Jason reacts to the featured Tuesday Night NBA games as Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, and the Golden State Warriors defeated Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, and the Los Angeles Clippers, and Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks stifled Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. All right, Well, goome to Hoops tonight. You're
at the volume heavy ones day, everybody. Hope all of
you guys are having a great week so far. I
got a quick show for you guys today. We're gonna
(00:21):
be hitting the two NBC games from last night as
the Golden State Warriors dominated the Los Angeles Clippers pretty
much from start to finish, aside from a little second
quarter run from the Clippers, and then in the tail
end of the show, the Milwaukee Bucks begin or continue
I should say, their impressive start to the season with
they win versus the New York Knicks Giannis with an
(00:41):
incredible second half, an impressive showing from their guards again,
lots to get into. You guys know the job before
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(01:04):
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can get to them in our Friday mail bags throughout
the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball.
So the Warriors jumped right on the Clippers to start
this game. They went to twenty seven to twelve. Jonathan
(01:25):
Kamingo was special in this first run of the game.
He was punishing mismatches for layups on drives in in
the post. He hits a pull up three in an
action with Quinton Post. He hit Steph on a back
cut for a layup. Had multiple great defensive sequences. He
had a nice help and recover contest on bog done
Macdonovich on the left wing where he got into the
lane to force a pass, but then also got out
(01:46):
and got a great contest. He was battling zubots on
peel switches on the class just a monster during that run,
looking like a cog, a special cog in the Golden
State system, which is something that was rare in the
but appears to be the norm more often than not
to start this season, as Kaminga has really turned around
(02:07):
the narrative that has surrounded him since he first came
into this league. I also want to shout out Quintin
and Post to hit two big threes in that run.
He had a pick and pop three in an action
with Zubots with Steph, and then he had another transition trailer,
a transition trailing three off of Steph, and I want
to focus on that action for just to make it
just a minute, because that pick and pop Steph steady
(02:28):
throughout this game was attacking Zubots in pick and roll
and like these that was like the action that Golden
State was primarily using to break the Clippers defense. Just
anything with Steph running off of like a dribble handoff
or a ball screen with the bigger, slower footed center
in space was just breaking the Clipper defense. And then
(02:50):
the Warriors were quickly moving the ball through that to
get great shots. And it's something that I've noticed in
the early going against several matchups, like we saw a
similar issue with Jokic guarding the Warriors even like a faster,
more athletic center like Aytan who was in a drop
coverage often was having some issues. And so it's one
of the things that I've noticed like these these bigger,
(03:13):
slow footed centers especially are utterly hopeless guarding Steph. But
most of the traditional drop coverage running teams in the
NBA are gonna have issues with Steph now that they
have more aggregate offensive talent off of him, and like
I'll be curious, so like teams like the Nuggets, the Clippers, again,
i'd include the Lakers in here, I'll be curious to
(03:34):
see how they look for Houston. But Houston plays a
lot of slow footed bigs and slow footed players in
general as well, so I'll be interested to see that matchup.
The only teams that really have the speed through all
their position groups to keep out of Golden State splendor
are Minnesota and Oklahoma City. And as we've seen with
Minnesota over the years, they have several guys who struggle
(03:55):
with off ball attentiveness. So even if they do better
against Steph on the ball, they end up the Golden
States offense in different ways, like losing Steph in off
ball situations. It's one of the big things that has
to me kind of eyeing Golden State is more of
a dangerous championship threat than I originally thought they were.
They match up really well with many of the teams
(04:15):
in the West, specifically because of Steph Curry's ability to
break those traditional drop coverages. And again, when I say
drop coverage, it's not the old fashion. We're sitting back
and letting Steph pull. I mean like high drop coverage,
like he's either beating the big because he happens to
be too far back by hitting shots, or the big
is coming up and then he's easily getting the defense
(04:36):
in rotation by starting four on threes by hitting the pocket.
The point is is teams that are not switching pick
and roll with athletes, or teams that don't have really
athletic centers like a go bet or a chet that
are gonna consistently get up to the level and be
able to rotate out of it quickly, those are the
teams that are giving them problems, right And the main
thing that they needed is they just needed an infusion
(04:58):
of talent to actually cap lies on this problem that
Steph presents to most of the teams in the West.
And if Jimmy Butler is gonna continue to look this good,
Jonathan Kaminga is gonna continue to look this good, Moses
Moody and Brandon Pajemski are twenty for forty three from
three point range here in the early going. If all
of these things continue to break Golden State's way over
(05:21):
the course of the season, and if they stay healthy,
you can actually see a tactical pathway versus all of
these teams against basically everybody but Oklahoma City. The Oklahoma
City matchup is fundamentally different. I look at it more
as like a challenge for Golden State's defense to break
Oklahoma City's offense. But we're not gonna talk about that today.
We're gonna get some film on that matchup in a
little less than two weeks. It was two weeks from
(05:43):
last night. They're gonna be playing in Oklahoma City in
early November, I think it's November eleventh, and we'll obviously
cover that game when it happens, and it'll give us
a better look at this Golden State offense versus a
faster defense, something that I'm looking at as like kind
of the next checkpoint. But it's impossible to not look
at what we've seen in the early going here and
see how some of these tougher Western Conference teams that
(06:06):
play a lot of bigger, slower players just get picked
apart by Steph Curry running action on them. And now
they have the requisite talent off of Steph to be
able to quickly capitalize on those sequences and score the basketball.
Clipper's going to second quarter run. So, as we mentioned,
Warriors jump up twenty seven to twelve. Clippers kind of
take control in the second quarter combination factors, like the
(06:27):
Clipper Stars got going. Cow I finally hit a few shots.
He got a little left shoulder hook over Jimmy Butler
on a deep post catch. They ran a little cross
screen with Brook Lopez. It's kind of a fun possession
to watch in terms of like the future of the
Warriors defense over time, because like Draymond's guarding the corner
and Al Horford's guarding Brook, and Brook sets across screen
(06:48):
for Jimmy, and you can literally see like Jimmy and
Draymond and Al all just kind of communicating through the switches,
and Draymond's guarding the corner and basically bringing that third
defender over into the action. Now Kawhi ends up getting
a deep post catch and hitting a tough little shot
over Jimmy. But it was just kind of fun to
watch Jimmy and Draymond and Al just kind of communicate
(07:11):
and switch with physicality along that back line. It's a
big part of why I'm really bullish on their defense
here early on in the season. But we're gonna talk
more about that in a minute. But Kawi gets going,
hits a little hook shot, gets a driving and one
eats a pull up three. The role players finally start
making shots like this has been an issue with the
Clippers in the early going that we'll talk about in
a little bit. But Zubats did some damage around the
(07:32):
rim on Horford Derk Jones Junior hits a corner three.
Those are some sequences that the Clippers weren't paying off
early in the game. And then James Harden kind of
just had a classic James Harden run to end the quarter,
getting to the rim for layups and free throwsy it's
a transition pull up three that was a big shot
met sequence. And then on the other end of the floor,
I thought the Warriors just got a little stagnant. They
took some early clock threes. Will Richard took one with
(07:54):
like twenty one on the shot clock, Buddy Heal took
an early one, even Steph took an early one. Before
they really got into their movement, Kaminga missed a couple
driving layups some of the shots that he was making
earlier in the game. It just was like a brief
stretch where the Warriors looked like they got out of
whack with their offensive process, and suddenly we were going
into halftime with the Clippers up forty nine to forty six.
(08:16):
It was kind of a wild turnaround to that point
in the game. But the third quarter just was classic
third quarter Warriors. They really got back into their defense
to transition sequences, a lot of big defensive plays during
that stretch. Steph got a couple of one on one
stops again against Harden, one where he smothered him on
a drive and forced him to airball a layup, another
one where he picked him clean off top with a
(08:36):
little bit of ball pressure. Draymond got a big stop
against Kawhi where he got a great contest. Quintin Post
did a nice job blitzing James Harden and then rotating
to the pass on the wing where he ended up
getting a steal, and they were just running the other
way dunk for Jimmy Butler. Nasty feed from Steph to
Jonathan kaminga for a left handed layup. In transition, Steph
(08:57):
gets a pick six on a Zubat's short roll pass.
He sinks down and gets the short roll. He tries
to drop it off to Chris Dunn. Steph gets it,
goes the other way for a driving layup. Moses Moody
digs down on Chris Dunn and gets a steal. Jimmy
Butler hits a three on the other end of the floor.
Al Horford gets a Al Horford did a number on
Chris Paul just switching ball screens in this stretch, and
(09:18):
like Chris just had no interest in attacking Al, Al
was defending him well, and so Horford gets a great
contest switching onto CB three and pick and roll pods
ends up getting a transition drive the other way for
a layup. He drives the other way, drives a bunch
of defenders. Then Moses Moody hits a trailing three on
the left wing. The Warriors had five buckets in transition
(09:39):
just in the third quarter. They got into the fourth
quarter up by fifteen, and then they closed it out
from there with a bunch of contributions from a bunch
of guys in the fourth. But I've been pleasantly surprised
by Golden State's Like, when I'm looking at the two
units for Golden State were like, we know what to
expect with their defense, the question was what we were going
to see from their offense. I've been pleasantly surprised with
(10:02):
their offense. They've been getting some contributions at higher levels
than I expected. But in terms of like their championship punch,
the thing that they just do better than most teams.
