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Speaker 1: hoops and I you're at the volume heavy Thursday. Everybody
Speaker 1: o ball. You guys are having a great end to
Speaker 1: your week. So we are continuing our player rankings today
Speaker 1: with number fifteen and number fourteen. We're also going to
Speaker 1: have a mail bag at the tail end where we
Speaker 1: go over your guys's arguments from our previous video number
Speaker 1: sixteen and number seventeen. The kind of game plan for
Speaker 1: the US this week. As we're doing fifteen and fourteen today,
Speaker 1: we'll break out the mail bag tomorrow. Tomorrow, I'm actually
Speaker 1: recording thirteen and twelve, but that's going to run on Saturday.
Speaker 1: That will run the mailbag from that on Sunday, and
Speaker 1: then we're going to get into our Superstar tier, which
Speaker 1: is eleven players deep at this point in NBA history
Speaker 1: and we'll be starting that next week on Monday. You
Speaker 1: guys are the Joe. Before we get started, it's subscribed
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Speaker 1: want you guys to if you disagree with any of
Speaker 1: these rankings, to argue why and break it down, and
Speaker 1: we will get into it in the mailbag portions at
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Speaker 1: What time is it? Game Time? All right, let's talk
Speaker 1: some basketball. So we're gonna mix things up a little
Speaker 1: bit today because I want to get into the rationale
Speaker 1: behind offense versus defense when it comes to valuing players.
Speaker 1: Because the two players we have today at fifteen and
Speaker 1: fourteen are Jalen Brown at number fifteen and Devin Booker
Speaker 1: at number fourteen. These are two players that are pretty
Speaker 1: hotly contested in terms of who people think are better.
Speaker 1: I actually sent out a poll about this about two
Speaker 1: weeks ago, a little over two weeks ago, and ninety
Speaker 1: five hundred of you guys voted in. Sixty percent voted
Speaker 1: for Devin Booker and forty percent voted for Jalen Brown.
Speaker 1: But that was kind of towards the end. For a
Speaker 1: long time, in the early phase of that poll, it
Speaker 1: was really hovering right around that fifty to fifty mark,
Speaker 1: maybe with a very slight edge to Devin Booker. This
Speaker 1: is a hotly debated ranking between these two particular players,
Speaker 1: and honestly, like to me, it was a pretty easy
Speaker 1: decision to give Devin Booker the edge. And that comes
Speaker 1: down to one of my overarching basketball philosophies, which is,
Speaker 1: obviously I value the defensive end of the floor, but
Speaker 1: I value the offensive end of the floor a little
Speaker 1: bit more and there's a very specific reason why. So
Speaker 1: I want to take some time to break that down
Speaker 1: before we get into the individual players. So again we're
Speaker 1: gonna mix these this up today. Before we get into
Speaker 1: the individual players, we're gonna talk some big picture stuff.
Speaker 1: So and again I have to emphasize this again as
Speaker 1: a disclaimer, This doesn't mean I don't value defense. I've
Speaker 1: played in and watched enough basketball games to know that
Speaker 1: you have to defend in order to win. I'm not
Speaker 1: underrating that. It's more about team construct in the role
Speaker 1: of superstars within the context of offense and defense, especially
Speaker 1: when you talk about the fact that when we're ranking players,
Speaker 1: we're almost always talking about superstars and stars, right, So
Speaker 1: the reason why I value the offensive end in these
Speaker 1: discussions is simple. The defensive end mostly comes down to
Speaker 1: executing a scheme forcing teams into certain types of shots.
Speaker 1: No defense, even the most elite defenses, just shut teams down.
Speaker 1: That's not how it works. You still give up a
Speaker 1: lot of points. It's not like elite defenses just block
Speaker 1: every shot you try to attend, right, They just try
Speaker 1: to play you into your weaknesses and try to limit
Speaker 1: your efficiency. So, for example, the Minnesota Timberwolves were the
Speaker 1: best defense in the NBA this year, they still allowed
Speaker 1: one hundred and eight points per one hundred possessions. The
Speaker 1: Milwaukee Buck we're nineteenth in defense. That's a defense that
Speaker 1: we most of us considered to be below average to bad. Right,
Speaker 1: they allowed one hundred and fifteen points per one hundred possessions.
Speaker 1: So we're talking about a difference of seven points over
Speaker 1: a hundred possessions between a bad defense and the very
Speaker 1: best defense. So on that end of the floor, it's
Speaker 1: not about supreme talent just shutting people down. It's about
Speaker 1: the coaching staff scouting the opponent and putting together a
Speaker 1: smart game plan and then having a couple of guys
Speaker 1: who can do the really tough jobs on defense. So
Speaker 1: for instance, having who can guard the ball, just a
Speaker 1: guy who can guard the person with the basketball, a
Speaker 1: guy who can guard ball screens, so a big guy
Speaker 1: that can navigate ball screen coverages, or another forward who's
Speaker 1: like a low man who can help while also getting
Speaker 1: out to shooters while also helping secure defensive rebounds. Those
Speaker 1: are like the really hard jobs on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor. From there, you can actually make easier
Speaker 1: jobs for weaker defenders. So I thought the best example
Speaker 1: of this last year was the Dallas Mavericks, who were
Speaker 1: in elite defense in the tail end of the season
Speaker 1: and then that carried over into the postseason as they
Speaker 1: made their run to the finals. Look at their roster build.
Speaker 1: They had a guy who could guard the ball and
Speaker 1: Derek Jones Junior. And obviously they had other guys for
Speaker 1: bench units, but I'm mainly focusing on their starters. They
Speaker 1: had a guy who can guard the ball and Derek
Speaker 1: Jones Jr. They had a guy who could defend ball
Speaker 1: screens and Derek Lively. And then Daniel Gafford was more
Speaker 1: of a deep drop kind of rim protector, but he
Speaker 1: also could do that job. But Derek Lively's an example
Speaker 1: of a super versatile kind of pick and roll defender,
Speaker 1: and then they had a Ford who could be their
Speaker 1: low man in PJ. Washington. Those three guys did the
Speaker 1: really hard jobs so that Kyrie and Luca had small,
Speaker 1: achievable roles and the MAVs were at awesome defense. It
Speaker 1: wasn't until the Boston series that they kind of ran
Speaker 1: into some issues, and even then it was usually just
Speaker 1: for and I went over this extensively. After that series,
Speaker 1: the Dallas defense fell apart for stretches for like a
Speaker 1: quarter here or a half there, where Boston just ran
Speaker 1: over them, and it was usually when they were rarely
Speaker 1: deliberate about attacking Luca. But they had good stretches in
Speaker 1: that series too, and overall statistically their defense performed pretty well.
Speaker 1: So the point is you can use quality role players
Speaker 1: and smart coaching to put together an elite defense. The
Speaker 1: offensive end is much more complicated, and the reason why
Speaker 1: is you are guaranteed to run into multiple elite defenses
Speaker 1: along the way to the title, and those defenses are
Speaker 1: guaranteed to have a smart game plan and to execute
Speaker 1: it well. They are going to play you into your
Speaker 1: lower percentage shots. Right. Those problems cannot be solved with
Speaker 1: quality role players and smart In a smart game plan,
Speaker 1: it requires elite, high end offensive talent to break down
Speaker 1: those types of defenses, either by making the tough shots
Speaker 1: that the defense is trying to get you to make,
Speaker 1: or by bringing two to the ball, which breaks down
Speaker 1: the base defensive scheme and forces them to be in rotation,
Speaker 1: so that now your offensive role players have easy jobs
Speaker 1: like knocking down open shots or attacking a closeout. So again,
Speaker 1: like those specific problems on the defensive end that a
Speaker 1: defense presents to an offense, they can only be solved
Speaker 1: by superstar offensive talent, Whereas, like we saw with Dallas,
Speaker 1: you can create an elite defense even with defensively limited stars.
