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Speaker 1: NFL dot com slash terms. All right, well, good Hoopsini
Speaker 1: Here at the volumeilball. If you guys are having a
Speaker 1: great week. We have made it to the end of
Speaker 1: our player rankings journey. Today we are hitting number one
Speaker 1: Nicola jokicch and then I've got a mailbag for the
Speaker 1: tail end of the show. Next week we'll have two
Speaker 1: follow up videos to the player rankings list. I have
Speaker 1: the nerd sash guys coming on on Monday, we're gonna
Speaker 1: argue about our top ten, and then on Wednesday, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be doing a video that's more of like a
Speaker 1: bragging rights focus, so kind of similar to last year's criteria,
Speaker 1: where we're just looking at who had the best season
Speaker 1: in terms of bragging rights. Not gonna do top twenty five.
Speaker 1: We're just gonna focus on like the top five or so.
Speaker 1: But we'll do that next week and then we're turning
Speaker 1: our attention forward to next season. But we're gonna tie
Speaker 1: up our player rankings today. I hope you guys enjoyed
Speaker 1: the launch of the NFL season last night. Obviously a
Speaker 1: super entertaining game. I am always blown away every year
Speaker 1: at the start of the NFL season by just how
Speaker 1: like culturally resonant it is here in the United States.
Speaker 1: Like I'm as big a basketball fan as you'll find, obviously,
Speaker 1: I mean, I've given my entire life to the game,
Speaker 1: but like, like I don't see anything in the game
Speaker 1: of basketball that like really engages the community the way
Speaker 1: that the NFL does. And like I'm with a bunch
Speaker 1: of friends and family last night and on that crazy
Speaker 1: last Baltimore drive, just the energy that's in that room,
Speaker 1: Like I don't when I go over and see my
Speaker 1: friends and family and I'm watching an NBA playoff game
Speaker 1: or something like that. Let's just say it doesn't engage
Speaker 1: the entire room the way that the NFL can. And
Speaker 1: it's it's funny because like it's it's fascinating from a
Speaker 1: business standpoint, because the NBA in terms of revenue is
Speaker 1: closer to the NFL than you would think given that
Speaker 1: gap in cultural residence. But like I was just blown
Speaker 1: away last night, like the NFL is just an entirely
Speaker 1: different animal with the way that it engages people. But
Speaker 1: for all of you psychopaths out there that are turning
Speaker 1: down the NFL content today to watch me talk about
Speaker 1: Nankola Jokic, I appreciate you guys for rocking with me.
Speaker 1: You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe
Speaker 1: to the Hoops and Night YouTube channels. You don't miss
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Speaker 1: not least, keep dropping mailback questions in those YouTube comments
Speaker 1: so we can keep hitting them over the course of
Speaker 1: the rest of this summer. So Nicole Yokich last year
Speaker 1: seventy nine games played. He's played in at least seventy
Speaker 1: two games in eight of his nine NBA seasons. The
Speaker 1: only time he didn't was two years ago when they
Speaker 1: won the title, and he played sixty nine games in
Speaker 1: that year, So he's one of the most available stars
Speaker 1: in the league. He was the MVP of the league
Speaker 1: last year. He's won three out of the last four.
Speaker 1: The last guy to do that was Lebron James, who
Speaker 1: won four out of five, So obviously Jokich has a
Speaker 1: chance to match that run this year. But in terms
Speaker 1: of guys to win three MVPs in four seasons, before
Speaker 1: Lebron was Magic Johnson. Before Magic Johnson was Larry Bird,
Speaker 1: Before Larry Bird was Kareem, before Kareem was Wilt, and
Speaker 1: before Wilt was Bill Russell. So that's Lebron, Magic, Larry Career, Wilt,
Speaker 1: and Russell. That's really rare company. That's some damn good
Speaker 1: company for Nikola Jokic to be in in terms of
Speaker 1: MVP production. You know, I had a lot of over
Speaker 1: the course of this Jokic stretch that he's been on.
Speaker 1: One of the takes that I've had is that I
Speaker 1: think this is the most dominant individual stretch, like the
Speaker 1: most the highest ceiling individual stretch since Lebron James and
Speaker 1: I had a lot of Steph Curry fans in particular,
Speaker 1: get very upset at me for saying that, and like
Speaker 1: I want to just I want to just remind people,
Speaker 1: like what we're seeing from Jokic is exceedingly rare. Like
Speaker 1: I said, like the two guys to do it since
Speaker 1: Magic are Lebron and Nikola Jokic in terms of three
Speaker 1: MVPs in four seasons. He finished second in the year
Speaker 1: that he didn't win it, and he won the title
Speaker 1: that year, and so like I want to like just
Speaker 1: shine a little bit of a light on the fact that, like,
Speaker 1: even though we're in the mix of this here and
Speaker 1: there's a lot of really good players in the league,
Speaker 1: and as we're going to discuss today, I think Jokic
Speaker 1: has slipped back to the pack a little bit in
Speaker 1: the last season because of some issues that he had
Speaker 1: on defense and with his jump shot. But what we're
Speaker 1: seeing in terms of just sheer basketball accomplishment right now
Speaker 1: is pretty rare, and I hope that that doesn't just
Speaker 1: slide under the radar when we're looking back at Jokic
Speaker 1: this is it's not usual to see a guy rack
Speaker 1: up the accolades that we've seen Nicola rack up over
Speaker 1: the last few years. His counting stats from last year
Speaker 1: twenty six points per game, twelve rebounds per game, nine
Speaker 1: as sister per game, two point three steals plus blocks
Speaker 1: per game is shooting splits.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna rip through these numbers as quick.
Speaker 1: As I can, and then I want to get into
Speaker 1: some of the minutia of what makes NICOLEA Jokic so dominant.
