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Speaker 2: You're at the volume. Happy Monday, everybody.
Speaker 1: Hope all of you guys had an incredible weekend. We
Speaker 1: have a completely jam packed show today. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: hitting a ton of stuff. We're gonna lead off the
Speaker 1: top going over the Los Angeles Lakers offense. Their four
Speaker 1: game winning streak was snapped by Lebron James and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis being out of the lineup.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 1: It's the Minnesota Timberwolves, but they've been playing really good
Speaker 1: basketball for a while, and we haven't had a chance
Speaker 1: with our new film software to look over how their
Speaker 1: offense has been succeeding. So we're gonna do a deep
Speaker 1: dive into their offense. Specifically in the Cavs game with
Speaker 1: a bunch of film. After that, the Milwaukee Bucks lost
Speaker 1: again to the New York Knicks. After taking a pretty
Speaker 1: big first half lead, their offense and defense fell apart
Speaker 1: in the second half. We're going to look into a
Speaker 1: bunch of film talking about why the Bucks have been struggling.
Speaker 1: The Heat and the Pacers had a showdown to determine
Speaker 1: not necessarily the final result of their fates in the
Speaker 1: play in tournament, but a very very important game for
Speaker 1: their fates in the standings in the Eastern Conference. And
Speaker 1: I thought the result of that game came down to
Speaker 1: three mistakes by the Miami Heat late, so we're gonna
Speaker 1: take a look at that. After that, we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about a really fun game between the MAVs and
Speaker 1: the Rockets. Kyrie Irving has forty eight points. Donte Exhem,
Speaker 1: it's a three to send the game to overtime. Maxi
Speaker 1: Klebo is just a monster on the defensive end at
Speaker 1: the end of that game. We got a bunch of
Speaker 1: film from that game as well, and then at the
Speaker 1: end of the show. Typically on Monday, we'd be doing
Speaker 1: power rankings, but this is our last week of the
Speaker 1: regular season. Next week on Monday, we're gonna be doing
Speaker 1: playoff previews, and so what I want to do is
Speaker 1: throughout this week we're gonna do ten, nine and eight today,
Speaker 1: but throughout this week we're gonna go through my top
Speaker 1: ten championship contenders, essentially my final ranking of the team
Speaker 1: strictly within the context of their postseason potential. So at
Speaker 1: the end of the show, we're gonna hit ten, nine
Speaker 1: and eight on that front. You guys are the Joe
Speaker 1: Before we get started, to subscribe to our brand new
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Speaker 1: our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight,
Speaker 1: and then keep dropping mail back questions in those YouTube
Speaker 1: comments so we can keep hitting them throughout the rest
Speaker 1: of this playoff run. And then also last but not least,
Speaker 1: before we get started. Now is the very best time
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Speaker 1: lowest price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 1: the Lakers, like I mentioned earlier, they had a four
Speaker 1: game winning street going into that Minnesota Timberwolves game, and
Speaker 1: then Lebron James comes down with flu like symptoms, and
Speaker 1: then Anthony Davis ends up reaggravating an eye injury that
Speaker 1: he had a little while back, and so he only
Speaker 1: played twelve minutes. The Lakers were plus four in his minutes.
Speaker 1: That didn't matter. The Timberwolves pretty much controlled and dominated
Speaker 1: that game. Every Laker was slotted into a pretty difficult
Speaker 1: role and they weren't able to hold up against Minnesota.
Speaker 1: But as many of you guys know, I've been pointing
Speaker 1: out on this show lately that the Lakers have been
Speaker 1: really good for a long time. Since January seventh, they
Speaker 1: are twenty eight and fifteen, That is the fifth best
Speaker 1: record in the league in that span. That's a forty
Speaker 1: three game sample size too, that's more than half the season.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, I had this comment yesterday
Speaker 1: on the video from somebody saying, like, oh, Jason got
Speaker 1: off the Lakers bandwagon, and now he's trying to jump
Speaker 1: back on. And this is like, literally, I think one
Speaker 1: of the funniest types of comments that I get when like,
Speaker 1: we have a sample size of information and I feel
Speaker 1: a certain way about it, and then we have new
Speaker 1: information and I feel a different way about it, and
Speaker 1: now I'm accused of changing my mind. This is new information. Specifically,
Speaker 1: what got me off the Lakers bandwagon was they didn't
Speaker 1: address a personnel weakness, specifically at the point of attack,
Speaker 1: and to that point in the season, they were a
Speaker 1: bad offense. They were a bad offense that also had
Speaker 1: a severe defensive weakness, and so they weren't even like
Speaker 1: the Lakers from last year, where it was like their
Speaker 1: offense was pretty mediocre, but at the very least between
Speaker 1: Dennis Schroeder and Jared Vanderbilt, they had a really good
Speaker 1: perimeter defense core to kind of like take some of
Speaker 1: those matchups and Anthony Davis anchoring things, and that was
Speaker 1: how they won down the stretch from the Russ Westbrook
Speaker 1: trade through to the end of the season, even through
Speaker 1: to the Western Conference Finals, it was defense. He beat
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors in the playoffs with defense.
Speaker 2: That was what they did.
Speaker 1: The revelation with this Laker team has been on the
Speaker 1: offensive end of the floor. Since January seventh, they are
Speaker 1: fourth in offensive rating. They've been a dominant offense in
Speaker 1: this league for a very long time. They're second in
Speaker 1: offensive ratings since February first. They're scoring in the paint
Speaker 1: like crazy. They're second points in the paint per one
Speaker 1: hundred possessions over this forty three game span. Their second
Speaker 1: in three point percentage. Remember at the beginning of the
Speaker 1: season when I kept talking about how like these guys
Speaker 1: just start shooting very well, but there's some good shooters.
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that these guys start making shots. They've been
Speaker 1: making shots, and they lit up a Cavs team that
Speaker 1: is really good defensive personnel, although they've had their struggles
Speaker 1: with defense as of late. But the point that I'm
Speaker 1: getting at here is this is fundamentally a different Lakers
Speaker 1: team than really any version of the Lakers that we've
Speaker 1: seen in the Lebron James Anthony Davis era, going back
Speaker 1: to twenty nineteen, before ad got there. They won the
Speaker 1: title in twenty twenty, even twenty twenty one, twenty two,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, they were a mediocre to bad offense consistently,
Speaker 1: and essentially what has happened is through adding D'Angelo Russell,
Speaker 1: the development of Austin Reeves, adding Ruey Hachimura last year
Speaker 1: before the deadline, the addition of the five out offense,
Speaker 1: which was a real struggle early in the season, and
Speaker 1: there was actually a point in the middle of the
Speaker 1: season whe Darbingham kind of went away from it for
Speaker 1: a little while. Then they went back to it, and
Speaker 1: it's kind of clicked in a lot of ways. And
Speaker 1: their offensive skill at every single position group has made
Speaker 1: that attack work. And there's been a bunch of different
Speaker 1: reasons why. And so I wanted to go into the
Speaker 1: film today from this matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers to
Speaker 1: just kind of talk about some of the ways that
Speaker 1: the Lakers have been having success offensively. So let's get
Speaker 1: over to the film. Okay, So this first clip that
Speaker 1: I wanted to demonstrate for you guys. You remember how
Speaker 1: I've been talking about how Ruy Hachimura ends up getting
Speaker 1: favorable matchups and can have a lot of success as
Speaker 1: a result. This is an example against the Calves where
Speaker 1: they're going up like they're going to run offense, but
Speaker 1: they identify that Ruy Hatchamura has Georgie kneeing on him.
Speaker 1: So because Max Streus has to take a higher leverage assignment,
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell has to take a higher leverage assignment, Jared
Speaker 1: Allen has to guard Anthony Davis. Caris lavert Is on
Speaker 1: D'Angelo Russell. As a result, you're getting Ruey Hatchamura with
Speaker 1: George's kneeing on him, so he's got the weakest defender
Speaker 1: on the floor. Ruey Hatchamura has been a very, very
Speaker 1: good on an island scorer this year. He's been way
Speaker 1: over a point per possession in post up situations as well,
Speaker 1: and he's just gonna take George's kneeing down to the
Speaker 1: block back him down. DELO excuse me, Anthony Davis because
Speaker 1: he was kind of standing here at the elbow, Jared
Speaker 1: Allen was kind of digging down in his way. So
Speaker 1: AD's going to cut through to get Jared Allen out
Speaker 1: of there. That opens up this space for Ruy to
Speaker 1: get to his right shoulder fade, and he does a
Speaker 1: really nice job here of initiating some contact. Watch him
Speaker 1: kind of drop that shoulder and displace kneing and then
Speaker 1: get up into the lane for his little patented little
Speaker 1: fallaway that he knocks down. Those are favorable matchups that
Speaker 1: Rui's getting every single game. This is a big part
Speaker 1: of why, like even with I talk about the pros
Speaker 1: and cons of different types of data that we use
Speaker 1: in the NBA. That's why even point for possession data
Speaker 1: has its limitations, because part of the reason why Rui
Speaker 1: has been so damn efficient in the post this year
Speaker 1: is he's consistently getting super favorable matchups down there. So
Speaker 1: the story of this particular game against Cleveland was the
Speaker 1: Lakers attacking a very specific type of pick and roll
Speaker 1: coverage that the Cavs were using. So the vast majority
Speaker 1: of teams that are serious basketball teams run different coverages
Speaker 1: for different spots on the floor. Every team that I
Speaker 1: played for on side pick and rolls, we did what
Speaker 1: was called an ice coverage, which essentially involves in this
Speaker 1: situation as this ball screen is going to get set.
Speaker 1: Darius Garland's entire job is to deny Austin the use
Speaker 1: of the screen and funnel him back towards the baselines
Speaker 1: or the sideline side, and then Jared Allen is supposed
Speaker 1: to effectively catch him down here in this short corner area.
Speaker 1: So what you're going to see here, watch how Darius
Speaker 1: Garland jumps way up on Austin's high side. All he's
Speaker 1: doing is forcing him to go away from the screen.