Speaker 1: So to put it very simply, it's a lot easier
Speaker 1: to create an elite defense around a defensively limited star
Speaker 1: than it is to create an elite offense around an
Speaker 1: offensively limited star. That's why I have guys like Luka
Speaker 1: and Nikola Jokic over Yannis. That's why I have a
Speaker 1: guy like Shaye Yelojas Alexander over Jason Tatum. And that's
Speaker 1: why I have Devin Booker over Jalen Brown. Now, to
Speaker 1: be clear, Jalen Brown is not a weak offensive player
Speaker 1: and Devin Booker is not a weak defensive player, right,
Speaker 1: But the best and most useful superpower that either of
Speaker 1: those guys has is Devin Booker's ability to consistently generate
Speaker 1: quality shots for his team in the half court. So
Speaker 1: if I was a GM and I needed to build
Speaker 1: a championship team from scratch with the first pick in
Speaker 1: an open draft of the NBA's players, I would have
Speaker 1: an easier time constructing a championship team around Devin Booker
Speaker 1: as my first pick than around Jalen Brown. It's not
Speaker 1: an exact science, to be clear, Like I have guys
Speaker 1: that are defensive minded stars that are very high on
Speaker 1: this list that we just haven't even got to yet.
Speaker 1: I mean, you saw how hig I've bam adebio for instance.
Speaker 1: So it's not an exact science. But when all things
Speaker 1: are equal, that's a differentiator for me, and that's why
Speaker 1: I have Devin Booker over Jalen Brown. So on that note,
Speaker 1: hopefully that's clear. If you guys have any questions about that,
Speaker 1: drop in the mailbag, and we can get into it
Speaker 1: more later on in the series. If you disagree with me,
Speaker 1: make a basketball case for it, put it in YouTube
Speaker 1: and on the comments that we can break it down
Speaker 1: a little bit more since we got some time here
Speaker 1: over the summer. Jalen Brown number fifteen last year, played
Speaker 1: in seventy games, averaged twenty three points per game, five
Speaker 1: point five rebounds on three point six assists. That was
Speaker 1: actually a career high and assist for Jalen Brown, and
Speaker 1: that was despite his usage being the lowest since twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: So career high and assists with a proportionally lower usage
Speaker 1: rate right also his fewest turnovers per game since twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: And the main thing that I think is really cool
Speaker 1: about this is Jalen heard all of the slander last
Speaker 1: summer and he went into the gym and he made
Speaker 1: himself a much better ball handler last summer. It's one
Speaker 1: of the big things I talked about with Colin Coward
Speaker 1: after the two disappointing losses in the finals and in
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference Finals. I said to him, like, the
Speaker 1: Celtics are are more poised to benefit by Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: just getting better than they are trying to trade him.
Speaker 1: And I thought they made the right decision by staying
Speaker 1: committed to this core and like here's the thing. He
Speaker 1: went into the gym and he worked on that handle,
Speaker 1: and you can really tell the difference in a couple
Speaker 1: of really key areas. Specifically, he just looks like he's
Speaker 1: reading the floor a little bit more patiently, And a
Speaker 1: big part of that is the ability to protect the ball.
Speaker 1: When a ball pressure defender forces you to get squeamish
Speaker 1: with your handle, all of a sudden, your attention comes
Speaker 1: inward towards regaining control of the ball. But once you
Speaker 1: have control of the ball, you can stop worrying so
Speaker 1: much about the pressure and take time to see what's
Speaker 1: happening around you. And that I thought was abundantly evident
Speaker 1: in that career high and assist in that fewest turnover
Speaker 1: since twenty twenty, all under a load usage. You can
Speaker 1: literally see his confidence with especially with that left hand
Speaker 1: coming to fruition. I thought it was cool that he
Speaker 1: iced Game two of the Finals with that left handed
Speaker 1: drive by Mexic Lee, but to put him up seven
Speaker 1: with thirty seconds left, that was the thing that he
Speaker 1: was criticized for. And he rode that specific skill to
Speaker 1: a huge bucket in a big moment in an NBA
Speaker 1: Finals game. And so that honestly is the big piece
Speaker 1: of improvement I thought that we saw from Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: this year. He just got better at handling the basketball,
Speaker 1: which allowed him to protect the basketball so that he
Speaker 1: could focus outward on seeing the floor and making reads
Speaker 1: from there. He also got one point seven stocks per game.
Speaker 1: That's the second highest mark of his career. I'm going
Speaker 1: to rip through some shooting numbers real quick. He shot
Speaker 1: forty nine point nine percent from the field, thirty five
Speaker 1: point four percent from three to seventy percent from the line.
Speaker 1: That amounts to fifty six percent an effective field goal
Speaker 1: percentage waited for threes and fifty eight percent true shooting percentage.
Speaker 1: Good not great. Other ways to improve his true shooting
Speaker 1: percentage just raising that three point volume and getting to
Speaker 1: the line more. That's most of the high true shooting
Speaker 1: guys guys that are over sixty percent other than the
Speaker 1: big bullyball guys around the rim. Most of them are
Speaker 1: guys who shoot a lot of threes and guys who
Speaker 1: get to the foul line a lot shooting percent energy
Speaker 1: one point zero four points per jump shot, one point
Speaker 1: zero eight in catch and shoot situations. He was actually
Speaker 1: a little better when he was open, which is kind
Speaker 1: of interesting in the context of the conversations we had
Speaker 1: about Donovan Mitchell, like Jalen Brown, likes to slow himself
Speaker 1: down when he's open and shoot more of like a
Speaker 1: like a less athletic shot, which is interesting considering how
Speaker 1: good of an athlete he is. But I think that
Speaker 1: manifests in him just being a little bit more accurate
Speaker 1: when he's open Versus the guys that really elevate on
Speaker 1: their shot. They're almost a little better when they're guarded
Speaker 1: because they don't slow themselves down, they get that lift
Speaker 1: that they need. He was zero point nine to nine
Speaker 1: points per shot off the dribble. That's completely respectable, one
Speaker 1: point zero nine in face up. Had a really good
Speaker 1: jab step jumper last year. Shot forty seven percent on floaters,
Speaker 1: but not super high volume. He took about two every
Speaker 1: three games, and then he was sixty two percent at
Speaker 1: the rim, which is solid for a wing, fifty eight
Speaker 1: percent on layups. Playtype data pers energy. He was in
Speaker 1: the eighty fifth percentile for pick and roll players. He
Speaker 1: actually got one point zero eight points per possession including passes,
Speaker 1: which is excellent, but only four hundred and thirty reps,
Speaker 1: so he's relatively low volume. Most of that was him.
