericks needs so badly, which is just someone
Speaker 1: that's big, strong and can run and jump and plays
Speaker 1: hard all the time. I actually think he has a
Speaker 1: chance to play a lot more than Derek Lively in
Speaker 1: this particular season. But we will see great Williams and
Speaker 1: assigning trade with the Boston Celtics a really nice pickup
Speaker 1: at the forward position to help in their best lineups.
Speaker 1: He's a little undersized, he's only about six seven with
Speaker 1: shoes on, but he does have long arms, and he
Speaker 1: competes on defense, and he's a very good rebounder for
Speaker 1: his size for being a guy who's only about sixty seven.
Speaker 1: For him to get you know, six and a half
Speaker 1: rebounds per thirty six minutes. That's pretty effective rebounding. And
Speaker 1: he could shoot. He's a fifty eight percent effective field
Speaker 1: goal percentage catch and shoot jump shooter last year sixty
Speaker 1: eight percent when he was wide open, and I expect
Speaker 1: him to get a lot of wide open looks with
Speaker 1: the Mavericks. That tells me when he gets his feet
Speaker 1: set and he gets to his muscle memory, that thing's
Speaker 1: probably going in. He's gonna make almost half of them.
Speaker 1: So that's a a really interesting stat there, and he's
Speaker 1: got some off the dribble juice. He can actually put
Speaker 1: the ball on the floor and make some plays attacking
Speaker 1: a mismatch here or there, late clock situations, rescue possessions,
Speaker 1: attacking closeouts. He was good for one point zero eight
Speaker 1: points per possession in spot up situations, which is really good,
Speaker 1: and he finished at the rim well for a ford.
Speaker 1: He also was ten for fourteen from the field in
Speaker 1: ISOs last year, which is really good. I'll be it
Speaker 1: in small sample size, like that's kind of crazy when
Speaker 1: you think about it. The fourteen times they tossed him
Speaker 1: the ball and he went to work, he scored on
Speaker 1: ten of them. That's pretty impressive. He's that starting caliber
Speaker 1: forward that they desperately needed that they lost from in
Speaker 1: the Kyrie Irving trade in the form of Dorian Finney Smith. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I would prefer Do you prefer Dorian Finney Smith. He's
Speaker 1: a better defensive player, a better athlete, a better rebounder.
Speaker 1: I'd like in the long run, you like, it'd be
Speaker 1: ideal if you could have someone like that, but you
Speaker 1: had to get Kyrie Irving, and Dorian Finney Smith was
Speaker 1: a vehicle with which you got Kyrie Irving, so you
Speaker 1: needed to replace that. Going after Grant Williams, I thought
Speaker 1: was a really smart way to make that happen. I
Speaker 1: think Grant it's a good player. He was stuck on
Speaker 1: a super talented roster, not getting as many minutes as
Speaker 1: he probably would have in another situation, and I actually
Speaker 1: think he might end up starting. We'll talk about the
Speaker 1: starting lineup here in a minute. But if the five
Speaker 1: guys I just mentioned, four of them have reputations for
Speaker 1: being high motor guys, and Derek Lively is the only
Speaker 1: one who's not like that, and he actually does play hard.
Speaker 1: It's just more other limitations that can cause some problems.
Speaker 1: For him, and he's just super young and super raw.
Speaker 1: So really all five of them have the potential to
Speaker 1: help them in these areas in the long run. They
Speaker 1: added a couple of guards as well. They brought in
Speaker 1: Seth Curry. He was one of the best backup guards
Speaker 1: in the league. He was one point zero five points
Speaker 1: per possession and pick and roll last year, which is good.
