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Speaker 1: responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're
Speaker 1: at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody, hope all If you
Speaker 1: guys are having an incredible week, we got another jam
Speaker 1: pack show for you today. The Phoenix Suns continue doing
Speaker 1: really well against the toughest part of their schedule here
Speaker 1: at the end of the season. We're gonna break down
Speaker 1: their big win over the Cleveland Cavaliers last night with
Speaker 1: some more film. So we got like, I think ten
Speaker 1: clips that were going through today. I had a blast
Speaker 1: with the film breakdown yesterday. I was so thrilled with
Speaker 1: how it turned out. It seemed like you guys liked
Speaker 1: it too. I'm sorry it took so long for us
Speaker 1: to get to this point, but I'm really really excited
Speaker 1: about the future of the show and where we can
Speaker 1: take it from there. With that, after that opening segment,
Speaker 1: we had a mail bag question yesterday from a Spurs
Speaker 1: fan asking what the Spurs should do moving forward, and
Speaker 1: so I wanted to do a little bit of a
Speaker 1: deep dive into the Spurs off season plans and the
Speaker 1: realities of the time crunch that Victor weman Yama's rise
Speaker 1: puts them in. And then, last, but not least, we
Speaker 1: got to report this morning from Adrian Worzanowski that Julius
Speaker 1: Randall is not going to return the season, is going
Speaker 1: to have season ending shoulder surgery. So we're going to
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about what that means for the
Speaker 1: New York Nicks. All right, before we get started, you
Speaker 1: guys know the drill. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel.
Speaker 1: It mean a lot to me if you guys would
Speaker 1: take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button.
Speaker 1: Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your
Speaker 1: podcasts under Hoops tonight. It's also super helpful if you
Speaker 1: leave a rating in a review on that front. Don't
Speaker 1: forget about my Twitter fe to underscore json lt. So
Speaker 1: you guys don't miss show announcements as well as the
Speaker 1: occasional film threads that I do from time to time.
Speaker 1: In the last mount least, keep dropping mail back questions
Speaker 1: in those YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them
Speaker 1: throughout the rest of the season. All right, let's talk
Speaker 1: some basketball. So the Suns were going into a really,
Speaker 1: really difficult part of their schedule here to end the season.
Speaker 1: They had a couple of easier games about a week
Speaker 1: and a half ago, and this last four game stretch
Speaker 1: to start this end of the season, they went through
Speaker 1: at Denver, at Oklahoma City, at New Orleans, and then
Speaker 1: here at home. First game at home after a long
Speaker 1: road trip, which is tough against the Cleveland Cavaliers, and
Speaker 1: they're three and one so far. Went into Denver and one,
Speaker 1: had a tough one in Oklahoma City that they lost.
Speaker 1: Then they won dominant fashion in New Orleans, and then
Speaker 1: one in dominant, dominant fashion at home against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Now,
Speaker 1: what's particularly interesting to me about this is all four
Speaker 1: of these teams are top ten defenses, and so these
Speaker 1: are great examples of the stuff I've been talking about
Speaker 1: with Phoenix's offense throughout this season and their ability to
Speaker 1: get defenses into rotation and play advantage basketball. So I
Speaker 1: have some numbers that I want to use to to
Speaker 1: kind of demonstrate this concept, but to start in kind
Speaker 1: of like the bigger picture thirty thousand feet way of
Speaker 1: looking at it. When you look at like kind of
Speaker 1: like the ball done stop bag culture type of ideology,
Speaker 1: as it pertains to like tough shot making and high
Speaker 1: level hooper isms or whatever you want to call it,
Speaker 1: where guys are hitting multiple dribble combinations into really tough shots.
Speaker 1: That's fun and that's a big part of the art
Speaker 1: of basketball, and it's always been a part of the
Speaker 1: art of basketball that I've been drawn to. I personally,
Speaker 1: my archetype as a player was a scorer, and I
Speaker 1: was obsessed with footwork and dribble combinations and all those
Speaker 1: different kinds of things. So I'm not trying to pretend
Speaker 1: like that stuff doesn't matter. It does. But it's only
Speaker 1: half the battle. The other half of battle is the
Speaker 1: art of basketball in the form of the art of
Speaker 1: finding high quality shots. Right. Ideally, the tough shot making
Speaker 1: is a ceiling raizer. It's a thing you use to
Speaker 1: rescue possessions when things don't work. It's the thing you
Speaker 1: use against top tier defenses when they do an outstanding
Speaker 1: job is shutting down in your advantage creation situations. It
Speaker 1: is a ceiling razor. Ideally, you want your meat and
Speaker 1: potatoes to be easy shots, wide open catch and shoot threes,
Speaker 1: easy close out attacks where you get you know, some
Speaker 1: tougher shot making like pull up jumpers and floaters, but
Speaker 1: they're uncontested in the mid range because that was the
Speaker 1: opening you found in driving kick obviously getting all the
Speaker 1: way to the rim, hitting vertical spacers under the rim
Speaker 1: for dunks, when you find as much of that stuff
Speaker 1: as possible, no matter how good you aren't making tough shots,
Speaker 1: you will never be as good at making tough shots
Speaker 1: as you will be at making the easy shots, as
Speaker 1: long as you know how to generate them. But they
Speaker 1: can be generated in many different ways, and one of
Speaker 1: the core core ways has to do with your total
Speaker 1: offensive skill. And there is a gigantic chasm this year
Speaker 1: between the Suns and their offensive skill and what they
Speaker 1: had last year. Even though they had Devin Booker and
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant and DeAndre Ayton, they did not have yearly
Speaker 1: the fire power from top to bottom on the roster
Speaker 1: that they have this year, and that's made them so
Speaker 1: much tougher to guard. So again, all four of those defenses,
Speaker 1: the Pels, Thunder, the Nuggets, and the Cavs were all
Speaker 1: top ten defenses so far this year. Yet the Suns
Speaker 1: averaged a blister it one hundred and nineteen points per
Speaker 1: one hundred possessions in the four games. Now, again, as
Speaker 1: I've been talking about a key factor that will kind
Speaker 1: of demonstrate the difference in the shot quality between what
Speaker 1: the Suns get now and what they got last year
Speaker 1: in the postseason, you can see that in assist percentage,
Speaker 1: in the number of pull up jump shots they take.
Speaker 1: So last year in the postseason, only fifty seven percent
Speaker 1: of the Phoenix Suns made field goals or assisted, I
Speaker 1: mean forty three percent of them or individual shot creation
Speaker 1: on an island. Right then in this last four game stretch,
Speaker 1: seventy point three percent of Phoenix's shots that they've made
Speaker 1: have been assisted. So again, like they've gone from being
Speaker 1: a team last year in the postseason that was primarily
Speaker 1: like a solo on an island shot creation type of thing,
Speaker 1: whether it was an ISO or shot making in pick
Speaker 1: and roll to this year much more of a drive
Speaker 1: in kick finding open looks type of offense. Another stat
Speaker 1: there you'll see is in the pull up jump shooting.
