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Speaker 1: You're at the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody, hope all if
Speaker 1: you guys are having a great week, got a fun
Speaker 1: show for you today. We had two major showdowns last
Speaker 1: night the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Los Angeles Clippers, as
Speaker 1: well as the Milwaukee Bucks and the Denver Nuggets, and
Speaker 1: a couple of really impressive wins where the Bucks and
Speaker 1: the Timberwolves are gonna be breaking down those two games
Speaker 1: from the perspective of both teams. And then then I have
Speaker 1: about a half dozen mail bag questions, including some follow
Speaker 1: up stuff that I got from you guys involving the
Speaker 1: Celtics and they're kind of matchup attacking, and then the
Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors and whether or not they have real
Speaker 1: championship potential. This season should be a fun one. Today,
Speaker 1: you guys know the Joe Fobrigen started subscribe to a
Speaker 1: brandy YouTube channel with mean a lot to me. If
Speaker 1: you guys would take a second to scroll down and
Speaker 1: hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feed
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops tonight. It's also
Speaker 1: super helpful for us if you guys would leave a
Speaker 1: review and a rating on the podcast feed as well.
Speaker 1: Don't forget about my Twitter feed out Underscore. Jason lt
Speaker 1: did another film thread this morning on Timberwolves Clippers. It's
Speaker 1: also where I put show announcement in the last not
Speaker 1: least keep dropping mailbag questions and the YouTube comments. Will
Speaker 1: probably do at least one more mail bag this week
Speaker 1: before we get out of here. All right, let's talk
Speaker 1: some basketball. So you know, I thought the story of
Speaker 1: Timberwolve's Clippers was Rudy Gobert not just in his health
Speaker 1: defense responsibilities, but also when they shifted him onto Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook some of the damage that he did to the
Speaker 1: Clippers offense overall. This is the eighth time this season
Speaker 1: that Rudy Gobert had at least fifteen points in four
Speaker 1: blocks in a game. Has some really impressive offensive plays
Speaker 1: in the second half. At a pick and roll possession
Speaker 1: where he caught on the roll and Euro stepped around
Speaker 1: Zubach on his way to the basket. He had a
Speaker 1: cut underneath the front of the rim on a baseline
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards drive where he caught and Kawhi Leonards stepped
Speaker 1: up into help and he just buried Kawhi underneath the
Speaker 1: basket and dunked on his head. Was cleaning up the
Speaker 1: offensive glass too. It was a really good two way
Speaker 1: effort for Rudy Gobert. But I want to focus in
Speaker 1: on the defensive end of the floor. He spent a
Speaker 1: good amount of time on Russell Westbrook and just comp
Speaker 1: shut down the Clippers offense. And one of the things
Speaker 1: that you'd see is Kawhi like drive into the lane
Speaker 1: and see Rudy Gobert and instead of taking a layup
Speaker 1: have to take like some incredibly difficult left shoulder fade.
Speaker 1: He actually made one that like was a straight up
Speaker 1: line drive that barely got over the front of the rim,
Speaker 1: but you'd see hesitation there. There was a play where
Speaker 1: Paul George drove into Gobert. Gobert was right there waiting
Speaker 1: for him. He shoveled it off to Kawhi. Rudy just
Speaker 1: turns around. He's right there waiting for him, and there's
Speaker 1: they're pump faking at ghosts, They're refusing to take shots
Speaker 1: around the rim. He just completely and utterly dominated this game.
Speaker 1: There was even one of the most impressive plays that
Speaker 1: you'll see from a shot blocker, a block of a
Speaker 1: hook shot. Zubak in the middle of the lane kind
Speaker 1: of went over to his over his left shoulder for
Speaker 1: a hook shot in the lane and Rudy just swatted
Speaker 1: it out of there. It was an incredible two way
Speaker 1: performance for Rudy Gobert. Jayden McDaniels did great work on Kawhi,
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards did great work on Paul George. I thought
Speaker 1: Kyle Anderson had a key shift in the early fourth
Speaker 1: quarter because like one of the pathways of this game
Speaker 1: was as the matchups kind of shook out. James Harden
Speaker 1: was playing pretty well in that early third quarter stretch,
Speaker 1: just like hit a step back three made some good
Speaker 1: place to get the Clipper or get to get the
Speaker 1: Wolves in rotation where the Clippers were able to get
Speaker 1: some easier shots because he had Mike Conley on him.
Speaker 1: And then when he stepped out of the game and
Speaker 1: Russ came on, there wasn't really a good entry point
Speaker 1: anymore for the Clippers and their offense completely stalled. And
Speaker 1: then when James Harden came back into the game in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, they put Kyle Anderson on him and
Speaker 1: he had a really good shift on him there to
Speaker 1: help them continue to grow the lead. And then from
Speaker 1: there just really solid weak side rotations. I thought Nikhil
Speaker 1: Alexander Walker had a couple of plays where he took
Speaker 1: away threes that would for sure be decent catch and
Speaker 1: shoot opportunities for guys like a Mere Coffee or Norman
Speaker 1: Palace chasing him off the line. They held the Clippers
Speaker 1: to zero point nine to five points per spot up possession.
Speaker 1: They average one point one three for the season, so
Speaker 1: almost twenty increase. They're the second best spot up team
Speaker 1: in the league behind the Boston Celtics, and they just
Speaker 1: completely didn't shut down, but did a significant amount of
Speaker 1: damage to that significant chunk of what the Clippers liked
Speaker 1: to do on offense. And then on the other end
Speaker 1: of the floor, Anthony Edwards had one of the best
Speaker 1: one for eleven from three games you'll ever see. He
Speaker 1: was seven for seven on twos, all right at the rim.
Speaker 1: Analytics guys would have loved his shot chart. It was
Speaker 1: just a bunch of threes and a bunch of layups,
Speaker 1: and Anthony Edwards, as we know, will take mid range shots,
Speaker 1: just didn't take any of them in this game. Had
Speaker 1: some unbelievable drives to the rim. His physical imposition in
Speaker 1: the game, on the game makes it so that even
Speaker 1: against excellent perimeter defense teams like the Clippers, he can
Speaker 1: just get to his spots. He had this like spure
Speaker 1: wetting spin move off of one leg where he got
Speaker 1: into the lane and Terrence Manners, a big physical guard,
Speaker 1: was being physical with him and walling him up and
Speaker 1: taking the contact in the chest, and he just powered
Speaker 1: through all of that and got all the way to
Speaker 1: the rim and scooped it in with his right hand.