Speaker 1: One point one four points per possession and spot up possessions,
Speaker 1: that's awesome. Sixty percent effective field goal percentage on catch
Speaker 1: and shoot jump shots, that's awesome. Fifty five percent in
Speaker 1: pull up situations, that's awesome. So one of the best
Speaker 1: shooters in the league, one of the best off ball
Speaker 1: guards in the league. Couldn't do much better than him
Speaker 1: off the bench. In my opinion, I think that's a
Speaker 1: really nice pickup. I also think you're gonna see some
Speaker 1: crazy lineups out there where you see Luka, Kyrie and
Speaker 1: Seth Curry out there, and they're gonna be damn near
Speaker 1: impossible to guard. When that happens. We'll talk a little
Speaker 1: bit more about it in a little bit. Dante Exemp,
Speaker 1: fresh off of the FEEBA World Cup with Australia, is
Speaker 1: coming to play with the Mavericks. Now, he's been out
Speaker 1: of the league the last two years, but he had
Speaker 1: a really good season overseas last year. One point zero
Speaker 1: five points per pick and roll, one point two to
Speaker 1: nine points per ISO, which is like off the charts good,
Speaker 1: one point one six points per post up, and he
Speaker 1: shot the shit out of the ball last year. Sixty
Speaker 1: five percent effective fielgal percentage on catch and shoot jump shots,
Speaker 1: fifty percent on pull up jump shots, sixty eight percent
Speaker 1: at the rim. Now, his off the dribble stuff did
Speaker 1: not work super well with FIBA, but he did shoot
Speaker 1: well in catch and shoot situation. So he's done a
Speaker 1: pretty long streak of being a competent shooter. So I
Speaker 1: think that could buy him some minutes in the rotation
Speaker 1: as well. Given the nature of their predicament where they
Speaker 1: were at the end of the season, I think that's
Speaker 1: a pretty solid one summer rebuilt to turn over your
Speaker 1: role player contingent and make yourself a competent basketball team.
Speaker 1: So let's take a look at the depth chart at guard.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have Irving, Tim Hardaway, Junior Seth Curry, Dante Exhem,
Speaker 1: and Jaden Hardy. Again for the sake of this specific
Speaker 1: depth chart. I'm always looking more at way the ways
Speaker 1: that players fit defensively, because what your position is is
Speaker 1: who you can guard in the NBA. Right, So Luke
Speaker 1: obviously functions as a point guard for this team, but
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call him a forward on this list, Grant
Speaker 1: Williams as well, Maxi, Kleieber Kleiba, I should say Josh Green, Olivia,
Speaker 1: Maxon's prosper and Derek Jones Jr. And then at the
Speaker 1: center position, Dwight Powell, Rashaan Holmes, and Derek Lively. And
Speaker 1: we all know Maxic Cleba can play some backup center
Speaker 1: as well. So the question becomes who's gonna start, and
Speaker 1: the two obvious ones are Luca and Kyrie. Right, I
Speaker 1: think Dwight Powell has start at center. He's consistently started
Speaker 1: over Kleiba in his career with the Mavericks. I like
Speaker 1: Rashawn Holmes more as a bench big anyway, because he's
Speaker 1: not the best defender in the world, and I actually
Speaker 1: think he makes a ton of sense to bring in
Speaker 1: as almost like an energy boost at the middle of
Speaker 1: the second quarter. Right, And then Dwight Powell's basically started
Speaker 1: every game that he's been available under Jason Kidd, not
Speaker 1: all of them, but most of him under Jason KIDDS,
Speaker 1: So he's probably just the safest bet to start. Regardless
Speaker 1: of how you feel about which player should start, it's
Speaker 1: a safe bet that Jason Kid's gonna go with Dwight
Speaker 1: Powell at center. At the four, I think it's probably
Speaker 1: gonna be Grant Williams. I think he slots really well
Speaker 1: at the four next to Dwight Powell. You just signed
Speaker 1: him to a long term deal at what basically amounts
Speaker 1: to starter money, so I just think I don't think
Speaker 1: you go to all the trouble to bring Grant Williams
Speaker 1: in to play somebody else at that position, So I
Speaker 1: think that'll end up being Grant Williams. They didn't play
Speaker 1: Maxi Kleebel alongside Dwight Powell a lot last year, so
Speaker 1: I don't think it'll be Maxie, although it's always always
Speaker 1: on the table. As you know, Max he's a really
Speaker 1: dynamic defensive player and can shoot the ball, so theoretically
Speaker 1: you could play him at the four, but I think
Speaker 1: it'll end up being Grant Williams. So the question becomes
Speaker 1: who plays the three? Now? If I've got, you know,
Speaker 1: Kyrie and Luca, and I've got Dwight Powell and Grant Williams.