Speaker 1: But shot fifty eight percent in field goals, thirty six
Speaker 1: percent from three, eighty two percent from the foul line,
Speaker 1: sixty one percent in effective field goal percentage when you
Speaker 1: weight his field goal percentage for threes, and then sixty
Speaker 1: five percent in true shooting percentage when you add free
Speaker 1: throws to that equation. Shooting stats per s energy, he
Speaker 1: got one point zero one points per jump shot, considerably
Speaker 1: down from last year, but we'll talk about that in
Speaker 1: a little bit. One point zero five points per catch
Speaker 1: and shoot, zero point eighty three off the dribble, zero
Speaker 1: point eighty one in face up situation. So not a
Speaker 1: very good jump shooting season from Jokic relative to what
Speaker 1: you expect. Sixty three percent on floaters and sixty percent
Speaker 1: on hooks, three hundred and eighty nine total attempts on
Speaker 1: hooks and floaters. That's the most dependable single possession scorer
Speaker 1: in the league right there in NIKOLEA.
Speaker 2: Jokic.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get into more detail on that in a
Speaker 1: little bit. Shot seventy percent at the rim. Also got
Speaker 1: four point two makes in the restricted area per game,
Speaker 1: that was the sixteenth most in the entire NBA. His
Speaker 1: play type data PERCENTERGY he ran two hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: inverted ball screens where he was the ball handler in
Speaker 1: a pick and roll. Got one point zero nine points
Speaker 1: per possession. That is eighty six percentile including passes. I
Speaker 1: soow one hundred and fifty eight possession for one hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty six points. That's one point zero five points
Speaker 1: per possession, which is the seventy fourth percentile. And then
Speaker 1: Jokic is the best post up player in the league
Speaker 1: by any metric. He ran eight hundred and twenty nine
Speaker 1: post ups last year. Second place was Anthony Davis at
Speaker 1: four hundred and forty three, so just an entirely different
Speaker 1: stratosphere in terms of volume. He also got one point
Speaker 1: one five points per possession, which including passes, which is
Speaker 1: first among the eighteen players in the NBA to log
Speaker 1: at least two hundred and fifty reps, and Lebron was
Speaker 1: in second place at one one point one point one
Speaker 1: points per possession, so a full four points per one
Speaker 1: hundred possessions above the rest of the field. In efficiency,
Speaker 1: as we mentioned, his volume is off the charts. He
Speaker 1: generated seventy six made threes for his teammates out of
Speaker 1: post ups. That was thirty five more than anyone else
Speaker 1: on the list. He's just the best at it. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, when we're talking play type data
Speaker 1: with Jokich, we got to remember he can really score
Speaker 1: within the flow of the offense. He got one point
Speaker 1: two eight points per roleman possession that ranked second out
Speaker 1: of the twelve players to log at least two hundred
Speaker 1: roll man possessions. He personally shot sixty two percent on
Speaker 1: the roll, so just incredibly deadly when he catches there
Speaker 1: in the pocket looking to finish. He scored one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty times on cuts. He scored ninety two times
Speaker 1: on offensive rebound put backs. That was the fourth most
Speaker 1: in the entire NBA. So that's really a main differentiator
Speaker 1: for jokis he can play with real ball in player
Speaker 1: movement like he can score in the flow of an
Speaker 1: equal opportunity offense, which opens up opportunities for his other
Speaker 1: players to be confident looking to make plays. That's what
Speaker 1: you'll see Aaron Gordon take possessions on. You'll see Michael
Speaker 1: Porter Junior and Contavious Calbo Pope look to do things
Speaker 1: with the ball in their hands. Obviously we know what
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray can do. It's an equal opportunity offense. Even
Speaker 1: though Jokic is the fulkrum of it. You know, when
Speaker 1: it comes to a baskets that he makes out of
Speaker 1: like straight up on the ball post ups and ISOs,
Speaker 1: it's a small percentage of the amount of baskets he
Speaker 1: actually makes. And that's one of the things that I
Speaker 1: think is a ceiling razor for a team when you
Speaker 1: can say that a player is going to score and
Speaker 1: score efficiently, and can score as a singular force, but
Speaker 1: also can be plugged into a system where everybody is
Speaker 1: confident and involved in the offense. I think there's real
Speaker 1: value there, and that is, for the record, one of
Speaker 1: the four main reasons I have Jokic over Luca. But
Speaker 1: we're gonna get to that later. So now that we've
Speaker 1: ripped through the numbers, let's get into some of the
Speaker 1: breakdown of the specific reasons why Jokic is the best
Speaker 1: player in the league. So it starts with looking at
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the flour in the big picture
Speaker 1: sense that I think Jokic among all the offensive engine archetypes,
Speaker 1: and like, these are guys that are like kind of
Speaker 1: an offense in and of themselves, and everybody is this
Speaker 1: to a certain extent, but they're really good. Ones that
Speaker 1: we think of are guys like Jokic, guys like Luka Doncic.
Speaker 1: I think Steph Curry's kind of an engine unto himself.
Speaker 1: Lebron James is kind of like that. Tyres Halliburn is
Speaker 1: kind of like that, where it's almost like the player
Speaker 1: has like this unique play style that they inflict on
Speaker 1: a roster and they just seem to generate high level
Speaker 1: offense consistently, right, Like, that's kind of the identity of
Speaker 1: what we call an offensive engine.
Speaker 2: Now, lesser players still do that.
Speaker 1: Giannis is still an offensive engine, and Anthony Edwards is
Speaker 1: still an offensive engine. These guys are all still like that.
Speaker 1: They're just lesser versions of that. But that among that archetype,
Speaker 1: I think Jokic is the best in the entire league,
Speaker 1: and it starts because of the fact that he can
Speaker 1: do it both ways, starting as a devastating five out fulcrum.
Speaker 1: So you know, we're gonna do a lot more as
Speaker 1: we head into the series season previews and as we
Speaker 1: head into the season, we're gonna go back to doing
Speaker 1: more video and we're gonna go back to doing more
Speaker 1: like when I show you guys the actual like x's
Speaker 1: and o's chart that.
Speaker 2: We work with.
Speaker 1: But I did a breakdown earlier this summer when we
Speaker 1: were talking about Isaiah Hartenstein where I went over to
Speaker 1: the general concept of five out right and in five
Speaker 1: out you're always working from side to side on the floor,
Speaker 1: and you're running multiple actions in the same possession, and
Speaker 1: the center position is the fulcrum and the reason why
Speaker 1: they are the folk crumb. They are the guy that
Speaker 1: is dribbling at this one side of the floor to
Speaker 1: get the dribble handoff to the guy that's either coming
Speaker 1: off of a pin down or just coming out of
Speaker 1: the corner by himself, and he is setting a screen.
