December 4, 2025 • 38 mins
Jason reacts to the latest in the Giannis Antetokounmpo and Milwaukee Bucks trade saga and gives options on trades to five potential teams: the Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio Spurs, New York Knicks, Atlanta Hawks, and Orlando Magic. Then he breaks down the Dallas Mavericks beating the Miami Heat thanks to a continued rise from Cooper Flagg, Ryan Nembhard's emergence, and Anthony Davis returning to form. Finally, he discusses De'Aaron Fox and Dylan Harper leading the San Antonio Spurs to another win without Victor Wembanyama.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. All right, old Coo to hoops tonight, you're
at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. Hope all of you
guys are having an incredible week. We have a jam
(00:21):
pack show for you guys today. Off the top, we
got news yesterday that Joannison Tenancupo and the Bucks are
potentially looking towards the future for both sides. Gonna have
a little bit of a takeaway from the Pistons game
last night, as well as my thoughts on the Giannis
trade saga and what that might potentially look like, some
of the potential issues that could happen, especially if Jannis
(00:43):
ends up going somewhere like in the Western Conference. After that,
the Dallas Mavericks got their third consecutive win against the
Miami Heat yesterday, fueled by the return of Anthony Davis
and an awakening of their offense. A lot of interesting
stuff that I want to get into, some internal development
two with Ryan Emhart finding a role as well as
Cooper Flag finding success as a short range shot maker.
(01:05):
After that, the tail end of the show today, the
San Antonio Spurs won their seventh time and nine games
without Victor Webbin Yama on the road. On the tail
end of a back to back in Orlando against the Magic.
Kind of a bizarre sequence late in the game, but
I want to dig into what has been driving that
success for the San Antonio Spurs. You guys are the
drip before we get started. To subscribe to the Hoops
(01:25):
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(01:47):
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them on Fridays throughout the rest of the season. Also playback.
We're back on our playback streams Tonight with the Lakers
on the road in Toronto against the Raptor should be
(02:08):
an interesting one because Luka Doncic is going to be
out for personal reasons, so an opportunity to see Lebron
James get an opportunity to have the ball in his
hands more as he tries to find his rhythm. So
come hang out again playback dot tv. Excuse me, yeah,
playback playback dot Tv. Slash Hoops tonight is where we'll
be tonight at four thirty pm Pacific time. All right,
(02:29):
let's talk some basketball. So the Bucks actually got a
really nice win last night at home against the Detroit Pistons.
Giannis went down with a calf injury early and the
Pistons jumped them. They went up eighteen in the first quarter,
but they just battled back. Ryan Rollins was great again.
Kevin Porter Junior has been awesome since he came back,
and they found themselves down by five with two minutes
left and ended up stealing that game. Kevin Porter Junior
(02:50):
made a beautiful offhand skip pass driving down the right
lane line to aj Green in the left corner, who
ended up hitting a catch and shoot three. There then
on the other end of the floor, Ryan Rowlins made
a beautiful defensive play in his own look that they had.
He was kind of like sitting down fronting Jalen Duran
at the top of the key, making it so that
he could defend against the ball screen there and any
(03:12):
sort of high post entry, and he was kind of
squatting down and then when the skip pass was made,
he just jumped up and elevated with those long arms
and got the deal. He ended up going down to
the other end and missing a layup, but on the
play he engaged Jalen Duran at the rim, which opened
up a little area around the basket for Jericho Sims
to make the first of his two massive rebounding plays
(03:32):
at the end of this game, cleans up the Rolins,
miskits An and one, so the three from aj Green
and the and one from Jericho Simms ends up putting
the Bucks up by one and then down on the
other end of the floor of the Bucks got three
straight stops to win the game. The first was Ryan
Rollins getting some great ball pressure on Kay Cunningham and
forcing him into a turnover. He lost the control of
the ball ended up going way into the backcourt turned
(03:54):
it over. After that was a miss Karros lavert three
off the left wing, where Jericho Simms got his second
big rebound. Him and Bobby Ports combined for a great
box out on Jalen Durham. We all know how good
of an offensive rebound er he is, and Jericho just
jumped up and grabbed that rebound. Big play. And then
the third one was Ryan Rollins one on one against
Kaid at the top of the key, forced him into
a really tough step back three that he airballed, and
(04:17):
the Bucks ended up getting a win. Very nice win actually,
But unfortunately we're not going to be focusing on this
version of the Bucks as much in that game from
last night, but more about the news that Giannis and
the Bucks are looking towards the future for both sides. Now,
one thing I want to be clear about up front,
I actually do think things have been a little better
(04:37):
than they've looked on the surface. If you look at
the record for the Bucks, they've been a game over
five hundred with Giannis in the lineup. The Giannis Ryan Rawlins,
aj Green trio in six hundred and twenty nine possessions
this year has a plus ten NET rating. They've had
some really nice wins. There's like a dynamic with Rowlins
(04:59):
and and their two way ability to Ryan run some action, knockdown,
catch and shoot threes, but really guard aj Green and
really aj Green really guard and knockdown threes, and then
Yanis obviously with his rim pressure. But ultimately, the league
is just too talented and this team just doesn't have
much of a shot. Most of that success that they've
had this season has come from the herculean efforts of
(05:21):
Yannis shooting a career high sixty four percent from the
field and forty four percent from three. So ultimately it
is in the best interests of both parties to move on.
You want Yanis to go somewhere he can really compete.
He's in some rare company in that top tier superstars
with him, Jokic, Shay and Luca, and all four of
those dudes are playing insanely high level basketball this year.
(05:43):
But the other three guys are all surrounded by substantially
more talent than Yannis is surrounded by right now in Milwaukee,
and for the Bucks to capitalize on the highest amount
of value that Yanis has as a trade piece, it's
kind of right now or never in a lot of
ways as he enters into this phase of his career
getting closer to his mid thirties, and the Bucks do
have some exciting pieces, like I know some Bucks fans
(06:06):
don't like Ryan Rollins, but I think he's a real player.
I think he's gonna be an awesome two way guard
in this league for a long time. I'm surprised that
there's even debates surrounding that. I think Rollins is awesome.
They might even be able to flip some of these
other older vets into something at this point, like a
Miles Turner, a Bobby Portis. They've got some exciting other
young players. I think aj Green is one of the
(06:28):
better role player guards in the league if he can
be the fifth best player in your lineup. And one
of the things too that's beneficial to Milwaukee here is
Sham's has reported that Giannis is pretty open minded about
where he's willing to end up. So there's no demand,
right There's no like a send me to the Knicks
or send me to the Lakers. And as we look
at those two teams, like the Knicks just can't really
(06:49):
put together too much of a package for him, they
blew most of their draft capital in the McHale Bridges move,
and if I'm the Bucks, I have no interest in
taking Karl Anthony Towns back right, So, like I don't
see the Knicks as too much of a threat here,
the Lakers can actually put together a decent package thanks
to the rise of Austin Reeves, who I think has
been clearly one of the fifteen best players in the
(07:11):
league to start this season. It's not to say he's
going to stay there, but he's certainly encroached in on
that like top twenty top twenty five range and is
one of the higher level offensive players in the league.
He's been one of the best pick and role players
in the league this year, and he's really well rounded
in the margins, Like he's not like the zach Lavine
types that are going to lose shooters and miss box outs,
you know, twelve times a game and end up hurting
(07:32):
his team and undercutting his offensive success. Like, Austin's a
really good player. But ultimately, the Lakers can only include
one first round pick and some swaps, so you know,
in that first round pick would be tied to a
team led by Luca and in the scenario Yiannis as well,
so it's unlikely to be a high lottery pick. So yeah,
I think Austin would be a really nice piece. I
(07:52):
actually think Austin would fit really well alongside Ryan Rollins
since Ryan's such a good athlete. But you know, it
just doesn't seem like it's possible with the types of
other draft packages attached to young players, good young players
that other teams around the league could offer, and Brian
Windhor said as much yesterday, basically said Janis would have
to demand the Lakers in order to get the Lakers,
(08:15):
and as we mentioned earlier, it appears Janis is not
making those sorts of demands. Also kind of like side note,
I don't love the Luca Yanis fit as much as
some other people do. To be clear, I'm not dumb
like I take it into heartbeat just for the talent play.
He'd obviously make the Lakers better. But I always when
I'm looking at superstar duos, I always get a little
bit nervous when they can be guarded by similar defenders.
(08:36):
Who would you put on Luca a big, athletic, strong
forward that can kind of handle his size and physicality.
Who would you put on Yannis, big athletic, strong forward
who can kind of handle his size in physicality, which
means it would likely end in a lot of switching
when those two would run two man games together, and
when you run superstars together and they can't play two
(08:57):
man game, then it just becomes a more difficult dynamic
to make them fit. To be clear, Luca and Giannis
would find a way to win a lot of games.
