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Speaker 1: to hoops tonight, presented by Fan Duel here at the volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Wednesday everybody. I hope all of you guys are
Speaker 1: having a great week so far. We are continuing right
Speaker 1: along with our power rankings today with number six, the
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Nets, a very interesting, very talented team that has
Speaker 1: enormous variants heading into this season, probably among the largest
Speaker 1: gaps between worst case scenario and best case scenario in
Speaker 1: the league. Right now, before we get started, you guys
Speaker 1: know the drill. Subscribe to the volumes Youtube Channel so
Speaker 1: you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
Speaker 1: on twitter at underscore Jason Lt s. You guys don't
Speaker 1: miss any show announcements. And, last but not least, for
Speaker 1: whatever reason you can't finish one of these shows you
Speaker 1: can't get over to youtube, you can always find them
Speaker 1: in podcast form, wherever you get your podcasts. Under hoops tonight.
Speaker 1: And on that note, let's talk some basketball. So last
Speaker 1: year the Brooklyn Nets went forty four and thirty eight.
Speaker 1: They were swept by Boston in the first round. We
Speaker 1: are going to get into that. They were tenth in
Speaker 1: offense in defense, and Kyrie, Kevin Durant and Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: combined to play eighty one game, so less than one
Speaker 1: full season from their three best players heading into the
Speaker 1: playoff run. And then obviously they had all of that
Speaker 1: James Harden drama to start the season. I want to
Speaker 1: spend a little bit of time diving into some of
Speaker 1: the ancillary topics with this particular team because they're so
Speaker 1: incredibly relevant to their potential success this season. You know,
Speaker 1: and all of our other videos, or most of them,
Speaker 1: we've gone like brief synopsis on whatever happened in their
Speaker 1: playoffs and then we head into what they did the
Speaker 1: off season. We had into the depth chart and then
Speaker 1: we head into the excess and OHS right, and we
Speaker 1: are going to do that with this team. But the
Speaker 1: ancillary topics that bothered him last year haven't gone away
Speaker 1: and there's still very much a factor heading into this
Speaker 1: season and I think it's important that we acknowledge them
Speaker 1: and understand them and the way they could impact this
Speaker 1: team in this season. So I wanted to start with
Speaker 1: Kyrie because, you know, I'm sure from Kyrie's perspective, he
Speaker 1: feels justified and everything that he did over the course
Speaker 1: the last couple of years. I mean he by by
Speaker 1: saying that the vaccine mandate is one of the most
Speaker 1: horrible travesties in the history of human rights. He has
Speaker 1: doubled down, doubled down on the fact that he believes
Speaker 1: he was in the right last year with what he did,
Speaker 1: and he was available for both playoff runts, and so
Speaker 1: I imagine that would be his like rose colored glasses,
Speaker 1: glass half full, advocating for his self, way of expressing
Speaker 1: what happened, like okay, yeah, yeah, these things happened, but
Speaker 1: I was always there when you guys needed me in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, unless I landed on Johanna's antenna COOMPO's foot
Speaker 1: like he did in that second round series two years ago.
Speaker 1: But the reality is that there was a huge direct
Speaker 1: impact from his behavior. And for the record, I'm referencing
Speaker 1: him missing a boatload of games because of the vaccine
Speaker 1: mandate and then the previous season the two, you know,
Speaker 1: uh leaves of absence that he took that were unrelated
Speaker 1: to injury and that he did so without even telling
Speaker 1: Steve Nash, basically just piecing out on the team for
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks, and those things, even if it
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily impact their roster at the end of the season,
Speaker 1: it does impact their seating and that does matter, especially
Speaker 1: in this particular season. You know, they were banged up
Speaker 1: a lot of the season. Continuity was an issue. They
Speaker 1: were hoping to get Ben Simmons back towards the end
Speaker 1: of that Boston Celtics series, which means presumably he could
Speaker 1: have been available for a second or third round series.
Speaker 1: Who knows, but there are a bunch of question marks
Speaker 1: there around the team that could have been solved by
Speaker 1: some continuity and buy some additional reps and allowing themselves
Speaker 1: a buffer to face somebody like the Boston Celtics, even
Speaker 1: just in the second round, even just buying yourself an
Speaker 1: extra two weeks could have gone a long way towards
Speaker 1: that matchup. I think they would have lost anyway, but
Speaker 1: I think a big part of why they got destroyed
Speaker 1: in such resounding fashion in that first round series by
Speaker 1: Boston had to do with the fact that they had
Speaker 1: to play them in the first round and they didn't
Speaker 1: have a ton of time to get to the best
Speaker 1: version of themselves before they got there. That is a
Speaker 1: direct effect of Kyrie Irving's behavior. That has to be
Speaker 1: acknowledged and I think that's a big part of why
Speaker 1: Brooklyn was so ready to be done with him this summer.
Speaker 1: That's why they did not offer him the long term
Speaker 1: deal and why they would have been quick to get
Speaker 1: rid of him had the Kevin Durant thing not gone
Speaker 1: the way that they hoped it would this summer. Not
Speaker 1: to be clear, the reason why they're keeping Kyrie now
Speaker 1: is because they're in a win now mode and there's
Speaker 1: just no way they could have flipped Kyrie for comparable
Speaker 1: current talent. They would have had to do something like
Speaker 1: a Russell Westbrook or salary filler elsewhere around the league,
Speaker 1: which just wouldn't have helped them the way that Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving can help them. So they I would imagine, they
Speaker 1: view him as a necessary evil at this point, but
Speaker 1: unless his behavior and commitment to the team significantly improves
Speaker 1: this year, my guess is they'll be done with him
Speaker 1: after this season. Now kyrie is in a contract year
Speaker 1: and because of that I expect him to understand the
Speaker 1: gravity of the situation. He wanted that five year deal
Speaker 1: last summer. He probably still wants it next summer. He's
Speaker 1: young enough and he's got a long enough career ahead
Speaker 1: of him that that's still achievable for him. But he
Speaker 1: has to Rehab his image and the best way for
Speaker 1: him to Rehab his image is to be at work
Speaker 1: every single day, committed to the team goal, playing hard
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor, and I expect him
Speaker 1: to do so regardless of what you feel about Kyrie
Speaker 1: and I have my issues with him as a person
Speaker 1: off the court. Now I'm not talking about who who
Speaker 1: he is as a friend and as a family member
Speaker 1: and a member of the community. I'm talking about in
Speaker 1: his commitment to the team off the court and the
Speaker 1: way he allows some of his court, you know, beliefs
Speaker 1: to take away from his commitment to the team. That's
Speaker 1: where I offer criticism to him. But the reality is
Speaker 1: is that on the court he is a damn good
Speaker 1: basketball players. Still, I had him twenty in my player
Speaker 1: rankings and that was factoring in some of his availability concerns.