Speaker 1: Jared Allen's there to catch. And what the Cavs were
Speaker 1: doing all game long is when Jared Allen would catch
Speaker 1: this ball handler coming off of the of the rejected
Speaker 1: ball screen, they would use Evan Mobley whoever was guarding
Speaker 1: the guy up top, but it was typically Lebron and
Speaker 1: so they'd use Evan Mobley to tag Anthony Davis, and
Speaker 1: they were leaving Lebron James open at the top of
Speaker 1: the floor. So this first time through the ball gets
Speaker 1: works to Anthony Davis. Anthony Davis hits Lebron at the
Speaker 1: top key and again Lebron's been absolutely deadly in catch
Speaker 1: and shoot situations this year. But keep in mind that
Speaker 1: is just an example we're going to see a bunch
Speaker 1: of those ice coverages here through the rest of this
Speaker 1: kind of video thread that we're going through. Here's the
Speaker 1: exact same type of concept. Now what I think is
Speaker 1: super interesting here, Delo is going to set an impromptu
Speaker 1: screen on Jared Allen to prevent him from getting to
Speaker 1: his spot in the ice coverage. Remember, same exact content,
Speaker 1: except Austin's got the ball. Ad is gonna come up
Speaker 1: and set the ball screen. But because DLO is screening
Speaker 1: Jared Allen, Jared is supposed to be down here. He's
Speaker 1: supposed to be down here to catch when Austin rejects
Speaker 1: the screen and basically drives into him so that they
Speaker 1: can use these other guys to kind of dig down
Speaker 1: on Anthony Davis. Dlo's screen makes it so because look,
Speaker 1: AD's not cutting. AD's not going to the rim, He's
Speaker 1: not back screening Jared Allen so that AD can get
Speaker 1: a lob. He's back screening Jared Allen because he knows
Speaker 1: what the coverage is. DLO just watched them run an
Speaker 1: ice coverage. He's trying to stop Jared Allen from being
Speaker 1: able to do his job. AD goes to set the
Speaker 1: pick Donovan Mitchell jumps way high side. Did you see
Speaker 1: how Donovan Mitchell jumped way on that high side there again,
Speaker 1: forcing Austin back towards that sideline side as he makes
Speaker 1: his move.
Speaker 2: Watch Jared Allen.
Speaker 1: Now his feet are crossed and he's sprinting to get
Speaker 1: back into that position to catch Austin. That allows Austin
Speaker 1: to cross. So Austin beats him with the crossover. It
Speaker 1: gets all the way to rim, to the rim for
Speaker 1: a layup. That entire sequence is set up by d'angela
Speaker 1: Russell setting a random screen on Jared Allen to prevent
Speaker 1: him from getting to where he's supposed to be. If
Speaker 1: Jared is just standing here, then when Austin rejects the screen,
Speaker 1: it's going to be much harder for him to cross
Speaker 1: him over. Watch Jared Allen's momentum and watch Austin cross
Speaker 1: him over as a result of the screen. See that
Speaker 1: such an interesting little kind of trick that d'angela Russell
Speaker 1: uses randomly setting screens. Keep that in mind because there's
Speaker 1: a couple more of those coming up here in the thread.
Speaker 1: So one of the most common types of actions that
Speaker 1: the Lakers like to run with Lebron is have either
Speaker 1: Austin or Delo's screen for Lebron and then slip the action.
Speaker 1: The reason why is because most teams don't want to
Speaker 1: allow this smaller defender to get switched on to Lebron
Speaker 1: where he can take them to task using his size. Right,
Speaker 1: So Austin is going to go and fakely he's going
Speaker 1: to set a screen. Donovan's supposed to be hedging here,
Speaker 1: but he's kind of on his heels, but essentially he's
Speaker 1: gonna hang around because the hedger's job. This guy has
Speaker 1: one responsibility before he recovers to Austin. He has to
Speaker 1: stop Lebron from driving, So he's gonna hang around long enough.
Speaker 1: And Austin's literally just gonna slip behind the action. And
Speaker 1: because Mobley and Mitchell are both out there, Austin gets
Speaker 1: an easy layup. We're gonna see another one of those
Speaker 1: here in a minute as well, same exact type of
Speaker 1: thing we got Lebron. Here, Delo's gonna set the screen,
Speaker 1: Karis Lavert is going to hedge. Also, Delo's gonna set
Speaker 1: a little wedge backscreen for ad. First, the backscreen's not open,
Speaker 1: so here's where we're gonna get that screen. So now
Speaker 1: Delo's gonna set his screen for Lebron. Watch Karis lavert hedge.
Speaker 1: You could see him hop out high side. All he
Speaker 1: has to do is stop Lebron from driving this way.
Speaker 1: Now Delo's slipping. He's behind both guys. As soon as
Speaker 1: he catches on the slip, Max Strus comes over and
Speaker 1: tags Dlo. Delo throws a one time or tap pass
Speaker 1: to Ruyacha Murr in the corner. He actually misses this three.
Speaker 1: That's a really high quality shot that the Lakers generate.
Speaker 1: Once again, guard screening for Lebron waiting for the hedge,
Speaker 1: slipping the action to get onto the backside. Now we're
Speaker 1: gonna get another. This is a really cool sequence. Do
Speaker 1: you guys remember this massive dunk. Let's just watch it
Speaker 1: all the way through first, this was the biggest highlight
Speaker 1: of the game. Right, We get the Austin Reeves lob
Speaker 1: to Lebron James. Nasty dunk, Very very cool. Right, this
Speaker 1: is what's fascinating to me about this In the context
Speaker 1: of everything we've been talking about with the coverage, this
Speaker 1: was a premeditated, planned counter from Lebron James and Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves Okay, so you can see Lebron throw the ball
Speaker 1: to Austin and point to him. They clearly have had
Speaker 1: some sort of conversation Austin and Lebron at some point,
Speaker 1: whether it was during a timeout or some sort of stoppage,
Speaker 1: they clearly discussed exactly what they were gonna do here.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna get the exact same action that we
Speaker 1: saw earlier. They're setting up to run this ball screen.
Speaker 1: But as they're getting ready to run it, look at Mitchell.
Speaker 1: Mitchell's way on the high side right. Because he's way
Speaker 1: on the high side. Ad doesn't even bother to set
Speaker 1: the screen because there's no reason for him to set
Speaker 1: the screen because he's not going to be able to
Speaker 1: actually use it. So Austin has one job here. Mitchell,
Speaker 1: because he's playing the high side, is gifting Austin that
Speaker 1: driving lane to the right. AD knows all I have
Speaker 1: to do is just kind of meander down here into
Speaker 1: the lane, and Evan Mobley's gonna tag me, because we
Speaker 1: know every single one of these side pick and rolls
Speaker 1: that they've run all game, Evan Mobley's been tagging. So
Speaker 1: now watch, Austin's already looking at Lebron. He's literally been
Speaker 1: looking at him this whole time. As soon as he
Speaker 1: kind of gets going, he's looking back at Lebron right now,
Speaker 1: and Lebron's got his eye on him. He's already getting
Speaker 1: ready for this cut. And because Mobley again, because Mobley
Speaker 1: is tagging Ad so that Jared Allen can catch while
Speaker 1: Austin is rejecting the ice, Lebron is able to cut
Speaker 1: with a free runway down the middle.
Speaker 2: Austin just throws it up high to him.
Speaker 1: So again we look at that in the flow of
Speaker 1: a game and we think, we think just defensive breakdown
Speaker 1: or something, and oh, maybe it's just Lebron's amazing Maybe
Speaker 1: it's just an incredible pass.
Speaker 2: No, that was a chess move.
Speaker 1: The chess move was Cleveland was running the same exact
Speaker 1: coverage defending three on two against the side pick and
Speaker 1: rolls for the Lakers. Lebron and Austin had a chat,
Speaker 1: they had a counter in mind, and they got a
Speaker 1: wide open dunk.
Speaker 2: Out of it. Alrighty, here's a good example of.
Speaker 1: Another kind of like ghost screen kind of action with
Speaker 1: Delo and an example of how you can use the
Speaker 1: hedge and recover to drag the defender further out, So
Speaker 1: Merril's guarding Dilo. Delo's gonna set the screen on Marcus Morris. Okay,
Speaker 1: remember Meryl's hedging. Meryl cannot recover to del until he
Speaker 1: is cut off this driving lane. Morris is compromised. If
Speaker 1: Meryll leaves Lebron's going downhill, he's dunking on everybody. So
Speaker 1: Meryl has a job here in this hedge to not
Speaker 1: rotate back to del until Marcus Morris can get back
Speaker 1: position to get in front of Lebron. This leaves d
Speaker 1: Low wide open. Lebron does this kind of thing a
Speaker 1: lot where he's driving down on his right side and
Speaker 1: he just whips it backwards. It's kind of like an
Speaker 1: around the back pass, but it's almost like straight back
Speaker 1: instead of around the back because Delo's in that position.
Speaker 1: Lebron's reading it the whole time. He knows this is
Speaker 1: Dlo's man, and he's just gonna whip it right back
Speaker 1: to Delo, who's wide open for three. So again the hedge,
Speaker 1: the hedge has a responsibility. He's not allowed to recover
Speaker 1: until he cuts off the driving angle. That's gonna be
Speaker 1: important because we're when we talk heat pacers the heat.
Speaker 1: Tyler Harrow makes a critical mistake in a hedge at
Speaker 1: the end of the game that we're going to get to.
Speaker 1: So that's why I wanted to kind of include that play.
Speaker 1: Also an example of the problems that the Lakers present offensively,
Speaker 1: but an example of that specific coverage. All Right, now,
Speaker 1: the Calves can't get a stop. Right, We're nine minutes
Speaker 1: into the second we or not even three minutes into
Speaker 1: the second quarter, and the Lakers almost have fifty points already.
Speaker 2: Calves go zone. Lakers run down.
Speaker 1: Essentially what they have set up here because it's an
Speaker 1: even front. They've got their three guards on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: For the two guards up top, Lebron is setting up
Speaker 1: a cut, a flash cut to the high post right
Speaker 1: in every two three zone, that's the soft spot. The
Speaker 1: soft spot is the middle of the floor in the
Speaker 1: two three. Lebron catches here, and as soon as he
Speaker 1: catches here, it puts these guys in a predicament because
Speaker 1: they're defending three on two, right, and look at Lebron.
