Speaker 1: The volume, Throw another shrimp on the barbie. Get in
Speaker 1: on all the UFC three oh five action live from
Speaker 1: the Land down Under at DraftKings Sportsbook, the official sports
Speaker 1: betting partner of the UFC. The Middleweights title is on
Speaker 1: the line for the main event, but the card is
Speaker 1: stacked full of Ripsnorter Blokes and Sheila's And speaking of stack,
Speaker 1: if you're new to DraftKings, listen up. New customers, bet
Speaker 1: five dollars to get one hundred and fifty dollars in
Speaker 1: bonus bets. Instantly download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now and
Speaker 1: use code hoops that's h oops, that's code hoops for
Speaker 1: new customers to get one fifty in bonus bets. When
Speaker 1: you bet just five bucks UFC three oh five, it's
Speaker 1: going to be a ripper of a good time. Only
Speaker 1: on DraftKings. The Crown is yours. Gambling problem called one
Speaker 1: eight hundred gambler In New York call eight seven seven
Speaker 1: eight Hope and Why, or text hope and Why to
Speaker 1: four six seven, three six nine. In Connecticut, help is
Speaker 1: available for problem gambling. Call eight eight eight seven eight
Speaker 1: nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org.
Speaker 1: Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort
Speaker 1: in Kansas. Twenty one plus age varies by jurisdiction void
Speaker 1: in Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight
Speaker 1: hours after issuance. Deposit and eligibility restrictions apply. See eligibility
Speaker 1: terms and responsible gaming resources at DKG dot co. Slash
Speaker 1: m m. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. You're at
Speaker 1: the volume. If all of you guys are having a
Speaker 1: great week. We are continuing our player ranking series today
Speaker 1: with three more guys right before we get into our
Speaker 1: top twenty. We have twenty three, twenty two and twenty
Speaker 1: one today. You guys know the joke before we get started.
Speaker 1: Subscribe to the Hoops and Oight YouTube channel so you
Speaker 1: don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on
Speaker 1: Twitter at underscore JCNLTC. You guys don't miss youw announcements.
Speaker 1: Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your
Speaker 1: podcast under Hoops Tonight, don't forget it's also helpful if
Speaker 1: you leave a rating and a review on that front
Speaker 1: and the last but not LEAs, keep dropping mailbag questions
Speaker 1: in those YouTube comments. Argue if you disagree with any
Speaker 1: of the specific rankings, provide a basketball case for why
Speaker 1: you disagree, and we're going to get to some of
Speaker 1: those arguments in mail bags as soon as I get
Speaker 1: back from vacation, which will be at the beginning of
Speaker 1: next week. On that note, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 1: number twenty three for me one of the weird guys.
Speaker 1: There are a few weird guys in my top twenty five.
Speaker 1: A couple of guys that are in front of this
Speaker 1: point that you guys can probably guess to have some
Speaker 1: injury issues, right Guys like Kawhi Leonard, Guys like Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler where it's really difficult to weigh what their superstar
Speaker 1: upside is with their inability to kind of like be
Speaker 1: available for their basketball team when they need them, which
Speaker 1: has been a consistent issue for both over the course
Speaker 1: of their careers, more so for Kawhi, but kind of
Speaker 1: similar for both.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Well, this next guy on the list is another version
Speaker 1: of that, a lower level version of that, but a
Speaker 1: similar type of deal. If this player was consistently available
Speaker 1: for his team, he would be substantially higher on this list,
Speaker 1: but it has been a consistent issue for him. That
Speaker 1: player for me at number twenty three is Jahmarant played
Speaker 1: just nine games last year, averaged in those nine games
Speaker 1: twenty five point one points per game, five point six
Speaker 1: rebounds per game, and eight point one assists per game
Speaker 1: to go with one point four stocks. His shooting splits
Speaker 1: forty seven point one percent from the field, twenty seven
Speaker 1: point five percent from three to eighty one point three
Speaker 1: percent from the line, and fifty one point two percent
Speaker 1: effective field goal percentage and fifty seven percent in true
Speaker 1: shooting percentage, so in a very short period of time
Speaker 1: was profoundly impactful. As a matter of fact, when when
Speaker 1: Jamrant rejoined the team this year, they had lost five
Speaker 1: games in a row leading into that game, John came
Speaker 1: back and the immediately won four games in a row,
Speaker 1: so his winning impact was immediately felt. In total, they
Speaker 1: went six and three in the nine games the Jamrant played.
Speaker 1: They were twenty one and fifty two when he didn't
Speaker 1: play this year. Net rating is another way to look
Speaker 1: at it on a per minute basis. How good were
Speaker 1: the Grizzlies at outscoring their opponents. They were plus three
Speaker 1: point one net with John Moran on the floor, so
Speaker 1: they outscored opponents by three point one points per one
Speaker 1: hundred possessions when Job was on the floor, they were
Speaker 1: outscored by seven point nine points per one hundred possessions
Speaker 1: when Ja Morant was off the floor, So literally an
Speaker 1: eleven point swing on a per one hundred possession basis.
