Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight here at
Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. We are live on AMPS,
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Speaker 1: continuing our player rankings today with number fifteen, fourteen, and thirteen.
Speaker 1: You guys know the job before we get started. Subscribe
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Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. Number fifteen a player that I've
Speaker 1: already seen some people complaining about how high I have
Speaker 1: him on this list, but I'm going to kind of
Speaker 1: dive into that a little bit later. This is one
Speaker 1: of my favorite players in the league, a specific archetype
Speaker 1: of player that I've always been a big fan of,
Speaker 1: and I believe that this type of player succeeds in
Speaker 1: the playoffs for some very important reasons that we're going
Speaker 1: to get into at number fifteen, I have Anthony Edwards
Speaker 1: the quick recap of the season. He got better in
Speaker 1: every single way this year. He had career highs in points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks,
Speaker 1: field goal percentage, and three point percentage. Finished the year
Speaker 1: at twenty five six and four fifty six point four
Speaker 1: percent true shooting, and he went up a huge level
Speaker 1: against the Denver Nuggets in the playoffs, averaged thirty two points,
Speaker 1: five rebounds, and five assists on sixty percent true shooting. Now,
Speaker 1: if you guys remember last year against Memphis, he also
Speaker 1: played really well for his first playoff series as a
Speaker 1: twenty year old. He averaged twenty five points per game
Speaker 1: on sixty percent true shooting against that Memphis team that
Speaker 1: was one of the best defenses in the league that season.
Speaker 1: So in eleven career playoff games and is averaging twenty
Speaker 1: eight points, five rebounds, and four assists on six two
Speaker 1: percenter shooting and he's twenty one years old. At age
Speaker 1: twenty one, he has already demonstrated the ability to be
Speaker 1: productive and efficient in the NBA playoffs. Now, he still
Speaker 1: has a lot of room to grow, obviously, but again
Speaker 1: we have to remember in the playoffs a lot of
Speaker 1: players struggles. Even as we're getting into this ten to
Speaker 1: twenty five range, there are a lot of players that
Speaker 1: are inconsistent and up and down in the playoffs. So
Speaker 1: to me, even at this point in time, he's the
Speaker 1: fifteenth best player in the NBA. The Timberwolves were five
Speaker 1: points better per one hundred possessions when Ant was on
Speaker 1: the floor versus off the floor in the regular season,
Speaker 1: thirteen points better per one hundred possessions with Ant on
Speaker 1: the floor in the playoffs versus when he was off
Speaker 1: the floor. Now, Ant's big foundational skill, the number one
Speaker 1: thing that he has as a leg up against all
Speaker 1: his peers, is he's just one of the best athletes
Speaker 1: in the league at his position, but not strictly as
Speaker 1: a movement athlete, like a guy like John Morant. He
Speaker 1: also has that in combination with real size and strength. Now,
Speaker 1: some of you guys who have been listening for a
Speaker 1: long time might have heard me kind of come to
Speaker 1: a conclusion in this particular playoff run that big athletic
Speaker 1: guards are actually somewhat more valuable than the long, skinny wings.
Speaker 1: And it's because they're fire hydrants, to steal a term
Speaker 1: from my friend petsas they literally cannot be moved off
Speaker 1: of their spot on both ends of the floor, so
Speaker 1: as they're driving past people, they tend to blow through
Speaker 1: their shoulder and get around them. As they are defending
Speaker 1: on the perimeter, they tend to beat guys to spots
Speaker 1: and hold them in their spot. Especially as physicality is
Speaker 1: allowed at a higher level. In the postseason, they win
Speaker 1: a ton of perimeter battles, which is becoming more and
Speaker 1: more important as the NBA kind of enters into this
Speaker 1: new modern era. And so Anthony Edwards represents that archetype
Speaker 1: of athlete, but at the guard position, and that's what
Speaker 1: makes it as a I should say, he represents that
Speaker 1: type of athlete as a star, and that's what separates
Speaker 1: him from a lot of his peers. He has that
Speaker 1: specific type of athletic build, but he has that skill set,
Speaker 1: the little bit of skill set and the unwavering confidence
Speaker 1: and competitiveness that you see in stars, and that puts
Speaker 1: together one of the best players in the league gets
Speaker 1: to the rim a ton. He made four point two
Speaker 1: shots per game in the restricted area this year on
Speaker 1: sixty four percent shooting That was third in the entire
Speaker 1: NBA among guards, behind only Shake Gilges, Alexander and John Morant.