I just don't love that fit as naturally as I
like some other fits that I've looked at around the league.
I like teams. I like duos where they're being guarded
by different types of defenders so that they're unlikely to switch,
or if they do, they're giving themselves up a compromising advantage. Right,
(09:21):
So that opens the field up, and there are a
lot of interesting options. San Antonio is one of the
obvious ones. They could include one of their blue Chippers,
like they could include a Steph Castle or a Dylan
Harper and a bunch of draft compensation. They've got picks
that they can include. That's going to beat the hell
out of any offer from the Lakers or from the Knicks. Right,
(09:41):
Giannis and Wemby would be frightening together. I also love
them as a counter to what Oklahoma City does. Those
two guys would be able to basically completely shut off
the rim to OKAC, which turns them into almost entirely
a jump shooting team, and San Antonio, even if they
made that sort of deal, would still have enough size
and athleticism at the guards spot to at least make
(10:01):
life tougher on Shay if the jumper was all that
he had available to him. I think it would be
a really a really interesting kind of like styles make
Fights type of matchup to see a Wembi Janis led
team versus Oklahoma City. But ultimately, I think it'd be
really bad for the league if Jannis went to the West.
All three of the other top tier superstars in the
(10:22):
NBA are already in the West. So yeah, speaking strictly
about basketball, I'd love to see Jannis in San Antonio.
I think it'd be so much fun, and Oklahoma City
San Antonio playoff series would be a movie. I just
think it's in the best interest of the NBA for
him to stay in the East Somewhere. You don't want
a situation where you have all four of your top
(10:43):
tier contenders Oklahoma City Houston, Denver, and San Antonio all
in one conference. I don't think that's necessarily good for
the league. Atlanta was a team I brought up this summer.
I've talked about how I view Trey and Giannis as
a much better basketball fit than Dame and Giannis because
Tre is so much better as a passer, specifically as
a lob passer and as a pocket passer. So I
(11:05):
think the two of them would be much much better,
much more dynamic on offense than a Dame and Giannis
type of duo. The tricky thing here is that Jalen
Johnson has to be a centerpiece in that type of deal.
Like they have the first round picks to give up,
but if they're going to compete with some of these
other offers that are going to be on the table,
they'd have to include a blue chip piece, right Like
(11:26):
if a deal with the Lakers is giving you Austin Reeves,
if a deal with San Antonio is giving you a
Steph Castle or Dylan Harper, if a deal with Orlando's
giving you someone like Pala Bonco or something like that,
like you're getting an awesome player and draft picks or
draft pick in the case of the Lakers if you
make one of those types of deals. So if you're
going to get in on this action as Atlanta, you
(11:47):
got to include Jalen Johnson. And Jalen Johnson's averaging twenty
three points, ten rebounds, and seven assists on sixty four
percent shooting this year looks to be a legit budding
star and has been. Those numbers don't even do a
justice to how good he's been in the last couple
of weeks. So it's just extremely high risk, high reward
for a team like Atlanta. Like, there's a version where
(12:08):
you do that deal as the Hawks and Trey and
Giannis surrounded by a bunch of high level role players
just wrecks the Eastern Conference and suddenly you're in the
NBA Finals, right, But there's also a version of that
story where Trey Young gets hurt. You got hurt already
this year, and maybe he gets hurt again. You lose
in the first round, or you make the finals, but
(12:29):
you end up getting beaten badly by Oklahoma City and
suddenly you have like an aging Yiannis and Trey and
your fans are all pissed off because Jalen Johnson is
hanging thirty point triple doubles in a Milwaukee Bucks jersey. Right,
So it's just like a really high risk, high reward
decision for Atlanta now because it's different with Jalen Johnson.
(12:50):
It was easier when Jalen Johnson was a little bit
more of an unknown commodity, like he was this summer
coming off of an injury. Orlando's a really interesting talent play.
They have a bunch of massive salaries, so they could
get there pretty quickly in a variety of different ways.
I wonder if they'd be willing to include Palo in
a deal like that. They play the same position and
(13:11):
with Palo, like he's a star that's shown potential to
be awesome but also potential to be disappointing as his
kind of like floor game and like playmaking ability can
leave a lot to be desired, and he just settles
for so many of these like tough made range jumpers
that he just doesn't make it a super high clip.
But there's also a version of that where Paalo could
be awesome. Like I think if I'm Milwaukee, I'd be like,
(13:33):
you know, that's a legit, blue chip type of talent
to get back and he's still technically on his rookie contract,
although he's got an extension that kicks in next season.
But then you look at it. If you're a Land though,
and you're like, okay, you're led by Giannis and Franz,
they'd have some similar issues with spacing and shooting. But
if I'm a Magic, if I'm in the Magic front officer,
(13:55):
if i am a Magic fan, don't overthink it. Like
Giannis is way better at basketball than Paalo on both
ends of the floor, there's real two man game potential.
Not necessarily with Franz, that fit would be clunky, same
kind of dynamic we were talking about with Luca right, Like,
you're guarding both of those guys with big, strong forwards,
you're likely going to be doing switching there. But there's
real two man game potential with Giannis and Desmond Bane.
(14:18):
We've seen a lot of different actions that the Bucks
run with Giannis inverted with him on the ball, with
like aj Green coming to screen and getting out of it,
or if you have Giannis screening for a Desmond Bane.
There's a lot of different potential there for Giannis in
the pocket or for Desmond to easily get downhill as
teams are hesitant to offer help there, right, So, like
I think, even though it'd still be a little bit
(14:39):
clunky on offense, there's there's still plenty of upside there
with Yiannis. And then on the defensive end, you think
Orlando's defense is good, now go ahead and add in
Giannis like as a as a back line weapon and
help side and as a defensive rebounder like, they'd be
frighteningly good. On defense. They'd win ugly. A lot of
their games would be ugly, but they'd win a lot
(15:01):
of games in overnight, even if they did include a
Palo they'd overnight become the prohibitive favorite in the Eastern Conference.
So overall, if I was speaking purely about basketball and
what I want to see, I'd say San Antonio. They're
just such a fun option to compete with Oklahoma City,
and they present a hilarious basketball problem for most teams
(15:24):
with him and wemb together. But if I had to
pick my overall preferred option, I'd say Orlando. Just because
of my desire to keep Gianness in the East so
that the league has more balance, I'd rather have a
legit top tier contender coming out of the East and
one of those contenders coming out of the West. So
we have a great NBA Finals than four top tier
(15:44):
contenders to all be out in the Western Conference, because
ultimately Giannis is that good. Wherever he goes, he's going
to be on a top tier contender, especially if these
teams we mentioned that actually have the ability to compete.
After the trade, we'll keep digging into Gianas stuff as
we get more information about what teams are making offers,
and we'll start to talk about the fit and what
it might look like as we get more information on
(16:05):
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Concerned about gambling called one eight hundred gambler. The Dallas
(18:14):
Mavericks have won three games in a row, fueled by
the return of Anthony Davis in the awakening of the
Mavericks offense. The game right before the three game winning
streak two is that game in Los Angeles against the
Lakers where they actually looked pretty good. They held a
fourth quarter lead in that game before losing control of
it late and it's just been awesome to watch Anthony
Davis back on the court. He's been a frustrating player
(18:36):
for me to root for over the years as a
guy who roots for the Lakers, right because I'm just
so sick of the exact same damn thing happening every
year where he comes into camp overweight, seemingly by design
if you listen to him explain it. But then NBA
basketball is hard, and especially hard when you're carrying extra weight,
so he would inevitably end up getting some sort of
wear and tear injury that knocks him out for a while,
(18:59):
And that happened again this season, and every season kind
of becomes a race for ad like can he get
in shape before his body breaks down? And he did
the same thing in Los Angeles seemingly every year, And
for the record, there were years where that worked out,
like twenty twenty three similarly got injured in the middle,
but he managed to get in shape and maintain his
body enough to finish the playoff run, and he had
(19:20):
a really nice playoff run where he went to the
Western Conference finals before getting his butt kicked by Jokic.
But twenty twenty four, and I think part of this
was he played so deep into the summer with the
Western Conference finals, they had a shorter offseason, came into
twenty twenty four and played seventy six games, and when
he made it to the Denver Series in the first round,
he was awesome in the Denver series, very different than
(19:41):
how he played in the twenty twenty three series. Like
he was pretty much bar for bar right there with
Jokic in that twenty twenty four first round series. And
so Ad is very much a rhythm player. He needs
to be healthy and stay on the court for a
long time so that he's in shape, so that he
can flash his upside, and that the flip side of
(20:02):
that dynamic, when he loses control of his conditioning and
starts to suffer nagging injuries because his body can't hold up,
that's where it can be, you know, frustrating in the
other direction. And we've seen, you know, obviously the worst
side of that spectrum since he went to Dallas. But
every time you actually see healthy on the floor, Anthony Davis,
his talent is undeniable. And the crazy thing for MAVs
(20:25):
fans I would say, is like I still don't think
he's close to full rhythm right now, he's still a
bit slow footed. You saw in the Miami game last
night he had a couple of jumpers that he airballed
that were like two or three feet short of the rim.
