Jason Timpf’s top takes of the week!
He starts with the biggest news of the week, Luka Doncic making his debut with the Lakers after the blockbuster trade. He also breaks down why Jimmy Butler has restored the “belief” in the Warriors, congratulates Kevin Durant on reaching 30k career points and why Jayson Tatum has become the best “swiss army knife” in the league.
Timeline:
4:15 - Luka’s Lakers debut
16:00 - Jimmy Butler restores belief to Warriors
30:45 - Kevin Durant reaches 30k points
33:30 - Jayson Tatum is the best “swiss army knife” in the NBA
#Volume #Herd
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Episode Transcript
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see DKG dot co slash b Ball. Welcome to the
Best of Hoops Tonight, featuring my top takes from recent shows.
Luca's debut with the Lakers a really weird game because
the Jazz are just really bad, and the Jazz are
(01:51):
also a legit like switch everything one through five no
matter what type of team, and so all your ball
screen actions are kind of shut down, and the only
way you're really gonna get advantages is by like slipping
out of switches, sealing switches, or attacking one on one
and drawing hell right, And the biggest thing that stood
out to me in this game was their ability to
(02:14):
consistently get dribble penetration. There was good action too. JJ
talked about in the postgame press or how they ran
a three man horn set with Luca Lebron in Austin
one time in the game and got a wide open
shot for Ruey Hatchamurra and it was they made so
Austin was at the top, Lebron and Luca were at
the elbows. Luca's on the left elbow. Austin makes a
(02:35):
post entry to Luca and then cuts off of Lebron,
And when he cuts off Lebron, Lebron sets a good
screen that obviously triggers the switch. But Jordan Clarkson was
guarding Austin. Lebron just sealed him and created that over
the top passing angle. Luca threw it to him. Now,
all of a sudden, Jordan Clarkson's trapped on Lebron's backside,
so there's nobody in front of him. If you don't
step up, Lebron's gonna go to the rim. Ruey Ha
(02:57):
Timura's man who was in the corner, steps over to
help on Lebron. Lebron makes the kickout past to Ruey
wide open three. That's the type of action that they'll
have to run more frequently against some of the better
teams in the league when it's just a little bit
harder to break down individual defenders. But they did get
good stuff out out of action. There were some other examples,
like Ruy's first dunk in the game. Along the baseline,
(03:19):
Luca set a screen for Ruy along the baseline. Isaiah
Collier was guarding Luca and was really hesitant to switch
off of Luca, and so he did it. John Collins
got caught on the screen. Ruey Haachimura got a dunk,
even the LB dunk that Jackson Hayes got to start
the second half, same sort of concept, a little wide
screen between Luca and Jackson Hayes. Isaiah Collier did not
(03:40):
want to switch off of Luca. He was kind of
hesitant on that, but they did switch off of Jackson Hayes,
so Luca just threw the lob right up to Jackson
and he got a dunk. There were examples of them
getting good stuff out of action, and especially against more
traditional coverages, they're going to get a lot of stuff
out of action. But again, by far, the big thing
(04:00):
that stood out to me was their ability to get
dribble penetration. Luca has this remarkable ability to turn any
small gap or small angle into a full blown drive
to the rim. And part of it is his incredible
ability to use fakes. He just says he's really good
at like I talk about this all the time when
he was in Dallas. But he will sell every part
(04:21):
of every move with every part of his body. So,
like I talk about this all the time, instead of
like doing a big sweeping crossover, it makes more sense
just to face this way and then completely change direction.
If you sell it with your eyes and you sell
it with your shoulders and you sell it with your hips,
the defender is going to react. Most good defenders don't
watch the ball. They watch like your center of gravity
to see where your body's going, and you sell that
(04:43):
direction change and then you pull the ball back across right.
Like It's more about those little head fakes and body
fakes to get players out of position. He's great with
he's great with pump fakes, he's great with pass fakes.
He can do all these things to get guys out
of position. And once he gets that tiny little angle,
that's where his strength takes over. He's just so big
and so strong that he can turn a small gap
(05:05):
into like a lumbering drive to the rim because he
gets you caught on his shoulder or caught on his backside.
And his drives have a tendency to bring in a
ton of help because they are slow. He like rumbles
downhill and everybody reacts to it. And because he's such
a threat to throw the lob pass, everyone kind of
overreacts to stuff in the paint, and that's what opens
(05:26):
up those kickout reads. Did you notice how much Lebron
was pressuring the rim last night. A big part of
that is because he doesn't have to create every single shot,
he doesn't have to worry about burning himself out. He's
also clearly very excited right now. That plays a role
in it. But did you notice that he was like
on those switches, being aggressive downhill, pressuring the rim. He
(05:46):
kind of gets choppy with his feet and tries to
get ahead of steam so that he gets his body
weight going downhill, and guys just don't want to get
in the way of him. Like there's a certain amount
of energy that Lebron can afford to expand on each
individual iso, on each individual post up, on each individual
ball screen, simply because he has less to do on
(06:06):
the offensive end of the floor. I thought Lebron was
fantastic in this game. He's been great for a while.
JJ Reddick talked after the game about how ever, since
the Miami game, they had a talk and now, if
you guys remember the Miami game was when I had
my meltdown and I was like, what the hell is
wrong with these guys? You know, and JJ sat down
with Lebron, and ever since then, he's been fantastic. I
dug into the numbers. Since that Miami game, he's averaging
(06:28):
twenty six point four points per game, eight rebounds per game,
nine assists per game, fifty four percent from the field,
forty three percent from three eight thirty point games, four
triple doubles. He's playing at a top five level right now,
which is what's so exciting about partnering him with Lebron
James with the other talent on this roster. I thought
(06:48):
Austin was fantastic. Again, he had to lead a unit
in the early second quarter with Lebron, excuse me, in
the late first quarter with Lebron and Luca both off
the floor because Luca was on a minute'st Now, I
would expect that it'll be like all three of them
to start games. Then Lebron will come out and it'll
be Luca and Austin right in that like mid first
(07:10):
quarter stretch, and then one of those guys will come out,
probably probably Luca, and it'll be Austin and Lebron to
end the first quarter, and then they'll probably start the
second quarter with Lebron and Luca. Then Lebron will come
out in the middle of the second quarter, it'll be
Luca and Austin, and then it'll be all three of
them at the end. Right, that's probably going to be
the normal progression. You're probably always going to have to
deal with two of those guys, right, And that's the
(07:32):
exciting part about this in the big picture, And I
was literally thinking about it last night, like there's been
a lot of time over the course of the last
couple of weeks where the Lakers have been playing really
good basketball, but over the course of games, teams will
ball pressure Austin and ball pressure Lebron and wear them down.
