August 12, 2026 • 34 mins
Jason ranks his 19th, 18th, and 17th best players in the NBA, Karl-Anthony Towns (New York Knicks), Scottie Barnes (Toronto Raptors), and Tyrese Maxey (Philadelphia 76ers), while also breaking down how Maxey will fit in with LeBron James and Jaylen Brown on the new-look Sixers.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
All right, well, good hoops to night here at the
volume heavy Wednesday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are
having a great week so far. We're continuing our player
rankings today with number nineteen, number eighteen, and number seventeen.
You guys know the joke before we started. Subscribe to
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(00:38):
post notifications. That helps us a lot. In the last,
but not least, you guys want to get mail bag
questions into our weekly mail bags. Every Friday during the
entire player ranking series, we're going to be having a
mail bag where we debate the rankings. If you have
a player that you disagree with where they're placed, a
guy that's too high, guy that's too low, to players
that you think should be flipped.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
You disagree with something with my methodology, it might be
disagree put it in the comments mail bag colon, write
your question that helps me sort through them when I'm
looking for mailbag questions, and we'll get to them on
Fridays the rest of the way.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Our first player.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Rankings mail bag will be this coming Friday. All right,
let's talk some basketball. Number nineteen Karl Anthony Towns seventy
five games played there was actually his most games played
in a single season since twenty nineteen. In the regular season,
twenty points per game, twelve rebounds and three assists, sixty
two percent true shooting is shooting numbers.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
The jump shot obviously.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
A strong point for Karl Anthony Towns one point zero
five points per shot if you break it down, thirty
eight percent off a catch, forty two percent when he
was unguarded, so very good when he was left open.
Only took forty seven off the dribble jump shots all season.
Not really a huge part of his game. It's gonna
be kind of. One of the big talking points surrounding
Cat today is the difference between like viewing Cat in
(01:53):
the traditional sense of like a shot creating star versus
what he really is to me, which is perhaps the
most valuable spacing five in the NBA because of what
he can do in spot up situations. We'll be talking
a lot about that today, but only took forty seven
off the dribble jump shots, nine for thirty from three,
although we do all remember a very famous pull up
(02:13):
three that he hit over Keldon Johnson on the left
wing during the Knicks comeback in Game four of the
Finals this year. If you break it down by distance,
forty seven percent inside of seventeen feet, thirty one percent
on long twos outside of seventeen feet, thirty seven percent
on all threes, and threes make up the vast majority
of Cat's jump shot diet. Out of three hundred and
(02:34):
seventy two jump shots he took last year in the
regular season, three hundred and seven of them were threes.
Forty four percent on hooks and floaters. Also relatively low
volume and relatively low efficiency for what we consider to
be a you know, a star big in the NBA.
Only forty makes all season on hooks and floaters, fifty
nine percent at the rim. Obviously not great for his center,
(02:57):
although I would argue again, if you dig into that,
I'd argue his ability to drive closeouts, you know, when
people do chase him off the line and you know,
get into those rumble and stumble and right hand drives
as he you know, barrels downhill. It's a huge part
of his value out of spot up situations and pick
and pops in particular. So again we're like, nothing super
impressive there. Fifty nine percent of the ram first center
(03:19):
is bad, forty four percent on hooks and floaters. For
like an offensive big is bad off the jump shot, off,
the dribble shooting.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Is not there.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
But ultimately, when you dig into the play type data,
the real thing that separates Kat from his peers is
what he can do in spot up situations. He got
one point one five points per possession last year forty
one percent on spot up. Three's that one point one
five includes all spot ups, so driving closeouts as well.
But again, and I'm gonna be emphasizing this a lot today,
(03:48):
Karl Anthony Towns's ability to spread the floor from the
five spot, not in just like a oh he can
make shots, but in like an oh shit, we can't
leave that guy open type away. The act actually causes
the defense to react to him is what makes him
so immensely valuable despite his flaws. Again, there's a difference
(04:08):
between shooting threes and actually scaring teams with your ability
to shoot threes. He had thirty nine made twos out
of spot ups, almost all at the rim because he
can drive those closeouts as effectively as he does. But again,
the on ball stuff isn't great. He ran three hundred
and ninety two to one on one reps last year
so post ups and ISOs including passes, and got just
(04:30):
zero point ninety two points per possession three hundred and
ninety two possessions.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
This is way below average.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Now, he did have some impressive moments in the playoffs
as a passing folkram Again, those plays where he'd have
the ball at the top of the key year the
elbow extended while they're running off ball action, and his
playmaking talent really started to show there. He had ninety
four assists in this year's playoff run. He had one
hundred assists in his entire playoff career before last year,
so one hundred assists in his first fifty playoff games,
(04:59):
ninety fi four in the nineteen playoff games that made
up last year's playoff run. But again, the truth is
for Kat his best value in the NBA is his
ability to space the floor and offense off the ball. Again,
like when you look around the league, in the types
of rim protecting talent we have, I mean even just
looking around at the teams that they're playing. You're playing
(05:20):
the Calves and they're spacing you out, or you're they're
putting two bigs on the floor Devan Mobley and Jared Allen.
You're playing the Spurs, it's Victor Wemnyaman. You're playing Chet Homegrin.
It's you know, elite rim protection against OKC. You're playing
against Philly. If Joel Embiid's able to sit back at
the rim, you're kind of screwed right, Like it's that again,
(05:43):
like most of our spacing fives. Like even look at
Victor and Chet, Like if Chet takes a pick and pop,
three defenses are like, no, let's see him make a
couple and maybe we'll react, or we'll throw a late
close out and we think we can spook him.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
And that, by the way, is what happened to Shed.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
If you threw a close out at him kind of
pump baked and got rid of the basketball er, drove
the close out in no man's land into the middle
of the floor, right Victor wmen Yam the same thing.
We know he's a capable shooter, but like most teams
are kind of like, we're gonna live with Victor women
Yama shooting threes. We'll see how much longer that lasts.
I think Victor is gonna be a great shooter as
the time goes on. But Kat is like very rare
(06:19):
in the sense that like you go into a game
with the game plan being, we can't let cat shoot threes,
and when you look around the league with the type
of rim protecting talent and how that can really bog
down an offense. I mean, look at that Celtics offense
and how it bogged down just simply because they could
not move Joel Embiid away from the rim in that
(06:39):
first round series. I'd argue was instrumental in the Knicks
winning the title this season. Like again, like if you
look at the numbers, ogn Andobi, you know arguably was
statistically their second best player. Jalen Brunson is going to
be very high on the rankings this year. But to me,
the second best player on the Knicks and the guy
that brought the most value beyond Jalen Brunson's ability to
(07:02):
close games was literally Karl Anthony Towns in him creating
true five out looks that just fucked up other defenses
and them not really having answers for it. Which brings
me to the defensive end of the floor. I talk
all the time about your value as a basketball player
is unique to your team and what they need from
(07:22):
you and how good you are at filling those particular needs.
We used to talk about that a lot with Jamal Murdy. Right,
is Jamal Murdy the best.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Guard in the world.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Probably not, But like specifically with what Denver needs as
a two man game partner with Jokic, he brings a
ton more value than his talent would in.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
A vacuum, right.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I think Kat deserves a ton of credit for the
defensive work that he did in that playoff run. It
wasn't perfect. Picked up a lot of silly fowls. This
is actually a crazy stat. Kat had at least four
fouls in fifteen of the nineteen Knicks playoff games.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Which is actually crazy.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Picked up some silly fouls, made the occasional mistake here there,
he avoided the catastrophic mistakes. Again, if you look at
previous playoff runs like really silly mistakes either at the
end of games or just like transition mistakes against like
offensive rebounding mistakes against Indiana that triggered their transition attack.
He avoided those catastrophic mistakes this year, and he actually
brought surprising rim protection value. He blocked twenty four shots
(08:22):
in this playoff run. He had again similar to what
we talked about with the assists. He had thirty six
blocks in his entire playoff career before this year, So
thirty six blocks in fifty playoff games and then twenty
four in the nineteen playoff games of this playoff run.