Speaker 1: And I've talked a lot about this with the young
Speaker 1: players that I coach, But like getting in the weight
Speaker 1: room and specifically leg strength is so incredibly important to
Speaker 1: get to your spots because when you're fighting through contact,
Speaker 1: every one of those bumps is like a battle. And
Speaker 1: if you are the bigger, stronger player, you're gonna be
Speaker 1: able to It's just simple physics. You'll be able to
Speaker 1: absorb that contact better than if you are the smaller
Speaker 1: player in those altercations. And don't mistake the weight room
Speaker 1: and the role that plays in Anthony Edwards's ability to
Speaker 1: get to the rim. You had eight assists in one turnover.
Speaker 1: Good job driving and kicking to shooters. One thing with him.
Speaker 1: I've hearpd a lot on Jason Tatum for this, so
Speaker 1: I want to be fair. He does have a tendency
Speaker 1: to settle for really difficult pull up three point shots,
Speaker 1: and he's not particularly good at them. And you know,
Speaker 1: in general, I pulled this out for that Tatum discussion,
Speaker 1: but when you look at all the guys in the
Speaker 1: league that attempt over have attempted over four hundred pull
Speaker 1: up threes this year. Pull up jump shots this year.
Speaker 1: All of them are guys that don't have great physical
Speaker 1: tools and are great at that shot, so they shoot incredible,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, fifty two to fifty three percent
Speaker 1: effective field goal percentage, So they're getting over a point
Speaker 1: per shot on it. Jason Tatum and Anthony Edwards they
Speaker 1: take they both take almost half their shots in the
Speaker 1: form of pull up jump shots, and both of them
Speaker 1: are really inefficient. As a matter of fact, Ant is
Speaker 1: worse with it even than Jason Tatum is. And so
Speaker 1: both of them, you gotta remember, they're kind of cutting
Speaker 1: the defense a break when they settle those kinds of
Speaker 1: shots because of how dominant they are elsewhere on the floor. Again,
Speaker 1: seven for seven when he went to the rim and
Speaker 1: one for eleven when he pulled from the perimeter. So
Speaker 1: I'm being nitpicky here, but we'd like to see a
Speaker 1: little better balance there from Anthony Edwards. Again, for both
Speaker 1: of those guys. Just cut it from half your shot
Speaker 1: diet to like a little bit under a third of
Speaker 1: your shot diet, like thirty percent of your shot diet.
Speaker 1: Now you're doing what all of the great efficient scores
Speaker 1: of all time do. From the same point of not
Speaker 1: for letting the defense off the hook. Really balance scoring
Speaker 1: game from Caddy at twenty four points hit a little
Speaker 1: bit of everything. Was scoring out a spot up, scoring
Speaker 1: on cut, scoring on offensive rebound, put back, scoring out
Speaker 1: of the post scoring, and Iso had a really impressive
Speaker 1: hockey assist in the second half where he was driving
Speaker 1: along the left wing. I think he was driving on
Speaker 1: Terrence Man if I remember correctly, But James Harden turns
Speaker 1: to double team and Kawhiet Leonard made a perfect textbook
Speaker 1: windshield wiper rotation. Remember whinshield wiper rotations is like when
Speaker 1: the double comes, the other guy rotates with him to
Speaker 1: take away the first pass, because the majority of players
Speaker 1: when they get double teamed panic and try to just
Speaker 1: make the quick outlet pass rather than making the kill pass,
Speaker 1: the pass that beats the defense. And kat just didn't panic,
Speaker 1: pivoted back over his left shoulder. Read that Harden was
Speaker 1: kind of playing that passing lane and that Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: had jumped up to Mike Conley whipped it across the
Speaker 1: court to Anthony Edwards on the right wing extra pass.
Speaker 1: I think Paul George rotated up extra pass to the
Speaker 1: corner to Jaden McDaniels, and he knocked down the three
Speaker 1: really really high level playmaking from Carl Towns, and then
Speaker 1: that's a They just completely dominated the Clippers, and the
Speaker 1: paint outscored them sixty four to forty two. The Clippers,
Speaker 1: as I've talked about a lot this year, they rely
Speaker 1: on pull up shooting. They take them the second most
Speaker 1: in the league behind the Dallas Mavericks, and they're eighteenth
Speaker 1: and points in the paint scored per game. So they
Speaker 1: went one for eleven on pull up threes, kind of
Speaker 1: mimicking Anthony Everage's number. The Clippers as a team went
Speaker 1: one for eleven on pull up threes and ten for
Speaker 1: thirty two overall on pull up jump shots. They had
Speaker 1: twenty one points on thirty two pull up jump shots.
