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Speaker 1: some basketball. So after the NBAH trade deadline, I kind
Speaker 1: of started reevaluating the Lakers is essentially a brand new
Speaker 1: team because that's what they were. They basically turned over
Speaker 1: half of their rotation between Ruby hatch Amura, Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: and Malik Beasley and D'Angelo Russell. They're essentially a brand
Speaker 1: new team. And then also we have to kind of
Speaker 1: consider them from the perspective of Lebron James and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis coming back because basically for the entire season, you've
Speaker 1: had one or the other rather than both. Like like,
Speaker 1: we're not gonna I'm gonna talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: the Bulls today, not gonna talk a ton about them.
Speaker 1: Here's the reason why their big three has played in
Speaker 1: almost every single game this year. I think the players
Speaker 1: played the least amount of games has only played sixty six.
Speaker 1: I think that's Tamarda, Rosen, Lebron and ad have both
Speaker 1: played in the mid forties for games this year. The
Speaker 1: Bulls have had their guys all year, and they've lost.
Speaker 1: They've been below five hundred. Despite that, they are one
Speaker 1: of the worst three point at three point volume shooting
Speaker 1: teams in the league. They make few or threes per
Speaker 1: game than anybody in the league, and they vastly outshot
Speaker 1: the Lakers today. There's a lot of out of character
Speaker 1: stuff from the Bulls today that said they wanted that
Speaker 1: game more. I want to give them credit for that.
Speaker 1: But what I was looking at this game as an
Speaker 1: opportunity to learn about was learned about the Lakers in
Speaker 1: a real must win game from both teams. Because like
Speaker 1: it or not, regardless of how you feel about the Bulls,
Speaker 1: they are trying to win. They're in the ten seed.
Speaker 1: They want to get into the playoffs. I think that
Speaker 1: they feel a little bit better about their chances than
Speaker 1: what you would think given the way that their basketball
Speaker 1: product has looked throughout most of the season. And you
Speaker 1: have the Patrick Beverley element. Patrick Beverley very much wanted
Speaker 1: to whoop the Lakers asked today, So I thought it
Speaker 1: was a good opportunity to learn more about the Lakers.
Speaker 1: And yes, I'm disappointed in their effort. There's no doubt
Speaker 1: the Bulls wanted it more. But since the deadline with
Speaker 1: that roster turnover for the Lakers, I've been evaluating them
Speaker 1: as a new team, and one of the specific things
Speaker 1: that has consistently stood out to me is that they
Speaker 1: don't handle intense perimeter defense. Well, if we look through
Speaker 1: their games, they've had a lot of success. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think we've learned that they're I think, if I
Speaker 1: remember correctly, if I'm getting the standings right there, twelve
Speaker 1: and six since the new players started playing before this
Speaker 1: game today, and their losses are basically like a Houston
Speaker 1: game that you throw out because Anthony Davis didn't play,
Speaker 1: and then the Dallas game, which you kind of threw
Speaker 1: out because they were up big with a minute left
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis just made two big mistakes. But there
Speaker 1: are other losses are all too excellent perimeter defense teams.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, wait, like Memphis had, you know, Tyas
Speaker 1: Jones and Dylan Brooks getting in everybody's face and they
Speaker 1: took a loss, and it's like, oh, Anthony Edwards and
Speaker 1: Jaden McDaniels gotten everybody's face all game and they couldn't score.
Speaker 1: And then you're like, oh, the New York Knicks, here
Speaker 1: comes Emmanual Quickly and Josh Hard and Miles McBride and
Speaker 1: they're just up in your grill from the opening tip,
Speaker 1: with a lot of ball pressure and containing the basketball.
Speaker 1: And one of the big reasons for that is the
Speaker 1: Lakers guards are are finesse guards. They're guards that love
Speaker 1: to get over the top of the screen and pick
Speaker 1: and roll and methodically work their way to their spots.
Speaker 1: But that's not how Chicago plays. They are physical at
Speaker 1: the point of attack and they're pushing you off of
Speaker 1: your line and they're not letting you get comfortable and
Speaker 1: pick and roll so that you can methodically pick a
Speaker 1: team apart and To their credit, they caused a boatload
Speaker 1: of issues for the Lakers with that ball pressure. They
Speaker 1: turned them over eighteen times, leading to thirty four points
Speaker 1: for Chicago. That was the difference in the game pretty much.
Speaker 1: The Bulls only had nine turnovers that led to only
Speaker 1: sixteen Laker points. Now, I thought the Lakers left a
Speaker 1: lot on the table defensively. I talked a lot about
Speaker 1: shot making. Chicago shot making was out of control. They
Speaker 1: made fourteen threes on forty five percent, despite being a
Speaker 1: team that only makes about ten threes per game at
Speaker 1: a significantly lower percentage. Right, there's a lot of shot
Speaker 1: making stuff that went Chicago's way. But what do I
Speaker 1: always say? I'm a firm believer that there is a
Speaker 1: direct connection between effort level and shot making. I believe
Speaker 1: that when one team is bringing real verve and competitiveness
Speaker 1: to a game while the other team is kind of chilling,
Speaker 1: I think there's a confidence that bruised from that. When
Speaker 1: you guys were watching that game, did it feel to
Speaker 1: you guys that they were exuding a ton of confidence.