Just a combination of several things. Again, I thought that
Nixon general on defense, and dating back to the Celtics
(08:45):
series last year, this was really the kind of like
turning point for the Knicks defense. It's when McHale, Bridges,
nog A, Andobi and Josh Hart are really locked in.
They cover so much ground and they shrinked the floor
so well that Brunson and Kat's jobs become more manageable, right,
(09:05):
and so like like Kat in some of the decisions
he had to make in help situations at the basket
favored him. I think there's some matchup stuff in there too,
like Cat. You know, it's it's harder for Cat to
block shots against that Indiana Pacers defense than it is
against the Spurs team that kind of just drives right
at the rim despite some poor spacing, you know, with
some of their non shooting guards. Right, Like, it's not
(09:26):
all just you know, like internal improvement. But I think
he got better and had a really nice defensive playoff
run and made a lot of big defensive plays. And
most importantly, he was not a breaking point for the
Knicks defense like he has been in previous years. In
previous years, Kat in his failing defense was a part
(09:47):
of why they lost. Instead, it felt like he was
a contributor on that end of the floor this year.
So he deserves a lot of credit. And I mean
we didn't even mention the job that he did individually
on Victor wemen Yama. Again, like Kat, like removing Victor
wemen Yama as a one on one score, Like Victor
could not score on Kat one on one. Him removing
Victor as a one on one scorer was a huge
(10:08):
defensive contribution. And again like, do I think Kat is
a high level defensive player in a vacuum? No, But
again inside this Knicks system, They've crafted a role that
he can manage. And again, your value is unique to
what your team needs from you. If the team has
a specific job, which is like, hey, I need you
to guard Victor Weman Yama one on one, Kat's actually
(10:30):
a great option if it's Hey, Kat, we need you
to defend one hundred steph Curry pick and rolls or
you know, Tyrese Haliburton pick and rolls on a five
out spacing Pacers team. Kat's not the best guy for
the job, but as things lined up this year, his
role was achievable. He minimized mistakes, he contributed defensively, and
did one of the most important jobs in that final
(10:53):
series with his one on one defense against against against
Victor women Yam Again like, do I think Kat could
go to LA and like anchor a Lakers defense surrounded
by Luka doncij and Austin Reeves. No, but that's not
the job. The job is what he's doing for New
York and I thought he was a plus defender in
that playoff run. Kat is a super unique player on
this list. He's a center, but he's a center that's
(11:16):
not a great defender and He's a center that's not
an offensive engine like Nikola jokicch who like dominates teams
as an offensive initiator. But he is the very best
five out spacing center in the NBA, and that just
brings enormous value when you're dealing with elite rim protectors
that the league presents as obstacles to your excess, to
(11:37):
your success in the modern NBA. Number eighteen Scottie Barnes
eighty games played average eighteen points, eight rebounds, and six
assists two point nine stocks per game last year really
a defensive flashback to some of the potential that we
(11:59):
saw early in his career. Fifty eight percent true shooting
that was a career high. Improved his He improved his
efficiency year over a year from every single distance. When
you go to Basketball Reference, they break down shooting distances
zero to three feet, three to ten feet, ten to
sixteen feet, sixteen feet to the three point line, and
then obviously beyond the three point line. Scotty was up
year over year in every single one of those categories
(12:21):
last year, So just a big bounce back season from him.
The jump shot zero point ninety three points per shot,
that was eight points per one hundred jump shots better
than it was the previous season. If you break it down,
cut his three point volume way down. He used to
take like well over four threes per game, just two
point eight threes per game this season. If you break
it down by type, catch and shoot thirty percent overall,
(12:43):
and catch and shoot threes thirty four percent when he
was wide open, and here I'd like to mention he
was eight for eighteen on catch and shoot threes in
the postseason. That was forty four percent, thirty two percent
on pull up threes, low volume. He only took thirty
eights about one every other game last year. If you
break it down by distance, he was forty nine percent
inside of seventeen feet. Scotty's been pretty good at those
(13:03):
little short, minterrange jump shots for a while. We're gonna
talk a lot about that in his improved post game
Here in a minute, thirty eight percent on long twos
outside of seventeen feet and then thirty percent from three
overall last year. That's the breakdown of the jump shooting
by distance. But I thought the story of the season
for Scottie Barnes was his improvement as a one on
one player. We talked about this a lot throughout the
(13:23):
regular season last year, if you guys remember, but he
had one point zero six points per possession including passes
on four hundred and nine one on one so post
ups and ISOs. If you go back to the previous
seasons of his career, he just was well below a
point per possession, just nowhere near as efficient as a
shot creator in one on ones compared to what he
was last year. The key to me was more physical aggression,
(13:46):
especially when turning over his left shoulder. Like his left
shoulder percentage ot of post ups went up from like
the low forties to the mid fifties this year, and
a big part of that is just like, instead of
constantly turning over that left shoulder for like a fadeaway
jump shot, which by the way, like he can really make,
he turned more of them into like balanced jump shots
and like hooks going towards the basket, and like layups
(14:09):
where he's drop stepping and going with power towards the basket.
Just way more physically aggressive powering through guys rather than
always settling for the turnaround jumper. But again, to be clear,
he kind of has a nasty little turnaround jump shot
he got like it's weird. There's certain guys like Devin
Booker is another one of them. Most right handed players
are actually better going left than they are going right
(14:31):
in terms of their jump shot. Most of that has
to do with the natural way their feet are squared.
Most right handed shooters shoot with the right foot forward,
left foot a little bit back, kind of maybe even
can't it a little bit towards the left, And so
as a result, like if you're going to the right,
you have to square up more. It's just harder compared
to if you're going left, you're kind of already squared
up the way that you need to be. But Scotty
(14:52):
is similar to Devin Booker. He just gets a lot
of lift when he goes over his left shoulder, and
he's actually become like a really good turnaround jump shooter
over over both shoulders, but especially over that left shoulder.
So when you combine the physical aggression and just how
many more cause again, like it's really hard to be
super efficient on turnaround jump shots in the post. It's
(15:13):
just a really hard shot. So if you can balance
that out with like easier shorter hooks and layups, that
goes a long way towards helping your efficiency. Scotti's jump
shooting in general was one of the many things about
his first round series against Cleveland that was so impressive,
Like operating with extremely poor spacing. We talked about it
before the series. I said straight up before series, and
(15:33):
I'm like, they're just gonna have to hit a lot
of jump shots because there's not going to be a
lot of space to get to the rim, especially with
the structure of Cleveland's defense, with their layered rim protection
with Evan Mobley and Jared Allen. Scotty averaged twenty four
points per game on sixty one percent true shooting in
that seven game series. It was mostly because of his
jump shot. He was nails on his catch and shoot threes.
He was eight for eighteen, forty four percent. We talked
(15:54):
about that earlier, dialed in on his pull up jumper
in the mid range. Took forty nine of them, made
twenty three. That's forty seven percent. That's pretty damn good,
especially in the postseason. And then the playmaking ability, I mean,
we haven't even talked about this yet. For all of
the little short range shot making over the top, the
relentless getting to the rim. I mean, this is a
guy who got to the rim six times per game
(16:15):
against that Cleveland defense despite the poor spacing, and shot
sixty six percent when he got there. So like, he
just brings with the power that he plays with, the
rim pressure, the dynamic of the over the top shooting
which is really coming around, and then you add the
playmaking ability which has always been a strength of his.
He averaged nine points or excuse me, nine assists per
(16:36):
game in that playoff series. Passes really well out of
his one on ones, has very good pick and roll
chemistry when he plays with shooters, So guys like Soandro
mam Kelaspheley or Jamison battle, they would just screen and
slip towards the rim, or screen and slip towards the
three point line. He just consistently he would pass out
of those dynamics, imot. One of the coolest moments of
the postseason was Scotty's game winning assists to RJ Barrett
(17:00):
in Game six. Like, Scotty will have these lebron esque
semi transition moments where and he's sort of like, semi
transition to me is like a fast break is like
you know, one on oh, two on one. You know,
it's very everyone's just sprinting up the floor. Semi transition
to me is like an in between. It's usually like
a four on three five on four defense isn't fully set.
