February 12, 2025 • 30 mins
Jason Timpf is back reacting to an exciting night of basketball led by Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, and the New York Knicks defeating the Indiana Pacers 128-115. Jason tips his cap to KAT for dropping 40 points on Pascal Siakam and the Indiana Pacers, and gives his flowers to Josh Hart for his tenacity on both ends of the floor, including pouring in 30 points and 10 rebounds. Jason gives us the keys to the Knicks’ success as New York City’s premier NBA franchise attempts to capture their first Larry O’Brien trophy in several decades. Next, Jason recaps Kevin Durant’s performance for the Phoenix Suns as he entered the 30,000 point club, joining rarefied air in NBA history. Timpf proceeds to explain why Durant’s scoring prowess is still so impressive after coming back from a devastating ACL injury, proving the sure-fire Hall of Famer to be one of the best offensive players in the Association’s history. Then, Jason spins negative and explains why the Phoenix Suns’ roster issues, exacerbated by ballooned player salaries, could hold them back as their short NBA title window appears to be closing.
Timeline:
4:15 - Start
5:00 - Knicks/Pacers
17:30 - Kevin Durant enters the 30k club
25:45 - Suns/Grizzlies
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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see DKG dot co slash b ball. All right, welcome
to new tonight here at the volume heavy Wednesday. Everybody
hope All If you guys are having a great week,
(01:49):
we got a jam pack show for you today. We're
hitting both pn T games from last night as the
Knicks get a big win on the road against the
Pacers and then the Grizzlies do the same on the
road against the Suns. A lot of interesting stuff to
get into. You guys have the joke before we get started.
Subscribe to Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any
more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore
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(02:10):
on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you
leave a rating and a review on that front. We
also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram,
and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout the year. Make sure
you guys follow us there. In the last but not least,
keepdropping mailback questions in the YouTube comments. We can hit
them in our Friday mail bags throughout the rest of
the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So we're
gonna start with Nicks Pacers. A very interesting example of
(02:32):
the role that matchups play in the NBA. The Pacers
did about as good of a job on Jalen Brunson
in this game that I've ever seen a team do.
They started with Nemhart on him, but it was a
steady diet of Nemhard Knee Smith, TJ. McConnell, and they
were just relentless with physical ball pressure all night long,
staying attached, swiping at the ball, being physical with him,
(02:54):
frustrating him. They stayed attached to him on screening actions,
even the tougher ones. You know, Jalen Brunson's will sometimes
like get into the middle of the floor and if
he doesn't like what he's got, he'll pitch the ball
out to a big flashing up high and then he'll
sprint off of that for a dribble handoff. But even
on those he was coming off the dribble handoff and
just running right into another defender. They closed off passing
(03:15):
angles on him with length, made it really difficult for
him to feed the role man when he was getting
trapped on some of those actions. They kept him off
the foul line. It's the first time all season that
a team held Jalen Brunson to zero free throw attempts.
I thought that was interesting and again got him into
foul trouble. And I thought most of that foul trouble
actually came down to his own his own frustrations. Three
(03:36):
of the fouls that he had in this game, he
basically just either hacked the dude or shoved somebody over
when he was clearly frustrated. But here's the thing. The
Pacers match up well with the Knicks on the perimeter.
They've got a lot of guys that they can throw at.
Jalen Brunson, Nemhard can do a good job. Nie Smith
is big and physical and can give him some issues. TJ.
(03:56):
McConnell a fire hydrant that can beat him to spots.
Those guys give him some issues. The flip side is, though,
without Myles Turner, they match up terribly with Carl Anthony
Towns and he absolutely fried Thomas Bryant in every which
way in this game. It's beating in with the classic
pick and pop stuff that the Knicks do all the time.
He beat him several times with drives. He beat him
(04:17):
out of the post, like Briant looked lost chasing him
around on the perimeter. There's a big possession in the
fourth quarter of this game where they needed to stop
late shot clock situation. There's like three four seconds on
the shot clock and Cat the ball's in the right corner,
deep in the right corner, and Kat kind of flashes
to the right wing to get the ball, and Thomas
Bryant like runs out there to try to deny the pass.
(04:37):
As soon as Cat catches it, he just rips back
to the left and goes right by Thomas Bryant gets
a wide open layup. It's just bad defense. But that's
the thing. Like a lot of times, Carl Anthony Towns
will put big guys into situations that they're not used
to being in because he's such a different type of
outside in center, the Pacers tried all sorts of things.
They tried a centerless look where they went with Siakam
(04:58):
and Obi Toppin at the four or five, and Kat
just promptly got too easy post seal buckets, a transition
one against Ben mather In, a little post move on
the right block. Against Obi Toppin, they tried putting a
wing on him and refusing to switch so that he
couldn't get open on the pop, but then they just
used Kat as a screener and ended up getting McHale
bridges downhill for an easy drop off pass to Josh Hart.
(05:18):
They couldn't keep him off the offensive glass. They just
didn't have the bodies to match up with Karl Anthony Towns,
and he torched him for it forty points, twelve rebounds,
and five assists. Such an interesting example of that dynamic though,
Like the styles make fights, and if you've got the
guys to match up with a certain type of player,
you can be in a good spot there. But if
you don't have a matchup for a different type of player,
(05:41):
you can be completely screwed. And it didn't matter how
good of a job they did on Brunson again, the
best job I've seen someone do on Brunson in a
long time, and it just didn't matter because they didn't
have the bodies for Karl Anthony Towns. It's an interesting
example of that dynamic. Again, injuries play a role in this,
but I just thought it was a really interesting storyline
in that game. I thought Josh Hart had a fantastic game,
a lot of the usual transition pushes where he just
(06:03):
looks like a bowling ball to the rim. He had
twelve points in transition in this game. To me, Josh
hartt represents the consistent second wave of rim pressure when
the Knicks are an offense on offense in the half court,
whether it's Jalen Brunson, whether it's Karl Anthony Towns, whether
it's og In McHale, it doesn't matter who it is
that's initiating things. As soon as he sees his man
(06:25):
turn his head, he is cutting to the front of
the rim, and if he doesn't get the ball on
the cut, he's there for the offensive glass. He had
ten points on cuts in this game. He had four
points on offensive rebounds. Think about how crazy that is
to have a thirty point game where you have twelve
in transition, ten on cuts, and four in offensive rebounds,
(06:46):
basically putting up a thirty ball almost entirely on the
margins just by running his lane and cutting every single
time someone got to the basket. In the Knicks offense,
it's that second wave. Right first wave comes in, all
attention gets direc towards that. Josh is always just sneaking
in right behind that and doing damage. Overall, I thought
the Knicks defense did a great job of containing the
(07:07):
ball in this game too, particularly on Pascal Siakam. Pascal
had twenty four points, but literally every single one of
them were either in transition or as a play finisher.
