Speaker 1: The volume. The ever its NBA Cup is here and
Speaker 1: you can win big getting in on the action at
Speaker 1: DraftKings sports Book, an official sports betting partner of the NBA.
Speaker 1: All thirty teams split into six groups every Tuesday and Friday,
Speaker 1: playing for the right to advance in the single elimination
Speaker 1: in season tourney culminating in the NBA Cup Championship in Vegas.
Speaker 1: We have a new favorite on DraftKings. The New York
Speaker 1: Knicks are actually favored to win the NBA Cup right
Speaker 1: now at plus five hundred, with the Cleveland Cavaliers with
Speaker 1: the second best odds at plus five fifty. First time,
Speaker 1: here's something special just for you new DraftKings customers. Bet
Speaker 1: five dollars to get one hundred and fifty in bonus
Speaker 1: bets if your bet wins. Score big with DraftKings Sportsbook,
Speaker 1: every point counts. Download the Draft Kings Sportsbook app 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 if
Speaker 1: your bet wins when you bet just five bucks only
Speaker 1: on DraftKings. The crown is yours. Gambling problem called one
Speaker 1: eight hundred gambler in New York called eight seven seven
Speaker 1: eight hope en why or text hope n y to
Speaker 1: four to six seven three sixt nine. In Connecticut, help
Speaker 1: was available for problem gambling called eight eight eight seven
Speaker 1: eight 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 and eligibility varies by jurisdiction,
Speaker 1: Void and Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources,
Speaker 1: see dkang dot co. Slash b ball. All right, welcome
Speaker 1: to him tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody.
Speaker 1: Hope all you guys are having a great week. On
Speaker 1: a jam pack show for you today. We finally got
Speaker 1: to see the Philadelphia seventy six ers Big three yesterday
Speaker 1: and kind of was a catastrophe for a bunch of
Speaker 1: different reasons, but we did get at least to look
Speaker 1: at what it looks like, so I want to talk
Speaker 1: about that off the top of the show. After that,
Speaker 1: Tyrese Halliburton goes one for seven for four points. He's
Speaker 1: gone to twenty points just once in the last eight games.
Speaker 1: I want to talk a little bit about how different
Speaker 1: this Tyres Aliburton is compared to the Tyres that we
Speaker 1: saw at the beginning of last year, and what some
Speaker 1: of the reasons might be and whether or not we
Speaker 1: might get to see that version of Tyres Haliburton again
Speaker 1: in the future. After that, we're going to do a
Speaker 1: game breakdown on the Warriors and the Hawks, talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about the Warriors dominant performance, but also do
Speaker 1: a check in on the Atlanta Hawks. That's a team
Speaker 1: we haven't talked about yet this year. They are seven
Speaker 1: and nine and tied for the sixth seed in the
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference. Trying a fascinating look with the the Trey Young,
Speaker 1: Clint Capella one five COMBA, but with three really interesting
Speaker 1: wings that are starting alongside them, and I want to
Speaker 1: do deep dives into all three of those wings and
Speaker 1: talk about how they've been playing here to start the season.
Speaker 1: After that, we've got a film session. I've got a
Speaker 1: couple of clips that I want to go into the
Speaker 1: I have a specific clip of the Warriors blender offense
Speaker 1: and just how effective it can be that we'll get into.
Speaker 1: I got some stuff on Zachary Resachet and his ability
Speaker 1: to attack cloth, which I think is fascinating in something
Speaker 1: that could be exciting for him in the future as
Speaker 1: he gets better. And then after that, I've got about
Speaker 1: fifteen clips that I want to go through that I
Speaker 1: promised from the other day about the Laker offense. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna zoom in on the second half of the Pelicans
Speaker 1: game from a few nights ago, where I said that
Speaker 1: the Lakers put on an offensive masterclass, and I want
Speaker 1: to kind of just break down the way that they
Speaker 1: can be so dangerous offensively with their combination of overall
Speaker 1: basketball IQ, offball action, and their ability to consistently generate
Speaker 1: great shots, not like tough shot making, but generating great
Speaker 1: shots with their action and with their basketball IQ. So
Speaker 1: deep dive into the Lakers offense with some film at
Speaker 1: the tail end of the show. You guys are the
Speaker 1: Joe before we started to subscribe to the Hoops Tonight
Speaker 1: YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.
Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter at Underscore JCNLT so you guys
Speaker 1: don't missow announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight, keep dropping Mailbag
Speaker 1: questions in those YouTube comments as well. I already have
Speaker 1: the mail bag for today that I'm recording that's going
Speaker 1: to air tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Got a bunch of good questions.
Speaker 1: We're gonna go all around the league, but keep dropping
Speaker 1: questions in the mail bag in the YouTube comments for
Speaker 1: next week's mail Bag, which will be running on Friday.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So the star power
Speaker 1: for the Sixers was immediately evident. One of the things
Speaker 1: that gets really interesting when you start to get three
Speaker 1: stars on the floor. And let's not even ignore the
Speaker 1: fact that Jared McCain has been hooping and just feels
Speaker 1: like a guy that's gonna average twenty points per game
Speaker 1: in this league sooner than later. There's just a lot
Speaker 1: of offensive talent on the floor. And when you have
Speaker 1: a lot of offensive talent on the floor, that's when
Speaker 1: you have the ability to generate advantage situations for star
Speaker 1: level players. This is a concept that I'm going to
Speaker 1: talk about when we get into the film Deep Dive
Speaker 1: on the Lakers later as well. But it's this idea
Speaker 1: that like normally, when you have a star or two
Speaker 1: and then a bunch of role players, it's incumbent on
Speaker 1: the stars to create advantages, and then the role players
Speaker 1: have to finish those advantages. But you really have to
Speaker 1: spoon feed him some pretty significant advantages because most of
Speaker 1: the role players around the league are like, can hit
Speaker 1: a spot up three, maybe a wonderable pull up, maybe
Speaker 1: a drive and kick type of situation, maybe a driving
Speaker 1: finish if they have a clean enough lane. But you're
Speaker 1: not gonna get a lot of like super advanced shot
Speaker 1: creation and play finishing from role players. Once you put
Speaker 1: a bunch of high level offensive players on the floor together,
Speaker 1: that's when you start to generate advantage situations for guys
Speaker 1: like Paul George or guys like Jared McCain or Tyrese Maxi,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, that's when you start to
Speaker 1: see a really high level offensive player operating with an advantage.
Speaker 1: That's when you can get extremely difficult to guard. And
Speaker 1: that star power was immediately evident Tyrese Maxey's first floater
Speaker 1: that he hit off the glass in his return from
Speaker 1: his hamstring injury. Jalen Wells was in the wide in
Speaker 1: the corner guarding Paul George, literally face guarding him, like
Speaker 1: just two feet away, barely paying attention to what's happening
Speaker 1: with the basketball, which Paul George doesn't have the basketball.
Speaker 1: He's as far away from the basketball as you can be,
Speaker 1: and he's glued up to him because that's the type
Speaker 1: of threat that Paul George is. It was a ball screen.
Speaker 1: Maxi gets downhill, makes a floater. What are the vast
Speaker 1: majority of teams doing in ball screen situations like that?
Speaker 1: They're taking the guy that's guarding the week side corner
Speaker 1: and they are bringing him in. The vast majority of
Speaker 1: teams are, if not openly tagging the roller, they're at
Speaker 1: least bringing that guy over into the paint to at
Speaker 1: least stunt and make the ball handler think that the
Speaker 1: lob is not available because he's down in the lane.
Speaker 1: Having Paul George on the weak side is going to
Speaker 1: generate a ton of space for this six Ers team.
Speaker 1: There was a dunk that Jared McCain had in a
Speaker 1: double drag sequence up at the top of the key,
Speaker 1: which again that's where you have someone screen pops at
Speaker 1: the top of the key. I then Caleb Martin was
Speaker 1: the first screener, and then Embid sets the second screen
Speaker 1: and the McCain tries to go downhill as Embiid is
Speaker 1: rolling and Caleb Martin is popping right in that action,
Speaker 1: Jared McCain gets up and gets a dunk. You want
Speaker 1: to know Whyaron Jackson, Jared Jackson Junior is guarding Embiid,
Speaker 1: and he literally turns his back to the guy with
Speaker 1: the ball, the guy with the ball that's been getting
Speaker 1: buckets for the last few weeks, totally ignoring him. Keyed
Speaker 1: in on Joel Embiid with his back turn and you
Speaker 1: can actually see I think it was Brandon Clark. I
Speaker 1: can't remember exactly what was, but one of the Grizzlies
Speaker 1: players is like, dude, turn around, they're about to get
Speaker 1: a dunk here, right, Like that's the advantage when you've
Speaker 1: got so many players on the floor that have so
Speaker 1: much offensive skill that draws so much attention.
Speaker 2: You don't get good looks.
