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Speaker 1: slash Basketball terms. All right, welcome to hoops and I
Speaker 1: here at the volume. Happy Friday, everybody. I hope all
Speaker 1: of you guys had an incredible week. We have a
Speaker 1: jam packshow for you today. We're gonna do two game
Speaker 1: breakdowns from the last couple of days. Pacers Bucks Setter
Speaker 1: rematch the other night, which was highly entertaining. Not gonna
Speaker 1: talk about the basketball stealing shenanigans at the end, but
Speaker 1: there was a lot of interesting basketball to get into
Speaker 1: in that game. Then the Kings in the Thunder last
Speaker 1: night had the showdown of top tier young perimeter talent
Speaker 1: that the Kings ended up winning. We're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: that game from the perspective of both teams. Then the
Speaker 1: Cleveland Cavaliers have had a tough stretch of injuries injury news,
Speaker 1: I should say coming out today. Darius Garland broke his jaw.
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley's having arthrosco. I think he's having some form
Speaker 1: of knee surgery. So the Cavs are now thrust into
Speaker 1: a position where they have some decisions to make. Because
Speaker 1: I want to talk about that a little bit. The
Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors now have negative odds to make the playoffs,
Speaker 1: which is super interesting. I want to dive into that
Speaker 1: a little bit. And then, last but not least, at
Speaker 1: the end of the show, we're gonna do our first
Speaker 1: edition of a weekly MVP ladder that we're gonna start
Speaker 1: doing at the end of weeks so that we can
Speaker 1: kind of bounce around more to individual players and talk
Speaker 1: about how they're playing around the league. You guys are
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Speaker 1: So if you guys remember the n Season tournament game,
Speaker 1: the Thursday night game last week, one of the ways
Speaker 1: that the Pacers were picking the Bucks apart at the
Speaker 1: end of the game was just bringing brook Lopez into
Speaker 1: pick and roll with Miles Turner, and when Miles Turner
Speaker 1: would come up into a high drop, it was an
Speaker 1: easy pocket pass where Miles Turner was finishing at the
Speaker 1: rim right when excuse me, when brook Lopez was in
Speaker 1: his deeper drop. That was when Halliburton was getting downhill
Speaker 1: and making his floater and picking the team apart with
Speaker 1: his passing right when he was switching Tyres Aliburton was
Speaker 1: either driving right by him. It was even a big
Speaker 1: pull up jump shot that he hit at the end
Speaker 1: of the game over brook Lopez. He was just picking
Speaker 1: them apart by attacking with Miles Turner and pick and
Speaker 1: roll and taking advantage of brook Lopez in his lack
Speaker 1: of foot speed. Right well, one of the adjustments the
Speaker 1: Bucks made in this game is they just put Giannis
Speaker 1: on Miles Turner, an adjustment I talked about a lot
Speaker 1: during that tournament as just a way to counter this
Speaker 1: specific Indiana pacers attack because, like Miles Turner had, Tyre's
Speaker 1: Haliburton pick and roll has been one of the most
Speaker 1: devastating actions in the league this year. They have other
Speaker 1: actions that they run. They run guard screens, right, You're
Speaker 1: gonna see a lot of Tyre's Halliburton, a Buddy Heeled
Speaker 1: ghost screens and things like that, right, But their bread
Speaker 1: and butter is that Miles Turner pick and roll or
Speaker 1: pick and pop right, And in this particular case, by
Speaker 1: taking Giannis and putting him on Miles Turner, it allowed
Speaker 1: them to aggressively switch those ball screens. You can tell
Speaker 1: right away from the opening tip and I clipped several
Speaker 1: examples of it and put it in a thread this
Speaker 1: morning and can find on my twitter feed at Underscore
Speaker 1: Jason lt. But Giannis was just aggressively switching. And again,
Speaker 1: there's different kinds of switching, right, Like there's a switch
Speaker 1: that's like a soft switch, where like you're taking on
Speaker 1: the new defensive assignment, but you're basically playing back and
Speaker 1: waiting for them to kind of attack you. And then
Speaker 1: there's aggressive switching where as the player comes off the screen,
Speaker 1: he's kind of cut off guard by the fact that
Speaker 1: you're like coming up with ball pressure and he thinks
Speaker 1: he's gonna find an opening on the other side of
Speaker 1: that screen, but instead he's finding long arms in his face.
Speaker 1: Right early in that game, they forced a quick turnover
Speaker 1: by hitting Tyre Saliburn with one of those aggressive quick switches,
Speaker 1: and then by putting brook Lopez on Obi Toppin. It
Speaker 1: opened up another set of problems for Indiana because one
Speaker 1: Milwaukee was kind of conceding the pick and pop three
Speaker 1: to Obi Toppin. And then when Obi Topan was rolling
Speaker 1: to the basket, he just doesn't have a lot of
Speaker 1: reps as like a pick and roll big man, right,
Speaker 1: and you could see plays where top would get the
Speaker 1: ball on the roll and he just wouldn't know how
Speaker 1: to navigate brook Lopez waiting for him at the rim.
Speaker 1: And so as a result of that, and then they
Speaker 1: were doing a good job. They were doing a lot
Speaker 1: more switching in general, especially on guard to guard actions.
Speaker 1: They just kind of made it a lot harder for
Speaker 1: Indiana to get the openings that they typically get in
Speaker 1: their offense. And then on the other end of the floor,
Speaker 1: Giannis goes for sixty four points and almost all in
Speaker 1: his bread and butter of the sixty four to thirty
Speaker 1: six of those points came in transition and in pick
Speaker 1: and roll, And again this is all about getting Yanis
Speaker 1: downhill towards the rim, because in pick and roll they
Speaker 1: were setting a lot of those ball screens pretty far
Speaker 1: away from the basket, and it was all geared around
Speaker 1: trying to get Yanni's downhill to where the guy that's
Speaker 1: waiting for him is technically in position between Giannis and
Speaker 1: the rim, but he's got such a head of steam
Speaker 1: going that he's kind of slaloming around those guys and
Speaker 1: getting all the way to the basket for the easy buckets.
Speaker 1: And again, the pacers, they part of it is just
Speaker 1: poor discipline. They're not a good help side team. A
Speaker 1: lot of it also, you know, some of it gets
Speaker 1: dressed up as schematics, like oh, they're chasing people off
Speaker 1: the three point line, and it's like, you know, what's
Speaker 1: a higher percentage shot than a three point shot even
Speaker 1: for a lead shooter. Is a wide open dunk for Giannis?
Speaker 1: Like that's that's worth two points every single possession. I'm sorry, right, So,
Speaker 1: like some of that is I dislike that Indiana kind
Speaker 1: of plays that way, but it's It's about putting him
Speaker 1: into his into his advantage situations, which is getting downhill
Speaker 1: and taking advantage of the pacers weak help side. I
Speaker 1: did want to take a can to shout out Yanni's
Speaker 1: first footwork. I think we talk a lot about that.
