February 24, 2025 • 35 mins
Jason breaks down the Golden State Warriors big win against the Dallas Mavericks and how Jimmy Butler has completely revitalized Steph Curry, the Oklahoma City Thunder getting revenge on the Minnesota Timberwolves and Chet Holmgren’s impact including getting huge stops on Anthony Edwards, and the Cleveland Cavaliers showcasing their all around team including Evan Mobley significantly outplaying Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr.
Timeline
4:00 - Start
5:30 - Warriors / Mavericks
17:30 - Thunder / Timberwolves
31:30 - Cavaliers / Grizzlies
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Episode Transcript
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(01:38):
All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume
heavy Monday. Everybody, oh ball of you guys had a
great weekend, got a damn pack show for you. Today,
we're gonna be hitting on three games from yesterday's slate.
As the Golden State Warriors win their fifth time and
six tries in the Jimmy Butler era, We're gonna be
breaking that game down from the perspective of both teams.
After that, the Oklahoma City thunder got revenge on the
Minnesota Timberwolves for a loss that they suffer right before
(02:00):
the All Star break where their offense broke out, and
I want to talk about some trends involving their shooting
that should be concerning for the other twenty nine teams
in the league, as well as talking a little bit
about chet Holmgren in the way that he kind of
unlocks additional dynamics for them on both ends of the floor.
And then at the tail end of the show, we
got a show down between two of the best power
forwards young power forwards that we have in the NBA,
(02:22):
between Jared Jackson and Evan Mobley. As the Cavs got
a big win against the Memphis Grizzlies. We're going to
be talking about that game and that matchup at the
tail end of the show. You guys have the job
before we get started. It's subscribed to the Hoops Tonight
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(02:43):
On that front, we also brand new social media feeds
on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're we're releasing content throughout
the year, and then, last but not least, keep dropping
mail bag questions in the YouTube comments so that we
can hit them on Fridays throughout the remainder of the season.
All right, let's talk some basketball, So really quick recap
of MAVs war The MAVs hung tough for the first
few minutes, but then the Warriors basically dominated the rest
(03:04):
of the way. Steph and Jimmy had a nice little
run in the middle of the first where they just
showcased their great basketball fit, their natural basketball fit, the
way their skill sets kind of just intertwined to help
accentuate each other. We're gonna talk about that in a
few minutes. Jimmy led a bench group without Steph. The Warriors,
by the way, plus thirty with Jimmy with a Steph
(03:24):
off the floor through the first six games of the
Jimmy Butler era, a sign of just how much stronger
those units can be now that Jimmy Butler is a
part of the group. But Jimmy led a group without
Steph that grew the lead. He was getting to the
foul line a bunch. He had a couple of nice
dishes to Quinton Post by the way, shout out Quinton Post.
He had a nasty poster dunk over a couple of
guys that let the crowd on fire. And then late
(03:45):
third quarter, Steph just puts the game away with a
masterful stretch of shot making and as a result, no
starter plays over thirty minutes because the Warriors took care
of business in the first three quarters, which used to
be a hallmark of the Warriors dynasty. The Warriors again, like,
that's a big part of what has made them so
good over the years. They can take time off during
the regular season just by beating teams up right. We
(04:06):
got an example of that last night. But the first
thing I want to focus on today with the Warriors,
it stood out to me as I was watching, and
it's been standing out to me as I've watched them
over the course of the last couple of weeks. Just
how much more explosive Steph looks. And when I say explosive,
I'm not just talking about scoring points and doing it
more efficiently than usual, it's the way he's moving. It's
(04:28):
like was jarring to me as I'm watching last night,
the verve he has going downhill, his ability to get
into the paint, the finishes in traffic that he was
missing earlier this year. So I was like, you know what,
I'm going to dig into the numbers and see if
there's been any difference in STEP's ability to score in
the paint since the Jimmy Butler trade went down. Pre
(04:51):
Jimmy trade, so up to February seventh, he was averaging
one point three makes per game in the restricted area
on sixty percent shooting. Since the Jimmy Butler trade, he's
getting two makes in the restricted area per game at
eighty percent, from one point three up to two non
restricted area paint makes, so shots that are still in
(05:14):
the paint but that are outside of the restricted area.
This short range shot making right pre Jimmy trade one
point one makes per game at forty two percent, two
makes post Jimmy Butler trade at sixty three percent, So
he's nearly doubled his output in paint, scoring at substantially
higher efficiency. I think a big part of this comes
(05:36):
down to belief, Like even separate from anything having to
do with Jimmy Butler and his basketball impact. Like, I
think Steph just sees an opportunity that he didn't see
earlier this season, and I think that just is bringing
another level of engagement and excitement out of him. But
it also comes down to having a legitimate secondary co
star and how that makes life easier for Steph in
(05:57):
terms of his energy conservation. I talked about this if
you guys remember after the Warriors Nuggets game or excuse me,
the Lakers Nuggets game on Saturday involving Luca and Lebron,
and how Lebron can be more physically aggressive in his
touches because he has someone that can eat up so
much usage in Luka Dancic. I think it's even showing
in his pull up shooting. He's getting more lyft, he's
getting more separation on his pull up jump shots. Pre
(06:20):
Jimmy Butler trade, he was shooting fifty four percent in
effective field goal percentage, which is just field goal percentage
weighted for threes. He was shooting fifty four percent in
effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots and
getting eight point five points per game out of them.
Post Jimmy Trade up to sixty percent in effective field
goal percentage with nine point seven points per game, so
(06:41):
significant uptick and efficiency and output as a pull up
jump shooter as well. By the way, just classic Steph Curry.
Sixty percent effective field goal percentage on pull up jump
shots is outrageous and it's actually kind of hilarious looking
back that we were looking at fifty four percent for
him as a little bit of a down year. But
that's just another conversation, and that's just what it's like
when you're dealing with the all time greats. Everything you
(07:01):
talk about in terms of the realms of normalcy for
other players is just like a totally different era of
statistics that were totally different area of statistics that we're
looking at with the player of his caliber. But again,
you have to have the legs to get separation, you
have to have the legs to get the lift after
you get the separation. That's the same sort of legs
(07:22):
you need when you're finishing in traffic. And I just
think we're just seeing a boost from Steph that's coming
partially from the belief he has in this group and
secondly from the partnership with Jimmy Butler. So on that note,
I want to talk a little bit about Jimmy's natural
basketball fit was Steph. One of the first things that
stood out with me stood out to me watching the
film was just a dynamic that Jimmy has as a
(07:44):
screener in actions with Steph, and how his one the
threat he brings, and how that can cause him to
have more screening gravity than normal players would. So like,
if an inferior player sets a screen, the guy who's
defending him is going to be primarily focused in that
action on defending the guy coming off of the screen, right,
(08:05):
Whereas if you're a threat the way that Jimmy Butler is,
the guy who's guarding Jimmy's going to be more concerned
about leaving Jimmy to help in those actions. Steph's first
layup in this game was a curl off of an
off ball screen from Jimmy Kessler. Edwards was guarding Steph,
and he's kind of on Jimmy's backside if it's anybody else,
if it's Wiggins, He's pushing off of that guy and
(08:26):
dropping to catch Steph as he's cutting to the basket,
but Kessler's hung up on Jimmy because he's been told
before the game, you got the Jimmy Butler assignment. Here's
a list of all of the game plan stuff with
Jimmy Butler. Here's what your job is dealing with Jimmy Butler.
And that just puts Kessler Edwards into an entirely different
frame of mind when he's dealing with Kesler and screening
actions with Steph Curry. The second piece of it is
(08:48):
dealing with the reads that you have to make in
those screening actions, which Jimmy's just so incredibly smart with.
