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Speaker 1: presented by Fan Duel here at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody.
Speaker 1: We've almost made it to the end of the week
Speaker 1: and we are live on AMP. For those of you
Speaker 1: guys who are watching on YouTube or on the podcast feeds,
Speaker 1: don't forget that AMP is the very first place that
Speaker 1: you guys can get these breakdowns. Today, we're just gonna
Speaker 1: keep it really simple. We were gonna do our power
Speaker 1: rankings today, but we're gonna bump that to Friday, So
Speaker 1: keep an eye on the feeds tomorrow for our power
Speaker 1: rankings Today, we're just gonna be reacting to the news
Speaker 1: that Steph Curry it's very likely to miss about a
Speaker 1: month with a laboral injury in his left shoulder, obviously
Speaker 1: very concerning for the Golden State Warriors. Before we get started, though,
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Speaker 1: maybe required. All right, So Steph is gonna miss somewhere
Speaker 1: between ten and fifteen games, is my guest. The initial
Speaker 1: report was a couple of weeks, but then Shams Sharania
Speaker 1: from the Athletic just put out a report shortly about
Speaker 1: ten fifteen minutes ago saying that in all likelihood he's
Speaker 1: probably going to be out the better part of a month. Um.
Speaker 1: So what I'd like to do is, I'd like to
Speaker 1: look at this from the glass half empty approach first,
Speaker 1: and then we'll come at it from a more positive angle.
Speaker 1: Here in a couple of minutes, here's the reality. The
Speaker 1: Warriors have played nine hundred and seventy two possessions without
Speaker 1: Steph Curry this year, and they've been outscored by ten
Speaker 1: points per possession, a ten points per one possessions in
Speaker 1: those minutes. It's been bad. In fact, in totality this year,
Speaker 1: they are plus one on the scoreboard when Steph is
Speaker 1: on the floor and minus one seven when he's off.
Speaker 1: If you guys remember when we did our m VP
Speaker 1: rankings a couple of weeks ago or a quarter season awards,
Speaker 1: which I believe, Yeah, I think it was one or
Speaker 1: two weeks ago. UM, I talked about how with Steph
Speaker 1: in particular, the on off numbers were so jarring. They're
Speaker 1: like almost twenty points better per an under possessions when
Speaker 1: he's on versus when he's off. That if they could
Speaker 1: just put together some wins and get towards the top
Speaker 1: of the standings. He's kind of like a shoe in
Speaker 1: for m v P. Because all the other top guys
Speaker 1: in the league, they've you know, been better with them
Speaker 1: on the floor versus off, but not nearly as valuable
Speaker 1: as Steff has been to the Warriors. Put it simply,
Speaker 1: the Warriors have been a travesty this year when step
Speaker 1: is off the floor, So what does that mean? That
Speaker 1: means it's gonna be extremely difficult for them to win
Speaker 1: games over this stretch. And the unfortunate part is the
Speaker 1: Warriors didn't bring a ton of urgency to start this season.
Speaker 1: They were already in the ten seed before this news
Speaker 1: came out today. And let's put it, let's let's just
Speaker 1: let's just put it real simply. If the Warriors lose
Speaker 1: ground to the tune of three games in the standings
Speaker 1: over the course of this month, they will drop and
Speaker 1: be ahead of just Houston and San Antonio. If they
Speaker 1: dropped five games on the field over this month, which
Speaker 1: is unlikely but certainly on the on the table as
Speaker 1: a possibility, they'll drop to dead last in the conference,
Speaker 1: even behind San Antonio. There are only four and a
Speaker 1: half games up on San Antonio right now. So one
Speaker 1: of the problems with their acadays ago approach to start
Speaker 1: the season is they didn't really buy themselves any margin
Speaker 1: for error. And so here we are. Steph gets hurt
Speaker 1: and he's gonna be out at least a few weeks,
Speaker 1: potentially a month, and that could be a problem. What
Speaker 1: that means is when he comes back of you know,
Speaker 1: right around that game mark of the season, he's gonna
Speaker 1: have to go on one hell of a run at
Speaker 1: the end of the season just to avoid missing the
Speaker 1: play altogether, let alone hopefully getting out of the plane
Speaker 1: and avoiding that specific situation. We talked a lot about
Speaker 1: this when we were talking about the Warriors in general,
Speaker 1: um after one of their losses earlier this week. You know,
Speaker 1: it's just a lot to ask a team that has
Speaker 1: a severe depth problem to go from, you know, potentially
Speaker 1: having home court advantage and an easier first round match up,
Speaker 1: a chance to kind of gain momentum the way they
Speaker 1: did last year, or Steph was out of the lineup
Speaker 1: and they got to play the Nuggets with just Yokich
Speaker 1: and Steph was coming off the bench, they bought themselves
Speaker 1: enough margin for error that they were able to weather
Speaker 1: that because they started the year what did they start
Speaker 1: fifteen and one or something like that to start the
Speaker 1: season last year or fourteen and one, that's that's off
Speaker 1: the table. Now. Now that margin for air is not there,
Speaker 1: and if things go poorly over this next month, they
Speaker 1: will be in a pretty deep hole. So that that's
Speaker 1: kind of like the the my initial kind of read
Speaker 1: on this situation from just acknowledging the realities you're in.