Speaker 1: Adding JOA Morant to this team, they went from being
Speaker 1: a really bad team without him to being a pretty
Speaker 1: good team with him. And so that's a strong indicator
Speaker 1: of just how impactful he was. In the small sample
Speaker 1: size that he played last year, some play type data
Speaker 1: from Synergy. He got zero point nine to six points
Speaker 1: per possession in pick and roll including passes. That's average,
Speaker 1: but obviously a small sample size. One point zero four
Speaker 1: points per ISO including passes. That's very good, that's in
Speaker 1: the seventieth percentile, but also small sample. Did not shoot
Speaker 1: the basketball well. He had zero point eight three points
Speaker 1: per jump shot, zero point eight to two on catch
Speaker 1: and shoots, zero point eighty four on off the dribble
Speaker 1: jump shot. So I'll be it a small sample size.
Speaker 1: Not a great shooting season for him. He's actually been
Speaker 1: trending down year over year as a jump shooter, which
Speaker 1: we're gonna get two more in a little bit, but
Speaker 1: he was zero point nine to one points per jump
Speaker 1: shot twenty twenty two, zero point nine zero in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, and then zero point eighty three last year,
Speaker 1: albeit in that small sample size. So obviously that's his
Speaker 1: largest area for improvement, which we're gonna get to in
Speaker 1: a little bit more detail here in a minute. But
Speaker 1: he was also thirteen out of twenty on floaters. That's
Speaker 1: sixty five percent. That's awesome. I'll be it in a
Speaker 1: small sample last year, and he's fifty six percent at
Speaker 1: the rim, which is not great for a freaky athletic
Speaker 1: guard like him, but he gets there so often that
Speaker 1: he'll like kind of take a lot of higher difficulty
Speaker 1: shots at the rim that a lot of guards don't.
Speaker 1: So I still look at that as pretty impressive considering
Speaker 1: the volume. Not really too worried about any of that data,
Speaker 1: considering he just didn't have much of a runway to
Speaker 1: like kind of get into game shape and really kind
Speaker 1: of find his rhythm. So the data itself is essentially meaningless,
Speaker 1: but we go over that for every single player on
Speaker 1: this list, so I did want to go over it
Speaker 1: with Job, but again, as you guys saw, with those numbers,
Speaker 1: that I released that I went over in terms of
Speaker 1: his on court impact strictly speaking on the scoreboard, there
Speaker 1: is true superstar upside with John Morant, which is something
Speaker 1: you don't get from a lot of the guys in
Speaker 1: this tier that we've been talking about right Like a
Speaker 1: guy that we're gonna hit later on in this list
Speaker 1: today is Tyrese Maxey. I have Tyrese Maxey higher than
Speaker 1: John Morant right now simply because he's been far more
Speaker 1: available and dependable to his team. However, like I don't
Speaker 1: think Tyrese Maxey can reach the absurd ceiling that a
Speaker 1: guy like John Moran can reach in terms of his
Speaker 1: ability to beat people off the dribble and consistently get
Speaker 1: into the lane. A great example of this was the
Speaker 1: Pelicans game last year. If you guys remember this is
Speaker 1: where Joh hit the game winner, but before that, well,
Speaker 1: including that, I should say, three consecutive times down the
Speaker 1: stretch of that game, and two of them were in
Speaker 1: straight iso. One was in ball screen, but against Herb Jones,
Speaker 1: who is one of the very best perimeter defenders in
Speaker 1: this league, certainly in that top tier, he just went
Speaker 1: right around him for a little scoop shot a little
Speaker 1: floating jump shot in the lane. He went rejected a
Speaker 1: ball screen with him and just left him in the
Speaker 1: dust and got all the way to the rim for
Speaker 1: a layup, and then for the game winner, spun off
Speaker 1: of him on a dribble drive and hit like a
Speaker 1: little left handed scoop shot in the lane. Herb Jones
Speaker 1: just couldn't do anything with him, and that that really
Speaker 1: is the main differentiator. Like, I think there's a difference
Speaker 1: between like an outstanding physical gift and then like a
Speaker 1: truly transcendent like unicorn physical gift. And like John Morant
Speaker 1: has that his mobility and his ability to and it
Speaker 1: extends further than just the straight line speed because like,
Speaker 1: for instance, like a guy like Tyrese Maxi has really
Speaker 1: good straight line speed, but he doesn't have the ability
Speaker 1: to really pop up off the ground on the move
Speaker 1: in that short range area of the way that John
Speaker 1: Muran can like because Jabo beat you off the dribble
Speaker 1: and get into that close RG and he can, like
Speaker 1: while moving full speed, whether it's through a euro step
Speaker 1: or like a jump stop or a spin move, he'll
Speaker 1: quickly stop himself and then pop directly up into the
Speaker 1: air and just shoot like a floater. And then he's
Speaker 1: got these like wide scoop shots where he can come
Speaker 1: way out to the side to get around you, and
Speaker 1: he can do it with either hand. Obviously we know
Speaker 1: he can put guys in the rim as well. He
Speaker 1: just has this like really like transcendently great set of
Speaker 1: physical attributes that gives him that real superstar superstar upside. So,
Speaker 1: for example, on this list, I talked about how I'm
Speaker 1: splitting everything into four tiers. Right, I've got my top
Speaker 1: tier superstars, who are perennial MVP candidates. I've got my
Speaker 1: second tier superstars, who are guys who don't bring it
Speaker 1: every single night the way the guys are the top
Speaker 1: team top tier can, but on any given night, can
Speaker 1: bring true MVP level impact. Then there's a third tier,
Speaker 1: which is a group of guys that are below that tier.