Speaker 1: But as he sets that screen, he is turning into
Speaker 1: the middle of the floor and making himself available on
Speaker 1: the catch, and in many cases he will catch there
Speaker 1: and have to make the next play in terms of
Speaker 1: like shooting on the role if it's a floater or
Speaker 1: drawing that extra defender for a kickout pass two a three.
Speaker 1: But in the event that the play doesn't amount to anything,
Speaker 1: the ball has to be reversed. And so if that's
Speaker 1: a drop off to Jokic that doesn't amount to anything,
Speaker 1: that he has to turn and look to the other
Speaker 1: end of the floor, or if the guard throws a
Speaker 1: swing pass, if the guard swings it to the other
Speaker 1: end of the floor, that role man, the guy who
Speaker 1: set the screen on the first side, has to sprint
Speaker 1: over to the other side and set another screen for
Speaker 1: another player coming off of another dribble handoff. That player there,
Speaker 1: that big man, the five man in five out is
Speaker 1: critically important for greasing the wheels as the ball moves
Speaker 1: to both ends of the floor. It extends beyond that
Speaker 1: to making passes against overplays. So one of the most
Speaker 1: common plays you'll see defensively is you'll see a big
Speaker 1: guy dribble over to the wing to go do a
Speaker 1: dribble handoff for a five out action. But it'll be
Speaker 1: a really good shooter or scorer coming out of the corner,
Speaker 1: and so his defender will top lock him, meaning he
Speaker 1: will slide up to his top side and literally deny
Speaker 1: him the use of the screen. Like if the screen
Speaker 1: is where the camera is, the defender is going to
Speaker 1: position himself right here, which makes it so that he
Speaker 1: can't go that way, so he has to backcut. And
Speaker 1: it's very important for the big man, the big man
Speaker 1: who's dribbling to that side of the floor to be
Speaker 1: capable of making those reads and making those passes to
Speaker 1: guys cutting back door or slipping out of screening actions.
Speaker 1: You'll see the same thing where like you'll run like
Speaker 1: a Chicago action, which is where you have a guy
Speaker 1: screened down for the corner as he comes off into
Speaker 1: where the big man is right so it's like a
Speaker 1: pin down into a dribble handoff. In that situation, you
Speaker 1: have two guards in the action. If they botch the
Speaker 1: switch in some way, shape or form, you have an
Speaker 1: opportunity to slip there into an opening. If that happens,
Speaker 1: you need your big man to be paying attention and
Speaker 1: to be able to make those reads and so like.
Speaker 1: When it comes to modern NBA offense and the majority
Speaker 1: of teams now are starting to kind of tilt towards
Speaker 1: this kind of five out approach, you need to have
Speaker 1: a center that can grease the wheels and make all
Speaker 1: of that stuff work. Jokic is devastating in that sense.
Speaker 1: He's a very very good screener, meaning when guys are
Speaker 1: chasing over the top, they have a hard time staying attached.
Speaker 1: That's a big part of what allows Jamal Murray to
Speaker 1: get going. He can pass and score on the role.
Speaker 1: So if he sets that screen and Jamal comes off
Speaker 1: or CACP comes off, or whoever it is comes off,
Speaker 1: and he catches in the middle of the floor, he's
Speaker 1: absolutely deadly with that floater at that ten foot range.
Speaker 1: I mean he makes him over sixty percent of the time.
Speaker 1: And if you show on him and come up to
Speaker 1: him on the catch. He can make all of the
Speaker 1: passing reads out of that as well, if not better
Speaker 1: than anybody else in the league. Hitting the cutter's piece
Speaker 1: as well or better than anyone else in the league
Speaker 1: in terms of dribbling out an action and seeing somebody
Speaker 1: slip out of it, He's gonna make that pass even
Speaker 1: in the event that you get a shot up and
Speaker 1: it misses. He's one of the most effective offensive rebound
Speaker 1: scorers in the league. Is the fourth most offensive rebound
Speaker 1: put backs in the entire NBA last year. So like
Speaker 1: he's an efficient, high volume scorer who doesn't need to
Speaker 1: dominate the basket. Everything is in the flow that frees
Speaker 1: up his teammates to go make plays. It empowers them,
Speaker 1: which is a ceiling razor for a team. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, when it's go time and you can't
Speaker 1: rely on a KCP, or you can't rely even on
Speaker 1: a Jamal Murray, potentially you can spam Helio centric stuff
Speaker 1: with Jokic to generate offense. So when the shit's not
Speaker 1: working and you can't just go down the floor and
Speaker 1: run a series of dribble handoffs to get a wide
Speaker 1: open cut or a wide open three, and you need
Speaker 1: to try to make something out of nothing. You can
Speaker 1: throw the ball down to the block and just spam
Speaker 1: Yokic post ups, and if you leave him on an island,
Speaker 1: he's gonna make a hook shot at sixty percent. And
Speaker 1: if you double team, he's as good or better than
Speaker 1: everybody else in the league at making the spray out
Speaker 1: passes to shooters from there. And then with two man
Speaker 1: game with Jamal Murray, which is a more helio centric
Speaker 1: kind of action where they just space the floor and
Speaker 1: it's just Jokic and Murray just like repeatedly setting dribble
Speaker 1: handoffs and ball screens until they get somebody open. That's
Speaker 1: an action they can spam and be one of the
Speaker 1: most devastating clutch time scoring duos in the league.
Speaker 2: And so like that.
