Jason reacts LIVE after the conclusion of the Los Angeles Lakers vs. the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday March 19th and discusses how Luka Doncic continues to grow in LA, what the team looks like without LeBron James and Rui Hachimura, if Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray can get Denver back on track, and more. He also discusses Cade Cunningham's epic game winner leading the Detroit Pistons over the Miami Heat and Bam Adebayo, Kawhi Leonard's resurgence for the Clippers, and answers mailbag questions.
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4:15 - Start
5:45 - Lakers/Nuggets
16:15 - Kawhi’s resurgence
25:30 - Pistons/Heat
45:00 - Mailbag
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Episode Transcript
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All right, welcome to tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody,
(01:48):
hope all of you guys are having a great week
so far. Got a Jampacks show for you tonight. We're
gonna be hitting the two games from ESPN. Tonight is
the Lakers and of kind of blowing out the Nuggets
until the end of the bench guys come in and
make it close at the end as the Lakers get
a big win against the Denver Nuggets, who sat out
Jamal Murray and Nicole Yokitchen this one. We also have
our course correction segment that we're gonna do like we
(02:10):
do every single week. I want to talk a little
bit about Kawhi Leonard. And then the third segment of
the show today we're gonna be hitting Kay Cunningham and
the second twenty five point triple double of his career
against the Miami Heat, capping it off with a buzzer beating, well,
I guess not quite a buzzer beater, but a game
winner against the Miami Heat off the glass. And then
at the tail end of the show, we're gonna try
something new tonight. We're gonna have Jackson come on the
(02:31):
stream and we're gonna answer some questions from the live
mail bag. So you gotta be sub subscribed to the channel,
but subscribe to the channel, drop questions in the chat,
and we're gonna hit some mail bag questions at the
tail end of the show. You guys know the job
before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube
channels you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow
me on Twitter at underscore JSONLTS, you guys, don't miss
show announcements, don't forget a better podcast feed where you get
(02:52):
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if you leave a rating and a review on that front.
We also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram,
and Facebook where Jackson's been doing great work for us
in the video of cutting up some video and adding
stuff to that contents. You guys can follow us there
and then, last but not least, keep dropping mail bag
questions and YouTube comments so we can hit them in
our regular mail bags weekly throughout the rest of the season.
(03:13):
All right, let's talk some basketball. So I'm not going
to spend too much time on this particular game because
I do want to kind of get to the mail
bag as this game wasn't particularly interesting with all the
guys that were out, But I did think that there
were some things that were at least somewhat translatable to
what we're going to see when we get into the postseason.
If these two teams were to face each other. Now
the Nuggets decide to sit Jamal Murray and Nicole Jokich,
(03:37):
we don't really have much of a theory or much
in the way of reporting on what's going on that front,
except for there's a couple of ankle injuries that they're
dealing with. I also think that Mike Malone probably just
looked at him and was like, we're not playing good
basketball right now, and you guys look banged up. So
I'd rather have you guys take a little bit of
time off and come back and then let's hit this
thing hard and try to sharpen up some details before
we get into the postseason. But it ended up being
(03:59):
the same group that upset Golden State Warriors the other night,
trying to win on the road in LA, and it
was kind of the same issue that happened when Jamal
Murray and Nikola Jokic played back in Denver, which is
that the Nuggets can't guard the Lakers, And that really
is one of the fundamental concepts that I go into
any matchup with the Lakers and Nuggets if they were
(04:19):
to face each other in the postseason. Like, I also
don't know if the Lakers are going to be able
to guard the Nuggets, but it feels pretty certain to
me at this point that whether it's Jokic coming up
to the level in pick and roll scheme, whether it's
him dropping back, whether it's the small ball groups that
they'll have out there when Jokic is off the floor.
There's not a defender on the Nuggets roster that makes
(04:44):
Luka Dancych feel uncomfortable one on one. And they're not
a great defensive rotation team to be able to clean
stuff up on the back end. Like, if you're going
to be able to have a strong defensive foundation, you
better be good at something. You better be an elite
perimeter defense or an elite rim protection defense, or an
elite in rotation defense in terms of closing off gaps
(05:06):
and being attached and communicating through defensive rotations. And they're
just not good at any of those things. And we
know that they can be. We've seen them at time
in times past be able to put together a coherent defense.
But one of the things that concerns me is NBA
history tells us that if you practice being a bad
defense all season, you're probably going to be a bad
(05:29):
defense when it matters. Generally speaking, you fall back on
your habits when you run into adversity, and that's why
it's so important for you to make a habit out
of doing all the right things, because when the shit
hits the fan and the chips are down and it's
time to play must win basketball, your habits are what
carry you in those situations. A lot of the variance
is out of your control. But if you're a habitually
(05:51):
good defense, if you're a habitually good, attention to detailed
type of team, you can make up that ground. And
so that would be my main concern. But there's there's
just these nuggets, I should say, these nuggets with the
nuggets that I see that kind of keep me from
getting off the train entirely because it's like, you know
that they've been a very good fourth quarter defense this year,
(06:12):
which is a strong indicator of them tightening things up
when they need to. We've seen Aaron Gordon, Nikola Jokich,
Michael Porter, junior Jamal Murray and an athletic, defensive minded
guard be able to get stops in the postseason. But again,
it's just I look back through NBA history and the
teams that kind of cut corners in the regular season
(06:34):
and hoist the trophy are the Katie Steph Warriors in
like twenty eighteen, or the Shaq Kobe Lakers, or you know,
like teams that are overwhelmingly talented and they present that
advantage that buys them so much margin for error that
they can get away with that sort of play when
they get up in those situations. But again, like I,
(06:57):
even above and beyond anything having to do with their sharpness,
there are clear personnel limitations for them in this specific matchup,
and it all comes down to Luka Doncic. There were
advantages that the Lakers had in this matchup on offense
before Luca. We saw that last year with them just
picking apart the Nuggets and pick and roll and ad
(07:17):
doing a lot of one on one damage with Jokic.
But Mike Malone was able to reconfigure matchups, right, Okay, well,
let's put KCP on Lebron, Let's put Aaron Gordon on
Anthony Davis, and let's put Nicola Jokich on Ruy Mura.
Let's reconfigure the matchups, and they were able to get
enough stops to win some key games in that series
and overcome the fact that the Lakers had a lead
(07:39):
for most of that series. With Luka Doncic, they don't
have that same flexibility. The issue that you saw tonight
is exacerbated when Lebron and Ruey Hacha Mura come back
to the table. It's exacerbated when Nikola Jokic comes back
into the equation because it's going to be them with
Luka bringing Yokic up to the level over and over
(08:01):
and over again and triggering the four on threes, and
the other four players on the floor are going to
be some combination of Lebron, James Rijachamura, Austin Reeves, Jackson
Hayes rolling to the ram, Dorian Finney Smith spotting up
in the corner, gave Vincent spotting up in the corner
on the wing. They just have the ability to spread
the nuggets out and pick them apart for wide open shots.
Now where it gets complicated is on the other end
(08:23):
of the floor. As we saw in the matchup that
they won when they were in Denver, the Lakers did
a lot of damage by denying by funneling towards the sideline,
doubling from the baseline they did. The denial worked in
limiting a lot of Jokic's touches, forcing his touches to
be further away from the basket, and then they had
a plan for how to handle it with help. Now.