Speaker 1: As I've said before, he reminds me of a guard
Speaker 1: version of Lebron in the sense that, like he doesn't
Speaker 1: necessarily have to be the shiftiest guy in the world.
Speaker 1: When he just hits a gap, even if it's the
Speaker 1: tiniest gap, he's just blowing through people's shoulders and getting
Speaker 1: all the way to the rim with the sheer amount
Speaker 1: of downhill power that he brings to the table, which
Speaker 1: is why he went up a level against Denver and
Speaker 1: why he's been such a successful playoff player in my opinion.
Speaker 1: He went up to four point six restricted area makes
Speaker 1: per game against Denver on the same efficiency sixty four percent. Now,
Speaker 1: do you guys remember when we were talking with about
Speaker 1: Paul Joora yesterday about the concept of defending on your
Speaker 1: heels versus defending on your toes. Anthony Edwards gets really
Speaker 1: good looks at pull up jump shots. Because defenders are
Speaker 1: constantly on their heels. They have to concede shots to
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards to have any chance of keeping him in
Speaker 1: front off the dribble, and so as a result, he
Speaker 1: gets to rise up into these relatively uncontested pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots and he makes them. He made forty six
Speaker 1: percent in effective field goal percentage on pull up jumpers
Speaker 1: in the regular season, which again not a great number,
Speaker 1: not great compared to his peers at the top of
Speaker 1: the league, but for a young player at age twenty one,
Speaker 1: that's excellent. And then it's translating at a very high
Speaker 1: level to the postseason. He had a fifty five percent
Speaker 1: effective field goal percentage on pull up jumpers in the
Speaker 1: playoffs against Denver and fifty seven percent effective field goal
Speaker 1: percentage last year against Memphis. Now, keep that in mind
Speaker 1: that that is a top tier number. So in the
Speaker 1: playoffs he's hitting pull up jump shots at the same
Speaker 1: level as his superstar peers are on the league, and
Speaker 1: again I think that's a huge part. I think a
Speaker 1: huge part of that is just him having defenders on
Speaker 1: their heels with how good he is at beating people
Speaker 1: off the dribble. Now, again, a lot of people in
Speaker 1: my comments were inferring that I had Anthony Edwards in
Speaker 1: my top fifteen and wondering why, and they were concerned
Speaker 1: that I had him too high, and so there are
Speaker 1: two quick things that I wanted to say about that. First,
Speaker 1: like I said in the first video, there's just not
Speaker 1: that much of a gap between. Basically, my top tier
Speaker 1: drops off after number eleven, and I have the top
Speaker 1: tier kind of split into two tiers, but they're all
Speaker 1: what I would consider superstars. Right after number eleven, there's
Speaker 1: a drop off and in my opinion, from number twelve
Speaker 1: to number thirty nine. And if you remember, I had
Speaker 1: fourteen guys that I had as kind of like honorable
Speaker 1: mention who didn't quite make the list. Number twelve is
Speaker 1: definitely better than thirty nine in my opinion, but the
Speaker 1: gap is pretty small. As a matter of fact, I
Speaker 1: would say the gap between number eleven and number twelve
Speaker 1: is probably bigger than the gap between number twelve and
Speaker 1: number thirty nine. On my list, these guys are all
Speaker 1: bunched together. So if you disagree with me about a
Speaker 1: specific spot in the rankings that you have, say, for instance,
Speaker 1: you're like, how in the hell can you have John
Speaker 1: Morant over Anthony Edwards. That's ridiculous. John Morant's a better
Speaker 1: player than Anthony Edwards. Okay, even if You're right, I
Speaker 1: don't have much of a gap between those two guys,
Speaker 1: so we don't disagree by that much. It's not like
Speaker 1: I'm saying Anthony Edwards is incredible and John Rant's a bum,
Speaker 1: and you guys are disagreeing with that. No, I'm saying
Speaker 1: that I have Anthony Edwards is slightly better than John Morant,
Speaker 1: and in this particular list, that puts him at number
Speaker 1: fifteen for me. And that gets me to my second
Speaker 1: thing that I want to say. The reason why I
Speaker 1: have Anthony Edwards as high as I do is it
Speaker 1: has to do with the way that I see the
Speaker 1: game of basketball, which is not necessarily the same way
Speaker 1: that you guys see the game. I don't think that
Speaker 1: I have the market cornered on basketball analysis. I don't
Speaker 1: think I know everything. I have my own perspective, and
Speaker 1: that's why I love talking to you guys and reading
Speaker 1: comments and picking the brains of every other person who
Speaker 1: works in the business and talking to other basketball players.
