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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume
Speaker 1: heavy Monday. Everybody, oh ball of you guys had a
Speaker 1: great weekend, got a damn pack show for you. Today,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be hitting on three games from yesterday's slate.
Speaker 1: As the Golden State Warriors win their fifth time and
Speaker 1: six tries in the Jimmy Butler era, We're gonna be
Speaker 1: breaking that game down from the perspective of both teams.
Speaker 1: After that, the Oklahoma City thunder got revenge on the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Timberwolves for a loss that they suffer right before
Speaker 1: the All Star break where their offense broke out, and
Speaker 1: I want to talk about some trends involving their shooting
Speaker 1: that should be concerning for the other twenty nine teams
Speaker 1: in the league, as well as talking a little bit
Speaker 1: about chet Holmgren in the way that he kind of
Speaker 1: unlocks additional dynamics for them on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: And then at the tail end of the show, we
Speaker 1: got a show down between two of the best power
Speaker 1: forwards young power forwards that we have in the NBA,
Speaker 1: between Jared Jackson and Evan Mobley. As the Cavs got
Speaker 1: a big win against the Memphis Grizzlies. We're going to
Speaker 1: be talking about that game and that matchup at the
Speaker 1: tail end of the show. You guys have the job
Speaker 1: before we get started. It's subscribed to the Hoops Tonight
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Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLT so you guys
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Speaker 1: On that front, we also brand new social media feeds
Speaker 1: on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're we're releasing content throughout
Speaker 1: the year, and then, last but not least, keep dropping
Speaker 1: mail bag questions in the YouTube comments so that we
Speaker 1: can hit them on Fridays throughout the remainder of the season.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball, So really quick recap
Speaker 1: of MAVs war The MAVs hung tough for the first
Speaker 1: few minutes, but then the Warriors basically dominated the rest
Speaker 1: of the way. Steph and Jimmy had a nice little
Speaker 1: run in the middle of the first where they just
Speaker 1: showcased their great basketball fit, their natural basketball fit, the
Speaker 1: way their skill sets kind of just intertwined to help
Speaker 1: accentuate each other. We're gonna talk about that in a
Speaker 1: few minutes. Jimmy led a bench group without Steph. The Warriors,
Speaker 1: by the way, plus thirty with Jimmy with a Steph
Speaker 1: off the floor through the first six games of the
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler era, a sign of just how much stronger
Speaker 1: those units can be now that Jimmy Butler is a
Speaker 1: part of the group. But Jimmy led a group without
Speaker 1: Steph that grew the lead. He was getting to the
Speaker 1: foul line a bunch. He had a couple of nice
Speaker 1: dishes to Quinton Post by the way, shout out Quinton Post.
Speaker 1: He had a nasty poster dunk over a couple of
Speaker 1: guys that let the crowd on fire. And then late
Speaker 1: third quarter, Steph just puts the game away with a
Speaker 1: masterful stretch of shot making and as a result, no
Speaker 1: starter plays over thirty minutes because the Warriors took care
Speaker 1: of business in the first three quarters, which used to
Speaker 1: be a hallmark of the Warriors dynasty. The Warriors again, like,
Speaker 1: that's a big part of what has made them so
Speaker 1: good over the years. They can take time off during
Speaker 1: the regular season just by beating teams up right. We
Speaker 1: got an example of that last night. But the first
Speaker 1: thing I want to focus on today with the Warriors,
Speaker 1: it stood out to me as I was watching, and
Speaker 1: it's been standing out to me as I've watched them
Speaker 1: over the course of the last couple of weeks. Just
Speaker 1: how much more explosive Steph looks. And when I say explosive,
Speaker 1: I'm not just talking about scoring points and doing it
Speaker 1: more efficiently than usual, it's the way he's moving. It's
Speaker 1: like was jarring to me as I'm watching last night,
Speaker 1: the verve he has going downhill, his ability to get
Speaker 1: into the paint, the finishes in traffic that he was
Speaker 1: missing earlier this year. So I was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm going to dig into the numbers and see if
Speaker 1: there's been any difference in STEP's ability to score in
Speaker 1: the paint since the Jimmy Butler trade went down. Pre
Speaker 1: Jimmy trade, so up to February seventh, he was averaging
Speaker 1: one point three makes per game in the restricted area
Speaker 1: on sixty percent shooting. Since the Jimmy Butler trade, he's
Speaker 1: getting two makes in the restricted area per game at
Speaker 1: eighty percent, from one point three up to two non
Speaker 1: restricted area paint makes, so shots that are still in
Speaker 1: the paint but that are outside of the restricted area.