Speaker 1: You get easy looks, like super easy basketball. Jared McCain
Speaker 1: got a wide open three in the right in the
Speaker 1: right corner off of a Joel Embiid post up where
Speaker 1: he drew a double team. Brandon Clark hard doubled Caleb
Speaker 1: Martin kind of slipped along the baseline. Embad rifled it
Speaker 1: to him and that forced McCain's man to step over
Speaker 1: and help on Martin. Martin shoveld it back to Jared
Speaker 1: McCain wide open three. There was a post up hook
Speaker 1: shot that Joel Embiid hit over Santi al Damo where
Speaker 1: he's posting on the like left elbow area and Tyre
Speaker 1: Smaxi is one pass away in the left corner and
Speaker 1: Paul George is one pass away in the right on
Speaker 1: the right wing, and both of their defenders are locked
Speaker 1: in on those guys off the ball, there is so
Speaker 1: much space for Joel Embiid to operate. I took a
Speaker 1: screenshot of this play and I put it on my
Speaker 1: Twitter feed at Underscore Jason lt Go, look at it.
Speaker 1: There's twenty feet of space on either side of Joel Embiid.
Speaker 1: He just methodically works down into the lane with a
Speaker 1: post up and hits a little left shoulder hook over
Speaker 1: Santi al dama Because there's so much offensive skill off
Speaker 1: of Joel Embiid that he has all of that space.
Speaker 1: So like before we get into some of the negative stuff,
Speaker 1: I think it's important to acknowledge that when you have
Speaker 1: this type of talent, and again we're not just talking
Speaker 1: about the three Stars we're talking about absolutely nailing your
Speaker 1: first round draft, and between Jared mccainnon and Dalton connect,
Speaker 1: it's another great sign that like shooting, and not just
Speaker 1: like guys that can make shots at a decent rate,
Speaker 1: but like legitimate shooting talent, like knockdown three point shooters,
Speaker 1: are still of so much value in this league and
Speaker 1: we're seeing so much of it. Look at Jordan Hawkins
Speaker 1: and some of the success that he's had in New
Speaker 1: Orleans with the Pelicans. Like these guys that can fly
Speaker 1: around and shoot, they bring a ton of value to
Speaker 1: this league. But like you combine the three Stars with
Speaker 1: the legitimate hitting of that pick with Jared McCain this
Speaker 1: is an exciting team in terms of their offensive talent,
Speaker 1: and they are if they can ever get healthy and
Speaker 1: stay together on the floor for an extended span, they
Speaker 1: are going to put up a lot of points. But
Speaker 1: in this game, they were just so abominably bad in
Speaker 1: transition defense in the first half that they still found
Speaker 1: themselves down by ten, despite Joel Embiid having a good
Speaker 1: half to start the game, and just in general, like
Speaker 1: we talked about, getting all the open looks that they got,
Speaker 1: they give up twenty one points in transition, just in
Speaker 1: the first half and it's everybody, but it starts with Embiid.
Speaker 1: It was an embarrassing effort from Joel Embiid in transition defense.
Speaker 1: There's I've posted one clip on my tw feed you
Speaker 1: guys can see at underscore JSNLT. But there was probably
Speaker 1: like a half dozen different transition possessions where when Atlanta
Speaker 1: gets the defensive rebound, Embiid literally turns and jogs like
Speaker 1: the most leisurely jog you've ever seen, down the floor
Speaker 1: to get back in transition defense. And remember that big man.
Speaker 1: Usually they're the guy that's running from rim to rim.
Speaker 1: They're very important in transition defense to get back and
Speaker 1: protect the rim. There was a specific play on the
Speaker 1: left wing. It's the one I posted or Joel Embiid
Speaker 1: airballs of three short whatever it happens make or miss
Speaker 1: leave even ugly misses or just missus right. But Jalen
Speaker 1: Wells is right there. They're side by side with each other,
Speaker 1: and yeah, Jalen Wells is faster than Joel Embid. I
Speaker 1: think he's gonna beat him down the floor if he
Speaker 1: really wants to. But Embiid turned and jogged. Jalen Wells
Speaker 1: turned and ran the pass came right over the top.
Speaker 1: Paul George ended up having to step over to try
Speaker 1: to help. Jalen Wells just went right around him and
Speaker 1: reversed it on the other end of the basket. Paul
Speaker 1: George literally forced him to take an extra dribble and
Speaker 1: dribble and go round to the other side of the rim.
Speaker 1: And Embiid was still jogging, so he wasn't there to
Speaker 1: protect the rim. Literally, if he just runs, he takes
Speaker 1: away a basket there. And again, I know this is
Speaker 1: like a very simple mathematical concept, but every time you
Speaker 1: do that, it takes away the time that you post
Speaker 1: up Santiel Dom and hit a left shoulder hook, or
Speaker 1: that you draw foul and a post up against Brandon Clark.
Speaker 1: Every single time that you don't run back in defense
Speaker 1: and give up an easy shot, you were undercutting your
Speaker 1: offensive impact. And again, it's an entire roster issue. There's
Speaker 1: a bunch of guys that aren't running. There's even a
Speaker 1: case to be made that they should probably start playing
Speaker 1: some of their younger athletes, guys like Rickey Council or
Speaker 1: kJ Martin more minutes to try to get more athleticism
Speaker 1: on the floor so that they can hang and transition better.
Speaker 1: But like, if you give up twenty one transition points
Speaker 1: and a half, it doesn't matter how good your offense
Speaker 1: is in a half court, you're not going to be
Speaker 1: able to hang with these teams. And then you get
Speaker 1: out in the second half and they give a better
Speaker 1: transition defense effort. But a couple possessions in Paul George
Speaker 1: hyper extends his knee again and now he's going to
Speaker 1: be out for a little while. And so this team
Speaker 1: has issues that extend well beyond injuries at this point,
Speaker 1: like injuries aren't his you we've talked about that three
Speaker 1: star build, discounted players down the roster. You gotta have
Speaker 1: gotta have your stars healthy in order to make these
Speaker 1: roles small enough for some of these guys down the roster.
Speaker 1: But this team has issues that extend beyond that. They
Speaker 1: don't behave like a serious basketball team. We talked yesterday
Speaker 1: about some of the stuff behind the scenes with Joel
Speaker 1: and Beach showing late two days ago, with Joel and
Speaker 1: b showing up late to all these team events, and
Speaker 1: some of the chemistry stuff, and the coaching staff being
Speaker 1: critical about their level of seriousness and practice. If I
Speaker 1: have a coaching staff that's telling me, hey, the guys
Speaker 1: aren't serious in practice, and like, yeah, Joel, you need
Speaker 1: to show up on time to stuff, but like all
Speaker 1: of you guys just need to take practice more seriously.
Speaker 1: And then I see an un serious transition defense effort,
Speaker 1: Like what conclusion are we supposed to jump to there?
Speaker 1: I'm going to probably jump to the conclusion that this
Speaker 1: is a team that's not serious and so they're not
Speaker 1: playing serious basketball.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Again, the Eastern Conference is an absolute dumpster fire, and
Speaker 1: they have played a tough schedule to start the year.
Speaker 1: More than half of the team as they've played have
Speaker 1: been above five hundred. But they're also two and four
Speaker 1: against teams that are below five hundred, so they're struggling
Speaker 1: in those matchups as well. There is time to write
Speaker 1: this ship, and there is firepower to make this work
Speaker 1: at a really high level, but it starts from the
Speaker 1: coaching staff and Joel Embiid bringing serious effort every single
Speaker 1: day and that attention to detail to crawl out of
Speaker 1: this hole. Not to mention you're not beaten Boston or
Speaker 1: Cleveland or any of these teams at the top of
Speaker 1: the East or anybody that comes out of the West.
Speaker 1: Unless you sharpen up in these specific details, you are skilled.
Speaker 1: You are talented, but you are not so overwhelmingly talented
Speaker 1: that you can get away with playing bad basketball. Moving
Speaker 1: on to the Pacers. So the Rockets blew out the
Speaker 1: Pacers last night. Who talked about the Rockets twice already
Speaker 1: this week, so I'm not gonna spend too much time
Speaker 1: on them. They're just an elite defense to transition team
Speaker 1: and they logged thirty seven transition possessions last night, which
Speaker 1: is completely insane. They forced twenty three Pacers turnovers. They
Speaker 1: scored thirty points off of them. Classic Rockets basketball, right,
Speaker 1: But Tyres Aliburton goes for just four points on one
Speaker 1: for seven shooting. He's gone over twenty points in a
Speaker 1: game just once in the last eight games on the season.
Speaker 1: He is now averaging just fifteen points and nine rebounds
Speaker 1: on thirty eight percent from the field and twenty eight
Speaker 1: percent from three. He's just been bad, and the Pacers
Speaker 1: have been bad. They're six and nine and ninth in
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference right now. That's a huge step back
Speaker 1: for a team that made it to the conference finals
Speaker 1: last year. This is what makes it weird. He was
Speaker 1: on a truly special trajectory and Tyre's Aliburn's first thirty
Speaker 1: one games last year, he averaged twenty four points thirteen
Speaker 1: assists on fifty percent from the field forty one percent
Speaker 1: from three to eighty six percent from the line. The
Speaker 1: Pacers at the time were a historically great offense. At
Speaker 1: the time of Halliburton's injury, their offensive rating was like
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty four.
