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Speaker 2: Everybody hopeful.

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Speaker 1: If you guys have had a great start to your week.

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Speaker 1: Got a quick show today? We recorded over an hour

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Speaker 1: with Carter Rodriguez from the Chasetown Podcast, a deep dive

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Speaker 1: on the Undefeated twelve and oh Cleveland Cavaliers earlier this morning.

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Speaker 1: That's going to be air airing tomorrow morning on our

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Speaker 1: feed and then tonight we're going live after the final

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Speaker 1: buzzer of MAVs Warriors on YouTube, which I'm very excited about.

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Speaker 1: But I have a tiny little window of time here

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Speaker 1: in the mid morning, and I wanted to get a

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Speaker 1: show out for today, but to do something quick, I

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Speaker 1: thought it'd be fun.

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Speaker 2: To take a quick peek at the MVP ladder.

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Speaker 1: Right, So we're, you know, roughly one eighth of the

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Speaker 1: way through the season, right, twelve thirteen percent of the

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Speaker 1: way through the season. This obviously is not the time

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Speaker 1: when you're going to make any sort of final decision

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Speaker 1: about the MVP race, but it's a nice time to

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Speaker 1: take a look at the early chunk of the season

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Speaker 1: and see who's impacting their team the most. So we're

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Speaker 1: going to talk about my current top five in the

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Speaker 1: MVP race, and then we'll get out of here for

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Speaker 1: the day. You guys know the joke before we get started.

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Speaker 1: To subscribe to the Hoops to Night YouTube channel so

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Speaker 1: you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me

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Speaker 1: on Twitter at underscore json lt so you guys don't

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Speaker 1: miss show announcement. Still, forget about a podcast feed wherever

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Speaker 1: you get your podcast or our Hoops tonight. Don't forget

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Speaker 1: it's helpful if you leave a rating and a review.

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Speaker 2: On that front.

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Speaker 1: We all have new social media feeds on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and the last but not at least, keep ropping mail

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Speaker 1: bag questions in YouTube comments. On Friday, I'm going to

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Speaker 1: be recording a long mail bag that's going to be

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Speaker 1: of those questions as you can in the YouTube comments

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Speaker 1: before Thursday, and the last minute least before we get started,

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Speaker 2: All right?

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Speaker 1: Nice quick show today, starting our MVP ladder with number five.

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Speaker 1: I was kind of on the fence here before last night.

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Speaker 1: I probably would have leaned towards Anthony Edwards. But shake

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Speaker 1: KOs Alexander a big breakout game against the Cleveland against

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Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Clippers last night, got that pull up

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Speaker 1: three point shot going. He is now up to twenty

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Speaker 1: eight six and seven on the season on sixty two

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Speaker 1: percent true shooting. Again, early in the season, it was

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Speaker 1: a little bit clunky as he was working on that

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Speaker 1: three point shot. He's taking over five off the dribble

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Speaker 1: threes per game so far this season, when he was

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Speaker 1: at just two point six last year, and again it

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Speaker 1: was a little bit sloppy, but he hit four of

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Speaker 1: them against the Clippers last night and that led to

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Speaker 1: his career high forty five points. Again, like, there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of upside to perimeter shooting outside the three point

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Speaker 1: line when you're good at getting yourself open and if

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Speaker 1: you're not willing to take those pull up threes when

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Speaker 1: a defender is sitting back to try to contain your

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Speaker 1: drive or chasing you over the top of a screen.

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Speaker 1: In a ball screen, you're giving up an opportunity to

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Speaker 1: get an efficient shot up if you're capable of knocking

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Speaker 1: that shot down. And again, like when you talk about

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Speaker 1: real volume scoring, like career high type stuff, consistently getting

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Speaker 1: into the high thirties into the forties, that's where that

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Speaker 1: three point shot becomes a real ceiling razor for you.

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Speaker 1: Right Like, it's not gonna be there every single game.

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Speaker 1: You're gonna games where reshoot four of them and you

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Speaker 1: go one for four. But you're also gonna have games

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Speaker 1: where reshoot seven or eight of them and you make

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Speaker 1: five or six. And like on those kinds of nights,

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Speaker 1: that's when you can have truly explosive scoring. But if

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Speaker 1: you operate entirely from the mid range and around the basket,

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Speaker 1: just because of how much congestion there is down there

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Speaker 1: and because of the value of those shots, it's harder

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Speaker 1: to hit like the really high point totals. And so again,

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Speaker 1: it was an investment. I thought even in the early

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Speaker 1: part of the season, the Thunder knew like, especially with

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Speaker 1: some of the lighter schedule they were playing at the

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Speaker 1: very beginning of the season, like it just made sense

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Speaker 1: for him to get the lumps out, be willing to

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Speaker 1: miss some shots as you try to add that to

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Speaker 1: his game, and that could be something that ends up

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Speaker 1: being a big tool for him down the line. He's

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Speaker 1: also been the best ISO player in the league this year.