Speaker 1: I try to just take in as many perspectives as
Speaker 1: I can, and that's why my perspective shifts and change
Speaker 1: from year to year as I learn more about the game,
Speaker 1: not just from the people that I talk to, but
Speaker 1: also from watching games like just in this season, what
Speaker 1: I've learned about the value of the shorter, stockier athletic
Speaker 1: guards like Anthony Edwards. We are all learning throughout this process,
Speaker 1: but with my current view of the game, I gravitate
Speaker 1: towards this archetype really well. And there's a specific reason
Speaker 1: for that. There are a lot of guys in the
Speaker 1: league that are more skilled than Anthony Edwards by a
Speaker 1: wide chasm. There are a lot of really skilled guards.
Speaker 1: Try Young, for instance, way behind Anthony Edwards on this list.
Speaker 1: Trey Young is not even as skilled as some of
Speaker 1: his peers. But Trey Jung is much more skilled than
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards. But for whatever reason, Anthony Edwards is just
Speaker 1: capable of scoring the ball a lot easier and more
Speaker 1: efficiently in the playoffs. Now he's again at this phase
Speaker 1: in his career. He is a different type of player too.
Speaker 1: Trey Jung's more of a passer. Try Young is a
Speaker 1: better passer, but like they're totally different archetypes of players.
Speaker 1: But as we zoom in strictly on thebility to score
Speaker 1: the basketball, for some reason, it's easier than ant than
Speaker 1: it is for Trey Young. Why is that? It's because
Speaker 1: in that setting, when the refs allow more physicality, when
Speaker 1: scouting becomes a bigger part of the equation and the
Speaker 1: easy stuff gets taken away, the dudes that are bigger
Speaker 1: and stronger and faster, for whatever reason, are just capable
Speaker 1: of getting to their spots easier and making shots easier.
Speaker 1: It's just part of the way the game changes as
Speaker 1: you get to this phase. Now, again, I don't see
Speaker 1: much of a gap between Trey Young and Anthony Edwards. Again,
Speaker 1: these guys are all clustered up. But that's why I
Speaker 1: gravitate towards that type of player. It's a similar type
Speaker 1: of concept to Lebron James. There are a lot of
Speaker 1: players over the last fifteen years that have been considerably
Speaker 1: more skilled than Lebron James. Guys like Kevin Durant, Guys
Speaker 1: like Steph Curry. Right, why is it that I would
Speaker 1: even argue a guy like Paul George as like more
Speaker 1: tangible skill in terms of like ball handling and shooting
Speaker 1: than Lebron James. But from twenty twelve to twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: none of those guys came remotely close to Lebron in
Speaker 1: consistent productivity and impacting winning in the NBA playoffs, Like
Speaker 1: not even close. I mean, that's why he's second in
Speaker 1: the goat debate for me and first for many other people.
Speaker 1: Why why is that? It's because he's bigger, stronger, faster,
Speaker 1: and when the game gets super competitive and and physical
Speaker 1: and the ref swallow the whistles, the dude who's bigger
Speaker 1: and stronger just has a lot of success. And again,
Speaker 1: like that, that's just the reality of the NBA playoffs.