Speaker 1: This short range shot making right pre Jimmy trade one
Speaker 1: point one makes per game at forty two percent, two
Speaker 1: makes post Jimmy Butler trade at sixty three percent, So
Speaker 1: he's nearly doubled his output in paint, scoring at substantially
Speaker 1: higher efficiency. I think a big part of this comes
Speaker 1: down to belief, Like even separate from anything having to
Speaker 1: do with Jimmy Butler and his basketball impact. Like, I
Speaker 1: think Steph just sees an opportunity that he didn't see
Speaker 1: earlier this season, and I think that just is bringing
Speaker 1: another level of engagement and excitement out of him. But
Speaker 1: it also comes down to having a legitimate secondary co
Speaker 1: star and how that makes life easier for Steph in
Speaker 1: terms of his energy conservation. I talked about this if
Speaker 1: you guys remember after the Warriors Nuggets game or excuse me,
Speaker 1: the Lakers Nuggets game on Saturday involving Luca and Lebron,
Speaker 1: and how Lebron can be more physically aggressive in his
Speaker 1: touches because he has someone that can eat up so
Speaker 1: much usage in Luka Dancic. I think it's even showing
Speaker 1: in his pull up shooting. He's getting more lyft, he's
Speaker 1: getting more separation on his pull up jump shots. Pre
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler trade, he was shooting fifty four percent in
Speaker 1: effective field goal percentage, which is just field goal percentage
Speaker 1: weighted for threes. He was shooting fifty four percent in
Speaker 1: effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots and
Speaker 1: getting eight point five points per game out of them.
Speaker 1: Post Jimmy Trade up to sixty percent in effective field
Speaker 1: goal percentage with nine point seven points per game, so
Speaker 1: significant uptick and efficiency and output as a pull up
Speaker 1: jump shooter as well. By the way, just classic Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: Sixty percent effective field goal percentage on pull up jump
Speaker 1: shots is outrageous and it's actually kind of hilarious looking
Speaker 1: back that we were looking at fifty four percent for
Speaker 1: him as a little bit of a down year. But
Speaker 1: that's just another conversation, and that's just what it's like
Speaker 1: when you're dealing with the all time greats. Everything you
Speaker 1: talk about in terms of the realms of normalcy for
Speaker 1: other players is just like a totally different era of
Speaker 1: statistics that were totally different area of statistics that we're
Speaker 1: looking at with the player of his caliber. But again,
Speaker 1: you have to have the legs to get separation, you
Speaker 1: have to have the legs to get the lift after
Speaker 1: you get the separation. That's the same sort of legs
Speaker 1: you need when you're finishing in traffic. And I just
Speaker 1: think we're just seeing a boost from Steph that's coming
Speaker 1: partially from the belief he has in this group and
Speaker 1: secondly from the partnership with Jimmy Butler. So on that note,
Speaker 1: I want to talk a little bit about Jimmy's natural
Speaker 1: basketball fit was Steph. One of the first things that
Speaker 1: stood out with me stood out to me watching the
Speaker 1: film was just a dynamic that Jimmy has as a
Speaker 1: screener in actions with Steph, and how his one the
Speaker 1: threat he brings, and how that can cause him to
Speaker 1: have more screening gravity than normal players would. So like,
Speaker 1: if an inferior player sets a screen, the guy who's
Speaker 1: defending him is going to be primarily focused in that
Speaker 1: action on defending the guy coming off of the screen, right,
Speaker 1: Whereas if you're a threat the way that Jimmy Butler is,
Speaker 1: the guy who's guarding Jimmy's going to be more concerned
Speaker 1: about leaving Jimmy to help in those actions. Steph's first
Speaker 1: layup in this game was a curl off of an
Speaker 1: off ball screen from Jimmy Kessler. Edwards was guarding Steph,
Speaker 1: and he's kind of on Jimmy's backside if it's anybody else,
Speaker 1: if it's Wiggins, He's pushing off of that guy and
Speaker 1: dropping to catch Steph as he's cutting to the basket,
Speaker 1: but Kessler's hung up on Jimmy because he's been told
Speaker 1: before the game, you got the Jimmy Butler assignment. Here's
Speaker 1: a list of all of the game plan stuff with
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler. Here's what your job is dealing with Jimmy Butler.
Speaker 1: And that just puts Kessler Edwards into an entirely different
Speaker 1: frame of mind when he's dealing with Kesler and screening
Speaker 1: actions with Steph Curry. The second piece of it is
Speaker 1: dealing with the reads that you have to make in
Speaker 1: those screening actions, which Jimmy's just so incredibly smart with.
Speaker 1: They ran another backscreen for Steph a little bit later
Speaker 1: in the first quarter, two and a half minutes later,
Speaker 1: so he sets a backscreen for Steph. They do switch it,
Speaker 1: but when he sets the backscreen, what happens Now STEP's
Speaker 1: man is on Jimmy's top side, and so as step
Speaker 1: is cutting through, all of a sudden, this big opening
Speaker 1: is created in between Jimmy and the rim because Jimmy's
Speaker 1: defender is stuck on his top side. He ends up
Speaker 1: getting the ball and getting an easy dunk, slipping out
Speaker 1: of that action because he has that inside seal. We
Speaker 1: talked a lot about this with Jimmy Butler. He's one
Speaker 1: of the best players in the league. I was talking
Speaker 1: about this after their first couple of games that they
Speaker 1: played together at like creating a passing angle in post
Speaker 1: seal situations that are not traditional. Like a lot of
Speaker 1: times you think of a post up as like a
Speaker 1: guy standing ten feet from the basket with a defender
Speaker 1: on his backside, you just throw it into him. But
Speaker 1: a lot of times with guards, and a lot of
Speaker 1: times in those switching actions, there's different angles. Guys trapped
Speaker 1: on your top side, a guy's trapped on the side
Speaker 1: you're getting bracketed. With backside help, you can create these
Speaker 1: pretty tight passing windows. And Jimmy's just as good as
Speaker 1: anybody in the league, if not better, at high pointing
Speaker 1: the ball, getting it in traffic, coming down with it,
Speaker 1: and being able to make a play there. We've talked
Speaker 1: about the short roll stuff as to go onto the
Speaker 1: ball with Steph and his ability to make reads out
Speaker 1: of the middle of the floor. We've talked about zone stuff.