But it's not like a fast break in the traditional sense,
(17:21):
like it's more just like a it's like a mix
between half court basketball and fast break basketball. And in
those situations, Scotty has gotten really good at just like
putting his head down and going and understanding that he
can get a lot of good shots by just pressuring
the rim when they're in that transition phase between like
fast break and half court. And what he'll do is he'll,
(17:42):
you know, just start barreling downhill and three or four
dudes will just collapse on him as he gets to
the basket, and then he'll just have really easy kickout
passes for threes. That's what reminds me of Lebron because
if you remember, Lebron in his prime used to do
that all the time. But in that game six, if
you guys remember, beginning of overtime, Scotty has a semi
train position attack, you know, draws like four defenders and
(18:04):
sets up RJ. Barrett with a wide open catching you
three at the top of the key that he misses,
but then again at the tail end of the game,
same kind of situation presents itself. Scotty drives, Scotty draws
multiple defenders, trusts RJ. Barrett even though he just missed
went right back to him and he cashed in the
three that he missed earlier in overtime, just trusting his teammates.
(18:26):
That relentless read making. That's what always separates the highest
level offensive players from a playmaking standpoint, from the other ones.
It's a relentlessness of taking what the defense gives you,
and that paying dividends over a large sample, like because
over a small sample, a lot of times people will
be like, oh, like he needs to just be aggressive,
like he's asking his teammates to bail him out.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
You know.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
They used to say that about Lebron all the time too.
They say that about Jokic all the time. But it's like, ultimately,
over a large sample, when you consistently take advantage of
the easy reads that are available, it tends to manifest
and high team offensive ratings. It tends to manifest and
high team rhythm and like like we talked about when
we were talking about Donovan Mitchell versus Devin Booker. That's
(19:09):
something that I'm always very keyed in on, like guys
that drive high level team offense, and I view Scotty
as that type of player when you really start to
piece together who Scotty Barnes is a basketball player. He's
everything you want in a foundational star. He's an apex
athlete who's big, strong, fast, vertically athletic latterly athletic averages
(19:29):
over seventy played games in his career per season, so
he can physically handle the responsibility. He's one of the
very best defensive players in the league, an extremely versatile
forward that can guard multiple positions because of his size
and athleticism. He's very good in one on ones. Last year,
he guarded ninety two ISOs and allowed just zero point
(19:49):
eighty six points per possession, a career high two point
nine stocks per game. With his activity in passing lanes
and around the rim. So we're literally talking I mean
he made the All Defense team last year. We're talking
about one of the very best defensive players in the league.
Andy's everything you want. An offensive player too, gets to
the rim, a ton great passer, got to the foul
line a lot in this postseason run a legit short
(20:11):
range over the top score, which again that's super valuable
in the postseason when you can get inside his seventeen
feet and hit about half of the types of shots
when you get there. Scotty's that kind of guy. And look,
I know he had a somewhat disappointing start to his
career after that Rookie of the Year campaign and all
the buzz and optimism that surrounded him and kind of
fell flat over the previous couple of seasons, but that
playoff series was the payoff for belief in Scotty, Like,
(20:35):
I think it was real. I think there's a lot
of things from that he brings to the table that
are the kinds of things that dependably work in the postseason.
S I strength, athleticism, high level I like playmaking IQ stuff,
you know, competes on the defensive end of the floor,
short range scoring like those are all things that are
just proven to me to be successful in the in
(20:56):
the super physical environment that is the NBA postseason. So
Scotty bart it comes in highest he's ever been on
this list, Number eighteen. Lastly for today, number seventeen, Tyre
Smaxi seventy games played last year, average twenty eight points,
four rebounds, and seven assists, two point seven stocks per game.
A lot of people don't realize this. Tyris Maasy was
fifth in total steals last year in the entire NBA
(21:19):
fifty nine percent true shooting. Kind of has the shot
diet you really like to see for efficiency, right, Like,
gets to the rim seven times a game and makes
his layups sixty percent as a small guard is awesome.
Gets to the rim seven times a game, so it
gets to the rim a ton makes his layup when
he gets there. Got to the foul line a career
high six times per game last year and gets up
nine to threes per game. We talked about that constantly
(21:40):
on the show. Get to the foul line, get to
the rim and make your layups, get up a lot
of threes. You're gonna be efficient. And that's exactly the
type of shot diet that Tyres Maasy is built up
over the course of his career. Now, I want to
focus on the shoot here for a minute, because I
think this is fascinating. Maxi's had this issue for years.
We've talked about it on the show. Periodically over the
life several seasons. But there are dramatic differences for Maxi
(22:03):
between his efficiency off the catch as a jump shooter
versus his efficiency off the dribble last year, for example,
forty two percent on catch and shoot threes, forty six
percent when he's wide open, clearly a great touch guy,
forty six percent when he's wide open, makes his layups.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
A lot of guards that are.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Small don't nearly a ninety percent free throw shooter, like
clearly really high level touch indicators, right, but just thirty
three percent on off the dribble threes, forty two percent
on off the dribble twos. And he struggled from float
range last year as well, which we'll talk about more
here in a minute. Yeah, and again, like that same
(22:42):
kind of drop off from off the catch to off
the dribble happened in the playoffs last season, and it's
happened in the previous seasons of his career. There are
a lot of different takeaways that I have from this
dynamic that I want to dive into for a second.
First of all, I think the why is pretty simple
with Tyres. It's about his shot selection. Tyree'se takes extremely
(23:04):
difficult shots, particularly out of ISO, Like if Tyrese is
in a ball screen and the defensive guard gets wiped
out by the pick or goes under, like he's gonna
rise up and knock the shot down most of the time.
Like I'm a believer in Tyrese as a pull up
shooter on good looks, but he'll take some like in
(23:25):
his pick and roll, some extremely difficult like drifting threes
against drop where like the defenders kind of pinned on
his side or on his hip. That'll pull his percentages down.
And then he in ISO will go into these wild
dribble combinations. They're beautiful to watch, but like crazy dribble
combinations and footwork sequences, like you know, like a two
(23:46):
or three dribble combo into a step back where he
just covers a shit ton of ground one way or
the other. Like he just will put together these just
really really difficult ISO threes, and it showed in the numbers,
like he was fourteen for seventy four last year in
the regular season on ISO threes. That's just nineteen percent,
Like that's really pulling the numbers down. As a matter
(24:06):
of fact, on those pick and roll pull up threes,
he's like thirty four and a half percent, which is
again not great because he does take some tough ones
in pick and roll two, but that's like a more manageable,
well over a point per possession type of shot, whereas
the io threes are.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Really pulling him down.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
So my initial takeaway is that having Lebron on this
team should help Tyrese a ton getting him set up
on off ball actions for catch and shoot threes.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Like Tyree's.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
One of my favorite things about him, dating back too
years ago when he was first starting to show his upside,
is his willingness to behave as a movement shooter and
not just a stereotypical Damian Lillard. I'm just point guard
you know, who is running one hundred pick and rolls
every game. Tyree's is a very good, like sprint into
(24:51):
a jump shot type of player, particularly going to his left.