Speaker 1: These are the quote unquote worst players in the league
Speaker 1: that are still good enough to be the best player
Speaker 1: on a championship team. And then I have my fourth tier,
Speaker 1: which are guys that are not quite good enough to
Speaker 1: be the best player on a championship team. And for me,
Speaker 1: that cut off is number eighteen on this list. So
Speaker 1: from eighteen to twenty five. There's a bunch of guys
Speaker 1: that I don't think are capable of being the best
Speaker 1: player on a championship at least not the championship team,
Speaker 1: at least not the very best player. They could be
Speaker 1: the second best player, but probably not the very best.
Speaker 1: John Moran is the one guy I have in this
Speaker 1: in this range that I do think has that potential.
Speaker 1: And again, the only reason he's down this far is
Speaker 1: his availability, and it's been a real issue. In the
Speaker 1: last one hundred and eight games that the Memphis Grizzlies
Speaker 1: have played in the NBA that really counted regular season
Speaker 1: in playoff games, John ran has been available for just
Speaker 1: twenty two of them, so obviously that's a major issue,
Speaker 1: and it's been It hasn't just been the behavior issues.
Speaker 1: It's also been some health issues. So we can't in
Speaker 1: our right minds put John Morant like way up near
Speaker 1: the top of the league based purely on the hypothetical
Speaker 1: of what he can be. He has to demonstrate to
Speaker 1: us that he can be the leader of his team
Speaker 1: by taking care of his body, being a little bit more,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of picky and choosy about when he
Speaker 1: kind of throws his body on the line around the basket,
Speaker 1: and obviously the off court stuff getting that under control.
Speaker 1: If he can do those three things, especially with his upside,
Speaker 1: and especially with how good this Grizzlies team is, because
Speaker 1: I think this Grizzlies team is going to be a
Speaker 1: dominant regular season team next year, and so like I
Speaker 1: would argue that out of anybody on this list, John
Speaker 1: Morant has the best potential to move way way up
Speaker 1: the list as soon as next year. That's how much
Speaker 1: of a believer I am in John Moran. I think
Speaker 1: he very clearly has superstar upside, and honestly, like the
Speaker 1: one thing that's missing for him again, and we hinted
Speaker 1: at this earlier, the one specific thing with John Morant
Speaker 1: that is keeping him in a vacuum from reaching that
Speaker 1: like superstar level is the jump shot piece. So, like
Speaker 1: Jaws and outstanding two level score, nobody can keep him
Speaker 1: in front one on one. It's a team to try
Speaker 1: to block him off from the paint, which obviously opens
Speaker 1: up opportunities for him as a passer, and he's a
Speaker 1: very good passer, and when he gets past that guy
Speaker 1: off the dribble, he's shown the ability to score. He
Speaker 1: can get to the rim and finish. Like we talked about,
Speaker 1: he can dunk on you. He can get way outside
Speaker 1: with the left scoop. He can get way outside with
Speaker 1: the right scoop. He's really good at absorbing contact, so
Speaker 1: like he'll jump into you with that shoulder, bring the
Speaker 1: ball down and like hang in the air and wait
Speaker 1: for the big to drop and then he'll come back
Speaker 1: up and like go with the scoop and finish. But
Speaker 1: the big exciting part is that second level of scoring,
Speaker 1: which is not like aggressive mid range pull up shooting.
Speaker 1: It's that short range. It's the floaters and everything in
Speaker 1: that like five to seven foot from the basket area.
Speaker 1: Or he's consistently been very good. He again sixty five
Speaker 1: percent last year. I'll be in on only twenty attempts,
Speaker 1: but he was forty seven percent in twenty twenty three
Speaker 1: and forty seven percent in twenty twenty two. That's been
Speaker 1: a consistent deadly move for John Morant. Just get down.
Speaker 1: He'll beat you off the dribble. As you're taking those big,
Speaker 1: long recovery steps. He just pops up off the ground
Speaker 1: at like right around five feet from the basket. He
Speaker 1: can go to a scoop there, he can go to
Speaker 1: a floater there. It's just really really difficult to guard
Speaker 1: him there. That said, right now, because of the inconsistency
Speaker 1: with the jump shot, you can still get away with
Speaker 1: ducking under picks against him. You can still get away
Speaker 1: with packing the paint, asking your primary point of attack
Speaker 1: defender to try to duck under picks and meet him
Speaker 1: on the other side. And he just hasn't been able
Speaker 1: to consistently make people pay by knocking down that jump
Speaker 1: shot over the top. He's had stretches where he's been
Speaker 1: really good, like to start the twenty twenty three year.
Speaker 1: That was back when he was having the suspensions, and
Speaker 1: then they lost in the first round series against Lakers.
Speaker 1: In that twenty twenty three year, in his first twenty
Speaker 1: one game, so a quarter of the season, he shot
Speaker 1: thirty eight percent from three on five attempts per game.
Speaker 1: He just hasn't been able to actually put it together
Speaker 1: for entire seasons. And as I mentioned earlier, he's trending
Speaker 1: down zero point nine to one points per jumper twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two, zero point nine zero in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: zero point eighty three in that small sample size last
Speaker 1: year but the upside there is he's had a ton
Speaker 1: of time to be in the gym as he's been
Speaker 1: unavailable to play, to work on it. So I'm really
Speaker 1: curious just to see how that jump shot looks next year.
