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Speaker 1: to tonight here at the Volume. Happy Sunday, everybody. Hope
Speaker 1: all of you guys are having a great weekend. We
Speaker 1: got a big piece of NBA news last night as
Speaker 1: the Mark Williams trade between the Los Angeles Lakers and
Speaker 1: the Charlotte Hornets fell through, and we also got a
Speaker 1: couple of interesting games last week night, as Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: made his debut for the Warriors as they had some
Speaker 1: wild second half comeback where they're getting completely blown off
Speaker 1: the floor and the next thing you know, they're blowing
Speaker 1: the bulls off the court. So we're going to break
Speaker 1: that game down. And then the New York Knicks got
Speaker 1: another chance to try to demonstrate to the Celtics that
Speaker 1: they were on their level and just got absolutely annihilated.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna be breaking down those two games, hitting
Speaker 1: some Mark Williams stuff off of the top, and then
Speaker 1: we'll get out of here so you guys can enjoy
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. You guys know the joke before we
Speaker 1: get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so
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Speaker 1: the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So the Mark Williams trade, as Ben rescinded, the reporting
Speaker 1: is just that they found too much in the scans
Speaker 1: and the physical two justified believing him as a foundational
Speaker 1: center for the Lakers over the course of this next era.
Speaker 1: When this news came down last night, I had a
Speaker 1: lot of mixed feelings about it. I had kind of
Speaker 1: sort of been worried about this because it's highly unusual
Speaker 1: for a trade like that to not be finalized in
Speaker 1: the timeline that it had been finalized, and I'd been
Speaker 1: texting with some people behind the scenes and being like,
Speaker 1: this is weird, right, And then next thing you know,
Speaker 1: the Mark Williams trade ends up getting rescinded. And on
Speaker 1: one hand, Mark Williams is a very flawed NBA player,
Speaker 1: and the playoffs have a remarkable ability to expose flaws.
Speaker 1: That's why I talked a lot after the trade about
Speaker 1: how this team is probably going to go down with
Speaker 1: small ball lineups. Anyway, when the time comes even after
Speaker 1: the Mark Williams trade, but I kept landing back on
Speaker 1: the same simple logical progression that bummed me out, which
Speaker 1: is that Dalton Connects wasn't going to be in the
Speaker 1: playoff rotation for this team, and neither was Cam Reddish.
Speaker 1: And even with Mark Williams's flaws, he still brings a
Speaker 1: ton of positives to the team as a screen and
Speaker 1: roll threat and as a rebounder, And even with his flaws,
Speaker 1: he almost certainly would have played at least fifteen minutes
Speaker 1: ish a game in the playoffs. So like, even if
Speaker 1: you try to find the silver linings, like you get
Speaker 1: your assets back, you have some more flexibility this summer,
Speaker 1: which we'll talk about in a little bit. There's a simple,
Speaker 1: harsh reality here, which is this trade falling through is
Speaker 1: a loss of talent for this year's Los Angeles Lakers team.
Speaker 1: So the first question is where do they go from here?
Speaker 1: The good news is is that the Lakers are obviously
Speaker 1: the top destination for the best available center from now
Speaker 1: to the end of the season. They have a starting
Speaker 1: spot you can walk right into and you'll just get
Speaker 1: spoon fed dunks and layups by the Laker offense every
Speaker 1: single game. That's the good news. The bad news is
Speaker 1: that the options aren't great. I want to read to
Speaker 1: you guys what I deemed to be all the potential options.
Speaker 1: So first of all, here buyout candidates. This is every
Speaker 1: tending unrestricted free agent, meaning they're about to be a
Speaker 1: free agent this summer who makes less than twelve point
Speaker 1: eight million dollars. So these are guys that could work
Speaker 1: out buyouts with their team and could sign with the
Speaker 1: Lakers as a first Apron team because they made less
Speaker 1: than twelve point eight million on their last contract. Steven
Speaker 1: Adams probably not getting bought out by the Rockets, Al
Speaker 1: Horford definitely not. Kevon Looney definitely not. DeAndre Jordan probably
Speaker 1: not available and not a good option. Tristan Thompson not available,
Speaker 1: Todge Gibson not a good option, Mason plumbly not going
Speaker 1: to be available, Alex Land already agreed to join a
Speaker 1: different team, Christian Wood already a Laker and I'm not
Speaker 1: even sure if he plays basketball anymore, and Luke Cornette
Speaker 1: not available, Thomas Bryant not available, Jackson Hayes already is
Speaker 1: your starting center, Charles Bass even you know there's Mamou
Speaker 1: out of San Antonio. They're not getting rid of him.
Speaker 1: Jericho Sims already with the Bucks. Paul Reid maybe right
Speaker 1: like those are the buyout candidates's that's not that's not
Speaker 1: anything that's going to be a substantial playoff rotation piece
Speaker 1: for the Lakers. Right There are some okay options in
Speaker 1: the currently available centers groups. So these are guys who
Speaker 1: are currently free agents that can absolutely sign with the
Speaker 1: Lakers right now, and I do think this is the
Speaker 1: direction the Lakers will choose to go. There's a guy
Speaker 1: like Daniel Tice, whose name has been bounced around. He's
Speaker 1: a bigger body, which is I guess an advantage for
Speaker 1: absorbing blows from Jokis, but he's not a vertical spacer.
