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Speaker 1: hoops tonight here at the volume. Happy Friday again everybody.
Speaker 1: In case you missed it, this morning, we did a
Speaker 1: deep dive breakdown on the Celtics Lakers game. You can
Speaker 1: find that a little bit further back on our feed.
Speaker 1: We're gonna hit a bunch of other stuff from the
Speaker 1: Thursday night slate today. We had a bunch of showdowns.
Speaker 1: We had the Nuggets versus the Kings. We're gonna lead
Speaker 1: off there after that. We're gonna talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about the Warriors. End of the bench guys couldn't post,
Speaker 1: and Gie Santos, who've been playing super well, talk about
Speaker 1: what that means for them and some of my big
Speaker 1: picture thoughts for them. After they had a very impressive
Speaker 1: come from behind blowout against the Chicago Bulls, the Dallas
Speaker 1: Mavericks used a very interesting kind of like weird matchup
Speaker 1: double teaming zone against the Oklahoma City Thunder that led
Speaker 1: to their third victory against the Thunder this season. We're
Speaker 1: gonna break that game down. I have an additional thought
Speaker 1: on the Lakers that I didn't get to this morning,
Speaker 1: and I want to briefly hit and then at the
Speaker 1: tail end of the show, like we do every single Friday,
Speaker 1: we have a mail bag where we're gonna be bouncing
Speaker 1: all around the league. I've got some Celtics stuff in there,
Speaker 1: some Calves stuff in there, some Philadelphia seventy six ers
Speaker 1: stuff in there, a couple of player comparisons. Just a
Speaker 1: jam packshow for you guys. You guys know the joke
Speaker 1: before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops and Night
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Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter at underscore JCNLT so you guys
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Speaker 1: that front. We also have brand new social media feeds
Speaker 1: on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where we're releasing content throughout
Speaker 1: the remainder of the season. Make sure you guys follow
Speaker 1: there and then keep dropping mailbag questions like we do
Speaker 1: always on Fridays. If you want to get questions into
Speaker 1: the mail bag, just drop him the YouTube comments under
Speaker 1: the full episodes and just put mail bag with a
Speaker 1: colon and then write your question and we'll get to
Speaker 1: them on Fridays throughout the season. All right, let's talk
Speaker 1: some basketball. So another blowout win for the Denver Nuggets.
Speaker 1: I on the only one by nine, but the Nuggets
Speaker 1: completely dominated that game. They led seventy to forty eight
Speaker 1: in the first half. They really outworked Sacramento in this one.
Speaker 1: In the first half, they had twelve offensive rebounds to
Speaker 1: Sacramento's six. Christian Brown was consistently making DeMar Derozen pay
Speaker 1: for kind of standing around and being lazy off ball
Speaker 1: by like cutting behind him, running past him on crashes
Speaker 1: for the offensive glass beating him up floor in transition.
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junr was doing a great job of crashing
Speaker 1: every single time as well. They were beating Sacramento down
Speaker 1: the floor with kick ahead passes and transition pushes, and
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray I thought was pretty badly out playing deeron Fox.
Speaker 1: Jamal did a wonderful job of executing his role in
Speaker 1: Denver's offense. He got multiple buckets off of inside seals
Speaker 1: where he kind of like he'll start under the basket
Speaker 1: ish and he'll kind of like run up and he'll
Speaker 1: backscreen for some player that cuts to the basket. But
Speaker 1: then he'll backscreen almost with his hands on the guy
Speaker 1: so that he can keep him situated on his top side.
Speaker 1: And then he'll kind of hold that position until Jokic
Speaker 1: throws the ball in half and then he'll just give
Speaker 1: a little subtle shove and then turn and get the
Speaker 1: basketball and now he's passed him. It accomplishes the same
Speaker 1: thing as dribble penetration, right, Like, if Jamal Murray were
Speaker 1: to beat his mate off the dribble, he's going to
Speaker 1: draw help or get a layup, right, But if he
Speaker 1: has an inside seal and the paskets over the top
Speaker 1: and he catches it clean and the defenders behind him.
Speaker 1: It accomplishes effectively the same thing. He got buckets off
Speaker 1: of that. He got great shots in the on ball action,
Speaker 1: just like getting downhill hitting floaters. He rejected a screen
Speaker 1: against Aaron Fox and hit a little step back three,
Speaker 1: even had some nice transition pushes. He had a kind
Speaker 1: of like a lefty hook in the lane that he
Speaker 1: got off on Dearon Fox. I just thought he played
Speaker 1: a better floor game overall than Daron Fox did in
Speaker 1: this game, and the Nuggets defensively did a really good
Speaker 1: job on Fox in this game. It was a mix
Speaker 1: of Christian Brown, Peyton Watson, and Aaron Gordon. Watson and
Speaker 1: Gordon in particular, they're so good at back pressuring because
Speaker 1: they have length, and all back pressuring is is if
Speaker 1: you chase over the top of a screen, if you're
Speaker 1: going to successfully funnel someone into the paint, they have
Speaker 1: to be scared that if they shoot a mid range
Speaker 1: jump shot, they might get blocked from behind. And you
Speaker 1: can actually see that with Darren Fox, where like he
Speaker 1: was coming off and pulling up to shoot, but kind
Speaker 1: of like ducking his head and like leaning forward a
Speaker 1: little bit like changing his release because he's worried about
Speaker 1: back pressure. And that's a product of what Peyton Watson
Speaker 1: and Aaron Gordon do and that's a great way to
Speaker 1: influence the shooting percentage of guards that are taking aggressive
Speaker 1: scoring shots in ball screens and not just the ugly releases.
Speaker 1: There's Darren Fox kind of over penetrating because like what
Speaker 1: ends up happening is if he doesn't think he can
Speaker 1: get up in that mid range area, he's gonna keep driving.
Speaker 1: And if he keeps driving, he's gonna go into more
Speaker 1: traffic and that's where he can turn the ball over.
Speaker 1: Mislayups things along those lines. Russell Westbrook had another great game.
Speaker 1: He's seven for ten from the field. He was bullying
Speaker 1: the smaller King's guards under the rim. He had some threes,
Speaker 1: applied a ton of ball pressure or excuse me, rim pressure,
Speaker 1: and then Nikoliokich with the first thirty point, twenty rebound
Speaker 1: and fifteen assist game since Wilt Chamberlain did it over
Speaker 1: a half a century ago. I thought he dominated some
Speaker 1: bonus by just shoving him around, getting wherever he wanted,
Speaker 1: scoring on him one on one in the post, getting
Speaker 1: offensive rebounds, on him. The assists came every which way.
Speaker 1: Kick aheads like threw one ahead to Peyton Watson for
Speaker 1: a donkey, hit one ahead to Russell Westbrook for a
Speaker 1: runout layup, hitting cutters, hitting slippers. He was torching Demarta
Speaker 1: Rosen for again not paying attention off ball with Christian Brown,
Speaker 1: and Jokic was just rifling, you know, just line drive
Speaker 1: passes right into Christian Brown's shooting pockets so that he
Speaker 1: could take a nice, slow in rhythm jump shot to
Speaker 1: try to make Derosen pay for helping. And then he
Speaker 1: dominated the glass, obviously with twenty rebound game, especially on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor. He talked after the
Speaker 1: game about how he thinks he's playing the best basketball
Speaker 1: of his career, and he's right. I've talked a lot
Speaker 1: about how the jump shot was one of the big
Speaker 1: things that kind of held him back last year. We're
Speaker 1: halfway through the season and he's over two hundred attempts.
Speaker 1: He's a two hundred and nineteen jump shot attempts this
Speaker 1: season at one point three to two points per shot.
Speaker 1: That's just completely insane. Still shooting over sixty percent on
Speaker 1: hooks and floaters. And the big thing is he's really
Speaker 1: stepped things up defensively. I don't want to get into
Speaker 1: that right now. We'll get into that in a minute.
Speaker 1: But it's been an absolute pleasure to watch Nikola Jokic
Speaker 1: this season as the best player in the world, at
Speaker 1: the absolute peak of his powers, just doing his thing
Speaker 1: every night, and yet another masterpiece from him last night.
Speaker 1: I've been talking a lot this year about how I
Speaker 1: still see Denver as a legit second tier contender, but
Speaker 1: that they haven't really shown that extended stretch of their
Speaker 1: ceiling yet, like an extended stretch of dominance, and I
Speaker 1: think we're seeing that now. The Nugget have now won
Speaker 1: eight consecutive games that Nicole Jokic has played in. Every
Speaker 1: single one of those eight games has been a game
Speaker 1: that they either won and blowout fashion or like the
Speaker 1: game last night against the Kings where they were up
Speaker 1: big and then maybe let go of the rope a
Speaker 1: little bit late. But they've been dominant in eight consecutive
Speaker 1: wins when NICOLEA. Jokic has played, and some quality wins
Speaker 1: in there too. That's a good Sacramento Kings team that's
Speaker 1: been giving a lot of teams issues. Six of those
Speaker 1: eight wins were against teams that are currently in the
Speaker 1: playoff hunt in either conference. As a team, the Nuggets
Speaker 1: are twelve and three in their last fifteen games. They
Speaker 1: have the best record in the league and that's span
Speaker 1: tide for the best record in the league in that span.