Speaker 1: When teams go zone against the Warriors, Jimmy can operate
Speaker 1: right in the middle of the floor. It allows him
Speaker 1: to be really impactful offensively while Steph is on the floor,
Speaker 1: but then he can shape shift and just turn into
Speaker 1: a unit leading offensive player when Steph is off the floor.
Speaker 1: So good at getting to the foul line. Did it
Speaker 1: again last night. He's at nine point two free throw
Speaker 1: attempts per game so far with the Warriors. So good
Speaker 1: at playmaking out of help, driving out of those ISOs
Speaker 1: and post ups and making those kickout passes to shooters
Speaker 1: are getting underneath the basket for fouls or easy baskets.
Speaker 1: He's run thirty seven post ups in ISOs so far
Speaker 1: as a Warrior and has generated fifty one points including
Speaker 1: passes one point three to eight points per possession. That
Speaker 1: is extremely high level shot creation that the Warriors are
Speaker 1: getting out of Jimmy Butler so far, and it's manifested
Speaker 1: in the big picture so far. Just taking the raw
Speaker 1: data from six games, the Warriors have a one to
Speaker 1: twenty one offensive rating with Jimmy Butler on the team.
Speaker 1: That's more in line with what you'd expect from a
Speaker 1: Steph Curry led offense. That's why it was so important
Speaker 1: to get him a co star that could help him
Speaker 1: on that end when he's on the floor and anchor
Speaker 1: units when Steph is off the floor. And then on
Speaker 1: the defensive end, like you're just adding an additional defensive
Speaker 1: playmaker to the starting unit. Even further, like I think
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins, if you're just talking about guarding the other
Speaker 1: team's best player, picking him up full court, doing all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. Andrew Wiggins obviously has a little
Speaker 1: bit more youthful exuberantz to show in that type of role,
Speaker 1: But in terms of overall defensive playmaking, Jimmy's one of
Speaker 1: the best we got in the league. One of the
Speaker 1: most important layers of this, too, is in the old
Speaker 1: version of the team, Brandon Pajemski was viewed as a
Speaker 1: guy that had to like lead a lot of bench
Speaker 1: units as a score a lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: the ask for what Steve Kerr and the staff needed
Speaker 1: from Pods was geared towards shot creation, and like, that's
Speaker 1: not the strength of Brandon Pizempski's game. I do think
Speaker 1: in the long run he'll become a better offensive playmaker
Speaker 1: and offensive play starter. That's a big picture goal. He
Speaker 1: needs to get better as a jump shooter, he needs
Speaker 1: to get better at running action, that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: But the strength of Brandon Pazemski is a basketball player
Speaker 1: right now is he's awesome at all the little things.
Speaker 1: Excellent rebounder, excellent defensive player, excellent connective passer, and play finisher.
Speaker 1: That is the area of his game where he's at
Speaker 1: his best. And so now that Jimmy Butler's on the team,
Speaker 1: you've kind of facilitated an environment where it makes sense
Speaker 1: to start Brandon Pajemski. Now that you're starting Brandon Pajemski
Speaker 1: and he's now locked into a role where he's functioning
Speaker 1: as a role player, it's accentuating his strengths, which is
Speaker 1: he's really good at all of this little shit continues
Speaker 1: to just grab a million rebounds, very very good. There
Speaker 1: was a play where Steph Curry got PJ Washington on
Speaker 1: a switch on the right wing, and Pj just tries
Speaker 1: to rip through Steph and go to the basket. Pods
Speaker 1: was glued up to Kyrie irving on the Week's side
Speaker 1: of the floor, preparing to get run off of a
Speaker 1: Chicago action. He was thinking he was gonna have to
Speaker 1: chase Kyrie off of a dribble handoff on the other
Speaker 1: end of the floor, and he sprinted under the basket
Speaker 1: and vertically jumped walled up and stopped PJ. Washington there
Speaker 1: and got to stop it. It was a remarkable defensive play.
Speaker 1: I'm watching Jimmy Butler as he's tracking a cutter through
Speaker 1: along the baseline. Another cutter comes in behind him. The
Speaker 1: pass comes in. Jimmy identifies it because he just sees
Speaker 1: everything happening on the floor, peels off his man and
Speaker 1: jumps the passing lane and gets the steal. I seen
Speaker 1: Draymond Green help hard off of Kessler Edwards to stop
Speaker 1: someone at the basket. The drop off passes there and
Speaker 1: he turns and forces a traveling violation. You have three
Speaker 1: extremely high level defensive playmakers that are anchoring that unit
Speaker 1: now because of Jimmy Butler, and because of the way
Speaker 1: he's now made Brandon Pajemski's role makes sense. They were
Speaker 1: already a top ten defense before this trade. They are
Speaker 1: third in defensive ratings so far through six games with
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler. It just all makes sense now because you
Speaker 1: balance the roster. You turned several role players on a
Speaker 1: group that had fourteen to fifteen guys that could potentially
Speaker 1: play rotation minutes into a high level, do everything. Swiss
Speaker 1: Army Knife one of the most impactful winning basketball players
Speaker 1: that we have that we've had in the league in
Speaker 1: the last half decade, and it's just balanced things out.