Speaker 2: Like all time great.
Speaker 1: No one's ever been that good for that extended of
Speaker 1: a stretch on offense. He put up in the first
Speaker 1: round of the n Season Tournament twenty six points, thirteen
Speaker 1: rebounds and ten assists to knock out the Boston Celtics.
Speaker 1: You remember him hitting all those big shots at the
Speaker 1: end of that game. Right then in the court semi
Speaker 1: final against the Milwaukee Bucks, twenty seven points, seven rebounds
Speaker 1: and fifteen assists, just barbecuing the Bucks in the open
Speaker 1: floor and in ball streets, and again had I had
Speaker 1: some people on Twitter this morning saying like, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: Tyrese has never been good. This is just he was
Speaker 1: just good for a short period of time, and everyone
Speaker 1: overreacted to it or this is just a insanity run.
Speaker 1: He in the previous season, for an entire season, averaged
Speaker 1: twenty one points in ten assists on sixty two percent
Speaker 1: turre shooting, and made an All Star team. He was
Speaker 1: on a great trajectory. He was the next great superstar
Speaker 1: in this league, and somehow he's been derailed.
Speaker 2: It's just it's so weird.
Speaker 1: Now, I've heard a lot of different things, Right, Like,
Speaker 1: the the hamstring injury was pretty severe, and there is
Speaker 1: some precedent in NBA history of guys like suffering hamstring
Speaker 1: injuries and then like not getting back to form. That's
Speaker 1: what happened to James Harden, right, But he was considerably
Speaker 1: older when that happened, Right, Like, he was much further
Speaker 1: along in his career when he suffered that specific injury.
Speaker 1: And like there are also some details with James Harden
Speaker 1: and just like the lifestyle he was living behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: and how like he kind of he's a little bit
Speaker 1: closer to the Alan Iverson of this generation than the
Speaker 1: Lebron James in terms of caring for his body. Right, So,
Speaker 1: like some of that was to be expected. Like James
Speaker 1: Harden was never a guy we all thought would have
Speaker 1: some like super super long prime with the way that
Speaker 1: he was taking care of his body, but tyrs Haliburtn
Speaker 1: at his age should be a to recover from something
Speaker 1: like that. I've heard talk of a back injury that's
Speaker 1: been bothering him. Mean, when he goes to the bench,
Speaker 1: he's doing a lot of like wraps and heat and
Speaker 1: stuff like that on his back to try to keep
Speaker 1: it loose. So I'm sure help is part of it.
Speaker 1: But like again, this is an extended stretch where he's
Speaker 1: been a tiny fraction of the player that he used
Speaker 1: to be. And again, what I think, if I had
Speaker 1: to guess, it's a combination of two factors. There's an
Speaker 1: athletic burst that's missing for sure, and that comes from
Speaker 1: the injuries, But a big part of it is he's
Speaker 1: just not hitting shots. And like when when Tyreese was
Speaker 1: at his best last year, there was a very specific
Speaker 1: pathway in his success. Right, it was basic stuff at
Speaker 1: the beginning of possession. So every single time there was
Speaker 1: an opportunity for a kick, head pass and transition, he
Speaker 1: hit it. He was a deadly transition initiator, right, But
Speaker 1: then when he got into half court, it was just
Speaker 1: a simple combination of being able to make every single
Speaker 1: read in ball screens. Okay, so like a ghost screen
Speaker 1: action with Buddy Healed, which by the way, is an
Speaker 1: action they don't have right now because they don't really
Speaker 1: have a great movement shooter like they did with Buddy
Speaker 1: Heeld And that's something to keep in mind with this
Speaker 1: team in terms of their construct moving forward, especially since
Speaker 1: Buddy Heelds looked pretty good right in Golden State. But
Speaker 1: like in the book, ghost screen action, simple reads right,
Speaker 1: Buddy Heelds man Hedges, he's pitching it back to Buddy
Speaker 1: heeld Now defenses in rotation, they can make stuff happen.
Speaker 1: No Hedge, He's turning the corner and getting downhill, drawing
Speaker 1: a second defender and making the kickout reads right in
Speaker 1: regular ball screens like with Miles Turner, same exact sort
Speaker 1: of thing. Oh you went underneath the screen, He's hitting
Speaker 1: the pull up three. You die on the screen. He's
Speaker 1: hitting the pull up three, You're too loosely attached, chasing
Speaker 1: over the top. Really effective mid range shooter with a
Speaker 1: great floater as well. Right like he had a kind
Speaker 1: of a nice little like drifting scoop shot that he
Speaker 1: could hit with his right hand when he come across
Speaker 1: the lane and feed it up high off of the glass.
Speaker 1: But then he was just absolutely deadly with the passing reads.
Speaker 1: Like turned over top In into a usable offensive player
Speaker 1: because of his ability to hit him on baseline cuts.
Speaker 1: Just like every single time the low man stepped over
Speaker 1: to hell up in a ball screen, it was a
Speaker 1: lob to obe topping along the baseline for a dunk.
Speaker 1: All of that is predicated though, on his ability to
Speaker 1: get to his spots and make shots. The passing reads
Speaker 1: are still there, The ability to make the passes is
Speaker 1: still there, but you don't. All of that comes with
Speaker 1: a give and a take.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: If you're not averaging twenty four points on sixty two
Speaker 1: percent through shooting, then you're gonna have a hard time
Speaker 1: getting the defense to react to you, which can unlock
Speaker 1: your best trait, which is your playmaking. Well made Tyre's
Speaker 1: Haliburton Specials. He looked like an ele evolutionary version of
Speaker 1: Steve Nash. That was why I was so excited about
Speaker 1: him in the all time context. I'm like, Steve Nash
Speaker 1: won two MVPs and is recognized as one of the
Speaker 1: great one of the great point guards. Of his time,
Speaker 1: like Tyrese Haliburton. Looked like he could be a better
Speaker 1: version of that, like Steve Nash, with a little bit
Speaker 1: more size and a little bit more athletic burst. That's
Speaker 1: what he looked like he was about to do. And
Speaker 1: so I hope that this is just injury related and
Speaker 1: that he can get right and he can get back
Speaker 1: on his feet. But this is one of the most bizarre,
Speaker 1: Like this guy was on a sky rocketing trajectory and
Speaker 1: he's a fraction of the player that he used to be.
Speaker 2: It really is strange. Moving on of Warriors Hawks. So
Speaker 2: this was a.
Speaker 1: Warriors blender game. What I mean by that is like
Speaker 1: the Warriors offense was just churning out points and points
Speaker 1: and points and points. The Hawks were showing high on
Speaker 1: screens and the Warriors were getting a ton of buckets
Speaker 1: on slips and cuts, a lot of dunks, a lot
Speaker 1: of driving layups. Early in the game. Andrew Wegg Wiggins
Speaker 1: was incredible in this one. He had twenty seven points,
Speaker 1: really dominated the game as an athlete, had a bunch
Speaker 1: of runout dunks. In transition, he was attacking the rim
Speaker 1: at the rim out of dribble handoffs and ball screens.
Speaker 1: He's kind of looking a little bit more like the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two Wiggins in terms of some of his
Speaker 1: scoring pop off the bounce. He had two blocks, including
Speaker 1: a big one on Clickapella and a help side defense
Speaker 1: possession and a ball screen where he blocked the shot,
Speaker 1: hit it so hard that it kind of like sprung
Speaker 1: a transition possession, sprinted the floor and ended up getting
Speaker 1: a bucket. Like just a really dominant athletic game for him.
Speaker 1: It was his fourth twenty plus point game of the season.
Speaker 1: He's averaging sixteen points per game on fifty eight percent
Speaker 1: true shooting. Fifty eight percent true shooting is Wiggins's highest
Speaker 1: true shooting percentage since he joined the Golden State Warriors.
Speaker 1: He looks great, and that's the exciting part. Like I mean,
Speaker 1: when we talk about trades and stuff with the Warriors,
Speaker 1: I don't think you can give up Wiggins in a
Speaker 1: deal unless you're getting back a player at his position
Speaker 1: that is a substantial upgrade, because what he does is
Speaker 1: so valuable for this team as their primary point of
Speaker 1: attack defender, as their main athletics score at this point,
Speaker 1: in the same way that like Jonathan Kmica kind kind
Speaker 1: of was that for Steph last year. It's looked like
Speaker 1: Wiggins this year is like the more reliable athletics score
Speaker 1: at the forward position and a lot of that inverted
Speaker 1: stuff that we talked about with him and Steph that
Speaker 1: works so well. Shooting the three well again, Like remember
Speaker 1: it was just that twenty twenty season. Twenty twenty two season,
Speaker 1: he was like just under forty percent on pretty decent volume.