Speaker 1: He's technically a stretch big, but he doesn't really make
Speaker 1: three point shots, so I'm not super high on that
Speaker 1: as an option. Mobamba is an interesting option. He's probably
Speaker 1: my favorite option at this point. He's got good length,
Speaker 1: He's a good above the break three point shooter, which
Speaker 1: makes him a pick and pop threat. He's very thin,
Speaker 1: but at least he can block some shots, but he
Speaker 1: really isn't a great defender. I think He's probably my
Speaker 1: favorite option right now because he's like a thirteen and
Speaker 1: thirteen with three blocks per thirty six minutes kind of
Speaker 1: guy that's pretty decent production. So I think that's probably
Speaker 1: the best option. Damian Jones used to be a Laker,
Speaker 1: not a very good rebounder, which is my main concern,
Speaker 1: but he is a little bit bigger and stronger than Mobama,
Speaker 1: which could be advantageous for a Jokis matchup. Then there's
Speaker 1: some other guys at Colin Castleton, jaliel Okuefer. I don't
Speaker 1: think those are real options. So again, I think Mo
Speaker 1: Bamba is probably your best bet, and that is probably
Speaker 1: gonna be the kind of guy that they end up getting. Again,
Speaker 1: I think it'll be either Bomba, Tye or Damian Jones,
Speaker 1: but I think it'll probably end up being Bomba. So
Speaker 1: let's just assume that the Lakers sign a guy like Bomba.
Speaker 1: But as I'm moving forward and I'm talking through this,
Speaker 1: when you hear the name Bomba, it doesn't really matter
Speaker 1: whether it's Bomba or Tys or Damian Jones. It's still
Speaker 1: the same kind of issue that it presents. Where does
Speaker 1: that leave the Lakers for this season? They still have
Speaker 1: a remarkably good small ball group. In the last five
Speaker 1: games that the Lakers have played without Anthony Davis, they're
Speaker 1: five and zero. They beat the Nixon Madison Square Garden,
Speaker 1: they beat the Clippers in Inglewood, they beat the Warriors
Speaker 1: and the Pacers at home, including beating the Pacers without Lebron,
Speaker 1: So they've looked good in that span. They're second in
Speaker 1: offense and fourth in defense. They've been guarding with that group.
Speaker 1: It's a big thing I've been trying to hit on
Speaker 1: this show, Like, the Lakers have been a really good
Speaker 1: defense since Jared Vanderbilt got healthy and since Doryan Finney
Speaker 1: Smith joined the team. They are also twelve in rebounding
Speaker 1: percentage in that five game span, which, like for a
Speaker 1: small ball group, is actually really solid. I think the
Speaker 1: approach for the rest of this season needs to be
Speaker 1: lean as much as possible into perfecting small ball. Originally,
Speaker 1: I talked a lot about how Mark Williams would present
Speaker 1: just a different look for the Lakers. They could have
Speaker 1: these lineups out there where it's Luca and Mark Williams
Speaker 1: and you know, any combination of three of their core
Speaker 1: seven players that are the core seven rotation players.
Speaker 2: That are still there, and.
Speaker 1: That group should be able to score the shit out
Speaker 1: of the ball. So like, at least for twenty minutes
Speaker 1: a night, you could have a unit with like a
Speaker 1: one to twenty two to one to twenty three offensive
Speaker 1: rating and a one to twenty defensive rating that stays positive,
Speaker 1: that eats up innings in the regular season. You probably
Speaker 1: don't lean on it much in the postseason, but that's there.
Speaker 2: That's not there anymore.