The thing that's got me really excited about them is
their defense. And I know it's not super impressive statistically,
like they're only eleventh in defensive rating here in the
early going, but that's a little misleading. Like they had
(10:23):
one single game against the Blazers on the tail end
of a back to back where they gave up one
hundred and thirty nine points and it wasn't nothing. Like
they showed some issues containing the ball in the perimeter
against bigger athletes in that game. I'm not going to
like completely write that off, but in the context of
their other performances, it was a little bit of an outlier,
and they played three of the best offenses in the
Western Conference. The defensive rating over a massive sample is
(10:44):
going to be a better read of what this defense
is capable of. But like in a five game or
four games sample size, whatever, I think it's five games.
In the five games sample size, when you have to
play Denver, who I think is the best offense in
the league, the Lakers, who have literally been frying everybody
until Luca and Austin leave the floor where they've fallen
apart because they don't have ball handling, but Luca and
(11:05):
Austin led units have just been frying everybody. The Clippers
obviously have a ton of talent. These are like really
difficult offenses that Golden State has run into, and in
each one of those games, their defense has kind of
been the thing that has broken the opponent. Like, aside
from guarding Luca personally in the Lakers game, they largely
(11:25):
held largely held the Lakers offense in check. They swarmed
DeAndre eight and on his catches in the middle of
the floor and forced a bunch of turnovers. And missshots.
They chased the Lakers shooters off the three point line
and made them feel uncomfortable. There was not any offense
coming from anybody but Luca in that game, if you
guys remember. And then aside from the beginning of the
Denver game, from the late second quarter through to the
(11:47):
end of the game, they were awesome against Denver. As
a matter of fact, in the second half of that game,
including overtime, they had a one toh four defensive rating,
which is awesome versus that elite Denver offense. And then
they straight up broke the Clippers like they just destroyed
that offense. They annihilated their bench groups. Chris Paul looked
like he had no interest in looking to shoot or
(12:08):
score against Al Horford and Switches, so those teams just
didn't have the ball handling to score. After Chris kind
of was neutralized, and then James Harden and Kawhi they
held him to thirty eight points on thirty two shots
and just to assist with four turnovers. And it was
a team effort too, like so many different guys defended
well either on ball or in off ball situations, and
(12:28):
the like above and beyond the yond ball stuff. I've
always thought of the Warriors as one of the best
close out teams in the league. And what I mean
by that is just like they're really good at shrinking
the floor and making things feel congested, but then still
getting out to shooters and rushing them. But it's on
overdrive this season, like they are so damn scrappy, digging
(12:49):
down into help and like constantly getting deflections and constantly
getting strips. They're top ten and forcing turnovers here early
on in the season, and they're holding opponents below a
point per shot on catch and shoot jump shots at
just zero point nine to nine points per opponent catch
and shoot. That ranks eighth in the NBA so far,
by the way, And I know there are a lot
(13:09):
of analytic minded folks who cover the league that just
view that as shooting luck, but I've never seen the
game that way. I think there are several factors that
come into play before we get to pure variance, and
I think the Warriors are excellent in those controllables. Ball pressure,
intensity in their closeouts, overall physicality, breaking rhythm, gearing shots
(13:30):
towards the right types of shooters. I think the Warriors
are a very smart defense that's very good at that.
And again I mentioned a specific example on that little
Kawhi left shoulder hook earlier. But it's been incredibly fun
for me to watch Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, and Al
Horford worked that back line in concert with each other,
with each other just communicating, switching with physicality, shrinking the
(13:52):
floor because Jimmy and Draymond are so good at throwing closeouts.
I thought Steph was really good defensively in this Clippers game.
Jonathan Kami is doing a good job guarding opposing stars
every night, just eating up a lot of innings that way.
And again, it's not just a four and one start
for the Warriors. It's a four to one start with
wins versus the Lakers, the Nuggets, and the Clippers, all
(14:12):
teams that are either first or second tier contenders in
the Western Conference. I'm just super impressed by them. And
this is the last thing I'll say. I've been really
fascinated for a long time about the idea of all
time greats and what happens when they see an opportunity
to win the title. I've been talking about this all
summer with Steph and why I expected him to get
up to such a hot start this year, Like, just
(14:34):
give me a group of guys that's won it before,
that knows what it takes, and then give them a
real opportunity and watch the level of professionalism that they
will go about that process with. And like, I've just
been so impressed by the Warriors from the top down
with how locked in they look to start the season,
and like it started, you know, it was. I was
intrigued when I heard Steve Kerr talk about how he
(14:56):
just like felt really good about this group, especially with
the way that he talked about previous iteration the team,
And I was like if Steve Kurr is looking at
the situation too and going like, we got the guys
like this year, we got the guys, Like it just
goes to show you again from the top down they
are locked in organizationally, and this is kind of there's
it's it's against the grain in a lot of ways
(15:17):
because there's this new age idea we've seen in the NBA,
this like it's a marathon not a sprint idea, and
I just think it's incredibly lame, like this idea that, oh,
we need to ease our way through this thing literally
nobody has won a championship doing that. The only exceptions
have been super talented repeat champions like the KD Steph
(15:38):
Warriors in twenty eighteen kind of chilled through the season,
or like the two thousand and two Lakers with Kobe
and Shack. Literally every single other champion other than those
like super talented repeat champions, every single other champion has
attacked the season from start to finish. They come into
camp super locked in, they approach their regular season the
(16:00):
level of seriousness and intensity, and it's just been super
cool to see this from this group in Golden State
that has some older players, an older coach, four dudes
who are over thirty seven. It's just a testament to
the organizational greatness from the top down. Again, like you
don't have I was listening to the Bob Costas intro
for the NBC broadcast, which obviously is amazing, and he's
(16:23):
talking about how the Warriors have won the most titles
in the NBA after the Celtics and Lakers, and it's like,
you don't get there with just a top tier superstar
like Steph, or a top ten player in NBA history
like Steph. Like I was talking about over the summer.
You don't get there with just an elite coach. You
don't get there with just a smart front office. You
(16:44):
don't get there with just an all time great defensive
player like Draymond Green. You get there with all of
those things. You need it all, And there is a
top down organizational greatness that just has persisted for the
Warriors from the early twenty tens now here pushed into
the late twenty twenties, and it's just not an accident
that they've had the success that they've had. And it's
(17:06):
just been frustrating for me as someone who roots for
the Lakers to see them juxtaposed with this. And like
the Lakers have had half the roster out already to
start the season, and like over bumps and bruises, not
like oh, Anthony Edwards strained his hamstring, he's got to
be out for a couple weeks, Like bumps and bruises,
guys are missing time already here in the first week
(17:26):
of the season. The Lakers want the regular season to
be easy. They want to coast to April and go
win the title by just getting their group together right
for the before the home stretch. And like good luck
with that, no one's ever managed to pull it off.
Winning a championship is an eight month grind. There's never
been shortcuts there, and it's just been interesting to see
the juxtaposition of those two things. And it's a big
(17:48):
part of why I'm so concerned about the Lakers in
the long term after Lebron has gone, because you know,
Lebron was always like, let's play through bumps and bruises,
let's try to, you know, build this thing over the
course of the season, guy, And just like I think,
I'm just really worried about their ability to sustain any
success after he's gone. But that's a conversation for another day.
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or Virginia. On the Clippers front, I've been super underwhelmed
(19:41):
with them to start the season. Now they're gonna get better.
This is not a doom and gloom thing. It just
more kind of falls in line with what I was
just talking about in terms of just that level of
expectation I have for true champions that like start to
finish excellence, like they're gonna get better as a team.
They have not shot jump shots very well, and that
will normalize. They have a good jump shooting team. So
(20:02):
I don't mean by variants by the way, I just
mean like they have several guys, including their stars, who
have come into camp that are not exactly in the
best shape of their lives, and those guys will steadily
get into shape, and as they get into the shape
that they need to be in, their legs will be
underneath them on their jump shots, and then they'll start
shooting the ball better. A perfect stat to demonstrate this
is their pull up shooting. They're getting to zero points
(20:23):
seven to seven points per pull up jumper to start
the season. That's about eighteen points fewer per one hundred
jump shots than they were last year in the regular season,
and that's largely because of Kawhi and their bench guards.
Kawhi hasn't been good on his pull ups, Chris Paul
hasn't been good on his pull ups. Bogg Don mcdonovich
hasn't been good on his pull ups. Chris Paul in particular,
has been awful to start the year. The units with
Chris Paul on the floor and with Kawhi and James
(20:45):
Harden off have been outscored at a rate of twenty
nine points per one hundred possessions. Small sample, I know,
but just brutal so far. They just need Chris to
be better. Their defensive rebounding has been terrible. They're giving
up an offensive rebound on thirty four percent of their
opponent's misses. They give up ten and more offensive rebounds
last night, and again that's against a team that's considerably
smaller than them. They've been turning the ball over a ton.