Speaker 1: You're already a tense seed. Steph is out a month
Speaker 1: and this season you've gotten killed when he's off the floor.
Speaker 1: But obviously the Warriors are going to make every attempt
Speaker 1: to try to float the ship over the course of
Speaker 1: this next month and keep themselves alive as they should.
Speaker 1: They're starting lineup is still the very best line up
Speaker 1: in basketball this year, and they have good reason to
Speaker 1: have faith there and to keep their faith in that grouping.
Speaker 1: So let's look at thee the glass half full approach.
Speaker 1: I was coaching the Warriors, and I was trying to
Speaker 1: talk to my guys in a way that kept their
Speaker 1: belief and help them realize that they still have a
Speaker 1: chance I'd start here. First of all, there's some winning,
Speaker 1: winnable games on the schedule going from today, the fifteenth
Speaker 1: of December to the fifteenth of January. They play the
Speaker 1: New York Knicks, the Charlotte Hornets, the Detroit Pistons, the
Speaker 1: Orlando Magic, the San Antonio Spurs, and Chicago Bulls. Those
Speaker 1: are all very winnable games without Steph Curry. If you win,
Speaker 1: let's say you win four out of those six, that
Speaker 1: can go a long way towards mitigating some of the damage, because, again,
Speaker 1: if you're gaining ground on the field, you know, these
Speaker 1: other teams that are in the bottom half of the conference,
Speaker 1: when we're talking about the Lakers, you know, we're talking
Speaker 1: about the Minnesota Timberwolves and some of these other teams
Speaker 1: that have been struggling. You know they're likely going to
Speaker 1: drop about half their games over this stretch as well.
Speaker 1: So if you can win four or five of these games,
Speaker 1: that could be enough to keep you in a situation
Speaker 1: where this damage is very little at that point. But
Speaker 1: the problem is, as we saw against Indiana last night,
Speaker 1: when Steph goes out, it's not a guarantee that they'll win,
Speaker 1: even against the team that is not overly talented, so
Speaker 1: they need to find some lineup groupings that work well
Speaker 1: without Steph. So, first of all, we don't really know
Speaker 1: how the starters will look this year. The um the
Speaker 1: starters without Steph. So if you just put in Jordan
Speaker 1: Pool for Steph Curry, for instance, which is likely what
Speaker 1: their starting lineup will be, they've only played one possession
Speaker 1: this year, so we don't really know what that grouping
Speaker 1: is going to look like this year. But there are
Speaker 1: some lineups that have played well without step this year
Speaker 1: in decent volume. For instance, the most used non Steph
Speaker 1: line up this year, according to Cleaning the Glass is
Speaker 1: Jordan Pool with Dante DiVincenzo, Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Lamb and
Speaker 1: Draymond Green. That grouping has played fifty nine possessions and
Speaker 1: they have a plus seven net rating, which is plus
Speaker 1: seven per one possessions. That's pretty damn good. The other
Speaker 1: thing we learned, if you guys remember to start the
Speaker 1: season when they were really, you know, doing these line
Speaker 1: change type of things, when they were swapping that starting
Speaker 1: group out and just bringing on the bench, they were struggling.