They ran another backscreen for Steph a little bit later
in the first quarter, two and a half minutes later,
so he sets a backscreen for Steph. They do switch it,
but when he sets the backscreen, what happens Now STEP's
man is on Jimmy's top side, and so as step
(09:09):
is cutting through, all of a sudden, this big opening
is created in between Jimmy and the rim because Jimmy's
defender is stuck on his top side. He ends up
getting the ball and getting an easy dunk, slipping out
of that action because he has that inside seal. We
talked a lot about this with Jimmy Butler. He's one
of the best players in the league. I was talking
about this after their first couple of games that they
(09:30):
played together at like creating a passing angle in post
seal situations that are not traditional. Like a lot of
times you think of a post up as like a
guy standing ten feet from the basket with a defender
on his backside, you just throw it into him. But
a lot of times with guards, and a lot of
times in those switching actions, there's different angles. Guys trapped
on your top side, a guy's trapped on the side
(09:51):
you're getting bracketed. With backside help, you can create these
pretty tight passing windows. And Jimmy's just as good as
anybody in the league, if not better, at high pointing
the ball, getting it in traffic, coming down with it,
and being able to make a play there. We've talked
about the short roll stuff as to go onto the
ball with Steph and his ability to make reads out
of the middle of the floor. We've talked about zone stuff.
(10:13):
When teams go zone against the Warriors, Jimmy can operate
right in the middle of the floor. It allows him
to be really impactful offensively while Steph is on the floor,
but then he can shape shift and just turn into
a unit leading offensive player when Steph is off the floor.
So good at getting to the foul line. Did it
again last night. He's at nine point two free throw
(10:35):
attempts per game so far with the Warriors. So good
at playmaking out of help, driving out of those ISOs
and post ups and making those kickout passes to shooters
are getting underneath the basket for fouls or easy baskets.
He's run thirty seven post ups in ISOs so far
as a Warrior and has generated fifty one points including
(10:55):
passes one point three to eight points per possession. That
is extremely high level shot creation that the Warriors are
getting out of Jimmy Butler so far, and it's manifested
in the big picture so far. Just taking the raw
data from six games, the Warriors have a one to
twenty one offensive rating with Jimmy Butler on the team.
(11:16):
That's more in line with what you'd expect from a
Steph Curry led offense. That's why it was so important
to get him a co star that could help him
on that end when he's on the floor and anchor
units when Steph is off the floor. And then on
the defensive end, like you're just adding an additional defensive
playmaker to the starting unit. Even further, like I think
(11:37):
Andrew Wiggins, if you're just talking about guarding the other
team's best player, picking him up full court, doing all
that kind of stuff. Andrew Wiggins obviously has a little
bit more youthful exuberantz to show in that type of role,
But in terms of overall defensive playmaking, Jimmy's one of
the best we got in the league. One of the
most important layers of this, too, is in the old
(11:58):
version of the team, Brandon Pajemski was viewed as a
guy that had to like lead a lot of bench
units as a score a lot of a lot of
the ask for what Steve Kerr and the staff needed
from Pods was geared towards shot creation, and like, that's
not the strength of Brandon Pizempski's game. I do think
in the long run he'll become a better offensive playmaker
(12:21):
and offensive play starter. That's a big picture goal. He
needs to get better as a jump shooter, he needs
to get better at running action, that sort of stuff.
But the strength of Brandon Pazemski is a basketball player
right now is he's awesome at all the little things.
Excellent rebounder, excellent defensive player, excellent connective passer, and play finisher.
(12:42):
That is the area of his game where he's at
his best. And so now that Jimmy Butler's on the team,
you've kind of facilitated an environment where it makes sense
to start Brandon Pajemski. Now that you're starting Brandon Pajemski
and he's now locked into a role where he's functioning
as a role player, it's accentuating his strengths, which is
he's really good at all of this little shit continues
(13:04):
to just grab a million rebounds, very very good. There
was a play where Steph Curry got PJ Washington on
a switch on the right wing, and Pj just tries
to rip through Steph and go to the basket. Pods
was glued up to Kyrie irving on the Week's side
of the floor, preparing to get run off of a
Chicago action. He was thinking he was gonna have to
chase Kyrie off of a dribble handoff on the other
end of the floor, and he sprinted under the basket
(13:27):
and vertically jumped walled up and stopped PJ. Washington there
and got to stop it. It was a remarkable defensive play.
I'm watching Jimmy Butler as he's tracking a cutter through
along the baseline. Another cutter comes in behind him. The
pass comes in. Jimmy identifies it because he just sees
everything happening on the floor, peels off his man and
jumps the passing lane and gets the steal. I seen
(13:49):
Draymond Green help hard off of Kessler Edwards to stop
someone at the basket. The drop off passes there and
he turns and forces a traveling violation. You have three
extremely high level defensive playmakers that are anchoring that unit
now because of Jimmy Butler, and because of the way
he's now made Brandon Pajemski's role makes sense. They were
(14:12):
already a top ten defense before this trade. They are
third in defensive ratings so far through six games with
Jimmy Butler. It just all makes sense now because you
balance the roster. You turned several role players on a
group that had fourteen to fifteen guys that could potentially
play rotation minutes into a high level, do everything. Swiss
(14:34):
Army Knife one of the most impactful winning basketball players
that we have that we've had in the league in
the last half decade, and it's just balanced things out.
Starting group so far with Moody and Pods next to Draymond,
Jimmy and Steph ninety seven possessions plus eleven net ratings
so far great on both ends. Again, I want to
see a lot more before I start talking big picture
(14:56):
about the Warriors. I want to see the next couple
of weeks and what they're capable of. But this is
really exciting early returns on this partnership, all right. Moving
on to thunder Wolves again, really quick breakdown of the game.
It was just game of runs. The thunder went on
a massive forty two to seventeen run early in the game.
They were doing a lot of switching. There's Smalls held
up really well on Nasree. They were forcing him into
(15:18):
tough shots he was missing. They did a good job
shrinking the floor, making those guys playing traffic chet Holmgrin
was doing a great job both in his switches and
in his kind of at the level ball screen coverages
against Anthony Edwards of baiting him into these like tough
contested step back threies. We're going to talk about that
dynamic in a little bit because it reminds me of
something we were talking about in our one and one
on one tournament and how length can just be kind
(15:40):
of like the the answer to questions in terms of
dealing with guys that are dynamic perimeter shot creators. Shay
was cooking everyone, including Jayden McDaniels. The Wolves ended up
needing to blitz him during that run because Shay was
cooking everybody, so then they started to pick him apart
with four on threes. Kenrich Williams did some really nice
work during that stretch as a short roller posted the
(16:02):
low man. It was a Nikhil Alexander Walker tag where
he like posted him and got in the basket for
anice little lefty scoop shot made a play on the
short role where he drew defenders in and made a
kick out to case On Wallace, who hit a three.
The Wolves were playing a lot of small ball groups
with like three sometimes four guards in the lineup because
of the injuries to Julius Randall and Rudy Gobert. They're
(16:22):
just playing a lot more smaller groups, and so it's
kind of weird seeing a dynamic where the Thunder had
physical advantages over the Wolves and they were taking advantage
of that during that stretch. But then the Wolves responded
with a thirty to six run of their own, and
it kind of the same thing that's been the theme
for them all year, which is when they ratchet up
their ball pressure and they really start getting physical on
(16:44):
the perimeter, they can cause teams to completely lose their composure,
and the Thunder did during that stretch. Jalen Clark, who
was a revolution in this game. He's just a bowling
ball of like a guard wing do everything hybrid role
player type of guy. He had four steals in this game,
was wrecking havoc at the point into attack. Just with
physical ball pressure, noz Reed and Anthony Edwards finally started
(17:04):
hitting shots. They completely regained control and they actually end
up taking a little lead. And it goes back and
forth really throughout the rest of the second half until
in the middle of the fourth quarter the Thunder had
one last run in then they go on in eighteen
to two runs, spearheaded by six made three point shots.
Chet Holmgren hit a three, beating noz Reed for helping
in the lane. Jay dub and Shae each hit a
(17:25):
couple of tougher threes, Shay hit one in transition, Jay
dub hit like a twenty eight footer along the right wing.