Speaker 1: That's why we see really weird outcomes. Like D'Angelo Russell
Speaker 1: is a lot more skilled than Bruce Brown, but Bruce
Speaker 1: Brown whooped his freaking ass in that Western Conference final series,
Speaker 1: utterly embarrassed him, you know, Like even Anthony Davis is
Speaker 1: one of the most skilled bigs in the league. Nicole
Speaker 1: Jokic is also very skilled and probably more skilled than
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. But the reason why he whooped Anthony Davis's
Speaker 1: ass is he's too big and strong for him. He
Speaker 1: physically bullied Anthony Davis in Game four when he was
Speaker 1: tied at one thirteen in the left corner. He had
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis on an island and he just ripped through
Speaker 1: and just suck like shucked him off with his left
Speaker 1: hand and went up and made it with his right like.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, this is a contact
Speaker 1: sport and the bigger, stronger, more athletic players just tend
Speaker 1: to play better. Four of the last five finals MVPs
Speaker 1: were the strongest guys in the league at their position.
Speaker 1: Nikole Jokicic last year, two years before that, Gianni Santanakompo
Speaker 1: year before that, Lebron James year before that, Kawhi Leonard.
Speaker 1: Once again. Steph is the exception that proves the rule,
Speaker 1: which is what makes him so ridiculous. But basketball is
Speaker 1: a contact sport. Overall, strength and athleticism wins most of
Speaker 1: the time. And that is why I g gravitate towards
Speaker 1: guys like Anthony Edwards and that's why I'm so high
Speaker 1: on him. And I don't think it's a coincidence that
Speaker 1: even at age twenty one, he's been so successful in
Speaker 1: the NBA Playoff. It's because of that unbelievable, top tier,
Speaker 1: unstoppable athletic set of tools that he has. Now it
Speaker 1: has three primary areas for improvement, in my opinion, he
Speaker 1: needs at a floater. He shot just thirty seven percent
Speaker 1: on floaters in May, just thirty of them all season.
Speaker 1: Why is that? It's just something that will help his
Speaker 1: overall rim efficiency go up. Anthony shot sixty four percent
Speaker 1: in the restricted area this year. That's very good compared
Speaker 1: to guards. But with his build in his athleticism, he
Speaker 1: should be closer to seventy percent, right, And a big
Speaker 1: part of that, in my opinion, is he's constantly challenging
Speaker 1: rim protectors. Adding a consistent floater so that he can
Speaker 1: make a read and say, oh, I've got this rim
Speaker 1: protector out of position, I'm going hard to the rim.
Speaker 1: Or oh, he's waiting on me. This is going to
Speaker 1: be a tough shot. Let me stop short and make
Speaker 1: a little floater. Adding that to his game I think
Speaker 1: is going to go a long way towards raising his
Speaker 1: overall rim efficiency, raising his overall scoring volume, but also
Speaker 1: reducing the wear and tear on his body. So I'd
Speaker 1: like to see him out a floater. He needs to
Speaker 1: improve as a playmaker. Just four point four assists to
Speaker 1: three point three turnovers in the regular season this year
Speaker 1: has been a tunnel vision. All of you Timberwolves fans
Speaker 1: have noticed this for sure. Where you can just you
Speaker 1: can just kind of tell when he's dribbling on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: It's like he's gonna drive or he's going to take
Speaker 1: a pull up jump shout. He's not looking to make
Speaker 1: a play for his teammates. And the reason why that's
Speaker 1: an issue is rim pressure opens up better passing opportunities
Speaker 1: than anything else. That's just the best way to create
Speaker 1: opportunities for your teammates. The defense just sucks into the paint,
Speaker 1: all eyes are on you, and there's easy kickouts to
Speaker 1: shooters and drop offs to dunkers. That's why you see
Speaker 1: guys like John Murran and Russell Westbrook just rack up
Speaker 1: so many assists. They just pack the paint too much
Speaker 1: and all those easy opportunities are there. So there's no
Speaker 1: reason with Anthony Edwards's ability to drive the basketball that
Speaker 1: he should be below six assists per game, and I'd
Speaker 1: like to see him get above that mark in the
Speaker 1: next couple of years. Lastly, he needs to learn to
Speaker 1: defend off the ball. Another big part of why I
Speaker 1: have Anthony Ewards as high as I do is I
Speaker 1: think he's apps absolutely frightening on the ball. Defensively, he
Speaker 1: is too quick and too strong and when they allow
Speaker 1: that physicality in the playoffs, he just puts dudes in jail.