So like if he's starting in the right corner and
he's coming off of like you know, a Chicago or
some sort of dhow, some sort of something where he's
coming out of the right corner, sprinting towards the basketball,
planting his right foot first, left foot second, elevating off
the ground. He's just money on that shot, and so
(25:14):
getting like Lebron in the picture as a passing fulcrum
where he can have the ball on like the left
elbow and you have like a Jalen Brown screening down
for Tyree s Maaxy coming out of the right corner,
or Joel Embiid screening down for Tyree s Maaxy coming
out of the right corner, some kind of size dynamic
where they don't want to switch, where if they lay
a decent screen, MAXI can come in and catch the
(25:35):
basketball off of that right wing or right at the
top of the key and rise and fire. Those are
shots that I think he's going to hit it. He's
always hit it a high percentage, but I think he's
going to get a few more of those. Playing alongside
of Lebron also ghost screens like Tyree's attempted just nine
threes last year on ball screens as the screener where
he like sets the screen and slips out right. That's
(25:56):
one of Lebron's favorite actions to run with guards, particularly
the guards that can shoot. He ran it a ton
with Austin Reeves over the years, ranted a ton with
Malik Monk like that's those are shots that Lebron loves
to set up with small guards, so like that can
really shoot. So like nine attempts, I think we could
see as many as fifty from Tyrese. MAXI as like
(26:17):
a screen and roll guy this year. He's just never
played with a real playmaking forward that it's at a
position that defenses don't want to switch smalls onto. That's
the dynamic guy I think could really help weaponize Tyrese
off the ball. I think the combination of additional scoring
talent too, as well as Lebron's playmaking ability, will allow
(26:38):
Tyreese to do two things. One, cut out some of
the extremely difficult shots he was taken. There's no reason
to take super super difficult shots when you're surrounded by
the type of talent that you're surrounded by. And then
two to index more of a shot diet towards off
the catch threes rather than off the dribble threes. And
that dynamic could be the thing that really catapults him
up a level of efficiency. Like fifty nine per true
(27:00):
shooting at his scoring volume is nothing to like just
you know, ignore or make light of. But we know
that the best guards in this league tend to operate
more in that Like, you know, if you're talking about
Steph Curry, you're talking about Jalen Brunston and Jalen Brunson
can dip down a little bit, But if you're talking
about like specifically guys like Steph Curry and shake Els Alexander,
they're consistently, like you know, higher than sixty two sixty
(27:21):
three percent true shooting like Shay last year had a
was in the high sixties, right, So for Tyrese to
go from that like fifty nine percent true shooting up
to like sixty one sixty two, that's what it's going
to be. Skewing a little bit more towards off the
cats versus off the dribble, trimming some of the super
super difficult.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Shots out of his diet.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
That that he was really struggling with even the mid
range shooting. Like Tyrese was inefficient on floaters and short
pull ups. He was forty four percent on one hundred
and sixty nine floaters last year. That's not good compared
to the better floater shooters in the league forty two
percent on one hundred and thirty two pull up twos
inside of seventeen feet and again this is just fight
(28:00):
him clearly having great touch, great layup shooter, you know,
even though he'll take like he pulls his rim numbers
down with really tough layups. Like this is a guy
that has amazing touch who doesn't shoot well on a
lot of these shots because he just takes so many
super super tough shots and like a lot of the
floaters that he misses, it's like he's running full speed
(28:20):
and he's like got like a completely had his team
going downhill and he's throwing a floater up off balance
while like taking a bump or you know, a sprinting
into a pull up two at the elbow where he's
drifting and landing like four feet away from where he
took off from. Like this is where his speed is
kind of a downside for him. At the speed is
(28:41):
certainly a foundational strength, but like I think he could
actually benefit from slowing down on occasion when he.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Does create enough separation.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
He kind of only plays at one speed and that
I think is something that is like the next step
for him. And again I'm being nitpicky here because I
think really highly of Tyre's Like we're talking about player
that was third Team All NBA last year and again
average twenty eight points per game on nearly sixty percent
of shooting. So this dude's already awesome. He's already one
of the best guards in the NBA, and the next
(29:12):
step for him is increasing his efficiency, which I think
is going to come from a combination of tweaking the
shot diet a little bit, but also again adding a
little bit more change of pace, slowing himself down when
his speed does get him separation. That's a beautiful thing
about being fast as you get away from your defenders.
So when you do on occasion like slowing down a
little bit, I think could go a long way towards
(29:33):
helping Tyres. Again, like, he's just too skilled to be
shooting as poorly as he does on some of these shots.
The second takeaway I have with Maxie's pull up shooting
is that he's clearly a relentless worker. I've told the
story on the show. My first year in Summer League,
my first like NBA player that I saw, we went
the out on the streets. I should say, I was
(29:55):
going up to the UNLV Rec Center to play some
basketball on like the first day that I got there,
and I've seen tons of NBA players in Vegas and
they're always just like hanging out, no shame. The offseason,
Tyres was like coming out of the gym, like sweating
his ass off after a crazy workout. The dude is
just clearly a workout warrior, like very clearly does the
(30:16):
things you need to do to rectify skill deficiencies. And
there's an upside here that this dynamic could change and
he could at some point have a breakout season as
a pull up shooter. And I do think that that's
a real outcome on the table. I remember when he
had that what was it, that fifty point playoff game
a couple of years ago, where I was like, man
like when the pull up jump shots going, He's just
so unguardable, and like, I do think that upside is
(30:39):
still there. Tyres is one of the most gifted young
guards in the league. He's insanely fast, probably the fastest
straight line guard in the NBA, insanely gifted jump shooter.
He's growing as a passer. He doesn't turn the basketball over.
He have aged seven assists per game last year on
nearly a three to one assistant turnover ratio, made an
all NBA team last year at just twenty five years old,
super super impressive young guard in this league. Now, I
(31:01):
have three quick, big picture topics with Maxi that I
want to hit.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
One his defense.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Tyres is a guy that leaves a lot to be
desired on the defensive end of the floor, which is
super common for scoring guards, skill guards and small guards
right the all the things that you expect to see there.
One thing I'll say with Maxi, he does want to
be like it is more like a like I will
take a player. I'll say that like this is like
(31:28):
this with Tyres Haliburton too. Give me a player that
has defensive deficiencies, but that plays hard on that end
of the floor over the opposite every day of the week.
Like Tyree's like you ask him to hedge and recover,
He's thrown a hedge and he's getting his hands out
as he's recovering back to try to get a tip.
He's looking to make plays with his speed in passing lanes,
(31:49):
Like there's a lot that can be refined there. He's
certainly physically limited, He's absolutely a target. Your defense would
be better if you had some big, stocky Davion Mitchell
instead of tyres Maxie there, But for everything that he
brings offensively, he cares about the defensive end of the
floor and puts in the effort there, which to me
is easier to work with as a coach and as
a team that's trying to win a championship than the
(32:11):
alternative two his passiveness in the next series.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
We talked about this.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
In the next series, we got some criticism for not
being very aggressive against the Knicks, but he was consistently
getting two on the ball coverages, and I thought that
it was a little bit shortsighted to act as though
Tyrese wasn't doing his job, which is compromising the defense
by bringing two to the ball. And all I can
think about is, like, this is another area where Lebron
(32:35):
James can help. If your game plan is we're blitzing
Tyrese Maxi the way it was for the Knicks, go
have Lebron set a screen for him and have him
run the short role, and you're just going to pick
teams apart, especially with all the surrounding talents. So like,
I don't criticize Maxi for what happened in the next series.
I thought he faced super aggressive defensive coverages that the
team couldn't capitalize on. Lastly, his fit with the new
(32:56):
look Sixers. We talked a little bit about Lebron' so
I won't focus too much there. Anything that I'm worried about,
I shouldn't say worried, but that I'm focused on this
year with Tyrese maxid is. I want to see him
continue to be aggressive. Yes, I wanted to trim out
some of the really really tough shots. Yes, I want
to see him change pace a little bit, slow down,
make things a little bit easier for him with some
(33:17):
of the shots that he was inefficient on last year.
But that doesn't mean I don't want Tyre's to be aggressive.
I think Tyree's could still average twenty six twenty seven
points per game next year, but at sixty two sixty
three percent true shooting, And that's really the key. Like
I want Tyree's to lead the team in scoring, Like
I think that that's still his role on this team.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
And what I'm.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Worried about is that because he's the youngest one, because
he's somewhat deferential to Lebron, because Jalen Brown's a Finals MVP,
and coming off the season that he had Joel Embiid
is a regular season MVP. You know, I am worried
about him, kind of like seeding a little bit too
much usage to those guys, and I just want to
see him continue to be aggressive.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
All right, guys, it's all I have for today.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
As always, a sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us
and supporting the show. We'll be back on Friday with
our weekly mail bag. I will see you, guys, man
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
All right, well, good hoops to night here at the
volume heavy Wednesday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are
having a great week so far. We're continuing our player
rankings today with number nineteen, number eighteen, and number seventeen.