Speaker 1: They have the best offense in the league. In that span,
Speaker 1: they have a one to twenty three offensive rating, which
Speaker 1: is outstanding. And the big thing that's standing out to
Speaker 1: me on film there is everyone is really starting to
Speaker 1: slot nicely and fit really well in their respective roles
Speaker 1: on the offense. No one's getting out of character. Like
Speaker 1: Russ has a really good feel for when to be
Speaker 1: aggressive and what to do when he's off ball. I'll
Speaker 1: come back to Russ in a second. But there's this
Speaker 1: dynamic with this team where there's these kind of these
Speaker 1: three guards that can be somewhat aggressive. Michael Porter Junior
Speaker 1: I think fits into this mix as well. But perimeter
Speaker 1: players that have the right to be aggressive in action
Speaker 1: or to have somewhat of a green light when they
Speaker 1: catch on the perimeter looking to score. And it's like Jamal,
Speaker 1: it used to be just be Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Junior,
Speaker 1: and like you know, Bruce Brown in the championship team, right,
Speaker 1: like that could bring the ball to the floor and
Speaker 1: be aggressive in action on the perimeter. But like as
Speaker 1: the years have gone by, it's kind of evolved a
Speaker 1: little bit. Now it's kind of a smortgage Porter guys, right,
Speaker 1: Like Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Junior are still two
Speaker 1: guys that can do that, but like Russell Westbrook has
Speaker 1: a certain aggressiveness to him. He's over fifteen points per
Speaker 1: game in the last month or so. Julian Strawther has
Speaker 1: had moments where he's been super aggressive, and all four
Speaker 1: of those guys have kind of had to pick their
Speaker 1: spots more, but they've been doing a good job of it.
Speaker 1: And so what you're getting is they're like, oh shit,
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray has this, you know, forty something point game,
Speaker 1: Like oh shit, Peyton Watts, excuse me. Julian Strather has
Speaker 1: this twenty something point game, like Russell Westbrook, this is
Speaker 1: his night tonight. Like Michael Porter Junior, this is his
Speaker 1: night tonight. They're feeling it out really really well and
Speaker 1: not stepping on each other's toes and staying in rhythm
Speaker 1: and then coming back to Russ like the off ball
Speaker 1: stuff is incredible. We've talked a lot about his cutting,
Speaker 1: but it's like even the work on the offensive glass.
Speaker 1: There's a play last night, cuts to the basket, doesn't
Speaker 1: get it, the shot goes up, it's a miss, and
Speaker 1: so he just inside seals, gets the rebound and just
Speaker 1: goes right back up and finishes because he's so much
Speaker 1: bigger and stronger than those Kings guards. And you combine
Speaker 1: that with Jokic playing the best basketball of his career
Speaker 1: and in my opinion, the highest level of offensive basketball
Speaker 1: we've ever seen, and we're just getting an incredibly efficient
Speaker 1: Nuggets offense. A one twenty three offensive rating is nothing
Speaker 1: to side eye at. That is a very very productive offense.
Speaker 1: Remember we were talking about the Pacers offense at the
Speaker 1: beginning of last year is hitting like some sort of
Speaker 1: crazy high that we hadn't seen in a long time,
Speaker 1: and they were at like a one to twenty four
Speaker 1: offensive rating, and so like again, when you're in that
Speaker 1: area where you're substantially over one twenty's, that's a really
Speaker 1: really high level offense that you're seeing. But the defense
Speaker 1: has been much better of late. They are seventh and
Speaker 1: defensive rating in this twelve and three stretch over the
Speaker 1: last fifteen games, and a big part of that has
Speaker 1: been Nicole Jokic's improved effort and intensity on that end
Speaker 1: of the floor. As we always talk about, Jokich is
Speaker 1: at his best defensively when he's reading plays, using his
Speaker 1: brain and being very active with his hands. He's got
Speaker 1: long arms, he's good at getting deflections and steals when
Speaker 1: he's reading plays and reading that pick and roll ball handler. Right,
Speaker 1: He's averaging over two and a half steals per game
Speaker 1: over the last couple of weeks. He's just doing more
Speaker 1: on that end. And when you anchor that with athletic
Speaker 1: motor guys like Christian Brown, Peyton Watson, Russell Westbrook, Aaron Gordon,
Speaker 1: and you have Jokic doing the work that he does
Speaker 1: on the defensive glass, you can be a very good defense.
Speaker 1: And you know, the Nuggets have been somewhat up and
Speaker 1: down this year for a variety of reasons, but this
Speaker 1: is the first stretch this season where I felt like
Speaker 1: they looked like a legit championship contender. They're being the
Speaker 1: best defense they can be with their personnel while also
Speaker 1: being a truly elite offense. That is the pathway that's
Speaker 1: the pathway that won them the title in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: It's the pathway that can win them the title this year.
Speaker 1: They are good enough to beat anyone in this league.
Speaker 1: There's obviously, like when you look at the teams at
Speaker 1: the top, like there's a reason why the Cavs and
Speaker 1: the Thunder are like eight games up on Denver in
Speaker 1: the standings, right, and we know Boston is in a
Speaker 1: massive role with the championship, you know, kind of hangover.
Speaker 1: But I think it's fair to say that those teams
Speaker 1: have been more impressive in the aggregate this season. I
Speaker 1: think Denver can close that gap if they maintain this dominance.
Speaker 1: But no matter what, regardless of what you've seen to
Speaker 1: this point, I think it's clear that Denver can beat
Speaker 1: any of these teams. They just need to keep building.
Speaker 1: There's a real chance there. It's not a tiny crack
Speaker 1: in the door. It's like a legitimate, partially open door
Speaker 1: that they can try to blow through. There's a real
Speaker 1: opportunity here that they are demonstrating. One last note on
Speaker 1: the Nuggets. The Nuggets are really starting to hold up
Speaker 1: well in the Jokic off groups, meaning when Yokic is
Speaker 1: playing in the game, but he's on the bench. In
Speaker 1: the last eight games that Nikola Jokic has played in,
Speaker 1: the Nuggets are plus eighteen in the minutes when Jokic
Speaker 1: is off the floor. That is a major development for
Speaker 1: a team that was legit hemorrhaging leads without Jokic in
Speaker 1: the early part of the season. That part of that's
Speaker 1: ben Jamal Murray getting better. These groups have been defending
Speaker 1: better getting out in transition. Getting Aaron Gordon back has
Speaker 1: also been a really big help in that side of things.
Speaker 1: The Nuggets are playing some special basketball right now. I'm
Speaker 1: excited to see if they can keep it up. A
Speaker 1: couple of notes on the Warriors. So they got off
Speaker 1: to a really tough start against the Bulls. They spotted
Speaker 1: them a twenty to six lead, just a total funk
Speaker 1: on both end. Looked kind of like just an extent
Speaker 1: of what happened to them in crunch time against the Kings.
Speaker 1: But then they went on a one fifteen to seventy
Speaker 1: run plus forty five in that span to blow them
Speaker 1: off the floor. Quentin Post has a twenty point game,
Speaker 1: And this is where I want to dive into the
Speaker 1: concept of a pick and pop. I talk about picking
Speaker 1: and popping a lot because it is the one of
Speaker 1: the most difficult actions in the league to guard. It's
Speaker 1: difficult even with guards, like when you set ghost screens
Speaker 1: and they slip out of them, just anytime a shooter
Speaker 1: is like moving to a spot. It's difficult to guard,
Speaker 1: especially as part of a screening action. But the bottom
Speaker 1: line is is that most teams don't want to switch
Speaker 1: actions that involve a center. The reason why is you
Speaker 1: don't want to have your center out on the perimeter
Speaker 1: guarding some guard for most teams, and you don't want
Speaker 1: to have your guard guarding a center for most teams. Right, So,
Speaker 1: like you try to keep yourself out of these precarious matchups,
Speaker 1: and so you run these traditional coverages. Right. So, like
Speaker 1: in a traditional ball screen, what is going to happen
Speaker 1: is the set enter for the opposing team is going
Speaker 1: to come set a screen, and then the defensive center
Speaker 1: is going to either come all the way up to
Speaker 1: the level or sit way back as close to the
Speaker 1: rim as possible, or anywhere in between. Those are like
Speaker 1: the cover that's the range of coverages there. You might
Speaker 1: see a guy blitz where he just comes way out
Speaker 1: to the level and they both attack the ball and
Speaker 1: they try to get him to get rid of it.
Speaker 1: You might see a hedge where he like lunges out
Speaker 1: to stop him from driving, but then recovers. You might
Speaker 1: see like a high drop. This is one of the
Speaker 1: most common coverages you'll see in the league. This is
Speaker 1: where are a big comes all the way up to
Speaker 1: the level just to contest any guy who comes off
Speaker 1: to shoot a pull up jump shot, but he's still
Speaker 1: staying kind of lateral to the ball so that he
Speaker 1: can contain the ball as as they might try to
Speaker 1: drive downhill. And then there's like a drop where you
Speaker 1: like sit way back and you let the guy come
Speaker 1: over the top of the screen and drive into you.
