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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to Hoops tonight here at the Volume.

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Speaker 1: Happy Tuesday, Everyboday. I hope all of you guys had

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Speaker 1: an incredible weekend. We are live on AMPS, so if

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Speaker 1: you're watching on YouTube or listening on the podcast feed,

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Speaker 1: don't forget that AMP is the very first place that

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Speaker 1: you guys can get these shows. Well, we just finished

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Speaker 1: a list of twenty five players, so how about we

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Speaker 1: do it again. This time, we're gonna do the top

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Speaker 1: twenty five players of the last twenty five years, starting

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Speaker 1: with twenty five, twenty four, twenty three and twenty two. Today,

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Speaker 1: you guys have the JRP before we get started. Subscribe

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Speaker 1: to the volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more

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Speaker 1: of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason

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Speaker 1: lt so you guys don't miss any show announcements. And

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Speaker 1: for whatever reason you miss one of these videos and

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Speaker 1: you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, don't

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Speaker 1: forget you can find them wherever you get your podcasts.

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Speaker 1: Under Hoops Tonight, all right, let's talk some basketball. So

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Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie. This was way harder than the

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Speaker 1: last one because you're filtering through Well, let's just make

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Speaker 1: it simple, you're filtering through twenty five times as much

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Speaker 1: data as you're filtering through looking at one particular NBA season. Also,

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Speaker 1: there are a lot more than twenty five really good

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Speaker 1: basketball players from the last twenty five years, so a

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Speaker 1: lot of really good players had to miss the cut.

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Speaker 1: But honestly, I'm excited to do this for two reasons.

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Speaker 1: One and it'll give you guys a general idea of

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Speaker 1: how I view, you know, modern NBA history right this time,

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Speaker 1: since basically since Michael Jordan, everything after Michael Jordan hit

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Speaker 1: the shot. So we're not counting nineteen ninety eight, right,

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Speaker 1: it's nineteen ninety nine to twenty twenty three, it's twenty

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Speaker 1: five seasons. We're basically looking at the post Jordan era here,

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Speaker 1: and there's a lot of stuff that's happened in that

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Speaker 1: era that I haven't really had a chance to talk

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Speaker 1: about on this show. And so this kind of gives

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Speaker 1: us a means with which to talk about players and

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Speaker 1: historical events that I've never really gotten an opportunity to

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Speaker 1: talk about on the show, and so I'm excited to

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Speaker 1: do that. This list kind of gives us a means

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Speaker 1: by which to do so. Now there are major There

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Speaker 1: are six major accomplishments that I factored in in order

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Speaker 1: to kind of make this list work, and I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: read them to you guys here in list of in

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Speaker 1: order of important. So, by far, the most important accomplishment

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Speaker 1: you can make in the NBA, big shock you guys

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Speaker 1: could probably guess, is to be the best player on

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Speaker 1: a championship team. If you do what Nikola Jokic just

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Speaker 1: just did, and you run through everybody and you hoist

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Speaker 1: the trophy and you're clearly the best player on your team,

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Speaker 1: that's the most valuable thing that you can do on

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Speaker 1: a basketball court in the NBA. In my opinion, that's

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Speaker 1: the number one most heavily weighted accomplishment. The second most

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Speaker 1: heavily weighted accomplishment for me was to be the second

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Speaker 1: best player on a championship team. So, for instance, what

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Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant did with the early Shaq Lakers there in

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Speaker 1: two thousand, two thousand and one, two thousand and two,

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Speaker 1: that was a if you produce at a star slash

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Speaker 1: superstar level at least in terms of winning impact within

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Speaker 1: a context of winning an NBA championship with a team

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Speaker 1: as the second best player, I factored that in heavily

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Speaker 1: third was best player on a finals team. So, for instance,

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Speaker 1: one of the guys who did not make my list

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Speaker 1: is Tracy McGrady, and one of the guys who did

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Speaker 1: make my list is Jimmy Butler. Tracy McGrady was unquestionably

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Speaker 1: a better regular season player, and you look through his

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Speaker 1: time in the NBA, he really dominated regular seasons, but

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Speaker 1: he never made it out of the first round of

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Speaker 1: the playoffs. Jimmy Butler has been the best player on

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Speaker 1: a team that made it to the NBA Finals twice

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Speaker 1: and has been one of the best playoff performers of

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Speaker 1: this era. So I gave heavy preferential treatment to guys

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Speaker 1: who have that type of accomplishment on their resume. The

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Speaker 1: fourth most heavily weighted accomplishment for me was MVP awards

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Speaker 1: won so for guys like Joel Embiid, James Harden, and

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Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook. These are examples of guys that have a

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Speaker 1: lot of limitations, but in my opinion, to be able

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Speaker 1: to attack a season from start to finish and have

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Speaker 1: us all leave that season and generally at least maybe

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Speaker 1: not necessarily all agree, but at least most of us

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Speaker 1: agree that this person was the best basketball player within

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Speaker 1: that regular season. I think that that matters quite a bit.

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Speaker 1: Also to me, that's like there is a narrative element

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Speaker 1: to it, but at the end of the day, the

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Speaker 1: narrative usually has some sort of grounds to it, and

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Speaker 1: that grounds is usually based in basketball production, and they

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Speaker 1: dominate that particular regular season in term of the headlines,

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Speaker 1: and I think that matters in terms of the history

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Speaker 1: of the NBA. Fifth I put all NBA selections, so

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Speaker 1: for instance, a guy like Anthony Davis. A guy like

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Speaker 1: Anthony Davis as somebody that a lot of people are

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Speaker 1: not super high on, but the dude has four first

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Speaker 1: team All NBA selections, So that means four times we

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Speaker 1: left the season thinking that dude's the best player at

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Speaker 1: his position. And I think that that matters a lot

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Speaker 1: in a case like this, especially when you coupled it

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Speaker 1: with the playoff success that he has now. Last, but

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Speaker 1: not least, I just listed this as general consensus of

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Speaker 1: opinion among your peers. So for instance, a guy like

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Speaker 1: Dwight Howard, So this guy who consistently gets made fun

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Speaker 1: of and we constantly talk about all of his downsides,

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Speaker 1: but the truth is during that stretch from two thousand

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Speaker 1: and eight to twenty twelve, Dwight was like consensus considered

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Speaker 1: one of the very best superstars in the league, Like

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Speaker 1: in that top tier there during Kobe's last run in

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Speaker 1: the two thousand and eight to twenty ten range, it

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Speaker 1: was like Kobe and Lebron, and then it was Dwight Howard,

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Speaker 1: you know, like he was right there right and then

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Speaker 1: after the Kobe ara you get in. It's like it

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Speaker 1: was like right around the time of the decision, it

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Speaker 1: was like Lebron James and Dwayne Wade, maybe Dwayne Wade

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Speaker 1: at three, Dwight Howard at number two. Right, Like during

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Speaker 1: that stretch, everybody view Dwight Howard as one of the

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Speaker 1: very best players in the league. So I thought that

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Speaker 1: mattered a lot in this particular type of conversation. So

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Speaker 1: I narrowed it down to thirty one players for these

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Speaker 1: twenty five spots. There were six guys who missed the cut,

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Speaker 1: so I want to quickly go over them and just

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Speaker 1: list off quickly why they didn't make it. So Carmelo

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Speaker 1: Anthony did not make my list. He never made a

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Speaker 1: first team All NBA and he only got out of the

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Speaker 1: first round of the playoffs twice. That was pretty much

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Speaker 1: the breakdown CP three. This was by far the hardest

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Speaker 1: one for me to leave out. But he just didn't

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Speaker 1: really have a career defining achievement. Like he was the

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Speaker 1: best point guard in the league for a decent chunk

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Speaker 1: of time, but never was really considered on the same

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Speaker 1: level as the guys at the top of the league,

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Speaker 1: at least the top top end, like kind of like

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Speaker 1: we were just talking about Dwight Howard being in those

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Speaker 1: kinds of conversations, Chris Paul was never in those kinds

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Speaker 1: of conversations. Even as we look at Russell Westbrook, James Harden,

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Speaker 1: and Joel mb during their absolute peaks, they were pretty

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Speaker 1: consistently considered like one of the superstars, right. He had

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Speaker 1: a lot of great regular seasons, but he never won

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Speaker 1: an MVP. He had a bunch of good playoff runs,

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Speaker 1: but there was always like some sort of weird story,

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Speaker 1: whether a good playoff run ended with him making some

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Speaker 1: catastrophic mistakes like some of the early Clippers years, or

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Speaker 1: recently really good playoff runs ending an injury, whether it

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Speaker 1: was the twenty eighteen series against the Warriors where he

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Speaker 1: pulls his hamstring or the twenty twenty one NBA Finals.