Speaker 1: Lebron draws Evan Mobley on the catch, and Kniang knows
Speaker 1: we're always gonna give up a three before we give
Speaker 1: up a layup, so Kniang is diving down Lebron kind
Speaker 1: of like throws a little pass fake and then hits
Speaker 1: it out to Tareum Prints on the wing. Again, it's
Speaker 1: just gonna be hard to zone the Lakers when they
Speaker 1: have a guy that can catch the ball in the
Speaker 1: middle of the floor, who can make good decisions, and
Speaker 1: everybody around them can make shots. Again, they're second in
Speaker 1: three point percentage since January seventh, this forty three game stretch.
Speaker 1: All right, last play to kind of demonstrate some of
Speaker 1: the kind of quirky stuff the Lakers do to generate
Speaker 1: high quality offense. Lebron's gonna throw a crazy cut with
Speaker 1: the backscreen from Gabe Vincent to try to get Evan
Speaker 1: Mobley on a switch in the post because Morris is
Speaker 1: just a little stronger gets the switch. Okay, now Lebron's
Speaker 1: posting up and watch Dlo here. Delo is going to
Speaker 1: set an impromptu screen to try to trigger a switch
Speaker 1: that is baked into Cleveland's defensive scheme. So we talked
Speaker 1: about hedging on Lebron because they don't want to let
Speaker 1: these little guys get onto Lebron, right, But if a
Speaker 1: guard guard screen occurs, the vast majority of teams are
Speaker 1: just going to switch a guard guard screen, So Dlo
Speaker 1: is going to run up, see how he's pointing. Delo
Speaker 1: points to Gabe and runs up to backscreen Merrill, which
Speaker 1: in theory would trigger a switch. Darius Garland would then
Speaker 1: run out onto Gabe and Merrill would take Delo right.
Speaker 1: Delo's trying to trigger that switch, so he runs up
Speaker 1: and sets it. Okay, runs up to set. Garland is
Speaker 1: now going to kind of take a lunch step out
Speaker 1: towards Gabe as if they're gonna switch. But who's got
Speaker 1: the inside position here? Delo has the inside position, so
Speaker 1: he now has effectively forced or baited Cleveland into switching
Speaker 1: Merrill onto de Lo while he has inside position. He's
Speaker 1: just gonna slip right back inside for a layup.
Speaker 2: How easy is that? Like Dilo is so good at.
Speaker 1: That that kind of shit, that little that that just
Speaker 1: kind of like quirky, kind of nifty stuff. To take
Speaker 1: advantage of the defensive scheme that's on the table. We
Speaker 1: talked about earlier Lakers running a pick and roll. The
Speaker 1: calves are in an ice coverage. He screens the ice
Speaker 1: big to make it so that he's out of position
Speaker 1: in Austin can cross him over completely random generates a layup.
Speaker 1: Same sort of thing here. This is all he's doing.
Speaker 1: He's pointing and baiting. This is all a giant setup
Speaker 1: to basically backscreen, slip and again Garland. The only reason
Speaker 1: Garland takes that lunch step out and that's out this
Speaker 1: far as he's thinking, he's gonna be switching on the
Speaker 1: Gabe Vincent easy layup. So again the nation here, and
Speaker 1: what makes this all work is you've got two guys
Speaker 1: in Anthony Davis and Lebron James be consett screens and
Speaker 1: easily slip and easily get into the paint and finish
Speaker 1: in traffic and make reads when the defense collapses on
Speaker 1: him again. A lot of people don't realize this because
Speaker 1: the Lakers don't drive the basketball a time, but they've
Speaker 1: consistently been one of the biggest best paint offenses in
Speaker 1: the league. They attempt almost all of their shots, or
Speaker 1: the vast majority of their shots compared to the rest
Speaker 1: of the league, inside of five feet from the basket.
Speaker 2: That's what they do.
Speaker 1: That's why they get to the foul line so much.
Speaker 1: Everyone always thinks the Lakers get a ton of foul
Speaker 1: calls because it's some sort of league wide conspiracy. No,
Speaker 1: it's because they take almost all their shots right by
Speaker 1: the basket, and they've got guys that are good at
Speaker 1: drawing fouls, Guys like Anthony Davis, guys like Austin Reeves. Right,
Speaker 1: that's a big part of their attack on the outside.
Speaker 1: They are knockdown three point shooting team, second best three
Speaker 1: point percentage team since January seventh. Every single guy is
Speaker 1: capable of attacking closeouts and extending advantages. Ruey gets mismatches
Speaker 1: all time, all the time. They can run guard actions,
Speaker 1: inverted ball screens to get to get their guards slipping
Speaker 1: into open spaces. It is just an overwhelming amount of
Speaker 1: offensive skill with interior paint forces of Ruy, Hatchamura, Lebron James,
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis to tie it all together, and that's
Speaker 1: why they've been dominating, dominating teams offensively. And again, to
Speaker 1: go back to that YouTube comment, I was talking about
Speaker 1: when things were going really bad for the Lakers, and
Speaker 1: remember they were.
Speaker 2: Seventeen and nineteen.
Speaker 1: At one point, when they were seventeen and nineteen, You're right,
Speaker 1: I was kind of off the bandwagon and the way
Speaker 1: I've been kind of talking about the tiers. I have
Speaker 1: Boston and Denver on this tier, right, and then I
Speaker 1: have like a ton of teams in that second tier.
Speaker 1: But then there's like a tier below that that are
Speaker 1: the teams that are clearly lesser than that. Right, That's
Speaker 1: where I have like the Pelicans and the Kings and
Speaker 1: teams like that. Right, I had the Lakers in that
Speaker 1: tier until their offense exploded, And with their offense exploding,
Speaker 1: I now put them back in that middle tier. In
Speaker 1: order to ever have a chance to get up into
Speaker 1: that Denver and Boston tier, I think they needed to.
Speaker 1: I thought they needed to make a significant personnel upgrade
Speaker 1: at the deadline, Like had they got a Bruce Brown,
Speaker 1: had they got a dejon Te Murray, a guy who
Speaker 1: can really contend on the perimeter and generate dribble penetration
Speaker 1: on his own, I would have been more kind of
Speaker 1: inclined to think of the Lakers as an upper tier team.
Speaker 1: But I still believe that those personnel weaknesses will be
Speaker 1: an issue when we get to our contender rankings. You
Speaker 1: guys are gonna hear there in more detail the reasons
Speaker 1: why I'm not as high on LA's chances, as some
Speaker 1: people are that said, I do think their offense is real.
Speaker 1: It's an extended stretch of them being really, really hard
Speaker 1: to guard. I do think they're a better offensive team
Speaker 1: than they were last year by a sizable margin. I
Speaker 1: do think that gives them their puncher's chance, their proverbial
Speaker 1: puncher's chance. That's gonna put them into that middle tier.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on to Nick's Bucks. So the
Speaker 1: Bucks played a really good half in the first half,
Speaker 1: and it looked like they were gonna get back on track,
Speaker 1: and then they completely fell apart in the second half.
Speaker 1: They gave up seventy two points while only scoring forty
Speaker 1: eight eight. Main thing I saw on defense, the Knicks
Speaker 1: were just relentlessly attacking Damian Lillard. And this is a
Speaker 1: concept that I've talked about a lot on the show,
Speaker 1: but that we haven't had a chance to look at
Speaker 1: on film. And so what we're gonna do today is
Speaker 1: go look at some clips to demonstrate how Damian Lillard
Speaker 1: can be a pretty devastating weak point in the Milwaukee
Speaker 1: Bucks defense.
Speaker 2: All right, let's get to the film.
Speaker 1: All right, This first example here, og and Nanobi is
Speaker 1: going to attack Dame on a switch. So OG's on Janis.
Speaker 1: Josh Hart is literally just going to screen real quick
Speaker 1: on Yannis and then cut through to force Dame to guard. Okay,
Speaker 1: now Dame's on on island Og. As soon as he
Speaker 1: sees that he's got that opportunity, he's gonna drive hard
Speaker 1: and then pivot over his shoulder and get an easy,
Speaker 1: little mid range jump shot. Now that's gonna be a
Speaker 1: theme that you guys are gonna see a lot here
Speaker 1: in the film. Is specifically finding a way to get
Speaker 1: Dame switched onto either Og or onto Jalen Brunson and
Speaker 1: to have success attacking him in individual actions. Here is
Speaker 1: an example of a ghost screen.
Speaker 2: Let's see here.
Speaker 1: So again, as we pause here, Beasley is is guarding
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown or excuse me, Jayleen Brunson. Dante DiVincenzo is
Speaker 1: setting another kind of impromptu screen because he's trying to
Speaker 1: get Dame here. Right, Dame is on his heels and
Speaker 1: way back. He's way too passive defensively. Jalen Brunson identifies
Speaker 1: it immediately and just attacks downhill and does his patent
Speaker 1: did low gather move to get to the foul line
Speaker 1: and the foul, and that's not the last time you'll
Speaker 1: see there's another example coming up. Like a lot of
Speaker 1: those are where Dame is getting into his switches. He's
Speaker 1: switching passively way back on his heels, and he's just
Speaker 1: too small for that, and so they're able to get
Speaker 1: like a real head of team going through him to
Speaker 1: the basket.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: This next one is o j Anobi going through Dame again.
Speaker 1: So the Knicks runs some offense. There's a miss and
Speaker 1: an offensive rebound from I think Devincenzo misses or does
Speaker 1: it get kicked out?
Speaker 2: Okay gets kicked out.
Speaker 1: So here's where our This is not so much a
Speaker 1: action designed to get a switched, but with the defense
Speaker 1: in rotation, Dame had to rotate to og Okay. Now
Speaker 1: the way that the cross match has worked here, Giannis
Speaker 1: is on Hart and Sign and Brook Lopez is on
Speaker 1: Dante DiVincenzo and Oji Annobe quickly identifies this and just
Speaker 1: drives on Dame inside easily gets around and gets into
Speaker 1: the lane, draws Brooke and Help and makes the easy
Speaker 1: kickout pass at Devincenzo.
Speaker 2: It's a three in the corner.
Speaker 1: This one is not Dame, but it's a similar example
Speaker 1: of matchup hunting, and just an example of how devastating
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson can be as a playoff weapon picking on matchups.
Speaker 1: Here he likes his speed matchup against Jay Crowder, another
Speaker 1: kind of transition brush screen from The Knicks. They do
Speaker 1: this kind of thing a lot. Josh Hart's little brush
Speaker 1: screen on Malik gets the swing. Now it's Crowder. Now
Speaker 1: they clear the side and he's just gonna hit him
Speaker 1: with this patent a little between the legs or a
Speaker 1: little crossover dribble makes a little bank shot off the glass.