Speaker 1: You know, I've got three big and strong players. I've
Speaker 1: got a lot of strength and size and guys that
Speaker 1: can rebound with guys like Luca and with Grant Williams
Speaker 1: in there. But what I don't have is like quickness, right,
Speaker 1: So what I need in this specific situation is I
Speaker 1: need a good perimeter defensive player that can also knock
Speaker 1: down shots. And so it really comes down to looking
Speaker 1: at the depth chart. The two guys that make the
Speaker 1: most sense to be considered here are going to be
Speaker 1: either Josh Green or Tim Hardaway Junior. I'd go with
Speaker 1: Josh Green for starters. I just think he's a better
Speaker 1: player right now. I think he's a better defensive player,
Speaker 1: and he took a significant leap in his offensive development
Speaker 1: last year, Like that was one of the big things
Speaker 1: I was on from the beginning of the year, Like,
Speaker 1: holy shit, Josh Green got way better. And I'm always
Speaker 1: amazed when I see stuff like that, because I don't
Speaker 1: think people and all of you who have played basketball
Speaker 1: will know exactly what I'm talking about here. But improvements
Speaker 1: with jump shooting and ball handling typically are incremental. It
Speaker 1: typically takes a very very long time to have a
Speaker 1: small improvement in those areas, and so to see a
Speaker 1: dude make a significant improvement tells you that he made
Speaker 1: a significant commitment in the offseason to address that. This
Speaker 1: was a crazy turnaround and it was motivated by a
Speaker 1: bat playoff performance. If you guys remember the year before
Speaker 1: the year the MAVs went to the conference finals, both
Speaker 1: Frank Miila Kena and Josh Green got opportunities off the
Speaker 1: bench to come in and play, but neither of them
Speaker 1: can consistently knock down the corner three. That ended up
Speaker 1: being a problem, right. Josh Green clearly identified that in
Speaker 1: that playoff run and was like, I got to fix
Speaker 1: this shit so I can play, and he did. He
Speaker 1: went from fifty three percent to sixty one percent and
Speaker 1: effective field goal percentage on catch and shoot jump shots
Speaker 1: that's an eight percent improvement year over year, from thirty
Speaker 1: seven percent to fifty three percent in pull up jump
Speaker 1: shots effective field goal percentage that's a sixteen percent improvement.
Speaker 1: He got better at attacking close outs, he got better
Speaker 1: at making reads. I even think he got better defensively,
Speaker 1: so like Josh Green legitimately made a massive leap last summer.
Speaker 1: That means that that tells me that his head's in
Speaker 1: the right place, That tells me he's competitive in all
Speaker 1: the right ways. It tells me that he wants to
Speaker 1: do whatever it takes to help the team. And I
Speaker 1: think that just makes him a better a better player
Speaker 1: to put your vote of confidence in at the three,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. So like I almost look at
Speaker 1: the long term set as those three guys being Kyrie,
Speaker 1: Luca and and Josh Green as like the long term
Speaker 1: solutions at the one, two three. Will Grant Williams be
Speaker 1: your long term ford who knows, Will Dwight Power Dwight
Speaker 1: Pow will be your long term center who knows. But like,
Speaker 1: it feels right to me that Josh Green is the
Speaker 1: guy that you invest in that like for the next
Speaker 1: three to four years. If you can get Kyrie to day,
Speaker 1: will end up being like you're starting three, I think,
Speaker 1: And I think he makes a lot of sense as
Speaker 1: like a strong athletic but slightly undersized three to be
Speaker 1: that modern three in the NBA. So I really like
Speaker 1: the idea of going with Josh Green. So that means
Speaker 1: you would have a starting lineup with Kyrie Irving, Luka, Doncicic,
Speaker 1: Josh Green, Grant Williams, and Dwight Powell. That's a lot
Speaker 1: of talent and then they'd have options. They have real
Speaker 1: positional depth. You can go to Seth Curry at the
Speaker 1: three and just have a ton of shooting. You can
Speaker 1: go with Maxi Kleeb at the ford and have a
Speaker 1: little bit more size and athleticism in the front court. Right,
Speaker 1: Derek Jones Junior is an option. You can go to
Speaker 1: Rashan Holmes if you want a short role player that's
Speaker 1: got a little bit more pop in the mid range
Speaker 1: than Dwight howl does. Right, Like what if Dante xm
Speaker 1: ends up being useful? What if one of these young kids,
Speaker 1: what if like Prosper pops as like a athletic four
Speaker 1: that comes in and can make plays. Like they just
Speaker 1: have a lot of depth and options that they didn't
Speaker 1: have in the past. I'd love to see some lineups
Speaker 1: with like Kliba at the five, with Grant Williams at
Speaker 1: the four, Seth Curry, Kyrie and Luca where like you
Speaker 1: just have five guys that can dribble, shoot and pass,
Speaker 1: and how ridiculously difficult. It would make them to guard right.