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Speaker 1: I think it was a quad injury in that series

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Speaker 1: that kind of took him down, But he pretty consistently

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Speaker 1: in the tail end of his career has had his

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Speaker 1: good playoff runs cut short by injury. So there just

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Speaker 1: wasn't really enough enough there for me to bump some

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Speaker 1: of the guys ahead of him off that list. Tracey

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Speaker 1: McGrady never made it out of the first round of

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Speaker 1: the playoffs, so he missed my list. Damian Lillard, similar

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Speaker 1: to Chris Paul, checks a lot of boxes but doesn't

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Speaker 1: really have a career defining achievement. Paul George just not

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Speaker 1: quite as good as the players above him. He made

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Speaker 1: six All NBA teams and four All Defensive teams, but

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Speaker 1: not really a significant playoff or regular season moment like

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Speaker 1: his best moment is like probably leading the Clippers to

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Speaker 1: within two wins of the NBA Finals in twenty twenty

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Speaker 1: one without Kawhi Leonard was good, like a good moment,

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Speaker 1: but he still lost to a team that had Devin

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Speaker 1: Booker as its best player, so it wasn't like an

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Speaker 1: opportunity for how he won that series. Maybe that becomes

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Speaker 1: a different story, right, and then Mayor Genobli was one

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Speaker 1: of the harder ones. He was probably the second best

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Speaker 1: player on the two thousand and five Spurs, right, and

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Speaker 1: was a critical piece of that Spurs dynasty, but is

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Speaker 1: missing too many of the regular season accomplishments and the

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Speaker 1: consistent playoff dominance to really bump some of the other

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Speaker 1: guys off of the list. So that leaves us starting

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Speaker 1: with number twenty five, and these all four guys that

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Speaker 1: are actually active NBA players. As it turns out, just

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Speaker 1: by the way the list worked out, you'll notice we'll

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Speaker 1: get to a lot of inactive guys later on in

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Speaker 1: the list, But number twenty five for me was Joe

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Speaker 1: el Embat. Now what I'm gonna do for each player

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Speaker 1: is I'm gonna list out their awards that they won.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna read their stats from their prime, so I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna pull out the chunky years that I consider to

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Speaker 1: be their prime. We'll read out their stats both in

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Speaker 1: the regular season and the playoffs. We'll go over there

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Speaker 1: claim to fames, basically the thing that kind of defines

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Speaker 1: them as a basketball player. Right. Then we'll look at

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Speaker 1: their archetype, basically talk about what their basketball archetype is

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Speaker 1: within a team, we'll talk about their career defining achievements,

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Speaker 1: so basically their pinnacle moment, and then lastly will go

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Speaker 1: over their biggest what if. That should give us a

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Speaker 1: lot of opportunity to hit some interesting stuff. So Joel

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Speaker 1: embiid his awards. He made First Team All NBA once.

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Speaker 1: This team was the first year. He is five total

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Speaker 1: All NBA selections. He has won the last two scoring titles,

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Speaker 1: he has made three All Defense teams, and he was

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Speaker 1: the winner of the twenty twenty three regular season MVP award.

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Speaker 1: I put his prime down from twenty eighteen to twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty three, obviously the present in the regular season. In

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Speaker 1: that span, he's averaged twenty eight points, twelve rebounds, and

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Speaker 1: four assists on sixty one percent true shooting. In the playoffs,

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Speaker 1: down a level from their twenty four points, eleven rebounds

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Speaker 1: and three excuse me, three assists on fifty eight percent

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Speaker 1: true shooting. Now, in my opinion, Joel Embid's claim to fameous.

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Speaker 1: He's been the best scorer in the NBA for the

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Speaker 1: last three years now. He leads the NBA in points

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Speaker 1: per game over that span, and he's got a bliss

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Speaker 1: during sixty four percent true shooting percentage over that span.

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Speaker 1: So in terms of regular season basketball for the last

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Speaker 1: third of a decade, nobody has been better than Joel

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Speaker 1: Embiid ats scoring the basketball, so that is kind of

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Speaker 1: his claim to fame. He's also been one of the

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Speaker 1: best rim protectors in the league over that span. Doesn't

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Speaker 1: really manifest all the time in shot blocks or block shots,

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Speaker 1: I should say, but just in general in rim deterrence

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Speaker 1: and anchoring a good defense, Joel Ebid's been one of

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Speaker 1: the best guys in the league at that span. He's

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Speaker 1: definitively been one of the top two guys at his

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Speaker 1: position in that span, although I think he's consistently been

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Speaker 1: a level below Nikole Jokic, and he's consistently been considered

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Speaker 1: one of the ten best players in basketball for about

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Speaker 1: ten years now. That kind of goes to that sixth

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Speaker 1: item that I had in terms of the way you're

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Speaker 1: discussed around your peers. If you're making top ten lists

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Speaker 1: over the last half decade, Joel Embiid's on it, which

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Speaker 1: I think is incredibly impressive, especially when you factor in

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Speaker 1: the amount of talent that's in the league right now now,

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Speaker 1: Joel ebids archetype. He's basically your throwback two way center,

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Speaker 1: one of the few guys in the league now that

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Speaker 1: you can act. I'd say there's two in the entire

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Speaker 1: league between him and Nikola Jokic that you can actually

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Speaker 1: run your offense through because they're skilled enough. But at

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Speaker 1: the same time, Joel Embid's an old school throwback, you know,

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Speaker 1: big old rimp protector, plays with a lot of the

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Speaker 1: similar type of offensive style that you saw back in

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Speaker 1: the nineties, that golden age of centers. That kind of

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Speaker 1: is the type of player that Joel Embiid represents in

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Speaker 1: my opinion, good mix of perimeter skill with power right,

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Speaker 1: although I'd like to see his power game kind of

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Speaker 1: go up a level. His limitations somewhat injury prone, struggles

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Speaker 1: to handle double teams, and struggles to score in the

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Speaker 1: postseason when he gets to the postseason for whatever reason,

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Speaker 1: it's usually a combination of injuries, I think in just

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Speaker 1: general fatigue and uh and you know, like stuff related

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Speaker 1: to stamina. He just struggles to knock down his jump

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Speaker 1: shot in that stage, doesn't get the same amount of

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Speaker 1: foul calls as he normally gets, and has obviously dealt

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Speaker 1: with some injury issues in those situations. So those are

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Speaker 1: his limitations. His career defining achievement was winning the MVP

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Speaker 1: this year. Really earned it too, Which was funny because

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Speaker 1: I think there's this point there at two thirds of

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Speaker 1: the way through the season where like a lot of

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Speaker 1: people were saying Jokic, Jokics was a deserving candidate. I

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Speaker 1: was kind of leaning towards Janis at that point, but

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Speaker 1: Embiid was kind of like third on my list at

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Speaker 1: that point. And then there was this whole kind of

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Speaker 1: thing over whether or not it was too narrative based,

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Speaker 1: and there was all these discussions. It kind of got toxic.

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Speaker 1: But then legitimately, while Jokichen Jannis kind of both tailed

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Speaker 1: off a little bit ten this season, and Beid just

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Speaker 1: continued kicking everybody's ass the rest of the year, had

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Speaker 1: a bunch of big wins and head to head matchups

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Speaker 1: against important players, and like genuinely deserved the MVP award,

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Speaker 1: like a truly earned MVP award. And that's where I

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Speaker 1: shouted out in our player rankings. I shouted out his

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Speaker 1: competitiveness and just how much I appreciated him wanting that thing,

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Speaker 1: wanting it so bad and going out on the basketball

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Speaker 1: court and earning it straight up. I think that was

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Speaker 1: his career to finding achievement, and the next step for

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Speaker 1: him obviously is translating it to the playoffs. His biggest

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Speaker 1: what if in my opinion, will Joel Embiid ever be

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Speaker 1: able to stay healthy for a full playoff run. Now

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Speaker 1: we've talked about the different things in terms of his

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Speaker 1: approach and his foul grifting and stuff that struggle in

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Speaker 1: the postseason, but the biggest one in my opinion is

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Speaker 1: the health. As soon as he deals with some sort

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Speaker 1: of nagging knee injury, it throws off the energy transfer

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Speaker 1: from his jump shot from his feet through his hands

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Speaker 1: and it messes up his muscle memory and then he

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Speaker 1: can't make a damn jump shot. I went over his

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Speaker 1: jump shooting numbers in our player rankings videos, but like

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Speaker 1: he was consistently a very good jump shooter in the

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Speaker 1: regular season in the last few years and it just

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Speaker 1: hasn't translated to the postseason. And I think injury injuries

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Speaker 1: played the biggest role in that. So the biggest one

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Speaker 1: if for me with Joel Embiid is will he ever

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Speaker 1: be able to stay healthy for a full playoff run.

