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Speaker 1: in West Virginia. YEA, all right, Welcome to Hoops Tonight,
Speaker 1: presented by Fandel here at the Volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody.
Speaker 1: I hope all of you guys are having a great
Speaker 1: week so far. The Lakers on a wind streak, the
Speaker 1: Lakers fun to watch play basketball, which could not be
Speaker 1: further from what it was like last year. We're going
Speaker 1: to be breaking down the lakers big win at home
Speaker 1: over the New Orleans Pelicans. And then for those of
Speaker 1: you guys who stick around for the back half of
Speaker 1: the show, we're gonna talk about the Celtics Cavs matchup
Speaker 1: from earlier tonight, which was incredible, and then we are
Speaker 1: going to dive into the Knicks and the Hawks, a
Speaker 1: couple of teams that we haven't touched on yet this season.
Speaker 1: You guys know the drill. Before we get started. Subscribe
Speaker 1: to the volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more
Speaker 1: of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscored Aason lt.
Speaker 1: That's where show announcements will go, as well as some
Speaker 1: of our footage breakdowns that we do because of some
Speaker 1: of the limitations that we have on YouTube. And then,
Speaker 1: last but not least, for whatever reason, you miss one
Speaker 1: of these shows and you can't get back over to
Speaker 1: YouTube to finish them, you can find them wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight, so I was talking
Speaker 1: to Ryan, one of our producers before the show about
Speaker 1: how it just kind of felt like the Lakers deserved
Speaker 1: to win this game. Um, they basically outplayed the Pelicans
Speaker 1: for the vast majority of the game, except for the
Speaker 1: lakers best player, Lebron James, is having a really rough
Speaker 1: start to this season and was giving the Lakers almost
Speaker 1: nothing and was downright detrimental at a couple of specific
Speaker 1: stretches of the game. We're gonna talk a lot about
Speaker 1: Lebron later on in the show, but I do not
Speaker 1: want to leave a lead with him. But you know,
Speaker 1: in that kind of case, you know, it just kind
Speaker 1: of felt like on that final possession and you get
Speaker 1: a couple of missed free throws and Matt Ryan breaks
Speaker 1: free in the opposite corner, it's like, you know, you
Speaker 1: either believe in that sort of thing or you don't
Speaker 1: call it. The basketball gods call it basketball karma. I
Speaker 1: don't know what you call it, but I just generally
Speaker 1: believe that sometimes those sorts of things tend to go
Speaker 1: your way when you're playing good basketball. And a lot
Speaker 1: of those kinds of shots did not go the Lakers
Speaker 1: way last year because they weren't playing good basketball. Are
Speaker 1: they related? Probably not, But for the sake of making
Speaker 1: it more fun, let's just pretend that it is. And
Speaker 1: you know, there were a couple of specific things on
Speaker 1: that play that I found interesting. First of all, Austin
Speaker 1: reeves through an absolute dime across the court, hitting Matt
Speaker 1: Ryan in stride so perfectly so that Matt didn't have
Speaker 1: to go out of his way to catch the basketball,
Speaker 1: and because of that, he got to take a second
Speaker 1: to look down at his feet, and if you look
Speaker 1: at the replay, Matt is hyper focused on making sure
Speaker 1: he's behind the line, but also that he has an
Speaker 1: enough room for him to turn and plant his right
Speaker 1: foot on that shot. And you know, um when when
Speaker 1: you're shooting over your left shoulder, turning in any sort
Speaker 1: of way, and mostly it's on post fade aways, but
Speaker 1: you'll also see it on guards and wings when they're
Speaker 1: flying around screens and movement shooting situations. But right handed
Speaker 1: shooters naturally shoot with their shoulders usually a little bit
Speaker 1: off center, with the right shoulder towards the rim, and
Speaker 1: so it's really difficult to get squared up unless you
Speaker 1: jump extra high and kick that right foot around. It's
Speaker 1: kind of like a little detail of skill development when
Speaker 1: it comes to shooting for right handed shooters, either in
Speaker 1: fade aways over their left shoulders or in movement shots
Speaker 1: over moving towards their left and on that play, Matt
Speaker 1: had plenty of time to look down, planted that right foot, hard,
Speaker 1: kick that right foot around, and stuck the jump shot,
Speaker 1: and the Lakers had more life and in in over time,
Speaker 1: it was all about the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: They held the Pelicans to six points. Should have been
Speaker 1: four too, because there was a play where Zian Williamson
Speaker 1: stepped out of bounds. Really you had that um, really
Speaker 1: tough left handed hook shot off the glass that Zion
Speaker 1: hit over Anthony Davis's contest, a shot that Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: defended almost perfectly. You just got to tip the cap
Speaker 1: design and it's a great shot. And then they're at
Speaker 1: the end of the game when the game was basically over,
Speaker 1: c Jim McCollums stuck a pretty tough, little midrange pull
Speaker 1: up jump shot. But other than that, it was a
Speaker 1: whole lot of stops there in that overtime run. And
Speaker 1: that has become the identity of this Laker team, and
Speaker 1: that specific type of identity the defensive end of the
Speaker 1: floor is the kind of identity that will win you
Speaker 1: a lot of basketball games because it will keep things close.
Speaker 1: Your offense can be up and down. For instance, Lebron
Speaker 1: James is a good jump shooter. Yes, his legs look
Speaker 1: problematic right now, we're gonna get to that, and he's
Speaker 1: struggling to finish around the rim the last couple of games.
Speaker 1: But Lebron James is a good jump shooter. But he's
Speaker 1: in a shooting slump right now. There are a lot
Speaker 1: of players around the league that are in shooting slumps
Speaker 1: right now. Trey Young is in a shooting slump. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about him later tonight. There are a lot
Speaker 1: of guys are in the league that can go through
Speaker 1: shooting slump if you have a defensive identity that you
Speaker 1: can lean back on that is there every single night,
Speaker 1: provided you play hard, that a good defensive teams will
Speaker 1: mail in a game here there. That sort of thing
Speaker 1: can happen. But for the most part, if you have
Speaker 1: a defensive identity and you have the personnel to do it,
Speaker 1: and you care enough to try, it is a dependable outcome.
Speaker 1: And that's why it's such a good type of identity
Speaker 1: to have. And that's why when we look at NBA history,
Speaker 1: you almost always have to be a top ten defense
Speaker 1: in order to win an NBA championship. And then we
Speaker 1: look at last year and the two teams that were
Speaker 1: in the finals were the first and second best defense
Speaker 1: in the league. That is the most reliable way to
Speaker 1: win basketball games. In overtime, both Lebron and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: got key stops on Zion Lebron kind of tried to
Speaker 1: take a charge on Zion, which forces Zion to change
Speaker 1: up his steps on a transition play. It was funny.