Speaker 1: That to me, is the main differentiator between Jokic and
Speaker 1: a lot of like the more helio centric guys in
Speaker 1: the league is he can play that way, but he
Speaker 1: also can play like an equal opportunity five out kind
Speaker 1: of sense. And even when you zoom in and I
Speaker 1: mentioned this earlier when we were talking about hooks and floaters,
Speaker 1: I think Jokic is the most efficient single possession scorer
Speaker 1: in the league, right, So in the large sample, it's
Speaker 1: all about points per possession.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So like, for instance, if you take a lot of
Speaker 1: step back threes, like a Luka Doncic or in general,
Speaker 1: like a Steph Curry, you in a massive sample over
Speaker 1: the course of the season, you might get one point
Speaker 1: one five points per possession in a play type, which
Speaker 1: is really good, right. But then when you zoom in
Speaker 1: on the singular possession, a step back three is not
Speaker 1: going in sixty percent of the time. It's going into
Speaker 1: like I think Luca shot thirty eight percent on them
Speaker 1: last year. So that means if if Luca goes to
Speaker 1: a step back three, he's actually only scoring a little
Speaker 1: over a third of the time. And so when things
Speaker 1: really slow down it becomes about one possession or two
Speaker 1: possessions or three possessions. Jokic is actually a more reliable
Speaker 1: scorer in those situations. Here's a simple stat to break
Speaker 1: that down. If you factor in made field goals but
Speaker 1: also the foul rate, like getting to the foul line,
Speaker 1: it gives you something called score percentage, the percentage of
Speaker 1: your possessions that you actually score on Luka Dancic last year,
Speaker 1: score generated a generated points for his team on forty
Speaker 1: six point nine percent of his ISOs including passes. He
Speaker 1: generated a score for his team on forty nine point
Speaker 1: eight percent of his post ups including passes. For Jokic,
Speaker 1: it was fifty one percent in ISOs and fifty three
Speaker 1: percent in post ups. And so in those situations where
Speaker 1: it's Yokich on an island one on one, he is
Speaker 1: generating points for his team more than half the time,
Speaker 1: whereas for Luka it's less than half the time. Slightly
Speaker 1: so in both directions, but that makes a big difference.
Speaker 1: You need a bucket. At the end of the game.
Speaker 1: Jokic is going to get close to the rim into
Speaker 1: the short range and he's going to get a shot
Speaker 1: that he's going to hit about sixty percent of the time.
Speaker 1: That is a real tool to have in your bag.
Speaker 1: Call a time out. Down by four, there's forty seconds left.
Speaker 1: When need bucket. Stop bucket. You come out of the
Speaker 1: time out, you drop an action for yokch and you
Speaker 1: feel damn good about the fact that it might go in.
Speaker 1: Whereas like if you're drawing up a play for let's
Speaker 1: say Steph Curry, for instance, and it's like we're gonna
Speaker 1: have him run off of this action, he's gonna get
Speaker 1: like an elevator's screen on the opposite side of the
Speaker 1: floor after running some decoy action on the primary side,
Speaker 1: and he's gonna get a good look. It's like, this
Speaker 1: is gonna be a good look for us. It's like
Speaker 1: he might make it forty two percent of the time, right,
Speaker 1: So that means there's a fifty eight percent chance on
Speaker 1: that possession that he's going to miss. And so that
Speaker 1: short range scoring piece adds a layer of like reliability
Speaker 1: to Yokic's scoring that is super valuable, especially when you
Speaker 1: get into winning time in high leverage moments in the postseason.
Speaker 1: So he checks the versatility box in a major way
Speaker 1: on the offensive end. Even from a team building perspective,
Speaker 1: like your ability to put him next to a non
Speaker 1: shooting four like Aaron Gordon because he's such a good
Speaker 1: passer that you can weaponize Aaron Gordon as a vertical
Speaker 1: spacer around the rim. That's a luxury that most teams
Speaker 1: can't pull off. And that's a credit to what Jokic
Speaker 1: does for a basketball team. Now, let's talk about his
Speaker 1: weaknesses for a second now, and before you get upset,
Speaker 1: Jokich fans. We've done this for every single player on
Speaker 1: this list. There has not been a single player that
Speaker 1: we didn't discuss weak points and areas for improvement. I
Speaker 1: think Jokic is the clear number one in the league,
Speaker 1: but I think the gap is smaller than it was
Speaker 1: last year after the title. Last year, I thought Jokic
Speaker 1: was far and away the best player in the league.
Speaker 1: I thought there was like a sizeable gap between him
Speaker 1: and number two. I think he's fallen back to the
Speaker 1: pack a little bit in this last season, and it
Speaker 1: really came down to two major areas of slimmage. He
Speaker 1: wasn't as good defensively as he was in the championship,
Speaker 1: and he went from a great jump shooter to being
Speaker 1: a mediocre jump shooter in the regular season and a
Speaker 1: bad jump shooter in the playoffs. So let's get into
Speaker 1: each of these individually for a minute. First, the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor, two main areas where he struggled
Speaker 1: last year, especially in the postseason. He got absolutely fried
Speaker 1: one on one in his individual defense by Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis isoed or posted up Nikola Jokic one on
Speaker 1: one nine times in the first round and scored on
Speaker 1: him seven times by the end of the series.
Speaker 2: It was crazy.
Speaker 1: Denver was like heavily shading all Ad post ups, like
Speaker 1: straight up leaving dudes open to double team. And then
Speaker 1: at certain points in the series they actually pulled Jokic
Speaker 1: off of Ad entirely and put Aaron Gordon on him,
Speaker 1: And like, that's the same matchup in twenty twenty three
Speaker 1: that Jokic won. He was getting all sorts of stops
Speaker 1: on AD and Iso to the point where the Lakers
Speaker 1: just stopped throwing the ball to Anthony Davis. So like
Speaker 1: that was an area of regression. The second piece was
Speaker 1: rim protection. It's a simple stat I want to show you, guys.
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty three, the Denver Nuggets allowed just fifteen
Speaker 1: makes per game within five feet of the rim in
Speaker 1: the postseason on just sixty two percent shooting. That went
Speaker 1: up to twenty makes per game on sixty five percent
Speaker 1: shooting in this year's playoffs. So that's a substantial increase
Speaker 1: in the effectiveness of opponents attacking the rim against Denver's defense.
Speaker 1: He just Jokic just didn't offer very much resistance against
Speaker 1: Lebron and AD and then again against Anthony Edwards in
Speaker 1: the second round, and I think fatigue played a role.
Speaker 1: Jokic looks tired in general, and especially so in that
Speaker 1: Minnesota series. There were some really ugly possessions at the
Speaker 1: end of Game seven where he just let guys dribble
Speaker 1: around him, or he gave up on defensive rebound situations
Speaker 1: where guys crashed past him to get the ball. I
Speaker 1: did a whole film session on this after Game seven,
Speaker 1: so you can see video evidence of this if you
Speaker 1: just scroll back into our YouTube veed go right after
Speaker 1: game seven last year.
