November 9, 2025 • 46 mins
Jason answers mailbag questions from around the NBA including whether Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves is a long term partnership for the Los Angeles Lakers or not, who the most athletic player in the NBA is now and all-time (hint: LeBron James), what's wrong with the Orlando Magic, whether Josh Giddey’s leap is for real or not for the Chicago Bulls, who has foundational superstar traits, and more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. All right, welcome to him today. You're at
the volume Heavy Friday, everybody. Hope all of you guys
had an incredible week. It is mail bag Day. We're
(00:21):
gonna be breaking down a bunch of stuff from around
the league. Some Rockets, some Hawks, some Magic. We're gonna
get into some Lakers and Warriors stuff, a bunch of
stuff all around the league. I have a fun project
from a question that we had regarding the concept of
a foundational superstar skill. We had been talking about this
(00:42):
with respect to John Morant and him just kind of
not fulfilling his potential. I want to look at the
players around the league that I think have at least
that potential based on that foundational superstar trade. Obviously some
of those guys have underachieved. But kind of a fun
thought exercise towards the tail end the show. Lots of
stuff to get into from around the league today. You
(01:02):
guys know the job before we get started. Subscribe to
the Hoops and Night YouTube channels. You don't miss any
more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore
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incredible work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,
and TikTok. Make sure you guys follow us there for
content throughout the rest of the season. The last, but
(01:23):
not least, if you guys want to get questions into
our mail bag next Friday, just find our full episodes
on YouTube and drop them in the comments mail bag.
Coll In. Write your question and we'll get to them
on Fridays. One last quick announcement before we get started.
We were going to start our playback series tonight. We're
going to be doing watch alongs, and we were going
(01:45):
to be starting with Nuggets Warriors tonight, but with Steph
Curry out, we're going to do a different game instead.
Not sure what that one will be yet, I will
let you guys know, but what that means is that
our debut will actually be for Lakers Hawks on Saturday.
So I think that's a four pm Pacific start if
I remember correctly. So on Tomorrow night, come hang out
(02:05):
on playback. We'll watch the Lakers versus the Hawks, who
are two and one without Trey Young, so it'll be
an interesting game for us to kick that off. All right,
let's talk some basketball. First question is a Lakers question. Hey,
Jason Love the show, best basketball podcast in the game
right now, Thank you for the kind words. My question
is this, do you think the Lakers' front office views
Austin Reeves as Luca's long term running mate or as
more of a potential trade asset to secure player that
(02:27):
might fit better alongside Luca. Personally I love watching them
play together, but with the recent surge from AR fifteen,
I can't help but wonder what he would look like
running his own team as maybe a second option to
a dynamic front court player. What team slash players do
you think would be good targets if AR were signed
and traded for the next couple of seasons. So you know,
(02:48):
when I look at first of all, I think it's
far more likely than not that Austin stays with the Lakers,
regardless of what happens in the Lebron Austin Luca configuration.
The Austin Luca configure has looked so good that I
think that that's essentially a sneak peak of what things
will look like after Lebron James retires. I think Austin
(03:08):
was a little bit more of a question mark in
that department before this season, mainly because he struggled so
much against athleticism in the Timberwolves playoff series, and just
there was that question mark of like, what about the
idea of building your starting lineup around two lesser athletes, right,
But the problem is is Austin's become clearly so good.
(03:30):
I think he's averaging what thirty one to nine on
like sixty five percent true shooting to start the season.
He's become so good that any upside you get from
targeting a different type of secondary star off of Luca,
Like let's say you find a better athlete to play
alongside Luca who's a little bit more of a two
way player. The chasm between whoever that guy is in
(03:52):
Austin Reeves is an offensive player right now is going
to be so big that it doesn't really justify the
alta aternative, Like, yeah, you don't necessarily want to build
your starting lineup around two non athletes, but if you
have two offensive players that are that good in the lineup,
it actually buys you more flexibility with the other guys.
(04:14):
You can get away with lineups that have really defensive
focused talent in the other three positions when your main
offensive players are that good. So overall, I think Austin
has played so well that he's essentially put himself in
the position where he looks like the obvious long term
fit alongside Luca, and he downsides with athleticism are made
(04:36):
up for by the fact that Austin's legitimately been one
of the top fifteen players in the NBA to start
the season. Now, obviously it's too small of the sample
size to really give him that credit in the big picture,
but he to me looks like definitively one of the
top thirty or so players in the NBA and a
guy that I think makes a lot of sense long
term next to Luca. Now that could change if it
(04:59):
were to change, which again I don't think it will,
But if that were to change, the kinds of teams
that I think make sense for Austin are once again
teams that have a lot of athleticism to anchor him
and that need refined offensive skills. So I'd be looking
at teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves, teams like the Orlando
Magic as examples of teams that I think Austin would
(05:21):
be able to step in and immediately help teams where
he wouldn't be asked to be the primary point of
attack defender like he was many times last year in
the past. I think it would make a lot of
sense for Austin in those constructs. All right, next question,
what's your take on the war your struggle? So far?
They seem to be relatively the same team from last year,
(05:42):
with a high ceiling but an inability to string wins
together consistently. The Steve Kurr detractors are backsiting his four
guard lineups as a culprit. But I'm curious as to
your thoughts. Are they destined for a fight to stay
out of the play in again this year? Thanks so much,
love your show and you're in peak form this season.
Thank you so much for the kind words. I really
appreciate that I take. I look at each season as
(06:03):
an opportunity to get better. I feel like each year
we get a little bit better at doing this job.
That's not just me too, It's the whole team and
everything that we do behind the scenes. Most of this,
to me is just the Warriors succumbing to a brutal
early season schedule, tons of back to backs, some tough
particular nights in the back to backs where you're playing
tough teams to play, when you don't have your legs
(06:25):
underneath you, or when you have guys miss missing time
for one reason or another. I'm not gonna sit here
and pretend like everything's absolutely fine. If you look at
some of the other top records in the league, teams
like Oklahoma City, teams like the Lakers, teams like the Pistons,
teams like the Spurs, all four of those teams literally
(06:45):
haven't seen a single minute of play from their second
best player between Jayduve and Lebron and Jade and Ivy
and Deer and Fox, and they're stacking wins anyway. Teams
like Oklahoma City and the Lakes have been down guys
deeper in the rotation as well, and they just keep winning.
So I'm not going to sit here and pretend like
(07:05):
it's a great sign that you're where you're at, given
the injuries and given the schedule. But there's context there,
right Like the Warriors should have won the Pacers game.
They were up by eleven halfway through the fourth quarter,
they just blew it and Steph had a bad night.
That happens the Kings game. Literally you sit everybody again,
(07:25):
like certain teams will find ways to win that game.
That's a tough game on the road, and like it
could go either way. It was a close game. You
had a shot, you didn't pull it out. And the
Bucks and Blazers games, I thought that they showed a
little bit of Golden State's issues, specifically with handling downhill
athletes that can break their point of attack defense and
spray out to shooters. They struggled with dribble penetration in
(07:49):
both of those games. I think that those are certainly
things to keep an eye on, but I also thought
they were all that they were like. I also thought
they were like textbook games where the Warriors were not
particularly engaged athletically. Overall, I'm still higher on Golden State
than I was to start the season. There's still really
strong lineup data. The Steph Draymond Jimmy Butler trio is
(08:10):
plus thirteen net to start the season, elite on both
ends of the floor. That's a really strong number, and
ultimately and any given serious basketball situation, those three guys
are going to be on the floor. And I talked
about this the other day, but there's some interesting data
with the way that Steve Kurr structured the lineups, like
him shifting towards using Moses Moody and Brandon Pajemski as
(08:33):
primarily bench guys. That's worked. The starting lineup built around
Kaminga and a stretch big has worked really well because
Kaminga's improved read and react play. He still turning the
ball over a little too much, but he's basically a
fifty to forty to eighty guy to start the season,
and he's been playing really well. And that lineup's been
scoring really well and defending really well. And then they
have these younger guys that come in off the bench
(08:54):
and they gun in those situations, which is working for them.
So like to me, classic k of like, never get
too high, never get too low. When it comes to
the regular season, you're always a good week or a
bad week away from a big move in the standings.
Like you're two games back of the two seed right now,
that could be literally Lakers drop a couple games on
the road trip, Spurs drop another game. You go three
(09:17):
and zero over a week and all of a sudden,
you're the three seed and everyone's talking about how amazing
you are. So like, again, this is the natural kind
of ebb and flow of the regular season. I don't
want to pretend that it's awesome that you're sitting at
five and four, but there's some strong indicators that you're
better than your record looks at this point in time.
Next question, love the show and the game reactions. Who
(09:38):
is the most athletic dude in the league right now?
In your opinion? I personally think it's a Men Thompson.
He's just so impressive and it's like every time he
touches the ball, he just does some freak athletic thing. Secondarily,
who do you think is the most athletic player ever? Personally?
I think it's Brawn for obvious reasons. Thanks, love the show.
I agree with you on both counts. Here with Lebron
in the all time context, there's a you know, there's
(10:00):
a there have been a lot of guys who have
come close. Jannis I think comes close for his size,
Iron Williamson I think comes close. There are guys that
come close, But to me, Lebron when you watch clips
of him from like two thousand and nine with the
chase down blocks, the transition dunks, some of the stuff
he was doing in the half court off of like
(10:22):
counter moves and stuff. There was a level of like
change of direction, vertical pop strength and power, straight line speed.
He had a dunk with Miami, I believe in it
was like twenty twelve. I think if I remember correctly,
where he tamahawked it from Damn near the free throw line,
(10:42):
and by the time he landed, he landed on two
feet and by the time he landed it was almost
at the stanchion, like it was like a long jump
of damn near twenty feet on the on the dunk,
like the Lebron I think we are so distant from
it now because it's been a decade and a half.