Speaker 1: He personally shot forty eight percent field goals in pick
Speaker 1: and roll situations and ISO two hundred and seven points
Speaker 1: on two hundred and six possessions including passes that was
Speaker 1: sixty sixth percentile, and then in the post two hundred
Speaker 1: and thirteen points on two hundred and two possessions including
Speaker 1: passes that was in the fifty seventh percentile. He personally
Speaker 1: shot fifty six percent in the post up area of
Speaker 1: the floor. Big part of that was he was the
Speaker 1: best fadeaway jump shooter in the league last year. And
Speaker 1: this is where I want to kind of get into
Speaker 1: the late season run because Jalen Brown's early part of
Speaker 1: the season, and a big part of this too is
Speaker 1: just you're adding in a couple of new players. It
Speaker 1: kind of tweaks some of the ball handling responsibilities. It
Speaker 1: messes with your head a little bit. Jalen Brown really
Speaker 1: started to come around at the tail end of the season.
Speaker 1: His scoring ramped up to twenty six points per game
Speaker 1: in his last nineteen season games, and I actually thought
Speaker 1: he was the best player on the Celtics in the
Speaker 1: playoff run. I think we all agree Tatum is the
Speaker 1: best player on the team, Like if you're in a
Speaker 1: vacuum evaluating the roster and who's the most valuable player
Speaker 1: if like everyone was available for trade, obviously Tatum is
Speaker 1: the guy that would get the most in return. He's
Speaker 1: the best player. But Tatum was in a bad shooting slump,
Speaker 1: and Jalen Brown just played better basketball than Tatum over
Speaker 1: the course of those two months. A simple stat to
Speaker 1: demonstrate that Jalen Brown shot over fifty percent in fourteen
Speaker 1: of the playoff games, Jason Tatum shot over fifty percent
Speaker 1: in three of them, and Tatum averaged twenty five. Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown averaged twenty four. So Jalen Brown basically matched Tatum
Speaker 1: scoring efficiency or scoring volume and was far more efficient
Speaker 1: and far more reliable on a night in, night out basis,
Speaker 1: And both of them played massive defensive roles. Tatum was
Speaker 1: obviously the guy guarding the center and making a lot
Speaker 1: of that stuff work, But Jalen Brown is a guy
Speaker 1: guarding the ball, and like we've talked a lot about
Speaker 1: how you put Tatum on the center that alleviates your
Speaker 1: center to then row him off of a bat above
Speaker 1: the break shooters, so we can help at the rim.
Speaker 1: But the other part of that is you switch pick
Speaker 1: and roll right. So like if you bring the center
Speaker 1: up into the ball screen, Tatum just switches. But in
Speaker 1: order for that to work, you need your point of
Speaker 1: attack defender to be able to switch on to centers,
Speaker 1: and Jalen Brown is big enough to do that. I mean,
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum both were monumentally important on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor, and so like I mean,
Speaker 1: I just thought Jalen Brown in this particular two month
Speaker 1: stretch played better and that's why he deserved different Eastern
Speaker 1: Conference Finals MVP, and that's why he deserved finals MVP.
Speaker 1: All that said, separate point on Tatum, I do think
Speaker 1: this Tatum slump is temporary, and I do think he's
Speaker 1: gonna have a huge bounce back year. We're gonna get
Speaker 1: more into that when we get into our top ten
Speaker 1: when we start talking Tatum. But the point is that
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown was playing at an extremely high level over
Speaker 1: the final third of the season and in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and for me, it really felt like he went up
Speaker 1: a level in three main areas because like, if we
Speaker 1: were tiering players last year, I had Jalen Brown in
Speaker 1: that next tier below with all those other guards that
Speaker 1: we hit at the start of the list. I didn't
Speaker 1: think he was good enough to be the best player
Speaker 1: on a championship team. He has gone up an entire
Speaker 1: tier he is now. I mean, to put it simply,
Speaker 1: he's in this tier, which is players that can be
Speaker 1: the best player on a championship team as long as
Speaker 1: they have overwhelming support. And we literally know that because
Speaker 1: he just was. He just was the best player on
Speaker 1: a championship team with overwhelming support around him. So he
Speaker 1: actually kind of perfectly fits the definition of this tier
Speaker 1: of players. But the main basketball improvements that put him
Speaker 1: into that tier, the three improvements are Number One, he
Speaker 1: got more committed to defending at the point of attack
Speaker 1: right around halfway through the season. And I mean, he
Speaker 1: did it periodically over the previous seasons, but he really
Speaker 1: seemed to take a more intentional approach to guarding the
Speaker 1: other team's best player every night around halfway through the
Speaker 1: year and just applying a lot of ball pressure and
Speaker 1: being super physical. And he's just awesome at it. He's big,
Speaker 1: he's strong, he attacks the basketball, he applies physicality without
Speaker 1: committing too many fouls, he has the length to apply
Speaker 1: back pressure. He can switch on to Biggs. Like I
Speaker 1: talked earlier in the Jason Tatum defensive scheme, I thought
Speaker 1: it was the best defensive season Jalen Browns had in
Speaker 1: a long time. So that was piece number one, just
Speaker 1: recommitting and inflicting his athleticism on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the four. Number two his feel for the game. Talked
Speaker 1: about this earlier. Being able to handle the ball more
Speaker 1: allowed him to see beyond his defender and make better reads.
Speaker 1: And so even though his usage went down, his assist
Speaker 1: totals went up and his turnovers went down. That's a
Speaker 1: really strong indicator that he took a leap in terms
Speaker 1: of just his overall feel for the game. And a
Speaker 1: lot of that too, is just experiences being in a
Speaker 1: lot of these situations, been there, done that, you derive
Speaker 1: confidence from that. And then, lastly, short to mid range
Speaker 1: shot making. He was the best turnaround fadaway jump shooter
Speaker 1: in the league last year. Did a good job of
Speaker 1: initiating contact and getting good separation with his athleticism as
Speaker 1: he'd drift away from the rim, but also staying balanced
Speaker 1: so that he can knock the shot down and he
Speaker 1: made several in big moments in the NBA five. In
Speaker 1: Game three, he had that deep seal over Luca where
Speaker 1: he just fade over his right shoulder quick in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, and then the huge shot late it was
Speaker 1: I want to say it was a three point game
Speaker 1: with like a minute left and he got Tim Hardaway
Speaker 1: Junior on a switch and just drove at him and
Speaker 1: got into that like kind of fifteen foot area by
Speaker 1: the elbow and like pump faked and then just leaned
Speaker 1: back and elevated over the top and knocked it down.
Speaker 1: Those were huge shots that Jalen Brown worked really hard
Speaker 1: for a long time to develop. And so between the
Speaker 1: overall feel for the game, the improvement as a shot maker,
Speaker 1: and then the commitment to the defensive end, those three
Speaker 1: things vaulted Jalen Brown up a tier as a player,
Speaker 1: and he clearly demonstrated that he's capable of being the
Speaker 1: best player on a championship team as long as you
Speaker 1: give him the necessary amount of support. I actually thought like,
Speaker 1: if you look back at this Celtics season, his story
Speaker 1: in Al Horford's story to me were the two coolest
Speaker 1: overall elements to the Celtics title. Run al Horford obviously,
Speaker 1: just because he was a rock solid fringe star slash
Speaker 1: super high level role player on a lot of good
Speaker 1: teams for a long time and he just never got
Speaker 1: over the hump and then he finally does and so
Speaker 1: that was a really cool moment for Al Horford. But
Speaker 1: the Jalen Brown piece is awesome. I mean, catches a
Speaker 1: world of slander after that disappointing playoff run against Miami,
Speaker 1: He's getting open. I mean we've got Jimmy Butler talking
Speaker 1: about him on Instagram. Obviously, the public opinion turned against
Speaker 1: him in a lot of different ways, and he got
Speaker 1: in the gym, got better in one finals MVP the
Speaker 1: following year. That's really cool. I'm happy for Jalen and
Speaker 1: it's just awesome to see him this high on this
Speaker 1: list and in this tier of players.
