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Speaker 2: All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Wednesday, everybody, hope all if you guys are having
Speaker 1: an incredible week, got a fun show today. We're gonna
Speaker 1: hit the Bucks and the Suns from the late nights.
Speaker 1: Late last night and then the minutes out a Timberwolves
Speaker 1: blew a big lead in Chicago against the Bulls and
Speaker 1: what was a highly entertaining game and kind of informing
Speaker 1: about both teams. So we're going to talk about the
Speaker 1: Bulls and the Wolves. By the way, Bulls nineteen and
Speaker 1: thirteen since November thirtieth, so they've become an interesting little
Speaker 1: spunky team here in the middle of the season. And
Speaker 1: then after that I've got seven or eight mail back
Speaker 1: questions for you guys at the end of the show
Speaker 1: where we'll be bouncing around the rest of the league. Also,
Speaker 1: for those of you guys who missed it last night,
Speaker 1: we went for almost an hour with Colin Coward and
Speaker 1: hit like seven or eight different teams, a ton of
Speaker 1: content bouncing around the league. We have some breakout clips
Speaker 1: on our channel, but the actual full show is on
Speaker 1: the Collin Coward podcast YouTube channel, so make sure you
Speaker 1: guys get over there to check that out. And then
Speaker 1: don't forget tomorrow. We're going live right after the trade
Speaker 1: deadline and then live again after Lakers Nuggets in the evening,
Speaker 1: so we got a double show day tomorrow. You guys
Speaker 1: are the Joe Fourget started. Subscribe to a brand new
Speaker 1: YouTube channel. It mean a lot to me if you
Speaker 1: guys would take a second to scroll down hit that
Speaker 1: subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcast under Hoops tonight. It's also super helpful
Speaker 1: for us if you leave a rating and a review
Speaker 1: on the podcast feed. Palling me on Twitter at underscore
Speaker 1: json lt That's where I put film threads from time
Speaker 1: to time, as well as show announcements in the last
Speaker 1: not at least keep dropping mail bad questions in those
Speaker 1: YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout the season.
Speaker 1: Lots of good questions at the end of the show. Today,
Speaker 1: all right, let's talk some basketball. So again important context here.
Speaker 1: No Damian Lillard last night, No Brook Lopez last night.
Speaker 1: Chris Middleton sprained his ankle and apparently left the arena
Speaker 1: and crunch crutches in a walking boot. So kind of
Speaker 1: a disaster night for the Bucks. That said, I thought
Speaker 1: they competed really well on the defensive end yet another Again,
Speaker 1: like in terms of defensive effort and commitment to the details,
Speaker 1: I think they have gone up a significant level since
Speaker 1: Doc Rivers came back. Which is hard to really see
Speaker 1: the forest for the trees when you're one and four
Speaker 1: in that span, But I did think it was another
Speaker 1: good positive step for them on the defensive end.
Speaker 2: Of the four.
Speaker 1: Giannis garded Kevin Durant pretty damn well. Just one of
Speaker 1: the few guys and kind of kind of can stay
Speaker 1: with him step for step and contest shots. Malik was
Speaker 1: trying really hard against Devin Booker, even though he's giving
Speaker 1: up quite a bit of size there, and so they
Speaker 1: were able to keep things interesting throughout most of the game,
Speaker 1: but the Suns offense broke through in a big way
Speaker 1: in that fourth quarter. Bradley Beal had nine points in
Speaker 1: the first four minutes of the fourth quarter. I talked
Speaker 1: a lot about the idea of, you know, of high
Speaker 1: level close out attacking as a as an important function
Speaker 1: of high level offense, especially when you get to the
Speaker 1: later stages of the playoffs, and in large part just
Speaker 1: because defenses get so much better, they're going to chase
Speaker 1: you off the three point line, They're going to take
Speaker 1: away the rim. This is why I hyper focus on
Speaker 1: spot up efficiency rather than actual catch and shoot efficiency,
Speaker 1: because catching and shooting is only one phase of making
Speaker 1: a defense pay. And when you're not good at putting
Speaker 1: the ball on the floor, guys can actually recklessly close
Speaker 1: out at you without necessarily compromising the defense too much.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that the Suns were doing
Speaker 1: a lot of, like two man game with Bradley Beal
Speaker 1: and Kevin Durant, to try to get Malik easily switched
Speaker 1: on to Kevin Durant so that they can go down
Speaker 1: to the block on him, and they did that early
Speaker 1: fourth quarter quick double team from Giannis. Quick swing pass
Speaker 1: out to Bradley Bally knocks down to three. Then later
Speaker 1: on Kevin Durant pretty consistently was drawing that blitz out
Speaker 1: above the key, draws a blitz drops it to use
Speaker 1: of Nurkic. Nurkic makes a kickout pass to Bradley Beal
Speaker 1: on the left wing, hump fake ripped through one dribble,
Speaker 1: pull up, elevate, knock it down. That's a high level
Speaker 1: close out attack. That's a situation if you watch that play,
Speaker 1: the catch and shoot three is not there, the driving
Speaker 1: layup is not there, and so there's an opening there
Speaker 1: in the middle of the floor and having a guy
Speaker 1: who can capitalize on that is super valuable. And then
Speaker 1: the matchup attacking was a big one. They went to
Speaker 1: the post against Campaign with Bradley Beal drove right through
Speaker 1: him to the basket for a left handed layup. Then
Speaker 1: he drove right past Pat Content and actually smoked the layup.
Speaker 1: But he's just such a good athlete that he's able
Speaker 1: to get back up off the floor on that second jump,
Speaker 1: get the ball, put it back in. That was the
Speaker 1: big spark for that early fourth quarter run for the
Speaker 1: suns and then pretty quickly they went up big and
Speaker 1: the game was basically over at that point. Bradley Beal
Speaker 1: brings that power and force to the offensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor that the rest of the guys don't have.
Speaker 1: This is kind of it kind of reminds me of
Speaker 1: like what Kawhi Leonard brings to the LA Clippers, where
Speaker 1: you know there's a certain finesse element to the way
Speaker 1: that they play. It's a lot of like high level skill.
Speaker 1: These are guys that have made their they're living in
Speaker 1: the NBA by working harder on the details in the
Speaker 1: gym by themselves than anybody else, and polishing up these
Speaker 1: extremely well rounded skill sets to generate high quality shots.