Speaker 1: That that group is not going to be as effective
Speaker 1: offensively because you're not going to have the screen in
Speaker 1: role threat, right So, like now, I think you almost
Speaker 1: have to lean into as much small ball as possible
Speaker 1: and just perfect that. Here's why I feel that way,
Speaker 1: because even if you do get a guy like Mobamba,
Speaker 1: it was probably the best of all the guys that
Speaker 1: we listed, he's just not one of your best players
Speaker 1: for the Lakers after that deal. You always want to
Speaker 1: have your best players on the court together as much
Speaker 1: as possible to try to win basketball games. I know
Speaker 1: it's a really, you know, a brave thing to say,
Speaker 1: but who are the Lakers' best players right now? It's Luca,
Speaker 1: it's Lebron, it's Austin Ruey, Dorian Finney, Smith, Jared Vanderbilt,
Speaker 1: gave Vincent. That's that's your core seven. There's a huge
Speaker 1: dropoff in reliability to the next group of players. Shake
Speaker 1: Milton Jackson, Hayes, Mobamba in this case, or whoever it
Speaker 1: is that the get as a center, even Dalton within
Speaker 1: the playoff context, I view as a huge drop off
Speaker 1: from those top seven guys. You don't want to play
Speaker 1: Mobamba twenty plus minutes a game. Maybe in the regular
Speaker 1: season eat innings, but definitely not in the postseason, not
Speaker 1: at the of those top seven guys in their minutes,
Speaker 1: not unless you absolutely have to, even within the context
Speaker 1: of a Denver matchup, and by the way, they're gonna
Speaker 1: play Denver here in less than two weeks. I'd lean
Speaker 1: into finding ways to beat them with small ball. Those
Speaker 1: are your best basketball players. You don't want to put
Speaker 1: a center out there just for the sake of having
Speaker 1: a center out there. If that center is not very good,
Speaker 1: Bomba or whoever you get, he'll be there in case
Speaker 1: you need him. And you definitely want to try some
Speaker 1: of those looks on Jokic in the regular season and
Speaker 1: just see how it looks. But I now look at
Speaker 1: this team as completely committed to small ball rather than
Speaker 1: as a group that will have multiple elite looks. Another
Speaker 1: thing to keep an eye on is Maxic Kliba's recovery
Speaker 1: from this foot injury. If he could somehow come back
Speaker 1: and be healthy in time for the playoffs, he then
Speaker 1: becomes super valuable. But foot injuries are sketchy, and the
Speaker 1: eight week timeline stretches basically to the first couple of
Speaker 1: weeks before the playoffs, so like, I don't necessarily think
Speaker 1: you can depend on Maxi being available. So the big
Speaker 1: question is can the Lakers win the title out a
Speaker 1: legit starting center, And the answer is, of course they can,
Speaker 1: But the reality is that it's never been done before.
Speaker 1: Let's just go back to recent NBA history. These are
Speaker 1: the starting centers in the last like roughly fifteen to
Speaker 1: twenty NBA champions Chris Hops Porzingis and Al Horford, Nicole Jokic,
Speaker 1: Draymond Green, Brook Lopez, Anthony Davis, Mark Gasol, Draymond Green,
Speaker 1: Draymond Green, Kevin Love, and Tristan Thompson. With the Cavs,
Speaker 1: those are two starting quality centers. Draymond Green, Tim Duncan,
Speaker 1: Chris Bosh, Chris Bosh Tyson Chandler. That's probably the weakest
Speaker 1: guy in that list, and he was awesome as a
Speaker 1: rim protector and lob threat with that team. Pow Gasol
Speaker 1: Po Gasol again, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan. You can go
Speaker 1: on and on and on, and it's Shaquille O'Neal in
Speaker 1: two thousand and six, Ben Wallace, like it just it
Speaker 1: just continues.
Speaker 2: They're all good.
Speaker 1: So like this will certainly be the greatest small ball
Speaker 1: group that's ever been assembled. And so if there was
Speaker 1: a group that would do it, it would be a
Speaker 1: group that's got Luca and Lebron and a bunch of
Speaker 1: rangey forwards. It would be a group like this. But
Speaker 1: I'm skeptical for a variety of reasons. Big ones yoks
Speaker 1: having to beat Jokich in a series when you literally
Speaker 1: don't have a player that can come remotely close to
Speaker 1: hanging with them physically is hard for me to envision,
Speaker 1: even for a guy like Lebron. Like Lebron, I've seen
Speaker 1: Lebron do it in the he did an amazing job
Speaker 1: on Jokich in the fourth quarter of a gold medal game.
Speaker 1: It's one thing to do it for a five to
Speaker 1: ten minute spurt. It's an entirely different thing to have
Speaker 1: Lebron guard Jokic for two straight weeks, especially when what
Speaker 1: he does on offense would be a vital part of
Speaker 1: you actually winning that series if you were to manage it.
Speaker 1: But let's take that out of the equation. Let's just
Speaker 1: say somehow the Nuggets get upset by someone else. So
Speaker 1: let's say the Lakers fight up and they pass the
Speaker 1: Nuggets in the standings, and they get to the three
Speaker 1: seed and they end up in the two to three
Speaker 1: matchup in the semi finals, but the Nuggets end up
Speaker 1: getting Okac, and it's a one to four matchup between
Speaker 1: Oklahoma's city in Denver and Chet and Isaiah Hardenstein and
Speaker 1: all those guys. They just do a number on the
Speaker 1: Nuggets and they somehow eliminate them, and so suddenly you
Speaker 1: don't have the Jokic problem. Even within that context. Small
Speaker 1: ball is hard on the body. It requires so much
Speaker 1: flying around, so much fighting for contested rebounds. Lebron is
Speaker 1: forty Daurrian Finney Smith is in his thirties. Luca has
Speaker 1: been banged up all year and is not the most
Speaker 1: mobile dud dude in the world like, it is a
Speaker 1: lot to ask for those guys to hold up from
Speaker 1: now February ninth, all the way through a late May
Speaker 1: potential conference finals series or a June final series against
Speaker 1: the Boston Celtics or Cleveland, whoever comes out of the East.