Speaker 1: But all of those coverages involve the center engaging with
Speaker 1: the ball handler. Right In a hedge, you stop the
Speaker 1: ball handler from driving. High drop. You can test any
Speaker 1: sort of pull up a shot or movement shot coming
Speaker 1: off the screen in a lower drop. In a lower drop,
Speaker 1: you're dealing with the ball handler and the roll man
Speaker 1: coming out to you. They call it no roller behind coverage.
Speaker 1: Your job is to keep both of them in front
Speaker 1: of you as you make that defensive read from the
Speaker 1: center position. None of those account for a big not rolling.
Speaker 1: When the big rolls, all of those coverages have a
Speaker 1: plan for it. None of them account for what if
Speaker 1: the big just sets the screen and then just pops.
Speaker 1: Because you can imagine if you hedge, then that guy
Speaker 1: who pops is gonna be wide open. If you drop high,
Speaker 1: meaning like the center comes up to the level to
Speaker 1: contest a pull up jump shot, the big man's gonna
Speaker 1: be wide open. If you drop low, the big man's
Speaker 1: gonna be wide open. No matter what you do. If
Speaker 1: you pick and pop, it's going to be wide open.
Speaker 1: Your only ways to guard it are to either have
Speaker 1: your big man stay home, in which case, if the
Speaker 1: guy sets a good screen, the guard's just gonna go
Speaker 1: right downhill and compromise your defense. Or you can rotate
Speaker 1: to the shooter from the weak side. If you rotate
Speaker 1: to the shooter from the weak side, you can have
Speaker 1: issues where you're in rotation now and you end up
Speaker 1: just giving up an open shot somewhere else on the floor.
Speaker 1: It is one of the hardest actions in the league
Speaker 1: to guard. That's why for most teams, like there are
Speaker 1: certain guys like you know, Victor wen Minyama, You're probably
Speaker 1: not going to run a drop coverage against because or
Speaker 1: any sort of traditional coverage because Victor can really shoot
Speaker 1: the ball right. That's why the Lakers, for instance, when
Speaker 1: they played them, went back to switching one through five.
Speaker 1: They wanted to make sure they didn't give up easy
Speaker 1: pick and pop threes to Victor wem Minyama. Guys like
Speaker 1: Chris Hoops porzingis same sort of thing. There are a
Speaker 1: handful of guys in the league that have earned a
Speaker 1: reputation that if they set a screen, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a switch because you can't give up that pick and pop.
Speaker 1: But for the most part, like even guys like Miles Turner,
Speaker 1: for instance, guys that can shoot, teams will be like,
Speaker 1: we're just gonna let him shoot it, and if he
Speaker 1: makes a few, then we'll react, But we can't be
Speaker 1: building our defense around stopping Miles Turner from shooting threes.
Speaker 1: Same thing goes for a guy like Quinton Post. With
Speaker 1: a guy like Quinton Post, teams are going to especially
Speaker 1: in action with Steph Curry, They're gonna leave him open
Speaker 1: on the pick and pot. How many times did you
Speaker 1: see a two man game sequence with Steph and Quinton
Speaker 1: Post last night where Steph came off the screen, both
Speaker 1: defenders went with him easy behind the back pass or
Speaker 1: kickback pass. Quinton Post just standing completely unguarded out by
Speaker 1: the three point line. It is an incredibly valuable thing
Speaker 1: to have a center that can legitimately shoot. It is
Speaker 1: always open. It puts the defense in a real predicament.
Speaker 1: And I thought Quinn Post was setting good screens all
Speaker 1: night long. He was running side to side action where
Speaker 1: like he'd make himself available at the top of the
Speaker 1: key catch and then quickly turn into a dribble handoff
Speaker 1: going the other way. He even in garbage time ran
Speaker 1: an inverted ball screen and got all the way to
Speaker 1: the basket for a lamp where he had a guard
Speaker 1: screen screen for him. So like, really really interesting development
Speaker 1: with what we've seen from Quinton Post in the last
Speaker 1: couple of games. And then Gi Santos, who's been playing
Speaker 1: a lot as of late, starts with the fact that
Speaker 1: he's got good size. He's just a big, strong dude.
Speaker 1: He moves well laterally, and he competes on the defensive end.
Speaker 1: Guys are shooting five for fourteen from the field. Excuse
Speaker 1: me against Ghi Santos in ISOs so far this year,
Speaker 1: which is really good. He does a really good job
Speaker 1: in ball screens, like he fights and sidles up over
Speaker 1: the top when he can stay attached, but he's also
Speaker 1: big enough to peel off. Like one of the biggest
Speaker 1: jobs for a guard in ball screens is if you
Speaker 1: do get rocked by a screen and they have to switch,
Speaker 1: you got to get around and get on the inside
Speaker 1: of the big and try to box him out. It's
Speaker 1: a difficult job, but when you're as big as Gi Santos,
Speaker 1: it's something that is possible for him. And then he's
Speaker 1: also just shot the ball really well. He's made eighteen
Speaker 1: threes and thirty nine attempts this year. That's one point
Speaker 1: three to eight points per shot. That's that's so good
Speaker 1: that he's making defenses pay for helping him. Steve Kerr
Speaker 1: talked after last night's game about how Gi Santo's and
Speaker 1: Quinton Post have earned his trust, but that he's not
Speaker 1: sure there are enough minutes for them when Jonathan Kaminga
Speaker 1: and Draymond Green get back. That is literally the problem.
Speaker 1: You have a million really solid role players, but you
Speaker 1: are utterly devoid of top end talent beyond Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: Even Brandon Pajenski last night came back and looked great.
Speaker 1: Plus twenty two and twenty one minutes did a little
Speaker 1: bit of everything. Everyone looks at the Warriors record and
Speaker 1: how bad they've been at times this year through the
Speaker 1: lens of them just being a bad team. I don't
Speaker 1: see it that way at all. I see it as
Speaker 1: a team with a gaping weakness, one specific gaping weakness,
Speaker 1: one that will make you look bad at times. In
Speaker 1: the modern NBA, no matter who you are, if you
Speaker 1: don't have guys that can create shots in the modern NBA,
Speaker 1: you will have games where your offense sucks and you
Speaker 1: look terrible. Right now, your secondary shot career is Andrew Wiggins,
Speaker 1: Buddy Held, and Dennis Schroeder by committee. None of those
Speaker 1: guys are consistent offensive threats. They'll look good some nights,
Speaker 1: they'll look bad others. It's looked especially bad of late
Speaker 1: because Dennis Schroeder's been bad a lot of the time
Speaker 1: and Buddy Heield's been bad a lot of the time
Speaker 1: as of late. But none of those guys are even
Speaker 1: close to good enough to being a legit number two.
Speaker 1: They're being put into roles where they're needed to be
Speaker 1: consistently good offensively when that's not the thing. When you
Speaker 1: guys heard me talk about Dennis Schroder before the deal,
Speaker 1: I never said he's a consistently great offensive player. I
Speaker 1: just said he's a really good player that does a
Speaker 1: lot of things that help the team, and he's freakishly
Speaker 1: competitive and compete and like in battles and a guy
Speaker 1: that you'd like to have in a foxhole with you.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean he's your the second best shot creator
Speaker 1: on a championship team, I said. At the time of
Speaker 1: the deal, I said, I only liked the movie in
Speaker 1: the context of another trade for a wing or a
Speaker 1: four that can really score. The trade made all the
Speaker 1: sense in the world. You traded an injured player with
Speaker 1: a torn acl for a player that could come help
Speaker 1: you right away. It was an upgrade. No matter how
Speaker 1: you look at it. Dennis just hasn't played well. Here's
Speaker 1: the thing. Dennis hasn't played well. That's a fact. But
Speaker 1: Dennis will play better in the long run. Right now,
Speaker 1: you're in one of the lolls. But this is kind
Speaker 1: of the deal with Dennis. Dennis, you don't want to
Speaker 1: be in a position where you need him to score
Speaker 1: every single night. He's the kind of player that, like,
Speaker 1: this is what it was like for me when I
Speaker 1: was rooting for him with the Lakers. On the nights
Speaker 1: where he was on offensively, you just won or he'd
Speaker 1: get you twenty twenty five. You just on those nights
Speaker 1: were great, but you never counted on those. Those were
Speaker 1: just when they happen, you're like, shit, we're getting a
Speaker 1: good Dennis offense game like this is gonna be really great.
Speaker 1: But then there's the other side of it, which is
Speaker 1: even when he's not having one of those offensive nights,
Speaker 1: he guards the ball really well. He's just overall a
Speaker 1: good competitor. He can do some advantage for a bench
Speaker 1: unit and make occasional plays to help your team win.
Speaker 1: It's been ugly because you're expecting this every night, but
Speaker 1: you've been getting that instead. And so it's one of
Speaker 1: those things where like slotting could go a long way
Speaker 1: to putting Dennis in a position where you don't need
Speaker 1: him to be great every night. I bet you guys
Speaker 1: think Dennis is shooting really poorly this year, and he
Speaker 1: is on contested shots. He's actually shooting thirty nine percent
Speaker 1: on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots. Since he joined
Speaker 1: the Warriors, but he only got twenty eight looks so far.