Speaker 1: Well a lot of times that I shouldn't say a
Speaker 1: lot of times, it is possible that that can fail
Speaker 1: you in a lot of ways because there's variance and
Speaker 1: distance shot making right, and so having a real physical
Speaker 1: imposition on the game is a great counter to that. Okay,
Speaker 1: the shots aren't falling, but hey I'm faster than you,
Speaker 1: Hey I'm bigger than you, or whatever it is, right
Speaker 1: and like that to me is the role that Bradley
Speaker 1: Beal plays on the suns and the role that Kawhi
Speaker 1: Leonard in particular plays on the Clippers in the sense
Speaker 1: where it's like he's actually just a top tier athlete
Speaker 1: for his position, and he can get he kind of
Speaker 1: pulls out to like thirty feet and he kind of
Speaker 1: gets going downhill with like a series of in and
Speaker 1: out dribbles, and that defender is just panick backpedaling on
Speaker 1: his heels. There's a step back jumper that he hit
Speaker 1: on Jay Crowder, I think in the middle of the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter if I remember correctly, and it was just
Speaker 1: one of those deals where and when he backed up
Speaker 1: and he started coming downhill at Jay Crowder, Jay Crowder
Speaker 1: just has no chance to actually take away the jump
Speaker 1: shot and the drive, and so he's just really aggressively backpedaling,
Speaker 1: and Bradley Beal can rise up into this like easy,
Speaker 1: like twelve foot pull up jumper that's barely even contested
Speaker 1: because of the physical advantage he brings to the table.
Speaker 1: And so you know, if there's a big upside by
Speaker 1: going with a third star versus a higher level role player,
Speaker 1: you may lose out on some of the details of
Speaker 1: the game, especially on the defensive end and in rebounding
Speaker 1: situations and just some of the role player stuff, But
Speaker 1: there is something to be said about that additional high
Speaker 1: level offensive production right and like specifically with Bradley Beal
Speaker 1: as the top tier athlete in the group, because Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant is extremely tall and long for his specific scoring archetype,
Speaker 1: and Devin Booker is one of the most skilled players
Speaker 1: in the league. But Devin Booker's not a top tier
Speaker 1: athlete at the two guard position. He's not going to
Speaker 1: physically overwhelm players the way that a guy like Bradley
Speaker 1: Balkan in his position group, Devin Booker continued his hot streak.
Speaker 1: He had thirty two points, did most of his work
Speaker 1: in ball screens. He had nineteen of his thirty two
Speaker 1: shooting out of ball screens and dribble handoffs. Just too
Speaker 1: big for Malik Beasley. He's really patient, Like once he
Speaker 1: gets over the top of the screen, Malik Beasley just
Speaker 1: comes because he's working really hard trying to get back
Speaker 1: into the play, and Devin Booker will basically just patiently,
Speaker 1: whether it's a pump fake or just putting him in
Speaker 1: jail and waiting. He's waiting for Malik Beasley to end
Speaker 1: up back on the ground and then he can just
Speaker 1: rise back up and he's so good at like patiently
Speaker 1: waiting for those little ten twelve footers that he can
Speaker 1: get after the defender comes back down to the ground.
Speaker 1: Devin Booker's thirty three points per game in his last
Speaker 1: eleven games on fifty five percent shooting in forty two
Speaker 1: percent from three, So kind of maintaining that top tier
Speaker 1: superstar level of production that we've kind of expected from
Speaker 1: Devin Booker for the whole season. Wasn't there really at
Speaker 1: the start, but now he's starting to get into his groove.
Speaker 1: And then Kevin Durant picked the spots. He was particularly
Speaker 1: aggressive against Jay Crowder. You could just tell he liked
Speaker 1: that matchup in particular, and he was going to work
Speaker 1: whenever he got him on an island. I also thought
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant defended Giannis pretty well. And you know, again,
Speaker 1: like one of the big turnarounds of this Sun's streak,
Speaker 1: because like they're sixteen and six since they're lost to
Speaker 1: Dallas on Christmas Day, and they have the tenth best
Speaker 1: defense in the league over that span. So a top
Speaker 1: ten defensive effort over basically a chunk of the season.
Speaker 1: That's more than a fourth of the season, and they
Speaker 1: have the third best record in the league over that span,
Speaker 1: including a lot of quality wins. And a big part
Speaker 1: of that is one of the things I've talked about
Speaker 1: throughout Kevin Durant's career, which is when he engages himself defensively,
Speaker 1: he's legitimately one of the most talented defensive players in
Speaker 1: the league, and he just has a really unique ability
Speaker 1: to impact games there. And then the last guy I
Speaker 1: wanted to shout out on the Sun's front, Bull Bull
Speaker 1: played a really under control game, using his length and
Speaker 1: athleticism just to be a pain in the ass short
Speaker 1: shifts and still had six rebounds. Had a crazy block
Speaker 1: this transition play where aj Green got a corner three
Speaker 1: for the Bucks, kind of in like one of those
Speaker 1: runout situations. He was way behind the play and just
Speaker 1: gave crazy effort and somehow got back in and blocked
Speaker 1: the three. But the most impressive part to me about
Speaker 1: it was, you know, Bu Bull has a tendency, just
Speaker 1: especially from the earlier phase of his career, to kind
Speaker 1: of try to do too much offensively, and that wasn't
Speaker 1: there for bow Bull in this game, just was being
Speaker 1: another spoke in the wheel, so to speak. You were
Speaker 1: there was So it was interesting watching the game because
Speaker 1: the Sun's fans were just begging him to shoot half
Speaker 1: the time he'd catch the day of basketball, because obviously,
Speaker 1: you know Bu Bull is a little bit of a
Speaker 1: fan favorite, right, But no, he was super patient. He
Speaker 1: he caught the ball, and he didn't have like a
Speaker 1: fantastic look. He was turning and looking to run that
Speaker 1: next dribble handoff and just like I said, a really
Speaker 1: under control game, didn't force anything. The Sons were plus
Speaker 1: eight in his minutes. As a matter of fact, in
Speaker 1: Bu Bull's shifts, the Sons haven't lost his minutes since
Speaker 1: December twenty seventh, so he's been kind of a useful
Speaker 1: contributor for them. He's providing if you extrapolate, I use
Speaker 1: per thirty six not as a method of like what
Speaker 1: this player could be if he played more minutes, but
Speaker 1: just as a method of trying to capture activity for
Speaker 1: a bench player. And bo Bowl is averaging sixteen points
Speaker 1: and twelve rebounds with three point three stocks per thirty
Speaker 1: six minutes so far this season, just really active in
Speaker 1: his opportunities. So another good step in the right direction.
Speaker 1: For the Suns again sixteen and six since since they're
Speaker 1: lost to Dallas on Christmas Day, So trending in the
Speaker 1: right direction there Again, the most encouraging part there is
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor. They need to be
Speaker 1: closer to what the Nets were with Harden, Kyrie and
Speaker 1: KD where it's a two way impact. It's not just
Speaker 1: competing on the offensive end of the floor with all
Speaker 1: of their perimeter skill, but also using their perimeter skill
Speaker 1: on the defensive end of the floor to stay in
Speaker 1: basketball games. And then on the Bucks front, the one
Speaker 1: thing I wanted to hit was a big story after
Speaker 1: the game and Doc I actually asked about it in
Speaker 1: his postgame presser. But Doc has basically refused to play
Speaker 1: the young players since he took over. In the five
Speaker 1: games since Marjon Beauchamp and Andre Jackson Junior basically haven't played.