Speaker 1: And how many times did you watch during the regular
Speaker 1: season this year him and Jaden McDaniels just completely shut
Speaker 1: down the other two teams best perimeter players as Minnesota
Speaker 1: grinded out a win on the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: It's a huge part of why I'm so high on end.
Speaker 1: I think he has better defensive potential than most of
Speaker 1: the young players in the league, and that's crazy from
Speaker 1: a six to six guard. But right now, he's a
Speaker 1: pretty bad off ball defender. He consistently overhelps, leaves shooters
Speaker 1: wide open, missus, box outs, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: That's all just like focus and reps and instincts that
Speaker 1: he has to build over time. But it does undercut
Speaker 1: his defensive value a bit. So if it can fix
Speaker 1: that off ball defense element out of floater become a
Speaker 1: better playmaker, that's where he enters into that superstar, top
Speaker 1: ten player of the league conversation. But to be clear,
Speaker 1: I expect him to be there within the next two
Speaker 1: or three years. That's how good I think this kid is.
Speaker 1: I already think he's really good right now and quite frankly,
Speaker 1: I think the Wolves are going to be a playoff
Speaker 1: team next year if they stay mostly healthy. Number fourteen
Speaker 1: Damian Lillard quick recap of the season. Thirty two points,
Speaker 1: five rebounds, seven assists, career high in points per game,
Speaker 1: career high, sixty five percent true shooting, still one of
Speaker 1: the most deadly shot makers in the league. Fifty six
Speaker 1: percent effective field goal percentage on catch and shoot jumpers,
Speaker 1: fifty four percent effective field goal percentage on pull up jumpers,
Speaker 1: forty five percent on floaters, three point five restricted area
Speaker 1: makes per game on sixty three percent shooting, which is
Speaker 1: like insanely good for a guard as small as Damian
Speaker 1: Lillard is. He did add another level to his foul
Speaker 1: grifting game this season. He had a career high eight
Speaker 1: point eight made free throws per game, which is two
Speaker 1: more than any season in his career. You've shot ninety
Speaker 1: one percent there. And do you guys remember that list
Speaker 1: of fifteen players that I had as like the high
Speaker 1: volume pick and roll ball handlers that all ran at
Speaker 1: least one thousand. Well, in that list of one thousand
Speaker 1: high volume pick and roll players, out of those fifteen guys,
Speaker 1: Dame finished second with only Luka Doncic ahead the Blazers
Speaker 1: scored one point one to four points for Damian Lillard
Speaker 1: pick and roll. Remember the two hundred and fifty ISO list,
Speaker 1: that's my high volume ISO list. Twenty five players in
Speaker 1: the league ran at least two hundred and fifty ISOs.
Speaker 1: Dame finished third on that list, scoring one point one
Speaker 1: to three points per possession. Also an outstanding playmaker with
Speaker 1: a two point one seven assist to turnover ratio, he
Speaker 1: is still one of the very best offensive engines in
Speaker 1: the league. As a matter of fact, among the stars
Speaker 1: in the league, only Nikole Jokic, Diaron Fox, and Devin
Speaker 1: Booker logged higher offensive ratings than Damian Lillard did with
Speaker 1: the Blazers. And that even though the Blazers do have
Speaker 1: a decent amount of offensive talent, the Denver, Sacramento and
Speaker 1: Phoenix teams had more offensive talent. But as we know,
Speaker 1: Portland was a very flawed roster. It did not have
Speaker 1: the interior defense that they needed to cover for the
Speaker 1: defensive shortcomings of their back court, which for the record,
Speaker 1: Dame plays a big part in. And so the Blazers
Speaker 1: were pretty farrassingly bad this year. They finished the season
Speaker 1: thirty three and forty nine. Missed the play in tournament entirely,
Speaker 1: which is unacceptable, But to be clear, Dame did his
Speaker 1: best to fight off those problems. They were much closer
Speaker 1: to five hundred when he played. They were twenty seven
Speaker 1: and thirty one. This is a crazy stat I put
Speaker 1: on Twitter earlier today. They were plus one zh five
Speaker 1: this season with Dame on the floor. That was a
Speaker 1: better point differential than the Oklahoma City Thunder, for instance.