Speaker 1: He's doing a role player stuff. Fine, he's just struggling
Speaker 1: at the star stuff because you have him miscast right
Speaker 1: now as a secondary star. If you get a legitimate
Speaker 1: number two for Steph, it will slot everyone more properly,
Speaker 1: and then that will allow you to take advantage of
Speaker 1: the actual strength of this Warriors roster, a strength that
Speaker 1: puts them even above many of the other roster in
Speaker 1: the league, which is a depth of role player talent.
Speaker 1: When you have role players all playing above their pay
Speaker 1: grade in terms of their responsibilities, they will look like
Speaker 1: they're inadequate players. When you have them playing in their
Speaker 1: pay grade, they will fulfill those expectations and look great.
Speaker 1: But you've got to get a guy up there next
Speaker 1: to Steph that can be a guy that you know
Speaker 1: is going to be good offensively every night, because that
Speaker 1: will then slot everybody into more achievable goals. Dallas used
Speaker 1: a very interesting game plan to defeat the Yoklahoma City
Speaker 1: Thunder for the third time this season last night. Doubled
Speaker 1: sga a ton and they used kind of like a
Speaker 1: weird variation of a two three zone where they use
Speaker 1: the top two guys to kind of pick up SGA,
Speaker 1: like wherever he was on the floor and get the
Speaker 1: ball out of his hands. You guys have maybe heard
Speaker 1: of a defense called a box in one. It's a
Speaker 1: very simple concept. You have two guys on the back line,
Speaker 1: two guys kind of around the elbows, and they zone
Speaker 1: up almost like a two to three, but without that
Speaker 1: third guy. So each guy's is each guy's area that
Speaker 1: they have to cover is just bigger. But then you
Speaker 1: take one guy and you just kind of deploy him
Speaker 1: on the other team's best player. We ran it in
Speaker 1: uh we ran it in college against Salt Lake Community College.
Speaker 1: I remember they had they would have me chase around
Speaker 1: the other team's best player and then we would have
Speaker 1: like a the two two zone, right, And the idea
Speaker 1: is is it's just weird. It's super weird, it's super unusual,
Speaker 1: and the purpose it serves is to make the other
Speaker 1: team play a very different type of basketball than they're
Speaker 1: used to playing. I think if it is like coaching
Speaker 1: to win individual games, and it's something that is underrated
Speaker 1: I think in the NBA regular season, because like, yeah,
Speaker 1: if you do something like that in the postseason, they
Speaker 1: probably find some sort of adjustment over the course of
Speaker 1: the series to counter that, which is why you don't
Speaker 1: see people running these gimmicky defenses all the time around
Speaker 1: the league, right, But when you look at when you
Speaker 1: look at it in the small sample, like oh, this
Speaker 1: is a random Thursday night in January, it can win
Speaker 1: you a game. It can win you a game on
Speaker 1: the road against the runaway number one seed without your
Speaker 1: best player, which is what Dallas did in this game.
Speaker 1: So a box and one, as I talked about, is
Speaker 1: the zone with the two guys at the elbow and
Speaker 1: the two guys at the baseline, kind of covering those
Speaker 1: areas in one person chasing around the opposing best star.
Speaker 1: This was kind of like a line in two, meaning
Speaker 1: you had like a line along the baseline, like Daniel Gafford.
Speaker 1: There two big athletes on either side of him. They're
Speaker 1: helping on drives. Gafford's still kind of coming up and
Speaker 1: showing up around the level, and they're cleaning up around
Speaker 1: the rim in terms of defensive rebounds. But the two
Speaker 1: guys at the top, just as soon as Shay got
Speaker 1: the ball, we're just bracketing in on him and forcing
Speaker 1: him to give it up and it worked. It forced
Speaker 1: the ball out of Shay's hands, It forced some discombobulated,
Speaker 1: weird shots. It got Oklahoma City out of rhythm, and
Speaker 1: it got Dallas went. They ran twenty four possessions of
Speaker 1: zone in that game and held the Thunder to just
Speaker 1: zero point eighty eight points per possession on those plays. PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington put up a twenty two point nineteen rebound night.
Speaker 1: He was great with his slot drives. He can just
Speaker 1: overpower most of the Oklahoma City perimeter players. He had
Speaker 1: a really nice driving kick play where he kind of
Speaker 1: curled around in action on the right wing, got into
Speaker 1: the paint, led to the kind of pass pass sequence
Speaker 1: that got Quentin Grimes the big three that iceed the game.
Speaker 1: Spencer Dinwood, he was incredible. He had twenty eight points
Speaker 1: on fourteen shots. It's one of his most efficient games
Speaker 1: that you'll see. Absolutely toasted Aaron Wiggins on like a
Speaker 1: simple hesitation move, a nasty one where he like and
Speaker 1: again on the hesitation movie, he kind of looked to
Speaker 1: the left, came to a complete stop for just a
Speaker 1: brief second, and then shot like a cannon and just
Speaker 1: toasted Aaron Wiggins off the drip and just dunked it
Speaker 1: on the back line of Oklahoma City wasn't playing a
Speaker 1: center down the stretch, so there's no rim protection. He
Speaker 1: just dunked on everybody, and then Kyrie Irvin poured in
Speaker 1: an efficient twenty four points of his own. I thought
Speaker 1: he just did a good job of advantage creation all night,
Speaker 1: just creating that initial advantage that everybody could play off. Again,
Speaker 1: a fun example of just coaching to win every single
Speaker 1: individual game from Jason Kidd. A huge part of how
Speaker 1: you stay afloat in a season where you're dealing with injuries,
Speaker 1: especially when you know, like, oh, well, we want to
Speaker 1: play a certain style that we're gonna use in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: We're not gonna have these guys in the playoffs. You're
Speaker 1: going to probably run a much tighter rotation with better
Speaker 1: players because Lively and Luka Dancich'll be back right on
Speaker 1: the thunderfront. I think in general, they're going to struggle
Speaker 1: to match up with Dallas without Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein.
Speaker 1: Like they couldn't play center down the stretch. That's how
Speaker 1: that dunk happened. Like it's just one of those things
Speaker 1: where they physically are a mismatch without having that interior
Speaker 1: size before we get to our mailbag, one last note
Speaker 1: on the Lakers, and again, like I did a full
Speaker 1: breakdown of this in the video we did earlier this morning,
Speaker 1: but there's a reality with the Lakers that they don't
Speaker 1: have like a super high level offensive player at this point,
Speaker 1: right because of the decline of Lebron James, Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: never really developing that way, and Austin Reeves, who's I think,
Speaker 1: you know, the kind of guy that like has a
Speaker 1: pretty like pretty like clear ceiling on who he is
Speaker 1: as an offensive player. But he's still a very good
Speaker 1: offensive player. It's he's not going to be an MVP
Speaker 1: like Shae Kios Alexander type of offensive player, right. And
Speaker 1: so it brought me to this concept that JJ Reddick
Speaker 1: was talking about last night, the concept of we score
Speaker 1: versus I score. And I actually think this is an
Speaker 1: identity that the Lakers have to take on if they're
Speaker 1: going to win the title. They need to be like
Speaker 1: the Cavs, a team that plays with pace, great pace
Speaker 1: up and down the floor, that uses their variety of
Speaker 1: offensive talent to generate advantages instead of playing through one
Speaker 1: singular player. And then that capitalizes on those advantages with
Speaker 1: good spacing and ball movement. No Lakers scored more than
Speaker 1: twenty five points last night, but they had six guys
Speaker 1: in double figures and they had a one to twenty
Speaker 1: five offensive rating against a great defense in Boston. Like
Speaker 1: that is the pathway for them. By the pace thing
Speaker 1: is important. I talked about this a little bit this
Speaker 1: morning with respect to like the difference between a static
Speaker 1: drive versus like a movement drive. What I mean by
Speaker 1: that is like if I let's pretend we're playing King
Speaker 1: of the Court and I'm at the top of the
Speaker 1: key and you're guarding me, and you're straight up, and
Speaker 1: I have a live dribble. But I'm standing right in
Speaker 1: front of you at the top of the key, and
Speaker 1: I need to beat you off the dribble. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be pretty tough for me to do because any sort
Speaker 1: of move that I make you can pressure and effect
Speaker 1: a handle. It's just it's difficult to do in that
Speaker 1: sort of setting. Now, let's put you still there at
Speaker 1: the top of the key, but let's take me all
Speaker 1: the way back to half court. But give me a
Speaker 1: live dribble. Okay, And so now you need to stop
Speaker 1: me from driving past you. But I get to start
Speaker 1: running back at half court, I'm going to get ahead
Speaker 1: of steam and I'm going to hit a move right
Speaker 1: at the top of the key, and you're gonna have
Speaker 1: a much lower chance of stopping me in that situation
Speaker 1: because I already have ahead of steam and it's just
Speaker 1: really difficult to stop a player when he's got that
Speaker 1: type of momentum going downhill. That's why you play fast.