Speaker 1: They took thirty five pull up jump shots per game
Speaker 1: last year in the postseason. During this four game stretch,
Speaker 1: they're taking just twenty seven pull up jump shots per game.
Speaker 1: That's a sizable difference. That's eight possessions a game that
Speaker 1: instead of taking pull up jump shots, they're getting much
Speaker 1: higher quality shots elsewhere on the floor. That's again the
Speaker 1: difference between playing on an island isolation slash, pick and
Speaker 1: roll shot making basketball versus playing advantage basketball, meaning you're
Speaker 1: taking not on an island defenders that you're facing, but
Speaker 1: rather guys closing out at you. You're playing with an
Speaker 1: advantage versus not playing with an advantage. Basic example of
Speaker 1: this is King of the Court. If you ever played
Speaker 1: King of the Court with your buddies and you line
Speaker 1: up and it's one on one and the dudes you
Speaker 1: know up in your personal space and you're having to
Speaker 1: use a jab step to clear and to create space
Speaker 1: for you to go play one on one versus if
Speaker 1: you've ever played close out King of the Court, which
Speaker 1: is in my opinion, the most useful form of King
Speaker 1: of the Court for young players, and it's what we
Speaker 1: work on a lot when I work with my high
Speaker 1: school guys. The point they're being I want them to
Speaker 1: practice playing the one on one that they're going to
Speaker 1: play in real basketball games, which is for the most part,
Speaker 1: at the high school level, you're not gifted enough in
Speaker 1: terms of your best players to just play one on
Speaker 1: one all night. You need to generate advantages and then
Speaker 1: have guys be able to capitalize on those advantages by
Speaker 1: playing one on one with the defender closing out at
Speaker 1: them right. And that's a big reason why I believe
Speaker 1: in that, and it's just so much easier. It's crazy
Speaker 1: when I watch those kids play King of the Court
Speaker 1: and when they play with an advantage versus without an advantage,
Speaker 1: the gigantic difference and how frequently they score that no
Speaker 1: matter how good you are at the tough stuff, advantage,
Speaker 1: basketball will always be easier. The second thing that I
Speaker 1: wanted to highlight really quick before we get into the
Speaker 1: film was Phoenix's pick and roll defense has been really
Speaker 1: good during this stretch. They were outstanding last night in
Speaker 1: the last two games against Cleveland and New Orleans, and
Speaker 1: I want to say, like sixty eight possessions. They're allowing
Speaker 1: just zero point eighty four points per possession in pick
Speaker 1: and roll including passes, which is an outstanding number. And
Speaker 1: it really comes down to communication and effort on the
Speaker 1: back line of their defense. And so in our film
Speaker 1: session today, we're going to be looking at a bunch
Speaker 1: of examples of these two particular things. Just advantage creation
Speaker 1: basketball for the Suns on the offensive end of the floor,
Speaker 1: and then also the defensive effort that the Suns have
Speaker 1: been having in pick and roll. Now, for those of
Speaker 1: you guys who are listening on the podcast feed, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna try to be as descriptive as possible, but if
Speaker 1: you're having trouble picking up what I'm putting down, make
Speaker 1: sure you head over to YouTube to check this out.
Speaker 1: In our final two segments, the Julius Randall and the
Speaker 1: and the Victor Wemben Yamas Spurs segment, those are both
Speaker 1: going to be without film, so the podcast feed will
Speaker 1: be fine for those. All right, let's head over to
Speaker 1: our film session. So this is the first possession of
Speaker 1: the game for Phoenix against Cleveland. We are we're going
Speaker 1: to get what's called hammer action. This is actually named
Speaker 1: after Darvin Ham. So what we have here is we
Speaker 1: have Kevin Durant on the right side of the floor.
Speaker 1: Devin Booker's pointing for Kevin Durant to go the other
Speaker 1: way because they're getting ready to set up this action.
Speaker 1: We have Roy O'Neil and use of Nurkicier are gonna
Speaker 1: set basically a double flare screen for Devin Booker to
Speaker 1: run to the corner while Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal
Speaker 1: are essentially running a decoy action here on the right
Speaker 1: side of the floor. So again, any a hammer action
Speaker 1: is basically a double a flare screen for the shooter
Speaker 1: in the weak side corner with a decoy action on
Speaker 1: the strong side. So this is the strong side where
Speaker 1: the ball is. They're gonna run a decoy action here
Speaker 1: on the weak side, we're gonna get our double flare.
Speaker 1: So as we get going the way they're gonna do this,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant's going down like he's gonna set a ball
Speaker 1: screen for Bradley Bial. He's throwing the ball to him,
Speaker 1: running like he's gonna set a screen. Bradley Beal is
Speaker 1: basically going to reject that. In Rich through to the baseline.
Speaker 1: So he rips through to the baseline. Royce O'Neil sets
Speaker 1: the first pick, use of Nurkic sets the second pick,
Speaker 1: and as you can see, Devin Booker's breaking open here
Speaker 1: in that week side corners. That's our hammer action. But
Speaker 1: we get a really nice defensive play here from Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell chasing over the top and he's going to actually
Speaker 1: take away this shot as an opportunity for Devin Booker. Okay,
Speaker 1: he goes up, we get a pump fake. Now he
Speaker 1: has another open three. But we get another layer of
Speaker 1: defensive effort here from Max Struce. He sells out off
Speaker 1: of Bradley Beal to close out and he forces Devin
Speaker 1: Booker to pass off to Bradley Beal wide open here
Speaker 1: under the basket. Bradley Bial catches Jared Allen steps up
Speaker 1: and now we have Kevin Durant wide open on the
Speaker 1: wing Darius Garland. If we go back a little bit here,
Speaker 1: Darius Garland is guarding roy O'Neil up top right. But
Speaker 1: once Bradley Beal makes this kickout pass to Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: Darius Garland has to rotate to Kevin Durant on the wing,
Speaker 1: and now we get Royce O'Neil wide open at the
Speaker 1: top of the key for three, and again an important
Speaker 1: element there that's normally Grayson Allen too. This was mostly
Speaker 1: a full strength matchup between the two teams. All five
Speaker 1: Cavs starters were playing, but we didn't have Grayceon Allen
Speaker 1: in this game. Grayson Allen is literally one of the
Speaker 1: very best spot up players in the league this year.