Speaker 1: How about josh Hart getting on the action a little bit?
Speaker 1: So Runson's going up against Beasley. Now Dame is guarding
Speaker 1: josh Hart here, and josh Hart identifies this and they
Speaker 1: just this is one of the most pitiful efforts to
Speaker 1: get over the top of the screen I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: Mitchell Robinson doesn't even actually make contact. He slips out
Speaker 1: of it early. Watch how Dame just concedes the driving lane.
Speaker 1: There was no contact, there was no screen. He just
Speaker 1: lazy kind of meanders over the top easily allows josh
Speaker 1: Hart to get downhill. That allows josh Hart to engage
Speaker 1: Bobby Portis, which forces Jay Crowder to come off of
Speaker 1: one of the best shooters in the league, Dante DiVincenzo.
Speaker 1: It forces Crowder to come off to tag Mitchell Robinson
Speaker 1: to prevent the lob. Josh makes the easy kickout pass
Speaker 1: to Devincenzo in the corner and he knocks down to
Speaker 1: three again. Like it's just there's just got to be
Speaker 1: a little more effort there, like Josh Hart should not
Speaker 1: be able to that easily get to his spots in
Speaker 1: a ball screen. Not to mention that's probably a guy
Speaker 1: you can duck under the pick on if anything. This possession,
Speaker 1: the Bucks are in kind of like a matchup zone,
Speaker 1: so as guys are cutting through, you can see them
Speaker 1: talking matchups. But once we get into the lake clock here,
Speaker 1: it basically converts to man de man Giannis actually follows
Speaker 1: og all the way up the floor and now it's
Speaker 1: just one on one basketball brunts and against Damian Lillard.
Speaker 1: His eyes light up and he just immediately goes to work.
Speaker 1: Now as he's backing down, Dame Jay Crowder is basically
Speaker 1: zoning up. He's come all the way over on the
Speaker 1: strong side, which is forced he is basically forced port
Speaker 1: Is to come down and get inside position on Mitchell
Speaker 1: Robinson in case he shoots so he can get a rebound.
Speaker 2: This leaves Josh Hart completely unguarded on the weak side corner.
Speaker 2: Easy three.
Speaker 1: So once again picking Dame to bring multiple defenders into
Speaker 1: the equation. All right, same sort of thing. Here comes
Speaker 1: Duce McBride. Let's get Dame switched on to Jalen. Got
Speaker 1: the switch, and now it's just I'm downhill easy getting
Speaker 1: to my spot for the floater. This one was interesting.
Speaker 1: I so at first I was like, Okay, maybe this
Speaker 1: is the scheme. So Pat Conington's guarding Jalen Brunson on
Speaker 1: an island, Damian Lillard is guarding Dante DiVincenzo on the
Speaker 1: right wing, okay, and Dame just goes, screw it, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna double okay. And that he's now doubling off of
Speaker 1: one of the very best shooters in the league, as
Speaker 1: I keep saying, and a guy that's already made multiple
Speaker 1: shots recently, so he's in rhythm just being unguarded. And
Speaker 1: what gave it away for me is here's Doc Rivers.
Speaker 1: Watch Doc Rivers' reaction, He's like, what.
Speaker 2: Are you doing?
Speaker 1: So is Dame randomly just impromptu double teaming Jalen Brunson
Speaker 1: off of one of the best shooters on the team.
Speaker 1: That doesn't make a ton of sense. That's freelancing. That's
Speaker 1: the opposite of game plan discipline. This is actually a
Speaker 1: funny one because uh uh, Jalen misses this shot. But
Speaker 1: look at how Dame is just running in circles off
Speaker 1: of this fake from Jalen Brunson, like he's just so
Speaker 1: comfortable working against him one on one. Here we go,
Speaker 1: same sort of thing, Dante DiVincenzo screen. Let's get Dame
Speaker 1: on a switch and let's take Dame off the dribble
Speaker 1: for another bucket. Now here's another example of Dame doing
Speaker 1: a soft switch and allowing Jalen Brunson to get ahead
Speaker 1: of Steam.
Speaker 2: Here we go. So they're running up to set it.
Speaker 1: But Jalen actually turns the corner early and Dame is
Speaker 1: just on his heels and has absolutely no chance with
Speaker 1: him coming at him like that. So again, I mean,
Speaker 1: that's like almost a dozen what's at like ten, ten
Speaker 1: to twelve baskets just in the second half of this game,
Speaker 1: where they were just relentlessly picking on, picking on Dame
Speaker 1: whenever they got an opportunity, and like it. It's just
Speaker 1: one of those things where like I talk about entry points,
Speaker 1: the idea of entry points, the idea there is like
Speaker 1: this is how I get the defense in rotation. Right,
Speaker 1: So like a loaded up defense when we think of
Speaker 1: when we think about a loaded up defense, right, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna see some example. Look, this is a good
Speaker 1: example right here. So this is a loaded up defense, right,
Speaker 1: So we have Giannis is ready, he's the low man.
Speaker 1: He's prepared if anybody gets behind brook Lopez to kind
Speaker 1: of clean up the mess there.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 1: It is just a more difficult opportunity to score, right.
Speaker 1: But once you're in rotation, it is just driving kick basketball.
Speaker 1: We saw that earlier Dame ended up on ogn Andobi
Speaker 1: brook Lopez ended up on Dante DiVincenzo. It's like everyone's
Speaker 1: in cross matches. Everyone's just closing out on the next guy.
Speaker 1: Once you're in rotation, it's just a free for all
Speaker 1: and your set defense doesn't really matter at all at
Speaker 1: that point. And so when you have an entry point,
Speaker 1: a guy like Dame that you can consistently use to
Speaker 1: get the defense into rotation, then it mitigates the strengths
Speaker 1: of your set defense because they're not having to go
Speaker 1: against you know, your loaded up kind of scheme. Instead,
Speaker 1: it's just close out attack to closed out attack of
Speaker 1: closed out find an open shot here, find an open
Speaker 1: shot there that, or or you're on an island and
Speaker 1: he's just getting easy baskets over the top of Dame.
Speaker 1: And so that's kind of an It's another problem that
Speaker 1: we run into with Like the Minnesota Timberwolves have been
Speaker 1: an excellent defense all year, but they really struggle to
Speaker 1: get stops.
Speaker 2: And crunch time.
Speaker 1: And a big part of that is, like there's usually
Speaker 1: a guy in that lineup that you can pick on.
Speaker 1: If you can pick on him, you can get the
Speaker 1: defense in rotation. If you get the defense and rotation,
Speaker 1: it's not go bear waiting waiting on you at the
Speaker 1: rim every single time, right. So, like that's kind of
Speaker 1: the concept of that as an entry point on offense.
Speaker 1: In this particular game, it's just a lot of bad
Speaker 1: basketball from Damianis. They combined to go five for fifteen
Speaker 1: from the field. I only credit Dante DiVincenzo and og Nanobi.
Speaker 1: Oj Nobi just did a really nice job on Yiannis,
Speaker 1: like sliding his feet, absorbing contact and digging down at
Speaker 1: the basketball and kind of knocking it loose. Dante DiVincenzo
Speaker 1: did a really good job in ball pressure on Damian
Speaker 1: Lillard and chasing him over the top of screens.
Speaker 2: And then the Knicks.
Speaker 1: Biggs did a really good job getting up to the
Speaker 1: level of the screen and stopping those pull up opportunities
Speaker 1: for Dame. Here are a couple of clips just to
Speaker 1: show you the Knicks defense. We're just gonna rip through
Speaker 1: these pretty quick. There is a transition runout from Giannis.
Speaker 1: Watch watch Ognnobi absorbed the blow from Giannis and force
Speaker 1: the turnover. He's going to try to attack, slides his feet,
Speaker 1: absorbs the contact, gets his hands in there, swipes it away.
Speaker 1: Exact same kind of thing here, transition runout. Giannis looks
Speaker 1: to attack Og absorb the contact, knock the ball loose.
Speaker 2: Here, Jannis is gonna try.
Speaker 1: To bully og a Nanobi and he absorbs the contact
Speaker 1: enough for Mitchell Robinson to come over and help.
Speaker 2: Watches.
Speaker 1: He takes that contact that slows down Giannis enough for
Speaker 1: Mitchell Robinson to get in there and get the block.
Speaker 1: I thought Oji did a really nice job in this game.
Speaker 1: Here's Dante DiVincenzo staying attached. Look at the difference in
Speaker 1: effort getting over the top of the screen from Dante
Speaker 1: compared to that clip I showed you from Dame earlier.
Speaker 1: Gets over the top and he doesn't foul, but he
Speaker 1: disrupts and forced Dame to shoot like a leaning forward
Speaker 1: jump shot, which is a much much tougher jump shot.
Speaker 1: This time, Giannis gets a really good screen, but og
Speaker 1: A Nanobi ends up holding his ground and doing a
Speaker 1: really nice job sliding and staying in front of Dame
Speaker 1: and forcing the miss. Now let's talking about the biggs.
Speaker 1: This time Isaiah Hartenstein is gonna hold up on a
Speaker 1: switch against Dame and Iso force him into a really
Speaker 1: tough step back. Here's the exact same thing in the
Speaker 1: first half of that game. Hartenstein on a switch against Dame,
Speaker 1: slides his feet, forces him into a tough step back.
Speaker 1: It's a really good contest, forces a miss. And then
Speaker 1: this is just incredible effort for Mitchell Robinson. We have
Speaker 1: a transition possession here, so off the brunts and miss
Speaker 1: Bucks are running. Watch Mitchell Robinson. This is unbelievable. Watch
Speaker 1: Mischell Robinson. As soon as the ball is caught, he's
Speaker 1: sprinting back Okay, sprint, Sprint, Sprint, Sprint, Sprint. Now Portos
Speaker 1: is gonna quick set a screen. Here's communication Josh Hart. Hey,
Speaker 1: he's getting ready to set the screen. He's telling him.
Speaker 1: Robinson knows that Dame is an excellent shooter and he
Speaker 1: has to be in a high drop coverage. He has
Speaker 1: to be up at the level of the screen. He
Speaker 1: gets all the way around to that strong side and
Speaker 1: then Dave takes the shot and Mitchell Robinson blocks it.