(21:06):
They have nineteen turnovers per game. That's the third most
in the entire NBA. Big part of that is Zubots
and Harden. Those two just by themselves are averaging almost
six and a half turnovers per game. They're giving up
twenty two points per game in transition directly off of
those turnovers, and for all to talk about transition defense
and training camp, they're a bottom ten transition defense by
(21:27):
efficiency team according to Synergy, giving up one point one
to eight points per transition push. They're also allowing opponents
to get out in transition on eighteen point four percent
of their possessions, which ranks twentieth in the NBA. So
they've been a bad transition defense after preaching it all
through camp, which is obviously not a good sign. So
if you're wondering why the Clippers have gotten crushed twice,
(21:48):
it basically comes down to their stars have not been
very good, their bench leader and Chris Paul has been
legit awful, and they're getting smashed on some key margins
like the offensive glass, as well as turnovers to transition
and just their overall transition defense. So something to keep
an eye on. One other thought I had on the
Clippers after watching that Warriors game. In that third quarter run,
(22:09):
Zubats had several turnovers versus blitzes of the hard and
short roll head that one way he threw to the
left wing and Quentin Post jumped it, and then he
had one where he tried to drop it off to
Chris Dunn and step Curry stole it. And this was
something that stood out to me in the Nugget series.
It's kind of a vulnerability that the Clippers have on offense.
Teams can get away with aggressive coverages versus the Clippers,
(22:29):
like they can double Kawhi and they can blitz James
Harden with a good amount of effect relative to some
other teams in the league, because as a team collectively,
they're always just a step slow at processing those advantages,
and so instead of getting wide open threes and wide
open layups, things tend to be a little bit more contested,
and then a lot of those sequences end up in turnovers. Again,
(22:49):
Zubats and Harden are combining for six point three turnovers
per game here in the early going, and even better
versions of these Clippers teams have had that issue in
the past, and so I say better version not by talent,
but better in terms of the quality of play, because
this Clippers team right now is just not close to
firing on all cylinders yet, so they're gonna get better.
The aggressive coverages thing is more of a big picture issue.
(23:12):
But I expect them to shoot the ball better. I
expect them to defensive rebound better. I expect them to
take care of the ball better. The Clippers will play
better basketball at some point this season. All right, Nick Bucks,
It looked like the Knicks were in complete control at
halftime of this one. They had this beautiful stretch of
basketball in the mid second quarter, a bench group led
by Tyler Kohlik, And I've really enjoyed these Tyler Kolik
(23:33):
led bench groups for the Knicks this year, like they
have been the groups that have most embodied the ball
movement that Mike Brown has been trying to instill in
this team. Just kolek early in the possession just makes
a really quick decision out of an action, and then
they just play read and react basketball out of it,
and they tend to get really great shots out of it.
And the Knicks ended up going up by fourteen in
(23:55):
that second quarter stretch. But then the Bucks defense just
completely dominated the second half. The Bucks logged in the
eighty five defensive rating in the second half as they
held the Knicks to two twenty point quarters, and they
went on to win by double digits, and there are
several guys that I want to shout out here. First
of all, in the second half bench unit stretch when
Jalen Brunson was off the floor and the Knicks started
playing through Cat More. I thought Kyle Kuzumad defended Karl
(24:17):
Anthony Towns incredibly well in that stretch, just met his physicality,
kept him in front, didn't foul, kept his arms up,
and forced him to shoot over the top. And I
want to shout out the whole team here too, because
I thought they did a good job shrinking the floor
on Cat and kind of swiping at the basketball and
disrupting his rhythm. I thought Ryan Rollins did an unbelievable
job on Jalen Brunson in the fourth quarter. He smothered
(24:39):
him on a pull up three where he forced an airball,
he stripped him from behind while back pressuring on a drive.
Once again, I also want to shout out the whole
team here with all the swarming and switching they did
on Brunson in that group, Like Yannis had a rep
where he got switched on Brunson that was reminiscent. Do
you guys remember the preseason rep where Giannis was guarding
Shay on the left block, and he just kind of
like attacked him with ball sure and Shade just kind
(25:01):
of fell over and lost the basketball. Very similar to
play to that against Jalen Brunson off the left wing
late in the game, where like he just got up
on Brunson and instead of like being passive and offering
a contest, he got up and pressured him. And He's
just so damn big and so athletic that Brunson kind
of like soiled himself and just fell over and lost
the basketball. And then next thing you know, Giannis is
(25:21):
going the other way and dunking it and then to
stay on Yiannis. I just thought he was unbelievable in
the second half of that game. Twenty three points, six rebounds,
and six assists with a steal in two blocks in
just seventeen minutes of action in the second quarter. He's
just become so incredibly versatile on offense, all the usual
(25:43):
wrecking ball stuff that we know of Giannis always being
as a driver, like transition dunks, offensive rebound put backs.
He had this play against Ariel Huckporti on the right
wing that looked like MVP Jannis from the old days,
like Ariel's giving him a little bit of space. There's
two Nicks digging down into the driving lanes on both sides.
You look at it and you're just like, how in
(26:04):
the world is he going to get a layup here?
But he just takes a really hard left handed dribble
at Aeri hook porty and then spins out of it.
And when he spins out of it, he just rips
through the dig down from Brunson and gets an and
one layup. It looked like again like Jannis from the
old MVP days, and the jumper was a bit off
last night, but he ended up hitting a big one
late and crunch time. He hit like a one legged
(26:25):
fadeaway around the foul line that was a big shot
in the game. Shot a nice soft ball that hit
the front rim and rolled in, and then he just
He's shown some brilliant shot creation as a passer to
start this season out of every conceivable action. Like he
created a wide open three in the right corner out
of the short roll where he just caught the ball
in the pocket, quick process boom out to the right corner.
(26:48):
He created a three for aj Green out of a
ghost screen which was their first time connecting on that
play this season. That was a big one for them
last year. If you guys remember, just Aj runs over
top of the key screens, Veriannas slips out, Jannis pitches
it over the top, easy wide up in three for Aj.
He did a ton of posting up on the left
block in this game. That was a big play type
for Milwaukee in this game, and he created a bunch
(27:10):
of easy threes out of double teams out of the post.
The Bucks have done a really nice job spacing the
floor for Giannis off of those post ups. Even had
a lob feed to Turner, just kind of a grown
up feed. He was on the left block, was in
crunch time late and the man who was guarding in
the corner, I can't remember who it was that was
in the corner. It might have been Aj Green, but
one of their shooters was in the opposite corner and
(27:31):
Miles Turner was in the dunker spot, and when Yannis
drew the double team, the guy who was guarding the
guy in the corner came in and kind of sunk
in and got up underneath Miles and Yannis could have
kicked it to the corner. And the corner was open,
and that would have been a decent look for three,
but Miles had such a big size advantage against the
guard that he had pinned underneath the basket that what
Yiannis was looking at there is like, no, no, no,
(27:51):
this is late game. I actually want single possession efficiency
over large sample efficiency. And he ended up dumping it
into Mile and Miles drew a foul, and it's like, yeah,
that if the three goes in, it's worth more points.
But on that singular possession in a late game situation,
any points are more valuable. I thought it was just
like an example of that, like higher level playmaking. You
(28:13):
could see Yiannis see the corner read and go, no,
you know what, I'm just gonna throw it up in
the air and let Miles grab this. He's gonna get
a layup or a foul, and that's exactly what he got.
And Giannis has just become a super high level processor
and a really gifted passer in this league, and when
you combine that with his rim pressure, it's just a
problem for defenses. He's averaging a career high seven assists
(28:34):
per game here in the early going, and overall, Giannis
has just clearly ramped up his intensity to start the season.
He's averaging thirty six, fourteen and seven. That's fucking crazy.
All four of those or all three of those, excuse me,
would be career highs for him, albeit in a small
sample size. His most blocks per game since twenty twenty two.
He had two massive blocks in the second half, a
(28:55):
classic drop coverage reper He was kind of a little
too high, and then he recovered in and swatted Mchal
Bridges off the glass. After he beat aj Green off
the dribble, ran the floor the other way and got
a dunk, had a big one on an OGN and
he on an OGN Andobi post up where he came
over and helps it and blocked it. He's shooting seventy
percent from the field to start the season, fifty seven
(29:17):
percent from three. I was talking about this on Twitter
last night. It's kind of insane because all summer long
I dealt with lots of debate surrounding player rankings. Right like,
I put Luke at number two. A lot of people
disagreed with me. Lots of people felt like Shay had
passed Jokic. I didn't agree, but that was a take
I saw a lot lots of Bucks fans think Giannis
(29:38):
is the best player in the league and no lower
than number two, right, And then Jokic to most people,
is still the best player in the world. And so
there's a lot of debates surrounding those four guys, and
literally all four of those dudes have been insane to
start the year. We just talked about Yiannis, how about
thirty six, fourteen and seven with defensive Player of the
Year level contributions. On the other end of the floor,
(29:58):
Shay is averaging thirty five, six and five while straight
up carrying the offense for his team, while a bunch
of their key guys, that keyp ball handlers have missed
time at various points. Jay Dubb's been out, Casean Wallace
has missed a game like they've been down some guys,
and Shay has just leveraged his offense and they're undefeated.
Luca only played two games, but in his two games,
averaged forty six, twelve and nine on seventy three percent
(30:21):
for shooting against the Warriors and the Wolves to elite defenses,
and he looked completely unguardable in both of the games.