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Speaker 1: He's ran one hundred and eight ISOs at one point

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Speaker 1: two to two points per possession including passes. That's the

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Speaker 1: highest among the three players in the league to run

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Speaker 1: at least one hundred ISOs to this point in the season,

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Speaker 1: and when you drop into fifty ISOs, we have thirteen

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Speaker 1: players and he still ranks fourth in efficiency on that lift.

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Speaker 1: The Oklahoma City Thunder offense has fallen apart every time

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Speaker 1: he's left the floor. There's sixteen points per one hundred

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Speaker 1: possessions worse on offense when he is off the floor.

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Speaker 1: The Thunder off to a nine and two start. Challenge

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Speaker 1: is going to get more difficult from here. With chet

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Speaker 1: Holmgren being out starting small ball groups a lot of

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Speaker 1: small lineups, It's going to be even harder for Shay

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Speaker 1: over the course of the next few months. But at

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Speaker 1: this point in the season, I have him at fifth

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Speaker 1: in our MVP Ladder number four, Jason Tatum. This was

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Speaker 1: a surprise for me. I did not think of him

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Speaker 1: as a guy that would kind of crack into the

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Speaker 1: top five of the MVP voting this year. If you

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Speaker 1: guys remember before the season, I kind of thought of

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Speaker 1: this as a spot for Ant. Tatum has been better

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Speaker 1: than Ant to start this season, my pretty wide margin.

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Speaker 1: Thirty one points per game, eight rebounds, five assists, sixty

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Speaker 1: two percent true shooting. He's third in the league in

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Speaker 1: scoring overall scoring volume at this point. Tweaked his shot

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Speaker 1: profile a little bit, really doubled down on the analytic

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Speaker 1: analytically smart approach to scoring volume, so really increased his

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Speaker 1: three point rate and really has been working hard to

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Speaker 1: get to the line. Fifty seven percent of his shot

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Speaker 1: attempts this year have been from three. That was forty

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Speaker 1: three percent last year. So a fourteen percent increase in

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Speaker 1: the percentage of his shots that come from three point

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Speaker 1: line from the three point line. And then the free

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Speaker 1: throw rate is insane. So like again, free throw rate

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Speaker 1: is usually factored in at are calculated as the number

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Speaker 1: of free throw attempts who take per field goal attempt,

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Speaker 1: and so in ISO situations, Tatum is getting zero point

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Speaker 1: four to one foul shots per field goal attempt. That's insane.

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Speaker 1: In post up situations, he's getting zero point five to

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Speaker 1: six free throw attempts per field goal attempt. He's getting

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Speaker 1: fouled on twenty two percent of his post ups. That

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Speaker 1: is completely outrageous. Like that is more than one out

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Speaker 1: of every five times he catches the ball in the block,

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Speaker 1: he's going to the foul line. And so the result

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Speaker 1: of that, by virtue of increasing his three point volume,

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Speaker 1: by virtue of working a lot harder to get to

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Speaker 1: the line, and some of the stuff that he's been

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Speaker 1: working on over the last few years in terms of grifting,

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Speaker 1: which again, when it comes to the grifting, like I

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Speaker 1: root for the Lakers, I've got Anthony Davis, who's a grifter.

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Speaker 1: I've got Austin Reeves who's a grifter. Like I'm I'm

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Speaker 1: not anti grifting, I'm anti grifting. With the league and

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Speaker 1: with officials, I want them to solve that problem. As

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Speaker 1: far as the players go, you're just a competitor and

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Speaker 1: you're trying to win, and quite frankly, you're an idiot

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Speaker 1: if you don't take advantage of the rules that are

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Speaker 1: available to you. Like you know, there's a conversation going

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Speaker 1: around the league of whether or not they need to

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Speaker 1: do something to fight three point volume, and there's a

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Speaker 1: conversation to have about that. I don't think the Celtics

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Speaker 1: really are the problem because they play pretty basketball, But

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Speaker 1: there are a lot of teams out there taking a

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Speaker 1: lot of really stupid threes, and then it's ugly to watch.

