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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to hoops tonight year at the volume,
Speaker 1: Happy Tuesday, everybody hopeful. If you guys are having an
Speaker 1: incredible week, A fun live show on YouTube again. It's
Speaker 1: been a long time since we've done this, but I
Speaker 1: miss it and I'm glad we're gonna be doing it again,
Speaker 1: something we plan on doing every week basically from here
Speaker 1: on out. And then, obviously, as you guys know, every
Speaker 1: day when we get to the playoffs, so we're gonna
Speaker 1: be breaking down that unbelievable basketball game between the Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors and the Boston Celtics. I have thoughts on
Speaker 1: John Morant's scintillating return to action, and then I have
Speaker 1: a quick little shout out I want to give to
Speaker 1: Dame Lillard to hit twenty thousand career points tonight, you
Speaker 1: guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to
Speaker 1: our brand new YouTube channel. I mean a lot to
Speaker 1: me if you guys would take ten seconds to scroll
Speaker 1: down and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our
Speaker 1: podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts under oops tonight,
Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lts you guys
Speaker 1: don't miss any show announcements as well as the film
Speaker 1: threads that I do from time to time throughout the week,
Speaker 1: and then last but not least, keep dropping mail bag
Speaker 1: questions in the YouTube comments so that we can hit
Speaker 1: them throughout the remainder of the season.
Speaker 2: So those of you guys.
Speaker 1: Who have been following the show for a while know
Speaker 1: that I tend to like kind of gravitate towards like
Speaker 1: very specific trends in the big picture about the NBA. Obviously,
Speaker 1: like as a big part of doing this for a
Speaker 1: living and with my background in basketball, I'm obsessed with
Speaker 1: where the game is going, and I'm constantly trying to
Speaker 1: like find out all these little things about you know,
Speaker 1: specific things that are working really well in the NBA
Speaker 1: right now versus things that aren't. And for those of
Speaker 1: you who have been listening this season, you know that
Speaker 1: one of the trends that I've been clinging to is
Speaker 1: this idea of the high motor athlete. Basically, especially during
Speaker 1: the course of an eighty two game season, night in
Speaker 1: and night out, with all the traveling, with all the
Speaker 1: swings and motivation level and all the things that can
Speaker 1: influence basketball games, it's really difficult to play hard all
Speaker 1: the time, especially when you're older. You know, like I'm
Speaker 1: only thirty two, and I have a hell of a
Speaker 1: lot fewer miles on me than a lot of the
Speaker 1: veterans that are playing around the NBA, and I just
Speaker 1: don't move the way that I used to on a
Speaker 1: daily basis.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And like what's nice is over the course of eighty
Speaker 1: two games to have guys in their early twenties that
Speaker 1: are freaky athletic that are still super stoked about every
Speaker 1: single NBA game because they're new to it still and
Speaker 1: they just bring energy, and like that just helps you
Speaker 1: in so many very specific areas of the game of basketball,
Speaker 1: especially over the course of the regular season. Think of
Speaker 1: it like this transition defense, it's about sprinting back right,
Speaker 1: just simple perimeter defense in the NBA, it's about navigating
Speaker 1: screens and sitting down in his stance and sliding your feet.
Speaker 1: Defensive rebounding, it's about positioning yourself between man and ball
Speaker 1: and pursuing the basketball. Offensive rebounding is about pursuing the
Speaker 1: basketball when you screen and roll to the basket, like
Speaker 1: Tray Jackson Davis did so many times tonight, and he
Speaker 1: was killing the Celtics just screening and rolling hard to
Speaker 1: the basket. That key offensive rebound late that led to
Speaker 1: the Steph Curry dagger three in overtime was a Steph
Speaker 1: Curry split in a pick and roll against Al Horford.
Speaker 1: He got downhill. Both Al Horford and Derek White ran
Speaker 1: with him to the rim and Steph just had to
Speaker 1: get it up there where. But Tray Jackson Davis, who
Speaker 1: set the screen twenty five feet from the basket, has
Speaker 1: to get down to the rim to get into that
Speaker 1: scrum and get to the basketball. I'm just not sure
Speaker 1: if that's a play that Dario Sarich can make right,
Speaker 1: just from an athleticism standpoint, Tray Jackson Davis slipping early
Speaker 1: at his screens. He had a bunch of success against
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson or with Klay Thompson, excuse me in that
Speaker 1: third quarter stretch, just setting good hard screens as the
Speaker 1: Celtics were showing, just rolling hard to the rim. Like
Speaker 1: Tray Jackson Davis last year was one of the better
Speaker 1: pick and role players in the country in college and
Speaker 1: specifically I remember like watching the film when I was
Speaker 1: scouting him and thinking, like, man, this dude is just
Speaker 1: getting swarmed on every single one of these ball screens.