And Lebron is forty and Austin is a little bit
susceptible to strength and athleticism from time and from time
(07:54):
to time, and they will wear down. And they've been
playing so great that they've still been winning, and Austin
still made enough plays in the Pacers game to get
the job done, and they do what they need to
do to get the win. But there's clearly like a
little bit of like a Okay, we're running out of
gas offensively here, where adding Luca just immediately doesn't just
address that but turns you into the most resilient shot
(08:16):
creation team in the league. To just be dealing with
waves of all three of them, and then Luca and Austin,
and then Luca and Lebron, and then Luca and then
all three of them again, and it's just gonna be
Lebron and Austin here and all these just these groups
that have so much shot creation on the floor, they're
just gonna have such a resilient offense. But again, because
of Luca's minutes restriction, Austin had to lead a unit
(08:39):
by himself, and guess what, He's been doing that a
lot this year, and he did it amazingly well again
last night in that first quarter stretch. One of the
biggest things, though, that I was excited about after this
trade was the play finishing that is on this roster. Okay,
like Luca's an indomitable force, there are a handful of
guys in the league that can make him work harder
(08:59):
than you usual. I think of like lou Dort, I
think of like Andrew Wiggins, who's not even in the
conference anymore. But even some of the best perimeter defenders
in the league, guys like Jaden McDaniels right in the
Western Conference finals, those guys can't keep him from getting
to his spots. As a matter of fact, he kind
of gets where he wants to easily against them. That
is the superpower that will help this offense when things
get really tough. But the other guys do have some limitations.
(09:21):
Right Lebron's forty. There's a couple times last night where
he tried to like turn the corner on Lourie markin
In and just couldn't get there. Laurie was like blocking
him off the glass or forcing him into bad misses
five years ago. He's dunking on his head. But he's forty, right,
and he can wear down a little bit physically over
the course of games. Although to Lebron's credit, he's been
fantastic out of late. As of late, and that's the
optimism with this group, But Lebron is forty years old.
(09:43):
Austin Reeves, for example, not a great athlete. He can
struggle under ball pressure sometimes ruey if it's not a
dunk under the rim, like he's shooting under fifty percent
on layups right, and his jumper under contests can get
a little finicky sometimes. Point being, they're awesome offensive players,
but they have some limit pations when they're in lead roles.
For all three of those guys, right, but once you
(10:04):
give them an advantage, if you let Lebron have someone
sprinting at him and now he's playing driving kick basketball.
If you let Lebron slip out of screens to where
he can lead a four on three, If you put
Austin on the perimeter with the guy sprinting at him,
where he could show the ball and drive left or right.
If you put Ruey wide open, where he's shooting fifty
three percent on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots this
(10:27):
year field goal percentage, meaning he's making more than half
of them. With what he can do driving closeouts. Gabe
has been playing super well again. He was a big
part of that Austin solo unit that did so well.
Dorian Finney Smith can knock down and open three. Jackson Hayes,
Like I talked a lot after the Mark Williams trade
went through or fell through about how like not having
(10:50):
Mark as like a roleman threat could be a significant
hit to this offense. After watching last night, like I thought,
Jackson did just find capitalizing on all the vertical spacing opportunities.
I believe he was six for six from the field
if I remember correctly. Like, I think he's not as
good as Mark Williams, but I think he's gonna do
just fine unlocking that vertical spacing. The point is is
(11:11):
there's just a ton of play finishing on this roster.
So if you have Luca, who against the very best
defenses in the league, and against the very best defenders
in the league, can still create advantages and Lebron, who
kind of looks like he's still doing it for whatever reason.
And let's say, let's even pretend for a second that
(11:32):
Lebron eventually kind of wears down over the course of
a playoff run and doesn't look like top five Lebron
but looks like top ten Lebron. Even if that happens,
Luca is there to create the initial advantage. Once he
creates that initial advantage. Lebron and Austin and Gabe and
Dorian Finney Smith and Ruy, those guys are incredible at
(11:54):
this driving kick thing, and they're just gonna take those
advantages in either score out of them or drive them
and draw another defender and create an even better shot.
There were so many sequences last night where the Lakers
continued to break down the defense and would get like
a really good look with like two or three seconds
on the shot clock. It's like, oh, Lebron's driving on
(12:14):
like the fourth driving kick of the possession and whipping
a pass back across the court to Gabe Vincent who
knocks it down, or all of the possession is great
defense from the Jazz and everything's covered, but Walker Kessler
is on Austin In a switch on the left wing
and Austin just pump fakes on a close out. You
get the end of the possession is you get a
(12:35):
short close out for Austin on the left wing against
Walker Kessler. Austin shows the ball, Walker over pursues that
pump fake, Austin drives and hits a little bank shot
with like two on the shot clock. That is play finishing.
I talk about this all the time when you go
into lower levels. It's dramatic the difference at the high
school level. If I let the guys play king of
(12:56):
the court with a set defender versus a king of
the court with a guy out at them, their ability
to score like quadruples and when you give them that advantage.
Now again at the NBA level, it's a smaller advantage.
It's more like maybe twenty to thirty percent more efficient
per possession. But that's a substantial increase that you can
benefit from because now you have the best set of
(13:17):
advantage creators that are in the NBA. So on the
Warriors front, I'm talking a lot with respect to Lebron
about the concept of belief. Right Like, playing championship level
basketball is really hard and takes a pretty desperate commitment
to work that's not even necessarily fun. It's fun in
(13:39):
the context of winning, but playing championship basketball includes a
lot of really difficult things to do on the court,
a certain level of exertion that is difficult, and so
if you don't actually think you're gonna get rewarded for
it by actually believing there's an opportunity to accomplish something,
it's going to be difficult even for the best players
in the world to really get invested in that context.
(14:02):
About four games ago, early last week, it became abundantly
clear that the Warriors were going to trade for somebody.
I don't know if it was just the humiliation of
missing out on Kevin Durant or what the deal was,
but it became clear that they were going to get somebody.
In the four games since then since that intel came down,
Steph is averaging thirty five points, five rebounds, and five
(14:24):
assists per game. In the two games since Jimmy Butler
actually started playing and making life easier for Steph, he
just logged back to back games with at least thirty
points on at least fifty percent shooting for the first
time since the Dallas and Oklahoma City wins. Way back
in early November, I talked about how the thing I
was most excited about this deal. I do think that
(14:46):
this Warriors team has a small window to maybe capitalize
on an opportunity to win a championship here. But more
than anything, it went from a team that was most
likely not going to play any meaningful basketball, Like without
a trade, that team is probably going to lose in
the play in just like last year. But with Jimmy
Butler in the mix, they're almost certainly going to get
(15:07):
out of that mess and get into a first round series,
which means we're going to get another opportunity to watch
Steph Curry play meaningful basketball. That's what I'm excited about.
Steph said after the game, We've got an opportunity to
do something pretty special considering where we've been this season,
and he's right. There are lineups that they can put
together now that have Steph, that have Jimmy, that have Draymond,
(15:30):
that have Jonathan Kamingo when he comes back, and it
looks like he's probably gonna be coming back after the
All Star break, where they have enough talent now to
actually present some problems to some of these teams. And
that's like, when it comes to the playoffs, so much
of it comes down to, like, what do we do
that the other team sucks at? What do they do
that we suck at? What can they capitalize on in
(15:52):
terms of weaknesses and vice versa, And just bringing in
a weapon like Jimmy Butler just puts them in a
situation where they're going to be a more precarious type
of matchup to deal with. And like, God, if we
can get if the Warriors end up matching up with
somebody like the two seed, they end up getting a Memphis,
that's a matchup that they're capable of winning. And how
great would it be if we got to see another
(16:12):
month of high level playoff basketball out of Steph Curry,
even with an opportunity to potentially do more. Like I said,
it's not guaranteed. There could be injuries, there could be
things that go wrong, they could miss the playoffs, right,
but by virtue of making this deal, I find it
far more likely than not that they're going to make
it out of the play in tournament and get into
(16:34):
a legitimate playoff series And give me Steph, Jimmy and
Draymond in a playoff series, and I think that that's
going to be a fascinating couple of weeks. And if
they win, we could get to see another extended playoff
runt from one of the greatest players in the history
of the game. And that's why I'm excited. It's about belief.