Speaker 1: Starting group so far with Moody and Pods next to Draymond,
Speaker 1: Jimmy and Steph ninety seven possessions plus eleven net ratings
Speaker 1: so far great on both ends. Again, I want to
Speaker 1: see a lot more before I start talking big picture
Speaker 1: about the Warriors. I want to see the next couple
Speaker 1: of weeks and what they're capable of. But this is
Speaker 1: really exciting early returns on this partnership, all right. Moving
Speaker 1: on to thunder Wolves again, really quick breakdown of the game.
Speaker 1: It was just game of runs. The thunder went on
Speaker 1: a massive forty two to seventeen run early in the game.
Speaker 1: They were doing a lot of switching. There's Smalls held
Speaker 1: up really well on Nasree. They were forcing him into
Speaker 1: tough shots he was missing. They did a good job
Speaker 1: shrinking the floor, making those guys playing traffic chet Holmgrin
Speaker 1: was doing a great job both in his switches and
Speaker 1: in his kind of at the level ball screen coverages
Speaker 1: against Anthony Edwards of baiting him into these like tough
Speaker 1: contested step back threies. We're going to talk about that
Speaker 1: dynamic in a little bit because it reminds me of
Speaker 1: something we were talking about in our one and one
Speaker 1: on one tournament and how length can just be kind
Speaker 1: of like the the answer to questions in terms of
Speaker 1: dealing with guys that are dynamic perimeter shot creators. Shay
Speaker 1: was cooking everyone, including Jayden McDaniels. The Wolves ended up
Speaker 1: needing to blitz him during that run because Shay was
Speaker 1: cooking everybody, so then they started to pick him apart
Speaker 1: with four on threes. Kenrich Williams did some really nice
Speaker 1: work during that stretch as a short roller posted the
Speaker 1: low man. It was a Nikhil Alexander Walker tag where
Speaker 1: he like posted him and got in the basket for
Speaker 1: anice little lefty scoop shot made a play on the
Speaker 1: short role where he drew defenders in and made a
Speaker 1: kick out to case On Wallace, who hit a three.
Speaker 1: The Wolves were playing a lot of small ball groups
Speaker 1: with like three sometimes four guards in the lineup because
Speaker 1: of the injuries to Julius Randall and Rudy Gobert. They're
Speaker 1: just playing a lot more smaller groups, and so it's
Speaker 1: kind of weird seeing a dynamic where the Thunder had
Speaker 1: physical advantages over the Wolves and they were taking advantage
Speaker 1: of that during that stretch. But then the Wolves responded
Speaker 1: with a thirty to six run of their own, and
Speaker 1: it kind of the same thing that's been the theme
Speaker 1: for them all year, which is when they ratchet up
Speaker 1: their ball pressure and they really start getting physical on
Speaker 1: the perimeter, they can cause teams to completely lose their composure,
Speaker 1: and the Thunder did during that stretch. Jalen Clark, who
Speaker 1: was a revolution in this game. He's just a bowling
Speaker 1: ball of like a guard wing do everything hybrid role
Speaker 1: player type of guy. He had four steals in this game,
Speaker 1: was wrecking havoc at the point into attack. Just with
Speaker 1: physical ball pressure, noz Reed and Anthony Edwards finally started
Speaker 1: hitting shots. They completely regained control and they actually end
Speaker 1: up taking a little lead. And it goes back and
Speaker 1: forth really throughout the rest of the second half until
Speaker 1: in the middle of the fourth quarter the Thunder had
Speaker 1: one last run in then they go on in eighteen
Speaker 1: to two runs, spearheaded by six made three point shots.
Speaker 1: Chet Holmgren hit a three, beating noz Reed for helping
Speaker 1: in the lane. Jay dub and Shae each hit a
Speaker 1: couple of tougher threes, Shay hit one in transition, Jay
Speaker 1: dub hit like a twenty eight footer along the right wing.
Speaker 1: But it was Alex Caruso who really ended that game
Speaker 1: by getting hot. He hit three threes in the run,
Speaker 1: a couple of kickouts off of help, and then he
Speaker 1: was running two man game with Shae Gilvis Alexander where
Speaker 1: he was slipping out of it to the above the
Speaker 1: brake line about like off the left wing and he
Speaker 1: was hitting movement. He hit a movement three slipping out
Speaker 1: of that action with Shay. That was a big time
Speaker 1: performance from Alex. Crusoe has had some rough offensive nights
Speaker 1: earlier in the season. The thunder shooting, I thought was
Speaker 1: the story of the game. Out of the twenty eight
Speaker 1: catch and shoot jump shots they attempted in that game,
Speaker 1: they made seventeen of them. That's pretty crazy. We've talked
Speaker 1: about their spot up shooting the season and it will
Speaker 1: continue to be a storyline heading into the playoffs. Like,
Speaker 1: no matter how well they shoot now, said the same
Speaker 1: thing with the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier. Doesn't matter how well
Speaker 1: you shoot now, you got to hit them in a
Speaker 1: big playoff series when there's pressure and you're on the road.