Speaker 1: And it was just one of those things where I thought,
Speaker 1: when he gets to the NBA, he's just gonna have
Speaker 1: so much more space to operate. And you're seeing his
Speaker 1: finishing ability play a role there. When Steve Kurr first
Speaker 1: put the bench group out there in the late first
Speaker 1: early second quarter, it was Dario Sorry Jet center. They
Speaker 1: were struggling to protect the rim. Trace Jackson Davis had
Speaker 1: two massive blocks on Jalen Brown on drives, one on
Speaker 1: the in the first half. You remember he pinned on
Speaker 1: the glass. You could hear on the broadcast he screwed,
Speaker 1: give me that shit, you know, because he says bringing
Speaker 1: that energy, he just has that ferocity that you need
Speaker 1: from that specific position. And then in ot when Jalen
Speaker 1: got downhill, and it was one of the rare times
Speaker 1: where I thought going for a dunk was probably the
Speaker 1: wrong idea, because if he would have just kind of
Speaker 1: kept his arm out and went for a lefty layup,
Speaker 1: I don't think Trace could have got there. But he
Speaker 1: tried to dunk it, and Trace made that extra effort
Speaker 1: and he got there and he beat Jalen Brown to
Speaker 1: the rim and made a play. And like again, we
Speaker 1: talked a lot about Jonathan Kaminga and Moses Moody and
Speaker 1: whether or not they have the wherewithal to make solid
Speaker 1: decisions and to do their jobs within the sixteen game
Speaker 1: goal of the NBA playoffs, But that's different from the
Speaker 1: regular season. And like we saw last year, like Moses
Speaker 1: Moody was a guy that they could depend on or
Speaker 1: at least for a few shifts a game. But it
Speaker 1: was a little bit of a question mark with Jonathan Kaminga.
Speaker 1: But it's like, in this sort of setting, why the
Speaker 1: hell not lean into him, especially at home when you
Speaker 1: know your young guys are gonna play super hard and
Speaker 1: bring that energy for the home crowd. He did an
Speaker 1: amazing job down the stretch on Jason Tatum got a
Speaker 1: key stop before the end of regulation that sent it
Speaker 1: to ot and then on offense down the stretch of
Speaker 1: the game. For the Warriors, it was just a steady
Speaker 1: diet of Steph attacking Al Horford in pick and roll.
Speaker 1: Big flashbacks to the NBA Finals, if you guys remember,
Speaker 1: and if you remember in the NBA Finals, it followed
Speaker 1: a very similar pattern in the sense that the Celtics
Speaker 1: are running what was supposed to be a high drop,
Speaker 1: but Steph's running these ball screens so far away from
Speaker 1: the basket that it's just really hard for the big
Speaker 1: to get up high enough. And Steph hits that big
Speaker 1: three on the left wing, I think it was the
Speaker 1: one that tied it at one eighteen. Hits that big
Speaker 1: three on the left wing against Horford in drop coverage
Speaker 1: and then what ends up happening, inevitably, the Celtics get
Speaker 1: worried about that shot, so they bring Al Horford out further,
Speaker 1: which Steph usually drags the ball screen out to then
Speaker 1: force the switch, and now it's Al Horford on an
Speaker 1: island against Steph Curry and it's that hard in and
Speaker 1: out step to the side for the Big three that
Speaker 1: tied it. After the Derek White three. It was a
Speaker 1: steady diet of Steph attacking Horford, and there were even
Speaker 1: you know, it kind of devolved into what so many
Speaker 1: rock fights do, where you're seeing in ot everyone's fatigued,
Speaker 1: and it's like Klay Thompson missing good looks and Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum smoking a layup right at the rim, and a
Speaker 1: couple other Celtics miss good looks. But that's just the
Speaker 1: way rock fights are, and a lot of times in
Speaker 1: a situation like that, making a play like what Steph
Speaker 1: made there down the stretch again, another Al Horford, another
Speaker 1: opportunity to attack Al Horford and pick and roll, bringing
Speaker 1: him out above the foul line, splitting the pick and roll,
Speaker 1: getting downhill, Derek White's trying to apply back pressure. You're
Speaker 1: bringing two guys to the basket, so even if you
Speaker 1: do miss that layup, you just are providing your teammate
Speaker 1: in trace Jackson Davis with basically a free run to
Speaker 1: the offensive glass. I was so impressed by Steph in
Speaker 1: this particular game, just from the standpoint of his conditioning,
Speaker 1: because there was a stretch there where he was really
Speaker 1: struggling in the second half before he got it going
Speaker 1: late and you know, the Lakers kind of put together
Speaker 1: a game plan that works pretty damn well against the
Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors, at least in terms of the way
Speaker 1: they tried to wear down Steph. Like we saw the
Speaker 1: top locking on all of the perimeter players and funneling
Speaker 1: him towards Anthony Davis and Lebron James on the back line.
Speaker 2: That's not as big of a deal with this.
Speaker 1: Current configuration of the Warriors, because one Draymond's that out there,
Speaker 1: Kevon Looni was barely playing. It was a completely different lineup.
Speaker 1: But one of the things the Lakers did in that
Speaker 1: series too is they were like, hey, Andrew Wigans ain't
Speaker 1: the same guy that he was last year. Clay Thompson's
Speaker 1: really struggling in this series. Let's just attack Steph every
Speaker 1: time down the floor. Not because STEP's a bad defender,
Speaker 1: he's not. He's a firmly above average defensive player. He's
Speaker 1: got good size for the position at six three, he's strong,
Speaker 1: he does his job right. But if you just attack
Speaker 1: him in the post every single possession or from the
Speaker 1: perimeter every single possession, you can wear on his legs
Speaker 1: and that could potentially lead to missing shots and I
Speaker 1: was so impressed by Steph's conditioning in this game, because
Speaker 1: he was the guy making shots late despite the fact
Speaker 1: that Boston was going at him relentlessly in the post,
Speaker 1: which again, and you got to think when you're defending
Speaker 1: in the post, it's like you're legitimately sitting down in
Speaker 1: a low stance and absorbing contact. That's all heavy exertion
Speaker 1: on your legs. I was really impressed by Steph. It
Speaker 1: was a classic game on that front. And then again,
Speaker 1: you have to get secondary support. This is something we've
Speaker 1: talked about a lot over the course of the season.