Speaker 1: My injury concerns for this group skyrocket now because of
Speaker 1: just how much you'll have to lean on small ball
Speaker 1: and how hard small ball is on the body. Mark
Speaker 1: Williams would have given them a much better chance to
Speaker 1: eat up innings with conventional look, not just in the
Speaker 1: regular season, but even for fifteen to twenty minutes a
Speaker 1: night in the postseason. And that's just not an option anymore,
Speaker 1: not a viable option. So in short, like this isn't
Speaker 1: a death sentence for the Lakers, but it puts them
Speaker 1: on a path that has actually never been accomplished before,
Speaker 1: and that makes it entirely theoretical. Right, we don't have
Speaker 1: anything to point to there. I had something to point
Speaker 1: to before this fell through, in terms of what the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three nuggets were, which is like, what if
Speaker 1: we just get good enough on defense because we have
Speaker 1: good defenders mixed in with our limited defenders. The limited
Speaker 1: defenders buy in and do their job. We get enough
Speaker 1: stops and then we have this utterly unguardable offense which
Speaker 1: Denver had that was the pathway, and now it just
Speaker 1: feels that much thinner they can do it. But it's
Speaker 1: a lot to ask. It's important context to go over
Speaker 1: the silver lining of the future for the Lakers after this.
Speaker 1: Rob was put in a tough spot at the deadline
Speaker 1: after the Luka Doncic deal went through. He had less
Speaker 1: than a week to solve the center problem at that point.
Speaker 1: Now we don't know the story with the hornets. One
Speaker 1: of two things happened. Either Rob didn't properly vet this
Speaker 1: beforehand with the research and just digging around, or he
Speaker 1: did and everything looked fine, but then something completely new
Speaker 1: that just happened recently showed up on a scan and
Speaker 1: that this is just bad luck. If Rob didn't vet
Speaker 1: this properly, he deserves a ton of criticism for batching this.
Speaker 1: But we just don't know what happened yet, so I
Speaker 1: don't want to go down that road yet. We'll approach
Speaker 1: that when we have more information. I would imagine within
Speaker 1: the next couple of days we will The silver lining
Speaker 1: here is Mark Williams was expensive. The Lakers got a
Speaker 1: bunch of assets back here. They now have a first
Speaker 1: round pick this summer to trade when they did it.
Speaker 1: They now have Dalton Connect this summer to trade when
Speaker 1: they didn't. Dalton Connect is worth more than a first
Speaker 1: round pick. It's probably or about the same as a
Speaker 1: first round pick in terms of it as a trade asset.
Speaker 1: They now have access to two second round picks this
Speaker 1: summer and act to four pick swaps this summer, and
Speaker 1: they'll have a bunch of expiring salary trade. So to
Speaker 1: put it simply, if the Mark Williams deal goes through,
Speaker 1: you're basically locked in for the future. Now you have
Speaker 1: a good amount of flexibility this summer, and you won't
Speaker 1: be put into like a less than a week we
Speaker 1: got to figure this out right now kind of thing.
Speaker 1: You'll have more options. That bodes well. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of upside this summer. But I keep coming back to
Speaker 1: the same thing. Lebron is forty and for the last
Speaker 1: couple of weeks has been playing like one of the
Speaker 1: top tier superstars in this league. It is really hard
Speaker 1: for me to imagine him doing this again next year.
Speaker 1: Maybe he will, but this could end up being your
Speaker 1: last great chance to win with Lebron and Luca both
Speaker 1: at a top five level.
Speaker 2: And you just took a huge punch to the gut
Speaker 2: on that front.
Speaker 1: It's not over, but your chance has just got a
Speaker 1: lot more slim I was definitely bummed out to see
Speaker 1: that news last night. All Right, let's talk about some
Speaker 1: games that actually took place yesterday, starting with the Celtics
Speaker 1: and the Knicks. Once again a clear demonstration that the
Speaker 1: Celtics are just an awful matchup for the Knicks because
Speaker 1: of their ability to attack Jalen Brunson and Karl Anthony Towns.
Speaker 2: And it was all night long.
Speaker 1: With that second possession of the game, Jason Tatum ball
Speaker 1: screen versus Karl Anthony Towns and just hits him with
Speaker 1: a nasty in.
Speaker 2: And out dribble.
Speaker 1: Cat buckles off to his right side and Tatum just
Speaker 1: goes in and absolutely mashes a slam over precious Achua
Speaker 1: and it's like they're just getting easy stuff whenever they want.
Speaker 1: Tatum hits who pull up threes early against Carl Anthony
Speaker 1: Towns and drop Jalen Brown, posting Jalen Brunson a lot,
Speaker 1: drawing multiple defenders and kicking out for threes from guys
Speaker 1: like Al Horford. They built an early lead. Even in
Speaker 1: the start of the second quarter, they were just consistently
Speaker 1: doing the or started the third quarter, excuse me, they
Speaker 1: were just doing the exact same thing every single time.
Speaker 1: Down the floor. Get a screen to get Brunson onto Tatum,
Speaker 1: then attack Karl Anthony Town so that you're attacking Brunson
Speaker 1: and Kat in the same action. And they were just
Speaker 1: getting dunk and layup and dunk and wide open three.
Speaker 1: Even when the Knicks cut the lead down to three
Speaker 1: with their little run that they had in the third quarter,
Speaker 1: they got going to transition, they made some shots, they
Speaker 1: cut it down to three. Tatum just promptly started spamming
Speaker 1: this action where they would have instead of the getting
Speaker 1: Brunson onto him first, they just started setting ram screens
Speaker 1: so that Cat would have to close out to the level.