Speaker 1: Between Patrick Beverley and the attitude he carried throughout the
Speaker 1: whole game. Look at Demarda Rosen and Zach Levine during
Speaker 1: their shot making there in the second half, there's a
Speaker 1: play where Zach Lavine calls for a screen, gets switched
Speaker 1: on to Malik Beasley just dust him to the basket.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis doesn't protect the rim easy layup and he's
Speaker 1: running down camera row like just screaming that he can't
Speaker 1: guard me. They carried themselves in a very confident way.
Speaker 1: They went in that arena today and said, we're gonna
Speaker 1: whoop the Lakers ass. Here's the thing. The Lakers are better.
Speaker 1: They're flat out better, even with all the injuries. They've
Speaker 1: been a better team this year. But they couldn't get
Speaker 1: it done because they didn't meet that aggression with aggression.
Speaker 1: And that's been a pretty consistent theme for the Lakers. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: a similar thing happened when when Anthony Davis came back
Speaker 1: last time, Like Lebron was carrying the team and they
Speaker 1: were playing with this hectic energy all season long, and
Speaker 1: then a d came back and they just all just
Speaker 1: kind of collectively exhaled and relaxed. And you saw that
Speaker 1: again today. It's like they play with this crazy effort
Speaker 1: as they rip off tw like Lebron missed a full
Speaker 1: month of games, and they stayed significantly above five hundred
Speaker 1: over that span because they played with a chaotic, desperate
Speaker 1: energy every single game. But then Lebron comes back and
Speaker 1: everyone's like, let's take a deep breath, and then it
Speaker 1: kind of turns on them quickly. This is a this league,
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, like the amount of talent. Yeah, Chicago
Speaker 1: sucks relative to the rest of the league, that's a fact.
Speaker 1: But there's a lot of talent on that roster. Dmarda
Speaker 1: Rosen's really good, Zach Levine's really good. You know, Andre Drummond.
Speaker 1: Even their backup center gave Anthony Davis a lot of
Speaker 1: issues in this game. Alex Crusoe is a bulldog of
Speaker 1: a guard. I had assume it was giving Dennis Schroder
Speaker 1: fits in the first half with his length and pressure
Speaker 1: on the ball. They are a talented team, and in
Speaker 1: this league, if you do not bring it against good teams,
Speaker 1: you will get beat. Just ask the Dallas Mavericks, who
Speaker 1: just dropped two games to the Charlotte Hornets, which we'll
Speaker 1: talk about in a little bit. But I thought those
Speaker 1: were the two biggest factors in the game. The inability
Speaker 1: to handle the ball pressure from the Laker guards and
Speaker 1: then just the overall gap in aggression and competitiveness and
Speaker 1: effort and physicality in this game. And that's a pretty
Speaker 1: quick way to get yourself beat. You know, I thought,
Speaker 1: I thought you saw that dynamic and ball pressure show
Speaker 1: up with Lebron on the floor. So what did I
Speaker 1: say about the about Lebron's pending return. I kept saying
Speaker 1: that I thought Lebron directly addressed a lot of very
Speaker 1: specific weaknesses for the Lakers, Like they've been really good
Speaker 1: right twelve and six, but they have some weaknesses. Like
Speaker 1: we've discussed Lebron. What I loved about bringing him back
Speaker 1: to this group is if I take the Laker guards
Speaker 1: in their best, in their biggest weaknesses and inability to
Speaker 1: handle ball pressure. Why is that important? Because you need
Speaker 1: your guards to break the defense down to get the
Speaker 1: team into rotation so that you can get quality shots. Right,
Speaker 1: So when they're containing the basketball, those quality shots aren't there.
Speaker 1: What's another way to get a defense into rotation by
Speaker 1: posting up and drawing multiple defenders and in a lot
Speaker 1: in this game, like Chicago wasn't exactly doubling that frequently
Speaker 1: in this game, but Lebron was able to beat Chicago's
Speaker 1: ball pressure by just posting up every single time, and
Speaker 1: that showed in the plus minus. The Lakers were minus
Speaker 1: fourteen in this game when Lebron James was off the floor,
Speaker 1: and they were plus four when he was on the floor. Now,
Speaker 1: if they that, I think they're capable of overcoming that
Speaker 1: to a certain extent, especially against teams, especially against teams
Speaker 1: like Chicago, even with Lebron off the But I did
Speaker 1: think that was a significant dynamic in this game, and
Speaker 1: like moving forward, Like here's the thing. I was texting
Speaker 1: a front about this before the show. But I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be surprised if the Lakers went into Chicago on Wednesday
Speaker 1: and handled them by double digits. They are a much
Speaker 1: better team with much better players, and Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, like Lebron, I thought brought a good amount
Speaker 1: of aggression. Anthony Davis mailed it in We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about that in a second. The Guards didn't play well.
Speaker 1: There was there was a huge gap in shot. Result,
Speaker 1: there's a chance for them to go into Chicago on
Speaker 1: Wednesday and if they bring the requisite effort, they will
Speaker 1: beat them. But if they bring a similar level of
Speaker 1: aggression and lack of physicality, they'll get beat. I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about Anthony Davis because he only attempted eight
Speaker 1: shots in this game. And you know, one of the
Speaker 1: most common refrains that you'll hear from Laker fans and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis apologists is they'll be like, Oh, well, the
Speaker 1: guards aren't looking for him. The guards aren't looking for them.