You guys know the joke before we started. Subscribe to
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(00:38):
post notifications. That helps us a lot. In the last,
but not least, you guys want to get mail bag
questions into our weekly mail bags. Every Friday during the
entire player ranking series, we're going to be having a
mail bag where we debate the rankings. If you have
a player that you disagree with where they're placed, a
guy that's too high, guy that's too low, to players
that you think should be flipped.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
You disagree with something with my methodology, it might be
disagree put it in the comments mail bag colon, write
your question that helps me sort through them when I'm
looking for mailbag questions, and we'll get to them on
Fridays the rest of the way.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Our first player.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Rankings mail bag will be this coming Friday. All right,
let's talk some basketball. Number nineteen Karl Anthony Towns seventy
five games played there was actually his most games played
in a single season since twenty nineteen. In the regular season,
twenty points per game, twelve rebounds and three assists, sixty
two percent true shooting is shooting numbers.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
The jump shot obviously.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
A strong point for Karl Anthony Towns one point zero
five points per shot if you break it down, thirty
eight percent off a catch, forty two percent when he
was unguarded, so very good when he was left open.
Only took forty seven off the dribble jump shots all season.
Not really a huge part of his game. It's gonna
be kind of. One of the big talking points surrounding
Cat today is the difference between like viewing Cat in
(01:53):
the traditional sense of like a shot creating star versus
what he really is to me, which is perhaps the
most valuable spacing five in the NBA because of what
he can do in spot up situations. We'll be talking
a lot about that today, but only took forty seven
off the dribble jump shots, nine for thirty from three,
although we do all remember a very famous pull up
(02:13):
three that he hit over Keldon Johnson on the left
wing during the Knicks comeback in Game four of the
Finals this year. If you break it down by distance,
forty seven percent inside of seventeen feet, thirty one percent
on long twos outside of seventeen feet, thirty seven percent
on all threes, and threes make up the vast majority
of Cat's jump shot diet. Out of three hundred and
(02:34):
seventy two jump shots he took last year in the
regular season, three hundred and seven of them were threes.
Forty four percent on hooks and floaters. Also relatively low
volume and relatively low efficiency for what we consider to
be a you know, a star big in the NBA.
Only forty makes all season on hooks and floaters, fifty
nine percent at the rim. Obviously not great for his center,
(02:57):
although I would argue again, if you dig into that,
I'd argue his ability to drive closeouts, you know, when
people do chase him off the line and you know,
get into those rumble and stumble and right hand drives
as he you know, barrels downhill. It's a huge part
of his value out of spot up situations and pick
and pops in particular. So again we're like, nothing super
impressive there. Fifty nine percent of the ram first center
(03:19):
is bad, forty four percent on hooks and floaters. For
like an offensive big is bad off the jump shot, off,
the dribble shooting.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Is not there.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
But ultimately, when you dig into the play type data,
the real thing that separates Kat from his peers is
what he can do in spot up situations. He got
one point one five points per possession last year forty
one percent on spot up. Three's that one point one
five includes all spot ups, so driving closeouts as well.
But again, and I'm gonna be emphasizing this a lot today,
(03:48):
Karl Anthony Towns's ability to spread the floor from the
five spot, not in just like a oh he can
make shots, but in like an oh shit, we can't
leave that guy open type away. The act actually causes
the defense to react to him is what makes him
so immensely valuable despite his flaws. Again, there's a difference
(04:08):
between shooting threes and actually scaring teams with your ability
to shoot threes. He had thirty nine made twos out
of spot ups, almost all at the rim because he
can drive those closeouts as effectively as he does. But again,
the on ball stuff isn't great. He ran three hundred
and ninety two to one on one reps last year
so post ups and ISOs including passes, and got just
(04:30):
zero point ninety two points per possession three hundred and
ninety two possessions.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
This is way below average.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Now, he did have some impressive moments in the playoffs
as a passing folkram Again, those plays where he'd have
the ball at the top of the key year the
elbow extended while they're running off ball action, and his
playmaking talent really started to show there. He had ninety
four assists in this year's playoff run. He had one
hundred assists in his entire playoff career before last year,
so one hundred assists in his first fifty playoff games,
(04:59):
ninety fi four in the nineteen playoff games that made
up last year's playoff run. But again, the truth is
for Kat his best value in the NBA is his
ability to space the floor and offense off the ball. Again,
like when you look around the league, in the types
of rim protecting talent we have, I mean even just
looking around at the teams that they're playing. You're playing
(05:20):
the Calves and they're spacing you out, or you're they're
putting two bigs on the floor Devan Mobley and Jared Allen.
You're playing the Spurs, it's Victor Wemnyaman. You're playing Chet Homegrin.
It's you know, elite rim protection against OKC. You're playing
against Philly. If Joel Embiid's able to sit back at
the rim, you're kind of screwed right, Like it's that again,
(05:43):
like most of our spacing fives. Like even look at
Victor and Chet, Like if Chet takes a pick and pop,
three defenses are like, no, let's see him make a
couple and maybe we'll react, or we'll throw a late
close out and we think we can spook him.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
And that, by the way, is what happened to Shed.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
If you threw a close out at him kind of
pump baked and got rid of the basketball er, drove
the close out in no man's land into the middle
of the floor, right Victor wmen Yam the same thing.
We know he's a capable shooter, but like most teams
are kind of like, we're gonna live with Victor women
Yama shooting threes. We'll see how much longer that lasts.
I think Victor is gonna be a great shooter as
the time goes on. But Kat is like very rare
(06:19):
in the sense that like you go into a game
with the game plan being, we can't let cat shoot threes,
and when you look around the league with the type
of rim protecting talent and how that can really bog
down an offense. I mean, look at that Celtics offense
and how it bogged down just simply because they could
not move Joel Embiid away from the rim in that
(06:39):
first round series. I'd argue was instrumental in the Knicks
winning the title this season. Like again, like if you
look at the numbers, ogn Andobi, you know arguably was
statistically their second best player. Jalen Brunson is going to
be very high on the rankings this year. But to me,
the second best player on the Knicks and the guy
that brought the most value beyond Jalen Brunson's ability to
(07:02):
close games was literally Karl Anthony Towns in him creating
true five out looks that just fucked up other defenses
and them not really having answers for it. Which brings
me to the defensive end of the floor. I talk
all the time about your value as a basketball player
is unique to your team and what they need from
(07:22):
you and how good you are at filling those particular needs.
We used to talk about that a lot with Jamal Murdy. Right,
is Jamal Murdy the best.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Guard in the world.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Probably not, But like specifically with what Denver needs as
a two man game partner with Jokic, he brings a
ton more value than his talent would in.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
A vacuum, right.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I think Kat deserves a ton of credit for the
defensive work that he did in that playoff run. It
wasn't perfect. Picked up a lot of silly fowls. This
is actually a crazy stat. Kat had at least four
fouls in fifteen of the nineteen Knicks playoff games.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Which is actually crazy.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Picked up some silly fouls, made the occasional mistake here there,
he avoided the catastrophic mistakes. Again, if you look at
previous playoff runs like really silly mistakes either at the
end of games or just like transition mistakes against like
offensive rebounding mistakes against Indiana that triggered their transition attack.
He avoided those catastrophic mistakes this year, and he actually
brought surprising rim protection value. He blocked twenty four shots
(08:22):
in this playoff run. He had again similar to what
we talked about with the assists. He had thirty six
blocks in his entire playoff career before this year, So
thirty six blocks in fifty playoff games and then twenty
four in the nineteen playoff games of this playoff run.