Speaker 1: They both got a little bit of garbage time, but
Speaker 1: that's it. So, you know, this is where I want
Speaker 1: to want to kind of like address the difference between
Speaker 1: what a regular season methodology is versus a playoff methodology.
Speaker 1: So Doc isn't the first coach in the world to
Speaker 1: not trust young players. I mean, we've been talking about
Speaker 1: this all season with Steve Kerr as well, and I
Speaker 1: do understand it in the big picture, in the sense that, like,
Speaker 1: especially in high leverage situations, it is more important to
Speaker 1: have a higher floor than a lower than it is
Speaker 1: to have a higher ceiling with a role player, because
Speaker 1: mistakes can be catastrophic, and when you have stars that
Speaker 1: can really strangle control of the game and they don't
Speaker 1: make mistakes, you'd prefer to have the next to other
Speaker 1: players that don't make mistakes and trust your stars to
Speaker 1: provide the ceiling in that situation. And so a lot
Speaker 1: of times, going with a J. Crowder, you know, in
Speaker 1: big minutes, might be the safer bet in a playoff
Speaker 1: series because Jay Crowder might not make the critical mistake
Speaker 1: that amar Jon bou Champer and Andre Jackson Junior can make. Right,
Speaker 1: he might be a little bit more confident and comfortable
Speaker 1: just because he's been in more big basketball games, right, Like,
Speaker 1: he has like a certain confidence in terms of like
Speaker 1: going toe to toe with other veteran players because one
Speaker 1: Jay Crowder was in his prime, he was a guy
Speaker 1: that could guard those guys pretty damn well. And so
Speaker 1: I understand it within the playoff context, But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: If there's a time to use young players, it is
Speaker 1: during the regular season, because during that regular season, a
Speaker 1: lot of times you can play the as a coach,
Speaker 1: you can play based on which players have in that
Speaker 1: kind of night. You give Marshon Bouchamp and Andre Jackson
Speaker 1: Junior a first half shift and you read it, it's like, Oh,
Speaker 1: he's locked in today, he's got it going, he's confident.
Speaker 1: We can get his ceiling today. You lean into him,
Speaker 1: right or Oh, this is too big of a game
Speaker 1: for him, he's not ready for this. Particularly, this isn't
Speaker 1: the night to play him. Pull him run some more,
Speaker 1: j Crowder because he's going to be more comfortable in
Speaker 1: those situations.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Like, that's where you can actually take advantage of some
Speaker 1: of that upside. And most importantly, for a team that's
Speaker 1: pretty damn slow without Yiannis on the floor, Marjen Bochamp
Speaker 1: and Andre Jackson Junior are two your very best athletes
Speaker 1: on the roster. And like, never underestimate the impact of
Speaker 1: a high motor athlete in the NBA regular season. They
Speaker 1: can just wreck havoc in a lot of the other
Speaker 1: areas of the game, and so a lot of times
Speaker 1: like I've viewed as a missed opportunity in the sense
Speaker 1: like do I think the I'll give you an example
Speaker 1: on the Lakers front, like, do I think Max Christie
Speaker 1: can play big minutes for the Lakers in a playoff
Speaker 1: run and be like reliable?
Speaker 2: Probably not.
Speaker 1: He's young. It's a totally different setting there. But during
Speaker 1: the regular season, you bet your ass you gotta lean
Speaker 1: on Max Christie. He's one of their best permitter defenders.
Speaker 1: He's a guy that brings athleticism and motor to the table.
Speaker 1: You've got to lean on that as much as you
Speaker 1: can to get through the eighty two. Again, getting through
Speaker 1: the eighty two is an entirely different grind than getting
Speaker 1: through the wins you got to get through to win
Speaker 1: the NBA title.
Speaker 2: So I do disagree with Doc's approach there.
Speaker 1: He was questioned about it and he gave this answer
Speaker 1: that was like, Oh, we're gonna need those guys, and
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, well, they can't really help you if
Speaker 1: they're not on the floor. So so it's something to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on over the course the next few weeks.
Speaker 2: All right, moving on to Wolves Bulls.
Speaker 1: This is a really fun game. The Wolves jumped them early.
Speaker 1: It was a classic, you know, like January February regular
Speaker 1: season game. Early on, it was sloppy. It was way
Speaker 1: in the up and like up and down, open floor
Speaker 1: type of play style. The Bulls in particular, were not
Speaker 1: doing a very good job of packing the paint to
Speaker 1: test Minnesota's decision making and their spot up shooting, which
Speaker 1: is the like like kind of the game plan for Minnesota.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about that in a little bit, Like
Speaker 1: you got to pack the paint, you gotta get the ball,
Speaker 1: you got to test the decision making of their stars.
Speaker 1: Like the Wolves are actually twenty fourth in spot up
Speaker 1: efficiency this year, something we'll dive into a little bit later.
Speaker 1: And they turned the ball over more than everybody else
Speaker 1: in the league per one hundred possessions except for the
Speaker 1: Jazz and Piss. And so when you actually make the
Speaker 1: Wolves be decisive and make them shoot from the or
Speaker 1: shouldn't they shoot, but playoff of closeouts, that's where you
Speaker 1: can have success defensively, and they just did not do
Speaker 1: that in the first half. They were getting killed in transition.
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards was ridiculous. Anthony Edwards and Carl Towns combined
Speaker 1: for forty one points in the first half as they
Speaker 1: went as they went up by I think twenty three.
Speaker 1: It was the biggest lead in that particular game. But
Speaker 1: then the Bulls go on a quick run to start
Speaker 1: the second half. Kobe White hit a couple of threes,
Speaker 1: catch and shoot one and then a pretty nasty step
Speaker 1: back in transition. Then Nikolavusovich went right to work on
Speaker 1: against Carl Towns in the post for a little shot
Speaker 1: in the lane, and then to Marta Rosen drew some
Speaker 1: free throws. All of a sudden, it was a ten
Speaker 1: er run and it was a thirteen point game, and
Speaker 1: from there it just turned into a dogfight. The Bulls
Speaker 1: defense in the second half was amazing. They did a
Speaker 1: much much better job of keeping the game in the
Speaker 1: half court and forcing the Wolves into their worst tendencies,
Speaker 1: much better execution on offense, they shot the ball better,
Speaker 1: they turned the ball over less, which Minnesota out of transition,
Speaker 1: and then in the half court they just really did
Speaker 1: a much better job of preventing the the Timberolves is
Speaker 1: getting easy shots around the basket and forcing them to
Speaker 1: spray out to shooters. And you could really see that
Speaker 1: in the play type data. They only had ten spot
Speaker 1: up possessions Minnesota did in the entire first half, and
Speaker 1: they had a few dozen in the second half, So
Speaker 1: like an entirely different type of play style from the Bulls.