Speaker 1: What's your next punch and that's not working, what's the
Speaker 1: next thing that you can do? And as you saw
Speaker 1: in that second half when James Harden came out and
Speaker 1: they had that long stretch with Russ and then when
Speaker 1: Harden came back in and he had a better perimeter
Speaker 1: defender on him, it just they weren't able to generate
Speaker 1: that driving kick offense that they can go to as
Speaker 1: an alternative to their pull up jump shooting attack. And
Speaker 1: like the Wolves, to their credit, like they only they're
Speaker 1: a great three point shooting team. They only shot thirty
Speaker 1: two percent from three. They're a bad spot up team
Speaker 1: when you chase them off the line, but like that's
Speaker 1: an important part of their game, is their ability to knockdown,
Speaker 1: catch and shoot three. Is they weren't shooting well right
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards went one for eleven, And they're just good
Speaker 1: at doing other stuff. They're a great transition team, they're
Speaker 1: a great post up team. They're one of the best
Speaker 1: teams in the league at scoring on offensive redown putbacks,
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff like what you saw from Rudy
Speaker 1: Gober in that game. So they can win ugly, they
Speaker 1: can win when a goes one for eleven from three,
Speaker 1: and win big, because as we know, the Timberwolves' biggest
Speaker 1: weakness is their late game scoring, the stuff that they
Speaker 1: do offensively when it's you know, a three point game
Speaker 1: with five minutes left, that's usually their biggest issue. And
Speaker 1: they can win ugly and win big and not even
Speaker 1: have to put their offense, and that sort of predicament
Speaker 1: really really impressive. Dominant defensive performance from Minnesota Timberwolves again,
Speaker 1: and like I've been I've talked about this with the Timberwolves,
Speaker 1: I've been a little bit critical from the same point
Speaker 1: of their late game offense. I want to be clear,
Speaker 1: aside from the Nuggets, all of these teams are big
Speaker 1: red flax. So whether it's Boston and their offensive execution,
Speaker 1: Minnesota and their offensive execution, Milwaukee and their point of
Speaker 1: attack defense, like the Lakers and their complete and utter
Speaker 1: lack of a point of attack defender, the Warriors and
Speaker 1: their lack of like a good veteran second option behind
Speaker 1: Steph Curry. Like all these teams and the thunder are
Speaker 1: super young and super small, right, Like, all of these
Speaker 1: teams have big red flags. And so don't mistake me
Speaker 1: being critical of the Wolves late game offense is me
Speaker 1: saying they can't win. That's just if they lose, that'll
Speaker 1: be what gets them beat. But there's all these other
Speaker 1: teams that have similar flaws that could just get beat
Speaker 1: for their own reasons, if that makes sense. On the
Speaker 1: Clippers front, I talked about the entry points earlier James
Speaker 1: Harden on Mike Conley, that matchup piece is a big
Speaker 1: part of it. I thought they stayed with Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: way too long in the middle to late third and
Speaker 1: then into the fourth quarter, and he had some disastrous mistakes.
Speaker 1: There's a play where he smoked a transition layup off
Speaker 1: the back of the rim, which led to a wide
Speaker 1: open Anthony Edwards three, which he missed, but Rudy gober
Speaker 1: got an offensive rebound put back and one as a
Speaker 1: result of them being only five on four on the
Speaker 1: other end of the Because remember I talked about this
Speaker 1: yesterday to Spencer Dinwood, he's smoking a layup, especially in transition.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have a guard who's typically responsible for being
Speaker 1: the first line of transition defense. You're gonna have a
Speaker 1: guard behind the back of the backboard, and that's always
Speaker 1: just gonna put your defense in a compromise position. But
Speaker 1: that's a five point swing smoked layup run out for
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert and won Rudy. And for the record, Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrooks shooting fifty one something percent from on layups this year.
Speaker 1: He's one of the worst layup shooters in the league
Speaker 1: this year, and so when he takes uncontested layups in
Speaker 1: his spaced out environment, he typically makes him. But when
Speaker 1: he goes into traffic, he misses him almost every time
Speaker 1: at this point, and there was a wide open Kawhi
Speaker 1: Leonard on the left wing on this transition play that
Speaker 1: led to the five point swing. There was a play
Speaker 1: where he caught in the right corner, whipped by Rudy Gobert,
Speaker 1: beat him on a closeout and then tried to dunk
Speaker 1: it off of like straight vert, which like thirty two
Speaker 1: year old Russ would have done just fine, but at
Speaker 1: this point in his career he can't do anymore, and
Speaker 1: it ended up being another runout that led to a foul.
Speaker 1: It is a four point swing. And then lastly there
Speaker 1: was about it was somewhat late shot clock, was like
Speaker 1: six or seven seconds on the shot clock, but instead
Speaker 1: of swinging it to a better offensive player, he tried
Speaker 1: to attack Rudy gober on an ISO who was clearly
Speaker 1: backpedaling and taking the rim away. Smoked a layup over
Speaker 1: the top and it ran out the other way. In Minnesota,
Speaker 1: hit a three. That's a five point swing, a four
Speaker 1: point swing, and a five point swing off of three
Speaker 1: mistakes from Russell Westbrook. It was a fourteen point swing
Speaker 1: all in that third quarter. But even beyond just those
Speaker 1: three plays with Rudy Gobert on him, the ball just
Speaker 1: kept ending up in his hands because again, a lot
Speaker 1: of these offensive players, they're making instinctual plays, like they're
Speaker 1: used to driving and kicking a certain way when they
Speaker 1: are they're programmed when they see a guy open wearing
Speaker 1: their jersey to throw that ball, especially as a guard,
Speaker 1: especially a player of Russell Westbrook's reputation. But when the
Speaker 1: ball kept ending up in his hands, that was usually
Speaker 1: where the offensive possession would fall apart. And I thought
Speaker 1: Tylu just stuck with him way too long. In this game,
Speaker 1: he had twenty nine minutes. The wol were plus twenty
Speaker 1: one when Russ was on the floor, and it was
Speaker 1: an even game when he was off the floor. And
Speaker 1: I saw a lot of Clippers fans talking about like, oh,
Speaker 1: they tried to go small, Not just Clipper fans, but
Speaker 1: Clipper people watching the game, Like the Clippers tried to
Speaker 1: go small and they still couldn't score. And it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: they went small, but they went small with Russ. When
Speaker 1: you go with small with Russ, it's effectively like having
Speaker 1: a center on the floor offensively, a center that's gonna
Speaker 1: struggle to finish around the rim. So they're small, but
Speaker 1: they're limited on offense when they go with that group.
Speaker 1: And if you, as we've talked about so much on
Speaker 1: this show, when you go small, you better be damn
Speaker 1: good at being small or the big team is just
Speaker 1: gonna demolish you. Because the big team has all of
Speaker 1: these advantages as well, you need to pick them apart
Speaker 1: on offense if you're gonna be small, and that's not
Speaker 1: what they did. And then lastly, on the Clippers front,
Speaker 1: can they hold up against interior power teams? After last
Speaker 1: night zero to two versus the Wolves, one and two
Speaker 1: versus Denver, one and two versus the Lakers, that's two
Speaker 1: and six against the big front line of the Western Conference.
Speaker 1: And this has been a consistent thing I've talked about,
Speaker 1: Like they're a bad defensive rebounding team, they rely on
Speaker 1: pull up jump shooting, they don't score in the paint.