Just a combination of several things. Again, I thought that
Nixon general on defense, and dating back to the Celtics
(08:45):
series last year, this was really the kind of like
turning point for the Knicks defense. It's when McHale, Bridges,
nog A, Andobi and Josh Hart are really locked in.
They cover so much ground and they shrinked the floor
so well that Brunson and Kat's jobs become more manageable, right,
(09:05):
and so like like Kat in some of the decisions
he had to make in help situations at the basket
favored him. I think there's some matchup stuff in there too,
like Cat. You know, it's it's harder for Cat to
block shots against that Indiana Pacers defense than it is
against the Spurs team that kind of just drives right
at the rim despite some poor spacing, you know, with
some of their non shooting guards. Right, Like, it's not
(09:26):
all just you know, like internal improvement. But I think
he got better and had a really nice defensive playoff
run and made a lot of big defensive plays. And
most importantly, he was not a breaking point for the
Knicks defense like he has been in previous years. In
previous years, Kat in his failing defense was a part
(09:47):
of why they lost. Instead, it felt like he was
a contributor on that end of the floor this year.
So he deserves a lot of credit. And I mean
we didn't even mention the job that he did individually
on Victor wemen Yama. Again, like Kat, like removing Victor
wemen Yama as a one on one score, Like Victor
could not score on Kat one on one. Him removing
Victor as a one on one scorer was a huge
(10:08):
defensive contribution. And again like, do I think Kat is
a high level defensive player in a vacuum? No, But
again inside this Knicks system, They've crafted a role that
he can manage. And again, your value is unique to
what your team needs from you. If the team has
a specific job, which is like, hey, I need you
to guard Victor Weman Yama one on one, Kat's actually
(10:30):
a great option if it's Hey, Kat, we need you
to defend one hundred steph Curry pick and rolls or
you know, Tyrese Haliburton pick and rolls on a five
out spacing Pacers team. Kat's not the best guy for
the job, but as things lined up this year, his
role was achievable. He minimized mistakes, he contributed defensively, and
did one of the most important jobs in that final
(10:53):
series with his one on one defense against against against
Victor women Yam Again like, do I think Kat could
go to LA and like anchor a Lakers defense surrounded
by Luka doncij and Austin Reeves. No, but that's not
the job. The job is what he's doing for New
York and I thought he was a plus defender in
that playoff run. Kat is a super unique player on
this list. He's a center, but he's a center that's
(11:16):
not a great defender and He's a center that's not
an offensive engine like Nikola jokicch who like dominates teams
as an offensive initiator. But he is the very best
five out spacing center in the NBA, and that just
brings enormous value when you're dealing with elite rim protectors
that the league presents as obstacles to your excess, to
(11:37):
your success in the modern NBA. Number eighteen Scottie Barnes
eighty games played average eighteen points, eight rebounds, and six
assists two point nine stocks per game last year really
a defensive flashback to some of the potential that we
(11:59):
saw early in his career. Fifty eight percent true shooting
that was a career high. Improved his He improved his
efficiency year over a year from every single distance. When
you go to Basketball Reference, they break down shooting distances
zero to three feet, three to ten feet, ten to
sixteen feet, sixteen feet to the three point line, and
then obviously beyond the three point line. Scotty was up
year over year in every single one of those categories
(12:21):
last year, So just a big bounce back season from him.
The jump shot zero point ninety three points per shot,
that was eight points per one hundred jump shots better
than it was the previous season. If you break it down,
cut his three point volume way down. He used to
take like well over four threes per game, just two
point eight threes per game this season. If you break
it down by type, catch and shoot thirty percent overall,
(12:43):
and catch and shoot threes thirty four percent when he
was wide open, and here I'd like to mention he
was eight for eighteen on catch and shoot threes in
the postseason. That was forty four percent, thirty two percent
on pull up threes, low volume. He only took thirty
eights about one every other game last year. If you
break it down by distance, he was forty nine percent
inside of seventeen feet. Scotty's been pretty good at those
(13:03):
little short, minterrange jump shots for a while. We're gonna
talk a lot about that in his improved post game
Here in a minute, thirty eight percent on long twos
outside of seventeen feet and then thirty percent from three
overall last year. That's the breakdown of the jump shooting
by distance. But I thought the story of the season
for Scottie Barnes was his improvement as a one on
one player. We talked about this a lot throughout the
(13:23):
regular season last year, if you guys remember, but he
had one point zero six points per possession including passes
on four hundred and nine one on one so post
ups and ISOs. If you go back to the previous
seasons of his career, he just was well below a
point per possession, just nowhere near as efficient as a
shot creator in one on ones compared to what he
was last year. The key to me was more physical aggression,
(13:46):
especially when turning over his left shoulder. Like his left
shoulder percentage ot of post ups went up from like
the low forties to the mid fifties this year, and
a big part of that is just like, instead of
constantly turning over that left shoulder for like a fadeaway
jump shot, which by the way, like he can really make,
he turned more of them into like balanced jump shots
and like hooks going towards the basket, and like layups
(14:09):
where he's drop stepping and going with power towards the basket.
Just way more physically aggressive powering through guys rather than
always settling for the turnaround jumper. But again, to be clear,
he kind of has a nasty little turnaround jump shot
he got like it's weird. There's certain guys like Devin
Booker is another one of them. Most right handed players
are actually better going left than they are going right
(14:31):
in terms of their jump shot. Most of that has
to do with the natural way their feet are squared.
Most right handed shooters shoot with the right foot forward,
left foot a little bit back, kind of maybe even
can't it a little bit towards the left, And so
as a result, like if you're going to the right,
you have to square up more. It's just harder compared
to if you're going left, you're kind of already squared
up the way that you need to be. But Scotty
(14:52):
is similar to Devin Booker. He just gets a lot
of lift when he goes over his left shoulder, and
he's actually become like a really good turnaround jump shooter
over over both shoulders, but especially over that left shoulder.
So when you combine the physical aggression and just how
many more cause again, like it's really hard to be
super efficient on turnaround jump shots in the post. It's
(15:13):
just a really hard shot. So if you can balance
that out with like easier shorter hooks and layups, that
goes a long way towards helping your efficiency. Scotti's jump
shooting in general was one of the many things about
his first round series against Cleveland that was so impressive,
Like operating with extremely poor spacing. We talked about it
before the series. I said straight up before series, and
(15:33):
I'm like, they're just gonna have to hit a lot
of jump shots because there's not going to be a
lot of space to get to the rim, especially with
the structure of Cleveland's defense, with their layered rim protection
with Evan Mobley and Jared Allen. Scotty averaged twenty four
points per game on sixty one percent true shooting in
that seven game series. It was mostly because of his
jump shot. He was nails on his catch and shoot threes.
He was eight for eighteen, forty four percent. We talked
(15:54):
about that earlier, dialed in on his pull up jumper
in the mid range. Took forty nine of them, made
twenty three. That's forty seven percent. That's pretty damn good,
especially in the postseason. And then the playmaking ability, I mean,
we haven't even talked about this yet. For all of
the little short range shot making over the top, the
relentless getting to the rim. I mean, this is a
guy who got to the rim six times per game
(16:15):
against that Cleveland defense despite the poor spacing, and shot
sixty six percent when he got there. So like, he
just brings with the power that he plays with, the
rim pressure, the dynamic of the over the top shooting
which is really coming around, and then you add the
playmaking ability which has always been a strength of his.
He averaged nine points or excuse me, nine assists per
(16:36):
game in that playoff series. Passes really well out of
his one on ones, has very good pick and roll
chemistry when he plays with shooters, So guys like Soandro
mam Kelaspheley or Jamison battle, they would just screen and
slip towards the rim, or screen and slip towards the
three point line. He just consistently he would pass out
of those dynamics, imot. One of the coolest moments of
the postseason was Scotty's game winning assists to RJ Barrett
(17:00):
in Game six. Like, Scotty will have these lebron esque
semi transition moments where and he's sort of like, semi
transition to me is like a fast break is like
you know, one on oh, two on one. You know,
it's very everyone's just sprinting up the floor. Semi transition
to me is like an in between. It's usually like
a four on three five on four defense isn't fully set.