Speaker 2: But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Jokic had turned himself into a good defensive player. He
Speaker 1: was active with his hands at the high when he
Speaker 1: would come up high in ball screens and he'd get deflections.
Speaker 1: He's a very good communicator, a dominant defensive rebounder. But
Speaker 1: he just regressed last year. He let go of the
Speaker 1: rope a little bit. He just needs to refocus on
Speaker 1: that end of the floor. And for the record, I
Speaker 1: didn't think he was anywhere near as bad as Luca
Speaker 1: was in his playoff run. So like, there's levels to this,
Speaker 1: Like Jokich has declined to being like an average defensive player.
Speaker 1: To me, Luca is still firmly in that below average
Speaker 1: to even sometimes bad category on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor. The second piece of his decline was jump shooting.
Speaker 1: And this was something those are you guys who followed
Speaker 1: the show. I was on this all year Last year.
Speaker 1: I kept saying, Jokic's jumper doesn't look the same, this
Speaker 1: could be an issue, and it was in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: He's some basic numbers. Twenty twenty three, a Yokic jump
Speaker 1: shot in the regular season was worth one point one
Speaker 1: seven points per shot. In the playoffs, it went up
Speaker 1: to one point two to one points per shot. Just
Speaker 1: a dominant, great jump shooter all season long, all the
Speaker 1: way to when he hoisted the trophy last year. In
Speaker 1: the regular season, one point zero one points per jump shot,
Speaker 1: so seek sixteen points per one hundred jump shots worse.
Speaker 1: And I was calling that out all year, and then
Speaker 1: it ended up being even worse. In the postseason. He
Speaker 1: got zero point eight seven points per jump shot.
Speaker 2: Guys.
Speaker 1: That is that is literally thirty four points per one
Speaker 1: hundred jump shots worse than he was in the previous postseason.
Speaker 1: He was just eight for thirty five from three against Minnesota.
Speaker 1: That's just twenty three percent. He shot just six for
Speaker 1: eighteen on unguarded jump shots in the playoffs, and the
Speaker 1: main problem was is Minnesota was packing the paint, being
Speaker 1: super physical, and Jokic was getting some good looks from
Speaker 1: the perimeter. It was what he needed to beat the coverage.
Speaker 1: There was a whole part of Yokic's game in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three when they won the title that had to
Speaker 1: do with him picking and popping and knocking down shots
Speaker 1: and then driving closeouts as dudes tried to chase him
Speaker 1: off that line. That part of his game was gone.
Speaker 1: Last year. Teams were just closing out short to him
Speaker 1: because he wasn't making them. Here a couple of basic
Speaker 1: stats to demonstrate that. In twenty twenty three in the postseason,
Speaker 1: Jokic got one point two six points per roleman possession
Speaker 1: and one point one six points per spot up possession.
Speaker 1: Last year in the postseason one point zero seven points
Speaker 1: per roleman possession, so nineteen points per one hundred possession worse,
Speaker 1: and then one point zero zero points per spot up possession,
Speaker 1: which is sixteen points per one hundred possessions worse, So
Speaker 1: massive declines. There wasn't hitting those pick and pop threes,
Speaker 1: so he wasn't driving the close out, so drawing the
Speaker 1: clothes out so that he could drive it. It's a
Speaker 1: ceiling raiser for him. He's still the best player in
Speaker 1: the league without that jump shot because he's a center
Speaker 1: and he can do most of his scoring in the
Speaker 1: short to mid range and he doesn't have to pop.
Speaker 1: He can pick and roll and be a devastating score.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that Jokic very rarely does
Speaker 1: is spot up. Like with exception of the occasional Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray post up, Jokic isn't spotting up, and even in
Speaker 1: those cases, he usually positions himself closer to the rim
Speaker 1: to be more of an offensive rebounder. But the jump
Speaker 1: shot can help him in three huge ways. One, it
Speaker 1: opens up his pick and pop game where he can
Speaker 1: start driving close out like we talked about. Two, it
Speaker 1: allows him rest in the game. Those possessions where you
Speaker 1: pop to the three point line and take a three
Speaker 1: take very little energy and they are a way to
Speaker 1: supplement your offense without having to work as hard. And
Speaker 1: then the third piece of it is rescue possessions. You
Speaker 1: guys remember in the title run, a huge part of
Speaker 1: Jokic's game was hitting those crazy like somber shuffle shots
Speaker 1: at the end of the clock or just jab step
Speaker 1: jumpers in the in the mid range at the end
Speaker 1: of game, at the end of shot clocks. That's a
Speaker 1: huge offensive boost for the Nuggets last year. And so again,
Speaker 1: I still think he's the best player in the world,
Speaker 1: but that decline as a defender and as a shooter
Speaker 1: have made it from being a gap to being something
Speaker 1: much smaller in that department. But I do want to
Speaker 1: explain why I have Jokic over Luca. So here are
Speaker 1: the four reasons why I have Nikola Jokic over Luka
Speaker 1: Doncic one right now. First of all, Jokic is more durable.
Speaker 1: He averages seventy five games played in his career and
Speaker 1: he's generally been healthy in the playoffs. Luca sixty seven
Speaker 1: games played per year and he's been banged up in
Speaker 1: the postseason before, so you can basically book him miss
Speaker 1: twice as many regular season games as Jokic, and it's
Speaker 1: less consistent for him to be at his top level
Speaker 1: when he gets there. Secondly, Jokic is a far more
Speaker 1: versatile offensive player as a GM. I have a lot
Speaker 1: more options offensively with what I can do around Jokic
Speaker 1: because he empowers ball in player movement. Like we talked
Speaker 1: about earlier, getting a guy like Aaron Gordon to fit
Speaker 1: into your offense, that's something that would be an issue.