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Speaker 1: All right, Moving on to number twenty four, James Harden

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Speaker 1: six first team All NBA selections, seven total All NBA selections,

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Speaker 1: back to back to back scoring titles twenty eighteen, twenty

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Speaker 1: nineteen in twenty twenty. He also won the assist title

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Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen and this last year in Philly. Many

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Speaker 1: of you guys probably aren't aware of that that James

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Speaker 1: Harden led the league and assists this year. He won

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Speaker 1: the MVP Award in twenty eighteen. I put his prime

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Speaker 1: down from twenty thirteen to twenty twenty. There's been a

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Speaker 1: significant drop off basically since he left Houston. In the

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty one one season. Regular season numbers over that

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Speaker 1: span thirty points, six rebounds, eight assists on sixty one

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Speaker 1: percent true shooting. Playoffs twenty eight points, six assists, seven

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Speaker 1: rebounds on fifty eight percent true shooting. So, and then

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Speaker 1: we're going to talk about this more in a little bit.

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Speaker 1: But not a huge drop off from the regular season

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Speaker 1: to the playoffs in terms of his production. A little

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Speaker 1: bit of one, but not a huge drop off. But

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Speaker 1: he's known as one of the worst playoff performers of

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Speaker 1: his era. I want to dive into that concept a

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Speaker 1: little bit here, in a little bit, now, what is

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Speaker 1: what is James Harden's claim to fame? In my opinion,

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Speaker 1: similar to Joel Embiid, he was the league's best regular

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Speaker 1: season scorer for a while. Basically during that span there

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Speaker 1: in the late twenty tens, there was nobody in the

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Speaker 1: league that was better at scoring in the NBA regular season.

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Speaker 1: I think at one point, like he to, he had

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Speaker 1: the MVP season, but he followed that up averaging thirty

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Speaker 1: six points a game for an entire season, shot sixty

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Speaker 1: two percent true shooting. During that span, he kind of

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Speaker 1: rigged the game, so to speak, in the sense that

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Speaker 1: he just kind of figured out a way to spam

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Speaker 1: a specific action essentially a pick and roll that would

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Speaker 1: either lead to an ISO against switches or shot in

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Speaker 1: the pick and roll where he could consistently generate a

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Speaker 1: certain amount of points per possession. And Houston just leaned

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Speaker 1: on that and spammed it and spammed it and spammed it,

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Speaker 1: and teams really struggled to handle it in the regular season,

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Speaker 1: which led to him having those ridiculous scoring numbers. He

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Speaker 1: popularized this step back three. This was something that was

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Speaker 1: a big story on Twitter a few weeks back, and like,

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Speaker 1: the discussion was basically centered around, you know, whether or

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Speaker 1: not James Harden is underrated in terms of his overall

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Speaker 1: impact on basketball, and I tend to agree here. James

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Speaker 1: Harden is known as an underperformer when it comes to

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Speaker 1: the playoffs and things along those lines, but he is

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Speaker 1: deeply impactful in the culture of basketball. Like I'll give

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Speaker 1: you as an example, James Harden is not my favorite player,

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Speaker 1: but one of the most significant chunks of my game

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Speaker 1: that I've added in the last five years is an

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Speaker 1: arsenal of step back threes that I literally added from

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Speaker 1: watching James Harden. You watch young basketball players, now, there's

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Speaker 1: a footwork too. It's basically that extra side step. And

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Speaker 1: I'm not talking about the really dramatic shuffle step that

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Speaker 1: a lot of people think as a travel I'm just thinking,

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Speaker 1: like that classic you're in your high hesitation and you

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Speaker 1: just take that one extra step to the side when

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Speaker 1: before you rise up, that's considered part of your gather. Right,

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Speaker 1: That's a completely legal move that almost every star in

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Speaker 1: the league uses. Now. James Harden popularized that footwork. He

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Speaker 1: may not have invented it, but he popularized it. He

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Speaker 1: made it basically, he basically made it a normal shot

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Speaker 1: to take an NBA games by demonstrating that if you

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Speaker 1: work hard enough at it, you can get good enough

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Speaker 1: at it. I also put down here that he invented

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Speaker 1: modern helio centrism. So helo centrism kind of started with

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Speaker 1: Lebron in the early twenty tens, but it was never

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Speaker 1: like a bread and butter thing. It was always something

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Speaker 1: that Lebron would go to in specific playoff moments, so

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Speaker 1: like when things would break down or in specific positions

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Speaker 1: in like a fourth quarter situation or a late game situation,

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Speaker 1: Lebron would go helio centric. It'd be like, rather than

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Speaker 1: having the point guard bring the ball up the floor,

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Speaker 1: let's just let our best player have the ball. He'll

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Speaker 1: bring it up, we'll space the floor, and he'll either

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Speaker 1: pick on a matchup, he'll run, pick and roll. Right.

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Speaker 1: Lebron kind of invented the baseline for that, but he

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Speaker 1: didn't do it very often. James Harden was basically the

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Speaker 1: first guy to just be like, I'm doing this every

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Speaker 1: single possession for an entire regular season. He basically took

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Speaker 1: a singular concept and made it the foundation of their

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Speaker 1: entire offense there in Houston for all those years, so

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Speaker 1: that I kind of give him credit for that specifically

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Speaker 1: kind of modern spacing as well. What you've seen before

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Speaker 1: the Russell Westbrook trade. When he came to Houston, it

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Speaker 1: was four out one in classic like Clincapella, setting the screens,

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Speaker 1: rolling hard to the ram Dwight Howard a little bit

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Speaker 1: in the early age or early era there with James Harden.

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Speaker 1: When Russell Westbrook came, it became more of a five

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Speaker 1: out kind of thing. But they kind of set up

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Speaker 1: that like we're just gonna have a shooter in the corner,

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Speaker 1: shooter in the corner. We're gonna have a long distance shooter.

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Speaker 1: A guy was comfortable shooting from like twenty seven twenty

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Speaker 1: eight feet, you know, that would sit on the right wing.

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Speaker 1: You know, guys like Eric Gordon Anderson, the guys like

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Speaker 1: that would sit on the wing. And that guy kind

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Speaker 1: of like pulls that defender even further out because he

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Speaker 1: can shoot from further behind the line. Then James Harden

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Speaker 1: works from the opposite wing. He'll either call for the

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Speaker 1: ball screen and then work off a switch if he

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Speaker 1: doesn't need the ball screen anymore. He'll put Clint Capella

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Speaker 1: back down in the dunker spot. That whole concept of

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Speaker 1: modern spacing and helio centrism, in my opinion, was kind

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Speaker 1: of invented by James Harden and the Houston Rockets. His

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Speaker 1: archetype is interesting because is the body and skill set

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Speaker 1: of an old fashioned two guard, like one of the

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Speaker 1: ones we've used to see, right, like six five sixty

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Speaker 1: six long arms, you know, a strong, good quickness, athleticism,

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Speaker 1: tons of skill, but none of the old fashioned play style.

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Speaker 1: Every other two guard had so much more offensive diversity

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Speaker 1: in James Harden kind of became this classic modern, you know,

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Speaker 1: helio centric shot creator, right. So I think that does

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Speaker 1: lead to his playoff limitations, which we'll get to in

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Speaker 1: a little bit. He also was a bad slash lazy

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Speaker 1: defensive player who took pride when he would get hunted

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Speaker 1: in post mismatches and had the size to kind of

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Speaker 1: hold up well in those situations, which helped a lot

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Speaker 1: in Houston's switching scheme that they used in twenty eighteen,

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Speaker 1: which we're gonna talk about right now. So, in my opinion,

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Speaker 1: James Harden's career defining achievement was winning the MVP in

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Speaker 1: twenty eighteen. If you remember that Rockets team had a

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Speaker 1: guy named Jeff Bizelic. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly.