Speaker 1: You know, Jannis is just like a bullyball bruiser, right.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. There are lots of really good
Speaker 1: athletes in the NBA, and for whatever reason, there are
Speaker 1: certain athletes that transcend everybody and are able to weaponize
Speaker 1: that in a way that you know, impacts winning at
Speaker 1: a much higher level. And then there are top tier
Speaker 1: athletes that just can't really put that together over the
Speaker 1: course of their careers. And you know, there are all
Speaker 1: these different elements to athleticism that go under discuss. Like
Speaker 1: when it comes to Steph Curry, I don't think we
Speaker 1: talk enough about his stamina and just the simple fact
Speaker 1: that he's in such incredible shape and that he's constantly
Speaker 1: running around everywhere in the way that he will find
Speaker 1: openings just by capitalizing on those little bits of situation,
Speaker 1: like little tiny segments of possessions where a guy relaxes
Speaker 1: for two seconds and then Steph breaks open and he
Speaker 1: kills you with the three right. Well, another very important
Speaker 1: part of athleticism is footwork, and footwork specifically is the
Speaker 1: best way for you to weaponize your athleticism because like this,
Speaker 1: if you are standing straight up with your feet together
Speaker 1: and I push you on the shoulder, you're just gonna
Speaker 1: fall over because you don't have a very strong base. Right.
Speaker 1: If your base is wide and your knees are bent
Speaker 1: a little bit and I shove you on the side,
Speaker 1: you're not going to fall over. That's a basic concept
Speaker 1: as it relates to balance, right, But that's stationary. Now.
Speaker 1: Footwork is what allows you to stay balanced while you're
Speaker 1: making athletic moves in various directions, whether it's side steps,
Speaker 1: like for instance, if you're taking a step back. Three.
Speaker 1: One of the most important things that I teach my
Speaker 1: kids that I train, like, when you're taking any sort
Speaker 1: of step back move, you need to actually as you're
Speaker 1: stepping back, kick that Let let's say I'm stepping back
Speaker 1: to my left. You have to stick that left foot
Speaker 1: really far out to catch your side to side momentum
Speaker 1: so that when you elevate, you go straight up and
Speaker 1: down and get good lift and balance into that step
Speaker 1: back jump shot right. Little things like Jannis and his
Speaker 1: spin moves out of the There was a bucket that
Speaker 1: he had out of a drop off pass where I
Speaker 1: think it was Buddy heel that was waiting for him
Speaker 1: tagging the roller, and he caught a in a position
Speaker 1: where he was able to spin off of his right
Speaker 1: foot and had absolutely perfect footwork where he planted and
Speaker 1: spun off of two feet back towards his left side
Speaker 1: and went up and dunked with two hands. And it's like,
Speaker 1: how many guys do you see catch that ball there?
Speaker 1: And they don't know what to do when the guys
Speaker 1: are right in front of him, so they either stop
Speaker 1: and hesitate and the advantage is gone, or they run
Speaker 1: the dude over because they don't know what they're doing.
Speaker 1: And it's like, no, Giannis is like I have practiced
Speaker 1: this spin move and nailed this footwork down one hundred
Speaker 1: thousand times in my life. I'm going to just go
Speaker 1: to this move and there's no way this dude's going
Speaker 1: to stay in front of me. Jannis has an excellent eurostep.
Speaker 1: It's one of his best moves that he uses to
Speaker 1: navigate things in traffic. And again, eurosteps, they require a
Speaker 1: great deal of leg strength and balance, but when you
Speaker 1: have that footwork down, you have the ability to stay
Speaker 1: on your base and to stay balanced while slaloming between guys.
Speaker 1: There are so many different elements to that that go underrated,
Speaker 1: and specifically footwork the ability to get to your spots
Speaker 1: without traveling and without losing your balance, while also making
Speaker 1: it so that you can absorb contact from defenders while
Speaker 1: they're swiping at you and digging down and bumping you
Speaker 1: off your base. Those that sort of thing is what
Speaker 1: puts a top tier athlete in a position to be
Speaker 1: successful versus a top tier athlete being in position to
Speaker 1: be underwhelming or to underachieve, right, And I think it's
Speaker 1: something with the honest that we've constantly overlooked over the
Speaker 1: years is this dude is incredibly coordinated. Maybe not up
Speaker 1: top in terms of his like touch and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: but in terms of down below and his ability to
Speaker 1: keep a solid base and to navigate any traffic situation
Speaker 1: with quality footwork is something that we have to give
Speaker 1: him more credit for. Brooke O. Lopez was incredible in
Speaker 1: this game. He had six blocks. The one of the
Speaker 1: nice things, or you know, I shouldn't say nice thing.
Speaker 1: But one of the you know, bits of collateral damage
Speaker 1: here with with with Pat Connitton being out is it's
Speaker 1: forced the Bucks to play guys like Andre Jackson, right,
Speaker 1: guys like like marj On Bouchamp more often. Right. So
Speaker 1: they actually brought four guys off the bench in this game,
Speaker 1: and Campaign was the only guy they brought off the
Speaker 1: bench that was a small guard. So in a nine
Speaker 1: man rotation, six of the guys that they were playing
Speaker 1: were all big in some way, shape or form, right,
Speaker 1: whether it's smaller with more athleticism or bigger with size.
Speaker 1: They just have a lot of size on the floor.
Speaker 1: And so when they're pressing up and chasing the pacers
Speaker 1: off the line, they're funneling him into Brook at the rim,
Speaker 1: and he was awesome protecting the rim in this game.
Speaker 1: And then I wanted to shout out Bobby Portis. He
Speaker 1: had nineteen points in this game, three three point shots,
Speaker 1: but he scored ten of his nineteen points in the post.
Speaker 1: He was straight up attacking Obie Toppin in straight post ups.
Speaker 1: He's got a really good right handed hook. He also
Speaker 1: made like a right handed push shot as he kind
Speaker 1: of faded over his right shoulder. He had a turn
Speaker 1: and face like kind of jabstep jumper over Obie Topping.
Speaker 1: It was kind of like a nice offensive option for
Speaker 1: the Bucks in this game. That like they did try
Speaker 1: to run some action to try to get Portis, Like
Speaker 1: they'd run like a wedge screen to try or a
Speaker 1: cross screen to try to get him in better post position.
Speaker 1: And Portis in general does a good job of fighting
Speaker 1: for position. But the beauty of it is like they're
Speaker 1: straight matchup, meaning they didn't need to force a switch
Speaker 1: or anything. Bobby Portis was able to attack his matchup
Speaker 1: head to head Obie Topping and get easy baskets there.
Speaker 1: To get an nineteen out of him is huge. He
Speaker 1: was big in those pick and pop situations with Giannis.
Speaker 1: That's where hit a couple of his threes. And then
Speaker 1: on the Pacers front, I thought Halliburton in general was
Speaker 1: caught off guard by the aggressive switching that we saw
Speaker 1: from Milwaukee. You could tell like he just wasn't expecting
Speaker 1: that as a counter. And some of it too, is
Speaker 1: like he spazed out a little bit, Like there was
Speaker 1: a turnover where he kind of spazzed out when Jannis
Speaker 1: got on him. There was a play in the second
Speaker 1: half where he'd like quickly settled for this like really
Speaker 1: tough step back three going to his right when there
Speaker 1: was like ten seconds on the shot clock, and it's
Speaker 1: like hold on, Like get Gianis on a switch. Okay, cool,
Speaker 1: Jannis is an excellent defender. But you're one of the
Speaker 1: quickest players in the NBA and you have one of
Speaker 1: the best pull up you have the best pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot in the NBA this year. So you get
Speaker 1: Giannis on a switch, space him out because now the
Speaker 1: help side defense is not as good, and see if
Speaker 1: you can't beat him off the dribble more methodically rather
Speaker 1: than just spazzing out and doing something silly. And so
Speaker 1: I think that's one of the things I love about
Speaker 1: playoff series is you know you you you have your
Speaker 1: first punch, and you know one team win based on
Speaker 1: both teams first punch, and then some team makes a
Speaker 1: counter and then usually the team that responds to the
Speaker 1: counter is a little slow to respond, and sometimes that'll
Speaker 1: even up the series. And then Game three you'll be
Speaker 1: like the next adjustment to that whole thing, right, and like,
Speaker 1: because both teams wanted to win this game so bad
Speaker 1: after all of the stuff that surrounded last week's game.