Speaker 1: Sometimes like obviously, no amount of shot making in the
Speaker 1: regular season will make up for the reality that guys
Speaker 1: are going to have to hit shots. That said, the
Speaker 1: Thunder of sneak even shooting the ball really well for
Speaker 1: a while now. The answer is if you're going to
Speaker 1: shoot poorly in the playoffs like you did last year
Speaker 1: against Dallas, and you want to get to the point
Speaker 1: where you shoot better in the postseason in the future,
Speaker 1: everyone's got to get better at shooting, and that starts
Speaker 1: with behind the scenes in practice and then in regular
Speaker 1: season games. The final challenge is doing it in postseason games.
Speaker 1: But you're not going to just randomly do it in
Speaker 1: postseason games. It's going to start with that process, and
Speaker 1: it's clear that the Thunder have been putting in the
Speaker 1: work behind the scenes. They're up to ninth in catch
Speaker 1: and shoot jump shot efficiency this season. They're fifth in
Speaker 1: three point makes over the last fifteen games. They're third
Speaker 1: in three point percentage over the last fifteen games. They're
Speaker 1: shooting over thirty eight percent from three as a team
Speaker 1: over this span. I've talked a lot about how in
Speaker 1: the regular season, a team like the Thunder can sometimes
Speaker 1: overachieve a little bit relative to what their talent looks
Speaker 1: like in a postseason context, simply because everyone in their
Speaker 1: core eight rotation is twenty six years old or younger,
Speaker 1: and so they just have a bunch of young guys
Speaker 1: that are attacking the regular season with a certain amount
Speaker 1: of energy that you're not going to see from some
Speaker 1: of the older teams around the league. That's just a
Speaker 1: reality that you have to acknowledge. But when I look
Speaker 1: at the Thunder I look at their weaknesses, and their
Speaker 1: weaknesses generally come down to like vision making on drives
Speaker 1: and the ability of their role players to knock down shots,
Speaker 1: and they're showing growth in those areas. Another way for
Speaker 1: me to put it is like, yeah, you still got
Speaker 1: to do it in the postseason, but them doing it
Speaker 1: this well in the final straight stretch of the regular
Speaker 1: season is a really strong indicator that they could do
Speaker 1: it well in the postseason. And if they do, if
Speaker 1: these dudes hit thirty eight percent of their threes in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, then they become just as dangerous as their
Speaker 1: regular season record would lead you to believe that they are.
Speaker 1: I wanted to focus in on chet Holmgren for a
Speaker 1: minute because his impact was screaming off the screen in
Speaker 1: this game. Obviously, his impact on defense is felt the most.
Speaker 1: I talked a lot about him filling the role of that,
Speaker 1: like handling Ant coming off of ball screens in the
Speaker 1: first quarter of this game, and him baiting Ant into
Speaker 1: those pull up jump shots. Remember when we did the
Speaker 1: one on one tournament breakdown, how I talked about how
Speaker 1: I think Kevin Durant would beat Anthony Edwards because Ant
Speaker 1: brings the best combination of like downhill force and over
Speaker 1: the top shot making that you see from any player
Speaker 1: in the league right now, Like he you can't keep
Speaker 1: him in front of you, and he's a forty plus
Speaker 1: percent off the dribble three point shooter, Like, what are
Speaker 1: you gonna do with that? Right? But one of the
Speaker 1: things I talked about is like Kevin Urant is kind
Speaker 1: of the kryptonite for that because he's got such long
Speaker 1: arms that he can give space to contain the drive,
Speaker 1: but just take one step forward and stick that left
Speaker 1: arm out and he's gonna get a great contest on
Speaker 1: any jump shot. Same thing goes for Chet, and you
Speaker 1: saw that in this game. Chet was able to play
Speaker 1: back a little bit and then Ant was just trying
Speaker 1: to go to step back moves to get separation, and yeah,
Speaker 1: he'd get a little bit of separation, but Chet's arm
Speaker 1: is right there and it turns into a tougher shot,
Speaker 1: a shot that Aint can make, but it's a tougher
Speaker 1: shot when you talk about like like Anthony Edwards with
Speaker 1: his pull up three point shooting, like if he gets
Speaker 1: great separation, it feels like it's going in every time,
Speaker 1: but once you get get a heavy contest on it,
Speaker 1: that percentage is going to drop by ten fifteen percent.
Speaker 1: It's the same like even in the drop coverage possessions
Speaker 1: when he's coming off in the defenders chasing over the top,
Speaker 1: same sort of thing, like Chet's just hanging a little
Speaker 1: bit behind the level, but he just can take one
Speaker 1: step four and he's getting a great contest there. But
Speaker 1: Chet did a ton of damage on offense in this
Speaker 1: game too. We talked about him spacing Nas read out
Speaker 1: earlier with catching shoot THREEZ. He had a couple of those.
Speaker 1: He also hit a three in the early part of
Speaker 1: the game coming off of off ball action, just came
Speaker 1: out of the right corner off of a wide pin down.
Speaker 1: Nas went under just rose up and knocked it down.