Speaker 1: That's why you don't walk the ball up the court
Speaker 1: and try to attack a static defense. It is so
Speaker 1: much easier to get the defense in rotation by attacking
Speaker 1: with speed. Austin all night last night was so great
Speaker 1: at like every transition push, just trying to get dribble
Speaker 1: penetration and attacking with a head of steam to break
Speaker 1: down the defense and generate those kickout opportunities. I thought,
Speaker 1: I just thought he was great and like that sort
Speaker 1: of concept. If it translates down the line again, for
Speaker 1: a team that can struggle sometimes to score, the more
Speaker 1: they push the ball, the more they play fast, the
Speaker 1: more they start to try to run action with a
Speaker 1: head of steam versus static against an elite defense, the
Speaker 1: more successful have in those situations. But again, if you
Speaker 1: want more Lakers stuff, go to the video that we
Speaker 1: made earlier this afternoon. All right, get to our mailbag, Hey, Jason,
Speaker 1: love the show. Love the quantity and quality keeps my
Speaker 1: screen time unfortunately high. The Celtics have had these lulls
Speaker 1: all season that are almost always followed up with a
Speaker 1: thirty to forty point dominating win. Is that a sign
Speaker 1: that they truly can just turn it on or do
Speaker 1: you think it's just inconsistency. I think it's a sign
Speaker 1: that they can turn it on. Don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1: Like there's some mental demons here in terms of like
Speaker 1: decision making demons. I talked a lot about that this morning.
Speaker 1: The idea of settling basically, like, to me, settling is
Speaker 1: just attacking a mismatch with a jump shot versus attacking
Speaker 1: a mismatch with physical aggression. And the way I kind
Speaker 1: of laid it out in the show this morning is like,
Speaker 1: if you attack with physical aggression, you're gonna get easy twos.
Speaker 1: If you get easy twos, it's untenable for the defense,
Speaker 1: So they're gonna have to help. As soon as they
Speaker 1: start helping, that's where you start getting those kickout opportunities,
Speaker 1: which is the the you know, the meat and table
Speaker 1: of the Boston offense when they were at their best,
Speaker 1: which is wide open catch and shoot threes. Right, But
Speaker 1: if you take, if you settle for jump shots in
Speaker 1: isolation situations or in post up situations, you're gonna be
Speaker 1: less efficient. And when you're less efficient, the defense is
Speaker 1: more willing to live with it. And if the defense
Speaker 1: is more willing to live with it, they're not gonna
Speaker 1: help as much. If they're not gonna help as much,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get stagnant, you're not gonna get those kick
Speaker 1: out three opportunities. And again like that, again, what makes
Speaker 1: the Celtics the best is their ability to generate easy
Speaker 1: layups and wide open catch and shoot threes. Yeah, Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown and Jason Tatum can make tough shots. Yeah, Porzingis
Speaker 1: can hit face up jump shots around the elbow, but
Speaker 1: that's not what gets them the elite offense that won
Speaker 1: them the title. They do it through physical aggression against mismatches.
Speaker 1: How do they beat Dallas? It was Jalen Brown and
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum consistently getting Luka Doncic on a switch and
Speaker 1: taking step back threes no, that's not it. They drove
Speaker 1: past them every damn time, and then they kicked the
Speaker 1: ball out and generated wide open threes. You guys get
Speaker 1: the points. So like to me, what ends up happening
Speaker 1: in these thirty forty point dominating wins. They leverage themselves defensively,
Speaker 1: which allows them to get out and transition more, and
Speaker 1: then when they're in the half court they play more
Speaker 1: physically aggressive, they get better shots, and they blow teams out.
Speaker 1: It is absolutely just an effort and energy thing. I
Speaker 1: also think this five games and seven nights thing really
Speaker 1: affected then. We talked about that this morning. But again,
Speaker 1: I think the dominant wins that have been mixed in
Speaker 1: have been a clear signal that they have that upside
Speaker 1: and that they're just struggling with dealing with the dregs
Speaker 1: of the regular season at this point. Hey, Jason, I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's just me, but it seems like
Speaker 1: no one is talking about how disappointing the seventy six
Speaker 1: ers season has been thus far. This is a team
Speaker 1: that came into the season coming off the acquisition of
Speaker 1: Paul George, ready to be a top contender in the East. However,
Speaker 1: they're sitting at the eleventh seed and at the halfway
Speaker 1: point of the season. I know injuries have played a factor,
Speaker 1: but I believe they still have enough talent to be
Speaker 1: more competitive than they are. With that being said, what
Speaker 1: are your thoughts on the seventy six ers this season? So,
Speaker 1: in the interest of full disclosure, I haven't watched a
Speaker 1: ton of them this year. I might have seen like
Speaker 1: maybe five or six six Ers games. The main thing
Speaker 1: is just how I like divvy up the amount of
Speaker 1: time that I watch film. I want to have a
Speaker 1: really good grasp on the teams that are in the
Speaker 1: upper tiers, like the top tier championship contenders, the second
Speaker 1: tier championship contenders, in a long shot championship contenders. I
Speaker 1: want to have like a really good feel for all
Speaker 1: of them because they're the teams that we're going to
Speaker 1: be coming covering very closely when we get into the postseason,
Speaker 1: which is basically like a two month saga that we
Speaker 1: have at the tail end of all of this, right,
Speaker 1: and so like when I see teams that just are crumbled,
Speaker 1: like Philly's just crumbled, so I haven't put too much
Speaker 1: effort and energy into following them this year. That said,
Speaker 1: I'm aware of what's going on, and I have watched
Speaker 1: enough of them to see that, Yeah, Paul George just
Speaker 1: hasn't been very good. And it's kind of like a
Speaker 1: tough thing because on the one hand, you almost feel
Speaker 1: like they had to do it right, like you have to.
Speaker 1: There's an order of operations, operation number one, or the
Speaker 1: first action there is like, well, we're committing to EMBIID, right,
Speaker 1: you like and Beats had all his end, his playoff
Speaker 1: issues and his injury issues, but as an organization, they said,
Speaker 1: we're still going to try with them. Okay, I you're
Speaker 1: still gonna try with EMBIID. You needed a talent upgrade.
Speaker 1: What was the best way to upgrade the team's talent
Speaker 1: this summer signing Paul George. Yeah, you're right. If you
Speaker 1: turn Paul George away, you stay away from what could
Speaker 1: be the worst contract in NBA history. I'm not disagreeing
Speaker 1: with that. But the alternative was you don't sign him
Speaker 1: and then you're still bad. So it's like it's the
Speaker 1: kind of the same thing that we talk about, like
Speaker 1: with these I have a question later as a respect
Speaker 1: as that has to do with respect to like these sons,
Speaker 1: with Kevin Durant, and them going all in or like
Speaker 1: well we've talked about NonStop at the Warriors or the
Speaker 1: Lakers going all in, Like if you're in the Lebron
Speaker 1: James business, if you're in the Kevin Durant business, if
Speaker 1: you're in the Steph Curry business, and Joel Embiid even
Speaker 1: though he's younger because of his body breaking down, I
Speaker 1: kind of view it as a similar type of urgent timeline.