Speaker 1: Pretty close to that again this year. And so Wiggins
Speaker 1: is not quite at the level he was in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two, but he's close, and he's been kind of
Speaker 1: trending upwards in the last week or so. And so
Speaker 1: with that being the case, I don't think you could
Speaker 1: even consider trading Wiggins unless like if you're getting like
Speaker 1: if it's like Miami and they're like, we'll give you
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler, but we have to get Andrew Wiggins back,
Speaker 1: and like you have an opportunity to turn him into
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler.
Speaker 2: Like that's one thing.
Speaker 1: But if it's like a mediocre kind of replacement level
Speaker 1: star at a different position and you give up Wigans,
Speaker 1: I think you're making a big mistake. He just brings
Speaker 1: too much to the table in terms of functional athleticism
Speaker 1: on the wing for this team. Another big one in
Speaker 1: this game for me was Steph's kick ahead passing. A
Speaker 1: lot of those transition dunks and transition runouts for guys
Speaker 1: like Wigans and other guys with the Warriors started with
Speaker 1: Steph just throwing great kick ahead passes. We talked about
Speaker 1: this a little bit earlier with Tyres Halliburton, but again,
Speaker 1: transition is a far more efficient brand of offense and
Speaker 1: half court offense. That's why you have to hunt transition
Speaker 1: opportunities whenever you can. On a real basic level. Just
Speaker 1: imagine a roughly twenty percent ish increase in your average
Speaker 1: efficiency when you run the floor versus when you play
Speaker 1: in the half court. Okay, but in order to have
Speaker 1: success in transition in terms of your actual efficiency, guy's
Speaker 1: got to run their lanes, and then every time someone
Speaker 1: botches something in transition defense, you got to throw those
Speaker 1: kickhead passes. So just imagine defensive rebound, everyone's running, someone's
Speaker 1: running the left wing, someone's running the right wing, someone's
Speaker 1: running down the middle. There's two players trailing to play right.
Speaker 1: In your transition defense, there's the two guards that are
Speaker 1: up at the top of the key that are usually
Speaker 1: getting back, usually one stopping the ball, one's going to
Speaker 1: the rim until the other guys get back. But a
Speaker 1: lot of times you'll see like three on twos where
Speaker 1: someone's back at the rim and someone's back above the
Speaker 1: brake but no one's or like someone's back about the break,
Speaker 1: but there's only one guy there, and there's two guys
Speaker 1: running lanes. And so if one guy's running down the
Speaker 1: middle and the guy at the rims kind of waiting
Speaker 1: for him, and then another guy's running up the left
Speaker 1: wing and the second transition defender stops him, but there's
Speaker 1: a person running up the right wing, you throw that
Speaker 1: ball to him, and if it's Andrew Wiggins and he
Speaker 1: catches with the head of steam, he's just gonna catch
Speaker 1: and rack and go right to the rim, and he's
Speaker 1: gonna have a pretty good chance of finishing in a
Speaker 1: situation like that. And then in the situations where the
Speaker 1: defense does their job, that's when the trailers get open.
Speaker 1: Right throw that kick ahead pass that dude rips and
Speaker 1: drives to the rim. The rim protector steps up, another
Speaker 1: guy drops down to the rim to help the guy
Speaker 1: that the rim protector helped off of swing swing. Now
Speaker 1: Steph Curry is catching the ball at the top of
Speaker 1: the key with an opportunity to attack a closeout right Like,
Speaker 1: that's where you can get into your advantage basketball and
Speaker 1: into your driving kick without having to run a set,
Speaker 1: just by making those kickhead passes when they're there, when
Speaker 1: they're available. Just that first half in particular, Steph had
Speaker 1: like a half dozen awesome transition kickhead passes that ignited
Speaker 1: things for the Warriors offense. Another big win for them,
Speaker 1: another blowout win for them, continuing that trajectory that I
Speaker 1: expected from the Warriors after I saw them in the
Speaker 1: early part of the season, in the sense that their
Speaker 1: defense into transition is such a reliably great night to
Speaker 1: night thing that I think this team's going to win
Speaker 1: a lot of regular season games, regardless of what their
Speaker 1: playoff limitations might be or what the final form of
Speaker 1: this roster would look like. D Anthony Melton we Hurd
Speaker 1: is going to get an ACL repair, so he's out
Speaker 1: for the rest of the year. So now your thirteen
Speaker 1: man rotation kind of thirteen playable players kind of cuts
Speaker 1: down to twelve. It's a little bit more precarious, but hey,
Speaker 1: that's the value of having depth, right, and like Lindy
Speaker 1: Waters again just as a guy that has been a
Speaker 1: functional rotation piece for Golden.
Speaker 2: State this year. Right.
Speaker 1: But regardless of what the ultimate version of this team
Speaker 1: can be, it is abundantly clear to me here through
Speaker 1: the first, you know, fifth of the season or so,
Speaker 1: that this team is going to win a lot of
Speaker 1: regular season games on their base scheme, which is great defense,
Speaker 1: running the floor in transition in all of the speed
Speaker 1: that they have on the perimeter on the Atlanta Hawks front.
Speaker 1: This lost drops in as a seven and nine. They're
Speaker 1: now tied for the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 1: Trey Young isn't shooting the ball as well as you
Speaker 1: would hope, but he's been the high level playmaker that
Speaker 1: he's always been. He's averaging a career high twelve assist
Speaker 1: per game. He's surrounded by athletes, which is a really
Speaker 1: functional kind of like use of him in the sense
Speaker 1: that he's got Dyson Daniel Zacharyrisaschet and Jalen Johnson. With Clincapelle,
Speaker 1: he's got a clean ballscreen partner. He can also run
Speaker 1: ball screens with Jalen Johnson, who's been good on the
Speaker 1: roll again this year. But it's a lot of transition
Speaker 1: passing because of all those athletes and then generating close
Speaker 1: out opportunities for athletes and guys to kind of slash
Speaker 1: into the lane in their driving kit game. So like
Speaker 1: it's kind of similar to what we saw with the
Speaker 1: Clippers in the sense that, like you just put a
Speaker 1: bunch of athletes with a good shot creator and there's
Speaker 1: a pretty high floor there, right, And like the Hawks
Speaker 1: don't have the talent that the other teams in the
Speaker 1: league have, but they're hovering around five hundred because of
Speaker 1: that baseline scheme. We've got athletes, We've got Trey Young
Speaker 1: that's going to give us a certain high floor.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: But I want to touch on all three of Dyson, Daniel,
Speaker 1: Zachary Resache, and Jalen Johnson for a minute because they're
Speaker 1: each fascinating players in their own right and they are
Speaker 1: the guys that determine the future of the Atlanta Hawks
Speaker 1: in the long run. Let's sart with Dyson Daniels. So
Speaker 1: he comes over in the Dejonte Murray deal, right, and
Speaker 1: he's having an insane defensive year. Fits the mold of
Speaker 1: my favorite type of perimeter athlete, which is like that
Speaker 1: instead of like the six eight six ' nine lanky
Speaker 1: dude think like to McDaniels, I prefer the like six '
Speaker 1: five to six seven, kind of like lower center of gravity, bulkier,
Speaker 1: harder to dislodge. They tend to be a little quicker
Speaker 1: laterally as well. Dyson Daniels fits right into that mold.
Speaker 1: He's super active with his hands. He's very good at
Speaker 1: attacking the pocket. This is a concept that I talk
Speaker 1: about a lot on the show. Like really good shooters
Speaker 1: they don't see your hand on a contest, like they're
Speaker 1: just they've their entire lives, they've been making tough, contested
Speaker 1: jump shots, right, But every jump shot starts the same way. Right,
Speaker 1: if I'm going to shoot up here, at some point
Speaker 1: in time, I'm going to have the ball down here.
Speaker 1: And if I have the ball down here, I have
Speaker 1: to expose it at some point. Even if I try
Speaker 1: to gather out here, it's gonna mess up my rhythm,
Speaker 1: or if I gather way out to the side, it
Speaker 1: can mess up my rhythm. And yeah, the best shooters
Speaker 1: in the world they have the ability to do that
Speaker 1: sort of thing at a certain level. But those are
Speaker 1: tougher shots for the most part in the ball is
Speaker 1: going to be exposed at some point in time out
Speaker 1: in front of the shooter. Dyson's really good at waiting
Speaker 1: for that exposure and attacking the basketball. Deer and Fox
Speaker 1: play they're down one with on that final transition push,
Speaker 1: the Kings have an opportunity to win, and Dyson Daniel
Speaker 1: steps over and help and and Dearn Fox, who's been
Speaker 1: just lights out good as of late, exposes the ball
Speaker 1: for just a fraction of a second as he rises
Speaker 1: up for his left handed little pull up jumper on
Speaker 1: the baseline, and Dyson reaches out and catches him right
Speaker 1: when he has it in the gather zone, right in
Speaker 1: front of him.
Speaker 2: There.