Speaker 1: Those are significant concerns against traditional playoff powerhouses. Does it?
Speaker 1: I still have the Clippers up at fourth in my
Speaker 1: contender's list. I'm not taking them off that list, But
Speaker 1: like I talked about earlier with Minnesota, if the Clippers lose,
Speaker 1: this is how it will look. It will look like
Speaker 1: them going cold from the perimeter in a physical kind
Speaker 1: of playoff like environment and getting dominated inside of the paint.
Speaker 1: All right, moving on to Nuggets Bucks, this was a
Speaker 1: textbook buzz saw game. I thought it was Milwaukee's best
Speaker 1: defensive effort of the season. They had an eighty eight
Speaker 1: defensive rating against Denver in the first half when they
Speaker 1: won up by twenty plus. I thought it was Brook
Speaker 1: Lopez's best defensive game of the season. You know, I've
Speaker 1: talked a lot about in drop coverage. Drop coverage is
Speaker 1: like a bracket, right, Like if you think of it
Speaker 1: as weak back pressure and weak rim protection, the bracket
Speaker 1: is weak, right, It's spread out, Like if the bag
Speaker 1: is too passive and he's sitting back too far to
Speaker 1: the basket and he's not contesting those mid range shots,
Speaker 1: and then the on ball defender is not getting over
Speaker 1: the top of the screen in applying back pressure. If
Speaker 1: they're not doing their jobs to kind of pinch that opening.
Speaker 1: There's an opening there for a guard to feel really
Speaker 1: comfortable and to make plays. But one of the most
Speaker 1: important parts of that bracket is Brooke being aggressive up
Speaker 1: in his cover. And I'm not talking about like coming
Speaker 1: out of his drop. I'm talking about when the opportunity
Speaker 1: comes to contest. There's a difference between like taking a
Speaker 1: soft step up and raising your hand versus like making
Speaker 1: the read. Oh he's shooting now, I'm going to close
Speaker 1: this gap and get up in his face. He disrupted
Speaker 1: several Nikola Jokic little pop shots in the lane with
Speaker 1: stuff like that, disrupted Jamal Murray floaters and mid range
Speaker 1: shots with stuff like that. I thought it was his
Speaker 1: best defensive game of the season. He had three blocks.
Speaker 1: Also really set the tone offensively in this one. Early
Speaker 1: hit a couple of big threes that kind of like
Speaker 1: just made it you'll like more of an open type
Speaker 1: of game. And then Giannis was just a complete wrecking ball.
Speaker 1: They put him on Aaron Gordon, a lot of timely doubles,
Speaker 1: aggressive doubles, attacking the basketball. He had three steals, then
Speaker 1: got out in transition off of that, like Giannis always does.
Speaker 1: He had thirteen of his thirty six points on runouts
Speaker 1: going the other way in transition. As matter of fact,
Speaker 1: Milwaukee had nineteen points on thirteen Denver turnovers and had
Speaker 1: a twenty four to eleven transition points scored advantage. According
Speaker 1: to Synergy, they completely outclassed them in every single phase
Speaker 1: of the game. Condavious called the Pope left early with
Speaker 1: like hamstring tightness, a good smart move from Denver to
Speaker 1: kind of take it slow there. Jamal Murray left early
Speaker 1: was shin splints once again. The game was kind of
Speaker 1: over at that point. It was smart for them to
Speaker 1: kind of take it easy. Just a rough night from
Speaker 1: the Nuggets. They were sloppy from the jump. Contavious Callboll
Speaker 1: Pope and Michael Porter Junior both missed wide open, completely
Speaker 1: unguarded corner threes to start the game. That felt like
Speaker 1: kind of like a missed opportunity. Jamal Murray and Nicole
Speaker 1: Yoka both missed kind of like easy floaters. There were
Speaker 1: a lot of turnovers, like it was just just kind
Speaker 1: of a funky night for Denver. Back to back funky
Speaker 1: nights blowouts at the hands of the Kings and the Bucks. Now,
Speaker 1: one of the things that I'm sure some people will
Speaker 1: ask is like, why do you keep giving Denver slack
Speaker 1: in situations like this where you don't give other teams slack?
Speaker 1: And the answer is really simple. They're the defending champs,
Speaker 1: not just the defending champs, but the dominant defending champs
Speaker 1: that never really truly felt threatened by the Suns or
Speaker 1: the Lakers, or the Wolves or the Miami Heat. And
Speaker 1: so for me, when it comes to looking zooming in
Speaker 1: at Denver, they deserve a certain margin for air. Winning
Speaker 1: the championship buys you margin for air. That's just what
Speaker 1: it does. And in spite of all of that, defending
Speaker 1: champions typically experience a little bit of a dip in effort.
Speaker 1: Defending champions typically get the best shot from everybody every
Speaker 1: single night as they come out with crazy effort to
Speaker 1: try to beat the defending champs. And they still are
Speaker 1: within striking distance of the number one seed in the
Speaker 1: Western Conference, and they still have had a bunch of
Speaker 1: these marquee major national television wins, and so I do
Speaker 1: just give them a lot of slack, and I think
Speaker 1: that's slack that they deserve, quite frankly. On the Bucks front,
Speaker 1: one of the things I talked about a lot when
Speaker 1: Doc Rivers took over the coaching job was the simple
Speaker 1: fact that, like I thought he could get better commitment
Speaker 1: out of the older veteran players on this roster. Specifically
Speaker 1: with Milwaukee, they're slow when Giannis is not in the equation,
Speaker 1: and even when he is in the equation, they're five
Speaker 1: man groupings tend to lack some speed. Brook Lopez not
Speaker 1: a particularly fast center. Jay Crowder, who's playing with Chris
Speaker 1: Middleton out of the lineup, not a particularly fast wing.
Speaker 1: Malik Beasley and Damian Lillard are both very fast as guards,
Speaker 1: but they are both very small, and so even when
Speaker 1: they are moving around, they don't bring as much length
Speaker 1: to the table. They are not a fast team. That
Speaker 1: is not their strength, and so it is abundantly important
Speaker 1: for them to always be in the right spots. Execution
Speaker 1: is going to make or break the Milwaukee Bucks season.
