Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight. You're at
Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. I hope all of you
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Speaker 1: We're continuing our player ranking today with number twenty one,
Speaker 1: twenty and nineteen. You guys know the drill before we
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Speaker 1: can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight,
Speaker 1: all right, let's talk some basketball. So number twenty one
Speaker 1: one of my favorite players in the league, mister jay
Speaker 1: In Brunson, and I'm excited to dive into his game
Speaker 1: today because I think he's one of the more underrated
Speaker 1: players in the league. I think there's a pretty big
Speaker 1: gap between what the public perception is of Jalen Brunson
Speaker 1: and where he actually lands in this league. Like I'm
Speaker 1: showing you guys right now, I believe he's one of
Speaker 1: the I believe he's the twenty first best player in
Speaker 1: the league. So let's take a look at his season.
Speaker 1: Twenty four points, four rebounds, and six assists in his
Speaker 1: first season as a legitimate number one option. Sixty percent
Speaker 1: true shooting, which is obviously very very good. One point
Speaker 1: zero eight points per possession in pick and roll. You guys,
Speaker 1: remember that list of the fifteen high volume pick and
Speaker 1: roll players that I was referencing in our last video.
Speaker 1: There were fifteen players who ran at least one thousand
Speaker 1: this year. Jalen Brunson ranked fifth in efficiency at one
Speaker 1: point zero eight points per possession. Underrated passer. He passed
Speaker 1: out of pick and roll forty five percent of the time,
Speaker 1: which led to one point one five points per possession.
Speaker 1: He was actually a little bit more successful passing out
Speaker 1: of pick and roll than he was shooting. Also, one
Speaker 1: point one zero points per ISO. Out of twenty five
Speaker 1: players in the league this year to run at least
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty ISOs, Brunson ranked fifth in efficiency,
Speaker 1: So when we kind of filter things down to volume,
Speaker 1: he's a top five ISO player and a top five
Speaker 1: pick and role player, probably a fact that not too
Speaker 1: many people are aware of. He also scored seventy six
Speaker 1: points out of the post this season, and that's the
Speaker 1: key with Jaln Brunson. The story of him as a
Speaker 1: player is he's super versatile. Obviously, he's got all the
Speaker 1: shot making forty eight percent on catch and shoot jumpers,
Speaker 1: forty five percent on dribble jumpers, fifty two percent on floaters,
Speaker 1: sixty three percent on hooks out of the post, and
Speaker 1: fifty five percent of the rim. All those numbers are
Speaker 1: way above average. Except for the rim numbers, that's pretty
Speaker 1: much average for a guard. And he's a very good passer.
Speaker 1: But it's not just him making those shots, it's the
Speaker 1: way in which he does it. I picked the Calves
Speaker 1: to get upset by the Knicks in the first round
Speaker 1: in large part because of Jalen Brunson and his ability
Speaker 1: to surgically approach games, to strangle the pace and to
Speaker 1: consistently find the right action or matchup to target to
Speaker 1: get the best shot for his team. He sees the
Speaker 1: bigger picture of basketball games at an extremely high level.
Speaker 1: They might have even beat Miami if they got anything
Speaker 1: out of Julius Randall, but he was hurt and in
Speaker 1: general just didn't play very well, and so it wasn't enough.
Speaker 1: But during the postseason he actually went up a level. Overall,
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson went from twenty four points to game to
Speaker 1: twenty eight points per game with very little drop off
Speaker 1: in efficiency. He was still fifty nine percent true shooting,
Speaker 1: five rebounds and six assists. He was twenty eight points
Speaker 1: per game on fifty nine per cent truugh shooting against
Speaker 1: two elite defenses. The Cavs were the very best defense
Speaker 1: in the league and the Miami Heat ranked ninth. If
Speaker 1: I told you a nameless player was going to go
Speaker 1: against two top ten defenses and score twenty eight points
Speaker 1: on fifty nine percent true shooting, you'd be thinking like
Speaker 1: Dame or Steph Curry or someone along those lines. That's
Speaker 1: the level of production that is that is legitimate superstar
Speaker 1: production in the playoffs that you're getting out of Jalen Brunson.