Speaker 1: But then they started to stagger a little bit, right
Speaker 1: and when they started to stagger. What did we learn.
Speaker 1: We learned that when they kept Draymond Green alongside Jordan's Pool,
Speaker 1: not only did it raise their defensive floor high enough
Speaker 1: to give them a chance to hang in those minutes,
Speaker 1: but it also kind of rained in some of Jordan's
Speaker 1: Pool's recklessness and some of his decision making. Just having
Speaker 1: a veteran on the floor that's a good decision maker.
Speaker 1: That just kind of reins him in a little bit.
Speaker 1: And those groupings have played really well. When Jordan's Pool
Speaker 1: and Draymond Green are on the floor this year without
Speaker 1: Steph Curry, they are plus seven points per one possessions
Speaker 1: in a decent sample size two hundred possessions. That's really good.
Speaker 1: So there is enough there to kind of just pile
Speaker 1: together some lineups that can work. And again, it's not
Speaker 1: about going undefeated over this stretcher going ten and five.
Speaker 1: You all know that that's not realistic. The hell, that's
Speaker 1: barely been realistic with the team being healthy. But there
Speaker 1: is a pathway towards just manufacturing some wins. You gotta
Speaker 1: beat the Hornets, you gotta beat the Pistons, you gotta
Speaker 1: beat the Magic, you gotta beat the Spurs. And if
Speaker 1: you're gonna win those games, you've got to find some
Speaker 1: groupings that work. Now, if we look at what Steph
Speaker 1: brings to the Warriors, obviously Steph has turned himself into
Speaker 1: a positive defensive player at this phase in his career,
Speaker 1: but that's not really where it's going to be in effect.
Speaker 1: The biggest effect is offensive creation. I think Steph Curry
Speaker 1: is the best offensive player potentially of all time when
Speaker 1: you really factor in what he does on the ball
Speaker 1: and what he does off the ball to create high
Speaker 1: quality shots for his teammates. The only reason he's not
Speaker 1: the goat is he doesn't impact games defensively the way
Speaker 1: that Michael Jordan did or Lebron James Datter Kobe Bryant
Speaker 1: did right, but he offensively is every bit as good
Speaker 1: as those guys are, if not even better. And so
Speaker 1: that's the part that you've got to find a place
Speaker 1: to to replace. So what that means is Jordan's Pool
Speaker 1: and Clay Thompson are going to have to step up
Speaker 1: and play really high level basketball. The other guy would
Speaker 1: really look at here is Andrew Wiggins. Andrew Wiggins went
Speaker 1: from what he was in Minnesota, which was a primary
Speaker 1: shot creator into a basically a three and D guy
Speaker 1: right for the Golden State Warriors this year and extremely
Speaker 1: low volume. I think he's run around twenty five possessions
Speaker 1: in each of these. He's one point per possession in isso,
Speaker 1: which is above average, and one point zero four points
Speaker 1: per post up both of those including passage including passes,
Speaker 1: that's above average. So Andrew Wiggins has some experience as
Speaker 1: a primary shock creator that you can lean on for
Speaker 1: heavier usage, and so that guy in particular, you gotta
Speaker 1: lean on more. And then you just need Jordan's Pool
Speaker 1: and Clay Thompson to be more consistent. Most importantly, no
Speaker 1: matter what the urgency on the defensive end of the floor,
Speaker 1: which has not been there for the Warriors this year consistently,
Speaker 1: especially when they get away from home. That urgency on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor has to be there
Speaker 1: every single night. And so that's gonna be the challenge
Speaker 1: for them, especially since, like you know, they're talented enough
Speaker 1: that if you go into Charlotte, or you play Charlotte,
Speaker 1: you play the Pistons, you play the Magic, you play
Speaker 1: the Spurs, you will beat those teams if you defend
Speaker 1: as well as you are capable of because those teams
Speaker 1: are young, and those teams are sloppy, they let go
Speaker 1: with a rope. If you bring that defensive effort, you
Speaker 1: can beat them. So that's the end of the floor
Speaker 1: that I'd watched really really closely, and I'm really curious
Speaker 1: to see how well that floats. There's two other angles
Speaker 1: real quickly. I want to look at this here. I
Speaker 1: talked about this when we were talking about Golden States
Speaker 1: margin for air earlier this week, but it might be
Speaker 1: even more likely that the Warriors consider being more aggressive
Speaker 1: in the trade market. Obviously. I think today is actually
Speaker 1: the official date, December fift where all of the contracts
Speaker 1: signed this summer are eligible for trades. You know, Moses Moody, ironically,
Speaker 1: coming into the season, seemed like the young guy they'd
Speaker 1: be able to rely on the most hasn't really panned out.