Like Steph looks engaged, he doesn't say that after the
(16:54):
game unless he believes that this team can do something.
Jimmy Butler, I think has been an amazing fit right away.
I wasn't worried about it. I know there were some
Warriors fans that were. I just think Jimmy's too smart
of a basketball player that brings too many complimentary traits
to what Steph Curry does. I want to talk a
little bit about middle of the floor processing. This is
(17:15):
something that I've talked a lot about on this show
with respect to like mediocre playmakers, in the sense that
when you're in the middle of the floor, there's just
you can only see, you know, maybe one fourth of
what's happening around you. Uh, there's always like a lot
of moving parts that can get confusing in the middle
of the floor. It's a spot where a lot of
players struggle and it's why, like when it comes to
(17:38):
the mediocre playmakers, you kind of want to clear the
side then have them operate so the whole floors in
front of them, just so that they have an easier
time making reads. But when you have a player who
knows what to do there, when you have a player
that doesn't panic, it's like that famous basketball you know, ism,
whatever you want to call it, be quick but don't hurry. Right.
(17:59):
If you can get a player that can quickly process
without rushing and making mistakes in the middle of the floor,
all sorts of good things can happen to your offense.
An example from late first half last night against the Bucks,
Steph Jimmy two man game. Top of the key. Kuzma
goes out with Steph. There's two guys on Steph. Jimmy
catches in the middle of the floor. When he catches
(18:21):
in the middle of the floor, Draymon's man steps up
closer to Jimmy, and now there's a two on one
that's formed with Draymond underneath the basket, Buddy Healed on
the wing, with Damian Lillard kind of splitting the difference
between the two. Jimmy just calmly turns in, pivots and
looks at Buddy healed. When he turns and pivots and
looks at Buddy healed. There goes Dame running out to
(18:43):
go to Buddy because he's biting on that headfake or
pass fake whatever. You just Jimmy acknowledging Buddy's presence gets
Dame to jump out. Then he just pivots again and
looks there's Draymond boot bounce past easy layup right underneath
the basket. He just looks so calm and comfortable operating there.
Here's why that's important. Last night you actually saw it
(19:04):
in some zone. Looks got to get the ball in
the middle of the zone, and the Warriors consistently got
it to Jimmy there. They scored eight points on four
zone possessions in that game, and the Bucks just stop.
Stop trying it. You can't run his zone if they're
getting two points per possession. So that's part of it.
But the biggest part, the most meaningful part within the
playoff context, is the Steph Jimmy two man game. When
(19:26):
you run the Steph Jimmy two man game, it's going
to create advantages in three different ways. One is like
that sequence I just told you about. Jimmy sets a screen.
Both guys run with Steph. Now Jimmy's the role man,
and it's a four on three where Draymond is absolutely
an offensive threat in the dunker spot. Jimmy is a
threat to score in the middle of the floor and
to play make out of it. And you've got guys
(19:47):
like Moses Moody in the corner, who has just been
fantastic since Andrew Wiggins injury. It just or injury, excuse
me trade. Since the Andrew Wiggins trade, it's given Moses
Moody opportunity and he's just been capitalizing on it as
a big range wing on the perimeter that can knock
down threes, drive close outs, and play defense and rebound.
And it's just it's he's taken advantage of his opportunity
(20:07):
and he's crushing. But like you get into those four
on threes, if they put two on the ball with Steph,
that's where Jimmy can operate in the middle of the floor.
The second thing that will happen with the Steph Jimmy
two main game is inside position ceiling on switches. So
imagine a guy's guarding Steph one on one faced up
with him and Jimmy. This is the defender. Jimmy comes
up and screens on the backside, and it triggers a switch. Okay,
(20:31):
if they switch, Jimmy can then seal and create that
over the top passing angle. We talked I believe in
Yester on the Sunday Show about just how dynamic Jimmy
is in those inside seals at creating a passing angle
and high pointing the basketball and catching it. That accomplishes
the same goal, the same four on three. So like
(20:52):
if if you screen for Steph and your defender runs
out onto Steph, but now you've got Steph's defender sealed
on your top side and you get a catch over
the top, it is an identical four on three because
when you catch, all of a sudden, your defender's behind you,
so you can just go right to the rim, which
is going to force somebody to step up. There's your
(21:12):
four on three. Now you have a three on two
on the backside once that guy steps up to you
after you catch on that inside seal, So you can
get four on threes out of getting two onto Steph
and just slipping out of it, you can get four
on threes, out of inside seals on switches. Now, what
about when they well execute a switch? So they switch,
(21:33):
but the guy who's guarding Steph just quickly dives around
with some good swim move or something and gets behind Jimmy. Well,
who's the guard that's quick enough to guard Steph? Now
he's got to guard Jimmy in the post. Wait until
Jonathan Kaminge's back out there, and again it looks like
he's gonna be coming back. Sometime shortly after the All
Star break, Jonathan Kamenka comes back. Where are the athletes at?
(21:56):
Where are you putting your athletes? Well, if you put
your best forward athlete on Jimmy, that means your second
best forward athlete is now guarding Jonathan Kaminga. Who's gonna
just be a massive athletic mismatch that you can attack.
If you have the best forward athlete on Jonathan Kminga,
now you got your third best perimeter defender overall guarding
(22:17):
Jimmy Butler, Like, that's gonna put you in a bind
in terms of matchups. That's gonna make that Steph Jimmy
two man game even harder to account for. But again,
what unlocks all of it is anytime they put two
on the ball, anytime they botch a switch or they
get sealed top side on Jimmy, He's gonna be able
(22:39):
to operate out of the middle of the floor better
than any other player on this roster could. Draymond could
do all the playmaking out of that position, but he
couldn't bring the scoring out of that position. There are
going to be times where Jimmy catches on the roll
and everyone stays home and he's gonna have to attack
the rim and maybe finish in a little bit of
traffic or hit something there in the middle of the floor.
(23:00):
He can do that. He can do that at a
really high rate. But I think to early returns from
this have been beautiful in terms of just demonstrating the
simple fact that Jimmy is not only a very complimentary
athlete to Steph, but he also represents a gaping hole
in the roster that was there before the deal, which
is just having a really high level dribble a guy
(23:22):
who can dribble, shoot, and pass on the floor. That
just greases the wheels for everything that you try to
do on offense. I was amazed watching Kevin Durray last night.