Speaker 1: And obviously you saw from the basketball incident that there's
Speaker 1: some animosity between these two teams, like these were playoff
Speaker 1: style games, not just today but also or not just Thursday,
Speaker 1: but also in this particular game, and so like that,
Speaker 1: you're seeing a lot of that like playoff style adjustment
Speaker 1: taking place. And those are the kinds of things that
Speaker 1: you know, Tyres Haliburton, those are the hurdles that Tyres
Speaker 1: Haliburton is gonna have to navigate over the rest of
Speaker 1: his career if he's gonna get where he wants to go.
Speaker 1: And then I mentioned this earlier, but the defense, the
Speaker 1: health defense just has to be better. And again I
Speaker 1: understand the prioritizing the three point line and wanting to
Speaker 1: get out and run off a layups because there's usually
Speaker 1: so like essentially the take I've seen a lot, and
Speaker 1: I haven't actually seen this mentioned by the coaching staff.
Speaker 1: It's more from like pacers, reporters and fans who kind
Speaker 1: of accentuate this as if it's like a strength. But
Speaker 1: they'll be like, oh, pacers will chase you off the
Speaker 1: three point line. They don't really care much about helping
Speaker 1: at the rim, and when they make when other teams
Speaker 1: make layups, they usually a bad floor balance. So like,
Speaker 1: think of it this way. If I drive, if you're
Speaker 1: the basket, if the basket is where the camera is,
Speaker 1: and I drive aggressively to the rim, and I lay
Speaker 1: it in, and I lay it in and I run
Speaker 1: past the stanchion, and the pacers just quickly grab the ball,
Speaker 1: get the inbound and they're running down the other way.
Speaker 1: They're five and four, right, that's the way they look
Speaker 1: at that, right, And there is some advantage there in
Speaker 1: terms of like when that happens, those are good to
Speaker 1: opportunities to run. I'm pro running off of made baskets,
Speaker 1: but conceding may baskets is silly too. And like there
Speaker 1: were a lot of possessions where you'd see, you know,
Speaker 1: Buddy Heel just standing next to Malik Beasley rather than
Speaker 1: digging down on a drive out of the weekside corner.
Speaker 1: And it's like, I get it, Malik Beasley's shooting the
Speaker 1: shit out of the ball this year. But at a
Speaker 1: certain point, even a Malik Beasley wide open catch and
Speaker 1: shoot three that might be worth you know, one point
Speaker 1: four points per shot or whatever, is a lower percentage
Speaker 1: shot than the wide open slashing layup, so and again,
Speaker 1: speed is an advantage in this roster, and I think
Speaker 1: they can rotate better. And to put it frankly, I
Speaker 1: saw them last week defend at a higher level than
Speaker 1: what they showed in this particular game. And so it's
Speaker 1: just something that again, if if the Pacers want to
Speaker 1: get to where they want to go, they need to
Speaker 1: eventually upgrade that obi top and position. But that's a
Speaker 1: trade deadline issue. But on the court, they have to
Speaker 1: do a better job in their help and recover situations,
Speaker 1: all right, Moving on to Thunder Kinks souh okay, see
Speaker 1: makes a late game run here. The Thunder or the
Speaker 1: Kings kind of controlled this game. But okay, so he
Speaker 1: goes on a late game run. They get it to two.
Speaker 1: It's one nineteen, one seventeen. The Mark Dagenal runs this
Speaker 1: hammer action. Now remember what a hammer action is is
Speaker 1: like they run like a ball screen or a dribble
Speaker 1: hand off on the right side of the floor. Then
Speaker 1: on the left side of the floor they have the
Speaker 1: guy in the corner basically set a flare screen for
Speaker 1: a shooter coming off the wing. And so essentially what
Speaker 1: it does is you're taking advantage of these two help
Speaker 1: defenders and their tendency to be watching whatever the hell's
Speaker 1: going on over here with this dribble hand off or
Speaker 1: ball screen, and you might be able to catch the
Speaker 1: guy guarding the shoe off guard on that screen and
Speaker 1: have an opening for a skip pass for a wide
Speaker 1: open three. They ran it for Chet Holmer, which like,
Speaker 1: initially you go like, this is what's so cool about
Speaker 1: Chet is as a center, and then in this particular
Speaker 1: play he had Trey Lyles on him, and Trey Lyles
Speaker 1: is more, you know, he's more capable of navigating these
Speaker 1: types of things. But you can imagine that working really,
Speaker 1: really well, and when Chet has a center on him too,
Speaker 1: because the center is gonna have no idea what the
Speaker 1: hell's going on because he's not used to dealing with
Speaker 1: shooters coming off flare screens. Right, But it still works.
Speaker 1: But Josh Giddy puts the pass a little bit too
Speaker 1: far to the left of check if Chet's standing right here,
Speaker 1: a little bit to Chet's left, and it forced him
Speaker 1: to kind of break his rhythm a little bit, and
Speaker 1: Trey Lyles was able to recover and get a contest on.
Speaker 1: It was a really good example to me of the
Speaker 1: importance of precision passing, like when you're playing elite defenses.
Speaker 1: And again, the Kings have been defending better in this
Speaker 1: recent stretch, but it's a problem when you get down
Speaker 1: the line, to the higher quality defenses that you face
Speaker 1: down the line, the openings are this big, and so
Speaker 1: something silly like making a bad pass is outside of
Speaker 1: the shooting pocket that breaks the shooter's rhythm could buy
Speaker 1: the defense enough time to rotate in that specific case.
Speaker 1: And I thought that was interesting because it ended up
Speaker 1: being one of those things where Josh Gitty misses him.
Speaker 1: As a result, Trey Lyles is able to get a
Speaker 1: good contest, he misses that shot right they go down
Speaker 1: the other end in semi transition. The Thunder ended up
Speaker 1: getting an offensive rebound on that play, and Josh Gitty,
Speaker 1: I thought, forced a floater that he probably shouldn't have take.