Speaker 1: James Wisen obviously is in the G League bouncing back
Speaker 1: and forth. So at a certain point you might have
Speaker 1: to look at moving those two guys as your best
Speaker 1: opportunity to bring back a player that gives you a
Speaker 1: better chance of flow outing over the course of the
Speaker 1: next month, And you know, it might be the best
Speaker 1: thing that could happen to them because they've been really
Speaker 1: hesitant to make that particular move obviously in the interest
Speaker 1: of keeping this two timelines approach, and that might end
Speaker 1: up costing them in the playoffs anyway. So hopefully for
Speaker 1: the Warrior's sake, this ends up being the thing that
Speaker 1: kind of breeds some urgency there. But the one last
Speaker 1: thing I wanted to look at here from the standpoint
Speaker 1: of keeping the glass half full, is the West is
Speaker 1: wide open. When you're looking at the teams at the top,
Speaker 1: you're looking at the New Orleans Pelicans who are very young,
Speaker 1: an injury prone, Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson injury prone,
Speaker 1: and generally speaking, in NBA history, you don't see young
Speaker 1: teams like that end up going on long playoff runts.
Speaker 1: They just don't understand how to win in that chess
Speaker 1: match environment for two months. It usually ends up being
Speaker 1: the the the veteran teams that do so. So I'm
Speaker 1: not overly concerned about them, particularly if I if I'm
Speaker 1: a Warrior's fan, not over the concern about them. Denver
Speaker 1: is down to defense. They don't play any damn defense,
Speaker 1: So Denver is not gonna be something you're overly concerned
Speaker 1: about Phoenix is always like one or two bad games
Speaker 1: away from letting go of the rope. But the Clippers
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard, his health is a concern, Paul George, his
Speaker 1: health is a concern. They're they're starting to look a
Speaker 1: little old and slow on the wing, although they've been
Speaker 1: playing better basketball as of late. There is no world
Speaker 1: beating team in the Western Conference. This is what is
Speaker 1: driving most of the Lakers optimism this year is the
Speaker 1: fact that, like, you just don't have to be that
Speaker 1: good necessarily to win this conference. So it's not ideal.
Speaker 1: You obviously don't want to have to play in a
Speaker 1: playing game or go on the road in the first
Speaker 1: round to a top seed, to then have to play
Speaker 1: one of the middle season in the conference, to then
Speaker 1: have to play a top seed before you inevitably have
Speaker 1: to play the Bucks are the Celtics coming out of
Speaker 1: the East. But if there was one year to do it,
Speaker 1: it would be this year. So it's unfortunate this kind
Speaker 1: of thing happens. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: the Warriors have two choices. You can you know, punt,
Speaker 1: which they're obviously not going to do, or you can
Speaker 1: try to find some lineup groupings that work. Expect Jordan
Speaker 1: Pool and Clay Thompson to play better, lean a little
Speaker 1: bit more, and Andrew Wiggins and defend, defend, defend, defend,
Speaker 1: give yourself a chance. This is kind of fortunate in
Speaker 1: the stance that it happened during a stretch of their
Speaker 1: schedule where they've got some winnable games and if they go,
Speaker 1: you know, they win five or six games over the
Speaker 1: course of this month, they could be coming back here
Speaker 1: right around the tenth or eleventh seed. Anyway, we're gonna
Speaker 1: be doing our power rankings today ranking the top ten
Speaker 1: teams in the league. Just you guys know, from a
Speaker 1: statistics standpoint, all these stats are as of when I've
Speaker 1: recorded this on Wednesday, so Wednesday nights games have not
Speaker 1: been factored in. You guys know the drill before we
Speaker 1: get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channels. You don't
Speaker 1: miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter
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Speaker 1: last but not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss
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Speaker 1: to YouTube to finish, you can find them wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight, All right, let's talk
Speaker 1: some basketball. So number ten the Golden State Warriors. Yes,
Speaker 1: they're terrible on the road, two and twelve on the road,
Speaker 1: but they're just as good at home twelve and two
Speaker 1: at home. And it appears to mostly be associated with efforts. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, they're twenty nine and defensive rating on the road.