Speaker 1: I haven't checked the numbers in the last week or so,
Speaker 1: but he's been basically the best spot up guy in
Speaker 1: the league this year. Just absolutely deadly on catch and
Speaker 1: shoot threes. And so that's the predicament and the theme
Speaker 1: here that we're going to get into is we get
Speaker 1: further into these clips. It's running an action to get
Speaker 1: an advantage, star players operating with an advantage, and then
Speaker 1: role players that are actually deadly spot up players that
Speaker 1: can make you pay when you help on those stars.
Speaker 1: And so we ran an action that got an advantage
Speaker 1: for Devin Booker that he ended up bringing two defenders
Speaker 1: in a close out from Donovan Mitchell and a close
Speaker 1: out for Max Strus, which got Bradley be able to
Speaker 1: catch under the rim, which forced a rotation to Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant in a wide open look for roy O'Neal. That
Speaker 1: is advantage basketball. All right. Here's our next clip. This
Speaker 1: is a great example of the value of use of
Speaker 1: Nurkic as a size advantage when they're running these types
Speaker 1: of actions. So Devin Booker brings the ball up the
Speaker 1: floor and basically what we're gonna get is a dribble
Speaker 1: hand off between use of nurkics right here and Devin
Speaker 1: Booker with Max Strus on the ball and Jared Allen
Speaker 1: on Nurkic. Now, they don't want to switch this. Max
Speaker 1: Drews wants to run over the top here, but your
Speaker 1: Nurkic sets an outstanding screen. Just absolutely drills Max struce
Speaker 1: with the shoulder there and again you can get away
Speaker 1: with a little bit of contact here. This is technically,
Speaker 1: by the book, an illegal screen, but basically usef nerkis
Speaker 1: is just making sure to extend that contact long enough
Speaker 1: to allow Devin Booker to get separation the longer. Now,
Speaker 1: one of the things that Devin Booker does here that's
Speaker 1: really smart is he's trying to get the switch. So
Speaker 1: he snakes the pick and roll. What snaking the pick
Speaker 1: and roll means is your work over to the other side.
Speaker 1: So he snakes the pick and roll across. Now Jared
Speaker 1: Allen has to follow him and then ends up turning
Speaker 1: into a switch. So now Max Strus is switched onto
Speaker 1: use of Nurkic. So again a really good screen from
Speaker 1: Nurkic and then a snake of the pick and roll
Speaker 1: by Devin Booker forces the switch. Now we make the
Speaker 1: post entry to use of Nurkic. Now Evan Mobley has
Speaker 1: no choice because of the size advantage, but to come
Speaker 1: over and offer a help on that baseline side. That's
Speaker 1: the guy that's guarding Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant identifies this
Speaker 1: immediately and just makes a flash cut to the high post.
Speaker 1: He's now wide open. He's now wide open because Nurkic
Speaker 1: drew that second defender, and you get a wide open
Speaker 1: ketch and shoot three for one of the best jump
Speaker 1: shooters in the history of the game. So again simple
Speaker 1: action with a really smart screen, a really solid screen
Speaker 1: from use of Nurkic, a smart action from Devin Booker
Speaker 1: to snake to pick and roll. Nurkic is sizing the post,
Speaker 1: drawing that double team and Kevin Durant operating with an advantage.
Speaker 1: You're giving one of the best players in the world
Speaker 1: a wide open ketch and shoe jump shot at the
Speaker 1: foul line because of your ability to create advantages. That's
Speaker 1: not isoball. That is advantage creation Basketball clip number three.
Speaker 1: All Right, so this is a textbook example of a
Speaker 1: ghost screen to attack a hedge and recover. So here
Speaker 1: we're gonna get Kevin Durant up at the top of
Speaker 1: the key with Jared Allen on him. Royce O'Neil right
Speaker 1: here is going to set what's called a ghost screen.
Speaker 1: He's gonna run over like he's gonna set a screen,
Speaker 1: and then he's gonna quick flare to this opposite wing.
Speaker 1: Right here, Donovan Mitchell does not want to switch onto
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, and so what do we do. And we've
Speaker 1: talked about this concept a lot on the show. What
Speaker 1: do we do in a ghost screen situation when we
Speaker 1: don't want to switch, We hedge and recover. Right, So,
Speaker 1: as Roys O'Neil kind of sets the brush screen and
Speaker 1: runs through, Donovan Mitchell steps up in hedges. But because
Speaker 1: roy O'Neil slips it, he doesn't actually set the screen.
Speaker 1: He just sprints out. That's why they call it a
Speaker 1: ghost screen. They called it a ghostcreen because you're not
Speaker 1: actually setting a screen. You're faking like you're setting a screen,
Speaker 1: and you're sprinting out to the wing. So now Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell has hedged and roy O'Neil's open. Because O'Neil's open,
Speaker 1: Darius Garland has no choice but to rotate over to
Speaker 1: Royce O'Neil, And now we're getting a wide open catch
Speaker 1: and shoot three for Bradley Beal, who's been outstanding this
Speaker 1: season in wide open catch and shoot situation. So again,
Speaker 1: a star level player operating with an advantage because of
Speaker 1: a basic action set at the top where you don't
Speaker 1: want to switch one of your smaller defenders onto Kevin
Speaker 1: freaking Durant. So again, that's using KD not to play
Speaker 1: bag basketball, but rather to generate an advantage that a
Speaker 1: star player can take advantage of on the on the backside.
Speaker 1: Alrighty clip number four. This is a really fun example.
Speaker 1: If those are you guys who remember the Cavs Suns
Speaker 1: game earlier in the season. The Cavs were dealing with
Speaker 1: some injuries and George's Kniang was in the starting lineup
Speaker 1: in this particular game, and he drew the Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: assignment for most of the night. And Kevin Durant is
Speaker 1: absolutely flammbayede him all over the floor. You know who
Speaker 1: remembers that use of Nurkic. So we drible up the floor.
Speaker 1: Niang is check into the game. Nurkic immediately is pointing
Speaker 1: over and he's like, look, look, look look at me.
Speaker 1: Looks he sees Kevin Durana Niang. You could see a
Speaker 1: Nurkish identifying it, and he's like, just give him the
Speaker 1: damn ball. Just give him the ball. So Devin Booker
Speaker 1: is going to make an absurd post entry pass here
Speaker 1: across the court and a Katie does a nice job
Speaker 1: of ceiling. Now once again we're gonna play advantage creation basketball.