Speaker 1: So there's just a lot that this particular Mavericks offer
Speaker 1: a roster has to offer that last year's did not,
Speaker 1: and so I think I think that justifies a significant
Speaker 1: increase in their potential over what we saw last year.
Speaker 1: So on the offensive end is we all know the
Speaker 1: Mavericks play basically the purest form of modern heliocentric basketball.
Speaker 1: They're gonna let Luka Doncics bring the ball out the
Speaker 1: floor every single time, and when he takes a possession off,
Speaker 1: he'll give it to Kyrie, and then when they stagger
Speaker 1: each other, whicheveryone's on the floor will be the guy
Speaker 1: that determining most of these possessions. He's gonna slowly work
Speaker 1: his way up the floor, call for a ball screen,
Speaker 1: and if he gets a switch, he'll attack in ISO.
Speaker 1: If he gets that, whatever the coverage that he sees
Speaker 1: in pick and roll, he's gonna make the right decision.
Speaker 1: If it's if it's a blitz, he's gonna easily get
Speaker 1: the ball to the short role. If it's a drop coverage,
Speaker 1: he's gonna get downhill and put the defender in jail
Speaker 1: and take some sort of push shot in the short range,
Speaker 1: right Like, if he gets a switch, he's gonna take
Speaker 1: the big guy out to the perimeter and try to
Speaker 1: work him off the dribble. He's gonna work some guard
Speaker 1: to guard screen so that he can try to get
Speaker 1: a small on him and take him to the post.
Speaker 1: It's just helio centric dissect your defense basketball, and that's
Speaker 1: what he's the best at. And he was the very
Speaker 1: best pick and roll ball handler in the league. Last year.
Speaker 1: He scored one point one to five points per pick
Speaker 1: and roll. Out of the fifteen players in the NBA
Speaker 1: to run at least one thousand, he was number one.
Speaker 1: So there's nobody in the league better at picking teams
Speaker 1: apart and pick and roll the way that Luka Doncic does.
Speaker 1: As a team, the Mavericks were by far the most
Speaker 1: efficient pick and roll offense overall. As a team, they
Speaker 1: averaged one point one zero points per possession. The Bucks
Speaker 1: were in second place at one point zero six. And
Speaker 1: it really just comes down to, like I just talked
Speaker 1: about Luca as this like offensive fulkrum and we've did
Speaker 1: the whole breakdown on what Luca is capable of in
Speaker 1: the player ranking. So I won't get into it today.
Speaker 1: But the important thing with Luca is it's not just
Speaker 1: what he's capable of, it's really smart spacing principles. They
Speaker 1: always have guys in both corners. They always have a
Speaker 1: shooter that can knock down a long distance three on
Speaker 1: the right wing, and they always have a roleman that
Speaker 1: can make decisions. And then when they go five out
Speaker 1: with Maxic Kliba, it's a clear paint for them to
Speaker 1: operate those modern spacing principles. Always having guys in every
Speaker 1: spot that are capable of knocking down shots consistently at
Speaker 1: a rate that's not tenable for the defense. That's what
Speaker 1: allows the Mavericks to be as dynamic as they are offensively.
Speaker 1: They were sixth in spot up efficiency last year, and
Speaker 1: I actually expect them to go up a level this year.
Speaker 1: I think more improvement from Josh creen bringing, bringing Seth
Speaker 1: Curry into the picture, Luca and Kyrie getting better at
Speaker 1: playing off of each other. I actually think they're going
Speaker 1: to be even better in their spacing and spot up
Speaker 1: effective effectiveness this year. And it's just incredibly high end
Speaker 1: ball handling. When you have Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncicz,
Speaker 1: it's unfair because you finally get Luca to take a
Speaker 1: possession off and he's tossing the ball to Kyrie, freaking
Speaker 1: irving man. And I know that Kyrie gets a lot
Speaker 1: of negativity online because of his off the court stuff,
Speaker 1: and look, I'm not here trying to defend that stuff. Like,
Speaker 1: I have a huge problem with Kyrie stepping away from
Speaker 1: a basketball team that he's committed to a goal with
Speaker 1: to like go to his sister's birthday party or whatever
Speaker 1: it was he did two years ago, or like some
Speaker 1: of the other things that we've encountered over the years.