That's a lift and conditioning thing that will eventually come around.
But even this version of AD that's still working his
way into shape is an all NBA level contributor on
(20:45):
both ends of the floor. And it was really fun,
especially in the in the Denver and Miami games, to
watch the different ways that Ad dominated. Like against Denver,
for instance, like Yo get straight up, did not want
to post him up, you know where AD carrying some
extra weight probably helps him, but that ended up being
a big problem for Denver down the stretch of that
(21:06):
game because Jamal Murray wasn't able to finish the game,
so the MAVs were able to force a bunch of
jump shots from guys like Cam Johnson and Spencer Jones
late in the game, and Jokic wasn't going into the
post against Ad at all, and so AD was able
to defend more like traditional two man game sequences where
he's dropping towards the basket. Got some really good contests
at the rim. He had a huge one late in
(21:26):
the game where he forced Bruce Brown into a miss
right at the basket, and then on offense, he like
killed Jokic in that game in a bunch of ways.
Jokic was giving him space for jump shots and he
ended up making five jump shots in that game, either
spotting up or facing up in ISO, and he killed
Jokic on the offensive glass. Whenever Jokic helped on drives,
he had three putbacks where like Yokic would step over
(21:48):
to help and or Ad would just come in from
behind and like dunk it in on a put back.
The exact opposite of that dynamic is how he dominated
the Miami heat and there on the defensive and in
that particular game last night, like that dance that I'm
talking about, that like where Jokic is like, okay, do
I help on this drive, but then give Ad the
offensive rebound. That is a critical dance that biggs make
(22:13):
in drop coverage situations and in help situations when they're
just helping out the basket. So a lot in the
Miami game because there's fewer ball screens, right, but do
you go for the block and potentially leave your assignment
free for an offensive rebound, or do you stay back
and let the ball handler get a shot off so
that you can secure the defensive rebound. And one of
the tricky things with driving layups is it's not variance
(22:36):
in the way that jump shooting is jump shooting. It's like, Okay,
this guy is going to get the shot up and
it's going to go in some percentage of the time, right,
and the contest is going to make a mild difference.
Like you know, some open shooters might shoot forty five
percent when they're wide open, in thirty eight percent when
they're guarded, or thirty eight percent when they're wide open
and thirty two percent when they're guarded, right, Like, there's
(22:57):
a little bit of a difference between contest and no
contests when it comes to jump shooting. Layups are very different, right, Like,
if a guy beats you clean off the dribble and
goes right to the front of the rim, he's making
the layup every time, Like, call it ninety five percent
of the time he's gonna make the layup. But if
you have a guy on your hip and it's a
contested layup, that percentage plummets down to like fifty to
(23:19):
fifty at best for most NBA players. So like a
contest on the layup is way more is way more
likely to cause a dramatic shift in the shot results.
So that's the dance that the big guys have to make.
Do I need to go over and help because he's
going to make the layup? Or is he highly likely
(23:39):
to miss anyway? And I'm actually better used as a
rebounder here staying back. That's the dance that Jokic was
botching in the Denver game where Ad kept getting dunks
over the top of him. Against Miami, AD had a
ton of similar reads to make, like Miami doesn't run
very many ball screens, although it's worth mentioning they ran
a little bit more than usual against Dallas, trying to
(23:59):
attack their biggs. But he found themselves in a He
found himself in a lot of situations where heat players
were driving at him and he had to make a decision.
And the MAVs defenders all night were doing a great
job staying attached to the basketball. One of the subplots
at the end of that game was Naji Marshall, who
was doing a great job on Tyler Harrow and Tyler
(24:20):
the hero, I should say, and Tyler kind of didn't
want the basketball in his hands late in that game
because of the job that Naji Marshall was doing. And
Ad is just so good at that particular dance. He's
one of the best that I've seen at that specific
dynamic of when to help versus when to stay home.
And he had sixteen defensive rebounds in that game, and
many of them were sequences where he made really smart
(24:42):
defensive raids at the rim to not go for a
block because he saw that his perimeter defenders were chesting
up with a drive and probably going to force into
some misses. Right then, on the offensive end against Miami,
Ad dominated in a very different way. Like it only
had seventeen points, but he was consistent drawing second defenders
in the post. And this was a game, you know,
(25:02):
an Ad can be a little tricky handling double teams.
It's been an inconsistent thing for him in his life.
But that last night, in particular, I thought he did
a great job posting on that left block, especially down
the stretch, and making that skip pass, particularly to the
opposite wing, and then the MAVs were able to get
into their driving kick from it, and they got some
really good looks out of that, and Miami actually actually
ended up letting him work one on one on a
(25:24):
key possession late and he just turned over his right
shoulder over Tyler Hero hit that little bank shot. So
like different kind of dominance from Anthony Davis. And I
know it's been a rough year for MAVs fans and
it's not much consolation to see Anthony Davis playing well
with this few wins coming, you know, to this point
in the season. But it's just a casual reminder that
(25:45):
Anthony Davis is a bona fide star. Like in back
to back games he outplayed Nicola jokicch and bam Adebayo.
There's not many players in the league that can do that.
He's still one of the best defensive players in the league,
and he's still a very good offensive weapon in his
own way. But of course, Anthony Davis is not the
only reason that the MAVs are on a three game
win streak. They also have a one to nineteen offensive
(26:06):
rating in their last three games. They're scoring the ball
better than they have all season, and that's helping them
close these games out. There are three players in particular
that I want to shout out here, and firstus Cooper Flag,
who's riding his first consistent stretch of high level offensive
play as a pro. In fact, he's the youngest player
in NBA history to log three consecutive twenty point games.
(26:26):
And it's being driven by two things. Cutting down on
his three point attempts and driving the hell out of
the basketball as a result of that. And then the
second piece of it is focusing on shorter range shot making.
When it comes to his jump shot, the drives have
been super impressive. He's attacking downhill out of spot ups
with like these quick jab steps or quick ripthrough moves,
and he's beating his man consistently. It's a way that
(26:48):
he's spacing the floor without necessarily hitting threes, as his
three point attempts have gone about half his season average
over the course of the last three games, and in
each case he just kind of gets that shoulder into
you and he can finish with his left hand in
his right hand, and he's just a force to be
reckoned with as an athlete going downhill. Too big, too skilled,
and too mobile. And then with the short range shot making,
(27:08):
it's about minimizing variants right, finding an easier shot for
him to make that takes advantage of his size. Kate A.
Cooper is shooting only twenty eight percent on jump shots
outside of seventeen feet this year, twenty eight percent on
mid rangers outside of seventeen feet, and twenty eight percent
from three budd He's shooting forty six percent inside of
seventeen feet and that's fueled by this recent run. He's
(27:31):
eight out of eleven in this three game span on
jump shots inside of seventeen feet. It's a much easier
shot for him that he can get to there, and
he's hitting it at a high clip. And it's not
just jump shooting either, like he's been hitting these little
short bank shots and these little floaters. And you guys
know how big of a fan I am of short
range shot making because I think it just can be
(27:52):
so much more reliable night tonight than distance shot making,
and in late game situations, it can be a reliable
thing to go to. Last thing with Cooper. I think
the rise of Ryan Nemhart has simplified his role a bit.
He's constantly looking to attack now off of the catch
when he gets a chance, either in a spot up
situation and in action. He's attacking really hard, and I
(28:15):
think a big part of that is because he doesn't
have as much ball handling responsibility that he's had at
other points in the season, so he doesn't have to
pay so much attention to like making reads and managing
the flow of the game. He's just in attack mode
right now and it's working really well for him. Secondly,
is the aforementioned rise of Ryan Nemhart, just the spitting
(28:36):
image of his brother as a high level pick and
role player, hitting little drop covered shots in the mid range,
beating bigs and forwards and switches with nasty dribble combinations
into mid rangers. In the Denver game, he hit a
couple of super tough layups on hard drives to the basket,
some impressive rim finishing from him. And then the passing
ability is real, just making those reads in action, hitting
(28:58):
the pocket and pick and roll, making that skip pass.