Speaker 1: You could see Shay gildas Alexander getting a little annoyed,
Speaker 1: but they pushed the other way and Daron Fox h
Speaker 1: chet Holmgrin with this disgusting hesitation move like gets into
Speaker 1: the middle of the floor, gets the ball into his
Speaker 1: right hand and just looks up at the rim and
Speaker 1: it causes Chet to step up and open his body
Speaker 1: away from that left side of the rim and face
Speaker 1: this way. Darren crosses back over and that buys him
Speaker 1: the langle at the angle to get back to his
Speaker 1: left hand and finish at the rim. Now it's one
Speaker 1: twenty one, one seventeen. And then on the other end
Speaker 1: the Thunder end up running a couple of They run
Speaker 1: a pick and a roll with Shay and in Josh
Speaker 1: Gitty or Josh Gitty short roles in the King's blitz,
Speaker 1: and in the process they get a wide open three
Speaker 1: again for Chet Holmgren on the left wing, this time
Speaker 1: plenty of time. This time the pass is in the
Speaker 1: right spot. Chet just misses it, and then on the
Speaker 1: other end the Kings miss on the next position, but
Speaker 1: they go down again. Shay has an isolation on the
Speaker 1: right wing. They dig down. It's another wide open three
Speaker 1: for Jalen Williams and he misses it. So some tough
Speaker 1: shot luck there for Oklahoma City down the stretch. But
Speaker 1: then again again the Kings for the most part throughout
Speaker 1: that game got better shots. They were up ten before
Speaker 1: the Thunder kind of had their wild comeback. I did
Speaker 1: think it was an interesting kind of late game sequence though,
Speaker 1: in an example of just some of the interesting stuff
Speaker 1: that this team has available to them from the standpoint
Speaker 1: of like Chet being able to run shooting actions and
Speaker 1: have it actually be a high percentage play, the ability
Speaker 1: to use Josh Getty as a screener and what he
Speaker 1: can do in the short role as a decision maker,
Speaker 1: and then just simple like if you put Shay and
Speaker 1: you know, we talked about this in the Dallas Mavericks
Speaker 1: game against the when you put a score at the
Speaker 1: elbow and like Shay was attacking at the elbow on
Speaker 1: that dig down for Jalen Williams, but also like Luca
Speaker 1: was killing the Lakers with elbow ISOs. From the elbow,
Speaker 1: you're so much closer to the basket that guys have
Speaker 1: to kind of get into help position sooner, and so
Speaker 1: that forces them to come further off of shooters. When
Speaker 1: you start your action thirty feet from the basket. Even
Speaker 1: if I do beat you off the dribble and get downhill,
Speaker 1: there's a lot more time for people to recover before
Speaker 1: I can really start causing problems. And I thought it
Speaker 1: was just an interesting kind of offensive approach from Oklahoma City,
Speaker 1: but obviously Kings win the game. Malik Monk and Darren
Speaker 1: Fox were incredible. They combined for fifty nine points in
Speaker 1: sixteen assists. You know, I've been talking a lot about
Speaker 1: this idea of elite perimeter defense teams against the Kings,
Speaker 1: and this is the latest in a long line, right, Like,
Speaker 1: they really struggled with the Clippers, they really struggled with
Speaker 1: the Houston Rockets, they really struggled with the New Orleans Pelicans.
Speaker 1: Teams that can put long athletes on their guards can
Speaker 1: cause them some problems. Now the Thunder are not as
Speaker 1: long on the perimeter, like because they're guys like Lou
Speaker 1: Dordan and Shay. They're not six ' eight, you know,
Speaker 1: they're They're not like some of these perimeter defenders they
Speaker 1: saw with the Clippers or or with the Pelicans that said,
Speaker 1: like they are excellent perimeter defenders, and sometimes it's like
Speaker 1: you just have to do better than the guy across
Speaker 1: from you, right, Like, this was a big thing in
Speaker 1: that series against the Warriors. It was a lot of
Speaker 1: Gary Payton, it was a lot of Andrew Wiggins. It
Speaker 1: was a lot of good on ball defenders for the Warriors.
Speaker 1: That Deer and Fox and elite mounk just found a
Speaker 1: way to get downhill on And the big thing foundationally
Speaker 1: is Deeron Fox's pull up jump shot. He's just having
Speaker 1: an unbelievable pull up jump shot season this year. He'shooting
Speaker 1: forty six percent on them, fifty seven percent when you
Speaker 1: wait it for threes. That's one point one four points
Speaker 1: per shot. To give you an idea, there are eighteen
Speaker 1: players in the NBA this year that have taken at
Speaker 1: least one hundred and fifty pull up jump shots. Fox
Speaker 1: is one point one four points per shot, is second
Speaker 1: in the league. So he's been the second best pull
Speaker 1: up jump shot maker in the league by volume or
Speaker 1: among that specific set of volume. Now, to give you
Speaker 1: an idea of just how insane Tyres Haliburton is, He's
Speaker 1: a full tenth of a point better per pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot than Dearon Fox in second place. So Tyres
Speaker 1: Haliburton is like head and shoulders better than everybody's shooting
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots this year. So shout out to Tyrese,
Speaker 1: but Darren Fox. It's just that combination of elite pull
Speaker 1: up jump shooting and the downhill athleticism. I'll give you
Speaker 1: an example that little hesitation move I talked about when
Speaker 1: it was one nineteen one seventeen to put the King's
Speaker 1: up one twenty one seventeen. If Dearen Fox makes that
Speaker 1: little hesitation move into the lane and he's a thirty
Speaker 1: five percent pull up jump shooter, Chet probably doesn't react
Speaker 1: to it because he's probably thinking, oh, yeah, he's gonna
Speaker 1: take a little short jump shot. I'd rather have him
Speaker 1: take that shot, right But because Dearn Fox has been
Speaker 1: knocking that thing down all year long, guys are starting
Speaker 1: to react to that, and that's allowing him to get
Speaker 1: downhill easier. I just thought in general, Dearon Fox finished
Speaker 1: really really well at the rim against Chet, and again,
Speaker 1: like Chet has been, you know, Chet can get buried
Speaker 1: by some of these bigger bigs, but the dude can
Speaker 1: block shots, and Fox was just not bothered by him
Speaker 1: in this game. And to give you an idea of
Speaker 1: where his jump shot is right now, one point one
Speaker 1: to four points per pull up jump shot. Last year
Speaker 1: he was at zero point nine to four. So he's
Speaker 1: literally more than twenty percent better than he was last
Speaker 1: year with this pull up jump shot, which is huge.
Speaker 1: I thought Milik Monk was awesome in this game. He
Speaker 1: had a couple of He had a ridiculous block and
Speaker 1: helpside in transition. He had this ridiculous bounce pass to
Speaker 1: a cutter. He had hit a between the legs side
Speaker 1: step pull up three that was just unbelievably nasty. Milik
Speaker 1: Monk just has a bag man. It's ridiculous. Keon Ellis,
Speaker 1: It's been an interesting kind of a guy for the
Speaker 1: Kings this year that no one really expected. Hit five
Speaker 1: threes in this game, can take some point of attack assignments,
Speaker 1: has some decent length for the position. You know, this
Speaker 1: is kind a kind of archetype that we've been talking
Speaker 1: about with the Kings for a while, Like a guy
Speaker 1: that's more of an off ball player, that's more of
Speaker 1: a a an athlete that can help on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor. Is a point of attack. Metrics
Speaker 1: this year in isolation and in pick and roll have
Speaker 1: been excellent. I thought that was a kind of a revelation.
Speaker 1: Last night on the thunder front, Josh Giddy had his
Speaker 1: best game in a while. Teams are ignoring him off
Speaker 1: the ball and they're blitzing off of him in balls,
Speaker 1: but he's being aggressive in catch and shoot situations. He
Speaker 1: had three catch and shoot jump shots in this game.