Speaker 1: He gave a straight iso bucket to Jade McDaniels right
Speaker 1: in the middle of the floor. He was beating switches
Speaker 1: and the paint. He had a ball screen with j
Speaker 1: dub where it led to his switch and he ended
Speaker 1: up with Jalen Clark on him again. Jaylen Clark I
Speaker 1: talked about earlier is a bowling ball of a wing.
Speaker 1: Big strong dude. Chet just buried him with a little
Speaker 1: ducking post up, created a nice easy passing angle and
Speaker 1: just got an easy basket right at the rim. He
Speaker 1: had an easy tap in offensive rebound on a play
Speaker 1: where Mike Conley got switched on to him, just waited
Speaker 1: for the shot to go up, just jumped right over
Speaker 1: Conley and just calmly topped it tapped it into the basket.
Speaker 1: He runs the floor better than most bigs. He had
Speaker 1: an easy allue you dunk and transition in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter running his lane. They weren't really running plays for him.
Speaker 1: He was just in the flow of the offense and
Speaker 1: poured in an easy nineteen points on only eleven shots.
Speaker 1: He had three blocks. He's just a ridiculous talent to
Speaker 1: add to this team and it was already the best
Speaker 1: regular season team in the NBA. The Wolves played well
Speaker 1: and they kept us thaying close. But I did think
Speaker 1: the thunder Throat showed a lot of their high end
Speaker 1: on the defensive end in rotation as well. They were
Speaker 1: doubling naseried post ups and closing out on the weak
Speaker 1: side a lot of the same stuff we've talked about,
Speaker 1: where that first rotation closing out to the passing lane
Speaker 1: where it just baits on the kind of like inconsistencies
Speaker 1: of mediocre shooters who want a pump fake or they
Speaker 1: don't like to shoot unless they're completely wide open. They
Speaker 1: were already this like fast fly around rotation team, and
Speaker 1: schit just brings this other layer of length and athleticism
Speaker 1: that wasn't there again, like they they were the big
Speaker 1: team in many of their lineup groupings against Minnesota tonight.
Speaker 1: Some of that is Minnesota's injuries, but it just goes
Speaker 1: to show you how different this team looks physically. When
Speaker 1: isaa Hart and Side and chet Holmgren or healthy. All right,
Speaker 1: last game for today, moving on to Grizzlies. Calvs. A
Speaker 1: fun game that Cleveland basically controlled, but Memphis just did
Speaker 1: a good job at keeping things relatively close by shooting
Speaker 1: the ball super well. Memphis shot dramatically better than Cleveland
Speaker 1: did in this game. On catch and shoot jump shots,
Speaker 1: Memphis got one point four points per attempt. Cleveland only
Speaker 1: got zero point eighty eight points per attenp They just
Speaker 1: had a rough shooting night. But the Stars for Cleveland
Speaker 1: just so badly outplayed the Stars for Memphis, and I
Speaker 1: thought that was the story of this game. Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 1: really outplayed John Morant. Both teams have huge frontlines, play
Speaker 1: a lot of two big lineups packed the paint, rotate out.
Speaker 1: They're making you make jump shots, and Mitchell is just
Speaker 1: a way better shot maker than John Marie. Like Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell is just pouring in a variety of like step
Speaker 1: back threes, pull up threes in ball screens, ISO threes,
Speaker 1: just creating his own jump shot in traffic, and John
Speaker 1: Moranch just couldn't keep up. He had a few nice
Speaker 1: transition buckets down the stretch when the game kind of
Speaker 1: had already gotten a little loose. But like I thought,
Speaker 1: Mitchell just proved to be the better surgical scorer in
Speaker 1: a tight half court environment like that. Ty Jerome was
Speaker 1: incredibly dominant as a scorer in this game. I thought
Speaker 1: he was much better in this game than Desmond Bain
Speaker 1: was dominated the fourth quarter as a scorer. I think
Speaker 1: he had sixteen points in the quarter if I remember correctly.
Speaker 1: This was the stretch that I really pushed Cleveland over
Speaker 1: the top. It was kind of like hanging in that
Speaker 1: five to seven range. This run from ty Jerome ended
Speaker 1: up pushing the lead up into double digits, and that's
Speaker 1: what really gave them their first breathing room and a
Speaker 1: couple of tough transition three where he just was he's
Speaker 1: got Tidrum clearly has like that I sense blood in
Speaker 1: the water. If I hit this shot, I can really
Speaker 1: change the dynamic of this game. Type of vibe. And
Speaker 1: because he took a couple of tough ones that you
Speaker 1: knew he felt good and he just wanted to drive
Speaker 1: the nail into coffin, so to speak. And then he
Speaker 1: just keeps doing the same exact thing to these teams again.
Speaker 1: Memphis runs a lot of drop coverage with Jared Jackson
Speaker 1: and with Zach Edie, and Tidrum was just doing the
Speaker 1: same thing every time, setting up his man for the
Speaker 1: screen so that he's on his trail side coming off
Speaker 1: to the screen, waiting for the defender to catch up
Speaker 1: to his backside and then like trapping him on his
Speaker 1: backside and methodically working into the lane and just shooting
Speaker 1: that little push shot in the lane. Made a bunch
Speaker 1: of them in this game. He's shooting sixty five percent
Speaker 1: on floaters this year on one hundred and sixteen attempts,
Speaker 1: by far the best floater shooter in the NBA, and
Speaker 1: it's not close, Like he is way better at this
Speaker 1: than anybody, and it's given him a spot as one
Speaker 1: of the most respected back up guards in the NBA.