(23:42):
The Suns were an absolute mess. They had several guys
playing that probably shouldn't be in the rotation for a
serious NBA team. They looked incredibly sloppy and undisciplined, one
of the worst transition defense performances I've seen. They gave
up twenty offensive rebounds. But like a shining light in
that darkness was Kevin Durant. Thirty four points on eighteen shots,
(24:03):
only one turnover, five blocks, battling with Jaron Jackson trying
to box him out on the glass all night long,
and to top it off, in the process, he enters
into rare territory. Kevin Durant is only the eighth player
in NBA history to score thirty thousand points in an
NBA career, rarefied air. There a group of guys that
(24:24):
it's an honor to be associated with. But to me,
the most impressive part of all of this is the
circumstances he overcame to get here. Kevin Durant suffered the
most terrifying injury that a basketball player can suffer, an
Achilles rupture, right at the peak of his powers. He
was playing so incredibly well when he took that little
baseline jumper that he knocked down where he originally suffered
(24:47):
the calf injury, and then he played amazing in his
first few minutes in the NBA Finals before he went down.
You can't imagine a more discouraging set of circumstances for
a basketball player, and instead of letting that injury be
a signal of the end, he came back every bit
as good as ever on the other side of the injury.
Seven thousand and sixty eight of those thirty thousand and
(25:11):
eight points that he's scored so far came after the
achilles tear, and he's done it on higher volume in
efficiency than he was doing before the injury. In the
five seasons before Kevin Durant's injury, he averaged twenty six
points per game on just under sixty four percent for shooting.
In the five seasons since, he's averaging twenty eight points
(25:32):
per game on over sixty four percent for shooting. Any
drop in his athleticism, he's more than made up for
with a mastery of the modern game as a playmaker
and as a floor general. I was really amazed by
this in the Brooklyn Nets days as the league kind
of shifted to like, really good spacing in the spread
pick and roll attack. He was so incredibly good at
(25:52):
picking teams apart as a pick and roll ball handler
with the nets, and we've seen that extend throughout this
late phase of his career. Like he's just the product
of a consistent pursuit of excellence. He's got a legendary
work ethic. His shooting workouts are the example set for
all pros around the world. Still, when I'm talking to
the kids that I train in high school, I talk
(26:14):
about doing every single rep at game speed, something that
Kevin Durant has been preaching. He's just Katie is one
of the best ambassadors to the game of basketball that
has ever come into this league. And I'm thankful for him,
and I just wanted to take a second before we
talked about that game last night to congratulate him on
overcoming the adversity of his injury and to enter into
(26:35):
rarefied air and NBA history. I thought Jason Tatum just
completely dominated the first quarter of that Spurs game. Set
the tone, built that initial advantage, and it was something
that the Spurs just couldn't overcome. On the defensive end
of the floor, Boston had a switching group out there
that was just doing a really nice job just staying attacked,
(26:56):
shutting down screening actions. Switching puts an MP assists on
running action, good action that confuses switching, like three man action,
lots of ball in player movement to try to get
guys to make mistakes. And then when teams successfully switch,
you've got to be aggressive against those switches getting to
the basket to get super high value shots or to
(27:18):
draw multiple defenders. You can run into a trap where
you start settling, and that was what happened in that
first quarter. There was a few examples of good action.
There was like a little Chicago action like a downscreen
into a dribble handoff where they pitched it back to
Julian Champagnee on the right wing and knocked down a three.
There were a couple examples like that, but it was
a lot of like deeron Fox contested pull up jump shots,
(27:42):
Victor wembin Yama contested pull up jump shots. They weren't
doing a very good job of attacking the switching. And
then on the other end of the floor in the
first quarter, Jason Tatum goes for fourteen points, six rebounds,
and three assists, with zero turnovers, did a ton of
scoring in that short to mid range, attacking the spurs
all their players when they get switched onto him mismatches.
(28:03):
There was a stretch in the late first quarter where
they started spamming a stack, pick and roll action with
Luke Cornette and Peyton Pritchard. Just a ball screen with
Tatum and Cornette with Pritchard backscreening generated a wide open
three for Pritchard at the top of the key that
he happened to miss. He ended up hitting a pull
up three on the right wing when they botched a
switch again. Three man action is a great way to
(28:23):
get teams to botch switches, and Victor Wenbinyamo was basically
just sticking with the screen the guy who was backscreening
him in the action instead of dealing with Tatum coming
off of that screen. He just stepped into it knockdown
at three. He finished the quarter off with a beautiful
driving kick like sweeping hook pass over to the left
wing to al Horford. Tatum just immediately looked like by far,
(28:47):
the best player on the floor in a game that
had two players that are considered top twenty five players
in the league. In my opinion, and Deer Fox and
Deeron Fox and Victor Wenbinyama and Tatum was just completely
outclassing them to start the game. And this is just
that's the groove that Jayson Tatum's in right now. During
this three game winning streak, He's averaging thirty five points
per game on sixty one percent true shooting. Jason Tatum
(29:09):
has just been consistently great. I've seen a lot of
talk about I've seen a lot of talk of late
about like a Celtics fans calling Jason Tatum the best
forward since Lebron And when I when I first heard that,
I had this like kind of reflex that came up
in me that it was like, well, what about Kawhi
And like what about Kevin Durant? And I think Kevin
(29:31):
Durant would be the guy that I'd probably still put
over Tatum in the sense that, like, in that like
twenty eighteen to twenty twenty one stretch, he was just
like and that's like spanning with an achilles injury in
the middle, but in that like I should say, like
twenty seventeen to twenty twenty one stretch, he was just
so incredibly good on both ends of the floor. I'm
(29:52):
not quite there, but I do think he's been better
than Kawhi if you like piece everything together, because like
what Tatum is to me is he's a Swiss army
knife type of forward in the same vein as a
Lebron James. So, for instance, like Kevin Durant has a
lot of impact, I think Kevin Durant has arguably just
(30:13):
as good of an impact on the defensive end in
terms of his ability to protect the rim, defensive rebound,
switch out onto the perimeter. But Kevin Durant has a
little bit of a susceptibility to size and strength. We
saw that in the Memphis game two nights ago when
Jared Jackson was able to just kind of toss Katie
around at certain times and he got two easy buckets
on him the post late in the game, or an
(30:33):
easy bucket and a foul late in the game, where
I think Tatum's a little bit sturdier for that type
of matchup. But I think Katie also is a little
bit longer, a little bit better rim protector. So the
two of them are more or less even on the
defensive end of the floor. But I do think that
Tatum has a certain Swiss Army Knife quality in terms
of just his ability to keep the ball moving his
playmaking ability. Jason Tatum has become a really, really gifted
(30:55):
playmaker in this league. And so we can debate whether
or not Tatum has reached a level that's higher than
Kawhi or higher than Katie. I'm hesitant to go that far,
but what I will say is that Tatum is becoming
the Swiss Army Knife of this generation, which is what
Lebron was in his generation. It's a type of player
that I'm drawn to because I think it demonstrates a
(31:16):
first of all, a versatility, but also just a commitment
to winning. There's a lot of stuff in there that
guys aren't willing to do. A simple example is like,
as good as Kevin Duran has been defensively, I think
he's kind of underachieved on that end over the course
of his career, whereas Tatum, you can tell, is maximizing
his potential on that end of the floor. I think
it's just a testament to the type of leader he is,
the type of competitor that he is. Again, a lot
(31:38):
of times we see guys like that that are a
little bit more mellow and not as like loud and
boisterous with their personality, and we or even guys that
are boisterous that are but that are positive, we think
of them as like not competitors because they're not Kobe
Bryant type assholes. And the truth of the matter is
is like that. The work that Jason Tatum does is
(31:58):
a pretty clear demonstration of the type of competitor that
he is, and he stepped up big time over the
course of this recent stretch the volume. What's Up guys,
As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Hoops tonight. It 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
(32:19):
supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
do that, I'd really appreciate it.