Speaker 1: He's also making really good reads out of the short role,
Speaker 1: which is a good use of him, to be honest,
Speaker 1: just because he has that passing ability, he's tall enough
Speaker 1: to kind of see over the defense as he's making
Speaker 1: those reads. Didn't like that floater he forced late in
Speaker 1: the game, but I thought it was an encouraging game
Speaker 1: from him. They also did a lot of hedging and
Speaker 1: recovering on deeron Fox to try to keep dort on him,
Speaker 1: and I didn't think the hedges were particularly sharp. Derean
Speaker 1: was able to split a lot of them and it
Speaker 1: didn't really stop him from getting downhill. And I think
Speaker 1: they have the perimeter defenders to just switch more in
Speaker 1: those situations, and so I thought that tactically is something
Speaker 1: they could have adjusted. But overall, I thought they played
Speaker 1: pretty well. And again like Sacramento was really good and
Speaker 1: you got a chet Holmgren three in the corner that
Speaker 1: could have given you a lead. It was a decent look.
Speaker 1: It was mildly contested. Chet Holmer and got another wide
Speaker 1: open three on the left wing late in the game.
Speaker 1: Jalen Williams had a wide open and three on the
Speaker 1: left wing in the game, So like, you shoot a
Speaker 1: little bit better, you have a chance to win that game.
Speaker 1: One other thing on the OKC front, there was a
Speaker 1: report this morning, I believe from Bleacher Report that the
Speaker 1: Jazz are gonna be listening to offers on Lauri marketIn.
Speaker 1: And I've talked about this all year for the Pacers
Speaker 1: and the Thunder, but that is the specific archetype they need.
Speaker 1: They need a big forward that can help them on
Speaker 1: the defensive glass, that can help them and help defense
Speaker 1: situations and play well in their drive in kick system.
Speaker 1: And I think Lorde's absolutely perfect for that. The Thunder
Speaker 1: had the assets to make it happen. I saw some
Speaker 1: people on Twitter being like they shouldn't overpay. Danny Ainge
Speaker 1: is gonna make you want to overpay, and like I
Speaker 1: get that, and like, don't get me wrong. From a
Speaker 1: negotiation standpoint, Danny Ainge is gonna have a really strong position.
Speaker 1: But here's the deal, Like, you have a shit ton
Speaker 1: of draft picks, you have all of the talent in
Speaker 1: the world. You're what the second seed in the West
Speaker 1: right now, you are literally on the precipice of being
Speaker 1: able to contend in the Western Conference. And like Louri
Speaker 1: market In is the perfect fit. And I understand the
Speaker 1: patient approach. And I'm not saying you call them and
Speaker 1: you give them everything you have, but if you have
Speaker 1: to overpay a little bit to get LORII market in,
Speaker 1: you overpay a little bit to get Lori market in
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, like we've seen too
Speaker 1: often with this, uh, with this stuff, where like when
Speaker 1: teams like Miami get super super picky about what they're
Speaker 1: willing to pay and super picky about who they're willing
Speaker 1: to go after, and the next thing you know, you
Speaker 1: move on and they don't have anybody, right, And again
Speaker 1: the Thunder don't have anybody in house that fits that
Speaker 1: big forward alongside chet kind of archetype. I think they're
Speaker 1: gonna have to go outside to find that. And to me,
Speaker 1: it's like it's pretty straightforward that a guy like Lorie
Speaker 1: kind of fills that need perfectly. All right, Moving on
Speaker 1: to the Warriors, So they dropped another game to the
Speaker 1: Clippers last night. There now ten and fourteen. According to DraftKings,
Speaker 1: the Warriors are now plus one twenty five to make
Speaker 1: the playoffs in minus one fifty five to miss it.
Speaker 1: So again I have to bet one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: five dollars on the Warriors to miss the playoffs. To
Speaker 1: make one hundred, that's a substantial, you know, a signal
Speaker 1: that Vegas thinks that there's a much better chance than
Speaker 1: not that Golden State misses the playoffs. And now here's
Speaker 1: the thing. I've been mostly a Warriors positive force this year,
Speaker 1: right and I feel strongly that, given the information at
Speaker 1: the time, that that was the right approach at the time.
Speaker 1: But the Draymond suspension, like him taking himself out indefinitely
Speaker 1: officially puts them in a really challenging predicament. And I
Speaker 1: am for the first time this season seriously worried about
Speaker 1: the Warriors. To give you an idea, as of today,
Speaker 1: they are three games out of the ten spot, So
Speaker 1: they are three games out of the play in at
Speaker 1: this point. And it's not just three games in a vacuum.
Speaker 1: The teams ahead of you are Phoenix, New Orleans, Houston,
Speaker 1: the Clippers, and the Lakers. I don't think the Suns,
Speaker 1: Clippers or Lakers are going to drop. They have too
Speaker 1: much talent. They have just significantly more talent in the
Speaker 1: regular season right now than the Warriors. Right Houston and
Speaker 1: New Orleans. I see as like those are the teams
Speaker 1: you're targeting, is like, oh, maybe we'll be able to
Speaker 1: jump them before the end of the season. But again,
Speaker 1: it's not from today full strength Warriors versus full strength
Speaker 1: Appelicans and Rockets. Like you're gonna be with out Draymon
Speaker 1: for an undisclosed amount of time. And I would argue
Speaker 1: that you know, Draymond's probably your second or third best player,
Speaker 1: and if he's not available, then Houston and New Orleans
Speaker 1: are better regular season teams than you. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: a challenge. And and like he just put him in
Speaker 1: a in a grind, in a bind because like now
Speaker 1: you have to finish three games better than one of
Speaker 1: those teams, and you're gonna be without Draymon for a while.
Speaker 1: A lot has to go right. You're gonna need bona
Speaker 1: fide MVP play from Steph Curry, Klay Thompson at a
Speaker 1: big night the other night. You need him to be incredible.
Speaker 1: You're gonna need Pozemski to to to pop. And I
Speaker 1: saw that Kerr moved to Pazemski and Kaminga into the
Speaker 1: starting lineup. I thought that was interesting. You're gonna need
Speaker 1: a lot of huge contributions from everybody. It's gonna look
Speaker 1: a lot like again, like we've seen this before. This
Speaker 1: has happened before. Because the Warriors are in a position
Speaker 1: where they do have the ability to make a trade. Right.
Speaker 1: They have a desirable asset in Jonathan Kaminga, They've got
Speaker 1: a salary filler in the form of Chris Paul, and
Speaker 1: they have draft compensation that they can offer. So they
Speaker 1: are in a position where they can go get somebody.
Speaker 1: So let's look at the Warriors or the Lakers last
Speaker 1: year as an example. All year last year, the Lakers
Speaker 1: were outside of the plane, right, similar kind of predicament,
Speaker 1: and they also had assets. They had two first round
Speaker 1: draft picks that they could use. They ended up only
Speaker 1: using one, but they had two first round draft picks
Speaker 1: they could use. And they had this Russell Westbrook expiring contractors.
Speaker 1: I know everyone said last year no one wanted, but
Speaker 1: of course people wanted it. An expiring contract is real value.
Speaker 1: That's why they were able to make a trade. Right.
Speaker 1: So the Lakers had this asset thing that they were
Speaker 1: sitting on that they could do something with, and the
Speaker 1: Warriors have this asset thing that they can do something
Speaker 1: with you. Remember what happened with the Lakers last year.
Speaker 1: Lebron James went down with injury, Anthony Davis played like
Speaker 1: a freaking MVP for a while and floated the ship.