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Speaker 1: I always butcher it Bezdelic. I think Jeff Bizelic. They

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Speaker 1: basically brought him in and he designed the rocket switching

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Speaker 1: scheme essentially, like we're gonna switch everything, and it was

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Speaker 1: entirely constructed around the idea of how to beat the

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Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors. Essentially, the Golden State Warriors run this

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Speaker 1: crazy motion offense, and they have this flow that just

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Speaker 1: keeps everybody involved in it and no one can guard it. Right,

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Speaker 1: But what if we switched everything and we basically turned

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Speaker 1: them into an isolation team and baited them into their

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Speaker 1: worst tendencies, Like, we have a better chance of beating

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Speaker 1: the Warriors if Katie and Steph are just running ISO

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Speaker 1: every time, then if we have them running in the

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Speaker 1: flow of the offense and it's crazy, because it damn

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Speaker 1: near worked. They were up three games to two before

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Speaker 1: Chris Paul pulled his hamstring. But this is where I

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Speaker 1: want to talk about a little bit about James Harden's

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Speaker 1: playoff struggles, because there's a narrative that kind of came

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Speaker 1: out of that sequence of years that they just couldn't

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Speaker 1: get over the Warriors hump. And there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: truth to that that I've frequently said, the two thousand

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Speaker 1: and seven team, twenty eighteen Warriors are the most talented

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Speaker 1: team that I've ever seen assembled. Right, Like, I've seen,

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Speaker 1: you know, great playoff performers like Lebron James lose to

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Speaker 1: that team. I've seen, you know, they're they're not. There's

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Speaker 1: no shame necessarily and losing to that particular team. But

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Speaker 1: if you were there in the moment and you watched

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Speaker 1: those games, what was unfortunate was James Harden didn't really

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Speaker 1: fulfill his end of the bargain in those specific situations.

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Speaker 1: So the defense actually worked, it really stagnated Golden State,

432
00:19:29,880 --> 00:19:31,800
Speaker 1: caused them a lot of problems. They lost a lot

433
00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:33,560
Speaker 1: of their flow and it was a huge part of

434
00:19:33,560 --> 00:19:35,480
Speaker 1: how they were up three games to two. Those games

435
00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:39,040
Speaker 1: were stuck in the mud. But over the final six

436
00:19:39,119 --> 00:19:42,680
Speaker 1: games of the twenty eighteen Western Conference Finals, James Harden

437
00:19:42,760 --> 00:19:46,879
Speaker 1: was fourteen for sixty nine from three. That's twenty percent.

438
00:19:47,359 --> 00:19:50,240
Speaker 1: Fourteen for sixty nine. Everyone's like, oh, they missed twenty

439
00:19:50,280 --> 00:19:52,960
Speaker 1: seven straight threes in game seven. A big part of

440
00:19:53,000 --> 00:19:56,959
Speaker 1: that was they became so one dimensional in their offensive approach,

441
00:19:57,000 --> 00:19:59,280
Speaker 1: where it was like they were just taking any three

442
00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:01,000
Speaker 1: they got a decent look at, even if it was

443
00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:04,640
Speaker 1: heavily contested. James Harden taking these extremely difficult step back

444
00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:08,359
Speaker 1: threes and always falling and trying to draw fouls, it

445
00:20:08,440 --> 00:20:11,560
Speaker 1: became easy to guard. And if you actually go back

446
00:20:11,600 --> 00:20:15,520
Speaker 1: and watch that series, Golden State is vacating the middle

447
00:20:15,560 --> 00:20:19,240
Speaker 1: of the floor to chase guys off the three point

448
00:20:19,280 --> 00:20:21,600
Speaker 1: line and to play up on James Harden and make

449
00:20:21,680 --> 00:20:25,560
Speaker 1: him feel uncomfortable. And the one dimensional nature of their

450
00:20:25,560 --> 00:20:28,240
Speaker 1: approach specifically made them easy to guard, which is a

451
00:20:28,280 --> 00:20:31,120
Speaker 1: big part of why James Harden was fourteen for sixty

452
00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:33,280
Speaker 1: nine from three over the final six games of that series.

453
00:20:33,320 --> 00:20:35,320
Speaker 1: And then we go down to the twenty nineteen series.

454
00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:40,480
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant went down in game four. There was a

455
00:20:40,520 --> 00:20:42,840
Speaker 1: two game stretch there in game five, in game six

456
00:20:42,920 --> 00:20:46,480
Speaker 1: where they had an opportunity to win the series without

457
00:20:46,560 --> 00:20:50,000
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant on the floor, and they literally went in

458
00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:53,120
Speaker 1: and lost in Golden State, and then they went home

459
00:20:53,160 --> 00:20:57,120
Speaker 1: and they lost at home, and at home they were

460
00:20:57,119 --> 00:21:00,840
Speaker 1: within two with two minutes left, a chance to extend

461
00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:02,680
Speaker 1: that series and send it to seven, where they would

462
00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:04,240
Speaker 1: have had a good chance to win with Kevin Duran

463
00:21:04,359 --> 00:21:07,879
Speaker 1: unavailable and James Harden had back to back to back

464
00:21:08,280 --> 00:21:10,440
Speaker 1: careless turnovers at the end of the game, just throwing

465
00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:13,120
Speaker 1: the ball away, that famous one there on the base

466
00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:16,879
Speaker 1: line where he just imbounds it and basically just throws

467
00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:20,560
Speaker 1: it to the Warriors, like time and time again, it's

468
00:21:20,560 --> 00:21:25,000
Speaker 1: not about with James Harden the averages. Like I told,

469
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:29,040
Speaker 1: I'll reagi the averages again. James Harden regular season thirty

470
00:21:29,080 --> 00:21:31,359
Speaker 1: six and eight, sixty one percent through shooting during his

471
00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:34,399
Speaker 1: prime playoffs twenty eight six and seven on fifty eight

472
00:21:34,400 --> 00:21:36,960
Speaker 1: percent try shooting. If I told you any other player

473
00:21:36,960 --> 00:21:38,600
Speaker 1: in the league average twenty eight six and seven on

474
00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:40,679
Speaker 1: fifty eight percentry shooting of an eight year span in

475
00:21:40,680 --> 00:21:43,720
Speaker 1: the playoffs, you'd be like, that's awesome. But it was

476
00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:46,520
Speaker 1: never about the averages with James Harden. It was always

477
00:21:46,520 --> 00:21:48,600
Speaker 1: about what would happen in pivotal moments at the end

478
00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:51,240
Speaker 1: of series, which takes you back to that helio centric

479
00:21:51,280 --> 00:21:56,199
Speaker 1: concept early in series when teams are not prepared for

480
00:21:56,240 --> 00:21:58,359
Speaker 1: you yet or not as prepared as they will be

481
00:21:58,359 --> 00:22:01,800
Speaker 1: towards the end of the series. The James heliocentric spread

482
00:22:01,840 --> 00:22:04,560
Speaker 1: pick and roll in ISO thing would work. I would

483
00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:06,440
Speaker 1: encourage you guys to go look in that twenty eighteen

484
00:22:06,440 --> 00:22:08,600
Speaker 1: playoff run, Go look at how well he played in

485
00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:11,760
Speaker 1: the first game of a series, and then look at

486
00:22:11,760 --> 00:22:13,840
Speaker 1: how he played at the end of the series, and

487
00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:18,240
Speaker 1: you'll see it in a clear drop off, many times

488
00:22:18,280 --> 00:22:21,760
Speaker 1: culminating in a two for eleven type of game when

489
00:22:21,760 --> 00:22:23,440
Speaker 1: the series was on the line. In a game five,

490
00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:27,160
Speaker 1: or Game six or a game seven, the averages are fine,

491
00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:31,119
Speaker 1: but James Harden had these incredibly ugly games that in

492
00:22:31,240 --> 00:22:35,920
Speaker 1: large part were fueled by that completely redundant and predictable approach.

493
00:22:37,680 --> 00:22:40,120
Speaker 1: The biggest what if for me in James Harden's career

494
00:22:40,119 --> 00:22:42,040
Speaker 1: was what if James Harden had played ten years earlier.