Speaker 1: Imagine like PJ. Washington plays that role for Dallas. But
Speaker 1: he's a guy that can knock down corner threes at
Speaker 1: a high percentage and even shot like thirty mid thirties
Speaker 1: on above the break threes in the regular season before
Speaker 1: he kind of fell apart in the Boston series, right,
Speaker 1: But like he's a guy who's like at least a
Speaker 1: average type of shooter. Aaron Gordon, with exception to the
Speaker 1: right corner, was a bad shooter last year. You know,
Speaker 1: Like he's not a guy that teams are going to
Speaker 1: guard at all at the three point line. That would
Speaker 1: be an issue for a Dallas offense in a way
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be in a in an offense for Denver
Speaker 1: because there's ball in player movement and Jokic empowers Aaron
Speaker 1: Gordon as a baseline cutter in a way that wouldn't
Speaker 1: work alongside of Derek Lively or Daniel Gafford. There's more
Speaker 1: flexibility in the way you can build around him. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, if I need to just force
Speaker 1: feed Yokich the ball and have him just be devastating
Speaker 1: in a singular context, I can do that with Jokic
Speaker 1: to a similar level of impact to what I can
Speaker 1: get from Luca. Number three, he's a more reliable single
Speaker 1: possession score. I also think he's a better offensive engine
Speaker 1: in the large sample, which is a big part of
Speaker 1: why Denver's offense has outperformed Dallas's offense every year. But
Speaker 1: also when you need a big moment, a big basket
Speaker 1: in a big moment, Jokic has these super reliable short
Speaker 1: range scoring moves that he can hit about sixty percent
Speaker 1: of the time, and that just takes away variants. There's
Speaker 1: more jump shooting variants with Luca in those situations because
Speaker 1: he's generally gonna take a step back jump shout of
Speaker 1: some kind, whether it's from the mid range or from
Speaker 1: the from the three point line. And then lastly, at
Speaker 1: number four, he's a much easier defensive player to build around.
Speaker 1: Yokich can struggle to protect the rim, but he's a
Speaker 1: very useful high drop big because he's active with his
Speaker 1: hands and he's a good communicator, and he's also a
Speaker 1: dominant defensive rebounder. Luca can't do much on defense. He's
Speaker 1: too slow footed to hedge, so I pretty much have
Speaker 1: to switch with him, so I basically have to hide
Speaker 1: him off the ball and hope the other team doesn't
Speaker 1: choose to attack him. He is a useful off ball defender,
Speaker 1: but not nearly as much as Yokich is. So to
Speaker 1: put it simply, as I mentioned earlier, Jokich is roughly
Speaker 1: an average defender even after his decline, which is perfectly
Speaker 1: respectable and I can build around that, whereas Luca is
Speaker 1: still like in that blow average to bad category for
Speaker 1: me outside of specific circumstances, which is not what you're
Speaker 1: gonna need when you face four different teams in the playoffs.
Speaker 2: Right, So that's our list.
Speaker 1: We have a couple of follow up things we're gonna
Speaker 1: do early next week, like I talked about, but I'm
Speaker 1: excited to move on player rankings and start talking about
Speaker 1: teams again. I always enjoy this list, but it always
Speaker 1: gets a little contentious and a little nasty, which is unfortunate,
Speaker 1: but it's just kind of the nature of the way
Speaker 1: these lists work. But I do put in an enormous
Speaker 1: amount of work for these and so those are you
Speaker 1: guys who have supported along and watched along the way.
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate it. Let's get into our mailbag. I
Speaker 1: think offense is more important than defense, but as a community,
Speaker 1: I think NBA fans greatly undervalue the defensive side of
Speaker 1: the ball. So this is an interesting kind of comment
Speaker 1: because I think it calls attention to trying to differentiate
Speaker 1: between what we're talking about when we're talking about defense.
Speaker 1: So within the team context, defense and offense share equal
Speaker 1: value because it's simple, like if I stop you from
Speaker 1: scoring two points, it carries the same amount of impact
Speaker 1: as if I score two points, right in terms of
Speaker 1: the change on the scoreboard. Right, So like defensive value
Speaker 1: is literally statistically equal. I would even argue that within
Speaker 1: the team context, when you get to the postseason, that
Speaker 1: defensive value actually ticks up a little bit more than
Speaker 1: offensive value because the game gets more physical, and so
Speaker 1: many of those games to grade down into rock fights
Speaker 1: and it becomes more about size and strength and winning
Speaker 1: physical battles, and generally speaking, teams that are elite on
Speaker 1: the defensive end have some more sustainability in those environments.
Speaker 1: Than offenses do. Offenses can crumble sometimes under physicality, whereas
Speaker 1: defenses tend to thrive in those settings. However, that's all
Speaker 1: within the team context. Within the individual context, I still
Speaker 1: strongly believe that it is easier to build a good
Speaker 1: defense around a limited defensive star than it is to
Speaker 1: build a good offense around a limited offensive star, simply
Speaker 1: because the superpower of offense is impossible to coach and
Speaker 1: scheme for, whereas the superpower of defense you can throw
Speaker 1: together as a coach a scheme, and as a GM
Speaker 1: you can supplement your star with certain archetypes of players
Speaker 1: and construct something that works defensively. It's just my kind
Speaker 1: of basketball worldview, if that makes sense. Having now gone
Speaker 1: through the entire list, how do you feel about the
Speaker 1: new criteria and the system for ranking these players you
Speaker 1: use this year? Thanks a ton for making these I
Speaker 1: appreciate it every minute of the series, even when I disagreed.
Speaker 1: Keep up the good work. Thank you for supporting the show.
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate it. You know, this has been an
Speaker 1: interesting year in the sense that, like everyone was really
Speaker 1: upset with me for the way I did things in
Speaker 1: the past. In terms of the bragging rights and so
Speaker 1: I came up with this system as a way to
Speaker 1: try to be like more realistic and hopefully kind of
Speaker 1: find more common ground with people, and everyone just got
Speaker 1: pissed off for different reasons. And so part of it is, like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's interesting because like I love this list
Speaker 1: I do, and I do it every year, and I'm
Speaker 1: never gonna stop doing it. At least I don't think
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stop doing it. But like, at the same time,
Speaker 1: like it's always the time that it gets nastiest, and
Speaker 1: that part always sucks. But one of the things that
Speaker 1: I've gotten better at understanding is like there's a certain
Speaker 1: amount of negativity that's going to come out no matter what, Like,
Speaker 1: no matter what I do, there's going to be negativity.