Speaker 1: So Kat's looking to post on Niang rip through and
Speaker 1: we're going to get a hard double team from Evan
Speaker 1: Mobley on the baseline side. Okay, Now this is where
Speaker 1: the Cavs have basically set up. Struce is supposed to
Speaker 1: be guarding Gordon, but Shruce is now sliding in because
Speaker 1: Mobley doubled to keep use of Nurkic unavailable. So the
Speaker 1: open read here is Eric Gordon. Karro Sliavert and Darius
Speaker 1: Garland are still kind of matched up in there in
Speaker 1: position to close out. So Katie makes the right read.
Speaker 1: You can see him see it, but he has to
Speaker 1: make a whip around pass. This is just an example
Speaker 1: of Katie's physical tools. He can whip the ball around there. Now,
Speaker 1: Darius Garland had to rotate off of Royce O'Neil to
Speaker 1: get to Eric Gordon. So the obvious next step in
Speaker 1: the tic tac toe is Royce O'Neil. Right here at
Speaker 1: the top of the key, we get the kickout pass.
Speaker 1: Now Max Struce is closing out. But again, now this
Speaker 1: would typically be Grayson Allen, who's actually one of the
Speaker 1: better close out attackers in the league. Royce O'Neil's not
Speaker 1: as good as him, but he does a good job. Here,
Speaker 1: Pumpakes gets Strus to take a hard step towards his
Speaker 1: right shoulder so he can beat him off the dribble.
Speaker 1: Now as he beats him off the dribble, Lavert is
Speaker 1: looking at the help situation here. He knows mobile he's
Speaker 1: gonna have to step up on Royce O'Neil, so Lavert's
Speaker 1: trying to read the situation. It looks like Kneeang's gonna
Speaker 1: help on Nurkic. So now LeVert is basically guarding two
Speaker 1: on one here against Devin Booker and Kevin Durant. You
Speaker 1: can actually see Lavert guessing. He's like, which way is
Speaker 1: he gonna go? Which way's he gonna go? Kneang tags Nurkic,
Speaker 1: Which way is he gonna go? He guesses Durant, so
Speaker 1: he runs to Durant's side. So now Royce O'Neil is
Speaker 1: able to make this kickout past to Devin Booker, and
Speaker 1: now Kris Lavert is now closing out again. Look at
Speaker 1: this balls in the air. Devin book one of the
Speaker 1: best offensive players in the world, is now catching on
Speaker 1: the perimeter, wide open with a defender closing out at him.
Speaker 1: An advantage created for the star. He catches and quick
Speaker 1: makes the extra swing pass to Kevin Durant in the corner,
Speaker 1: who he actually misses this three. But this is a
Speaker 1: great example of a super high quality shot that they
Speaker 1: generate again through advantage creation basketball for one of the
Speaker 1: best shooters in the league. All right, here we go
Speaker 1: heading to clip number five. By the way, that blast
Speaker 1: play ended with Nurkic getting an offensive rebound in the chaos,
Speaker 1: throwing it back out to Devin Booker and he ended
Speaker 1: up making a jab step three at the top of
Speaker 1: the key. All Right, so here we're gonna get the
Speaker 1: first sighting of Bull Bull, who was an absolute monster
Speaker 1: in this game. We're gonna be talking about him quite
Speaker 1: a bit here, but we're gonna get multiple screening actions.
Speaker 1: That's gonna end with Beal and U Banks on the
Speaker 1: right side of the floor. So we get this screening
Speaker 1: action here. It's gonna be swung across the floor here
Speaker 1: to U Banks. This play was actually designed, I believe,
Speaker 1: for Bill on the strong side the whole time to
Speaker 1: run a screening action for KD. So my guess is
Speaker 1: the original design of this play was U Banks was
Speaker 1: supposed to screen for Kevin Durant coming out Cleveland. Just
Speaker 1: defends it really well, so you can see Beal's looking,
Speaker 1: he's looking for KD. Strews just does a really nice
Speaker 1: job navigating this and shutting that action off. So the
Speaker 1: next step in this flow here is this screening action
Speaker 1: didn't work. KD is gonna go space to the corner
Speaker 1: and U Banks is going to set up a step
Speaker 1: up and set a ball screen so you could see
Speaker 1: you can actually see you. Bank's point like, all right,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go set it. You slide down. He's literally
Speaker 1: pointing like, go down. So then he comes up and
Speaker 1: he sets the screen. Evan Mobley is now up at
Speaker 1: the level of the screen. Now, as we know, when
Speaker 1: you get the screen defender up to the level, that's
Speaker 1: gonna have to pull one of these guys in to
Speaker 1: tag the roller, almost usually Carris Lavert in this particular situation,
Speaker 1: so we have Mobile at the level. Beal comes over
Speaker 1: the top. U Banks is rolling into the lane. Mitchell's
Speaker 1: gonna kind of sort of stunt at him, but Bill
Speaker 1: at this point has already identified that Lavert is coming
Speaker 1: in to step in and guard you Banks, and Bial
Speaker 1: makes a very nice skip pass to the week side corner.
Speaker 1: Two Bowl Bull, who by the way, is shooting forty
Speaker 1: eight percent field goal percentage on catch and shoot jump
Speaker 1: shots this season, and he knocks down the corner three. Alrighty,
Speaker 1: this is our last offensive play before we get into
Speaker 1: our pick and roll coverages. This one actually starts with
Speaker 1: Bull Bull on a switch against Donovan Mitchell picking him
Speaker 1: clean doing more work on the defensive end. That's not
Speaker 1: the last we're gonna hear of Bull Bull on the
Speaker 1: defensive end. We'll get back there in a minute. We
Speaker 1: run down to the other end of the floor. We're
Speaker 1: gonna get what's called a RAMS screen for use of Nurkic.
Speaker 1: So I'm so excited about this because I've talked about
Speaker 1: so many of these concepts on the show, and I
Speaker 1: haven't been able to actually give you guys visual examples,
Speaker 1: and now we can so a RAM screen. As I've
Speaker 1: talked about so many times over the years. The purpose
Speaker 1: of the RAM screen is to get a gap between
Speaker 1: these two guys, because if Jared Allen, who's an excellent
Speaker 1: pick and roll defender, is able to just walk into
Speaker 1: his defensive coverage, it's a lot easier for him to
Speaker 1: do his job. But if you can create a separation
Speaker 1: between these two guys, Yusuf Nurkicic can sprint up into
Speaker 1: the screen and there's going to be a minute there
Speaker 1: or a second there where it's a two on one
Speaker 1: where the screen defenders trailing the play and you can
Speaker 1: create an advantage. And this one doesn't actually amount to anything,
Speaker 1: but I wanted to actually just kind of demonstrate to
Speaker 1: you guys the concept. This does turn into a bucket
Speaker 1: for Phoenix, but in a counter So here's our ram screen.