495
00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:45,280
Speaker 1: It wasn't so analytically focused. I blamed Darryl Mory in

496
00:22:45,280 --> 00:22:48,280
Speaker 1: a lot of ways for the way that James Harden's

497
00:22:48,320 --> 00:22:51,760
Speaker 1: career went, and again I wasn't in those locker rooms.

498
00:22:51,760 --> 00:22:53,920
Speaker 1: So a lot of this is pontification. But the way

499
00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:56,280
Speaker 1: I think about it, I'm like, I could just see

500
00:22:56,359 --> 00:22:59,160
Speaker 1: James Harden playing a certain way, and I could see

501
00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:01,680
Speaker 1: Darryl Mory going like, hey, look, every time you run

502
00:23:01,720 --> 00:23:04,000
Speaker 1: an ISO, we get one point two points per possession.

503
00:23:04,640 --> 00:23:06,560
Speaker 1: Every time you run a spread pick and roll, we

504
00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:09,360
Speaker 1: get you know, one point one five points per possession.

505
00:23:10,119 --> 00:23:12,439
Speaker 1: Why are we doing anything else? Let's just do this

506
00:23:12,520 --> 00:23:16,080
Speaker 1: every single possession, and the coaching staff getting invested in it.

507
00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:18,919
Speaker 1: And then they almost it almost became comical in the

508
00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:21,399
Speaker 1: sense that they just got rid of any sort of

509
00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:25,600
Speaker 1: traditional basketball movement motion and flow and just leaned so

510
00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:28,640
Speaker 1: heavily on the James Harden isolation and pick and roll thing.

511
00:23:29,520 --> 00:23:31,760
Speaker 1: They completely erased any of his off ball movement. They

512
00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:34,080
Speaker 1: completely erased his mid range pull up jump shot, both

513
00:23:34,080 --> 00:23:35,639
Speaker 1: things that were big parts of his game when he

514
00:23:35,680 --> 00:23:38,960
Speaker 1: was in Oklahoma City, and it caused him to reach

515
00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:43,720
Speaker 1: these incredible statistical highs, but it limited him in the playoffs.

516
00:23:44,240 --> 00:23:47,119
Speaker 1: And so I wonder if he played a more traditional style,

517
00:23:47,160 --> 00:23:49,560
Speaker 1: had he been drafted in the early two thousands and

518
00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:53,280
Speaker 1: and you know, came up under a more traditional coach,

519
00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:55,199
Speaker 1: would he have been a better playoff player because he

520
00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:58,160
Speaker 1: would have been more diverse in his offensive approach. Would

521
00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:00,159
Speaker 1: he have been a better defender because he went have

522
00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:03,480
Speaker 1: had to devote as many resources to just spamming, isolation

523
00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:06,160
Speaker 1: and pick and roll every single time. I'm curious to see.

524
00:24:06,440 --> 00:24:07,800
Speaker 1: I mean, even if we get rid of the ten

525
00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:10,679
Speaker 1: years earlier modifier and just say, if he didn't have

526
00:24:10,720 --> 00:24:13,520
Speaker 1: any sort of association with Daryl Morey, what would happen

527
00:24:13,560 --> 00:24:15,600
Speaker 1: with James Harden in his career? I'd be really curious

528
00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:20,359
Speaker 1: to see. Number twenty three Russell Westbrook. Two time first

529
00:24:20,359 --> 00:24:24,719
Speaker 1: Team All NBA, nine time total NBA selections, two scoring

530
00:24:24,760 --> 00:24:29,080
Speaker 1: titles twenty fifteen and twenty seventeen, three assists titles twenty eighteen,

531
00:24:29,080 --> 00:24:31,679
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, twenty twenty one, and he won the MVP

532
00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:34,880
Speaker 1: Award in twenty seventeen. His prime I put down from

533
00:24:35,040 --> 00:24:37,640
Speaker 1: twenty eleven to twenty twenty. It was pretty much after

534
00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:40,119
Speaker 1: he left Houston that things kind of fell off. Regular

535
00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:42,359
Speaker 1: season twenty five eight to nine on fifty four percent

536
00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:44,960
Speaker 1: true shooting, playoffs twenty five seven and eight on a

537
00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:47,760
Speaker 1: fifty one percent true shooting. His claim to fame. In

538
00:24:47,760 --> 00:24:52,280
Speaker 1: my opinion, Russell Westbrook is the most statistically impressive player

539
00:24:52,320 --> 00:24:54,440
Speaker 1: of his era. Obviously, he was the first player since

540
00:24:54,480 --> 00:24:57,400
Speaker 1: Oscar Robinson to average a triple double for an entire

541
00:24:57,440 --> 00:25:00,600
Speaker 1: regular season. He's actually done that four times now. There

542
00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:03,040
Speaker 1: was a peak run in Oklahoma City that was insane.

543
00:25:03,359 --> 00:25:06,600
Speaker 1: His last three seasons in the thunder Jersey twenty seven, eleven,

544
00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:10,119
Speaker 1: and ten just ridiculous statistical production. He also was the

545
00:25:10,160 --> 00:25:15,159
Speaker 1: best athlete of his era pound for pound, in my opinion, really,

546
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:16,840
Speaker 1: like if in those of you guys who were old

547
00:25:16,920 --> 00:25:19,560
Speaker 1: enough to watch Russell Westbrook when he was younger, there

548
00:25:19,600 --> 00:25:22,000
Speaker 1: really wasn't anything like him when he was in his

549
00:25:22,119 --> 00:25:26,840
Speaker 1: prime athletically. It just the burst that he had. And

550
00:25:26,840 --> 00:25:28,679
Speaker 1: it's crazy because he still has a little bit of

551
00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:30,760
Speaker 1: burst and he still looks like one of the best

552
00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:33,080
Speaker 1: athletes on the floor in any given game. But back

553
00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:35,560
Speaker 1: then he was on this entire different stratosphere. Again, like,

554
00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:37,320
Speaker 1: there are better athletes in the league, but pound for

555
00:25:37,359 --> 00:25:40,080
Speaker 1: pound is a six to three frame. There was nobody

556
00:25:40,119 --> 00:25:42,439
Speaker 1: that moved the way that Russell Westbrook did. You probably

557
00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:45,880
Speaker 1: all have a favorite Russell Westbrook dunk. My favorite there's

558
00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:47,679
Speaker 1: one in particular that always sticks out to me, and

559
00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:49,680
Speaker 1: it's if you were to do a top one hundred

560
00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:51,960
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook's dunk dunk thing I'm not sure it would

561
00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:54,639
Speaker 1: make the top thirty, but this one, for whatever reason,

562
00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:57,800
Speaker 1: just kind of resonated with me personally. Was he was

563
00:25:57,800 --> 00:26:01,800
Speaker 1: into the thunder jersey. It was after KD left. I

564
00:26:01,840 --> 00:26:04,480
Speaker 1: think it might have been in the last year with Katie.

565
00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:07,600
Speaker 1: It was somewhere in that twenty sixteen to twenty eighteen range.

566
00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:09,760
Speaker 1: But he had a mask on because he had broken

567
00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:12,120
Speaker 1: his nose or had some sort of orbital issue, right,

568
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:15,600
Speaker 1: And he got a rebound and went the length of

569
00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:19,040
Speaker 1: the floor and just took off from just inside of

570
00:26:19,040 --> 00:26:20,840
Speaker 1: the free throw line and dunked it with two hands,

571
00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:23,200
Speaker 1: like rose up with two hands and slammed it down.

572
00:26:23,560 --> 00:26:25,640
Speaker 1: And as the play was developing, you're like, there's no

573
00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:28,160
Speaker 1: you're not even thinking dunk because it doesn't even make

574
00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:30,600
Speaker 1: sense for a player to attempt to dunk in that situation.

