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Speaker 1: ol coon, here tonight you're at the volume heavy Monday everybody.
Speaker 1: Hope all of you guys are having a great start
Speaker 1: to your week. Got a Jampak show for you today.
Speaker 1: We are leading off with a matchup between the two
Speaker 1: previous NBA champions as the Denver Nuggets went into Boston.
Speaker 1: I thought it was a very inch interesting game that
Speaker 1: explores the floor of both of these teams and some
Speaker 1: realistic issues that Denver might potentially have to deal with
Speaker 1: in a postseason series against some of the best teams
Speaker 1: in the league. After that, we're going to talk briefly
Speaker 1: on Lakers Clippers, as the Lakers have jumped all the
Speaker 1: way up to the two seed in the Western Conference
Speaker 1: without two starters, putting together an impressive win against the Clippers,
Speaker 1: and then it's the tail end of the show. I
Speaker 1: want to talk a little bit about the Phoenix Suns
Speaker 1: and after another embarrassing collapse against the Minnesota Timberwolves last night,
Speaker 1: some quotes from Kevin Durant about the frustrations going on
Speaker 1: inside the locker room, I want to at least just
Speaker 1: pitch an idea of maybe trying again with a version
Speaker 1: of this team. Then I don't think will happen, because
Speaker 1: I think the Suns will end up blowing it up
Speaker 1: the summer, but I want to talk about it because
Speaker 1: even just within the concept of basketball culture around the league,
Speaker 1: as we talked about other teams, I think it's a
Speaker 1: valuable kind of example that we can take a look
Speaker 1: at as we look at other teams. You guys did
Speaker 1: the Joe before you started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight
Speaker 1: YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.
Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLTCU. You guys don't
Speaker 1: miss show announcementstn't forget about a podcast feed wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcast on our hoops tonight, it's also super
Speaker 1: helpful if we leave a rating and a review on
Speaker 1: that front. Don't forget about our new social media feeds
Speaker 1: on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout the
Speaker 1: year the last not at least keep dropping mail bag
Speaker 1: questions in the YouTube comments. We can get to them
Speaker 1: in our mail bags throughout the week. We usually go Fridays.
Speaker 1: We're going to be recording a mail bag later today.
Speaker 1: That'll come out on Tuesday. Because I'm headed to Breckinridge
Speaker 1: to do some skiing with my wife this week. We'll
Speaker 1: still have some content. I plan on doing a show
Speaker 1: on Wednesday and on Thursday, but defer the travel and
Speaker 1: for tomorrow, we're gonna have a mail bag coming out.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball, So, you know, with
Speaker 1: this Nugget Celtics game, I thought it was an interesting
Speaker 1: example of what it's like surviving in the regular season
Speaker 1: when you've got guys out of the lineup, especially for
Speaker 1: these serious teams. Right you're trying to navigate the process
Speaker 1: of getting to mid April with your roster intact so
Speaker 1: that you have your best chance to be the best
Speaker 1: version of yourself when all the chips are down right
Speaker 1: and in those situations when you're down key players. To me,
Speaker 1: it's all about your foundation on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: On defense, you need to be able to come up
Speaker 1: with a capable defensive game plan for the personnel you
Speaker 1: have available. In my opinion, game planning is such an
Speaker 1: important part of regular season basketball. In the playoffs, it's
Speaker 1: mostly about adjustments and like really really intricately digging down
Speaker 1: to the strengths and weaknesses of both rosters. But when
Speaker 1: you see a team in like a onesie twosie kind
Speaker 1: of thing where it's like, oh, we might play him once,
Speaker 1: we might play them twice in three days, but like
Speaker 1: then we're all moving on with our schedules and like
Speaker 1: guys are gonna be in and out of lineups and
Speaker 1: everything is going to be just about winning that particular game.