Speaker 1: I think if he could, he doesn't need to be
Speaker 1: Damian Lillard in his prime, you know, one point one
Speaker 1: points per jump shot, but he does need to be
Speaker 1: down in that like one at like over one point
Speaker 1: per shot, like you want to see him in that
Speaker 1: one point zero two one point zero three type of range.
Speaker 1: That's where I think he has true superstar upside, and
Speaker 1: that'll help because if you were to list his areas
Speaker 1: for improvement, obviously we're gonna talk about defense, which we
Speaker 1: will in a minute, but one of the big pieces
Speaker 1: of it is he's not a good off ball offensive
Speaker 1: player at this point. He made just two field goals
Speaker 1: on cuts in nine games last year, and he's just
Speaker 1: a fifty fourth percentile spot up guy. Doesn't convert spot
Speaker 1: up possessions at a high rate. Adding in the jump
Speaker 1: shot will make it substantially easier for him to do that.
Speaker 1: I'm not as worried about guards and cut situations, but
Speaker 1: there are a lot of possession were just because of
Speaker 1: floor balance, especially when they play with three guards, or
Speaker 1: he's going to be working more out of the corner
Speaker 1: and in the baseline. We actually saw that one of
Speaker 1: his big plays in the Pelicans game, he was in
Speaker 1: a spot up situation. He started in the dunker spot
Speaker 1: and kind of flared out to the right corner before
Speaker 1: he drove right past Herb Jones for the layup. Like
Speaker 1: he's in a situation where he could actually unleash more
Speaker 1: cutting as well. But the main thing for me is
Speaker 1: the jump shot. If you can figure out the jump
Speaker 1: shot piece, that's where he's going to enter into that
Speaker 1: special tier. He's never been a good defensive player. There's
Speaker 1: obviously a ton of room for improvement there. But again,
Speaker 1: when you're talking about really small guards, it's not really
Speaker 1: you're not really looking for a great defensive player. You're
Speaker 1: looking for doesn't break the defense. That's what you're looking for,
Speaker 1: just a bare minimum. Do your job, like make it
Speaker 1: so that you're not a glaring weak point, which I
Speaker 1: do think is something that John Morant is capable of
Speaker 1: getting to in the long run. I'm a big fan
Speaker 1: of John Moran. I think his potential is through the roof.
Speaker 1: He just needs to keep his eye on the prize.
Speaker 1: I mean that in terms of what he is as
Speaker 1: a leader. Again, like your number one responsibility to your
Speaker 1: basketball team as the best player, So make sure you're
Speaker 1: available to play in every game at least whenever it's
Speaker 1: possible you're gonna There are certain injury things that are
Speaker 1: outside of your control. But like that's the thing, Like
Speaker 1: a little bit more picky about throwing your body into
Speaker 1: traffic and high risk situations with low reward. Like if
Speaker 1: it's a mid February Tuesday night game on the road
Speaker 1: in you know, Oklahoma City, maybe like be a little
Speaker 1: bit more picky about when you throw yourself into traffic.
Speaker 1: Now if it's chips are down and it's April and
Speaker 1: you're in a first round series and it's you know,
Speaker 1: three to two in a game five, Yeah, totally different
Speaker 1: type of situation. You need to put everything on the line.
Speaker 1: But like a little more picky with his body, a
Speaker 1: little bit better a lot better leadership, as we hopefully
Speaker 1: he's learned over the course of the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: I think those are the two things that will put
Speaker 1: him available on the court. And as long as John
Speaker 1: Morant is available on the court. He contributes to winning
Speaker 1: like a second tier superstar. And if he can do
Speaker 1: that on a team that already has Desmond Band, that
Speaker 1: already has Marcus Smart, that already has Jaron Jackson, that
Speaker 1: already has Vince Williams, and already Zachie, he's going to
Speaker 1: be really interesting at Gigi Jackson in this group. Santel
Speaker 1: Dama had an interesting Olympics. There is an insane amount
Speaker 1: of talent on this team. I think this is a
Speaker 1: team that could be a top two seed in the
Speaker 1: Western Conference next year. As a matter of fact, like
Speaker 1: just top top of my head, not even really putting
Speaker 1: a ton of thought in it. I wouldn't be surprised
Speaker 1: if we saw like a Oklahoma City Memphis one two
Speaker 1: in the regular season this year. And that's the type
Speaker 1: of potential that this team has. And I think John
Speaker 1: Urranan has a chance to really reassert himself on the
Speaker 1: NBA stage this season. I have him at number twenty three.
Speaker 2: Preparing for your upcoming fantasy football draft, do you wish
Speaker 2: that you could wave a magic wand and somehow know
Speaker 2: who exactly your league mates are going to take well
Speaker 2: with draft Intel from Fantasy Pros, you'll know exactly how
Speaker 2: your league mats draft better than they do. Draft Intel
Speaker 2: will automatically analyze your league's history to see who rushes
Speaker 2: to the draft board first to take a quarterback, who
Speaker 2: takes too many rookies, and who is going to reach
Speaker 2: for their favorite teams players over and over again. Everybody
Speaker 2: to Homer and every league has one of them. But
Speaker 2: right now, you can put all that Intel to the
Speaker 2: test by bringing those patterns directly into a mock draft
Speaker 2: and make your mock draft feel like the real thing.
Speaker 2: Check out fantasypros dot com slash Volume today to get
Speaker 2: an edge over your league mates right now and forever.