Speaker 1: When the secondary support is not there, Steph has to
Speaker 1: do that much more. And then the fatigue hand play role.
Speaker 1: We saw that in the Lakers series right when. We've
Speaker 1: seen this in general over the course of recent weeks.
Speaker 1: As Steph has his efficiency has gone down a little bit,
Speaker 1: it's just a byproduct of not getting that secondary support. Well,
Speaker 1: this is I mean, we're on a little over a
Speaker 1: week now. If Clay pay playing significantly better gives you
Speaker 1: twenty four tonight, hit a bunch of key shots there
Speaker 1: late in regulation. I know he got cold in ot,
Speaker 1: but he had some big shots in regulation. He again
Speaker 1: that that this is something we really started to see
Speaker 1: towards the tail end of last year. But Clay is
Speaker 1: exceptionally good at at using the over the top kind
Speaker 1: of like float pass because he's taller than most guards
Speaker 1: that are flying off the screens, that over the top
Speaker 1: float pass to hit the role man, and he was
Speaker 1: having success generating offense, making dump offs to trace Jackson
Speaker 1: Davis as he was coming off of curls, and again,
Speaker 1: just that little bit of extra support pushes you over
Speaker 1: the top. Now, this is going to be a challenge.
Speaker 1: We talked about this a lot over the course of
Speaker 1: this week. This this this Warriors team is in a
Speaker 1: in a strange predicament because as of right now, they're
Speaker 1: outside of the plan and we've got this, you know,
Speaker 1: presumably another three weeks or so, according to the reports
Speaker 1: that came out in the last couple of days, where
Speaker 1: Draymond's not going to be around. Okay, so we're talking
Speaker 1: like another ten to twelve games, right I haven't looked
Speaker 1: at the schedule to see exactly how many, but over
Speaker 1: the course that span, it's going to be difficult, and
Speaker 1: it's going to require a lot of heroic efforts from
Speaker 1: specific guys. It's gonna require Steph to be at an
Speaker 1: MVP level like he was tonight. It's gonna require Klay
Speaker 1: Thompson to be a guy who's consistently in the mid
Speaker 1: twenties and who's generating additional offense with his passing ability.
Speaker 1: It's gonna require Steve Kerr leaning into the athletes and
Speaker 1: just counting on them to get a lot of the
Speaker 1: work done. Again, you can figure out playoff rotations down
Speaker 1: the line. You don't know what you're gonna do with
Speaker 1: the deadline. I think I think the I think we're
Speaker 1: pretty certain at this point that the Warriors are gonna
Speaker 1: be a team that's gonna look to do something at
Speaker 1: the deadline. Right So, like this, who knows what it's
Speaker 1: gonna look like down the line. You've got to float
Speaker 1: things right here. Not to keep bringing up Lakers comps,
Speaker 1: but this is exactly what happened to the Lakers last year.
Speaker 1: It's like Anthony Davis gets hurt. You know, you're trading
Speaker 1: Russ at the deadline. It's like we got this weird team.
Speaker 1: It's like Lebron, Russ and Dennis and like we're small
Speaker 1: and we're just gonna have to find a way to
Speaker 1: win games.
Speaker 2: For a little while, and they did.
Speaker 1: They just hovered around five hundred until they could get
Speaker 1: to the deadline and kind of reorient the roster and
Speaker 1: go forward. That's the stretch that the Warriors are in
Speaker 1: right now. They're in trouble in the standings, they're undermanned
Speaker 1: in personnel. Draymond Green being out obviously hurts this team,
Speaker 1: but they just got to find a way to hover
Speaker 1: as close to five hundred as they can and doing
Speaker 1: things like winning the home games, in particular, when you
Speaker 1: know your young young guys are gonna bring that energy
Speaker 1: that goes a long way towards helping you accomplish that goal.
Speaker 1: Now before, I'm not gonna talk any more Warriors. Tonight Tomorrow,
Speaker 1: sam Is Fondiari from the Light Years podcast Friend of
Speaker 1: Mine is going to come on the show and we
Speaker 1: are going to do a deep dive on the Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors. We're gonna be recording that in the relatively
Speaker 1: early portion of tomorrow morning. So tomorrow afternoon, Warriors fans,
Speaker 1: keep an eye on the feed. You're going to see
Speaker 1: a lot more Warriors related content in the right around
Speaker 1: noon tomorrow. On the Boston front, you know, this is
Speaker 1: something that I've been harping on all season long, and
Speaker 1: Boston plays such a consistent style night in a night
Speaker 1: out that it just kind of becomes part of the story, right.
Speaker 1: And it was frustrating because throughout the Lion's share of
Speaker 1: this game, the Celtics were approaching it in a very
Speaker 1: a unique way compared to the way that they usually play.