Speaker 1: But again, it all comes out to versatility. There's so
Speaker 1: many players in the league that spam the same action
Speaker 1: every single damn time, whether it's you know a guy
Speaker 1: like Donovan Mitchell who just runs pick and roll, or
Speaker 1: Trey Young who just runs pick and roll every single
Speaker 1: time down the floor. You know guys that need to
Speaker 1: come flying off of screens, off the ball, or whatever
Speaker 1: it is. There's a redundancy to that, there's a repetition
Speaker 1: to it that becomes easier regard, especially when you get
Speaker 1: to the postseason. And that's why you see a lot
Speaker 1: of players of that Trey Young, Donovan Mitchell ill kind
Speaker 1: of go down a level in efficiency when they get
Speaker 1: to that point. Same thing with a lot of players
Speaker 1: that as scores, rely on one thing over another, right
Speaker 1: like Joel Embiid relies heavily on making mid range jump
Speaker 1: shots and getting to the foul line, and for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: that just doesn't materialize in the postseason and his volume
Speaker 1: and efficiency tank. But players that have many facets to
Speaker 1: the way that they attack tend to be the ones
Speaker 1: that are most successful in that setting. Jal And can
Speaker 1: run pick and roll, but he's also a textbook matchup attacker.
Speaker 1: If he finds a smaller, thinner player, he's going to
Speaker 1: back him down to the post. And try to get
Speaker 1: to that little left handed hook shot in the lane.
Speaker 1: If he's got a smaller, slower player like Cheeddy Osman
Speaker 1: in that first round series against the Cast, he's going
Speaker 1: to get the guard to guard screen to get the
Speaker 1: switch and attack him off the bounce to get to
Speaker 1: a jump shot that he knows that he can make.
Speaker 1: There is he will. If you, as a defense solve
Speaker 1: something that he's doing, he can just go in another direction.
Speaker 1: And that versatility is always the difference between the guys
Speaker 1: that go up a level in the postseason and the
Speaker 1: guys that go down a level in the postseason. All
Speaker 1: three guys that were hitting on today are guys that
Speaker 1: are famous for playing better in the postseason, although one
Speaker 1: of the guys doesn't have quite as much experience. But
Speaker 1: the Knicks completely fell apart without Jalen Brunson on the floor.
Speaker 1: In the playoffs. They were plus thirty seven with him
Speaker 1: on the floor, minus thirty three with him off the
Speaker 1: floor in a per possession basis. According to Cleaning the Glass,
Speaker 1: it was more than thirty points per possession and that
Speaker 1: they were points per one hundred possessions that they were
Speaker 1: better with Jalen Brunson on the floor versus off the floor.
Speaker 1: You can kind of like see the beginnings of this
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson rise to fame and power in that mav
Speaker 1: series from two years ago when Luka Doncic was out
Speaker 1: and he led the MAVs to a two to one
Speaker 1: series lead against the Jazz, including a big road win
Speaker 1: with a lot of the same stuff that you're seeing
Speaker 1: in this Knix jersey, a lot of that matchup attacking,
Speaker 1: picking on switches, that versatile half court surgery that is
Speaker 1: so important to succeeding in the NBA playoffs. I think
Speaker 1: he's a legit star, and it's crazy to think that
Speaker 1: I have him as the twenty first best basketball player
Speaker 1: alive and the MAVs let him walk for nothing, and
Speaker 1: now his twenty six million dollar salary looks like a steal,
Speaker 1: and it kind of looks like it might have been
Speaker 1: a gigantic catastrophe for the Dallas Mavericks, although at this
Speaker 1: point there's nothing to do but to move on. So
Speaker 1: in summary, you have a top five ISO and top
Speaker 1: five pick and roll guy on massive volume, underrated passer.
Speaker 1: His game goes up a level in the postseason due
Speaker 1: to his versatility and his surgical approach. His only real
Speaker 1: weakness is he's not a dominant athlete, which obviously has
Speaker 1: some limitations for him on the defensive end of the floor,
Speaker 1: and just in generalizes lower ceiling than some of his
Speaker 1: peers at the top of the league because he can't
Speaker 1: athletically dominate the games the way that some of them can.