Speaker 1: I was talking about to Ryan again and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: fell over one of his teammates in the backcourt, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, guaranteed bucket. Every time Anthony Davis falls down,
Speaker 1: there's a bucket on the other end. And Lebron like
Speaker 1: kind of tried to took a charge, take a charge,
Speaker 1: and it messed up Zion's footwork and he changed his
Speaker 1: steps a little bit and he missed the left handed
Speaker 1: layup that he makes the time. So it's a big
Speaker 1: play from Lebron, and then that ended up leading to
Speaker 1: a runout dunk for a d who stayed on the
Speaker 1: other end of the floor. And then Anthony Davis got
Speaker 1: a key stop late in the game where Zion tried
Speaker 1: that big fake spin move that always comes back to
Speaker 1: his left hand and ended up shooting the layup over
Speaker 1: the front of the rim. And then Patrick Beverley was
Speaker 1: a big time move from uh from Darvin Ham to
Speaker 1: go away from Russ at the end of the game.
Speaker 1: And Russ was really good overall in this game. Arguably
Speaker 1: his best game as a Laker, at least his best
Speaker 1: half as a Laker, and again we'll talk about him
Speaker 1: in a little bit, but to go away from Russ
Speaker 1: at the end of the game because you were getting
Speaker 1: a little bit more of a natural shooting aravity from
Speaker 1: Patrick Beverley and then trusting him to defend well, it
Speaker 1: was a big time move from Darvin Hammon. You were
Speaker 1: rewarded with two pivotal offensive rebounds by Patrick Beverley off
Speaker 1: of miss jump shots, and he played great defense on CJ.
Speaker 1: McCollum applying back pressure. And you know what's so important
Speaker 1: about back pressure on these guards is you know, when
Speaker 1: they're coming off of these ball screens, they're seeing clear
Speaker 1: airspace in front of them, usually especially in a scheme
Speaker 1: like Darvin Hams where the biggest dropping so far back.
Speaker 1: But if you are consistently applying back pressure, the guards
Speaker 1: still will not feel comfortable because even though he sees
Speaker 1: clear airspace in front of him, he's gonna be paranoid
Speaker 1: that there's something coming from behind, whether it's a hand,
Speaker 1: a reach, or digging at the ball from behind to
Speaker 1: try to get it while it's in your shooting pocket.
Speaker 1: It just adds a level of discomfort to the offensive player,
Speaker 1: which can lead to missus. And then you know, Lebron
Speaker 1: James couldn't make a jump shot to save his life
Speaker 1: again tonight. But there was a play there at the
Speaker 1: end where he just willed his way to the basket
Speaker 1: bullyball style for a layup to put the Lakers up five.
Speaker 1: Just you know, the stretches of good offensive basketball from
Speaker 1: Lebron in this game, which was basically that one sequence.
Speaker 1: And then there's a little stretch at the end of
Speaker 1: the third quarter we went on a six oh run
Speaker 1: on three straight post ups. It's all just wiley, veteran
Speaker 1: old man just just just willing the basketball into the
Speaker 1: rim and uh and that's all he's got left at
Speaker 1: this point until he figures out what's going on with
Speaker 1: his legs, which we'll see. Um. You know, the Pells
Speaker 1: made it interesting. Zion was fantastic late in this game,
Speaker 1: especially at the end of the third quarter. There was
Speaker 1: a stretch there where the Lakers left winging Gabriel on
Speaker 1: him and Zion just absolutely abused him. Another question I
Speaker 1: had about Lebron, like Lebron just didn't want that matchup,
Speaker 1: and I know He's capable of doing a better job
Speaker 1: on Zion than when you was, so I was a
Speaker 1: little confused by that as well. H J. Alvarado was
Speaker 1: incredible at the end of the third quarter and to
Speaker 1: start the fourth quarter, making momentum defensive plays, knocking down
Speaker 1: spot up, thrazy airball to three in the right corner,
Speaker 1: and then just started making everything after that. He also
Speaker 1: has a really nice little running scoop shot and tear
Speaker 1: drop in the lane that he was making and then
Speaker 1: uh in a in o t You know, all all
Speaker 1: season long, I've been most impressed with Zion's passing ability,
Speaker 1: and even on the play that didn't count where he
Speaker 1: drove baseline or shouldn't have counted when he stepped out
Speaker 1: of bounds, Zion just has such a natural passing feel
Speaker 1: and he puts the ball with pace on target, which
Speaker 1: makes it really difficult to rotate out off of his passes.
Speaker 1: And you know, I used to say this about Zion
Speaker 1: or about Janice all the time. If you are unstoppable
Speaker 1: at the basket, which Janice is and Zion. It fun
Speaker 1: fact about the one season I think, yeah, one season
Speaker 1: last year's Zion played a lot. Janice was not the
Speaker 1: most effective restricted area scorer in the league. It was Zion.
Speaker 1: Zion is actually the most dominent paint scorer in the league.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't matter what kind of jump shot you have.
Speaker 1: Everyone thinks of the jump shot like, oh, you need
Speaker 1: to be able to shoot over the top, not necessarily
Speaker 1: if you can get to the basket at will, they're
Speaker 1: gonna have to send multiple defensive players and build a wall,
Speaker 1: and you have to show a willingness to beat teams
Speaker 1: with the pass and especially with the In the first
Speaker 1: half and then late fourth quarter, o T I was
Speaker 1: really impressed was Zion's passing ability. Um, So those are
Speaker 1: just a couple of Pelicans I wanted to shout out
Speaker 1: in this particular game, a couple of specific things I
Speaker 1: saw late in this game because Russ, you know, Russ
Speaker 1: played his best half that I've ever seen him play
Speaker 1: as a Laker. He was flying around on defense. He
Speaker 1: even defended really well on c J. McCollum in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter before Darvin ham benched him. Um, he took
Speaker 1: a charge. He was grabbing contested rebounds on both ends
Speaker 1: of the floor. He defended Zion really well on a
Speaker 1: couple of switches that he got and that if there
Speaker 1: were a couple possessions where he was either transition cross
Speaker 1: matches or he was outright assigned to Zion. But Russ
Speaker 1: defended really really well on those possessions, and then on offense,
Speaker 1: he just played smart. He made extra passes on his
Speaker 1: spot up possessions. He made a spot up three. I
Speaker 1: think the two jump shots that he missed were both
Speaker 1: um the two early threes that he missed were both
Speaker 1: off the dribble. He picked his spots to drive better.
Speaker 1: That's a huge, huge part of Russ's late career development
Speaker 1: is understanding that he can't just elevate over four people anymore.
Speaker 1: He's got to pick his spots better, and just in general.
Speaker 1: In the last couple of games, that's a big part
Speaker 1: of what I've noticed. It's fewer drives to the rim,
Speaker 1: but more effective when he goes because he's just being
Speaker 1: more picky about when he's doing it. And then we
Speaker 1: had that run there at the end of the second quarter,
Speaker 1: which was incredible. I think the Lakers held the Pelicans
Speaker 1: to eleven points total over the last ten minutes because
Speaker 1: once again it's about their defensive identity. They held the
Speaker 1: Pells to eleven over the last ten minutes of the half,
Speaker 1: and at the end of the half, they just spammed Lebron.