Speaker 1: Then Anthony Davis went down, and it it was like Lebron,
Speaker 1: Dennis Schroeder and Russell Westbrook who just played like fucking
Speaker 1: crazy and just hung around five hundred, right. They just
Speaker 1: lingered around five hundred, just staying alive long enough so
Speaker 1: that when the trade hit, they were then able to
Speaker 1: go on a run with the actual, you know, balanced
Speaker 1: roster that they needed to be significantly above five hundred team.
Speaker 1: So that's the mold that you're looking at for the Warriors.
Speaker 1: The question is do you have even as much firepower
Speaker 1: as that Lakers team did at that point in the year.
Speaker 1: And I would say it's close, certainly, if Steph Curry
Speaker 1: can reach that MVP level, but I think they might
Speaker 1: have to start looking to make that move sooner than later.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean you go make a stupid move, that
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you go overpay or go for the wrong guy,
Speaker 1: but you gotta start looking now. And what's concerning about
Speaker 1: that specifically is Mike don Levy had this pod or
Speaker 1: ex just me this interview the other day where he
Speaker 1: basically said, like, we'll see how it goes over the
Speaker 1: next fifteen to twenty games, which is concerned on a
Speaker 1: couple of different levels, because first of all, it's like,
Speaker 1: are you insinuating that Draymond's gonna be out that long?
Speaker 1: Because that might be a death sentence. And then two, like,
Speaker 1: let's say Draymond is out that long? What if you
Speaker 1: wait and see and then the season's over. Steph Curry's
Speaker 1: thirty five. You cannot afford to don't do what the
Speaker 1: Lakers did in a waste prime seasons of Lebron James's
Speaker 1: career with stupidity. Don't do that. Like it's time right
Speaker 1: now to start looking for what you can do to
Speaker 1: kind of revamp the situation. Originally, had Raymond not been suspended,
Speaker 1: I would have been like, wait for the deadline. Had
Speaker 1: drama not been suspended, you lean into it. This season,
Speaker 1: you're hovering around the plane in that seven, eight nine range,
Speaker 1: right like you're a little bit mediocre the Lake. The
Speaker 1: Warriors have the sixth easiest remaining schedule, I believe by
Speaker 1: opponent win percentage, So like there's some opportunity there to
Speaker 1: regain some ground in the standings, and then you pull
Speaker 1: the trigger at the deadline. You negotiate more staunchly, you
Speaker 1: try to make something happen in February. But with Draymond
Speaker 1: being out this next month now could literally submarine the season,
Speaker 1: because if you fall from three games back of the
Speaker 1: ten seed to six games back of the ten seed,
Speaker 1: it's over at that point. You're not out playing those
Speaker 1: teams by six games in a couple of months. That's
Speaker 1: not happening. So we are officially in crisis mode with
Speaker 1: the Warriors, is my point. If Draymond's gonna be out
Speaker 1: for a long period of time, you don't have the
Speaker 1: horses to rack up regular season wins. So you either
Speaker 1: got to blow the whole damn thing up or you've
Speaker 1: got to pivot pretty quickly. Here you got the pieces
Speaker 1: to do. So, I think it's time to start calling Toronto.
Speaker 1: I think it's time to start calling Utah. I think
Speaker 1: it's time to start calling Portland. See if you can't
Speaker 1: get some firepower in the building to help. We're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about here in a minute, but I'd even be
Speaker 1: keeping an eye on Cleveland there and see if maybe
Speaker 1: you can approach Donovan Mitchell. That's another guy I'd be
Speaker 1: keeping an eye on. Speaking of Donovan Mitchell, let's move on.
Speaker 1: So Darius Garland breaks his jaw, He's gonna be out
Speaker 1: for a while. Evan Mobley is that knee surgery, is
Speaker 1: gonna be out for probably at least two months. They're
Speaker 1: already in the nine seed right now. The bottom can
Speaker 1: fall out here pretty quickly. And Donovan Mitchell is a
Speaker 1: guy that could be a free agent as soon as
Speaker 1: next summer. Not this coming summer, but the one after.
Speaker 1: He's got one guaranteed year left on a deal. He's
Speaker 1: got a player option for like thirty seven million after that,
Speaker 1: probably gonna drop out of that one and look to
Speaker 1: become a free agent. I've also talked consistently when I
Speaker 1: talk Calves that the too small guard model is kind
Speaker 1: of doomed to fail. I also know that Cavs fans
Speaker 1: love Darius Garland, so to me, it points a lot
Speaker 1: of signs in the direction of what happens if Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell gets to the end of next season and just
Speaker 1: simply doesn't want to stay. He's worth too much to
Speaker 1: let go for nothing. Right in the short term. Right now,
Speaker 1: you're a nine seed and two of your top four
Speaker 1: players are going to be out for a considerable amount
Speaker 1: of time. Here now you could say, hey, Donovan, just
Speaker 1: do the best you can keep us as close to
Speaker 1: five hundred as possible, and when you cut and when
Speaker 1: all these guys come back, we'll fight our way up
Speaker 1: to a play in spot so that we could go
Speaker 1: play Boston in the first round, so that we could
Speaker 1: go play Milwaukee in the first round and be gigantic
Speaker 1: underdogs and probably lose. So at a certain point, like
Speaker 1: if you are under the impression, and again this is
Speaker 1: up to Donovan, because if Donovan's like I want to stay,
Speaker 1: like let's work out it, like, let's figure out a deal.
Speaker 1: I want to stay, then you can make decisions accordingly.
Speaker 1: But it's worth approaching Donovan Mitchell and being like, hey, man, like,
Speaker 1: are you going to stay? Because you're gonna be bad
Speaker 1: this year? Like that's almost a certainty. This season. It's
Speaker 1: I don't want to say it's completely a lost cause,
Speaker 1: but like at this point for Cleveland, this season is
Speaker 1: in a really dark spot. So if there was a
Speaker 1: year to be bad, it'd be this year. And from
Speaker 1: that standpoint, That's where I see Donovan Mitchell as the
Speaker 1: obvious target for a trade around this deadline. Because when
Speaker 1: we envision the idealized version of the Calves, what do
Speaker 1: I always talk about. I envision one of those guards
Speaker 1: and Evan Mobley at the five in the long run,
Speaker 1: next to a big athletic forward, preferably another big athletic forward,
Speaker 1: and then a perimeter defender at the two guard spot.
Speaker 1: That's kind of the what I of you is the
Speaker 1: idealized version of the Calves. I talk a lot about.
Speaker 1: This is like the the ideal modern basketball bill. Do
Speaker 1: you want a skill guard, Then you want like a
Speaker 1: point of attack off ball guard. Then you want like
Speaker 1: a slender forward that can defend on the perimeter. Then
Speaker 1: you want a big forward that can defend inside and
Speaker 1: help and help defense and defense and rebounding situations. Then
Speaker 1: you want an athletic center that can switch and run
Speaker 1: and drop coverage while also being an offensive threat. Evan
Speaker 1: Mobley fits that mold. Darius Garland fits the skill guard mold,
Speaker 1: you know, like Max Strus. In the short term, I
Speaker 1: think would be perfectly fine as a point of attack
Speaker 1: guy who plays off the ball at the two, like
Speaker 1: I like Carris Lavert, but you probably don't want him
Speaker 1: as your starting three. So it's that three and four
Speaker 1: spot that you're looking to bolster at this point, right,
Speaker 1: that's where you could potentially use Donovan Mitchell as the
Speaker 1: vehicle with which to shore that up and then be
Speaker 1: ready to make a run either you know, next season essentially, right,
Speaker 1: and I think I think, like, so, now, let's see
Speaker 1: what type of teams would be interested in Donovan Mitchell.