(08:43):
The way that Denver countered that is they generated these
wide open catch and shoot threes for guys like Aaron Gordon,
Russell Westbrook, Christian Brown, and they were hitting. That's, you know,
the one big thing that's been screaming off the screen
as you watch the Nuggets as a positive over the core.
So the last couple of weeks is Aaron Gordon is
shooting the living shit out of the basketball. And I
(09:05):
love the the I love the bit that Tim Legler
was talking about how he went up to Aaron Gordon
and specifically discussed, like why are you shooting the ball
so well? And Aaron just started talking about how he's
just at his home gym, just shooting over and over
and over and over and over again. Because like, that's
literally what it takes. Guys, your kids out there that
are still playing in high school, that are trying to
make it into your rotation and a college team or
(09:27):
whatever it is. If you think that you're going to
be able to make shots without literally taking hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds of shots every single week, you're never
gonna get there. There's no there is no cutting that corner.
There's no way to get from point A to point B,
with point A being you being a lesser shooter and
point B being you being a better shooter without taking
hundreds and hundreds of shots. And so what you saw
(09:48):
there there was a lot of reps where like Jackson
Hayes would end up on Aaron Gordon. And if Jackson
Hayes on Aaron Gordon, he has this tendency to want
to help in the paint. It's not just Jackson Hayes
as a fore man. Gordon's gonna draw defender that gets
a lot of low man responsibilities. The low man has
an instinctual desire to help at the basket because that's
how it works. In the defensive scheme. Aaron Gordon's going
(10:10):
to get some wide open looks and him knocking them
down at the rate that he's been knocking them down
is going to allow Denver to score. And so as
I look at the matchup between these two teams in
a playoff series, I feel relatively certain that the Lakers
are going to be able to consistently generate great shots.
I feel like the Lakers have a chance to at
least tilt Denver's offense towards shot attempts for certain types
(10:32):
of players. The problem is if those guys hit them
the way that they've been hitting them, it could end
up being a situation where we have one hell of
a shootout type of series between these two types of teams.
But again, we've only seen one matchup between these two
teams at relatively full strength in the game in Denver,
and so it's hard for me to take too much
from anything that we've seen to this point. But it
(10:54):
sure would be fun to watch these two teams play
against each other, and I think the shootout part of
it would be real. It would be an interesting kind
of like who could score more points in terms of
this open shot generating contest between the two teams, and
just there's not gonna be a whole lot of rock
fight sequences where they score ten points in ten minutes
or anything along those lines. These two teams are going
to be able to score on each other. Lucas shot
(11:15):
making continues to make incredible leaps. He had twenty points
in the first quarter of this game. One of the
biggest things that has me excited about the team's potential,
the Lakers potential and the big picture is if you
remember when they went on that winning streak shortly after
Luca joined the team. In that winning streak, they were
not scoring the ball well. In the game against Denver,
they scored the ball well because they Denver's defense is
(11:38):
terrible and it's a terrible matchup for them because of
their ability to skip the ball over the top and
generate four on threes. But a lot of teams made
the Lakers struggle to score over that stretch with switching,
physical ball pressure, blitzing Luca and the Lakers struggling to
handle it a little bit. And there are a couple
of key things that have started to come to the surface.
One Luca's overall shot making, the Luka Doncic that was
playing with Lebron James before or he got hurt, the
(12:01):
one that went on that massive win streak. That Luka
Doncic is not the same guy anymore. He is a
red hot scorer right now. The advantage of Lebron being
out the way he did he was it gave Luca
a ton of repetition for him to round out some
of the elements of his skill set and to build
his rhythm. Lebron and Rui are going to be coming
(12:23):
back to a team that has substantially more offensive firepower.
It also gave them the second piece of it is
they get a lot more repetition in terms of handling blitzes,
something they struggled with early on in the Luca experience.
But they're starting to get better and better at That's
what makes me so excited about this team. In the
big picture, you get Lebron James and Rui back in here.
Those are your back line guys. How often tonight did
(12:44):
you see the Lakers look unathletic in transition? How often
tonight did you see the Lakers give up dribble penetration
and struggle to help at the rim? On the back line,
their forwards are hot, or at least their starting forwards
are out, and so getting Lebron James and Ruy Hachamura
basically five hundred pound of big, strong athlete out there
is going to go a long way towards cleaning up
some of their issues and help side defense and on
(13:05):
the glass. And when you're skipping the ball across the court,
instead of it being Jared Vanderbilt, instead of it being
Jordan good One, instead of it being some of these
limited offensive players, it's gonna be Rui, who's been a
deadly catch and shoot three point shooter this year. It's
gonna be Lebron, who's been a deadly catch and shoot
three point shooter this year. Those guys are going to
get their opportunities, and as all of this starts to
(13:26):
come together, they're going to have a level that they
can get to on both ends of the floor that
very few teams in this league can get to. And
I think that's all very exciting. Again, I want you, guys,
we can get a little bit further into this matchup,
further into stuff with the Lakers and the Nuggets, but
let's do it in the mail bag here. In a
little bit, we're going to work through our other couple
of segments. Make sure you drop your questions in the chat,
(13:46):
then we'll get to them at the tail end of
the show. Moving on, Welcome to Course Correction, brought to
you by Microsoft. Just like star players and teams navigating
performance hurdles, business decision makers today are under immense pressure
to get things right. They must rise to the occasion,
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with AI solutions, Simplified Cloud and data management and trustworthy,
responsible AI and when you're in the NBA, you have
(14:09):
your own hurdles to face. This segment, we explore the
challenges faced by teams or star players and how they
can turn things around. Whatever challenge you're facing, Microsoft empowers
you with the expertise to say bring it on. This week,
we're discussing Kawhi Leonard in his latest return to form
from injury. Kawi looked fantastic in the win against the
Cavs last night. We did a full breakdown of it
(14:29):
this morning. You guys can find it a little bit
further back on our feed. He had thirty three, seven
and four with forced deals. You looked athletic. He was
five to six from three. I think he was twelve
for nineteen from the field, super efficient. Again, we spend
a good amount of time on it this morning, especially
talking about how strong his base looks. His legs look strong.
He's the dead giveaway for Kawhi being Kawhi as he
starts to dislodge dudes from their base, when he makes
(14:51):
those aggressive moves into the short to mid range, and
then he's the guy that's getting great lyft and easily
knocking down jump shots in that short to mid range.
I'm just amazed because of how many times we've been
in this cycle with Kawhi. From the knee tendon to
pathy issue that he have with San Antonio that led
to his departure there, the twenty twenty one knee injury
(15:13):
that took him out for two seasons, the twenty twenty
three knee injury that took him out of the playoffs,
the twenty twenty four knee injury that took him out
of the playoffs. This is literally the fourth time that
he's had season ending injury come into the equation and
that he's been able to recover and look like himself
now again. For us as fans, and for like the
(15:33):
Clippers front office or forever Kawhi ends up playing for
for the rest of his career, there are certain realities
that have to be factored in in terms of his reliability,
but that doesn't change the fact that Kawhi just keeps
on coming back. And that's the amazing part to me.