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Speaker 2: more at fantasypros dot com. Slash Volume Today.
Speaker 1: Number fourteen. Devin Booker last year sixty eight games played,
Speaker 1: twenty seven point one points per game, four point five
Speaker 1: rebounds per game, six point nine assists per game, just
Speaker 1: two point six turnovers, and one point three stocks per game.
Speaker 1: The shooting splits forty nine point two percent from the field,
Speaker 1: thirty six point four percent from three, eighty eight point
Speaker 1: six percent from the line. That all adds up to
Speaker 1: fifty five percent in effective field goal percentage weighted for threes,
Speaker 1: and sixty one percent in true shooting percentage, which also
Speaker 1: includes foul shooting. His overall jump shooting or shot making
Speaker 1: numbers from Synergy. You got one point zero seven points
Speaker 1: per jump shot one point zero eight and catch and
Speaker 1: shoot situations. Kind of a weird split between one he
Speaker 1: was guarded and when he was open. He was zero
Speaker 1: point nine to one when guarded, but one point two
Speaker 1: eight when unguarded. That's just a really bizarre split. I
Speaker 1: would imagine that's mostly an outlier. He got one point
Speaker 1: zero seven points per pull up jump shot. That was
Speaker 1: the second best high volume jump shooting performance in the
Speaker 1: league last year. A little trivia for you guys, So
Speaker 1: there were nine players in the NBA who attempted at
Speaker 1: least five hundred pull up jump shots and also got
Speaker 1: at least one point per pull up jump shot. Number one,
Speaker 1: take a guess, it's Luka Doncic, Number two, Devin Booker,
Speaker 1: as we said, number three, Kevin Durant, number four, Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: number five, Jalen Brunson, number six, Shay Gilders, Alexander number seven,
Speaker 1: Fred Van Vliet on the list that was a surprise
Speaker 1: to me. Number eight Dejonte Murray also a surprise to me,
Speaker 1: and number nine Damian Lillard. And those are in order
Speaker 1: of efficiency. So that was actually your top nine high
Speaker 1: volume pull up sho shooters last year. That all got
Speaker 1: over five hundred attempts in over one point per shot.
Speaker 1: Devin Booker did shoot just thirty six percent on floaters
Speaker 1: and made only twenty one in the whole season. Not
Speaker 1: really a part of his game. He prefers to get
Speaker 1: into that like pull up jump shot even really close
Speaker 1: to the rim. So I mean it's not like he
Speaker 1: needs a floater, he just has a different shot that
Speaker 1: he goes to there. Really surprising here, this is a
Speaker 1: stat that I think would shock most NBA fans. Devin
Speaker 1: Booker shot sixty five percent at the rim last year,
Speaker 1: including sixty four percent on layups. He made three point
Speaker 1: five per game. That's pretty high volume. As a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, there were only four players in the league
Speaker 1: that were six six or less sixty six or shorter
Speaker 1: that made more shots per game in the restricted era
Speaker 1: in more shots per game in the restricted area, Tyres Maxi,
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown, Donovan Mitchell, Anthony Edwards. That's it among the
Speaker 1: smaller guys, So like those are all freaky out. Tyres
Speaker 1: Maxey one of the fastest guys in the league. Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown one of the best all around athletes in the league.
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell one of the best all around athletes in
Speaker 1: the league, Anthony Edwards potentially the best athlete in the league.
Speaker 1: That's the list that Devin Booker, a guy who's not
Speaker 1: a great athlete, has put himself on getting to the
Speaker 1: rim and not just there with volume, but with the
Speaker 1: efficiency to boot. And so I actually went back and
Speaker 1: I watched a bunch of his rim attempts this morning
Speaker 1: because I was like, how is it that he's so
Speaker 1: damn efficient? And it comes down to a couple of
Speaker 1: different things. One similar to Steph Curry, really good at
Speaker 1: weaponizing the high hesitation. This is a move that I
Speaker 1: talked about a lot with the kids that I'm training
Speaker 1: in high school. It is a bridge move from the
Speaker 1: high hesitation. You can go to anything from there. So
Speaker 1: just imagine that you're guarding me and I do it
Speaker 1: between the legs, dribble into the high hesitation. I'm just
Speaker 1: sitting there kind of pausing for a second. Now, technically,
Speaker 1: by the rule book, it's a carry. But one of
Speaker 1: the things I always tell the kids is at every level,
Speaker 1: as long as you look like you know what you're
Speaker 1: doing and you can control the basketball like you look
Speaker 1: like a good ball handler, they're usually gonna let you
Speaker 1: get away with it, right, Like we all see that
Speaker 1: high hesitation in every level of basketball, where the hand's
Speaker 1: like kind of on the side of the ball and
Speaker 1: the ball kind of comes to a rest for a second.
Speaker 1: If you're sloppy with it, they'll call you for a carrot.
Speaker 1: But if you have it on a string and you
Speaker 1: have it under control, they'll usually let you get away
Speaker 1: with it. But once you get there, you can go
Speaker 1: to any move right. I'm sitting in the high hesitation.
Speaker 1: Guys too far far back, boom, I rise up into
Speaker 1: a jump shot. The guy is coming up too close
Speaker 1: on the jump shot, maybe on my right shoulder. I
Speaker 1: push ahead to drive to the basket. If I need
Speaker 1: to cross over, I can cross. I can go between
Speaker 1: the legs, I can go behind the back, or if
Speaker 1: I need to create additional separation, I can in and
Speaker 1: out to a step back, or I can go between
Speaker 1: the legs and to a step back. Like we talked
Speaker 1: about with Donovan Mitchell, that high hesitation is your bridge
Speaker 1: move to everything right, But in order to get a
Speaker 1: defender to commit to one thing or the other, you
Speaker 1: need to have a threat right. So like for really
Speaker 1: good downhill guys, they get into their high hesitation and
Speaker 1: the defenders so far back on their heels because they're
Speaker 1: terrified that he's just gonna hit the jets and go
Speaker 1: right by them, so they can easily get to high
Speaker 1: hesitation pull up jump shots. Right. We talked about this
Speaker 1: with Anthony Edwards. Anthony Edwards gets really high quality pull
Speaker 1: up jump shot looks because dudes are on their heels
Speaker 1: because of how athletic he is. Right, Devin Booker gets
Speaker 1: the reverse form of that. He gets in that high hesitation.
Speaker 1: And I watched so many clips today where like the
Speaker 1: big guy and pick and roll, like he'll come off
Speaker 1: the ball screen and he'll get into that mid range.
Speaker 1: He'll just look at the rim and sit in a
Speaker 1: high hesitation, and the big will get up out of
Speaker 1: his stance and like stand upright and then come up
Speaker 1: and then he'll just go right around him and he'll
Speaker 1: kind of sleep a slip inside and shoot a little
Speaker 1: finger roll off the glass or something like that. A
Speaker 1: lot of times in he'll do it too, where like
Speaker 1: the big guy will stay back, but the guard will
Speaker 1: recover and kind of get back in front, but Devin
Speaker 1: Booker will kind of sit in that high hesitation until
Speaker 1: the guy comes all the way over and then he'll
Speaker 1: just cross back over between his legs and he's right
Speaker 1: back to the basket right And then a big part
Speaker 1: of his passing too, so by using his shooting as
Speaker 1: a threat, it's the fear of his pull up jump shot.