But when Lebron was at his peak at he just
moved different than any player ever in the history of
(11:04):
the NBA. So I think he's clearly the best athlete
all time. Aman Thompson a couple of things that stand
out to me. The changing of direction when guys are
still slowing down. This is kind of a thing that
has allowed him to be a great dribble drive guy,
and it's why he projects to be a very good
offensive player in the long run because he can combine
it with the handle. He's got very good control of
(11:25):
his body with footwork and dribble combinations in order to
make his counter moves. But he can drive that you
hard to the right, and like while you're stopping because
he's getting ready to counter to the left, he's already
passed you to the left before you even slow your
body down and try to change direction. He literally looks
like he's moving at a completely different speed compared to
(11:46):
the other guys at his position. Obviously, doesn't bring the
size and power that you see from some of the
bigger guys in the league, but he's also not you know,
Davion Mitchell either. He's not a tiny guard. He is
a good big wing, legitimate NBA size for the position,
who moves like the quickest guards in the league. And
(12:07):
it just it's an awesome foundational trait for him as
a big picture scorer in this league. Next question, Atlanta
seems to be rolling along without Trey. It's definitely not
perfect right now, but it seems to indicate Trey's value
isn't as high as we assume given what we've seen.
What scenarios can you foresee playing out the season for
Atlanta and what is most likely? In your opinion, this
(12:30):
is tricky because they're two and one without Trey. The
Orlando wins a nice win, but it's like, also Orlando,
We're gonna talk about them in a little bit. They've
play some of the stupidest offense I've ever seen in
the modern NBA. They're defending better. This has been back
when Trey was healthy. There was this kind of weird
on off thing going on with Trey where they were
(12:52):
like almost damn near a one thirty defensive rating when
Trey was on the floor, and then they would become
a good defense when Tray was off. I don't blame
Trey solely for that. I watched a bunch of those games,
and in the starting lineup there were guys not named
Trey that weren't playing as well defensively in those minutes
as they were capable of. If anything, Trey going off
(13:12):
the floor forces them to win with defense because they
don't have the level of offensive skill, and so they
just lock in and get more engaged with those groups. Certainly,
with Trey off the floor, there's an increase in defensive talent.
This is a defense to transition team. They force a
lot of turnovers, they run the floor. Off of those situations,
there's a certain amount of value in that. We talked
(13:33):
a lot about this this summer, winning on the margins,
and that can be something that carries you over the
course of the regular season. But I don't think this
team has any potential to accomplish anything at all whatsoever
without the advantage creation of Trey Young, and so ultimately,
to me, what's exciting about the Hawks is combining this
version of the team, this lanky, fast, run the floor,
(13:54):
force turnovers, play play that transition up and down basketball,
combining that with Trey's half court ability to set you
up with quality opportunities. And so obviously the knees spring
keeps them out for so long that it's gonna give
us this massive sample size. And there's gonna be some highs.
There's gonna be some moments where Jalen Johnson has a
(14:15):
big night, Zachary Rissachet had a huge night the other day.
There's gonna be some big nights where it's gonna look exciting,
But ultimately, you can't win shit in the NBA if
you don't have a legitimate advantage creator, and Trey's the
only guy on the team who could do that, And
so I still want to see a lot more reps
with Trey alongside a healthy version of this team, and
(14:37):
I hope we get to see it before they do
something like trade him. Now. Who knows, maybe the team
is just sick of Tray and they end up making
that sort of decision. But I'm cautiously optimistic that they'll
just keep afloat in the standings by winning on the margins,
and then Trey will come back, and then they'll play
better defense when Trey's on the floor, and they'll start
to show some of that upside that we got all
(14:59):
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or Virginia. Hi, Jason, what's up? I was curious about
(16:48):
some things which would be better for the Lakers. A
trade for Wiggins which may require Ruey in a first,
or a trade for Dylan Brooks where you might be
able to keep Ruey in a first. What do you
think about a Miles Miles Bridges trade slash fit? What
do you think about a do theerro with rim, pressure
and athleticism to help the Lakers? PSU, Trevor and Yovann
linking up as a dream come true. So for those
(17:09):
of you guys who don't know, on Thursday mornings, we're
doing live shows me and Trevor Lane and Yovann Bouja
for a show called the Lakers Collective. We did our
third episode yesterday. It's just on YouTube wherever you find
channels under Lakers Collective. We're just doing basically weekly check
ins on the Lakers. You guys can check that out there.
A couple things, a lot of different things to get
into with what you said, do Thierrero, He's not going
(17:33):
to play this year any meaningful minutes unless guys are
Unless it's you know, kind of similar to what happened
the other night in Portland where you have four key
rotation guys out of the lineup. Like as exciting as
a Doierro's athleticism is, and if he can stay healthy,
he certainly has the potential to be a very good
NBA role player. I just think that it's he's just
(17:55):
not going to be a factor in this season, so
we can kind of just set him off to the side.
The trading Rui piece, I want to start specifically focusing
on Rui. We talked earlier about how Austin with lebron
Out has clearly demonstrated himself as the partner for Luca
long term as like the secondary bell handler, right, I
(18:19):
would also argue that Rui with lebron Out has demonstrated
a really good option as their long term power forward.
And the issue is is Lebron will retire at some
point in the next few years, and so if you
trade Rui. I don't necessarily like the idea of trading
Rui at this point because of how good he has
(18:41):
looked at the power forward position in the long term. So,
for instance, if you told me just for this season,
if there was no additional basketball the world ends the
summer of twenty twenty six, what should the Lakers do.
I'd be like trade Rui for Andrew Wiggins. When Lebron
(19:01):
comes back, Ruey's gonna suddenly have the majority of his
minutes shift to the three. That exposes his limitations as
a perimeter defender more. I could see him losing a
lot of those minutes to guys like Jake Laravia and
Marcus Smart. So in the short term, I'm not sure
that's the best use of Rui. Andrew Wiggins, by the way,
(19:22):
is having a great year in Miami. And one of
the things Wiggins is such a dynamic athlete. He is
such a good rebounder for his position. He is such
a good perimeter defender for his position, while also having
a great catch and shoot season. He's doing a lot
of work off the bounce as a slasher as well.
Andrew Wiggins is a really good basketball player at a
(19:45):
position group of need at the small forward position. However,
Andrew entering into his early thirties and so it's a
little bit trickier in terms of whether or not he
makes sense as a long term fit alongside and Luca.
Flip the script to a guy like Herb Jones. If
(20:05):
you make a move flipping Rui for Herb Jones, now
you're talking about a guy where it's like Herb Jones
is at the age in his mid twenties where it
actually makes sense for him to be the starting three
in the future alongside Luca and Austin. So like essentially,
to me, Rui makes sense as the starting four long term.
(20:29):
So I don't want to trade Rui unless you're getting
another starter that makes sense long term. So for instance,
let's say it's for a Let's say you don't believe
in Ayton for some reason. If it's for a center,
or if it's for a guy like Herb Jones who
can play the three long term, I think that makes
sense as much as I every time I watch Andrew Wiggins,
(20:51):
I'm like, this guy would literally vault the Lakers into
the top tier of contenders. If you told me they
had Ayton, Lebron, Wiggins, Austin and Luca. I put that
every bit as good as Denver and Oklahoma City. That's
how much I believe in Andrew Wiggins is a fit
with the Los Angeles Lakers. But that's a perfect world
where you don't have to think about the future, and
(21:12):
I totally understand why the Lakers would look at that
situation and go, why would we give up Rui in
draft compensation for a player in his thirties who would
help us a lot this year? But then as soon
as Lebron retires, there's a version of the team where
suddenly you have Luca and Austin and then you have
some older, less effective version of Andrew Wiggins in a big,
(21:34):
gaping hole at the power forward spot. I can see
why the Lakers would look at that and be like, Eh,
not a great move. So I think Rui has played
so well to start the season, and the numbers are
like legitimately insane. He's like sixteen for twenty three on
catch and shoot threes, when he's unguarded, He's like seventeen
for twenty four on mid range jump shots. He's damn
(21:56):
near seventy percent at the rim. He's been converting spot
ups at one point five to six points per possession,
which leads the entire NBA. RUI has been so good
to start the season that he makes sense as a
long term four, So you cannot trade him unless you
get a better version of a long term starting three.
(22:17):
The only guy I can think of right now at
that position that makes sense as a guy like Herb Jones,
Dylan Brooks. That sort of thing discounted move for a
guy like that. I don't think Dylan Brooks is in
the same caliber of all around kind of like dynamic
athletic wing that a guy like Andrew Wiggins or Herb
(22:37):
Jones is. But he's reasonably close, and if you can
get him for cheap, I think he makes the Lakers better.
I certainly think that would be a decent move, But
for Dylan Brooks, I think I would want to get
it done for cheap if that makes sense, or for
less expensive. I should say, what the heck is wrong
with the Magic? The team looks terrible. They're playing tier
so far as projected around fifty plus wins early on
(22:58):
in the season. I'm right there with you. I was
of the opinion that the Orlando Magic had like the
best chance to keep up with Cleveland. I want to
say what I said in the Warriors segment, don't get
too high, don't get too low in the NBA regular season.
This Magic team is so stacked with talent that they
could go on a two week run where they go
(23:18):
seven to one and they could be right back at
the top of the Eastern Conference in that conversation, and
then another couple of weeks where they go, you know,
eight and three, or a month where they go eight
and three and suddenly they're you know, the two seed,
three seed again. So like, I don't want to sit
here and act as though the season is over just
because the Magic looked poor to start the season. That said,
I did express some concern before the year about how
(23:42):
even though I love the Desmond Bane fit because he
specifically addresses some needs for this team, I was concerned
that the Orlando Magic, led by Jamal Moseley, wouldn't use
him properly, and that fear came to fruition almost immediately
to start this season, and when you dig into it,
(24:05):
they're actually kind of using Bain and Paalo as like
your turn, my turn, superstars. I talked about I can't
even remember which game it was, but I did an
Orlando Magic segment where they lost a game, but I
thought they took a step forward on offense. And it
was a game it was against the Sixers, and it
was a game where they ran like seven possessions of
(24:27):
Bain Paolo inverted pick and roll where Paalo is the handler,
and I broke down in detail how they got great
looks every single time down the floor. And then the
other day I'm watching Hawks Magic and they don't run
it a single time in the first half, not a
single time. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, this
(24:48):
is the problem. There's no intentionality to the offense. There's
no here's our best offensive players, here's what they're great at.