Speaker 1: Number twenty two Damian Lillard also real quick. I meant
Speaker 1: to mention this off the top, but I forgot, and
Speaker 1: I'll try to mention it off the top in some
Speaker 1: of the other videos. This is a purely in a
Speaker 1: vacuum list. So if you're looking for a breakdown of
Speaker 1: my rules, the specific kind of like metrics internally that
Speaker 1: I'm using to make these decisions for the list, go
Speaker 1: back to our previous video, the one that is the
Speaker 1: twenty five and twenty four the intro to that I
Speaker 1: went in excruciating detail about how I'm actually ranking the player.
Speaker 1: So if you're looking for kind of a breakdown of that,
Speaker 1: you can find that a little bit further back on
Speaker 1: our feet. So Damian Lillard last year seventy three games played,
Speaker 1: twenty four point three points per game, four point four
Speaker 1: rebounds per game, seven assists per game, one point two
Speaker 1: stocks per game, shooting splits just forty two point four
Speaker 1: percent from the field thirty five point four percent from
Speaker 1: three ninety two percent from the line. That amounts to
Speaker 1: fifty one percent in effective field goal percentage in fifty
Speaker 1: nine percent in true shooting. So that fifty nine percent
Speaker 1: number is still pretty solid given the poor actual field
Speaker 1: goal shooting. So really it comes down to this, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure you guys noticed this as you watched the
Speaker 1: Bucks last year. Dame's ability to grift his way to
Speaker 1: the vowl line and then consistently make free throws when
Speaker 1: he gets there has helped to counter his poor shooting
Speaker 1: in the large sample size and allowed him to be
Speaker 1: to maintain efficiency in his scoring, even though it doesn't
Speaker 1: seem like that when you're watching the games. Some playtype data.
Speaker 1: Dam ran thirteen hundred and eighty picking rolls last year,
Speaker 1: so he makes our high volume pick and roll list.
Speaker 1: Remember that's everybody who ran over one thousand generated fifteen
Speaker 1: hundred and nineteen points, so that's one point one zero
Speaker 1: points per pick and roll including passes that ranked sixth
Speaker 1: out of fifteen players to run at least one thousand
Speaker 1: last year. So to Dame's credit, despite not being able
Speaker 1: to shoot as well, he it is kind of interesting
Speaker 1: because he shot better in pull up shooting situations than
Speaker 1: he did in catch and shoot situations, so like he
Speaker 1: was kind of better when the ball was in his
Speaker 1: hands than when he was playing without it, and that
Speaker 1: manifested in that pick and roll data. But that's that's
Speaker 1: impressive numbers like that. For the perceived decline of Dame,
Speaker 1: he was still a very efficient shot creator last year.
Speaker 1: ISO is where he kind of fell off of a cliff,
Speaker 1: which makes sense because as a small guard ages and
Speaker 1: he struggles to get separation, you need to screen more.
Speaker 1: So it makes a little bit of sense. Right, He
Speaker 1: ran three hundred and twenty ISOs but generated just three
Speaker 1: hundred and two points including passes that zero point nine
Speaker 1: to four points per possession on our high volume list.
Speaker 1: That's also makes our high volume ISO list. Out of
Speaker 1: the twenty four players to run at least two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty ISOs last year, Dame ranked twenty first, so
Speaker 1: obviously a substantial drop off on that side of things.
Speaker 1: Really good in spot up situations, one point one to
Speaker 1: nine points per possession, that's excellent shooting stats. Dame dropped
Speaker 1: all the way after making his jump shots at a
Speaker 1: rate of one point zero nine points per shot in
Speaker 1: Portland his last year in twenty twenty three, dropped all
Speaker 1: the way down to one point zero zero points per
Speaker 1: jump shot last year. That was the main issue between
Speaker 1: what we saw from Dame and Milwaukee versus what we
Speaker 1: saw from Dame in Portland. Just couldn't knock down those
Speaker 1: difficult jump shots. That's his superpower, right, and he just
Speaker 1: couldn't knock him down with the same level of consistency
Speaker 1: that he did in Portland. A basic stat to break
Speaker 1: this down. In his last year in Portland, out of
Speaker 1: the sixty one players to take at least five hundred jumpers,
Speaker 1: he ranked nineteen. This year, out of the fifty six
Speaker 1: players to take at least five hundred jumpers, he ranked
Speaker 1: forty fifth, So he went from an upper third to
Speaker 1: a quality jump shooter to a lower third quality jump
Speaker 1: shooter among the high, high volume guys in the league,
Speaker 1: So that's a pretty substantial jump shot the specifics, he
Speaker 1: was zero point nine to seven points per catch and
Speaker 1: shoot jumper, mostly about separation. He was actually pretty good
Speaker 1: when he was unguarded one point zero eight points per shot.
Speaker 1: Not good enough for dame, but pretty solid. He was
Speaker 1: zero point nine points per ketch and shot jumper when
Speaker 1: he was guarded one point zero one points per poll
Speaker 1: up jumper. So he's still pretty good in pull up situations.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned earlier, is most comfortable with the ball
Speaker 1: in his hands. He experienced a decline on floaters as well.
Speaker 1: He went from thirty eight percent excuse me, from forty
Speaker 1: five percent his last year in Portland, down to thirty
Speaker 1: eight percent with Milwaukee this year, and then down to
Speaker 1: fifty four percent at the rim, which is typical for
Speaker 1: a smaller guard. But he was much better previously in
Speaker 1: Portland his last year sixty two percent at the rim.