Speaker 1: James Russell Westbrook pick and roll with Russ says the
Speaker 1: ball handle and in every single case, they gotta, they gotta.
Speaker 1: Lebron got a dunk out of it. There were a
Speaker 1: couple plays where he hit Lebron for kickouts, but for
Speaker 1: the most part, the Pelicans are running drop covered, so
Speaker 1: they had Trey Murphy on Russ and they had Nagi
Speaker 1: Marshall Marshall on Lebron, and as Russ was coming off
Speaker 1: of the screen, Trey Murphy's chasing over the top and
Speaker 1: Naji Marshall is sitting to contain Russ, and then they're
Speaker 1: bringing help out of the weak side to bring over
Speaker 1: to to Lebron as the role man. It was kind
Speaker 1: of like a really confusing defensive scheme because you just
Speaker 1: don't need to do that with that specific action. But
Speaker 1: Russ was just making easy kickout passes and then it
Speaker 1: was bang bang extra passes and guys started knocking down threes,
Speaker 1: and Lonnie Walker and Troy Brown Jr. In particular, the
Speaker 1: two of them made a lot of really important timely
Speaker 1: spot up threes in this game. And again, like when
Speaker 1: it comes to the Lakers shooting situation, they don't need
Speaker 1: to be a great shooting team. That's just that's not
Speaker 1: that big of a deal. But you do need to
Speaker 1: be able to make a decent percentage of the wide
Speaker 1: open ones that you get out of really solid offensive action.
Speaker 1: You can be picky, limit your attempts, take high quality attempts,
Speaker 1: and professional basketball players are going to hit them at
Speaker 1: a decent percentage. This is not the type of team
Speaker 1: until they make a trade that's gonna be able to
Speaker 1: hit lots of difficult three point shots. But if they're timely,
Speaker 1: they and they knocked them down, that's enough for them
Speaker 1: to win games because of how well they defended and
Speaker 1: when they were running that Lebron Russ pick and roll,
Speaker 1: Troy Brown Jr. Was knocking down shots. Lonnie Walker was
Speaker 1: knocking down shots. That's really all you need in those situations.
Speaker 1: But I thought it was really interesting because he came
Speaker 1: out in the third quarter his shift. In that shift,
Speaker 1: he struggled a little bit, had a couple of turnovers,
Speaker 1: had a couple of mislayups, but then when he came
Speaker 1: back in the fourth quarter, he defended well and was
Speaker 1: making plays. Overall, it was a great russ S game.
Speaker 1: But I tweeted, if you guys saw those of you
Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter, I tweeted out at halftime, I
Speaker 1: went back and rewatched those Spann pick and rolls, and
Speaker 1: the ridge was something you don't usually see against the Lakers. Russ, Lebron, James,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, You're gonna think a lot of pick and roll, right,
Speaker 1: Russe and Lebron are two great passers and two great
Speaker 1: downhill ball handlers. Anthony Davis is a great roleman, and
Speaker 1: even Lebron can be a great roleman. So there's all
Speaker 1: these different combinations for you to think Lakers are gonna
Speaker 1: run a ton of pick and roll. But they haven't,
Speaker 1: not even just in the Russ era, but before that,
Speaker 1: in the Lebron James Anthony Davis area, they haven't run
Speaker 1: a lot of pick and roll. And the main reason
Speaker 1: why is because Anthony Davis can't shoot and Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: doesn't shoot very well. And so when those guys are
Speaker 1: um um, when those guys are in those actions, they're
Speaker 1: constantly trying to get downhill and bully you physically. Lebron's
Speaker 1: a bulleyball player. Russ as a bulleyball player, Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: can be a bulletball player and if he's taking jump shots,
Speaker 1: you win usually, right. So what happens is every team
Speaker 1: that's good puts big forwards on all three of them,
Speaker 1: and they just switched the action. And even during the
Speaker 1: championship season, when Lebron James and Anthony Davis would run
Speaker 1: pick and roll, it was a switch. The differences is
Speaker 1: that in that season Anthony Davis was a great is
Speaker 1: A player and then when Lebron James had the ball,
Speaker 1: they had respectable enough shooting that he had lots of
Speaker 1: work room to work, and he was a great is
Speaker 1: A player. So they'd run the pick and roll, attack
Speaker 1: the match or the screening action, and they'd attack the
Speaker 1: matchup that they'd like, or they just skip the pick
Speaker 1: and roll altogether and just go to one of them too.
Speaker 1: When teams run drop coverage against Lebron, Russ and a
Speaker 1: d it opens up all of that stuff that makes
Speaker 1: it look all fluid and nice. And I tweeted that
Speaker 1: out because my concern was, Okay, Russ is playing great,
Speaker 1: but that coverage is not a coverage they're gonna see often,
Speaker 1: and then we got late in the game and they
Speaker 1: started switching, and all of a sudden, it becomes a
Speaker 1: little bit more problematic when Lebron James is iso wing
Speaker 1: out of a switch pick and roll against Larry Nan
Speaker 1: and Russ's man is sagging off and Anthony Davis's man
Speaker 1: is sagging off and there's just not a lot of space,
Speaker 1: and now you're getting pull up jumpers and Lebron doesn't
Speaker 1: have the legs to just bully his way to the
Speaker 1: rim the way he usually does, and you start to
Speaker 1: get a lot of settled for jump shots and it
Speaker 1: becomes a problem. And that's kind of where I was
Speaker 1: coming back to on that whole situation, is like, like
Speaker 1: Russ was really really good. He's been really good for
Speaker 1: two games in a row. Now, I'd argue this is
Speaker 1: the best two game stretch since he came to the Lakers.