Here's how we can get them to work and junction
with each other, and here's where the defense is vulnerable.
Here are our targets. Here are ways that we can
attack this particular defense to get great looks for this
(25:11):
particular lineup. There's no intentionality to what the Orlando Magic
do they literally just go play basketball? And you know,
I put a good amount of this blame on Pallo.
I've been kind of fascinated by this idea, the concept
of like organization versus natural high IQ basketball. I was
(25:33):
listening to Steph kind of break this down in his
in his interview that he did on the Mind the
Game podcast. The Warriors run sets, but there's also a
lot of natural read and react basketball that they do
on a possession to possession basis that almost looks like
sets because they are so smart that they all just
(25:54):
play a natural style of basketball that involves ball in
player movement and screening and cutting, and it gets all
these great easy opportunities. And one of the things I'm
noticing with Palo, and this isn't a death sentence, and
I'll get into why in a minute, but one of
the things I'm noticing with Palo is his natural inclination
(26:15):
is to play pick up basketball, to play let me
call for a random guard screen here, let me play iso,
let me get into my bag type of basketball. Pallo
does not play with intentionality on the offensive end of
the floor. What that means is is the Orlando Magic
as currently constructed desperately needs structure. They need a head
(26:39):
coach because they're not the Warriors and they're not going
to naturally play with ball and player movement and screening
and cutting. They need a coach that's going to come
in and heavily implement structure so that guys like Pallo
are not left to their own devices, because if they're
left to their own devices, there's going to be a
lot of wasted possessions that don't have that level of intentionality.
(27:05):
Desmond Bain hasn't been very good over the course of
the last couple of weeks, and I think a big
part of that is in this particular situation, surrounded by
the freelance basketball that isn't producing quality opportunities. He's not successful.
Desmond Bain isn't an ISO guy. Desmond Bain isn't a
guy that's going to be transcendently great with his individual gifts.
(27:27):
He is a player that thrives in structure. He thrives
in structure because he's a player that is excellent playing
off of screens. But if you have him running off
of the wrong types of screens with screening partners who
are not threats in poor spacing, it limits his success
in those situations. Why I've been asking for the Palo
(27:49):
Bain inverted pick and roll so much is because it's
a simple piece of structure that consistently will put the
defense in the bind with two players that are legitimate threats.
If you switch, Palo's gonna have a huge size advantage
that he's gonna be able to take for close range
baskets around the basket. If you don't, Palo's gonna get downhill.
(28:12):
If you hedge and recover, Desmond Bain's gonna get easy
closeouts where he's going to thrive. And we broke that
down in detail, and that Sixers game is an example
of where they got great shots every single time down
the floor. But ultimately the problem here is they are
a team that does not play with intentionality on offense.
They are left to their own devices too often, and
the natural inclinations of their players on the floor when
(28:35):
left to their own devices is to be in poor spacing,
to make poor decisions in terms of who to screen
for who to play iso ball, to make the game
more difficult than it needs to be. And so ultimately
I don't think I don't think they're going to be
as bad as they've looked. I think they're too talented.
They're so damn talented that they're gonna find a lot
of ways to win games just simply based on paper skill,
(28:58):
like on Paper Town. But if this Magic team is
ever going to reach their goals, it's going to require
a coaching change toward towards a guy who brings enormous
structure to the offense. It's what they need. These guys
need to be told what to do in order to
thrive on the offensive end of the four. Hey, Jason,
(29:18):
love the show. I'm an Australian and would love to
know if this Josh Giddey emergence is a real thing
or not. After Paddy Mills and that generation of Australian
basketballers have gotten older, we need a new leader of
the national team. Is it possible it could be an
All star level? He could be at an all star
level where he does have to improve his game to
become a top twenty player in the league. And if
that ceiling even exists, So the numbers are insane. I
(29:40):
think he's have what twenty three, ten and nine to
start the season. He's been shooting well on catch and
shoot jumpers for a couple of years now, which has
made him more dynamic as an off ball player. I
think he deserves a lot of credit for the pace
that they've been playing at with kick ahead passes and
just bringing the ball up with speed and making early
dribble drive attack and possessions that get the defense into rotation.
(30:04):
I saw, you know, and I don't take this seriously.
It's a straw man. But like I saw you know
some Bulls fans comparing him to Luca earlier, there's a
huge gap and shot making, like a gigantic, enormous gap
and shot making like every time Josh Getty shoots out
of pick and roll, he's getting just zero point six
y nine points per shot attempt. Like this is not
a guy that is a surgical shot maker the way
(30:27):
that Luka Doncic is. So I don't really look at
him like that, but he does fit the mold of
that like typical big bodied playmaker that can be methodical
on his drives in terms of putting defenders in jail
and waiting for defenders to react and making the appropriate
kickout passes. I do look at him as that offensive
engine archetype that generates a lot of advantages that greases
(30:47):
the wheels for an entire offense. Again I mentioned the
pay stuff. It can be Tyre's Halliburton esque sometimes with
his ability to throw kickhead passes and get the offense
running up and down the floor. I think in order
for him to get to that all star level. Because
here's the thing right now, as a team, the Bulls
are shooting really, really well from three, and I'm not
sure how much longer they'll be able to maintain that,
although they are generating a good amount of good looks
(31:09):
for good shooters. But we'll see how long they can
maintain their three point shooting to this point in the season.
A big part of why they're six and one two
is because of Nikola Vusevitch's shooting literally seven for ten
from the field in clutch situations, including the game winner
that he hit the other night in the Philadelphia seventy
six ers game. Right, So, like there's a certain amount
of some circumstances are going right for them, and things
(31:33):
will get tougher, Guys will cool off, things will get
more into half court situations. Teams will scout Chicago as
a team that likes to run a ton, and they
will start to be prepared for that with their transition
defense and stopping the ball, and that'll just put more
of a heavy emphasis on things like Josh Getty's shot
making and guys like Madis Buselli is hitting catch and
shoot threes, and certain little weak points that have come
(31:56):
up at various points this season. They've been in the
middle of the pack half court offense right, So like
those are the kinds of things that I think will
need to be worked out in order for them to
sustain success. But ultimately, Giddy has looked better. He's improved
as a scorer, He's improved as a catch and shoot player,
he is shown that he can run an offense at
(32:17):
a high level. I just think there's a pretty big
gap between him and the offensive engines at the top
of the league, and he needs to close that gap
in order to become an All Star or become the
kind of guy that can be the best offensive engine
on a serious playoff threat type of team. What's up,
Jason big Fan. One thing I've noticed while watching the
NBA this season is I feel like I'm seeing way
(32:37):
more zone than I typically see in the NBA. I
never really thought i'd see this much zone again. With
everybody being such good shooters. Why do you think teams
are showing zones so much now? And do you think
teams are any team's zones are translatable to the playoffs,
So a couple of things. Zone at the NBA level
does look different than it does at like the college level.
At the college level, they're always playing the middle of
(32:59):
the floor moreggressively, and it's primarily designed to shut down
the paint and it's pretty easy to just swing the
ball around the perimeter and get catch and shoot three
point shot looks against a traditional kind of two three zone.
Most two three zones in the NBA are rangy, and
they kind of are almost more like four to one zones,
where the wings and the top are more keyed in
(33:20):
on the three point line. The big is staying back
and they're kind of leaving the middle of the floor open.
It's more designed to try to give up like mid
range jump shots and to contain dribble penetration. So like that,
it does look a little bit different at the NBA level,
But the reason why we're seeing so much of it
is pretty simple. It's the same reason why we're seeing
a lot of transition pushes from teams like Miami, teams
(33:40):
like Chicago, teams like Portland. It's a copycat league. If
you're a smart person and you're a competitive then you're
always looking at the people around you in your industry
that are having success and you're going why are they
having success? And you're thinking like, what are they doing?
What can I do to try to be more like them? Right?
And NBA coaches that are watching Indiana have the success
(34:04):
that they had last year in the postseason, that are
watching Oklahoma City have the success that they had in
the postseason, that are watching teams like Denver have success
with zone in the postseason, You're seeing all these teams
go mixing up coverages with zone is working, pushing the
pace and playing in transition, a ton is working, ball
pressure is working, and so all of these coaches around
(34:27):
the league are essentially trying to copy that for good
reason because they want to have success similar to the
teams that have had great success around the NBA. First
of all, a great fan of the show and I
basically watch every episode. I wanted to make a more
conceptual question, how do you factor in position when rating
defensive capability. I think that bad to average defender can
be more or less detrimental to his team depending on
(34:48):
which position he plays. For example, in a vacuum, I
think Jokic is a slightly better defender than Luca, but
I'd rather have Luke on my team when building a
defense simply because he allows me to play a center
and they tradition and they generally have the most impact
on the floor because they can provide rim protection and
shot blocking. Additionally, I think the reverse applies too. For example,
even though Marcus Smart was dpoy and played amazing defense
(35:08):
in twenty twenty two, I'd prefer a defender is worse
in a vacuum but does provide rim protection and shot
blocking like go Bear when a team is when building
a team defense, I was just wondering what your thoughts
are in this conceptually, and whether you have some thoughts
on offense that are similar conceptually. So I disagree about
the Luka Jokic cop The main reason why is that
I think that it's actually easier to build a defense
(35:31):
around a guy like Jokic in the sense that he
won is like an absolutely dominant defensive rebounder. But two,
you can build a traditional defensive scheme around the idea
of bringing your big up to the level. So if
Yokic isn't a great rim protector, he is good at
getting up to the level of screens, being active with
his hands, getting deflections on passes into the pocket and
(35:53):
stuff like that. And he's a good communicator, high IQ
defender that can kind of work through the sequences in
terms of calling out act and helping his teammates. Right,
then there's a basic kind of concept on the backside. Right,
Aaron Gordon comes over as the low man. When the
ball gets kicked out, you x out, so the guy
from the top of the wing drops to the corner,
Aaron Gordon goes out to the wing. There's like rotational
(36:13):
concepts that you can use to cover for that, as
we saw in the Boston series in twenty twenty four.