Speaker 1: Teams that have size on the perimeter, that can afford
Speaker 1: to bring in a small guard. Teams that can offer
Speaker 1: big athletic forwards to Cleveland because that's what they would want,
Speaker 1: clear big athletic forwards that fit their timeline, and also
Speaker 1: that have the ability to put that size next to
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell so that they are not in a similar
Speaker 1: predictament that Cleveland was in. Right. Then you're also looking at,
Speaker 1: like what Donovan Mitchell's specific archetype is. He's a scoring guard,
Speaker 1: So we're looking at teams that need backcourt scoring. Now,
Speaker 1: the first two obvious ones are the power players, right,
Speaker 1: Miami and Philly. But Philly's got a ton of assets,
Speaker 1: they feel some urgency to try to get something done.
Speaker 1: Alongside Joel Embiid. Right now, they're clearly below Boston and Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: That's an obvious target, right, Philly could be like, we're
Speaker 1: gonna put Donovan Mitchell next to Tyrese Maxine. We're just
Speaker 1: gonna have a shit ton of offensive skill next to Joel Embiid.
Speaker 1: Right The Miami piece is like they missed out on Dame,
Speaker 1: they missed out on Brad Beal, Like they gotta get
Speaker 1: one of these guys that team desperately needs backcourt shot creation.
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell's an obvious kind of like fit there. Philly
Speaker 1: does have the advantage there though, because they have more
Speaker 1: assets to give than Miami does. The Knicks or another
Speaker 1: team I look at, they lean so much on Jaylen
Speaker 1: Brunson and Julius Randall to create everything. They don't have
Speaker 1: great options at the two spot. Like they just benched
Speaker 1: Quentin Grimes. He was a blow average starter. They benched
Speaker 1: him for Dante DiVincenzo. But Dante de Vincenzo is better
Speaker 1: as a backup guard too, So like you're in a
Speaker 1: weird spot there. RJ. Barrett is having the most efficient
Speaker 1: scoring season of his career and kind of fits more
Speaker 1: of like a complimentary piece next to Darius Garland. So
Speaker 1: that'd be an interesting kind of salary filler piece. And
Speaker 1: the Knicks have plenty of draft compensation that they can offer,
Speaker 1: So like that's a team that I'd keep an eye on. Toronto,
Speaker 1: simple case if they have too many forwards and not
Speaker 1: enough guards, And like a couple guys like an Og
Speaker 1: and Anobi would be super interesting in Cleveland, right, Like
Speaker 1: a Pascal Siakam would be super interesting in Cleveland. But
Speaker 1: Toronto desperately needs guards because like Dennis Schroeder and Gary
Speaker 1: Trent Junior are good, but they're not They're they're compared
Speaker 1: to the other serious teams in the league, that's not
Speaker 1: a very good backcourt. So like you're looking at an
Speaker 1: option there. Chicago already apparently has made calls trying to
Speaker 1: trade for Darius Garland, so like, why not try for
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell if that was the case. Minnesota is another
Speaker 1: interesting team. I was thinking of their eighteenth in offense
Speaker 1: this year and they have legit title last Inspirations, and
Speaker 1: like the one week spot in that lineup that you
Speaker 1: look at is Mike Conley, just given his age and athleticism, right,
Speaker 1: the Pelicans, if they wanted to pivot off as Ion Williamson,
Speaker 1: that'd be an interesting option. And then lastly, like I
Speaker 1: said in the last segment the Golden State Warriors, it's
Speaker 1: worth a phone call. It's worth a phone call. You'd
Speaker 1: be like, Hey, Jonathan Comingo would be perfect next to
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley. How does that sound to you? Guys? You know,
Speaker 1: Chris Paul just can help mentor Darius Garland, you know,
Speaker 1: and then we can at least give Steph a bona
Speaker 1: fide number two next to him, you know. And like,
Speaker 1: if you have Donovan Mitchell and Steph Curry, you have
Speaker 1: the ability to play bigger on the front line because
Speaker 1: of all the pull up shooting you have in that lineup.
Speaker 1: So again, like it's too early to say for sure
Speaker 1: if Donovan Mitchell will even you know, is even not
Speaker 1: wanting to resign, or if Cleveland would be even willing
Speaker 1: to deal him, But I think some signs are pointing
Speaker 1: in that direction. So I thought it was kind of
Speaker 1: doing a brief deep dive into it, all right, my
Speaker 1: MVP ladder, So I'm gonna start doing this every weekend.
Speaker 1: And I was thinking long and hard about this because
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk MVP. But I don't want it
Speaker 1: to look like what my prediction would be for who's
Speaker 1: going to win the MVP, because it just is. It's
Speaker 1: so much based on narrative, which I find profoundly oninteresting.
Speaker 1: It's so much based on voting trends that like, I
Speaker 1: disagree with and specific things that like I don't think
Speaker 1: should factor into MVP. So what I'm gonna do instead
Speaker 1: is like, I'm just gonna do this MVP latter every
Speaker 1: weekend as though it's my own meaning, Like this is
Speaker 1: just simply how I think the MVP award should work.
Speaker 1: I've made one tweak to my MVP criteria I used
Speaker 1: to in the past be like, hey, like you got
Speaker 1: a factor in postseason success. All of this is part
Speaker 1: of a journey towards the playoffs and towards the Larry O'Brien.
Speaker 1: It's a stepping stone in that direction. But the league
Speaker 1: has made it abundantly clear through their voting tendencies that
Speaker 1: they don't care about the postseason. So what I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do is my off season player rankings that I do
Speaker 1: every August. Those are going to be based on playoff success,
Speaker 1: and I want my MVP ladders during the season to
Speaker 1: strictly be a recognition of overall two way impact on
Speaker 1: winning by a single player. And the one thing I'll
Speaker 1: do to weigh it is like degree of difficulty and
Speaker 1: like what your team needs out of you compared to
Speaker 1: the you know, the roster availabilities. I'm gonna use that
Speaker 1: as like kind of a swing factor in some of
Speaker 1: these cases. All right, so I'm gonna do I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be counting down from ten this first week. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: hit all ten players. In the future, I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: talk about the movement from specific guys, but number ten.
Speaker 1: So far for our first MVP ladder, Kevin Durant, He's
Speaker 1: been the one stable force for a team that's been
Speaker 1: riddled with injuries. To start the season. He's averaging thirty
Speaker 1: one points per game, which is the second highest mark
Speaker 1: of his career, on sixty four percent true shooting, and
Speaker 1: he's legitimately flirting with a fifty to fifty ninety season,
Speaker 1: meaning fifty percent from the field, fifty percent from three,
Speaker 1: and ninety percent from the line. He's still one of
Speaker 1: the most efficient scorers in basketball, and he's done a
Speaker 1: lot to stabilize. Like I said, a pretty inconsistent environment
Speaker 1: with injuries there in Phoenix. Number nine Jason Tatum. I
Speaker 1: am a little disappointed in him this season. He's settling
Speaker 1: for a shit ton of pull up jump shots even
Speaker 1: though he can't make him. I've been a little bit
Speaker 1: disappointed with him in the end of games as well.