Can you imagine how discouraging it would be to ride
the roller coaster he's been riding the last seven years,
(15:53):
repeatedly working his ass off behind the scenes, to get
back in shape, getting there being within stre viking distance
of his ultimate goals, only for it all to come
crashing down again. Imagine last year in the Dallas series,
after what was a Game three, when he came out
of the game early, after yet another season of working
his ass off to get back into form, they looked
(16:14):
like a bona fide championship contender. Remember they lost their
first six games or whatever it was with James Harden,
and then they just started kicking everybody's ass. For months,
we were talking about them as a bona fide top
tier championship contender, only for him to break down again
and lose. Can you imagine what he was thinking. I
wonder how often the idea of retirement has come up
(16:35):
for him mentally, and yet here he is again, right
back at it, looking like the best player on the
floor in a game against the best team in the league.
My guess is there are two things that keep driving
Kawhi to try again and again in the face of
these issues that he's had. One his love for the
game of basketball. It's crazy how that'll get you to
do anything, like you'll if you love the game, you'll
(16:59):
find a way to play at all costs. And then two,
the simple fact that it only takes one opportunity, one
stretch of things going his way for him to get
what he wants, one season of him actually holding up
until June for him to have a chance to hoist
the trophy again, and if he does, that accomplishment lasts forever.
(17:21):
So I think that's what drives him, and I just
want to shout out Kwhi Leonard for continually trying to
be the best basketball player that he can be despite
the horrible injury luck that he's had in the last decade.
That's it for this week's course correction. Remember Microsoft's AI
solutions empower you to take bold steps and make informed decisions,
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Microsoft as your trusted partner, you can navigate your journey
(17:43):
with confidence, finding innovative solutions and reaching new possibilities. Visit
Microsoft dot com slash challengers to learn more. We're gonna
(18:04):
talk Piston's heat for a little bit and then we'll
get into our mailbag. Don't forget keep dropping those questions
in the chat, so the Piston's gonna come from behind,
winning on the road in Miami k got off to
a rough shooting start. I think he was two for
his first nine if I remember correctly, but he got
going eventually, and he just has a lot of size
advantage that he could work against. In this matchup, he
hit a couple of these like left shoulder hooks that
(18:24):
he hit against Heywood, high Smith and hime Hakes where
he just kind of like slowly and methodically backed them
down into a range that he felt comfortable hit him
one more time to dislodge that base and then just
use that momentum to flow into like these easy, breezy
left shoulder hooks, And it was just a reminder of
how good this guy can be in the big picture
(18:47):
as he gets better and better at replicating that easy stuff. Again,
that's the thing with younger players. They struggled to replicate
what's working, and they struggled to stop doing what's not working.
When you become a veteran, a lot of times, like
any skill improvement gets undercut by your diminishing athleticism. But
what changes is your understanding of the game and the
way that you can parse out the things that work
(19:09):
really well for you and hyper focus on them and
limit the things you struggle with to improve your efficiency.
And again, like there's going to be a lot of
that kind of stuff with Caid when he's in the
heart of his prime, where he's taken some, you know,
not necessarily the most skillful shots in the world, like
crazy step backs or nifty combinations of dribble, combination of
(19:29):
dribble and footwear combinations. But he's going to have a
lot of these easy, breezy shots because he's six', eight
he's big and, strong and he can get to wherever
he wants on the. Floor he did a lot of
great work putting defenders in jail in this. Game he
had a fun. Work, again whenever we talk about putting
defenders in, jail all that is is when you get
an angle on a, player whether it's in, transition whether
(19:50):
it's in AN, iso whether it's in a posset up,
situation whether it's in a pick and, roll whatever it,
is when you get the defender onto your hip or your,
backside when you slow down and you basically revert post,
up meaning you're posting, up but instead of trying to
back the dude, down you're leading him forward while trapping
him in a position on your body that you feel comfortable,
with and you have an open lane in front of,
(20:11):
you which forces the defense to make a. Decision he
had a fun one in the fourth quarter where he
pump faked like four or five times while dudes are
just flying around about, him and he hit like a
little casual six foot fade away over the. Top he's
getting really good at using his size and transition as
an opportunity to get that easy. Angle like he'll look
up at the rim with the ball in his right
(20:32):
hand and he'll just like do that push cross and
drop his right shoulder and he'll take an aggressive dribble
and then the defender's on his side and he'll get
that advantage at like twenty five feet and, then just
like he does in a ball, screen he'll just work
his way. Downhill no one stops, him he'll go all
the way to the front of the. Rim if, not
he'll just kind of wait for the defense to. React
and again when he gets into those, situations that's where
(20:52):
the similarities To luca are like jarring for, me because
there's a dynamic that takes place when he gets the
defender on his hip er on his, back he slows
way the hell. Down he can get painfully slow sometimes
on his drive in that sort of position when he's
got the defender, pinned AND i say pin painfully for the.
Defense dribble penetration makes help defenders make. Decisions him slowing
(21:17):
down is what allows those openings to fully. Form while
he's going, slow defenders are flying and they're making, decisions
and they're fully committing to whatever defensive read they. Make
that allows him to allow the play to develop so
that he can find the read and make. It and
from there he just has his reads down Pat every
(21:37):
one of his teammates know where to. Be Tim hardaway
And Malik beasley know that If kate throws him the
ball and a kick ahead and transition or a kickout
in a ball, screen even if the closeout is, there
he wants them to shoot. It he's rifling it to
them because he knows they're good contested three point. Shooters
he wants them to take. It he got a dunk
For Jalen duran in the second half when he got
(21:58):
blitzed around the right elbow And miami forgot to tag
the roller just elevated and rifled pass The dalen during
easy dunk it actually might have Been Isaiah. STEWART i
can't even remember who's in the game at that. Point
he's developing this really fun chemistry With Asar thompson. Too
he generated three dunks for him off of cuts in various.
SITUATIONS i talked about this concept With Jonathan kaminga a
(22:19):
couple of days. Ago but the idea of, runways you,
know we always think about help side defense as an
opportunity to get a wide open catch and shoot, Three
but the same exact thing happens for an athlete in
a different way in the form of a runway. Appearing
so you can imagine if you're a in the corner
and the ball gets skipped to you in your, helper
(22:39):
the guy who's guarding you steps into the. Paint you
think of it as this wide open catch and shoot.
Three but if you read it before the pass and
the defender steps, up all of a, sudden there's like
twenty five feet of space or twenty two feet of
space between you and the corner and the front of
the rim with nobody standing, there and that's an opportunity
for an athlete to get a running. Start And asar
is just finding those runways in two day diferent spots
(23:00):
along the baseline when he's in the. Corner but he
also got one off Of kid's drive swooping in from
behind along the. Wing this is Where kaid's slowing down
as an. Advantage he slows down the play, develops everyone
kind of coalesces around. HIM A sara finds an opening
and just zooms in from. Behind he drops him. Off
it doesn't matter if there's congestion in the. PAINT a
star sits a freak. Athlete once he gets ahead of
(23:22):
steam like, that no one's jumping with, him no one's
stopping him there, again he had three dunks tonight on
cuts off of k, drives and then of Course kay
tops it all off by stealing victory from defeat with
a couple of threes down the. Stretch there was a
missed three From Elik beasley on the right. Wing Jalen
duran just Buries kalel where right under the. Rim and
(23:43):
by the Way kalel was rough down the stretch of this,
game he didn't really understand what he was doing around the.