He had this pass to Klay Thompson in the corner
in the Miami game where he was kind of way
up at the top and Clay was open in the corner,
and he hit him with the pass right in the
top of his shooting pockets. So that Clay was able
to catch into like a no dip that like classic
Clay no dip three that he hit. It was a
(29:18):
big shot in that game too. I've talked a lot
over the years about how your value as a basketball
player is unique to your basketball team and what they need,
and this team has needed a ball handler that can
both score and make reads. I thought it would be
de Lo, but it just hasn't worked out with del
this season. Although to his credit, Delo actually had a
nice game against Miami yesterday, hit some big shots. They
(29:40):
tried Brandon Williams for a while that was more bad
than good. Ryan has done the best job filling that
role and it's been a big part of this offensive
explosion from this team. He's had forty three points and
twenty three assists in his last two games with only
one turnover in only six missed shots. That's pretty remarkable stuff,
(30:00):
and the play type data is super impressive. He's now
up to sixty eight pick and rolls this year, including
passes eighty three points generated one point two to two
points per possession. That's excellent. Big part of that is
his own personal shooting. He's shooting fifteen for twenty in
pick and roll as the ball handler, thirteen for eighteen
from two and two for two from three, and then
(30:20):
he's beating switches. He's had seventeen ISOs this season including passes,
eighteen points generated on ten shot attempts. He's made four
and drew a foul in one, so he's scored on
half of his own shot attempts in ISO. And then
he's generated a couple of buckets on kickouts and one
on a drop off, so he's been good in ISO
as well. And then lastly, Klay Thompson, the beef with
John Morant appears to have awakened a competitive side in
(30:42):
Clay that is leading to some vintage basketball from him.
And since the start of that Memphis game so was
six games sample size seventeen points per game from Clay,
forty eight percent on nine to three point attempts per game,
hitting a lot of big shots too. And he's just
becoming an all two important release out for this Mavericks
offense in terms of kickouts because he can take it and
(31:04):
make contested catch and shoot threes as well as the
wide open ones. It's not too late for Dallas to
work their way in the mix here. They're only one
and a half games back in the nine seed, three
and a half games back of Golden State in the
eight seed. And this is not fake basketball. This is
a legit top five defense that added a legit two
way superstar in Anthony Davis that is capable of out
(31:26):
playing some of the best players in the league at
his position. And you have two blossoming young players in
Ryan Emphart and Cooper Flag with some really good role
players around him too, by the way, and like PJ. Washington,
he turned his ankle about a week ago. Him and
Derek Lively are out right now like they're going to be,
you know, a very talented basketball team when they're healthy,
kind of like we expected coming into the season. They
(31:48):
just needed a ball handler to pop, and they needed
Cooper to find his footing. And that's what's happening with
Ryan and Cooper right now. And just a tiny little
bit of light in the darkness for MAVs fans. And
the play of Anthony Davis is super encouraging regardless of
what happens, because he's either going to help you in
a MAVs jersey or he's going to massively inflate his
trade value and help you build around Cooper for the future.
(32:16):
All right, before we get out of here today. Briefly
on the Spurs. The Spurs won their seventh time and
nine games without Wemby last night, a crazy game against
the Magic. They controlled it throughout for the most part
until things got weird late. Franz didn't take a three
all night and then hit a big one, a pull
up on the right wing, and then Jeremy Sohan ends
up missing two free throws, and then Franz gets fouled
(32:38):
on a three and makes all three of them, and
suddenly the game is tied. But darreon Fox ended up
drawing a foul and a drive on Jonathan Isaac kind
of got into his body. It was kind of a
weird play. I ended up getting challenged and upheld, but
it was blocked clean up top, which made it a
little bit tricky. But there was some body contact down
low before the shot attempt that ended up getting upheld.
(32:58):
So dearon Fox goes down and makes both free throws.
Orlando runs a really nice inbound sequence where Franz Wagner
gets like an inside seal, beautiful in entry pass gets
a wide open layup but Luke Cornett makes this unbelievable
defensive rotation off of like pretty far on the right wing,
just comes flying in and swats it out of bounds,
and the Spurs end up getting a huge win, and
(33:21):
Dearn Fox was amazing again and he continues to be
the story again. Ultimately, why they're winning, why they're seven
to two in this span, is they have a one
to nineteen point four offensive rating, and they're winning these
games because Dearon Fox is consistently compromising the defense off
the top twenty seven points and seven assists per game
on forty nine percent from the field in forty one
(33:43):
percent from three in this span, eight free throw attempts
per game two, getting the defenders out of position and
getting to the line, and it's just that steady, you know.
I kind of bought in with Darren Fox with this
after that playoff series. Was it in twenty twenty three
against the Warriors where they were the twos? I think
I can't remember. I think it was the two seed, yeah,
(34:04):
and they might have been the three seed. I think
it was a six to three series. Whatever it was.
The Kings had the home court advantage and the Warriors
ended up beating them because Steph Curry goes for fifty
in Game seven. But the two kind of things that
stood out to me on the Kings front in that
series were like Darren Fox and Malik Monk as well,
but let's focus on Darren Fox here. Deren Fox could
like legitimately break down defenses. To me, that's like the
(34:26):
fundamental part of every great offense. It's one of the
big things that I'm concerned about as a Laker fan
going into tonight in Toronto. I just like their chances
a lot better if you have Luca as a guy
that can break the defense at the start, Right, Do
you have something that one of your players can do
that's extremely difficult to manage defensively that is going to
cause them to either collapse or put two on the ball,
(34:48):
anything that could generate easier openings for your team, right,
And for me with Darren Fox, it's that combination, that
balance of his legit dribble penetration like he's just getting
by guys whenever he wants to, but also counterbalancing it
with the jump shooting. That's going to be what draws
the attention that unlocks an underrated part of dearon Fox's game.
(35:09):
We talked a little bit about this the other day
in the Power Rankings show, but darn Fox is sneaky,
one of the better like cross court kickout passers in
the league, which is getting them into their drive and kick.
And then just a bunch of these other young players
are playing well, like Devin Vessell is shooting forty four
percent on six three point attempts per game during this span,
straight up won the Denver Nuggets game with his aggressive
(35:31):
catch and shoot shooting. Keldon Johnson has been a monster
attacking the basket. He's averaging sixteen points per game on
sixty one percent from the field. Dylan Harper has been
playing really well. It's good to see him back. He
had a big drive in the Memphis game out of
the right corner. Just kind of looked like one of those,
like one of those plays that you look at when
you're looking at a young player in his star potential.
(35:52):
You look at like specific types of plays where he
looks kind of unguardable, and he had this play out
of the right corner where he through to his left hand,
got that tiny bit of an angle and then like
kind of hooked the dude with his right elbow and
got in for that left handed layup, and it's like, oh,
like that's going to be physically difficult for any defender
in the league to deal with. That could be a
(36:14):
foundational trait that could turn Dylan Harper into a superstar
one day, and that's the potential that he has, right
But like, you just have this darn Fox breaking the
defense at the point of attack, all their young guards
and wings playing well, Luke Hornett's back and playing super well.
This is just a really good basketball team and they're
way better than I gave him credit for in the preseason.
(36:34):
I talked about this a little bit in the Power
Rankings episode, and we're going to get into it in
more detail when we do my Predictions episode where we
kind of go back over some of the predictions I
made this offseason. But you know, in addition to the
Clippers one that we were talking about yesterday, this is
one that I was flat out wrong about. I was
talking about how I didn't think the Spurs had enough
good basketball players, like really good two way basketball players
(36:56):
to compete nightly in the Western Conference with some of
the other super talent rosters that were up in the league,
and I was just wrong about that. They have a
lot of guys who are playing some of the best
basketball of their careers. Darren Fox has literally been playing
some of the best basketball of his career during this stretch.
Devin Vessel has been a revelation in this recent stretch.
(37:17):
Keldon Johnson kind of looked like a guy who was
going to be the odd man out in recent seasons.
He's been incredible this year. Dylan Harper right away as
a rookie being a legit contributor. Luke Cornett is a
bona fide rotation piece at the center position. This is
just a really good basketball team. And as far as
the Giannis thing goes, again, like I said it off
the top, as a basketball fan, I really want to
(37:37):
see Honis in San Antonio. But then for the health
of the league, I think it's best if he stays
out East. But if you're San Antonio, who cares about
all that, I think they should make the push for Giannis.