Speaker 1: That said, still the most efficient scoring season of his
Speaker 1: career in the lower volume mostly has to just do
Speaker 1: with some of the roster changes they went over the
Speaker 1: went through over the summer. He's also been the fourth
Speaker 1: best post up player in the league this year. Twenty
Speaker 1: two players in the NBA have run at least seventy
Speaker 1: five post ups, and he's fourth in efficiency at one
Speaker 1: point one five points per possession. Number eight Lebron James.
Speaker 1: He's averaging twenty five eight and seven, shooting a career
Speaker 1: high from two point range forty one percent from three,
Speaker 1: which matches his best season in twenty thirteen, which was
Speaker 1: sixty four percent through shooting. Also averaging his highest amout
Speaker 1: of steals per game since twenty fifteen. And this is
Speaker 1: the crazy one for Lebron. In his MVP case, the
Speaker 1: Lakers are eighteen points better per one hundred possessions when
Speaker 1: he's on the floor versus when he's off. He also
Speaker 1: had the most impressive individual accomplishment of this season so far,
Speaker 1: winning the n Season Tournament MVP, dominating a field that
Speaker 1: included Kevin Durant, that included Giannison tenakumpo, that included Damian Lillard,
Speaker 1: that included Jason Tatum, that included Tyree Saliburton. Just a
Speaker 1: stacked field that he ended up at the top of
Speaker 1: the pile at the end of it and won the MVP.
Speaker 1: Lebron's at number eight, number seven. Dearon Fox. He is
Speaker 1: the best combination of pull up shooting and downhill speed
Speaker 1: in the NBA. This year, he's been the second best
Speaker 1: pull up jump shooter in the league behind Tyres Haliburton,
Speaker 1: making his jump shots at a pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: at one point one four points per shot, which is insane.
Speaker 1: He also is the third best guard at scoring in
Speaker 1: the paint. He scored two hundred and twenty points in
Speaker 1: the paint this year, which is behind only Shay Gills
Speaker 1: as Alexander and Tyree s Maa See, both of which
Speaker 1: are lesser pull up shooters than Darren Fox. This season,
Speaker 1: he's led the Kings to a lot of wins over
Speaker 1: good teams, most recently SGA in the Thunder. He's gone
Speaker 1: head to head with a lot of the best players
Speaker 1: in the league and come out on top. This season,
Speaker 1: I have him at number seven. Number six Nicole Jokic.
Speaker 1: His jumper has been off this year. A Jokic jumper
Speaker 1: has been worth zero point two to two points fewer
Speaker 1: than they were worth last year, but still averaging a
Speaker 1: career high in points, still at sixty one percent in
Speaker 1: true shooting, leeds the league, and rebounds at thirteen rebounds
Speaker 1: per game, and the Nuggets are the two seed in
Speaker 1: the West despite Jamal Murray missing a lot of time
Speaker 1: in and out of the lineup. Number five Luka Doncics
Speaker 1: also having the most efficient scoring season of his career,
Speaker 1: fueled by excellent pull up shooting and shooting fifty four
Speaker 1: percent in EFFECTI field goal percentage on his pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot. That reliable step back jump shot that he's
Speaker 1: sitting right now is is just killing teams, and he's
Speaker 1: been also, similar to Kevin Durant, the most consistent force
Speaker 1: on a surprisingly good team despite his co star being
Speaker 1: out a lot. Kyrie Irving has played in just five
Speaker 1: hundred and forty one of eleven hundred and fifty two
Speaker 1: minutes for the MAVs this year, and the Mavericks are
Speaker 1: fifteen to nine in the four seat, which is a
Speaker 1: far cry from where they were last year. I have
Speaker 1: him at number five, shake Gil just Alexander at number four.
Speaker 1: The Thunder are just three games back to the best
Speaker 1: record in the league at fifteen and eight. He's averaging
Speaker 1: thirty one, six and six on a career high sixty
Speaker 1: four percent true shooting percentage, and his self creation metrics
Speaker 1: are off the charts. One point two to three points
Speaker 1: per post up, one point one to nine points per ISO,
Speaker 1: one point zero nine points per pick and roll. Those
Speaker 1: are all off the charts. And now he's consistently drawing
Speaker 1: two to the ball and pick and roll, which for
Speaker 1: all of the ball handling and shooting and passing that
Speaker 1: they have on the backside there when they run those
Speaker 1: four on threes has been deadly for the Thunder. They
Speaker 1: get great shots every time. Ivesga at number three or four.
Speaker 1: Number three, Tyre's Halliburn. He's the best pick and roll
Speaker 1: ball handler in the year by mile. He's the best
Speaker 1: pull up shooter in the league by a mile. He's
Speaker 1: entered into my top tier of passers this year. He's
Speaker 1: just single handedly anchoring the best offense in basketball. I
Speaker 1: think he's on an all time great trajectory. He's having
Speaker 1: an incredible season. I'm a huge tyres Aaliburton fan. Even
Speaker 1: against that ridiculously aggressive Bucks coverage the other day, I
Speaker 1: thought he did really well given the amount of talent
Speaker 1: that's around him. Number two Jannis and Tanakoumpo feels kind
Speaker 1: of like a revenge campaign for him. His night to
Speaker 1: night effort is the highest that I've seen since his
Speaker 1: MVP seasons. Career high thirty two points per game, career
Speaker 1: high sixty six percent true shooting, career high offensive rebounds
Speaker 1: per game big one for him, and his touch away
Speaker 1: from the rim is better than it's been in a
Speaker 1: couple of seasons. All super super encouraging. He's also have
Speaker 1: an excellent having an excellent defensive season. Changed that Pacers
Speaker 1: game the other night just by aggressively switching on to
Speaker 1: Tyrese Haliburton and taking away some of the advantages he
Speaker 1: naturally gets in ball screens. But number one, clear Number
Speaker 1: one at this point in the season is Joel Embid
Speaker 1: thirty four points per game, twelve rebounds and six assists
Speaker 1: on sixty four percent through shooting. They are sixteen and seven,
Speaker 1: despite losing James Harden, and just two games back of
Speaker 1: the best record in basketball. Here's an encouraging stat for
Speaker 1: you too. Two years ago, Joel Embiid made just six
Speaker 1: field goals per game in the paint. Last year seven
Speaker 1: point four, this year seven points seven. He's also shooting
Speaker 1: seventy percent on hook shots, and he's taking hook shots
Speaker 1: about twice as often as he did last year. If
Speaker 1: you guys remember after the postseason last year, I talked
Speaker 1: about how Joel Embiid is too reliable on that mid
Speaker 1: range pull up jump shot. He's got to have a
Speaker 1: more consistent shot making game closer to the rim. We're
Speaker 1: seeing some encouraging staf there that could bode well for
Speaker 1: him in the playoffs. Really just needs to stay healthy
Speaker 1: at this point so we can see him in what
Speaker 1: he's capable of in April and May. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today. As always, I
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate your support. Taking the rest of the weekend off,
Speaker 1: We'll be back on Monday with power rankings as well
Speaker 1: as some reactions to the weekends games. I will see
Speaker 1: you guys. Then the volume