He didn't get a single bucket or a single point
in the post or in an ISO, or as the
ball handler in a ball screen. When he got into
those situations, guys were walling him up, keeping him in
(07:28):
front and forcing him to shoot over the top, and
he was missing. And again, like that's your job. Like
every one of these star players, you're not gonna stop
them entirely. And again, Pascal got twenty four because he's
still a really good basketball player. But if you at
least make them rely on the tougher shots that are
in their diet, you can limit their effectiveness gamed game
based on variants. We all know Pascal can hit those shots,
(07:50):
but he also can miss them. But the only way
you can get him into that situation is if that's
what he's relying on instead of getting easy stuff just
beating people off the dribble. I thought they did a
good job on Haliburton, held him to sixteen points and
force him into four turnovers. I've talked a lot of
late when we talk NIX about how devastating they can
be when they play defense and they get stops and
(08:10):
they force turnovers, and they run out in transition when
they focus in on getting stops, run out for quick
shots and then get back and defend again. That's when
they're at their best, and really I thought that was
what triggered the run that ended the game. The Pacers
actually cut this one down to four in the late
third quarter, but like McHale, Bridges stays attached to Tyrese
Haliburton on a ball screen forces a missed mid range shot.
(08:33):
They run out and get a bucket. McHale walls up
Siakam on an ISO and forces him into an overtop
shot that he misses. They run out the other way.
Duce McBride misses a shot, it gets blocked when they
get an offensive rebound and they get to the foul line.
Landry Shammitt defends Halliburton really or defends Andrew Nemhard really
well on a ball screen, forces him into a tough
(08:54):
mid range fade away that he leaves way short and
then runs the floor to the left corner, and Shaman
hits a corner three. In transition. Tyre Saliburn coming off
of a little ball screen action with Thomas Bryant. It's
a little miscommunication. He thinks Thomas Bryant's gonna pop, but
insteady rolls Tyree's just throws it over the top and
they're running out the other way, and here's campaign with
(09:15):
a reverse layup on the left side of the basket.
That is when the Knicks are at their best, stops, rebounds, pushes,
quick shots in transition. I think that's the important thing
that they're gonna have to rely on, because again, when
they get into the half court, especially against some of
the best teams in the league, if you let this
become a slow down game, there are better slow down
teams than you. So that's got to be an important
(09:35):
part of what they do. A couple other knicks I
wanted to shout out. I thought ducemcbride was great. The
Pacers jumped out to a seven point lead early in
this game. He hit three threes in his first shift
that really helped flip the tide of this game back
towards the Knicks. And then Prescious to chew up like
Prescious has been getting a lot of opportunities here with
the starting group since Ojan Andobe got hurt, and there's
an obvious difference, like he doesn't shoot the ball very well.
(09:56):
There are a lot of possessions where I'm watching the
Knicks and someone gets in the lane and they fire
a kickout pass and it's too Precious in the corner
and you're like, he clangs it off the side of
the rim, and you're like, that's a shot that og
Anobi can make. But you just have to find a
way to make a positive impact anyway when you're a
replacement player like that first on the glass. Precious had
five offensive rebounds last night, twelve overall driving closeouts. When
(10:20):
you catch in the corner instead of shooting, just rip
and go to the basket. Try to make something good
happen that way. He had a big rescue possession rre.
He ended up with the ball in the late clock,
like late in the shot clock, just went right at
Pascal Siakam's chest and bodied him and made a little
left shoulder hook in the lane. That's a positive impact.
He was active as an off ball screener. He got
a again, this is a great way to generate spacing
(10:42):
when you can't shoot. I think it was Michael Bridges
driving from the top of the key and Campaign was
on the right wing and Precious to chew over was
in the right corner and instead of just standing there,
he just ran up in backscreen campaigns Man Campaign relocated
to the corner and it was just an easy kickout
pass to campaign for three. That's creating spacing with your
(11:02):
screening without needing to actually knock down spot up shots.
I just thought he played really well, and Tims clearly
trust him because he's been playing huge minutes as of late.
I thought that was a really nice road win for
the Knicks. On the Pacers front. Again, I want to
compliment them for their defense on Brunson. It's just one
of the better performances that I've seen a team do
against him. I thought They're off ball and transition defense
(11:25):
did them in on this one. Specifically, Tyres Alibert and
Ben Mathern. They had really rough nights in this department
against the Knicks. Again, you have to know that they're
trying to run the floor. They are trying to do
a lot of crashing, a lot of cutting, a lot
of running. They are the most efficient transition offense in
the NBA. They are a top ten offensive rebound scoring team,
(11:47):
and they are top ten they're top ten in scoring
off of cuts. It's a huge part of their game plan.
When you're playing the Knicks, you got to keep them
off the glass. You got to get back in transition.
You got to watch those second wave cuts like we
were talking about with Josh Hart, and yet time and
time again, the Pacers would have bad floor balance then
just get beat down the floor in transition just because
the next were running harder, or in the half court,
(12:08):
a guy like Josh Hart or Precious to Chew At
Karl Anthony Towns or some Knicks player would just slash
to the basket behind the play and clean things up
while there were Pacers who weren't paying attention. This is
actually a big picture problem for the Pacers that extends
beyond last night. The Pacers give up the fifth most
points per game in the entire NBA off of cuts,
(12:29):
and they give up the ninth most points directly off
of putbacks, meaning quick offensive rebound putbacks in the NBA
perc entergy. It's just something they need to get way
better at. Ben Mathern in particular, is really bad at it.
He's always just kind of like standing upright and ball
watching when he's in off ball situations. It's just a
recipe for getting beat there. The other thing I want
(12:50):
to talk about is the Thomas Bryant issue. Again, it's
hard to overcome a drop off from Miles Turner to
Thomas Bryant. Brian is just really bad on defense, especially
in space, but he also doesn't provide any rim protection,
so it's tough. But he usually makes up for it
on offense, and he just hasn't been good enough there.
He had eighteen last night. But I thought one of
the big things that stood out to me in terms
of like disrupting the rhythm of the PACER's offense is
(13:13):
that kickback on the pick and pop where it's usually
Haliburton and Turner, where Halliburton will come off that screen,
Miles will pop, He'll pitch it back and Miles will
either pump fake or drive the clothes out and take
that pick and pop three. And Thomas just wasn't taking it.
He was just catching at the top of the key
wide open, not taking it, but also not driving it.
(13:33):
He would like catch there and then just turn and
look the other way for someone else to run action.
It almost like seemed like a break in the wheel
of the way that the pacers want to run offense.
There's a couple of different ways he can do that.
Shoot it. If you're not going to shoot it, just roll.