Speaker 1: Like we talked about. He was the second best pull
Speaker 1: up jump shooter in all of basketball last year. So
Speaker 1: as a defender, whether it's on the ball or the
Speaker 1: big guy, you're keyed in on that. So when he
Speaker 1: gets into his high hesitation, you're overplaying up, which allows
Speaker 1: him to get passed. And then the second piece of it,
Speaker 1: the passing piece. Devin Booker is one of the most
Speaker 1: underrated passers in the league. That'll end up putting him
Speaker 1: in situations where guys don't want to help, and then
Speaker 1: he can get all the way to the rim. But
Speaker 1: those are the main things that I saw in terms
Speaker 1: of getting those opportunities from there. Using his body at
Speaker 1: the rim, he doesn't try to go like he doesn't
Speaker 1: try to like jump with you and finish as high
Speaker 1: as possible. He gets into your chest and just kind
Speaker 1: of gets that little bit of separation and leans back
Speaker 1: and knocks down a shot, or he'll get into your
Speaker 1: chest and then stretch out with his left hand like
Speaker 1: he just uses his body well. And then the last
Speaker 1: piece of it is off ball situations, understanding the angles
Speaker 1: that are available when you're attacking closeouts. I talk about
Speaker 1: this all the time with the kids that are trained,
Speaker 1: but it's the concept of baked in driving lanes. Very
Speaker 1: simply put. If I'm on the left wing and Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant's on the right wing, and my man is helping
Speaker 1: down at the nail, meaning like he is somewhere between
Speaker 1: me and Kevin Durant. If Kevin Durant throws me a
Speaker 1: rifle pass, the defender is closing out at my right
Speaker 1: closing out at my right shoulder. So if I catch
Speaker 1: and just immediately ripped to the left, I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: a baked in driving lane. And I was amazed at
Speaker 1: how many of the rim attempts Devin Booker got last year.
Speaker 1: We're just him running his lane in transition and then
Speaker 1: catching and ripping on the catch and just getting an
Speaker 1: easy driving lane. Or so and so's got the ball,
Speaker 1: whether it's Bradley Beel or Devin Booker or useif Nurkic
Speaker 1: and they draw a second defender, they draw nail, help
Speaker 1: swing and he'll just catch and rip again. Like usually
Speaker 1: when you're talking about the super efficient scorers in the league,
Speaker 1: it's not because they make every single tough shot they make.
Speaker 1: It's like the best pull up jump shooters in the
Speaker 1: league might get one point zero five one point one
Speaker 1: point points per pull up jump shot. Right, they're not
Speaker 1: getting the offensive ratings that you see where teams are
Speaker 1: getting one twenty offensive rating, one twenty two offensive rating.
Speaker 1: In order to hit those efficiencies, you need to capitalize
Speaker 1: on the easy stuff. The same thing goes for these players,
Speaker 1: these guys that are up over sixty percent through shooting.
Speaker 1: It's not because they just make every tough shot they make.
Speaker 1: They take four or five really tough shots per game,
Speaker 1: and they make two of them, and then they take
Speaker 1: four or five kind of like coverage beater types of shots, right,
Speaker 1: Like guys in a drop coverage he dies on the screen.
Speaker 1: Guys in a drop coverage I get a wide open
Speaker 1: midrange jump shot, Like those are coverage beaters, right, And
Speaker 1: then like the other seven to eight shots that you take,
Speaker 1: they're all like in the flow, like transition driving layup,
Speaker 1: offensive rebound, putback, driving a close out, shooting a wide
Speaker 1: open catch and shoot three. That actually makes up like
Speaker 1: that shoult make up like half your offense, right, And
Speaker 1: so the guys that end up being super efficient are
Speaker 1: usually the guys that like shoot seventy percent on that stuff,
Speaker 1: and then they shoot forty percent or whatever on everything else.
Speaker 1: But that's okay. Those are the tough shots. Those are
Speaker 1: usually late in the shot clock. Those are usually, oh,
Speaker 1: they're defending the ball screen two on two. I have
Speaker 1: to make this shot because that's what the defense is giving, right,
Speaker 1: Like the easy stuff is so underrated when it comes
Speaker 1: to efficiency, and these guys that hit thesevolume scoring numbers
Speaker 1: and keep their percentages high, and a big part of it,
Speaker 1: like I was amazed at Devin Booker today, is just
Speaker 1: like how many easy layups he gets every game just
Speaker 1: by understanding the angles that are available when he's driving closeouts.
Speaker 1: And again, sixty five percent for a I mean he's
Speaker 1: sixty six or the six to eight wingspans. I don't
Speaker 1: want to sit here and talk like he doesn't have
Speaker 1: physical tools, but at his you know, particular lack of
Speaker 1: athletic burst compared to some of the guards at the
Speaker 1: top of the league. He gets to the rim as
Speaker 1: much and is more efficient than most of them, And
Speaker 1: that's pretty that's pretty impressive under the circumstances. I'm going
Speaker 1: to really quickly go through play type data and then
Speaker 1: we'll talk a little bit about Devin Booker on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor. So he was one of
Speaker 1: the top pick and roll play makers in the league
Speaker 1: last year. He got one point one to five points
Speaker 1: per possession on one thousand and thirty two possessions under
Speaker 1: a high volume list. Out of the fifteen players to
Speaker 1: run at least a thousand, Devin Booker ranked third. So
Speaker 1: he's one of the best pick and roll players in
Speaker 1: the league. We know what he does is a score.
Speaker 1: I just talked about it at length, but passing a
Speaker 1: couple things. First of all, a lot of those like
Speaker 1: five those five out quick decisions. I had a mail
Speaker 1: bag yesterday talking about like high level offensive players being heliocentric.
Speaker 1: Devin Booker is a great example of a really high
Speaker 1: level offensive shot creator that does it in a five
Speaker 1: out context. And when you watch these thousand pick and
Speaker 1: rolls that Devin Booker runs, and I've watched several dozen
Speaker 1: of him this morning. When you watch those videos, he's
Speaker 1: not pounding the air out of the basketball like Luca.
Speaker 1: He brings about the floor, ball screen, comes, comes flying
Speaker 1: off the screen, makes a read. That's what he does.
Speaker 1: It's it makes him easy to play with because he
Speaker 1: makes a quick decision. It also leaves a lot of
Speaker 1: time on the tail end of the shot clock for
Speaker 1: guys to make for guys to make plays. The second
Speaker 1: piece of it is he takes the easy stuff that
Speaker 1: is available. So like if he comes off and Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant's man is just syncing in a little bit, he'll
Speaker 1: just throw the ball right into Kevin rant shooting pockets
Speaker 1: so that he can shoot a three. If he's driving
Speaker 1: on the right wing and there's nail help off the
Speaker 1: left wing, just throw the swing pass. It's there, Just
Speaker 1: take it. He's got the high level stuff. He can
Speaker 1: make the skip passes, he can read the low man.