They have a couple of salaries that they could make
it work with, and the draft picks Jannis and Wenby
would be a frightening duo together. You could still maintain
the level of role player talent around them, you need
(37:57):
to be successful. I think they should certainly try for
your honest maybe they don't get them, but I think
they should certainly make that attempt. All right, guys, It's
all I have for today is always a sincerely appreciate
you guys for supporting us, in supporting the show, Don't
forget Playback tonight at four thirty pm Pacific time for
Lakers at Raptors. Tomorrow morning, we'll have a little bit
of game reaction as well as a mailbag, and then
(38:19):
Friday night once again Lakers Celtics at four pm Pacific
time on playback again. I appreciate you, guys, and I
will see you later tonight
The volume. All right, old Coo to hoops tonight, you're
at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. Hope all of you
guys are having an incredible week. We have a jam
(00:21):
pack show for you guys today. Off the top, we
got news yesterday that Joannison Tenancupo and the Bucks are
potentially looking towards the future for both sides. Gonna have
a little bit of a takeaway from the Pistons game
last night, as well as my thoughts on the Giannis
trade saga and what that might potentially look like, some
of the potential issues that could happen, especially if Jannis
(00:43):
ends up going somewhere like in the Western Conference. After that,
the Dallas Mavericks got their third consecutive win against the
Miami Heat yesterday, fueled by the return of Anthony Davis
and an awakening of their offense. A lot of interesting
stuff that I want to get into, some internal development
two with Ryan Emhart finding a role as well as
Cooper Flag finding success as a short range shot maker.
(01:05):
After that, the tail end of the show today, the
San Antonio Spurs won their seventh time and nine games
without Victor Webbin Yama on the road. On the tail
end of a back to back in Orlando against the Magic.
Kind of a bizarre sequence late in the game, but
I want to dig into what has been driving that
success for the San Antonio Spurs. You guys are the
drip before we get started. To subscribe to the Hoops
(01:25):
and I YouTube channels, you don't miss any more of
our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore json lt
so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about
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It's also super helpful for you theve a rating in
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our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
Make sure you guys follow us there for more content
throughout the season and the last but not least, if
you want to get questions into our mail bags. We
(01:47):
have our first mail bag in a couple weeks coming tomorrow,
so if you want to get questions in there, go
to our full episodes on YouTube. Write in the comments
mail bag coll In ret your question. We'll get to
them on Fridays throughout the rest of the season. Also playback.
We're back on our playback streams Tonight with the Lakers
on the road in Toronto against the Raptor should be
(02:08):
an interesting one because Luka Doncic is going to be
out for personal reasons, so an opportunity to see Lebron
James get an opportunity to have the ball in his
hands more as he tries to find his rhythm. So
come hang out again playback dot tv. Excuse me, yeah,
playback playback dot Tv. Slash Hoops tonight is where we'll
be tonight at four thirty pm Pacific time. All right,
(02:29):
let's talk some basketball. So the Bucks actually got a
really nice win last night at home against the Detroit Pistons.
Giannis went down with a calf injury early and the
Pistons jumped them. They went up eighteen in the first quarter,
but they just battled back. Ryan Rollins was great again.
Kevin Porter Junior has been awesome since he came back,
and they found themselves down by five with two minutes
left and ended up stealing that game. Kevin Porter Junior
(02:50):
made a beautiful offhand skip pass driving down the right
lane line to aj Green in the left corner, who
ended up hitting a catch and shoot three. There then
on the other end of the floor, Ryan Rowlins made
a beautiful defensive play in his own look that they had.
He was kind of like sitting down fronting Jalen Duran
at the top of the key, making it so that
he could defend against the ball screen there and any
(03:12):
sort of high post entry, and he was kind of
squatting down and then when the skip pass was made,
he just jumped up and elevated with those long arms
and got the deal. He ended up going down to
the other end and missing a layup, but on the
play he engaged Jalen Duran at the rim, which opened
up a little area around the basket for Jericho Sims
to make the first of his two massive rebounding plays
(03:32):
at the end of this game, cleans up the Rolins,
miskits An and one, so the three from aj Green
and the and one from Jericho Simms ends up putting
the Bucks up by one and then down on the
other end of the floor of the Bucks got three
straight stops to win the game. The first was Ryan
Rollins getting some great ball pressure on Kay Cunningham and
forcing him into a turnover. He lost the control of
the ball ended up going way into the backcourt turned
(03:54):
it over. After that was a miss Karros lavert three
off the left wing, where Jericho Simms got his second
big rebound. Him and Bobby Ports combined for a great
box out on Jalen Durham. We all know how good
of an offensive rebound er he is, and Jericho just
jumped up and grabbed that rebound. Big play. And then
the third one was Ryan Rollins one on one against
Kaid at the top of the key, forced him into
a really tough step back three that he airballed, and
(04:17):
the Bucks ended up getting a win. Very nice win actually,
But unfortunately we're not going to be focusing on this
version of the Bucks as much in that game from
last night, but more about the news that Giannis and
the Bucks are looking towards the future for both sides. Now,
one thing I want to be clear about up front,
I actually do think things have been a little better
(04:37):
than they've looked on the surface. If you look at
the record for the Bucks, they've been a game over
five hundred with Giannis in the lineup. The Giannis Ryan Rawlins,
aj Green trio in six hundred and twenty nine possessions
this year has a plus ten NET rating. They've had
some really nice wins. There's like a dynamic with Rowlins
(04:59):
and and their two way ability to Ryan run some action, knockdown,
catch and shoot threes, but really guard aj Green and
really aj Green really guard and knockdown threes, and then
Yanis obviously with his rim pressure. But ultimately, the league
is just too talented and this team just doesn't have
much of a shot. Most of that success that they've
had this season has come from the herculean efforts of
(05:21):
Yannis shooting a career high sixty four percent from the
field and forty four percent from three. So ultimately it
is in the best interests of both parties to move on.
You want Yanis to go somewhere he can really compete.
He's in some rare company in that top tier superstars
with him, Jokic, Shay and Luca, and all four of
those dudes are playing insanely high level basketball this year.
(05:43):
But the other three guys are all surrounded by substantially
more talent than Yannis is surrounded by right now in Milwaukee,
and for the Bucks to capitalize on the highest amount
of value that Yanis has as a trade piece, it's
kind of right now or never in a lot of
ways as he enters into this phase of his career
getting closer to his mid thirties, and the Bucks do
have some exciting pieces, like I know some Bucks fans
(06:06):
don't like Ryan Rollins, but I think he's a real player.
I think he's gonna be an awesome two way guard
in this league for a long time. I'm surprised that
there's even debates surrounding that. I think Rollins is awesome.
They might even be able to flip some of these
other older vets into something at this point, like a
Miles Turner, a Bobby Portis. They've got some exciting other
young players. I think aj Green is one of the
(06:28):
better role player guards in the league if he can
be the fifth best player in your lineup. And one
of the things too that's beneficial to Milwaukee here is
Sham's has reported that Giannis is pretty open minded about
where he's willing to end up. So there's no demand,
right There's no like a send me to the Knicks
or send me to the Lakers. And as we look
at those two teams, like the Knicks just can't really
(06:49):
put together too much of a package for him, they
blew most of their draft capital in the McHale Bridges move,
and if I'm the Bucks, I have no interest in
taking Karl Anthony Towns back right, So, like I don't
see the Knicks as too much of a threat here,
the Lakers can actually put together a decent package thanks
to the rise of Austin Reeves, who I think has
been clearly one of the fifteen best players in the
(07:11):
league to start this season. It's not to say he's
going to stay there, but he's certainly encroached in on
that like top twenty top twenty five range and is
one of the higher level offensive players in the league.
He's been one of the best pick and role players
in the league this year, and he's really well rounded
in the margins, Like he's not like the zach Lavine
types that are going to lose shooters and miss box outs,
you know, twelve times a game and end up hurting
(07:32):
his team and undercutting his offensive success. Like, Austin's a
really good player. But ultimately, the Lakers can only include
one first round pick and some swaps, so you know,
in that first round pick would be tied to a
team led by Luca and in the scenario Yiannis as well,
so it's unlikely to be a high lottery pick. So yeah,
I think Austin would be a really nice piece. I
(07:52):
actually think Austin would fit really well alongside Ryan Rollins
since Ryan's such a good athlete. But you know, it
just doesn't seem like it's possible with the types of
other draft packages attached to young players, good young players
that other teams around the league could offer, and Brian
Windhor said as much yesterday, basically said Janis would have
to demand the Lakers in order to get the Lakers,
(08:15):
and as we mentioned earlier, it appears Janis is not
making those sorts of demands. Also kind of like side note,
I don't love the Luca Yanis fit as much as
some other people do. To be clear, I'm not dumb
like I take it into heartbeat just for the talent play.
He'd obviously make the Lakers better. But I always when
I'm looking at superstar duos, I always get a little
bit nervous when they can be guarded by similar defenders.
(08:36):
Who would you put on Luca a big, athletic, strong
forward that can kind of handle his size and physicality.
Who would you put on Yannis, big athletic, strong forward
who can kind of handle his size in physicality, which
means it would likely end in a lot of switching
when those two would run two man games together, and
when you run superstars together and they can't play two
(08:57):
man game, then it just becomes a more difficult dynamic
to make them fit. To be clear, Luca and Giannis
would find a way to win a lot of games.