Speaker 1: If you put Ty Jerome against a team that runs
Speaker 1: drop coverage, he's going to be able to get to
Speaker 1: a floater and he's going to make more than half
Speaker 1: of them. It really is a valuable weapon to have
Speaker 1: for a bench unit in this league, especially since you're
Speaker 1: going to run into a lot of backup centers in
Speaker 1: the NBA that teams have to run drop coverages with
Speaker 1: because they don't trust him coming out to the level
Speaker 1: on the perimeter. But by far the most interesting part
Speaker 1: in this game, in my opinion, was the showdown between
Speaker 1: two of the best young power forwards that we have
Speaker 1: in the game at this point Jaron Jackson and Evan Mobley,
Speaker 1: and I thought Evan Mobley really showcased how his versatility
Speaker 1: makes him a better all around basketball player than Jaron Jackson.
Speaker 1: In this game, Jared's bigger, and he's stronger, and strictly
Speaker 1: when it comes down to like scoring the ball out
Speaker 1: of the post, he's a more imposing threat. He can
Speaker 1: dislodge defenders with his big, strong shoulders. He can do
Speaker 1: it to some of the bigger defenders in the league.
Speaker 1: I talked about how he did a bunch of damage
Speaker 1: to the Suns recently by ducking in on Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: in the post. He's got really good touch with hook
Speaker 1: shots over both shoulders. He can spin and connect spin moves,
Speaker 1: so he can spin from left to right, but then
Speaker 1: spin back from right to left, and he can just
Speaker 1: kind of barrel downhill until he gets somewhere close to
Speaker 1: the rim where he can get a little hook shot.
Speaker 1: But outside of that, the limitation start to show when
Speaker 1: he has to pass out of the post. He's very
Speaker 1: inefficient as a playmaker. Right once you start to task
Speaker 1: him to play in traffic, the flaws can start to
Speaker 1: come to the surface. Mobile's just so much more polished
Speaker 1: as an all around player, and I thought that was
Speaker 1: showing last night. First of all, his individual defense on
Speaker 1: Jared Jackson. Jared tested him a few times early in
Speaker 1: this game, tried to drop that right shoulder and go
Speaker 1: to a lefty hook. Evan Mobley just rose up and
Speaker 1: blocked him. Then from the opposite block, Jared tries to
Speaker 1: post him up again, and you can tell he's nervous
Speaker 1: about Evan Mobley's length and how that ended up leading
Speaker 1: to a block on his last hook shot. So he
Speaker 1: ended up rushing a hook and just kind of flipped
Speaker 1: it up and shot it way over the back of
Speaker 1: the rim. It was an air ball. Then he tried
Speaker 1: to iso him again in the second quarter, and you
Speaker 1: knew he wanted to create extra space because Mobley's length
Speaker 1: was causing problems for him. So he really dropped the
Speaker 1: shoulder and he extended the arm out and he drew
Speaker 1: an offensive foul. So then Jaren was just like, all right,
Speaker 1: no more, I'm not going to go after Evan Mobley anymore.
Speaker 1: They started picking on Dean Wade and some different matchups
Speaker 1: in the game. Evan Mobley is a substantially better rebounder.
Speaker 1: This has been a consistent weakness with Jaron Jackson in
Speaker 1: his NBA career, like he gets into box outs, but
Speaker 1: he struggles to disengage from box outs and actually go
Speaker 1: get the loose ball. Evan Mobley dominated this game as
Speaker 1: a rebounder, even individually against Jaron Jackson at a big
Speaker 1: inside seal for a foul in the fourth quarter of
Speaker 1: this game, and then on offense, Evan Mobley just brings
Speaker 1: so much more as a play initiator for this team.
Speaker 1: They ran a bunch of inverted ball screens in this game,
Speaker 1: and we got it to see a classic example of
Speaker 1: just how dynamic that action can be. And again we
Speaker 1: talked about the inverted ball screens. The upside is the
Speaker 1: way they invert rolls. You're asking Biggs to fight through screens,
Speaker 1: and you're asking guards to help on screens against Biggs,
Speaker 1: and there's a simple dynamic that takes place when you
Speaker 1: have Donovan Mitchell screen for Evan Mobley. Donovan Mitchell screens
Speaker 1: for Evan Mobley. If his man steps out and helps,
Speaker 1: Mitchell can slip out of it and he's gonna get
Speaker 1: wide open. He generated an open three for Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 1: he generated an open three for Max Struce out of
Speaker 1: action where the guard ended up helping on Mobley as
Speaker 1: he was coming off of the screen. But then if
Speaker 1: he doesn't help, There's a play in the game where
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell screened for Evan Mobley and he got downhill
Speaker 1: to his left hand. What happens the big doesn't know
Speaker 1: how to navigate a screen and you're setting a screen
Speaker 1: on him. The guard doesn't want to help because the guard,
Speaker 1: the screening guard is slipping out and getting three point shots.