But it was Alex Caruso who really ended that game
by getting hot. He hit three threes in the run,
a couple of kickouts off of help, and then he
was running two man game with Shae Gilvis Alexander where
he was slipping out of it to the above the
(17:45):
brake line about like off the left wing and he
was hitting movement. He hit a movement three slipping out
of that action with Shay. That was a big time
performance from Alex. Crusoe has had some rough offensive nights
earlier in the season. The thunder shooting, I thought was
the story of the game. Out of the twenty eight
catch and shoot jump shots they attempted in that game,
they made seventeen of them. That's pretty crazy. We've talked
(18:10):
about their spot up shooting the season and it will
continue to be a storyline heading into the playoffs. Like,
no matter how well they shoot now, said the same
thing with the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier. Doesn't matter how well
you shoot now, you got to hit them in a
big playoff series when there's pressure and you're on the road.
Sometimes like obviously, no amount of shot making in the
regular season will make up for the reality that guys
(18:33):
are going to have to hit shots. That said, the
Thunder of sneak even shooting the ball really well for
a while now. The answer is if you're going to
shoot poorly in the playoffs like you did last year
against Dallas, and you want to get to the point
where you shoot better in the postseason in the future,
everyone's got to get better at shooting, and that starts
with behind the scenes in practice and then in regular
(18:55):
season games. The final challenge is doing it in postseason games.
But you're not going to just randomly do it in
postseason games. It's going to start with that process, and
it's clear that the Thunder have been putting in the
work behind the scenes. They're up to ninth in catch
and shoot jump shot efficiency this season. They're fifth in
three point makes over the last fifteen games. They're third
(19:19):
in three point percentage over the last fifteen games. They're
shooting over thirty eight percent from three as a team
over this span. I've talked a lot about how in
the regular season, a team like the Thunder can sometimes
overachieve a little bit relative to what their talent looks
like in a postseason context, simply because everyone in their
core eight rotation is twenty six years old or younger,
(19:42):
and so they just have a bunch of young guys
that are attacking the regular season with a certain amount
of energy that you're not going to see from some
of the older teams around the league. That's just a
reality that you have to acknowledge. But when I look
at the Thunder I look at their weaknesses, and their
weaknesses generally come down to like vision making on drives
and the ability of their role players to knock down shots,
(20:04):
and they're showing growth in those areas. Another way for
me to put it is like, yeah, you still got
to do it in the postseason, but them doing it
this well in the final straight stretch of the regular
season is a really strong indicator that they could do
it well in the postseason. And if they do, if
these dudes hit thirty eight percent of their threes in
(20:25):
the playoffs, then they become just as dangerous as their
regular season record would lead you to believe that they are.
I wanted to focus in on chet Holmgren for a
minute because his impact was screaming off the screen in
this game. Obviously, his impact on defense is felt the most.
I talked a lot about him filling the role of that,
like handling Ant coming off of ball screens in the
first quarter of this game, and him baiting Ant into
(20:48):
those pull up jump shots. Remember when we did the
one on one tournament breakdown, how I talked about how
I think Kevin Durant would beat Anthony Edwards because Ant
brings the best combination of like downhill force and over
the top shot making that you see from any player
in the league right now, Like he you can't keep
him in front of you, and he's a forty plus
percent off the dribble three point shooter, Like, what are
(21:08):
you gonna do with that? Right? But one of the
things I talked about is like Kevin Urant is kind
of the kryptonite for that because he's got such long
arms that he can give space to contain the drive,
but just take one step forward and stick that left
arm out and he's gonna get a great contest on
any jump shot. Same thing goes for Chet, and you
saw that in this game. Chet was able to play
(21:29):
back a little bit and then Ant was just trying
to go to step back moves to get separation, and yeah,
he'd get a little bit of separation, but Chet's arm
is right there and it turns into a tougher shot,
a shot that Aint can make, but it's a tougher
shot when you talk about like like Anthony Edwards with
his pull up three point shooting, like if he gets
great separation, it feels like it's going in every time,
(21:50):
but once you get get a heavy contest on it,
that percentage is going to drop by ten fifteen percent.
It's the same like even in the drop coverage possessions
when he's coming off in the defenders chasing over the top,
same sort of thing, like Chet's just hanging a little
bit behind the level, but he just can take one
step four and he's getting a great contest there. But
Chet did a ton of damage on offense in this
(22:11):
game too. We talked about him spacing Nas read out
earlier with catching shoot THREEZ. He had a couple of those.
He also hit a three in the early part of
the game coming off of off ball action, just came
out of the right corner off of a wide pin down.
Nas went under just rose up and knocked it down.
He gave a straight iso bucket to Jade McDaniels right
in the middle of the floor. He was beating switches
(22:32):
and the paint. He had a ball screen with j
dub where it led to his switch and he ended
up with Jalen Clark on him again. Jaylen Clark I
talked about earlier is a bowling ball of a wing.
Big strong dude. Chet just buried him with a little
ducking post up, created a nice easy passing angle and
just got an easy basket right at the rim. He
had an easy tap in offensive rebound on a play
(22:52):
where Mike Conley got switched on to him, just waited
for the shot to go up, just jumped right over
Conley and just calmly topped it tapped it into the basket.
He runs the floor better than most bigs. He had
an easy allue you dunk and transition in the fourth
quarter running his lane. They weren't really running plays for him.
He was just in the flow of the offense and
poured in an easy nineteen points on only eleven shots.
(23:15):
He had three blocks. He's just a ridiculous talent to
add to this team and it was already the best
regular season team in the NBA. The Wolves played well
and they kept us thaying close. But I did think
the thunder Throat showed a lot of their high end
on the defensive end in rotation as well. They were
doubling naseried post ups and closing out on the weak
(23:35):
side a lot of the same stuff we've talked about,
where that first rotation closing out to the passing lane
where it just baits on the kind of like inconsistencies
of mediocre shooters who want a pump fake or they
don't like to shoot unless they're completely wide open. They
were already this like fast fly around rotation team, and
schit just brings this other layer of length and athleticism
(23:56):
that wasn't there again, like they they were the big
team in many of their lineup groupings against Minnesota tonight.
Some of that is Minnesota's injuries, but it just goes
to show you how different this team looks physically. When
isaa Hart and Side and chet Holmgren or healthy. All right,
(24:23):
last game for today, moving on to Grizzlies. Calvs. A
fun game that Cleveland basically controlled, but Memphis just did
a good job at keeping things relatively close by shooting
the ball super well. Memphis shot dramatically better than Cleveland
did in this game. On catch and shoot jump shots,
Memphis got one point four points per attempt. Cleveland only
got zero point eighty eight points per attenp They just
(24:45):
had a rough shooting night. But the Stars for Cleveland
just so badly outplayed the Stars for Memphis, and I
thought that was the story of this game. Donovan Mitchell
really outplayed John Morant. Both teams have huge frontlines, play
a lot of two big lineups packed the paint, rotate out.
They're making you make jump shots, and Mitchell is just
(25:06):
a way better shot maker than John Marie. Like Donovan
Mitchell is just pouring in a variety of like step
back threes, pull up threes in ball screens, ISO threes,
just creating his own jump shot in traffic, and John
Moranch just couldn't keep up. He had a few nice
transition buckets down the stretch when the game kind of
(25:26):
had already gotten a little loose. But like I thought,
Mitchell just proved to be the better surgical scorer in
a tight half court environment like that. Ty Jerome was
incredibly dominant as a scorer in this game. I thought
he was much better in this game than Desmond Bain
was dominated the fourth quarter as a scorer. I think
he had sixteen points in the quarter if I remember correctly.
(25:47):
This was the stretch that I really pushed Cleveland over
the top. It was kind of like hanging in that
five to seven range. This run from ty Jerome ended
up pushing the lead up into double digits, and that's
what really gave them their first breathing room and a
couple of tough transition three where he just was he's
got Tidrum clearly has like that I sense blood in
the water. If I hit this shot, I can really
change the dynamic of this game. Type of vibe. And
(26:08):
because he took a couple of tough ones that you
knew he felt good and he just wanted to drive
the nail into coffin, so to speak. And then he
just keeps doing the same exact thing to these teams again.