Speaker 1: I've talked about this with you guys on the show,
Speaker 1: but like if you look at the scale between a
Speaker 1: good defense and a bad defense, a good chunk of
Speaker 1: it is personnel, but the rest of it is commitment
Speaker 1: to those details, constantly being engaged in the scheme, communicating
Speaker 1: sprinting back in transition, having the habits down. I talk
Speaker 1: about habits all the time on the show for a
Speaker 1: very specific reason, because when shit hits the fan, it
Speaker 1: is your habits that you fall back on. We all
Speaker 1: have a tendency when stress rises, to kind of go
Speaker 1: back to whatever our core you know, human characteristics are.
Speaker 1: That's like classic human nature. And so when you have
Speaker 1: baked in habits, when like it's when it's it's just
Speaker 1: almost a natural, like automatic thing for you to make
Speaker 1: a defense of rotation, to sprint back into transition, to
Speaker 1: call out angles on ball screens, to call out coverages.
Speaker 1: When when all of that is just baked into your habits,
Speaker 1: then when the shit hits the fan, you can depend
Speaker 1: on those things. And that's why I harp on those
Speaker 1: things specifically with teams like Milwaukee that have some personnel
Speaker 1: limitations in terms of the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: They have excellent interior defensive personnel. Giannis and brook Lopez
Speaker 1: are still about as good as you'll find in the
Speaker 1: league as a four or five combo protecting the rim
Speaker 1: and help and recover situations. But they're slow outside of that.
Speaker 1: So it's vitally important for them to be very attuned
Speaker 1: to the details. And you know, even through the rough start,
Speaker 1: I think they were what two to five in their
Speaker 1: first seven games with Doc under the hood. The one
Speaker 1: of the things I kept harping on is even though
Speaker 1: they were playing poorly, I saw a lot of that
Speaker 1: defensive commitment starting to rise to the surface. And here
Speaker 1: they are in a couple of back to back wins,
Speaker 1: a super impressive defensive effort against Denver, and they have
Speaker 1: a defensive rating in eight games since Doc Rivers took
Speaker 1: over of one twelve point six. Before Adrian Griffin got fired.
Speaker 1: To that point in the season, they were up over
Speaker 1: one sixteen. There's something like eighth in the league, I believe,
Speaker 1: over the course of this eight game span in defensive rating.
Speaker 1: So they're getting a significantly high level of defensive commitment
Speaker 1: from this group. Now again, it's about connecting those pieces
Speaker 1: because the offense hasn't been nearly as good, which has
Speaker 1: been a big part of why they've dropped so many games.
Speaker 1: And there's gonna be some some you know, transition there,
Speaker 1: because your body becomes attuned to a certain timing and
Speaker 1: a kind of rhythm offensively, and that is connected to
Speaker 1: every single other area of the game, including the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor. Like I do believe that a
Speaker 1: big part of why Milwaukee was so good offensively to
Speaker 1: start the season was that they were saving their legs
Speaker 1: by not really competing on the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: And so there's a phase here where when you really
Speaker 1: raise your level of commitment to transition defense and half
Speaker 1: court defense where the fatigue element, the physicality element kind
Speaker 1: of throws off some of the rhythm and timing stuff
Speaker 1: on the offensive end of the floor, and it will
Speaker 1: take some time for them to connect on that end.
Speaker 1: But when they do, when they connect those pieces together,
Speaker 1: I think they have a chance to be a damn
Speaker 1: good team. They can get down into that at thirteen fourteen,
Speaker 1: fifteen rank defensive rating and be a top five offense.
Speaker 1: That's a team that has a real chance to win
Speaker 1: the title. I think that's where the Doc rivers Hire
Speaker 1: was smart. It just has these guys actually playing hard
Speaker 1: and committed to the details. Have you guys, ever had
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Speaker 1: it's your mail back, and then we'll get out of here.
Speaker 1: First question, and uh, there's actually three questions that kind
Speaker 1: of hit this follow up. I'm gonna hit the first
Speaker 1: two first and then we'll do the second one. So, first,
Speaker 1: what can the Celtics do to improve from the middle
Speaker 1: of the floor or is it about the personnel they
Speaker 1: use in the middle, for example using KP's length and
Speaker 1: vision over the top versus defense. And then the second
Speaker 1: mail back question I got was isn't it easier for
Speaker 1: a defense to double team if a player is running
Speaker 1: a cleared side action because the shooters on the other
Speaker 1: side are so close together that three players can guard
Speaker 1: four shooters. So, for those of you gus who aren't
Speaker 1: aware of the context here, yesterday we did a deep
Speaker 1: dive on the Boston Celtics and their spacing principles. They
Speaker 1: had thirty plays where they ran isolations or post ups
Speaker 1: against Miami Switches, and in those thirty possessions, sixteen of
Speaker 1: them they ran in the middle of the floor, and
Speaker 1: fourteen of them they ran with a cleared side, and
Speaker 1: on the cleared side ones, it just was consistently a
Speaker 1: better result. They had like something like one point four
Speaker 1: points per possession, and that included Jalen Brown drawn a
Speaker 1: fallon Duncan Robinson on a cleared side post up and
Speaker 1: missing both free throws, So they should have been like
Speaker 1: twenty two points on fourteen post ups and ISOs, and
Speaker 1: then on the middle of the floor ones they were
Speaker 1: like thirteen points on sixteen post ups and ISOs, which
Speaker 1: was you know, zero point eight points per possession or
Speaker 1: something like that. And one of the things that I've
Speaker 1: been talking about is the idea that in the middle
Speaker 1: of the floor it's harder to guard, but it's harder
Speaker 1: to read, and so only the highest level playmakers in
Speaker 1: the league are guys that can see over the defense
Speaker 1: really well, operate really well in the middle of the floor,
Speaker 1: whereas operating with the cleared side it's easier to guard,
Speaker 1: but it's easier to make the reads and so like,
Speaker 1: it's just a more achievable job for the offensive player
Speaker 1: by making it so that they only have to look.