Rim he gave up that key offensive. Rebound he had
another weird play where he tried like a corn test you,
know The Luke cornett like jump up and just clap
from underneath the. Basket he tried one of those on
a post move where he had no chance to block the,
shot and thanks to him leaving his, feet he was
(24:04):
not in a position to get the defensive, rebound and
someone just swooped in right behind him and got the
offensive rebound put. Back i'm, like what are you, doing?
Dude but the heat look really. Bad we're going to
talk about that in a. Minute that's an entirely separate.
Issue but, Anyway durren gets the offensive, rebound pitches it
out to. Kid he hits the three to put The
pistons up. Two Then Tyler harrow ties the, game drawing
a foul On Jalen. Durnant and that really is the
next step For Jalen duran in his. Development he's got
(24:25):
to learn how to defend on the. Perimeter you got
switched on to a. Guard your job at that, point
depending on the game, plan whatever the coach that tells you.
Is you, know if he's an elite jump, shooter let's
Say Steph, curry your job is to play up on
the jump shot and funnel him in a direction where
you have planned. Help if it's a guy that you're
less worried about him making a pull up jump, shot
(24:46):
then it's about containment and from there you don't need
to block the jump. Shot no one's asking you to
block the jump. Shot they're asking you to contest the jump.
Shot they want you to at least make the guy
make it contested. Shot it If Tyler harrow hits a
contested seventeen foot or off the, bounce there you kind
of have to live with. That leaving your feet trying
to block the shot Allowed Tyler harrow to get two
free throws which he's going to, make and again that's
(25:07):
just the stuff that he's got to work on in his.
Development you put your hand, up you live with the
results in those situations instead of jumping out of your.
Shoes guards are always going to go for fakes against
a big man in space because once big dudes start
moving one way or the other or leave their, feet
they're so big that it's hard for them to change
direction and regain control of their. Body once they get
(25:29):
you a lunge one way or to leave their, feet
that's where the quickness comes in for the guard and
they're going right around. You that's why it's about positional,
defense staying, disciplined doing what the game plan needs from
you in that sort of. Situation he'll get better in.
Time he just needs. Reps The it would Do jalen
a lot of good to this summer to start showing
up to some workouts with some PERIMETER nba players and
(25:50):
just ask to guard and be, like, oh you guys
are doing. Ones let me hop in and just get
reps guarding you guys one on, one because that's the
kind of thing that will help him when it comes
to defending out on the. Perimeter but, anyway herotize it
and Then kate ends up banking in the pull up
three Over bam at the. Buzzer really high degree of difficulty,
shot but he got it up over the. Contest and,
again when you shoot it right there at the top
of the, key you can afford to miss. Long you missed,
(26:11):
long but went right in off the back of the.
Rim they're off the. Backboard kate finished with twenty five
twelve and. Eleven it's his ninth triple double this, season
his second twenty five point triple double of his. Career
pissons are, fun, Man they have so many fun, subplots
LIKE i don't really know what to think Of Ron
holland yet BECAUSE i don't know what he'll become. Offensively
but he had a really fun stretch of this game
(26:33):
where he just ball pressured the hell out Of Alec
burk's in the second, half and you could see him
really becoming a defensive. Weapon sooner than. Later he was
plus eleven in twelve. Minutes Malik beasley hasn't just been
one of the best three point shooters in the league this.
Year he's shown some really impressive scoring, chops like hitting
tough shots off of different bits of footwork and ball
(26:54):
handling over great, contests doing excellent work off the. Bounce
he's shooting thirty eight percent off the dribble jump shots this,
year waited for. Threes he's getting over a point per.
Shot he's having a wonderful scoring. Season Tobias harris is
having a great season and really coming around as a
secondary shot creator for them after The Jaden ivy. Injury
Asar thompson's in a different role than his. Brother Like,
(27:16):
Amen thompson is getting a lot of inverted spacing situations
because Of. Shanggoon i've talked about this concept with Like
Aaron gordon and Nakolea. Jokic an athlete on the back
line has infinitely more value when the big man is
playing out around the elbows because that is pulling the
rim protector out to guard the big man out around the.
Elbows that allows those runways to appear more frequently along
(27:41):
the back. LINE a Men thompson is going to have
a lot of success feasting off of The shannggoon inverted.
Spacing with The Detroit, pistons they don't have that type
of inverted, spacing so those opportunities are fewer and further
between for us are but you can still see some
similar flashes of his vertical spacing ability of the wrecking
(28:01):
ball that he can be on defense just like A
Men thompson can. Be he ran some ball screen action
of his own in the second half of this game
With Jalen, dura and he got a good downhill rep
against Kalel ware where he caved his chest in and
got an easy little left handed layup right at the
front of the. Rim, again The pistons are just fun
and now they're only one game back Of indiana and
the standings for the four seed and potentially home court
(28:22):
in the first. Round that, said they do have a
very tough remaining. Schedule the remaining schedule opponent combined opponent
win percentages over fifty five, Percent SO i think they're
probably headed for that sixth seed and a first round
series against The, knicks unless obviously some things go. Differently that,
said like we've talked about in the, PAST i think
The pistons might actually match up better With New york
(28:42):
than they do With indiana Or, milwaukee so that that
would be a really fun first round. Series AND i
guess we'll see when the time. Comes BUT i thought
like the most interesting story of that game was just
how lifeless The Miami heat. Looked they've lost nine in a,
row but that's underselling the. Situation they're just four and
sixteen in their last twenty. GAMES i, mean can you
remember a worst stretch Under Eric. SPOULSTRA i, can't at
(29:04):
least not in these serious years over the last half.
Decade the twenty eighth in offense in that, span seventeenth in.
Defense and the scary part is when you watch, them
they literally look like a team that's let go of the.
Rope that's not believing in what they're. Doing that's given
up one of the Strangest heat Games i've watched in
a long time in terms of, process just Because i'm
so used to The heat being the sharp effort and
(29:26):
execution team Hashtag heat. Culture they brought out their zone
to start the fourth quarter and they immediately gave up
a easy driving scoop shot foul On Dennis schroeder Because
bam was kind of asleep on his back line and
didn't make a. Rotation they gave up a dunk To
Tobias harris in crunch. Time it was a three point
game with five minutes, left And Tobias harris was just
(29:47):
standing on the left wing completely. Unguarded caye just threw
in the, ball he drove down the lane and dunked.
It you know how bad of a transition defensive possession that.
Is for it to be like a semi, transition like
we're back on, defense we're not Guarding tobias and no
one's helping at the. Rim that's beyond. Sloppy that's Very Unmiami,
(30:09):
heat like just to sleep at the. Wheel but, again
the offense was WHAT i found super. Bizarre what used
to be a sophisticated system of ball in player movement
has degraded to what looks like a pickup. GAME a
lot of the. Time they have these weird possessions where
they just Let Davion mitchell dribble the ball up the
court and play like one on one off the, wing
(30:32):
like He's John morant trying to initiate, offense LIKE i
don't understand. It they have these super ugly bam at
a bio possessions where he's just facing up in a
triple threat and everyone's just kind of standing, around and then,
suddenly with three seconds, left after he's done, nothing he'll
either throw some bs up or he'll turn and run
a last second dho With Duncan. Robinson a lot of
(30:53):
rushed bad shots From Duncan robinson And Tyler. Harrow Tyler
harrow shot a floater over a double team that hit
the top of the. Backboard in the fourth, Quarter Duncan,
robinson with eleven on the shot, clock took a, drifting
fading jump shot out of the right corner that missed
the basket by several. Feet there's no point in even
discussing anything further with this team because they look like
(31:15):
they aren't even. Competing most of these Plays i'm discussing
took place in a close game in the fourth. Quarter
it's just. Bizarre and the scariest thing is there isn't
any upside to this. Situation harrow's having the best season
of his, career and he looks like he's not good.