Speaker 1: Like there I even see when I praise players, I'll
Speaker 1: see comments from people saying I didn't praise them enough
Speaker 1: for what they do, and so like at a certain point,
Speaker 1: you just kind of got to accept that it's a
Speaker 1: losing battle. And so I'm getting a little better at that.
Speaker 1: But in terms of like learning a lesson, I'm sure
Speaker 1: I'll make slight tweaks here and there, but I do
Speaker 1: think I prefer this format to the format of doing
Speaker 1: bragging rights, and like if I were to tweak it again,
Speaker 1: like if I were to just do like like straight
Speaker 1: up just like who's the best basketball player right now
Speaker 1: everyone's healthy, I think that could open up a whole
Speaker 1: other can of worms, because then I'm gonna have a
Speaker 1: bunch of older guys up at the top, Like I
Speaker 1: would have probably had Lebron at number three if that
Speaker 1: was the case, And if I had Lebron at number three,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get roasted for that. So like it's just
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, you just you can't
Speaker 1: win with the internet, you know how that goes. So
Speaker 1: I think this kind of general format makes the most
Speaker 1: sense to me, Like who would I rather have from
Speaker 1: October June for this coming season. That's a way of
Speaker 1: ranking players in a way that seems kind of like
Speaker 1: practical to what an NBA season actually looks like. And
Speaker 1: so I did enjoy that part, even though I felt
Speaker 1: like I was constantly having to try to explain it.
Speaker 1: And I still feel like some people didn't really understand
Speaker 1: what the criteria was. And so at a certain point
Speaker 1: you just kind of have to accept that there's no
Speaker 1: perfect system. Can you please make a power ranking list
Speaker 1: of the teams and how teams are positioned heading into
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five seasons. So
Speaker 1: another thing that I do every year is I do
Speaker 1: power rankings before the season in the format of season previews.
Speaker 2: So what we're.
Speaker 1: Gonna do is I'll probably I'll do at least ten,
Speaker 1: and then I'll probably do some bonuses. So I'll probably
Speaker 1: do like top ten teams in the league, and then
Speaker 1: I'll hit a couple of teams that are outside of
Speaker 1: the top ten that have more significant fan bases that
Speaker 1: we can hit. But every year I do a full
Speaker 1: season preview where I show you I talk about like
Speaker 1: changes that the roster made, you know, different you know,
Speaker 1: depth chart things that we'll look at.
Speaker 2: We'll look at.
Speaker 1: What kind of offense they run, what kind of defense
Speaker 1: they run, and just kind of preview what I expect
Speaker 1: from them that season, whether or not their position for
Speaker 1: a trade if they do need to make a trade.
Speaker 1: We do full season previews just within the context of
Speaker 1: a player of power rankings format, and we'll work our
Speaker 1: way from ten to one and go from there. That's
Speaker 1: going to start a week from this coming Monday, and
Speaker 1: so just keep an eye on the feeds and you'll
Speaker 1: start to see some of that stuff. Hey Jason, I
Speaker 1: really hope my comment gets through. You're one of my
Speaker 1: favorite basketball pundits due to your unbiased logical way of
Speaker 1: thinking the game. I just noticed, Though I greatly disagree
Speaker 1: with Jaw's position, I think he's likely to have a
Speaker 1: greater season than Ant just had due to the trajectory
Speaker 1: he was on prior to his suspension. His first step
Speaker 1: rim attacking and his ability to guard it an above
Speaker 1: and average to good level to me placed him closer
Speaker 1: to eleven to thirteen. So I agree with you in
Speaker 1: terms of like, if Jah had not just missed an
Speaker 1: entire season, he probably ends up in that eleven to
Speaker 1: thirteen range. She's in that top twelve twelve for me,
Speaker 1: the top twelve guys after Jimmy and after Jimmy and
Speaker 1: and Kawhi. That eleven guys that I used in that
Speaker 1: like top two tiers. I would have grown that to
Speaker 1: two and included Jot if he was healthy last year.
Speaker 1: I just had him back because he's had health issues
Speaker 1: and off court issues that have kept him away from
Speaker 1: his team. I can't remember the exact stat but he's
Speaker 1: missed like eighty percent of his teams likes a one hundred
Speaker 1: something games, So like he's just he just hasn't.
Speaker 2: Been around enough.
Speaker 1: But I do agree that he would be in that
Speaker 1: eleven to thirteen range had he availability not been an issue.
Speaker 1: Don't necessarily agree about him being an average to good defender.
Speaker 1: I think he's more below average to average defensively, but
Speaker 1: it's mainly just because he's really really skinny and small.
Speaker 1: He can make like defensive plays and transition and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, but he's not He's still still can struggle
Speaker 1: in terms of like actually filling a really consistent defensive role.
Speaker 2: Great show.
Speaker 1: Always try to listen in and always enjoy it. Offseason question.
Speaker 1: Can you put together a lineup with the to win
Speaker 1: the title without taking the best player from any team?
Speaker 1: This was a fun one, right, So again, you're building
Speaker 1: a roster, can't pick a single player that is the
Speaker 1: best player on their team. So the one that gets
Speaker 1: a little tricky here because of all of the power
Speaker 1: rankings player rankings, guys, where are two on the same team? Like,
Speaker 1: Tatum's clearly better than Jlen Brown, Giannis is clearly better
Speaker 1: than Dame, But with the ad Lebron won. It's tricky because, like,
Speaker 1: if everyone's healthy and we're playing tomorrow, I think Lebron's
Speaker 1: the best player, But like Ad, I think, at age thirty,
Speaker 1: is just like a more reliable, you know, October to
Speaker 1: June kind of guy. So for this case, I'm either
Speaker 1: getting Ad or Lebron. I decided to just call Lebron
Speaker 1: the best player on the team, so Ad automatically becomes
Speaker 1: my center at that point. So I've got a d
Speaker 1: at center. Dame is your obvious point guard because he's
Speaker 1: the second best player on his team with Jannis. Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown is your three, So I've got a five Ad.