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Speaker 1: But as long as the three point shot is the

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Speaker 1: way that it is, and as long as it's worth

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Speaker 1: fifty percent more per make than a two, then you

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Speaker 1: should be taking advantage of it as long as you

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Speaker 1: can make them. And he's been shooting the ball so

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Speaker 1: well off the catch this year. He's over one point

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Speaker 1: two points per jump shot in off the catch situations

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Speaker 1: and as a result, he's having the highest scoring volume

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Speaker 1: and efficiency season of his career. He's also been a

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Speaker 1: super high efficiency ISO guy just like Shay. He's second

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Speaker 1: to Shay on that one hundred ISOs list. He's had

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Speaker 1: one hundred and thirteen points including passes on one hundred

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Speaker 1: and one possessions. He's one of the most versatile defenders

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Speaker 1: in the league that can be deployed in so many

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Speaker 1: different ways. The Celtics are better on both ends when

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Speaker 1: he's on versus one he's off. Now, it's not as

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Speaker 1: big of a gap as you see with some of

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Speaker 1: the other MVP candidates, but that's to be expected. The

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Speaker 1: Celtics are the most talented roster in the league, but

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Speaker 1: they have been better with Tatum on the floor on

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Speaker 1: both sides of the ball. He's having the best season

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Speaker 1: of his career. Can't say enough about how good Jason

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Speaker 1: Tatum has been to start the year. Number Three Anthony

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Speaker 1: Davis Thirty one points per game, ten rebounds, three assists

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Speaker 1: per game, sixty six percent true shooting in over two

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Speaker 1: blocks per game. Eighty percent of what makes the Lakers great?

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Speaker 1: All right, even I should't say Greg because I don't

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Speaker 1: think the Lakers are great, but eighty percent of what

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Speaker 1: makes the Lakers a good team is Anthony Davis. The

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Speaker 1: Lakers are fifth in offense, and he leads them in

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Speaker 1: scoring by a mile. They've been the fourth most efficient

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Speaker 1: pick and roll team in the league because of AD's

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Speaker 1: threat on the role. AD is personally shooting sixty two

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Speaker 1: percent on touches on the role. In ball screens, he's

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Speaker 1: getting one point four to one points per roleman touch.

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Speaker 1: That is completely outrageous. He's generating over a point per

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Speaker 1: possession in ISO and post up situations. They're doing a

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Speaker 1: lot of work with him in the middle of the floor,

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Speaker 1: isolating other centers from other teams. He's shooting sixty percent

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Speaker 1: on hooks and floaters this year. Again, that's not Jokic territory,

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Speaker 1: but that's close. He's been unbelievable and none of that

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Speaker 1: even comes close to the carry job he's doing on

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Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor. The Lakers are the

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Speaker 1: twelfth best half court defense in the league and there

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Speaker 1: isn't a single player other than Anthony Davis that isn't

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Speaker 1: having a bad defensive season. He is single handedly anchoring

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Speaker 1: a respectful, respectable, above average half court defense by himself.

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Speaker 1: That is the type of carry job that he is doing.

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Speaker 1: The Lakers are six and three when he plays. He

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Speaker 1: sat out for a game in Memphis, and the Grizzlies

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Speaker 1: without Marcus Martin Desmond Bine beat the shit out of

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Speaker 1: the Lakers. They depend on him in every single way.

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Speaker 1: It is a carry job. He is constantly cleaning up

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Speaker 1: mistakes on defense, cleaning up mistakes on the glass, providing

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Speaker 1: the offensive firepower that they need. It's a carry job.

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Speaker 1: He deserves a ton of credit here in the early

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Speaker 1: going of this season, carrying a Lakers roster that has

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Speaker 1: some pretty significant athleticism weaknesses on the perimeter. Number two

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Speaker 1: Kevin Durant twenty eight points, seven rebounds, and three assists

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Speaker 1: here in the early going of the season. Sixty seven

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Speaker 1: percent true shooting. That's fifty five percent from the field,

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Speaker 1: forty three percent from three to eighty four percent from

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Speaker 1: the line of ridiculous shooting splits. He's also getting one

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Speaker 1: point four blocks per game, which is the most he's

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Speaker 1: had per game since he was in Golden State. I

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Speaker 1: think he's having the best defensive season he's had since

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Speaker 1: twenty seventeen. Guy and the team at being two places

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Speaker 1: at once, and he is consistently rotating out to the perimeter,

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Speaker 1: chasing guys off the line, getting back protecting the rim.

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Speaker 1: He has been deployed on ball in a lot of

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Speaker 1: situations when there are specific matchups that the Suns have

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Speaker 1: been having trouble with. He is one of their best

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Speaker 1: defensive rebounders, especially in contested defensive rebound situations. And none

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Speaker 1: of that comes close to the fact that he's just

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Speaker 1: straight up stealing games in clutch situations he's having He's

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Speaker 1: been the best clutch player in the league in my opinion,

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Speaker 1: this year. He is thirty five clutch points already here

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Speaker 1: through just over ten percent of the season. The Suns

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Speaker 1: are seven to zero in clutch games that KD plays in.