Speaker 1: Eric Gordon is setting the pin down on Jared Allen
Speaker 1: to try and Yusuf nurkicch is running up to set
Speaker 1: the screen right. So Eric Gordon does a good job.
Speaker 1: He makes contact. Now we get our separation. There's our
Speaker 1: separation right. LeVert counters this by icing the ball screen.
Speaker 1: So Nurkic is coming up to that right hand side.
Speaker 1: If Devin Booker could get to his right hand here,
Speaker 1: Allen would be compromised because he's fighting up around this way.
Speaker 1: Devin Booker, in all likelihood would turn the corner and
Speaker 1: get all the way to the basket. So Lavert counters
Speaker 1: this by icing the screen, which means denying the use
Speaker 1: of the screen. So look, he's sitting on the high
Speaker 1: side and begging Devin Booker to drive back to this
Speaker 1: left hand side. So again there's another hop to the
Speaker 1: high side. His Nurkics tried to create even more angle
Speaker 1: for Devin Booker to go right. Lavert is completely denying
Speaker 1: the use of the screen, and the move to the
Speaker 1: right but obviously that bakes in a driving lane to
Speaker 1: the left, which is Jared Allen's job to catch right.
Speaker 1: In any sort of ice coverage, this big guy is
Speaker 1: typically going to drop back and catch that drive away
Speaker 1: from the screen. So Devin Booker drives, He engages Allan,
Speaker 1: and Devin Booker knows he's not just gonna drive by
Speaker 1: him or shoot over the top. He is now waiting
Speaker 1: for Nurkic to break open as he slips out of
Speaker 1: the screen, patiently waiting, patiently waiting, makes the pass, puts
Speaker 1: it in a perfect spot where LeVert can't get to it.
Speaker 1: Nurkish does a good job of a low gather there.
Speaker 1: You could see him actually take a low gather to
Speaker 1: prevent to prevent Darius Garland from reaching down. And because
Speaker 1: he's behind the roll man, because the roleman is behind
Speaker 1: the screen defender, that forces Struss to step over from
Speaker 1: bull Bull out of the corner, which creates a wide
Speaker 1: open three for bow Bull in the corner, who again
Speaker 1: is shooting forty eight percent on catch and shoot three.
Speaker 1: So that's it for the offensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: And again I hope that that provides you guys a
Speaker 1: good example. Again, we're talking about a difference here of
Speaker 1: thirteen percent in the percentage of their field goals that
Speaker 1: are assisted during this four game stretch compared to what
Speaker 1: it was like last year in the postseason. They are
Speaker 1: not playing hero ball. They are not playing we have
Speaker 1: to take tough shots every time down the floor. They
Speaker 1: are playing advantage creation basketball, and they're giving really high
Speaker 1: level offensive players high quality opportunities to convert into points.
Speaker 1: And that's how you light up a bunch of top
Speaker 1: ten defenses consecutively. All right, let's get back to the
Speaker 1: film and talk about the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: H our first pick and roll defensive clip. Now, on
Speaker 1: this first action, we're gonna get a ball screen here
Speaker 1: with Evan Mobley on Darius Garland. Okay, as he sets
Speaker 1: the screen, Devin Booker identifies it immediately. If you look
Speaker 1: at Booker, he's chilling here in the corner, but he
Speaker 1: identifies the ball screen immediately and steps up into the
Speaker 1: driving lane. So see steps up into this driving lane.
Speaker 1: He's put himself in a position where if Darius Garland
Speaker 1: turns the corner, he can offer help, but he also
Speaker 1: feels comfortable closing out to the high side of Karris
Speaker 1: Lavert and chasing him on that baseline side where Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant can help. And in that case, if he were
Speaker 1: to chase Lavert off, Kevin Durant would help, and knee
Speaker 1: inks coming out. Booker could honestly just switch after he
Speaker 1: gets beat. So this is really smart help from Devin Booker.
Speaker 1: Typically you don't help out of the strong side corner,
Speaker 1: but he just knows that he has the ability to
Speaker 1: chase Lavert off there. So this forces a reversal. The
Speaker 1: ball gets reversed around to the other end of the floor,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna get Max Strus in a ball screen
Speaker 1: with Evan Mobley. We have Roy O'Neil chasing over the top,
Speaker 1: does a good job staying physical and staying attached. But
Speaker 1: Max Truce nice little extra crossover dribbled to beat Royce
Speaker 1: O'Neil and get into the lane. Watch Devin Booker here though,
Speaker 1: Devin Booker this whole time, this action's happening over here. Look,
Speaker 1: he's pointing. He's telling kd Hey, they're running a ball screen.
Speaker 1: They might get beat. You're gonna have to be the
Speaker 1: low man here, which means if Mobley sneaks behind or
Speaker 1: if anybody gets downhill, Kevin Durant's cleaning that up. That
Speaker 1: means the next step in the windshield wiper rotation is
Speaker 1: Devin Booker has to rotate down here to Niang in
Speaker 1: the corner, and Eric Gordon has to rotate here to
Speaker 1: Karros Lavert on the wing. Devin Booker's ahead of the play.
Speaker 1: This is that communication piece. The action hasn't even the
Speaker 1: action is just now happening. Booker's been calling out the
Speaker 1: coverage here for a few seconds, and that allows them
Speaker 1: to be ahead of it. So when he gets beat,
Speaker 1: KD steps up. As KD steps up, look at Booker.
Speaker 1: Booker immediately takes a slide step. As soon as KD goes,
Speaker 1: KDI goes, Booker slidestep and he forces the turnover. And
Speaker 1: you can actually see if you watch Eric Gordon, Eric
Speaker 1: Gordon is already ready right here to make the rotation
Speaker 1: to Lavert. See he's not worried about Garland anymore. He's
Speaker 1: rotating to Lavert. So again the communication on the back
Speaker 1: line and the effort to get to the right place
Speaker 1: in time, and you force a turnover. Another interesting example
Speaker 1: here is Devin Booker is one of the best pick
Speaker 1: and role players in the league. He understands these reads
Speaker 1: better than everybody, and so he, as a defender, can
Speaker 1: actually channel that offensive IQ to understand the reads and
Speaker 1: actually get ahead of them as the defensive player. All right,
Speaker 1: on to clip number eight. This is a textbook example
Speaker 1: of what's called a peel off switch. So we have
Speaker 1: a transition opportunity here for the suns. Lavert sees an opportunity.
Speaker 1: He's like, I've got bull Bull on me. Bull Bull
Speaker 1: is a forward. He's not going to be particularly good
Speaker 1: at navigating screens. We talked about this all the time.
Speaker 1: So what a great time to run a ball screen
Speaker 1: because Bu Bull probably doesn't know how to guard it. Well,
Speaker 1: it turns out bo Bul does know how to guard it.