575
00:26:30,880 --> 00:26:32,879
Speaker 1: And he rises up and just throws down this easy

576
00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:34,919
Speaker 1: two handed jam, and you're like, oh my god, what

577
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:38,399
Speaker 1: did I just watch? There really was nothing like Russell

578
00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:41,080
Speaker 1: Westbrook in his athletic prime. His archetype was your classic

579
00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:44,159
Speaker 1: hyperathletic rim pressuring guard. He was consistently one of the

580
00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:47,640
Speaker 1: league's best rim attackers. He was also excellent at hitting

581
00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:50,159
Speaker 1: shooters and dunkers as the team would kind of, you know,

582
00:26:50,320 --> 00:26:52,400
Speaker 1: collapse around him as he was driving to the baskets,

583
00:26:52,520 --> 00:26:55,640
Speaker 1: specifically shooters in the corner and hitting dunkers right under

584
00:26:55,680 --> 00:26:57,880
Speaker 1: the basket. He was also a pretty good defensive player

585
00:26:57,960 --> 00:26:59,439
Speaker 1: during the KD Era still had a lot of the

586
00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:02,360
Speaker 1: mistakes that he makes now, like missing box outs, losing

587
00:27:02,440 --> 00:27:04,399
Speaker 1: his man off ball. He still has mistakes like that,

588
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:07,480
Speaker 1: but he was just so unbelievably athletic that the positives

589
00:27:07,480 --> 00:27:09,880
Speaker 1: outweigh the negatives in a lot of ways. He's also

590
00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:11,680
Speaker 1: a good mid range pull up shooter. At that phase

591
00:27:11,680 --> 00:27:13,639
Speaker 1: of his career, he could hit about forty percent of

592
00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:16,400
Speaker 1: them there in that you know, twenty fifteen to twenty

593
00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:19,639
Speaker 1: seventeen range. His biggest limitations he was not good at

594
00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:21,440
Speaker 1: finishing at the rim. It's funny because everyone thinks of

595
00:27:21,480 --> 00:27:23,359
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook as struggling to finish at the rim in

596
00:27:23,359 --> 00:27:25,840
Speaker 1: a Lakers jersey. That was always the case. He just

597
00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:28,639
Speaker 1: got there more often. He was consistently one of the

598
00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:32,080
Speaker 1: leaders in shot attempts in the restricted area in the NBA,

599
00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:34,679
Speaker 1: but he always shot around fifty five percent. He just

600
00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:37,120
Speaker 1: never got to that sixty sixty five percent that you're

601
00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:40,720
Speaker 1: hoping for from a high level basket attacker. That prevents

602
00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:42,800
Speaker 1: some of the issues that come from missing laps. There's

603
00:27:42,800 --> 00:27:46,080
Speaker 1: advantages to missing laps, right, occupying rim protectors, opening up

604
00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:51,119
Speaker 1: offensive rebound opportunities, but consistently missing layups at that tune. Like,

605
00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:53,280
Speaker 1: it's one thing for me to say, hey, Kevin Durant,

606
00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:56,080
Speaker 1: you're shooting seventy eight percent at the rim, Dude, take

607
00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:58,480
Speaker 1: more shots there, you know, because you need to pressure

608
00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:01,520
Speaker 1: the rim more. It's another thing when you're missing half

609
00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:04,480
Speaker 1: of your rim attempts and it's just constantly leading to

610
00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:07,560
Speaker 1: fast break opportunities. The other way, that was a consistent

611
00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:11,040
Speaker 1: issue for Russ during that time. The biggest issue for

612
00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:14,000
Speaker 1: me with Russ was he just always struggled to play

613
00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:17,159
Speaker 1: at different pace, in different speeds. He just struggled to

614
00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:20,159
Speaker 1: manage games, which is such an important part of the

615
00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:23,520
Speaker 1: point guard position. It's a decision making position. My favorite

616
00:28:23,520 --> 00:28:25,320
Speaker 1: example of this to kind of demonstrate it is the

617
00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:28,120
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen Western Conference Finals against Golden State, the game

618
00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:30,720
Speaker 1: sixth Clay game. Right, we always think of that game

619
00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:33,040
Speaker 1: as the Klay Thompson game, but if you actually go

620
00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:35,160
Speaker 1: back and watch that game, the Thunder would have won

621
00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 1: it anyway, regardless of any Klay Thompson outburst if it

622
00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:41,120
Speaker 1: wasn't for Russell Westbrook's decision making at the end of

623
00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:44,200
Speaker 1: the game. He had four turnovers in the final two

624
00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:47,000
Speaker 1: minutes of that game. Four. There were two in particular

625
00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:48,720
Speaker 1: that I wanted to highlight that kind of demonstrate what

626
00:28:48,760 --> 00:28:54,640
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. At one point, the game was tied

627
00:28:54,880 --> 00:28:57,480
Speaker 1: at one oh one, I believe, and he runs a

628
00:28:57,480 --> 00:28:59,760
Speaker 1: two man game with Kevin Durant. He's being guarded by

629
00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:03,840
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson, and Kevin Durant's being guarded by Andrea Guadala,

630
00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:06,200
Speaker 1: who's probably the best perimeter defender in the league at

631
00:29:06,200 --> 00:29:09,280
Speaker 1: that time. They run the screen and they get the

632
00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:13,600
Speaker 1: switch and Kevin Durant kind of goes out to the

633
00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:15,880
Speaker 1: wing and holds his arm up wanting the ball against

634
00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:21,040
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson. Russell Westbrook decides to iso Andre Gudala instead,

635
00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:27,240
Speaker 1: just objectively a bad decision in that specific situation. Tries

636
00:29:27,280 --> 00:29:29,480
Speaker 1: to drive by Andre Andre beats him to the spot,

637
00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:31,440
Speaker 1: loses his balance a little bit, tries to go into

638
00:29:31,440 --> 00:29:34,840
Speaker 1: a fadeaway. Andre Gadala strips him clean right and then

639
00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:39,240
Speaker 1: the couple possessions. Later, Clay hits that big three on

640
00:29:39,280 --> 00:29:40,640
Speaker 1: the right wing. They're up one oh four to one

641
00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 1: o one. It's a one possession game still though you've

642
00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:44,920
Speaker 1: got a chance. They get a stop on a miss

643
00:29:44,960 --> 00:29:48,400
Speaker 1: steph Curry layup and instead of like walking the ball

644
00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:51,480
Speaker 1: up the floor to run your set and try to

645
00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:54,400
Speaker 1: get a good shot, it's a three on three break.

646
00:29:54,440 --> 00:29:56,840
Speaker 1: There's no advantage. At one point, it's actually three on

647
00:29:56,920 --> 00:29:59,520
Speaker 1: four as Golden State is sprinting back and Russ is

648
00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:03,040
Speaker 1: just pushed the ball up the floor with no advantage,

649
00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:06,240
Speaker 1: and he ends up getting stripped in traffic by Draymond Green,

650
00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:09,600
Speaker 1: just a critical turnover. And that's the thing is, like

651
00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:11,880
Speaker 1: we think about those mistakes now, we think about him

652
00:30:11,920 --> 00:30:14,000
Speaker 1: taking the pull up jumper against the Blazers in the

653
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:16,440
Speaker 1: early season with the Lakers right or like bad decisions

654
00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:18,400
Speaker 1: here or there. But he was doing that kind of

655
00:30:18,440 --> 00:30:20,320
Speaker 1: stuff when he was in his prime, and it was

656
00:30:20,320 --> 00:30:23,720
Speaker 1: a significant part of the limitations that the Thunder faced

657
00:30:23,840 --> 00:30:27,200
Speaker 1: is in big time playoff moments, Russ was always playing

658
00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:30,000
Speaker 1: the same speed and in a big sample size right

659
00:30:30,120 --> 00:30:33,360
Speaker 1: where you have a hundred possessions, Russ making mistakes that

660
00:30:33,560 --> 00:30:36,080
Speaker 1: version of Russ was so damn good that it outweighed

661
00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:41,360
Speaker 1: the bad. Right, But in any small sample size, let's

662
00:30:41,360 --> 00:30:45,760
Speaker 1: say you've got you're rolling the dice, and like, if

663
00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:49,080
Speaker 1: it's one or two, three or four, it's a good outcome,

664
00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:50,880
Speaker 1: but if it's five or six, it's a bad outcome.