There were a few times in the second half where
he started rolling and he brought in lowman help which
opened up the skip pass that they were able to
(13:54):
get advantages out of. Another thing he was able to
do he had a shorter jumper around the top of
the key. Okay, you don't want to take twenty five
four footer, go in there and take the eighteen nineteen footer,
right like, do something to be a threat when you're
popping out of those ball screens, especially when they're playing you,
because you're specifically a good offensive player. But the Pacers
are going to have to find a way to make
(14:15):
better use of Thomas Brian in these minutes when Myles
Turner is out because it looked rough on both ends
last night. All right, before we move on to the
Suns and the Grizzlies, we want to do our segment
that we have with our partner Microsoft. Welcome to Course Correction,
brought to you by Microsoft. Just like star players and
teams navigating performance hurdles, business decision makers today are under
(14:36):
immense pressure to get things right. They must rise to
the occasion, turning challenges into opportunities. Microsoft empowers these visionaries
with AI solutions, simplified cloud and data management and trustworthy,
responsible AI. And when you're in the NBA, you have
your own hurdles to face. In this segment, we explore
the challenges faced by teams or star players and how
(14:57):
they can turn things around. Whatever challenge your face, seeing
Microsoft empowers you with the expertise to say bring it on.
This week, we're discussing the challenge faced by Kevin Durant
after his Achilles injury. I was amazed watching Kevin Durant
last night. The Suns were an absolute mess. They had
several guys playing that probably shouldn't be in the rotation
for a serious NBA team. They looked incredibly sloppy and undisciplined,
(15:20):
one of the worst transition defense performances I've seen. They
gave up twenty offensive rebounds. We're gonna talk all about
that here in a few minutes when we get into
that game breakdown. But like a shining light in that
darkness was Kevin Durant. Thirty four points on eighteen shots,
only one turnover, five blocks, battling with Jaron Jackson trying
to box him out on the glass all night long,
(15:42):
and to top it off, in the process, he enters
into rare territory. Kevin Durant is only the eighth player
in NBA history to score thirty thousand points in an
NBA career. Rarefied air. There a group of guys that
it's an honor to be associated with. But to me,
the most part of all of this is the circumstances
he overcame to get here. Kevin Durant suffered the most
(16:06):
terrifying injury that a basketball player can suffer, an Achilles rupture,
right at the peak of his powers. He was playing
so incredibly well when he took that little baseline jumper
that he knocked down where he originally suffered the calf injury,
and then he played amazing in his first few minutes
in the NBA Finals before he went down, And you
can't imagine a more discouraging set of circumstances for a
(16:28):
basketball player. And instead of letting that injury be a
signal of the end, he came back every bit as
good as ever on the other side of the injury.
Seven thousand and sixty eight of those thirty thousand and
eight points that he scored so far came after the
Achilles tear, and he's done it on higher volume in
(16:51):
efficiency than he was doing before the injury. In the
five seasons before Kevin Durant's injury, he averaged twenty six
points per game on just under sixty four percent for shooting.
In the five seasons since, he's averaging twenty eight points
per game on over sixty four percent for shooting. Any
drop in his athleticism, he's more than made up for
(17:11):
with a mastery of the modern game as a playmaker
and as a floor general. I was really amazed by
this in the Brooklyn Nets days as the league kind
of shifted to like really good spacing in the spread
pick and roll attack. He was so incredibly good at
picking teams apart as a pick and roll ball handler
with the Nets, and we've seen that extend throughout this
late phase of his career. Like he's just the product
(17:34):
of a consistent pursuit of excellence. He's got a legendary
work ethic. His shooting workouts are the example set for
all pros around the world. Still, when I'm talking to
the kids that I train in high school, I talk
about doing every single rep at game speed, something that
Kevin Durant has been preaching. He's just Katie is one
(17:54):
of the best ambassadors to the game of basketball that
has ever come into this league, and I'm thankful for him.
I just wanted to take a second before we talked
about that game last night, to congratulate him on overcoming
the adversity of his injury and to enter into rarefied
air and NBA history. That's it for this week's course correction.
Remember Microsoft's AI solutions empower you to take bold steps
(18:16):
and make informed decisions, sparking new ideas to help drive
your business forward. If Microsoft as your trusted partner, you
can navigate your journey with confidence, finding innovative solutions and
reaching new possibilities. Visit Microsoft dot com Slash Challengers to
learn more. All right, let's talk Grizzlies Sons. Now we
(18:49):
can go negative. I thought last night was a classic
example of the difference between a serious team and the
NBA and an unserious team, both in like basketball character,
like what the guys in the locker room are willing
to do, but also in roster building. I thought the
Suns put forth one of the more embarrassing transition defense
performances I've seen in the last season, not getting matched up,
(19:13):
not sprinting back a lot of repeated confusion early on
in the game between Bull Bull and Kevin Durant about
who they were guarding, and most of that looked like
Bull Bull just not paying attention. Katie's constantly pointing telling
him where to go. But we'll get into that with
bow Bowl in a minute. They gifted Memphis so many
advantages without even needing to do anything other than just
push the ball up the floor. Memphis logged thirty six
(19:36):
transition possessions last night. That's one of their highest totals
of this entire season. All of their bigs were great
running the floor, especially Jaron Jackson and Brandon Clark. Santi
al Dama came right in and scored eleven points in
like his first two minutes on the floor. A bunch
of those were in transition. John Morant one of the
biggest plays of the game. Bu Bull hits a three
on the left wing, cuts the lead to three. Memphis
(19:58):
just inbounds to Jaw and Jow races up the court
for a layup while every Sun is just glued up
to their man instead of getting into normal help side position,
making things difficult on the glass. Memphis had twenty offensive
rebounds In this game, their bigs were great again. All
their bigs did great. Edie Jackson and Clark each had
at least three offensive rebounds. Brandon Clark just did a
(20:19):
ton of damage to Bowl Bull, who just looked like
he was in La la land literally all night. He
had a couple of big ones in crunch time two.
Zach Edy was punishing. Every single time a Phoenix guard
would get switched on to him, he just bury him
and get an offensive rebound. Vince Williams Junior relentless corner crashing,
Jalen Wells great crashing. Santi al Dama had three offensive rebounds.
(20:41):
They just smashed Phoenix on the glass. Meanwhile, on the
other end, Memphis posted an eighty three percent defensive rebound percentage,
which is excellent. There are things that serious NBA teams
do every single game the majority of possessions, just because
it's a not negotiable to get to where you want
(21:01):
to go. If you have goals of making a deep
playoff runt, you have to be willing to run the
floor all game long, every night. You have to be
willing to get in there and scrap for rebounds. If
you don't, you will get utterly smashed on the margins,
and it will make it nearly impossible for you to overcome.
These two teams were virtually dead even last night in
(21:23):
half court efficiency. The margins were literally what cost Phoenix
the game. And this is where we have to look
at roster building. When you build your roster around three
max contract guys mostly through trades instead of through naturally
in the draft, you inevitably sign yourself up for a
lot of discounted players surrounding them, and that especially is
(21:46):
gonna come to the surface. And we've talked about this
a lot on the show over the years. When one
of those max contract stars is out of the lineup,
then you end up having to lean on those guys
even more. And it shows up even when Beal plays
simply his Beal is not particularly good at dirty work, right.
I thought it was very interesting just to see the
difference and talent on the floor for either team last night.