Speaker 1: They were doing a really nice job is sticking to
Speaker 1: their scheme. So they were ducking under ball screens with
Speaker 1: Mike Conley. And one of the things with Mike Conley
Speaker 1: that you can pray on is he's not overly aggressive.
Speaker 1: He's one of the best shooters in the league. He's
Speaker 1: like a mid forties pull up three point shooter, but
Speaker 1: he only takes two and a half of them per game.
Speaker 1: He's good at him, but he does not force them.
Speaker 1: It's typically only if it's very open. He actually took
Speaker 1: two pull up threes in this game, but one of
Speaker 1: them was a transition pull up three in the first half,
Speaker 1: and then the second one was right at the beginning of.
Speaker 2: The fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: He took this like incredibly difficult, like sliding side step
Speaker 1: three in the right corner. But when I would assume
Speaker 1: or Kobe White were ducking under those ball screens, there
Speaker 1: was room there for Mike Conley to shoot, and he
Speaker 1: would not shoot, and so that allowed the Bulls to
Speaker 1: stay home on the roll man in this case go bare,
Speaker 1: and so most of those ball screens just weren't generating
Speaker 1: any sort of advantage. And then in addition to that,
Speaker 1: Alex Caruso just did an amazing job on Anthony Edwards
Speaker 1: in the second half, just being physical with him, cutting
Speaker 1: off his driving land same thing kind of ducking under picks,
Speaker 1: but making sure he doesn't feel supercomfortable as he rises
Speaker 1: up into that pull up jump shot. Again, it's just
Speaker 1: such a weapon to have a player like Alex Cruso
Speaker 1: who can actually make opposing stars uncomfortable, Like it's one
Speaker 1: of the most important parts of having a team that
Speaker 1: can win the championship when you actually look around. It's
Speaker 1: like the job that Aaron Gordon did last year on
Speaker 1: Lebron James and on Kevin Durant on the way to
Speaker 1: the Nuggets winning the title. The job that Andrew Wiggins
Speaker 1: did last year, you know, guarding the likes of Luka
Speaker 1: Doncic and Jason Tatum, right, the job that Drew Holiday
Speaker 1: did in twenty twenty one, The job that Alex Caruso
Speaker 1: and can Davius Callwell Pope did in twenty twenty Like
Speaker 1: that ability to have guys that can really really defend
Speaker 1: at the point of attack, not just well enough to
Speaker 1: fulfill their role in the scheme, but actually to get
Speaker 1: in the head of the offensive player a little bit
Speaker 1: to where they don't feel as confident.
Speaker 2: And it is just such a huge asset.
Speaker 1: And the Bulls just basically shut down Minnesota's offense in
Speaker 1: the second half. They held him to a one h
Speaker 1: two offensive rating, just a seventy three point three offensive
Speaker 1: rating for the Wolves in nine minutes of clutch time.
Speaker 1: The only real success Minnesota had down the stretch offensively
Speaker 1: was when they would run a guard to guard screen
Speaker 1: to get someone like to Soon Mo or Kobe White
Speaker 1: switched on to ant and then run their ball screens.
Speaker 1: That was when they were getting the defense in rotation
Speaker 1: and getting some different stuff. But again, that's a very
Speaker 1: deliberate thing to do. It takes a certain you know,
Speaker 1: fortitude to keep actually running the actions you need to
Speaker 1: generate the advantages you need. And a lot of times
Speaker 1: it was ugly offense from Minnesota down the stretch as
Speaker 1: they fell apart, and then Kobe White was the hero
Speaker 1: offensively in this one thirty points in the second half,
Speaker 1: ten for thirteen from the field seven for nine from three,
Speaker 1: hit two huge clutch shots at the end of regulation,
Speaker 1: a nasty step back three against Carl Towns, and then
Speaker 1: he had this and one against Jade McDaniels, where Jaden
Speaker 1: defended it perfectly, funneled him under the basket, walled him up,
Speaker 1: and he just somehow reached back behind him and finished
Speaker 1: at the rim and got an and one. It was
Speaker 1: the actual lead changing shot that put them up I
Speaker 1: think one twelve to one to ten at that point,
Speaker 1: He's he's got a real case for most improved player
Speaker 1: this year. Over the course of the last thirty seven games,
Speaker 1: which is basically when the Bulls started to get it together,
Speaker 1: they Kobe White's averaging twenty two points, five rebounds, and
Speaker 1: six assists on forty nine percent from the field, forty
Speaker 1: three percent from three, and eighty two percent from the line.
Speaker 1: He's just on a hell of a run. The Wolves
Speaker 1: did end up tying the game and sending it to ot.
Speaker 1: They ran their best possession of overtime or of regulation,
Speaker 1: I should say, in crunch time. Anthony Edwards ran a
Speaker 1: ball screen. This time he couldn't get separated from Cruso,
Speaker 1: but he had a nice little like kind of snake
Speaker 1: dribble move to get onto the other side of the
Speaker 1: ball screen against Vucevich that got the defense in rotation.
Speaker 1: They had a really good ball movement possession where the
Speaker 1: ball is popping around ended up in Carl Towns's hand
Speaker 1: at the top of the key. He ends up hitting
Speaker 1: the three to tie the game and send it to overtime.
Speaker 1: But once again, the Minnesota offense just baltered in ot
Speaker 1: and Demarti Rose took over the game and overtime. He
Speaker 1: scored an assistant on twelve of Chicago's fourteen points, and
Speaker 1: the Bulls got the win. Here's a fun fact for you.
Speaker 1: The Bulls have the tenth best record in the league
Speaker 1: since November thirtieth. They're nineteen and thirteen. They have the
Speaker 1: tenth best defense in the league over that span. A
Speaker 1: really athletic core of perimeter players, and that's the key
Speaker 1: because like when they really get to flying around, getting
Speaker 1: into the basketball and then flying around in rotation, they
Speaker 1: can be really difficult to score on. And then they're
Speaker 1: an excellent rebounding team thanks to a lot of Andre
Speaker 1: Drummond and Nicola Vusovich. They are fifth in defensive rebounding
Speaker 1: since November thirtieth, on the offensive end of the four
Speaker 1: super balanced scoring twenty three points a game from Kobe,
Speaker 1: twenty three points a game from Demarta Rozen, nineteen points
Speaker 1: a game from Nikola Vusovich, and then Pat williams Ayo,
Speaker 1: De soun Moo and Alex Cruso are all averaging double
Speaker 1: figures over that span. They may not be a great team,
Speaker 1: they may not have championship potential, but they're a fun
Speaker 1: team and they're capable of being very good, and they're
Speaker 1: a lot. Like I said, there's just a lot of
Speaker 1: fun to watch, and I that watching that Wolves Bowls
Speaker 1: game was one of my favorite regular season games of
Speaker 1: the season. Is just super fun back and forth. You know,
Speaker 1: even in spite of the crazy defensive effort from Chicago,
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards still made some crazy shots down the stretch,
Speaker 1: hit like a thirty footer on the left wing, It
Speaker 1: had some crazy finishes around the rim. It It was
Speaker 1: just a fun game to watch. On the Minnesota end,
Speaker 1: once again, their clutch offense ends up being an issue.