Speaker 1: We also saw a decline in volume in Portland. Is
Speaker 1: last year he attempted five point six shots in the
Speaker 1: restricted area per game. That's down to four point three
Speaker 1: for the Bucks last year, right, So pretty substantial declines
Speaker 1: across the board for Dame as a jump shooter, as
Speaker 1: a floater shooter, as a frequency and efficiency guy at
Speaker 1: the rim. So the question is, this is the big
Speaker 1: question with Dame as it pertains to the future of
Speaker 1: the Bucks. How much of Dame's decline last year was
Speaker 1: a result of joining a new situation with very different
Speaker 1: spacing where he was a secondary star, where his usage
Speaker 1: rate took a hit. He went down from about thirty
Speaker 1: three percent usage rate to about twenty eight percent. That's
Speaker 1: five percent decline. So how much of Dame's decline was
Speaker 1: associated with those factors versus the fact that he's a
Speaker 1: small guard who's now thirty four years old and you
Speaker 1: expect a certain decline in your mid thirties. I mean,
Speaker 1: Steph is a much player, much better player than Dame,
Speaker 1: and we've seen him start to show signs of decline,
Speaker 1: albeit a little bit later on. Right. My guess is
Speaker 1: it's a little bit of both, which is an encouraging
Speaker 1: things thing for Bucks fans, right cause, like if a
Speaker 1: good portion of dame struggles had to do with figuring
Speaker 1: out how to play in a completely different situation. Then
Speaker 1: we should actually see a little bit of an improvement
Speaker 1: this year as he gets more comfortable with his new
Speaker 1: supporting cast and his new co star a full training
Speaker 1: camp with Doc Rivers. We talked a lot last year
Speaker 1: about some of the specifics in terms of pick and
Speaker 1: roll geometry, the way they were using Yanis, the like
Speaker 1: spotting up Yannis while running Dame Brook Lopez ball screens,
Speaker 1: like having Giannis roll into the middle of the floor,
Speaker 1: which is not a strong suit of his when he
Speaker 1: was more effective on a cleared side. We went over
Speaker 1: all that stuff last year. There's just a lot of
Speaker 1: area fornity, opportunity for improvement for the Bucks within their
Speaker 1: offense to make things easier for Dame. The main issue
Speaker 1: for Dame, though, extending beyond any of those offensive things,
Speaker 1: is Dame is just an abysmal defender. We were wondering
Speaker 1: if his transition to Milwaukee as a secondary star would
Speaker 1: allow him to kind of devote more of his resources
Speaker 1: in that direction. It did not. He was atrocious and
Speaker 1: it was one of the major issues that plagued the
Speaker 1: Bucks all season. That when we talked about the Bucks
Speaker 1: having a lack of perimeter speed and a lack of
Speaker 1: guys who compete at the point of attack. Dame was
Speaker 1: one of the culprits there. Teams would pretty consistently just
Speaker 1: and we saw Indiana do a ton of this. They
Speaker 1: would just run action to get Dame switched on to
Speaker 1: Tyree Saliburton or another team just run action to get
Speaker 1: Dame switched onto their primary ball handler. Then you run
Speaker 1: him through a ball screen. Because the book is out,
Speaker 1: everyone knows Dame just dies on ball screens. He literally does.
Speaker 1: He'll just run into the screen and he'll literally quit
Speaker 1: on the play, and so like that, then you get
Speaker 1: your guard going downhill and he's basically functioning into two
Speaker 1: on one against your screen defender. Right. So like it's
Speaker 1: one of those things where like that specifically just has
Speaker 1: to get improved if the Bucks are going to compete
Speaker 1: for a championship. And again, you don't need him to
Speaker 1: be a world you need him to not be abysmal.
Speaker 1: We were talking about this with John Moran. It's a
Speaker 1: bare minimum of just don't break our defense. If you
Speaker 1: can do that, then we give ourselves a chance to win.
Speaker 1: So this all leads to the first substantial drop on
Speaker 1: this list for Damian Lillard. In his career. His superpower,
Speaker 1: the ability to make to take and make difficult jump
Speaker 1: shots at a high rate, took a substantial hit. His
Speaker 1: ability to get to the rim and finish in both
Speaker 1: frequency and efficiency has taken a hit. And he's one
Speaker 1: of the worst defensive guards in the league. So he's
Speaker 1: gone from being a top tier guard to being in
Speaker 1: that second tier of guards, which is obviously going to
Speaker 1: drop him out of the top twenty for this year.
Speaker 1: I do think, given those factors we discussed earlier, that
Speaker 1: he has the potential to vault back into the top
Speaker 1: twenty at least one more time in his career. This
Speaker 1: is the year if he's going to try to do that,
Speaker 1: I'll be really curious to see if he can get
Speaker 1: it done. The encouraging sign if you're a Bucks fan
Speaker 1: is in that playoff series against the Pacers, Dame averaged
Speaker 1: thirty one points per game on sixty four percent true shooting.
Speaker 1: Obviously some weird circumstances, there was no Yannis, the Dame
Speaker 1: was banged up, a totally different role with different usage
Speaker 1: and different spacing without Giannis out there. But it's not
Speaker 1: a stat just to disregard putting up thirty one points
Speaker 1: on sixty four. True shooting is not something to just
Speaker 1: thumb your nose at, so that top endability is still
Speaker 1: in there. It's just a question of whether or not
Speaker 1: Dane can tap into it one more time in his career.