Speaker 1: So as the ball screen comes, Mobili to set it.
Speaker 1: As he sets it, you can see bo Bull try
Speaker 1: to fight over the top. He tries to fight over
Speaker 1: the top of the screen, but then he sees right
Speaker 1: here he identifies that Bradley Beal has effectively switched. So
Speaker 1: this is what's called a peel off switch. When you're
Speaker 1: in a ball screen and you're trying to fight over
Speaker 1: the top and you end up getting caught a little
Speaker 1: bit and your screen defender switches. Your read as the
Speaker 1: on ball defender is to peel off of your man
Speaker 1: and to take the role man and to in many cases,
Speaker 1: if the guard is looking to shoot, in many cases
Speaker 1: your job is just to keep him off the glass.
Speaker 1: But in this case, Karris Slivert is gonna try to
Speaker 1: throw it over the top pass to Evan Mobley. But
Speaker 1: because bull Bull peeled off so quickly, and because he
Speaker 1: has such outstanding physical tools, he's able to knock that away.
Speaker 1: So he blows up the play guarding on the ball
Speaker 1: in the ball screen by knowing what to do, which
Speaker 1: is example, which is an example of him being an
Speaker 1: extremely versatile defensive player. But again, Kri Slivert thought he
Speaker 1: saw food there. He thought he thought he saw an
Speaker 1: opportunity to take advantage of a defensive weakness and situation,
Speaker 1: and it turned out to be a defensive strength. Alright,
Speaker 1: here we go. This one is really high level pick
Speaker 1: and roll defense against a complicated action. So what these
Speaker 1: calves are doing here as they're running an action that
Speaker 1: feeds into a ball screen. So Mobley's going to try
Speaker 1: to screen Gordon first, and then Mitchell's going to set
Speaker 1: the first pick and they're setting a staggered ball screen. Typically,
Speaker 1: in a staggered ball screen, the one of the guys
Speaker 1: is going to roll hard to the rim and the
Speaker 1: other guy is going to pop. In this case, obviously
Speaker 1: that's going to be Mitchell as the popper and Evan
Speaker 1: Mobley as the roller. The idea here is to try
Speaker 1: to confuse this coverage because it's a three man action
Speaker 1: instead of a two man action. You can actually see
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell. Watch Donovan Mitchell try to reach out and tap,
Speaker 1: just tap Devin Booker on the hip. Watch this, see
Speaker 1: that little tap. There's a very specific reason why he
Speaker 1: does that. He's think a lot of teams will switch
Speaker 1: the guard guard version of this screen. So a lot
Speaker 1: of teams would be like, oh, Eric Gordon's gonna jump
Speaker 1: off on Darius Garland here and Devin Booker is going
Speaker 1: to now switch on to Donovan Mitchell. Donovan Mitchell is
Speaker 1: trying to trigger that because he sees Eric Gordon with
Speaker 1: his back turned to Garland and he knows if he
Speaker 1: can force a switch, Garland will be able to come
Speaker 1: over the top here easily into his spot. But instead
Speaker 1: Mitchell's trying to tap the Devin Booker to fool him
Speaker 1: into thinking that's a screen, trying to get Devin Booker
Speaker 1: to trigger a switch so that he switches on to Mitchell.
Speaker 1: Booker does not fall for it. Eric Gordon stays attached.
Speaker 1: Booker fights over the top. Now, this is a textbook
Speaker 1: example of no roller behind drop coverage. So watch a Nurkic.
Speaker 1: He's staying in a position where he can help on
Speaker 1: Mobiley and help on Garland. He's playing, he's playing the
Speaker 1: low man here. Royce O'Neil is trying to read Nurkic
Speaker 1: and he's in there just just in case he does
Speaker 1: need to help. But he quickly identifies watching O'Neill right there,
Speaker 1: he identif Nurkic has this. He's like, I'm in there,
Speaker 1: I'm in there. I'm in there right now. He's like,
Speaker 1: Nurkic has this. He hops back. Okay, Now Garland makes
Speaker 1: the skip pass. Because of that hop, he's in position
Speaker 1: to close out if he doesn't make that hop and
Speaker 1: he's in the lane. This is a wide open three
Speaker 1: for kars Lavert. We get a really good close out
Speaker 1: from Roys. O'Neil traps him on that baseline side and
Speaker 1: he ends up ripping him from behind on the dribble move,
Speaker 1: enforcing the turnover. So it's really good pick and roll
Speaker 1: defense because the guys out top at the initial action,
Speaker 1: we're communicating and not falling for the disguise of that
Speaker 1: of that specific action. And then Roys O'Neil in his
Speaker 1: pick and roll coverage, identifying as the low man that
Speaker 1: Nurkic was in good position and staying in a position
Speaker 1: where he could close out on the weak side. That's
Speaker 1: an example of not overhelping. All right, here's our last
Speaker 1: clip of our film session. This one actually ends in
Speaker 1: a basket, but I thought it was an interesting example
Speaker 1: of pre switching to beat a rams screen. So let's
Speaker 1: go over how this works out here. So Cleveland is
Speaker 1: setting up in the same type of situation that we
Speaker 1: saw Phoenix set up in earlier. Darius Garland wants to
Speaker 1: create a gap between Jared Jared Allen and Drew you Banks,
Speaker 1: and so they're gonna use Donna Mitchell to set a
Speaker 1: ram screen down on you Banks to try to get
Speaker 1: Allen a gap. Devin Booker, super smart offensive player, runs
Speaker 1: this same action himself. He identifies it. Him and u
Speaker 1: Banks are looking at each other right now and they're
Speaker 1: communicating and they know here comes a RAM screen, so
Speaker 1: they're gonna talk. Hey, let's pre switch it. See they
Speaker 1: both signal to each other, we're going to pre switch
Speaker 1: this action. So what they're doing is Devin Booker is
Speaker 1: switching onto Jared Allen. So now that RAM screen is
Speaker 1: completely neutralized, and now you can switch this ball screen
Speaker 1: out top. Now here's where they make a mistake though.
Speaker 1: Bradley Beal as soon as he identifies that Devin Booker
Speaker 1: is up here and that Allen is actually trying to
Speaker 1: screen on his outside side, Bradley Beal should just be
Speaker 1: jumping up to this high side immediately because he knows
Speaker 1: if he gets beat to the right hand side, Devin
Speaker 1: Booker's there. So this is an example of them botching
Speaker 1: this part of the coverage. But I did think that
Speaker 1: the pre switch was a really interesting example of a
Speaker 1: way to counter the RAM screen. So because they don't
Speaker 1: do that, Darius Garland's able to turn the corner going left,
Speaker 1: which pulls, which pulls Beal up high enough that they
Speaker 1: can get the ball to Allen and he just catches
Speaker 1: too deep and that's just too easy of a shot.