Speaker 1: Throwing out a good game plan can help you steal
Speaker 1: a game, which is very important in the eighty two
Speaker 1: game concept. And then on offense, you have to have
Speaker 1: two things. You gotta have shot creation and you have
Speaker 1: to have play finishing. If you have those things, then
Speaker 1: you have a strong foundation on the offensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor. I thought the gap between Denver and Boston
Speaker 1: in that regard was stark. Yesterday, Denver was missing Aaron Gordon,
Speaker 1: but Boston was missing two starters, Drew Holliday and Chris
Speaker 1: ops Porzingis, And I thought bos And just completely controlled
Speaker 1: that game from start to finish. Yeah, there were times
Speaker 1: where they go on a run, Jamal Murray hit a
Speaker 1: couple shots, he'd get a couple stops, and they keep
Speaker 1: the game relatively close, like they even cut it to
Speaker 1: three points late in the game. But every time they
Speaker 1: made that type of run, Denver couldn't get a stop,
Speaker 1: And then on the other end of the floor, Boston
Speaker 1: could play Denver's offense either into some sort of tough
Speaker 1: bit of shot making from Jamal Murray or kickout passes
Speaker 1: to Christian Brown and Russell Westbrook who were struggling to
Speaker 1: make shots. Last night, there were four for sixteen on
Speaker 1: three point shots right, and Jamal Murray made a lot
Speaker 1: of tough shots. He's on a tear right now for
Speaker 1: over a month. He's been like twenty six points a
Speaker 1: game on well over fifty percent from the field and
Speaker 1: well over forty percent from three. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, in those late game situations, anytime Boston
Speaker 1: really wanted to tighten the screws on both ends of
Speaker 1: the floor, Denver's offense had more variants because they were
Speaker 1: playing in Denver into tough shots for Jamal Murray and
Speaker 1: shots that they could live with with these inferior role players,
Speaker 1: whereas Boston it kind of felt like they could either,
Speaker 1: let's get into it, so like when Boston had the
Speaker 1: ball they had a surefire way to get a good
Speaker 1: shot every single time. They could either attack Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: in space on switches with Jalen Brown, or they could
Speaker 1: get into the Yokic at the level stuff that we've
Speaker 1: been talking about, where you bring whoever Yokic is guarding
Speaker 1: up into the ball screen and Yokic is going to
Speaker 1: have to come up and attack the basketball that puts
Speaker 1: two on the ball. Now we have four on threes
Speaker 1: at on the backside of that action. Right And by
Speaker 1: the way, Denver got some stops. Jalen had some bad
Speaker 1: ISOs against Jamal Murray where he settled for some unnecessary
Speaker 1: tough shots. He also missed some pretty easy shots. He
Speaker 1: talked about that after the game and his postgame presser.
Speaker 1: But generally speaking though, it was a quality entry point
Speaker 1: for Boston. They could go to Jalen Brown against Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray and get a high quality shot. Right then when
Speaker 1: they attacked Yo kitchen ball screens. They got great stuff
Speaker 1: every single time down down the stretch of that game
Speaker 1: when they were on offense, like if Yokich one up
Speaker 1: to the level, they just moved the ball around. There's
Speaker 1: a big one late where they brought Yolkic up to
Speaker 1: the level on the left wing, they dropped it off
Speaker 1: to Cornett. It was a two on one where al
Speaker 1: Horford was wide open in the right corner and Michael
Speaker 1: Porter Junior was the tagger, and he just did a
Speaker 1: poor job and Cornette ended up just taking it right
Speaker 1: at him and drawing a foul. But like even if
Speaker 1: MPJ had done a better job, that passes just getting
Speaker 1: swung to the right corner and al Horford's getting a
Speaker 1: wide open three. Allurford was fantastic yesterday, by the way,
Speaker 1: But like when they brought Yokich up to the level,
Speaker 1: they could get great looks. So then Mike malonees go goes,
Speaker 1: we can't do that, so we gotta try switching, so
Speaker 1: then he starts switching with Yokic onto the ball, specifically
Speaker 1: onto Derek White, and Derek White just quickly gives two
Speaker 1: buckets to the Nuggets attacking Nikola jokicch beats him off
Speaker 1: the dribble to the right, forces Jamal Murray up and
Speaker 1: help easy little lob pass to Looke Cornett right underneath
Speaker 1: the rim. The other end of the floor, he dribbles
Speaker 1: Yokic out of a switch onto the left wing and
Speaker 1: just hits a pull up three in his face. Because
Speaker 1: Jokicic really can only do one of two things in
Speaker 1: switches against good perimeter players. He can either take away
Speaker 1: the shot or he can take away the drive, and
Speaker 1: either way, like again, there's a certain like bend, but
Speaker 1: don't break quality with those things that'll work against lesser
Speaker 1: teams like Jamal Murray can get enough stops against lesser players,
Speaker 1: Nikolijokic can pressure the ball well enough at the level,
Speaker 1: and they can rotate well enough against lesser teams. But
Speaker 1: they're now six and thirteen this year against teams in
Speaker 1: the top ten in point differential, and it's been this
Speaker 1: consistent theme. Teams are able to get their defense into rotation,
Speaker 1: and the Nuggets are not a very good defense in rotation.