(22:09):
Like Bull, Bull started for Phoenix and he put up
a monster stat line for the record, which is a
testament to his talent level. Eighteen points, fourteen rebounds, two steals,
and four blocks. And I thought he was mostly bad,
And I thought he was mostly hurting his team because
like his motor just kept shutting off in the middle
of the gate. He was the primary cause of their
(22:30):
transition defense issues jogging back. I literally watched him running
step for step with Jaron Jackson, with Jaron Jackson about
one step in front of him, and he's clearly running
right to the front of the rim. And instead of
Bullwolls sprinting to get in front of Jaron Jackson and
try to disrupt it, he just was content to jog
right behind him until a swing pass went right to
Jaron Jackson. He got a dunk, multiple possessions where he's
(22:52):
just floating around guarding no one. He saw that Santi
al Dama like up and under, like double pump scoop
shot that he made just not match up in transition
Bull Bull just floating around guarding nobody. The like there
was the two buckets I talked about, the Jaron Jackson dunk,
there was another transition dunky or floater that he gave
up to Brandon Clark where he's just floating around guarding nobody.
(23:14):
Next thing you know, Brandon Clark flashes to the front
of the rim and by the time bow Bull realizes
what's happening. Brandon Clark's already shooting a little floater right
in front of the rim that he makes. He just
wasn't paying attention. Like when he was paying attention, he
was dominant, blocking shots, getting contested rebounds, making plays on offense.
But it was literally like a it was like a
fifty to fifty shot, whether or not he'd be mentally
(23:34):
or physically engaged in the possession. Like he had fourteen rebounds,
several plays where he got in the mix and beat
everyone to the ball because he has ludicrous physical tools,
but he gave up so many of those offensive rebounds
to Memphis. I lost caim. He'd just be floating around
ten to fifteen feet from the rim, while like six
or seven dudes are under the basket fighting for a
(23:56):
loose ball. He's just not in there. It's like you've
got to get in there and go to war with
your teammates. Possession by possession. It's a crucial one. Late
in the game. I tweeted the videout. You can go
to my Twitter feet I underscore JCNLT. You can see
the example. He's just kind of standing around fifteen eighteen
feet from the basket on the left side, Brandon Clark
(24:16):
sprints right by him. There's all these dudes in this
scrum under the basket. Him and Tyas Jones are both
just bouncing around eighteen feet from the basket, not guarding anybody,
while Brandon Clark's getting an offensive rebound put back in
crunch time. It was a six point game in crunch time.
But I want to be clear, it's not just bowl
bull ty Ty Washington zero for six from three. Obviously
(24:38):
heard he's a career twenty three point five percent from three,
though on ninety eight attempts as an NBA player, he
can't shoot. Also the decision making. He took a pull
up three in the first half when KD was asking
for the ball. A guy who couldn't shoot took a
pull up three when KD was asking for the ball.
He shot a floater in transition when it was a
two on four when they had no numbers. He back
room didn't missed it. Mason Plummey out there, who just
(25:01):
fumbles away easy rebounds and has been a huge part
of their rebounding problems this season. Like, there's just a
lot of limited players that probably shouldn't be in the rotation.
For a serious team. There's a reason why Bull Bull
was available for the Suns. There's a reason why he
hasn't been able to find a consistent home in the
(25:22):
NBA because despite his talent, he's not a possession to
possession guy that you can trust to do his job.
So coaches don't trust him, so they don't want to
play it. But then you like look on the other side,
and it's like for Memphis, they're built organically through the draft,
so they can afford to have many more good basketball
players on their team. They don't have a obvious weak
(25:44):
link in their top five. Phoenix has like five dudes
on their entire roster that they can really trust when
they're healthy, and most of them are redundant and do
the same job. Memphis is bench just rock solid. Santiel
dam is awesome, Brandon Clark is better than any center
on the Sun's roster. Vince Williams can play. GJ. Jackson
can play, Scotty Pippen Junior can play, Luke Kennark can
(26:05):
shoot the basketball. It's just you got to look at
the reality of the roster here. Phoenix has a lot
of players who aren't very good NBA players. And that's
why they're discounted, that's why they're available. You know, I've
thought a lot about this concept from the standpoint of
like of how to go about the process of getting
to a championship. You can't skip steps. You can't just
(26:30):
sign a few stars and go win a title. You
have to have organizational excellence. That is part of the
process of you getting those stars. That is part of
the process of you building out actually talented role players
to surround those guys with that organizational excellence, from the
scouting department to the general manager, to the coaching staff,
(26:53):
to the types of stars you're built around, to the
guys that end up coming up through the program as
part of that basketball character you're trying to build. That's
the kind of group that ends up playing basketball like
the Memphis Grizzlies do. And when you throw together three
max players and one of them's not good at dirty
work and Bradley Beal and you're just looking for every
single discount castaway in the NBA, you're gonna end up
(27:15):
having something that looks like this Phoenix Suns roster. And like,
here's the thing, as far as the margins go. One
of the things that makes a good basketball player. A
good basketball player is their natural inclination to do the
dirty work. I've noticed this with the Lakers this year.
They had no interest in doing it. But then here's
(27:37):
what happened. They traded a bad defender and D'Angelo Russell
for Dorian Finney Smith, a good defender. Jared Vanderbilt, who
was hurt, got healthy. He's a fantastic defender. Those guys
started guarding suddenly. Lebron got swept into it. Now he's
guarding now. All of a sudden, there's just more players
(27:57):
on the team in the rotation that are professionals at
doing their jobs on the margin, and it's completely galvanized
a roster that was unwilling to do that work early
in the season. Again, you cannot skip steps. Organizational excellence
is the only way from the top down to actually
(28:19):
get to the finish line in this league. It's okay
to have a week point, but you can't have multiple
week points along the line. You can't have a week
front office and have your entire basketball culture inside the
inside the locker room built around guys that aren't willing
to do that work. A couple other Memphis shoutouts before
(28:40):
we're done. I got Jared Jackson and John Moran and
desbon Bane all made huge plays in the clutch, and
this has been a consistent theme. Like when Memphis has
struggled in the clutch this year, a lot of it
does come down to that shot making, and when they
do make shots, they win. Joh huge plays in this one,
that step back mid ranger that he had kind of
right around the right elbow, that driving transition layup we
(29:00):
talked about. Desmond Bain hit a huge pull up three
coming off a screen at the top of the key.
Big shot in that game. Jared Jackson like a couple
of big plays against KD and easy duck in where
he just kind of bullied him, got to the spot,
hit a little hook over his left shoulder, then a
sweeping move across the middle of the lane where he
drew a foul. Like those guys again, they're gonna go
as far as those guys go in terms of making shots.
(29:24):
Sant santial Domo is really impressive. Big part of the
early stretch that the Grizzlies went on to go on
a run. He had eleven points in like the first
two minutes he was on the floor, and then Vince
Williams and Brandon Clark, they're just in order to punish
the Suns for playing bad basketball, you had to be
playing really good, high motor basketball on your end, and
I thought Vince Williams and Brandon Clark were a huge
part of that. Shout out to the Grizzlies. That's a
(29:45):
big win on the road there in Phoenix. All right, guys,
that is all I have for today is always sincerely
appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
We've got two more nights of basketball before we get
into the trade deadline. We're gonna be covering those games
here and the next week we'll do some fun stuff
to kill time before we get back into it again.