And I'd argue Jokic is off to the worst start
in that group, and yet he just damn near had
a twenty twenty ten against Minnesota and is averaging twenty
fifteen to twelve to start the year. And again, all
this that those numbers are are normalized because of Jokic,
(30:43):
but those are insane numbers. It's abundantly clear that all
four of these dudes want the crown. They all feel
as though they're the best players in the world, and
they're all going for it. And as a result, we're
getting some truly special basketball as a result from that group.
And I'm I'm like leaving when out here, which I
probably shouldn't like. Wenby's averaging thirty one and fourteen on
(31:03):
sixty eight percent true shooting was six point three stocks
per game. And by the way, Tyrese Maxey and Austin
Reeves and Lourie Marken in all three of those dudes
are averaging thirty five or more per game on insane efficiency.
It's just it's an amazing era in NBA history that
we're all witnessing. Some really special basketball is being played.
And what's crazy is I actually give the early edge
(31:25):
to Giannis here in the early going like Lucas already
out with an injury. Although there's some debate as to
whether or not that's him or the team that's guiding that,
i'd I still to me it's the player. Ultimately's got
to look at the team and go like, hey, I'm
I want to play in these games, like put me
out on the floor. So I I got to cut
a lot of shit from Lakers fans and Luca fans
(31:46):
for saying that the other day in the show, but
like I just it's it's how I feel like if
if I'm Luca, I'm looking at the team and saying
the team needs me to play, so I'm gonna go
out there and play. The other guys just haven't been
quite as good, like Yo, which hasn't been quite as good.
Shay hasn't been quite as good. Wenby is the one
guy that's like playing at a level near that Yannis
(32:06):
is at right now. But even then, I give the
slight edge to Gianni's And the thing that has amazed
me the most with Giannis is his ability to establish
such a high floor on both ends of the floor
for this team. We talked about this a little bit
in the show on Monday. But like Yannis, he checks
so many boxes, Like he's such a gifted rim pressurer,
(32:27):
such a gifted offensive rebounder, he's averaging like four offensive
rebounds a game to start the season, such a gifted passer.
The on offense, he's like single handedly anchoring a quality
offense because all of the roles off of him, because
he pressures the rim so well, because he creates so
many advantages, because he can also be a screen and
roll threat, because he's such a good offensive rebounder. He's
(32:48):
making it so that all of the other offensive players
on his team have these small, achievable roles. And the
same thing goes on defense, especially anchored by a guy
like Miles Turner. You get those two guys down there,
all of a sudden, the defensive job is just a
lot more manageable for the athletes that they have out
out on the floor, And because they've replaced Dame with
(33:10):
more minutes for guys like Ryan Rollins and Kole Anthony
better athletes. Because of that, they're more athletic on the perimeter.
And Giannis is establishing such a high floor on defense
that even with a roster that on paper looks extremely limited,
all of those limited players are being asked to do
this much as opposed to this much, right, they're being
(33:30):
asked to do less, and because they're being asked to
do less, they're excelling in those roles rather than failing.
If Yiannis wasn't performing the way that he's performing on
each end of the floor, all of a sudden, each
one of those dudes gets a little bit more responsibility
put on their plate, and all of a sudden their
limitations would come to the surface. It's just a casual
reminder that when you have one of these truly special stars,
(33:53):
one of those top four guys five guys, you just
always have a chance to win when they're playing at
this special life. And it takes an enormous amount of
exertion from him. He hasn't played this hard to start
the season in years, and I really do hope his
body can handle it. And that's the downside of being
so limited. On paper, you need Giannis to be absolutely insane,
(34:15):
but he has been and it's led to them winning
and beating some quality opponents. I've just been really impressed
some other Bucks notes. I continue to be super impressed
by Ryan Rollins and Cole Anthony. Cole didn't shoot the
ball well last night, but he continues to just consistently
get into the teeth of the defense and spray out
to the open man. He had nine more assists last night.
(34:36):
This is crazy stat Remember I always evaluate bench players
on a per thirty six minute basis to capture what
their output would be if their role increase. Obviously it's
harder to do it in an increased role. More just
what their production looks like on a per minute basis. Right, So,
Cole Anthony's averaging twelve assists per thirty six minutes at
just one point seven turnovers per thirty six minutes, about
(35:00):
a six to one over a six to one assist
to turnover ratio. Just ridiculous, driving and kicking over and
over and over again. And then Ryan Rollins I talked
about him a little bit earlier this week. He's been
the guy that I've been most impressed with, and that
was his best game of the season last night. He's
been pressuring the rim like crazy all season, but then
he finally started hitting his three last night. Just a
(35:20):
monster game from him, twenty five points on just eleven shots.
He's averaging fifteen four and four on sixty three percent
true shooting. Here in the early going, I think he's
got to be the starting point guard. He's just played
to well to not be. For the time being. He's
been their second most reliable shot creator off of Giannis.
He's run fifty three pick and rolls this year so far,
(35:40):
and he's generated sixty points on those pick and rolls,
including passes. That's one point one to three points per possession.
There are nineteen players in the NBA that have run
at least fifty pick and rolls. His one hundred and
thirteen offensive rating on those possessions ranks fifth on that
list out of nineteen players. And it's just because he
attacks the rim at such an insane level, and he's
been and hitting his pull up three, so like he's
(36:01):
three for six on pull up threes in pick and roll,
and then he's just consistently getting to the paint's shooting
seventy five percent at the rim to start the year.
He has six driving layups just in pick and roll
to start this year. And he can make all the
kickout reads too, and that's what you need if you
can hit the pull up three against an under or
when the guy gets hit on the screen. If you
can get all the way to the basket and score
from two point range and you can make the kickout reads,
(36:23):
you're gonna run a successful pick and roll. And that's
what Ryan Rollins has done to start the year. My
only gripe with him has been that he struggled missing
catch and shoot jump shots. But then last night, two
big ones in the left corner off of Giannis doubles
in the second half. That's the one piece that he
needed to kind of be contributing both on and off
the ball, and now he's doing that as well. And
again I mentioned this earlier, but I thought his defense
(36:44):
on Jalen Brunson to start to end that game in
the fourth quarter was super, super important. Last two guys
I want to shout out here before we end the
show today are Aj Green and Myles Turner. I thought
AJ was a little bit underutilized by Doc Rivers last year,
but Doc has rectified that. He's now starting, and he's
getting twenty seven minutes per game, and he's just playing
some really solid three and D basketball. He's shooting fifty
(37:07):
nine percent from three on six attempts per game, and
it's not just spot ups. It's in action too, like
when he slips out of a Janis screen or when
he comes off of a dribble handoff on the move.
He's four for five from three so far this year
in those types of actions, So it's not just shooting,
its dynamic movement shooting. And with Miles, I'd be thrilled
(37:27):
if I was a Bucks fan because he's not making
shit right now. He's five for twenty two from three,
he's two for seven on layups, and yet his ability
to anchor the defense as a much more mobile rim
protector than Brook Lopez was in concert with Giannis while
also on the other end of the floor. Despite missing shots,
like consistently making high IQ plays in the middle of
the floor. It's made him indispensable to the team already.
(37:49):
As a matter of fact, according to Cleaning the Glass,
they're twenty one points better per one hundred possessions with
Miles on the floor versus off to start the season.
And he will eventually start making shots too. This Bucks
team is really fun to watch. I put them if
you guys remember in my contender rankings, I put them
as the best team in the third tier because of
(38:11):
my faith and Giannis and what he can do on
both ends of the floor when he's surrounded by shooting
and anchored by a mobile rim protector. And I thought
I was following my head over my heart or my
heart over my head with that when I made that list,
And I got a lot of flak for because a
lot of teams are like, oh no, it should be Orlando,
it should be this other team instead, And it's because
(38:31):
the Bucks didn't look very good on paper. But Giannis
has been so damn good and the roster looks so complimentary,
and Doc Rivers has played all the right notes so far,
and they actually look more like a second tier contender
to me than a third tier contender. So as much
as I thought I might have overrated him to start
the season, it looks like I might have even underrated
him at this point. Very briefly, on the Knicks, this
(38:53):
new Knicks offense has been awful to start the year,
and I just want to take take a second to
tell every buddy, let's relax. Let's give them a lot
of grace over these first twenty games. They're trying something
very new, and when you do that, it's gonna take
some time. To find some rhythm. There are some basic
stats to kind of demonstrate what I'm talking about. Last year,
(39:15):
the Knicks ranked eighteenth in the NBA and total passes
made per game. They are fifth in the NBA this
year in total passes made per game. They're passing ball
three hundred and fourteen times per game, so it's a
lot more ball movement. And they're pushing the ball in transition.
Where they were twenty third in transition frequency last year,
they're sixteenth this year. According to Cleaning the Glass. They're
(39:36):
also not shooting the three very well at all to
start the year, and they're turning the ball over a lot,
which is typical when you're moving the ball more, especially
in a new system. So in the big picture, these
are the kinds of things that have the potential to
make them a far more dynamic offense than they were
last year. It's just gonna be about patience in this
phase of the season. There's a lot of reps where
(39:57):
other guys are bringing the ball up the floor, a
lot of guys making mistake give them a chance to
kind of work through these kinks. It's a very different
looking offense than it was last year. All Right, guys,
it's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely
appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show.