The Luka Doncic type, the perimeter based defender that like
can't guard the ball. They're a little bit more vulnerable
in my opinion, while also not being the type of
big sized deterrent that you get from a guy like
Nikola jokicch so I and Lucas a guy who I
(36:34):
think is an underrated off ball defender to the point
that you're trying to make, But I think I lean
slightly towards Jokich as a defender than a guy like Luca.
The concept you're talking about, I think is interesting in
the sense that I look at your foundational defensive roles
as guarding the opposing star in defending ball screens. So
(36:57):
those two positions are arguably the most horton positions to
be good at. However, I think the bigger problem is
less like do you have a Rudy Gobert, you know,
all world screens stopper who can get up to the
level and play a deeper drop and blitz and switch
on to guys and do all that kind of stuff.
(37:18):
I think it's more important to not have a guy
that is a complete and total space case. The guys
that get absolutely fried at the five spot, it's usually
a mental thing. It's usually that they're just never in
the right spot. They're lunging at guys they shouldn't be
lunging at, staying back when they shouldn't be staying back,
going for a shot block and leaving an easy offensive
rebound opportunity. So like for a guy like Jokic, for instance,
(37:41):
even though he doesn't have the physical tools obviously, as
a guy like Rudy Gobert, he's a high IQ defender
that like can lock in and be in the right
spots and at least not be a problem. And then
if you have a lineup where there's no guy on
the floor that can guard the opposing star, that can
be an issue. Right. So, like overall, I think those
are the two most important position groups in terms of
(38:02):
building a foundational defense. But no matter what, you can
anchor with guys around. So for instance, like you can
have a weaker rim protector if you've got four elite
perimeter defenders around them, right, you can have lesser perimmeter
defenders if you have an elite rim protector. Right. There's
certain groups that are more of a switching look, right,
Like we've seen this with Portland and their centerless looks,
(38:23):
where it's like it's not really about having one supremely
gifted on ball defender or this awesome rim protector. It's like,
take your pick, do you want to try to drive
it Jeremy Grant or Denny Avdia or Drew excuse me,
Drew Holliday or Jimani Kamara, like, which one of these
guys do you want to go at? Right? So, like
a lot of it is about team construct as well.
(38:46):
Can anyone explain why im Udoka keeps insisting on the
zone defense. First of all, the zone defense has been
working for Houston. It's actually been working a little bit
better than their man demand defense. They have an eighty
nine defensive rating with their zone looks in the half court,
and then their half court man looks are getting a
ninety one defensive rating, so they've actually been a little
(39:07):
bit better That eighty nine defensive rating. Zone is actually
the seventh best out of any team in the league,
but it's also doubled in volume of the second place team,
Like they run by far the most zone. They run
like eighteen possessions of game and the second place team
runs less than ten, So it has less noise in
the data because it's such a larger sample than the
rest of the teams. They're just an awesome zone defense.
(39:30):
I think it makes sense because they're not particularly fast,
but they are big, so they can cover ground and
stay stationary relative to a man de man look when
they're in the zone. They are running their zone primarily
when Steven Adams is on the floor too. That's something
to keep in mind, and it's part of just trying
to keep Steven Adams out of space and try to
keep them closer to the rim. But overall, emails insisting
(39:51):
on zone because it works. It's not really any more
complicated than that you said. Jah is one of maybe
twelve players in the with a foundational superstar skill, with
his being elite athleticism and downhill pressure. Who are those
other players in the NBA and what are their skills
Jokich offensive mastery for example, Wenby's defensive prowess, et cetera.
(40:13):
Thanks and keep going, best ballpod in the game. Thank
you so much for the kind words and the support.
I ended up putting sixteen names down. And again, what
I'm looking at, hear is an individual skill set that
is impossible to account for defensively without throwing the kitchen
(40:35):
sink at them. So I'm gonna start with all like
the classic big playmakers, there's four of them here. This
is Luca, this is Nicola, jokicch, this is Kate Cunningham.
This is Lebron, although Lebron's obviously kind of aged out
of this equation. But just kind of more as like
a proof of concept, but it's a combination of size, scoring,
and playmaking those three pieces together. When you're so damn
(40:58):
big and so good at score the basketball that you
have to send additional defenders. But then they can pass
better than just about anybody out of those situations. That's
their foundational trait. Then we get into kind of like
the unicorn type. So like Giannis overwhelming power, Steph Curry,
best shooter to ever touch the earth, but also one
of the best conditioned athletes on the earth. It was
(41:20):
constantly running around in circles that breaks defenses. Wemby length
and mobility obviously, right, no one moves like that at
his size, and no one has that fluidity off the
dribble that he does at his size. And you could
argue even if Wemby was a mediocre offensive player, he'd
still have the ability to be the best player in
the league because of how good he is defensively. Kevin
Durant seven footer that's fluid and can shoot the basketball.
(41:43):
So those are like kind of the kind of unicorn types.
I think that includes Zion Williamson in this too, rim pressure,
short range shot making and playmaking, but also just like
built like a refrigerator, that sort of thing. Shake Yos
is Alexander start stop quickness and body control at his
size combined with shot making. LaMelo Ball He's not really
(42:04):
the size and power of the big playmakers we named earlier,
but he brings good size to the guard position, excellent
jump shooting and playmaking. He's a guy that obviously had
the As we get into this kind of tail end
of the list, these are guys that haven't really These
guys haven't really materialized as legitimate superstar talents, but they
(42:25):
have the baseline set of skills necessary to where if
things go right, they can become that type of superstar.
To me, if LaMelo Ball can stay healthy and if
he continues to improve as a defender, improve in some
of his shot selections stuff, I do think LaMelo Ball
has superstar potentially. He's a guy who can damn near
average a thirty point triple double in the NBA. Like
you'd be foolish to not consider him as that type
(42:45):
of talent, even if it hasn't materialized. Pallo pallow to
me the kind of freelancing, low iq attack on offense
that can be frustrating sometimes, but he has the size,
power and polish to if he can figure that stuff out,
or if he gets with the right coach that can
apply structure around him. I think Paalo's a guy that
(43:08):
could be a defense breaking type of weapon. Zion Williamson
we mentioned earlier, but he's an example of a guy
that hasn't really materializes that top tier superstar, but he's
got that unbelievable foundational trait. If he could just stay healthy,
and if he could get good enough on defense, and
if they surrounded him with the right type of talent,
you could see a universe where Zion could have that
(43:28):
type of MVP level campaign. Anthony Edwards, I should have
put him higher up on this list, but supreme athleticism
in size for him is just putting together the defense
and the mid range shot making piece and just continuing
to improve as a playmaker. John Morant the same kind
of thing as Zion, just rim pressure with short range
shot making and playmaking. And then I actually added Chet
Holmgren to this list. Is my sixteenth guy. I'm actually
(43:52):
I'm missing one other a Men Thompson and Men Thompson
to me kind of has a little bit of that
John Morant as well, like unbelievable rim pressure, sure, but
also the playmaking and short range shot making to potentially
be a devastating offensive weapon. Chet Holmgren. I put him
in here because it's elite rim protection switch ability to
guard all these different positions, and he has the potential
(44:13):
to be a guy who averages twenty five points per
game in the NBA at high efficiencies. Like this generation's
kind of like weird perimeter oriented version of Anthony Davis
in terms of a two way weapon as a rim protector.
But again, that doesn't mean we have sixteen superstars in
the league. It just means those are the sixteen guys
that I think have such strong foundational traits that they
(44:33):
have the ability to reach that level. Many of them
are already there and have been there for a while,
many of them are about to get there, and some
of them have underachieved, but they have that foundational trait.
Last one quickly here, I had someone say, man, you
haven't talked about the Nuggets once this year. We've actually
talked about the Nuggets four times this year out of
their seven games. But I understand why this can get
(44:55):
a little bit confusing. Jackson does an amazing job. Every
time we do a video that covers team in the league,
he filters them into playlists for each NBA team. So
if your team, if you've been thinking like, oh, I
you know, I am a Hawks fan and I want
to hear what Jason had to say about the Hawks,
whatever it might be, all you got to do is
(45:17):
go to our channel, go to playlists and scroll down
to your team and click that playlist and you will
see a link to every single video we've done this
year that references that team. That should give you an
opportunity to kind of sort through and find your specific
team if that's what you're looking for. And again, I
do the best I can. The top teams in the league,
(45:39):
I'm gonna talk about a lot more. The middle tier
in the teams I'm going to talk about, you know,
a couple times a month, and then the bottom tier
teams in the league, I'm only going to talk about,
you know, three or four times in the entire season.
That's just how we orient our coverage. I know that
that's not the same as some of the other tea
people cover the league out there, but that's the way
we orient it. We do our best with the channel
(46:00):
to try to organize it in a way that it's
easy to find for you guys. But again, I mean,
the Nuggets have played seven games and we've talked about
four of them, so you can find that in that
Nuggets folder if you're looking for some Nuggets content. All right, guys,
it's all I have for today is always sincerely appreciate
you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. I
hope every one of you enjoys your weekend. If you
have a chance, come hang out with us on Saturday
(46:22):
night for Lakers Hawks on playback. That should be some fun.
I'm excited to get that endeavor off the ground. I'll
be taking callers, so you'll have an opportunity to come
on and ask questions, talk about the game, stuff like that. Again,
I appreciate you guys for rocking with us in supporting
the show. And we'll see you guys on Monday.