I appreciate you guys for rocking with me and supporting
the show, and I'll see you tomorrow the volume. What's
(30:09):
up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to
and supporting hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful
for us if you guys would take a second and
leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate
you guys supporting us, but if you could take a
minute to do that, i'd really appreciate it,
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see DKG dot co slash b ball. All right, welcome
to new tonight here at the volume heavy Wednesday. Everybody
hope All If you guys are having a great week,
(01:49):
we got a jam pack show for you today. We're
hitting both pn T games from last night as the
Knicks get a big win on the road against the
Pacers and then the Grizzlies do the same on the
road against the Suns. A lot of interesting stuff to
get into. You guys have the joke before we get started.
Subscribe to Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any
more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore
JCNLT so you guys don't miss any show announcements. Don't
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(02:10):
on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you
leave a rating and a review on that front. We
also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram,
and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout the year. Make sure
you guys follow us there. In the last but not least,
keepdropping mailback questions in the YouTube comments. We can hit
them in our Friday mail bags throughout the rest of
the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So we're
gonna start with Nicks Pacers. A very interesting example of
(02:32):
the role that matchups play in the NBA. The Pacers
did about as good of a job on Jalen Brunson
in this game that I've ever seen a team do.
They started with Nemhart on him, but it was a
steady diet of Nemhard Knee Smith, TJ. McConnell, and they
were just relentless with physical ball pressure all night long,
staying attached, swiping at the ball, being physical with him,
(02:54):
frustrating him. They stayed attached to him on screening actions,
even the tougher ones. You know, Jalen Brunson's will sometimes
like get into the middle of the floor and if
he doesn't like what he's got, he'll pitch the ball
out to a big flashing up high and then he'll
sprint off of that for a dribble handoff. But even
on those he was coming off the dribble handoff and
just running right into another defender. They closed off passing
(03:15):
angles on him with length, made it really difficult for
him to feed the role man when he was getting
trapped on some of those actions. They kept him off
the foul line. It's the first time all season that
a team held Jalen Brunson to zero free throw attempts.
I thought that was interesting and again got him into
foul trouble. And I thought most of that foul trouble
actually came down to his own his own frustrations. Three
(03:36):
of the fouls that he had in this game, he
basically just either hacked the dude or shoved somebody over
when he was clearly frustrated. But here's the thing. The
Pacers match up well with the Knicks on the perimeter.
They've got a lot of guys that they can throw at.
Jalen Brunson, Nemhard can do a good job. Nie Smith
is big and physical and can give him some issues. TJ.
(03:56):
McConnell a fire hydrant that can beat him to spots.
Those guys give him some issues. The flip side is, though,
without Myles Turner, they match up terribly with Carl Anthony
Towns and he absolutely fried Thomas Bryant in every which
way in this game. It's beating in with the classic
pick and pop stuff that the Knicks do all the time.
He beat him several times with drives. He beat him
(04:17):
out of the post, like Briant looked lost chasing him
around on the perimeter. There's a big possession in the
fourth quarter of this game where they needed to stop
late shot clock situation. There's like three four seconds on
the shot clock and Cat the ball's in the right corner,
deep in the right corner, and Kat kind of flashes
to the right wing to get the ball, and Thomas
Bryant like runs out there to try to deny the pass.
(04:37):
As soon as Cat catches it, he just rips back
to the left and goes right by Thomas Bryant gets
a wide open layup. It's just bad defense. But that's
the thing. Like a lot of times, Carl Anthony Towns
will put big guys into situations that they're not used
to being in because he's such a different type of
outside in center, the Pacers tried all sorts of things.
They tried a centerless look where they went with Siakam
(04:58):
and Obi Toppin at the four or five, and Kat
just promptly got too easy post seal buckets, a transition
one against Ben mather In, a little post move on
the right block. Against Obi Toppin, they tried putting a
wing on him and refusing to switch so that he
couldn't get open on the pop, but then they just
used Kat as a screener and ended up getting McHale
bridges downhill for an easy drop off pass to Josh Hart.
(05:18):
They couldn't keep him off the offensive glass. They just
didn't have the bodies to match up with Karl Anthony Towns,
and he torched him for it forty points, twelve rebounds,
and five assists. Such an interesting example of that dynamic though,
Like the styles make fights, and if you've got the
guys to match up with a certain type of player,
you can be in a good spot there. But if
you don't have a matchup for a different type of player,
(05:41):
you can be completely screwed. And it didn't matter how
good of a job they did on Brunson again, the
best job I've seen someone do on Brunson in a
long time, and it just didn't matter because they didn't
have the bodies for Karl Anthony Towns. It's an interesting
example of that dynamic. Again, injuries play a role in this,
but I just thought it was a really interesting storyline
in that game. I thought Josh Hart had a fantastic game,
a lot of the usual transition pushes where he just
(06:03):
looks like a bowling ball to the rim. He had
twelve points in transition in this game. To me, Josh
hartt represents the consistent second wave of rim pressure when
the Knicks are an offense on offense in the half court,
whether it's Jalen Brunson, whether it's Karl Anthony Towns, whether
it's og In McHale, it doesn't matter who it is
that's initiating things. As soon as he sees his man
(06:25):
turn his head, he is cutting to the front of
the rim, and if he doesn't get the ball on
the cut, he's there for the offensive glass. He had
ten points on cuts in this game. He had four
points on offensive rebounds. Think about how crazy that is
to have a thirty point game where you have twelve
in transition, ten on cuts, and four in offensive rebounds,
(06:46):
basically putting up a thirty ball almost entirely on the
margins just by running his lane and cutting every single
time someone got to the basket. In the Knicks offense,
it's that second wave. Right first wave comes in, all
attention gets direc towards that. Josh is always just sneaking
in right behind that and doing damage. Overall, I thought
the Knicks defense did a great job of containing the
(07:07):
ball in this game too, particularly on Pascal Siakam. Pascal
had twenty four points, but literally every single one of
them were either in transition or as a play finisher.
He didn't get a single bucket or a single point
in the post or in an ISO, or as the
ball handler in a ball screen. When he got into
those situations, guys were walling him up, keeping him in
(07:28):
front and forcing him to shoot over the top, and
he was missing. And again, like that's your job. Like
every one of these star players, you're not gonna stop
them entirely. And again, Pascal got twenty four because he's
still a really good basketball player. But if you at
least make them rely on the tougher shots that are
in their diet, you can limit their effectiveness gamed game
based on variants. We all know Pascal can hit those shots,
(07:50):
but he also can miss them. But the only way
you can get him into that situation is if that's
what he's relying on instead of getting easy stuff just
beating people off the dribble. I thought they did a
good job on Haliburton, held him to sixteen points and
force him into four turnovers. I've talked a lot of
late when we talk NIX about how devastating they can
be when they play defense and they get stops and
(08:10):
they force turnovers, and they run out in transition when
they focus in on getting stops, run out for quick
shots and then get back and defend again. That's when
they're at their best, and really I thought that was
what triggered the run that ended the game. The Pacers
actually cut this one down to four in the late
third quarter, but like McHale, Bridges stays attached to Tyrese
Haliburton on a ball screen forces a missed mid range shot.