Speaker 1: Just think of it, really and in a real basic sense,
Speaker 1: by if I catch the ball in a triple threat
Speaker 1: in the middle of the floor or on a cleared side,
Speaker 1: I'm protecting the basketball with my back turn to the
Speaker 1: basket right, or I'm protecting the basketball by tucking it
Speaker 1: on my side and creating space with a jab step
Speaker 1: right like I'm using if I'm facing up, if that's
Speaker 1: the case, right, both cases, I'm trying to protect the
Speaker 1: basketball while surveying the floor. But if I'm at the elbow,
Speaker 1: it's just a lot harder to read everything happening on
Speaker 1: all sides of me than it is if I'm on
Speaker 1: a cleared side and I'm cutting that field division in half.
Speaker 1: Now the baseline is cutting all of this out of
Speaker 1: my field of vision, and I'm just worrying about this.
Speaker 1: I can kind of turn myself and I can back down,
Speaker 1: and I can do a bunch of different things offensively
Speaker 1: without having to worry about what's happening behind me. It is, again,
Speaker 1: just easier for the offensive player to manage, and so
Speaker 1: I didn't do a good enough job explaining this yesterday,
Speaker 1: and that's on me. But to put it simple the way,
Speaker 1: I agree that on the cleared side post ups and ISOs,
Speaker 1: it is easier to guard on the weak side because
Speaker 1: you have more time to rotate out of it. Put
Speaker 1: it simply, if you imagine this as the entire width
Speaker 1: of the floor. If I am in the middle, every
Speaker 1: pass is like ten to fifteen feet away, Whereas if
Speaker 1: I am all the way on this cleared side and
Speaker 1: I need to hit a shooter over here, I might
Speaker 1: need to make a twenty five thirty foot pass, and
Speaker 1: that pass, if it gets deflected or has to be
Speaker 1: looping in some way, shape or form, it's easier to
Speaker 1: rotate out of it. Right. That is where that principle
Speaker 1: is true. But it doesn't matter if Jalen Brown and
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum do either one of two things, either in
Speaker 1: the middle of the floor turn the basketball over or
Speaker 1: constantly settle for pull up jump shots, because they see
Speaker 1: all these bodies and they're intimidated in terms of making
Speaker 1: those reads, and it's just easier to take a difficult
Speaker 1: step back jump shot. And so in my opinion, and
Speaker 1: I saw this in the tape yesterday. They settled less
Speaker 1: on cleared sides, and so when you clear the side,
Speaker 1: you simplify their reads. You make it more likely for
Speaker 1: them to be physically aggressive. When teams double team, they
Speaker 1: have to cross the lane entirely, which makes it easier
Speaker 1: to sneak along the baseline like that cut from Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown that we saw towards the end of the game.
Speaker 1: Right to me, it's just the best opportunity to bring
Speaker 1: the best out of Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown. Here's
Speaker 1: the next follow up, interesting breakdown of the Celtics attacking.
Speaker 1: I agree clearing the side creates simpler reads. Joe Mass
Speaker 1: clearly believes that the Jays are capable of making those
Speaker 1: more complicated reads. He's trying to give them reps in
Speaker 1: case they face a team in the playoffs with personnel
Speaker 1: that makes those cross court passes that come from the
Speaker 1: clearing the side even more difficult than they are. So
Speaker 1: what he's saying is basically, in the event that a
Speaker 1: really long athletic team is disrupting those skip passes, what
Speaker 1: if it becomes an issue there surprise you didn't talk
Speaker 1: about this, but all The zone the Celtics played in
Speaker 1: the game is another clear indication that they are experimenting,
Speaker 1: essentially practicing for what might come in the playoffs. They
Speaker 1: ran zone versus Miami, or the zone they ran versus
Speaker 1: Miami is different than the one they've executed well versus Indiana,
Speaker 1: et cetera. Sees gave up easy looks in that zone
Speaker 1: as well as a ton of second chance points. I
Speaker 1: think Miami had sixteen offensive rebounds. That's the only reason
Speaker 1: Miami was even in this game. SE's cat lacking in
Speaker 1: last year's playoffs without a curve ball, and Joe's doing
Speaker 1: everything he can to prevent that this year. So, first
Speaker 1: of all, on the cleared side versus middle of the
Speaker 1: floor stuff. In theory, yes, it is great to continue
Speaker 1: to get reps and kind of make opportunities there in
Speaker 1: the middle of the floor, But in my opinion, the
Speaker 1: dead giveaway that that's not necessarily the best way to
Speaker 1: go is if you look around the league, there's really
Speaker 1: only a few guys that really thrive in the middle
Speaker 1: of the floor, and it's always like Nikola Jokic, Lebron James,
Speaker 1: like it's the best passers in the league that operate
Speaker 1: well out of the middle of the floor. I think
Speaker 1: that's a pretty clear It's just difficult. It's really difficult
Speaker 1: to do against really good NBA defenses to read the
Speaker 1: floor that quickly in those types of situations. Now, I'm
Speaker 1: not saying you don't lean into it as a repetition
Speaker 1: in the regular season, but something to keep an eye
Speaker 1: on in the postseason. We tracked it right fourteen of
Speaker 1: the thirty possessions on a cleared side. If we get
Speaker 1: to the postseason and they're not operating well out of
Speaker 1: the middle of the floor, we want to see that
Speaker 1: closer to like twenty five out of the thirty possessions
Speaker 1: on a cleared side. That's what I kept saying talking
Speaker 1: about with the Celtics as it pertains to like being
Speaker 1: diligent about getting the ball to the right spots. Like
Speaker 1: it's one thing in the regular season to experiment, but
Speaker 1: when you get to the postseason, you gotta know what
Speaker 1: your best punch is and you got to go to
Speaker 1: it as much as possible. On the zone front, percent
Speaker 1: agree find time during the regular season practice it, especially
Speaker 1: in matchups where you feel like you've got a good
Speaker 1: chance to win and you're not gonna hurt yourself in
Speaker 1: the standings. Hell, the Celtics are going to run away
Speaker 1: with the number one overall seed, like I talked about
Speaker 1: before the season. Anyway, that GAP's going to continue to
Speaker 1: grow now with the easier schedule. But like I agree,
Speaker 1: I think it's important to be able to have that punch,
Speaker 1: if anything, just as a rhythm disruptor. If you've got
Speaker 1: a team going on a run in the third quarter
Speaker 1: and you can go zone for four possessions and just
Speaker 1: kind of throw a wrench in things for a little bit,
Speaker 1: that can win you a playoff game. And so I
Speaker 1: totally agree on that front. Next question, Hey, Jason, thanks
Speaker 1: a lot for answering my mailback question. I'm going to
Speaker 1: try my luck with another one. In your opinion, how
Speaker 1: should contact to jump shooters be officiated? Can contact to
Speaker 1: the arm at the end of the release, which goes
Speaker 1: on called a lot impact the follow through as well
Speaker 1: as the result of the shot. Should shooters be called
Speaker 1: for an offensive foul if they contact the defender as
Speaker 1: a result of landing unnaturally in order to avoid injury
Speaker 1: when he is clearly about to land in their landing area.