Speaker 1: I'm not a big fan of that. It's just as
Speaker 1: a I think as a teammate, you have an obligation
Speaker 1: to your to your teammates to participate in that ultimate
Speaker 1: goal with them, and like, if you're not committed to
Speaker 1: that goal for whatever reason, you need to confide in
Speaker 1: them about that so they can proceed without you, if
Speaker 1: that makes sense, right. But that was a Brooklyn Nets issue,
Speaker 1: and so far he's been good with the MAVs, and
Speaker 1: in his time in a Dallas Maverick Jersey, he was
Speaker 1: freaking incredible twenty seven points, five rebounds, and six assists
Speaker 1: on sixty three percent true shooting in a MAVs jersey.
Speaker 1: He was also the MAVs. For as bad as they
Speaker 1: were down the stretch of the season, they had a
Speaker 1: plus six net rating with Kyrie Irving on the floor,
Speaker 1: meaning they outscored teams by six points per one hundred possession.
Speaker 1: Say what you want about the MAVs after the deadline,
Speaker 1: Kyrie was not the problem. And there were a couple
Speaker 1: of specific things that he brought that I really really appreciated,
Speaker 1: and a lot of it was just change of pace.
Speaker 1: Like you know, Jalen Brunson was very methodical too, and
Speaker 1: so there was like a very methodical approach from both
Speaker 1: him and Luca. And Kyrie Irving has like a real pace,
Speaker 1: and I don't mean pace from the standpoint of like
Speaker 1: up and down the floor transition pace. Although Kyrie does
Speaker 1: play with more pace than Luca. But Kyrie's not a
Speaker 1: super high paced player either. But he does play with
Speaker 1: more pace in the half court. What does that mean?
Speaker 1: Less methodical in the half court? Not a bad thing.
Speaker 1: Luca being methodical, I think is the strength of his
Speaker 1: That's how he strangles the pace of games and how
Speaker 1: he throws his opponents off of rhythm. But Kyrie does
Speaker 1: bring a change of pace. He attacks quickly. He won't
Speaker 1: take thirty seven dribbles to get the matchup that he wants.
Speaker 1: Once he gets the ball, he attacks right away, and
Speaker 1: I think that brings a really nice change up, or
Speaker 1: it's more like the fastball to Luca's change up right,
Speaker 1: But I actually really like that combination because it gives
Speaker 1: that that kind of change of pace. Like you're you
Speaker 1: have two or three possessions in a row where Luca's
Speaker 1: methodically doing something, and as an off ball defender, you
Speaker 1: have more time to kind of digest what's taking place,
Speaker 1: and then next thing you know, here comes Kyrie off
Speaker 1: a dribble handoff and he's already downhill and he's making
Speaker 1: a counter move and it just happens so much more
Speaker 1: quickly with Kyrie and that change of pass, that change
Speaker 1: of pace I think helps them a lot. But the
Speaker 1: aggregate ball handling and shooting on this roster is what
Speaker 1: makes me so excited to see them play this year.
Speaker 1: Like I said, if you throw Steth, if you throw
Speaker 1: Seth Curry into that mix, Grant Williams obviously as a
Speaker 1: four that can shoot, Maxi Kleeb as a five that
Speaker 1: can shoot, they have a lot of potential to cause
Speaker 1: teams a lot of problems. Offensively, they were already good
Speaker 1: offensively last year. I actually think this is one of
Speaker 1: my big predictions for the season. I think the Mavericks
Speaker 1: will have the best offense in the NBA next year
Speaker 1: by offensive rating. They were already the best half court
Speaker 1: offense in the league last year, averaging one hundred and
Speaker 1: five points per one hundred half court possessions. So that
Speaker 1: simply put, the MAVs got better this summer, and they're
Speaker 1: gonna have the continuity of a full training camp. I
Speaker 1: think you're gonna get a a more in shape Luca
Speaker 1: than usual coming off of FEBA, although I heard he's
Speaker 1: had a little bit of an injury that he's dealing with.