Speaker 1: But Jalen Bronson kudos to him. First season on his
Speaker 1: own or at least as the primary focal point of
Speaker 1: an offense, finishes twenty first in my player ranking, number
Speaker 1: twenty Kyrie Irvin probably the biggest gap I've seen in
Speaker 1: the league in recent years between his reputation and his
Speaker 1: actual on court production. You guys who have been listening
Speaker 1: to the show for a while, you've heard me talk
Speaker 1: about this, Like, I get it. I understand why Kyrie
Speaker 1: is not the most popular guy in the world. Everyone
Speaker 1: loves to hate Kyrie. I don't agree with everything that
Speaker 1: he does off the floor, obviously, but the dude is
Speaker 1: insanely good at basketball, and that needs to be the
Speaker 1: starting point for every single discussion about him. This season,
Speaker 1: twenty seven points, five rebounds, six assists per game, sixty
Speaker 1: one percent true shooting, all that's amazing. He was not
Speaker 1: at all to blame for Dallas missing the playoffs. He
Speaker 1: was lights out when he moved over there, twenty seven
Speaker 1: points on sixty three percent true shooting. They won his
Speaker 1: shifts in thirteen of the twenty games that he played.
Speaker 1: They were fourteen points per one hundred possessions better when
Speaker 1: Kyrie was on the floor versus when he was off
Speaker 1: the floor. Honestly, I mean I said this right after
Speaker 1: the trade. Dallas is gonna struggle because they don't have
Speaker 1: any athletes. That obviously ended up happening. But then you
Speaker 1: add in the fact that Luka Doncic was playing some
Speaker 1: of the worst basketball that he's played in the last
Speaker 1: couple of years over that tail end stretch of the season.
Speaker 1: That was the recipe for them to miss the playoffs,
Speaker 1: especially with how many other teams were playing well at
Speaker 1: the bottom of the conference. So again, obviously it's an
Speaker 1: ugly thing for that team to miss the playoffs after
Speaker 1: making that trade, But it wasn't the craziest thing in
Speaker 1: the world when you look at it, and it certainly
Speaker 1: Wasn'te's fault. Kyrie is a proven number two option that
Speaker 1: can be the second best player on a championship team.
Speaker 1: We saw it obviously with the Cavs, and we've seen
Speaker 1: him succeed in the playoffs as a shot maker since
Speaker 1: that point, just not on teams that are good enough
Speaker 1: to get over the top. As long as your number
Speaker 1: one is good enough, Kyrie can be your number two,
Speaker 1: and I think Luca is definitely good enough to be
Speaker 1: the number one next to a guy like Kyrie Irvick.
Speaker 1: His one point one to nine points per possession ISO
Speaker 1: mark that he put up in Brooklyn this year was
Speaker 1: number one in the entire league among players to attempt
Speaker 1: at least two hundred, so still the best ISO guy
Speaker 1: in the league. Thirty nine percent on catching shoot jumpers,
Speaker 1: forty six percent on pull up jumpers, forty nine percent
Speaker 1: on floaters, and sixty two percent of the RIM. I
Speaker 1: basically view him as a better version of Jalen Brunson,
Speaker 1: another guard that can strangle the pace of games and
Speaker 1: attack matchups and play that half court surgery style that's
Speaker 1: so successful during the playoffs, but can do it in
Speaker 1: a bunch of different ways in ISO, out of the post,
Speaker 1: also out of pick and roll. To me, he's just
Speaker 1: a higher level version of Jalen Brunson, a little bit
Speaker 1: more athletic pop, a little bit more skill from each
Speaker 1: spot on the floor. I think his reputation from off
Speaker 1: the floor has just caused people to kind of get
Speaker 1: off of his set for a little while. But I
Speaker 1: view him as one of the most valuable archetypes of
Speaker 1: players in the playoffs. If you can have that big
Speaker 1: playmaking forward, the big rim pressuring playmaking forward like Luca,
Speaker 1: the best guy to compliment that is the surgical three
Speaker 1: level score and that's what Kyrie is. And he's also
Speaker 1: a much better passer than people realize. Obviously the six
Speaker 1: assists a game, but above and beyond that, like the
Speaker 1: really high level stuff, they're that game winner that the
Speaker 1: I think Maxic kliba hit against the Lakers. That was
Speaker 1: a ridiculous cross court left handed push pass from Kyrie,
Speaker 1: irving that most players in the league don't even have