Speaker 1: They are third in defensive rating at home. That's pretty
Speaker 1: big difference there, twenty nine and defensive rebound percenter excuse me,
Speaker 1: an overall rebound percentage on the road, but they are
Speaker 1: fifteen and in rebounding percentage at home, so they're competing
Speaker 1: a lot better on the glass at home. And then
Speaker 1: they're also just really sloppy with the basketball there in
Speaker 1: turnover percentage on the road. So I think it's fixable.
Speaker 1: I think it's effort related kind of championship malay stuff.
Speaker 1: They don't deserve to be anywhere near the top of
Speaker 1: this list, obviously, but they're still the defending champs and
Speaker 1: they're still the team that I am picking to win
Speaker 1: the championship, and they demonstrated that with that resounding win
Speaker 1: over the Boston Celtics on Saturday night. All right, number nine,
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia seventies six or so. They're fifteen and twelve,
Speaker 1: but they are ten and five since November twelve, which
Speaker 1: is the fourth best record in the league over that span.
Speaker 1: They're also fourth in defense over that span. They are
Speaker 1: seven and six this season against teams that are five
Speaker 1: hundred or better. Anytime you're over five hundred in that category,
Speaker 1: at least think it's worth keeping an eye on. Preferably
Speaker 1: if your contender, you hope to win about two thirds
Speaker 1: of those games. But seven and six is pretty solid.
Speaker 1: They do play down to their competition a lot, though
Speaker 1: they've lost six times this year to teams that are
Speaker 1: below five hundred. Joel Ebad has been arguably the best
Speaker 1: player in the league over the last ten games. He's
Speaker 1: averaging thirty seven in that span, and the entires Maxi
Speaker 1: should be coming back. James Harden came back a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago. He's starting to get his legs back
Speaker 1: underneath him. He's had a couple of big games. He
Speaker 1: had one and fifteen assists against the Kings the other night.
Speaker 1: Um So, I think with Tyrese Maxi coming back, and
Speaker 1: with them having their defense in order, they've also gotten
Speaker 1: a lot better in transition defense, which has been a
Speaker 1: weakness of there's Joel Embiat playing like the best player
Speaker 1: in the world. I think they're gonna go on a
Speaker 1: big run in January. Alright. Number eight the Los Angeles Clippers,
Speaker 1: So there's sixteen and thirteen. They did start two and four,
Speaker 1: but they're fourteen and nine in their last twenty three games.
Speaker 1: They're actually sitting pretty damn well if you really factor
Speaker 1: in the bad luck they've had with keeping Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: and Paul George actually available. And on the court, they're
Speaker 1: winning with their defense, which again, as I always say,
Speaker 1: is going to keep you in games and give you
Speaker 1: a chance to win more nights than not. Their fifth
Speaker 1: in defensive rating on the season. Their offense has been
Speaker 1: terrible all year there and offensive rating, but so much
Speaker 1: of that has to do with the fact that they
Speaker 1: haven't had their stars available. It talked about this a
Speaker 1: lot over the course of the last week. Having superstar
Speaker 1: production to rescue possessions, attack specific mismatches, and to generate
Speaker 1: advantages that your role players can capitalize on. That really
Speaker 1: is the difference between bad offenses and good offenses. This
Speaker 1: is such a good example of this. So they're twenty
Speaker 1: eight as a team in offensive rating this year. But
Speaker 1: when Paul George and Kawhi Leonard are on the floor together,
Speaker 1: there's score were a hundred and eighteen points per one
Speaker 1: hundred possessions, which is really really good. They're actually plus
Speaker 1: eighteen net per one hundred possessions when the two of
Speaker 1: them are on the floor, excellent on both ends, and
Speaker 1: six and two overall in games when Kawhile Leonard and
Speaker 1: Paul George both play. So it's kind of the opposite
Speaker 1: of the Lakers situation. The depth has kept them afloat
Speaker 1: in the standings while they've had health issues, and then
Speaker 1: Kawhile Leonard and Paul George is what allows them to
Speaker 1: capture their ceiling, whereas for the Lakers, their lack of
Speaker 1: depth is making it so that even though Lebron James
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis are available, they haven't been able to
Speaker 1: win nearly enough games even to stay afloat in the standings.