Speaker 1: I've got Dame as a one. I've got Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: as a three. So I need a power forward and
Speaker 1: a shooting guard. I was looking at a couple of
Speaker 1: different options a power forward, the two main guys looking
Speaker 1: at or Bam at a bio and then a guy
Speaker 1: like Chet Holmgren and his shooting next to eighty is interesting,
Speaker 1: but he's really young and a little thin, so I
Speaker 1: kind of leaned towards Bam there, and then at shooting guard,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at guys like Kyrie Irving, who's second behind Luca,
Speaker 1: Jabal Murray, who second behind Jokic, and Devin Booker, who
Speaker 1: second behind KD. I think I leaned towards Devin Booker there,
Speaker 1: and so if I was building a roster of starting five,
Speaker 1: I should say, with a team made of entirely players
Speaker 1: that are not the best player on their team, I'd
Speaker 1: have Dame at the one, Devin Booker at the two,
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown at the three, Bam at the four, and
Speaker 1: Ad at the five. I feel like I'm definitely winning
Speaker 1: the title with that five. Like Jalen Brown is now
Speaker 1: my primary point of attack defender, which is where I'd
Speaker 1: like book like. I think Devin Booker can be a
Speaker 1: useful point of attack defender, but I prefer him guarding
Speaker 1: the second best perimeter player, which is a nice way
Speaker 1: to slot him there. I've got tons of length behind Dame. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Dame brings defensive issues, but if I've got Bam at
Speaker 1: a bio and Anthony Davis on the back line, that
Speaker 1: makes things easier. I uh, pro League can run a
Speaker 1: switching look as long as I kind of load up
Speaker 1: things behind Dame when he switches, and then I really
Speaker 1: like the idea of Bam and AD playing together, not
Speaker 1: based just solely off of what we saw at the Olympics,
Speaker 1: but you can kind of think of them playing like
Speaker 1: the Warriors, like two non shooting bigs going side to
Speaker 1: side as five out folkrums. But I've got Dame and
Speaker 1: Devin Booker coming off as these like awesome pull up shooters,
Speaker 1: and Jalen Brown who can come off and look to
Speaker 1: score and get downhill and get to the rim. I
Speaker 1: think that's a damn good lineup entirely out of players
Speaker 1: that are not the best player on their team. Last question,
Speaker 1: the fact is that Luca's production has gone up every season.
Speaker 1: So how can you claim the skinnier quicker version was
Speaker 1: better when the stats and the results have shown otherwise.
Speaker 1: Never said the skinnier and quicker version was better. I
Speaker 1: just said he was skinnier and quicker. He's clearly gotten better.
Speaker 1: He's the second best player in the league now, which
Speaker 1: is the first time I felt that this is all
Speaker 1: about potential. He's the second best player in the league
Speaker 1: because from age nineteen to age twenty five, he's gotten
Speaker 1: better at basketball. He solved the NBA. He's improved in
Speaker 1: some specific skill area, but He's done that while trending
Speaker 1: down in terms of his foot speed and his conditioning,
Speaker 1: and so again like, there's some benefit from it. He's
Speaker 1: become bigger and stronger, which has helped him with some
Speaker 1: of the physical battles. But if you replace you know,
Speaker 1: I saw someone in the comments say, like, if he
Speaker 1: dropped twenty pounds of body fat and replace it with
Speaker 1: ten pounds of functional muscle, like, how far that would
Speaker 1: go to improving him as a player. And I sincerely
Speaker 1: believe that. I think like, I think that in overall,
Speaker 1: Like would he not be able to bully as many matchups, probably,
Speaker 1: but the increase in terms of his conditioning, in terms
Speaker 1: of his ability to stay effective late in games, which
Speaker 1: he struggled with last year in the postseason, and his
Speaker 1: ability to be just again, I saw another comment I
Speaker 1: actually screenshoted today.
Speaker 2: It was funny.
Speaker 1: This person said, I can't believe what I'm seeing in
Speaker 1: these comments. In the last three seasons, Luca has led
Speaker 1: the MAVs in every offensive category, had team success, and
Speaker 1: sent home Booker Shay, Anthony Edwards, Kawhi Harden, PG and
Speaker 1: Mitchell in the playoffs. You want this man to play
Speaker 1: all NBA defense as well. Yes, that's the conversations you're
Speaker 1: putting him in. You're putting him in conversations as like
Speaker 1: best player in the world or like all time great trajectory.
Speaker 1: Like the guys who are all time greats, they all
Speaker 1: played defense at a certain level. You know, I'm not
Speaker 1: expecting him to be like all world, but like he
Speaker 1: should at least be competing on that end of the
Speaker 1: floor to a higher level than he has been. You
Speaker 1: know what, like what you're discussing, the guy who led
Speaker 1: his team in points to reybound assists, sent all these
Speaker 1: stars home, and is the primary offensive vege blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: That's literally what Lebron James did for the entirety of
Speaker 1: his prime. Like he took some regular season games off
Speaker 1: defensively towards the tail end in Cleveland, but for the
Speaker 1: most part in that twenty ten to twenty twenty stretch
Speaker 1: when he was running the league, he was defending. That
Speaker 1: was a big part of his identity. And again, I'm
Speaker 1: not asking for Luca to literally make an all defense team,
Speaker 1: but is it too much to ask for him to
Speaker 1: devote resources and compete on that end. I don't think so.
Speaker 1: It's what his peers have done in NBA history. Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: without anywhere near the physical tools as some of his
Speaker 1: all time great peers, has become an average to above
Speaker 1: average defensive player because he competes on that end of
Speaker 1: the floor. We talked about it with Jokic earlier, like
Speaker 1: that's all like, there's no doubt that Luca is better
Speaker 1: now than he's ever been, But there's also no doubt
Speaker 1: that he's leaving some meat on the bone, and I
Speaker 1: think that that's fair criticism to send in that direction.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, that is all I have for today.
Speaker 1: Is always as sincerely, appreciate you guys for supporting the show.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy the weekend. We'll be back on
Speaker 1: Monday with the Nerd Sesh guys to get further into
Speaker 1: the top ten debate.
Speaker 2: I'll see you guys then.
Speaker 1: The volume.
Speaker 2: What's up guys?
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Speaker 1: OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us
Speaker 1: if you guys would take a second and leave a
Speaker 1: rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
Speaker 1: do that, I'd really appreciate it.