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see DKG dot co slash b Ball. Welcome to the
Best of Hoops Tonight, featuring my top takes from recent shows.
Luca's debut with the Lakers a really weird game because
the Jazz are just really bad, and the Jazz are
(01:51):
also a legit like switch everything one through five no
matter what type of team, and so all your ball
screen actions are kind of shut down, and the only
way you're really gonna get advantages is by like slipping
out of switches, sealing switches, or attacking one on one
and drawing hell right, And the biggest thing that stood
out to me in this game was their ability to
(02:14):
consistently get dribble penetration. There was good action too. JJ
talked about in the postgame press or how they ran
a three man horn set with Luca Lebron in Austin
one time in the game and got a wide open
shot for Ruey Hatchamurra and it was they made so
Austin was at the top, Lebron and Luca were at
the elbows. Luca's on the left elbow. Austin makes a
(02:35):
post entry to Luca and then cuts off of Lebron,
And when he cuts off Lebron, Lebron sets a good
screen that obviously triggers the switch. But Jordan Clarkson was
guarding Austin. Lebron just sealed him and created that over
the top passing angle. Luca threw it to him. Now,
all of a sudden, Jordan Clarkson's trapped on Lebron's backside,
so there's nobody in front of him. If you don't
step up, Lebron's gonna go to the rim. Ruey Ha
(02:57):
Timura's man who was in the corner, steps over to
help on Lebron. Lebron makes the kickout past to Ruey
wide open three. That's the type of action that they'll
have to run more frequently against some of the better
teams in the league when it's just a little bit
harder to break down individual defenders. But they did get
good stuff out out of action. There were some other examples,
like Ruy's first dunk in the game. Along the baseline,
(03:19):
Luca set a screen for Ruy along the baseline. Isaiah
Collier was guarding Luca and was really hesitant to switch
off of Luca, and so he did it. John Collins
got caught on the screen. Ruey Haachimura got a dunk,
even the LB dunk that Jackson Hayes got to start
the second half, same sort of concept, a little wide
screen between Luca and Jackson Hayes. Isaiah Collier did not
(03:40):
want to switch off of Luca. He was kind of
hesitant on that, but they did switch off of Jackson Hayes,
so Luca just threw the lob right up to Jackson
and he got a dunk. There were examples of them
getting good stuff out of action, and especially against more
traditional coverages, they're going to get a lot of stuff
out of action. But again, by far, the big thing
(04:00):
that stood out to me was their ability to get
dribble penetration. Luca has this remarkable ability to turn any
small gap or small angle into a full blown drive
to the rim. And part of it is his incredible
ability to use fakes. He just says he's really good
at like I talk about this all the time when
he was in Dallas. But he will sell every part
(04:21):
of every move with every part of his body. So,
like I talk about this all the time, instead of
like doing a big sweeping crossover, it makes more sense
just to face this way and then completely change direction.
If you sell it with your eyes and you sell
it with your shoulders and you sell it with your hips,
the defender is going to react. Most good defenders don't
watch the ball. They watch like your center of gravity
to see where your body's going, and you sell that
(04:43):
direction change and then you pull the ball back across right.
Like It's more about those little head fakes and body
fakes to get players out of position. He's great with
he's great with pump fakes, he's great with pass fakes.
He can do all these things to get guys out
of position. And once he gets that tiny little angle,
that's where his strength takes over. He's just so big
and so strong that he can turn a small gap
(05:05):
into like a lumbering drive to the rim because he
gets you caught on his shoulder or caught on his backside.
And his drives have a tendency to bring in a
ton of help because they are slow. He like rumbles
downhill and everybody reacts to it. And because he's such
a threat to throw the lob pass, everyone kind of
overreacts to stuff in the paint, and that's what opens
(05:26):
up those kickout reads. Did you notice how much Lebron
was pressuring the rim last night. A big part of
that is because he doesn't have to create every single shot,
he doesn't have to worry about burning himself out. He's
also clearly very excited right now. That plays a role
in it. But did you notice that he was like
on those switches, being aggressive downhill, pressuring the rim. He
(05:46):
kind of gets choppy with his feet and tries to
get ahead of steam so that he gets his body
weight going downhill, and guys just don't want to get
in the way of him. Like there's a certain amount
of energy that Lebron can afford to expand on each
individual iso, on each individual post up, on each individual
ball screen, simply because he has less to do on
(06:06):
the offensive end of the floor. I thought Lebron was
fantastic in this game. He's been great for a while.
JJ Reddick talked after the game about how ever, since
the Miami game, they had a talk and now, if
you guys remember the Miami game was when I had
my meltdown and I was like, what the hell is
wrong with these guys? You know, and JJ sat down
with Lebron, and ever since then, he's been fantastic. I
dug into the numbers. Since that Miami game, he's averaging
(06:28):
twenty six point four points per game, eight rebounds per game,
nine assists per game, fifty four percent from the field,
forty three percent from three eight thirty point games, four
triple doubles. He's playing at a top five level right now,
which is what's so exciting about partnering him with Lebron
James with the other talent on this roster. I thought
(06:48):
Austin was fantastic. Again, he had to lead a unit
in the early second quarter with Lebron, excuse me, in
the late first quarter with Lebron and Luca both off
the floor because Luca was on a minute'st Now, I
would expect that it'll be like all three of them
to start games. Then Lebron will come out and it'll
be Luca and Austin right in that like mid first
(07:10):
quarter stretch, and then one of those guys will come out,
probably probably Luca, and it'll be Austin and Lebron to
end the first quarter, and then they'll probably start the
second quarter with Lebron and Luca. Then Lebron will come
out in the middle of the second quarter, it'll be
Luca and Austin, and then it'll be all three of
them at the end. Right, that's probably going to be
the normal progression. You're probably always going to have to
deal with two of those guys, right, And that's the
(07:32):
exciting part about this in the big picture, And I
was literally thinking about it last night, like there's been
a lot of time over the course of the last
couple of weeks where the Lakers have been playing really
good basketball, but over the course of games, teams will
ball pressure Austin and ball pressure Lebron and wear them down.
And Lebron is forty and Austin is a little bit
susceptible to strength and athleticism from time and from time
(07:54):
to time, and they will wear down. And they've been
playing so great that they've still been winning, and Austin
still made enough plays in the Pacers game to get
the job done, and they do what they need to
do to get the win. But there's clearly like a
little bit of like a Okay, we're running out of
gas offensively here, where adding Luca just immediately doesn't just
address that but turns you into the most resilient shot
(08:16):
creation team in the league. To just be dealing with
waves of all three of them, and then Luca and Austin,
and then Luca and Lebron, and then Luca and then
all three of them again, and it's just gonna be
Lebron and Austin here and all these just these groups
that have so much shot creation on the floor, they're
just gonna have such a resilient offense. But again, because
of Luca's minutes restriction, Austin had to lead a unit
(08:39):
by himself, and guess what, He's been doing that a
lot this year, and he did it amazingly well again
last night in that first quarter stretch. One of the
biggest things, though, that I was excited about after this
trade was the play finishing that is on this roster. Okay,
like Luca's an indomitable force, there are a handful of
guys in the league that can make him work harder
(08:59):
than you usual. I think of like lou Dort, I
think of like Andrew Wiggins, who's not even in the
conference anymore. But even some of the best perimeter defenders
in the league, guys like Jaden McDaniels right in the
Western Conference finals, those guys can't keep him from getting
to his spots. As a matter of fact, he kind
of gets where he wants to easily against them. That
is the superpower that will help this offense when things
get really tough. But the other guys do have some limitations.