We will be back tomorrow with the breakdown of the
Wednesday Night slate. I will see you guys then
The volume. All right, Well, goome to Hoops tonight. You're
at the volume heavy ones day, everybody. Hope all of
you guys are having a great week so far. I
got a quick show for you guys today. We're gonna
(00:21):
be hitting the two NBC games from last night as
the Golden State Warriors dominated the Los Angeles Clippers pretty
much from start to finish, aside from a little second
quarter run from the Clippers, and then in the tail
end of the show, the Milwaukee Bucks begin or continue
I should say, their impressive start to the season with
they win versus the New York Knicks Giannis with an
(00:41):
incredible second half, an impressive showing from their guards again,
lots to get into. You guys know the job before
we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops and I YouTube channels.
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(01:04):
our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
Make sure you guys follow us there for more content
throughout the season. And then, last but not least, we'll
be recording another mailbag on Friday. Make sure you guys
get your questions into the YouTube comments so that we
can get to them in our Friday mail bags throughout
the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball.
So the Warriors jumped right on the Clippers to start
this game. They went to twenty seven to twelve. Jonathan
(01:25):
Kamingo was special in this first run of the game.
He was punishing mismatches for layups on drives in in
the post. He hits a pull up three in an
action with Quinton Post. He hit Steph on a back
cut for a layup. Had multiple great defensive sequences. He
had a nice help and recover contest on bog done
Macdonovich on the left wing where he got into the
lane to force a pass, but then also got out
(01:46):
and got a great contest. He was battling zubots on
peel switches on the class just a monster during that run,
looking like a cog, a special cog in the Golden
State system, which is something that was rare in the
but appears to be the norm more often than not
to start this season, as Kaminga has really turned around
(02:07):
the narrative that has surrounded him since he first came
into this league. I also want to shout out Quintin
and Post to hit two big threes in that run.
He had a pick and pop three in an action
with Zubots with Steph, and then he had another transition trailer,
a transition trailing three off of Steph, and I want
to focus on that action for just to make it
just a minute, because that pick and pop Steph steady
(02:28):
throughout this game was attacking Zubots in pick and roll
and like these that was like the action that Golden
State was primarily using to break the Clippers defense. Just
anything with Steph running off of like a dribble handoff
or a ball screen with the bigger, slower footed center
in space was just breaking the Clipper defense. And then
(02:50):
the Warriors were quickly moving the ball through that to
get great shots. And it's something that I've noticed in
the early going against several matchups, like we saw a
similar issue with Jokic guarding the Warriors even like a faster,
more athletic center like Aytan who was in a drop
coverage often was having some issues. And so it's one
of the things that I've noticed like these these bigger,
(03:13):
slow footed centers especially are utterly hopeless guarding Steph. But
most of the traditional drop coverage running teams in the
NBA are gonna have issues with Steph now that they
have more aggregate offensive talent off of him, and like
I'll be curious, so like teams like the Nuggets, the Clippers, again,
i'd include the Lakers in here, I'll be curious to
(03:34):
see how they look for Houston. But Houston plays a
lot of slow footed bigs and slow footed players in
general as well, so I'll be interested to see that matchup.
The only teams that really have the speed through all
their position groups to keep out of Golden State splendor
are Minnesota and Oklahoma City. And as we've seen with
Minnesota over the years, they have several guys who struggle
(03:55):
with off ball attentiveness. So even if they do better
against Steph on the ball, they end up the Golden
States offense in different ways, like losing Steph in off
ball situations. It's one of the big things that has
to me kind of eyeing Golden State is more of
a dangerous championship threat than I originally thought they were.
They match up really well with many of the teams
(04:15):
in the West, specifically because of Steph Curry's ability to
break those traditional drop coverages. And again, when I say
drop coverage, it's not the old fashion. We're sitting back
and letting Steph pull. I mean like high drop coverage,
like he's either beating the big because he happens to
be too far back by hitting shots, or the big
is coming up and then he's easily getting the defense
(04:36):
in rotation by starting four on threes by hitting the pocket.
The point is is teams that are not switching pick
and roll with athletes, or teams that don't have really
athletic centers like a go bet or a chet that
are gonna consistently get up to the level and be
able to rotate out of it quickly, those are the
teams that are giving them problems, right And the main
thing that they needed is they just needed an infusion
(04:58):
of talent to actually cap lies on this problem that
Steph presents to most of the teams in the West.
And if Jimmy Butler is gonna continue to look this good,
Jonathan Kaminga is gonna continue to look this good, Moses
Moody and Brandon Pajemski are twenty for forty three from
three point range here in the early going. If all
of these things continue to break Golden State's way over
(05:21):
the course of the season, and if they stay healthy,
you can actually see a tactical pathway versus all of
these teams against basically everybody but Oklahoma City. The Oklahoma
City matchup is fundamentally different. I look at it more
as like a challenge for Golden State's defense to break
Oklahoma City's offense. But we're not gonna talk about that today.
We're gonna get some film on that matchup in a
little less than two weeks. It was two weeks from
(05:43):
last night. They're gonna be playing in Oklahoma City in
early November, I think it's November eleventh, and we'll obviously
cover that game when it happens, and it'll give us
a better look at this Golden State offense versus a
faster defense, something that I'm looking at as like kind
of the next checkpoint. But it's impossible to not look
at what we've seen in the early going here and
see how some of these tougher Western Conference teams that
(06:06):
play a lot of bigger, slower players just get picked
apart by Steph Curry running action on them. And now
they have the requisite talent off of Steph to be
able to quickly capitalize on those sequences and score the basketball.
Clipper's going to second quarter run. So, as we mentioned,
Warriors jump up twenty seven to twelve. Clippers kind of
take control in the second quarter combination factors, like the
(06:27):
Clipper Stars got going. Cow I finally hit a few shots.
He got a little left shoulder hook over Jimmy Butler
on a deep post catch. They ran a little cross
screen with Brook Lopez. It's kind of a fun possession
to watch in terms of like the future of the
Warriors defense over time, because like Draymond's guarding the corner
and Al Horford's guarding Brook, and Brook sets across screen
(06:48):
for Jimmy, and you can literally see like Jimmy and
Draymond and Al all just kind of communicating through the switches,
and Draymond's guarding the corner and basically bringing that third
defender over into the action. Now Kawhi ends up getting
a deep post catch and hitting a tough little shot
over Jimmy. But it was just kind of fun to
watch Jimmy and Draymond and Al just kind of communicate
(07:11):
and switch with physicality along that back line. It's a
big part of why I'm really bullish on their defense
here early on in the season. But we're gonna talk
more about that in a minute. But Kawi gets going,
hits a little hook shot, gets a driving and one
eats a pull up three. The role players finally start
making shots like this has been an issue with the
Clippers in the early going that we'll talk about in
a little bit. But Zubats did some damage around the
(07:32):
rim on Horford Derk Jones Junior hits a corner three.
Those are some sequences that the Clippers weren't paying off
early in the game. And then James Harden kind of
just had a classic James Harden run to end the quarter,
getting to the rim for layups and free throwsy it's
a transition pull up three that was a big shot
met sequence. And then on the other end of the floor,
I thought the Warriors just got a little stagnant. They
took some early clock threes. Will Richard took one with
(07:54):
like twenty one on the shot clock, Buddy Heal took
an early one, even Steph took an early one. Before
they really got into their movement, Kaminga missed a couple
driving layups some of the shots that he was making
earlier in the game. It just was like a brief
stretch where the Warriors looked like they got out of
whack with their offensive process, and suddenly we were going
into halftime with the Clippers up forty nine to forty six.
(08:16):
It was kind of a wild turnaround to that point
in the game. But the third quarter just was classic
third quarter Warriors. They really got back into their defense
to transition sequences, a lot of big defensive plays during
that stretch. Steph got a couple of one on one
stops again against Harden, one where he smothered him on
a drive and forced him to airball a layup, another
one where he picked him clean off top with a
(08:36):
little bit of ball pressure. Draymond got a big stop
against Kawhi where he got a great contest. Quintin Post
did a nice job blitzing James Harden and then rotating
to the pass on the wing where he ended up
getting a steal, and they were just running the other
way dunk for Jimmy Butler. Nasty feed from Steph to
Jonathan kaminga for a left handed layup. In transition, Steph
(08:57):
gets a pick six on a Zubat's short roll pass.
He sinks down and gets the short roll. He tries
to drop it off to Chris Dunn. Steph gets it,
goes the other way for a driving layup. Moses Moody
digs down on Chris Dunn and gets a steal. Jimmy
Butler hits a three on the other end of the floor.
Al Horford gets a Al Horford did a number on
Chris Paul just switching ball screens in this stretch, and
(09:18):
like Chris just had no interest in attacking Al, Al
was defending him well, and so Horford gets a great
contest switching onto CB three and pick and roll pods
ends up getting a transition drive the other way for
a layup. He drives the other way, drives a bunch
of defenders. Then Moses Moody hits a trailing three on
the left wing. The Warriors had five buckets in transition
(09:39):
just in the third quarter. They got into the fourth
quarter up by fifteen, and then they closed it out
from there with a bunch of contributions from a bunch
of guys in the fourth. But I've been pleasantly surprised
by Golden State's Like, when I'm looking at the two
units for Golden State were like, we know what to
expect with their defense, the question was what we were going
to see from their offense. I've been pleasantly surprised with
(10:02):
their offense. They've been getting some contributions at higher levels
than I expected. But in terms of like their championship punch,
the thing that they just do better than most teams.