(08:33):
They run out and get a bucket. McHale walls up
Siakam on an ISO and forces him into an overtop
shot that he misses. They run out the other way.
Duce McBride misses a shot, it gets blocked when they
get an offensive rebound and they get to the foul line.
Landry Shammitt defends Halliburton really or defends Andrew Nemhard really
well on a ball screen, forces him into a tough
(08:54):
mid range fade away that he leaves way short and
then runs the floor to the left corner, and Shaman
hits a corner three. In transition. Tyre Saliburn coming off
of a little ball screen action with Thomas Bryant. It's
a little miscommunication. He thinks Thomas Bryant's gonna pop, but
insteady rolls Tyree's just throws it over the top and
they're running out the other way, and here's campaign with
(09:15):
a reverse layup on the left side of the basket.
That is when the Knicks are at their best, stops, rebounds, pushes,
quick shots in transition. I think that's the important thing
that they're gonna have to rely on, because again, when
they get into the half court, especially against some of
the best teams in the league, if you let this
become a slow down game, there are better slow down
teams than you. So that's got to be an important
(09:35):
part of what they do. A couple other knicks I
wanted to shout out. I thought ducemcbride was great. The
Pacers jumped out to a seven point lead early in
this game. He hit three threes in his first shift
that really helped flip the tide of this game back
towards the Knicks. And then Prescious to chew up like
Prescious has been getting a lot of opportunities here with
the starting group since Ojan Andobe got hurt, and there's
an obvious difference, like he doesn't shoot the ball very well.
(09:56):
There are a lot of possessions where I'm watching the
Knicks and someone gets in the lane and they fire
a kickout pass and it's too Precious in the corner
and you're like, he clangs it off the side of
the rim, and you're like, that's a shot that og
Anobi can make. But you just have to find a
way to make a positive impact anyway when you're a
replacement player like that first on the glass. Precious had
five offensive rebounds last night, twelve overall driving closeouts. When
(10:20):
you catch in the corner instead of shooting, just rip
and go to the basket. Try to make something good
happen that way. He had a big rescue possession rre.
He ended up with the ball in the late clock,
like late in the shot clock, just went right at
Pascal Siakam's chest and bodied him and made a little
left shoulder hook in the lane. That's a positive impact.
He was active as an off ball screener. He got
a again, this is a great way to generate spacing
(10:42):
when you can't shoot. I think it was Michael Bridges
driving from the top of the key and Campaign was
on the right wing and Precious to chew over was
in the right corner and instead of just standing there,
he just ran up in backscreen campaigns Man Campaign relocated
to the corner and it was just an easy kickout
pass to campaign for three. That's creating spacing with your
(11:02):
screening without needing to actually knock down spot up shots.
I just thought he played really well, and Tims clearly
trust him because he's been playing huge minutes as of late.
I thought that was a really nice road win for
the Knicks. On the Pacers front. Again, I want to
compliment them for their defense on Brunson. It's just one
of the better performances that I've seen a team do
against him. I thought They're off ball and transition defense
(11:25):
did them in on this one. Specifically, Tyres Alibert and
Ben Mathern. They had really rough nights in this department
against the Knicks. Again, you have to know that they're
trying to run the floor. They are trying to do
a lot of crashing, a lot of cutting, a lot
of running. They are the most efficient transition offense in
the NBA. They are a top ten offensive rebound scoring team,
(11:47):
and they are top ten they're top ten in scoring
off of cuts. It's a huge part of their game plan.
When you're playing the Knicks, you got to keep them
off the glass. You got to get back in transition.
You got to watch those second wave cuts like we
were talking about with Josh Hart, and yet time and
time again, the Pacers would have bad floor balance then
just get beat down the floor in transition just because
the next were running harder, or in the half court,
(12:08):
a guy like Josh Hart or Precious to Chew At
Karl Anthony Towns or some Knicks player would just slash
to the basket behind the play and clean things up
while there were Pacers who weren't paying attention. This is
actually a big picture problem for the Pacers that extends
beyond last night. The Pacers give up the fifth most
points per game in the entire NBA off of cuts,
(12:29):
and they give up the ninth most points directly off
of putbacks, meaning quick offensive rebound putbacks in the NBA
perc entergy. It's just something they need to get way
better at. Ben Mathern in particular, is really bad at it.
He's always just kind of like standing upright and ball
watching when he's in off ball situations. It's just a
recipe for getting beat there. The other thing I want
(12:50):
to talk about is the Thomas Bryant issue. Again, it's
hard to overcome a drop off from Miles Turner to
Thomas Bryant. Brian is just really bad on defense, especially
in space, but he also doesn't provide any rim protection,
so it's tough. But he usually makes up for it
on offense, and he just hasn't been good enough there.
He had eighteen last night. But I thought one of
the big things that stood out to me in terms
of like disrupting the rhythm of the PACER's offense is
(13:13):
that kickback on the pick and pop where it's usually
Haliburton and Turner, where Halliburton will come off that screen,
Miles will pop, He'll pitch it back and Miles will
either pump fake or drive the clothes out and take
that pick and pop three. And Thomas just wasn't taking it.
He was just catching at the top of the key
wide open, not taking it, but also not driving it.
(13:33):
He would like catch there and then just turn and
look the other way for someone else to run action.
It almost like seemed like a break in the wheel
of the way that the pacers want to run offense.
There's a couple of different ways he can do that.
Shoot it. If you're not going to shoot it, just roll.
There were a few times in the second half where
he started rolling and he brought in lowman help which
opened up the skip pass that they were able to
(13:54):
get advantages out of. Another thing he was able to
do he had a shorter jumper around the top of
the key. Okay, you don't want to take twenty five
four footer, go in there and take the eighteen nineteen footer,
right like, do something to be a threat when you're
popping out of those ball screens, especially when they're playing you,
because you're specifically a good offensive player. But the Pacers
are going to have to find a way to make
(14:15):
better use of Thomas Brian in these minutes when Myles
Turner is out because it looked rough on both ends
last night. All right, before we move on to the
Suns and the Grizzlies, we want to do our segment
that we have with our partner Microsoft. Welcome to Course Correction,
brought to you by Microsoft. Just like star players and
teams navigating performance hurdles, business decision makers today are under
(14:36):
immense pressure to get things right. They must rise to
the occasion, turning challenges into opportunities. Microsoft empowers these visionaries
with AI solutions, simplified cloud and data management and trustworthy,
responsible AI. And when you're in the NBA, you have
your own hurdles to face. In this segment, we explore
the challenges faced by teams or star players and how
(14:57):
they can turn things around. Whatever challenge your face, seeing
Microsoft empowers you with the expertise to say bring it on.