Speaker 1: But again I thought that that was an interesting example.
Speaker 1: As you can tell, even though they gave up a
Speaker 1: basket in that specific case, the effort on the back
Speaker 1: line of those guys, Like again, as the action is developing,
Speaker 1: Devin Booker and Drew Eubanks are talking to each other,
Speaker 1: They're pointing, they're communicating, they they're letting each other know
Speaker 1: where they need to go. I thought that was a
Speaker 1: consistent theme throughout this particular set of clips, just seeing
Speaker 1: that level of communication and effort on the back line
Speaker 1: defensively to guard and pick and roll. And again, they
Speaker 1: were excellent in pick and roll throughout that particular game.
Speaker 1: Final note on the Suns, like, I, you know, it's interesting.
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily think Phoenix has a lot of physical
Speaker 1: strength after Nurkic. That's definitely the weakness of their particular roster.
Speaker 1: As you look around the league, every team has weaknesses,
Speaker 1: that's not a shot. But after Nurkic, they have a
Speaker 1: ton of speed, a ton of skill, and a ton
Speaker 1: of basketball IQ and the Nurkic brings the unique element
Speaker 1: of strength for that very specific Denver matchup in Nikolea Jokic.
Speaker 1: And so because they're playing a better brand of basketball now,
Speaker 1: because they're not playing hero ball. They're playing advantage creation
Speaker 1: basketball again, like I mentioned earlier, assisting on seventy percent
Speaker 1: of their midfield goals in this four game span versus
Speaker 1: fifty seven percent in the playoffs last year. That's allowing
Speaker 1: them to reach a higher level offensive ceiling. And then
Speaker 1: they're competing defensively and communicating and defending pick and roll
Speaker 1: really well. I personally think that Phoenix is probably at
Speaker 1: this point, if I had to pick a team out
Speaker 1: West that I think is the second best team in
Speaker 1: the West behind Denver, right now, I lean towards Phoenix.
Speaker 1: I think they have the best combination of personnel, playoff scalability,
Speaker 1: and the ability to compete on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: Not to mention the big white whale in the West,
Speaker 1: meaning that's an unfortunate accidental metaphor for Jokic, but I
Speaker 1: meant just like Denver as a unit, as an entity,
Speaker 1: they are the terrifying world destroyer in the Western Conference.
Speaker 1: Phoenix is the team that I think is most well
Speaker 1: equipped to beat them. So as of right now, I
Speaker 1: think they're the team that I view as the second
Speaker 1: best team in the Western Conference. All right, let's move
Speaker 1: on to our next segment in our mailbag. Hey Jason
Speaker 1: Wemby question, I've been watching your show for a few
Speaker 1: years now, top zero point one percent of Spotify listeners.
Speaker 1: By the way, huge fan. Thanks for supporting the show.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it. And I've heard that you say
Speaker 1: the primary goal of rebuilding a franchise is to go
Speaker 1: get a superstar. By all metrics, it looks like Wemby
Speaker 1: is that guy. If you were the GM of the Spurs,
Speaker 1: what would you do next? Who are you keeping, who
Speaker 1: are you letting go? What kinds of player archetypes are
Speaker 1: you looking to bring in through trades slash drafts? And
Speaker 1: then thank you so much for your work. It has
Speaker 1: helped me understand and enjoy basketball so much more than before. Again,
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate the kind words and for supporting. So
Speaker 1: the initial structure is what I want to look at here.
Speaker 1: So if we agree that Victor wem Minyama is our
Speaker 1: superstar to kind of anchor everything with San Antonio, now
Speaker 1: we look at like the ideal kind of five man
Speaker 1: lineup right now for me, right next to Victor Wembnyama
Speaker 1: at that forward spot I'm looking for a big, strong
Speaker 1: forward that can help in defensive rebounding situations and in
Speaker 1: low man situations, kind of like we were talking about
Speaker 1: in the Suns earlier, that guy that steps over in
Speaker 1: ball screen situations when Victor Wembinyama has to come up
Speaker 1: to the level of the screen. Right at the three spot,
Speaker 1: we're looking for a guy who can defend on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: knock down threes, and attack closeouts really well. At the
Speaker 1: two spot, I'm primarily looking for in the two to
Speaker 1: one depending on who you end up building around. If
Speaker 1: it ends up being Devin Vessel, Devin Vessel at the
Speaker 1: two ends up being your skill guard, right Like he's
Speaker 1: the guy that is going to have the ball in
Speaker 1: his hands a lot, be running a lot of pick
Speaker 1: and roll. I really need the point guard in that
Speaker 1: case to be an outstanding perimeter defender, a guy who
Speaker 1: can navigate screens well, guard the other team's best guard,
Speaker 1: so on and so forth. Now, with Devin Vessel being
Speaker 1: a skill guard, I do think that from the forward position,
Speaker 1: one of those two forwards, whether it's the three or
Speaker 1: the four, needs to be a really high level offensive player.
Speaker 1: I do think that's something that they'll need in the
Speaker 1: long run. What makes this complicated is you look the payroll.
Speaker 1: Devin Vessel is locked up on a pretty affordable deal,
Speaker 1: especially when you factor in how the salary cap could
Speaker 1: change over the next TV deal. Keldon Johnson and Zach
Speaker 1: Collins are your main larger contracts. They're in the high teens. Well,
Speaker 1: most of the young guys are on rookie deals. So
Speaker 1: like with those guys, you're not going to be dumping
Speaker 1: them for salary. You might include them in a star
Speaker 1: trade if you're looking to bring somebody back, but there's
Speaker 1: no reason, like they don't really make up much of
Speaker 1: a factor in your payroll situation. Right, But we also
Speaker 1: have to acknowledge the reality of Wenby's development arc. He
Speaker 1: is so good, so fast, there's like a better than
Speaker 1: fifty percent chance in my opinion, that he's going to
Speaker 1: be a top ten player in the league next year.