The volume. All right, welcome to him today. You're at
the volume Heavy Friday, everybody. Hope all of you guys
had an incredible week. It is mail bag Day. We're
(00:21):
gonna be breaking down a bunch of stuff from around
the league. Some Rockets, some Hawks, some Magic. We're gonna
get into some Lakers and Warriors stuff, a bunch of
stuff all around the league. I have a fun project
from a question that we had regarding the concept of
a foundational superstar skill. We had been talking about this
(00:42):
with respect to John Morant and him just kind of
not fulfilling his potential. I want to look at the
players around the league that I think have at least
that potential based on that foundational superstar trade. Obviously some
of those guys have underachieved. But kind of a fun
thought exercise towards the tail end the show. Lots of
stuff to get into from around the league today. You
(01:02):
guys know the job before we get started. Subscribe to
the Hoops and Night YouTube channels. You don't miss any
more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore
json lt so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't
forget about our podcast feed, where you get your podcast
under Hoops tonight. It's also super helpful if we leave
a rating and a review on that front. Jackson's doing
incredible work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,
and TikTok. Make sure you guys follow us there for
content throughout the rest of the season. The last, but
(01:23):
not least, if you guys want to get questions into
our mail bag next Friday, just find our full episodes
on YouTube and drop them in the comments mail bag.
Coll In. Write your question and we'll get to them
on Fridays. One last quick announcement before we get started.
We were going to start our playback series tonight. We're
going to be doing watch alongs, and we were going
(01:45):
to be starting with Nuggets Warriors tonight, but with Steph
Curry out, we're going to do a different game instead.
Not sure what that one will be yet, I will
let you guys know, but what that means is that
our debut will actually be for Lakers Hawks on Saturday.
So I think that's a four pm Pacific start if
I remember correctly. So on Tomorrow night, come hang out
(02:05):
on playback. We'll watch the Lakers versus the Hawks, who
are two and one without Trey Young, so it'll be
an interesting game for us to kick that off. All right,
let's talk some basketball. First question is a Lakers question. Hey,
Jason Love the show, best basketball podcast in the game
right now, Thank you for the kind words. My question
is this, do you think the Lakers' front office views
Austin Reeves as Luca's long term running mate or as
more of a potential trade asset to secure player that
(02:27):
might fit better alongside Luca. Personally I love watching them
play together, but with the recent surge from AR fifteen,
I can't help but wonder what he would look like
running his own team as maybe a second option to
a dynamic front court player. What team slash players do
you think would be good targets if AR were signed
and traded for the next couple of seasons. So you know,
(02:48):
when I look at first of all, I think it's
far more likely than not that Austin stays with the Lakers,
regardless of what happens in the Lebron Austin Luca configuration.
The Austin Luca configure has looked so good that I
think that that's essentially a sneak peak of what things
will look like after Lebron James retires. I think Austin
(03:08):
was a little bit more of a question mark in
that department before this season, mainly because he struggled so
much against athleticism in the Timberwolves playoff series, and just
there was that question mark of like, what about the
idea of building your starting lineup around two lesser athletes, right,
But the problem is is Austin's become clearly so good.
(03:30):
I think he's averaging what thirty one to nine on
like sixty five percent true shooting to start the season.
He's become so good that any upside you get from
targeting a different type of secondary star off of Luca,
Like let's say you find a better athlete to play
alongside Luca who's a little bit more of a two
way player. The chasm between whoever that guy is in
(03:52):
Austin Reeves is an offensive player right now is going
to be so big that it doesn't really justify the
alta aternative, Like, yeah, you don't necessarily want to build
your starting lineup around two non athletes, but if you
have two offensive players that are that good in the lineup,
it actually buys you more flexibility with the other guys.
(04:14):
You can get away with lineups that have really defensive
focused talent in the other three positions when your main
offensive players are that good. So overall, I think Austin
has played so well that he's essentially put himself in
the position where he looks like the obvious long term
fit alongside Luca, and he downsides with athleticism are made
(04:36):
up for by the fact that Austin's legitimately been one
of the top fifteen players in the NBA to start
the season. Now, obviously it's too small of the sample
size to really give him that credit in the big picture,
but he to me looks like definitively one of the
top thirty or so players in the NBA and a
guy that I think makes a lot of sense long
term next to Luca. Now that could change if it
(04:59):
were to change, which again I don't think it will,
But if that were to change, the kinds of teams
that I think make sense for Austin are once again
teams that have a lot of athleticism to anchor him
and that need refined offensive skills. So I'd be looking
at teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves, teams like the Orlando
Magic as examples of teams that I think Austin would
(05:21):
be able to step in and immediately help teams where
he wouldn't be asked to be the primary point of
attack defender like he was many times last year in
the past. I think it would make a lot of
sense for Austin in those constructs. All right, next question,
what's your take on the war your struggle? So far?
They seem to be relatively the same team from last year,
(05:42):
with a high ceiling but an inability to string wins
together consistently. The Steve Kurr detractors are backsiting his four
guard lineups as a culprit. But I'm curious as to
your thoughts. Are they destined for a fight to stay
out of the play in again this year? Thanks so much,
love your show and you're in peak form this season.
Thank you so much for the kind words. I really
appreciate that I take. I look at each season as
(06:03):
an opportunity to get better. I feel like each year
we get a little bit better at doing this job.
That's not just me too, It's the whole team and
everything that we do behind the scenes. Most of this,
to me is just the Warriors succumbing to a brutal
early season schedule, tons of back to backs, some tough
particular nights in the back to backs where you're playing
tough teams to play, when you don't have your legs
(06:25):
underneath you, or when you have guys miss missing time
for one reason or another. I'm not gonna sit here
and pretend like everything's absolutely fine. If you look at
some of the other top records in the league, teams
like Oklahoma City, teams like the Lakers, teams like the Pistons,
teams like the Spurs, all four of those teams literally
(06:45):
haven't seen a single minute of play from their second
best player between Jayduve and Lebron and Jade and Ivy
and Deer and Fox, and they're stacking wins anyway. Teams
like Oklahoma City and the Lakes have been down guys
deeper in the rotation as well, and they just keep winning.
So I'm not going to sit here and pretend like
(07:05):
it's a great sign that you're where you're at, given
the injuries and given the schedule. But there's context there,
right Like the Warriors should have won the Pacers game.
They were up by eleven halfway through the fourth quarter,
they just blew it and Steph had a bad night.
That happens the Kings game. Literally you sit everybody again,
(07:25):
like certain teams will find ways to win that game.
That's a tough game on the road, and like it
could go either way. It was a close game. You
had a shot, you didn't pull it out. And the
Bucks and Blazers games, I thought that they showed a
little bit of Golden State's issues, specifically with handling downhill
athletes that can break their point of attack defense and
spray out to shooters. They struggled with dribble penetration in
(07:49):
both of those games. I think that those are certainly
things to keep an eye on, but I also thought
they were all that they were like. I also thought
they were like textbook games where the Warriors were not
particularly engaged athletically. Overall, I'm still higher on Golden State
than I was to start the season. There's still really
strong lineup data. The Steph Draymond Jimmy Butler trio is
(08:10):
plus thirteen net to start the season, elite on both
ends of the floor. That's a really strong number, and
ultimately and any given serious basketball situation, those three guys
are going to be on the floor. And I talked
about this the other day, but there's some interesting data
with the way that Steve Kurr structured the lineups, like
him shifting towards using Moses Moody and Brandon Pajemski as
(08:33):
primarily bench guys. That's worked. The starting lineup built around
Kaminga and a stretch big has worked really well because
Kaminga's improved read and react play. He still turning the
ball over a little too much, but he's basically a
fifty to forty to eighty guy to start the season,
and he's been playing really well. And that lineup's been
scoring really well and defending really well. And then they
have these younger guys that come in off the bench
(08:54):
and they gun in those situations, which is working for them.
So like to me, classic k of like, never get
too high, never get too low. When it comes to
the regular season, you're always a good week or a
bad week away from a big move in the standings.
Like you're two games back of the two seed right now,
that could be literally Lakers drop a couple games on
the road trip, Spurs drop another game. You go three
(09:17):
and zero over a week and all of a sudden,
you're the three seed and everyone's talking about how amazing
you are. So like, again, this is the natural kind
of ebb and flow of the regular season. I don't
want to pretend that it's awesome that you're sitting at
five and four, but there's some strong indicators that you're
better than your record looks at this point in time.
Next question, love the show and the game reactions. Who
(09:38):
is the most athletic dude in the league right now?
In your opinion? I personally think it's a Men Thompson.
He's just so impressive and it's like every time he
touches the ball, he just does some freak athletic thing. Secondarily,
who do you think is the most athletic player ever? Personally?
I think it's Brawn for obvious reasons. Thanks, love the show.
I agree with you on both counts. Here with Lebron
in the all time context, there's a you know, there's
(10:00):
a there have been a lot of guys who have
come close. Jannis I think comes close for his size,
Iron Williamson I think comes close. There are guys that
come close, But to me, Lebron when you watch clips
of him from like two thousand and nine with the
chase down blocks, the transition dunks, some of the stuff
he was doing in the half court off of like
(10:22):
counter moves and stuff. There was a level of like
change of direction, vertical pop strength and power, straight line speed.
He had a dunk with Miami, I believe in it
was like twenty twelve. I think if I remember correctly,
where he tamahawked it from Damn near the free throw line,
(10:42):
and by the time he landed, he landed on two
feet and by the time he landed it was almost
at the stanchion, like it was like a long jump
of damn near twenty feet on the on the dunk,
like the Lebron I think we are so distant from
it now because it's been a decade and a half.