Speaker 1: But those easy reads that are able, those go a
Speaker 1: long way. Similar to what I was talking about with
Speaker 1: the shot making piece, you gotta take advantage of the
Speaker 1: easy passing reads that are available. Don't make the game
Speaker 1: harder than it needs to be. If there are easy
Speaker 1: opportunities that are there, you got to jump on them.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, he got a lot of
Speaker 1: hockey assists where he would just make the read that
Speaker 1: led to the read that led to the bucket. NBA
Speaker 1: dot Com refers to these as secondary assists, and the
Speaker 1: way they count them is if you pass to a
Speaker 1: guy who then immediately makes another pass within one second
Speaker 1: without dribbling to the guy who makes the shot, they
Speaker 1: call that a secondary assist, and Devin Booker had eighty
Speaker 1: four of them this year, which was the seventh most
Speaker 1: in the entire NBA, even in just sixty nine games played.
Speaker 1: So like Devin Booker again, when it comes down to
Speaker 1: pick and roll, he's just one of the best shot makers,
Speaker 1: shot creators, and shot makers in the league. And then
Speaker 1: we know what he's like on the ball. You know
Speaker 1: he can hit the pull up three if you die
Speaker 1: on the screen or if you go underneath. He's excellent
Speaker 1: at putting the defender in jail and then taking quick
Speaker 1: sidestep fifteen footers. We talked about everything that he does
Speaker 1: at the rim, using weaponizing, the high hesitation dribble. He's
Speaker 1: just one of the best at what he does in
Speaker 1: the league. ISO situations one point zero eight points per
Speaker 1: possession on three hundred and thirty two reps. He also
Speaker 1: made a high volume list. Out of the twenty four
Speaker 1: players to run at least two hundred and fifty, he
Speaker 1: ranked ninth. He only ran seventy seven post ups last year,
Speaker 1: but did get one point zero eight points per possession,
Speaker 1: which is very good. Now, looking at the playoff series,
Speaker 1: I thought he had a little bit more of a
Speaker 1: rough series against Minnesota than the box score numbers would
Speaker 1: lead you to believe. Like he averaged twenty eight, three
Speaker 1: and six on sixty six percent through shooting. So so
Speaker 1: you look at that on the surface and you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: he was awesome, But he was the primary ball handler
Speaker 1: for the most part, and I thought he missed a
Speaker 1: lot of the easy reads that he was making during
Speaker 1: the regular season. Now, if you want to see evidence
Speaker 1: of this, I did at least two film sessions during
Speaker 1: the playoff series that went extensively into breaking this concept down.
Speaker 1: But the gist of it is the Suns, And if
Speaker 1: you want to see those videos again, you just want
Speaker 1: to go back on our feed and scroll back to
Speaker 1: the Sun's Timberwolve series and just looked to the look
Speaker 1: for the film session videos I did around that time.
Speaker 1: But to put it simply, the Sons were at their
Speaker 1: best as a drive in kick team, meaning they were
Speaker 1: when they were taking catch and shoot threes and driving
Speaker 1: into layups or taking easy fifteen footers off of close
Speaker 1: out situations. They were at their worst when they would
Speaker 1: just take turns, taking pull up jump shots off of
Speaker 1: ball screens or ISOs. Right, and it really seemed to
Speaker 1: come together for them right around the end of the
Speaker 1: end of the year, like post All Star break aus.
Speaker 1: A matter of fact, post All Star they were seventh.
Speaker 1: The Sons were seventh in assist percentage. Sixty six percent
Speaker 1: of their made field goals were assisted. That dropped all
Speaker 1: the way down to fifty six percent in the first
Speaker 1: round series against Minnesota, I thought Minnesota was successful at
Speaker 1: speeding Devin Booker up and forcing him to kind of
Speaker 1: lose sight of the bigger picture a little bit. Again,
Speaker 1: we talked about this earlier, but like when you speed
Speaker 1: an offensive player up with good ball pressure, they don't
Speaker 1: see the rest of the floor. They're primarily focused on
Speaker 1: surviving their individual matchups. So like that's one of the
Speaker 1: benefits of ball pressure when you make a ball handler
Speaker 1: feel uncomfortable, doesn't see the bigger picture as much, doesn't
Speaker 1: see the four as much, and he can start to
Speaker 1: make mistakes. Not to be clear, I don't think Devin
Speaker 1: Booker was the reason Phoenix lost or got swept. I
Speaker 1: think it mostly came down to the physical mismatch. Minnesota
Speaker 1: was just a lot bigger and a lot stronger, and
Speaker 1: they just basically bullied Phoenix on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: Is it was a roster issue. I'm just saying. I
Speaker 1: also didn't think it was the best playoff series that
Speaker 1: Devin Booker played, and I thought the box score numbers
Speaker 1: were a little bit deceiving in that regard. In summery though,
Speaker 1: Devin is one of the best half court shot creators
Speaker 1: in the league. To the mailback question the other day,
Speaker 1: like we talked about, he does it in a five
Speaker 1: out context. He doesn't dribble the air out of the basketball,
Speaker 1: He comes down the floor, uses ball screen, makes a
Speaker 1: quick read. He was top five and pick and roll.
Speaker 1: He was top ten in ISO and the main reason,
Speaker 1: the main reason that I have him ahead of other
Speaker 1: elite half court shot creators, the guys like Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 1: and Jalen Brunson, who I had multiple people complain about
Speaker 1: me having Devin Booker over them in the comments yesterday.
Speaker 1: The main reason why I have him over those guys
Speaker 1: at the defensive end of the floor, and it's especially
Speaker 1: impressive because he's not particularly explosive, but he is six '
Speaker 1: six with a six to eight wing span that goes
Speaker 1: a long way to giving you a fighting chance. There
Speaker 1: are two main areas that I want to hit with
Speaker 1: Devin Booker on the defensive end of the floor. First
Speaker 1: is off ball communication, and I did a bunch of
Speaker 1: film sessions on this towards the tail end of the year,
Speaker 1: but especially when Phoenix was starting to get going there
Speaker 1: at the end, they were really trying to ramp up
Speaker 1: on defense, and you can see Devin taking a personal
Speaker 1: responsibility for their lack of communication that they were having before.
Speaker 1: He was in a lot of and usually it's their center.
Speaker 1: Usually it's the center that it operates as their primary communicator.
Speaker 1: But Devin Booker was taking a lot of those off
Speaker 1: ball like kind of backline communication responsibilities, calling out coverages,
Speaker 1: pointing guys out, telling him where they need to go,
Speaker 1: and that sort of thing takes a lot of effort
Speaker 1: and takes a lot of mental focus and uses energy,
Speaker 1: but it goes a long way towards helping a unit defend,
Speaker 1: and Devin Booker took that responsibility on the second piece
Speaker 1: of it was on ball competitiveness. We saw some of
Speaker 1: this with Phoenix and we saw a lot of it
Speaker 1: with Team USA. But you can ask Devin Booker to
Speaker 1: guard the other team's best guard. You can ask him
Speaker 1: to apply ball pressure and to fight over the top
Speaker 1: of screens. Now, Phoenix doesn't need him to do They
Speaker 1: usually will use a guy like a Kog to do
Speaker 1: something like that, but when they would go to their
Speaker 1: more skilled lineups, they could ask Booker to do that.
Speaker 1: For Team USA, he was guarding the best player on
Speaker 1: the other team every night. He can navigate screens, he's
Speaker 1: got good footwork, he's got good attention to the detail
Speaker 1: in the game plan. He puts consistent effort in on
Speaker 1: that side of the floor. You can actually have I
Speaker 1: remember when I was talking earlier about the tough jobs.