I just don't love that fit as naturally as I
like some other fits that I've looked at around the league.
I like teams. I like duos where they're being guarded
by different types of defenders so that they're unlikely to switch,
or if they do, they're giving themselves up a compromising advantage. Right,
(09:21):
So that opens the field up, and there are a
lot of interesting options. San Antonio is one of the
obvious ones. They could include one of their blue Chippers,
like they could include a Steph Castle or a Dylan
Harper and a bunch of draft compensation. They've got picks
that they can include. That's going to beat the hell
out of any offer from the Lakers or from the Knicks. Right,
(09:41):
Giannis and Wemby would be frightening together. I also love
them as a counter to what Oklahoma City does. Those
two guys would be able to basically completely shut off
the rim to OKAC, which turns them into almost entirely
a jump shooting team, and San Antonio, even if they
made that sort of deal, would still have enough size
and athleticism at the guards spot to at least make
(10:01):
life tougher on Shay if the jumper was all that
he had available to him. I think it would be
a really a really interesting kind of like styles make
Fights type of matchup to see a Wembi Janis led
team versus Oklahoma City. But ultimately, I think it'd be
really bad for the league if Jannis went to the West.
All three of the other top tier superstars in the
(10:22):
NBA are already in the West. So yeah, speaking strictly
about basketball, I'd love to see Jannis in San Antonio.
I think it'd be so much fun, and Oklahoma City
San Antonio playoff series would be a movie. I just
think it's in the best interest of the NBA for
him to stay in the East Somewhere. You don't want
a situation where you have all four of your top
(10:43):
tier contenders Oklahoma City Houston, Denver, and San Antonio all
in one conference. I don't think that's necessarily good for
the league. Atlanta was a team I brought up this summer.
I've talked about how I view Trey and Giannis as
a much better basketball fit than Dame and Giannis because
Tre is so much better as a passer, specifically as
a lob passer and as a pocket passer. So I
(11:05):
think the two of them would be much much better,
much more dynamic on offense than a Dame and Giannis
type of duo. The tricky thing here is that Jalen
Johnson has to be a centerpiece in that type of deal.
Like they have the first round picks to give up,
but if they're going to compete with some of these
other offers that are going to be on the table,
they'd have to include a blue chip piece, right Like
(11:26):
if a deal with the Lakers is giving you Austin Reeves,
if a deal with San Antonio is giving you a
Steph Castle or Dylan Harper, if a deal with Orlando's
giving you someone like Pala Bonco or something like that,
like you're getting an awesome player and draft picks or
draft pick in the case of the Lakers if you
make one of those types of deals. So if you're
going to get in on this action as Atlanta, you
(11:47):
got to include Jalen Johnson. And Jalen Johnson's averaging twenty
three points, ten rebounds, and seven assists on sixty four
percent shooting this year looks to be a legit budding
star and has been. Those numbers don't even do a
justice to how good he's been in the last couple
of weeks. So it's just extremely high risk, high reward
for a team like Atlanta. Like, there's a version where
(12:08):
you do that deal as the Hawks and Trey and
Giannis surrounded by a bunch of high level role players
just wrecks the Eastern Conference and suddenly you're in the
NBA Finals, right, But there's also a version of that
story where Trey Young gets hurt. You got hurt already
this year, and maybe he gets hurt again. You lose
in the first round, or you make the finals, but
(12:29):
you end up getting beaten badly by Oklahoma City and
suddenly you have like an aging Yiannis and Trey and
your fans are all pissed off because Jalen Johnson is
hanging thirty point triple doubles in a Milwaukee Bucks jersey. Right,
So it's just like a really high risk, high reward
decision for Atlanta now because it's different with Jalen Johnson.
(12:50):
It was easier when Jalen Johnson was a little bit
more of an unknown commodity, like he was this summer
coming off of an injury. Orlando's a really interesting talent play.
They have a bunch of massive salaries, so they could
get there pretty quickly in a variety of different ways.
I wonder if they'd be willing to include Palo in
a deal like that. They play the same position and
(13:11):
with Palo, like he's a star that's shown potential to
be awesome but also potential to be disappointing as his
kind of like floor game and like playmaking ability can
leave a lot to be desired, and he just settles
for so many of these like tough made range jumpers
that he just doesn't make it a super high clip.
But there's also a version of that where Paalo could
be awesome. Like I think if I'm Milwaukee, I'd be like,
(13:33):
you know, that's a legit, blue chip type of talent
to get back and he's still technically on his rookie contract,
although he's got an extension that kicks in next season.
But then you look at it. If you're a Land though,
and you're like, okay, you're led by Giannis and Franz,
they'd have some similar issues with spacing and shooting. But
if I'm a Magic, if I'm in the Magic front officer,
(13:55):
if i am a Magic fan, don't overthink it. Like
Giannis is way better at basketball than Paalo on both
ends of the floor, there's real two man game potential.
Not necessarily with Franz, that fit would be clunky, same
kind of dynamic we were talking about with Luca right, Like,
you're guarding both of those guys with big, strong forwards,
you're likely going to be doing switching there. But there's
real two man game potential with Giannis and Desmond Bane.
(14:18):
We've seen a lot of different actions that the Bucks
run with Giannis inverted with him on the ball, with
like aj Green coming to screen and getting out of it,
or if you have Giannis screening for a Desmond Bane.
There's a lot of different potential there for Giannis in
the pocket or for Desmond to easily get downhill as
teams are hesitant to offer help there, right, So, like
I think, even though it'd still be a little bit
(14:39):
clunky on offense, there's there's still plenty of upside there
with Yiannis. And then on the defensive end, you think
Orlando's defense is good, now go ahead and add in
Giannis like as a as a back line weapon and
help side and as a defensive rebounder like, they'd be
frighteningly good. On defense. They'd win ugly. A lot of
their games would be ugly, but they'd win a lot
(15:01):
of games in overnight, even if they did include a
Palo they'd overnight become the prohibitive favorite in the Eastern Conference.
So overall, if I was speaking purely about basketball and
what I want to see, I'd say San Antonio. They're
just such a fun option to compete with Oklahoma City,
and they present a hilarious basketball problem for most teams
(15:24):
with him and wemb together. But if I had to
pick my overall preferred option, I'd say Orlando. Just because
of my desire to keep Gianness in the East so
that the league has more balance, I'd rather have a
legit top tier contender coming out of the East and
one of those contenders coming out of the West. So
we have a great NBA Finals than four top tier
(15:44):
contenders to all be out in the Western Conference, because
ultimately Giannis is that good. Wherever he goes, he's going
to be on a top tier contender, especially if these
teams we mentioned that actually have the ability to compete.
After the trade, we'll keep digging into Gianas stuff as
we get more information about what teams are making offers,
and we'll start to talk about the fit and what
it might look like as we get more information on
(16:05):
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Concerned about gambling called one eight hundred gambler. The Dallas
(18:14):
Mavericks have won three games in a row, fueled by
the return of Anthony Davis in the awakening of the
Mavericks offense. The game right before the three game winning
streak two is that game in Los Angeles against the
Lakers where they actually looked pretty good. They held a
fourth quarter lead in that game before losing control of
it late and it's just been awesome to watch Anthony
Davis back on the court. He's been a frustrating player
(18:36):
for me to root for over the years as a
guy who roots for the Lakers, right because I'm just
so sick of the exact same damn thing happening every
year where he comes into camp overweight, seemingly by design
if you listen to him explain it. But then NBA
basketball is hard, and especially hard when you're carrying extra weight,
so he would inevitably end up getting some sort of
wear and tear injury that knocks him out for a while,
(18:59):
And that happened again this season, and every season kind
of becomes a race for ad like can he get
in shape before his body breaks down? And he did
the same thing in Los Angeles seemingly every year, And
for the record, there were years where that worked out,
like twenty twenty three similarly got injured in the middle,
but he managed to get in shape and maintain his
body enough to finish the playoff run, and he had
(19:20):
a really nice playoff run where he went to the
Western Conference finals before getting his butt kicked by Jokic.
But twenty twenty four, and I think part of this
was he played so deep into the summer with the
Western Conference finals, they had a shorter offseason, came into
twenty twenty four and played seventy six games, and when
he made it to the Denver Series in the first round,
he was awesome in the Denver series, very different than
(19:41):
how he played in the twenty twenty three series. Like
he was pretty much bar for bar right there with
Jokic in that twenty twenty four first round series. And
so Ad is very much a rhythm player. He needs
to be healthy and stay on the court for a
long time so that he's in shape, so that he
can flash his upside, and that the flip side of
(20:02):
that dynamic, when he loses control of his conditioning and
starts to suffer nagging injuries because his body can't hold up,
that's where it can be, you know, frustrating in the
other direction. And we've seen, you know, obviously the worst
side of that spectrum since he went to Dallas. But
every time you actually see healthy on the floor, Anthony Davis,
his talent is undeniable. And the crazy thing for MAVs
(20:25):
fans I would say, is like I still don't think
he's close to full rhythm right now, he's still a
bit slow footed. You saw in the Miami game last
night he had a couple of jumpers that he airballed
that were like two or three feet short of the rim.