Speaker 1: A ram screen is just a basic pick and roll concept.
Speaker 1: Just imagine ball handler at the top of the key
Speaker 1: screeners down here, but you have a third player run
Speaker 1: down and scream Cat so that he is trailing as
Speaker 1: the screener goes up right, Kat's man is running up
Speaker 1: into a ball screen as he runs up into the ball.
Speaker 2: Screen.
Speaker 1: Kat needs to be there with him so he can
Speaker 1: meet Tatum at the level and contain the ball. But
Speaker 1: if you set a screen on Kat, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: there's a delay and a gap that forms between the
Speaker 1: screener and where Cat is. So now when Tatum comes off,
Speaker 1: he's coming off with Cat sprinting at him at the
Speaker 1: same time, instead of him coming off.
Speaker 2: With Kat already there right.
Speaker 1: And so because of that gap and because Kat is
Speaker 1: closing out, Tatum started just coming off the screen hard
Speaker 1: and then snatching a crossover back to the left and
Speaker 1: just beating Kat off the dribble there and relentlessly getting
Speaker 1: downhill for dunks, drop off for Derek White in the
Speaker 1: dunker spot, kick out pass, kickout pass, there's Derek White
Speaker 1: White open three on the right wing. And then at
Speaker 1: that point Tatum gets in this crazy hot rhythm. Now
Speaker 1: he's hitting sidestep threes over McHale bridges. He just had
Speaker 1: every part of his game going at that point. It
Speaker 1: was just a really nice example of methodical shot creation
Speaker 1: from Jason Tatum to get great shots instead of settling.
Speaker 1: And like I've talked about this all season a long
Speaker 1: with the Celtics, it really comes down to how deliberate
Speaker 1: they are on offense. When they are deliberate on offense,
Speaker 1: to when they take the time to set the screen
Speaker 1: that gets the primary defender that you then want to
Speaker 1: bring into the ball screen with the weakest defender, so
Speaker 1: that you're not just getting an okay shot, but instead
Speaker 1: you're constantly getting Tatum screaming downhill or we're gonna Kat
Speaker 1: already sucks at guarding Tatum in space, Let's make it
Speaker 1: even harder for him by making him navigate a screen
Speaker 1: before he comes up to the level to try to
Speaker 1: contain Jason Tatum. That sort of deliberate approach to advantage
Speaker 1: creation is what greases the wheels for the Celtics offense. Again,
Speaker 1: Tatum is an excellent fadeaway jump shot maker, or Tatum
Speaker 1: is a great you know, step back, pull up three
Speaker 1: point shot maker. Jalen Brown is a great post up,
Speaker 1: fade away jump shot maker. Like those guys can do that,
Speaker 1: and in the postseason there will be times when they
Speaker 1: have to lean on that shot making and it will
Speaker 1: carry them through a signi stretches of games. But it
Speaker 1: is the deliberate shot creation that is the nuts and bolts,
Speaker 1: the meat and potatoes of what makes this Celtics offense
Speaker 1: so good, and especially against teams like the Knicks, when
Speaker 1: they have these clearly defined entry points, they can just
Speaker 1: spam that stuff and continue to get fantastic shots. And
Speaker 1: I thought Tatum was absolutely brilliant in this game. He
Speaker 1: had forty the scoring, the advantage creation. He was just
Speaker 1: very clearly the best player on the floor by a
Speaker 1: wide margin. Last night. I thought Luke Cornett had a
Speaker 1: great game too, just his rim protection, that you're setting
Speaker 1: great screens for Tatum in these ball screens and like
Speaker 1: getting separation, rolling into space and clearing out of help
Speaker 1: and rim protection like he's Martin Gortat, like he just
Speaker 1: Marcine Gortat. I should say he was just he was
Speaker 1: just excellent in this game. Luke Cornett was really really
Speaker 1: impressive win for the Celtics to continue to kind of
Speaker 1: oscillate back and forth between embarrassing performances and here we
Speaker 1: are where the Champs performances in this phase of the season.
Speaker 1: On the Knicks front. I've been saying this all season,
Speaker 1: but I want to harp on this because there was
Speaker 1: a sequence there in that third quarter where They had
Speaker 1: run that ram screen to get Cat in space a
Speaker 1: bunch of times in a row, and I'm like the
Speaker 1: fourth or fifth time in a row they got to stop.
Speaker 1: And the way they got to stop was Kat saw
Speaker 1: the ram screen coming and fought through it with physicality
Speaker 1: and stayed attached to the screener so that when he
Speaker 1: came up to the level, Tatum couldn't turn the corner
Speaker 1: fast with speed. Instead, Tatum came off a little passive
Speaker 1: and Mikhale Bridges was able to fight over the top
Speaker 1: of the screen. Then they Tatum had to pull the
Speaker 1: ball out and they had to run offense again from there,
Speaker 1: and I think if I remember correctly settled for a
Speaker 1: pull jump shot missed it. Point being like, yeah, like,
Speaker 1: there are going to be times Cat where you do
Speaker 1: get screened good and you get beat. There are going
Speaker 1: to be times, Jalen Brunson where you're guarding Derek White
Speaker 1: and you die on a screen a little bit and
Speaker 1: Derek White hits a pull up three on the left wing.