Speaker 1: I think this is gonna be a big bounce back
Speaker 1: year for the MAVs. Now, defensively, last year they were terrible.
Speaker 1: We're not gonna dive too far into it because they
Speaker 1: have all different players, but they were twenty fifth and
Speaker 1: defensive rating twenty third, and half court defense twenty second,
Speaker 1: defending the paint in dead last, and rebounding. Now do
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna be elite defensively this year. No,
Speaker 1: But if you guys remember what we talked about in
Speaker 1: the Sacramento Kings video. To me, there's when you're that bad,
Speaker 1: it's effort Like personnel is gonna have a limitation on
Speaker 1: your end, right, Like you're not going to be able
Speaker 1: to have a top ten defense with the Dallas Mavericks
Speaker 1: with the type of personnel that they have around the floor.
Speaker 1: That's not elite defensively, right, But if you get your
Speaker 1: point of attack guys to commit, right, So, like if
Speaker 1: Josh Green has a good point of attack season, if
Speaker 1: you get Kyrie and Luka Doncic to commit, if you
Speaker 1: have a culture that you set from training camp on
Speaker 1: where the team has good habits and competitiveness on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor, there's no reason why you
Speaker 1: can't be a around like the fifteenth, sixteenth best defense
Speaker 1: in the league. This is where I look more at
Speaker 1: Denver as a comp. Now, you remember with the Kings,
Speaker 1: I said that was a bad comp because the Kings
Speaker 1: wanted to be the offense first team that didn't need
Speaker 1: to commit to defense to win. But for starters, they
Speaker 1: were atrocious defensively, and two their offense was a little
Speaker 1: bit more smoke and mirrors, as we saw the Warriors
Speaker 1: hold them to an offensive rating below one ten. Right,
Speaker 1: the difference is the Mavericks were truly unguardable. They had
Speaker 1: a top tier superstar in Nikole that was many levels
Speaker 1: better than guys like darreon Fox. Right in Demandisabonis, so
Speaker 1: he was unguardable and able to overcome the playoff dip
Speaker 1: that so many players experience, and then the off ball
Speaker 1: players complimented him really well. Jamal Murray played like a
Speaker 1: superstar in the playoffs. Their offense was so transcendently great
Speaker 1: that they only needed to be averaged defensively. This dlex
Speaker 1: Mavericks team has that potential. Even if the Kings were
Speaker 1: the fifteenth best defense this year, I would give them
Speaker 1: zero percent chance to win the title. Why because they
Speaker 1: do not have the top end offensive talent to be
Speaker 1: that difficult to hang with in a seven game series.
Speaker 1: Four times right, Luka dancicch and Kyrie Irving absolutely are
Speaker 1: that dangerous. That's how highly I you, Luka. I view
Speaker 1: him in the same tier in a vacuum as someone
Speaker 1: like Nikola Jokich as a playoff offensive fulcrum Kyrie Irving
Speaker 1: is the perfect complimentary piece. There's no reason in the
Speaker 1: world that if the Mavericks don't get up to fifteen
Speaker 1: in defense, and that to me is just like kind
Speaker 1: of a benchmark to demonstrate that they're committed to the details,
Speaker 1: because they don't have to be great, but they have
Speaker 1: to be committed to the details. They have to be
Speaker 1: good enough defensively to allow their top end offensive talent
Speaker 1: to clear the way. This was a good This team
Speaker 1: is going to be an interesting kind of case study
Speaker 1: and whether or not the Dallas excuse me, the Denver
Speaker 1: Nuggets from last year are kind of like a like
Speaker 1: a one off or like the exception that proves the rule,
Speaker 1: or an example of a new trend in the NBA
Speaker 1: which would demonstrate that high end offensive talent is actually
Speaker 1: more important than defensive talent in the new era. This
Speaker 1: team is a good case study for that, and I'm
Speaker 1: curious to see what they can pull off. So I
Speaker 1: think they're gonna be a middling seed in the regular season,
Speaker 1: somewhere between five and eight. I just don't think they're
Speaker 1: gonna rip off regular season games. I don't think they're
Speaker 1: talented enough, but I do view them as like a
Speaker 1: bona fide puncher's chance team to beat anybody in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Like I give them a chance to be Denver. I'd
Speaker 1: give them a chance to beat the Lakers, or give
Speaker 1: them a chance to beat the Suns like Luca and Kyrie.