Speaker 1: In terms of talent, he's right there and that ten
Speaker 1: to fifteen range. That's how good he is. His basketball
Speaker 1: skill is unassailable and it's proven to translate to the playoffs.
Speaker 1: So if he buys in the season, I think he
Speaker 1: can rehab his image pretty quickly. But there's no mistaking
Speaker 1: the fact that his behavior did have a negative impact
Speaker 1: on the net's the last two years. The second thing
Speaker 1: I wanted to look at was Katie in the series
Speaker 1: against Boston. Now, Um, I had the dynamic with Katie
Speaker 1: is super interesting to me because I think that Steph
Speaker 1: fans and Lebron fans have used him as their punching bag,
Speaker 1: and the main reason why is pretty obvious. K D
Speaker 1: is Katie represents a direct threat to the legacies of
Speaker 1: Stephen Lebron him and what he did to Lebron head
Speaker 1: to head in the two thousand seventeen and two thousand
Speaker 1: eighteen finals, basically playing, playing him to his stalemate. That
Speaker 1: obviously threatens Lebron's legacies, a legacy. And then obviously with
Speaker 1: Steph and the fact that Steph won two titles with
Speaker 1: Katie and has one. He has one, obviously a couple
Speaker 1: without him, but those two. A lot of people attribute
Speaker 1: a great deal of that success to K d. So
Speaker 1: it's a direct threat to Steph and it's a direct
Speaker 1: threat to Lebron and as a result, the vast majority
Speaker 1: of the discourse surrounding K D is trolling, and you're
Speaker 1: just not gonna get that here. You're gonna find plenty
Speaker 1: of Katie trolling everywhere, even on major media networks. You'RE
Speaker 1: NOT gonna get it. For me, I'm only interested in
Speaker 1: talking about the basketball now. The reality of what happened
Speaker 1: in that Boston Celtics series is there were two areas
Speaker 1: where Katie really struggled his pull up jump shooting, which
Speaker 1: is literally his best skill. He was on six hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty nine attempts pull up jump shooting last season.
Speaker 1: That's literally incredible. In the series against Boston he shot
Speaker 1: just thirty six on pull up jumpers. So his bread
Speaker 1: and butter offensive go to move failed him. That happens sometimes.
Speaker 1: It's a reality of pull up jump shooting and in
Speaker 1: a very small sample size, four games, one week of basketball,
Speaker 1: that sort of thing can happen and that's what did.
Speaker 1: The other thing where Katie really dropped the ball was
Speaker 1: taking care of the basketball. Now I watched hours of
Speaker 1: footage of Brooklyn this morning, including some footage from that
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics series. It was a physical blood bath and
Speaker 1: I have seen Katie handle physical blood baths well many
Speaker 1: times in his career. He just didn't handle this one. Well,
Speaker 1: it happens again, small sample size, one week of basketball,
Speaker 1: yet twenty one turnovers in four games. You could tell
Speaker 1: he was struggling with that. First of all, I want
Speaker 1: to give some credit to Boston's defense. They were swarm
Speaker 1: from the opening tip of that series. I have been
Speaker 1: on the record saying that Boston was the best half
Speaker 1: court defense that I have seen in this era of basketball.
Speaker 1: So give them a bunch of credit there. The reality, though, is,
Speaker 1: we zoom out a little bit, Brooklyn Fared Better Against
Speaker 1: Boston's defense than anybody by a lot. The averaged a
Speaker 1: hundred and fifteen points per one hundred possessions against Boston's defense.
Speaker 1: Golden State was the second best team facing Boston last year,
Speaker 1: with a hundred and ten points per one hundred possessions. Now,
Speaker 1: obviously Golden State is a much better team. They defend
Speaker 1: a million times better. That's why they have the trophy.
Speaker 1: But so much criticism and so much trolling is facing
Speaker 1: towards Kevin Durant and the job he did on offense,
Speaker 1: towards against the Boston Celtics and the job that Kyrie
Speaker 1: did on offense against the Boston Celtics. The reality is
Speaker 1: is that the ultimate goal is to put the ball
Speaker 1: in the basket and they did that better than anybody
Speaker 1: else did against the Boston Celtics. To give you idea,
Speaker 1: everyone considers the Dallas Mavericks as having eviscerated Phoenix's defense
Speaker 1: and they only averaged about a hundred and fourteen points
Speaker 1: per one hunter possessions in that series. So Boston had
Speaker 1: a harder time stopping Brooklyn Than Phoenix did stopping Dallas
Speaker 1: in that series. That just gives you an idea of
Speaker 1: how successful their offense was. The reality of what happened
Speaker 1: in that series is they were completely overmatched physically everywhere
Speaker 1: on the floor because they didn't have the athletes and
Speaker 1: the size and the defensive role players to hang in
Speaker 1: that type of physical series. That's why they lost. We
Speaker 1: all knew that going into this series. We just thought, Oh,
Speaker 1: maybe Katie and Kyrie could overcome that. We knew it
Speaker 1: was a coin flip. I think I picked up Brooklyn
Speaker 1: and seven, if I remember correctly, just because I trusted
Speaker 1: K D in a way that he performed against Milwaukee
Speaker 1: the previous year in a very similar type of series
Speaker 1: where he was overmatched in talent because of the injury
Speaker 1: to James Harden and the injury to Kyrie Irving. He
Speaker 1: was overmatched in physicality and the defense send of the
Speaker 1: floor and he had in Milwaukee had better role players,
Speaker 1: exact same dynamic and we saw Kevin Durant make those
Speaker 1: pull up jumpers and take better care of the basketball
Speaker 1: and he had a shot with one inch. If it
Speaker 1: was one inch further away, that would have won the series.
Speaker 1: That's why we were looking at that series and with
Speaker 1: that type of optimism towards Brooklyn. But what happened in
Speaker 1: this case is Katie's jump shot did fail him and
Speaker 1: things got ugly, which is going to happen a lot
Speaker 1: of the time when there is that big of a
Speaker 1: of a talent disadvantage. Here's the way I'm gonna look
Speaker 1: at this. A lot of you are going to take
Speaker 1: that as an opportunity to dig a grade for Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: and if you choose to do that, be my guest.
Speaker 1: I think that's a foolish gamble. I'm not going to
Speaker 1: overreact to one week of basketball. The reality is that
Speaker 1: was one of the best seasons, regular seasons, of Katie's career.
Speaker 1: It was his third best scoring season ever. He shot
Speaker 1: six as a true shooting percentage, which was his ninth
Speaker 1: consecutive season doing so, which is literally insane. Over the
Speaker 1: same span, I think stephitely did it five out of
Speaker 1: nine times. If you're looking for some context there, week
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Speaker 1: of the NF. fell he also had the best playmaking
Speaker 1: season of his career and he still is an impact
Speaker 1: defensive player. So if you guys want to write him off,
Speaker 1: be my guest. I don't think that that's a good idea.