This week, we're discussing the challenge faced by Kevin Durant
after his Achilles injury. I was amazed watching Kevin Durant
last night. The Suns were an absolute mess. They had
several guys playing that probably shouldn't be in the rotation
for a serious NBA team. They looked incredibly sloppy and undisciplined,
(15:20):
one of the worst transition defense performances I've seen. They
gave up twenty offensive rebounds. We're gonna talk all about
that here in a few minutes when we get into
that game breakdown. But like a shining light in that
darkness was Kevin Durant. Thirty four points on eighteen shots,
only one turnover, five blocks, battling with Jaron Jackson trying
to box him out on the glass all night long,
(15:42):
and to top it off, in the process, he enters
into rare territory. Kevin Durant is only the eighth player
in NBA history to score thirty thousand points in an
NBA career. Rarefied air. There a group of guys that
it's an honor to be associated with. But to me,
the most part of all of this is the circumstances
he overcame to get here. Kevin Durant suffered the most
(16:06):
terrifying injury that a basketball player can suffer, an Achilles rupture,
right at the peak of his powers. He was playing
so incredibly well when he took that little baseline jumper
that he knocked down where he originally suffered the calf injury,
and then he played amazing in his first few minutes
in the NBA Finals before he went down, And you
can't imagine a more discouraging set of circumstances for a
(16:28):
basketball player. And instead of letting that injury be a
signal of the end, he came back every bit as
good as ever on the other side of the injury.
Seven thousand and sixty eight of those thirty thousand and
eight points that he scored so far came after the
Achilles tear, and he's done it on higher volume in
(16:51):
efficiency than he was doing before the injury. In the
five seasons before Kevin Durant's injury, he averaged twenty six
points per game on just under sixty four percent for shooting.
In the five seasons since, he's averaging twenty eight points
per game on over sixty four percent for shooting. Any
drop in his athleticism, he's more than made up for
(17:11):
with a mastery of the modern game as a playmaker
and as a floor general. I was really amazed by
this in the Brooklyn Nets days as the league kind
of shifted to like really good spacing in the spread
pick and roll attack. He was so incredibly good at
picking teams apart as a pick and roll ball handler
with the Nets, and we've seen that extend throughout this
late phase of his career. Like he's just the product
(17:34):
of a consistent pursuit of excellence. He's got a legendary
work ethic. His shooting workouts are the example set for
all pros around the world. Still, when I'm talking to
the kids that I train in high school, I talk
about doing every single rep at game speed, something that
Kevin Durant has been preaching. He's just Katie is one
(17:54):
of the best ambassadors to the game of basketball that
has ever come into this league, and I'm thankful for him.
I just wanted to take a second before we talked
about that game last night, to congratulate him on overcoming
the adversity of his injury and to enter into rarefied
air and NBA history. That's it for this week's course correction.
Remember Microsoft's AI solutions empower you to take bold steps
(18:16):
and make informed decisions, sparking new ideas to help drive
your business forward. If Microsoft as your trusted partner, you
can navigate your journey with confidence, finding innovative solutions and
reaching new possibilities. Visit Microsoft dot com Slash Challengers to
learn more. All right, let's talk Grizzlies Sons. Now we
(18:49):
can go negative. I thought last night was a classic
example of the difference between a serious team and the
NBA and an unserious team, both in like basketball character,
like what the guys in the locker room are willing
to do, but also in roster building. I thought the
Suns put forth one of the more embarrassing transition defense
performances I've seen in the last season, not getting matched up,
(19:13):
not sprinting back a lot of repeated confusion early on
in the game between Bull Bull and Kevin Durant about
who they were guarding, and most of that looked like
Bull Bull just not paying attention. Katie's constantly pointing telling
him where to go. But we'll get into that with
bow Bowl in a minute. They gifted Memphis so many
advantages without even needing to do anything other than just
push the ball up the floor. Memphis logged thirty six
(19:36):
transition possessions last night. That's one of their highest totals
of this entire season. All of their bigs were great
running the floor, especially Jaron Jackson and Brandon Clark. Santi
al Dama came right in and scored eleven points in
like his first two minutes on the floor. A bunch
of those were in transition. John Morant one of the
biggest plays of the game. Bu Bull hits a three
on the left wing, cuts the lead to three. Memphis
(19:58):
just inbounds to Jaw and Jow races up the court
for a layup while every Sun is just glued up
to their man instead of getting into normal help side position,
making things difficult on the glass. Memphis had twenty offensive
rebounds In this game, their bigs were great again. All
their bigs did great. Edie Jackson and Clark each had
at least three offensive rebounds. Brandon Clark just did a
(20:19):
ton of damage to Bowl Bull, who just looked like
he was in La la land literally all night. He
had a couple of big ones in crunch time two.
Zach Edy was punishing. Every single time a Phoenix guard
would get switched on to him, he just bury him
and get an offensive rebound. Vince Williams Junior relentless corner crashing,
Jalen Wells great crashing. Santi al Dama had three offensive rebounds.
(20:41):
They just smashed Phoenix on the glass. Meanwhile, on the
other end, Memphis posted an eighty three percent defensive rebound percentage,
which is excellent. There are things that serious NBA teams
do every single game the majority of possessions, just because
it's a not negotiable to get to where you want
(21:01):
to go. If you have goals of making a deep
playoff runt, you have to be willing to run the
floor all game long, every night. You have to be
willing to get in there and scrap for rebounds. If
you don't, you will get utterly smashed on the margins,
and it will make it nearly impossible for you to overcome.
These two teams were virtually dead even last night in
(21:23):
half court efficiency. The margins were literally what cost Phoenix
the game. And this is where we have to look
at roster building. When you build your roster around three
max contract guys mostly through trades instead of through naturally
in the draft, you inevitably sign yourself up for a
lot of discounted players surrounding them, and that especially is
(21:46):
gonna come to the surface. And we've talked about this
a lot on the show over the years. When one
of those max contract stars is out of the lineup,
then you end up having to lean on those guys
even more. And it shows up even when Beal plays
simply his Beal is not particularly good at dirty work, right.
I thought it was very interesting just to see the
difference and talent on the floor for either team last night.
(22:09):
Like Bull, Bull started for Phoenix and he put up
a monster stat line for the record, which is a
testament to his talent level. Eighteen points, fourteen rebounds, two steals,
and four blocks. And I thought he was mostly bad,
And I thought he was mostly hurting his team because
like his motor just kept shutting off in the middle
of the gate. He was the primary cause of their
(22:30):
transition defense issues jogging back. I literally watched him running
step for step with Jaron Jackson, with Jaron Jackson about
one step in front of him, and he's clearly running
right to the front of the rim. And instead of
Bullwolls sprinting to get in front of Jaron Jackson and
try to disrupt it, he just was content to jog
right behind him until a swing pass went right to
Jaron Jackson. He got a dunk, multiple possessions where he's
(22:52):
just floating around guarding no one. He saw that Santi
al Dama like up and under, like double pump scoop
shot that he made just not match up in transition
Bull Bull just floating around guarding nobody. The like there
was the two buckets I talked about, the Jaron Jackson dunk,
there was another transition dunky or floater that he gave
up to Brandon Clark where he's just floating around guarding nobody.