Speaker 1: They were relentless attacking in the post. Now, the Celtics
Speaker 1: are a high post up team in general. They like
Speaker 1: to post up a lot with Drew Holliday, they post
Speaker 1: up a lot with Jaylen Brown, they post up a
Speaker 1: lot with Jason Tatum. They occasionally throwing a post up
Speaker 1: there with Al horfordps Porzingis has been deadly in the
Speaker 1: post this year. They run a lot of post ups,
Speaker 1: but when krisops Porzingis is out of the lineup, they're
Speaker 1: not that heavy of a post up team. But they
Speaker 1: were running a ton of post ups in this particular game,
Speaker 1: and they were relentless punishing Golden State smaller players inside.
Speaker 1: But what happened, and it's something that happens so often
Speaker 1: with the Celtics team, is they have a tendency to
Speaker 1: cling to the good shot rather than the great shot.
Speaker 1: This is a concept I talk about a lot on
Speaker 1: this show, right Like, I want to give you guys
Speaker 1: a couple of basic examples. Al Horford took a corner
Speaker 1: three in transition quick trigger. If it was it was
Speaker 1: it was in ot if I remember correctly, I remember
Speaker 1: when he shot it. I was like, man, like, how
Speaker 1: do you not try to run some offense and see
Speaker 1: if you can get something better and see if maybe
Speaker 1: that's a shot you end up with. Not to mention
Speaker 1: when you're running in transition, your legs are tired from running,
Speaker 1: and you're not squared up. You're running back looking for
Speaker 1: the ball.
Speaker 2: You turn. You haven't even really looked at the rim yet.
Speaker 1: Right then, there was a play where late in the
Speaker 1: it was the one right before Steph Curry's dagger, and
Speaker 1: it's Jalen Brown attacking in the post, drawing a second defender,
Speaker 1: and Al Horford is standing for a long time in
Speaker 1: the right corner and Jalen Brown throws him a perfect
Speaker 1: pass in the shooting pocket. He's already facing the rim,
Speaker 1: he's not fatigued, he's squared up, he has all freaking
Speaker 1: day and he rises up and he knocks down the three.
Speaker 1: Do you guys see the difference between that that's an
Speaker 1: open al Horford three in transition versus a wide open
Speaker 1: Al Horford three on a stan still situation out of
Speaker 1: a double team. From that Jalen Brown draws out of
Speaker 1: the post. One is a decent shot, the second is
Speaker 1: a great shot, right, That's the difference.
Speaker 2: Derek White also he took eighteen damn threes in this game.
Speaker 1: Took a transition like he's Klay Thompson type of three
Speaker 1: on the in the right corner. It was either in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter runner in otique misses it right when
Speaker 1: it was one eighteen one eighteen. After Steph hit the
Speaker 1: pull up three over al Horford, Jason Tatum runs a
Speaker 1: super methodical two man game with Derek White to get
Speaker 1: Steph Curry posted up on the right elbow, backs him down,
Speaker 1: draws a double team. Derek White is standing wide open
Speaker 1: the corner. Jason Tatum hits him. He's got all day
Speaker 1: to think about it. His feet are already said he
Speaker 1: didn't just sprint in transition, and Derek White knocks it
Speaker 1: down again. Derek White transitioned three. Okay shot. Derek White
Speaker 1: catch and shoot three facing the rim, standing still out
Speaker 1: of a double team, when Jason Tatum is posting up
Speaker 1: a smaller guard, great shot. And again, like, one of
Speaker 1: the things that's tough with this Boston team is they're
Speaker 1: so damn talented that a lot of times the okay
Speaker 1: shots go in. But one of the biggest problems with
Speaker 1: this particular team is they are not methodical enough about
Speaker 1: seeking out the great shots down the stretch of games.
Speaker 2: You know, like, this is the problem.
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum ends up getting Steph on a switch late
Speaker 1: ot or midd O t on the right wing, and
Speaker 1: he just drives.
Speaker 2: Him all the way to the rim and and he
Speaker 2: smokes a layup right at them.
Speaker 1: It's like, great process a shot He's gonna make ninety
Speaker 1: five out of one hundred times, and he missed. And like,
Speaker 1: what's interesting is that was the only time he did
Speaker 1: that in that quarter or in that five minute overtime.
Speaker 2: You know, it's funny.
Speaker 1: One of the things that's happened with analytics and in
Speaker 1: their increasing relevance in the NBA is we talk a
Speaker 1: lot about this concept of shot value. And I am
Speaker 1: a huge believer in shot value. You guys know that
Speaker 1: specifically not just shot value, but like possession value, right,
Speaker 1: like a what is a Jason Tatum post up worth?
Speaker 1: What is a Lebron James pick and roll worth? What
Speaker 1: is a Chris tops porzingis you know, spot up opportunity worth?
Speaker 1: Or a pick and pop fourth or something like that, right,
Speaker 1: And I think those are good trends to follow over
Speaker 1: the course of an eighty two game season, and the
Speaker 1: kinds of shots are getting over the course of forty
Speaker 1: eight minute games. But once you get to crunch time,
Speaker 1: shot value doesn't matter anymore. Field goal percentage does. Because
Speaker 1: if I could run beautiful offense for catch and shoot
Speaker 1: threes and miss six in a row, oh like, just
Speaker 1: take a take a steph Curry and just chart every
Speaker 1: single catch and shoot three he takes. He'll have stretches
Speaker 1: where he makes eight out of ten, and it all
Speaker 1: stretches where he misses like four or five in a row.