Speaker 1: And then the Clippers were kind of waiting on their
Speaker 1: signature win and they got it against Boston on Monday night.
Speaker 1: Paul George and Kawhile Lenard both kind of resoundingly outplay
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown got a huge win. One
Speaker 1: by twenty kind of just adds some legitimacy to their
Speaker 1: recent success in their schedule. Number seven the Denver Nuggets.
Speaker 1: So they're sixteen and ten, they're second in offense for
Speaker 1: the season, but they keep falling further and further behind
Speaker 1: things on defense. They're not in defensive rating, just like
Speaker 1: we were talking about with the Sacramento Kings Awhile Back.
Speaker 1: If you don't defend, you're gonna struggle to be good teams,
Speaker 1: and that's exactly what we're seeing with the Nuggets. They
Speaker 1: are seven and eight against teams that are five hundred
Speaker 1: are better, and they are nine in two against teams
Speaker 1: that are below five hundred. So they're gonna have to
Speaker 1: figure out some things on defense. The big silver lining
Speaker 1: and the thing that should have Nuggets fans really excited
Speaker 1: right now, is that Jamal Murray looks like he's back.
Speaker 1: He had that massive game winner I think he had
Speaker 1: like twenty two and hit like a nasty step back
Speaker 1: game winner against the Portland Trailblazers the other night, and
Speaker 1: then he followed that up with thirty points on nineteen
Speaker 1: shots against the Utah Jazz in a big win. Um
Speaker 1: He's averaging twenty two and five on six shooting in
Speaker 1: his last seven games. So if Yo Kitchen Murray are back,
Speaker 1: that's when we can start to really get excited about
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets ceiling. But they are gonna have to
Speaker 1: figure out some things on the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: Number six the Cleveland Cavaliers. They're eventeen and eleven, twelfth
Speaker 1: in offense for the season, but second defense and creeping
Speaker 1: ever so closely towards the Bucks for that top spot
Speaker 1: in defense. They did have a bad loss in San
Speaker 1: Antonio the other night, though. There's some interesting stuff going
Speaker 1: on with the Calves in their line up data, which
Speaker 1: is something that I've been on all season. Like, I
Speaker 1: really like all of these players in a vacuum, right,
Speaker 1: Like I like Donovan Mitchell, I like Darius Garland, I
Speaker 1: like Evan Mobley, I like Jared Allen. But whenever you
Speaker 1: play two small guards together, you open yourself up to
Speaker 1: a lot of things that can hurt you in the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor and rebounding and contested rebounding situations.
Speaker 1: So when we look these numbers are according to cleaning
Speaker 1: the glass, which filters out garbage time. The Calves have
Speaker 1: a plus one point to net rating with both Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell and Darius Garland on the floor, which is not
Speaker 1: very good. But then when you swap one of them out,
Speaker 1: so Garland is on and Mitchell is off, the air
Speaker 1: plus six point four which is really good. And then
Speaker 1: with Mitchell on and Garland off their plus nine point three,
Speaker 1: which is outstanding. So as you can see, they're doing
Speaker 1: really well with Donovan Mitchell and all their length and
Speaker 1: athleticism on defense. They're doing really well with Darius Garland
Speaker 1: in all their length and athleticism on defense. But when
Speaker 1: you put the two of them on the floor together,
Speaker 1: they're struggling. And we've seen that specifically hurt them and
Speaker 1: crunch time situation, crunch time situations this year. It's just
Speaker 1: it's the problem with trying to build a roster around
Speaker 1: two small guards that don't defend. I've said this before,
Speaker 1: I'll say it again. I know Cleveland fans get upset
Speaker 1: when I do, but I would be blown up MASSI
Speaker 1: you Jerry's phone and begging him to do something along
Speaker 1: the lines of a Darius Garland for O Ganna Noby switch.
Speaker 1: I don't care what has to be thrown in there
Speaker 1: to make it all work. I just think that gives
Speaker 1: you the best defense in the league with O Ganna Noby,
Speaker 1: who has been arguably the defensive player of the year.