Speaker 1: So they were actually a decent team when he was
Speaker 1: on the floor, but they were minus four hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty four when he was off the floor, which is
Speaker 1: absolutely insane. That's a big part of why I've been
Speaker 1: in support of Damien's trade request. I think he's too
Speaker 1: good to be wasted on a team this bad. Portland's
Speaker 1: had more than enough opportunity to try to put a
Speaker 1: contender around him, and they just haven't been able to.
Speaker 1: So for me, it's kind of a waste of his
Speaker 1: all time talent, and that's why I want to see
Speaker 1: him in Miami now. If Dame is so good, if
Speaker 1: I just laid out second best pick and roll guy
Speaker 1: in the league, third best ISO guy in the league,
Speaker 1: you know sixty four percent for reshoot on thirty two
Speaker 1: points or sixty five per century shooting on thirty two
Speaker 1: points per game, which is insane. Fourth best offensive rating
Speaker 1: among stars in the league. If he's that high, why
Speaker 1: is he down at fourteen? What is the difference here?
Speaker 1: And yes, part of it is me, you know, punishing
Speaker 1: so to speak, or factoring in the fact that he
Speaker 1: missed the playoffs. But in my opinion, it has to
Speaker 1: do with two key weaknesses. Because in my opinion, and
Speaker 1: I genuinely believe this, I think Dame is every bit
Speaker 1: as good as Steph Curry on the basketball in terms
Speaker 1: of just giving him the ball, spread, floor, pick and
Speaker 1: roll iso, Dame is just as good in my opinion,
Speaker 1: But there are two massive areas that Steph is much
Speaker 1: better than Damon And that's the difference between being the
Speaker 1: fourteenth best player in the league and being much much
Speaker 1: higher on the list the the way that I have Steph.
Speaker 1: Those two things are Steph has committed himself to the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor, which has all allowed him
Speaker 1: to become an average to slightly above average defensive player,
Speaker 1: whereas Dame is a significant negative on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the four that makes a big difference. Now, one
Speaker 1: thing I'll say in Dame's defense there is Steph is
Speaker 1: legitimately bigger. He's taller, as longer arms. That certainly helps.
Speaker 1: The second piece of it is Steph does a really
Speaker 1: good amount of his work offensively off the ball, which
Speaker 1: helps in a bunch of different ways. It creates a
Speaker 1: bunch of opportunities for his teammates through the gravity right
Speaker 1: guys like Steph running off of a wide pin down
Speaker 1: and both defenders running with him, leaving a cutter wide open,
Speaker 1: or just a general chaosity causes running off the ball.
Speaker 1: But also it allows him to have real variety in
Speaker 1: his attack. He's not just sitting from the top of
Speaker 1: the key attacking at a live pick and roll a
Speaker 1: high pick and roll in ISO all the time. There
Speaker 1: is a really good balance between his off ball action
Speaker 1: and his on ball action. That is, to me a
Speaker 1: significant part of what makes Steph a better playoff player
Speaker 1: offensively excuse me, than Dame does. Even if we look
Speaker 1: past the defense differences. Here's a stat to demonstrate what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. Dam and Staph both played about the
Speaker 1: same amount of games this year. Steph played fifty six
Speaker 1: games Dame played fifty eight. Steph ran eight hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty eight pick and rolls in ISOs. This year Dame
Speaker 1: ran fifteen hundred and ninety nine, almost double. So the
Speaker 1: live ball, all five eyes staring at you type of
Speaker 1: plays Dame ran twice as often, and again we no
Speaker 1: one's gonna complain. All the offensive numbers are there, sixty
Speaker 1: five percent true shooting, thirty two points per game, All
Speaker 1: the point per possession numbers are off the charts. But
Speaker 1: that's not the first time we've seen a helio centric
Speaker 1: player succeed in the regular season but then experience a
Speaker 1: tailoff and efficiency when they get to the postseason. Steph
Speaker 1: Curry is sixty one percent true shooting for his career
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. That's counting the early years when he
Speaker 1: wasn't as good and the teams weren't as good. Dame
Speaker 1: is at fifty six percent for his career. That chasm there,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, has a lot to do with the
Speaker 1: off ball on ball balance, avoiding that redundancy and repetitiveness
Speaker 1: of just pounding the ball at the top of the
Speaker 1: key every single possession, which makes you easier to guard.