(09:21):
Right Lebron's forty. There's a couple times last night where
he tried to like turn the corner on Lourie markin
In and just couldn't get there. Laurie was like blocking
him off the glass or forcing him into bad misses
five years ago. He's dunking on his head. But he's forty, right,
and he can wear down a little bit physically over
the course of games. Although to Lebron's credit, he's been
fantastic out of late. As of late, and that's the
optimism with this group, But Lebron is forty years old.
(09:43):
Austin Reeves, for example, not a great athlete. He can
struggle under ball pressure sometimes ruey if it's not a
dunk under the rim, like he's shooting under fifty percent
on layups right, and his jumper under contests can get
a little finicky sometimes. Point being, they're awesome offensive players,
but they have some limit pations when they're in lead roles.
For all three of those guys, right, but once you
(10:04):
give them an advantage, if you let Lebron have someone
sprinting at him and now he's playing driving kick basketball.
If you let Lebron slip out of screens to where
he can lead a four on three, If you put
Austin on the perimeter with the guy sprinting at him,
where he could show the ball and drive left or right.
If you put Ruey wide open, where he's shooting fifty
three percent on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots this
(10:27):
year field goal percentage, meaning he's making more than half
of them. With what he can do driving closeouts. Gabe
has been playing super well again. He was a big
part of that Austin solo unit that did so well.
Dorian Finney Smith can knock down and open three. Jackson Hayes,
Like I talked a lot after the Mark Williams trade
went through or fell through about how like not having
(10:50):
Mark as like a roleman threat could be a significant
hit to this offense. After watching last night, like I thought,
Jackson did just find capitalizing on all the vertical spacing opportunities.
I believe he was six for six from the field
if I remember correctly. Like, I think he's not as
good as Mark Williams, but I think he's gonna do
just fine unlocking that vertical spacing. The point is is
(11:11):
there's just a ton of play finishing on this roster.
So if you have Luca, who against the very best
defenses in the league, and against the very best defenders
in the league, can still create advantages and Lebron, who
kind of looks like he's still doing it for whatever reason.
And let's say, let's even pretend for a second that
(11:32):
Lebron eventually kind of wears down over the course of
a playoff run and doesn't look like top five Lebron
but looks like top ten Lebron. Even if that happens,
Luca is there to create the initial advantage. Once he
creates that initial advantage. Lebron and Austin and Gabe and
Dorian Finney Smith and Ruy, those guys are incredible at
(11:54):
this driving kick thing, and they're just gonna take those
advantages in either score out of them or drive them
and draw another defender and create an even better shot.
There were so many sequences last night where the Lakers
continued to break down the defense and would get like
a really good look with like two or three seconds
on the shot clock. It's like, oh, Lebron's driving on
(12:14):
like the fourth driving kick of the possession and whipping
a pass back across the court to Gabe Vincent who
knocks it down, or all of the possession is great
defense from the Jazz and everything's covered, but Walker Kessler
is on Austin In a switch on the left wing
and Austin just pump fakes on a close out. You
get the end of the possession is you get a
(12:35):
short close out for Austin on the left wing against
Walker Kessler. Austin shows the ball, Walker over pursues that
pump fake, Austin drives and hits a little bank shot
with like two on the shot clock. That is play finishing.
I talk about this all the time when you go
into lower levels. It's dramatic the difference at the high
school level. If I let the guys play king of
(12:56):
the court with a set defender versus a king of
the court with a guy out at them, their ability
to score like quadruples and when you give them that advantage.
Now again at the NBA level, it's a smaller advantage.
It's more like maybe twenty to thirty percent more efficient
per possession. But that's a substantial increase that you can
benefit from because now you have the best set of
(13:17):
advantage creators that are in the NBA. So on the
Warriors front, I'm talking a lot with respect to Lebron
about the concept of belief. Right Like, playing championship level
basketball is really hard and takes a pretty desperate commitment
to work that's not even necessarily fun. It's fun in
(13:39):
the context of winning, but playing championship basketball includes a
lot of really difficult things to do on the court,
a certain level of exertion that is difficult, and so
if you don't actually think you're gonna get rewarded for
it by actually believing there's an opportunity to accomplish something,
it's going to be difficult even for the best players
in the world to really get invested in that context.
(14:02):
About four games ago, early last week, it became abundantly
clear that the Warriors were going to trade for somebody.
I don't know if it was just the humiliation of
missing out on Kevin Durant or what the deal was,
but it became clear that they were going to get somebody.
In the four games since then since that intel came down,
Steph is averaging thirty five points, five rebounds, and five
(14:24):
assists per game. In the two games since Jimmy Butler
actually started playing and making life easier for Steph, he
just logged back to back games with at least thirty
points on at least fifty percent shooting for the first
time since the Dallas and Oklahoma City wins. Way back
in early November, I talked about how the thing I
was most excited about this deal. I do think that
(14:46):
this Warriors team has a small window to maybe capitalize
on an opportunity to win a championship here. But more
than anything, it went from a team that was most
likely not going to play any meaningful basketball, Like without
a trade, that team is probably going to lose in
the play in just like last year. But with Jimmy
Butler in the mix, they're almost certainly going to get
(15:07):
out of that mess and get into a first round series,
which means we're going to get another opportunity to watch
Steph Curry play meaningful basketball. That's what I'm excited about.
Steph said after the game, We've got an opportunity to
do something pretty special considering where we've been this season,
and he's right. There are lineups that they can put
together now that have Steph, that have Jimmy, that have Draymond,
(15:30):
that have Jonathan Kamingo when he comes back, and it
looks like he's probably gonna be coming back after the
All Star break, where they have enough talent now to
actually present some problems to some of these teams. And
that's like, when it comes to the playoffs, so much
of it comes down to, like, what do we do
that the other team sucks at? What do they do
that we suck at? What can they capitalize on in
(15:52):
terms of weaknesses and vice versa, And just bringing in
a weapon like Jimmy Butler just puts them in a
situation where they're going to be a more precarious type
of matchup to deal with. And like, God, if we
can get if the Warriors end up matching up with
somebody like the two seed, they end up getting a Memphis,
that's a matchup that they're capable of winning. And how
great would it be if we got to see another
(16:12):
month of high level playoff basketball out of Steph Curry,
even with an opportunity to potentially do more. Like I said,
it's not guaranteed. There could be injuries, there could be
things that go wrong, they could miss the playoffs, right,
but by virtue of making this deal, I find it
far more likely than not that they're going to make
it out of the play in tournament and get into
(16:34):
a legitimate playoff series And give me Steph, Jimmy and
Draymond in a playoff series, and I think that that's
going to be a fascinating couple of weeks. And if
they win, we could get to see another extended playoff
runt from one of the greatest players in the history
of the game. And that's why I'm excited. It's about belief.