Speaker 1: How often do you see guys miss four or five
Speaker 1: shots in a row within five feet of the basket.
Speaker 1: It just doesn't happen at the end of games. That
Speaker 1: field goal percentage matter is what matt That number is
Speaker 1: what matters in the small sample size. It no longer
Speaker 1: becomes about aggregate shot value over a large sample size.
Speaker 1: It becomes about generating the best quality shots. And again
Speaker 1: it's just this team, like like Al Horford in particular
Speaker 1: is a great example.
Speaker 2: Al Horford is a shooter. He's a good a good shooter.
Speaker 1: He's like he's a guy that like when when he
Speaker 1: gets a wide open look, you're always like, man, that
Speaker 1: might go in right. But he is not not a
Speaker 1: great shooter. Great shooters should be hunting three point shots
Speaker 1: good to okay shooters should be taking them as a
Speaker 1: result of whatever your offense produces, if it's what the
Speaker 1: coverage dictates after you've tried to find a great shot.
Speaker 1: The Celtics have way too many guys right now that
Speaker 1: are hunting okay shots instead of hunting the great shots.
Speaker 1: And that, to me is the is the big thing
Speaker 1: that's standing in the way we talked about. Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: once again ops for a pull up three on Jonathan
Speaker 1: Kminga late in the game on the right wing when
Speaker 1: he had the final possession. Derek White was right there,
Speaker 1: there was like seven or eight seconds left. I thought
Speaker 1: he should have had. Derek White comes at another ghost screen,
Speaker 1: try to see if he can make something happen there
Speaker 1: to get a higher quality shot, but no, it takes
Speaker 1: a pull up three. Jason Tatum is one of eight
Speaker 1: players in the NBA this year that attempts at least
Speaker 1: five pull up threes per game. All of the other
Speaker 1: guys shoot thirty five percent or better on him. Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum coming into the night twenty nine point nine percent.
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum last year five attempts per game twenty nine
Speaker 1: point one percent. For whatever reason, he just hunts that
Speaker 1: shot and he's not good at it. He was once
Speaker 1: upon a time, back in like twenty nineteen he could
Speaker 1: make that shot. But we're pushing like a thousand reps
Speaker 1: here now dating back three seasons where that shot has
Speaker 1: been worth well below a point per possession, and Tatum
Speaker 1: is just hunting it and hunting it and hunting it.
Speaker 1: And a big part of it is like back then,
Speaker 1: he wasn't hunting it as frequently, his volume was lower.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying Jayson Tatum shouldn't take pull up threes.
Speaker 1: They should just be a shot that he takes when
Speaker 1: he generates outstanding separation on a move or you know,
Speaker 1: late clock situation. It's it's a rescue shot. I just
Speaker 1: need to get something up. I get that he should
Speaker 1: he should take two or three of them a game,
Speaker 1: but like he shouldn't push the volume. He's taking six
Speaker 1: of them a game this year. He shouldn't push his
Speaker 1: volume up to that point until he's got it going.
Speaker 1: He's just doing the defensive favor in those particular situations
Speaker 1: that Tatum had some good stretches in this game. He
Speaker 1: in the middle of the fourth quarter, I thought he
Speaker 1: did an excellent job of just putting relentless rim pressure
Speaker 1: as he generated quality shot after quality shot. I thought,
Speaker 1: like that possession after Steph tied it at one eighteen
Speaker 1: when he methodically ran that two man game with Derek White,
Speaker 1: drew the double team and hit Derek, Like that was
Speaker 1: really high quality offense. But then it would be like
Speaker 1: there was a possession in ot where he hopped the
Speaker 1: ball in the left wing with Steph on him, was
Speaker 1: seven on the shot clock, and he passed it away
Speaker 1: immediately to Jalen Brown in the corner, who promptly drove
Speaker 1: into traffic and missed a layup. And I will like,
Speaker 1: that's the thing is like we talk about like heliocentrism
Speaker 1: and like how that can be monotonous over the when
Speaker 1: you see guys like Luka Doncicch do it like seventy
Speaker 1: five times in a game, or James Harden do it
Speaker 1: seventy five times in a game back in the old
Speaker 1: Rocket Stays. But spamming in action is actually a good
Speaker 1: thing in a small sample because it's just a simple
Speaker 1: matter of personnel. My guy's bigger and stronger than yours,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna get a great shot just by attacking that.
Speaker 1: It's just that offensive process piece. It's like it just
Speaker 1: consistently comes to the forefront with Boston, and it only
Speaker 1: comes to the forefront in these big games. You know,
Speaker 1: I had a Boston fan a tweet at me tonight.
Speaker 1: He goes Jason Tatum has won four or five playoff
Speaker 1: series with that pull up shot, and like, don't get
Speaker 1: me wrong, I remember some of these shots. I remember
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum hitting a huge right shoulder fade over the
Speaker 1: Milwaukee Bucks in Game six, if I remember correctly, in Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: I've seen Jason Tatum take and make big time shots.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that he shouldn't take them. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying they shouldn't be part of his game, but there's
Speaker 1: no question at this point that it's too big of
Speaker 1: a part in this game. And again, that Milwaukee buck
Speaker 1: shot I was talking about that was a range jump shot.