Memphis runs a lot of drop coverage with Jared Jackson
and with Zach Edie, and Tidrum was just doing the
same thing every time, setting up his man for the
screen so that he's on his trail side coming off
(26:29):
to the screen, waiting for the defender to catch up
to his backside and then like trapping him on his
backside and methodically working into the lane and just shooting
that little push shot in the lane. Made a bunch
of them in this game. He's shooting sixty five percent
on floaters this year on one hundred and sixteen attempts,
by far the best floater shooter in the NBA, and
(26:51):
it's not close, Like he is way better at this
than anybody, and it's given him a spot as one
of the most respected back up guards in the NBA.
If you put Ty Jerome against a team that runs
drop coverage, he's going to be able to get to
a floater and he's going to make more than half
of them. It really is a valuable weapon to have
(27:13):
for a bench unit in this league, especially since you're
going to run into a lot of backup centers in
the NBA that teams have to run drop coverages with
because they don't trust him coming out to the level
on the perimeter. But by far the most interesting part
in this game, in my opinion, was the showdown between
two of the best young power forwards that we have
in the game at this point Jaron Jackson and Evan Mobley,
and I thought Evan Mobley really showcased how his versatility
(27:37):
makes him a better all around basketball player than Jaron Jackson.
In this game, Jared's bigger, and he's stronger, and strictly
when it comes down to like scoring the ball out
of the post, he's a more imposing threat. He can
dislodge defenders with his big, strong shoulders. He can do
it to some of the bigger defenders in the league.
I talked about how he did a bunch of damage
(27:58):
to the Suns recently by ducking in on Kevin Durant
in the post. He's got really good touch with hook
shots over both shoulders. He can spin and connect spin moves,
so he can spin from left to right, but then
spin back from right to left, and he can just
kind of barrel downhill until he gets somewhere close to
the rim where he can get a little hook shot.
But outside of that, the limitation start to show when
(28:19):
he has to pass out of the post. He's very
inefficient as a playmaker. Right once you start to task
him to play in traffic, the flaws can start to
come to the surface. Mobile's just so much more polished
as an all around player, and I thought that was
showing last night. First of all, his individual defense on
Jared Jackson. Jared tested him a few times early in
(28:40):
this game, tried to drop that right shoulder and go
to a lefty hook. Evan Mobley just rose up and
blocked him. Then from the opposite block, Jared tries to
post him up again, and you can tell he's nervous
about Evan Mobley's length and how that ended up leading
to a block on his last hook shot. So he
ended up rushing a hook and just kind of flipped
it up and shot it way over the back of
(29:01):
the rim. It was an air ball. Then he tried
to iso him again in the second quarter, and you
knew he wanted to create extra space because Mobley's length
was causing problems for him. So he really dropped the
shoulder and he extended the arm out and he drew
an offensive foul. So then Jaren was just like, all right,
no more, I'm not going to go after Evan Mobley anymore.
They started picking on Dean Wade and some different matchups
in the game. Evan Mobley is a substantially better rebounder.
(29:24):
This has been a consistent weakness with Jaron Jackson in
his NBA career, like he gets into box outs, but
he struggles to disengage from box outs and actually go
get the loose ball. Evan Mobley dominated this game as
a rebounder, even individually against Jaron Jackson at a big
inside seal for a foul in the fourth quarter of
this game, and then on offense, Evan Mobley just brings
(29:44):
so much more as a play initiator for this team.
They ran a bunch of inverted ball screens in this game,
and we got it to see a classic example of
just how dynamic that action can be. And again we
talked about the inverted ball screens. The upside is the
way they invert rolls. You're asking Biggs to fight through screens,
and you're asking guards to help on screens against Biggs,
(30:06):
and there's a simple dynamic that takes place when you
have Donovan Mitchell screen for Evan Mobley. Donovan Mitchell screens
for Evan Mobley. If his man steps out and helps,
Mitchell can slip out of it and he's gonna get
wide open. He generated an open three for Donovan Mitchell
he generated an open three for Max Struce out of
action where the guard ended up helping on Mobley as
(30:28):
he was coming off of the screen. But then if
he doesn't help, There's a play in the game where
Donovan Mitchell screened for Evan Mobley and he got downhill
to his left hand. What happens the big doesn't know
how to navigate a screen and you're setting a screen
on him. The guard doesn't want to help because the guard,
the screening guard is slipping out and getting three point shots.
What happens when Mobley comes off of a screen and
(30:50):
there's no help, he can get downhill, gets all the
way downhill and ends up getting an easy dunk with
his left hand. Connective playmaking was the big piece that
was standing out to me in this game. I think
I think Mobile had seven assists if I remember correctly,
had a bunch of assists in this game. He ends
up catching the ball in these advantage situations as a
(31:11):
cutter or a lot of times at the three point line.
There's a play where he ends up flashing right to
the middle of the floor. They call it teeing up right.
There's two different ways for a big to make themselves
available in help side situations in the dunker spot where
you're on like kind of the baseline side, just outside
the block waiting for the ball, or as someone drives
the baseline, you don't want to get in their way,
so you flash right in front of the basket to
(31:33):
make yourself available. He ended up catching the ball right
there in the middle of the floor. All the bodies
converged on him, and he ended up making a nice
easy kickout past to Sam Merrill in the left corner.
He knocked down to three play where he catches the
ball in the left corner. He struggled to knock down
threes in this game, so he drives a close out
out of the left corner, easy drop off past to
Jared Allen, who was flashing right to the middle of
(31:54):
the paint. He ends up getting a big dunk. And
then sometimes you just have to beat the coverage. There's
a ball screen with Mitchell and Jared Allen late in
the game where Santi al Dama's guarding Evan Mobley and
they put two on Mitchell and they use Aldama to
tag Allen. Evan Mobley's wide open at the top of
the key. It's a big possession late fourth quarter. He's
(32:15):
got to beat the coverage. He's got to knock that
shot down. And even though he struggled to knock down
the jumpers all night long, he hit the big one.
And he has been shooting the ball really well for
the most part this season. I thought his versatility was
on display in a big way in this game. The
beautiful thing about having an offensive player like Evan Mobley
is you can run action for him, and you did,
(32:35):
and you got good stuff out of it. But he
also can function almost entirely as a connective piece and
tie everything else together from the talent do you have
elsewhere on the lineup. Evan Mobley used to struggle with
playmaking in the middle of the floor. That was a
huge problem in the next series. Evan Mobley used to
struggle with finishing in traffic off of cuts. That was
(32:56):
a problem in the past. He's better at those things now.
He's playing off of two feet, confident going up and
dunking everything with two hands. He's going up with an
aggression and a confidence in traffic that wasn't there in
the past. He's just become a much better player. And
as I've talked about, when we talk about the Calves
and this is a big win without Darius Garland at
home against a good Memphis Grizzlies team. Most of it
(33:18):
comes down to Mobley's just better now than he used
to be. Darius Garland's just better now than he used
to be. You've seen some of the upside of DeAndre Hunter,
just a big, physical athlete that he is, his ability
to switch on to bigger players. One of the big
things that I'm excited about with DeAndre Hunter is his
ability to make tough shots, which becomes valuable when you
(33:39):
get into the postseason and only tough shots exist for
your team. Had a couple of really nice playoff type
of mid range scoring moves today. Had a mid ranger
over a mismatch in the middle of the floor. He
put John Morant in jail on an action where he
got him trapped on his backside and just kind of
worked to the middle of the floor hit a little floater.
They've just they can piece together lineups now that have
(34:01):
five really high level offensive players in various different configurations.
Movement shooting like Max truth Oh, you need him to
fly off of an off ball screen and knock a
shot down. He can do it. You need someone that
can run more action and do some more scoring in
the middle of the four DeAndre Hunter is there is
an option. You want a bigger, longer defender that can
knock down, catch and shoot threes, Well there's Dean Wade.
(34:21):
They're bench groups having a luxury like ty Jerome to
be able to pick apart drop coverage teams. They've got
a lot of talent down there in Cleveland. That was
an impressive win last night against the Memphis Grizzlies. All right, guys,
that is all I have for today. Is always, as
sincerely appreciate you for supporting me and supporting the show.