Like Steph looks engaged, he doesn't say that after the
(16:54):
game unless he believes that this team can do something.
Jimmy Butler, I think has been an amazing fit right away.
I wasn't worried about it. I know there were some
Warriors fans that were. I just think Jimmy's too smart
of a basketball player that brings too many complimentary traits
to what Steph Curry does. I want to talk a
little bit about middle of the floor processing. This is
(17:15):
something that I've talked a lot about on this show
with respect to like mediocre playmakers, in the sense that
when you're in the middle of the floor, there's just
you can only see, you know, maybe one fourth of
what's happening around you. Uh, there's always like a lot
of moving parts that can get confusing in the middle
of the floor. It's a spot where a lot of
players struggle and it's why, like when it comes to
(17:38):
the mediocre playmakers, you kind of want to clear the
side then have them operate so the whole floors in
front of them, just so that they have an easier
time making reads. But when you have a player who
knows what to do there, when you have a player
that doesn't panic, it's like that famous basketball you know, ism,
whatever you want to call it, be quick but don't hurry. Right.
(17:59):
If you can get a player that can quickly process
without rushing and making mistakes in the middle of the floor,
all sorts of good things can happen to your offense.
An example from late first half last night against the Bucks,
Steph Jimmy two man game. Top of the key. Kuzma
goes out with Steph. There's two guys on Steph. Jimmy
catches in the middle of the floor. When he catches
(18:21):
in the middle of the floor, Draymon's man steps up
closer to Jimmy, and now there's a two on one
that's formed with Draymond underneath the basket, Buddy Healed on
the wing, with Damian Lillard kind of splitting the difference
between the two. Jimmy just calmly turns in, pivots and
looks at Buddy healed. When he turns and pivots and
looks at Buddy healed. There goes Dame running out to
(18:43):
go to Buddy because he's biting on that headfake or
pass fake whatever. You just Jimmy acknowledging Buddy's presence gets
Dame to jump out. Then he just pivots again and
looks there's Draymond boot bounce past easy layup right underneath
the basket. He just looks so calm and comfortable operating there.
Here's why that's important. Last night you actually saw it
(19:04):
in some zone. Looks got to get the ball in
the middle of the zone, and the Warriors consistently got
it to Jimmy there. They scored eight points on four
zone possessions in that game, and the Bucks just stop.
Stop trying it. You can't run his zone if they're
getting two points per possession. So that's part of it.
But the biggest part, the most meaningful part within the
playoff context, is the Steph Jimmy two man game. When
(19:26):
you run the Steph Jimmy two man game, it's going
to create advantages in three different ways. One is like
that sequence I just told you about. Jimmy sets a screen.
Both guys run with Steph. Now Jimmy's the role man,
and it's a four on three where Draymond is absolutely
an offensive threat in the dunker spot. Jimmy is a
threat to score in the middle of the floor and
to play make out of it. And you've got guys
(19:47):
like Moses Moody in the corner, who has just been
fantastic since Andrew Wiggins injury. It just or injury, excuse
me trade. Since the Andrew Wiggins trade, it's given Moses
Moody opportunity and he's just been capitalizing on it as
a big range wing on the perimeter that can knock
down threes, drive close outs, and play defense and rebound.
And it's just it's he's taken advantage of his opportunity
(20:07):
and he's crushing. But like you get into those four
on threes, if they put two on the ball with Steph,
that's where Jimmy can operate in the middle of the floor.
The second thing that will happen with the Steph Jimmy
two main game is inside position ceiling on switches. So
imagine a guy's guarding Steph one on one faced up
with him and Jimmy. This is the defender. Jimmy comes
up and screens on the backside, and it triggers a switch. Okay,
(20:31):
if they switch, Jimmy can then seal and create that
over the top passing angle. We talked I believe in
Yester on the Sunday Show about just how dynamic Jimmy
is in those inside seals at creating a passing angle
and high pointing the basketball and catching it. That accomplishes
the same goal, the same four on three. So like
(20:52):
if if you screen for Steph and your defender runs
out onto Steph, but now you've got Steph's defender sealed
on your top side and you get a catch over
the top, it is an identical four on three because
when you catch, all of a sudden, your defender's behind you,
so you can just go right to the rim, which
is going to force somebody to step up. There's your
(21:12):
four on three. Now you have a three on two
on the backside once that guy steps up to you
after you catch on that inside seal, So you can
get four on threes out of getting two onto Steph
and just slipping out of it, you can get four
on threes, out of inside seals on switches. Now, what
about when they well execute a switch? So they switch,
(21:33):
but the guy who's guarding Steph just quickly dives around
with some good swim move or something and gets behind Jimmy. Well,
who's the guard that's quick enough to guard Steph? Now
he's got to guard Jimmy in the post. Wait until
Jonathan Kaminge's back out there, and again it looks like
he's gonna be coming back. Sometime shortly after the All
Star break, Jonathan Kamenka comes back. Where are the athletes at?
(21:56):
Where are you putting your athletes? Well, if you put
your best forward athlete on Jimmy, that means your second
best forward athlete is now guarding Jonathan Kaminga. Who's gonna
just be a massive athletic mismatch that you can attack.
If you have the best forward athlete on Jonathan Kminga,
now you got your third best perimeter defender overall guarding
(22:17):
Jimmy Butler, Like, that's gonna put you in a bind
in terms of matchups. That's gonna make that Steph Jimmy
two man game even harder to account for. But again,
what unlocks all of it is anytime they put two
on the ball, anytime they botch a switch or they
get sealed top side on Jimmy, He's gonna be able
(22:39):
to operate out of the middle of the floor better
than any other player on this roster could. Draymond could
do all the playmaking out of that position, but he
couldn't bring the scoring out of that position. There are
going to be times where Jimmy catches on the roll
and everyone stays home and he's gonna have to attack
the rim and maybe finish in a little bit of
traffic or hit something there in the middle of the floor.
(23:00):
He can do that. He can do that at a
really high rate. But I think to early returns from
this have been beautiful in terms of just demonstrating the
simple fact that Jimmy is not only a very complimentary
athlete to Steph, but he also represents a gaping hole
in the roster that was there before the deal, which
is just having a really high level dribble a guy
(23:22):
who can dribble, shoot, and pass on the floor. That
just greases the wheels for everything that you try to
do on offense. I was amazed watching Kevin Durray last night.
(23:42):
The Suns were an absolute mess. They had several guys
playing that probably shouldn't be in the rotation for a
serious NBA team. They looked incredibly sloppy and undisciplined, one
of the worst transition defense performances I've seen. They gave
up twenty offensive rebounds. But like a shining light in
that darkness was Kevin Durant. Thirty four points on eighteen shots,
(24:03):
only one turnover, five blocks, battling with Jaron Jackson trying
to box him out on the glass all night long,
and to top it off, in the process, he enters
into rare territory. Kevin Durant is only the eighth player
in NBA history to score thirty thousand points in an
NBA career, rarefied air. There a group of guys that
(24:24):
it's an honor to be associated with. But to me,
the most impressive part of all of this is the
circumstances he overcame to get here. Kevin Durant suffered the
most terrifying injury that a basketball player can suffer, an
Achilles rupture, right at the peak of his powers. He
was playing so incredibly well when he took that little
baseline jumper that he knocked down where he originally suffered
(24:47):
the calf injury, and then he played amazing in his
first few minutes in the NBA Finals before he went down.