Speaker 1: That's going to happen from time to time. But those
Speaker 1: aren't battles that take place during a game when you're
Speaker 1: getting hunted dozens of times over the course of a game.
Speaker 1: You can't lose that battle eighty eighty five percent of
Speaker 1: the time. It's got to be closer to like fifty
Speaker 1: percent of the time. It's got to turn into a
Speaker 1: situation where we're attacking Brunson and Cat because that's our
Speaker 1: best chance. But we're not just cutting them up. The
Speaker 1: Celtics were cutting them up. That's a problem. There is
Speaker 1: a certain amount of fight and like, again, they can
Speaker 1: do it. They are capable of doing better. I have
Speaker 1: seen Kat navigate screens and contain the ball at the level.
Speaker 1: I've also seen Kat be a step slow, get hit
Speaker 1: by the screen, be slow up to the level, and
Speaker 1: then get crossed over in.
Speaker 2: Space and get dunked on.
Speaker 1: So like it's a simple matter of Like a lot
Speaker 1: of times when we're talking about this stuff, it's not
Speaker 1: about big picture roster weaknesses. Frankly, you're married to this
Speaker 1: Brunton Cat pairing. Now, this is the future of the Knicks.
Speaker 1: So you've got to find a way to win with
Speaker 1: this group. And to win with this group, you got
Speaker 1: to get through Boston. And if you're gonna get through Boston,
Speaker 1: Brunson and Cat are gonna have to find a way
Speaker 1: to offer at least a little bit more resistance at
Speaker 1: the point of attack at the in those ball screens,
Speaker 1: at the level, there has to be more resistance there. Now, Again,
Speaker 1: there's there's context here, right, Like Drew Holliday was out,
Speaker 1: but so is so is og and Andobi oj And
Speaker 1: Andobiy is more important to the Knicks than Drew Holliday
Speaker 1: is to the Celtics. There were kickout passes where the
Speaker 1: ball ends up Imprecious to chew his hands and he's
Speaker 1: just claying in threes off the side of the rim.
Speaker 1: Like I there's obviously a personnel limitation there when ogn
Speaker 1: Andobi is out on the line out of the lineup,
Speaker 1: but that that might give you a little bit of
Speaker 1: an offensive boost, but it doesn't change the fact that
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to do a better job because yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, like they were hiding Luke Cornett on Precious
Speaker 1: to Chua, But like Luke Cornett's probably not gonna play
Speaker 1: in that series. If you play them in the in
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference, Semis, it's gonna be Horford, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be Porzingis. So like the way I look at it,
Speaker 1: I thought it was a pretty discouraging performance from the Knicks,
Speaker 1: just simply in terms of the fact that you were
Speaker 1: going against lower level Celtics players.
Speaker 2: Celtics looks that.
Speaker 1: Are should be easier for them to attack, and they
Speaker 1: were just still having the same problems that they had
Speaker 1: in their previous season opening matchup against the Celtics.
Speaker 2: Pretty discouraging on that front. All right, Let's move on
Speaker 2: to the Warriors.
Speaker 1: Bulls looked like it was gonna be an ugly start
Speaker 1: for the Jimmy Butler era era.
Speaker 2: The Bulls were red hot in this game.
Speaker 1: They were up by twenty four in about like a
Speaker 1: few minutes into the third quarter. But Steph Curry has
Speaker 1: the first heater that he has of the season, his
Speaker 1: first twenty point quarter of the season. He has twenty
Speaker 1: four points by himself in the third quarter as the
Speaker 1: Warriors going a crazy around the Bulls, I think twenty
Speaker 1: five by themselves, So he almost single handedly outscored the Bulls.
Speaker 1: By the way, before I even get into this, like
Speaker 1: I talked a lot about belief and like the invigoration
Speaker 1: I've seen in Lebron James as of late, I don't
Speaker 1: think it's a coincidence that Steph Curry had his first
Speaker 1: twenty plus point game in the first game that Jimmy.
Speaker 2: Butler played in.
Speaker 1: That will light a fire under a star player one
Speaker 1: he sees an opportunity. I do think that those things
Speaker 1: are connected. He was torching one on ones. You'd got
Speaker 1: vooch on a switch hit a three in his face.
Speaker 1: Ye had a really nice driving lay up against Patrick Williams.
Speaker 1: One of the most athletic, one of the most athletic
Speaker 1: plays that I saw Steph make all season was that
Speaker 1: driving lay up there towards the end of the third
Speaker 1: quarter run against Patrick Williams. He was hitting shots flying
Speaker 1: off of screens like on the move for an He
Speaker 1: had a four point play coming off of a movement
Speaker 1: screen on the left side of the floor. He was
Speaker 1: hitting shots in the mid range and ball screens. He
Speaker 1: was sitting shots off of the chaos of offensive rebounds.