(23:14):
Next thing you know, Brandon Clark flashes to the front
of the rim and by the time bow Bull realizes
what's happening. Brandon Clark's already shooting a little floater right
in front of the rim that he makes. He just
wasn't paying attention. Like when he was paying attention, he
was dominant, blocking shots, getting contested rebounds, making plays on offense.
But it was literally like a it was like a
fifty to fifty shot, whether or not he'd be mentally
(23:34):
or physically engaged in the possession. Like he had fourteen rebounds,
several plays where he got in the mix and beat
everyone to the ball because he has ludicrous physical tools,
but he gave up so many of those offensive rebounds
to Memphis. I lost caim. He'd just be floating around
ten to fifteen feet from the rim, while like six
or seven dudes are under the basket fighting for a
(23:56):
loose ball. He's just not in there. It's like you've
got to get in there and go to war with
your teammates. Possession by possession. It's a crucial one. Late
in the game. I tweeted the videout. You can go
to my Twitter feet I underscore JCNLT. You can see
the example. He's just kind of standing around fifteen eighteen
feet from the basket on the left side, Brandon Clark
(24:16):
sprints right by him. There's all these dudes in this
scrum under the basket. Him and Tyas Jones are both
just bouncing around eighteen feet from the basket, not guarding anybody,
while Brandon Clark's getting an offensive rebound put back in
crunch time. It was a six point game in crunch time.
But I want to be clear, it's not just bowl
bull ty Ty Washington zero for six from three. Obviously
(24:38):
heard he's a career twenty three point five percent from three,
though on ninety eight attempts as an NBA player, he
can't shoot. Also the decision making. He took a pull
up three in the first half when KD was asking
for the ball. A guy who couldn't shoot took a
pull up three when KD was asking for the ball.
He shot a floater in transition when it was a
two on four when they had no numbers. He back
room didn't missed it. Mason Plummey out there, who just
(25:01):
fumbles away easy rebounds and has been a huge part
of their rebounding problems this season. Like, there's just a
lot of limited players that probably shouldn't be in the rotation.
For a serious team. There's a reason why Bull Bull
was available for the Suns. There's a reason why he
hasn't been able to find a consistent home in the
(25:22):
NBA because despite his talent, he's not a possession to
possession guy that you can trust to do his job.
So coaches don't trust him, so they don't want to
play it. But then you like look on the other side,
and it's like for Memphis, they're built organically through the draft,
so they can afford to have many more good basketball
players on their team. They don't have a obvious weak
(25:44):
link in their top five. Phoenix has like five dudes
on their entire roster that they can really trust when
they're healthy, and most of them are redundant and do
the same job. Memphis is bench just rock solid. Santiel
dam is awesome, Brandon Clark is better than any center
on the Sun's roster. Vince Williams can play. GJ. Jackson
can play, Scotty Pippen Junior can play, Luke Kennark can
(26:05):
shoot the basketball. It's just you got to look at
the reality of the roster here. Phoenix has a lot
of players who aren't very good NBA players. And that's
why they're discounted, that's why they're available. You know, I've
thought a lot about this concept from the standpoint of
like of how to go about the process of getting
to a championship. You can't skip steps. You can't just
(26:30):
sign a few stars and go win a title. You
have to have organizational excellence. That is part of the
process of you getting those stars. That is part of
the process of you building out actually talented role players
to surround those guys with that organizational excellence, from the
scouting department to the general manager, to the coaching staff,
(26:53):
to the types of stars you're built around, to the
guys that end up coming up through the program as
part of that basketball character you're trying to build. That's
the kind of group that ends up playing basketball like
the Memphis Grizzlies do. And when you throw together three
max players and one of them's not good at dirty
work and Bradley Beal and you're just looking for every
single discount castaway in the NBA, you're gonna end up
(27:15):
having something that looks like this Phoenix Suns roster. And like,
here's the thing, as far as the margins go. One
of the things that makes a good basketball player. A
good basketball player is their natural inclination to do the
dirty work. I've noticed this with the Lakers this year.
They had no interest in doing it. But then here's
(27:37):
what happened. They traded a bad defender and D'Angelo Russell
for Dorian Finney Smith, a good defender. Jared Vanderbilt, who
was hurt, got healthy. He's a fantastic defender. Those guys
started guarding suddenly. Lebron got swept into it. Now he's
guarding now. All of a sudden, there's just more players
(27:57):
on the team in the rotation that are professionals at
doing their jobs on the margin, and it's completely galvanized
a roster that was unwilling to do that work early
in the season. Again, you cannot skip steps. Organizational excellence
is the only way from the top down to actually
(28:19):
get to the finish line in this league. It's okay
to have a week point, but you can't have multiple
week points along the line. You can't have a week
front office and have your entire basketball culture inside the
inside the locker room built around guys that aren't willing
to do that work. A couple other Memphis shoutouts before
(28:40):
we're done. I got Jared Jackson and John Moran and
desbon Bane all made huge plays in the clutch, and
this has been a consistent theme. Like when Memphis has
struggled in the clutch this year, a lot of it
does come down to that shot making, and when they
do make shots, they win. Joh huge plays in this one,
that step back mid ranger that he had kind of
right around the right elbow, that driving transition layup we
(29:00):
talked about. Desmond Bain hit a huge pull up three
coming off a screen at the top of the key.
Big shot in that game. Jared Jackson like a couple
of big plays against KD and easy duck in where
he just kind of bullied him, got to the spot,
hit a little hook over his left shoulder, then a
sweeping move across the middle of the lane where he
drew a foul. Like those guys again, they're gonna go
as far as those guys go in terms of making shots.
(29:24):
Sant santial Domo is really impressive. Big part of the
early stretch that the Grizzlies went on to go on
a run. He had eleven points in like the first
two minutes he was on the floor, and then Vince
Williams and Brandon Clark, they're just in order to punish
the Suns for playing bad basketball, you had to be
playing really good, high motor basketball on your end, and
I thought Vince Williams and Brandon Clark were a huge
part of that. Shout out to the Grizzlies. That's a
(29:45):
big win on the road there in Phoenix. All right, guys,
that is all I have for today is always sincerely
appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
We've got two more nights of basketball before we get
into the trade deadline. We're gonna be covering those games
here and the next week we'll do some fun stuff
to kill time before we get back into it again.
I appreciate you guys for rocking with me and supporting
the show, and I'll see you tomorrow the volume. What's
(30:09):
up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to
and supporting hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful
for us if you guys would take a second and
leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate
you guys supporting us, but if you could take a
minute to do that, i'd really appreciate it,
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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