You can't imagine a more discouraging set of circumstances for
a basketball player, and instead of letting that injury be
a signal of the end, he came back every bit
as good as ever on the other side of the injury.
Seven thousand and sixty eight of those thirty thousand and
(25:11):
eight points that he's scored so far came after the
achilles tear, and he's done it on higher volume in
efficiency than he was doing before the injury. In the
five seasons before Kevin Durant's injury, he averaged twenty six
points per game on just under sixty four percent for shooting.
In the five seasons since, he's averaging twenty eight points
(25:32):
per game on over sixty four percent for shooting. Any
drop in his athleticism, he's more than made up for
with a mastery of the modern game as a playmaker
and as a floor general. I was really amazed by
this in the Brooklyn Nets days as the league kind
of shifted to like, really good spacing in the spread
pick and roll attack. He was so incredibly good at
(25:52):
picking teams apart as a pick and roll ball handler
with the nets, and we've seen that extend throughout this
late phase of his career. Like he's just the product
of a consistent pursuit of excellence. He's got a legendary
work ethic. His shooting workouts are the example set for
all pros around the world. Still, when I'm talking to
the kids that I train in high school, I talk
(26:14):
about doing every single rep at game speed, something that
Kevin Durant has been preaching. He's just Katie is one
of the best ambassadors to the game of basketball that
has ever come into this league. And I'm thankful for him,
and I just wanted to take a second before we
talked about that game last night to congratulate him on
overcoming the adversity of his injury and to enter into
(26:35):
rarefied air and NBA history. I thought Jason Tatum just
completely dominated the first quarter of that Spurs game. Set
the tone, built that initial advantage, and it was something
that the Spurs just couldn't overcome. On the defensive end
of the floor, Boston had a switching group out there
that was just doing a really nice job just staying attacked,
(26:56):
shutting down screening actions. Switching puts an MP assists on
running action, good action that confuses switching, like three man action,
lots of ball in player movement to try to get
guys to make mistakes. And then when teams successfully switch,
you've got to be aggressive against those switches getting to
the basket to get super high value shots or to
(27:18):
draw multiple defenders. You can run into a trap where
you start settling, and that was what happened in that
first quarter. There was a few examples of good action.
There was like a little Chicago action like a downscreen
into a dribble handoff where they pitched it back to
Julian Champagnee on the right wing and knocked down a three.
There were a couple examples like that, but it was
a lot of like deeron Fox contested pull up jump shots,
(27:42):
Victor wembin Yama contested pull up jump shots. They weren't
doing a very good job of attacking the switching. And
then on the other end of the floor in the
first quarter, Jason Tatum goes for fourteen points, six rebounds,
and three assists, with zero turnovers, did a ton of
scoring in that short to mid range, attacking the spurs
all their players when they get switched onto him mismatches.
(28:03):
There was a stretch in the late first quarter where
they started spamming a stack, pick and roll action with
Luke Cornette and Peyton Pritchard. Just a ball screen with
Tatum and Cornette with Pritchard backscreening generated a wide open
three for Pritchard at the top of the key that
he happened to miss. He ended up hitting a pull
up three on the right wing when they botched a
switch again. Three man action is a great way to
(28:23):
get teams to botch switches, and Victor Wenbinyamo was basically
just sticking with the screen the guy who was backscreening
him in the action instead of dealing with Tatum coming
off of that screen. He just stepped into it knockdown
at three. He finished the quarter off with a beautiful
driving kick like sweeping hook pass over to the left
wing to al Horford. Tatum just immediately looked like by far,
(28:47):
the best player on the floor in a game that
had two players that are considered top twenty five players
in the league. In my opinion, and Deer Fox and
Deeron Fox and Victor Wenbinyama and Tatum was just completely
outclassing them to start the game. And this is just
that's the groove that Jayson Tatum's in right now. During
this three game winning streak, He's averaging thirty five points
per game on sixty one percent true shooting. Jason Tatum
(29:09):
has just been consistently great. I've seen a lot of
talk about I've seen a lot of talk of late
about like a Celtics fans calling Jason Tatum the best
forward since Lebron And when I when I first heard that,
I had this like kind of reflex that came up
in me that it was like, well, what about Kawhi
And like what about Kevin Durant? And I think Kevin
(29:31):
Durant would be the guy that I'd probably still put
over Tatum in the sense that, like, in that like
twenty eighteen to twenty twenty one stretch, he was just
like and that's like spanning with an achilles injury in
the middle, but in that like I should say, like
twenty seventeen to twenty twenty one stretch, he was just
so incredibly good on both ends of the floor. I'm
(29:52):
not quite there, but I do think he's been better
than Kawhi if you like piece everything together, because like
what Tatum is to me is he's a Swiss army
knife type of forward in the same vein as a
Lebron James. So, for instance, like Kevin Durant has a
lot of impact, I think Kevin Durant has arguably just
(30:13):
as good of an impact on the defensive end in
terms of his ability to protect the rim, defensive rebound,
switch out onto the perimeter. But Kevin Durant has a
little bit of a susceptibility to size and strength. We
saw that in the Memphis game two nights ago when
Jared Jackson was able to just kind of toss Katie
around at certain times and he got two easy buckets
on him the post late in the game, or an
(30:33):
easy bucket and a foul late in the game, where
I think Tatum's a little bit sturdier for that type
of matchup. But I think Katie also is a little
bit longer, a little bit better rim protector. So the
two of them are more or less even on the
defensive end of the floor. But I do think that
Tatum has a certain Swiss Army Knife quality in terms
of just his ability to keep the ball moving his
playmaking ability. Jason Tatum has become a really, really gifted
(30:55):
playmaker in this league. And so we can debate whether
or not Tatum has reached a level that's higher than
Kawhi or higher than Katie. I'm hesitant to go that far,
but what I will say is that Tatum is becoming
the Swiss Army Knife of this generation, which is what
Lebron was in his generation. It's a type of player
that I'm drawn to because I think it demonstrates a
(31:16):
first of all, a versatility, but also just a commitment
to winning. There's a lot of stuff in there that
guys aren't willing to do. A simple example is like,
as good as Kevin Duran has been defensively, I think
he's kind of underachieved on that end over the course
of his career, whereas Tatum, you can tell, is maximizing
his potential on that end of the floor. I think
it's just a testament to the type of leader he is,
the type of competitor that he is. Again, a lot
(31:38):
of times we see guys like that that are a
little bit more mellow and not as like loud and
boisterous with their personality, and we or even guys that
are boisterous that are but that are positive, we think
of them as like not competitors because they're not Kobe
Bryant type assholes. And the truth of the matter is
is like that. The work that Jason Tatum does is
(31:58):
a pretty clear demonstration of the type of competitor that
he is, and he stepped up big time over the
course of this recent stretch the volume. What's Up guys,
As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Hoops tonight. It 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
(32:19):
supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
do that, I'd really appreciate it.
Host
Jason Timpf
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