Speaker 2: It was not a three.
Speaker 1: It's a shot closer to the rim, which has a
Speaker 1: lower shot value, but as a higher field goal percentage.
Speaker 1: Understand the difference between those two concepts in a one
Speaker 1: shot sample size. That's kind of the concept that I'm
Speaker 1: talking about here. All right, Before we get out here tonight,
Speaker 1: I want to talk about Jamrant for a little bit
Speaker 1: and then we're gonna talk about Damian Lillard for a
Speaker 1: few minutes. So as a basketball fan, it was incredibly
Speaker 1: fun to get to watch John Morant play again tonight.
Speaker 1: It's funny I got into the doghouse this summer because
Speaker 1: I said we were doing player rankings, I think, and
Speaker 1: I had Jalen Brunson over Ja Morant, and everyone hyper
Speaker 1: focused on it as being some sort of negative jam
Speaker 1: Morant take, which is not the case. It's just Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson is one of my favorite players in the league,
Speaker 1: and he's awesome at basketball. Just had fifty the other night.
Speaker 1: He's been averaging twenty eight for like a month. He's
Speaker 1: been one of the most efficient scorers in the league
Speaker 1: over that spand like, Jalen Brunston, you just kicked the
Speaker 1: Lakers ass last night. Like Jalen Brunson is incredible, right,
Speaker 1: Tyres Aliburton is incredible.
Speaker 2: I saw that.
Speaker 1: Quote from the press conference where the person in the
Speaker 1: stands directly asked John Moran about these player comparisons, and like,
Speaker 1: sometimes I just want to be like, Hey, Anthony Edwards awesome,
Speaker 1: Tyres Aliburton awesome, John Morant awesome, Jalen Brunson awesome, all
Speaker 1: of them are awesome, and like it's all just a
Speaker 1: matter of personal preference, right, But I have zero ill
Speaker 1: will towards John Ran. He's one of my favorite players
Speaker 1: to watch in the league. And what you saw tonight
Speaker 1: was what happens when you have a guy with a
Speaker 1: superpower and how that can make the game of basketball
Speaker 1: so much easier. John Morant's superpower is that he's so
Speaker 1: damn fast. He makes the NBA's fast guys look not fast.
Speaker 1: That's his superpower. And we're going to talk about his
Speaker 1: scoring in a minute, but it was his passing in
Speaker 1: particular that I thought demonstrated this concept so well tonight.
Speaker 1: There was a pass that he had in the first half,
Speaker 1: a transition push where he was working his way.
Speaker 2: Down the floor with a ton of pace.
Speaker 1: Zire Williams just cuts out of the left side corner,
Speaker 1: kind of hangs out right underneath the rim, and Jow
Speaker 1: hits him underneath the basket. If you watch that possession,
Speaker 1: every single Pelican is mesmerized by John Moran as he's
Speaker 1: driving in transition, because that's what happens. You know how
Speaker 1: we as basketball fans are watching Jah in transition, We're like,
Speaker 1: holy shit, he's moving. Dudes on the court are saying
Speaker 1: the same thing. There was a ball screen with it
Speaker 1: was a staggered pick and roll with Zaire set in
Speaker 1: the first pick and then Jaron Jackson setting the second
Speaker 1: picks on the right wing. Was in the first half,
Speaker 1: and Trey Murphy ends up jumping the first ball screen
Speaker 1: and hedging really hard on Jaw, and as a result
Speaker 1: of that, Jaw had to split, and so he does.
Speaker 1: When Jared Jackson recognizes that Jaw's not going to use
Speaker 1: the second pick because he splits, he immediately slips to
Speaker 1: the rim. But this whole thing happens so fast. Jaw
Speaker 1: goes off the pick splits and then just funnels up
Speaker 1: a left handed scoop lob to Jaron Jackson, who dunks
Speaker 1: it at the basket. Yonas Valanciunas is in like kind
Speaker 1: of a drop coverage in this situation. The whole thing
Speaker 1: happens so fast. Not only does Jonas Valacunas not get
Speaker 1: not get a hand up, or not only does he
Speaker 1: not jump, he didn't even get a hand up. He's
Speaker 1: stuck in the mud. He's like he just turns around
Speaker 1: and suddenly Jaron Jackson's on the rim because of how quickly,
Speaker 1: Like that's a read that we see a lot like, Oh,
Speaker 1: it's a hedge. You split the head, you gotta engage
Speaker 1: the drop coverage defender. Then you throw that lob to
Speaker 1: the vertical spacer. It's a play we see a lot
Speaker 1: in the NBA, but it never looks like that because
Speaker 1: no one ever does it that fast. And again, like
Speaker 1: we talk so much about all these different skill set things,
Speaker 1: but like that individual athletic superpower is one of the
Speaker 1: most warping things that an individual player can do for
Speaker 1: a basketball team. And he's just he's always just been
Speaker 1: a gifted passer in general. Now, the Pelicans are generally
Speaker 1: a hard held team, but consistently John Moran tonight was
Speaker 1: raaiding the lowman really well, hit multiple threes in the
Speaker 1: weak side corner with skip passes. It's just he's he
Speaker 1: is going to make offense so much easier for this
Speaker 1: Grizzly team. We're gonna talk a lot about but we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk a little late in this show about what
Speaker 1: they have lying in front of them as as a challenge,
Speaker 1: but there's no doubt that it's just gonna be a
Speaker 1: lot easier for this team with John Moran in the court.