Speaker 1: And I just don't buy that. There was a play
Speaker 1: in the middle of the fourth quarter. I want to
Speaker 1: say it was like an eleven point game, and or
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis catches on the left wing with Derek Jones
Speaker 1: Junior guarding him in nobody else nearby, and rather than
Speaker 1: turning and attacking, he literally just casually dribbled the ball
Speaker 1: out to the three point line and did a dribble
Speaker 1: handoff with Malik Beasley. No, man, why do you run offense?
Speaker 1: You run offense to get an advantage. You already have
Speaker 1: the advantage. There's no reason to run any offense. Go
Speaker 1: to work. You're Anthony freakin Davis, and that is a
Speaker 1: six foot six, skinny wing coming off the bench for
Speaker 1: the Chicago Bulls. Take him to work. I'll give you
Speaker 1: an example, what did Lebron do half of this game?
Speaker 1: Just dribble the ball before. Oh, Alex Crusoe's on me.
Speaker 1: Everybody get out of the way. I'm just gonna back
Speaker 1: him down and go to the basket. Here's three half
Speaker 1: spin moves and pivot, pivot, pivot, Oh, pump fake. Oh
Speaker 1: Alex got off his feet. Here's an and one. Because
Speaker 1: why would Lebron call for a ball screen? Why would
Speaker 1: Lebron say, hey, we're gonna run a horn set. There's
Speaker 1: no reason to run and to run offense in a
Speaker 1: basketball game except for to get an advantage. If you
Speaker 1: already have an advantage, there's no need to run anything.
Speaker 1: Go to work. And like, yeah, like the Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: didn't quite have the same amount of an advantage against
Speaker 1: Andre Drumm and good athletic like strong centers of giving
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis issues over the years, but like he spent
Speaker 1: a good portion of that game with Vosovic on him
Speaker 1: before the ejection and with Derek Jones Junior on him.
Speaker 1: There's no excuse for attempting eight shots. You are the
Speaker 1: best player on the team, demand the basketball. Go to work.
Speaker 1: That was especially when the guards just didn't have it.
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves five turnovers, Dennis Ruter was one, four for ten,
Speaker 1: Lonnie Walker one for three, Malik bes Up until garbage time,
Speaker 1: could not make a shot. Their best opportunity to run
Speaker 1: effective offense was Lebron James post ups and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: post ups. That was literally their best opportunity, and Lebron,
Speaker 1: in the limited minutes, went for it and applied that
Speaker 1: pressure and Anthony Davis did not, and it just was
Speaker 1: that again. He was unbelievable the other day against Oklahoma City,
Speaker 1: other worldly good. And what did I say after the game,
Speaker 1: Like rooting for Anthony Davis is one of the most
Speaker 1: frustrating things in the world because he either brings it
Speaker 1: with aggression and looks like the best player in the
Speaker 1: world or does not in turns into Clint Capella. I've
Speaker 1: said this for years now and again, everything will be
Speaker 1: fine if they go into Chicago on Wednesday and beat them,
Speaker 1: and they have the ability to, and I expect them to.
Speaker 1: But your thirty seven and thirty seven, you just got
Speaker 1: to five hundred and now you're back below and it
Speaker 1: is vitally important to get that seven seed. Like where
Speaker 1: is the competitive fire man? Where is the fire. It's
Speaker 1: just it. It was really disappointing. And that's been such
Speaker 1: an interesting dynamic with the Lakers all season. When they've
Speaker 1: had long shot odds, they've been that underdog that's brought
Speaker 1: the energy and the effort. When they've been a whole,
Speaker 1: they collectively exhale and relax, and it's been an issue
Speaker 1: throughout the year. But I want to tip the Captains
Speaker 1: Chicago though, because that was just that was such a
Speaker 1: It was one of the things that I love about
Speaker 1: the game of basketball, just like the game of basketball
Speaker 1: does not reward a lack of effort, and even a
Speaker 1: team like the Bulls that has a boatload of flaws,
Speaker 1: even a team like the Bulls, if you don't bring
Speaker 1: it against them, they can start to feel themselves and
Speaker 1: get a bunch of confidence and they can shoot you
Speaker 1: out of the game. And like it. You have to
Speaker 1: respect the game, especially in the modern NBA with the
Speaker 1: level of talent that there is to have consistent success.
Speaker 1: But let's move on to what I thought was the
Speaker 1: biggest game of the weekend, the biggest win for the
Speaker 1: Nuggets all season, and a super interesting kind of like
Speaker 1: taste of NBA playoff basketball. Last night the Bucks versus
Speaker 1: the Nuggets in Denver. You know, the Bucks were on
Speaker 1: the tail end of a back to back, but they
Speaker 1: won by like forty or something in the previous game,
Speaker 1: so everyone played in the mid twenties for minutes, so
Speaker 1: it's not like they were overly fatigued. The one thing
Speaker 1: you'll see you with that is it is tough to
Speaker 1: go into Denver just because of the elevation. That's there's
Speaker 1: like significant statistical evidence that Denver has a great home
Speaker 1: court advantage. But hey, that's gonna be something that exists
Speaker 1: in a playoff run as well, right, So that's not
Speaker 1: something you're gonna give them any slack. Four. But the
Speaker 1: Bucks came in red hot. They were twenty four and
Speaker 1: three in their previous twenty seven games, playing just unbelievable basketball.