The thing that's got me really excited about them is
their defense. And I know it's not super impressive statistically,
like they're only eleventh in defensive rating here in the
early going, but that's a little misleading. Like they had
(10:23):
one single game against the Blazers on the tail end
of a back to back where they gave up one
hundred and thirty nine points and it wasn't nothing. Like
they showed some issues containing the ball in the perimeter
against bigger athletes in that game. I'm not going to
like completely write that off, but in the context of
their other performances, it was a little bit of an outlier,
and they played three of the best offenses in the
Western Conference. The defensive rating over a massive sample is
(10:44):
going to be a better read of what this defense
is capable of. But like in a five game or
four games sample size, whatever, I think it's five games.
In the five games sample size, when you have to
play Denver, who I think is the best offense in
the league, the Lakers, who have literally been frying everybody
until Luca and Austin leave the floor where they've fallen
apart because they don't have ball handling, but Luca and
(11:05):
Austin led units have just been frying everybody. The Clippers
obviously have a ton of talent. These are like really
difficult offenses that Golden State has run into, and in
each one of those games, their defense has kind of
been the thing that has broken the opponent. Like, aside
from guarding Luca personally in the Lakers game, they largely
(11:25):
held largely held the Lakers offense in check. They swarmed
DeAndre eight and on his catches in the middle of
the floor and forced a bunch of turnovers. And missshots.
They chased the Lakers shooters off the three point line
and made them feel uncomfortable. There was not any offense
coming from anybody but Luca in that game, if you
guys remember. And then aside from the beginning of the
Denver game, from the late second quarter through to the
(11:47):
end of the game, they were awesome against Denver. As
a matter of fact, in the second half of that game,
including overtime, they had a one toh four defensive rating,
which is awesome versus that elite Denver offense. And then
they straight up broke the Clippers like they just destroyed
that offense. They annihilated their bench groups. Chris Paul looked
like he had no interest in looking to shoot or
(12:08):
score against Al Horford and Switches, so those teams just
didn't have the ball handling to score. After Chris kind
of was neutralized, and then James Harden and Kawhi they
held him to thirty eight points on thirty two shots
and just to assist with four turnovers. And it was
a team effort too, like so many different guys defended
well either on ball or in off ball situations, and
(12:28):
the like above and beyond the yond ball stuff. I've
always thought of the Warriors as one of the best
close out teams in the league. And what I mean
by that is just like they're really good at shrinking
the floor and making things feel congested, but then still
getting out to shooters and rushing them. But it's on
overdrive this season, like they are so damn scrappy, digging
(12:49):
down into help and like constantly getting deflections and constantly
getting strips. They're top ten and forcing turnovers here early
on in the season, and they're holding opponents below a
point per shot on catch and shoot jump shots at
just zero point nine to nine points per opponent catch
and shoot. That ranks eighth in the NBA so far,
by the way, And I know there are a lot
(13:09):
of analytic minded folks who cover the league that just
view that as shooting luck, but I've never seen the
game that way. I think there are several factors that
come into play before we get to pure variance, and
I think the Warriors are excellent in those controllables. Ball pressure,
intensity in their closeouts, overall physicality, breaking rhythm, gearing shots
(13:30):
towards the right types of shooters. I think the Warriors
are a very smart defense that's very good at that.
And again I mentioned a specific example on that little
Kawhi left shoulder hook earlier. But it's been incredibly fun
for me to watch Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, and Al
Horford worked that back line in concert with each other,
with each other just communicating, switching with physicality, shrinking the
(13:52):
floor because Jimmy and Draymond are so good at throwing closeouts.
I thought Steph was really good defensively in this Clippers game.
Jonathan Kami is doing a good job guarding opposing stars
every night, just eating up a lot of innings that way.
And again, it's not just a four and one start
for the Warriors. It's a four to one start with
wins versus the Lakers, the Nuggets, and the Clippers, all
(14:12):
teams that are either first or second tier contenders in
the Western Conference. I'm just super impressed by them. And
this is the last thing I'll say. I've been really
fascinated for a long time about the idea of all
time greats and what happens when they see an opportunity
to win the title. I've been talking about this all
summer with Steph and why I expected him to get
up to such a hot start this year, Like, just
(14:34):
give me a group of guys that's won it before,
that knows what it takes, and then give them a
real opportunity and watch the level of professionalism that they
will go about that process with. And like, I've just
been so impressed by the Warriors from the top down
with how locked in they look to start the season,
and like it started, you know, it was. I was
intrigued when I heard Steve Kerr talk about how he
(14:56):
just like felt really good about this group, especially with
the way that he talked about previous iteration the team,
And I was like if Steve Kurr is looking at
the situation too and going like, we got the guys
like this year, we got the guys, Like it just
goes to show you again from the top down they
are locked in organizationally, and this is kind of there's
it's it's against the grain in a lot of ways
(15:17):
because there's this new age idea we've seen in the NBA,
this like it's a marathon not a sprint idea, and
I just think it's incredibly lame, like this idea that, oh,
we need to ease our way through this thing literally
nobody has won a championship doing that. The only exceptions
have been super talented repeat champions like the KD Steph
(15:38):
Warriors in twenty eighteen kind of chilled through the season,
or like the two thousand and two Lakers with Kobe
and Shack. Literally every single other champion other than those
like super talented repeat champions, every single other champion has
attacked the season from start to finish. They come into
camp super locked in, they approach their regular season the
(16:00):
level of seriousness and intensity, and it's just been super
cool to see this from this group in Golden State
that has some older players, an older coach, four dudes
who are over thirty seven. It's just a testament to
the organizational greatness from the top down. Again, like you
don't have I was listening to the Bob Costas intro
for the NBC broadcast, which obviously is amazing, and he's
(16:23):
talking about how the Warriors have won the most titles
in the NBA after the Celtics and Lakers, and it's like,
you don't get there with just a top tier superstar
like Steph, or a top ten player in NBA history
like Steph. Like I was talking about over the summer.
You don't get there with just an elite coach. You
don't get there with just a smart front office. You
(16:44):
don't get there with just an all time great defensive
player like Draymond Green. You get there with all of
those things. You need it all, And there is a
top down organizational greatness that just has persisted for the
Warriors from the early twenty tens now here pushed into
the late twenty twenties, and it's just not an accident
that they've had the success that they've had. And it's
(17:06):
just been frustrating for me as someone who roots for
the Lakers to see them juxtaposed with this. And like
the Lakers have had half the roster out already to
start the season, and like over bumps and bruises, not
like oh, Anthony Edwards strained his hamstring, he's got to
be out for a couple weeks, Like bumps and bruises,
guys are missing time already here in the first week
(17:26):
of the season. The Lakers want the regular season to
be easy. They want to coast to April and go
win the title by just getting their group together right
for the before the home stretch. And like good luck
with that, no one's ever managed to pull it off.
Winning a championship is an eight month grind. There's never
been shortcuts there, and it's just been interesting to see
the juxtaposition of those two things. And it's a big
(17:48):
part of why I'm so concerned about the Lakers in
the long term after Lebron has gone, because you know,
Lebron was always like, let's play through bumps and bruises,
let's try to, you know, build this thing over the
course of the season, guy, And just like I think,
I'm just really worried about their ability to sustain any
success after he's gone. But that's a conversation for another day.
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or Virginia. On the Clippers front, I've been super underwhelmed
(19:41):
with them to start the season. Now they're gonna get better.
This is not a doom and gloom thing. It just
more kind of falls in line with what I was
just talking about in terms of just that level of
expectation I have for true champions that like start to
finish excellence, like they're gonna get better as a team.
They have not shot jump shots very well, and that
will normalize. They have a good jump shooting team. So
(20:02):
I don't mean by variants by the way, I just
mean like they have several guys, including their stars, who
have come into camp that are not exactly in the
best shape of their lives, and those guys will steadily
get into shape, and as they get into the shape
that they need to be in, their legs will be
underneath them on their jump shots, and then they'll start
shooting the ball better. A perfect stat to demonstrate this
is their pull up shooting. They're getting to zero points
(20:23):
seven to seven points per pull up jumper to start
the season. That's about eighteen points fewer per one hundred
jump shots than they were last year in the regular season,
and that's largely because of Kawhi and their bench guards.
Kawhi hasn't been good on his pull ups, Chris Paul
hasn't been good on his pull ups. Bogg Don mcdonovich
hasn't been good on his pull ups. Chris Paul in particular,
has been awful to start the year. The units with
Chris Paul on the floor and with Kawhi and James
(20:45):
Harden off have been outscored at a rate of twenty
nine points per one hundred possessions. Small sample, I know,
but just brutal so far. They just need Chris to
be better. Their defensive rebounding has been terrible. They're giving
up an offensive rebound on thirty four percent of their
opponent's misses. They give up ten and more offensive rebounds
last night, and again that's against a team that's considerably
smaller than them. They've been turning the ball over a ton.