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Speaker 1: He's shooting twelve for nineteen from the field, and there

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Speaker 1: are specific plays that he's made where he's straight up

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Speaker 1: turned losses into wins. They were going to lose to

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Speaker 1: Philly and he through purely through late game shot making

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Speaker 1: and defensive execution, beat the Sixers. Then that Clippers game

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Speaker 1: on Opening Night, straight up would have lost that game

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Speaker 1: if he did not hit a right shoulder fade away

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Speaker 1: over a double team that sent the game to overtime

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Speaker 1: before they out executed them in the ot period, like

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Speaker 1: he has straight up turned losses into wins. To put

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Speaker 1: it simply, Kevin Durant has been the primary driving force

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Speaker 1: behind a Suns team that was holding the number one

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Speaker 1: seed in the Western Conference before he got hurt. He's

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Speaker 1: playing some of the best basketball of his career. It's

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Speaker 1: a comfort thing too, when you watch him in these

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Speaker 1: late game situations. He just looks like he's so incredibly

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Speaker 1: secure and who he is as a player in what

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Speaker 1: he wants to do when he's on the floor. He

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Speaker 1: has complete command of things. He is, at least on

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Speaker 1: the mental and skill side of the game, is absolutely peaking,

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Speaker 1: and there's enough athletic ability there for him to be,

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Speaker 1: in my opinion, the second best player in the league

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Speaker 1: in the early going this season, and the number one

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Speaker 1: Nikola Jokich. Thirty points per game, fourteen rebounds and twelve assists.

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Speaker 1: That's completely preposterous. Sixty seven percent for shooting, that's completely preposterous.

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Speaker 1: He's running fifteen post ups per game. No one else

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Speaker 1: in the league is running more than seven. He's getting

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Speaker 1: one point on five points per possession including pass out

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Speaker 1: of post ups. If you took the six players that

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Speaker 1: have run at least fifty post ups this year, and again,

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Speaker 1: he's run one hundred and fifty. If you take the

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Speaker 1: six players to run fifty, only Pascal Siakam has been

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Speaker 1: more efficient on a per possession basis, and again he's

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Speaker 1: doing it a third of the time. He's been the

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Speaker 1: best post up player in the league by a mile.

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Speaker 1: He's the jump shot has been a complete revelation. He's

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Speaker 1: getting one point five to three points per jump shot.

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Speaker 1: That has allowed him to pop in ball screens now

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Speaker 1: all of a sudden, He's converting role man possessions at

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Speaker 1: one point three to five points per possession, which is

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Speaker 1: way up from last year. Spot up situations, he's converting

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Speaker 1: at one point four to four points per possession, that

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Speaker 1: is way up since last year. The Nuggets are over

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Speaker 1: forty points better per one hundred possessions when he's on

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Speaker 1: the floor versus off. I think it's clear that he's

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Speaker 1: the best player in the league. I think the gap

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Speaker 1: between him and the second best player in the league

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Speaker 1: right now is the largest it's been since Lebron James

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Speaker 1: was the best player in the league in twenty thirteen.

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Speaker 2: He is lapping everybody.

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Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever seen a more clear cut

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Speaker 1: MVP favorite through ten twelve games in my time covering

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Speaker 1: the league. He has built such a wide gap in

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Speaker 1: such a short period of time because no one's playing

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Speaker 1: at the level he's playing. He is basically single handedly

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Speaker 1: taking an injury ravaged Nuggets roster with a bunch of

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Speaker 1: guys that are playing below their potential at least in

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Speaker 1: the core guys. They've got young guys that are stepping up.

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Speaker 1: But again they're stepping up because Nicole Jokic is so

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Speaker 1: damn good. He can craft these tiny rolls that they

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Speaker 1: can thrive in. I can't, I literally can't say enough

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Speaker 1: he's playing. The ceiling he's at right now is the

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Speaker 1: highest I've seen since Lebron James. It's unbelievable. It's a

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Speaker 1: pleasure to watch, and I cannot believe how quickly he

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Speaker 1: turned around this Nugget season when it looked like it

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Speaker 1: was headed towards disaster. Out the gates. With the way

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Speaker 1: some of these guys are playing, it's been unbelievable. I

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Speaker 1: think he's a clear cut number one right now. All right, guys,

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Speaker 1: that is all I have for today. As always, as

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Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. I will

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Speaker 1: be back tonight live on YouTube after the final buzzer

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Speaker 1: of MAVs Warriors. I will see you guys then the volume.

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Speaker 1: What's up guys, As always, I appreciate you for listening

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Speaker 1: to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really

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Speaker 1: helpful for us if you guys would take a second

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Speaker 1: and leave a rating and a review. As always, I

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Speaker 1: appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take

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Speaker 1: a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.