Speaker 1: Then down the stretch, John gets three straight buckets in
Speaker 1: the final minute and a half. Starts with an ISO
Speaker 1: of Herb Jones out of the right corner. Herb is
Speaker 1: a kind of opened up a little bit and John
Speaker 1: just just drives right behind to the left and goes
Speaker 1: to that little left hand to push out in the lane.
Speaker 1: Then very next possession, Now this is something that we saw.
Speaker 1: Do you guys remember the the spinning and one that
Speaker 1: John Murran had in the third quarter. This is the
Speaker 1: concept that that that is another thing that's really to speed.
Speaker 1: Joh comes off the pick yonas is in a drop.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like a high drop, right, Like the
Speaker 1: Pelicans usually bring Yonas as high as they can into
Speaker 1: the ball screen and then they're a big backside help team.
Speaker 1: That's just kind of the way that they kind of
Speaker 1: deal with Yonas's limitations in pick and roll coverage.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: But once again, Joss so damn fast Yonis can't get
Speaker 1: up to the level of the screen in time right
Speaker 1: for not even the level, but like he usually was
Speaker 1: going up just just shy of the level, but instead
Speaker 1: he's too far back. Jaw has him on his heels,
Speaker 1: hits him with a spin move and gets an and one.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: This was in the third quarter, So one of the
Speaker 1: things they did on this second to final possession is
Speaker 1: they just had Yonah's hard hedge on that right side
Speaker 1: to just try to stop him from using the screen entirely. Now,
Speaker 1: one of the reasons that teams use hard hedges is
Speaker 1: because it flattens out a drive if you can get out,
Speaker 1: if you can get out on top of the screen.
Speaker 1: And so instead of him getting downhill on the screen,
Speaker 1: he has to take a negative step to curl back
Speaker 1: further away from the basket to evade the hedge. That
Speaker 1: gives him time to recover. You're on ball defender a
Speaker 1: chance to get back to the ball. That's why teams
Speaker 1: do a hard hetch. Here's the problem. Jow's two dan
Speaker 1: fast for herb Jones crossed over left to right instead,
Speaker 1: So when Yonas was waiting for him on the right
Speaker 1: side of the pick for the on the left side
Speaker 1: of the pick for the hedge, Jaw's going right and
Speaker 1: now there's no weak side help and Zion was late
Speaker 1: coming out of the corner. He tried to block him
Speaker 1: and had no chance, and Joh lazed it and then
Speaker 1: down the stretch the final possession the game winners a
Speaker 1: one four low.
Speaker 2: Just clear it clear the entire.
Speaker 1: Top of the floor for him, Just hit sirve Jodes
Speaker 1: with the hard dribble move and his spin. And then
Speaker 1: that that like in between shot for Joh that he
Speaker 1: that he has it kind of is his before the
Speaker 1: rim shot. Is that little floater he hit a big
Speaker 1: one on brandon Ingram late in the game as well.
Speaker 1: That floater is just really really difficult to guard because
Speaker 1: you're trying to prep to meet him somewhere at the
Speaker 1: rim and he just pops up off the floor, gets
Speaker 1: great balance. He's going straight up and down and he
Speaker 1: makes that shot at a really high clip. It ends
Speaker 1: up being the game winner. Now again, like we can
Speaker 1: talk about the pelic and why the hell they just
Speaker 1: kept letting Jago one on one. That's a story for
Speaker 1: a different day. But like, just just from a sheer
Speaker 1: standpoint of athletic gifts, think of it like this. Herb
Speaker 1: Jones is one of the best perimeter defenders in the game.
Speaker 1: You know, have you ever heard, you guys, ever heard
Speaker 1: of the concept like defending on your heels? You know,
Speaker 1: one of the things that I noticed. And we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk Lakers on probably Thursday, is my guess. But in
Speaker 1: the next game last night were I if you guys
Speaker 1: who follow me on Twitter and saw the film thread
Speaker 1: that I did this morning, I kind of broke down
Speaker 1: the differences for Ruey Hachamura when he would try to
Speaker 1: actually hold his ground and meet Julius Randall with force,
Speaker 1: and how that forced Julius into tough fadeaways versus when
Speaker 1: he opened.
Speaker 2: Up and gave an angle and.
Speaker 1: And Julius was getting easy floaters and shots close to
Speaker 1: the rim, and the difference between those two types of
Speaker 1: defensive strategy or shouldn't say, strategy just in terms of execution, right, Well,
Speaker 1: that's the way perimeter defense works. The on ball guy
Speaker 1: is trying to make a move towards me, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to beat him to a spot.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: If I beat him to a spot, I want to
Speaker 1: hold my ground. And if I hold my ground, I'm
Speaker 1: going to take that contact in the chest and I'm
Speaker 1: going to shut down that driving lane.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: But what can happen is when you're out of position.