Speaker 1: But the reality is, especially when they get into tougher
Speaker 1: matchups against teams that have the ForWords to just switch
Speaker 1: those actions or just not dumb enough to run drop
Speaker 1: coverage against them, you run into the same conundrum. They're
Speaker 1: gonna switch a big guy onto Russ and then he
Speaker 1: won't be able to bully them and then he won't
Speaker 1: shoot the ball. Well, then when you have Lebron Iso,
Speaker 1: they're gonna help off of Russ into the lane. Now,
Speaker 1: Russ has been a lot better in recent games at
Speaker 1: being active off the ball. He grabbed pivotal offensive rebounds tonight,
Speaker 1: Russ has been a lot better. In fact, I'd say
Speaker 1: he's been good overall this season. But the problem is
Speaker 1: is that it has a certain ceiling to it, right,
Speaker 1: and then you saw tonight they couldn't actually use him
Speaker 1: in crunch time, or at least they opted not to,
Speaker 1: so even though he was really good. The idealized version
Speaker 1: of this team is you look at the roster and
Speaker 1: you go, I've got Lebron James, I've got Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: I've got all these guys that are defending. They have
Speaker 1: arguably the best defense in the league, uh you know,
Speaker 1: at least the best defense in the Western Conference. And
Speaker 1: you have the opportunity to turn Russ into two or
Speaker 1: three offensive role players that bring in a little bit
Speaker 1: more firepower to this team. And you're not sacrificing any
Speaker 1: defense because you've got all of these defensive players that
Speaker 1: are thriving next to Lebron James and Anthony Davis. So
Speaker 1: I I don't think it changes the outlook for how
Speaker 1: the Lakers should proceed from a strategy standpoint. But that said,
Speaker 1: I'm very happy for Rus. He deserved to have a
Speaker 1: couple of really positive moments with the Lakers. I hope
Speaker 1: he has a couple more before they do a trade him. Hell,
Speaker 1: I hope he just flat out just continues to excel
Speaker 1: and they don't need to trade him. I just think
Speaker 1: we have to acknowledge the realities of the situation. All Right,
Speaker 1: a couple of guys I want to hit on before
Speaker 1: we get out of here. Lebron so, I thought he
Speaker 1: was pretty bad in the third quarter run, particularly on
Speaker 1: the defensive end. Um left winding on an island too much. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then late in the game he had a bad
Speaker 1: foul on Zion and a turnaround Uh late, I think
Speaker 1: it was just end of the fourth quarter, a bad
Speaker 1: foul and a turnaround where where he should have just
Speaker 1: walled up and made Zion make a shot. Instead he
Speaker 1: reached in and then on the offensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: Right now. Now, there was a report that in the
Speaker 1: first quarter he took his shoe off like he took
Speaker 1: his left shoe off and was just sitting on the
Speaker 1: bench with his left foot out. Now he's been complaining
Speaker 1: about left foot soreness, and it's obviously leading to some
Speaker 1: limitations in his explosiveness. That goes without saying. You can
Speaker 1: literally see it watching the games. I had a stress
Speaker 1: fracture in between my first and second year playing in college,
Speaker 1: and the way it manifested is foot sore, nous, your
Speaker 1: photo sore, and then you start to play and it
Speaker 1: loosens up, and then you stop playing and it just
Speaker 1: aches like all hell. And then basically what happens is
Speaker 1: it gets a little bit worse every time you play,
Speaker 1: and then if you take a day off, it gets
Speaker 1: a little better, and if you take two days off,
Speaker 1: it gets a lot better. But then as soon as
Speaker 1: you start playing, it gets worse and worse again. And
Speaker 1: so that's the one thing that scares me with the
Speaker 1: lebron thing, is I hope that's not where that's trending.
Speaker 1: I hope it's just some foot soreness, maybe some you know,
Speaker 1: ligament inflammation or something like that, and not something more serious,
Speaker 1: because the explosiveness is not there, and as a result,
Speaker 1: he's not confident in his jump shot, and he's been
Speaker 1: good defensively overall this season. But you just this, none
Speaker 1: of this makes any sense unless Lebron is great, and
Speaker 1: so I may think it. You know, they can't afford
Speaker 1: to bench him, and I don't mean bench in terms
Speaker 1: of for his play, but they can't afford to give
Speaker 1: him a couple of weeks for his foot to heal
Speaker 1: because of just a predicament that they're in in the standings.
Speaker 1: But it may be worthwhile to cut his minutes because
Speaker 1: especially in these weeks before a rush trade, because if
Speaker 1: Russ is giving you what he's giving you on ball,
Speaker 1: which is a better version, a lot lot better version
Speaker 1: of what you got last year, if you're getting that
Speaker 1: from Russ, and you can cut Lebron's minutes back to
Speaker 1: thirty a game for a little while until that foot
Speaker 1: kind of starts to come back to come back to
Speaker 1: life a little bit. Then you get an idealized version
Speaker 1: of Lebron. Because I do believe there's a better version
Speaker 1: of him that will see this season. I'm just worried
Speaker 1: that he might get hurt before then, and so it's
Speaker 1: just something that they need to be careful with because
Speaker 1: right now, I mean if it's like it's a problem,
Speaker 1: like he's not getting to the rim and finishing well.
Speaker 1: There's a play overtime where he drove to the lane
Speaker 1: um and to step on CJ mccollumn and just threw
Speaker 1: the ball in the bottom of the rip. And just
Speaker 1: even even last year, that's a dunk. He shrugs CJ
Speaker 1: off of him and dunks the basketball in his prime,
Speaker 1: It's a Sports Center Top five type of dunk like that.
Speaker 1: That that's He's just not Lebron right now. He's honestly
Speaker 1: the one big question. Mark Ross has been the best
Speaker 1: he's been since he's been with the Lakers. Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: I think is the early leader for defensive Player of
Speaker 1: the Year. There's no other exceptional defenders on this Laker team.
Speaker 1: The only player in the league averaging over two blocks
Speaker 1: and two steals per game is Anthony Davis. Has been
Speaker 1: amazing And the biggest thing with Anthony Davis's standing out
Speaker 1: to me is his instincts on drop off passes and
Speaker 1: interior feeds, like things around the lane. He keeps his
Speaker 1: hands out and low in all those pocket pass areas
Speaker 1: and drop off pass areas. I can't tell you how
Speaker 1: many times you see a player drive into the lane,
Speaker 1: think they have Anthony Davison help, and then pump Bacon
Speaker 1: then go to throw a bounce pad sat Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: just sticks his arm down and grabs it, and that
Speaker 1: triggers a lot of the Laker fast break stuff. These
Speaker 1: are guys too, that are not necessarily regarded as great
Speaker 1: defensive players. Lonnie Walker was regarded as a bad defensive
Speaker 1: player in San Antonio. I've always thought Austin Reeves was good,
Speaker 1: But if you talk to the other guys around the league,
Speaker 1: they're like, oh yeah, attack Austin Reeves every time down
Speaker 1: the floor. Lebron is coming off of one of his
Speaker 1: worst defensive seasons because he just didn't care to do anything,
Speaker 1: although he's been a lot better this year. You know,
Speaker 1: there's there. There's a lot of guys that Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: is another example of that. There are good defensive players.
Speaker 1: Troy Brown Jr. Is a good defensive player. Patrick Beverley
Speaker 1: is a good defensive player who wants Ascano Anderson, who's
Speaker 1: out of the rotation now, is a good defensive player.
Speaker 1: When you Gabriel is capable, but like it's not it's
Speaker 1: not an elite defensive squad. It's it's guys competing and
Speaker 1: then Anthony Davis just being an alien and a superstar
Speaker 1: on the defensive end of the floor. But if I'm
Speaker 1: looking at the Lakers as I zoom out, you've got
Speaker 1: the defensive identity is real. That's a real thing. It's
Speaker 1: going to help them win a lot of games this year.
Speaker 1: They're starting to shoot the ball better. That's good news.