Speaker 1: Without the Alan mobiley front court, O g and Noby
Speaker 1: has made a lot of improvements Offensively, They've got a
Speaker 1: lot of guys that are knocking down threes at a
Speaker 1: high rate. And then Donovan Mitchell is arguably the m
Speaker 1: v P of the league depending on who you ask.
Speaker 1: I don't have him there, but he's in that conversation,
Speaker 1: So that would be a direction that I would go
Speaker 1: if I was the Calves. I don't think they're going
Speaker 1: to I think they're gonna play out the season, and
Speaker 1: I think they'll end up getting beat in the postseason
Speaker 1: by that specific matchup. Issue Number five the Brooklyn Nets.
Speaker 1: So they've won seventy of their game since November four,
Speaker 1: which ranked second in the league. They're seventeen and twelve overall,
Speaker 1: which is the seventh best record in the league. Katie
Speaker 1: is having his best two way season since two thousand
Speaker 1: and seventeen playing like an m v P. And then
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving is starting to kind of round into his
Speaker 1: vintage form. He had a really really impressive win a
Speaker 1: game the other night against the Washington Wizards on the
Speaker 1: road when he really dragged him back into that game
Speaker 1: in the second quarter when they got off to a
Speaker 1: sloppy start. Plus, most importantly, the role players are healthy now.
Speaker 1: T J. Warrens back, he's playing well. You don't want
Speaker 1: Nobbies playing really well. You know, they've got a bunch
Speaker 1: of guys shooting from three Seth Curry has been incredible.
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons is now back into the lineup. They're starting
Speaker 1: to look very much like a championship contender. They just
Speaker 1: need a signature win. They had an opportunity against Boston
Speaker 1: a while back, didn't get the deal done there. They
Speaker 1: need to find that signature win that reminds them of
Speaker 1: what they're capable of on the biggest stage. Number four
Speaker 1: Memphis Grizzlies. So they've won six in a row, eight
Speaker 1: out of nine. They have the best record in the
Speaker 1: league since November, which is what three weeks or so.
Speaker 1: Um their fourth and offense a second in defense over
Speaker 1: that span, and they're doing it all without Desmond Baine,
Speaker 1: and with John Morien going through his first real significant
Speaker 1: shooting slump UH of the season. He hasn't really been
Speaker 1: able to make jump shots or free throws for the
Speaker 1: last three weeks or so. Um. There are seven. The
Speaker 1: way they're compensating for that is their seven Memphis Grizzlies
Speaker 1: right now. They are averaging double figures over this nine
Speaker 1: game span. And then Jaren Jackson Jr. Is just has
Speaker 1: just been unbelievable. He's giving Brook Lopez a run for
Speaker 1: his money. Is that best like rim protecting stretch five
Speaker 1: that we have in the league. He's making in this
Speaker 1: nine game span, he's making two threes per game at
Speaker 1: fort and he's blocking three point four shots per game,
Speaker 1: which is just ridiculous. Um. And then John Moran, you know,
Speaker 1: we've talked a lot about his jump shot, which started
Speaker 1: this season really hot, s cooled off a little bit. Obviously,
Speaker 1: has some defensive limitations, but he's having a really nice
Speaker 1: playmaking season. He's averaging a career high eight assist per game.
Speaker 1: Memphis has scored two hundred and fifty points on two
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty four possessions. When John Moran has passed
Speaker 1: out of isolation or pick and roll, which is really
Speaker 1: really good. He's another guy who's a bona fide m
Speaker 1: VP candidate at this point in the season. Alright. Number
Speaker 1: three the New Orleans Pelicans kind of similar to Memphis.
Speaker 1: They're playing really well despite having some bad injury luck.
Speaker 1: They have tons of depth on the wing and tons
Speaker 1: of ball handling, which are two of the most important
Speaker 1: things in the league right now, which is allowing them
Speaker 1: to manufacture wins. They are tied for first place in
Speaker 1: the West with Memphis at eighteen and nine. They did
Speaker 1: get rolled in Utah the other night to stop a
Speaker 1: seven game winning streak, but they have the best record
Speaker 1: in basketball over the last month at twelve and three.