But it's not like a fast break in the traditional sense,
(17:21):
like it's more just like a it's like a mix
between half court basketball and fast break basketball. And in
those situations, Scotty has gotten really good at just like
putting his head down and going and understanding that he
can get a lot of good shots by just pressuring
the rim when they're in that transition phase between like
fast break and half court. And what he'll do is he'll,
(17:42):
you know, just start barreling downhill and three or four
dudes will just collapse on him as he gets to
the basket, and then he'll just have really easy kickout
passes for threes. That's what reminds me of Lebron because
if you remember, Lebron in his prime used to do
that all the time. But in that game six, if
you guys remember, beginning of overtime, Scotty has a semi
train position attack, you know, draws like four defenders and
(18:04):
sets up RJ. Barrett with a wide open catching you
three at the top of the key that he misses,
but then again at the tail end of the game,
same kind of situation presents itself. Scotty drives, Scotty draws
multiple defenders, trusts RJ. Barrett even though he just missed
went right back to him and he cashed in the
three that he missed earlier in overtime, just trusting his teammates.
(18:26):
That relentless read making. That's what always separates the highest
level offensive players from a playmaking standpoint, from the other ones.
It's a relentlessness of taking what the defense gives you,
and that paying dividends over a large sample, like because
over a small sample, a lot of times people will
be like, oh, like he needs to just be aggressive,
like he's asking his teammates to bail him out.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
You know.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
They used to say that about Lebron all the time too.
They say that about Jokic all the time. But it's like, ultimately,
over a large sample, when you consistently take advantage of
the easy reads that are available, it tends to manifest
and high team offensive ratings. It tends to manifest and
high team rhythm and like like we talked about when
we were talking about Donovan Mitchell versus Devin Booker. That's
(19:09):
something that I'm always very keyed in on, like guys
that drive high level team offense, and I view Scotty
as that type of player when you really start to
piece together who Scotty Barnes is a basketball player. He's
everything you want in a foundational star. He's an apex
athlete who's big, strong, fast, vertically athletic latterly athletic averages
(19:29):
over seventy played games in his career per season, so
he can physically handle the responsibility. He's one of the
very best defensive players in the league, an extremely versatile
forward that can guard multiple positions because of his size
and athleticism. He's very good in one on ones. Last year,
he guarded ninety two ISOs and allowed just zero point
(19:49):
eighty six points per possession, a career high two point
nine stocks per game. With his activity in passing lanes
and around the rim. So we're literally talking I mean
he made the All Defense team last year. We're talking
about one of the very best defensive players in the league.
Andy's everything you want. An offensive player too, gets to
the rim, a ton great passer, got to the foul
line a lot in this postseason run a legit short
(20:11):
range over the top score, which again that's super valuable
in the postseason when you can get inside his seventeen
feet and hit about half of the types of shots
when you get there. Scotty's that kind of guy. And look,
I know he had a somewhat disappointing start to his
career after that Rookie of the Year campaign and all
the buzz and optimism that surrounded him and kind of
fell flat over the previous couple of seasons, but that
playoff series was the payoff for belief in Scotty, Like,
(20:35):
I think it was real. I think there's a lot
of things from that he brings to the table that
are the kinds of things that dependably work in the postseason.
S I strength, athleticism, high level I like playmaking IQ stuff,
you know, competes on the defensive end of the floor,
short range scoring like those are all things that are
just proven to me to be successful in the in
(20:56):
the super physical environment that is the NBA postseason. So
Scotty bart it comes in highest he's ever been on
this list, Number eighteen. Lastly for today, number seventeen, Tyre
Smaxi seventy games played last year, average twenty eight points,
four rebounds, and seven assists, two point seven stocks per game.
A lot of people don't realize this. Tyris Maasy was
fifth in total steals last year in the entire NBA
(21:19):
fifty nine percent true shooting. Kind of has the shot
diet you really like to see for efficiency, right, Like,
gets to the rim seven times a game and makes
his layups sixty percent as a small guard is awesome.
Gets to the rim seven times a game, so it
gets to the rim a ton makes his layup when
he gets there. Got to the foul line a career
high six times per game last year and gets up
nine to threes per game. We talked about that constantly
(21:40):
on the show. Get to the foul line, get to
the rim and make your layups, get up a lot
of threes. You're gonna be efficient. And that's exactly the
type of shot diet that Tyres Maasy is built up
over the course of his career. Now, I want to
focus on the shoot here for a minute, because I
think this is fascinating. Maxi's had this issue for years.
We've talked about it on the show. Periodically over the
life several seasons. But there are dramatic differences for Maxi
(22:03):
between his efficiency off the catch as a jump shooter
versus his efficiency off the dribble last year, for example,
forty two percent on catch and shoot threes, forty six
percent when he's wide open, clearly a great touch guy,
forty six percent when he's wide open, makes his layups.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
A lot of guards that are.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Small don't nearly a ninety percent free throw shooter, like
clearly really high level touch indicators, right, but just thirty
three percent on off the dribble threes, forty two percent
on off the dribble twos. And he struggled from float
range last year as well, which we'll talk about more
here in a minute. Yeah, and again, like that same
(22:42):
kind of drop off from off the catch to off
the dribble happened in the playoffs last season, and it's
happened in the previous seasons of his career. There are
a lot of different takeaways that I have from this
dynamic that I want to dive into for a second.
First of all, I think the why is pretty simple
with Tyres. It's about his shot selection. Tyree'se takes extremely
(23:04):
difficult shots, particularly out of ISO, Like if Tyrese is
in a ball screen and the defensive guard gets wiped
out by the pick or goes under, like he's gonna
rise up and knock the shot down most of the time.
Like I'm a believer in Tyrese as a pull up
shooter on good looks, but he'll take some like in
(23:25):
his pick and roll, some extremely difficult like drifting threes
against drop where like the defenders kind of pinned on
his side or on his hip. That'll pull his percentages down.
And then he in ISO will go into these wild
dribble combinations. They're beautiful to watch, but like crazy dribble
combinations and footwork sequences, like you know, like a two
(23:46):
or three dribble combo into a step back where he
just covers a shit ton of ground one way or
the other. Like he just will put together these just
really really difficult ISO threes, and it showed in the numbers,
like he was fourteen for seventy four last year in
the regular season on ISO threes. That's just nineteen percent,
Like that's really pulling the numbers down. As a matter
(24:06):
of fact, on those pick and roll pull up threes,
he's like thirty four and a half percent, which is
again not great because he does take some tough ones
in pick and roll two, but that's like a more manageable,
well over a point per possession type of shot, whereas
the io threes are.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Really pulling him down.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
So my initial takeaway is that having Lebron on this
team should help Tyrese a ton getting him set up
on off ball actions for catch and shoot threes.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Like Tyree's.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
One of my favorite things about him, dating back too
years ago when he was first starting to show his upside,
is his willingness to behave as a movement shooter and
not just a stereotypical Damian Lillard. I'm just point guard
you know, who is running one hundred pick and rolls
every game. Tyree's is a very good, like sprint into
(24:51):
a jump shot type of player, particularly going to his left.