Speaker 1: It's in addition to just being really smart defense, because
Speaker 1: it's just a better way to affect a pull up
Speaker 1: shooter than going after the shot up top. It just
Speaker 1: is like what something that Dyson's been riding. And it's
Speaker 1: not just those types of deflections. He's active in ball
Speaker 1: screens by getting high with his hands. He can pick
Speaker 1: you clean when you're trying to dribble around him. He
Speaker 1: can do all sorts of stuff with his hands. But
Speaker 1: I think, I think that attacking the pocket is a
Speaker 1: specific thing that a lot of really good defenders are
Speaker 1: doing right now. He leads the NBA with three point
Speaker 1: one steals per game. He had four games in a
Speaker 1: row last week or so where he had at least
Speaker 1: six steals, and again four games in a ruts and
Speaker 1: saying he had a game in there he had seven steals.
Speaker 1: He's the perfect type of athlete to have at the
Speaker 1: two next to Trey Young. He's shown some playmaking chops too,
Speaker 1: like simple driving kick reads. He's done well this year,
Speaker 1: short role passing and some of the Trey Young, Dyson
Speaker 1: Daniel's two man game where like in most cases they'll
Speaker 1: just put two on Trey and Dison can kind of
Speaker 1: slip into the open floor and make passes there.
Speaker 2: All that kind of stuff. He's doing really well.
Speaker 1: He's averaging three point one assists per game, which is
Speaker 1: a career high for him. The issue is he's just
Speaker 1: really struggling to shoot the ball. He's shooting twenty eight
Speaker 1: percent on all jump shots, only twenty nine percent on
Speaker 1: unguarded catch and shoot jump shots. He's also never in
Speaker 1: his career hit more than sixty five percent of his
Speaker 1: free throws. The release looks good, but I'm just a
Speaker 1: little bit concerned with some of his touch stuff and
Speaker 1: whether or not he'll be to be able to become
Speaker 1: a good shooter in the long run. Moving on to
Speaker 1: Jalen Johnson doing a ton of damage as an athlete
Speaker 1: this year, a lot of stuff in transition, a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff as a cutter and as a roller, doing
Speaker 1: really well as a rebounder. Overall, he's averaging two point
Speaker 1: six stocks per game, So like all the athleticism stuff
Speaker 1: is poss just like you expect with Jalen Johnson. But
Speaker 1: problem is he needs to be set up for basically
Speaker 1: everything at this point. This is a crazy jump shooting
Speaker 1: stat for Jalen Johnson. He's shooting eleven for twenty, so
Speaker 1: over fifty percent on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots.
Speaker 1: So when he's standing still and he has an opportunity
Speaker 1: to load up into his shot, it's going in. But
Speaker 1: he's shooting just twenty nine percent on all other types
Speaker 1: of jump shots, so he's not hitting the shots that
Speaker 1: are involved, like self creation or when he's contested and
Speaker 1: someone can disrupt his rhythm. He's also well below a
Speaker 1: point per possession on all self created sets. So like
Speaker 1: ISO's pick and rolls and post ups. He clearly has
Speaker 1: decent touch, as evident by how well he's shooting when
Speaker 1: he's wide open. He's a pretty solid free throw shooter.
Speaker 1: He just needs to add a bunch more offensive polish
Speaker 1: if he's going to become a more reliable secondary option
Speaker 1: for the Hawks, which we'll talk about in the big
Speaker 1: picture here In a second Zacharysachet, he's also shooting the
Speaker 1: ball very poorly, shooting just twenty six percent on all
Speaker 1: jump shots in only thirty three percent when he's unguarded.
Speaker 1: I do like his release. He looks compt when he's
Speaker 1: shooting the ball. When he's in a tight close out situation,
Speaker 1: he'll take a shorter dip or shorter gather and get
Speaker 1: rid of the ball quicker in a way that looks smooth.
Speaker 1: He's just not making him yet. And last year overseas
Speaker 1: he was one point one to two points per catch
Speaker 1: and shoot jump shots, so I do think that that'll
Speaker 1: prove in the long run. The exciting part is he's
Speaker 1: showing some flashes as a high level closeout attacker. So
Speaker 1: he's only getting zero point eight nine points per spot
Speaker 1: at possession so far to start this year, which is
Speaker 1: actually kind of in line with where he was last
Speaker 1: year overseas, but most of that has been his jump
Speaker 1: shooting that has been an issue. He's shown some flashes
Speaker 1: as a high level closeout attacker. He's got a lot
Speaker 1: of like pivot foot stuff, like the Jokic thing, where
Speaker 1: like he'll drive and then spin but then immediately spin
Speaker 1: back around and go back the same way he was
Speaker 1: originally going. He's got a really nice left handed finish,
Speaker 1: sometimes like floater, sometimes more like a hook, but he
Speaker 1: can get to that left hand in the lane and
Speaker 1: hit like tough shots in that mid range. If he
Speaker 1: can add the jumper to the level that it needs
Speaker 1: to get, I think he could become a really effective
Speaker 1: off ball score because of some of his footwork and
Speaker 1: finishing ability in the short to mid range. He's also
Speaker 1: shown a lot of that good off ball defense that
Speaker 1: made him an exciting prospect coming into the draft last year,
Speaker 1: like playing passing lanes and helping at the Raymond stuff.
Speaker 1: He's just under two stocks per game here in the
Speaker 1: early going of the season. I have I think like
Speaker 1: five or six clips of zacharysse Risache's close out attacking
Speaker 1: in the film session. So hang out here for an
Speaker 1: extra few minutes and you guys will get to see
Speaker 1: that interesting mold though. For Atlanta, right, Trey Jung and
Speaker 1: a bunch of these long, athletic wings that can do
Speaker 1: some stuff on defense and that have some play finishing potential,
Speaker 1: but it's a lot of potential at this point. None
Speaker 1: of them are shooting the ball particularly well, and none
Speaker 1: of them look ready to be legit secondary shot creators yet,
Speaker 1: And so the trajectory of this team in the long
Speaker 1: run is going to come down to will one of
Speaker 1: those guys, Like I like that that two three four
Speaker 1: is a grouping that makes a lot of sense in
Speaker 1: the world of modern basketball as long as they develop.
Speaker 1: But one of them has to develop into a guy
Speaker 1: that can create offense out of a like a against
Speaker 1: a set defense when Trey Young doesn't initiate things for them.
Speaker 1: That's something that's going to have to develop in that group.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure who has the best chance. I mean,
Speaker 1: am I like, I feel like Dyson has some playmaking chops,
Speaker 1: but I don't think he has the touch. Dalen Johnson,
Speaker 1: I think has the touch, but he's just not as
Speaker 1: polished as he needs to be yet. Zachary Rosa Che
Speaker 1: kind of feels more of an off ball score for me,
Speaker 1: which there's real value there, But like one of those
Speaker 1: guys is gonna have to pop as a shot creator
Speaker 1: for this whole situation to work because it can't be
Speaker 1: tray in a center and then three guys that need
Speaker 1: everything spoon fed for them. That's gonna be something that
Speaker 1: they're gonna have to pay attention to in the long run.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get into our film. If you're listening
Speaker 1: on the podcast Fece and you're gonna want to head
Speaker 1: over to YouTube to see that part to actually get
Speaker 1: the visual representations of what we're talking about. So our
Speaker 1: first clip here, this is that Golden State Warriors blender
Speaker 1: possession I was talking about. So it starts with the
Speaker 1: DHO out here on the right side of the floor
Speaker 1: with Wiggins, but right after that it gets swung to
Speaker 1: Gary Payton and then Steph Curry sets a backscreen for
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins on DeAndre Hunter.
Speaker 2: This is all a fake.
Speaker 1: It is faked to set up as though Draymond Green's
Speaker 1: gonna throw a post entry to Andrew Wiggins. Watch Draymond
Speaker 1: Green pass fake turn and pass fake two Wiggins. But
Speaker 1: it's all a decoy to occupy these defenders so that
Speaker 1: they can run this off ball two man game with
Speaker 1: Gary Payton and Steph Curry. Gary Payton sets the screen,
Speaker 1: Steph comes off. When Steph comes off, Dyson's chasing, but
Speaker 1: Bogdanovich has to help. And remember, as I said, Atlanta
Speaker 1: was showing high on these ball screens all night long.
Speaker 1: That makes for an easy drop off read to Gary Payton,
Speaker 1: and again, these guys are just DeAndre Hunter was watching
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins because of the fake post up.
Speaker 2: Trey Young somewhat in position, but.