Speaker 1: Jannis is clearly hitting the Jets to try to get
Speaker 1: going for this playoff run, and they came out playing
Speaker 1: really well. Jannis came into the first half just ridiculously aggressive.
Speaker 1: He was dunking everything. He had twenty four points in
Speaker 1: the first half. They went up double digits. They Brook
Speaker 1: Lopez in the first half, in particular, did a decent
Speaker 1: job guarding Nicola Yokich in isolation defense, and the game
Speaker 1: just had a playoff feel. And if it wasn't for
Speaker 1: a pretty hot shooting Jamal Murray there in the first half,
Speaker 1: they might have found themselves in trouble, but they stayed
Speaker 1: with it. Then they stuck with it, and then in
Speaker 1: the second half, especially in that third quarter, you start
Speaker 1: to see Denver's interior defense take over the game. There
Speaker 1: was a bunch of really interesting matchup stuff in this game.
Speaker 1: For starters. The Bucks left Yokis in single coverage for
Speaker 1: most of the game, and in the first half, Lopez
Speaker 1: held up pretty well, but they're in that third quarter,
Speaker 1: like you know, it was funny. It just kept He
Speaker 1: just kept pivoting and getting back to that right handed
Speaker 1: jump hook over his life shoulder. If it feels like
Speaker 1: when you watch the Nuggets that every single Nicola jump
Speaker 1: pook goes in the basket, it pretty much does. He's
Speaker 1: taken one hundred and twenty four hook shots this year
Speaker 1: and he's made eighty three of them. That's sixty seven percent,
Speaker 1: and that's best in the league out of the twenty
Speaker 1: five players that have attempted at least fifty hook shots
Speaker 1: this year. By the way point of trivia, who do
Speaker 1: you guys think is second in the league inefficiency on
Speaker 1: jump pook's for players to attempt at least fifty The
Speaker 1: answer is Nikola Vussovitch, who I thought was wrongly ejected
Speaker 1: from a game today, although it ended up working to
Speaker 1: Chicago's favor because Drummond was whooping a D's ass, but
Speaker 1: he started to get that jump pook going against Brooklopez
Speaker 1: and then he was really killing Bobby Portis, and we'll
Speaker 1: get to that in a minute. But there was a
Speaker 1: couple of specific matchup things that were ugly defensively for
Speaker 1: the Bucks, and Bobby Portis was one of them. One
Speaker 1: of the things I wanted to talk about really quick
Speaker 1: before we move on with Jokich's pos work is like
Speaker 1: and it's interesting because when with perimeter players, I feel
Speaker 1: like getting super choppy with your feet is a bad thing.
Speaker 1: You want to have really solid footwork and you don't
Speaker 1: want to waste negative steps because you need to cover
Speaker 1: tons of ground to get to where you need to go,
Speaker 1: and negative steps actually delay your ability to make those
Speaker 1: quick movements. But with the post, and especially with Yokis,
Speaker 1: because what he's trying to do is he's trying to
Speaker 1: bully you to your to his spot. He uses really
Speaker 1: choppy feet. He picks up his feet and makes a
Speaker 1: quick series of moves, and I actually think it works
Speaker 1: really well for him because it allows him to quickly
Speaker 1: reset his center of gravity every time. He's constantly chopping
Speaker 1: and resetting his base so you can't knock him off balance,
Speaker 1: and that allows him to bump you like five or
Speaker 1: six times on the same post up. You know, most
Speaker 1: post ups, you'll catch on the block and he'll turn
Speaker 1: and look and like it'll be like maybe one bump,
Speaker 1: maybe two bumps, and then a move. Like Yokich, it's
Speaker 1: like he's bumping and hitting you like five or six
Speaker 1: times on the same post that there's a reverse layup
Speaker 1: and one that he had on Brook Lopez actually posted
Speaker 1: a video of this on my Twitter feed that you
Speaker 1: guys can see. But on that play, Yokich hits Lopez
Speaker 1: with like five different posts moves in five different fakes
Speaker 1: on the same attack. And it's just a testament to
Speaker 1: how good his footwork is for what he for what
Speaker 1: he needs out of the post. And you know, he
Speaker 1: has this like ridiculous. Every every great player has a
Speaker 1: move that kind of seems unfair. Like lebron when he drives,
Speaker 1: just will swing his off arm at you like a club.
Speaker 1: Literally looks like Rob Gronkowski with that big elbow braise,
Speaker 1: just like swinging it at you to like get buy
Speaker 1: you to the basket. Janis will do this like chicken
Speaker 1: wing thing, where like he'll see the defender standing right
Speaker 1: in front of him and he'll take a big step
Speaker 1: forward and try to wrap his elbow around and spring
Speaker 1: himself around you, and it's like there's just no chance
Speaker 1: and stop him. Or like Kevin Durant when he does
Speaker 1: that carry hesitation like the balls like damn near sitting
Speaker 1: on top of his hands as he's going into his
Speaker 1: crossover and it just makes it impossible to guard him
Speaker 1: because you have to get up on that pull up jumper.