(21:06):
They have nineteen turnovers per game. That's the third most
in the entire NBA. Big part of that is Zubots
and Harden. Those two just by themselves are averaging almost
six and a half turnovers per game. They're giving up
twenty two points per game in transition directly off of
those turnovers, and for all to talk about transition defense
and training camp, they're a bottom ten transition defense by
(21:27):
efficiency team according to Synergy, giving up one point one
to eight points per transition push. They're also allowing opponents
to get out in transition on eighteen point four percent
of their possessions, which ranks twentieth in the NBA. So
they've been a bad transition defense after preaching it all
through camp, which is obviously not a good sign. So
if you're wondering why the Clippers have gotten crushed twice,
(21:48):
it basically comes down to their stars have not been
very good, their bench leader and Chris Paul has been
legit awful, and they're getting smashed on some key margins
like the offensive glass, as well as turnovers to transition
and just their overall transition defense. So something to keep
an eye on. One other thought I had on the
Clippers after watching that Warriors game. In that third quarter run,
(22:09):
Zubats had several turnovers versus blitzes of the hard and
short roll head that one way he threw to the
left wing and Quentin Post jumped it, and then he
had one where he tried to drop it off to
Chris Dunn and step Curry stole it. And this was
something that stood out to me in the Nugget series.
It's kind of a vulnerability that the Clippers have on offense.
Teams can get away with aggressive coverages versus the Clippers,
(22:29):
like they can double Kawhi and they can blitz James
Harden with a good amount of effect relative to some
other teams in the league, because as a team collectively,
they're always just a step slow at processing those advantages,
and so instead of getting wide open threes and wide
open layups, things tend to be a little bit more contested,
and then a lot of those sequences end up in turnovers. Again,
(22:49):
Zubats and Harden are combining for six point three turnovers
per game here in the early going, and even better
versions of these Clippers teams have had that issue in
the past, and so I say better version not by talent,
but better in terms of the quality of play, because
this Clippers team right now is just not close to
firing on all cylinders yet, so they're gonna get better.
The aggressive coverages thing is more of a big picture issue.
(23:12):
But I expect them to shoot the ball better. I
expect them to defensive rebound better. I expect them to
take care of the ball better. The Clippers will play
better basketball at some point this season. All right, Nick Bucks,
It looked like the Knicks were in complete control at
halftime of this one. They had this beautiful stretch of
basketball in the mid second quarter, a bench group led
by Tyler Kohlik, And I've really enjoyed these Tyler Kolik
(23:33):
led bench groups for the Knicks this year, like they
have been the groups that have most embodied the ball
movement that Mike Brown has been trying to instill in
this team. Just kolek early in the possession just makes
a really quick decision out of an action, and then
they just play read and react basketball out of it,
and they tend to get really great shots out of it.
And the Knicks ended up going up by fourteen in
(23:55):
that second quarter stretch. But then the Bucks defense just
completely dominated the second half. The Bucks logged in the
eighty five defensive rating in the second half as they
held the Knicks to two twenty point quarters, and they
went on to win by double digits, and there are
several guys that I want to shout out here. First
of all, in the second half bench unit stretch when
Jalen Brunson was off the floor and the Knicks started
playing through Cat More. I thought Kyle Kuzumad defended Karl
(24:17):
Anthony Towns incredibly well in that stretch, just met his physicality,
kept him in front, didn't foul, kept his arms up,
and forced him to shoot over the top. And I
want to shout out the whole team here too, because
I thought they did a good job shrinking the floor
on Cat and kind of swiping at the basketball and
disrupting his rhythm. I thought Ryan Rollins did an unbelievable
job on Jalen Brunson in the fourth quarter. He smothered
(24:39):
him on a pull up three where he forced an airball,
he stripped him from behind while back pressuring on a drive.
Once again, I also want to shout out the whole
team here with all the swarming and switching they did
on Brunson in that group, Like Yannis had a rep
where he got switched on Brunson that was reminiscent. Do
you guys remember the preseason rep where Giannis was guarding
Shay on the left block, and he just kind of
like attacked him with ball sure and Shade just kind
(25:01):
of fell over and lost the basketball. Very similar to
play to that against Jalen Brunson off the left wing
late in the game, where like he just got up
on Brunson and instead of like being passive and offering
a contest, he got up and pressured him. And He's
just so damn big and so athletic that Brunson kind
of like soiled himself and just fell over and lost
the basketball. And then next thing you know, Giannis is
(25:21):
going the other way and dunking it and then to
stay on Yiannis. I just thought he was unbelievable in
the second half of that game. Twenty three points, six rebounds,
and six assists with a steal in two blocks in
just seventeen minutes of action in the second quarter. He's
just become so incredibly versatile on offense, all the usual
(25:43):
wrecking ball stuff that we know of Giannis always being
as a driver, like transition dunks, offensive rebound put backs.
He had this play against Ariel Huckporti on the right
wing that looked like MVP Jannis from the old days,
like Ariel's giving him a little bit of space. There's
two Nicks digging down into the driving lanes on both sides.
You look at it and you're just like, how in
(26:04):
the world is he going to get a layup here?
But he just takes a really hard left handed dribble
at Aeri hook porty and then spins out of it.
And when he spins out of it, he just rips
through the dig down from Brunson and gets an and
one layup. It looked like again like Jannis from the
old MVP days, and the jumper was a bit off
last night, but he ended up hitting a big one
late and crunch time. He hit like a one legged
(26:25):
fadeaway around the foul line that was a big shot
in the game. Shot a nice soft ball that hit
the front rim and rolled in, and then he just
He's shown some brilliant shot creation as a passer to
start this season out of every conceivable action. Like he
created a wide open three in the right corner out
of the short roll where he just caught the ball
in the pocket, quick process boom out to the right corner.
(26:48):
He created a three for aj Green out of a
ghost screen which was their first time connecting on that
play this season. That was a big one for them
last year. If you guys remember, just Aj runs over
top of the key screens, Veriannas slips out, Jannis pitches
it over the top, easy wide up in three for Aj.
He did a ton of posting up on the left
block in this game. That was a big play type
for Milwaukee in this game, and he created a bunch
(27:10):
of easy threes out of double teams out of the post.
The Bucks have done a really nice job spacing the
floor for Giannis off of those post ups. Even had
a lob feed to Turner, just kind of a grown
up feed. He was on the left block, was in
crunch time late and the man who was guarding in
the corner, I can't remember who it was that was
in the corner. It might have been Aj Green, but
one of their shooters was in the opposite corner and
(27:31):
Miles Turner was in the dunker spot, and when Yannis
drew the double team, the guy who was guarding the
guy in the corner came in and kind of sunk
in and got up underneath Miles and Yannis could have
kicked it to the corner. And the corner was open,
and that would have been a decent look for three,
but Miles had such a big size advantage against the
guard that he had pinned underneath the basket that what
Yiannis was looking at there is like, no, no, no,
(27:51):
this is late game. I actually want single possession efficiency
over large sample efficiency. And he ended up dumping it
into Mile and Miles drew a foul, and it's like, yeah,
that if the three goes in, it's worth more points.
But on that singular possession in a late game situation,
any points are more valuable. I thought it was just
like an example of that, like higher level playmaking. You
(28:13):
could see Yiannis see the corner read and go, no,
you know what, I'm just gonna throw it up in
the air and let Miles grab this. He's gonna get
a layup or a foul, and that's exactly what he got.
And Giannis has just become a super high level processor
and a really gifted passer in this league, and when
you combine that with his rim pressure, it's just a
problem for defenses. He's averaging a career high seven assists
(28:34):
per game here in the early going, and overall, Giannis
has just clearly ramped up his intensity to start the season.
He's averaging thirty six, fourteen and seven. That's fucking crazy.
All four of those or all three of those, excuse me,
would be career highs for him, albeit in a small
sample size. His most blocks per game since twenty twenty two.
He had two massive blocks in the second half, a
(28:55):
classic drop coverage reper He was kind of a little
too high, and then he recovered in and swatted Mchal
Bridges off the glass. After he beat aj Green off
the dribble, ran the floor the other way and got
a dunk, had a big one on an OGN and
he on an OGN Andobi post up where he came
over and helps it and blocked it. He's shooting seventy
percent from the field to start the season, fifty seven
(29:17):
percent from three. I was talking about this on Twitter
last night. It's kind of insane because all summer long
I dealt with lots of debate surrounding player rankings. Right like,
I put Luke at number two. A lot of people
disagreed with me. Lots of people felt like Shay had
passed Jokic. I didn't agree, but that was a take
I saw a lot lots of Bucks fans think Giannis
(29:38):
is the best player in the league and no lower
than number two, right, And then Jokic to most people,
is still the best player in the world. And so
there's a lot of debates surrounding those four guys, and
literally all four of those dudes have been insane to
start the year. We just talked about Yiannis, how about
thirty six, fourteen and seven with defensive Player of the
Year level contributions. On the other end of the floor,
(29:58):
Shay is averaging thirty five, six and five while straight
up carrying the offense for his team, while a bunch
of their key guys, that keyp ball handlers have missed
time at various points. Jay Dubb's been out, Casean Wallace
has missed a game like they've been down some guys,
and Shay has just leveraged his offense and they're undefeated.
Luca only played two games, but in his two games,
averaged forty six, twelve and nine on seventy three percent
(30:21):
for shooting against the Warriors and the Wolves to elite defenses,
and he looked completely unguardable in both of the games.