We are taking tomorrow off, but we will be back
on Wednesday with some more reaction content. Almost see you guys.
(34:43):
Then the volume. What's so guys? As always, I appreciate
you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. They would
actually be really helpful for us if you guys would
take a second and leave a rating and a review.
As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
you could take a minute to do that, I'd really
appreciate it.
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All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume
heavy Monday. Everybody, oh ball of you guys had a
great weekend, got a damn pack show for you. Today,
we're gonna be hitting on three games from yesterday's slate.
As the Golden State Warriors win their fifth time and
six tries in the Jimmy Butler era, We're gonna be
breaking that game down from the perspective of both teams.
After that, the Oklahoma City thunder got revenge on the
Minnesota Timberwolves for a loss that they suffer right before
(02:00):
the All Star break where their offense broke out, and
I want to talk about some trends involving their shooting
that should be concerning for the other twenty nine teams
in the league, as well as talking a little bit
about chet Holmgren in the way that he kind of
unlocks additional dynamics for them on both ends of the floor.
And then at the tail end of the show, we
got a show down between two of the best power
forwards young power forwards that we have in the NBA,
(02:22):
between Jared Jackson and Evan Mobley. As the Cavs got
a big win against the Memphis Grizzlies. We're going to
be talking about that game and that matchup at the
tail end of the show. You guys have the job
before we get started. It's subscribed to the Hoops Tonight
YouTube channel, so you don't miss any more of our videos.
Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLT so you guys
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(02:43):
On that front, we also brand new social media feeds
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the year, and then, last but not least, keep dropping
mail bag questions in the YouTube comments so that we
can hit them on Fridays throughout the remainder of the season.
All right, let's talk some basketball, So really quick recap
of MAVs war The MAVs hung tough for the first
few minutes, but then the Warriors basically dominated the rest
(03:04):
of the way. Steph and Jimmy had a nice little
run in the middle of the first where they just
showcased their great basketball fit, their natural basketball fit, the
way their skill sets kind of just intertwined to help
accentuate each other. We're gonna talk about that in a
few minutes. Jimmy led a bench group without Steph. The Warriors,
by the way, plus thirty with Jimmy with a Steph
(03:24):
off the floor through the first six games of the
Jimmy Butler era, a sign of just how much stronger
those units can be now that Jimmy Butler is a
part of the group. But Jimmy led a group without
Steph that grew the lead. He was getting to the
foul line a bunch. He had a couple of nice
dishes to Quinton Post by the way, shout out Quinton Post.
He had a nasty poster dunk over a couple of
guys that let the crowd on fire. And then late
(03:45):
third quarter, Steph just puts the game away with a
masterful stretch of shot making and as a result, no
starter plays over thirty minutes because the Warriors took care
of business in the first three quarters, which used to
be a hallmark of the Warriors dynasty. The Warriors again, like,
that's a big part of what has made them so
good over the years. They can take time off during
the regular season just by beating teams up right. We
(04:06):
got an example of that last night. But the first
thing I want to focus on today with the Warriors,
it stood out to me as I was watching, and
it's been standing out to me as I've watched them
over the course of the last couple of weeks. Just
how much more explosive Steph looks. And when I say explosive,
I'm not just talking about scoring points and doing it
more efficiently than usual, it's the way he's moving. It's
(04:28):
like was jarring to me as I'm watching last night,
the verve he has going downhill, his ability to get
into the paint, the finishes in traffic that he was
missing earlier this year. So I was like, you know what,
I'm going to dig into the numbers and see if
there's been any difference in STEP's ability to score in
the paint since the Jimmy Butler trade went down. Pre
(04:51):
Jimmy trade, so up to February seventh, he was averaging
one point three makes per game in the restricted area
on sixty percent shooting. Since the Jimmy Butler trade, he's
getting two makes in the restricted area per game at
eighty percent, from one point three up to two non
restricted area paint makes, so shots that are still in
(05:14):
the paint but that are outside of the restricted area.
This short range shot making right pre Jimmy trade one
point one makes per game at forty two percent, two
makes post Jimmy Butler trade at sixty three percent, So
he's nearly doubled his output in paint, scoring at substantially
higher efficiency. I think a big part of this comes
(05:36):
down to belief, Like even separate from anything having to
do with Jimmy Butler and his basketball impact. Like, I
think Steph just sees an opportunity that he didn't see
earlier this season, and I think that just is bringing
another level of engagement and excitement out of him. But
it also comes down to having a legitimate secondary co
star and how that makes life easier for Steph in
(05:57):
terms of his energy conservation. I talked about this if
you guys remember after the Warriors Nuggets game or excuse me,
the Lakers Nuggets game on Saturday involving Luca and Lebron,
and how Lebron can be more physically aggressive in his
touches because he has someone that can eat up so
much usage in Luka Dancic. I think it's even showing
in his pull up shooting. He's getting more lyft, he's
getting more separation on his pull up jump shots. Pre
(06:20):
Jimmy Butler trade, he was shooting fifty four percent in
effective field goal percentage, which is just field goal percentage
weighted for threes. He was shooting fifty four percent in
effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots and
getting eight point five points per game out of them.
Post Jimmy Trade up to sixty percent in effective field
goal percentage with nine point seven points per game, so
(06:41):
significant uptick and efficiency and output as a pull up
jump shooter as well. By the way, just classic Steph Curry.
Sixty percent effective field goal percentage on pull up jump
shots is outrageous and it's actually kind of hilarious looking
back that we were looking at fifty four percent for
him as a little bit of a down year. But
that's just another conversation, and that's just what it's like
when you're dealing with the all time greats. Everything you
(07:01):
talk about in terms of the realms of normalcy for
other players is just like a totally different era of
statistics that were totally different area of statistics that we're
looking at with the player of his caliber. But again,
you have to have the legs to get separation, you
have to have the legs to get the lift after
you get the separation. That's the same sort of legs
(07:22):
you need when you're finishing in traffic. And I just
think we're just seeing a boost from Steph that's coming
partially from the belief he has in this group and
secondly from the partnership with Jimmy Butler. So on that note,
I want to talk a little bit about Jimmy's natural
basketball fit was Steph. One of the first things that
stood out with me stood out to me watching the
film was just a dynamic that Jimmy has as a
(07:44):
screener in actions with Steph, and how his one the
threat he brings, and how that can cause him to
have more screening gravity than normal players would. So like,
if an inferior player sets a screen, the guy who's
defending him is going to be primarily focused in that
action on defending the guy coming off of the screen, right,
(08:05):
Whereas if you're a threat the way that Jimmy Butler is,
the guy who's guarding Jimmy's going to be more concerned
about leaving Jimmy to help in those actions. Steph's first
layup in this game was a curl off of an
off ball screen from Jimmy Kessler. Edwards was guarding Steph,
and he's kind of on Jimmy's backside if it's anybody else,
if it's Wiggins, He's pushing off of that guy and
(08:26):
dropping to catch Steph as he's cutting to the basket,
but Kessler's hung up on Jimmy because he's been told
before the game, you got the Jimmy Butler assignment. Here's
a list of all of the game plan stuff with
Jimmy Butler. Here's what your job is dealing with Jimmy Butler.
And that just puts Kessler Edwards into an entirely different
frame of mind when he's dealing with Kesler and screening
actions with Steph Curry. The second piece of it is
(08:48):
dealing with the reads that you have to make in
those screening actions, which Jimmy's just so incredibly smart with.