Speaker 1: But then he can whip it into a crossover when
Speaker 1: he needs to. Well, Yoki, his unguardable move is that
Speaker 1: like chicken wing that he does. He does this hard pivot,
Speaker 1: like like one of the harder spin moves that you'll
Speaker 1: see from a big man. It doesn't even look right
Speaker 1: coming from a player as big as he is, but
Speaker 1: he'll just quickly whip into that like hard spin back
Speaker 1: move and nobody can do anything with it. And couple
Speaker 1: that with a jump book that he never misses, and
Speaker 1: he becomes one of the most unguardable post players. I
Speaker 1: love he had twelve points and three assists during that
Speaker 1: third quarter run, and I really appreciated his aggression because,
Speaker 1: especially since they left him in single coverage. I've been
Speaker 1: critical of Yokis over this season for being like the
Speaker 1: guy who's constantly trying to make the right play and
Speaker 1: not making enough of the n B and the Joel
Speaker 1: Embiid like, let me be a force of nature as
Speaker 1: a scorer, because I'm the best player on this floor
Speaker 1: and our team's best chance to score is by me
Speaker 1: being aggressive. I liked to see that from him in
Speaker 1: that third quarter. A couple other interesting matchup pieces in
Speaker 1: this game. Bobby Portis really struggled. He's way too far
Speaker 1: back in his drop and that was a big part
Speaker 1: of how Jamal Murray got going with his three point shot.
Speaker 1: He's just sagging way back into the paint, which you do.
Speaker 1: It makes more sense to do that when you're Brook
Speaker 1: Lopez because you don't have super quick feet and your
Speaker 1: length and athletics or your length and size as your strength.
Speaker 1: So sitting back at the rim is the best way
Speaker 1: for you to impact defensively. Like Bobby, Portis is a
Speaker 1: much better athlete than Brook Lopez. He's much more mobile.
Speaker 1: He's more of a forward than he is a center.
Speaker 1: Like dude, your quickness gives you the ability to be
Speaker 1: out there and you're not gonna bother anybody in drop
Speaker 1: coverage anyway because you're too small. And so it was
Speaker 1: it was confusing strategy from from Portis to sit back
Speaker 1: and kind of defend as a center when you when
Speaker 1: Portis is at center, I'd like to see them switch more,
Speaker 1: and they did that with Jannis. There was a big
Speaker 1: stre this game with Jannis at center and he was
Speaker 1: switching a lot of the screening actions and having some success.
Speaker 1: What's interesting is when Jannis would play like a traditional center,
Speaker 1: like in help coverage during drop coverage, he actually struggled
Speaker 1: a little bit in this game. You know, it's interesting
Speaker 1: the dynamic where Jannis is actually kind of better as
Speaker 1: a help defender than he is as a traditional rim protector,
Speaker 1: and then Lopez as much better as a rim protector
Speaker 1: than he is kind of anywhere else on the floor,
Speaker 1: and so like obviously, if you when brook Lopez has
Speaker 1: gone in the future, go fast forward five years from now.
Speaker 1: I think Giannis will be one of the best big
Speaker 1: man center defenders that we have in the league when
Speaker 1: he gets all those reps. But he doesn't play a
Speaker 1: ton of center in the more traditional sense of the words,
Speaker 1: so he can struggle in that specific matchup. I think
Speaker 1: you've seen that in the games that brook Lopez has
Speaker 1: missed this year. One other thing that I thought was
Speaker 1: super interesting because like when I talked about Denver earlier
Speaker 1: this year and I explained like what I thought was
Speaker 1: their pathway to the playoffs. I talked about how when
Speaker 1: I look at matchups the you have to beat Denver
Speaker 1: by exposing them for their lack of perimeter defense and
Speaker 1: by pulling Nicola Yokitch away from the basket and forcing
Speaker 1: him to cover in space. Right, But you need to
Speaker 1: be an outstanding pull up jump shooting team to do that.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. Milwaukee and Boston are not good
Speaker 1: pull up jump shooting teams. Now, Boston can go five
Speaker 1: out and driving kick you to death, so they can
Speaker 1: at least force Yokis to guard in space. So it's
Speaker 1: a little different, Like they can go to Al Horford
Speaker 1: at center, tuck him away in the corner and just
Speaker 1: driving kick you to death. So like I think Boston
Speaker 1: matches up way better against Denver than Milwaukee does. But
Speaker 1: Milwaukee kind of plays into Denver's defensive strengths. You know,
Speaker 1: Denver has defended well enough this year considering their personnel,
Speaker 1: in large part because they run a scheme that allows
Speaker 1: Yokis to stay around the basket, right, But Milwaukee is
Speaker 1: going to play directly into that. They're not going to
Speaker 1: forced Denver to do something that makes them feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys remember this summer, but
Speaker 1: in the EuroCup, the FIBA EuroCup, there was a matchup
Speaker 1: where Jannis and Yokich guarded each other for an entire game,