That's a lift and conditioning thing that will eventually come around.
But even this version of AD that's still working his
way into shape is an all NBA level contributor on
(20:45):
both ends of the floor. And it was really fun,
especially in the in the Denver and Miami games, to
watch the different ways that Ad dominated. Like against Denver,
for instance, like Yo get straight up, did not want
to post him up, you know where AD carrying some
extra weight probably helps him, but that ended up being
a big problem for Denver down the stretch of that
(21:06):
game because Jamal Murray wasn't able to finish the game,
so the MAVs were able to force a bunch of
jump shots from guys like Cam Johnson and Spencer Jones
late in the game, and Jokic wasn't going into the
post against Ad at all, and so AD was able
to defend more like traditional two man game sequences where
he's dropping towards the basket. Got some really good contests
at the rim. He had a huge one late in
(21:26):
the game where he forced Bruce Brown into a miss
right at the basket, and then on offense, he like
killed Jokic in that game in a bunch of ways.
Jokic was giving him space for jump shots and he
ended up making five jump shots in that game, either
spotting up or facing up in ISO, and he killed
Jokic on the offensive glass. Whenever Jokic helped on drives,
he had three putbacks where like Yokic would step over
(21:48):
to help and or Ad would just come in from
behind and like dunk it in on a put back.
The exact opposite of that dynamic is how he dominated
the Miami heat and there on the defensive and in
that particular game last night, like that dance that I'm
talking about, that like where Jokic is like, okay, do
I help on this drive, but then give Ad the
offensive rebound. That is a critical dance that biggs make
(22:13):
in drop coverage situations and in help situations when they're
just helping out the basket. So a lot in the
Miami game because there's fewer ball screens, right, but do
you go for the block and potentially leave your assignment
free for an offensive rebound, or do you stay back
and let the ball handler get a shot off so
that you can secure the defensive rebound. And one of
the tricky things with driving layups is it's not variance
(22:36):
in the way that jump shooting is jump shooting. It's like, Okay,
this guy is going to get the shot up and
it's going to go in some percentage of the time, right,
and the contest is going to make a mild difference.
Like you know, some open shooters might shoot forty five
percent when they're wide open, in thirty eight percent when
they're guarded, or thirty eight percent when they're wide open
and thirty two percent when they're guarded, right, Like, there's
(22:57):
a little bit of a difference between contest and no
contests when it comes to jump shooting. Layups are very different, right, Like,
if a guy beats you clean off the dribble and
goes right to the front of the rim, he's making
the layup every time, Like, call it ninety five percent
of the time he's gonna make the layup. But if
you have a guy on your hip and it's a
contested layup, that percentage plummets down to like fifty to
(23:19):
fifty at best for most NBA players. So like a
contest on the layup is way more is way more
likely to cause a dramatic shift in the shot results.
So that's the dance that the big guys have to make.
Do I need to go over and help because he's
going to make the layup? Or is he highly likely
(23:39):
to miss anyway? And I'm actually better used as a
rebounder here staying back. That's the dance that Jokic was
botching in the Denver game where Ad kept getting dunks
over the top of him. Against Miami, AD had a
ton of similar reads to make, like Miami doesn't run
very many ball screens, although it's worth mentioning they ran
a little bit more than usual against Dallas, trying to
(23:59):
attack their biggs. But he found themselves in a He
found himself in a lot of situations where heat players
were driving at him and he had to make a decision.
And the MAVs defenders all night were doing a great
job staying attached to the basketball. One of the subplots
at the end of that game was Naji Marshall, who
was doing a great job on Tyler Harrow and Tyler
(24:20):
the hero, I should say, and Tyler kind of didn't
want the basketball in his hands late in that game
because of the job that Naji Marshall was doing. And
Ad is just so good at that particular dance. He's
one of the best that I've seen at that specific
dynamic of when to help versus when to stay home.
And he had sixteen defensive rebounds in that game, and
many of them were sequences where he made really smart
(24:42):
defensive raids at the rim to not go for a
block because he saw that his perimeter defenders were chesting
up with a drive and probably going to force into
some misses. Right then, on the offensive end against Miami,
Ad dominated in a very different way. Like it only
had seventeen points, but he was consistent drawing second defenders
in the post. And this was a game, you know,
(25:02):
an Ad can be a little tricky handling double teams.
It's been an inconsistent thing for him in his life.
But that last night, in particular, I thought he did
a great job posting on that left block, especially down
the stretch, and making that skip pass, particularly to the
opposite wing, and then the MAVs were able to get
into their driving kick from it, and they got some
really good looks out of that, and Miami actually actually
ended up letting him work one on one on a
(25:24):
key possession late and he just turned over his right
shoulder over Tyler Hero hit that little bank shot. So
like different kind of dominance from Anthony Davis. And I
know it's been a rough year for MAVs fans and
it's not much consolation to see Anthony Davis playing well
with this few wins coming, you know, to this point
in the season. But it's just a casual reminder that
(25:45):
Anthony Davis is a bona fide star. Like in back
to back games he outplayed Nicola jokicch and bam Adebayo.
There's not many players in the league that can do that.
He's still one of the best defensive players in the league,
and he's still a very good offensive weapon in his
own way. But of course, Anthony Davis is not the
only reason that the MAVs are on a three game
win streak. They also have a one to nineteen offensive
(26:06):
rating in their last three games. They're scoring the ball
better than they have all season, and that's helping them
close these games out. There are three players in particular
that I want to shout out here, and firstus Cooper Flag,
who's riding his first consistent stretch of high level offensive
play as a pro. In fact, he's the youngest player
in NBA history to log three consecutive twenty point games.
(26:26):
And it's being driven by two things. Cutting down on
his three point attempts and driving the hell out of
the basketball as a result of that. And then the
second piece of it is focusing on shorter range shot making.
When it comes to his jump shot, the drives have
been super impressive. He's attacking downhill out of spot ups
with like these quick jab steps or quick ripthrough moves,
and he's beating his man consistently. It's a way that
(26:48):
he's spacing the floor without necessarily hitting threes, as his
three point attempts have gone about half his season average
over the course of the last three games, and in
each case he just kind of gets that shoulder into
you and he can finish with his left hand in
his right hand, and he's just a force to be
reckoned with as an athlete going downhill. Too big, too skilled,
and too mobile. And then with the short range shot making,
(27:08):
it's about minimizing variants right, finding an easier shot for
him to make that takes advantage of his size. Kate A.
Cooper is shooting only twenty eight percent on jump shots
outside of seventeen feet this year, twenty eight percent on
mid rangers outside of seventeen feet, and twenty eight percent
from three budd He's shooting forty six percent inside of
seventeen feet and that's fueled by this recent run. He's
(27:31):
eight out of eleven in this three game span on
jump shots inside of seventeen feet. It's a much easier
shot for him that he can get to there, and
he's hitting it at a high clip. And it's not
just jump shooting either, like he's been hitting these little
short bank shots and these little floaters. And you guys
know how big of a fan I am of short
range shot making because I think it just can be
(27:52):
so much more reliable night tonight than distance shot making,
and in late game situations, it can be a reliable
thing to go to. Last thing with Cooper. I think
the rise of Ryan Nemhart has simplified his role a bit.
He's constantly looking to attack now off of the catch
when he gets a chance, either in a spot up
situation and in action. He's attacking really hard, and I
(28:15):
think a big part of that is because he doesn't
have as much ball handling responsibility that he's had at
other points in the season, so he doesn't have to
pay so much attention to like making reads and managing
the flow of the game. He's just in attack mode
right now and it's working really well for him. Secondly,
is the aforementioned rise of Ryan Nemhart, just the spitting
(28:36):
image of his brother as a high level pick and
role player, hitting little drop covered shots in the mid range,
beating bigs and forwards and switches with nasty dribble combinations
into mid rangers. In the Denver game, he hit a
couple of super tough layups on hard drives to the basket,
some impressive rim finishing from him. And then the passing
ability is real, just making those reads in action, hitting
(28:58):
the pocket and pick and roll, making that skip pass.