Speaker 1: You can't ask Donovan Mitchell or Jalen Brunson to do
Speaker 1: one of the tough jobs. You have to craft them
Speaker 1: the easier jobs, which both teams did. We talked about
Speaker 1: Cleveland putting usually putting Donovan Mitchell on like an off
Speaker 1: ball shooter and asking him to dig down and use
Speaker 1: his athleticism to close out right, Jalen Brunson, same sort
Speaker 1: of thing, a lot of hedging and recovering, holding up
Speaker 1: in ISO just because he's big and strong. But they
Speaker 1: weren't asking him to do a tough job. You can
Speaker 1: ask Devin Booker to do a tough defensive job. You
Speaker 1: can ask him to be your primary point of attack defender.
Speaker 1: That's a real value add within the context of trying
Speaker 1: to build a roster that can win the title. He
Speaker 1: gives you similar offensive juice as those guards while also
Speaker 1: giving you real defensive value, and that to me was
Speaker 1: the main differentiator. Brunson doesn't hurt you. Mitchell helps you
Speaker 1: a little bit. Booker can actually take a significant defensive role,
Speaker 1: and that's what sets him apart ETHO. All right, moving
Speaker 1: on to the mailbag. I only have about five questions today,
Speaker 1: since we're going one video at a time now. Feel
Speaker 1: like sixteen I got a lot of questions like this
Speaker 1: about Brunson. Feels like sixteen is way too low for Brunson.
Speaker 1: He was top five in MVP votes last year and
Speaker 1: was one of the best playoff performers, if not the best.
Speaker 1: Variations of that question talking about top five and MVP,
Speaker 1: the sheer amount of scoring volume that he did in
Speaker 1: the postseason, all that kind of stuff. Here's how I'm
Speaker 1: gonna try to explain it. Before I go any further.
Speaker 1: Don't forget that I primarily am using tiers to demonstrate
Speaker 1: a large gap in value. Okay, so all of these
Speaker 1: guys are in the same tier, so I don't see
Speaker 1: large gaps between them. So I could see Brunson as
Speaker 1: high as twelve or as low as seventeen, and all
Speaker 1: of those are pretty close to me, so that to
Speaker 1: be clear, Like, it's the eleven guys at the top
Speaker 1: of the league, the superstar tier that I think Brunson
Speaker 1: has no case over. But I understand the case, the
Speaker 1: case for Brunson over Booker. I prefer Booker, but I
Speaker 1: understand the case. I understand the case for Brunson over
Speaker 1: to the two guys recovering tomorrow or on Saturday, I
Speaker 1: should say, but to upfront explain, you know, just the
Speaker 1: format of this particular list these tiers. The guys are
Speaker 1: all kind of close. So a lot of this just
Speaker 1: has to do with the sheer amount of talent that's
Speaker 1: in the league. The two guys I had ahead of
Speaker 1: him today are the defending Eastern Conference Finals MVP in
Speaker 1: the defending Finals MVP, and Jalen Brown, a guy who's
Speaker 1: one of the best two way players in the game,
Speaker 1: Devin Booker, who's a similar level of half court shot creator.
Speaker 1: He's a career twenty eight points per game in forty
Speaker 1: seven playoff games on over sixty percent true shooting, and
Speaker 1: he was the best player on a team that made
Speaker 1: it to within two wins of an NBA championship, and
Speaker 1: he's a substantially more impactful defender. That's the guy that
Speaker 1: you want to put I mean that, let's just put
Speaker 1: it this way. If you think Brunson's better than Booker,
Speaker 1: I respect that, But Booker's got a damn good case
Speaker 1: to be better, right. And then the two guys were
Speaker 1: hitting on Saturday, They're both like, we're not gonna get
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try. You guys can probably guess who they are,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna try not to reveal it. The two
Speaker 1: guys that we got on Saturday are like Bona fide
Speaker 1: superstars who have health issues and when they are healthy
Speaker 1: are both clearly better than Jalen Brunson. So and then
Speaker 1: the other guys are the eleven superstar guys that I have,
Speaker 1: and trust me, you're gonna have a really hard time
Speaker 1: bumping any of those guys for Jalen Brunson. So it's
Speaker 1: mostly just a product of the sheer amount of awesome
Speaker 1: players that we have in the league, the kind of
Speaker 1: guys that used to look at the screen and go like,
Speaker 1: oh man, that's a top ten player. By the way,
Speaker 1: I made this mistake. I'm pretty sure there was a
Speaker 1: day during the regular season where I was like, holy shit,
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson's playing like a top ten player. But then
Speaker 1: you actually sit down and you start writing names down
Speaker 1: and you're like, oh shit, there's just a lot of
Speaker 1: really good players. So, like I mean to put it simply,
Speaker 1: like what used to be top ten is now kind
Speaker 1: of like top seventeen, what used to be top twenty
Speaker 1: five is now kind of like top forty, top forty five.
Speaker 1: Like we talked about we did that forty five player
Speaker 1: list at the start, there are a lot of guys there.
Speaker 1: Paul George not even on my list. Trey Young not
Speaker 1: even on my list. There's a lot of really, really
Speaker 1: good basketball players in the NBA, and that is the
Speaker 1: main thing that is driving this. Like I could bump
Speaker 1: him over any of the eleven. I explained to you
Speaker 1: guys why I thought Booker was better. I explained to
Speaker 1: it to you guys, why I thought Jayleen Brown was better. Again,
Speaker 1: I can. I can personally see the reasoning for Brunson
Speaker 1: as high as twelve, but for me, he happens to
Speaker 1: be at sixteen. One other way to look at it,
Speaker 1: I think Brunson is the best small guard in the
Speaker 1: league other than Steph and that's a hell of an
Speaker 1: accomplishment in the league that has this type of guard depth.
Speaker 1: I have Jalen Brunston over Donovan Mitchell. I have Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson over Tyres Halliburton. I have Jalen Brunson over Tyres Maxey.
Speaker 1: I have Jalen Brunson over John Morant. I have Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson over Damian Lillard. I Jalen Brunson over Daron Fox.
Speaker 1: I have him over Kyrie Irving, I have him over
Speaker 1: Trey Young. I have Brunson over all those guys right now.
Speaker 1: It's just the guys that have above him are bigger athletes,
Speaker 1: and you know, obviously I view that as value, and
Speaker 1: there are guys above him that bring the same at
Speaker 1: least similar type of offensive shock creation without some of
Speaker 1: the downsides that come from having a guard that's small.
Speaker 1: Here's another follow up question, how the heck is a
Speaker 1: top five MVP vote getter last season sixteenth on this
Speaker 1: list Steph Curry ahead of Brunson at this point is crazy.
Speaker 1: Brunson will be putting his team in championship contention this season.
Speaker 1: Curry will lead his team to the lottery. Make it
Speaker 1: make sense, dude, tired of the Brunson disrespect. To put
Speaker 1: it simply, Jalen Brunson will contend for a championship this
Speaker 1: year because he also has Julius Randall og N and
Speaker 1: Obi McHale bridges in high level two way players like
Speaker 1: Dante DiVincenzo and Josh Hart. Curry might end up in
Speaker 1: the play in or the lottery. Just I'm not even
Speaker 1: gonna talking about it. Just go ahead and pull up
Speaker 1: Golden State's roster for this season and you'll find out
Speaker 1: really quickly why the Knicks are gonna do more than
Speaker 1: the Warriors are going to do in all likelihood this season.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have anything to do with Jalen Brunson or
Speaker 1: Steph Curry. I do think Jalen Brunson had a better
Speaker 1: and more productive regular season last year, but a big
Speaker 1: part of that was him being surrounded by more talent.