Speaker 1: What should even be considered the landing area if you
Speaker 1: want to avoid injury to shooters who jump forward, but
Speaker 1: they shouldn't get an advantage over shooters that go up and
Speaker 1: down by forcing defenders to close out shorter in order
Speaker 1: to not foul. How should refs differentiate natural and precautionary
Speaker 1: motions from flops and unnatural foul drifting? Should defensive players
Speaker 1: be called for a foul if kicking the leg on
Speaker 1: a fato a shot contacts them when they close out
Speaker 1: under control and can't create any additional contact. So I'm
Speaker 1: pretty down the middle on this. Like I think contact
Speaker 1: on the forearm on a follow through should be called
Speaker 1: every single time. It's just when you look at the
Speaker 1: finesse element of jump shooting, especially difficult jump shooting, like
Speaker 1: you should not like the slightest tap on the forearm
Speaker 1: can cause the shot to miss by three feet. Like
Speaker 1: it just it matters too much. And for the most part,
Speaker 1: I feel like refs at least have their eye on
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. But the landing area thing, I
Speaker 1: one hundred percent agree with you. I do understand that
Speaker 1: there are certain players that do have a natural kind
Speaker 1: of like move forward on their jump shot, and it's
Speaker 1: one thing And this is where I think discretion plays
Speaker 1: a role. It's one thing when you see a player
Speaker 1: jump up and land like one foot in front of
Speaker 1: where he took off and the dude comes up underneath him, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that that should be a foul. But when it's a
Speaker 1: comical one like some of these James Harden step backs
Speaker 1: when he was with the Rockets, he would literally jump
Speaker 1: and then in mid air be like at a forty
Speaker 1: five degree angles he landed forward and then fell and
Speaker 1: you're like, that's that's just bullshit. It's not basketball, it's
Speaker 1: not Nobody would ever shoot like that unless they were
Speaker 1: trying to grip their way to the foul line, right,
Speaker 1: And so that to me is the delineation, like the
Speaker 1: landing area. They need to tighten that up a little
Speaker 1: bit and give the refs the discretion to not call
Speaker 1: it if the player's doing janki stuff. Same goes for
Speaker 1: even like on that foul that really bad one at
Speaker 1: the end of the game against the Knicks yesterday, Like
Speaker 1: one of the things that happens is like if that
Speaker 1: if Aaron Holliday is shooting that play in a pick
Speaker 1: a shot in a pickup game, there's no contact there
Speaker 1: he's when he sees the close out coming, he's kind
Speaker 1: of like leaning into it a bit and like kind
Speaker 1: of like taking that contact. It shouldn't have been a foul.
Speaker 1: And then also if you look at it, it's a prayer,
Speaker 1: like he's throwing up a prayer and the ref is
Speaker 1: jumping on and it is an opportunity to end the
Speaker 1: game at the foul line. And so in general, just
Speaker 1: the discretion has gone the wrong way too often this season.
Speaker 1: I'd like to see them clear that up. Also, while
Speaker 1: I'm bitching about refs, there was a Kenyan Martin Junior
Speaker 1: Duncan the Sixers game where he got called for a
Speaker 1: tech and that was ridiculous and the refs just simply
Speaker 1: have to be stopped. Next question, genuine question for you, Jason,
Speaker 1: what's your opinion of Lebron launching the ball straight into
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray's face from point blank? I know you saw it.
Speaker 1: Now let's address it. And I'm excited excited to see
Speaker 1: how you hear how you would spin it, cause if
Speaker 1: that's the other way around, you would have condemned it
Speaker 1: like you always do. One rule for Lebron and Draymond
Speaker 1: and another for Dylan Brooks. This is the most ridiculous
Speaker 1: mail back question I think I've ever gotten. If you
Speaker 1: actually think Lebron threw the ball into Jamal Murray's face
Speaker 1: on purpose, I don't know what to tell you, man.
Speaker 1: I literally don't even know how to respond to that
Speaker 1: next question. When talking about Oklahoma City, can you ever
Speaker 1: just give a small shout out to Jalen Williams like
Speaker 1: it comes back last night and balls out yes, Gideon
Speaker 1: Door or slumping sneaking in a j Dub shout out
Speaker 1: sometimes cheesh. So here's the thing. Jadab's one of my
Speaker 1: favorite young players in the league. I was actually talking
Speaker 1: with Sam Massini on the phone the other day, and
Speaker 1: everyone keeps like talking about, including myself, Jalen Brown that
Speaker 1: can pass, Jayalen Brown that can pass, And Sam Assini
Speaker 1: threw out the name Jimmy Butler as a camp for him.
Speaker 1: And I love that coump because he's just an insane
Speaker 1: competitor and he has that like big kind of playmaking
Speaker 1: forward type of vibe who can also be a really
Speaker 1: really good defensive player. Huge fan of Jay Dub, talked
Speaker 1: about him a lot this season. Those of you guys
Speaker 1: who have followed the show. That's it. One of the
Speaker 1: things that happens is I'm trying to give you eight
Speaker 1: to ten minutes on a game so that I can
Speaker 1: hit three four games in a day, right Whereas like
Speaker 1: when I was covering the Lakers solely, I could go
Speaker 1: forty minutes on every single game. I did go forty
Speaker 1: minutes on every single game immediately after the final buzzer
Speaker 1: because I was just covering the Lakers. So like a
Speaker 1: lot of times, like I choose to highlight specific things.