Speaker 1: When Denver had the ball in this game, Boston was
Speaker 1: able to just completely ignore Russell Westbrook and help heavily
Speaker 1: off of Christian Brown. This basically nullified Jokic post ups
Speaker 1: down the stretch. They basically could not go to that
Speaker 1: as an option, so it forced the Nuggets to play
Speaker 1: a lot of two man game when Nikol Jokich and
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray while keeping an extra defender in the paint
Speaker 1: defending it three on two. Now, what that does is
Speaker 1: it forces them entirely into over the top shot making,
Speaker 1: and by the way, Jamal made a lot of shots
Speaker 1: we talked about it. Even got a layup on this
Speaker 1: really cool sequence where Jamal pulled out Horford out and
Speaker 1: then beat him off the dribble, and then Jokic basically
Speaker 1: just set a screen in the lane on Jamal Murray's
Speaker 1: original defender and it just gave him a little easy layup.
Speaker 1: But that was pretty much the only easy one. The
Speaker 1: rest of it was tough contestant. He made a one
Speaker 1: legged runner along the left lane line that were turned
Speaker 1: around fadeaways like he was hitting a lot of really
Speaker 1: tough shots in that stretch. But it's just difficult to
Speaker 1: keep up with Boston under that dynamic. Not to mention
Speaker 1: it wasn't just Jamal Murray shot making. A lot of
Speaker 1: times they were able to stay close to Jamal and
Speaker 1: who are the release valves, kickout passes to Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 1: kickout passes to Christian Brown. Jokic had a turnover where
Speaker 1: Brown and Westbrook both cut to the basket at the
Speaker 1: same time in the same spot and made themselves easy
Speaker 1: to guard. It's a tough dynamic to manage when you
Speaker 1: have the defense specifically tilting towards shots that people are
Speaker 1: comfortable with them taking. I want to I want to
Speaker 1: shout out Boston first, and then I want to get
Speaker 1: back to Denver to talk about some of these realities
Speaker 1: and what they mean for the postseason. I don't think
Speaker 1: Boston played particularly well. They only generated twenty two catch
Speaker 1: and shoot jump shots. Again, that's been an issue for
Speaker 1: them as they've struggled to kind of get into their
Speaker 1: driving kick as of late. Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: both struggled to knock down their pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: in this game. They took thirteen of them and only
Speaker 1: made three in this game. But they have such a
Speaker 1: high floor on both ends of the court. For all
Speaker 1: the stuff we talked about, the strong defensive game planning,
Speaker 1: the commitment to detailed basketball culture, We're gonna be talking
Speaker 1: about a lot of that when we get to the
Speaker 1: Suns in the later part of the show. But they
Speaker 1: had a strong game plan, and they had a high
Speaker 1: four and both ends of the four, and they were
Speaker 1: able to get a win despite being down bodies, despite
Speaker 1: not playing particularly well. That is that strong foundation on
Speaker 1: both ends of the four. Boston's offense is sputtering a
Speaker 1: little bit. In their last eight games. They only have
Speaker 1: a one to seventeen offensive rating, which is not bad.
Speaker 1: It's still top ten. It was like eight or ninth
Speaker 1: in that span, but again, it's not as good as
Speaker 1: we know. Boston is capable of being where they want
Speaker 1: to be. They aren't generating as many quality threes as
Speaker 1: they usually do, but they're down two starters and they're
Speaker 1: just getting through the games in March and they're six
Speaker 1: and two in that eight game stretch, which is perfectly fine.
Speaker 1: I'm not worried about Boston. And by the way, we
Speaker 1: have some male bad questions that we're gonna be talking
Speaker 1: about tomorrow about big picture Boston stuff, where we'll get
Speaker 1: into some more of those details surrounding how I feel
Speaker 1: about Boston in the big picture. But there are some
Speaker 1: realities in play for Denver that will make things tough
Speaker 1: for them in the postseason. On defense, they don't really
Speaker 1: have a way to stay out of rotation, and they've
Speaker 1: been a poor rotation team all year. They bring Jokic
Speaker 1: to the level, it's four on threes on the back end,
Speaker 1: and they haven't defended those well. And if they switch,
Speaker 1: Jokic can't really take more than just one thing away,
Speaker 1: either the driver or the pull up jump shot, so
Speaker 1: they end up in issues there. And Jamal can again
Speaker 1: hold up reasonably well and some matchups, but not against
Speaker 1: the top teams that go at him with superstar talent.
Speaker 1: This is where the loss of KCP has been an issue.
Speaker 1: Because of the loss of KCP, teams about a way
Speaker 1: of defending the two man game three on two, and
Speaker 1: Jamal ISOs and Jokic post ups two on one in
Speaker 1: a way that they didn't have in the past. Christian
Speaker 1: Brown is a serviceable shooter. He hits forty two percent
Speaker 1: of his wide open catch and shoot threes, but he's
Speaker 1: only thirty one percent when he's guarded. So he's well
Speaker 1: over a point per possession when he's wide open. But
Speaker 1: if you run him off the line, or if you
Speaker 1: offer a contest, he dips down below a point per possession.
Speaker 1: Even worse, he doesn't really take them when he's guarded.