Speaker 1: I will not be writing him off. I expect him
Speaker 1: to play like a top tier superstar this season. Looking
Speaker 1: at the off season for a second so they traded
Speaker 1: for Royce O'Neil. This was Utah's best perimeter defender, although
Speaker 1: that's not exactly saying much. He's a bit undersized but
Speaker 1: he's super scrappy and super physical, borderline dirty at times,
Speaker 1: but a good defensive player at six FT five Um.
Speaker 1: He shot thirty eight percent on catch and shoot threes
Speaker 1: and he fits the archetype of the player that they
Speaker 1: were missing last year, Guy that can make open shots
Speaker 1: when the defense sends attention elsewhere and that can actually
Speaker 1: thrive a little bit in the physicality and bring some
Speaker 1: of the things defensively that they did not have last year.
Speaker 1: They also signed T J Warren. Um Tj. TJ Warren
Speaker 1: is a super interesting player because he's barely played in
Speaker 1: the last two seasons, but if you look at what
Speaker 1: he did in the previous season, it was outstanding. In
Speaker 1: not is counting the bubble, but for the whole season
Speaker 1: he shot forty on catching shoot jumpers on pull up jumpers,
Speaker 1: both outstanding numbers and also I didn't watch him a
Speaker 1: tunder in the regular season, but during that bubble run
Speaker 1: he was a pretty solid defensive player. I'd like to
Speaker 1: see more of that over a longer span before I
Speaker 1: call him a good defensive player, but I know he's
Speaker 1: capable of it. But health is the biggest question mark.
Speaker 1: He only played four games in the two years since then,
Speaker 1: but he is only twenty nine years old and he's
Speaker 1: taken his sweet time getting over this foot injury, so
Speaker 1: hopefully he'll be ready to go. They also signed Markis Morris.
Speaker 1: We'll talk a little bit more about him later. They
Speaker 1: lost Bruce Brown. He signed a deal to year deal
Speaker 1: with Denver Um that pays about thirteen million a year
Speaker 1: or thirteen million total over two years. And then they're
Speaker 1: getting back Ben Simmons right because he was unable to
Speaker 1: play last year, and they're getting back Joe Harris. Joe
Speaker 1: Harris is obviously one of the best shooters that we
Speaker 1: have in the League and is a great movement shooter.
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons is one of the best defensive players in
Speaker 1: the world and he's also super gifted getting to the rim.
Speaker 1: He made four point one shots in the restricted area
Speaker 1: per game in two thousand twenty one, which was fifth
Speaker 1: most among perimeter oriented players. He kind of fits into
Speaker 1: that Bruce Brown role and what they were using Bruce
Speaker 1: Band for anyway. So that's why I'm not super critical
Speaker 1: of them letting Bruce Brown go for such a small number. Um,
Speaker 1: I just with with what he can do screening and
Speaker 1: rolling to the rim in the short roll and then
Speaker 1: some inverted pick and roll stuff in his ability to
Speaker 1: make reads as he's barreling down hill to the rim excellent,
Speaker 1: finding three point shooters all over the floor. I think
Speaker 1: he's gonna be a huge a piece of a great
Speaker 1: fit in what they do offensively. Ideally, you want him,
Speaker 1: after the couple of years he's been away from the game,
Speaker 1: to be making his spot up threes now, at least two,
Speaker 1: you know, thirty, somewhere around there. But even if he's not,
Speaker 1: he's still a very impactful basketball player. That is a
Speaker 1: huge influx of talent on this team, especially on the
Speaker 1: defensive of the floor, defensive end of the floor, and
Speaker 1: he fits a very specific need on this roster. So
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna help a lot. Um, looking at
Speaker 1: the depth chart at the guard position, Kyrie Irving, Joe Harris,
Speaker 1: Seth Curry, Addie Mills, Cam Thomas and Chris Ciosa. On
Speaker 1: the wing, Kevin Durant, Ben Simmons, Royce O'Neil T J,
Speaker 1: Warren Kessler Edwards and Mark Keith Morris, and then biggs,
Speaker 1: really only Nick Clackson. But I'm throwing Ben Simmons in
Speaker 1: here too because my guests is he'll play a lot
Speaker 1: of this season at the center position. It's hard to
Speaker 1: say whether or not he'll start. Their best lineup is
Speaker 1: certainly him at center or Kevin Duran at center with
Speaker 1: him at the four, but you never know. This team
Speaker 1: really struggled with defensive rebounding last year's I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: surprised at all of Steve Nash wanted to start Claxton.
Speaker 1: I personally think that would be a mistake, especially with
Speaker 1: Simmons's inability to shoot. I would start small. I'd go
Speaker 1: with Katie and Ben, with Joe Harris and Seth Curry
Speaker 1: and Kyrie Irving. That's the way that I would go.
Speaker 1: Before we get into some of the XS and Os,
Speaker 1: I I did want to touch on the Katie Trade
Speaker 1: Saga for just a second. That was one of the
Speaker 1: more confusing saga's that I've seen in my time following
Speaker 1: the NBA. After well, Kevin Durant did, which is not
Speaker 1: just request to trade but make it very clear that
Speaker 1: he did not like the coach in the GM, and
Speaker 1: then Kyrie also, with his antics, threatening to go to
Speaker 1: the Lakers and then openly pining for the Lakers to
Speaker 1: the tune of screaming at Laker fans that he'll be
Speaker 1: a laker soon. With all of those things, I just
Speaker 1: thought for sure Brooklyn's front office would want a fresh start.
Speaker 1: They had enough assets to rapidly rebuild around quality players
Speaker 1: and even to be relatively interesting in the immediate future.
Speaker 1: I just thought they'd try to bail out from this
Speaker 1: experiment because it hasn't gone well for them. I think
Speaker 1: it's important to, you know, differentiate the difference between the
Speaker 1: KD situation in the Kyrie situation too. Like Katie was
Speaker 1: never the problem, but then, you know, like it was
Speaker 1: just injuries with him, it was in his friendship with
Speaker 1: Kyrie and what that brought that ended up being an issue.
Speaker 1: I think Brooklyn loved partnering with Kevin Durant, but because
Speaker 1: of the Kyrie that came with that, and then right
Speaker 1: there at the end, when he threw the coach in
Speaker 1: the GM under the bus the way he did in
Speaker 1: his uh, his demand to the owner, right there, it
Speaker 1: made it so that even the partnership with K D
Speaker 1: had some issues, and so I really thought that they'd
Speaker 1: move on and I was genuinely surprised that Josiah was
Speaker 1: openly pining and politicking and advocating for them coming back.