Speaker 1: and Yokich had a ton of success because he's so
Speaker 1: damn big that Jannis can't bully him. And if there's
Speaker 1: one deep like basketball strength that Yokich has that he
Speaker 1: can devote to defense is his basketball IQ. He's got
Speaker 1: good anticipation, and he's and he's got good instincts, and
Speaker 1: he sees the floor well, so like he can kind
Speaker 1: of pick up on Jannie's tendencies and figure out which
Speaker 1: direction he's going, and he can beat him into into
Speaker 1: spots and he can funnel him out of bounds. There
Speaker 1: was there was multiple transition pushes in this game where
Speaker 1: Jannis is freight training down the floor and Yokich like
Speaker 1: diverted him away from the rim and on a couple
Speaker 1: occasions forced turnovers. And Aaron Gordon again, like I've talked
Speaker 1: about the different archetypes of forwards, there's like that skinny
Speaker 1: mobile perimeter forward, and then there's like that big, strong
Speaker 1: power forward. And it's not the saying that it used
Speaker 1: to be, right, Like, it's not like the Drew Gooden
Speaker 1: slow footed power forward. It's like the biggest strongest athletes
Speaker 1: in the league that are like six nine plus that
Speaker 1: carry at least two hundred and thirty pounds of muscle,
Speaker 1: where they're just built like fridges and they have some
Speaker 1: of that perimeter skill, but they're not the same type
Speaker 1: of players like a Jaden McDaniels for instance, right, And
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon is that type of player. And so like
Speaker 1: the combination of Gordon and Yokich to throw at Jannis,
Speaker 1: that's a super interesting matchup advantage and they do well,
Speaker 1: they hold up well against Jannis, and then you know,
Speaker 1: you get to I talk about this all the time.
Speaker 1: Matchups are everything in basketball. Like, Arizona beat UCLA two
Speaker 1: out of three times this season, including in the Pact
Speaker 1: Wall Championship game when all the Chips were down on
Speaker 1: a neutral four. They beat Ucla. But Arizona had two
Speaker 1: plotting bigs and their guards aren't very good, so they
Speaker 1: ran into Princeton who space them out, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden their inability to move their feet on the
Speaker 1: perimeter became a huge problem and they lost to a
Speaker 1: fifteen seat or whatever in the first round. But UCLA
Speaker 1: goes all the way to the sweet sixteen and looks
Speaker 1: really good and ends up losing on a difficult shot
Speaker 1: at the buzzer or near the buzzer from Gonzaga. Right, Like,
Speaker 1: Arizona's a better basketball team than UCLA, and they proved
Speaker 1: it throughout the season, But matchups can get you beat
Speaker 1: in basketball. And like, if you can single cover Yannis
Speaker 1: and not have to overdo the help thing, you can
Speaker 1: suddenly turn all of Milwaukee spot up players and the
Speaker 1: guys that aren't playing with as much of an advantage
Speaker 1: for instance, look at the shot diet from Drew Holliday
Speaker 1: and Chris Middleton in that game. Because they're not operating
Speaker 1: with the same level of advantage from yannisping things to death.
Speaker 1: They're taking a lot of really difficult shots. It's a
Speaker 1: lot of tough, contested pull up jumpers for Drew Holiday,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of tough contested turnaround fadeaways from Chris Middleton.
Speaker 1: They and they'll look, there's a place in the NBA
Speaker 1: for tough shot making, and it's an important ceiling raising piece.
Speaker 1: But the Bucks in order to be as fluid offensively
Speaker 1: as they need to be, they need Giannis to consistently
Speaker 1: dictate double teams. And that's a big part of why. Like,
Speaker 1: when I really look at Denver, if they can get
Speaker 1: out of the West, and look, here's the deal. I
Speaker 1: have not seen enough from any other team to unseat
Speaker 1: Denver is my favorite in the West, even with all
Speaker 1: their issues. But if they can get out of the
Speaker 1: West in Milwaukee is the team waiting for them, that's
Speaker 1: a real matchup they can win. And that's why, Like, look,
Speaker 1: Denver fans can't stand me, and they think I'm way
Speaker 1: too hypercritical of the team. And they think I hate
Speaker 1: Yokich and love just don't think he's better than the
Speaker 1: top tier guys in the league. But the reality is
Speaker 1: I've never taken Denver off of my top tier list
Speaker 1: or my list of contenders that can win. I've I
Speaker 1: think seven teams that I think can win that I've
Speaker 1: been pointing out on the show. Denver's one of them.
Speaker 1: I think they can win it. Of course they can't.
Speaker 1: And if matchups break right, like if they catch Milwaukee
Speaker 1: in the finals, there's a real chance that the Denver
Speaker 1: Nuggets can win an NBA championship. And I thought that,
Speaker 1: I thought you saw a lot of that personnel stuff
Speaker 1: show in that matchup versus Milwaukee last night. Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: finally is finally kind of coming out of his slump.