Speaker 1: If you decide I want to be in the Embiid, KD,
Speaker 1: Steph Lebron business. There's a certain amount of like irresponsible
Speaker 1: decision making that comes hand in hand with that because
Speaker 1: there are super high risk options, so you kind of
Speaker 1: have to play high risk ball there, right, And so
Speaker 1: that's the thing is like you're right, you didn't have
Speaker 1: to sign Paul George, but he was the easiest way
Speaker 1: to add a really talented player in a tight window
Speaker 1: where you felt an urgent need to try to win
Speaker 1: a title, and so you kind of had to take
Speaker 1: that risk. And also, like it's kind of like the
Speaker 1: Cavs thing. It's always really funny to me when people
Speaker 1: are like, oh, well, you didn't have the calves doing this,
Speaker 1: and it's like none of you guys had the Cavs
Speaker 1: doing this, Like, come on, guys, like the Calves are
Speaker 1: greatly exceeding expectations, This is unusual. Same thing goes in
Speaker 1: reverse for a guy like Paul George, right, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought it was really dangerous to sign Paul George
Speaker 1: to that extensive of a deal at that big of
Speaker 1: a number, at this phase of his career. Obviously that
Speaker 1: was a risk. None of us thought he'd be this bad,
Speaker 1: Like none of us had this. Dude's gonna routinely put
Speaker 1: up eleven or twelve points in a game, like none
Speaker 1: of us had. None of us had that as our
Speaker 1: potential outcome for Paul George. So like, some of this
Speaker 1: is like Paul George just has to get his shit
Speaker 1: together and hold up his end of the bargain. But
Speaker 1: at this point things are just so off the rails
Speaker 1: with Embiad's health and everything, like this season is kind
Speaker 1: of a lost cause no matter what. So you're almost
Speaker 1: better off. Like I wouldn't play anybody who's hurt. If
Speaker 1: MAXI has some sort of discomfort in a foot, sit
Speaker 1: is asked down. If Paul George is playing like shit
Speaker 1: because he's hurt, Sit is asked down. If Joel Embiid
Speaker 1: can't do a workout without his knees swelling, sit is
Speaker 1: ass down and have the number one priority between now
Speaker 1: in October for those guys to get healthy. And then
Speaker 1: when you get to October, you say, let's try this
Speaker 1: thing one more time, and you try it and if
Speaker 1: it goes off the fucking rails again, then maybe you
Speaker 1: consider trying to pivot off of everything in the best
Speaker 1: way that you can, and maybe that ends up you
Speaker 1: having to trade Tyree Maxey, which would really suck. But
Speaker 1: if that's what you have to do, that's what you
Speaker 1: have to do. But you gotta do what you gotta
Speaker 1: do to make this work up until at least until
Speaker 1: you get one full season with these guys at least
Speaker 1: having some health to see what they're capable of on
Speaker 1: the court. Is it just me or have the timp's
Speaker 1: tape segments been canceled? Did you say something about that
Speaker 1: or was it just too complicated to keep doing? I
Speaker 1: planed on still doing Tim's tape. It's just the holidays
Speaker 1: were weird because we kept having a bunch of days
Speaker 1: off in the middle of the week and then we
Speaker 1: had another day off. This week Monday with the Martin
Speaker 1: Luther King Day, and then I've also been doing more
Speaker 1: trade deadline content, so like when I have a Tuesday
Speaker 1: or a Thursday when I want to do something different
Speaker 1: than game reactions, I've been doing a lot of like
Speaker 1: let's cover three teams at the trade deadline instead of
Speaker 1: Tim's tape. But like post trade deadline, we will absolutely
Speaker 1: get back into Tim's tape as we start to like
Speaker 1: dive deeper into these teams. Like Tim's tape is in
Speaker 1: a very important segment to me in terms of like
Speaker 1: providing visual representations for the show. It is something that
Speaker 1: I'm still very committed to. We're just in a kind
Speaker 1: of a weird, funky spot in the season where we're
Speaker 1: not using it as much. Love your work. Watching from
Speaker 1: New Zealand trying to settle a debate with my friend
Speaker 1: who's a Heat fan. Who do you think is a
Speaker 1: better player, Desmond Bain or Tyler Harrow. Last year I
Speaker 1: would have said Desmond Bain. This year, I'd say Tyler
Speaker 1: Harrow for the few Sure, it's all going to depend
Speaker 1: on whether or not the shooting from Tyler Harrow is legitimate.
Speaker 1: The big thing with Desmond Bain is. I actually think
Speaker 1: Desmond Bain is a pretty damn good defensive player. He's good,
Speaker 1: He's physically fights guys off of spots, good ball pressure guy.
Speaker 1: Like I like Desmond Baine on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: much much more than Tyler Harrow, and like his kind
Speaker 1: of lower, trunky build makes it a little bit easier
Speaker 1: for him to get to spots, and I think that's
Speaker 1: made him just a more useful player as the intensity
Speaker 1: goes up a level. But Tyler Harrow's just been shooting
Speaker 1: the ball so damn well this year and doing such
Speaker 1: a good job passing the basketball this year that he's
Speaker 1: gone up a level in terms of just overall offensive
Speaker 1: upside where he's been better than Desmond Baine this season.
Speaker 1: That said, every time I see a guy that has
Speaker 1: an outlier shooting season like this, it's like you kind
Speaker 1: of just want to see the sample size grow and
Speaker 1: grow and grow. It's like it's kind of like the
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards shit, Like he shot really well in the postseason,
Speaker 1: shot really well with Team USA. Now I was shooting
Speaker 1: really well again this season. Like now I'm kind of like, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards is a really good shooter, Like, that's kind
Speaker 1: of what we want to see with Tyler Harrows, just
Speaker 1: to see him put together a more extended sample of that.
Speaker 1: Why has the Dennis Schroeder trade worked out for the Warriors?
Speaker 1: They needed additional ball handling. He was playing so well
Speaker 1: in Brooklyn. What happened is the Warriors offense really that
Speaker 1: hard to play in, is definitely that hard to adapt to. Again,
Speaker 1: I talked about this a little bit earlier on in
Speaker 1: the show. It's just all and I'm not gonna get
Speaker 1: too much deeper in it. Just go listen to the
Speaker 1: Warriors segment that we did earlier in the show. But
Speaker 1: the gist of it is, like I've never thought of
Speaker 1: Dennis as like a primary shot creator or even as
Speaker 1: a secondary shot creator. He needs to be your third, fourth,
Speaker 1: fifth best offensive player in order for it to make sense.
Speaker 1: His value is in that in specific matchups he can
Speaker 1: be absolutely deadly as a speed guard who can beat
Speaker 1: switches and pressure the ball and do all these different things.
Speaker 1: But like there are other matchups where he can struggle
Speaker 1: the teams that can do a better job of packing
Speaker 1: the paint, teams that have a good enough athlete to
Speaker 1: bother his kind of slow pull up jump shot release.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, like I said
Speaker 1: that when the trade was made, like he only really
Speaker 1: makes sense for this team, or he makes sense for
Speaker 1: this team no matter what as a trade for d
Speaker 1: Anthony Melton. But the only way he really brings upside
Speaker 1: to this team is if he's not depended on to
Speaker 1: be a great score and right now he is. And
Speaker 1: for the record, guys, like this is the bottom end
Speaker 1: of the Dennis Schroeder experience. He's not making any contested
Speaker 1: shots right now, so like that is the main issue.
Speaker 1: Like Dennis will play better, but the bigger picture issue
Speaker 1: is that you don't need to be depending on Dennis.
Speaker 1: That's a roster problem that they need to address. Hey,
Speaker 1: Jason love the show, big Suns fan, and even bigger
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant fan. As I watched the Sun in some
Speaker 1: of these other kind of upper middle teams Lakers, Kings,
Speaker 1: t Wolves, I'm asking myself, specifically as a Suns fan,
Speaker 1: why are we not blowing this thing up. I don't
Speaker 1: think to fit with Beal and Book and Katie is
Speaker 1: the problem. Maybe you disagree. I more think it's the
Speaker 1: money that's the problem with building a roster out of
Speaker 1: veteran minimums and how that's not a sustainable way to
Speaker 1: build a contender team. But my question is do you
Speaker 1: think some of these upper middle teams should pull the
Speaker 1: trigger on bigger trades sooner or if they should just
Speaker 1: blow it up and rebuild, because a lot of these
Speaker 1: teams run it back kind of hoping something change when
Speaker 1: clearly there's there's level. They are levels below the top
Speaker 1: teams whenever year we are talking about championships with these teams,
Speaker 1: but there just clearly is not that upside. I'm sure
Speaker 1: you feel like this with the Lakers and their two
Speaker 1: first round picks. Thanks for the he said, thanks, Sorry
Speaker 1: for the long question. No worries at all. I was
Speaker 1: having a little trouble with that one of myself, but
Speaker 1: that's just me. My brain is completely fried. We've been
Speaker 1: going all day. Now here's the thing. I talked about
Speaker 1: this a little bit earlier, but I want to get
Speaker 1: a little bit deeper into this concept. Now. There's no
Speaker 1: doubt that the builds that these teams have are flawed.
Speaker 1: That building a team around a fifty million dollar, forty
Speaker 1: year old Lebron is going to handcuff you in some
Speaker 1: ways or fifty million dollar old KD fifty million dollar
Speaker 1: old Steph. My thing is that, like you can't be
Speaker 1: in that business and then be thinking about the future
Speaker 1: like that. They just don't go hand in hand. Like
Speaker 1: to your point, the way you supplement a roster that
Speaker 1: has to overspend on stars because of their just salary
Speaker 1: slots because they're all, you know, ten plus years of
Speaker 1: NBA experience, you have to compensate that by getting really
Speaker 1: high level players at every single other salary that you have,
Speaker 1: And the only way you're gonna do that is by
Speaker 1: using your draft compensation. And so it's one of those
Speaker 1: things where I'm like, I get it. I get why
Speaker 1: Lakers fans some Lakers fans or not even Lakers fans,
Speaker 1: but the Laker front office might be like, man, this
Speaker 1: team doesn't look that good. Why would we spend these
Speaker 1: two first round picks and handcuff our future? Or the Warriors? Man,
Speaker 1: this team has looked bad at stretches this year. How
Speaker 1: do we reconcile spending two first round picks to or
Speaker 1: spending you know, a talented young player in draft compensation
Speaker 1: to upgrade this team or the Oh, Like, I'm sure
Speaker 1: if you're a Suns fan, You're like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: Like we were already all in with this Bradley Beal
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant thing. We're gonna take our twenty thirty one
Speaker 1: pick and we're gonna turn it into three first and
Speaker 1: trade all of those two like we're just gonna mortgage
Speaker 1: the whole future. And it's like, I get it, I
Speaker 1: get why that seems freaky. I get why that seems irresponsible.