Speaker 1: So I was I was really shocked when that resulted
Speaker 1: in him restending the request in him coming back. But
Speaker 1: that's where we're at at this point. Training camp is
Speaker 1: gonna be a little awkward. That goes without saying. Like
Speaker 1: I said, everyone on the in the team, in the
Speaker 1: locker room, on the team, knows that Katie and Kyrie
Speaker 1: don't believe in the coach and the GM. That's going
Speaker 1: to add a little bit of tension. But the realities
Speaker 1: is that winning cures all so if they come out
Speaker 1: the gates and they start beating everybody's ass, which is
Speaker 1: absolutely a possibility with how talented they are, pretty quickly
Speaker 1: that's gonna erase any sort of animosity that lingers around
Speaker 1: this team. It's gonna be important for them to get
Speaker 1: off too hot start, but they're certainly capable of doing so.
Speaker 1: So I want to move on to the offensive end
Speaker 1: of the ball, and you guys know the drill here
Speaker 1: we're gonna go through the offense. We're gonna go through
Speaker 1: the defense. Uh, not a whole lot of complexity to
Speaker 1: what Brooklyn does on either. into the floor. It's very
Speaker 1: brute force. But we'll get into that and then we'll
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about what their best case scenario is,
Speaker 1: their worst case scenario and who their biggest x factor is.
Speaker 1: So on the offensive, en to the floor. Man, I
Speaker 1: poured over again hours of footage on Brooklyn this morning
Speaker 1: trying to chart some of their offensive sets, and they
Speaker 1: don't really run a ton in the way of offensive sets,
Speaker 1: at least not in terms of frequency. They do run stuff, Um,
Speaker 1: it's just it's typically after missing or typically after made
Speaker 1: free throws and after time outs, any sort of dead
Speaker 1: ball situation. The vast majority of live ball possessions result
Speaker 1: in them bringing the ball up the floor, setting up
Speaker 1: their spacing and Katie and Kyrie going to work off
Speaker 1: the bounce. That's the way most live ball possessions will
Speaker 1: will work for Brooklyn. Get kind of similar to Dallas
Speaker 1: in that regard. That's not a bad thing, it's just it.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of thing that will hurt you in
Speaker 1: the regular their season with your offense, but will help
Speaker 1: you in the postseason when brute force actually translates better
Speaker 1: than schematics and and set some things along those lines.
Speaker 1: So they run this like occasional like dribble handoff motion
Speaker 1: thing where they'll just kind of bring the ball up
Speaker 1: the floor and Katie will do a dribble hand off
Speaker 1: to seth curry and then Seth Curry will dribble hand
Speaker 1: off to Kyrie and Kyrie will come back to Katie,
Speaker 1: who will then come off of like Nick Claxton to
Speaker 1: the top key, or last year was a lot of
Speaker 1: Andre Drummond. They'll do that kind of thing. Um they
Speaker 1: do some stuff with Uh. They do some stuff with
Speaker 1: Claxton at the top of the key where they'll have
Speaker 1: Kyrie and k d kind of in like a pistol set,
Speaker 1: so it's like four out and then one at the
Speaker 1: high post and they'll both like run off faking like
Speaker 1: they're doing a dribble handoff and then Claxton will turn
Speaker 1: and Katie will screen for Seth Curry coming out of
Speaker 1: the corner and then Seth Curry will come off of Claxton. Obviously,
Speaker 1: with all of those interchanges and with Katie's defender being
Speaker 1: unwilling to help off of Kadi. Seth Curry gets a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff coming off of those actions. They also
Speaker 1: run a ton of horns. That's the most frequent set
Speaker 1: that I would see. Typically they'll have their big. Last
Speaker 1: year was drum and this year will be Claxton or
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons. They'll have their big and K D at
Speaker 1: the elbows and then they'll have like seth curry, drag
Speaker 1: over the top of both of them towards the side
Speaker 1: that the big man's guys on and then, like Nick
Speaker 1: Clackson's man will have to show or a lot of
Speaker 1: times just switch out onto that and then they'll flow
Speaker 1: from that into Seth Curry K D pick and rolls.
Speaker 1: Now that seth curry is being guarded by a big man,
Speaker 1: he'll pass the ball to Katie. Katie will call for
Speaker 1: Seth to comes at a screen and it's just impossible
Speaker 1: to defend. It's difficult to defend guard guard screening actions
Speaker 1: or guard guard ball screens, even when they have the
Speaker 1: right types of defenders on them. But if they can
Speaker 1: come out of horns and get a switch onto seth curry,
Speaker 1: now you've got a big man trying to navigate that.
Speaker 1: They get all sorts of good stuff out of that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. And then the other thing you'll see
Speaker 1: a lot of is is various screening actions that attempt
Speaker 1: to get Kadi to the elbow. Some of that is
Speaker 1: like horns. But then after seth curry comes off of
Speaker 1: that drag screen, instead of passing to seth they'll just
Speaker 1: have Ben Simmons in this case or last year, and
Speaker 1: Nick Clackson and Andre Drummond turning cross screen for Katie
Speaker 1: to try to catch at the elbow. He's just so
Speaker 1: good catching shooting at the elbow. Of like if Katie
Speaker 1: gets a clean look catching and shooting at the elbow,
Speaker 1: he's making two thirds of those, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And then if he doesn't get enough separation, he's really
Speaker 1: good operating out of the triple threat there because he's
Speaker 1: got such a good jab step jumper one like fade away.
Speaker 1: He can turn his back to the basket, he can
Speaker 1: rip through and go to the rim. A lot of
Speaker 1: like just sometimes it's as simple as just having kyrie
Speaker 1: bring the ball up the floor. You Know Seth Curry
Speaker 1: and Joe Harris will be in the corners and Katie
Speaker 1: will work his man down to the block and then
Speaker 1: they'll have Ben Simmons come over instead a pin down
Speaker 1: and Katie will come up to catch at the elbow.
Speaker 1: A lot of like just a little basic screening actions
Speaker 1: to get Katie to catch at the elbow. Every once
Speaker 1: in a while you'll see like, you know, double double
Speaker 1: screens for a patty mills coming off for a shot
Speaker 1: or Joe Harris coming off for a shot. They do
Speaker 1: have offensive organization that they on particularly, like I said,
Speaker 1: at a dead ball situations or out of time outs,
Speaker 1: but for the most part in live ball situations it's
Speaker 1: space things out. You know, last year, be Bruce Brown
Speaker 1: or Nick Klaxson or Andre Drummond in the dunker spot.