Speaker 1: the handle to be able to get the ball under
Speaker 1: control in their left hand, let alone throw that dart
Speaker 1: across the floor. He's arguably the most skilled player in
Speaker 1: the league, though he's not the best player in the league. Obviously,
Speaker 1: you guys know those are two different concepts, but an
Speaker 1: incredibly valuable archetype to have success in the playoffs, a
Speaker 1: bona fide number two. And I'm excited to watch him
Speaker 1: play with Dallas because again, you saw a little bit
Speaker 1: of it in the twenty games he played. But he
Speaker 1: brings a different pace right like Luca, very strangle like,
Speaker 1: dribble the ball a million times like Kyrie, like will
Speaker 1: be patient to find the matchup that he wants. But
Speaker 1: when he finds the matchup that he wants, he goes
Speaker 1: quickly and he hits the gas and he will generate
Speaker 1: real dribble penetration and driving kick and get the ball
Speaker 1: moving around earlier in the shot clock so that multiple
Speaker 1: guys get a chance to touch the basketball. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like a nice change of pace alongside Luca. And
Speaker 1: then the MAVs did their job this summer and they
Speaker 1: added some dirty work guys. They added Rashaun Holmes and
Speaker 1: Grant Williams to bolster the front court. I think that
Speaker 1: helps a lot Seth Curry as an additional shooter and
Speaker 1: second side creation option. I think the maps are going
Speaker 1: to be pretty good this year. So in summary, yes,
Speaker 1: Kyrie has been a mess off the court in the past,
Speaker 1: and that needs to be factored in when we're having
Speaker 1: these discussions, But everything needs to be framed around the
Speaker 1: fact that Kyrie is an insanely good basketball player. Six
Speaker 1: players in the entire league this year averaged at least
Speaker 1: twenty seven to five and five. Six guys in total
Speaker 1: twenty seven five and five Giannis Antennacumbo, Steph Curry, Lebron James,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, Lukadancic, Kyrie Irving. Like again, don't don't ignore
Speaker 1: the off court part, but let's remember that the on
Speaker 1: court part plays a big role here. And you know,
Speaker 1: obviously I have huge problems with him just up and
Speaker 1: leaving the team like he did with Brooklyn a few times.
Speaker 1: But there at the end of the trade deadline, it
Speaker 1: was kind of a business arrangement, is like it or
Speaker 1: hate it was. He knew Brooklyn wasn't gonna give him
Speaker 1: a deal. He knew cap space was going to be
Speaker 1: tight this summer. His best bet was to get traded
Speaker 1: to a team that would be not a cap space
Speaker 1: team that would be able to extend him using bird rights.
Speaker 1: That was his best bet to get paid. It ended
Speaker 1: up blowing up a good team, There's no doubt. But again,
Speaker 1: as long as things in Dallas remained somewhat coherent and competitive,
Speaker 1: expect him to be bought in there over the course
Speaker 1: of this season. All right, Moving on number nineteen last
Speaker 1: for today, Brandon Ingram twenty five, six and six last
Speaker 1: year fifty eight percent true shooting, only played in forty
Speaker 1: five games. That was the big thing that held him back.
Speaker 1: I actually think he's capable of being even higher on
Speaker 1: this list, but availability has been a concern for him.
Speaker 1: Is a big part of why their team missed the
Speaker 1: playoffs this year. Ingram is one of my favorite players
Speaker 1: in the NBA. He represents a specific type of archetype
Speaker 1: of player that we don't see very often. As you
Speaker 1: guys know, I gravitate towards the big, rim pressuring forwards
Speaker 1: that are great passers, right, And that's why I've been
Speaker 1: a big fan of Lebron James throughout his career, Right.
Speaker 1: But then there's this other archetype of player which is
Speaker 1: also super important in something that I've been a big
Speaker 1: fan of, which is like the dominant three level score right,
Speaker 1: And most of the three level scorers are they struggle
Speaker 1: with rim pressure and with playmaking, right, And most of
Speaker 1: the guys that are great rim pressuring playmaking forwards. They
Speaker 1: can struggle with some of the over the top shot
Speaker 1: making well. Brandon Ingram, I think, is the guy that
Speaker 1: has the best chance to be truly great at both.