Speaker 1: But you're not in the normal NBA business like teams
Speaker 1: like Cleveland and Oklahoma City, teams like Detroit that are
Speaker 1: on the rise. Those teams have real big picture potential
Speaker 1: that they have to worry about. The Suns are gonna
Speaker 1: be in the shitter after this era, no matter what.
Speaker 1: The Lakers are gonna be in the shitter after this era,
Speaker 1: no matter what. The Warriors are gonna be in the
Speaker 1: shitter after this are era. No matter what, you're in
Speaker 1: the Lebron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant business. These are
Speaker 1: all old guys that have a lot of upside that's
Speaker 1: probably not gonna show as often in the regular season,
Speaker 1: but that is absolutely still there in the postseason. There's
Speaker 1: no way you can supplement them with the amount of
Speaker 1: talent they need without making these kinds of more aggressive decisions.
Speaker 1: And I always just say the exact same thing, you're
Speaker 1: tanking no matter what. After all this, there is a
Speaker 1: proven process to successfully doing that. You take all those
Speaker 1: useful role players you trade for and you turn around
Speaker 1: and trade them to that year's contenders for draft compensation.
Speaker 1: You freely take on bad money from anybody who's looking
Speaker 1: to get rid of it, because you can carry bad
Speaker 1: money while you're paying draft picks. Draft picks don't make
Speaker 1: much money, so you can actually play all the guys
Speaker 1: on the low salaries and take on all these big
Speaker 1: salaries and sit them on the bench or barely use
Speaker 1: them and take on draft compensation. There is a proven
Speaker 1: pathway to asset accumulation in these kind of like transitions
Speaker 1: between championship windows and so like, my thing is like,
Speaker 1: if you're gun shy and you don't want to spend
Speaker 1: draft compensation to anchor these groups, why did you get
Speaker 1: in the Kevin Ramp business, Why did you get in
Speaker 1: the Lebron James business, why'd you get into the Steph
Speaker 1: Curry business? You did that as an aggressive kind of
Speaker 1: all in type of move right, and so from that
Speaker 1: same point, that's why I advocate for those types of moves.
Speaker 1: And for the record, like the Jimmy Butler trade for
Speaker 1: the Suns, I would do it. You're screwed no matter what.
Speaker 1: Why not be screwed with Kevin Ran, Jimmy Butler and
Speaker 1: Devin Booker and see if those guys can't go win.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler is just a much better basketball player than
Speaker 1: Bradley Beal on both ends of the floor, and is
Speaker 1: a much more natural fit alongside Devin Booker and Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant in the closing five. It immediately makes you way better.
Speaker 1: I saw a video on Twitter of them talking about
Speaker 1: the number one guy in the twenty thirty one class,
Speaker 1: and it was a little kid you want you want
Speaker 1: to put Jimmy next to Lebron in or excuse me,
Speaker 1: put Jimmy next to Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, or
Speaker 1: do you want that little kid? Like? Like, come on, guys,
Speaker 1: what are we even doing here? Like I want to
Speaker 1: see what it looks like. Give it a shot. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: get out of the Kevin Rat business. Is there a
Speaker 1: scenario where Yokic finishes with the greatest statistical season analytically
Speaker 1: speaking of all time finishes top three and scoring, rebounding, assists,
Speaker 1: and potential steals and potential I think that means potential assists.
Speaker 1: I don't think there's such a thing as a potential steal.
Speaker 1: The Nuggets have a top three or two seed and
Speaker 1: SGA still wins MVP. If that happens, what would SGA
Speaker 1: need to do to in the playoffs to avoid what
Speaker 1: happened to Joel Embiid after his MVP win. Couple things like,
Speaker 1: there's always a complicated process to this. Shay had become
Speaker 1: a pretty substantial favorite because his team is way, way
Speaker 1: way ahead in the standings. There's something crazy like eight
Speaker 1: games up. But Yo Kicch is just two damn good
Speaker 1: to let this not be a race. Jokicch is not
Speaker 1: capable of playing lower than the level he's playing at,
Speaker 1: Like if he's going to keep putting up thirty, twenty
Speaker 1: and fifteen at a certain point, you kind of have
Speaker 1: to just acknowledge that he's a better basketball player. I
Speaker 1: think everybody does. But Shae has played at an extremely
Speaker 1: high level this year, and his team is clearly the
Speaker 1: best team in the regular season right now, and it
Speaker 1: just makes a lot of sense that he's a very
Speaker 1: traditional surefire MVP candidate, But I do still think that
Speaker 1: Yokich can steal it from him. He's two damn good,
Speaker 1: and you know, especially in this stretch here where the
Speaker 1: thunder Or without their centers and they could could putotentially
Speaker 1: drop some games. Like it's absolutely still there for the taking.
Speaker 1: But I think Shade, if he finishes eight, nine, ten
Speaker 1: games ahead of the Nuggets and the standings, it's just
Speaker 1: going to be too much to justify the relative. Like
Speaker 1: I think Yokich is clearly better than SBA, but SJA
Speaker 1: has been playing at an extremely high level this year. Jason
Speaker 1: Love the show Man Laker's related trade question. I'm with
Speaker 1: you that Plan A should be Kessler, Sexton and Bruce Brown,
Speaker 1: but I was listening to Pete and Darius on the
Speaker 1: LFAR pod and they made a compelling case for Nikola Vusovich.
Speaker 1: He can space the four like Rui, but he's a
Speaker 1: much better rebounder. Offensively, he can operate in the post
Speaker 1: or elbow run, pick and roll with Austin Reeves and Braun,
Speaker 1: play alongside Anthony Davis and a Marcus al type role.
Speaker 1: Or be an innings eater. When Anthony Davis sits on
Speaker 1: the other end, Anthony Davis or Anthony Smith and Vando
Speaker 1: in an engaged Lebron can help him defensively. What are
Speaker 1: your thoughts on the Lakers flipping RUI for Nicola Vusovich.
Speaker 1: Keep up the great work. Pete and Darius to my
Speaker 1: absolute favorites. Highly recommend you guys check out. If you're
Speaker 1: a Lakers fan and you're looking for Lakers specific work,
Speaker 1: make sure you guys check out the Laker film ro podcasts.
Speaker 1: I've told this to Pete directly, but you know, I
Speaker 1: learned a lot about the game of basketball for my
Speaker 1: college coaches. The specific guy that I'd like to shout
Speaker 1: out as Jeff Rudder. He just ran our Naia program
Speaker 1: like a professional program, and we just had incredibly advanced
Speaker 1: a schematic approach on both ends of the floor. We
Speaker 1: used analytics, We used high We used Synergy for scouting,
Speaker 1: which allowed me I was the guy who always had
Speaker 1: to guard the other team's best players. It was like
Speaker 1: something that really helped, and I learned all of these
Speaker 1: things about basketball and coming into this, you know, to
Speaker 1: covering the NBA. You know, there's a lot of things
Speaker 1: that do translate, and then there are things that are different.
Speaker 1: You know, they're like, the offensive talent is at such
Speaker 1: an insanely high level in the NBA that there are
Speaker 1: some defensive schematic things that you would do there that
Speaker 1: you would never do at the college level, right, And
Speaker 1: like when I was really learning about NBA basketball technically,
Speaker 1: meaning like the more advanced schematic stuff on both ends
Speaker 1: of the flour, Pete and Darius were a huge part
Speaker 1: of me learning that side of the game years ago
Speaker 1: when I was younger and I was really ambitious about
Speaker 1: trying to get into this space. So like, I highly
Speaker 1: recommend you guys check check those guys out. If you're
Speaker 1: a Lakers fan and you're looking for more Lakers content,
Speaker 1: definitely get over and check out Pete and Darius. They
Speaker 1: do a lot of very similar stuff to this show
Speaker 1: where they just stay in the weeds and talk tactical stuff.
Speaker 1: Just love those guys. Can't say enough. Pete also has
Speaker 1: been a personal mentor to me on a bunch of levels,
Speaker 1: especially when I was first getting into the business and
Speaker 1: I was really confused about some of the business side
Speaker 1: of stuff. So just shout out to Pete and Darius.
Speaker 1: But I have seen the Vusovich piece and I am
Speaker 1: intrigued by it. I thought Pete made a compelling case.
Speaker 1: His case was basically like, this team needs offense and
Speaker 1: this team needs rebounding, and Vusovich is the guy that
Speaker 1: does both, and I agree in that respect. My only
Speaker 1: real pushback would be I keep thinking that the Lakers
Speaker 1: need to be great at something if they're going to
Speaker 1: win the title, Like, they can be good at a
Speaker 1: lot of things, but they need to be truly great
Speaker 1: at something. And I just don't think Vouch brings enough
Speaker 1: physical in position to the equation to make it worthwhile
Speaker 1: for the Lakers to become specifically great at being big.