Speaker 1: He's only taken forty nine catch and shoot threes all
Speaker 1: season on film. One of the biggest things I noticed
Speaker 1: is like he's got a hesitant trigger. You can close
Speaker 1: out short at him and he probably won't shoot it.
Speaker 1: There were a lot of sequences like that last night.
Speaker 1: If you guys heard yesterday that you guys might remember
Speaker 1: where it was like kick out to Brown short close out, pump,
Speaker 1: fake drive to the left, kick out to Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: wide open. He doesn't want to take it. He still
Speaker 1: took a bunch yesterday, but he didn't want to take it.
Speaker 1: There are sequences where it was like Brown pump, fake drive,
Speaker 1: kick Russell Westbrook, pump, fake drive. Oh, now the advantage
Speaker 1: is gone. We're kicking it out. There's four seconds on
Speaker 1: the shot clock. Someone's got to jack up a shot
Speaker 1: and again, like Russ's shot, the ball better this year.
Speaker 1: But what you're seeing is what the game plan will be,
Speaker 1: which is dare him to shoot type of shots, and
Speaker 1: he's gonna have to hit those at a high rate, because, again,
Speaker 1: when you're talking about shooting percentages, it's not in a vacuum.
Speaker 1: It's relative to the surrounding circumstances. A thirty seven percent
Speaker 1: three point shooter that takes seven or eight of them
Speaker 1: a game and is consistently guarded out at the three
Speaker 1: point line has a value, an offensive utility that extends
Speaker 1: far beyond their shot making, and it manifests in an
Speaker 1: influx of offensive spacing and just offense, it'll manifest in
Speaker 1: their offensive rating. Right, don't if you shoot thirty seven
Speaker 1: thirty eight percent on two attempts per game, that's where
Speaker 1: it becomes tricky because you're barely getting over a point
Speaker 1: per possession, but you're not being guarded, and outside of
Speaker 1: the two attempts that you take, there's a there's a
Speaker 1: negative offensive utility in terms of the way you affect spacing.
Speaker 1: In order for Russell Westbrook to do the amount of
Speaker 1: damage he needs to do shooting the ball in the postseason,
Speaker 1: he's gonna have to hit close to forty percent of
Speaker 1: those threes for teams to actually be like, we got
Speaker 1: to close out to Russ where you can get that
Speaker 1: offensive utility. Casep's not having the best season in the
Speaker 1: world in Orlando, and it was he was going to
Speaker 1: be expensive. And I understand the realities surrounding that situation.
Speaker 1: I do, but there was a formula for the Nuggets
Speaker 1: that worked in twenty twenty three, and it was three
Speaker 1: and Jamal Contavious and Michael that you could not leave open,
Speaker 1: and a vertical spacer along the baseline and Aaron Gordon.
Speaker 1: It was a delicate balance. You take one of those
Speaker 1: guys out and swap him out with an iffy shooter
Speaker 1: like Russell Westbrook or a guy that's got a hesitant
Speaker 1: trigger like Christian Brown, the dynamic starts to fall apart.
Speaker 1: And again it was exacerbated yesterday Aaron Gordon's hurt. So
Speaker 1: you got both Russ and Christian Brown in there for
Speaker 1: parts of the of crunch time. I understand that there
Speaker 1: are some realities there, but like against the elite teams
Speaker 1: in a seven game context, one of those two guys
Speaker 1: is gonna be on the floor. It's gonna be Russ
Speaker 1: or it's gonna be Christian and teams will, from a
Speaker 1: game plan standpoint, offer help off of him. That is
Speaker 1: a different dynamic than what the Nuggets had when they
Speaker 1: won the title. And I just think it's important to
Speaker 1: acknowledge that. What does that mean. It means that Denver's
Speaker 1: margin for air is much smaller than it used to be.
Speaker 1: It means all the variables need to swing in their
Speaker 1: favor if they're gonna win the title. They need Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray to stay this hot all the way through to
Speaker 1: the end. He's been at again twenty six points per
Speaker 1: game for over a month, at over fifty percent from
Speaker 1: the field, over forty percent from three. He's playing great.