Speaker 1: That Warriors team, similar to the Lakers, similar to the Suns,
Speaker 1: just doesn't have any role players that can play both
Speaker 1: ends of the floor effectively. That's the main issue that
Speaker 1: they have. It's a major roster issue. To put it like,
Speaker 1: I'll put it even more aggressively. If the Knicks today
Speaker 1: traded Jalen Brunson straight up for Steph Curry, the Knicks
Speaker 1: title odds would skyrocket because Steph is a better basketball player.
Speaker 1: It's not an insult to Brunson. He's Steph fucking Curry,
Speaker 1: and that's why I can't like put him up on
Speaker 1: that particular level. Next question one more Brunson. One bro
Speaker 1: miss the mark here. He gained a huge boost an
Speaker 1: audience for the way he covered the Knicks and Brunson
Speaker 1: all of last season, only to rate him sixteenth best player. Nah,
Speaker 1: it's it's my job to be authentic and tell you, guys,
Speaker 1: exactly how I feel, not to propagandaize to your fan base.
Speaker 1: So I'm just not gonna do that. Me ranking Brunson
Speaker 1: sixteen doesn't change how much I love watching him play basketball,
Speaker 1: or the simple fact that we're gonna be covering the
Speaker 1: Knicks very closely this year. It's a player ranking, and
Speaker 1: it really only matters in the summer when we're talking hypotheticals.
Speaker 1: As soon as we get into the regular season. In
Speaker 1: the playoffs, it's like, can Brunson with this supporting cast
Speaker 1: beat this star with his supporting cast? These two teams
Speaker 1: facing against each other. The player rankings go out the
Speaker 1: window in October, Guys like this is not I can't
Speaker 1: just sit up here and lie and say things that
Speaker 1: I don't believe to appeal to a fan base, especially
Speaker 1: on something as simple and foolish as player rankings, which
Speaker 1: don't really matter in the grand scheme of who gets
Speaker 1: to hoist hilario'brian trophy at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: I have three more wait, yeah, three more questions. The
Speaker 1: problem with arguing that the Laker slash Lebron greatly benefited
Speaker 1: from the break in twenty twenty is that there's no
Speaker 1: proof whatsoever besides feelings. They weren't limping into the break,
Speaker 1: they weren't injured at all, they didn't look tired or slow.
Speaker 1: They actually were just about to hit a good stride
Speaker 1: beating the Bucks and Clippers back to back. This is
Speaker 1: in relation to a question we had two days ago,
Speaker 1: basically insinuating that we don't know if Lebron can make
Speaker 1: it through a playoff run, and then I kind of
Speaker 1: piggybacked off that with another take that I had received
Speaker 1: from a buddy of mine a few weeks back, that
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty Lakers benefited from the break because they
Speaker 1: looked like they were gonna break down. And what I
Speaker 1: said two days ago was that that's just completely theoretical.
Speaker 1: Lebron's never missed a playoff game. But this is a
Speaker 1: really good additional point, which is that in March, when
Speaker 1: they beat the Bucks and Clippers back to back and
Speaker 1: Lebron literally looked like the MVP, I thought he should
Speaker 1: have won the MVP that year. They were cooking with
Speaker 1: gas and actually ramping up, and it actually kind of
Speaker 1: fell in line with most Lebron teams that tended to
Speaker 1: ramp up around March for the playoff run. So like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that retroactively looking at the Lakers is as
Speaker 1: a team that should have broken down is based entirely
Speaker 1: on fantasy. All Right, two more bail back question. We've
Speaker 1: seen that the Olympics and specifically Lebron's performance have impacted
Speaker 1: Jason's view on the all time king of Lebron's place.
Speaker 1: That being said, did the Olympics impact how you see
Speaker 1: players in the context of the NBA And did any
Speaker 1: of these rankings in these videos change because of the Olympics.
Speaker 1: So the short answer is no. But I did go
Speaker 1: look at the list after the Olympics before I decided
Speaker 1: did not make any changes, and so the reason is simple,
Speaker 1: I didn't. I don't think Jason Tatum's shooting slump is
Speaker 1: going to last through next season. I would venture to
Speaker 1: guess that his jumper will be fixed by training camp.
Speaker 1: The Olympics were pretty damn close to the finals, and
Speaker 1: I guarantee you he took some time off after the
Speaker 1: finals as he should have. He played basketball into mid June,
Speaker 1: so I doubt he was as polished for the Team
Speaker 1: USA as some of his peers. I think Tatum is
Speaker 1: going to get back in the gym this summer, and
Speaker 1: I think he's going to fix a shot and I
Speaker 1: think he's going to look great, So I didn't factor
Speaker 1: that in. Two. I know Embiid is better in Philly's
Speaker 1: offensive system, and I already knew Joel Embiid didn't know
Speaker 1: how to play, read and react basketball, so that I
Speaker 1: didn't learn anything new about Embid. I already knew that stuff,
Speaker 1: So that wasn't something that I was gonna change my
Speaker 1: opinion about him when he's going to be playing for
Speaker 1: the Sixers and he's gonna have the dam ball all
Speaker 1: the time. Three. I have always felt like Steph, Cady
Speaker 1: and Lebron are still some of the very best players
Speaker 1: in the world in a small sample size. I felt
Speaker 1: that way before the Olympics, and I'm not surprised at all.
Speaker 1: I was disappointed in how some of the young guys played,
Speaker 1: but I expected Steph, cad and Lebron to play as
Speaker 1: well as they did. They're just three of the greatest
Speaker 1: winners of all time, and so of course they're gonna
Speaker 1: figure out and they're still playing at or near that level.
Speaker 1: They just at their ages, they can't superhero their way
Speaker 1: through an eighty two game season like they used to,
Speaker 1: and they can't overcome some of the limitations that their
Speaker 1: rosters have. Again, all three of those rosters don't have
Speaker 1: any two way role players, guys that play both ends
Speaker 1: of the four really well. Outside of their stars. That's
Speaker 1: a problem, and that's why they struggle in the eighty
Speaker 1: two game season, and at their age, they can't overcome that.
Speaker 1: In the Olympics, it's a shorter window and it's just
Speaker 1: an easier grind, and so they were able to handle it. So, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I took a look at my list after the Olympics.
Speaker 1: I just didn't change my mind on anything because most
Speaker 1: of that was stuff that I already had established. Last question,
Speaker 1: calling Lebron substantially better than Tatum in a two week
Speaker 1: stretch is ridiculous. And here's all I'm gonna say to that.
Speaker 1: Just for a second in your head, just close your
Speaker 1: eyes and imagine Lebron James playing basketball with Drew Holliday,
Speaker 1: Derek White, Jalen Brown, Christops Porzingis, Al Horford, Sam Houser,
Speaker 1: and Peyton Pritchard. Just imagine it for a minute and
Speaker 1: you'll pretty quickly come to the same conclusion. That I did.
Speaker 1: All right, guys. That is all I have for today.
Speaker 1: As always, a sincerely appreciate you for supporting the show.
Speaker 1: We are going to be back on Saturday. Oh I
Speaker 1: have this mail bag will run as a breakout tomorrow Saturday,
Speaker 1: I'll run the thirteen and twelve, and then starting next
Speaker 1: week we're going to be getting into the top eleven,
Speaker 1: which is just an incredible list of players that was
Speaker 1: incredibly difficult to rank and I'm excited to break it
Speaker 1: down and to debate it with you guys. I will
Speaker 1: see you guys. Then the volume