Speaker 1: We got to watch that in real time. This is
Speaker 1: just unbelievable effort for Mitchell Robinson and communication from the Knicks.
Speaker 1: Shot goes up, Sprint, Sprint, Sprint, sprintce sprint, Josh Hart communicate,
Speaker 1: get back over there. They're setting a pick up at
Speaker 1: the level. Block the pull up shot. Just unbelievable defense
Speaker 1: for Mitchell Robinson. Was really really impressed with the Knicks
Speaker 1: all night. All right, last thing we're gonna get into
Speaker 1: in this game before we move on is the Damiannis
Speaker 1: pick and roll. So the Knicks offense obviously really struggled
Speaker 1: down the stretch of this game too. They had just
Speaker 1: forty eight points in the second half. And there's a
Speaker 1: concept I've been talking about a lot on the show
Speaker 1: this season having to do with the difference between cleared
Speaker 1: side actions and occupied corner actions, and how I always
Speaker 1: talk about how I like occupied corner actions with the
Speaker 1: top tier playmakers in the league, but for the lower
Speaker 1: level playmakers, I prefer or cleared side actions because they
Speaker 1: can actually see the whole floor in front of them
Speaker 1: and they can make reads easier. Well, I wanted to
Speaker 1: show some plays to demonstrate that. So first of all,
Speaker 1: this is what the Bucks typically do. And to give
Speaker 1: you an example, I didn't count a single cleared side
Speaker 1: ball screen in this particular game. I had a really
Speaker 1: hard time just finding an example of them doing it
Speaker 1: the way that I want. I had to go way
Speaker 1: back into older games to find some examples that fit this.
Speaker 1: But here's what they were doing for the most part
Speaker 1: last night. And again, Bobby Portos is on this side
Speaker 1: of the floor, so it's occupied. Also, they're running the
Speaker 1: ball screen towards the sideline. Giannis is rolling into just
Speaker 1: a lot of traffic, so like even when he catches here,
Speaker 1: like he catches here, but everything is on both sides
Speaker 1: of him, He's got to read a lot of space.
Speaker 1: Brooke is behind him for instance, and notice how he
Speaker 1: quickly hesitates and picks up his dribble. It's because he's
Speaker 1: not comfortable catching with the head of steam right there
Speaker 1: makes the kickout past to Brook and they're able to
Speaker 1: quickly rotate out of it and the advantage is gone.
Speaker 1: And so that's an example. As he's rolling into the
Speaker 1: middle of the floor, he's rolling into traffic. He's less
Speaker 1: confident and it's less of an advantage for the Bucks.
Speaker 1: That play actually ends in a turnover as well.
Speaker 2: Here we go.
Speaker 1: Here's another one. Jannis sets the screen. Jiannis doesn't even
Speaker 1: roll on this one. It just kind of that's the
Speaker 1: same play actually the next one that guys so working
Speaker 1: out the kinks here, all right, So on this one
Speaker 1: we get a good screen, but Giannis just doesn't roll,
Speaker 1: and so Jannie is like, he's not a spot up
Speaker 1: threat there. If he rolls hard, he can be in
Speaker 1: this area. And even if Dame misses this layup like
Speaker 1: he does, Giannis is probably going to clean that up.
Speaker 1: But he just doesn't roll. That needs to happen. But
Speaker 1: same sort of thing. He'd be rolling into traffic if
Speaker 1: he did. Here's an example from the Pelicans game of
Speaker 1: them giving up Ah on the roll to the rim,
Speaker 1: Yonis Valanciunas is able to make an easy rotation, so
Speaker 1: they're gonna go a little dribble hand off with Dame here.
Speaker 1: Dame is then gonna get the ball screen from Yannis.
Speaker 2: After they botch that.
Speaker 1: Slips out of it. But again he's rolling into traffic.
Speaker 1: He doesn't know what's happening behind him, he can't see
Speaker 1: any of this, and so Jonas is easily able to
Speaker 1: step up and disrupt this play at the rim, because
Speaker 1: once again he's rolling into too much traffic. So here's
Speaker 1: what it looks like when you run the same exact
Speaker 1: action the way that I'm asking on a cleared side.
Speaker 1: This one is actually in a little bit of transition.
Speaker 1: So Dame's running up the floor, but because of the
Speaker 1: way this is laid out, all three bucks are on
Speaker 1: the weak side. So this is the exact configuration that
Speaker 1: I want. I want Dame working towards the middle, and
Speaker 1: I want Yiannis rolling into all of this empty space,
Speaker 1: because if he rolls into that empty space and he
Speaker 1: catches here, he can have ahead of steam but see
Speaker 1: the entire floor in front of him and not have
Speaker 1: to worry about what's going on behind him. In this case,
Speaker 1: he rolls into the open space. He didn't have to
Speaker 1: worry about someone tagging. He can see all that. If
Speaker 1: Nicholas Patum came up, he'd literally be able to see
Speaker 1: this happen. Everything's in front of him. He's rolling into
Speaker 1: open space. Same sort of thing here. Because Connaton cuts through,
Speaker 1: we have a cleared side on this side of the floor.
Speaker 1: Janna sets the screen. Now he's rolling into open space.
Speaker 1: Watch when he catches here. So Jannis catches Philly, still
Speaker 1: loaded up, but they're loaded up in a way that
Speaker 1: is completely in front of Gianni's He can see everything
Speaker 1: and so he's able to quick make a decision here,
Speaker 1: like I can turn the corner on Tobias easily just
Speaker 1: by dropping my right shoulder. So he gets down he
Speaker 1: hill just drops his right shoulder and finish. It's just
Speaker 1: an easier decision for him to make when he catches
Speaker 1: in open space as opposed to in traffic. One more example,
Speaker 1: same sort of thing here, Crowder, Lopez and Malik Beasley.
Speaker 2: All on the weak side.
Speaker 1: Jannis is going to set the pick and roll into
Speaker 1: open space. As he's rolling in open space. Once again,
Speaker 1: he can identify everything happening on the floor. In this case,
Speaker 1: James Harden is the guy that's got to tag him.
Speaker 1: It's just an easy lob and finished for Yiannis at
Speaker 1: the rim. So again, the key that I'm getting at
Speaker 1: here is getting you on us the ball, but with
Speaker 1: a head of steam and with all the defense in
Speaker 1: front of him so that he can easily make reads.
Speaker 1: And if you do it on the cleared side where
Speaker 1: he rolls into the short corner, it's just a lot
Speaker 1: easier for him than when you have him rolling into
Speaker 1: the middle of the floor with all that traffic. And
Speaker 1: I'm glad that we were able to finally give you
Speaker 1: guys kind of a visual representation of what I was
Speaker 1: talking about. All right, moving on to Heat Pacers. This
Speaker 1: one We're just going to spend a couple of minutes
Speaker 1: on because I wanted to just kind of show the
Speaker 1: big sequence of the game that kind of determined the outcome. So,
Speaker 1: as I've talked about so much on the show, execution
Speaker 1: is the biggest thing that determines the outcome of late
Speaker 1: game situations, right, And this game was interesting because the
Speaker 1: Pacers jumped the Heat early and he battled back and
Speaker 1: they actually got it to two with three minutes left.
Speaker 1: It was a one oh three to one oh one game,
Speaker 1: and back to back to back mistakes by the Miami
Speaker 1: Heat cost them, and so I wanted to show you
Speaker 1: guys that just to demonstrate how execution can blow things
Speaker 1: for a team.
Speaker 2: Alright, let's get back to the film.
Speaker 1: So one of three, one oh one, and we are
Speaker 1: going to get an example of a bad hedge like
Speaker 1: I talked about from the Lakers game. Okay, Tyler Harrow
Speaker 1: cuts off as TJ McConnell drive, it gets kicked out. Okay,
Speaker 1: Now McConnell is going to set a screen on Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler and Tyler Harrow's job is to hedge and then recover,
Speaker 1: Okay to t J McConnell, which is actually probably one
Speaker 1: of the easier hedge and recovers that he would have
Speaker 1: based on the fact that TJ's not like some sort
Speaker 1: of lights out movement shooter. Right, what did we talk
Speaker 1: about from the Cavs game, Right, Tyler Harrow's job when
Speaker 1: he hedges is to cut off the drive. That's all
Speaker 1: that matters. It's the one thing he has to do.
Speaker 1: As long as he cuts off the drive, even if
Speaker 1: he doesn't give up a three. As long as he
Speaker 1: cuts off the drive, he has done his job. TJ
Speaker 1: sets a screen, slips out Tyler Harrow. Tyler Harrow's hedge
Speaker 1: like takes a terrible angle, Like you could tell he's
Speaker 1: getting ready to hedge, but he just takes a terrible
Speaker 1: angle and Tyres Aliburton goes right around him for an
Speaker 1: easy layup. And again one job there, come further out.
Speaker 1: He's got to meet him. He's got to meet him
Speaker 1: out here and just force him to take a retreat dribble.
Speaker 1: Because if Tyre's Halliburton takes a retreat dribble, Jimmy Butler rotates,
Speaker 1: Tyler Harrow gets back and then we're fine. But because
Speaker 1: he takes a bad angle on this hedge, it's a layup.
Speaker 1: Now it's a four point game. Go down to the
Speaker 1: other end. The Miami heater going to run an action
Speaker 1: to try to get Tyre's Halliburton switched on to Jimmy Butler.
Speaker 2: So the good Jovich.
Speaker 1: And basically Jimmy just wants to set this screen to
Speaker 1: get Tyres Halliburton switched onto him and then go to
Speaker 1: work instead. Yovich goes, it's my turn and drives in
Speaker 1: and takes this bad floater and hits the side of
Speaker 1: the backboard, So a bad offensive decision. And then off
Speaker 1: of that we have bad floor balance in transition. Tyler
Speaker 1: Harrow walking. Watch Tyler Harrow walking, still walking. Juxtapose that
Speaker 1: with the possession we got for Mitchell Robinson sprinting back
Speaker 1: on defense in the last segment. He's walking, now he's jogging.
Speaker 1: We've got three guys here, right, what are the order?
Speaker 2: What's the order of operations for a transition? Right?