Speaker 1: They're gonna need that all the way through. If he
Speaker 1: dips below that, it's gonna be an issue. They need
Speaker 1: Jokich to shoot forty five percent on threes. They'll need
Speaker 1: all those spotty spot up shooters, the guys like Gordon
Speaker 1: Brown Westbrook. They're gonna need those guys to shoot in
Speaker 1: the high thirties from three all postseason. They're gonna need
Speaker 1: to massively sharpen up their defensive rotations. They'll need opponents
Speaker 1: to shoot poorly. If one or two of those things
Speaker 1: swings in the opposite direction. This team is gonna lose
Speaker 1: in the second round. Their margin for air is much
Speaker 1: smaller than it used to be, and I think that
Speaker 1: that's been screaming off the screen in the high leverage
Speaker 1: matchups for Denver so far this season. Who's scoring big
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Speaker 1: see dkang dot co slash b ball. All right, let's
Speaker 1: talk a little bit of Lakers Clippers, same sort of
Speaker 1: concept in terms of what we were talking about earlier
Speaker 1: about keeping a high floor in both ends like You're
Speaker 1: down two starters in Ruey Hatchamura and Austin Reeves, and
Speaker 1: they made up for it with their bench through a
Speaker 1: strong defensive effort. You filled in for those two starters
Speaker 1: with these bench guys that all do their jobs and
Speaker 1: play super hard on defense. Gabe Vincent, Jared vander Bild,
Speaker 1: Dorian Finney, Smith Jamison. They had a great jj REDI
Speaker 1: a game plan, same game plan that they had from
Speaker 1: the last game, except for a little tweak with Zubatch.
Speaker 1: They were strong side zoning Kawhi similar to what they
Speaker 1: similar to what they were doing to Anthony Edwards, like
Speaker 1: funneling him towards the sideline, bringing over an extra defender
Speaker 1: on the other side of the paint. They were playing
Speaker 1: Harden's left shoulder so that he when he would shoot
Speaker 1: that step back, they wouldn't step up underneath his feet,
Speaker 1: and they'd force a right handed drive, which is going
Speaker 1: to lead to him taking a floater instead of a
Speaker 1: driving left handed layup, which is obviously a smart game plan.
Speaker 1: They shrunk from the weak side onto Zubach's roll, so
Speaker 1: that was the major adjustment I knew noticed. They just
Speaker 1: they were a little bit more willing to concede some
Speaker 1: of those spray out threes to the weak side and
Speaker 1: just shrinking the floor. They didn't shoot. Clippers didn't shoot
Speaker 1: as well. Chris Dunn, after hitting all those threes in
Speaker 1: the first game, didn't hit him in this game. It worked.
Speaker 1: They were able to maintain their high defensive floor. They
Speaker 1: held the Clippers two hundred and two points. It's actually
Speaker 1: the seventh consecutive opponent that the Lakers have held two
Speaker 1: hundred and two points or fewer. As the Lakers continue
Speaker 1: their like half season long stretch of defensive and it's
Speaker 1: by the way, I just continue to be particularly impressed
Speaker 1: by their rotations. Every single player on this roster is
Speaker 1: so committed to the game plan and the details. They're
Speaker 1: holding up really well. On the glass, They're chasing teams
Speaker 1: off the line their top ten and contested shots since
Speaker 1: January fifteen. They just look like a team that desperately
Speaker 1: wants to be great and they're committed to the work.
Speaker 1: And then on offense, two of your best players are out,
Speaker 1: but you still have your two stud shot creators right,
Speaker 1: And the Clippers swarmed them and they forced a lot
Speaker 1: of turnovers, but they were still able to generate some
Speaker 1: huge advantages be able to generate some makeable shots for
Speaker 1: their role players, and they scored enough points despite the
Speaker 1: fact that Lebron had a really rough game. By the way,
Speaker 1: I want to shout out Lebron. I've been hammering this
Speaker 1: concept a bunch over the course of the last few weeks.
Speaker 1: But like, bad games are part of being a basketball player,
Speaker 1: especially when you have an offensive workload where so much
Speaker 1: of your decision making and shot making is like on
Speaker 1: display every single night. And Lebron had a rough game.
Speaker 1: Jumper wasn't falling turning the ball over too much. Like
Speaker 1: they had that weird sequence down the stretch where like
Speaker 1: they were trying to get Lebron to fifty thousand career
Speaker 1: regular season playoff points and going away from Luca who
Speaker 1: had been cooking all night, and I think they just
Speaker 1: got a little lackadaisical because they thought the game was over.
Speaker 1: It was crazy. It was like eleven point lead standing
Speaker 1: ovation from the Lakers fans, and I'm like, man, when's
Speaker 1: the last time the Lakers got a standing ovation with
Speaker 1: this much time on the clock, And as it was happening,
Speaker 1: it just like completely crumbled from there and they almost
Speaker 1: choked the game away, which was was kind of funny.
Speaker 1: Dorian Andfinney Smith missed a wide open layup. There were
Speaker 1: some bad offensive possessions but like it got a little ugly,
Speaker 1: but Lebron made one play that helped save the game.
Speaker 1: Down five, Chris Dunn's got a breakaway layup off of
Speaker 1: a turnover and he pins that shit on the glass.