Speaker 1: Over the course of a seven game series, and that's
Speaker 1: not even counting all of the easy baskets that Steph
Speaker 1: generates just by moving without the basketball and creating chaos
Speaker 1: for the defense. And so again, like I'd believe, Dame
Speaker 1: is every bit as good as Steph on the ball,
Speaker 1: but because he doesn't embrace that off ball work that
Speaker 1: Steph does and the defensive end just working hard to
Speaker 1: not be a problem. That's the difference between being a
Speaker 1: top tier, bona fide championship winning superstar and being what
Speaker 1: Damian Lillard is, which is just one of the best
Speaker 1: offensive players in the league that has a ton of
Speaker 1: regular season success, but the playoff success isn't there to
Speaker 1: match it. Although I do want to say in Dame's defense,
Speaker 1: Steph has definitely had better teams, but I also believe
Speaker 1: Steph is a better player. Those two concepts can both
Speaker 1: be true at the same time. So in summary, Dame
Speaker 1: is one of the best offensive engines in the NBA.
Speaker 1: He's a heliocentric pull up shooter that's an above average passer,
Speaker 1: top tier pick and roll ball handler, and top tier
Speaker 1: ISO guy in the league. But he's somewhat repetitive in
Speaker 1: the way that he attacks and he's a bad defensive player,
Speaker 1: which have limited some of his top end playoff ceiling.
Speaker 1: But I personally am very excited to see Dame play
Speaker 1: in Miami. I think Eric Spolstra is the best guy
Speaker 1: to bring out the best of him on the defensive
Speaker 1: end and to weaponize him more as an off ball player,
Speaker 1: especially with how much they like to run action with
Speaker 1: Bam having the ball at the top of the key
Speaker 1: or just with Jimmy Butler having the ball. So I
Speaker 1: think that this has a chance to be the year
Speaker 1: where Damian Lillard kind of achieves the peak version of
Speaker 1: himself as a basketball player, and that Heat team would
Speaker 1: be good enough to potentially win the title. And so again,
Speaker 1: we don't know for sure if he's going to Miami,
Speaker 1: but I would love to see him there because I
Speaker 1: think we'd get to see the best version of Dame
Speaker 1: as a basketball player. All right. Number thirteen Shay Gildess
Speaker 1: Alexander another one of my favorite players. Spoiler alert, I
Speaker 1: really like good basketball players. Season Reecat, this is shayspa out.
Speaker 1: You're finished fourth in the league and scoring at thirty
Speaker 1: one point four points per game. Finished with thirty one points,
Speaker 1: five rebounds, and six assists per game, sixty three percent
Speaker 1: true shooting. At this point, he doesn't really have an
Speaker 1: offensive weakness. He's the best rim pressuring guard in the
Speaker 1: entire NBA. He led all guards with four point seven
Speaker 1: restricted area makes per game on sixty four percent shooting.
Speaker 1: He is one of the deadliest short range pull up
Speaker 1: jump shooters in the league. He actually shot forty seven
Speaker 1: percent on pull up jumpers overall. He also shot forty
Speaker 1: four percent on floaters. All of that combined to make
Speaker 1: Shay literally one of the very best paint scorers in
Speaker 1: the NBA. He averaged fifteen point nine points per game
Speaker 1: in the paint. That was third place in the entire
Speaker 1: league regardless of position. The only two guys ahead of
Speaker 1: him are Giannis and Zion Williamson. So aside from the
Speaker 1: two guys who literally all they do is bulldoze to
Speaker 1: the basket, say Gildes, Alexander's the very best at getting
Speaker 1: to and scoring in the paint. He also shot thirty
Speaker 1: six percent on pull up which is really good. Remember
Speaker 1: that's one of the toughest shots in the game. Anything
Speaker 1: over thirty five percent is really good. One point ninety
Speaker 1: three assists to turnover ratio which is really good, and again,
Speaker 1: playing with lesser offensive talent than you see elsewhere around
Speaker 1: the league, gets to the foul line a ton ninety
Speaker 1: one percent on eleven attempts per game. If you absolutely
Speaker 1: had to pick a weakness to focus on, it would
Speaker 1: be his catch and shoot jump shot. He only shot
Speaker 1: twenty eight percent on those, although they were all threes,
Speaker 1: so it's forty two percent effective field goal percentage, but
Speaker 1: he barely ever took them. He actually took them less
Speaker 1: than once per game, and mostly a couple of reasons.