Speaker 1: Stop the ball, protect the basket. So one of these
Speaker 1: guys needs to be communicating I've got ball, and then
Speaker 1: the other two both need to be getting back to
Speaker 1: the rim. Instead, there's no communication, and aaron Ne Smith
Speaker 1: just easily leaks out from behind and gets to the
Speaker 1: foul line, makes both free throws, and literally, just like that,
Speaker 1: we go from a one oh three to one oh
Speaker 1: one game with three minutes left to a one oh
Speaker 1: seven to one oh one game with two minutes left,
Speaker 1: and it's basically over from there. The Heat would have
Speaker 1: to play perfect to win from there, and it's hard
Speaker 1: to play perfect. So a great example of how like
Speaker 1: you can play a great basketball game do everything right
Speaker 1: and get into a position where you're where you can win.
Speaker 1: And then if you don't execute so three easy mistake
Speaker 1: at three mistakes right, Tyler Harrow bad hedge Nikola Jovich,
Speaker 1: with eight seconds on the shot clock, shoots a floater
Speaker 1: off the side of the backboard when Jimmy Butler has
Speaker 1: Tyre's Haliburton on him closing out at him of all
Speaker 1: things too. And then finally bad transition defense not picking
Speaker 1: up the ball and protecting the rim, poor communication jogging
Speaker 1: from Tyler Harrow. Suddenly your chance to win the game
Speaker 1: is over. And that's how quickly it can happen when
Speaker 1: it comes to uh to execution. All right, Rockets mass
Speaker 1: super super fun game. The Rockets jumped them early, Dallas
Speaker 1: battles back, sends it to ot off of a Dante
Speaker 1: Xum three. We're gonna go through some of that on
Speaker 1: film as well. Dallas gets a big win. Kyrie Irving
Speaker 1: had forty eight points in this game. We're starting on
Speaker 1: film by looking at Kyrie Irving's footwork. Now, one of
Speaker 1: the things I talk about a lot on this show
Speaker 1: is footwork is the means with which you get to
Speaker 1: your spots.
Speaker 2: So there's a spot on the floor you're trying to
Speaker 2: get to.
Speaker 1: If you do not have quality footwork, you're not gonna
Speaker 1: be able to get there. This one starts with Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving isoing Dylan Brooks, one of the best perimeter defenders
Speaker 1: in the league. He's going to use the dribble combination
Speaker 1: to get down here to the middle of the floor.
Speaker 1: And when he gets here, watch this right here, he's
Speaker 1: gonna spin. But spinning is tough footwork, and a spin
Speaker 1: move by itself is not enough. He needs to spin
Speaker 1: and then take two long steps to get to the rim.
Speaker 1: Let's watch it in real speed. First, watch how strong
Speaker 1: these steps are. Spin one, two up to the basket
Speaker 1: to finish through contact. Literally, he had the strength off
Speaker 1: of the spin move to take two additional lunging steps
Speaker 1: through a bigger, stronger defender and to finish at the rim.
Speaker 2: Just watch it.
Speaker 1: Watch the power in his lower body as he makes
Speaker 1: this spin move. And this is perfect footwork. Boom spin,
Speaker 1: but he maintains that line of power going towards the
Speaker 1: basket and finish. Just incredible footwork from Kyrieving. And again,
Speaker 1: that's a spot he's trying to get to. That his
Speaker 1: spin moved footwork is what allowed him to get there.
Speaker 1: Same type of thing here working in ISO against Jalen Green.
Speaker 1: Drives left right, gets cut off. Then he's going to
Speaker 1: step through with his left foot to set Jalen Green
Speaker 1: up for a fade away step through, pump, fake spin
Speaker 1: over his right shoulder. Look at this footwork. Watch this again.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put it in slow motion this time. Watch
Speaker 1: Kyrie's footwork because he gets down here boom, step through
Speaker 1: with the left foot, fake pivot over the right shoulder.
Speaker 2: Just absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 1: Again, it's all about him being able to get to
Speaker 1: any spot on the floor with any footwork because he
Speaker 1: has polished that specific part of his game so well.
Speaker 1: Really impressive stuff from Kyrie Irving. So the next thing
Speaker 1: we're gonna be looking at is what I thought was
Speaker 1: the hero of the game for Dallas. Late in this game,
Speaker 1: Big plays from their forge defensively. Here we have a
Speaker 1: ball screen. On the ball screen, we get a slip
Speaker 1: and PJ. Washington is the low man here right. So
Speaker 1: because the roller got behind the line of defense, he
Speaker 1: has to come off of Cam Whitmore in the corner
Speaker 1: and he's got to help at the rim. He's going
Speaker 1: to get the block on Jock Landale. Then he's gonna
Speaker 1: run up the floor and we have a really he's
Speaker 1: got a smaller defender in front of him, so he's
Speaker 1: gonna do a really nice job of tucking to gather
Speaker 1: the ball, like taking the contact and finishing at the rim.
Speaker 1: See how he protects the ball. Looking at how far
Speaker 1: he brought the ball over on his left side right here,
Speaker 1: like he's bringing away on his left side to protect,
Speaker 1: swinging that right shoulder through to clear out. Getting the
Speaker 1: easy layout. Now we're gonna get Maxie Cleeb but getting involved.
Speaker 1: I thought he was the unbelievable defensively at the end
Speaker 1: of this game. This is going to be an example
Speaker 1: of a peel off switch to get a steal. So
Speaker 1: this ball is gonna end up in Kyrie Irving's hands.
Speaker 1: And when Jabari Smith sets the screen, uh, Kyrie calls
Speaker 1: for the switch and then Fred van Vliet kind of
Speaker 1: beats him to the side, but Kyrie Irving calls another
Speaker 1: switch and he switches. Watch Kaliba right here he sees
Speaker 1: Kyrie's got him. He identifies that Luca's there, Kyrie's there.
Speaker 1: He knows now that he doesn't need to chase anymore,
Speaker 1: and so at the last second he bails out on
Speaker 1: it and pulls back. Fred van Vliet tries toss it
Speaker 1: back to Jabari Smith and Kleba gets the steal. Here's
Speaker 1: a couple of stops, same exact thing twice, Kleiba getting
Speaker 1: switched onto Jalen Green and forcing him into tough pull
Speaker 1: up threes and getting misses miss number one. Same sort
Speaker 1: of thing here, ball screen, kleebah an island. Look at
Speaker 1: this contest. This is a lot of length to force
Speaker 1: a couple of big myss.
Speaker 2: Is there? All right?
Speaker 1: Let's get into crunch time. So it's one twenty six,
Speaker 1: one twenty five, and this is actually an example of
Speaker 1: a boxed rotation from the MAVs. So Luca's gonna linger
Speaker 1: in a hedge here. So Bullock is setting the screen
Speaker 1: and he's gonna flip slip out of it to the
Speaker 1: three point line. Luca lingers in a hedge. Now, Jason
Speaker 1: Kidd has clearly set up a funky system of rotations here.
Speaker 1: Typically this would be a hedge and recover, right, Luca
Speaker 1: would hang out just long enough for X him to
Speaker 1: recover and then Luca would recover. But instead Luca points
Speaker 1: because it appears you could see him immediately point. They
Speaker 1: do the windshield wiper rotation from the opposite end of
Speaker 1: the floor, so they're expecting Luca to basically recovered to
Speaker 1: Dylan Brooks.
Speaker 2: But PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington is slow and so as you can see Bulock slips,
Speaker 1: Washington should know this rotation is coming. You can see
Speaker 1: him kind of starting, but he's just too late. And
Speaker 1: when he makes that rotation, it's just too easy a
Speaker 1: look for too good of a shooter. So that gets
Speaker 1: it to one twenty eight, one twenty six. As we know,
Speaker 1: Jabari Smith goes up and misses a couple of free throws,
Speaker 1: and now we're gonna get our final sequence. This is
Speaker 1: just an example of Luka Doncic's gravity. So Bullock is
Speaker 1: guarding Xom and Dylan Brooks is guarding Luca. He's gonna
Speaker 1: throw that pitch. Reggie Bullock is you can literally see
Speaker 1: it in his body language. This is this is oh
Speaker 1: shit body language. He's like, oh shit, here comes Luca, right,
Speaker 1: So he's like oh no, no, no, and Dylan Brooks
Speaker 1: is chasing so hard from behind, and he gets there.
Speaker 1: But Dante exam is wide open as a result, and
Speaker 1: Dante Exam has been dead on, like dead on with
Speaker 1: his catch and shoot shooting this year ties the game
Speaker 1: and sends it to ot. Here we get another big
Speaker 1: play from Kleeve at the rim on defense. Fred van
Speaker 1: Blied is gonna get downhill and Cleeve is gonna block
Speaker 1: him on the opposite side of the rim. This is
Speaker 1: actually an example. So down the stretch of this game,
Speaker 1: the Rockets just started hard doubling the MAVs every single time.
Speaker 1: So here we're gonna get a double team a PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington's gonna slip to the middle of the floor. It's
Speaker 1: gonna get swung through really good rotations from from Houston.
Speaker 1: Balling's up with Exum and Xem is dribbling out to
Speaker 1: try to get the ball back to Luca. So he's
Speaker 1: looking at Luca, but Dylan Brooks is on in full
Speaker 1: ball denial literally forty feet from the basket, and there's
Speaker 1: only ten seconds left and Kyrie's all the way down
Speaker 1: over here, so Exum basically has to try to make
Speaker 1: a playoff the bounce, and he's like, sure, I can
Speaker 1: make plays with the ball in my hands.
Speaker 2: That used to be what I do.
Speaker 1: Hard crossover dribble and Fred Van Vlee easy to the
Speaker 1: basket for a layup. That's really valuable matchup attacking skill
Speaker 1: there from Dante Exum. All right, moving on, how about
Speaker 1: Maxi Kliba at the rim again? So Josh Green beats PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington straight verticality from Kleiba gets to stop at the
Speaker 1: rim just unbelievable defensively, and then going the other way,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get another impromptu double team this time of Kyrie.
Speaker 1: Okay ball gets swung. There's an impromptu double team of
Speaker 1: Luca that gets swung to Kleeba. Kleeba is not in
Speaker 1: a position to score, so he just tosses it to Kyrie.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get another impromptu double team from Jeff Green
Speaker 1: this time Kleiba kind of slips into that opening draws
Speaker 1: Jalen Green and then PJ. Washington gets a wide open
Speaker 1: corner three. So again, just the advantage of having stars
Speaker 1: that continually draw double teams means you're constantly in rotation,
Speaker 1: which means as long as you make good reads, you're
Speaker 1: gonna get great looks. Good read there from Kleeba, wide
Speaker 1: open three for PJ.