But when Lebron was at his peak at he just
moved different than any player ever in the history of
(11:04):
the NBA. So I think he's clearly the best athlete
all time. Aman Thompson a couple of things that stand
out to me. The changing of direction when guys are
still slowing down. This is kind of a thing that
has allowed him to be a great dribble drive guy,
and it's why he projects to be a very good
offensive player in the long run because he can combine
it with the handle. He's got very good control of
(11:25):
his body with footwork and dribble combinations in order to
make his counter moves. But he can drive that you
hard to the right, and like while you're stopping because
he's getting ready to counter to the left, he's already
passed you to the left before you even slow your
body down and try to change direction. He literally looks
like he's moving at a completely different speed compared to
(11:46):
the other guys at his position. Obviously, doesn't bring the
size and power that you see from some of the
bigger guys in the league, but he's also not you know,
Davion Mitchell either. He's not a tiny guard. He is
a good big wing, legitimate NBA size for the position,
who moves like the quickest guards in the league. And
(12:07):
it just it's an awesome foundational trait for him as
a big picture scorer in this league. Next question, Atlanta
seems to be rolling along without Trey. It's definitely not
perfect right now, but it seems to indicate Trey's value
isn't as high as we assume given what we've seen.
What scenarios can you foresee playing out the season for
Atlanta and what is most likely? In your opinion, this
(12:30):
is tricky because they're two and one without Trey. The
Orlando wins a nice win, but it's like, also Orlando,
We're gonna talk about them in a little bit. They've
play some of the stupidest offense I've ever seen in
the modern NBA. They're defending better. This has been back
when Trey was healthy. There was this kind of weird
on off thing going on with Trey where they were
(12:52):
like almost damn near a one thirty defensive rating when
Trey was on the floor, and then they would become
a good defense when Tray was off. I don't blame
Trey solely for that. I watched a bunch of those games,
and in the starting lineup there were guys not named
Trey that weren't playing as well defensively in those minutes
as they were capable of. If anything, Trey going off
(13:12):
the floor forces them to win with defense because they
don't have the level of offensive skill, and so they
just lock in and get more engaged with those groups. Certainly,
with Trey off the floor, there's an increase in defensive talent.
This is a defense to transition team. They force a
lot of turnovers, they run the floor. Off of those situations,
there's a certain amount of value in that. We talked
(13:33):
a lot about this this summer, winning on the margins,
and that can be something that carries you over the
course of the regular season. But I don't think this
team has any potential to accomplish anything at all whatsoever
without the advantage creation of Trey Young, and so ultimately,
to me, what's exciting about the Hawks is combining this
version of the team, this lanky, fast, run the floor,
(13:54):
force turnovers, play play that transition up and down basketball,
combining that with Trey's half court ability to set you
up with quality opportunities. And so obviously the knees spring
keeps them out for so long that it's gonna give
us this massive sample size. And there's gonna be some highs.
There's gonna be some moments where Jalen Johnson has a
(14:15):
big night, Zachary Rissachet had a huge night the other day.
There's gonna be some big nights where it's gonna look exciting,
But ultimately, you can't win shit in the NBA if
you don't have a legitimate advantage creator, and Trey's the
only guy on the team who could do that, And
so I still want to see a lot more reps
with Trey alongside a healthy version of this team, and
(14:37):
I hope we get to see it before they do
something like trade him. Now. Who knows, maybe the team
is just sick of Tray and they end up making
that sort of decision. But I'm cautiously optimistic that they'll
just keep afloat in the standings by winning on the margins,
and then Trey will come back, and then they'll play
better defense when Trey's on the floor, and they'll start
to show some of that upside that we got all
(14:59):
excited about over the s. Today's show is brought to
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or Virginia. Hi, Jason, what's up? I was curious about
(16:48):
some things which would be better for the Lakers. A
trade for Wiggins which may require Ruey in a first,
or a trade for Dylan Brooks where you might be
able to keep Ruey in a first. What do you
think about a Miles Miles Bridges trade slash fit? What
do you think about a do theerro with rim, pressure
and athleticism to help the Lakers? PSU, Trevor and Yovann
linking up as a dream come true. So for those
(17:09):
of you guys who don't know, on Thursday mornings, we're
doing live shows me and Trevor Lane and Yovann Bouja
for a show called the Lakers Collective. We did our
third episode yesterday. It's just on YouTube wherever you find
channels under Lakers Collective. We're just doing basically weekly check
ins on the Lakers. You guys can check that out there.
A couple things, a lot of different things to get
into with what you said, do Thierrero, He's not going
(17:33):
to play this year any meaningful minutes unless guys are
Unless it's you know, kind of similar to what happened
the other night in Portland where you have four key
rotation guys out of the lineup. Like as exciting as
a Doierro's athleticism is, and if he can stay healthy,
he certainly has the potential to be a very good
NBA role player. I just think that it's he's just
(17:55):
not going to be a factor in this season, so
we can kind of just set him off to the side.
The trading Rui piece, I want to start specifically focusing
on Rui. We talked earlier about how Austin with lebron
Out has clearly demonstrated himself as the partner for Luca
long term as like the secondary bell handler, right, I
(18:19):
would also argue that Rui with lebron Out has demonstrated
a really good option as their long term power forward.
And the issue is is Lebron will retire at some
point in the next few years, and so if you
trade Rui. I don't necessarily like the idea of trading
Rui at this point because of how good he has
(18:41):
looked at the power forward position in the long term. So,
for instance, if you told me just for this season,
if there was no additional basketball the world ends the
summer of twenty twenty six, what should the Lakers do.
I'd be like trade Rui for Andrew Wiggins. When Lebron
(19:01):
comes back, Ruey's gonna suddenly have the majority of his
minutes shift to the three. That exposes his limitations as
a perimeter defender more. I could see him losing a
lot of those minutes to guys like Jake Laravia and
Marcus Smart. So in the short term, I'm not sure
that's the best use of Rui. Andrew Wiggins, by the way,
(19:22):
is having a great year in Miami. And one of
the things Wiggins is such a dynamic athlete. He is
such a good rebounder for his position. He is such
a good perimeter defender for his position, while also having
a great catch and shoot season. He's doing a lot
of work off the bounce as a slasher as well.
Andrew Wiggins is a really good basketball player at a
(19:45):
position group of need at the small forward position. However,
Andrew entering into his early thirties and so it's a
little bit trickier in terms of whether or not he
makes sense as a long term fit alongside and Luca.
Flip the script to a guy like Herb Jones. If
(20:05):
you make a move flipping Rui for Herb Jones, now
you're talking about a guy where it's like Herb Jones
is at the age in his mid twenties where it
actually makes sense for him to be the starting three
in the future alongside Luca and Austin. So like essentially,
to me, Rui makes sense as the starting four long term.
(20:29):
So I don't want to trade Rui unless you're getting
another starter that makes sense long term. So for instance,
let's say it's for a Let's say you don't believe
in Ayton for some reason. If it's for a center,
or if it's for a guy like Herb Jones who
can play the three long term, I think that makes
sense as much as I every time I watch Andrew Wiggins,
(20:51):
I'm like, this guy would literally vault the Lakers into
the top tier of contenders. If you told me they
had Ayton, Lebron, Wiggins, Austin and Luca. I put that
every bit as good as Denver and Oklahoma City. That's
how much I believe in Andrew Wiggins is a fit
with the Los Angeles Lakers. But that's a perfect world
where you don't have to think about the future, and
(21:12):
I totally understand why the Lakers would look at that
situation and go, why would we give up Rui in
draft compensation for a player in his thirties who would
help us a lot this year? But then as soon
as Lebron retires, there's a version of the team where
suddenly you have Luca and Austin and then you have
some older, less effective version of Andrew Wiggins in a big,
(21:34):
gaping hole at the power forward spot. I can see
why the Lakers would look at that and be like, Eh,
not a great move. So I think Rui has played
so well to start the season, and the numbers are
like legitimately insane. He's like sixteen for twenty three on
catch and shoot threes, when he's unguarded, He's like seventeen
for twenty four on mid range jump shots. He's damn
(21:56):
near seventy percent at the rim. He's been converting spot
ups at one point five to six points per possession,
which leads the entire NBA. RUI has been so good
to start the season that he makes sense as a
long term four, So you cannot trade him unless you
get a better version of a long term starting three.
(22:17):
The only guy I can think of right now at
that position that makes sense as a guy like Herb Jones,
Dylan Brooks. That sort of thing discounted move for a
guy like that. I don't think Dylan Brooks is in
the same caliber of all around kind of like dynamic
athletic wing that a guy like Andrew Wiggins or Herb
(22:37):
Jones is. But he's reasonably close, and if you can
get him for cheap, I think he makes the Lakers better.
I certainly think that would be a decent move, But
for Dylan Brooks, I think I would want to get
it done for cheap if that makes sense, or for
less expensive. I should say, what the heck is wrong
with the Magic? The team looks terrible. They're playing tier
so far as projected around fifty plus wins early on
(22:58):
in the season. I'm right there with you. I was
of the opinion that the Orlando Magic had like the
best chance to keep up with Cleveland. I want to
say what I said in the Warriors segment, don't get
too high, don't get too low in the NBA regular season.
This Magic team is so stacked with talent that they
could go on a two week run where they go
(23:18):
seven to one and they could be right back at
the top of the Eastern Conference in that conversation, and
then another couple of weeks where they go, you know,
eight and three, or a month where they go eight
and three and suddenly they're you know, the two seed,
three seed again. So like, I don't want to sit
here and act as though the season is over just
because the Magic looked poor to start the season. That said,
I did express some concern before the year about how
(23:42):
even though I love the Desmond Bane fit because he
specifically addresses some needs for this team, I was concerned
that the Orlando Magic, led by Jamal Moseley, wouldn't use
him properly, and that fear came to fruition almost immediately
to start this season, and when you dig into it,
(24:05):
they're actually kind of using Bain and Paalo as like
your turn, my turn, superstars. I talked about I can't
even remember which game it was, but I did an
Orlando Magic segment where they lost a game, but I
thought they took a step forward on offense. And it
was a game it was against the Sixers, and it
was a game where they ran like seven possessions of
(24:27):
Bain Paolo inverted pick and roll where Paalo is the handler,
and I broke down in detail how they got great
looks every single time down the floor. And then the
other day I'm watching Hawks Magic and they don't run
it a single time in the first half, not a
single time. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, this
(24:48):
is the problem. There's no intentionality to the offense. There's
no here's our best offensive players, here's what they're great at.