Enough like IF i ask you who's Better Tyler harrow
Or Austin, reeves it's. Close that's not enough to build
(31:40):
a franchise. Around if you're waiting on Bam adebio to
develop on, offense he's twenty seven years, Old i'm not
sure that's ever gonna. Happen Kell aware has some, tools
but he's super raw and mistake prone like most young.
Players he certainly doesn't look like a franchise altering. Talent and,
yeah they have some scrappy role player, dudes but they're
(32:01):
useless without the star. TALENT i don't know what saves this.
Situation it's definitely bleak times For heat fans for. Sure All,
(32:23):
Right so a couple about a month, ago we got
a new producer for a, Show Jackson. Staphone he's been
doing incredible work for us adding, film you guys are
always in the comments telling us how much you desperately
want film in the, show And jackson's been fighting the
good fight behind the, scenes trying to add film whenever he.
Can we're gonna hit about fifteen minutes or so questions
(32:44):
from the. Chat jackson is one of my favorite people
to talk basketball. With he's gonna come on and help
us answer some of these. Questions all, Right, jackson what
do we got so?
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Far what's going?
Speaker 2 (32:53):
On?
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Jason thank you for the, warm warm, intro and what's
up to the hoops? Tonight, listeners, everyone just keep dropping
your questions in the live in the YouTube chat AND
i will pick the best. Ones but first it's From.
Eric let's see. Here WHILE i think the most most
of the recent play and playoff exits are due to,
injury how long Can yiannis be largely out of THE
(33:16):
nba title picture until he isn't a consensus top three
player in the.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
WORLD i always have such a hard time with this
sort of thing because of what happened With, steph what's
currently happening WITH, kd what even happened With lebron early
in the, Year and those players aren't even close to
the athletic prime That giannis is still. IN i think
that playing bad basketball and losing games is super, discouraging
AND i think it's starting to wear on him a little.
(33:41):
Bit he's not playing. WELL i talked about this in
my show this. Morning his three worst field goal percentage
games of the entire season took place in the last. Week,
so like you can, tell he's starting to kind of
get a little frustrated or at least be banged up
or missing that extra bit of. Exertion but LIKE i,
mean MY i don't know about, You. JACKSON i have
a feeling The bucks if they lose in disappointing fashion the,
(34:03):
summer that this whole thing's blown, up don't you, Think
oh for?
Speaker 1 (34:07):
SURE i mean it didn't feel like they got a
fair shake on. There you're one of The dame experience
because of the. Injuries but this, year assuming they're, healthy
if they don't get past the second, round it's, like
what are we doing all this?
Speaker 2 (34:18):
For they can't. Score it's the craziest.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Thing it's insane to Replace Drew holliday With Damian. Lillard
the only place you're upgrading is on one side of the, floor,
obviously and like by a LOT i THINK i think
it's fair to say buy a lot and they still
can't score. It they just can't get generate good.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Shots it's busy despite having a lot of shooting. Too
like it's it's really strange to, me but LIKE i,
mean it's one of those things where LIKE i can't
write them off completely because you get in a playoff.
Setting we haven't seen Playoff giannis since that second round
series against The celtics when he was a literal wrecking
ball that like single handedly extended that series to seven.
(34:57):
Games and Obviously dame presents the problems that he. Presents the,
teams and they do have a lot of three point,
shooting and they do have a lot of, size but
the they, just to, me they're not LIKE i always
talk about like having an elite. Unit they don't have
any a unit on either end of the floor THAT
i think strikes real fear in.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Anybody, yeah AND i to your point About. GIANNIS i
was talking about this with some other with some friends
the other, day like teams that have the capability to
win the title this, year AND i think you still
have to include The bucks in that list because Of
giannis could just turn into a superhero for two months
and take them all the way. There but so because of,
(35:35):
that it's hard to really write them. Off but they
haven't looked very good at.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Really much of.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Anything LIKE i, mean they're, good they're, fine they're like
a fine basketball, team but they haven't looked elite at.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Anything they're really, big AND i think that will give
them the ability to present some problems that they get
a favorable matchup here. There they've weirdly been good against
The celtics for the last couple of, years like they've
had some big wins, there but, like but, yeah so
a lot of that stuff was schedule related To so
it's hard for me to. Say here's the. THING nba
history tells us that The bucks don't, Win so do
(36:08):
with that information what you will, anyway.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
All, right all, right next, one because you mentioned The,
celtics and BECAUSE i am A celtics, fan will go From,
chris do you Think boston's three point obsession will come
back to haunt them in the playoffs this?
Speaker 2 (36:21):
YEAR i literally don't care about three point. VOLUME i
care about shot, Quality like that is the only thing
that matters to. Me, like if you if you are
generating wide open catch and shoot. Threes as The Boston,
celtics you're going to win the. Title, like if they
(36:43):
generate wide open catch and shoot threes in every, round
they're going to. Win to, me if they, lost it
would manifest As tatum And brown missing a lot of
really tough pull up jump shots and these ugly possessions
where they only ask the ball around the perimeter and
they take like kind of semi, contested, good not great
(37:06):
types of. Threes that's when they get into their cold.
Spells is when you have these extended stretches where they're
getting good shots that we know The celtics can, make
but they're not the kind of shots that they won
the title with last. Year the shots they won the
title with last year was when they would Beat Luka
dancis off the dribble pass. Pass suddenly it's a wide
open catch and shoot three off of a paint. Touch
(37:28):
that's when they're at their. Best BUT i don't, THINK i,
THINK i don't think like them missing a bunch of
easy catch and shoot threes is how they.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Lose, YEAH i, AGREE i MEAN i think it's and
that's HOW i. Appreciate that's How Joe missoula talks about it.
Too it's not just about pure, volume although that is
part of the you, know the math, equation but it's
all about. Process and he's, like if it's a good,
three we could take a hundred of. Them like if
it's if it's if it's a high quality catch and, shoot,
(37:54):
LOOK i would take on every single. Possession and that's
HOW i feel it. Too it's less about the make
of the, miss even though ultimately that's sort of what decides.
It but from a process, STANDPOINT i think it's been
a little shakier. ULTIMATELY i mean we've you've talked about
this on the show a couple of times recently about
How Jalen bred And Drew holliday are not shooting as.
Well just straight, up they are not shooting as, well
whether whatever kind of look you want to make, it
(38:15):
they're not shooting as. Well and so if, that if
they continue to shoot in the low, THIRTIES i, mean
it's gonna maybe potentially create some. Problems from a process,
Standpoint it's hard to be too upset about well generate.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Three even the LIKE i don't think they'll lose Because
drew And jalen miss a ton of wide open. THREES
i think they'll lose If drew And jalen miss a
bunch of, contested mediocre threes because they didn't trust their.