Speaker 1: Got a little favorite from the official because it got
Speaker 1: called to goaltend when it wasn't. I thought on replay,
Speaker 1: I thought it was pretty clear Lebron's thumb hit the
Speaker 1: ball before it hit the backboard, but like it was
Speaker 1: a goaltend or it was a block, but it got
Speaker 1: called a goaltend, which stopped Kawhi Leonard from getting an
Speaker 1: offensive rebound put back, So a little favor from the
Speaker 1: referees there, but he made a play. He made one
Speaker 1: play that closed the deal. The big thing there was
Speaker 1: it allowed the Lakers to set their defense instead of
Speaker 1: giving Kawuhi an easy offensive rebound put back, and they
Speaker 1: were able to get another stop and prevent anything from
Speaker 1: really really becoming dangerous there down the stretch again, one play,
Speaker 1: if you get a win, we'll be a Pallette cleanser
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways, and Luca did a lot
Speaker 1: of work. We'ren talking about him in a second. He
Speaker 1: needed his teammate Lebron to make one play to help him,
Speaker 1: and he made one play. At the tail end of
Speaker 1: the game. Luca and his shot making got back on track. Yesterday,
Speaker 1: Lebron had a rough offensive game for the first time
Speaker 1: in a while. They were minus thirteen in his units
Speaker 1: when Luca was off the floor, but the Lakers straight
Speaker 1: up dominated that game. When Luka Dancic was on the floor.
Speaker 1: They were plus nineteen in his minutes. Why because Luca
Speaker 1: was at his typical level of offensive dominance. An efficient
Speaker 1: twenty nine points nine ausis nothing incredible, nothing like we
Speaker 1: know Luca can go for forty two and fifteen, but
Speaker 1: he goes for twenty nine to nine, just like a
Speaker 1: pre standard career average type of game for Luka Doncic.
Speaker 1: And they ran the Clippers off the floor when Luca
Speaker 1: was out there, and that got me excited for the
Speaker 1: big picture potential of this team. Luca is such a
Speaker 1: world lifting offensive player. If you can anchor him with
Speaker 1: elite defense, you're gonna be really hard to beat. And
Speaker 1: I just thought it was really interesting as I was
Speaker 1: watching that, It's like their defense is just forcing the
Speaker 1: Clippers into these tough shots, and Luca just keeps getting
Speaker 1: downhill and getting and ones, making tough shots. Got some
Speaker 1: of his miter rrange shot, making that little bank shot
Speaker 1: he hit on Chris Dunn down the stretch off the
Speaker 1: window that was such a ridiculous shot. The step back
Speaker 1: three was going. He just was able to squeeze out
Speaker 1: offense with limited groups around him, and they literally dominated
Speaker 1: the Clippers when he was out there. And that's what
Speaker 1: gets scary for this team. In the big picture, there's
Speaker 1: a version of this where Lebron's out there, Austin's out there,
Speaker 1: Luca's out there. They're a really good offensive groove, and
Speaker 1: they're one of the very best offenses in the league
Speaker 1: while being this team that literally for forty two games
Speaker 1: now has been a top five defense in the league,
Speaker 1: so more than half the season, and for twenty two
Speaker 1: games now has been the very best defense in the NBA.
Speaker 1: That's what you're anchoring that With a couple other quick shoutouts,
Speaker 1: Dalton connect He's the guy that I've been critical of
Speaker 1: Dalton specifically because all young players do THNK have these issues,
Speaker 1: but I've been hesitant to view him as a reliable
Speaker 1: rotation player, and I still don't view him as a
Speaker 1: reliable rotation player. But when guys are injured, you got
Speaker 1: to step up. JJ talked about this after the first
Speaker 1: Clippers game, like, you know, we didn't think you were
Speaker 1: going to play it in that but we ended up
Speaker 1: needing you and you hit a couple of big shots.
Speaker 1: He is a very streaky offensive player, but he is
Speaker 1: hitting an extremely timely hot streak right now and the
Speaker 1: team really needed it. They don't win that game last
Speaker 1: night without Dalton connect. I thought he was really good
Speaker 1: on the defensive glass too, got a couple of key
Speaker 1: contested defensive rebounds. Shout out to Dalton because he's red
Speaker 1: hot in a phase where the Lakers desperately needed him to.