Speaker 1: Last guy for Today, number twenty one, Tyres Maxi, one
Speaker 1: of my favorite players in the league. Last year seventy games.
Speaker 1: Played twenty five point nine points per game, three point
Speaker 1: seven rebounds per game, six point two assists per game,
Speaker 1: with just one point seven turnovers. And this is a
Speaker 1: crazy stat for Tyres Maxy. Tyres was one of only
Speaker 1: six players in the league last year to average at
Speaker 1: least six assists per game with fewer than two turnovers.
Speaker 1: Quick trivia for you guys, who do you think are
Speaker 1: the other five players in the league again more than
Speaker 1: six assists, fewer than two turnovers, Fred van Vliet, Dennis Schroeder,
Speaker 1: Tyas Jones, Trey Jones, and Chris Paul And again the
Speaker 1: main factor here that's a differentiator there is just limiting mistakes.
Speaker 1: And the crazy part is none of those other guys
Speaker 1: averaged over eighteen points per game. So Tyres Maxey was
Speaker 1: the only player in the NBA last year to average
Speaker 1: at least twenty points per game, at least six assists,
Speaker 1: and fewer than two turnovers, and he everge over twenty
Speaker 1: five points per game, So Tyre's in terms of like
Speaker 1: efficiency as a lead guard. In efficiency again, we think
Speaker 1: of it as shooting percentages or true shooting percentage, right,
Speaker 1: but like a huge part of that is turnovers, limiting mistakes. Turnovers.
Speaker 1: Turnovers lead to a not just a change in possession,
Speaker 1: but they usually lead to a higher efficiency possession for
Speaker 1: the opposing team as they work against your broken defense
Speaker 1: because of a turnover.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: And he did all that averaging twenty five points per game,
Speaker 1: So really impressive stuff from Tyres. One point five steals
Speaker 1: plus blocks per game. Shooting splits forty five percent from
Speaker 1: the field, thirty seven percent from three to eighty seven
Speaker 1: percent from the line. That amounts to fifty two point
Speaker 1: four percent in effective field goal percentage and fifty seven
Speaker 1: point three percent in true shooting percentage. Playtype data, pers energy,
Speaker 1: pick and roll. He made a high volume list at
Speaker 1: twelve hundred and twenty seven possessions but generated just twelve
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty five points, So that's just one point
Speaker 1: zero three points per possession that ranked tenth out of
Speaker 1: the fifteen teen guys to log at least one thousand possessions.
Speaker 1: He also made our high volume ISO list with two
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy four possessions that amounted to two hundred
Speaker 1: and forty five points. That's just zero point eighty nine
Speaker 1: points per possession including passes. That ranked twenty third out
Speaker 1: of twenty four players to log at least two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty possessions. So ty Rese was relatively inefficient compared
Speaker 1: to his other high volume peers in static shot creation.
Speaker 1: The question is why, and the answer is pretty simple.
Speaker 1: He really struggled to make off the dribble jump shots.
Speaker 1: And before I go any further into that, let's get
Speaker 1: into the shooting percentages from last year, so the actual
Speaker 1: shooting data. So Tyree's got one point zero three points
Speaker 1: per jump shot overall last year, which is average, but
Speaker 1: there's a massive differential between him off the catch versus
Speaker 1: off the dribble. He got one point three points per
Speaker 1: catch and shoot jump shot. That's outstanding. One point five
Speaker 1: to three points per unguarded catch and shoot jumper that's absurd.
Speaker 1: So he's like deadly in catch and shoot situations. He
Speaker 1: also is good off the move, like Tyrese is a
Speaker 1: legitimate movement shooter. He can come flying off of the screen,
Speaker 1: going both directions quickly, plant, get straight up and down,
Speaker 1: and knock down a jump shot. He is deadly off
Speaker 1: the catch. He just has not been able to connect
Speaker 1: that touch with his ability to knock those shots down
Speaker 1: off the dribble. He got just zero point nine points
Speaker 1: per pull up jump shot last year. That is the
Speaker 1: main thing preventing him from being a more efficient pick
Speaker 1: and roll and ISO shot creator. If he can put
Speaker 1: those together, that's where he could take a leap as
Speaker 1: a half court shot creator, and I think he's probably
Speaker 1: going to do that this upcoming season. I thought the
Speaker 1: playoff run was another strong indicator of that. By the way,
Speaker 1: catch and shoot went up a level in the postseason
Speaker 1: in the Knick series one point four points per catch
Speaker 1: and shoot jumper. That's absurd. But his pull up shooting
Speaker 1: was also really good. He got up to one point
Speaker 1: zero five points per pull up jump shot, which is
Speaker 1: a really good number. That's pretty close to where Dame
Speaker 1: was in Portland in twenty twenty three when he had
Speaker 1: that excellent season. I think he was at one point
Speaker 1: zero nine. So in that playoff series, Tyree's hit a
Speaker 1: level as a pull up shooter that we've been kind
Speaker 1: of waiting to see from him, and so to me,
Speaker 1: especially when you factor that in with the fact that
Speaker 1: he obviously has the touch because he can make him
Speaker 1: off the catch, I do think he will eventually be
Speaker 1: a very good pull up shooter and we'll see those
Speaker 1: pick and roll at ISO numbers go up a level.