Speaker 1: We saw that coming. There was no way they were
Speaker 1: gonna keep shooting from the field. They're starting to knock
Speaker 1: down some of their wide open threes that they get
Speaker 1: in the offense. Russell Westbrook, even though I still think
Speaker 1: he needs to be traded, is playing the best that
Speaker 1: he's played since he came to the Lakers. Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: in the last couple of games has played like a
Speaker 1: top ten player. There's lots of good there. The one
Speaker 1: big question mark is Lebron and so I I hope,
Speaker 1: I hope it's just this foot and that he can
Speaker 1: figure it out and get it together, because if he's
Speaker 1: if this is the Lebron you're getting, then there is
Speaker 1: no there's there's no legitimate ceiling for this team. He
Speaker 1: hasn't been one of the top ten players in the
Speaker 1: league to start this season. And here's the thing, man,
Speaker 1: he's he's in his twentieth season, he's about to turn
Speaker 1: thirty eight in December, and he's got all these commercials
Speaker 1: about him competing against Father Time. I saw one today
Speaker 1: where he blocks uh, the Father Time guy off of
Speaker 1: the glass, and and it's like, Lebron wins. And the
Speaker 1: funny thing is here, through seven games or whatever this is,
Speaker 1: I would argue Father Time is winning. So I'm rooting
Speaker 1: for Lebron. I hope he can figure it out. And
Speaker 1: I'm glad we got a fun, fun to watch Lakers team.
Speaker 1: Like I told you guys, they're defending, so all they
Speaker 1: needed to do was get a couple of shots to
Speaker 1: fall and they were gonna start winning basketball games. And
Speaker 1: they've won two in a row. All right, let's move
Speaker 1: on and talk about the Celtics losing an ot on
Speaker 1: the road in Cleveland. Al Right, we are live on AMP.
Speaker 1: For those of you guys who are watching on YouTuber
Speaker 1: on the podcast feeds, don't forget that AMP is the
Speaker 1: first place where you can get these post game shows.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be covering that incredible basketball game between the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have given us
Speaker 1: two incredible basketball games already this season, both of which
Speaker 1: went to overtime. And then we're gonna talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about the Knicks and the Hawks, who also had
Speaker 1: a really interesting game tonight. Those are two teams as
Speaker 1: well that I have not yet done a deep dive
Speaker 1: into this year, so I wanted to get to them.
Speaker 1: And what a perfect example Trey Young on the road
Speaker 1: in MSG. Great opportunity for us to get into that game.
Speaker 1: Nicks led by twenty three and got blown out, really
Speaker 1: really weird game. We're starting with the Celtics and the Calves,
Speaker 1: and this was This was a really interesting game that
Speaker 1: had a lot of ebb and flow, a lot of
Speaker 1: runs from both teams. Both teams at various points felt
Speaker 1: like they had the game completely under control, but neither
Speaker 1: was able to hang on for any extended period of time.
Speaker 1: And I thought it really I thought for both teams,
Speaker 1: really it hinged on perimeter contain, which is always been
Speaker 1: what I believe is the most important skill on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor over the course of the
Speaker 1: last couple of years, because you need dribble penetration to
Speaker 1: get high quality shots. It's that simple. Even really good
Speaker 1: pull up jump shooters, that's not a good shot necessarily.
Speaker 1: It's an okay shot. It's a shot you'll live with.
Speaker 1: But nothing is as good as a driving layup already
Speaker 1: wide open three on a driving kick, or a really
Speaker 1: good post mismatch when you've got a good size advantage.
Speaker 1: And so when as teams contain the basketball, they tend
Speaker 1: to get stops, and when they get stops, they get
Speaker 1: opportunities to get out in transition, which helps you avoid
Speaker 1: the other team's half court defense, and then you start
Speaker 1: to get easy baskets. And then you know that can
Speaker 1: sway one way or the other as one team continues
Speaker 1: or to get to do a better job containing the basketball,
Speaker 1: or to do a wars shop. That kind of reminds
Speaker 1: me of the offensive line versus defensive line battle in football.
Speaker 1: We pay a lot of attention to things like, you know,
Speaker 1: quarterback play, skill position play, you know, coverage down the
Speaker 1: field in the secondary, but the reality is as so
Speaker 1: much as happening there in the trenches, and whichever team
Speaker 1: is controlling that area of the game usually has a
Speaker 1: significant advantage Boston's second quarter run when they took I
Speaker 1: think they took an eight point lead. In this game,
Speaker 1: there was like five or six possessions in a row
Speaker 1: where the Calves didn't even get a foot in the paint.
Speaker 1: And then Carris LeVert and and Darius Garland kind of
Speaker 1: we're looking at each other like what are we supposed
Speaker 1: to do? At one point there was a turnover on
Speaker 1: a swing path us because like LeVert just didn't know
Speaker 1: if he should try to drive. And Boston can make
Speaker 1: you feel helpless sometimes because you know someone needs to
Speaker 1: create an advantage, and and without Robert Williams are doing
Speaker 1: a lot more switching than they usually do. A lot
Speaker 1: of times, it's like carrying at each other to attack
Speaker 1: Jaome Brown. I don't necessarily think that's the right matchup.
Speaker 1: Or he'll be like, oh, well I got Jayson Tatum
Speaker 1: on me, Like I I don't have the right matchup,
Speaker 1: or okay, I guess we can go to this guy.
Speaker 1: He's being guarded by Marcus Smart and things can really
Speaker 1: bog down and get really stagnant, and Boston can be
Speaker 1: really intimidating in those moments, and that's when they go
Speaker 1: on their runs and then in the third quarter, when
Speaker 1: the Cams went on their run, they started to get
Speaker 1: dribble penetration. Donovan Mitchell made a driving bank shot going
Speaker 1: to his right, and then Darius Garland started getting downhill
Speaker 1: and kicking two shooters, and then they started to gain
Speaker 1: control of that again. And then you also had a
Speaker 1: classic Boston offense stretch there in the mid second half.
Speaker 1: Over the final nine eight minutes of the third quarter,
Speaker 1: the Celtics managed only ten points. Lots of bad pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots. Again, some of that is Cleveland containing
Speaker 1: the basketball, lots of miss layups, lots of turnovers. And
Speaker 1: then Boston goes on a huge defensive run to start
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter and Cleveland doesn't score for almost four minutes.
Speaker 1: And that was your kind of back and forth throughout
Speaker 1: the game. And then we got the crunch time and
Speaker 1: it was basically Donovan Mitchell shot making versus the Celtics
Speaker 1: punishing the Calves on the other end of the floor
Speaker 1: for having some weak perimeter defensive players. Mitchell had a
Speaker 1: ridiculous series of shot making. He made a nasty step
Speaker 1: through floater over Marcus Smart, he had a step back three,
Speaker 1: he had a driving layup where he initiated contact with
Speaker 1: al Horford kind of caved his chest in a little
Speaker 1: bit so he had the angle to get all the
Speaker 1: way to the rim. He hit a step back two
Speaker 1: over Jalen Brown that was really nasty. And then on
Speaker 1: the other end, UH, Marcus Smart and and Malcolm Brogden
Speaker 1: in particular were really getting good dribble penetration on Darius Garland,
Speaker 1: who's not a good perimeter defend defender in this league.