Speaker 1: Seventy three offensive rating and nine minutes of clutch time
Speaker 1: in their last nine games that have involved to clutch situations.
Speaker 1: They are scoring just ninety eight points per one hundred possessions.
Speaker 1: That is atrocious in a large sample size. They are
Speaker 1: just three and six in those games too, so it's
Speaker 1: directly leading to losses. They're also down to twentieth and
Speaker 1: clutch offense for the season. This is something that I've
Speaker 1: preached about all year and it just continues to be
Speaker 1: an issue. You could literally hear it on the broadcast.
Speaker 1: The Wolves announcers were talking about it. You could hear
Speaker 1: him saying, where are the Wolves gonna go for offense?
Speaker 1: Here down the stretch, Alex Crusoe has put the clamps
Speaker 1: down on Anthony Edwards. These are things that the Wolves
Speaker 1: announcers were literally saying. Even the shots they made down
Speaker 1: the stretch were extremely high difficulty shots like making a
Speaker 1: thirty footer when they were already down big or getting
Speaker 1: to the foul line when he's driving into traffic. There
Speaker 1: was no like real, free flowing, easy looking offense.
Speaker 2: It's not the.
Speaker 1: Type of top tier execution that you're accustomed to seeing
Speaker 1: from teams like Denver. If that makes it really what
Speaker 1: it comes down to, and I've been watching this for
Speaker 1: a while. Over the course of the last month, the
Speaker 1: teams can really pack the paint against the Wolves, which
Speaker 1: will force them to make the right reads, and they
Speaker 1: can struggle on that front. They have the fourth most
Speaker 1: turnovers per one hundred possessions in clutch situations. By the way,
Speaker 1: that's an extension of an issue that they have over
Speaker 1: the course of the forty eight minutes as well. They
Speaker 1: don't take care of the basketball well. That continues to
Speaker 1: be a problem in clutch time. They had a huge
Speaker 1: turnover int last night when it was a four point
Speaker 1: game where Jade McDaniels threw the ball away to Alex
Speaker 1: Crusoe quickly led to two points for the Bulls and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden they were down by six. And
Speaker 1: then you can get away with packing the paint against
Speaker 1: them because all you have to do is chase them
Speaker 1: off the three point line. They're not a high level,
Speaker 1: closeout attacking team. It's crazy because they shoot the ball
Speaker 1: extremely well. When you just look at catch and shoot efficiency,
Speaker 1: the Timberwolves are one of the best teams in the league.
Speaker 1: But when you actually look at their ability to convert
Speaker 1: spot up possessions, which again that's the actual read of
Speaker 1: your ability to space the floor, a catch and shoot
Speaker 1: three is just We talked about this earlier when we
Speaker 1: were talking about the Bucks and the Suns. That's just
Speaker 1: one element to beating high level defense. If you have
Speaker 1: the athletes, especially teams like Chicago that have real perimeter
Speaker 1: speed that can chase you off the three point line,
Speaker 1: if you can't actually convert those possessions into points, including
Speaker 1: the possessions where they chase you off the line, you
Speaker 1: can struggle. The Timberwolves are twenty fourth in spot up efficiency.
Speaker 1: Jaden McDaniels is below average forty seventh percentile converting spot
Speaker 1: up possessions. Carl Town's excellent catch and shoot guy, but
Speaker 1: chase him off the line and he struggles only convert
Speaker 1: spot up possessions at zero point ninety four points per possession.
Speaker 1: That's thirty first percentile, Anthony Edwards fifty fifth percentile, barely
Speaker 1: above average. And then Rudy Gobher is out there too,
Speaker 1: and so like it just turns into this situation like
Speaker 1: you can force them to play drive and kick by
Speaker 1: chasing them off the line, and they're probably going to
Speaker 1: turn it over or force a bad shot, make some
Speaker 1: form of mistake, and they can struggle to score. And
Speaker 1: so all of those factors just combined to make them
Speaker 1: relatively easy to guard, especially by the better defenses in
Speaker 1: the league in the slowdown environment at the end of games,
Speaker 1: and then to make matters worse, their defense hasn't been
Speaker 1: very good as of late that same nine game span
Speaker 1: of crunch time games they are they have a one
Speaker 1: to thirty defensive rating, and even though they have a
Speaker 1: the best defense in the league by defensive rating over
Speaker 1: the entirety of the season, they are just nineteenth in
Speaker 1: clutch defense this year. It's definitely something to keep an
Speaker 1: eye on. And it's like it's there's some entry points there.
Speaker 1: Mike Conley's an entry point, like Kobe White's taking Carl
Speaker 1: Towns off the bounce. So there's a different once again,
Speaker 1: a difference between your base defensive scheme and what you
Speaker 1: can accomplish versus what is your entry point? Where is
Speaker 1: the weakness. There's something to be said about your weakest
Speaker 1: link in those environments. But I'm not as worried about
Speaker 1: their defense. I think they're gonna figure out how to
Speaker 1: get stops again like they have been for the most
Speaker 1: part this season. But it has been a little bit
Speaker 1: of a concern and clutch situations. But the stuff on
Speaker 1: offense is the big red flag. Like, I think their
Speaker 1: defense is mostly offense off awesome. It's gonna keep them
Speaker 1: in games. But will they be able to go shot
Speaker 1: for shot with the likes of a Nikola jokicch with
Speaker 1: the likes of Kevin Durant, with the likes of a
Speaker 1: you know, Kawhi Leonard, with the likes of a Lebron James.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be one of the big determining factors for
Speaker 1: this team in the playoffs. And again, like take take
Speaker 1: my word for it, my favorite team, the Lakers last
Speaker 1: year had this exact same issue. They were really bad
Speaker 1: in clutch time. Last year, they specifically struggled with over
Speaker 1: the top shot making, and they would stay in every
Speaker 1: single game on the strength of their defense, and then
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets would just pick them apart. With Nikole
Speaker 1: jokicch and Jamal Murray just being better at playing clutch
Speaker 1: time basketball. It's actually one of the reasons why I
Speaker 1: more encouraged about the Lakers this year. Last year, Lebron
Speaker 1: shot forty six percent in clutch time. This year, Lebron
Speaker 1: shooting sixty two percent in clutch time. And he's got
Speaker 1: his pull up jump shot back. It's like a huge
Speaker 1: swing factor for that particular team. But a lot of
Speaker 1: times like it comes down to who can execute in
Speaker 1: the final five minutes and that's been an issue for
Speaker 1: Minnesota and it's something to keep an eye on. Have
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Speaker 1: to our mailbag. We have seven or eight questions today.