Speaker 1: Tyres will probably make the high volume lists again next year. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Paul George coming into the equation makes things complicated, but
Speaker 1: he ran I mean, he ran over twelve hundred pick
Speaker 1: and rolls last year, so even if he sacrificed some
Speaker 1: of them to Paul George, I think he could get
Speaker 1: into that list again. And I expect him to move
Speaker 1: up in efficiency and like we I mean, he was
Speaker 1: hitting him in big spots too, Like that shot he
Speaker 1: hit in Game five to extend the series against the Knicks.
Speaker 1: That was a tough off the dribble jump shot that
Speaker 1: was like damn near thirty five feet from the basket.
Speaker 1: That really is the main point of optimism for Tyrese's
Speaker 1: potential moving forward. His playoff run was super impressive. We're
Speaker 1: gonna get more into that just min now. I want
Speaker 1: to get to the rest of the shooting data. On floaters,
Speaker 1: he shot forty three percent on almost three attempts per game.
Speaker 1: That's pretty solid. And he's fifty eight percent at the rim,
Speaker 1: which is pretty solid for a smaller speed guard. His
Speaker 1: playoff stats his first playoff run as the primary perimeter initiator. Again,
Speaker 1: James Harden was getting that primary defender last year. Now
Speaker 1: he's or two years ago. He's getting that primary perimeter
Speaker 1: defensive player. And he looked awesome. Thirty points per game,
Speaker 1: five rebounds, and seven assists on sixty percent true shooting,
Speaker 1: thirty five and seven on sixty percent tru shooting is
Speaker 1: a really impressive first go around in a playoff series
Speaker 1: in that type of role. He also made a bunch
Speaker 1: of big shots. He took fifteen shots in the clutch
Speaker 1: and made eight of them. He was three for five
Speaker 1: from three in the clutch. As we know, he straight
Speaker 1: up stole Game five from the Knicks, had nine points
Speaker 1: in the final ninety two seconds of regulation, including a
Speaker 1: bomb three to send it to ot. Then he had
Speaker 1: five more points in overtime. Finished that game with forty
Speaker 1: six points. Really really impressive game from Tyrese Maxi. He
Speaker 1: has a real playoff superpower. He's got insane downhill speed
Speaker 1: mixed with deadly jump shooting. That is a proven combination
Speaker 1: that you can rely on in the world of basketball.
Speaker 1: Start to demonstrate this, Tyres Maxey in the regular season
Speaker 1: last year attempted five point six restricted area attempts per game.
Speaker 1: In the playoffs, that ramped all the way up to
Speaker 1: nine point five. I talked about this a little bit
Speaker 1: in the John Morant piece, but like it's one thing
Speaker 1: to conserve your energy in the regular season, especially for
Speaker 1: health reasons, but the guys with real superpowers in the
Speaker 1: playoffs can lean more on that when they get into
Speaker 1: the to the higher leverage situations where those physical gifts
Speaker 1: can really carry you. And while Tyris Maxey doesn't have
Speaker 1: the vertical pot that Jah does, which I think is
Speaker 1: a little bit of a separator for those two, he
Speaker 1: does have the speed and like that to me is
Speaker 1: a strong indicator that you're you could damn near double
Speaker 1: your rim attempt to volume in the playoffs. That tells
Speaker 1: me you have real superpower. Here's a crazy stat Tyres
Speaker 1: Masey made three more shots in the restricted area in
Speaker 1: six playoff games, then Tyre's Halliburton did in fifteen playoff games.
Speaker 1: I goes to show you how good he is at
Speaker 1: getting and finishing, getting to the rim and finishing their
Speaker 1: obvious series. For improvement, we talked about his pull up
Speaker 1: shooting just again. If he can improve the pull up shooting,
Speaker 1: connecting that touch that he has on his release to
Speaker 1: being able to do it off the dribble, that will
Speaker 1: improve him as a shot creator in the half court.
Speaker 1: But even then, I felt like the playoff series felt
Speaker 1: like a step forward in that direction. And then once again, defensively,
Speaker 1: it's different with Tyrese. Tyree is not like Dame. It's
Speaker 1: not like he's not trying. Like Tyrese really competes on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the forward It's not an effort thing.
Speaker 1: But he just needs to work on that possession by
Speaker 1: possession focus to limit mistakes, and I thought he took
Speaker 1: a step forward in that direction last year, although there's
Speaker 1: still is some room for improvement. Tyres is one of
Speaker 1: my favorite current NBA players. He's an absolute gym rat, workaholic.
Speaker 1: By all indications, He's an excellent leader and an excellent
Speaker 1: locker room guy, his game compliments Joel embiid really well,
Speaker 1: and now you've supplemented that by adding Paul George to
Speaker 1: this situation. I think we're gonna get an excellent season
Speaker 1: out of Tyre's Maxi this coming season, and I have
Speaker 1: him at number twenty one in our player rankings. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today. We will be
Speaker 1: back later this week with twenty nineteen and eighteen. I
Speaker 1: will see you guys then.
Speaker 3: The Volume. The NFL season's right around the corner. We'll
Speaker 3: be breaking down all the off season storylines on the
Speaker 3: Colin Cowherd podcast, my best takes guests like my buddy
Speaker 3: Nick Wright. Check out the Colin Coward podcast, part of
Speaker 3: the Volume Network, available on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you
Speaker 3: get your podcasts.