He had this pass to Klay Thompson in the corner
in the Miami game where he was kind of way
up at the top and Clay was open in the corner,
and he hit him with the pass right in the
top of his shooting pockets. So that Clay was able
to catch into like a no dip that like classic
Clay no dip three that he hit. It was a
(29:18):
big shot in that game too. I've talked a lot
over the years about how your value as a basketball
player is unique to your basketball team and what they need,
and this team has needed a ball handler that can
both score and make reads. I thought it would be
de Lo, but it just hasn't worked out with del
this season. Although to his credit, Delo actually had a
nice game against Miami yesterday, hit some big shots. They
(29:40):
tried Brandon Williams for a while that was more bad
than good. Ryan has done the best job filling that
role and it's been a big part of this offensive
explosion from this team. He's had forty three points and
twenty three assists in his last two games with only
one turnover in only six missed shots. That's pretty remarkable stuff,
(30:00):
and the play type data is super impressive. He's now
up to sixty eight pick and rolls this year, including
passes eighty three points generated one point two to two
points per possession. That's excellent. Big part of that is
his own personal shooting. He's shooting fifteen for twenty in
pick and roll as the ball handler, thirteen for eighteen
from two and two for two from three, and then
(30:20):
he's beating switches. He's had seventeen ISOs this season including passes,
eighteen points generated on ten shot attempts. He's made four
and drew a foul in one, so he's scored on
half of his own shot attempts in ISO. And then
he's generated a couple of buckets on kickouts and one
on a drop off, so he's been good in ISO
as well. And then lastly, Klay Thompson, the beef with
John Morant appears to have awakened a competitive side in
(30:42):
Clay that is leading to some vintage basketball from him.
And since the start of that Memphis game so was
six games sample size seventeen points per game from Clay,
forty eight percent on nine to three point attempts per game,
hitting a lot of big shots too. And he's just
becoming an all two important release out for this Mavericks
offense in terms of kickouts because he can take it and
(31:04):
make contested catch and shoot threes as well as the
wide open ones. It's not too late for Dallas to
work their way in the mix here. They're only one
and a half games back in the nine seed, three
and a half games back of Golden State in the
eight seed. And this is not fake basketball. This is
a legit top five defense that added a legit two
way superstar in Anthony Davis that is capable of out
(31:26):
playing some of the best players in the league at
his position. And you have two blossoming young players in
Ryan Emphart and Cooper Flag with some really good role
players around him too, by the way, and like PJ. Washington,
he turned his ankle about a week ago. Him and
Derek Lively are out right now like they're going to be,
you know, a very talented basketball team when they're healthy,
kind of like we expected coming into the season. They
(31:48):
just needed a ball handler to pop, and they needed
Cooper to find his footing. And that's what's happening with
Ryan and Cooper right now. And just a tiny little
bit of light in the darkness for MAVs fans. And
the play of Anthony Davis is super encouraging regardless of
what happens, because he's either going to help you in
a MAVs jersey or he's going to massively inflate his
trade value and help you build around Cooper for the future.
(32:16):
All right, before we get out of here today. Briefly
on the Spurs. The Spurs won their seventh time and
nine games without Wemby last night, a crazy game against
the Magic. They controlled it throughout for the most part
until things got weird late. Franz didn't take a three
all night and then hit a big one, a pull
up on the right wing, and then Jeremy Sohan ends
up missing two free throws, and then Franz gets fouled
(32:38):
on a three and makes all three of them, and
suddenly the game is tied. But darreon Fox ended up
drawing a foul and a drive on Jonathan Isaac kind
of got into his body. It was kind of a
weird play. I ended up getting challenged and upheld, but
it was blocked clean up top, which made it a
little bit tricky. But there was some body contact down
low before the shot attempt that ended up getting upheld.
(32:58):
So dearon Fox goes down and makes both free throws.
Orlando runs a really nice inbound sequence where Franz Wagner
gets like an inside seal, beautiful in entry pass gets
a wide open layup but Luke Cornett makes this unbelievable
defensive rotation off of like pretty far on the right wing,
just comes flying in and swats it out of bounds,
and the Spurs end up getting a huge win, and
(33:21):
Dearn Fox was amazing again and he continues to be
the story again. Ultimately, why they're winning, why they're seven
to two in this span, is they have a one
to nineteen point four offensive rating, and they're winning these
games because Dearon Fox is consistently compromising the defense off
the top twenty seven points and seven assists per game
on forty nine percent from the field in forty one
(33:43):
percent from three in this span, eight free throw attempts
per game two, getting the defenders out of position and
getting to the line, and it's just that steady, you know.
I kind of bought in with Darren Fox with this
after that playoff series. Was it in twenty twenty three
against the Warriors where they were the twos? I think
I can't remember. I think it was the two seed, yeah,
(34:04):
and they might have been the three seed. I think
it was a six to three series. Whatever it was.
The Kings had the home court advantage and the Warriors
ended up beating them because Steph Curry goes for fifty
in Game seven. But the two kind of things that
stood out to me on the Kings front in that
series were like Darren Fox and Malik Monk as well,
but let's focus on Darren Fox here. Deren Fox could
like legitimately break down defenses. To me, that's like the
(34:26):
fundamental part of every great offense. It's one of the
big things that I'm concerned about as a Laker fan
going into tonight in Toronto. I just like their chances
a lot better if you have Luca as a guy
that can break the defense at the start, Right, Do
you have something that one of your players can do
that's extremely difficult to manage defensively that is going to
cause them to either collapse or put two on the ball,
(34:48):
anything that could generate easier openings for your team, right,
And for me with Darren Fox, it's that combination, that
balance of his legit dribble penetration like he's just getting
by guys whenever he wants to, but also counterbalancing it
with the jump shooting. That's going to be what draws
the attention that unlocks an underrated part of dearon Fox's game.
(35:09):
We talked a little bit about this the other day
in the Power Rankings show, but darn Fox is sneaky,
one of the better like cross court kickout passers in
the league, which is getting them into their drive and kick.
And then just a bunch of these other young players
are playing well, like Devin Vessell is shooting forty four
percent on six three point attempts per game during this span,
straight up won the Denver Nuggets game with his aggressive
(35:31):
catch and shoot shooting. Keldon Johnson has been a monster
attacking the basket. He's averaging sixteen points per game on
sixty one percent from the field. Dylan Harper has been
playing really well. It's good to see him back. He
had a big drive in the Memphis game out of
the right corner. Just kind of looked like one of those,
like one of those plays that you look at when
you're looking at a young player in his star potential.
(35:52):
You look at like specific types of plays where he
looks kind of unguardable, and he had this play out
of the right corner where he through to his left hand,
got that tiny bit of an angle and then like
kind of hooked the dude with his right elbow and
got in for that left handed layup, and it's like, oh,
like that's going to be physically difficult for any defender
in the league to deal with. That could be a
(36:14):
foundational trait that could turn Dylan Harper into a superstar
one day, and that's the potential that he has, right
But like, you just have this darn Fox breaking the
defense at the point of attack, all their young guards
and wings playing well, Luke Hornett's back and playing super well.
This is just a really good basketball team and they're
way better than I gave him credit for in the preseason.
(36:34):
I talked about this a little bit in the Power
Rankings episode, and we're going to get into it in
more detail when we do my Predictions episode where we
kind of go back over some of the predictions I
made this offseason. But you know, in addition to the
Clippers one that we were talking about yesterday, this is
one that I was flat out wrong about. I was
talking about how I didn't think the Spurs had enough
good basketball players, like really good two way basketball players
(36:56):
to compete nightly in the Western Conference with some of
the other super talent rosters that were up in the league,
and I was just wrong about that. They have a
lot of guys who are playing some of the best
basketball of their careers. Darren Fox has literally been playing
some of the best basketball of his career during this stretch.
Devin Vessel has been a revelation in this recent stretch.
(37:17):
Keldon Johnson kind of looked like a guy who was
going to be the odd man out in recent seasons.
He's been incredible this year. Dylan Harper right away as
a rookie being a legit contributor. Luke Cornett is a
bona fide rotation piece at the center position. This is
just a really good basketball team. And as far as
the Giannis thing goes, again, like I said it off
the top, as a basketball fan, I really want to
(37:37):
see Honis in San Antonio. But then for the health
of the league, I think it's best if he stays
out East. But if you're San Antonio, who cares about
all that, I think they should make the push for Giannis.
They have a couple of salaries that they could make
it work with, and the draft picks Jannis and Wenby
would be a frightening duo together. You could still maintain
the level of role player talent around them, you need
(37:57):
to be successful. I think they should certainly try for
your honest maybe they don't get them, but I think
they should certainly make that attempt. All right, guys, It's
all I have for today is always a sincerely appreciate
you guys for supporting us, in supporting the show, Don't
forget Playback tonight at four thirty pm Pacific time for
Lakers at Raptors. Tomorrow morning, we'll have a little bit
of game reaction as well as a mailbag, and then
(38:19):
Friday night once again Lakers Celtics at four pm Pacific
time on playback again. I appreciate you, guys, and I
will see you later tonight
Host
Jason Timpf
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My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com