Speaker 1: First question, my friend and I got into debate yesterday.
Speaker 1: He said he would trade a few of the starting
Speaker 1: five for the Nuggets to get Luca on the team
Speaker 1: if hypothetically this was possible, and he said he would
Speaker 1: fill the holes, or at least Murray and Porter. I
Speaker 1: disagreed and said, you could do a one from one,
Speaker 1: but it would be completely the wrong move. Just one
Speaker 1: of your thoughts on it. I know Luka and Nikola
Speaker 1: jokicch want to be on the same team one day,
Speaker 1: but neither of us have the illusion this is remotely
Speaker 1: possible in the near future. When I heard you talking
Speaker 1: about hypothetical Lebron trades, I figured you would weigh.
Speaker 2: In on this as well. Thanks and love your content.
Speaker 1: You're right, I love a good hypothetical and yes, no,
Speaker 1: there's no chance in hell that Luka Dancic and Nikol
Speaker 1: Jokic are gonna play together.
Speaker 2: Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I am a big believer in diminishing returns when it
Speaker 1: comes to star power. Like, in my opinion, if you
Speaker 1: have two legitimate shot creators, then it's more important for
Speaker 1: you to have quality role players around them than to
Speaker 1: bring in a third legitimate shot creator. And there's something
Speaker 1: to be said about the beauty of a five man
Speaker 1: basketball lineup like regardless of the fact that there's no
Speaker 1: like true superstar next to Nikola Jokic, every single one
Speaker 1: of those players, whether it's Jamal Murray or Contavis Calopope,
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior, Aaron Gordon, they're all stars in their roles.
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray is just a star shot maker and so
Speaker 1: therefore is a perfect fit with Nikola Jokic in the
Speaker 1: two man game because if you cover it, you have
Speaker 1: to concede something, and most teams will concede. Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: ISOs and in his ability to convert those especially against
Speaker 1: teams that switch that action goes a long way, or
Speaker 1: that chase over the top and stay home on the
Speaker 1: roll man where he has opportunity to get separation from
Speaker 1: the screen. That's what teams are willing to concede, and
Speaker 1: he continues to make those shots. KCP just attacking off
Speaker 1: of dribblehandos, attacking out of spot up situations and defending
Speaker 1: the other team's best perimeter defender or perimeter offensive weapon.
Speaker 1: He's awesome at that. He's a star in that role.
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior weak side shooting, help side defense, defensive rebounding,
Speaker 1: offensive rebounding. When he's being ignored. He's a star at that.
Speaker 1: He's one of the best spot up players in the league.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon just the perfect shoe in forward to put
Speaker 1: next to nikolea Jokic because he brings the athleticism in
Speaker 1: defensive versatility that Nicol Jokic does not bring to the position.
Speaker 1: He's a excellent wing defender while also being an excellent
Speaker 1: help defender while also being an excellent defensive rebounder, and
Speaker 1: the perfect guy to run along the baseline for their
Speaker 1: offense when Nikole Jokic is operating around the elbow, and
Speaker 1: so again, like, it's it to me that is a
Speaker 1: concoction I would never mess with until one of those
Speaker 1: four guys, like and like if KCP in two years
Speaker 1: starts to show some kind of decline, then sure you
Speaker 1: can look to make some sort of change. But as
Speaker 1: long as those four, that five man grouping is all
Speaker 1: operating at this level, you gotta do whatever you can
Speaker 1: to keep them together because it's very rare when you
Speaker 1: can capture real magic and a five man basketball lineup,
Speaker 1: and that Denver group has captured that magic, and I
Speaker 1: would try to maintain that as long as possible. Next question, Hey, Jason.
Speaker 1: Knowing you read a lot of the comments, I want
Speaker 1: to point something out. In twenty twenty two, you praise
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum for his commitment on the defense event, and
Speaker 1: I think, based solely on eye test, Jalen Brown has
Speaker 1: made a similar commitment this year. He takes on the
Speaker 1: best matchups every night now, and I'd like to know
Speaker 1: what you think if you take a closer look and
Speaker 1: rewatch some of the games. I hear people questioning who
Speaker 1: is the second best player, and that is insane to me.
Speaker 1: With Jalen's offensive production combined with the defense this year,
Speaker 1: it's not close.
Speaker 2: Thanks.
Speaker 1: So I agree in the sense that Jalen Brown is
Speaker 1: in a vacuum the second best player on the team,
Speaker 1: especially when you look talent. And I agree is ability
Speaker 1: to impact the game defensively while providing scoring production is legitimate.
Speaker 1: The reason why it gets a little complicated is like
Speaker 1: sometimes there's a difference between talent and value. And so
Speaker 1: for instance, let's look at Derek White. This is a
Speaker 1: team that struggles with offensive decision making and half court
Speaker 1: like real slow down shot creation from time to time
Speaker 1: as it pertains the decision making, so Derek White becomes
Speaker 1: immensely valuable for them as one of the guys that
Speaker 1: they can use to kind of dissect half court defense.
Speaker 1: And so that is why one of their go to
Speaker 1: actions at the end of games is Derek White Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum two man game. They do that because they trust
Speaker 1: Derek White to have the basketball in his hands in
Speaker 1: those big moments. So there's something to be said about
Speaker 1: the value of a Derek White Chris Porzingis the same
Speaker 1: thing between pick and pop being the most difficult action
Speaker 1: in the league to guard, and specifically the value of
Speaker 1: a real rim protector alongside all their perimeter defenders. There's
Speaker 1: something to be said about Porzingis's value. By the way,
Speaker 1: when you look at the on off numbers for the Celtics,
Speaker 1: according to Cleaning the Glass, the three best on off
Speaker 1: guys on the team are Derek White, Jason Tatum, and
Speaker 1: krisops Porzingis. And so again I agree with you, it's
Speaker 1: not a question of talent, Like Jalen Brown is a
Speaker 1: better basketball player than Derek White, it's a better basketball
Speaker 1: player than Chrisops Porzingis.
Speaker 2: But what you when you look at this specific.