Speaker 1: That was a power Rankings video, I was trying to
Speaker 1: get thirty seconds on the Thunder. They're going to be
Speaker 1: longer form. There's gonna be a lot of longer form
Speaker 1: Thunder content down the season, and Jaylen Williams will get
Speaker 1: plenty of plenty large portion of the show. If that
Speaker 1: makes sense. All right, two more and then we're gonna
Speaker 1: get out of here. Hey, Jason loving the content analysis.
Speaker 1: The Warriors clearly aren't championship contenders, and the lack of
Speaker 1: a trade deadline move confirms that this season is a wash.
Speaker 1: Although the athletic lineup of Wiggs, Cominga, and Green has
Speaker 1: dramatically improved their playoff chances. What's the next move for
Speaker 1: the Warriors in the offseason so that they do not
Speaker 1: waste another year of prime Steph. Is it making a
Speaker 1: big splash trade or making multiple moves for better role players?
Speaker 1: So good question. I disagree with the first thing about
Speaker 1: them not being championship contenders, Like, here's the thing, like,
Speaker 1: do they have a legitimate bona fide superstar? Yes? Is
Speaker 1: the defense good enough? It has been as of late.
Speaker 1: We'll see in the larger sample size, but it has been.
Speaker 1: Jonathan Comingas scored twenty plus points in what ten of
Speaker 1: the last fourteen games if I remember correctly, So they're
Speaker 1: getting some pretty goo secondary production. They have a really
Speaker 1: deep core of perimeter defenders. Now that Gary Payton is back,
Speaker 1: they have a versatile defensive front line. They can both
Speaker 1: switch and run traditional pick and roll coverages. They check
Speaker 1: a lot of boxes. Now, do they check as many
Speaker 1: boxes as some of the teams that are above them
Speaker 1: in the standings? No, of course not. But I think
Speaker 1: it'd be foolish to count them out because I think
Speaker 1: beyond Denver there's a bunch of red flags. Like Boston
Speaker 1: can be out executed down the stretch of games, Minnesota
Speaker 1: can be out executed down the stretch of games, Milwaukee
Speaker 1: might really struggle to contend on the perimeter. Like the
Speaker 1: Clippers can't defensive rebound and they rely and pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots and can be bullied by bigger front lines.
Speaker 1: The Lakers have no point of attack defenders. The Phoenix
Speaker 1: Suns can struggle in physical environments, although they signed Fatty
Speaker 1: as Young today, so like they're starting to add some
Speaker 1: physicality to their lineup. But every team has giant red flags,
Speaker 1: so to me, like if Denver had an do I
Speaker 1: think Golden State would beat Denver. Probably not, but like
Speaker 1: if a significant injury happens to one of the Denver starters,
Speaker 1: then it's wide open, and I think at that point
Speaker 1: Golden State has a good chance as anybody else. And
Speaker 1: so again it's a small chance, but I think riding
Speaker 1: them off is silly. Now. Building from this into the future,
Speaker 1: I think the biggest thing that they're gonna have to
Speaker 1: look at I would love to see them get another
Speaker 1: movement shooter. Specifically, with the way that they run their
Speaker 1: five out offense, You've got a lot of steph running
Speaker 1: off of these actions and drawing multiple defenders and causing
Speaker 1: these openings for the athletes to succeed on the backside,
Speaker 1: but Klay Thompson, who's been playing better as of late.
Speaker 1: But like as Klay Thompson ages out, Brandon Pitzimski is
Speaker 1: a guy who can shoot, but he's not a guy
Speaker 1: who comes aggressively off screens looking to shoot. It would
Speaker 1: just be interesting to see them add another option on
Speaker 1: that front. I think it's all depth at this point. Really,
Speaker 1: whether or not they can win a title will come
Speaker 1: down to Jonathan Kaminga's development. Give him another year, maybe
Speaker 1: another playoff run this year, to get reps in a
Speaker 1: playoff setting, for him to identify what his weaknesses are
Speaker 1: at a better level, get better at jump shooting, get
Speaker 1: better at reading double teams. To me, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: on the margins at this point, and then Jonathan Kaminga's
Speaker 1: big picture improvement. But yeah, like if I had to
Speaker 1: if I had to pick like a specific archetype to
Speaker 1: look at, just in terms of their shot creation, with
Speaker 1: how athletic their frontline is, getting another movement shoot or
Speaker 1: another higher level offensive guard into that mix, I think
Speaker 1: would go a long way to help in them. Like
Speaker 1: even just like what if they made a move on
Speaker 1: the margins this summer for somebody like a Gary Trent
Speaker 1: junior for instance, would be a pickup that I think
Speaker 1: would be really helpful for them. All right, last question
Speaker 1: and then we're out here. How can you all say
Speaker 1: that the Celtics have the most talented roster while they
Speaker 1: have no bench and they're starting five? Is it better
Speaker 1: than the Clippers? You said Kawhi is better than Tatum,
Speaker 1: and PG is better than Brown and harder and is
Speaker 1: better than white Man is kind of even with Drew
Speaker 1: hasn't found a role in Boston. Only Porzingis is better
Speaker 1: than Zubax. So I one hundred percent disagree with that. I
Speaker 1: do think the top three guys like Harden, Kawhi, PG
Speaker 1: are better than Tatum Brown, whoever is your your third
Speaker 1: guy there? But to also have Derek White, to also
Speaker 1: have Drew Holliday, do also have Christaps Porzingis, do also
Speaker 1: have al Orford? Like they just that top six. Nobody
Speaker 1: touches that top six, And that's why I think that
Speaker 1: they have the most talented roster in the league. All Right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today. As always, I
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We'll have
Speaker 1: a quick show tomorrow morning, breaking down some games from
Speaker 1: tonight's slate. Now we're going live tomorrow night. I think
Speaker 1: it's Clippers Warriors if I remember correctly, but there's a
Speaker 1: major national TV game on Wednesday night that we'll be hitting,
Speaker 1: so we'll have that one as well. As always, I
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys, I'll see you tomorrow. The volume