Speaker 1: You have your shooters in the corners, Kyrie on the
Speaker 1: opposite wing, and here comes somebody to come set a screen,
Speaker 1: usually one of the big men to come set a
Speaker 1: screen for Katie or for Kyrie. That was usually what
Speaker 1: they got most of their stuff out of last year. Um,
Speaker 1: this concept of brute force offense. It works for Brooklyn
Speaker 1: for a couple of different reasons. One, in order to
Speaker 1: run a brute force offense you have to have outstanding
Speaker 1: advantage creators that's why it works. For Dallas, right you've
Speaker 1: got Luka Don Chich and obviously Jalen Brunson had a
Speaker 1: great season advantage creating at a pick and roll last year,
Speaker 1: and Spencer Dinwood. He had a great season out of
Speaker 1: isolation last year. It's that same kind of concept. If
Speaker 1: you don't have the personnel to run brute force, then
Speaker 1: you have to run a lot of sets, you have
Speaker 1: to run a ton of screening actions off the ball
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. But because they have Katie and
Speaker 1: Kyrie they're uniquely equipped to run this type of offense. And,
Speaker 1: like I said, brute force translates to the playoffs because
Speaker 1: scheming and scouting make it so the teams can get
Speaker 1: ahead of your sets. Like, guess what, you're not gonna
Speaker 1: run seth curry off of like a couple of interchanges
Speaker 1: in a dribble handoff and just get wide open looks
Speaker 1: for an entire playoff series. That's not gonna happen. They're
Speaker 1: gonna find ways to get in front of that or
Speaker 1: they'll play personnel where they don't have big men on
Speaker 1: the floor and they'll just switch things. They're gonna find
Speaker 1: ways to shut your actions down. But they can't stop
Speaker 1: brute force without a simple decision of even leaving, either
Speaker 1: leaving you on an island to try to make you
Speaker 1: score or sending help. There is no like magic schematic
Speaker 1: fix for Kevin Freaking durant or for Kyrie Irving. It's
Speaker 1: brute force. It translates to the playoffs. It's a proven method.
Speaker 1: I believe in it. And again let's look at that
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics Stat. We're talking about a team that lacked
Speaker 1: off ball role players that could consistently pass, dribble and shoot.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously they'd have seth curry out there doing
Speaker 1: really well, but it's a lot of Bruce Round, it's
Speaker 1: a lot of Andre Drummond, some somewhat limited offensive players. Right. So,
Speaker 1: even despite of that, even despite the lack of continuity,
Speaker 1: even despite how poorly Kevin durant shot, despite how poorly
Speaker 1: Kyrie shot towards end of the series, despite the turnovers,
Speaker 1: despite everything, despite the lack of offensive sets, despite the
Speaker 1: you know, you know, rudimentary high pick and roll repetitively
Speaker 1: in that kind of stuff, despite all of that, they
Speaker 1: scored more than anybody against Boston. That's the reality of
Speaker 1: brute force. Offense and it's a it's a reality that
Speaker 1: we have to acknowledge. Just because it's not as pretty
Speaker 1: as some of the other offenses we see around the
Speaker 1: league doesn't mean it's not as effective. Um. So, looking
Speaker 1: at their brute force, brute force offense, I wanted to
Speaker 1: just kind of dive into each player really quickly. So,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, amongst seventeen players who registered at least two
Speaker 1: hundred ISOS last year, Katie was fourth inefficiency, at one
Speaker 1: point one points per possession, behind just a Martinoz and
Speaker 1: Carl towns and Luca Don Chech. Among seventy nine players
Speaker 1: registered at least two hundred pick and roll ball handler possessions,
Speaker 1: he was third in if eitiency at one point zero
Speaker 1: four points per possession. Among thirty nine players who registered
Speaker 1: at least eighty dribble handoffs, Katie was seventh in efficiency,
Speaker 1: at one point zero four points per possession. So he's
Speaker 1: still the best in the world at what he does,
Speaker 1: which is create shots for himself off the bounce. That's
Speaker 1: always been what he's better than everybody at and that's
Speaker 1: what he's still better than everybody at. That's his best skill.
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving. Last year volume was low, obviously because of
Speaker 1: the because of the vaccine thing. Kind of had a
Speaker 1: rough season in terms of efficiency based on these specific scenarios.
Speaker 1: One point zero one points per possession and ISO, zero
Speaker 1: point nine eight and pick and roll, zero point eight
Speaker 1: eight and dribble handoff. But all three of those were way,
Speaker 1: way higher the previous season. In almost Katie esque with
Speaker 1: his production in that previous season. So I'd attribute most
Speaker 1: of that to him just being out of rhythm from
Speaker 1: not being around the team enough last year. This season
Speaker 1: I would expect him to be back around where Katie
Speaker 1: was with his numbers there. Seth Curry's also really good
Speaker 1: with the advantages they create for him in his offense.
Speaker 1: Zero point nine six points per possession and pick and roll,
Speaker 1: one point zero five off screen, one point zero eight
Speaker 1: in drible handoffs. He shot fifty three percent on catching
Speaker 1: shoe jumpers, which is just absolutely outrageously good, like it
Speaker 1: fits the eye test of when you're watching Brooklyn and
Speaker 1: every time seth curry gets a good look you just
Speaker 1: feel like it's going in. You also shot on pull
Speaker 1: up Jumpers and then T J Warren, like we talked
Speaker 1: about earlier in the show on catching shoe jumpers and
Speaker 1: on pull up jumpers in season, the year of the bubble.
Speaker 1: So they're even adding to this another wing that's extremely
Speaker 1: gifted making jump shots off the balance and off the catch.
Speaker 1: That's just gonna make them even that much more dynamic
Speaker 1: offensively and, most importantly, Ben Simmons factoring in as that
Speaker 1: Short roll, screen and Roll Guy, inverted pick and rolls,
Speaker 1: everything under the sun that he can do. We'll kind
Speaker 1: of go one by one through these. So in the
Speaker 1: short role I expect once again that he should be
Speaker 1: their starting center. Even if he's not, he will close
Speaker 1: at the center position in the short role. This year
Speaker 1: you're you're seeing Kevin Durant and Kyrie come off these
Speaker 1: screens and hit Andre Drummond with a pocket pass and
Speaker 1: he can make plays out of there when he's got
Speaker 1: his head on straight, but he also makes a ton
Speaker 1: of mistakes. First Brown's somewhat limited. Now imagine that's Ben Simmons,
Speaker 1: who's one of the most gifted passers in the League
Speaker 1: when it comes to finding three point shooters when he's
Speaker 1: barreling down the lane. So that's great and he's just
Speaker 1: a much better athlete than both of those guys and,
Speaker 1: like we said earlier in the season, he was fifth
Speaker 1: among perimeter players in getting to the rim and finishing
Speaker 1: in the restricted area. So I expect him to be
Speaker 1: a much better short role threat than any of the
Speaker 1: players they've had in recent years. Inverted pick and rolls.