Speaker 1: Team and roster needs, Jalen Brown's a little bit of
Speaker 1: a redundancy next to Jason Tatum, whereas Derek White and
Speaker 1: chrisops Porzingis fulfill absolutely vital roles for that group. To
Speaker 1: put it differently, like, obviously you don't want to see
Speaker 1: anybody get hurt, but if Derek White got hurt, I
Speaker 1: think it would hurt the Celtics more than Jaylen Brown
Speaker 1: getting hurt, or vice versa with with chrisops Porzingis. And
Speaker 1: I think again, that's not a shot at Jalen Brown,
Speaker 1: It's just a product of the roster construction. Next question, Hey, Jason,
Speaker 1: big fan of the show. It's a great place to
Speaker 1: expand my knowledge to someone with no background in the game.
Speaker 1: Two Warriors questions for you will go one at a time.
Speaker 1: What I understood from the evolution of your opinion regarding
Speaker 1: the Warriors front what the Warriors front office should do
Speaker 1: is that they should go all in on winning with Steph.
Speaker 1: In addition, they shouldn't trade JK, who will probably take
Speaker 1: a few years to develop into a good enough number two.
Speaker 1: I don't understand how those two goals go together, considering
Speaker 1: all the personnel problems of Warriors have and Steph turning
Speaker 1: thirty six soon him being this good still as already
Speaker 1: and anominally it would be great if he was still
Speaker 1: good in a couple of years to play with the
Speaker 1: developed JK. But I don't think it's smart to just
Speaker 1: expect that. For the record, those are two separate opinions
Speaker 1: that I have. So like, I thought the Warriors should
Speaker 1: go all in on Steph, and then JK had this
Speaker 1: ten game stretch where he averaged twenty five points a
Speaker 1: game on sixty one percent shooting, and it's like, oh shit,
Speaker 1: you got yourself a star here. So now like you're
Speaker 1: trading away a star, a future star to try to
Speaker 1: get back I don't know, high quality role players, right,
Speaker 1: And so that's where it gets super convoluted. Like to me,
Speaker 1: I agree, those two concepts are kind of opposed to
Speaker 1: each other, right, Like there's just it's just not possible
Speaker 1: to go all in on Steph without trading Jonathan kaminga
Speaker 1: because Jonathan Kmingo is your best opportunity to bring back
Speaker 1: quality players. And so the reality is like the decision
Speaker 1: got made for you by Jonathan Kaming rise and so
Speaker 1: now it actually makes more sense to do smaller moves
Speaker 1: on the margins and hope for your biggest influx of
Speaker 1: talent to be Jonathan Kaminga's development over the course of
Speaker 1: the next couple of years. Next question, you've smoked. He've
Speaker 1: spoken a lot about the warriors woes this season, but
Speaker 1: one thing you didn't mention is that Steph has has
Speaker 1: a negative net rating, which hasn't happened since his rookie
Speaker 1: season when the entire team was pretty bad. What do
Speaker 1: you think is different this season that's causing this and
Speaker 1: how can they fix it? I know, them doing anything
Speaker 1: of significance this year is already a long shot, but
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure they won't do anything if they're already
Speaker 1: losing when their best players on the floor. So the
Speaker 1: reasons are pretty simple. Draymond Green is the second best
Speaker 1: player on the Warriors this season in terms of like
Speaker 1: two way impacts.
Speaker 2: He always just.
Speaker 1: Pairs so well with Steph on both ends of the floor,
Speaker 1: with helping Steph generate quality looks while also anchoring their defense.
Speaker 1: And I think he's only played like what twenty one
Speaker 1: to twenty two games this year, so like he just
Speaker 1: he's been gone for most of it, so that that's
Speaker 1: a huge part of it. Klay Thompson is experiences for
Speaker 1: substantial decline as a veteran, and then Andrew Wiggins just
Speaker 1: has not been the same player that he was in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. To put it simply, that's a massive
Speaker 1: pullback of talent. The players that you've been supplementing that
Speaker 1: with are young players. Young players bring inconsistency, right, So,
Speaker 1: like that to me is the reasoning behind the low
Speaker 1: net rating. The reason why I don't think that should
Speaker 1: play a role in their decision making is, to put
Speaker 1: it simply, like Steph is still one of those guys,
Speaker 1: one of the special talents in the league, and so like,
Speaker 1: I mean, the dude just dropped sixty the other night.
Speaker 1: So like to the way I look at it, basketball
Speaker 1: has a Basketball has a We talked earlier about the
Speaker 1: Nuggets lineup in the way that it kind of has
Speaker 1: like a magic quality to it in my opinion, Like,
Speaker 1: basketball is not as simple as the sum of the parts.
Speaker 1: So you might if you take away twenty percent of
Speaker 1: your talent, that doesn't necessarily amount to twenty percent decrease
Speaker 1: in productive production if those twenty percent, if the twenty
Speaker 1: percent of talent that gets pulled out of the equation
Speaker 1: is in vital areas, of that lineup's ability to be coherent,
Speaker 1: and then you could experience a sixty percent reduction in
Speaker 1: the lineup's capability of contending in a basketball game. Right
Speaker 1: because like again, like they take Draymond Green out of
Speaker 1: the equation that they had a stretch there where they
Speaker 1: were the worst defense in the league for an extended stretch.
Speaker 1: Like like it, the bottom falls out in a lot
Speaker 1: of these specific situations, and so the same thing goes
Speaker 1: in reverse. Like I talk about this with all these teams.
Speaker 1: It's like, it's the Lakers last year. It's like, oh,
Speaker 1: they don't have any forwards. Okay, you bring in Ruy
Speaker 1: Hatch Murr and Jared Vanderbilt to cast off forwards that
Speaker 1: other teams didn't watch, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: they look like a way better basketball team because they
Speaker 1: have a position group that they did not have on
Speaker 1: the roster all of a sudden filled Like that's kind
Speaker 1: of the idea behind it is, Like the idea is
Speaker 1: you get Draymond back. You know, Jonathan Camiga plays a
Speaker 1: lot better, You make one smart move for a veteran forward,
Speaker 1: and like, all of a sudden, everything starts to make
Speaker 1: sense again, and things can work, So like, don't underestimate,
Speaker 1: I don't overreact, I should say to that kind of
Speaker 1: statistical production involving a star, like the Lakers this year
Speaker 1: have not been particularly good with Lebron James and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis on the floor. But Lebron James and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: are actually having a better season than last year. It
Speaker 1: comes down to the struggles of the skill guards. Darvin
Speaker 1: ham in the way he's constructed the rotations, the heavy
Speaker 1: leaning on torrean print. So you have a lack of
Speaker 1: perimeter athleticism, right, like the specific personnel weakness and not
Speaker 1: having a top tier athlete at the guard position, like
Speaker 1: all of those things. It's not like Lebron and ad
Speaker 1: are negative players. It's not like Steph Curry is a
Speaker 1: negative player. It's just the basketball lineup is dipped below
Speaker 1: that certain mandatory amount of fulfilling of responsibilities to be
Speaker 1: able to compete. And so once you get down below
Speaker 1: that line, it can it becomes a little bit dangerous.