Speaker 2: Washington.
Speaker 1: And how about one more defensive effort for good measure.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get this time. Derek Jones Junior getting switched
Speaker 1: onto Jalen Green and making an athletic play to stop
Speaker 1: him at the rim. Big time win for the MAVs.
Speaker 1: It's crazy how they've turned their season around here down
Speaker 1: the stretch, just with incredible defense, rebounding, and obviously the
Speaker 1: power of their stars. All right, that's it for our
Speaker 1: film session. We're gonna be headed into our top ten
Speaker 1: contenders now. Actually before we to quick tie off on.
Speaker 2: The Dallas bid. You know that to me, that Kleba, PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington, Derek Jones Junior, That to me is the main
Speaker 1: difference between Phoenix and Dallas. They're very similar in the
Speaker 1: sense that that these incredible shot creators that are gonna
Speaker 1: consistently draw multiple defenders. Phoenix is gonna look better in
Speaker 1: a lot of those situations just simply because they have
Speaker 1: so much shooting around and they don't have, you know,
Speaker 1: guys like PJ. Washington maxically, but Derek Jones Junior, where
Speaker 1: it's like, I could live with this guy shooting if
Speaker 1: I want to. Most of the rotation players for Phoenix
Speaker 1: are dead eye shooters. That said, they simply do not
Speaker 1: have the type of versatile defensive forwards that Dallas can
Speaker 1: bring to the table, Guys like PJ. Washington, guys like
Speaker 1: Maxi Kleba. So I actually think Phoenix has a little
Speaker 1: bit higher of a offensive ceiling than Dallas does. But
Speaker 1: I think Dallas has a little bit higher of a
Speaker 1: defensive ceiling, and I think that that could end up
Speaker 1: voting even more well for them when they get to
Speaker 1: the postseason. I'm actually still up in the air for like,
Speaker 1: Phoenix and Dallas are like my biggest toss up right
Speaker 1: now in my tender rankings, which we're gonna get to
Speaker 1: later this week. All right, before we get out of
Speaker 1: here today, Like I said, we're gonna be going through
Speaker 1: our top ten contenders. This is gonna be ranked purely
Speaker 1: based on what I'm expecting from these teams in the postseason.
Speaker 1: A couple of quick notes on the standings. After Boston
Speaker 1: and Denver, Oklahoma City and Minnesota are the next two
Speaker 1: teams in the standings right. They're both young athletic teams
Speaker 1: that dominated the regular season. They have twenty four and
Speaker 1: twenty five losses. Then we have the Clippers. They have
Speaker 1: twenty eight losses. They were really good for a big
Speaker 1: chunk of the season, and they've been pretty mediocre for
Speaker 1: a big chunk of the season. They're kind of in
Speaker 1: that mid middle zone. But the next thirteen teams Dallas, Milwaukee, Orlando,
Speaker 1: New York, Phoenix, New Orleans, Cleveland, Sacramento, Indiana, the Lakers, Philadelphia, Miami,
Speaker 1: and Golden State. All thirteen teams in that list have
Speaker 1: between thirty and thirty five losses. They're all separated by
Speaker 1: five games in the lost column, so like they're all
Speaker 1: crunched up on each other. So standings for, there's a
Speaker 1: bunch of teams in both conferences that I have ranked
Speaker 1: more differently than where they're at in the standings, and
Speaker 1: it's because we're really splitting hairs at this point. Aside
Speaker 1: from those teams at the top of the league, everyone's
Speaker 1: kind of crunched up on each other, and so I'm
Speaker 1: more looking at matchups, personnel, and how I expect those
Speaker 1: things to translate to the postseason. So we're gonna be
Speaker 1: going from ten to one to start, and I'm just
Speaker 1: going to do ten, nine and eight today. So number
Speaker 1: ten is actually going to be a two for one.
Speaker 1: It's the Heat and the Warriors. These are teams that
Speaker 1: were just giving the appropriate amount of respect to the establishment.
Speaker 1: Both of them have had mediocre regular seasons. Both are
Speaker 1: forty three and thirty five. Both are likely to be
Speaker 1: in the play in tournament, the Warriors basically certainly at
Speaker 1: this point and the Heat likely at this point after
Speaker 1: their loss to the Pacers, although it's not over for them.
Speaker 1: Both have similar strengths. They're both really good defenses. They're
Speaker 1: both really good at defensive rebounding. They have a superstar
Speaker 1: that thrives in the postseason. Right, you can't do much
Speaker 1: better than Jimmy and Steph as postseason stars.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Both are extremely well coached. It's pretty much the consensus
Speaker 1: around the league that Steve Kerr and Eric Spolster are
Speaker 1: the two best tactical adjustment coaches that we have in
Speaker 1: the league. Right, They also have similar weaknesses. They're both
Speaker 1: prone to lolls on offense for the same reasons because
Speaker 1: their superstars are getting a bit old. Both superstars their
Speaker 1: numbers are down from last year, both of them seem
Speaker 1: to be a little bit on the other end of
Speaker 1: the hill, and neither team has a reliable secondary shot creator,
Speaker 1: so as a result of that, some nights when guys
Speaker 1: are playing well, they look great on offense and they
Speaker 1: can beat anybody, But they have the a tendency, especially
Speaker 1: if they're superstars not playing super well, to go really
Speaker 1: cold offensively and to have a lot of challenges. But
Speaker 1: their playoff strengths are a reality, elite superstar talent, elite coaching,
Speaker 1: and elite defense and rebounding. Those are like three or
Speaker 1: four of the most important things that you can have
Speaker 1: as a playoff threat. And so because of that, I
Speaker 1: think it'd be silly for us to write these teams out,
Speaker 1: and so that's why I have them in this list
Speaker 1: as kind of like a two fer in that tense.
Speaker 1: It's the appropriate amount of respect to the establishment. Their
Speaker 1: defense and rebounding are going to keep games close. So
Speaker 1: it's really going to come down to execution. Now, both
Speaker 1: of these teams, ironically, for being historically good execution teams,
Speaker 1: both of these teams have struggled with execution this season.
Speaker 1: The Warriors have lost a bunch of close games this season.
Speaker 1: The Heat haven't been a very good clutch team either.
Speaker 1: We just showed examples from the Pacers game of them
Speaker 1: making critical execution mistakes down the stretch, so relative to
Speaker 1: what we expect from these teams as establishment franchises that
Speaker 1: haven't been good execution teams this year, but that is
Speaker 1: kind of their reputation. I kind of view these teams
Speaker 1: as like the bouncer at the club, and what I
Speaker 1: mean by that is like, I don't think either of
Speaker 1: them are talented enough to win four rounds. Certainly it
Speaker 1: would be a big long shot, but I do think
Speaker 1: they will expose the fraudulent teams around the league. So
Speaker 1: I'm going to be really tempted to pick the heat
Speaker 1: in the Warriors in just about any series except for
Speaker 1: the very top echelon in the league, simply because of
Speaker 1: the fact that they are the team that will expose
Speaker 1: you if you're not ready, if you have major holes
Speaker 1: that prevent you from being a postseason team, excuse me,
Speaker 1: a championship level team. If you have those kinds of holes,
Speaker 1: it's elite, superstar, elite coaching, elite defense that will expose that.
Speaker 1: That's what Miami and Golden State do. And so I expect,
Speaker 1: you know, no matter what, those two teams to be
Speaker 1: a royal pain in the butt. But I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: tempted to pick them just simply because of their ability
Speaker 1: to expose other teams flaws.
Speaker 2: What is their path?
Speaker 1: So for every one of these teams, I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: strengths weaknesses. What does their path to the championship look like?
Speaker 1: So for Miami or Golden State to get it done, obviously,
Speaker 1: the superstars have to outplay their matchup consistently. So Steph
Speaker 1: and Jimmy are gonna have to go toe to toe
Speaker 1: with the best superstars in the league and outplay them.
Speaker 1: That's a must because talent advantage is not going to
Speaker 1: be in their favor right. Two, the coaches have to
Speaker 1: throw the other teams out of rhythm, so Kerr and
Speaker 1: Spolstra have to coach their ass off, identify and expose
Speaker 1: weaknesses on the other team. And then lastly, they need
Speaker 1: consistent contribution from their inconsistent offensive co stars or co
Speaker 1: talent on the team. As long as those guys contribute,
Speaker 1: as long as the coaches make the other teams uncomfortable,
Speaker 1: and as long as Stephan Jimmy playwell, they have a
Speaker 1: chance to beat anybody. Number nine the Minnesota Timberwolves. They
Speaker 1: are fifty four and twenty four so far, tied for
Speaker 1: the one seed in the Western Conference. Their strengths, they
Speaker 1: are physically overwhelming at every position group. Anthony Edwards is
Speaker 1: one of the biggest, strongest, most athletic guards that we
Speaker 1: have in the league. Nikile Alexander Walker is another quick
Speaker 1: and long perimeter defender. On the wing, Jaden McDaniels is
Speaker 1: possibly the best wing defender in basketball, and then Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert obviously the length and versatility at the center position,
Speaker 1: Carl Towns and his ability to bully smaller wings, especially
Speaker 1: now that he plays alongside another big and even nos
Speaker 1: Reed in the matchup problems that he presents as just
Speaker 1: a gigantic human being that can shoot. They have physical
Speaker 1: advantages all over the floor. They've also been the best
Speaker 1: defense in basketball this year. They are number one in
Speaker 1: defensive rating number one and half court defensive rating according
Speaker 1: to the Cleaning the last by a mile, almost five
Speaker 1: points better than the second best team in the league
Speaker 1: and half court defense. They're also an excellent rebounding team.
Speaker 1: They are seventh in defensive rebounding percentage. Their weaknesses though,
Speaker 1: they're a mediocre offense that becomes flat out bad at
Speaker 1: the end of games. For the season, they are seventeenth
Speaker 1: in offensive rating, but that goes down. They scored just
Speaker 1: one hundred and four point three points per one hundred
Speaker 1: possessions offensively when the game is within five points with
Speaker 1: less than five minutes left. They fall apart at the
Speaker 1: end of games with their decision making and their spacing,
Speaker 1: and specifically, it comes down to Anthony Edwards as a
Speaker 1: twenty two year old decision maker, right, Like really, that's
Speaker 1: really what it comes down to, Like, he's twenty two
Speaker 1: years old and he has a tendency.