Speaker 1: We talked about this a lot with Nicola yokits when
Speaker 1: we did our player rankings. This is something that Denver
Speaker 1: does quite a bit. Essentially, the idea there is when
Speaker 1: a big man is a ball handler, or in this case,
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons is operating as the big man and will
Speaker 1: be guarded by a center. You can imagine if Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons is starting at center and you're playing against the
Speaker 1: you know, let's say you're playing against the Minnesota Timberwolves,
Speaker 1: like that's Rudy Gobert, that's gonna have to be navigating
Speaker 1: screening actions. It's not even a good example. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about like, you know, the Atlanta Hawks, you know, or
Speaker 1: or a team like Boston, where it's like a Robert
Speaker 1: Williams or Clint Capella. These those players struggle to navigate screens.
Speaker 1: It's just the reality of that situation. When you put
Speaker 1: them in a situation where they have to navigate screens.
Speaker 1: It's just difficult for them because they're big, they're lumbering,
Speaker 1: they're they have high centers of gravity. They're easy targets
Speaker 1: for screeners. It just when you put yourself in a
Speaker 1: situation where, Imagine Kevin Durant is setting a ball screen
Speaker 1: for Ben Simmons and he's being guarded by someone the
Speaker 1: likes of Clint Capella. As he comes off of that screen,
Speaker 1: Katie's man is going to have to hedge or switch
Speaker 1: because if he doesn't, Ben Simmons is going to go
Speaker 1: right down the lane and dunk on your entire team.
Speaker 1: So chances are they're gonna heade or switch it, which
Speaker 1: is going to give Kevin Durant an advantage as he
Speaker 1: pops to the three point line. To either have an
Speaker 1: opportun you need to attack a Clint Capella on a
Speaker 1: switch or there's gonna be a delay in the interchange.
Speaker 1: As as you know, Capella is fighting over the screen
Speaker 1: and as Ben Simmons Man is hedging, in which case
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant is gonna get catch and shoot threes all
Speaker 1: night long. That's kind of how inverted pick and roll
Speaker 1: works and I think with Ben Simmons on the roster,
Speaker 1: they can run a bunch of stuff like that. Again,
Speaker 1: it's not inverted in the sense that Ben Simmons is
Speaker 1: a big but he will function as an inverted pick
Speaker 1: and roll because he'll have to be guarded by biggs
Speaker 1: with the way their lineup goes together. Um, the other
Speaker 1: thing to do there is Ben Simmons in general is
Speaker 1: going to draw defensive players that specialize in help rather
Speaker 1: than isolation, even when they're playing him alongside Claxton, which
Speaker 1: I think is a bad idea for spacing. But even
Speaker 1: in those situations, like who are you gonna put on
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons when you're getting your matchups put together, like
Speaker 1: you're gonna put better, you know, perimeter defenders, on kd
Speaker 1: on Kyrie, on Seth Curry, on a T J Warren,
Speaker 1: if he's out there right, or on Patty Mills. So
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons is gonna draw slower footed players that they
Speaker 1: that defenses can trust to rotate to the rim and help,
Speaker 1: because they don't worry about Ben Simmons as a shooter.
Speaker 1: So now you can imagine putting that guy in on
Speaker 1: ball situations and the way that that would cause teams
Speaker 1: to struggle. Matchups are gonna be a nightmare with the
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Nets, make no mistake. Another spot I expect Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons to help a lot is in transition. Brooklyn was
Speaker 1: efficient in transition last year, but really low volume. Ben's
Speaker 1: gonna add a new dynamic there because of the way
Speaker 1: that he can grab the rebound and run up the floor,
Speaker 1: allowing Kevin Durant and Kyrie to run the wings, allowing
Speaker 1: Joe Harris and seth curry to run the wings and
Speaker 1: get shots out of there. Um, he'll be in the
Speaker 1: dunker spot a lot, but Brooklyn's used to having a
Speaker 1: body down there and Katie and Kyrie are immune to
Speaker 1: spacing concerns relative to their peers around the league because
Speaker 1: they are specialists shooting over the top of the defense.
Speaker 1: To make that to put that simply, you can imagine
Speaker 1: if you're a Lebron James or you're a, you know,
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrooker or any other player that specializes in going
Speaker 1: downhill to the rim, Janice, for instance. Excuse me. In
Speaker 1: those situations teams are just gonna collapse the paint and
Speaker 1: they're gonna Ignore Your Ben Simmons is and your Nick
Speaker 1: Claxton's and just try to put bodies between you and
Speaker 1: the rim. But if that's Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, like,
Speaker 1: they're so comfortable just shooting over the top of the defense,
Speaker 1: so they don't necessarily care who's waiting underneath the rim.
Speaker 1: So Ben Simmons in the Dunker spot hurt Philly in
Speaker 1: a way that it won't hurt Brooklyn, and so that's
Speaker 1: that's another fit piece there that makes sense. And then,
Speaker 1: last not least, on the Ben Simmons Front, Rim pressure,
Speaker 1: like we talked about earlier. This guy was getting to
Speaker 1: the Rim almost seven times a game back that that
Speaker 1: is going to be the type of thing that I
Speaker 1: shouldn't even say getting to the rim, attempting shots at
Speaker 1: the Rim seven times a game. So because of that,
Speaker 1: we talked about rim pressure and all the benefits there.
Speaker 1: It just collapses the defense and opens up offensive rebounding opportunities.
Speaker 1: Rim pressure has all sorts of positive impacts that follow it.
Speaker 1: So kind of zooming out a little bit from Brooklyn
Speaker 1: on the offensive end of the floor, what do I expect?
Speaker 1: If they're a hell see, they'll be a top five
Speaker 1: offense and they'll be contending for number one again. Even
Speaker 1: with just one combined games of Kyrie and Katie last
Speaker 1: year they were a top ten offense. So you can
Speaker 1: imagine with the if, if it's a healthy season and
Speaker 1: with the addition of T J Warren, with the return
Speaker 1: of Joe Harris, with the Ben Simmons fit as an
Speaker 1: improved short role player, it's just gonna make them significantly
Speaker 1: better on the offensive end of the floor. I still
Speaker 1: think Denver ends up getting the number one offense that
Speaker 1: I see Brooklyn in the running there and then again
Speaker 1: it's about playoff translatability. Like even if they finished as
Speaker 1: the fourth or fifth best offense, because they're not, as
Speaker 1: you know, set heavy during the regular season, they will
Speaker 1: translate to the playoffs as the number one offense. I
Speaker 1: believe if healthy this season, Brooklyn will be the best
Speaker 1: playoff offense no matter what. So if they're good enough
Speaker 1: on the defensive end of the floor, they have a
Speaker 1: chance to get the trophy. It's that simple um like
Speaker 1: and with Denver's you know, I I view them as
Speaker 1: the best regular season offense. A lot of their stuff
Speaker 1: can be planned for in a playoff series in a
Speaker 1: way that makes things more difficult. Not that they won't
Speaker 1: be a good playoff offense, but less so than Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: The one last thing I wanted to touch on really
Speaker 1: quickly as far as a UH offense organization. Thing for
Speaker 1: Brooklyn is they rely really heavily on pull up jump shooting.