Speaker 1: Last note, we talked a little bit about Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: in Pod one of the pods from last week, and
Speaker 1: I talked about like kind of a difference between using
Speaker 1: him out of the corner versus using him as a cutter,
Speaker 1: and how I talked about how in the early returns
Speaker 1: he had been knocking down some threes but missing on
Speaker 1: his cuts, and I just wanted to keep an eye
Speaker 1: on that well since we had that conversation. In the
Speaker 1: two or three games since then, he's missing his corner
Speaker 1: threes and he's starting to get some openings on cuts
Speaker 1: with Luca. He had two dunks last night, a lob
Speaker 1: and then a cut along the baseline where he caught
Speaker 1: a drop off pass and a dunk. Luca is just
Speaker 1: able to so surgically create these times of openings for
Speaker 1: him that I do think it's manifesting better for him
Speaker 1: to be operating out of the dunker spot more. I
Speaker 1: just again, I was just really curious to see how
Speaker 1: that would develop over a larger sample, and after seeing more,
Speaker 1: I think I'm leaning more towards keeping him in the
Speaker 1: dunker spot. All right, let's talk some Phoenix Suns before
Speaker 1: we're done for today. They had another collapse last night
Speaker 1: against the Minnesota Timberwolves. In the second half, they just
Speaker 1: completely fell apart. KD had some interesting quotes in the
Speaker 1: postgame press conference. It's tough, man, that's a shitty game.
Speaker 1: We didn't play up to our standards at all. We
Speaker 1: embarrassed the fans, we embarrassed ourselves with the way we played,
Speaker 1: and I want us to be better. He went on
Speaker 1: to say, we ain't playing well. Steaks are compounding themselves
Speaker 1: and it just looks bad. When adversity hit, we just
Speaker 1: start floating a little bit as a team. That's tough
Speaker 1: to deal with. So it's frustrating for sure losing a
Speaker 1: game that way. This falls align with what I've been
Speaker 1: talking about with the Suns over the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: If you guys remember what I've been talking about, I've
Speaker 1: given a bunch of lists of these idea is of
Speaker 1: like when I watch the Sun's play. I don't think
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, Devin Booker are the problem. They're doing their job.
Speaker 1: Their job as stars in this context, are or is
Speaker 1: I should say, on defense, do your job compete. Devin
Speaker 1: Booker is not the greatest point of attack defender in
Speaker 1: the world, but he does his job. I thought he
Speaker 1: was really good at team he say this summer, he's
Speaker 1: shown that he can. He's shown that he can do
Speaker 1: that job. He is doing that job as well as
Speaker 1: you could expect an athlete of his caliber to do.
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, I think has been excellent on defense at
Speaker 1: phases this year. They're doing their jobs and on offense
Speaker 1: what's the job of the stars score the basketball consistently
Speaker 1: generate advantages. They're doing that. I don't look at KDE
Speaker 1: and Devin Booker as the problem there. The issue is
Speaker 1: they are surrounded by a very undisciplined basketball players and
Speaker 1: the team appears to have a very undisciplined basketball culture.
Speaker 1: The attention to detail is not there. Guys are constantly
Speaker 1: getting back cut. Guys are constantly giving up offensive rebounds
Speaker 1: by not watching corner crashers. Guys are not picking up
Speaker 1: the ball in transition. Guys are generally not matched up
Speaker 1: in transition. Their health defense is bad. Everyone's just failing
Speaker 1: to do their job as the satellite players around Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant Devin Booker. There are two things that I think
Speaker 1: are missing from getting higher level contributions around Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: Devin Booker. One is basketball culture. You need an obsessive
Speaker 1: culture from the top down that demands a certain standard
Speaker 1: from players on both ends of the floor. JJ Reddick,
Speaker 1: I think has done an amazing job of this with
Speaker 1: the Lakers this year. Complete reversal from the Darvin ham experience,
Speaker 1: something I begged for those of you guys who watch
Speaker 1: the show. I begged for this after last season. Attention
Speaker 1: to detail. Be a serious basketball team from day one
Speaker 1: of training camp. Layout, here's what is expected of you
Speaker 1: if you're going to play on the floor and then
Speaker 1: hold players accountable to that. JJ Reddick sat down with
Speaker 1: Lebron James the day after that rough night in Miami,
Speaker 1: the one where I had my freak out, if you
Speaker 1: guys remember, and sat down with him and it was like,
Speaker 1: I need more out of you. And it worked. And
Speaker 1: Lebron's been setting that example. Everyone's doing their job and
Speaker 1: they are now maximizing their talent. There is a lack
Speaker 1: of that culture and accountability in Phoenix. The second piece
Speaker 1: of it is when you're in the market for discounted players,
Speaker 1: and guess what you're going to be in the market
Speaker 1: for discounted players with your current build. I mean, you
Speaker 1: might be able to reverse that trend a little bit
Speaker 1: with Bradley Beal this summer if you can find a deal.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about the summer in a minute. But like
Speaker 1: when you're looking for the types of players to anchor
Speaker 1: your stars with target players who fit into that culture
Speaker 1: of excellence on a daily basis, Attention to detail, effort
Speaker 1: and execution. I actually think Kevin Durant Devin Booker is
Speaker 1: a strong foundation. They give you a high floor on
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the floor in terms of shot quality.