Speaker 1: There's just no hope here because he's just not a
Speaker 1: very good athlete and he's in a low man situation
Speaker 1: helping on Gary Payton. Gary can just go right through him,
Speaker 1: and again DeAndre Hunton's Hunter gets there, but he gets
Speaker 1: there late and not in a position to elevate, so
Speaker 1: Gary Payton gets an easy finish. Watch this in full speed,
Speaker 1: because that layup goes in with ten seconds on the
Speaker 1: shot clock, as you can see right here, So this
Speaker 1: whole sequence happens so fast. Watch the speed in the
Speaker 1: pace that Golden State plays within the half court. Again,
Speaker 1: watch this in full speed, hand off backscreen, fake pass,
Speaker 1: weak side screen, slip layup. That's the blender that Golden
Speaker 1: State puts you in, and it just takes one mistake
Speaker 1: for you to give up something open. Here's some close
Speaker 1: out attacks that Zachary Rissache has, just to demonstrate some
Speaker 1: of the footwork that he has. This is one of
Speaker 1: those jokics like double spin moves. Watch like spin boom,
Speaker 1: see that like step through. Beautiful work there, excellent footwork.
Speaker 1: Here's another one. Look at his left hand. Beautiful high
Speaker 1: off the glass, super nice touch with left hand rip,
Speaker 1: behind the back, move, pivot, pivot, left, he finish.
Speaker 2: That's a disgusting close out attack. Move right there.
Speaker 1: That's really high level footwork and finishing with that offhand
Speaker 1: lefty floater, high and soft easy. The left hand stuff
Speaker 1: is super fast, fascinating. You don't see too many right
Speaker 1: handed players that have that soft to touch with their
Speaker 1: left hand drifting it. That's more of like a hook.
Speaker 1: So he's got like a hook and a floater with
Speaker 1: that left hand. All right, let's move on to the
Speaker 1: Lakers offense. So again this is from the second half
Speaker 1: of the New Orleans Pelicans game, and again the main
Speaker 1: thing that I want you guys to focus on. Here
Speaker 1: is the way that this team can generate easy shots. Like,
Speaker 1: we know that there's a tough shot making piece. I
Speaker 1: know that Lebron James can hit pull up threes at
Speaker 1: a high rate this year. I know that Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: can catch the ball in the block and go to
Speaker 1: his left shoulder hook and make it a good percentage.
Speaker 1: I know that Austin Reeves can snake a ball screen
Speaker 1: and get into the mid range and try to grift
Speaker 1: his way to the line or knock down a tough
Speaker 1: contested mid range jump shot. I know they can get
Speaker 1: a matchup for ruey Hata Murray and can go to
Speaker 1: work on the block and try to create something off
Speaker 1: the dribble. I know D'Angelo Russell can score in the
Speaker 1: mid range in some of these situations. I know Dalton
Speaker 1: Connects can hit smothered catch and shoot shots as he's
Speaker 1: flying off of an off ball action. That stuff to me, though,
Speaker 1: as I've talked about so much on the show, those
Speaker 1: are ceiling raising shots. Those are the shots you go
Speaker 1: to against great defense when they shut down the easy
Speaker 1: action that you run at the beginning of plays. But
Speaker 1: the better sharper action you run, and the higher Basketball
Speaker 1: IQ aggregate in your lineups, the more easy shots you
Speaker 1: will generate that make it so you don't have to
Speaker 1: rely as much on those tougher shots going in and
Speaker 1: in this second half against the Pelicans, and again, every
Speaker 1: single one of these clips is coming from one half
Speaker 1: of basketball. Watch how many easy shots the Lakers generate
Speaker 1: with their five out attack and just all of their
Speaker 1: aggregate offensive talent. A lot of specific things that I
Speaker 1: want you to keep an eye on off ball action,
Speaker 1: So like when they're running action, you're gonna see a
Speaker 1: lot of like exit screens on the week side where
Speaker 1: it's like Austin Reeves coming off of Max Christi in
Speaker 1: the corner. Dalton Connect's coming off of Austin Reeves in
Speaker 1: the corner as they're running action to try to occupy
Speaker 1: the help defenders, right, that's.
Speaker 2: A big one.
Speaker 1: It's also like a we see the Lakers actually do
Speaker 1: use quite a few four out concepts too, where they
Speaker 1: occupy the dunker spot temporarily. You'll see some of that
Speaker 1: in the here as well. A lot of early screens
Speaker 1: for Anthony Davis, whether that's an off ball screen in
Speaker 1: transition or a quick inverted ball screen when AD's dribbling
Speaker 1: or just just something early in the possession with a
Speaker 1: guarden AD to try to force a switch, and when
Speaker 1: they force the switch, then Anthony Davis goes down to
Speaker 1: the block and either scores and a quick post up
Speaker 1: or in an offensive rebound situation. You'll see some stuff
Speaker 1: like that, a lot of like a lot of like
Speaker 1: quick slips in screens and connective playmaking from Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: and D'Angelo Russell. So imagine Lebron James or Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: drawing a second defender in a d lo or Austin
Speaker 1: catching the first pass and not being open to score,
Speaker 1: but making the pass that beats the defense to the
Speaker 1: like the hockey assist for Ad. Because of those guys'
Speaker 1: ability to make quick reads when they catch the ball
Speaker 1: and quickly process what's happening on the floor. A lot
Speaker 1: of really high level stuff here on the offensive end.
Speaker 1: I want you guys to pay attention to. Let's start
Speaker 1: with this screen with Lebron and Ad at ballscreen. So
Speaker 1: what they're doing is Max is setting a quick screen
Speaker 1: here on Green, which is going to get him into
Speaker 1: a little bit more of trail position. That's going to
Speaker 1: make it easier for Lebron as he comes off to
Speaker 1: get him caught on this screen. Then when he comes downhill,
Speaker 1: Lebron's next job is to engage Eve's Missy in the
Speaker 1: ball screen by getting downhill pressure. But watch here on
Speaker 1: the weak side on the week side, to occupy these
Speaker 1: two defenders, Austin Reeves is going to set an exit screen.
Speaker 1: All it is is just a screen for Dalton connect
Speaker 1: to run out to the corner. So if you watch
Speaker 1: here as Lebron's going downhill, he's engaging the screen defender.
Speaker 1: Austin is setting that off ball action which is occupying
Speaker 1: these and as a result of that, Missy steps up.
Speaker 1: There's just a little bit of loose help here and
Speaker 1: Lebron's able to get the lobb to Anthony Davis. And
Speaker 1: again you could see how this play develops because Lebron
Speaker 1: gets so far downhill. If Brandon Ingram takes this lob away,
Speaker 1: Lebron's throwing a kickout pass to a guy who's been
Speaker 1: a forty percent catch and shoot shooter for most of
Speaker 1: his career in Max Christy all right, next one, this
Speaker 1: was the connective pass from Austin Reeves here. So we
Speaker 1: got an AD post up. Right on the AD post up,
Speaker 1: they're gonna want to the Pelicans are gonna want to
Speaker 1: throw a double. Austin is cutting through. As Austin cuts through,
Speaker 1: he sees Brandon not paying attention, and so he slips
Speaker 1: into this area right here, down by the baseline. Watch
Speaker 1: right there, boom, So now he's behind brandon Ingram. Right,
Speaker 1: so brandon Ingram is now in no man's land. This
Speaker 1: forces Green to step over and tag Austin. Right, Ady
Speaker 1: hits Austin. But now we have our week side two
Speaker 1: on one. Right, Jeremiah Robinson Earl is responsible for Connect
Speaker 1: and Max Christy in this case, right, he's splitting the difference.
Speaker 1: He's pointing them both out. He knows what he's doing.
Speaker 1: But watch how quickly Austin processes this. Austin knows I
Speaker 1: just cut brandon Ingram is my man. Green is Dalton's man.
Speaker 1: So Austin has already done the processing in his head.
Speaker 1: He knows I caught the ball here. I know Dalton's
Speaker 1: wide open. Watch how quickly he just turns and fires
Speaker 1: boom bucket. So even though Jeremiah Robinson Earl's in the
Speaker 1: right place and makes the right rotation. The speed of
Speaker 1: the processing from Austin, Reeves gets the open shot. Oh
Speaker 1: I'm behind Brandon. They had to tag me from the
Speaker 1: weak side. Dalton's going to be open. Boom, easy quick processing,
Speaker 1: easy shot. Here's one of those early guard screens that
Speaker 1: got Anthony Davison switch. So watch his AD's running the floor.
Speaker 1: Watch the quick guard screen to force a switch.
Speaker 2: Boom.
Speaker 1: Now we're switched right Now, AD's got Brandon Ingram on him.
Speaker 1: But in this case, Brandan Ingram is lingering to help.
Speaker 1: But Eves Missy is thinking I got to get back
Speaker 1: to Ad right. So as Austin slips out, Brandon is
Speaker 1: helping on Ad because Eves got screened right. So now
Speaker 1: when he runs back, boom. Now we have a three
Speaker 1: on two on the weak side. Rotate, rotate right. How
Speaker 1: about a swing swing, rotate, rotate wide open three for
Speaker 1: Dalton connect in the corner. So all of that happened
Speaker 1: because of just a quick screen by Austin on Ad
Speaker 1: to bring essentially two defenders to Ad.
Speaker 2: Off the ball.
Speaker 1: Eighties got two off the ball, swing swing, wide open three.