Speaker 1: By the way, shout out to Gi Santos and Kevon
Speaker 1: Looney who both just absolutely dominated the offensive glass in
Speaker 1: that in that third quarter stretch.
Speaker 2: But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: They go on this run and Steph checks out of
Speaker 1: the game right to start the fourth quarter, and they
Speaker 1: had come back. They had erase the twenty four point deficit.
Speaker 1: They'd actually taken a three point lead. But now it's
Speaker 1: a close game and Steph Curry is off the floor.
Speaker 1: But instead of a unit led by Pat Spencer and
Speaker 1: Brandon Pajemski like it was against the Lakers, the Warriors
Speaker 1: were able to put out a unit led by Jimmy Butler.
Speaker 1: I also thought Steve Kerr made a really smart adjustment
Speaker 1: with that group to start the fourth quarter by leaving
Speaker 1: Draymond Green. It a lot of times Kerr will like
Speaker 1: pair Draymond and Steph together because of their fit, but
Speaker 1: he put Draymond in, and Draymond's just a really good
Speaker 1: post entry passer and just in general, like a passer
Speaker 1: above the key, and a lot of the best work
Speaker 1: that Jimmy Butler was doing in this game started off
Speaker 1: the ball. It wasn't like Jimmy was running a ton
Speaker 1: of spread ball screens. He was operating a ton in
Speaker 1: this game as a screener, which is something that we
Speaker 1: knew would be the case coming into this partnership. But
Speaker 1: one of the things that stood out to me immediately
Speaker 1: is just how amazing Jimmy Butler is at ceiling and
Speaker 1: creating a passing and then high pointing the basketball in
Speaker 1: traffic and then once he gets it, going back up
Speaker 1: quickly for buckets and for free throws. I talk a
Speaker 1: lot about this concept of inside ceiling as a method
Speaker 1: with which to beat switching defenses. A lot of times
Speaker 1: teams will switch screens with Steph Curry with the intention
Speaker 1: of making sure that when he comes off the screen
Speaker 1: there's someone there waiting for him. Now, a lot of
Speaker 1: times teams will chase in those cases as well, but
Speaker 1: that usually involves with the center, because you don't want
Speaker 1: to switch your center onto Steph, because Steph is going
Speaker 1: to do what he did to Vusovich and just hit
Speaker 1: a jumper in his face, right. But a lot of times,
Speaker 1: like off ball screens that don't involve or any sort
Speaker 1: of screening action that doesn't involve the center with Steph,
Speaker 1: like a lot of teams are going to switch those actions.
Speaker 1: So as you can imagine, if Jimmy Butler walks up
Speaker 1: to Steph's man and he sets a screen, that guy
Speaker 1: is now going to Jimmy's defender is now going to
Speaker 1: go out onto Steph. So Jimmy, the guy he he's screening,
Speaker 1: is now suddenly the guy that's going to be guarding Jimmy. Well,
Speaker 1: Jimmy's fantastic at and this is what's going to be
Speaker 1: so effective in the Warriors two man game. He'll screen
Speaker 1: the backside of that player, put his forearm into his back,
Speaker 1: and just create this passing angle over the top. Now,
Speaker 1: what ends up happening there is there's traffic on the backside,
Speaker 1: the helpers coming from behind.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: This is that bracket that we always talked about in
Speaker 1: fronting the post. When you have a guy effectively posting up,
Speaker 1: which is what Jimmy's doing. When he's inside ceiling on
Speaker 1: a switch, there's usually a help on the backside, so
Speaker 1: you have to high point the basketball. There's a small
Speaker 1: window there that you're throwing the ball into, and Jimmy's
Speaker 1: just skying in and grabbing the ball. And then he's
Speaker 1: such a good second leaper, even at this phase in
Speaker 1: his career, that he just comes down with it and
Speaker 1: goes right back up and he can finish. But then
Speaker 1: at the same time, it's like you're throwing the ball
Speaker 1: on the block when STEP's out of the game on
Speaker 1: the left side and it's a clear side, he just
Speaker 1: beats his man off the dribble to the baseline throws
Speaker 1: a beautiful kickout pass to the corner for a wide
Speaker 1: open three. He can create shots without having the without
Speaker 1: needing the support of Steph Curry, and that is the
Speaker 1: key addition that changes the dynamic of this team. I
Speaker 1: thought I had written the numbers in my notes, but
Speaker 1: I accidentally forget to put him in there. But I
Speaker 1: believe he ran thirteen pick and rolls, ISOs and post
Speaker 1: ups last night, and I think he generated sixteen points.
Speaker 1: It's like close to what one point two points per possession.
Speaker 1: That's incredible shot creation. Again, small sample, but like especially
Speaker 1: in ISOs and post ups, he was just absolutely killing.
Speaker 1: Was just I think he had eleven points on five
Speaker 1: ISOs and post ups last night, including passes like that.
Speaker 1: That's over two points per possession. That there's the playmaking piece,
Speaker 1: the ability to get to the foul line. Look at
Speaker 1: how often last night Jimmy Butler was able to slow
Speaker 1: the game down get to the foul line. I talked
Speaker 1: about the playmaking piece. Jimmy Butler had more seven assist
Speaker 1: games year for the Miami Heat than Andrew Wiggins has
Speaker 1: had in his entire career. An entirely different level of
Speaker 1: playmaker and again, like I keep coming back to this
Speaker 1: idea of I keep coming back to this idea of belief.