They ran another backscreen for Steph a little bit later
in the first quarter, two and a half minutes later,
so he sets a backscreen for Steph. They do switch it,
but when he sets the backscreen, what happens Now STEP's
man is on Jimmy's top side, and so as step
(09:09):
is cutting through, all of a sudden, this big opening
is created in between Jimmy and the rim because Jimmy's
defender is stuck on his top side. He ends up
getting the ball and getting an easy dunk, slipping out
of that action because he has that inside seal. We
talked a lot about this with Jimmy Butler. He's one
of the best players in the league. I was talking
about this after their first couple of games that they
(09:30):
played together at like creating a passing angle in post
seal situations that are not traditional. Like a lot of
times you think of a post up as like a
guy standing ten feet from the basket with a defender
on his backside, you just throw it into him. But
a lot of times with guards, and a lot of
times in those switching actions, there's different angles. Guys trapped
on your top side, a guy's trapped on the side
(09:51):
you're getting bracketed. With backside help, you can create these
pretty tight passing windows. And Jimmy's just as good as
anybody in the league, if not better, at high pointing
the ball, getting it in traffic, coming down with it,
and being able to make a play there. We've talked
about the short roll stuff as to go onto the
ball with Steph and his ability to make reads out
of the middle of the floor. We've talked about zone stuff.
(10:13):
When teams go zone against the Warriors, Jimmy can operate
right in the middle of the floor. It allows him
to be really impactful offensively while Steph is on the floor,
but then he can shape shift and just turn into
a unit leading offensive player when Steph is off the floor.
So good at getting to the foul line. Did it
again last night. He's at nine point two free throw
(10:35):
attempts per game so far with the Warriors. So good
at playmaking out of help, driving out of those ISOs
and post ups and making those kickout passes to shooters
are getting underneath the basket for fouls or easy baskets.
He's run thirty seven post ups in ISOs so far
as a Warrior and has generated fifty one points including
(10:55):
passes one point three to eight points per possession. That
is extremely high level shot creation that the Warriors are
getting out of Jimmy Butler so far, and it's manifested
in the big picture so far. Just taking the raw
data from six games, the Warriors have a one to
twenty one offensive rating with Jimmy Butler on the team.
(11:16):
That's more in line with what you'd expect from a
Steph Curry led offense. That's why it was so important
to get him a co star that could help him
on that end when he's on the floor and anchor
units when Steph is off the floor. And then on
the defensive end, like you're just adding an additional defensive
playmaker to the starting unit. Even further, like I think
(11:37):
Andrew Wiggins, if you're just talking about guarding the other
team's best player, picking him up full court, doing all
that kind of stuff. Andrew Wiggins obviously has a little
bit more youthful exuberantz to show in that type of role,
But in terms of overall defensive playmaking, Jimmy's one of
the best we got in the league. One of the
most important layers of this, too, is in the old
(11:58):
version of the team, Brandon Pajemski was viewed as a
guy that had to like lead a lot of bench
units as a score a lot of a lot of
the ask for what Steve Kerr and the staff needed
from Pods was geared towards shot creation, and like, that's
not the strength of Brandon Pizempski's game. I do think
in the long run he'll become a better offensive playmaker
(12:21):
and offensive play starter. That's a big picture goal. He
needs to get better as a jump shooter, he needs
to get better at running action, that sort of stuff.
But the strength of Brandon Pazemski is a basketball player
right now is he's awesome at all the little things.
Excellent rebounder, excellent defensive player, excellent connective passer, and play finisher.
(12:42):
That is the area of his game where he's at
his best. And so now that Jimmy Butler's on the team,
you've kind of facilitated an environment where it makes sense
to start Brandon Pajemski. Now that you're starting Brandon Pajemski
and he's now locked into a role where he's functioning
as a role player, it's accentuating his strengths, which is
he's really good at all of this little shit continues
(13:04):
to just grab a million rebounds, very very good. There
was a play where Steph Curry got PJ Washington on
a switch on the right wing, and Pj just tries
to rip through Steph and go to the basket. Pods
was glued up to Kyrie irving on the Week's side
of the floor, preparing to get run off of a
Chicago action. He was thinking he was gonna have to
chase Kyrie off of a dribble handoff on the other
end of the floor, and he sprinted under the basket
(13:27):
and vertically jumped walled up and stopped PJ. Washington there
and got to stop it. It was a remarkable defensive play.
I'm watching Jimmy Butler as he's tracking a cutter through
along the baseline. Another cutter comes in behind him. The
pass comes in. Jimmy identifies it because he just sees
everything happening on the floor, peels off his man and
jumps the passing lane and gets the steal. I seen
(13:49):
Draymond Green help hard off of Kessler Edwards to stop
someone at the basket. The drop off passes there and
he turns and forces a traveling violation. You have three
extremely high level defensive playmakers that are anchoring that unit
now because of Jimmy Butler, and because of the way
he's now made Brandon Pajemski's role makes sense. They were
(14:12):
already a top ten defense before this trade. They are
third in defensive ratings so far through six games with
Jimmy Butler. It just all makes sense now because you
balance the roster. You turned several role players on a
group that had fourteen to fifteen guys that could potentially
play rotation minutes into a high level, do everything. Swiss
(14:34):
Army Knife one of the most impactful winning basketball players
that we have that we've had in the league in
the last half decade, and it's just balanced things out.
Starting group so far with Moody and Pods next to Draymond,
Jimmy and Steph ninety seven possessions plus eleven net ratings
so far great on both ends. Again, I want to
see a lot more before I start talking big picture
(14:56):
about the Warriors. I want to see the next couple
of weeks and what they're capable of. But this is
really exciting early returns on this partnership, all right. Moving
on to thunder Wolves again, really quick breakdown of the game.
It was just game of runs. The thunder went on
a massive forty two to seventeen run early in the game.
They were doing a lot of switching. There's Smalls held
up really well on Nasree. They were forcing him into
(15:18):
tough shots he was missing. They did a good job
shrinking the floor, making those guys playing traffic chet Holmgrin
was doing a great job both in his switches and
in his kind of at the level ball screen coverages
against Anthony Edwards of baiting him into these like tough
contested step back threies. We're going to talk about that
dynamic in a little bit because it reminds me of
something we were talking about in our one and one
on one tournament and how length can just be kind
(15:40):
of like the the answer to questions in terms of
dealing with guys that are dynamic perimeter shot creators. Shay
was cooking everyone, including Jayden McDaniels. The Wolves ended up
needing to blitz him during that run because Shay was
cooking everybody, so then they started to pick him apart
with four on threes. Kenrich Williams did some really nice
work during that stretch as a short roller posted the
(16:02):
low man. It was a Nikhil Alexander Walker tag where
he like posted him and got in the basket for
anice little lefty scoop shot made a play on the
short role where he drew defenders in and made a
kick out to case On Wallace, who hit a three.
The Wolves were playing a lot of small ball groups
with like three sometimes four guards in the lineup because
of the injuries to Julius Randall and Rudy Gobert. They're
(16:22):
just playing a lot more smaller groups, and so it's
kind of weird seeing a dynamic where the Thunder had
physical advantages over the Wolves and they were taking advantage
of that during that stretch. But then the Wolves responded
with a thirty to six run of their own, and
it kind of the same thing that's been the theme
for them all year, which is when they ratchet up
their ball pressure and they really start getting physical on
(16:44):
the perimeter, they can cause teams to completely lose their composure,
and the Thunder did during that stretch. Jalen Clark, who
was a revolution in this game. He's just a bowling
ball of like a guard wing do everything hybrid role
player type of guy. He had four steals in this game,
was wrecking havoc at the point into attack. Just with
physical ball pressure, noz Reed and Anthony Edwards finally started
(17:04):
hitting shots. They completely regained control and they actually end
up taking a little lead. And it goes back and
forth really throughout the rest of the second half until
in the middle of the fourth quarter the Thunder had
one last run in then they go on in eighteen
to two runs, spearheaded by six made three point shots.
Chet Holmgren hit a three, beating noz Reed for helping
in the lane. Jay dub and Shae each hit a
(17:25):
couple of tougher threes, Shay hit one in transition, Jay
dub hit like a twenty eight footer along the right wing.