Speaker 1: If they find a good four or five guys from
Speaker 1: the rest of that roster that are committed to the
Speaker 1: defensive end and that can knock down shot, they're just
Speaker 1: gonna be a handful. They're gonna be a handful to
Speaker 1: beat in a playoff series four times out of seven.
Speaker 1: So all that is why I have them up at
Speaker 1: eleven despite missing the playoffs last year. Very very excited
Speaker 1: to see the Mavericks this year. All right, let's talk
Speaker 1: about our mailbag questions. First one from Michael. If you
Speaker 1: were to realistically improve the Warriors' size, which players do
Speaker 1: you think they can sign. I saw a lot of
Speaker 1: Warriors fans talking over the over the last couple days
Speaker 1: about the Dwight Howard situation, and you Warriors fans that
Speaker 1: watched the show will know that I basically said, don't
Speaker 1: expect much from Dwight, and I actually thought it was
Speaker 1: smart for them to move past dhite I didn't think
Speaker 1: he was someone that could particularly help them. Not to
Speaker 1: mention the fact that, like, when push comes to shove,
Speaker 1: this is going to be a Sarch Draymond Looney front court.
Speaker 1: Like those three guys are gonna get all the front
Speaker 1: court minutes when it comes down to it in big moments, Right,
Speaker 1: So I like that move as far as like signing
Speaker 1: a player to address size issues. I dealt with the
Speaker 1: same issue covering the Lake as someone who's a fan
Speaker 1: of the Lakers last offseason, where it's like, man, where's
Speaker 1: the size. There's all these guards, where are the forwards? Like,
Speaker 1: how are they gonna contend with the athleticism of these
Speaker 1: other teams? How are they gonna fix this problem? And
Speaker 1: you find out pretty quickly that the veteran minimum free
Speaker 1: agent market just doesn't have those players. You're gonna find
Speaker 1: freak athletes that don't know how to play basketball, and
Speaker 1: you're gonna find like veteran dudes who know how to
Speaker 1: play basketball but can't contend physically anymore. That's pretty much
Speaker 1: why they're not signed to rosters right now. So the
Speaker 1: reality is is the only way that the Warriors are
Speaker 1: gonna dramatically increase their size with playable guys is via
Speaker 1: trade or via one of their young guys popping. It's
Speaker 1: got to be Moody taking a leap. It's gotta be
Speaker 1: Kuminga taking a leap. It's got to be trading those
Speaker 1: guys for a veteran forward. That's the only way you're
Speaker 1: gonna see a significant improvement in the Warriors perimeter size,
Speaker 1: in particular interior size. I just don't think a veteran
Speaker 1: minimum signing is gonna address that problem, all right. Last
Speaker 1: question from Xander. If Yannis asks for a trade, where
Speaker 1: would you like to see him go. So to be clear,
Speaker 1: I don't think this will happen, but I would just
Speaker 1: as a basketball fan, I would love to see Yannis
Speaker 1: with Luca. The main reason why is I think they
Speaker 1: would cause the most I think they would form the
Speaker 1: most devastating two man game in the history of basketball.
Speaker 1: When you're talking about a roleman that is impossible to stop,
Speaker 1: barreling towards the basket, who has all the nimbleness and
Speaker 1: footwork to get around defenders, around the rim and finish everything.
Speaker 1: Giannis is one of the most underrated passers in the
Speaker 1: league because people are so focused on him running and
Speaker 1: jumping and dunking that they don't realize that he sees
Speaker 1: the floor better than most forwards do. You're talking about
Speaker 1: a screener that would get Luca better separation than he
Speaker 1: has at any point in his career because of the
Speaker 1: role gravity of someone like Giannis. I think the two
Speaker 1: of them would be absolutely devastating together. And it's a
Speaker 1: good thing that this will never happen. And it's a
Speaker 1: good thing that it hasn't happened, because I don't think
Speaker 1: they'd lose a lot of games if the two of
Speaker 1: them were together. But that's definitely would that definitely, as
Speaker 1: a basketball kind of fantasy situation, would be my dream
Speaker 1: uh yannist destination, the Dallas Mavericks. All right, guys, that
Speaker 1: is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate you for supporting the show. We will be back
Speaker 1: tomorrow with number ten. I'll see you guys. Then the
Speaker 1: volume