Speaker 1: Steph has the craziest hot streak that he's had. You
Speaker 1: end up having this massive comeback on the road where
Speaker 1: the team just looks completely reinvigorated. This Warriors defense put
Speaker 1: up an eighty four defensive rating in the second half.
Speaker 1: That came on really strong in the second half, same
Speaker 1: way they did in that Lakers game. Just a ton
Speaker 1: of ball pressure, a ton of physicality, starting to force misses.
Speaker 1: If you let guys get good looks, you're hoping they miss.
Speaker 1: If you make guys uncomfortable, they will miss. That's how
Speaker 1: you can regain a control of the game defensively. And
Speaker 1: that's why I was such a big believer in this movie. Look,
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to sit here and take a victory lap.
Speaker 1: I don't think the Warriors are suddenly a top tier contender.
Speaker 1: I don't think the Warriors are suddenly gonna crawl all
Speaker 1: the way up to the fourth or fifth seed and
Speaker 1: just have this magical season. I mean, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: say it's not a potential outcome. But we haven't seen
Speaker 1: enough from last night to just say, Okay, the Warriors
Speaker 1: are here now, but there is somewhat of a proof
Speaker 1: of concept in the sense that, like, you were able
Speaker 1: to massively continue a run without Steph Curry because you
Speaker 1: had a star play, a bona fide star player on
Speaker 1: the floor, a guy that can score twenty five points,
Speaker 1: a guy that can make plays for his teammates, a
Speaker 1: guy that can rebound in traffic, a guy that can
Speaker 1: make big defensive plays. That makes life easier for Steph,
Speaker 1: makes Steph believe in what this team can do more.
Speaker 1: That allows you to score the basketball more effectively. When
Speaker 1: you score the ball more effectively, your defense is set
Speaker 1: more often you have a top ten defense. If you
Speaker 1: want to weaponize that top ten defense, you've got to
Speaker 1: be able to consistently pay it off on the other
Speaker 1: end of the floor to start that momentum. You want
Speaker 1: to know why basketball games have momentum, because every part
Speaker 1: of the game is attached. You start going on a
Speaker 1: run by hitting a couple of shots, You start setting
Speaker 1: your defense. You start getting more stops and forcing more turnovers.
Speaker 1: You start getting out in transition more. That makes offense
Speaker 1: even easier. When your offense is even easier, you score
Speaker 1: even more, which makes it even easier for you to
Speaker 1: set your defense. It's like a momentous snowball effect, and
Speaker 1: it can reverse. You have a couple like it literally
Speaker 1: could have turned negatively in the fourth quarter, right, it
Speaker 1: could have been a Pods led group. You don't score
Speaker 1: the basketball, Chicago ends up turning a three point deficit
Speaker 1: into a five or six point lead. You check back
Speaker 1: into the game. Now the Bulls are fired up. Now
Speaker 1: they're defending in the half court. Now you're climbing uphill
Speaker 1: as you're trying to regain control of things. Like it
Speaker 1: is a snowball effect. And like Jimmy Butler wasn't just
Speaker 1: a super talented piece, He's a super talented piece that
Speaker 1: fits a very specific.
Speaker 2: Need on this roster.
Speaker 1: And like again in just one example here, and we
Speaker 1: need to see a lot more before we can determine
Speaker 1: what this team is truly capable of. We saw an
Speaker 1: example of what that return looks like. I'm excited I
Speaker 1: was when I saw Jimmy get that dunk. I think
Speaker 1: it was in transition, might have been offensive rebound, but
Speaker 1: he got that like dunk, and he hung on the
Speaker 1: rim and was yelling and the group was.
Speaker 2: All just stoked.
Speaker 1: I was like, it looks like they're just invigorated again,
Speaker 1: and I'm excited to watch some Warriors basketball over the
Speaker 1: course of the rest of the season. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: it's all I have for today. Is always, as sincerely,
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys for supporting me and for supporting the show.
Speaker 2: The super Bowl is tonight. I'm not sure if we're
Speaker 2: gonna go tomorrow.
Speaker 1: We might do power rankings tomorrow, we might wait for
Speaker 1: the evening and just cover the Luca's debut. We might
Speaker 1: just wait till Tuesday. I'm not one hundred percent sure yet.
Speaker 1: I got to clear that with my staff, But keep
Speaker 1: an eye on my Twitter feed at Underscore, Jason LT
Speaker 1: and I will tweet out an announcement in the morning
Speaker 1: once we make up our mind. But again, I appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys enjoying the game tonight and we'll see you
Speaker 1: either tomorrow or Tuesday the volume. What's up?
Speaker 2: Guys.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Speaker 1: OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us
Speaker 1: if you guys would take a second and leave a
Speaker 1: rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys.
Speaker 2: Supporting us. But if you could take a minute to
Speaker 2: do that, I'd really appreciate it.