Process LIKE i. Was, ACTUALLY i was at a As
i've told you, guys we had a death in the
family about a month, ago and we had an event
(38:48):
today about, that and SO i got to hang out
a little bit with my wife's former high school, coach
and we were just kind of talking like big picture
of basketball stuff because he's coaching somewhere else right now
And i'm coaching some high school and and he was
kind of an old school, dude is, like, yeah like you,
KNOW i like to see more mid. Range everyone's you,
know focusing on the layups in the, threes and you,
KNOW i kind of got into like this philosophical conversation
with him about like shot quality and, process and, like,
(39:11):
honestly it's really simple to. Me the goal of every
possession should be to get a wide open layup or
catch and shoot. Three that should be the. Goal AND i,
SAY i should say a wide open layup or a
wide open catch and shoot. Three that's what you're trying
to do every single time down the. Floor and if
you generate a hundred of. Them, great you're gonna win
and you're gonna score one hundred and fifty, points but
there should be some like what you don't want to
(39:33):
do is take an uncomfortable out of rhythm catch and
shoot three or an uncomfortable forced in traffic rim attempt
over a wide open mid range attempt that's available later
in the shot. Clock that's WHERE i THINK i kind
of differentiate from some of, these uh like more analytically
focused shot, quality you, know some of those, thesis some
(39:55):
of that you, know thought Process i've heard out. THERE
i just think there's an order of, operations and if
you can't get a wide open catch in two three
or a wide open, layup the next best thing is
a good in rhythm shot for a player who's good
at that, shot wherever it is on the. Floor if
that makes, sense.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
One hundred Percent for the next, one let's do a
one that's BEEN i feel like trending online this week From.
Brendan do you Think austin reeves he said it is
one of the best third options in the. LEAGUE i
think that's pretty fair to. Characterize but where would you
say he ranks amongst third? Options in the.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
League, man this is such a tough question because there's
so many different types of third options all around the.
LEAGUE i saw the debate between him And Norman powell
with The. CLIPPERS i tweeted this stat out, earlier But
Norman powell's career high and assists in any basketball game
in THE, nba whether it's regular season or playoffs is.
(40:48):
Six austin eleven times in his career has put up
twenty five points and seven assists in a. Game Like
austin is a whole other level of well round did ball.
Handler but, like, again AS i always talk, about your
value to your team is unique to your value in that,
system and, like there's no doubt That Norman powell's jump
(41:09):
shooting has been immensely valuable off the, ball not just
in catch and shoot, situations but also off the. Move
for The. Clippers where it gets tricky is like kind
of similar to what's happening With. AUSTIN a good amount
of that happened Without Kawhi leonard in the. Lineup and
so obviously it's like a different type of role with
different types of shots, now but as you go around the,
league it's, Like, okay let's talk about chrisops porzingis, well
(41:30):
he's a back to the basket post up threat and
a rim. Protector just a fundamentally different type of player
than what you're looking at with An Austin. Reeves right
as you go around the, league these different guys are
Like Chet holmgren is a very different type of third,
option going To Evan mobley with Or Ti jerome with
the with The, calves Like Ty jerome is in a
(41:52):
bench guard, Role he's in a different type of role
Than Austin. REEVES i Think austin's better Than, tie but
how much it's hard to, dictate, right everything's unique to
your system that you're. In and you, KNOW i Think
austin's been fantastic for The, lakers AND i don't know
exactly where i'd rank, him but he's definitely up there
among the third. Options, YEAH i.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
AGREE i also saw Some Desmond bane, talk WHICH i
think is is a good one THAT i feel like
those two are actually in a similar archetype of can
it function as a true third? Option but also if you're,
like can you just run thing for five?
Speaker 2 (42:20):
Minutes, yeah can you get us forty tonight because we need? It,
yeah that kind of.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
Thing they can totally do, that and then you know
Whichever nick's player is their third best. Player if you
want to pick like that's that's Og McHale Josh hart,
LIKE i think pick your boys in, there but IT'S
i THINK i Think mchal's better Than austin as. WELL
i Think McHale's better Than. Austin all, right next, one
let's do from Chef. Steph what are your thoughts On
(42:46):
kaminga's long term role in The warriors and if The
warriors should still continue investing in him or trade him
for the right player in a.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
Win, now, well If i'm not, mistaken isn't he a
free agent this? Summer he will be AN. Rfa, Yeah,
SO i mean you've crossed your fingers and you hope
that he doesn't get like some massive offer thrown at.
HIM i have a feeling because, again if we talk
about what we were just talking about, earlier with value
in your specific, system there's gonna be some team out
(43:14):
there that's, like, WAIT i can throw a bunch of
money at this six' nine freaky, athletic FORWARD and i
can let him grow in our ecosystem and at a,
certain point, let's say let's say some team throws, four
years one hundred and twenty Million, at kamingo so thirty
million per for. Four years now you're looking at it
As the warriors and, You're, like okay is he remotely
(43:37):
capable of snatching the starting spot From A moses moody
Or A. Brandon, pajemski no they need those roles, too
badly like They need moses. Is awesome he's been doing
so good in, that job in. That job, You Know
brandon pajemski's been doing so good in. That role and,
you know the one Thing that kaminga does well enough
to do it with the starters is like guard. The
(43:59):
ball but there's all these other weaknesses both, off ball
defensively and functioning within their offense with with with the
starters that it just doesn't make a ton. Of sense
SO LIKE i i it would be a bummer to
lose him for nothing, this SUMMER but i do think
it's an outcome that's on. The table, and like as
far as the big picture potential For, the warriors unless
(44:19):
he becomes a knockdown three point shooter and a good
read and react guy and a good off, ball defender
he can't get into the, starting lineup and if he
can't get into the, STARTING lineup i just don't see
a version of that that makes a ton. OF sense, i, mean,
like well let me. Ask you you've been Following the
warriors pretty closely over the last. Few years what do?
You see what do You see kamena's big term long
term POTENTIAL as.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
I don't see it On, the. WARRIORS don't i just
don't see the long term fit on. THE roster, I
mean i think it's so hard to predict HOW these rfa,
situations go especially with the new we haven't had that
many experiences of players in a role like him under
this new Second eight briton sort of. Cap era so
it'll be interesting to see How the warriors. Play THAT
(45:01):
but i just think that he and maybe, rightfully so
wants a lot more touches than he's getting on this on.
This roster like if you, put him if you swapped
him with any number Of The houston rockets, wing athletes,
right like he would he would love. That team if
he was On The, houston rockets. He fits he Is
(45:21):
A houston rocket functionally with the way he, plays basketball,
right like he is made to be just a run
gun athlete offense downhill and like athletic on ball defender
that kind of makes a lot of, Mental mistakes like
he is A Perfect houston rocket right now that he's
gonna end up there because they had a lot of,
Players ALREADY but i just don't think, that stylistically he's
(45:42):
the type of player that fits all that well In the,
warriors ecosystem and from a financial and, roll STANDPOINT it's i,
DON'T know i find it a little challenging for a
long term that's really.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
Well put so he Souped Up tarry easton is what
you're saying in a in a very. COMPLIMENTARY way I Love.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
Jonathan kaminga he is so fun, to watch but he
he's kind of swooped.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Up here YOU and i have talked. About this it's
it's just the bummer that like it was, right there
the blow it up and rebuild and give the Keys
to jonathan was right there. Right now, it's, like shit
we just run one thirteen out of Fourteen with jimmy
and now are dead serious championship team and we can't
afford To let john mess. Around anymore but it is what. It,
(46:22):
is yeah and. He plays.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
He plays he plays a lot of JOY and i
really like, watching him but it's just it doesn't feel
like the the. Right, thing ultimately, all right let's close
for tonight with one more Question. From wolfe he was
really asking this question. A lot he really wanted to
know the answer to. This. Question uh, wolfe asked would
you ever make a real life? Basketball video you're really
good and it'll be fun to, see it maybe even
(46:45):
collab with other. Content creators jason is very good.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
At basketball he's very. TALL man i had a PHASE
where i was recording a lot of my. Basketball stuff
i've been out of that phase for a. While now
i'm still playing quite, a bit but it's more Just
like i've just been so inundated with other Stuff that
i've been kind of away from some. Of that maybe
This summer i'll try to get. Into It logan logan
(47:10):
is our head of content here at. The volume he
called me about two months ago and wanted to kind
of explore the idea of doing some on. COURT stuff
i would imagine that we'll eventually do, some stuff but
it's just as YOU and, I, know jackson we're so
geared up for, the playoffs, right now it just hasn't
been like Something that i've been really. Seriously Considering but.