Speaker 1: And then Donovan Mitchell made a couple of really bad
Speaker 1: defensive mistakes down the stretch as well. There's a player
Speaker 1: where Malcolm Brogden drove along the baseline and Uh Mitchell
Speaker 1: didn't help, also didn't keep a man an eye on
Speaker 1: the man and ball, and Marcus Smart batcut him and
Speaker 1: he gave up an and one. He also gave up
Speaker 1: a way too easy driving layup to Jayson Tatum, where
Speaker 1: he's quick enough that he should be able to contain
Speaker 1: the ball a little bit better. That's gonna be an
Speaker 1: interesting conundrum for the Calves over the course of this
Speaker 1: season is they've got these two incredibly dynamic interior defenders
Speaker 1: and Jared Allen and UH and Evan Mobley, but on
Speaker 1: the perimeter. You've got Donovan Mitchell who makes a lot
Speaker 1: of defensive mistakes, Darius Garland who's just physically not up
Speaker 1: to the task, and then at the small forward position,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like a toss up between they can
Speaker 1: go with Isaac a Cora, who is a much better
Speaker 1: defensive player but has some offensive limitations, where they can
Speaker 1: go with Dean Wade who's shooting the laces off the
Speaker 1: basketball but has defensive limitations. And they're on the final
Speaker 1: play of the game. Um, they left Dean Wade on
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum and he just backcut him and then elevated
Speaker 1: for one of the most disgusting dunks I have ever seen,
Speaker 1: just posterizing Jared Allen to tie the game. And then
Speaker 1: on the other end of the floor a really really
Speaker 1: good defensive play blocking Donovan Mitchell on a pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot. It was a back and forth, incredibly entertaining game,
Speaker 1: and Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland just made a couple
Speaker 1: more plays in ot. Uh they went with Dean Wade
Speaker 1: on Jalen Brown on the final possession instead on Jayson Tatum. Uh,
Speaker 1: he did a better job containing the ball, forced him
Speaker 1: into a tough fadeaway jump shot and you win the
Speaker 1: basketball game. It's very very entertaining game, lots of back
Speaker 1: and forth. Both teams have their weaknesses. Um, but I
Speaker 1: think Cleveland in the long run, they're the team that
Speaker 1: I'm more concerned about between the two, even though they've
Speaker 1: won both of these matchups, because I didn't get a
Speaker 1: playoff series. The Garland Mitchell thing is gonna be a
Speaker 1: little bit of an issue on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor. And then that three spot you've gotta go
Speaker 1: with offense or defense, and that's just a really tough
Speaker 1: decision to make, and it's gonna be matchup dependent in
Speaker 1: most cases. And and I mean just before I have
Speaker 1: two specific topics on these two teams that I want
Speaker 1: to hit. Boston's defense and then also the Darius Garland
Speaker 1: and Donovan Mitchell rhythm stuff. Um. But before we get there,
Speaker 1: I just have to shout out both Jason Tatum and
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell are so incredibly good and they made that
Speaker 1: game so much fun to watch, and both of them
Speaker 1: through just like bursts of other worldly athleticism, left their
Speaker 1: imprint on this game. Obviously the Tatum dunk, but he
Speaker 1: also had another transition layup in ot where he looked
Speaker 1: like a freight train and Cleveland looked helpless. Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 1: had a contested rebound that he grabbed towards the end
Speaker 1: of the game, where you're the balls up in the air,
Speaker 1: there's all these tall dudes on the floor, and here
Speaker 1: comes Donovan Mitchell has what six s two whatever he is,
Speaker 1: just comes flying in and secures the rebound. Just a
Speaker 1: big time winning play from Donovan Mitchell. But I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about Boston for a minute because after I
Speaker 1: believe this is their third loss of the year, and
Speaker 1: they came into the night one on defense. And you
Speaker 1: know what's interesting is is last year in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: transition defense was their problem. They were unbelievably good defensively
Speaker 1: in the half court, but then they would turn the
Speaker 1: basketball over, take bad shots, and then the other team
Speaker 1: would run out for layups while Tatum and Brown were
Speaker 1: complaining to the refs for fouls and things along those lines.
Speaker 1: It's the exact opposite this year. According to Cleaning the Glass,
Speaker 1: the Celtics coming into tonight, we're fourth in transition defense
Speaker 1: and twenty three and half court defense. And the easy
Speaker 1: excuses to say something like, oh, well, it's Robert Williams,
Speaker 1: he's out. But the truth of the matter is while
Speaker 1: Robert Williams does make them a better defense, and he
Speaker 1: is a good defensive a great defensive player, and when
Speaker 1: he comes back, I'm sure he'll fix a lot of
Speaker 1: their problems. But last year, without Robert Williams on the floor,
Speaker 1: they were still very good defensively, and they have all
Speaker 1: of the important pieces from that team that was great
Speaker 1: defensively with Robert Williams off the floor last year. The
Speaker 1: reality is is they just haven't been good enough. They're
Speaker 1: having stretches like they did to start the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: or in the second quarter of this game, where they
Speaker 1: defend really well and the other team looks helpless, but
Speaker 1: then they get sloppy and and you know, some of
Speaker 1: it is malaise. You've made it to the finals last year,
Speaker 1: you know you came this close to winning the title,
Speaker 1: and now you're in this grind of an eight two
Speaker 1: game season and it's hard to find the motivation. I
Speaker 1: get that, but you need to build the habits. There's
Speaker 1: never been a team not not in recent NBA history.
Speaker 1: There's only a handful in NBA history, and they were
Speaker 1: freak talents. Um that one a title without having a
Speaker 1: top ten defense. You need to have your defensive um
Speaker 1: all of your defensive details really sharp over the course
Speaker 1: of a regular season, and right now they're simply not
Speaker 1: good enough. You can't blame Robert Williams. Yes he's coming back,
Speaker 1: but right now you're not good enough outside of that.
Speaker 1: So that's something that they're going to have to figure out.
Speaker 1: Um On the calves, one of the biggest things I
Speaker 1: was looking at in tonight's game was obviously Darius Garland
Speaker 1: coming back, because you know Donovan Mitchell and for for
Speaker 1: all you Cavs fans, we did a deep dive on
Speaker 1: the calves earlier this week. I can't remember which day
Speaker 1: it was, but you can find that on our YouTube feed.
Speaker 1: If you scroll back, you'll find us doing a deep
Speaker 1: dive on the calves. And I talked a lot about
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell in that video, and he's averaging a career
Speaker 1: high and points this year, a career high and assists
Speaker 1: a career high and true shooting percentage. He's having an
Speaker 1: incredible season and a lot of it is about the
Speaker 1: realities of the way rhythm works. Like Donovan Mitchell had
Speaker 1: a great finish to this game, but he kind of
Speaker 1: had a I think he was six for seventeen at
Speaker 1: one point and looked like a little bit lost in
Speaker 1: how to attack, especially in that first half. And that's
Speaker 1: kind of the difference between when you're sharing responsibilities offensively
Speaker 1: versus when you have the show entirely. When you have
Speaker 1: the show entirely one there's you don't even have to
Speaker 1: think about sharing the basketball, so you can mentally just
Speaker 1: focus on shot making rather than worrying too much about
Speaker 1: your worrying too much about the rhythm and flow of
Speaker 1: your team. Now, yes, he's he had a career high
Speaker 1: and assist, but he's kicking the shooters and throwing lobs
Speaker 1: the guys around the basket. It's not like he's sharing
Speaker 1: ball handling responsibilities to any great extent. Carris Lavert has
Speaker 1: been aggressive and he's been good in that role, but
Speaker 1: it's different when you're sharing it with three guys versus
Speaker 1: when you're sharing it with two. You're seeing this with
Speaker 1: Luca don Chech too is having a ridiculous scoring season.