But it was Alex Caruso who really ended that game
by getting hot. He hit three threes in the run,
a couple of kickouts off of help, and then he
was running two man game with Shae Gilvis Alexander where
he was slipping out of it to the above the
(17:45):
brake line about like off the left wing and he
was hitting movement. He hit a movement three slipping out
of that action with Shay. That was a big time
performance from Alex. Crusoe has had some rough offensive nights
earlier in the season. The thunder shooting, I thought was
the story of the game. Out of the twenty eight
catch and shoot jump shots they attempted in that game,
they made seventeen of them. That's pretty crazy. We've talked
(18:10):
about their spot up shooting the season and it will
continue to be a storyline heading into the playoffs. Like,
no matter how well they shoot now, said the same
thing with the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier. Doesn't matter how well
you shoot now, you got to hit them in a
big playoff series when there's pressure and you're on the road.
Sometimes like obviously, no amount of shot making in the
regular season will make up for the reality that guys
(18:33):
are going to have to hit shots. That said, the
Thunder of sneak even shooting the ball really well for
a while now. The answer is if you're going to
shoot poorly in the playoffs like you did last year
against Dallas, and you want to get to the point
where you shoot better in the postseason in the future,
everyone's got to get better at shooting, and that starts
with behind the scenes in practice and then in regular
(18:55):
season games. The final challenge is doing it in postseason games.
But you're not going to just randomly do it in
postseason games. It's going to start with that process, and
it's clear that the Thunder have been putting in the
work behind the scenes. They're up to ninth in catch
and shoot jump shot efficiency this season. They're fifth in
three point makes over the last fifteen games. They're third
(19:19):
in three point percentage over the last fifteen games. They're
shooting over thirty eight percent from three as a team
over this span. I've talked a lot about how in
the regular season, a team like the Thunder can sometimes
overachieve a little bit relative to what their talent looks
like in a postseason context, simply because everyone in their
core eight rotation is twenty six years old or younger,
(19:42):
and so they just have a bunch of young guys
that are attacking the regular season with a certain amount
of energy that you're not going to see from some
of the older teams around the league. That's just a
reality that you have to acknowledge. But when I look
at the Thunder I look at their weaknesses, and their
weaknesses generally come down to like vision making on drives
and the ability of their role players to knock down shots,
(20:04):
and they're showing growth in those areas. Another way for
me to put it is like, yeah, you still got
to do it in the postseason, but them doing it
this well in the final straight stretch of the regular
season is a really strong indicator that they could do
it well in the postseason. And if they do, if
these dudes hit thirty eight percent of their threes in
(20:25):
the playoffs, then they become just as dangerous as their
regular season record would lead you to believe that they are.
I wanted to focus in on chet Holmgren for a
minute because his impact was screaming off the screen in
this game. Obviously, his impact on defense is felt the most.
I talked a lot about him filling the role of that,
like handling Ant coming off of ball screens in the
first quarter of this game, and him baiting Ant into
(20:48):
those pull up jump shots. Remember when we did the
one on one tournament breakdown, how I talked about how
I think Kevin Durant would beat Anthony Edwards because Ant
brings the best combination of like downhill force and over
the top shot making that you see from any player
in the league right now, Like he you can't keep
him in front of you, and he's a forty plus
percent off the dribble three point shooter, Like, what are
(21:08):
you gonna do with that? Right? But one of the
things I talked about is like Kevin Urant is kind
of the kryptonite for that because he's got such long
arms that he can give space to contain the drive,
but just take one step forward and stick that left
arm out and he's gonna get a great contest on
any jump shot. Same thing goes for Chet, and you
saw that in this game. Chet was able to play
(21:29):
back a little bit and then Ant was just trying
to go to step back moves to get separation, and yeah,
he'd get a little bit of separation, but Chet's arm
is right there and it turns into a tougher shot,
a shot that Aint can make, but it's a tougher
shot when you talk about like like Anthony Edwards with
his pull up three point shooting, like if he gets
great separation, it feels like it's going in every time,
(21:50):
but once you get get a heavy contest on it,
that percentage is going to drop by ten fifteen percent.
It's the same like even in the drop coverage possessions
when he's coming off in the defenders chasing over the top,
same sort of thing, like Chet's just hanging a little
bit behind the level, but he just can take one
step four and he's getting a great contest there. But
Chet did a ton of damage on offense in this
(22:11):
game too. We talked about him spacing Nas read out
earlier with catching shoot THREEZ. He had a couple of those.
He also hit a three in the early part of
the game coming off of off ball action, just came
out of the right corner off of a wide pin down.
Nas went under just rose up and knocked it down.
He gave a straight iso bucket to Jade McDaniels right
in the middle of the floor. He was beating switches
(22:32):
and the paint. He had a ball screen with j
dub where it led to his switch and he ended
up with Jalen Clark on him again. Jaylen Clark I
talked about earlier is a bowling ball of a wing.
Big strong dude. Chet just buried him with a little
ducking post up, created a nice easy passing angle and
just got an easy basket right at the rim. He
had an easy tap in offensive rebound on a play
(22:52):
where Mike Conley got switched on to him, just waited
for the shot to go up, just jumped right over
Conley and just calmly topped it tapped it into the basket.
He runs the floor better than most bigs. He had
an easy allue you dunk and transition in the fourth
quarter running his lane. They weren't really running plays for him.
He was just in the flow of the offense and
poured in an easy nineteen points on only eleven shots.
(23:15):
He had three blocks. He's just a ridiculous talent to
add to this team and it was already the best
regular season team in the NBA. The Wolves played well
and they kept us thaying close. But I did think
the thunder Throat showed a lot of their high end
on the defensive end in rotation as well. They were
doubling naseried post ups and closing out on the weak
(23:35):
side a lot of the same stuff we've talked about,
where that first rotation closing out to the passing lane
where it just baits on the kind of like inconsistencies
of mediocre shooters who want a pump fake or they
don't like to shoot unless they're completely wide open. They
were already this like fast fly around rotation team, and
schit just brings this other layer of length and athleticism
(23:56):
that wasn't there again, like they they were the big
team in many of their lineup groupings against Minnesota tonight.
Some of that is Minnesota's injuries, but it just goes
to show you how different this team looks physically. When
isaa Hart and Side and chet Holmgren or healthy. All right,
(24:23):
last game for today, moving on to Grizzlies. Calvs. A
fun game that Cleveland basically controlled, but Memphis just did
a good job at keeping things relatively close by shooting
the ball super well. Memphis shot dramatically better than Cleveland
did in this game. On catch and shoot jump shots,
Memphis got one point four points per attempt. Cleveland only
got zero point eighty eight points per attenp They just
(24:45):
had a rough shooting night. But the Stars for Cleveland
just so badly outplayed the Stars for Memphis, and I
thought that was the story of this game. Donovan Mitchell
really outplayed John Morant. Both teams have huge frontlines, play
a lot of two big lineups packed the paint, rotate out.
They're making you make jump shots, and Mitchell is just
(25:06):
a way better shot maker than John Marie. Like Donovan
Mitchell is just pouring in a variety of like step
back threes, pull up threes in ball screens, ISO threes,
just creating his own jump shot in traffic, and John
Moranch just couldn't keep up. He had a few nice
transition buckets down the stretch when the game kind of
(25:26):
had already gotten a little loose. But like I thought,
Mitchell just proved to be the better surgical scorer in
a tight half court environment like that. Ty Jerome was
incredibly dominant as a scorer in this game. I thought
he was much better in this game than Desmond Bain
was dominated the fourth quarter as a scorer. I think
he had sixteen points in the quarter if I remember correctly.
(25:47):
This was the stretch that I really pushed Cleveland over
the top. It was kind of like hanging in that
five to seven range. This run from ty Jerome ended
up pushing the lead up into double digits, and that's
what really gave them their first breathing room and a
couple of tough transition three where he just was he's
got Tidrum clearly has like that I sense blood in
the water. If I hit this shot, I can really
change the dynamic of this game. Type of vibe. And
(26:08):
because he took a couple of tough ones that you
knew he felt good and he just wanted to drive
the nail into coffin, so to speak. And then he
just keeps doing the same exact thing to these teams again.