Speaker 1: They led the league in pull up jump shots attempted
Speaker 1: per game last year. They were second inefficiency, which is
Speaker 1: to be expected with how good they are. That's affective
Speaker 1: fieldgal percentage waited for threes. But the reality is is
Speaker 1: pull up jump shooting is inconsistent even on your best day.
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant be the first guy to tell you that.
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving would be the first guy to tell you that.
Speaker 1: Like sometimes, no matter how hard you work at it, sometimes,
Speaker 1: no matter how skilled you are, sometimes you just go
Speaker 1: out and you shoot three for nine on pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots because sometimes you just start leaving them an
Speaker 1: in short on the rim or whatever it is. There's
Speaker 1: just an inconsistency there, lack of dependability and in any
Speaker 1: sort of small sample size, missed pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: can cost you a playoff series. We saw this with
Speaker 1: Boston and Brooklyn last year. We saw this with the
Speaker 1: clippers in the bubble in it's a legitimate risk that
Speaker 1: comes with any team that relies on pull up jump shooting.
Speaker 1: I could even extend that to jump shooting in general.
Speaker 1: Ask The two thousand sixteen warriors. When steph and clay
Speaker 1: went cold for a series and a seventy three one
Speaker 1: team ended up losing Um. It's just something to keep
Speaker 1: in mind. It it's more likely than not that it
Speaker 1: won't be the thing that beats them, but it's always
Speaker 1: a risk when you play offense that with that specific
Speaker 1: style and and uh in structure. So moving on to
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor. So last year they
Speaker 1: were the worst defensive rebounding team in all of basketball.
Speaker 1: They allowed the fifth most fast breakpoints. They were middle
Speaker 1: of the pack defending the paint. They were middle of
Speaker 1: the pack defending the three point line. Some of that
Speaker 1: is like what do I always tell you guys? When
Speaker 1: you're a bad transition defense and when you don't rebound well,
Speaker 1: these are all and you don't take away the paint
Speaker 1: or the three point line, like if you don't prioritize
Speaker 1: one of the two for analytics purposes. That always points
Speaker 1: me towards the coach and we'll talk a little bit
Speaker 1: more about Steve Nash here in a minute. But like
Speaker 1: just reading those numbers, you start to see a little
Speaker 1: bit of where Kevin Durant's coming from. If if this
Speaker 1: is a team that does not depend on offensive structure
Speaker 1: because their brute force and they're not well coached on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor, what is Steve Nash
Speaker 1: doing now? The flip side of that is it's way
Speaker 1: too early in Steve Nash's coaching career to make sweeping
Speaker 1: statements about the type of coach he is. I would
Speaker 1: prefer to reserve that type of opinion for a few
Speaker 1: more years. But there's no question that in the areas
Speaker 1: that are typically attributed to coaching that this Brooklyn Nets
Speaker 1: team is not doing particularly well. And one thing I'll
Speaker 1: say in Steve Nash's defense, they are completely overmatched physically
Speaker 1: last year. That will be different this year, so maybe
Speaker 1: it'll be a better gauge of what he's capable of.
Speaker 1: Lots of new defensive players. Like I said, Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: one of the best defensive players in the league. He's
Speaker 1: an awesome weapon to throw at a star in a
Speaker 1: playoff series. I can't tell you how many times I've
Speaker 1: seen on tape. Ben Simmons like legitimately flummix the best
Speaker 1: players in the league. I've seen him give Lebron issues,
Speaker 1: I've seen him give is landard issues, I've seen him
Speaker 1: give I saw him once like completely shut down Damian
Speaker 1: Lillard in a game to the point where dame was
Speaker 1: struggling to get shots off. Like that's the level of
Speaker 1: perimeter defender that Ben Simmons is. He wasn't healthy last
Speaker 1: year so I didn't bring him up. But UH, when
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the best perimeter defenders in basketball and
Speaker 1: I'm talking about Jayson tatum and I'm talking about Andrew Wiggins, like,
Speaker 1: when healthy, Ben Simmons might be better than all of
Speaker 1: those guys. That's the level of defensive talent that he is.
Speaker 1: Um Royce O'Neil, scrappy, physical, decent perimeter to contained guy.
Speaker 1: That's an improvement at the position compared to what they
Speaker 1: had last year. T J Warren Um, like I said earlier,
Speaker 1: he has had good stretches of defense. I wouldn't say
Speaker 1: he's been consistent enough to call him a good defensive player,
Speaker 1: but he certainly is capable of being an above average
Speaker 1: defensive player. Mark Kith Morris I covered him with the
Speaker 1: Lakers in two thousand twenty. Really good post defender, uh
Speaker 1: and a good health defender. Plays Hard, knows what to
Speaker 1: do on the offensive end of the floor to his
Speaker 1: decent spot up player, but he does struggle to could
Speaker 1: to contain on the perimeter against really quick guards and wings.
Speaker 1: So it's it's important that the players around him are
Speaker 1: better at a perimeter contain. Overall, this is a significant
Speaker 1: increase in defensive talent, in athleticism and and in care
Speaker 1: and giving a crap about getting stops Um. So from
Speaker 1: that standpoint, like I just think in terms of the
Speaker 1: physical mismatches that they dealt with on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor last year, they're going to be vastly
Speaker 1: improved in that regard. In terms of their offensive or
Speaker 1: defensive structure, last year it was pretty in line with
Speaker 1: what you saw from the rest of the League in
Speaker 1: terms of what they're schematically trying to do, switching a ton.
Speaker 1: One through four drop coverages with Drummond and Claxton. Uh.
Speaker 1: In those drop coverages, their guards and wings died on
Speaker 1: screens a lot. So it did result in switching a lot,
Speaker 1: but I actually prefer switching anyway. But everything they did
Speaker 1: was just sloppy and you watch them on film and
Speaker 1: the types of mistakes they make are almost hilarious. Sometimes
Speaker 1: kind of confusion and communicate s related. I can't tell
Speaker 1: you how many times watching Boston film where you'd see,
Speaker 1: you know, one player think it's a switch and the
Speaker 1: other not, and next thing you know two players are
Speaker 1: running off a ball screen with Marcus smart of all people,
Speaker 1: right or like guys tripping over each other because they're
Speaker 1: just like unaware of where they're supposed to be on
Speaker 1: the floor. They're just sloppy because they didn't care as much.
Speaker 1: Some of that's on Steve Nash, some of that's on
Speaker 1: the stars, some of that's on the rest of the
Speaker 1: personnel in general. They'RE gonna have to be way better
Speaker 1: on that front to contend this year. A huge part
Speaker 1: and I'm I'm really interested to see what Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: does here, because I have been critical of Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: in his career for inconsistent defensive care and the problem
Speaker 1: there is he's so damn gifted physically that even when
Speaker 1: he's barely caring, he's an impact defensive player. He's an
Speaker 1: above average defensive player just by putting his shoes on
Speaker 1: and running out there like that's the reality of Kevin Durant.