Speaker 1: That's just read and react basketball. Hey, I have a
Speaker 1: chance to screen this guy and just put the Pelicans
Speaker 1: defense into a shitty position before we even run an action.
Speaker 1: One of the big things that stood out early in
Speaker 1: this half was when Dalton and again at this point,
Speaker 1: Dalton's already hit two threes, right, So they're starting to
Speaker 1: consider running more action for Dalton because now Dalton's on fire.
Speaker 1: So here's a baseline action, a baseline out of bounds play.
Speaker 1: This is something that JJ is drawing up to try
Speaker 1: to get Dalton a wide open look, right. So it
Speaker 1: starts with this screen, which is a switch right guard
Speaker 1: guard screen. Jalen Noel switches, he grabs Dalton, he points over.
Speaker 1: Now Dalton's original defender switching out onto Austin.
Speaker 2: Okay, But now at.
Speaker 1: This point Dalton is gonna go set a backscreen for
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. So Dalton runs screens Eves Missy. This forces
Speaker 1: Jalen Noel to throw a hedge. Watch Jalen Noel throw
Speaker 1: the hedge boom. So now Jalen Noel's weight is off
Speaker 1: of this foot as he's stepping out, and Dalton has
Speaker 1: an opportunity to slip into the corner. Now he's open
Speaker 1: for the catch and shoot three. So couple things. First
Speaker 1: of all more guard AD screening, which is causing huge
Speaker 1: problems for Eves Missy right and then two Dalton's now
Speaker 1: hit three threes in a row and the Pelicans are
Speaker 1: not switching Ad Dalton action yet. Keep that in mind
Speaker 1: for later on. Here's another early screen for Ad at
Speaker 1: the beginning of a possession. This one is from d LO,
Speaker 1: and this is just an inverted ball screen because Ad
Speaker 1: has the balls. Now Eves Missy's guarding AD and the
Speaker 1: open floor. Dlo sets the screen and again, Eve's not
Speaker 1: a lot of experience navigating screens. Jalen Noel doesn't really
Speaker 1: know what to do here. As a result, now Ad
Speaker 1: is able to get ahead of Steam. So now by
Speaker 1: the time Eves recovers, he's dead to rights. Here as eighties,
Speaker 1: a bigger, stronger player with the angle, with more momentum,
Speaker 1: and he just goes right through Eves and gets a layup.
Speaker 1: So more guard screens on AD early in possessions. Here's
Speaker 1: another one not switching the the Ad Dalton screens yet. Okay,
Speaker 1: so AD sets the screen not switching, so he's chasing
Speaker 1: now he's in this full chase position. And what ends
Speaker 1: up happening here Delo's man is running this way, Dalton's
Speaker 1: man is running this way, and all Dalton does is
Speaker 1: throw a little fake dribble hand off, and on the
Speaker 1: fake dribble handoff, Dalton's defender kind of hesitates for a second.
Speaker 1: On d LO, Delo's defender hesitates for a second, and
Speaker 1: Dalton's able to turn the corner. And again look at
Speaker 1: the spacing here, Max good shooter, Austin Goods shoot in
Speaker 1: the corners. Those guys don't want to help. Hard AD's
Speaker 1: man ends up lingering back with him, and Dalton's able
Speaker 1: to get a dunk and he brings that. And we've
Speaker 1: seen this a lot around the league this year. But
Speaker 1: like some of the more athletic players are starting to
Speaker 1: lean on shooting more and there's just a lot of
Speaker 1: downhill force that can come off of the weaponized fear
Speaker 1: of your shooting. Right now, this time we just talked
Speaker 1: about it. We've seen multiple actions where the Lakers have
Speaker 1: gotten buckets for Dalton connect because they have not been
Speaker 1: switching the Dalton ad ball screens. Right So how about
Speaker 1: we run another one ad screen for dl d LO
Speaker 1: screen for Dalton, and then Dalton is going to backscreen
Speaker 1: for ad watch Dalton. Okay, so this is the same
Speaker 1: exact thing that they ran out of the baseline out
Speaker 1: of bounds. So in theory, if they can get brand
Speaker 1: into Linger and for him to chase, then Dalton should
Speaker 1: be able to flash high and get open. But Dalton's
Speaker 1: been killing them, so they don't want to switch it,
Speaker 1: are they? So excuse me? Dalton's been killing them, so
Speaker 1: now they're going to decide to switch it. So now
Speaker 1: we have to switch right. All you gotta do pull
Speaker 1: it out to create a passing angle. And this is
Speaker 1: a beautiful post entry from Austin Reeves. Watch how perfectly
Speaker 1: he threads this pass over the top. Brandon's fronting ad
Speaker 1: is ceiling and creating the passing angle. Great pass over
Speaker 1: the top. Now we got ourselves an and one. So
Speaker 1: again the Pells are dead to rights here because this
Speaker 1: is just the problem that the Lakers can present because
Speaker 1: the sheer amount of offensive talent that they have on
Speaker 1: the floor. You don't switch Dalton's getting open. You do
Speaker 1: switch ads getting a favorable matchup. This next one is
Speaker 1: something that I've been talking about for several years now,
Speaker 1: but the simple concept of eighty popping in ball screens,
Speaker 1: which is always open. In a ball screen that involves
Speaker 1: a traditional drop coverage, the pick and pop is always open.
Speaker 1: It's a basic basketball rule of thumb that I wish
Speaker 1: teams would lean on more. But some of these big
Speaker 1: guys just don't feel comfortable doing it.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So here we go eighty ball screen with d LO.
Speaker 1: Why is it open because we're chasing. This guy's chasing.
Speaker 1: This guy's dropping. So if he's chasing and dropping, our
Speaker 1: bracket is situated around d Lo. If the bracket is
Speaker 1: situated around d Lo, in Ad rolls, he's rolling and
Speaker 1: this guy has an opportunity to potentially guard both of
Speaker 1: them to some extent. Right, but if he pops, he's
Speaker 1: wide open. Notice Dalton sees that AD's in that spot.
Speaker 1: So Dalton clears out to the right. Ad clears a
Speaker 1: little bit to the left, wide open, Three knocks it down.
Speaker 1: That pick and pop has been a huge addition to
Speaker 1: eighties game this year. Here's another switch, this time on
Speaker 1: a double drag. Watch how quickly d Loo identifies the
Speaker 1: switch right, So again Dalton sets the first boom boom
Speaker 1: switch switch. Okay, now AD's got a guard on him.
Speaker 1: Dlo is going to pass the ball over to Dalton
Speaker 1: and watch d Loo immediately point to Ad. Throw it,
Speaker 1: throw it, throw it. Now Dalton doesn't throw it, which
Speaker 1: is the right call. Dalton's making the right decision here
Speaker 1: because brandon Ingram is now basically bracketing and it's a
Speaker 1: complicated skip pass to get to Max. But all Dalton
Speaker 1: has to do here is get something up on the rim,
Speaker 1: and Ad has a massive offensive rebounding advantage. None of
Speaker 1: these guys is getting the ball over a d This
Speaker 1: is the only guy on the floor who has a
Speaker 1: chance to hang with Ad under the rim. So all
Speaker 1: Dalton has to do is get something up on the rim.
Speaker 1: Drives gets it up Ad over all of them offensive
Speaker 1: rebound put back. So the switch is causing just as
Speaker 1: many problems. This is an example of setting your man
Speaker 1: up for a screen and another one of those decoy actions.
Speaker 1: So again Dlo is setting his man up by working
Speaker 1: him down with physicality to the elbow, and it looks
Speaker 1: like it's gonna be something with Austin and Dilo. But
Speaker 1: watch how quickly I'm gonna play this one from full speed.
Speaker 1: Watch how quickly Dlo goes from his setup to his
Speaker 1: cut into the handoff. Watch boom, now he's got all
Speaker 1: this separation, and now it's so easy for him to
Speaker 1: catch this.
Speaker 2: And this is a legit two on one.
Speaker 1: So as long as Kaloco gets a little hit on him,
Speaker 1: which he does, Austin hits Delo's man, Coloco hits the screen,
Speaker 1: and now Delo has a wide open three. So this
Speaker 1: is the type. This is the type of pace in
Speaker 1: the half court that's open. And this is why I
Speaker 1: always tell like my high school kids, I'm like you guys,
Speaker 1: gotta cut hard. You gotta screen and move hard. Everything
Speaker 1: you do has to be hard to generate separation. Watch
Speaker 1: this hard cut from Delo. He gets himself open, all right,
Speaker 1: This is the the Delo slip on a post split cut. Okay,
Speaker 1: so a post split again it is a post entry
Speaker 1: and then usually some sort of two man game with
Speaker 1: guards that are right off of the post up. Watch out,
Speaker 1: Dlo sets a screen. Now they're gonna switch, right, so
Speaker 1: Delo screens. This is gonna be a switch. Watch a
Speaker 1: Delo's man jump out on Austin and and now Austin's
Speaker 1: man is on Delo. But what do we always talk
Speaker 1: about for beating switching schemes? Screen the lower half and
Speaker 1: get an inside seal. Watch Delo set the screen, get
Speaker 1: the inside seal and slip. Now as he's open, Christian
Speaker 1: Kaloco's man, the big man has to step over on
Speaker 1: d Lo. So that even though Delo misses this shot,
Speaker 1: who's gonna get the rebound? Kloco's got inside position with
Speaker 1: a small player on him, it's an easy offensive rebound
Speaker 1: put back for him. This is a just some two
Speaker 1: man game between Dalton and a D. But Dalton's been
Speaker 1: really good at making these. He's athletic enough to jump
Speaker 1: and get the pass over the top relatively easily. Watch
Speaker 1: this like just easy, simple little pitch back to AD.