Speaker 1: It won't be easy to pivot this summer. Bradley Beal
Speaker 1: is a different difficult contract to move, but I think
Speaker 1: they need to flip over a good chunk of that
Speaker 1: role player corps stop going after You know. Bull Bowl
Speaker 1: is a tantalizing talent, but he is very inconsistent in
Speaker 1: his possession to possession execution. I've watched him grab crazy
Speaker 1: contest rebounds that only he can get, and I've watched
Speaker 1: him float around and not do his job, not pick
Speaker 1: up his man in transition, not track a shooter off
Speaker 1: the ball. They don't need talent, Devin Booker and KD
Speaker 1: is the talent. They need dependability in the details. They
Speaker 1: need scrappers. They need fighters, guys who can muck things
Speaker 1: up and allow Kevin Durant and Devin Booker's gifts to
Speaker 1: lift them over the top. Not to bring it back
Speaker 1: to the Lakers, but that's literally how they won a
Speaker 1: game last night. It was like a bunch of two
Speaker 1: way guys and bench role players alongside Lebron and Luca.
Speaker 1: But those dudes are all ass kickers who play defense
Speaker 1: and pay attention to the details, and they have a
Speaker 1: culture from the top down from their head coach, so
Speaker 1: they look like a damn good basketball team. And they
Speaker 1: just pretty much manhandled a very good Clippers team down
Speaker 1: two starters and most of their offensive talent. Do you
Speaker 1: think Trey Jemison is an incredibly talented basketball player compared
Speaker 1: to some of these Suns role players. Do you think
Speaker 1: Shake Milton is or Dalton connect is or Jared Vanderbilt is.
Speaker 1: These are very flawed players, but they're ass kickers, They're fighters,
Speaker 1: They're scrappers that are in a culture that demands that
Speaker 1: from the top down. If I was running the Suns
Speaker 1: this summer, I would do everything I could to trade
Speaker 1: Bradley Beal, and I would target every discounted, mean, ass
Speaker 1: kicking role player that I can find, even if they
Speaker 1: have offensive limitations. All minimum players have limitations on one
Speaker 1: end of the floor, sometimes both. But from day one
Speaker 1: of training camp, I do everything in my power to
Speaker 1: establish a strong basketball culture or effort and execution is
Speaker 1: mandatory to see the floor, find players that fit into
Speaker 1: that culture and see what you can do with Devin
Speaker 1: Booker and Kevin Durant. I don't think this is gonna happen.
Speaker 1: I think it's more likely that they trade KD and
Speaker 1: instead try to rebuild around Devin Booker. But I think
Speaker 1: that's a mistake, not unless you plan on trading Devin
Speaker 1: Booker too, because I don't think Devin Booker is good
Speaker 1: enough to be the best player on your team in
Speaker 1: the Western Conference with Luca, with Shay, with Jokic, with
Speaker 1: Wemby on the way, with a team that's led by
Speaker 1: Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler, I don't think you're going
Speaker 1: to do well in that conference with him as your
Speaker 1: best player. Kevin Durant and Devin Hooker is enough to
Speaker 1: hang in the West. You just need to do a
Speaker 1: better job of surrounding them with guys that accentuate their
Speaker 1: strengths instead of demand more out of them as defenders
Speaker 1: and rebounders and detail guys. Get them ass kickers, get
Speaker 1: them dudes that'll go out there every night and just
Speaker 1: fight alongside them and do their jobs. I think that
Speaker 1: would go a long way towards giving them a better
Speaker 1: chance to compete with that group, And I don't think
Speaker 1: it's gonna happen. I think they're gonna end up hunting.
Speaker 1: But look, it's already bad. You're already in a precarious situation.
Speaker 1: There is no pivot even with a KD trade that's
Speaker 1: gonna bring you to relevance. KD has been one of
Speaker 1: those strong and dependable players on both ends of the
Speaker 1: floor for you this year at a superstar level. There's
Speaker 1: nothing you could get back in a deal that would
Speaker 1: actually allow you to be successful next season, except for
Speaker 1: maybe draft compensation that can help you reset. And if
Speaker 1: that's the case, you might as well trade Devin Booker two.
Speaker 1: But I would at least try to trade Bradley Beal
Speaker 1: and see if you can't try to pivot around those guys.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, that's all I have for today is
Speaker 1: always to sincerely appreciate you for supporting me and supporting
Speaker 1: the show. We'll be back tomorrow with the mail bag
Speaker 1: that I'm about to record. I will see you guys
Speaker 1: then the volume. What's up guys. As always, I appreciate
Speaker 1: you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight. It would
Speaker 1: actually be really helpful for us if you guys would
Speaker 1: take a second and leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
Speaker 1: you could take a minute to do that, I'd really
Speaker 1: appreciate it.