Speaker 1: When he cares, he's one of the best defensive players
Speaker 1: in the League and we saw that in two thousand
Speaker 1: seventeen with golden state. I'm really interested to see what
Speaker 1: we get out of him on that end of the
Speaker 1: floor this year because with the influx of Ben Simmons,
Speaker 1: with T J Warren, if Kyrie is they're unhealthy, they
Speaker 1: won't need as much from him offensively as they've needed
Speaker 1: the last two years when he's carried such a massive burden.
Speaker 1: If he could relocate some of his resources, reallocate some
Speaker 1: of his resources towards the defensive end of the four,
Speaker 1: they could be a top ten defense. You can imagine
Speaker 1: in Universe where Ben Simmons is locked in and Katie
Speaker 1: is locked in on the defensive end of the floor
Speaker 1: and their ability to clean up messes on the back
Speaker 1: line that are created by Seth Curry and Kyrie Irving.
Speaker 1: They're capable of being a good defensive team. They will
Speaker 1: have lineups that they'll have access to where they can
Speaker 1: play Kyrie Irving with Joe Harris and Royce O'Neil Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons and Kevin Durant and they can be a good
Speaker 1: defensive team. Kyrie Irving, when he's engaged, even though he
Speaker 1: struggles guarding bigger players, can slide his feet on the
Speaker 1: perimeter and compete and contain on the on the defensive end.
Speaker 1: I'm really curious to see Kevin Durant Kyrie the tone
Speaker 1: that they set this year in the way that trickles
Speaker 1: down the roster. If they are a top ten defense
Speaker 1: and the number one offense in the league, they're gonna
Speaker 1: be right there in the mix with everybody. So what's
Speaker 1: the best case scenario? If they get off to a
Speaker 1: hot start, that will be vitally important to erasing the
Speaker 1: drama from this off season. Like I said before, winning
Speaker 1: cures all. Staying healthy is obviously a key. Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: has had issues with health. Kyrie irving his at issues
Speaker 1: with health. Ben Simmons had issues with health, physically and mentally.
Speaker 1: That's all stuff that they're gonna have to deal with.
Speaker 1: T J Warren and his foot issues, all lots of
Speaker 1: health question marks there. Kyrie Irving being bought in. It's
Speaker 1: a contract here, so I expect him to do so. Overall,
Speaker 1: defensive buy in. Ben Simmons and Royce O'Neil are not
Speaker 1: gonna be able to clean up all of these defensive messes.
Speaker 1: They need Kyrie and Katie to dedicate themselves to the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor. If they do all of
Speaker 1: those things and they stay healthy, they will be a
Speaker 1: top tier contender, not just in this you know, if
Speaker 1: things go right tier there will be a top tier
Speaker 1: contender if those things go right, and that's what the
Speaker 1: whole purpose of this tier is. Like I was saying
Speaker 1: yesterday with the Phoenix Suns. They have all this talent,
Speaker 1: but the question is whether or not their top end
Speaker 1: talent will hold up their end of the bargain. Right
Speaker 1: with Brooklyn it's the opposite type of effect. I can
Speaker 1: count on K D and what he's gonna Bring this
Speaker 1: here when he's healthy. I can count on Kyrie. It's
Speaker 1: the drama stuff. It's the Ben Simmons thing, it's the
Speaker 1: T J warren healthy thing, it's the Steve Nash thing.
Speaker 1: There's all these question marks surrounding Kevin Durant. That makes
Speaker 1: this team and, if things go right, contender. But in
Speaker 1: terms of talent and fit they are every bit as
Speaker 1: good as the top teams in the league and you
Speaker 1: would be foolish to underestimate them. I absolutely think I
Speaker 1: think they're capable of being uh winning the NBA Championship.
Speaker 1: Make no mistake, if you find yourself in a playoff
Speaker 1: series against a healthy Brooklyn Nets team that cares about
Speaker 1: what they're doing on both ends of the floor, you
Speaker 1: will have to go down against lineups with Kyrie Irving,
Speaker 1: Joe Harris, or Kyrie Irvings, Seth Curry, Joe Harris, Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons and Kevin Durant, and that's gonna Be Really Damn
Speaker 1: hard to beats. Four Times out of seven. It's just
Speaker 1: don't write them off. Don't make that mistake. Worst case scenario,
Speaker 1: obviously they get off to a rough start, which exacerbates
Speaker 1: all of the drama stuff surrounding the team. All of
Speaker 1: those question marks I just referenced go south. This could
Speaker 1: be a situation where they're blown up before the deadline
Speaker 1: and Kyrie and Katie are on different teams by March.
Speaker 1: So that's how far things can go south. Like I said,
Speaker 1: a really wide range between outcomes here. For this particular team,
Speaker 1: the biggest x factor is Ben Simmons. In my opinion.
Speaker 1: Obviously as major health concerns, both mentally and physically. Obviously
Speaker 1: he's got back issues. His mental health reared. It's a
Speaker 1: rear it's head again in the in the late series
Speaker 1: against Boston last year when he said he wasn't gonna
Speaker 1: pull Um. And then obviously he's got offensive shortcomings, particularly
Speaker 1: when he loses confidence. When Ben Simmons is confident and
Speaker 1: he's bringing the ball up the floor and spraying the
Speaker 1: shooters and attacking the rim aggressively and just playing free,
Speaker 1: he has the winning impact of a top ten player
Speaker 1: because of how good he is on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor. But when he loses his confidence he
Speaker 1: becomes borderline unplayable because he doesn't want to do anything
Speaker 1: with the basketball. He wants to get rid of it.
Speaker 1: He won't even attempt shots when things get tight at
Speaker 1: the end of games. He has a very wide range
Speaker 1: of outcomes and that's why he's the x factor for
Speaker 1: this team. There's a version of this story where Brooklyn
Speaker 1: wins the NBA Championship and in that Universe Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: is a top fifteen player and that's what they're going
Speaker 1: to need out of him in order to get that
Speaker 1: Larry O'Brien trophy. It's absolutely within the realm of possibility
Speaker 1: that it's gonna be on Ben Simmons to hold up
Speaker 1: his end of the bargain there, but I think he's
Speaker 1: the big as x factor for this team. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today. We got one
Speaker 1: more show this week. Tomorrow we'll be back with number five,
Speaker 1: the last of our, if things go right, contenders. You
Speaker 1: guys could probably take a wild guess at who that is.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, I bet you most of
Speaker 1: you could probably figure it out. I sincerely appreciate you guys,
Speaker 1: rocking with us and we'll see you tomorrow. The Volume