Speaker 1: He had been struggling for about a month. There was
Speaker 1: a big part of why Denver had put some losses
Speaker 1: on the table, and he was being really aggressive trying
Speaker 1: to shoot his way out of his slump. But in
Speaker 1: his last four games, twenty three points and eight assists
Speaker 1: with just two point three turnovers, fifty two percent from
Speaker 1: the field in sixty three percent from three on seven
Speaker 1: attempts per game. Like I said back when he was slumping,
Speaker 1: we'll say the same thing now. He needs to be
Speaker 1: the level of high end shot creator and shot maker
Speaker 1: for Denver to have a chance. But he seems to
Speaker 1: be getting it back together at the right time. All right,
Speaker 1: Before we get out of here, I wanted to talk
Speaker 1: for just a couple of minutes about Dallas's recent struggles
Speaker 1: because they just lost back to back embarrassing games to
Speaker 1: the Charlotte Hornets. But I want to go back to
Speaker 1: when I originally recorded that instant reaction video, back when
Speaker 1: I was in Breckinridge, when the trade originally went down
Speaker 1: that very day, I predicted that they would not have
Speaker 1: any chance to win a championship this year, which isn't
Speaker 1: exactly any sort of outlined his prediction. I have a
Speaker 1: twenty nine out of thirty percent twenty nine out of
Speaker 1: thirty chance of being correct when I make that type
Speaker 1: of prediction. But the reality is is I just didn't
Speaker 1: think they had the athleticism to contend with any good
Speaker 1: team sending out who they sent out. You know. The
Speaker 1: best example of this type of trade off is like
Speaker 1: the Russell Westbrook trade with the Lakers. Right, Like I
Speaker 1: always would say that the Lakers fell apart because of
Speaker 1: the Russell Westbrook trade, not because of Russell Westbrook. Now
Speaker 1: it also was bad like Rust didn't help things because
Speaker 1: was not the same player that he used to be.
Speaker 1: Is a jankie fit with Lebron, and ad didn't embrace
Speaker 1: all the little things that he needed to do to
Speaker 1: help them win. It was a bunch of other stuff.
Speaker 1: But they sent out a bunch of really important players
Speaker 1: that filled vital responsibilities on the team, and so when
Speaker 1: they struggled, I thought that was a huge part of it.
Speaker 1: There was always two problems that needed to be addressed.
Speaker 1: What do you do with Rust? But also how do
Speaker 1: you recoup the type of dirty work, athleticism, you know,
Speaker 1: and just motor that you had from those other guys
Speaker 1: and Dorian Finney Smith. Like, again, this team already has
Speaker 1: weaknesses defensively in other areas of their roster, right, Like
Speaker 1: this is a bad perimeter defense team that also is
Speaker 1: a bad rim protection team. But they had one of
Speaker 1: the best three and D wings in the league and
Speaker 1: Dorian Finney Smith, and that in combination with Luca's greatness
Speaker 1: and Jaylen Brunson's greatness and Maxi Kleiba. Just doing enough
Speaker 1: defensively in the front court, knocking down enough shots gave
Speaker 1: them an juice to get to the Western Conference finals.
Speaker 1: But in that Kyrie Irving trade, you sent out Dorian
Speaker 1: Phinney Smith and you lost Jalen Brunson for nothing, which
Speaker 1: was inexcusable. Even more inexcusable in retrospect, we look back
Speaker 1: and it's like, if Jamal Murray can make thirty million
Speaker 1: a year in this league, how can you let a legitimate,
Speaker 1: like primary shot creator And like, look, he took a
Speaker 1: leap this year, no doubt he want he took a
Speaker 1: leap basically to All Star. But he was every bit
Speaker 1: worth the thirty million you could have paid to keep
Speaker 1: him in Dallas had you not been cheap about it,
Speaker 1: which was a real problem. But when you sent out
Speaker 1: that level of talent, you had to recoup it. Like
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving is an upgrade on Jalen Brunson, no doubt,
Speaker 1: But to get back Kyrie Irving you had to send
Speaker 1: out Dorian Phinney Smith and Spencer Dinwiddie, who was one
Speaker 1: of your best shot creators. And so like the ensuing,
Speaker 1: the result is a team that can't guard in the perimeter,
Speaker 1: can't guard in the wing, and can't guard at the rim.
Speaker 1: That that that's gonna fundamentally make it impossible for you
Speaker 1: to consistently win NBA games. That's just a fact. And look,
Speaker 1: Charlotte's bad. Charlotte's a bad team. They don't have like
Speaker 1: they're one of the least skilled offensive teams in the league.
Speaker 1: But you know what, you know what Charlotte is they're
Speaker 1: freaky athletic at every position. Like their one elite skill
Speaker 1: on that roster is they are athletic as hell, And
Speaker 1: that sort of specific thing attacks Dallas's weakness. But the
Speaker 1: reason why I wanted to talk about it today is
Speaker 1: I I think it's completely unfair to blame this on
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving. And I also think it's completely unfair to
Speaker 1: blame this on the trade because here's the reality. You
Speaker 1: weren't going to win an NBA championship with Luca by himself.
Speaker 1: You needed to find him a legitimate costar, and regardless
Speaker 1: of whatever happened with Jalen, I'm not sure if he
Speaker 1: would have been enough anyway. Kyrie Irving has proven in
Speaker 1: his career the ability to win a championship as a
Speaker 1: number two essentially cover all the other bases. Kyrie can
Speaker 1: take you home with clutch shotmaking. That's been proven, and
Speaker 1: I think he's had success in a lot of situations
Speaker 1: around the league as that second star. So I appreciated
Speaker 1: that specific move from them, but I always thought of
Speaker 1: it as a move for the future. Because of the
Speaker 1: other worldly offensive skill of Kyrie and Luca, they don't
Speaker 1: need to get highly advanced offensive role players around them.