Here's how we can get them to work and junction
with each other, and here's where the defense is vulnerable.
Here are our targets. Here are ways that we can
attack this particular defense to get great looks for this
(25:11):
particular lineup. There's no intentionality to what the Orlando Magic
do they literally just go play basketball? And you know,
I put a good amount of this blame on Pallo.
I've been kind of fascinated by this idea, the concept
of like organization versus natural high IQ basketball. I was
(25:33):
listening to Steph kind of break this down in his
in his interview that he did on the Mind the
Game podcast. The Warriors run sets, but there's also a
lot of natural read and react basketball that they do
on a possession to possession basis that almost looks like
sets because they are so smart that they all just
(25:54):
play a natural style of basketball that involves ball in
player movement and screening and cutting, and it gets all
these great easy opportunities. And one of the things I'm
noticing with Palo, and this isn't a death sentence, and
I'll get into why in a minute, but one of
the things I'm noticing with Palo is his natural inclination
(26:15):
is to play pick up basketball, to play let me
call for a random guard screen here, let me play iso,
let me get into my bag type of basketball. Pallo
does not play with intentionality on the offensive end of
the floor. What that means is is the Orlando Magic
as currently constructed desperately needs structure. They need a head
(26:39):
coach because they're not the Warriors and they're not going
to naturally play with ball and player movement and screening
and cutting. They need a coach that's going to come
in and heavily implement structure so that guys like Pallo
are not left to their own devices, because if they're
left to their own devices, there's going to be a
lot of wasted possessions that don't have that level of intentionality.
(27:05):
Desmond Bain hasn't been very good over the course of
the last couple of weeks, and I think a big
part of that is in this particular situation, surrounded by
the freelance basketball that isn't producing quality opportunities. He's not successful.
Desmond Bain isn't an ISO guy. Desmond Bain isn't a
guy that's going to be transcendently great with his individual gifts.
(27:27):
He is a player that thrives in structure. He thrives
in structure because he's a player that is excellent playing
off of screens. But if you have him running off
of the wrong types of screens with screening partners who
are not threats in poor spacing, it limits his success
in those situations. Why I've been asking for the Palo
(27:49):
Bain inverted pick and roll so much is because it's
a simple piece of structure that consistently will put the
defense in the bind with two players that are legitimate threats.
If you switch, Palo's gonna have a huge size advantage
that he's gonna be able to take for close range
baskets around the basket. If you don't, Palo's gonna get downhill.
(28:12):
If you hedge and recover, Desmond Bain's gonna get easy
closeouts where he's going to thrive. And we broke that
down in detail, and that Sixers game is an example
of where they got great shots every single time down
the floor. But ultimately the problem here is they are
a team that does not play with intentionality on offense.
They are left to their own devices too often, and
the natural inclinations of their players on the floor when
(28:35):
left to their own devices is to be in poor spacing,
to make poor decisions in terms of who to screen
for who to play iso ball, to make the game
more difficult than it needs to be. And so ultimately
I don't think I don't think they're going to be
as bad as they've looked. I think they're too talented.
They're so damn talented that they're gonna find a lot
of ways to win games just simply based on paper skill,
(28:58):
like on Paper Town. But if this Magic team is
ever going to reach their goals, it's going to require
a coaching change toward towards a guy who brings enormous
structure to the offense. It's what they need. These guys
need to be told what to do in order to
thrive on the offensive end of the four. Hey, Jason,
(29:18):
love the show. I'm an Australian and would love to
know if this Josh Giddey emergence is a real thing
or not. After Paddy Mills and that generation of Australian
basketballers have gotten older, we need a new leader of
the national team. Is it possible it could be an
All star level? He could be at an all star
level where he does have to improve his game to
become a top twenty player in the league. And if
that ceiling even exists, So the numbers are insane. I
(29:40):
think he's have what twenty three, ten and nine to
start the season. He's been shooting well on catch and
shoot jumpers for a couple of years now, which has
made him more dynamic as an off ball player. I
think he deserves a lot of credit for the pace
that they've been playing at with kick ahead passes and
just bringing the ball up with speed and making early
dribble drive attack and possessions that get the defense into rotation.
(30:04):
I saw, you know, and I don't take this seriously.
It's a straw man. But like I saw you know
some Bulls fans comparing him to Luca earlier, there's a
huge gap and shot making, like a gigantic, enormous gap
and shot making like every time Josh Getty shoots out
of pick and roll, he's getting just zero point six
y nine points per shot attempt. Like this is not
a guy that is a surgical shot maker the way
(30:27):
that Luka Doncic is. So I don't really look at
him like that, but he does fit the mold of
that like typical big bodied playmaker that can be methodical
on his drives in terms of putting defenders in jail
and waiting for defenders to react and making the appropriate
kickout passes. I do look at him as that offensive
engine archetype that generates a lot of advantages that greases
(30:47):
the wheels for an entire offense. Again I mentioned the
pay stuff. It can be Tyre's Halliburton esque sometimes with
his ability to throw kickhead passes and get the offense
running up and down the floor. I think in order
for him to get to that all star level. Because
here's the thing right now, as a team, the Bulls
are shooting really, really well from three, and I'm not
sure how much longer they'll be able to maintain that,
although they are generating a good amount of good looks
(31:09):
for good shooters. But we'll see how long they can
maintain their three point shooting to this point in the season.
A big part of why they're six and one two
is because of Nikola Vusevitch's shooting literally seven for ten
from the field in clutch situations, including the game winner
that he hit the other night in the Philadelphia seventy
six ers game. Right, So, like there's a certain amount
of some circumstances are going right for them, and things
(31:33):
will get tougher, Guys will cool off, things will get
more into half court situations. Teams will scout Chicago as
a team that likes to run a ton, and they
will start to be prepared for that with their transition
defense and stopping the ball, and that'll just put more
of a heavy emphasis on things like Josh Getty's shot
making and guys like Madis Buselli is hitting catch and
shoot threes, and certain little weak points that have come
(31:56):
up at various points this season. They've been in the
middle of the pack half court offense right, So like
those are the kinds of things that I think will
need to be worked out in order for them to
sustain success. But ultimately, Giddy has looked better. He's improved
as a scorer, He's improved as a catch and shoot player,
he is shown that he can run an offense at
(32:17):
a high level. I just think there's a pretty big
gap between him and the offensive engines at the top
of the league, and he needs to close that gap
in order to become an All Star or become the
kind of guy that can be the best offensive engine
on a serious playoff threat type of team. What's up,
Jason big Fan. One thing I've noticed while watching the
NBA this season is I feel like I'm seeing way
(32:37):
more zone than I typically see in the NBA. I
never really thought i'd see this much zone again. With
everybody being such good shooters. Why do you think teams
are showing zones so much now? And do you think
teams are any team's zones are translatable to the playoffs,
So a couple of things. Zone at the NBA level
does look different than it does at like the college level.
At the college level, they're always playing the middle of
(32:59):
the floor moreggressively, and it's primarily designed to shut down
the paint and it's pretty easy to just swing the
ball around the perimeter and get catch and shoot three
point shot looks against a traditional kind of two three zone.
Most two three zones in the NBA are rangy, and
they kind of are almost more like four to one zones,
where the wings and the top are more keyed in
(33:20):
on the three point line. The big is staying back
and they're kind of leaving the middle of the floor open.
It's more designed to try to give up like mid
range jump shots and to contain dribble penetration. So like that,
it does look a little bit different at the NBA level,
But the reason why we're seeing so much of it
is pretty simple. It's the same reason why we're seeing
a lot of transition pushes from teams like Miami, teams
(33:40):
like Chicago, teams like Portland. It's a copycat league. If
you're a smart person and you're a competitive then you're
always looking at the people around you in your industry
that are having success and you're going why are they
having success? And you're thinking like, what are they doing?
What can I do to try to be more like them? Right?
And NBA coaches that are watching Indiana have the success
(34:04):
that they had last year in the postseason, that are
watching Oklahoma City have the success that they had in
the postseason, that are watching teams like Denver have success
with zone in the postseason, You're seeing all these teams
go mixing up coverages with zone is working, pushing the
pace and playing in transition, a ton is working, ball
pressure is working, and so all of these coaches around
(34:27):
the league are essentially trying to copy that for good
reason because they want to have success similar to the
teams that have had great success around the NBA. First
of all, a great fan of the show and I
basically watch every episode. I wanted to make a more
conceptual question, how do you factor in position when rating
defensive capability. I think that bad to average defender can
be more or less detrimental to his team depending on
(34:48):
which position he plays. For example, in a vacuum, I
think Jokic is a slightly better defender than Luca, but
I'd rather have Luke on my team when building a
defense simply because he allows me to play a center
and they tradition and they generally have the most impact
on the floor because they can provide rim protection and
shot blocking. Additionally, I think the reverse applies too. For example,
even though Marcus Smart was dpoy and played amazing defense
(35:08):
in twenty twenty two, I'd prefer a defender is worse
in a vacuum but does provide rim protection and shot
blocking like go Bear when a team is when building
a team defense, I was just wondering what your thoughts
are in this conceptually, and whether you have some thoughts
on offense that are similar conceptually. So I disagree about
the Luka Jokic cop The main reason why is that
I think that it's actually easier to build a defense
(35:31):
around a guy like Jokic in the sense that he
won is like an absolutely dominant defensive rebounder. But two,
you can build a traditional defensive scheme around the idea
of bringing your big up to the level. So if
Yokic isn't a great rim protector, he is good at
getting up to the level of screens, being active with
his hands, getting deflections on passes into the pocket and
(35:53):
stuff like that. And he's a good communicator, high IQ
defender that can kind of work through the sequences in
terms of calling out act and helping his teammates. Right,
then there's a basic kind of concept on the backside. Right,
Aaron Gordon comes over as the low man. When the
ball gets kicked out, you x out, so the guy
from the top of the wing drops to the corner,
Aaron Gordon goes out to the wing. There's like rotational
(36:13):
concepts that you can use to cover for that, as
we saw in the Boston series in twenty twenty four.