Speaker 1: One he mostly had the ball in his hands, and two,
Speaker 1: when he caught on the perimeter in a spot up situation,
Speaker 1: he tended to drive those closeouts. And guess what, he
Speaker 1: was really good at that too. Despite shooting just twenty
Speaker 1: eight percent on catch and shoot jumpers, Shay converted spot
Speaker 1: up possessions at one point zero three points per possession,
Speaker 1: which is above average. So he just really damn good
Speaker 1: at everything. And the one weakness he has is one
Speaker 1: that doesn't really matter in this current situation. And my
Speaker 1: guess is he played on a team with more talent
Speaker 1: and he got more catch and shoot reps, he probably
Speaker 1: shoot better on catch shoot jumpers. All you basketball players know,
Speaker 1: if you ever have to do a thing only once
Speaker 1: per game or less, it's really hard to do it
Speaker 1: well because you don't really build a rhythm in that
Speaker 1: specific area. She's an old school guard, plays super physical,
Speaker 1: works hard for easy shots at the rim, which is
Speaker 1: a huge part of what makes him so efficiency efficient.
Speaker 1: He's way bigger than people think. He's six foot six
Speaker 1: with a seven foot wingspan six eleven and a half wingspan.
Speaker 1: He's capable of making every conceivable type of short range
Speaker 1: shot from any footwork, from any dribble combination, from any
Speaker 1: shooting pocket. If he needs to extend the release higher,
Speaker 1: hold on to it longer, shoot it lower, shoot it
Speaker 1: off to the side, shoot a float or shoot a
Speaker 1: jump shot, shoot a hook shot. He's got them all
Speaker 1: and that is what makes him so difficult to guard,
Speaker 1: especially at the end of games. We saw him hit
Speaker 1: several huge shots to win games this year, including making
Speaker 1: the game winner in the play in tournament against the
Speaker 1: New Orleans Hornets. And that's why I actually do because
Speaker 1: we've never actually seen him a playoff series as the
Speaker 1: number one option, and that's a big part of why
Speaker 1: he's down low on this list, like, Shaye made First
Speaker 1: Team All NBA and I have him thirteen and a
Speaker 1: big part of that is you got to see something
Speaker 1: in the postseason, right, I mean, that's that's going to
Speaker 1: be an important step for anybody to dislodge players that
Speaker 1: we have above him on this list, But we are
Speaker 1: going to see him in those environments and I expect
Speaker 1: him to succeed. And the main reason why is because
Speaker 1: he's just so versatile and so creative that is incredibly
Speaker 1: unpredictable and difficult to guard in late game situations, which
Speaker 1: is why he consistently gets to a spot that he
Speaker 1: knows he can make a shot and he has a
Speaker 1: high percentage chance of making it. So I'm very, very
Speaker 1: excited to see Shay gil just Alexander this year for
Speaker 1: the Thunder. I think they're going to make the postseason
Speaker 1: this year. I think Shaye is the North American player,
Speaker 1: so counting Canada in the United States, that is most
Speaker 1: capable of challenging Giannis, Luca and Jokic over the course
Speaker 1: of the next ten years. I'm excited. He got his
Speaker 1: coming out party lot last year and I'm excited to
Speaker 1: see him and what he can accomplish this year. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today, Just two guys. Tomorrow,
Speaker 1: I'm hitting number twelve and number eleven before we head
Speaker 1: into the final two weeks before we go one player
Speaker 1: at a time. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support
Speaker 1: and I will see you guys tomorrow. The volume