And I'd argue Jokic is off to the worst start
in that group, and yet he just damn near had
a twenty twenty ten against Minnesota and is averaging twenty
fifteen to twelve to start the year. And again, all
this that those numbers are are normalized because of Jokic,
(30:43):
but those are insane numbers. It's abundantly clear that all
four of these dudes want the crown. They all feel
as though they're the best players in the world, and
they're all going for it. And as a result, we're
getting some truly special basketball as a result from that group.
And I'm I'm like leaving when out here, which I
probably shouldn't like. Wenby's averaging thirty one and fourteen on
(31:03):
sixty eight percent true shooting was six point three stocks
per game. And by the way, Tyrese Maxey and Austin
Reeves and Lourie Marken in all three of those dudes
are averaging thirty five or more per game on insane efficiency.
It's just it's an amazing era in NBA history that
we're all witnessing. Some really special basketball is being played.
And what's crazy is I actually give the early edge
(31:25):
to Giannis here in the early going like Lucas already
out with an injury. Although there's some debate as to
whether or not that's him or the team that's guiding that,
i'd I still to me it's the player. Ultimately's got
to look at the team and go like, hey, I'm
I want to play in these games, like put me
out on the floor. So I I got to cut
a lot of shit from Lakers fans and Luca fans
(31:46):
for saying that the other day in the show, but
like I just it's it's how I feel like if
if I'm Luca, I'm looking at the team and saying
the team needs me to play, so I'm gonna go
out there and play. The other guys just haven't been
quite as good, like Yo, which hasn't been quite as good.
Shay hasn't been quite as good. Wenby is the one
guy that's like playing at a level near that Yannis
(32:06):
is at right now. But even then, I give the
slight edge to Gianni's And the thing that has amazed
me the most with Giannis is his ability to establish
such a high floor on both ends of the floor
for this team. We talked about this a little bit
in the show on Monday. But like Yannis, he checks
so many boxes, Like he's such a gifted rim pressurer,
(32:27):
such a gifted offensive rebounder, he's averaging like four offensive
rebounds a game to start the season, such a gifted passer.
The on offense, he's like single handedly anchoring a quality
offense because all of the roles off of him, because
he pressures the rim so well, because he creates so
many advantages, because he can also be a screen and
roll threat, because he's such a good offensive rebounder. He's
(32:48):
making it so that all of the other offensive players
on his team have these small, achievable roles. And the
same thing goes on defense, especially anchored by a guy
like Miles Turner. You get those two guys down there,
all of a sudden, the defensive job is just a
lot more manageable for the athletes that they have out
out on the floor, And because they've replaced Dame with
(33:10):
more minutes for guys like Ryan Rollins and Kole Anthony
better athletes. Because of that, they're more athletic on the perimeter.
And Giannis is establishing such a high floor on defense
that even with a roster that on paper looks extremely limited,
all of those limited players are being asked to do
this much as opposed to this much, right, they're being
(33:30):
asked to do less, and because they're being asked to
do less, they're excelling in those roles rather than failing.
If Yiannis wasn't performing the way that he's performing on
each end of the floor, all of a sudden, each
one of those dudes gets a little bit more responsibility
put on their plate, and all of a sudden their
limitations would come to the surface. It's just a casual
reminder that when you have one of these truly special stars,
(33:53):
one of those top four guys five guys, you just
always have a chance to win when they're playing at
this special life. And it takes an enormous amount of
exertion from him. He hasn't played this hard to start
the season in years, and I really do hope his
body can handle it. And that's the downside of being
so limited. On paper, you need Giannis to be absolutely insane,
(34:15):
but he has been and it's led to them winning
and beating some quality opponents. I've just been really impressed
some other Bucks notes. I continue to be super impressed
by Ryan Rollins and Cole Anthony. Cole didn't shoot the
ball well last night, but he continues to just consistently
get into the teeth of the defense and spray out
to the open man. He had nine more assists last night.
(34:36):
This is crazy stat Remember I always evaluate bench players
on a per thirty six minute basis to capture what
their output would be if their role increase. Obviously it's
harder to do it in an increased role. More just
what their production looks like on a per minute basis. Right, So,
Cole Anthony's averaging twelve assists per thirty six minutes at
just one point seven turnovers per thirty six minutes, about
(35:00):
a six to one over a six to one assist
to turnover ratio. Just ridiculous, driving and kicking over and
over and over again. And then Ryan Rollins I talked
about him a little bit earlier this week. He's been
the guy that I've been most impressed with, and that
was his best game of the season last night. He's
been pressuring the rim like crazy all season, but then
he finally started hitting his three last night. Just a
(35:20):
monster game from him, twenty five points on just eleven shots.
He's averaging fifteen four and four on sixty three percent
true shooting. Here in the early going, I think he's
got to be the starting point guard. He's just played
to well to not be. For the time being. He's
been their second most reliable shot creator off of Giannis.
He's run fifty three pick and rolls this year so far,
(35:40):
and he's generated sixty points on those pick and rolls,
including passes. That's one point one to three points per possession.
There are nineteen players in the NBA that have run
at least fifty pick and rolls. His one hundred and
thirteen offensive rating on those possessions ranks fifth on that
list out of nineteen players. And it's just because he
attacks the rim at such an insane level, and he's
been and hitting his pull up three, so like he's
(36:01):
three for six on pull up threes in pick and roll,
and then he's just consistently getting to the paint's shooting
seventy five percent at the rim to start the year.
He has six driving layups just in pick and roll
to start this year. And he can make all the
kickout reads too, and that's what you need if you
can hit the pull up three against an under or
when the guy gets hit on the screen. If you
can get all the way to the basket and score
from two point range and you can make the kickout reads,
(36:23):
you're gonna run a successful pick and roll. And that's
what Ryan Rollins has done to start the year. My
only gripe with him has been that he struggled missing
catch and shoot jump shots. But then last night, two
big ones in the left corner off of Giannis doubles
in the second half. That's the one piece that he
needed to kind of be contributing both on and off
the ball, and now he's doing that as well. And
again I mentioned this earlier, but I thought his defense
(36:44):
on Jalen Brunson to start to end that game in
the fourth quarter was super, super important. Last two guys
I want to shout out here before we end the
show today are Aj Green and Myles Turner. I thought
AJ was a little bit underutilized by Doc Rivers last year,
but Doc has rectified that. He's now starting, and he's
getting twenty seven minutes per game, and he's just playing
some really solid three and D basketball. He's shooting fifty
(37:07):
nine percent from three on six attempts per game, and
it's not just spot ups. It's in action too, like
when he slips out of a Janis screen or when
he comes off of a dribble handoff on the move.
He's four for five from three so far this year
in those types of actions, So it's not just shooting,
its dynamic movement shooting. And with Miles, I'd be thrilled
(37:27):
if I was a Bucks fan because he's not making
shit right now. He's five for twenty two from three,
he's two for seven on layups, and yet his ability
to anchor the defense as a much more mobile rim
protector than Brook Lopez was in concert with Giannis while
also on the other end of the floor. Despite missing shots,
like consistently making high IQ plays in the middle of
the floor. It's made him indispensable to the team already.
(37:49):
As a matter of fact, according to Cleaning the Glass,
they're twenty one points better per one hundred possessions with
Miles on the floor versus off to start the season.
And he will eventually start making shots too. This Bucks
team is really fun to watch. I put them if
you guys remember in my contender rankings, I put them
as the best team in the third tier because of
(38:11):
my faith and Giannis and what he can do on
both ends of the floor when he's surrounded by shooting
and anchored by a mobile rim protector. And I thought
I was following my head over my heart or my
heart over my head with that when I made that list,
And I got a lot of flak for because a
lot of teams are like, oh no, it should be Orlando,
it should be this other team instead, And it's because
(38:31):
the Bucks didn't look very good on paper. But Giannis
has been so damn good and the roster looks so complimentary,
and Doc Rivers has played all the right notes so far,
and they actually look more like a second tier contender
to me than a third tier contender. So as much
as I thought I might have overrated him to start
the season, it looks like I might have even underrated
him at this point. Very briefly, on the Knicks, this
(38:53):
new Knicks offense has been awful to start the year,
and I just want to take take a second to
tell every buddy, let's relax. Let's give them a lot
of grace over these first twenty games. They're trying something
very new, and when you do that, it's gonna take
some time. To find some rhythm. There are some basic
stats to kind of demonstrate what I'm talking about. Last year,
(39:15):
the Knicks ranked eighteenth in the NBA and total passes
made per game. They are fifth in the NBA this
year in total passes made per game. They're passing ball
three hundred and fourteen times per game, so it's a
lot more ball movement. And they're pushing the ball in transition.
Where they were twenty third in transition frequency last year,
they're sixteenth this year. According to Cleaning the Glass. They're
(39:36):
also not shooting the three very well at all to
start the year, and they're turning the ball over a lot,
which is typical when you're moving the ball more, especially
in a new system. So in the big picture, these
are the kinds of things that have the potential to
make them a far more dynamic offense than they were
last year. It's just gonna be about patience in this
phase of the season. There's a lot of reps where
(39:57):
other guys are bringing the ball up the floor, a
lot of guys making mistake give them a chance to
kind of work through these kinks. It's a very different
looking offense than it was last year. All Right, guys,
it's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely
appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show.
We will be back tomorrow with the breakdown of the
Wednesday Night slate. I will see you guys then
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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