Speaker 1: I think the Lakers can be very big. I think
Speaker 1: if you get the right kind of backup center, someone
Speaker 1: like a Walker Kessler, someone like a Robert Williams, the
Speaker 1: guy who's a very good defensive like just Verstle defensive
Speaker 1: player and rim protector and rebounder. If you have that
Speaker 1: kind of guy and you play him next to Lebron
Speaker 1: and Ad, suddenly you become an absolutely massive, incredibly difficult
Speaker 1: team to deal with physically. That's why I'm so high
Speaker 1: on that idea. Vouch. I don't think brings enough of
Speaker 1: that athletic and position, but I do think it's a
Speaker 1: viable option. Again, you have to remember, like when we're
Speaker 1: laying these things out, like I'd love to have Walker Kessler,
Speaker 1: Colin Sexton, and Bruce Brown, but there's a very small
Speaker 1: chance that Utah trades Walker Kessler to the Lakers. So
Speaker 1: when you acknowledge that reality, it starts to look more
Speaker 1: like okay, you might have to look at other options. Well,
Speaker 1: there are a bunch of viable ways for you to go.
Speaker 1: Like for a simple viable like, here's a viable way.
Speaker 1: What if you got Robert Williams and Josh Green. So
Speaker 1: you got a center that you could play alongside Lebron
Speaker 1: and ad a center like an anchor bench units, a
Speaker 1: center that can play that can start in games when
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is out. And Josh Green to me, is
Speaker 1: a higher floor version of Max Christy. I think Max
Speaker 1: Christy has a higher ceiling than Josh Green because of
Speaker 1: his offensive the capabilities. But Josh Green is like a
Speaker 1: high four option. That's an option. It's not a perfect option.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's enough of a talent upgrade, but
Speaker 1: that's an option, just like Vussovich is an option. All
Speaker 1: these different options are there. There's just my favorite option,
Speaker 1: which happens to be the long shot, which is that
Speaker 1: Jazz in Raptors trades, the pair of trades that I
Speaker 1: talked about. Enjoy the show and hearing you bring your
Speaker 1: personal experience to it. As a near forty year old
Speaker 1: still trying to get into my get better in my
Speaker 1: men's league, I've had some decent luck watching Caid's game,
Speaker 1: how he gets the spots without superior athleticism. As you
Speaker 1: get older, are there players you watch to learn the
Speaker 1: game better. Kaid's a good example for me. All the
Speaker 1: power guys, Kawhi was a big one for me, Luca
Speaker 1: has been a big one for me. Caid. I just
Speaker 1: I'm bigger and stronger than most perimeter players that I
Speaker 1: play against, and so i've especially as I've gotten older.
Speaker 1: And it's not even just about mobility, because I still
Speaker 1: move pretty well at my age. It's a lot about
Speaker 1: energy conservation. Like I've just figured out it's an easier
Speaker 1: way to play basketball to use my size, and so
Speaker 1: like the big One, there is just like using physical
Speaker 1: leverage to get to spots. So like in screening actions,
Speaker 1: getting angles, and then once you've got a guy trapped
Speaker 1: on your shoulder, you can just kind of methodically work
Speaker 1: to where you want to go or fighting for post position.
Speaker 1: I play out of the post so much more now
Speaker 1: than I did when I was younger. In general, I
Speaker 1: instead of just slashing and trying to dunk on everybody,
Speaker 1: I'm more slowly driving to the basket and using my size.
Speaker 1: Like I agree with you, like find things that fit,
Speaker 1: find a player that has some similar physical traits than
Speaker 1: to you, and then try to pick up little traits
Speaker 1: like that. Two more questions and then we're done. Hey, Jason,
Speaker 1: I asked a similar question about a month ago about Detroit.
Speaker 1: I think they are a piece of two away, and
Speaker 1: I was just wondering what pieces you think they'd need
Speaker 1: to get them into the next tier. Personally, I feel
Speaker 1: another twenty point per game shot creator and a stretch
Speaker 1: big would help. But just want your thoughts. Since I asked,
Speaker 1: Kaid has to be elevated. Since I asked, Kaid has
Speaker 1: elevated again without Ivy and the Pistons are now the
Speaker 1: sixth seed. Love the show. You've helped me truly understand
Speaker 1: what I'm watching from Australia. Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: the kind words and for supporting us. It's precarious spot
Speaker 1: for Detroit. It talked about this in another mailbag. I
Speaker 1: think last week where we talked, I think someone pitched
Speaker 1: the idea of like trading for Cam Johnson and like,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, if you can get a great
Speaker 1: deal on somebody, because there's just not a much of
Speaker 1: a market, make a move, right. But like my thing is,
Speaker 1: like Kate getting awesome is exactly why you don't want
Speaker 1: to do something stupid. Kate has been awesome. He's alpha
Speaker 1: dogging dudes. He's winning huge games against good teams, looking
Speaker 1: like the best player on the floor. It's like Luca,
Speaker 1: but there's like a slashing element to him that he's
Speaker 1: been had going on. He's he's just hooping his ass off.
Speaker 1: Kate is playing an incredibly high level basketball. That's exactly
Speaker 1: why you don't want to do something stupid that compromises
Speaker 1: this window. Jade and Ivy will get back. Jada and
Speaker 1: Ivy was playing well this year. You will have opportunities
Speaker 1: in the draft to supplement this team with talent. I
Speaker 1: do think that a stretch big would help. I do
Speaker 1: think that finding a guy in the draft who's like
Speaker 1: an off ball scorer that can kind of slot into
Speaker 1: the Tim Hardaway Junior and Malik Beasley. Because here's the thing. Eventually,
Speaker 1: you have to pay everybody, and when you have to
Speaker 1: pay everybody, you can't ever, you can't go back to
Speaker 1: paying Tobias Harris and Malik Beasley and Tim Hardway Junie
Speaker 1: or what you pay them. Those guys are all going
Speaker 1: to be smaller deals, right, and so this is the
Speaker 1: time where you have to maintain flexibility and then start
Speaker 1: looking for that type of talent in the draft now
Speaker 1: because ideally, if Kaid's not good enough to be the
Speaker 1: best player in a championship team now, but he will
Speaker 1: be in three four years, that's when you need to
Speaker 1: be like, all the stuff is coming together at the
Speaker 1: right time for us to make a run. And so
Speaker 1: that's why you just can't get a little ahead of
Speaker 1: yourself and do something stupid and affect that window. Last question, Jason,
Speaker 1: appreciate your work. Donovan Mitchell is shooting thirty nine point
Speaker 1: eight percent on two pointers outside of sixteen feet, which
Speaker 1: is a career low and is way below his career
Speaker 1: forty three point four percent. He's also shooting a career
Speaker 1: low fifty six point nine percent at the rim. He
Speaker 1: shot seventy percent in each of the last three seasons.
Speaker 1: Why do you think this is? This is super concerning
Speaker 1: for their ceiling in my opinion, if he doesn't turn
Speaker 1: the corner at some point this season. I think the
Speaker 1: change in the way the team has played in terms
Speaker 1: of pushing the ball more in transition, Darius Garland just
Speaker 1: being a really good player that they've played through a lot,
Speaker 1: and then Evin Mobley doing more initiating has just affected
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell's rhythm. But again, like as long as you
Speaker 1: figure out that balance, it's like it's kind of like
Speaker 1: we talked about with the Lakers earlier, Like I don't
Speaker 1: think Donovan Mitchell is a good enough shot creator to
Speaker 1: be just some alpha dog heliocentric guy, just like I
Speaker 1: don't think Lebron is anymore, just like I don't think
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is so like I talked about with the Lakers,
Speaker 1: like they almost need to have a we score mentality,
Speaker 1: and that's the mentality for the Calves as well. Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell has been out of rhythm as of late and
Speaker 1: generally this season has been down, but the Calves offense
Speaker 1: has been substantially better. And I have just I know,
Speaker 1: I've seen Donovan Mitchell just like be able to leverage that.
Speaker 1: It's like the Celtics game where they the one where
Speaker 1: they beat the Celtics in Cleveland, Like Donovan hit all
Speaker 1: the big shots he needed in that game. I still
Speaker 1: feel like Donovan is like he hit that huge corner
Speaker 1: three and that step back three in the Thunder game
Speaker 1: late right in a game where he couldn't make a
Speaker 1: damn shot, he made two massive ones down the stretch.
Speaker 1: Like to me, Donovan Mitchell's upside is that he can
Speaker 1: create his own shot and that you don't need him
Speaker 1: to And so yeah, like, I'm not gonna sit here
Speaker 1: and pretend it's not concerning that he's down in these areas.
Speaker 1: But the offense is better, the defense is better, the
Speaker 1: team is better. I don't see any way to interpret
Speaker 1: that other than as a good thing, especially when you
Speaker 1: factor in the fact that it's rhythm related and that
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell is probably going to slowly get better at
Speaker 1: seeing his spot in this offense as the season progresses.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, It's all I have for today is
Speaker 1: always a sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and
Speaker 1: supporting the show. We're done for the weekend, but we'll
Speaker 1: be back on Monday with our usual power rankings. I'll
Speaker 1: see you guys then the volume. So guys, as always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you for listening to and supporting Oops tonight.
Speaker 1: It would actually be really helpful for us if you
Speaker 1: guys would take a second and leave a rating and
Speaker 1: a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us,
Speaker 1: but if you could take a minute to do that,
Speaker 1: I'd really appreciate it.