Speaker 1: Now that um um, now that uh now I'm blinking
Speaker 1: on his name. But the little Jalen Brunson, the guard
Speaker 1: that they lost to the Knicks last year, but over
Speaker 1: the summer. But when you have the responsibility solely on
Speaker 1: your plate, you get to you get to shrug off
Speaker 1: the misses. Just keep shooting the balls in your hands
Speaker 1: all the time. You have a good feel for everything
Speaker 1: and you can just focus on that. But with Darius
Speaker 1: Garland coming back, there's gonna be nights where one of
Speaker 1: them has a rough night because they don't really feel
Speaker 1: like they have the basketball enough. And it's going it's
Speaker 1: going to be worth it. The upside of having that
Speaker 1: additional creator is a thousand percent worth it. One creator
Speaker 1: is just are you too easy to stop? In a
Speaker 1: playoff series? Gives you much better matchup flexibility. Like if
Speaker 1: you just have Darius Garland, but you run into a
Speaker 1: team that has two or three really good guard defenders,
Speaker 1: you you're limited in what you can do. But if
Speaker 1: you have two guys and you know one of them
Speaker 1: is a bigger, stronger athlete and one's a little bit
Speaker 1: more methodical and a little bit more of a passing guard,
Speaker 1: you have more matchup flexibility. And what in one series
Speaker 1: or in one matchup, one guy might have an advantage
Speaker 1: and then that can swing and you can go to
Speaker 1: the other guys, so you have flexibility there, you're much
Speaker 1: less predictable, and then the biggest part is just less fatigue.
Speaker 1: It's just really hard to create shots for your team
Speaker 1: without much help over the course of a series. But
Speaker 1: if you've got another guy to go to, you kind
Speaker 1: of share that burden a little bit, so the upside
Speaker 1: is worth it. But it's gonna be an interesting dynamic
Speaker 1: for Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell to work out, because
Speaker 1: you have to learn to feel which one of you
Speaker 1: guys has it that night. Like there are gonna be
Speaker 1: nights where Darius has it and Donovan's got to play
Speaker 1: more of a supporting role and maybe not shoot through
Speaker 1: the slump but rather continue to feed the guy who's
Speaker 1: got it going and focus on other areas of the
Speaker 1: game or vice versa. They're gonna have to read that
Speaker 1: there will also be nights where they both have it
Speaker 1: going and the give and take is great, but the
Speaker 1: dynamic when you're sharing those responsibilities is different, and they're
Speaker 1: gonna have to work that stuff out. UM, for instance,
Speaker 1: you gotta focus on um devoting more resources to the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor because you don't have as
Speaker 1: much on your play offensively. For instance, Donovan Mitchell, this
Speaker 1: was one of his worst defensive games of the season,
Speaker 1: and he got uh. There were several missed rotations where
Speaker 1: he was like glued up to a shooter and one
Speaker 1: pass away there's an open guy, and instead of making
Speaker 1: that extra rotation to close out and make that shot
Speaker 1: more difficult, just kind of stands there and concedes the shot.
Speaker 1: Like when you're sharing the floor with Darius Garland, that
Speaker 1: can't be what you do anymore. Now you don't need
Speaker 1: to save all your energy for the offensive end. You
Speaker 1: have to make those defensive rotations. And then obviously had
Speaker 1: those two really bad mistakes at the end of the
Speaker 1: game when he got backup by Marcus Smart and then
Speaker 1: when he gave about that driving lane to Jayson Tatum.
Speaker 1: And the other part two is just becoming an excellent
Speaker 1: off ball threat. You've got to find a way on
Speaker 1: the possessions where Darius Garland has the ball to be effective. Now,
Speaker 1: both of them are good spot up shooters, and that
Speaker 1: is one part of that, but it goes deeper than that,
Speaker 1: because you can become a better off ball threat if
Speaker 1: you're more willing to set screens when you don't have
Speaker 1: the ball, when you're more willing to cut to the
Speaker 1: basket if you see an opportunity crashing the offensive glass,
Speaker 1: if it calls for it, or if depending on floor balance,
Speaker 1: you might be responsible for transition defense, in which case
Speaker 1: you can help your team by getting back, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So when in this dynamic, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be really interesting to see how it affects the team
Speaker 1: moving forward because they're going to have to figure out
Speaker 1: that balance and they're both going to have to become
Speaker 1: better off the basketball. But super entertaining game two very
Speaker 1: good teams. Yes, Cleveland's two and oh in this matchup,
Speaker 1: but I would pick Boston in a series over them,
Speaker 1: and I think they have legitimate advantages, specifically in perimeter
Speaker 1: size against Cleveland's weak perimeter defenders that would cause them
Speaker 1: problems Cleveland in Cleveland's an exciting team, um, but I
Speaker 1: don't think i'd really get behind them as a legitimate
Speaker 1: contender until Donovan Mitchell really became an impact defensive player,
Speaker 1: which right now he just simply is not. I think
Speaker 1: you can get away with one, you can get away
Speaker 1: with Darius Garland, but you can't get away with two,
Speaker 1: and then obviously you've got to figure out that three
Speaker 1: spot as well. All right, So Nick's and Hawks, we're
Speaker 1: just gonna talk for a couple of minutes um about
Speaker 1: these teams. I had this game on on the side,
Speaker 1: so I was watching it part of the time, but
Speaker 1: obviously didn't have a super close eye on it. Uh.
Speaker 1: The Knicks were dominant early in this game. Defense in
Speaker 1: particular was really really good. They're super physical, They help
Speaker 1: a ton to so they dig down in driving lanes
Speaker 1: and so sometimes opposing guards will have rough nights against them.
Speaker 1: But then they actually built a twenty three point lead,
Speaker 1: and then de Jon day Murray just exploded in the
Speaker 1: second quarter. Hit a ton of threes, hit some pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots. He had to pick six too, um,
Speaker 1: and that allowed Atlanta to get out in transition, and
Speaker 1: they had a huge fast breakpoints advantage in this game
Speaker 1: game because they were able to avoid New York's half
Speaker 1: court defense. And New York's half court defense is pretty solid,
Speaker 1: so it's important to get out in transition to try
Speaker 1: to avoid that as much as possible. And then that
Speaker 1: carried in oh over into the second half, and then
Speaker 1: New York's half court offense fell apart in Atlanta dominated
Speaker 1: in New York's twenty and half court offense this year
Speaker 1: before tonight. According to Cleaning the Glass, kind of that
Speaker 1: same kind of dynamic. I was just talking about the
Speaker 1: Cavs Celtics about perimeter defense and the EBB and flow.