Memphis runs a lot of drop coverage with Jared Jackson
and with Zach Edie, and Tidrum was just doing the
same thing every time, setting up his man for the
screen so that he's on his trail side coming off
(26:29):
to the screen, waiting for the defender to catch up
to his backside and then like trapping him on his
backside and methodically working into the lane and just shooting
that little push shot in the lane. Made a bunch
of them in this game. He's shooting sixty five percent
on floaters this year on one hundred and sixteen attempts,
by far the best floater shooter in the NBA, and
(26:51):
it's not close, Like he is way better at this
than anybody, and it's given him a spot as one
of the most respected back up guards in the NBA.
If you put Ty Jerome against a team that runs
drop coverage, he's going to be able to get to
a floater and he's going to make more than half
of them. It really is a valuable weapon to have
(27:13):
for a bench unit in this league, especially since you're
going to run into a lot of backup centers in
the NBA that teams have to run drop coverages with
because they don't trust him coming out to the level
on the perimeter. But by far the most interesting part
in this game, in my opinion, was the showdown between
two of the best young power forwards that we have
in the game at this point Jaron Jackson and Evan Mobley,
and I thought Evan Mobley really showcased how his versatility
(27:37):
makes him a better all around basketball player than Jaron Jackson.
In this game, Jared's bigger, and he's stronger, and strictly
when it comes down to like scoring the ball out
of the post, he's a more imposing threat. He can
dislodge defenders with his big, strong shoulders. He can do
it to some of the bigger defenders in the league.
I talked about how he did a bunch of damage
(27:58):
to the Suns recently by ducking in on Kevin Durant
in the post. He's got really good touch with hook
shots over both shoulders. He can spin and connect spin moves,
so he can spin from left to right, but then
spin back from right to left, and he can just
kind of barrel downhill until he gets somewhere close to
the rim where he can get a little hook shot.
But outside of that, the limitation start to show when
(28:19):
he has to pass out of the post. He's very
inefficient as a playmaker. Right once you start to task
him to play in traffic, the flaws can start to
come to the surface. Mobile's just so much more polished
as an all around player, and I thought that was
showing last night. First of all, his individual defense on
Jared Jackson. Jared tested him a few times early in
(28:40):
this game, tried to drop that right shoulder and go
to a lefty hook. Evan Mobley just rose up and
blocked him. Then from the opposite block, Jared tries to
post him up again, and you can tell he's nervous
about Evan Mobley's length and how that ended up leading
to a block on his last hook shot. So he
ended up rushing a hook and just kind of flipped
it up and shot it way over the back of
(29:01):
the rim. It was an air ball. Then he tried
to iso him again in the second quarter, and you
knew he wanted to create extra space because Mobley's length
was causing problems for him. So he really dropped the
shoulder and he extended the arm out and he drew
an offensive foul. So then Jaren was just like, all right,
no more, I'm not going to go after Evan Mobley anymore.
They started picking on Dean Wade and some different matchups
in the game. Evan Mobley is a substantially better rebounder.
(29:24):
This has been a consistent weakness with Jaron Jackson in
his NBA career, like he gets into box outs, but
he struggles to disengage from box outs and actually go
get the loose ball. Evan Mobley dominated this game as
a rebounder, even individually against Jaron Jackson at a big
inside seal for a foul in the fourth quarter of
this game, and then on offense, Evan Mobley just brings
(29:44):
so much more as a play initiator for this team.
They ran a bunch of inverted ball screens in this game,
and we got it to see a classic example of
just how dynamic that action can be. And again we
talked about the inverted ball screens. The upside is the
way they invert rolls. You're asking Biggs to fight through screens,
and you're asking guards to help on screens against Biggs,
(30:06):
and there's a simple dynamic that takes place when you
have Donovan Mitchell screen for Evan Mobley. Donovan Mitchell screens
for Evan Mobley. If his man steps out and helps,
Mitchell can slip out of it and he's gonna get
wide open. He generated an open three for Donovan Mitchell
he generated an open three for Max Struce out of
action where the guard ended up helping on Mobley as
(30:28):
he was coming off of the screen. But then if
he doesn't help, There's a play in the game where
Donovan Mitchell screened for Evan Mobley and he got downhill
to his left hand. What happens the big doesn't know
how to navigate a screen and you're setting a screen
on him. The guard doesn't want to help because the guard,
the screening guard is slipping out and getting three point shots.
What happens when Mobley comes off of a screen and
(30:50):
there's no help, he can get downhill, gets all the
way downhill and ends up getting an easy dunk with
his left hand. Connective playmaking was the big piece that
was standing out to me in this game. I think
I think Mobile had seven assists if I remember correctly,
had a bunch of assists in this game. He ends
up catching the ball in these advantage situations as a
(31:11):
cutter or a lot of times at the three point line.
There's a play where he ends up flashing right to
the middle of the floor. They call it teeing up right.
There's two different ways for a big to make themselves
available in help side situations in the dunker spot where
you're on like kind of the baseline side, just outside
the block waiting for the ball, or as someone drives
the baseline, you don't want to get in their way,
so you flash right in front of the basket to
(31:33):
make yourself available. He ended up catching the ball right
there in the middle of the floor. All the bodies
converged on him, and he ended up making a nice
easy kickout past to Sam Merrill in the left corner.
He knocked down to three play where he catches the
ball in the left corner. He struggled to knock down
threes in this game, so he drives a close out
out of the left corner, easy drop off past to
Jared Allen, who was flashing right to the middle of
(31:54):
the paint. He ends up getting a big dunk. And
then sometimes you just have to beat the coverage. There's
a ball screen with Mitchell and Jared Allen late in
the game where Santi al Dama's guarding Evan Mobley and
they put two on Mitchell and they use Aldama to
tag Allen. Evan Mobley's wide open at the top of
the key. It's a big possession late fourth quarter. He's
(32:15):
got to beat the coverage. He's got to knock that
shot down. And even though he struggled to knock down
the jumpers all night long, he hit the big one.
And he has been shooting the ball really well for
the most part this season. I thought his versatility was
on display in a big way in this game. The
beautiful thing about having an offensive player like Evan Mobley
is you can run action for him, and you did,
(32:35):
and you got good stuff out of it. But he
also can function almost entirely as a connective piece and
tie everything else together from the talent do you have
elsewhere on the lineup. Evan Mobley used to struggle with
playmaking in the middle of the floor. That was a
huge problem in the next series. Evan Mobley used to
struggle with finishing in traffic off of cuts. That was
(32:56):
a problem in the past. He's better at those things now.
He's playing off of two feet, confident going up and
dunking everything with two hands. He's going up with an
aggression and a confidence in traffic that wasn't there in
the past. He's just become a much better player. And
as I've talked about, when we talk about the Calves
and this is a big win without Darius Garland at
home against a good Memphis Grizzlies team. Most of it
(33:18):
comes down to Mobley's just better now than he used
to be. Darius Garland's just better now than he used
to be. You've seen some of the upside of DeAndre Hunter,
just a big, physical athlete that he is, his ability
to switch on to bigger players. One of the big
things that I'm excited about with DeAndre Hunter is his
ability to make tough shots, which becomes valuable when you
(33:39):
get into the postseason and only tough shots exist for
your team. Had a couple of really nice playoff type
of mid range scoring moves today. Had a mid ranger
over a mismatch in the middle of the floor. He
put John Morant in jail on an action where he
got him trapped on his backside and just kind of
worked to the middle of the floor hit a little floater.
They've just they can piece together lineups now that have
(34:01):
five really high level offensive players in various different configurations.
Movement shooting like Max truth Oh, you need him to
fly off of an off ball screen and knock a
shot down. He can do it. You need someone that
can run more action and do some more scoring in
the middle of the four DeAndre Hunter is there is
an option. You want a bigger, longer defender that can
knock down, catch and shoot threes, Well there's Dean Wade.
(34:21):
They're bench groups having a luxury like ty Jerome to
be able to pick apart drop coverage teams. They've got
a lot of talent down there in Cleveland. That was
an impressive win last night against the Memphis Grizzlies. All right, guys,
that is all I have for today. Is always, as
sincerely appreciate you for supporting me and supporting the show.
We are taking tomorrow off, but we will be back
on Wednesday with some more reaction content. Almost see you guys.
(34:43):
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As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
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