Speaker 2: To settle for bad shots.
Speaker 1: Fifteen players in the NBA this year have attempted at
Speaker 1: least five hundred pull up jump shots this year. Anthony
Speaker 1: Edwards gets zero point eight to nine points per shot,
Speaker 1: which is actually down from last year, and that ranks
Speaker 1: on that list out of fifteen players, Like only Demart
Speaker 1: de Rosen has been worse on that list, and it's
Speaker 1: because he barely ever takes a pull up three, which
Speaker 1: is the higher value shot. So like, he's not a
Speaker 1: good pull up jump shooter who settles for that shot
Speaker 1: a lot. He's literally in the top fifteen a pull
Speaker 1: up jump shooting volume in the league this year. Despite
Speaker 1: the physical gifts that he has to the table that
Speaker 1: he brings to the table, and so really that's what
Speaker 1: it comes down to. It's like, he's twenty two and
Speaker 1: one of the most common things I talked about on
Speaker 1: the show is like the growth of a young basketball
Speaker 1: player is identifying what works and finding out how to
Speaker 1: replicate it, identifying what's not working in finding out how
Speaker 1: to minimize it. An just hasn't really got to that
Speaker 1: point yet. And so I'm as big an ant believer
Speaker 1: as you'll find. I think he has a real chance
Speaker 1: to be the best player in the league, which is
Speaker 1: saying something given some of the talent that we have
Speaker 1: outside of the United States that has come into the league. Right, So, like,
Speaker 1: I'm a big believer in Anthony Edwards, but it's just
Speaker 1: really early in his window decision making. Is the weakness
Speaker 1: of the team and that its manifested in that offensive rating.
Speaker 1: They haven't defended well at the end of games either.
Speaker 1: They have a one to eighteen point three defensive rating
Speaker 1: and clutch situations that is the sixth worst mark in
Speaker 1: the entire NBA for a team that has been the
Speaker 1: best defense in the league. Outside of those situations. That
Speaker 1: to me comes down to entry points. Like I talked about,
Speaker 1: if you can get Mike Conley in the action, get
Speaker 1: the defense in rotation, If you can get Kyle Towns
Speaker 1: in the action, get the defense in rotation, Suddenly it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter how strong your set defense is. Teams have
Speaker 1: not had a problem scoring on Minnesota in crunch time
Speaker 1: this season. I think that will be the death of them.
Speaker 1: They'll be in every single game because of their defense,
Speaker 1: but I think they'll just inevitably run into a team
Speaker 1: that can out execute them in the half court, and
Speaker 1: I think they'll get knocked out. What does their path
Speaker 1: look like? Everything comes down to Anthony Edwards. If he
Speaker 1: plays like a thirty year old vet, under control, good
Speaker 1: decision making, prioritizing, using his physical gifts to dominate the
Speaker 1: game on both ends of the floor, devoting resources defensively
Speaker 1: where you can be absolutely devastating, and then on offense,
Speaker 1: using his strength to get a and athleticism to get
Speaker 1: as close to the rim as possible. And then when
Speaker 1: he does settle shooting a high percentage, a higher percentage
Speaker 1: than he has in the regular season, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: he's consistently been a pretty mediocre regular season pull up shooter.
Speaker 1: But He's pretty consistently been a great pull up shooter
Speaker 1: in the postseason, albeit in a small sample size, only
Speaker 1: one round each time. So as long as he can
Speaker 1: do that over the course of a longer playoff run,
Speaker 1: make the shots and make quality decisions, they can beat anyone.
Speaker 1: It's just you're betting on a twenty two year old,
Speaker 1: and that's a lot to ask. That's why I have
Speaker 1: them so low relative to where they are in the standings.
Speaker 1: Number eight, final one for today, the Milwaukee Bucks. This
Speaker 1: is the largest gap between how I felt about a
Speaker 1: team at the start of the season versus now. I
Speaker 1: had them as the second best championship contender to start
Speaker 1: the season adam a hair over Boston. Now I have
Speaker 1: them all the way down at eight. They're forty seven
Speaker 1: and thirty one, second in the Eastern Conference, just fifteen
Speaker 1: and seventeen since Doc Rivers got hired below five hundred
Speaker 1: and a thirty two game sample size, twentieth best record
Speaker 1: in the league in that span. Mediocre on both ends
Speaker 1: of the floor. They're sixteenth on all offense and thirteenth
Speaker 1: in defense over that thirty two game span. Their strengths,
Speaker 1: they've been a good offense for most of the season.
Speaker 1: They're actually fifth and offensive raiding for the whole season,
Speaker 1: especially against good teams. And this is like your little
Speaker 1: silver lining or whatever you want to call it that
Speaker 1: you cling to as a Bucks fan. They have a
Speaker 1: one to twenty two point two offensive rating against teams
Speaker 1: in the top ten in point differential according to Cleaning
Speaker 1: the Glass. That is the best rating in the league.
Speaker 1: So their offense has been really good against good teams. Honestly,
Speaker 1: that's all the optimism for both Lakers fans and Bucks
Speaker 1: fans has to center around how they fared against good teams,
Speaker 1: because those two teams have been better against the best
Speaker 1: than they've been against the middle of the pack. They
Speaker 1: are top five in both three pointers made per game
Speaker 1: and free throws made per game, so they get really
Speaker 1: efficient shots to kind of bolster their offensive rating. They're
Speaker 1: an excellent defensive rebounding team their sixth in defensive rebounding percentage.
Speaker 1: They also have real star power for the postseason, Damian Giannis.
Speaker 1: Even with as much as dam has struggled this year,
Speaker 1: I still think Damianiannis is a better duo than anything
Speaker 1: they'll encounter in the Eastern Conference. It won't be until
Speaker 1: they run into yok At You and Murray if they
Speaker 1: get to the finals, that they'll run into a better duo.
Speaker 1: So like that's a huge advantage going into the postseason.
Speaker 1: I don't think with Jalen Brown's rise and with Dame's fall,
Speaker 1: I don't think it's like a big gap. I think
Speaker 1: they're barely a better duo the than the Tatum Brown duo.
Speaker 1: But I do think they're a better duo. Their weaknesses
Speaker 1: biggest one they're just slow. Outside of Yannis, every single
Speaker 1: player in their rotation because the young guys don't play much,
Speaker 1: every single player in their rotation is slower than average
Speaker 1: for their position group around the league, and so teams
Speaker 1: get out in transition a lot against them. They get
Speaker 1: out and transition sixteen percent of the time. That ranks
Speaker 1: twenty second in the NBA. It's a big part of
Speaker 1: their defensive issues. They were a top ten paint defense
Speaker 1: last year. That used to be a strength of the Bucks.
Speaker 1: They could protect the paint.
Speaker 2: Not this year.
Speaker 1: They're seventeenth in opponent points in the paint per one
Speaker 1: hundred possessions. This is another gad part. They don't score
Speaker 1: in the paint. Now A lot of people will say
Speaker 1: they take a lot of kickout threes because of the
Speaker 1: way teams guard Giannis. That's true, But in the year
Speaker 1: they won the title, they were fifteenth in points in
Speaker 1: the paint per one hundred possessions. This year they're twenty ninth,
Speaker 1: the second worst paint scoring offense in the NBA. They're
Speaker 1: very dependent on jump shooting. They're a top ten jump
Speaker 1: shooting frequency team, and so they've kind of leaned a
Speaker 1: little bit into too much into the variance themselves. They're slow,
Speaker 1: they don't get a ton of easy shots right around
Speaker 1: the basket. They rely on tough shot making a lot.
Speaker 1: That's just a tough spot to be in offensively, and
Speaker 1: I think that's a big part of why they've struggled
Speaker 1: so much offensively as of late. But really they just
Speaker 1: have never been able to get the dam Giannis two
Speaker 1: man game off the ground where it needs to go.
Speaker 1: And we talked about that specifically in our film session
Speaker 1: today for the Bucks. I gave like six examples of
Speaker 1: different ball screen configurations that I've been looking at with Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: Stuff that works and stuff that doesn't. So you can
Speaker 1: find that a little bit earlier on our feed if
Speaker 1: you were watching this on a breakout, but they've just
Speaker 1: never been able to get the damianis two man game
Speaker 1: to be as inevitable as it needs to be, and
Speaker 1: then Dame as the entry point. And defensively, the Knicks
Speaker 1: one the other night literally just because they were targeting
Speaker 1: Dame almost every single time down the floor and getting
Speaker 1: great shots. As a result, they just have bad vibes.
Speaker 1: They're under five hundred for almost half of a season's
Speaker 1: worth of games at this point. The Doc Rivers situation,
Speaker 1: the comments, the energy around the team, it's just not
Speaker 1: where you want it to be if you're in position
Speaker 1: to make a championship run. This team doesn't appear to
Speaker 1: have that energy behind it that you hope for from
Speaker 1: a contender. What is their path really simple? Dam and
Speaker 1: Giannis have to figure it out offensively when they get
Speaker 1: to the postseason, which by the way, is doable. They
Speaker 1: need excellent shooting runs from Malik Beasley, Brook Lopez and
Speaker 1: Chris Middleton, and lastly Joannison Tennan Kumpo just has to
Speaker 1: have the defensive playoff runt of his lifetime. He's got
Speaker 1: to just be so incredibly locked in and focused and
Speaker 1: be able to clean up so many messes, because the
Speaker 1: messes are going to be there. But if all that
Speaker 1: comes together, they have the talent, they have the ability
Speaker 1: to do it. They've just got a lot of things
Speaker 1: that are trending in the wrong direction. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today. There's no NBA
Speaker 1: games tonight because of the National Title Games, so if
Speaker 1: we go tomorrow, it'll probably just be a couple more
Speaker 1: of the contenders that we'll look at. We are going
Speaker 1: live on YouTube after the final buzzer of Lakers Warriors
Speaker 1: tomorrow night, though, so I will see you guys then.
Speaker 1: If I don't see you in the morning, I always
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys.
Speaker 2: See you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: The volume