Speaker 1: So they're throwing it to Dalton. Here's the ball screen.
Speaker 1: We watch his easy pass over the top, easy little
Speaker 1: short jump shot. Here's another one of those release valve
Speaker 1: possessions with d Lo. So it starts with an offensive rebound.
Speaker 1: We're gonna go to a D on the left block, okay,
Speaker 1: but on the on the post up.
Speaker 2: On the post up we get a double team. Okay.
Speaker 2: So here's our double team. Max cuts.
Speaker 1: He gets covered by Jeremiah Robinson earl right, so it's
Speaker 1: not open. This guy over here is splitting the difference
Speaker 1: on the two shooters on the weak side, which I
Speaker 1: believe is Lebron and Austin if I remember correctly, But
Speaker 1: watch Dela or no, it's Dalton and Austin. So Dalton
Speaker 1: and Austin up here right, So here's our week side
Speaker 1: two on one. But Ad is getting pressured so much
Speaker 1: he doesn't feel comfortable making that kickout pass. All DL
Speaker 1: makes himself. All Delo does is make himself available for
Speaker 1: a kickout even though he's guarded. But on the kickout, watch,
Speaker 1: so d Loo catches the ball from Ad. How does
Speaker 1: Dalton and Austin attack this two on one? Dalton cuts?
Speaker 1: This is only open because Dalton has already started his
Speaker 1: cut and DLO doesn't have the ball left. And there's
Speaker 1: four point seven on the shot clock right, So if
Speaker 1: Dlo doesn't make this read lightning fast, this likely turns
Speaker 1: into a bad contested three at the end of the
Speaker 1: clock that has almost no chance of going in. Watch
Speaker 1: how quickly Delo processes it.
Speaker 2: One timer dunk.
Speaker 1: That's the difference between a dunk and a bad three
Speaker 1: at the end of the clock. Quick processing On that
Speaker 1: secondary read we get our blitz post up double weeks
Speaker 1: out one, and once again even Dalton. Dalton didn't just
Speaker 1: stand at the three point line. He's a shooter, but
Speaker 1: he's not standing at the three point line. He's an athlete.
Speaker 1: He's beating it with a cut. To watch that quick
Speaker 1: processing from de Lo. Here's an example of it being defended,
Speaker 1: a stack pick and roll being defended extremely well, but
Speaker 1: it just generating a little bit of a close out
Speaker 1: that Delo is able to beat.
Speaker 2: Okay, So here's our stacked pick and roll.
Speaker 1: Right, Austin ball screen with ad Dlo's backscreening the role
Speaker 1: man right, They defend it really well. Jalen Noel lingers.
Speaker 1: He calls for a switch. They tag from the weak
Speaker 1: side with Jeremiah Robinson earl to take away the lob.
Speaker 1: Austin doesn't feel comfortable throwing that pass. Good ball pressure
Speaker 1: makes it so that Austin doesn't feel comfortable throwing the
Speaker 1: skip pass. I can't remember who's over here. I think
Speaker 1: it's uh. I think it might be Dalton. Somebody's wide
Speaker 1: open over here in the corner. Dalton, Okay, doesn't feel
Speaker 1: comfortable throwing that pass because of the pressure. Okay, so
Speaker 1: who's open Delo? Delo's catching not in a position to shoot,
Speaker 1: but Jalen Noel is sprinting at him, so Dlo is
Speaker 1: able to beat that with just a quick rip to
Speaker 1: the left. Again, this is that baked in driving lane.
Speaker 1: This is important for non athletes. The best athletes in
Speaker 1: the world, they don't need baked in driving lanes. They
Speaker 1: can just do a hard rip through and they can
Speaker 1: get where they want to go.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: That goes without saying. But when you have a defender
Speaker 1: closing out at your right shoulder, if you rip to
Speaker 1: the left, it's an automatic drive. There's just no way.
Speaker 1: Like if Delo rips left, he's gonna get over here.
Speaker 1: There's no way Jalen Nowel can beat him there. Rip
Speaker 1: left has inside position, hits the floater, and again Eves
Speaker 1: Missis has to step up because if he does, Ad
Speaker 1: is getting a lob dunk. So again, even when it's
Speaker 1: defended as well as you possibly can defend it, it
Speaker 1: still is just a high level offensive player with a
Speaker 1: guy chasing him off the line, he's going to be
Speaker 1: able to get a good shot. Here's another one of
Speaker 1: those exit screens week side, so it's a horn set.
Speaker 1: We got Lebron ad two man game. AD back screens
Speaker 1: for Austin, and then while Lebron and ad are running
Speaker 1: their ball screen, watch Max Christie's screen for Austin on
Speaker 1: the weak side to occupy the help defenders. See they're
Speaker 1: pointing their occupied It's just making this guy be a
Speaker 1: little hesitant to fully step in. And by the way,
Speaker 1: if he does, if he fully steps in to stop Lebron,
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves is wide open because Max Christy has this
Speaker 1: backscreen here. But he's hesitant and so he doesn't cut
Speaker 1: Lebron off, and so Lebron's able to get all the
Speaker 1: way to the rim in Layden. That's the value of
Speaker 1: weak side action. This is a huge play in the game,
Speaker 1: Lakers down two. All it is is simple, easy advantage
Speaker 1: creation basketball. Lebron's dribbling at the top of the key,
Speaker 1: but he sees Dalton connecting the corner who's made a
Speaker 1: bunch of threes in this half, and Jalen Nowel is
Speaker 1: playing off of him closer to the lane. So Lebron
Speaker 1: throws a simple kickout pass. Look, he stepped, takes another
Speaker 1: step higher and throws the pass. Now watch what did
Speaker 1: we just talk about with baked in driving lanes. He's
Speaker 1: closing out at Dalton's right shoulder if he just throws
Speaker 1: a because of the threat of the shot, Jalen Noel
Speaker 1: cannot afford to throw a passive close out that locks
Speaker 1: the lane down. He has to chase him off the
Speaker 1: line because Dalton's shooting well, Dalton just racks left. Boom,
Speaker 1: there's that baked in driving lane brandon Ingram steps up,
Speaker 1: Austin reeves his man slides down for the corner pass,
Speaker 1: and Dalton throws a really nice kickout pass to Austin
Speaker 1: here at the top of the key, extra pass to Lebron.
Speaker 1: Now he gets a wide open three. So again no
Speaker 1: need to run action. Just hey, this guy's sinking off
Speaker 1: of Dalton. Connect a little bit. How about he drives
Speaker 1: a close out. Now we get ourselves a wide open shot.
Speaker 1: And then this was the dagger for Lebron, just for
Speaker 1: good measure. It's a ball screen with ad that forces
Speaker 1: the switch onto Eves, missy and out of the switch.
Speaker 1: Lebron watched the hard dribble at the basket before the
Speaker 1: pull up jump shot to keep Eves on his heels.
Speaker 1: Watch the hard move. That hard move just keeps him
Speaker 1: on his heels. Big time shot.
Speaker 2: For Lebron.
Speaker 1: So again, all of those plays, all of those plays
Speaker 1: came in one hand half of NBA basketball. Think about
Speaker 1: how many easy shots that was I had. Let's see,
Speaker 1: that's from I started at clip number seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. So twenty two easy shots in one half,
Speaker 1: twenty two like easy buckets in one half of basketball,
Speaker 1: just by running quality offense with a bunch of high
Speaker 1: IQ players that make quick decisions, processing the breakdown in
Speaker 1: the defense fast enough to make it a layup or
Speaker 1: a three that's wide open instead of a bad shot
Speaker 1: at the end of the clock. It's just it's a
Speaker 1: simple concept that's hard to deal with. You put a
Speaker 1: bunch of really smart basketball players that compliment each other
Speaker 1: really well on the court. At the same time, they're
Speaker 1: going to be really difficult to guard. Add some organization
Speaker 1: to it, and the sky is the limit for this
Speaker 1: Lakers offense. All right, guys, that is all I have
Speaker 1: for today is always to sincerely appreciate you for supporting
Speaker 1: me and supporting the show. I am recording a mail
Speaker 1: bag later this afternoon that will air on on Friday,
Speaker 1: and then we'll be back on Monday with our usual
Speaker 1: power rankings.
Speaker 2: I'll see you guys then the volume. What's up guys.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Speaker 1: hoops 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.