Speaker 1: They don't need to be guys that can do advanced
Speaker 1: shot creation and high level close out attacking. Like if
Speaker 1: they can knock down a third of their threes and
Speaker 1: defend at a high level, they can play for the
Speaker 1: Mavericks and make them good. And you can find in
Speaker 1: the offseason, through the mid level exception and through the
Speaker 1: veteran minimum exception, you can find quality players that do
Speaker 1: one thing well. You can find guys that are great
Speaker 1: on offense or suck on defense, or that are great
Speaker 1: on defense and suck on offense. That's a pretty typical
Speaker 1: archetype that you'll find in the discount salary slots in
Speaker 1: the NBA, and having Kyrie and Luca gives you the
Speaker 1: flexibility to go after those guys. And there are a
Speaker 1: lot of guys like that out there, as I was
Speaker 1: shocked they didn't try to go after someone like Stanley
Speaker 1: Johnson because he's the kind of archetype of wing athlete
Speaker 1: that can help in a lot of different ways. But
Speaker 1: the Kyrie Irving trade was always about the future they
Speaker 1: I bet you within that front office, they didn't think
Speaker 1: they had much of a chance this year giving up
Speaker 1: what they had given up. But going into this offseason,
Speaker 1: they're going to be able to address those weaknesses on
Speaker 1: the periphery of the roster, and then going into next year,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have Kyrie Irving and Luca don chich and
Speaker 1: a roster of players that is specifically catered to what
Speaker 1: they don't do well, which is all of the dirty work.
Speaker 1: And so like it. It feels opportunity this stick to
Speaker 1: blame it on Kyrie. Kyrie has won three games without
Speaker 1: Luca this year for the MAVs. He outplayed Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: like a week ago. Kyrie's not the problem. The problem
Speaker 1: is to get him, you had to give up your
Speaker 1: best wing defender in another shot creator. They will have
Speaker 1: a chance to rectify that this summer. And so I
Speaker 1: don't I don't I don't. I'm not judging Dallas based
Speaker 1: on the results from this season. We'll see the kind
Speaker 1: of players that they target this offseason. But like it's
Speaker 1: really simple. It's like if you if you look at it,
Speaker 1: you know, Josh Green's gonna be there. He's gonna have
Speaker 1: one of those significant rotation spots. Maxi Kleiba is gonna
Speaker 1: be there. He's gonna have one of those significant rotation spots.
Speaker 1: But if you're a veteran minimum or midlevel exception center
Speaker 1: who's like a legit rim protector and a lob threat,
Speaker 1: like go to Dallas. There's a starting spot there for you.
Speaker 1: Right if you're a six seven wing that defends but
Speaker 1: doesn't do a lot of other things well, and you
Speaker 1: want minutes like you want twenty five guaranteed minutes, Dallas
Speaker 1: is the spot for you, and you're gonna get a
Speaker 1: bunch of standstill, wide open threes Alongside Kyrie Irving and
Speaker 1: Luca Downte. They will be able to address these personnel
Speaker 1: weaknesses in the offseason, and I think next year we
Speaker 1: can take a significant look at whether or not the
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving trade was worth it. But I don't think
Speaker 1: it's fair to judge them at this point. And like
Speaker 1: the other thing too that I think constantly gets glossed
Speaker 1: over in these discussions is just the general the impact
Speaker 1: that belief has on your effort level. I talk a
Speaker 1: lot about this with I talked about it with the
Speaker 1: Warriors earlier, like body language. Oh they look they don't
Speaker 1: look like they're having fun. Nobody enjoys losing. That's universal
Speaker 1: around basketball in the world. No one likes losing, and
Speaker 1: so obviously the energy is bad. But belief is what
Speaker 1: drives you out of that hole. And there isn't a
Speaker 1: lot of belief there. Why would you believe, if you
Speaker 1: are Kyrie or Kyrie and Luca, that you have a
Speaker 1: chance to win when you cannot contend physically with your opponent.
Speaker 1: That belief is not there. It's a very human thing.
Speaker 1: They know they have to play other worldly good to
Speaker 1: have a chance to win, and that's just a lot
Speaker 1: of pressure to play under. And so I just want
Speaker 1: to I just want to cut Kyrie some slack in
Speaker 1: the meantime, and Luca as well. All Right, guys, that
Speaker 1: is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate your support. We're gonna be going live tomorrow night.
Speaker 1: I believe tomorrow is the big rematch between Embiad and
Speaker 1: Yokis if I remember correctly. But we're going live tomorrow
Speaker 1: night on AMP, and then we'll be going during the day,
Speaker 1: during the morning. On Thursday and Thursday night on AMP
Speaker 1: we have another major nationally televised game. I want to say,
Speaker 1: that's Buck Celtics, and then we're gonna be going on
Speaker 1: Saturday and Sunday as well as always. I appreciate you guys,
Speaker 1: and I will see you on Monday night. The volume