Speaker 1: If you try to hold that ground and he kind
Speaker 1: of clips the side of your shoulder instead of like
Speaker 1: center it in your chest, Now it's a blocking foul.
Speaker 1: Now he might get continuation and get all the way
Speaker 1: to the rim. It's the simple concept of being in
Speaker 1: defensive position versus being.
Speaker 2: Out of position. Right.
Speaker 1: But when you're on your heels, when a guy is
Speaker 1: truly fast to the point where you don't even feel
Speaker 1: like there's an opportunity to hold your ground, you're constantly
Speaker 1: taking negative steps and opening your shoulder to try to
Speaker 1: recover to a further back spot. Then you're never actually
Speaker 1: causing the on ball player to stop his forward momentum.
Speaker 1: Watch those Ja Morant drives on Herb Jones down the
Speaker 1: stretch of the game. Herb is on his heels, he's backpedaling,
Speaker 1: he's opening his shoulders. Never once did he actually try
Speaker 1: to cut John Moran off because he's out of position.
Speaker 1: Because Jos's way too damn fast for him. And that's
Speaker 1: the superpower. There are superpowers, and then there are superpowers
Speaker 1: where even the dude on the other team that has
Speaker 1: the same type of super power can't handle it. When
Speaker 1: your best perimeter defenders can't do anything with him like that,
Speaker 1: it just puts your defense in a huge predicament. Now
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to just double team him and pray
Speaker 1: someone else misses a shot, right, which Pels didn't do,
Speaker 1: and you know that's their prerogative. But honestly, just this
Speaker 1: is all I'm gonna say about it. As a basketball fan,
Speaker 1: I had so much fun watching John Moran tonight. I'm
Speaker 1: so glad he's back playing basketball. The Grizzlies are in
Speaker 1: a tough spot. They're seven games out of the ten
Speaker 1: spot with fifty six games left, and they have a
Speaker 1: lot of issues that extend beyond jaw. It's possible, but
Speaker 1: it's going to be really, really tough. But what's great
Speaker 1: about it is you've got one of those guys. Anthony Edwards,
Speaker 1: Tyree Saliburton, John Morant, Shake Gildess, Alexander all four of
Speaker 1: these young guards are like Quo to FID, superstars in
Speaker 1: my opinion, in the making, either there or in the making,
Speaker 1: and like, you've got one of those guys. We talk
Speaker 1: a lot about this on on this show. The idea
Speaker 1: of like you got to have step one is get
Speaker 1: the guy. Once you get the guy, you've categorize the
Speaker 1: strengths and weaknesses and you build a roster around him.
Speaker 2: If you don't have the guy, what are you doing? Right?
Speaker 1: We've talked about this with a bunch of the other
Speaker 1: teams around the league, talked about this with Chicago right,
Speaker 1: like everything needs to be heared around getting the guy,
Speaker 1: and tonight was just another great reminder that Jaw is
Speaker 1: the guy.
Speaker 2: Now this season.
Speaker 1: You like, when you get to the deadline, if you're
Speaker 1: within striking distance to get to the play in great
Speaker 1: But if you get to the deadline and you're not,
Speaker 1: then this is where this is a great season for
Speaker 1: you to do what you can do to shape things
Speaker 1: the way they need to be shaped for you to
Speaker 1: make a run next season. All Right, before we get
Speaker 1: out of here, Damian Lillard at forty points tonight, he's
Speaker 1: across twenty thousand career points. But most importantly because shout
Speaker 1: out to Dame for hitting twenty thousand points, but he's
Speaker 1: averaging thirty seven per game in his last three. Those
Speaker 1: of you guys Bucks fans, remember I did a deep
Speaker 1: dive on Monday about their win over the Rockets and
Speaker 1: all of the positive trends that came out of that, right,
Speaker 1: and I didn't love that they just like I understand,
Speaker 1: Andre Jackson's just not as good as Malik beasily you
Speaker 1: have to go back to him in the starting lineup,
Speaker 1: But I just wish we could see the Bucks with
Speaker 1: that type of defender in that spot. That said, one
Speaker 1: of the key elements of that whole spiel that I
Speaker 1: gave that day was, Yes, it's about having a point
Speaker 1: of attack defender next to Dame. Yes, it's about Chris
Speaker 1: giving you eighteen to twenty a night just in scoring
Speaker 1: on the margins. Yes, it's gianness being honest. Yes it's
Speaker 1: broken a deep drop and out playing your other team
Speaker 1: center and doing all the those things. But at the
Speaker 1: head of the snake, you need MVP level, top tier
Speaker 1: half court surgeon Damian Lillard, and he was not that
Speaker 1: for the first quarter of the season, and it's been
Speaker 1: a hell of a journey him getting his legs underneath him.
Speaker 1: But I think we're starting to see that and so
Speaker 1: above and beyond any sort of recognition for Dame on
Speaker 1: a great career accomplishment, that dude just seems ready to
Speaker 1: take a run, and I think the Bucks are going
Speaker 1: to follow. All Right, guys, that's all I have for tonight.
Speaker 1: We'll be back tomorrow with Samusfondii from Light Years, and
Speaker 1: we'll have a couple of film sessions on Thursday Friday
Speaker 1: before the weekend. As always, I appreciate you guys, and
Speaker 1: I will see you tomorrow. The volume