So like if he's starting in the right corner and
he's coming off of like you know, a Chicago or
some sort of dhow, some sort of something where he's
coming out of the right corner, sprinting towards the basketball,
planting his right foot first, left foot second, elevating off
the ground. He's just money on that shot, and so
(25:14):
getting like Lebron in the picture as a passing fulcrum
where he can have the ball on like the left
elbow and you have like a Jalen Brown screening down
for Tyree s Maaxy coming out of the right corner,
or Joel Embiid screening down for Tyree s Maaxy coming
out of the right corner, some kind of size dynamic
where they don't want to switch, where if they lay
a decent screen, MAXI can come in and catch the
(25:35):
basketball off of that right wing or right at the
top of the key and rise and fire. Those are
shots that I think he's going to hit it. He's
always hit it a high percentage, but I think he's
going to get a few more of those. Playing alongside
of Lebron also ghost screens like Tyree's attempted just nine
threes last year on ball screens as the screener where
he like sets the screen and slips out right. That's
(25:56):
one of Lebron's favorite actions to run with guards, particularly
the guards that can shoot. He ran it a ton
with Austin Reeves over the years, ranted a ton with
Malik Monk like that's those are shots that Lebron loves
to set up with small guards, so like that can
really shoot. So like nine attempts, I think we could
see as many as fifty from Tyrese. MAXI as like
(26:17):
a screen and roll guy this year. He's just never
played with a real playmaking forward that it's at a
position that defenses don't want to switch smalls onto. That's
the dynamic guy I think could really help weaponize Tyrese
off the ball. I think the combination of additional scoring
talent too, as well as Lebron's playmaking ability, will allow
(26:38):
Tyreese to do two things. One, cut out some of
the extremely difficult shots he was taken. There's no reason
to take super super difficult shots when you're surrounded by
the type of talent that you're surrounded by. And then
two to index more of a shot diet towards off
the catch threes rather than off the dribble threes. And
that dynamic could be the thing that really catapults him
up a level of efficiency. Like fifty nine per true
(27:00):
shooting at his scoring volume is nothing to like just
you know, ignore or make light of. But we know
that the best guards in this league tend to operate
more in that Like, you know, if you're talking about
Steph Curry, you're talking about Jalen Brunston and Jalen Brunson
can dip down a little bit, But if you're talking
about like specifically guys like Steph Curry and shake Els Alexander,
they're consistently, like you know, higher than sixty two sixty
(27:21):
three percent true shooting like Shay last year had a
was in the high sixties, right, So for Tyrese to
go from that like fifty nine percent true shooting up
to like sixty one sixty two, that's what it's going
to be. Skewing a little bit more towards off the
cats versus off the dribble, trimming some of the super
super difficult.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Shots out of his diet.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
That that he was really struggling with even the mid
range shooting. Like Tyrese was inefficient on floaters and short
pull ups. He was forty four percent on one hundred
and sixty nine floaters last year. That's not good compared
to the better floater shooters in the league forty two
percent on one hundred and thirty two pull up twos
inside of seventeen feet and again this is just fight
(28:00):
him clearly having great touch, great layup shooter, you know,
even though he'll take like he pulls his rim numbers
down with really tough layups. Like this is a guy
that has amazing touch who doesn't shoot well on a
lot of these shots because he just takes so many
super super tough shots and like a lot of the
floaters that he misses, it's like he's running full speed
(28:20):
and he's like got like a completely had his team
going downhill and he's throwing a floater up off balance
while like taking a bump or you know, a sprinting
into a pull up two at the elbow where he's
drifting and landing like four feet away from where he
took off from. Like this is where his speed is
kind of a downside for him. At the speed is
(28:41):
certainly a foundational strength, but like I think he could
actually benefit from slowing down on occasion when he.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Does create enough separation.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
He kind of only plays at one speed and that
I think is something that is like the next step
for him. And again I'm being nitpicky here because I
think really highly of Tyre's Like we're talking about player
that was third Team All NBA last year and again
average twenty eight points per game on nearly sixty percent
of shooting. So this dude's already awesome. He's already one
of the best guards in the NBA, and the next
(29:12):
step for him is increasing his efficiency, which I think
is going to come from a combination of tweaking the
shot diet a little bit, but also again adding a
little bit more change of pace, slowing himself down when
his speed does get him separation. That's a beautiful thing
about being fast as you get away from your defenders.
So when you do on occasion like slowing down a
little bit, I think could go a long way towards
(29:33):
helping Tyres. Again, like, he's just too skilled to be
shooting as poorly as he does on some of these shots.
The second takeaway I have with Maxie's pull up shooting
is that he's clearly a relentless worker. I've told the
story on the show. My first year in Summer League,
my first like NBA player that I saw, we went
the out on the streets. I should say, I was
(29:55):
going up to the UNLV Rec Center to play some
basketball on like the first day that I got there,
and I've seen tons of NBA players in Vegas and
they're always just like hanging out, no shame. The offseason,
Tyres was like coming out of the gym, like sweating
his ass off after a crazy workout. The dude is
just clearly a workout warrior, like very clearly does the
(30:16):
things you need to do to rectify skill deficiencies. And
there's an upside here that this dynamic could change and
he could at some point have a breakout season as
a pull up shooter. And I do think that that's
a real outcome on the table. I remember when he
had that what was it, that fifty point playoff game
a couple of years ago, where I was like, man
like when the pull up jump shots going, He's just
so unguardable, and like, I do think that upside is
(30:39):
still there. Tyres is one of the most gifted young
guards in the league. He's insanely fast, probably the fastest
straight line guard in the NBA, insanely gifted jump shooter.
He's growing as a passer. He doesn't turn the basketball over.
He have aged seven assists per game last year on
nearly a three to one assistant turnover ratio, made an
all NBA team last year at just twenty five years old,
super super impressive young guard in this league. Now, I
(31:01):
have three quick, big picture topics with Maxi that I
want to hit.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
One his defense.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Tyres is a guy that leaves a lot to be
desired on the defensive end of the floor, which is
super common for scoring guards, skill guards and small guards
right the all the things that you expect to see there.
One thing I'll say with Maxi, he does want to
be like it is more like a like I will
take a player. I'll say that like this is like
(31:28):
this with Tyres Haliburton too. Give me a player that
has defensive deficiencies, but that plays hard on that end
of the floor over the opposite every day of the week.
Like Tyree's like you ask him to hedge and recover,
He's thrown a hedge and he's getting his hands out
as he's recovering back to try to get a tip.
He's looking to make plays with his speed in passing lanes,
(31:49):
Like there's a lot that can be refined there. He's
certainly physically limited, He's absolutely a target. Your defense would
be better if you had some big, stocky Davion Mitchell
instead of tyres Maxie there, But for everything that he
brings offensively, he cares about the defensive end of the
floor and puts in the effort there, which to me
is easier to work with as a coach and as
a team that's trying to win a championship than the
(32:11):
alternative two his passiveness in the next series.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
We talked about this.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
In the next series, we got some criticism for not
being very aggressive against the Knicks, but he was consistently
getting two on the ball coverages, and I thought that
it was a little bit shortsighted to act as though
Tyrese wasn't doing his job, which is compromising the defense
by bringing two to the ball. And all I can
think about is, like, this is another area where Lebron
(32:35):
James can help. If your game plan is we're blitzing
Tyrese Maxi the way it was for the Knicks, go
have Lebron set a screen for him and have him
run the short role, and you're just going to pick
teams apart, especially with all the surrounding talents. So like,
I don't criticize Maxi for what happened in the next series.
I thought he faced super aggressive defensive coverages that the
team couldn't capitalize on. Lastly, his fit with the new
(32:56):
look Sixers. We talked a little bit about Lebron' so
I won't focus too much there. Anything that I'm worried about,
I shouldn't say worried, but that I'm focused on this
year with Tyrese maxid is. I want to see him
continue to be aggressive. Yes, I wanted to trim out
some of the really really tough shots. Yes, I want
to see him change pace a little bit, slow down,
make things a little bit easier for him with some
(33:17):
of the shots that he was inefficient on last year.
But that doesn't mean I don't want Tyre's to be aggressive.
I think Tyree's could still average twenty six twenty seven
points per game next year, but at sixty two sixty
three percent true shooting, And that's really the key. Like
I want Tyree's to lead the team in scoring, Like
I think that that's still his role on this team.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
And what I'm.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Worried about is that because he's the youngest one, because
he's somewhat deferential to Lebron, because Jalen Brown's a Finals MVP,
and coming off the season that he had Joel Embiid
is a regular season MVP. You know, I am worried
about him, kind of like seeding a little bit too
much usage to those guys, and I just want to
see him continue to be aggressive.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
All right, guys, it's all I have for today.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
As always, a sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us
and supporting the show. We'll be back on Friday with
our weekly mail bag. I will see you, guys, man
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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