Speaker 1: What happens when Mobley comes off of a screen and
Speaker 1: there's no help, he can get downhill, gets all the
Speaker 1: way downhill and ends up getting an easy dunk with
Speaker 1: his left hand. Connective playmaking was the big piece that
Speaker 1: was standing out to me in this game. I think
Speaker 1: I think Mobile had seven assists if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: had a bunch of assists in this game. He ends
Speaker 1: up catching the ball in these advantage situations as a
Speaker 1: cutter or a lot of times at the three point line.
Speaker 1: There's a play where he ends up flashing right to
Speaker 1: the middle of the floor. They call it teeing up right.
Speaker 1: There's two different ways for a big to make themselves
Speaker 1: available in help side situations in the dunker spot where
Speaker 1: you're on like kind of the baseline side, just outside
Speaker 1: the block waiting for the ball, or as someone drives
Speaker 1: the baseline, you don't want to get in their way,
Speaker 1: so you flash right in front of the basket to
Speaker 1: make yourself available. He ended up catching the ball right
Speaker 1: there in the middle of the floor. All the bodies
Speaker 1: converged on him, and he ended up making a nice
Speaker 1: easy kickout past to Sam Merrill in the left corner.
Speaker 1: He knocked down to three play where he catches the
Speaker 1: ball in the left corner. He struggled to knock down
Speaker 1: threes in this game, so he drives a close out
Speaker 1: out of the left corner, easy drop off past to
Speaker 1: Jared Allen, who was flashing right to the middle of
Speaker 1: the paint. He ends up getting a big dunk. And
Speaker 1: then sometimes you just have to beat the coverage. There's
Speaker 1: a ball screen with Mitchell and Jared Allen late in
Speaker 1: the game where Santi al Dama's guarding Evan Mobley and
Speaker 1: they put two on Mitchell and they use Aldama to
Speaker 1: tag Allen. Evan Mobley's wide open at the top of
Speaker 1: the key. It's a big possession late fourth quarter. He's
Speaker 1: got to beat the coverage. He's got to knock that
Speaker 1: shot down. And even though he struggled to knock down
Speaker 1: the jumpers all night long, he hit the big one.
Speaker 1: And he has been shooting the ball really well for
Speaker 1: the most part this season. I thought his versatility was
Speaker 1: on display in a big way in this game. The
Speaker 1: beautiful thing about having an offensive player like Evan Mobley
Speaker 1: is you can run action for him, and you did,
Speaker 1: and you got good stuff out of it. But he
Speaker 1: also can function almost entirely as a connective piece and
Speaker 1: tie everything else together from the talent do you have
Speaker 1: elsewhere on the lineup. Evan Mobley used to struggle with
Speaker 1: playmaking in the middle of the floor. That was a
Speaker 1: huge problem in the next series. Evan Mobley used to
Speaker 1: struggle with finishing in traffic off of cuts. That was
Speaker 1: a problem in the past. He's better at those things now.
Speaker 1: He's playing off of two feet, confident going up and
Speaker 1: dunking everything with two hands. He's going up with an
Speaker 1: aggression and a confidence in traffic that wasn't there in
Speaker 1: the past. He's just become a much better player. And
Speaker 1: as I've talked about, when we talk about the Calves
Speaker 1: and this is a big win without Darius Garland at
Speaker 1: home against a good Memphis Grizzlies team. Most of it
Speaker 1: comes down to Mobley's just better now than he used
Speaker 1: to be. Darius Garland's just better now than he used
Speaker 1: to be. You've seen some of the upside of DeAndre Hunter,
Speaker 1: just a big, physical athlete that he is, his ability
Speaker 1: to switch on to bigger players. One of the big
Speaker 1: things that I'm excited about with DeAndre Hunter is his
Speaker 1: ability to make tough shots, which becomes valuable when you
Speaker 1: get into the postseason and only tough shots exist for
Speaker 1: your team. Had a couple of really nice playoff type
Speaker 1: of mid range scoring moves today. Had a mid ranger
Speaker 1: over a mismatch in the middle of the floor. He
Speaker 1: put John Morant in jail on an action where he
Speaker 1: got him trapped on his backside and just kind of
Speaker 1: worked to the middle of the floor hit a little floater.
Speaker 1: They've just they can piece together lineups now that have
Speaker 1: five really high level offensive players in various different configurations.
Speaker 1: Movement shooting like Max truth Oh, you need him to
Speaker 1: fly off of an off ball screen and knock a
Speaker 1: shot down. He can do it. You need someone that
Speaker 1: can run more action and do some more scoring in
Speaker 1: the middle of the four DeAndre Hunter is there is
Speaker 1: an option. You want a bigger, longer defender that can
Speaker 1: knock down, catch and shoot threes, Well there's Dean Wade.
Speaker 1: They're bench groups having a luxury like ty Jerome to
Speaker 1: be able to pick apart drop coverage teams. They've got
Speaker 1: a lot of talent down there in Cleveland. That was
Speaker 1: an impressive win last night against the Memphis Grizzlies. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today. Is always, as
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you for supporting me and supporting the show.
Speaker 1: We are taking tomorrow off, but we will be back
Speaker 1: on Wednesday with some more reaction content. Almost see you guys.
Speaker 1: Then the volume. What's so guys? As always, I appreciate
Speaker 1: you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. They would
Speaker 1: actually be really helpful for us if you guys would
Speaker 1: take a second and leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
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