The Luka Doncic type, the perimeter based defender that like
can't guard the ball. They're a little bit more vulnerable
in my opinion, while also not being the type of
big sized deterrent that you get from a guy like
Nikola jokicch so I and Lucas a guy who I
(36:34):
think is an underrated off ball defender to the point
that you're trying to make, But I think I lean
slightly towards Jokich as a defender than a guy like Luca.
The concept you're talking about, I think is interesting in
the sense that I look at your foundational defensive roles
as guarding the opposing star in defending ball screens. So
(36:57):
those two positions are arguably the most horton positions to
be good at. However, I think the bigger problem is
less like do you have a Rudy Gobert, you know,
all world screens stopper who can get up to the
level and play a deeper drop and blitz and switch
on to guys and do all that kind of stuff.
(37:18):
I think it's more important to not have a guy
that is a complete and total space case. The guys
that get absolutely fried at the five spot, it's usually
a mental thing. It's usually that they're just never in
the right spot. They're lunging at guys they shouldn't be
lunging at, staying back when they shouldn't be staying back,
going for a shot block and leaving an easy offensive
rebound opportunity. So like for a guy like Jokic, for instance,
(37:41):
even though he doesn't have the physical tools obviously, as
a guy like Rudy Gobert, he's a high IQ defender
that like can lock in and be in the right
spots and at least not be a problem. And then
if you have a lineup where there's no guy on
the floor that can guard the opposing star, that can
be an issue. Right. So, like overall, I think those
are the two most important position groups in terms of
(38:02):
building a foundational defense. But no matter what, you can
anchor with guys around. So for instance, like you can
have a weaker rim protector if you've got four elite
perimeter defenders around them, right, you can have lesser perimmeter
defenders if you have an elite rim protector. Right. There's
certain groups that are more of a switching look, right,
Like we've seen this with Portland and their centerless looks,
(38:23):
where it's like it's not really about having one supremely
gifted on ball defender or this awesome rim protector. It's like,
take your pick, do you want to try to drive
it Jeremy Grant or Denny Avdia or Drew excuse me,
Drew Holliday or Jimani Kamara, like, which one of these
guys do you want to go at? Right? So, like
a lot of it is about team construct as well.
(38:46):
Can anyone explain why im Udoka keeps insisting on the
zone defense. First of all, the zone defense has been
working for Houston. It's actually been working a little bit
better than their man demand defense. They have an eighty
nine defensive rating with their zone looks in the half court,
and then their half court man looks are getting a
ninety one defensive rating, so they've actually been a little
(39:07):
bit better That eighty nine defensive rating. Zone is actually
the seventh best out of any team in the league,
but it's also doubled in volume of the second place team,
Like they run by far the most zone. They run
like eighteen possessions of game and the second place team
runs less than ten, So it has less noise in
the data because it's such a larger sample than the
rest of the teams. They're just an awesome zone defense.
(39:30):
I think it makes sense because they're not particularly fast,
but they are big, so they can cover ground and
stay stationary relative to a man de man look when
they're in the zone. They are running their zone primarily
when Steven Adams is on the floor too. That's something
to keep in mind, and it's part of just trying
to keep Steven Adams out of space and try to
keep them closer to the rim. But overall, emails insisting
(39:51):
on zone because it works. It's not really any more
complicated than that you said. Jah is one of maybe
twelve players in the with a foundational superstar skill, with
his being elite athleticism and downhill pressure. Who are those
other players in the NBA and what are their skills
Jokich offensive mastery for example, Wenby's defensive prowess, et cetera.
(40:13):
Thanks and keep going, best ballpod in the game. Thank
you so much for the kind words and the support.
I ended up putting sixteen names down. And again, what
I'm looking at, hear is an individual skill set that
is impossible to account for defensively without throwing the kitchen
(40:35):
sink at them. So I'm gonna start with all like
the classic big playmakers, there's four of them here. This
is Luca, this is Nicola, jokicch, this is Kate Cunningham.
This is Lebron, although Lebron's obviously kind of aged out
of this equation. But just kind of more as like
a proof of concept, but it's a combination of size, scoring,
and playmaking those three pieces together. When you're so damn
(40:58):
big and so good at score the basketball that you
have to send additional defenders. But then they can pass
better than just about anybody out of those situations. That's
their foundational trait. Then we get into kind of like
the unicorn type. So like Giannis overwhelming power, Steph Curry,
best shooter to ever touch the earth, but also one
of the best conditioned athletes on the earth. It was
(41:20):
constantly running around in circles that breaks defenses. Wemby length
and mobility obviously, right, no one moves like that at
his size, and no one has that fluidity off the
dribble that he does at his size. And you could
argue even if Wemby was a mediocre offensive player, he'd
still have the ability to be the best player in
the league because of how good he is defensively. Kevin
Durant seven footer that's fluid and can shoot the basketball.
(41:43):
So those are like kind of the kind of unicorn types.
I think that includes Zion Williamson in this too, rim pressure,
short range shot making and playmaking, but also just like
built like a refrigerator, that sort of thing. Shake Yos
is Alexander start stop quickness and body control at his
size combined with shot making. LaMelo Ball He's not really
(42:04):
the size and power of the big playmakers we named earlier,
but he brings good size to the guard position, excellent
jump shooting and playmaking. He's a guy that obviously had
the As we get into this kind of tail end
of the list, these are guys that haven't really These
guys haven't really materialized as legitimate superstar talents, but they
(42:25):
have the baseline set of skills necessary to where if
things go right, they can become that type of superstar.
To me, if LaMelo Ball can stay healthy and if
he continues to improve as a defender, improve in some
of his shot selections stuff, I do think LaMelo Ball
has superstar potentially. He's a guy who can damn near
average a thirty point triple double in the NBA. Like
you'd be foolish to not consider him as that type
(42:45):
of talent, even if it hasn't materialized. Pallo pallow to
me the kind of freelancing, low iq attack on offense
that can be frustrating sometimes, but he has the size,
power and polish to if he can figure that stuff out,
or if he gets with the right coach that can
apply structure around him. I think Paalo's a guy that
(43:08):
could be a defense breaking type of weapon. Zion Williamson
we mentioned earlier, but he's an example of a guy
that hasn't really materializes that top tier superstar, but he's
got that unbelievable foundational trait. If he could just stay healthy,
and if he could get good enough on defense, and
if they surrounded him with the right type of talent,
you could see a universe where Zion could have that
(43:28):
type of MVP level campaign. Anthony Edwards, I should have
put him higher up on this list, but supreme athleticism
in size for him is just putting together the defense
and the mid range shot making piece and just continuing
to improve as a playmaker. John Morant the same kind
of thing as Zion, just rim pressure with short range
shot making and playmaking. And then I actually added Chet
Holmgren to this list. Is my sixteenth guy. I'm actually
(43:52):
I'm missing one other a Men Thompson and Men Thompson
to me kind of has a little bit of that
John Morant as well, like unbelievable rim pressure, sure, but
also the playmaking and short range shot making to potentially
be a devastating offensive weapon. Chet Holmgren. I put him
in here because it's elite rim protection switch ability to
guard all these different positions, and he has the potential
(44:13):
to be a guy who averages twenty five points per
game in the NBA at high efficiencies. Like this generation's
kind of like weird perimeter oriented version of Anthony Davis
in terms of a two way weapon as a rim protector.
But again, that doesn't mean we have sixteen superstars in
the league. It just means those are the sixteen guys
that I think have such strong foundational traits that they
(44:33):
have the ability to reach that level. Many of them
are already there and have been there for a while,
many of them are about to get there, and some
of them have underachieved, but they have that foundational trait.
Last one quickly here, I had someone say, man, you
haven't talked about the Nuggets once this year. We've actually
talked about the Nuggets four times this year out of
their seven games. But I understand why this can get
(44:55):
a little bit confusing. Jackson does an amazing job. Every
time we do a video that covers team in the league,
he filters them into playlists for each NBA team. So
if your team, if you've been thinking like, oh, I
you know, I am a Hawks fan and I want
to hear what Jason had to say about the Hawks,
whatever it might be, all you got to do is
(45:17):
go to our channel, go to playlists and scroll down
to your team and click that playlist and you will
see a link to every single video we've done this
year that references that team. That should give you an
opportunity to kind of sort through and find your specific
team if that's what you're looking for. And again, I
do the best I can. The top teams in the league,
(45:39):
I'm gonna talk about a lot more. The middle tier
in the teams I'm going to talk about, you know,
a couple times a month, and then the bottom tier
teams in the league, I'm only going to talk about,
you know, three or four times in the entire season.
That's just how we orient our coverage. I know that
that's not the same as some of the other tea
people cover the league out there, but that's the way
we orient it. We do our best with the channel
(46:00):
to try to organize it in a way that it's
easy to find for you guys. But again, I mean,
the Nuggets have played seven games and we've talked about
four of them, so you can find that in that
Nuggets folder if you're looking for some Nuggets content. All right, guys,
it's all I have for today is always sincerely appreciate
you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. I
hope every one of you enjoys your weekend. If you
have a chance, come hang out with us on Saturday
(46:22):
night for Lakers Hawks on playback. That should be some fun.
I'm excited to get that endeavor off the ground. I'll
be taking callers, so you'll have an opportunity to come
on and ask questions, talk about the game, stuff like that. Again,
I appreciate you guys for rocking with us in supporting
the show. And we'll see you guys on Monday.
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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