665
00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:52,880
Speaker 1: If I do that a hundred times, I'm gonna get

666
00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:55,120
Speaker 1: a lot more bad outcomes than good or good outcomes

667
00:30:55,160 --> 00:30:57,760
Speaker 1: and bad outcomes. And that's great for my team. But

668
00:30:57,840 --> 00:31:00,760
Speaker 1: in a pivotal situation, I'm rolling dice that has a

669
00:31:00,800 --> 00:31:03,720
Speaker 1: one out of three chance to make a mistake, And

670
00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:06,040
Speaker 1: in this particular situation, with the season on the line,

671
00:31:06,120 --> 00:31:09,040
Speaker 1: he rolled mistake four times in a row down the

672
00:31:09,040 --> 00:31:10,560
Speaker 1: stretch of a game, and so that was the big

673
00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:12,400
Speaker 1: thing that kind of held him back. Otherwise he'd be

674
00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:15,440
Speaker 1: much much higher on this particular list. Biggest what if

675
00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:17,960
Speaker 1: of Russell Westbrook's career in my opinion, and this is

676
00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:19,959
Speaker 1: one that I don't think is over, but what if

677
00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:22,320
Speaker 1: he had evolved his game as he aged. Ever since

678
00:31:22,360 --> 00:31:25,520
Speaker 1: he left Houston in twenty twenty, he has not been

679
00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:28,960
Speaker 1: the same player, but he put up big numbers in

680
00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:30,760
Speaker 1: a losing context with the Wizards, and then he really

681
00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:33,200
Speaker 1: struggled to play in a winning context on the Lakers, right,

682
00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:36,960
Speaker 1: And a big part of that is as his athleticism

683
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:39,880
Speaker 1: has declined in his good part. Now the dice is

684
00:31:39,920 --> 00:31:42,120
Speaker 1: more like one, two, three is good and four or

685
00:31:42,160 --> 00:31:44,480
Speaker 1: five six is bad. And on any given possession, it's like,

686
00:31:44,840 --> 00:31:47,000
Speaker 1: you know, one game, it comes out positively for you,

687
00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:49,520
Speaker 1: in the next game, it comes out negatively for you.

688
00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:52,040
Speaker 1: Now it's more important than ever for him to polish

689
00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:54,360
Speaker 1: up a lot of his specific role player tendencies right,

690
00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:57,520
Speaker 1: his off ball defense, his ability to box out, decision making,

691
00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:01,600
Speaker 1: all these things are suddenly much much more and he's

692
00:32:01,600 --> 00:32:03,680
Speaker 1: really struggled with those. You look at a guy like

693
00:32:03,760 --> 00:32:07,400
Speaker 1: Jason Kidd, who had this huge prime in the early

694
00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:11,720
Speaker 1: two thousands with the new Jersey Nets. He gets to

695
00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:17,080
Speaker 1: Dallas and completely evolves and becomes this role player, spot

696
00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:19,000
Speaker 1: up shooter guy who's not doing a lot on the ball,

697
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:21,040
Speaker 1: who really commits on the defensive end of the floor.

698
00:32:21,080 --> 00:32:24,320
Speaker 1: Suddenly he becomes an imperative piece of a championship team.

699
00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:26,400
Speaker 1: I'd like to see Russell Westbrook do that. We saw

700
00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:29,080
Speaker 1: some glimpses of that with the Clippers this year and

701
00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:32,800
Speaker 1: he's on a deal now that's a much lower dollar

702
00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:34,440
Speaker 1: amount that I think will help Russ kind of come

703
00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:36,840
Speaker 1: to terms with that fact. And I'm interested to see

704
00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:38,920
Speaker 1: if he has that in his late prime. But to me,

705
00:32:38,960 --> 00:32:40,640
Speaker 1: that's the biggest what if of his career to this

706
00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:42,479
Speaker 1: point and will be the biggest what if of the

707
00:32:42,520 --> 00:32:45,280
Speaker 1: remainder of his career. Will he evolve his game as

708
00:32:45,280 --> 00:32:48,200
Speaker 1: he ages? All? Right, last, but not least for today.

709
00:32:48,320 --> 00:32:51,080
Speaker 1: Number twenty two Jimmy Butler No first team All NBA selections,

710
00:32:51,120 --> 00:32:55,520
Speaker 1: but five total all NBA selections, five All defense selections,

711
00:32:56,720 --> 00:33:00,120
Speaker 1: and his prime I put down from twenty fifteen the

712
00:33:00,160 --> 00:33:02,920
Speaker 1: present regular season twenty one point six rebounds, five assists,

713
00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:05,520
Speaker 1: fifty nine percent you shooting, playoffs twenty three seven and

714
00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:08,200
Speaker 1: five on fifty seven percent trough shooting. His claim to

715
00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:10,920
Speaker 1: fame one of the best playoff performers of this era.

716
00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:13,840
Speaker 1: How do you even describe Jimmy Butler? You heard me

717
00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:16,200
Speaker 1: read the stats, even in the playoffs twenty three seven

718
00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:19,840
Speaker 1: and five, fifty seven percent yourre shooting. Nothing exceptional happening there.

719
00:33:20,440 --> 00:33:24,600
Speaker 1: But I'll keep it really simple. Jimmy Butler has twenty

720
00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:27,360
Speaker 1: three to thirty point playoff games that ranks sixteenth out

721
00:33:27,400 --> 00:33:30,240
Speaker 1: of all the players on my list. He has eight

722
00:33:30,760 --> 00:33:34,480
Speaker 1: forty point playoff games that ranks seventh out of all

723
00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:37,840
Speaker 1: the players on this list. For whatever reason, when he

724
00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:42,600
Speaker 1: gets to the postseason in specific single game samples, typically

725
00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:45,600
Speaker 1: big pivotal playoff games that have a chance to swing series,

726
00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:51,720
Speaker 1: the dude just transforms into an all time great playoff players.

727
00:33:51,920 --> 00:33:54,520
Speaker 1: There's no other way to describe it. And as a

728
00:33:54,520 --> 00:33:57,320
Speaker 1: result of that, he has been the undisputed best player

729
00:33:57,360 --> 00:34:01,320
Speaker 1: on two NBA finals teams. And this wasn't you know

730
00:34:01,440 --> 00:34:04,800
Speaker 1: Lebron James making eight straight finals with the Cavs, where like, yeah,

731
00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:06,200
Speaker 1: he was the best player in the league, but he

732
00:34:06,200 --> 00:34:08,440
Speaker 1: probably doesn't make eight straight finals in the West, right,

733
00:34:08,640 --> 00:34:12,040
Speaker 1: It's not like that. This was a top heavy East

734
00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:15,320
Speaker 1: with teams that were favored over him. Bucks teams and

735
00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:18,480
Speaker 1: Celtics teams. Even the Sixers teams were consistently considered better

736
00:34:18,520 --> 00:34:22,640
Speaker 1: than Miami, and Miami just beat them and made to

737
00:34:22,640 --> 00:34:25,840
Speaker 1: the finals twice. He outplayed Giannis in a playoff series twice.

738
00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:31,640
Speaker 1: That's the It's just it's difficult, right, But I mean,

739
00:34:31,680 --> 00:34:33,680
Speaker 1: here's how I'll describe it to my kids. Jimmy was

740
00:34:33,719 --> 00:34:36,920
Speaker 1: one of those guys who always flew under the radar,

741
00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:39,000
Speaker 1: but if you ever had to face him in a

742
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:41,920
Speaker 1: playoff series, he was absolutely terrifying. There's no other way

743
00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:46,120
Speaker 1: to put it. I've said this in the player rankings video,

744
00:34:46,360 --> 00:34:48,480
Speaker 1: but his approach kind of reminds me of Lebron. It's

745
00:34:48,520 --> 00:34:51,920
Speaker 1: a it's a smaller version of the Lebron James playoff approach.