Speaker 1: You start to get out in transition. You started to
Speaker 1: get baskets. You started to get baskets, you get to
Speaker 1: set your defense. You start to set your defense. You're
Speaker 1: keeping the other team in the half court. Now you're
Speaker 1: getting more stops, which is allowing you to get out
Speaker 1: in transition. Atlanta dominated that dynamic in this game, trail
Speaker 1: by twenty three and actually blew out the Knicks before
Speaker 1: the end of the night. Really impressive game. And Dejan
Speaker 1: Murray was the best player on the floor by a
Speaker 1: mile in this game. Just came flying off the screen. UM.
Speaker 1: I loved Jon Murray. Uh he's shooting thirty on eight
Speaker 1: point four pull up jump shots per game so far
Speaker 1: this year, including from three. He also brings like a
Speaker 1: ball pressure element with some length and uh a more
Speaker 1: turnover capability to their defense in the back court. You
Speaker 1: guys know me, I'm not a huge Tray Young Fan.
Speaker 1: I had him outside of my top five coming into
Speaker 1: this season. I think the Miami Series kind of demonstrated
Speaker 1: the playbook for how to stop him if you can
Speaker 1: stay glued to him over the top, because they took
Speaker 1: away his jumping backwards foul drawing move. He's actually really
Speaker 1: bad at finishing around the rim, and so if you
Speaker 1: can kind of funnel him into the basket into all
Speaker 1: of your length, he's going to miss layups or take
Speaker 1: bad shots and miss shots, and so he's and then
Speaker 1: on the defensive Endy obviously is just a complete and
Speaker 1: total nightmare. It might be the worst defensive player in
Speaker 1: the league. So for me, I'm not the biggest try
Speaker 1: Young fan. I should just be upfront with that before
Speaker 1: we go any further. But Jont Murray definitely makes this
Speaker 1: team more fun. And one thing I will say in
Speaker 1: defensive Trey Young is he's just not shooting the ball
Speaker 1: very well this year compared to the way he usually does.
Speaker 1: That will change and things will improve for them after
Speaker 1: that point. So far, the Hawks are ninth and offense
Speaker 1: coming into tonight, and defense eighteenth and net rating. They
Speaker 1: defend the three point line really well, but they don't
Speaker 1: defend the paint well and they fell away too much.
Speaker 1: They allow more free throw attempts than any other team
Speaker 1: in the entire m B A. UM. The guy that
Speaker 1: I'm most excited about on this team right now is
Speaker 1: DeAndre Hunter. Um. He's showing some of that high level
Speaker 1: close out attacking that we've seen from Michael Bridges, where
Speaker 1: it's not just hitting threes or driving and kicking t
Speaker 1: teammates are finishing at the rim. But he's got some
Speaker 1: of that in between game that's really impressive. Uh. He's
Speaker 1: super big and strong too, which makes him super valuable
Speaker 1: on the wing. I was watching a game uh last
Speaker 1: week on Wednesday against the Pistons where to start the
Speaker 1: game he just like ripped through and initiated contact with
Speaker 1: his left shoulder and made like little short, floating push
Speaker 1: shots in the lane. And I'm sitting there thinking, like, man,
Speaker 1: that's the kind of stuff that makes you that that
Speaker 1: is the difference between you being three and D player
Speaker 1: and something so much more than that. So that's a
Speaker 1: guy to be really excited about. If if you're a
Speaker 1: Hawks fan, I'll be honest with you, guys, I'm never
Speaker 1: gonna believe in the Hawks until Trey Young is the
Speaker 1: second best player on the team, because I just don't
Speaker 1: believe that he can be the best player on a team.
Speaker 1: But there's certainly a lot more fun now with de
Speaker 1: Jon Murray all right really quickly checking in on the
Speaker 1: knicks there and offense so far this year coming into tonight,
Speaker 1: and defense eleventh and net rating eleventh and paint points
Speaker 1: allowed per one possessions, which is concerning because they're giving
Speaker 1: up forty three point attempts per game, which is most
Speaker 1: in the league. Twenty two point two of them are
Speaker 1: classified as wide open according to the NBA UH tracking data,
Speaker 1: which means the defenders at least six ft away, and
Speaker 1: you can see it on tape. I talked about that earlier.
Speaker 1: They're digging down from the wings, they're overhelping on drives.
Speaker 1: That sort of thing is okay, you saw the Bucks
Speaker 1: do that last year. But if you're going to do that,
Speaker 1: you better completely shut down the paint and they're just not.
Speaker 1: They're giving away way too many baskets in the restricted
Speaker 1: area um too to make that a viable defense. And
Speaker 1: then they're also fouling too much their in fouls per
Speaker 1: one possessions. Coming into tonight. On the offensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor, they're super balanced. They've got three dudes averaging
Speaker 1: between seventeen and a half and eighteen and a half
Speaker 1: points per game, Julius Randall, Jalen br Brunson and um
Speaker 1: r J Barrett. But none of them have been particularly efficient,
Speaker 1: and that's their biggest problem, and that's what's hurting them
Speaker 1: in the half court. All three of them are good
Speaker 1: enough to be good secondary creators, but none of them
Speaker 1: are good enough to be your primary creator in any
Speaker 1: sort of environment, so they're gonna struggle to score in
Speaker 1: the half court. The thing that's keeping their offensive float
Speaker 1: right now is how good everyone else is playing. Evan
Speaker 1: Fournia has been great, Derk Rose has been great, Cam
Speaker 1: Reddish has been great, Hartenstein was a great pick up.
Speaker 1: They're all playing really well in the roles. And then
Speaker 1: the guy that's been most impressive to me in that
Speaker 1: group is Obi Toppin, who once again is also showing
Speaker 1: some of the high level close out attacking he had
Speaker 1: to play in this game, where he attacked out of
Speaker 1: the left corner pump bake drive baseline, gets cut off,
Speaker 1: cuts back to the middle, looks for a kickout doesn't
Speaker 1: see it, realizes he is on his own, pops up
Speaker 1: and makes like a little floater in the lane. That's
Speaker 1: high level stuff. When you're playing a great defense that's
Speaker 1: trapping you in the half court, you need guys that
Speaker 1: can improvise and make shots. And having that on the wing,
Speaker 1: and then obviously he brings everything that he brings in transition,
Speaker 1: and he's a little bit better defensively than he used
Speaker 1: to be. Overtopping is exciting. Um, if their stars can
Speaker 1: start shooting better than they'll be a pretty good team.
Speaker 1: But obviously they're not going to be a great team
Speaker 1: until they get that true lead creator. Alright, guys, that
Speaker 1: is all I have for tonight. As always, I sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate your support and I will see you next time.
Speaker 1: The volume