Speaker 1: He's a better passer than most of his peers at
Speaker 1: his position. He's a better passer than Jason Tatum, and
Speaker 1: then Kevin Durant, than Kawhi Leonard, than Paul George. He's
Speaker 1: got this ridiculous court vision that he could see over
Speaker 1: the top and see all the reads. He's amazing at
Speaker 1: this like right handed, like slingshot pass that he just
Speaker 1: hits dudes in the shooting pocket on time, on target,
Speaker 1: non stop. He hits spot of shooters extremely well. He
Speaker 1: can make that cross court pass and pick and roll,
Speaker 1: which is so vitally important as you're getting downhill to
Speaker 1: the right and you're bringing that low man over to
Speaker 1: tag the roller that skip passes the one you have
Speaker 1: to be able to make. He hits that every single
Speaker 1: time with really good pace so that the guy doesn't
Speaker 1: have a chance to close out. Is just an incredible
Speaker 1: playmaking forward who also is a dominant score It was
Speaker 1: over a points over a point per possession in pick
Speaker 1: and roll and in ISO one point one to three
Speaker 1: points per possession when he passed out a pick and
Speaker 1: roll one point two points per possession when he passed
Speaker 1: out ISO. And that's the key there, it's the mix
Speaker 1: of both. He's got this three level scoring piece. Forty
Speaker 1: two percent on catch and shoot jumpers, forty four percent
Speaker 1: on pull up jumpers, forty nine percent on floaters, sixty
Speaker 1: two percent at the rim. So he's crossing all the
Speaker 1: boxes in terms of shot making. He's gonna hit all
Speaker 1: the crazy ISO pull up jumpers over the top of
Speaker 1: the defense. But at the same time, if you send
Speaker 1: multiple defenders at him, he's going to pick you apart.
Speaker 1: And we saw that translate to the playoffs. And that's
Speaker 1: the key last year, not this just not the season
Speaker 1: that just happened, but the year before twenty seven six
Speaker 1: and six on fifty eight percent true shooting against the
Speaker 1: Sun six point two assists per assists per game, was magnificent,
Speaker 1: making roles in making reads in pick and roll. I
Speaker 1: think that I think that Brandon Ingram represents kind of
Speaker 1: the future of that position, that like super versatile forward
Speaker 1: that can score at a high level and can pass
Speaker 1: at a high level. His biggest offensive weakness right now,
Speaker 1: it's getting to the rim. He averaged just two point
Speaker 1: three restricted area makes per game and shot just sixty
Speaker 1: two percent when he was there. Defense, that's a super
Speaker 1: common issue for the tall, lanky, skinny Wings because they
Speaker 1: have a high center of gravity. A lot of teams
Speaker 1: will put smaller defenders on them that are really quick
Speaker 1: and that can disrupt their base and so guys are
Speaker 1: good at cutting them off and forcing them to shoot
Speaker 1: over the top. But the advantage is is that's what
Speaker 1: these guys specialize at. They specialize at making shots over
Speaker 1: the top of the defense, and that is this very
Speaker 1: similar problem that Kevin Durant has. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: brandon Ingram gets to the rim considerably more frequently than
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant does. But that is a common issue for
Speaker 1: the big, lanky Wings. His biggest overall weakness right now
Speaker 1: is the defensive end of the floor. Brandon Ingram is
Speaker 1: capable of being an all defense level defender, but he
Speaker 1: just hasn't shown that since leaving the Lakers. And that's
Speaker 1: a problem because again, like we talk about, that's how
Speaker 1: you set the tone that trickles down the roster. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's a coincidence that teams that have stars
Speaker 1: that commit to the defensive end are typically the ones
Speaker 1: that win. Obviously, Yoke and Murray, they're an exception that
Speaker 1: that Nuggets team was an exception that proved the rule.
Speaker 1: You go back the year before. Steph Curry obviously is
Speaker 1: an offensive player, but has always been committed to the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor. And Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson was an excellent perimeter defensive player. In the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two finals straight up locked up Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: towards the tail end of that series. Draymond Green, you know,
Speaker 1: top five defender in this entire era. Like you get
Speaker 1: the point, they're built on defense. Go back the year before,
Speaker 1: you know Jannison, Tennakupo, Drew Holliday. They commit to the
Speaker 1: defensive end to the floor. That's like their bread and butter.
Speaker 1: They won the title defending the year before, Lebron James
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis they won the title defending. Twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard Sergebaka Pascal Siakam, they won the title defending,
Speaker 1: and then even going back to the Warriors rosters. You know,
Speaker 1: even one of their KD titles, they were a top
Speaker 1: ten defense. So make no mistake that commitment to the
Speaker 1: defensive end is a prerequisite if you are not the
Speaker 1: best offensive player in the league the way that Nicola
Speaker 1: Jokich is. And so for brandon Ingram, that's the next
Speaker 1: step to him. A commitment to the defensive end is
Speaker 1: going to be what it takes for him to get
Speaker 1: to that all NBA level instead of hovering around that
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty area and then obviously just learning to take
Speaker 1: better care of his body so that he's available to
Speaker 1: his team. So brandon Ingram at nineteen, All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today. We'll have eighteen,
Speaker 1: seventeen and sixteen tomorrow. As always, I appreciate you, guys,
Speaker 1: and I'll see you that the volume