Speaker 1: They have the best defense in the league over that
Speaker 1: stress in. Zion has been really good on both ends
Speaker 1: of the floor during that stretch, which is interesting. Since
Speaker 1: November twelve, the pills are ten and two when Zion plays.
Speaker 1: He's averaging twenty six points, eight rebounds, and five assists
Speaker 1: during that span on sixty seven percent shooting, and he's
Speaker 1: averaging two point two stocks per game that steals plus blocks.
Speaker 1: We're starting to make some more impact plays on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the four. Herb Jones is back now,
Speaker 1: Brandon Ingram should still be coming back soon enough. You know,
Speaker 1: if if in the event, I still think the Warriors
Speaker 1: are the best team in the West, and I put
Speaker 1: the Clippers at number two still because of what we've
Speaker 1: seen with their ceiling with Kawai and Paul George. But
Speaker 1: in the event that those two trick things off for
Speaker 1: one reason or another, the Pelicans right now are my
Speaker 1: pick for the team that would get out of the
Speaker 1: West if that were to happen. Number two the Milwaukee Bucks.
Speaker 1: They're twenty and seven, first in defense, although like I said,
Speaker 1: Cleveland is kind of creeping up on them. Eighteenth and offense.
Speaker 1: But this is where it gets exciting when Chris Middleton.
Speaker 1: This is according to Cleaning the Glass, when Chris Middleton
Speaker 1: and Janis Antenna Kompo are on the floor together, the
Speaker 1: Bucks have an offensive rating of a hundred and nineteen,
Speaker 1: which is great. So all the stuff that we've been
Speaker 1: talking about with offense, I thought Chris Middleton being out
Speaker 1: had a huge part, had to play a huge role
Speaker 1: into that, especially in the half court with him being back.
Speaker 1: Even though Chris hasn't even really gained his rhythm back.
Speaker 1: They're scoring at a really really effective rate when the
Speaker 1: two of those guys are on the floor, so their
Speaker 1: offense should trend up quickly here in the coming weeks. UM. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Chris Middleton is still getting his rhythm back, UM, but
Speaker 1: his spot up shooting and playmaking in particular is going
Speaker 1: a long way to helping them on the offensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor. They had a really impressive win against
Speaker 1: Golden State on Tuesday night, sending a message that they
Speaker 1: still have that championship level ceiling the number one or
Speaker 1: they've been all season. The Boston Celtics still the best
Speaker 1: record in the league at two and seven. A couple
Speaker 1: of disappointing losses to Golden State and the Clippers. Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum had a couple of rough games. You know, obviously
Speaker 1: it's on the road. Uh kind of fell back into
Speaker 1: some of their old tendencies over penetrating, driving into the
Speaker 1: teeth of the defense, attempting bad shots, over help defense
Speaker 1: instead of kicking to all of their great spot up players.
Speaker 1: They lost their identity a little bit, but they ended
Speaker 1: the road trip on a high note, really impressive win
Speaker 1: against the Lakers on a night, when Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis were downright magnificent, um and and and kind
Speaker 1: of had a an opportunity to let go of the
Speaker 1: rope there, down thirteen with four minutes left, and instead
Speaker 1: they just grind it out a nice overtime win. Everything
Speaker 1: with Boston comes down to their ability to maintain their
Speaker 1: identity when the chips are down in high stakes environments.
Speaker 1: Makes it hard to evaluate them during the regular season
Speaker 1: because they're so damn talented that they're kind of just
Speaker 1: gonna beat everyone's ass. Uh during the eight two game
Speaker 1: regular season. They need lots of reps and high stakes
Speaker 1: environments to continue to confront that ugly side of themselves
Speaker 1: and overcome it, which is something that they've struggled with
Speaker 1: even into this season. So it's hard to really tell
Speaker 1: what their ultimate ceiling is until we see them on
Speaker 1: that big stage again with an opportunity to kind of
Speaker 1: erase that memory. Um. But for right now, I think
Speaker 1: they're clearly the best team in this regular season to
Speaker 1: this point. All right, guys, that is all I have
Speaker 1: for today. Saturday morning, We'll be coming back with breakdowns
Speaker 1: of a bunch of the games from Friday night. As always,
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate your guys support and I will see
Speaker 1: you next time. The volume