746
00:34:51,960 --> 00:34:56,239
Speaker 1: It's like two way dominance fueled by on defense, being

747
00:34:56,280 --> 00:34:59,440
Speaker 1: willing to take just about any assignment on ball or

748
00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:02,040
Speaker 1: in help. He could pick you apart on the other

749
00:35:02,120 --> 00:35:04,600
Speaker 1: end of the floor as this big point forward that

750
00:35:04,719 --> 00:35:07,440
Speaker 1: was gonna matchup, attack and pick on your worst defender

751
00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:09,919
Speaker 1: and bully his way to the basket and play make

752
00:35:09,960 --> 00:35:13,440
Speaker 1: out of that. It just reminds me of the lesser

753
00:35:13,520 --> 00:35:16,319
Speaker 1: version of Lebron James, which is exactly why he's been

754
00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:19,080
Speaker 1: such a good playoff performer in his career. And the

755
00:35:19,120 --> 00:35:20,759
Speaker 1: biggest part of it is you just always seem to

756
00:35:20,760 --> 00:35:23,360
Speaker 1: be the most confident player on the court for whatever reason,

757
00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:25,680
Speaker 1: and confidence just matters in basketball. You have a muscle

758
00:35:25,719 --> 00:35:27,239
Speaker 1: memory that you go to and if you're nervous and

759
00:35:27,239 --> 00:35:30,400
Speaker 1: you're hesitant, it can affect that. But if you're always

760
00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:33,200
Speaker 1: so confident that even in big game situations, you are

761
00:35:33,320 --> 00:35:36,120
Speaker 1: calm and your heart rate is under control and your

762
00:35:36,160 --> 00:35:39,320
Speaker 1: body is relaxed, that's the way you feel when you're practicing,

763
00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:41,840
Speaker 1: and then that practice translates to the game better. I

764
00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:46,160
Speaker 1: think Jimmy Butler's insane levels of confidence I think fuel

765
00:35:46,200 --> 00:35:49,960
Speaker 1: him a lot in these playoff situations. His archetype, he's

766
00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:54,040
Speaker 1: a classic undersized point forward, right. He has the athletic

767
00:35:54,080 --> 00:35:56,200
Speaker 1: tools to be a dominant perimeter defender, but he's not

768
00:35:56,280 --> 00:35:59,360
Speaker 1: quite big enough to play some of the backline defensive

769
00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:01,959
Speaker 1: positions that you see a lot of the other big

770
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:04,799
Speaker 1: forwards in the league play right, So offensively, he's more

771
00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:07,480
Speaker 1: of like a three or a four excuse me. Offensively

772
00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:09,239
Speaker 1: he plays more like a power forward right, more of

773
00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:13,360
Speaker 1: a four power game. Back to the basket rim pressure

774
00:36:13,360 --> 00:36:15,920
Speaker 1: and playmaking. And then on the defensive end, he's more

775
00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:17,480
Speaker 1: of a primitive player right. He takes a lot of

776
00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:20,279
Speaker 1: point of attack assignments, he plays passing lanes a lot.

777
00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:22,600
Speaker 1: He's very forward aggressive right. So he's kind of a

778
00:36:22,640 --> 00:36:26,319
Speaker 1: mix of two different archetypes of players. Back to the

779
00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:28,839
Speaker 1: basket game, is that classic old school forward. He's very

780
00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:31,919
Speaker 1: patient and methodical. He's got a good arsenal of hook

781
00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:35,239
Speaker 1: shots and fadeaways over both shoulders. He also has a

782
00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:37,400
Speaker 1: really good gift for getting players out of position and

783
00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:39,799
Speaker 1: drawing fouls. And he's a high level playmaker. He has

784
00:36:39,840 --> 00:36:41,640
Speaker 1: seven games in the playoffs where he's had at least

785
00:36:41,640 --> 00:36:44,799
Speaker 1: ten assists, including three times in the NBA Finals. His

786
00:36:44,880 --> 00:36:47,400
Speaker 1: limitations he was an inconsistent jump shooter, and he always

787
00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:50,520
Speaker 1: seems to wear down, and especially in like the conference

788
00:36:50,520 --> 00:36:54,040
Speaker 1: finals finals, he's prone to like bad games where he'll

789
00:36:54,080 --> 00:36:55,600
Speaker 1: have a single digit nin er, a game where he

790
00:36:55,680 --> 00:36:57,839
Speaker 1: just it doesn't even look like he's as engaged as

791
00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:00,040
Speaker 1: he usually is. But then he'll follow that up and

792
00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:02,080
Speaker 1: be freaking amazing the next game. So even as I

793
00:37:02,120 --> 00:37:03,919
Speaker 1: talk about that as a limitation, none of it really

794
00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:08,279
Speaker 1: makes any sense. It's a very difficult player to kind

795
00:37:08,280 --> 00:37:11,000
Speaker 1: of compartmentalize in that sense. Biggest what if of his

796
00:37:11,040 --> 00:37:15,319
Speaker 1: career in my opinion, what if Jimmy Butler had made

797
00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:18,840
Speaker 1: that pull up three over Jason Tatum. I think it

798
00:37:18,880 --> 00:37:20,520
Speaker 1: was over Jason Tatum. I can't remember who was over,

799
00:37:20,560 --> 00:37:22,640
Speaker 1: but on the right wing, that could have won the

800
00:37:22,680 --> 00:37:25,319
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference Finals last year. Why I had that as

801
00:37:25,360 --> 00:37:27,160
Speaker 1: such a big one if I think that was easily

802
00:37:27,239 --> 00:37:30,200
Speaker 1: their best chance to win the title. That Lakers team

803
00:37:30,280 --> 00:37:32,560
Speaker 1: was too talented. They weren't gonna beat them. It was

804
00:37:32,600 --> 00:37:34,360
Speaker 1: like Lebron James and Anthony Davis at the peak of

805
00:37:34,400 --> 00:37:36,560
Speaker 1: their powers, two top five players. You just weren't gonna

806
00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:38,640
Speaker 1: beat them. And they had all this size in athleticism

807
00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:40,480
Speaker 1: and defense, and a good coach and all this stuff. Right,

808
00:37:41,040 --> 00:37:45,440
Speaker 1: This Nuggets team was probably even better than that Lakers team, right,

809
00:37:45,880 --> 00:37:49,520
Speaker 1: So they just didn't really have a chance. Steph Curry

810
00:37:49,560 --> 00:37:51,200
Speaker 1: was the best player in the league in twenty twenty

811
00:37:51,200 --> 00:37:54,759
Speaker 1: two in my opinion, but Andrew Wiggins was the second

812
00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:57,960
Speaker 1: best player on that team, and they were pretty undersized,

813
00:37:58,160 --> 00:38:01,680
Speaker 1: and they had some legitimate personne elementations. Now, to be clear,

814
00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:03,880
Speaker 1: I would have picked the Warriors to win that series,

815
00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:06,480
Speaker 1: but I would have actually given Jimmy Butler in the

816
00:38:06,480 --> 00:38:09,000
Speaker 1: heat a fighting chance to win that series in a

817
00:38:09,040 --> 00:38:11,280
Speaker 1: way that I did not give them in the Nuggets

818
00:38:11,320 --> 00:38:13,719
Speaker 1: series of the Lakers series. And so it's interesting to

819
00:38:13,719 --> 00:38:15,359
Speaker 1: me because I actually think that was their best chance

820
00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:17,600
Speaker 1: to win the title. Jimmy hits that shot they'd go

821
00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:21,239
Speaker 1: to the finals. Obviously, he'd have to outplay Steph to

822
00:38:21,280 --> 00:38:22,799
Speaker 1: have any chance to win the series, and I don't

823
00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:24,440
Speaker 1: think he would have, but he would have had a

824
00:38:24,520 --> 00:38:27,640
Speaker 1: chance at least, Like it didn't matter. He could have

825
00:38:27,680 --> 00:38:29,840
Speaker 1: played Yolks to his stalilmate, they would have lost. The

826
00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:31,560
Speaker 1: Nuggets were too good. He could have played Lebron to

827
00:38:31,560 --> 00:38:35,200
Speaker 1: his stailmate, they would have lost. The Lakers were too good. So,

828
00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:37,719
Speaker 1: like you kind of get the point like that, I

829
00:38:37,760 --> 00:38:40,480
Speaker 1: as much as I respect the Warriors, that particular team

830
00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:43,439
Speaker 1: was more of like a one of those situations where

831
00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:45,680
Speaker 1: the total was more than the some of their parts, right,

832
00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:48,600
Speaker 1: and they just had this one truly great player. I

833
00:38:48,640 --> 00:38:50,080
Speaker 1: would have given the Heat a decent chance to beat

834
00:38:50,120 --> 00:38:52,759
Speaker 1: those guys. So the biggest one if of Jimmy Butler's career,

835
00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:54,920
Speaker 1: in my opinion, is what if the Heat would have

836
00:38:55,840 --> 00:38:58,320
Speaker 1: won the Eastern Conference Finals in twenty twenty two and

837
00:38:58,400 --> 00:39:00,880
Speaker 1: Jimmy would have had chance you play the Warriors in

838
00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:02,560
Speaker 1: that finals. Alright, guys, that is all I have for today.

839
00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:05,799
Speaker 1: We'll be back tomorrow with twenty one, twenty nineteen, and eighteen.

840
00:39:05,840 --> 00:39:07,440
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you, guys, and I will see

841
00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:07,560
Speaker 1: you that