(47:34):
I'll try i'll try to make some time before the
end of this calendar year to get some more video
content around. Me playing, but again It's not I'm a
i'm a good, basketball Player but i'm NOT an, Nba player,
so like if, you care if you care, to watch
it's just because you're a fan of the show and
you want to see, me PLAY which. I appreciate i
appreciate the support on. That level, All, right jackson that.
(47:56):
Was fun, all, Right guys it's all we have for
tonight is always sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me
and supporting. The show we have some breakouts from tonight's
show that'll be coming out over the course of the
next couple. Of days i'm. ACTUALLY traveling i didn't think
this trip was going to happen in light of what
happened a few, weeks ago but we are actually doing
one more. Ski Trip so i'm leaving to Go to
(48:16):
idaho TOMORROW and i will be Back on, monday night
and then one more kind of funky WEEK because i
go To see Dead in company next Week. In Vegas
but JACKSON and i have already made a plan to
record a bunch of content during the two and a
half Days that i'm in town so that we'll still
have stuff running on, the show and it kind of
coincides nicely WITH the. Ncaa tournament there's NO national tv
(48:37):
games ON the nba chilled out on the schedule and
gave us a bunch of. Lighter ones so we're going
to take one, last little kind of relatively light stretch
here over the course of the, next week next week and,
a half and then once we Get, into april it's
go time for three straight months of just absolute chaos.
And basketball so we're looking forward to. It again we
appreciate you guys for rocking, with us and we will
(48:58):
see you on two you say.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
The volume?
Speaker 2 (49:05):
What's? Up guys, AS always i appreciate you for listening
to and supporting. Hoops tonight they would actually be really
helpful for us if you guys would take a second
and leave a rating and. A review, AS always i
appreciate you guys, supporting us but if you could take
a minute to, Do that i'd really. Appreciate it
The volume.
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All right, welcome to tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody,
(01:48):
hope all of you guys are having a great week
so far. Got a Jampacks show for you tonight. We're
gonna be hitting the two games from ESPN. Tonight is
the Lakers and of kind of blowing out the Nuggets
until the end of the bench guys come in and
make it close at the end as the Lakers get
a big win against the Denver Nuggets, who sat out
Jamal Murray and Nicole Yokitchen this one. We also have
our course correction segment that we're gonna do like we
(02:10):
do every single week. I want to talk a little
bit about Kawhi Leonard. And then the third segment of
the show today we're gonna be hitting Kay Cunningham and
the second twenty five point triple double of his career
against the Miami Heat, capping it off with a buzzer beating, well,
I guess not quite a buzzer beater, but a game
winner against the Miami Heat off the glass. And then
at the tail end of the show, we're gonna try
something new tonight. We're gonna have Jackson come on the
(02:31):
stream and we're gonna answer some questions from the live
mail bag. So you gotta be sub subscribed to the channel,
but subscribe to the channel, drop questions in the chat,
and we're gonna hit some mail bag questions at the
tail end of the show. You guys know the job
before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube
channels you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow
me on Twitter at underscore JSONLTS, you guys, don't miss
show announcements, don't forget a better podcast feed where you get
(02:52):
your podcast on our hoops tonight, So also super helpful
if you leave a rating and a review on that front.
We also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram,
and Facebook where Jackson's been doing great work for us
in the video of cutting up some video and adding
stuff to that contents. You guys can follow us there
and then, last but not least, keep dropping mail bag
questions and YouTube comments so we can hit them in
our regular mail bags weekly throughout the rest of the season.
(03:13):
All right, let's talk some basketball. So I'm not going
to spend too much time on this particular game because
I do want to kind of get to the mail
bag as this game wasn't particularly interesting with all the
guys that were out, But I did think that there
were some things that were at least somewhat translatable to
what we're going to see when we get into the postseason.
If these two teams were to face each other. Now
the Nuggets decide to sit Jamal Murray and Nicole Jokich,
(03:37):
we don't really have much of a theory or much
in the way of reporting on what's going on that front,
except for there's a couple of ankle injuries that they're
dealing with. I also think that Mike Malone probably just
looked at him and was like, we're not playing good
basketball right now, and you guys look banged up. So
I'd rather have you guys take a little bit of
time off and come back and then let's hit this
thing hard and try to sharpen up some details before
we get into the postseason. But it ended up being
(03:59):
the same group that upset Golden State Warriors the other night,
trying to win on the road in LA, and it
was kind of the same issue that happened when Jamal
Murray and Nikola Jokic played back in Denver, which is
that the Nuggets can't guard the Lakers, And that really
is one of the fundamental concepts that I go into
any matchup with the Lakers and Nuggets if they were
(04:19):
to face each other in the postseason. Like, I also
don't know if the Lakers are going to be able
to guard the Nuggets, but it feels pretty certain to
me at this point that whether it's Jokic coming up
to the level in pick and roll scheme, whether it's
him dropping back, whether it's the small ball groups that
they'll have out there when Jokic is off the floor.
There's not a defender on the Nuggets roster that makes
(04:44):
Luka Dancych feel uncomfortable one on one. And they're not
a great defensive rotation team to be able to clean
stuff up on the back end. Like, if you're going
to be able to have a strong defensive foundation, you
better be good at something. You better be an elite
perimeter defense or an elite rim protection defense, or an
elite in rotation defense in terms of closing off gaps
(05:06):
and being attached and communicating through defensive rotations. And they're
just not good at any of those things. And we
know that they can be. We've seen them at time
in times past be able to put together a coherent defense.