Speaker 1: And it's on the table that he could be a
Speaker 1: top five player in the league next year. That's how
Speaker 1: freaking good Victor wen Binyama is. And we're talking about
Speaker 1: another six seven months or longer of development before we
Speaker 1: get to that point. So like that, you can't be
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City and do a five year slow burn of
Speaker 1: a rebuild, you can't take this slow. There's a certain
Speaker 1: urgency element here based on the reality of Victor wen
Speaker 1: Minyama's development. So from there I would look at as
Speaker 1: far as the young guys go. None of them would
Speaker 1: be safe for me except for Devin Vessel in Victor
Speaker 1: wen Binyama, and I would trade Devin Vessel if it
Speaker 1: brought back a superstar shot creator. But like the other guys,
Speaker 1: like like I like Jeremy so chan a Sohan not
Speaker 1: enough to view him as untouchable, like Trey Jones, not
Speaker 1: enough to view hims untouchable. I've never been a big
Speaker 1: Keldon Johnson fan. I think he's a little tunnel vision
Speaker 1: and not a good enough shooter. So like, from there,
Speaker 1: it really is about who you who becomes available in
Speaker 1: the offseason. I really do think they need to make
Speaker 1: some type of all in move for an all star
Speaker 1: in their prime sooner than later, sometime in the next
Speaker 1: two years. Trey Young is an interesting option, but he's
Speaker 1: a very risky option. He's a guy that I think
Speaker 1: unlocks a lot offensively right away, but he's gonna be
Speaker 1: expensive to get. And then two, there's a question, there's
Speaker 1: a there's a case to be made that it's that
Speaker 1: it's cashing into early and for not a good enough player,
Speaker 1: and so the Trey Young thing, I'm kind of more
Speaker 1: leaning towards. I would hold back if I was san Antonio,
Speaker 1: but that is an interesting option, and I do like
Speaker 1: the offensive fit with Victor wembin Yama. From there, I'd
Speaker 1: be looking for a forward, someone that can work in
Speaker 1: that three to four spot, who is a much higher
Speaker 1: level offensive player than what you've had in over the
Speaker 1: course of this season. A guy like Lori Markinen is
Speaker 1: guy look at guy like Brandon Ingram, Like what if
Speaker 1: the Pels flame out and they decide that, you know,
Speaker 1: Zion is the guy they want to build around and
Speaker 1: they're and the guy that they need to cash in
Speaker 1: as someone like a brandon Ingram, That's a guy that
Speaker 1: I'd be looking at. McHale Bridges. I know Brooklyn loves
Speaker 1: him and views him as a foundational piece, but that's
Speaker 1: completely irrational given where they're at in terms of talent
Speaker 1: on that roster and mckail bridge's age and where he's
Speaker 1: at in his development and the fact that he's kind
Speaker 1: of close to his ceiling. Mckel bridges is a guy
Speaker 1: that I'd be looking at. But again, in terms of
Speaker 1: the actual structure of the roster two forwards there, one
Speaker 1: of them needs to be a score of some kind,
Speaker 1: a high level offensive player. The three needs to be
Speaker 1: able to navigate on the perimeter defensively, the four needs
Speaker 1: to be bigger and stronger, especially since Victor is a
Speaker 1: little bit on the skinny side. And then at those guards,
Speaker 1: one of your guards needs to be a high level
Speaker 1: skill guard, and then the other one needs to be
Speaker 1: some kind of bulldog like point of attack defender that
Speaker 1: can navigate screens. That would be the structure that I
Speaker 1: go with from there. But I do think that they
Speaker 1: need to make some sort of all in moves sooner
Speaker 1: than later, just because of Victor women Yama's development. Before
Speaker 1: we get out of here, the Julius Randall injury. So
Speaker 1: it turns out that he tried to rehab the shoulder
Speaker 1: and it just isn't gonna come around, and so he's
Speaker 1: getting surgery and he's gonna be out for the rest
Speaker 1: of the season. What does that mean for the Knicks.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing. Theoretically, if Ojan Andobe can come back
Speaker 1: and get the elbow inflammation under control, I do think
Speaker 1: he can slide into that four spot. And Isaiah Hartenstein
Speaker 1: is playing so incredibly well, and Mitchell Robinson is back
Speaker 1: into the equation in a way that he wasn't earlier
Speaker 1: in the season. Right, So, like, the Knicks are still formidable,
Speaker 1: but the reality is they need a consistent shot creator
Speaker 1: beyond beyond Jalen brunts And we saw last year when
Speaker 1: Julius Randall was available and he just wasn't quite good
Speaker 1: enough because he was out of rhythm and playing on
Speaker 1: a bum ankle. We saw that that wasn't enough, and
Speaker 1: so it's a lot of pressure on O Jannoby to
Speaker 1: kind of be that matchup attacking forward to create shots.
Speaker 1: And so I had really high aspirations for the Knicks,
Speaker 1: and I still do in the long run, and I'm
Speaker 1: really curious to see what they do this summer to
Speaker 1: kind of bring in that legitimate secondary shot creator next
Speaker 1: to Jalen Brunson. That's just Julius Randalld getting healthy, or
Speaker 1: it's some sort of trade or free agent acquisition. But
Speaker 1: I'm interested to see what they do in the long run.
Speaker 1: But I just don't know that they can get through
Speaker 1: that gauntlet at the top of the Eastern Conference without
Speaker 1: having a bona fide secondary shot creator, and so I
Speaker 1: kind of view that Julius Randall injury as a bit
Speaker 1: of a death sentence. That said, again, I think the
Speaker 1: way you kind of structure this in the short term
Speaker 1: is when og and Obi comes back, you play him
Speaker 1: at the four and essentially ask him to do a
Speaker 1: lot of what Julius Randall does, targeting smaller guards and
Speaker 1: screening actions to get switches into do that bully ball
Speaker 1: post up attack. Just to have an option to spell
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson as much as you can. New York is
Speaker 1: still going to be a pain in the ass. Again,
Speaker 1: Julius Randall wasn't even very good last year, and they were,
Speaker 1: you know, a few shots away from being in a
Speaker 1: good position to make it to the conference finals. So
Speaker 1: I still believe in the Knicks as a like a
Speaker 1: kind of a pain in the ass type of threat.
Speaker 1: But firepower is just going to eventually be an issue
Speaker 1: for them. There's just too many teams around the league
Speaker 1: that have more shot creation than the Knicks two, and
Speaker 1: so the Julius Randall injury is more or less a
Speaker 1: death sentence at this point. Unfortunately, it's been a fun
Speaker 1: next season. They've competed through it all, and they have
Speaker 1: such a bright future and they have so much talent
Speaker 1: on the roster, but it's just their only hope relied
Speaker 1: on Julius Randall coming back this year and being a
Speaker 1: reliable secondary shot creator. All Right, guys, that is all
Speaker 1: we have for this morning. As of right now, We're
Speaker 1: planning on going live tonight on YouTube after the final
Speaker 1: buzzer of Nuggets Clippers, unless a bunch of superstars end
Speaker 1: up not playing. So we'll see how the injury report
Speaker 1: comes out. But I hope you guys have been enjoying
Speaker 1: these film sessions. I'm excited to keep building them out
Speaker 1: in the long run. I appreciate you guys a support,
Speaker 1: and I will see you next time. The volume