Speaker 1: And so again I don't think it's over for the Warriors.
Speaker 1: I'm a big believer. You get Chris Paul back, you
Speaker 1: get Gary Payton back, you get the rise of Jonathan minga.
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins starts to play a little bit more like
Speaker 1: he did in twenty twenty two, it could pretty quickly
Speaker 1: rise back to being a competent basketball team. Next question,
Speaker 1: I have three left. What do you think of if
Speaker 1: the Warriors tried to trade for Jonathan Isaac or possibly
Speaker 1: trade Wiggins plus others picks or CP three to the
Speaker 1: Pacers for maybe Miles Turner or Buddy Healed. A couple
Speaker 1: of things. Miles Turner is not going anywhere. I don't
Speaker 1: think He's kind of a little bit of a foundational
Speaker 1: piece there in Indie, and specifically as a stretch big,
Speaker 1: he's very valuable next to Tyree Saliburt and it's one
Speaker 1: of their pet actions. And then also next to Pascal Siakam,
Speaker 1: who can be somewhat streaky as a foe man. Having
Speaker 1: a shooting five is somewhat important for them. There's also
Speaker 1: a problem with trading Andrew Wiggins in the sense that like,
Speaker 1: how much like what has a better chance of your
Speaker 1: team getting better flipping Wiggins for a different player or
Speaker 1: Wiggins just plays better like in my opinion, you get
Speaker 1: through the deadline, it becomes clear that Andrew Wiggins is
Speaker 1: not getting traded, give him a really clear spot in
Speaker 1: the rotation, whereas minutes are consistent, you might get more
Speaker 1: consistent production. And I personally think that he belongs in
Speaker 1: the starting lineup next to Jonathan Kminga, and I'd give
Speaker 1: him consistency there and let Andrew Wiggins just kind of
Speaker 1: rEFInd his confidence. And I've seen a lot of encouraging
Speaker 1: stuff out of him in the last couple of weeks too.
Speaker 1: But I do think at a bare minimum, they should
Speaker 1: be targeting some form of playoff, playable forward at the deadline.
Speaker 1: That could be a different type of contract swap, whether
Speaker 1: that's like, you know, Moses Moody and another one of
Speaker 1: their minimums, or who knows how they would kind of
Speaker 1: kind of construct that sort of thing. But I don't
Speaker 1: care whether it's a Dorian Finney Smith or ken Ridge
Speaker 1: Williams or a PJ.
Speaker 2: Washington.
Speaker 1: I mean, Jonathan Isaac would be amazing, but he's flashed
Speaker 1: some insane, high level defense again this year, So I
Speaker 1: don't know if Orlando would be willing to get rid
Speaker 1: of him, but maybe they would. Maybe with his injury history,
Speaker 1: they'd want to sell high on him, and maybe you
Speaker 1: can jump on a guy like that, but then you're
Speaker 1: taking on the risk of his injury history, right, so
Speaker 1: that gets a little tricky. But regardless of what kind
Speaker 1: of guy, it is, just bringing in another veteran playable forward, simplifying,
Speaker 1: you know, Steve Kurrz rotation decisions that could go a
Speaker 1: long way towards towards getting them back on.
Speaker 2: Track as well.
Speaker 1: Two more, You say Tatum is gonna figure it out,
Speaker 1: and most players do around twenty six twenty seven years old,
Speaker 1: but most good players get drafted to bad teams and
Speaker 1: it takes a while for them to go on deep
Speaker 1: playoff runts. He's been to multiple conference finals in one
Speaker 1: finals already. Shouldn't he have figured it out yet? The
Speaker 1: jumper he shot on KCP to finished the Denver game
Speaker 1: killed me. He had plenty of time to drive it,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, kind of like Lebron on Paul George
Speaker 1: in twenty thirteen. It's actually kind of an interesting idea
Speaker 1: because on that Paul George play, Lebron caught and then
Speaker 1: quickly pivoted over his right shoulder and went right to
Speaker 1: the rim, and Tatum kind of did the same thing,
Speaker 1: but right when he pivoted, he went right back into
Speaker 1: that one like fadeaway, and so he didn't even really
Speaker 1: try to be more physically aggressive on the play and
Speaker 1: You're ready, he did have some more time.
Speaker 2: Here's the thing. I agree with you that.
Speaker 1: His timeline should be accelerated, like twenty six years old,
Speaker 1: it's time to start figuring it out. That I agree
Speaker 1: that said, I still think it's way too soon to
Speaker 1: just say he'll never get there, because he is making
Speaker 1: strides and there have been encouraging moments and again, like
Speaker 1: there's just aren't that many guys in the league that
Speaker 1: are as talented as Jason Tatum. He's got one of
Speaker 1: the most gifted physical profiles of a forward that we
Speaker 1: have in the league. Can really shoot the basketball, the
Speaker 1: handles improving year by year. I do think that that
Speaker 1: ceiling is still there, But I guess I agree with
Speaker 1: you in the sense that it is discouraging that it's
Speaker 1: taken as long as it has taken, especially considering how
Speaker 1: much experience he has. Last question, are you coming to
Speaker 1: Indy for All Star weekend? And have you ever considered
Speaker 1: a meet and greet? So I'm not going Indy for
Speaker 1: All Star weekend, but I typically every year get out
Speaker 1: to Summer League, and that's the best opportunity in Vegas
Speaker 1: for you guys to come out and hang out. We
Speaker 1: can meet in person and chat about the game a
Speaker 1: little bit. I will be on Twitter letting you guys
Speaker 1: know exactly what dates I'm out there, but I'm usually
Speaker 1: just in the gym.
Speaker 2: I usually just go up.
Speaker 1: There and whatever the first game is, and I just
Speaker 1: hang out in the arena until they're done. So you
Speaker 1: can always find me in the arena at Summer League.
Speaker 1: And if at some point in the future I end
Speaker 1: up traveling to more NBA events, I'll let you guys know,
Speaker 1: but as of right now, pretty much just cover the
Speaker 1: game from home kind of guys. So we'll see how
Speaker 1: it changes in the long run. But hopefully I can
Speaker 1: see some of you guys in Vegas in July. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate your support. Barring a Star trade this evening, we
Speaker 1: won't have anything tonight, but we will have a live
Speaker 1: show right after the trade deadline tomorrow and then again
Speaker 1: live after Lakers Nuggets.
Speaker 2: I will see you guys then.
Speaker 1: The volume