But one of the things that concerns me is NBA
history tells us that if you practice being a bad
defense all season, you're probably going to be a bad
(05:29):
defense when it matters. Generally speaking, you fall back on
your habits when you run into adversity, and that's why
it's so important for you to make a habit out
of doing all the right things, because when the shit
hits the fan and the chips are down and it's
time to play must win basketball, your habits are what
carry you in those situations. A lot of the variance
is out of your control. But if you're a habitually
(05:51):
good defense, if you're a habitually good, attention to detailed
type of team, you can make up that ground. And
so that would be my main concern. But there's there's
just these nuggets, I should say, these nuggets with the
nuggets that I see that kind of keep me from
getting off the train entirely because it's like, you know
that they've been a very good fourth quarter defense this year,
(06:12):
which is a strong indicator of them tightening things up
when they need to. We've seen Aaron Gordon, Nikola Jokich,
Michael Porter, junior Jamal Murray and an athletic, defensive minded
guard be able to get stops in the postseason. But again,
it's just I look back through NBA history and the
teams that kind of cut corners in the regular season
(06:34):
and hoist the trophy are the Katie Steph Warriors in
like twenty eighteen, or the Shaq Kobe Lakers, or you know,
like teams that are overwhelmingly talented and they present that
advantage that buys them so much margin for error that
they can get away with that sort of play when
they get up in those situations. But again, like I,
(06:57):
even above and beyond anything having to do with their sharpness,
there are clear personnel limitations for them in this specific matchup,
and it all comes down to Luka Doncic. There were
advantages that the Lakers had in this matchup on offense
before Luca. We saw that last year with them just
picking apart the Nuggets and pick and roll and ad
(07:17):
doing a lot of one on one damage with Jokic.
But Mike Malone was able to reconfigure matchups, right, Okay, well,
let's put KCP on Lebron, Let's put Aaron Gordon on
Anthony Davis, and let's put Nicola Jokich on Ruy Mura.
Let's reconfigure the matchups, and they were able to get
enough stops to win some key games in that series
and overcome the fact that the Lakers had a lead
(07:39):
for most of that series. With Luka Doncic, they don't
have that same flexibility. The issue that you saw tonight
is exacerbated when Lebron and Ruey Hacha Mura come back
to the table. It's exacerbated when Nikola Jokic comes back
into the equation because it's going to be them with
Luka bringing Yokic up to the level over and over
(08:01):
and over again and triggering the four on threes, and
the other four players on the floor are going to
be some combination of Lebron, James Rijachamura, Austin Reeves, Jackson
Hayes rolling to the ram, Dorian Finney Smith spotting up
in the corner, gave Vincent spotting up in the corner
on the wing. They just have the ability to spread
the nuggets out and pick them apart for wide open shots.
Now where it gets complicated is on the other end
(08:23):
of the floor. As we saw in the matchup that
they won when they were in Denver, the Lakers did
a lot of damage by denying by funneling towards the sideline,
doubling from the baseline they did. The denial worked in
limiting a lot of Jokic's touches, forcing his touches to
be further away from the basket, and then they had
a plan for how to handle it with help. Now.
(08:43):
The way that Denver countered that is they generated these
wide open catch and shoot threes for guys like Aaron Gordon,
Russell Westbrook, Christian Brown, and they were hitting. That's, you know,
the one big thing that's been screaming off the screen
as you watch the Nuggets as a positive over the core.
So the last couple of weeks is Aaron Gordon is
shooting the living shit out of the basketball. And I
(09:05):
love the the I love the bit that Tim Legler
was talking about how he went up to Aaron Gordon
and specifically discussed, like why are you shooting the ball
so well? And Aaron just started talking about how he's
just at his home gym, just shooting over and over
and over and over and over again. Because like, that's
literally what it takes. Guys, your kids out there that
are still playing in high school, that are trying to
make it into your rotation and a college team or
(09:27):
whatever it is. If you think that you're going to
be able to make shots without literally taking hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds of shots every single week, you're never
gonna get there. There's no there is no cutting that corner.
There's no way to get from point A to point B,
with point A being you being a lesser shooter and
point B being you being a better shooter without taking
hundreds and hundreds of shots. And so what you saw
(09:48):
there there was a lot of reps where like Jackson
Hayes would end up on Aaron Gordon. And if Jackson
Hayes on Aaron Gordon, he has this tendency to want
to help in the paint. It's not just Jackson Hayes
as a fore man. Gordon's gonna draw defender that gets
a lot of low man responsibilities. The low man has
an instinctual desire to help at the basket because that's
how it works. In the defensive scheme. Aaron Gordon's going
(10:10):
to get some wide open looks and him knocking them
down at the rate that he's been knocking them down
is going to allow Denver to score. And so as
I look at the matchup between these two teams in
a playoff series, I feel relatively certain that the Lakers
are going to be able to consistently generate great shots.
I feel like the Lakers have a chance to at
least tilt Denver's offense towards shot attempts for certain types
(10:32):
of players. The problem is if those guys hit them
the way that they've been hitting them, it could end
up being a situation where we have one hell of
a shootout type of series between these two types of teams.
But again, we've only seen one matchup between these two
teams at relatively full strength in the game in Denver,
and so it's hard for me to take too much
from anything that we've seen to this point. But it
(10:54):
sure would be fun to watch these two teams play
against each other, and I think the shootout part of
it would be real. It would be an interesting kind
of like who could score more points in terms of
this open shot generating contest between the two teams, and
just there's not gonna be a whole lot of rock
fight sequences where they score ten points in ten minutes
or anything along those lines. These two teams are going
to be able to score on each other. Lucas shot
(11:15):
making continues to make incredible leaps. He had twenty points
in the first quarter of this game. One of the
biggest things that has me excited about the team's potential,
the Lakers potential and the big picture is if you
remember when they went on that winning streak shortly after
Luca joined the team. In that winning streak, they were
not scoring the ball well. In the game against Denver,
they scored the ball well because they Denver's defense is
(11:38):
terrible and it's a terrible matchup for them because of
their ability to skip the ball over the top and
generate four on threes. But a lot of teams made
the Lakers struggle to score over that stretch with switching,
physical ball pressure, blitzing Luca and the Lakers struggling to
handle it a little bit. And there are a couple
of key things that have started to come to the surface.
One Luca's overall shot making, the Luka Doncic that was
playing with Lebron James before or he got hurt, the
(12:01):
one that went on that massive win streak. That Luka
Doncic is not the same guy anymore. He is a
red hot scorer right now. The advantage of Lebron being
out the way he did he was it gave Luca
a ton of repetition for him to round out some
of the elements of his skill set and to build
his rhythm. Lebron and Rui are going to be coming
(12:23):
back to a team that has substantially more offensive firepower.
It also gave them the second piece of it is
they get a lot more repetition in terms of handling blitzes,
something they struggled with early on in the Luca experience.
But they're starting to get better and better at That's
what makes me so excited about this team. In the
big picture, you get Lebron James and Rui back in here.
Those are your back line guys. How often tonight did
(12:44):
you see the Lakers look unathletic in transition? How often
tonight did you see the Lakers give up dribble penetration
and struggle to help at the rim? On the back line,
their forwards are hot, or at least their starting forwards
are out, and so getting Lebron James and Ruy Hachamura
basically five hundred pound of big, strong athlete out there
is going to go a long way towards cleaning up
some of their issues and help side defense and on
(13:05):
the glass. And when you're skipping the ball across the court,
instead of it being Jared Vanderbilt, instead of it being
Jordan good One, instead of it being some of these
limited offensive players, it's gonna be Rui, who's been a
deadly catch and shoot three point shooter this year. It's
gonna be Lebron, who's been a deadly catch and shoot
three point shooter this year. Those guys are going to
get their opportunities, and as all of this starts to
(13:26):
come together, they're going to have a level that they
can get to on both ends of the floor that
very few teams in this league can get to. And
I think that's all very exciting. Again, I want you, guys,
we can get a little bit further into this matchup,
further into stuff with the Lakers and the Nuggets, but
let's do it in the mail bag here. In a
little bit, we're going to work through our other couple
of segments. Make sure you drop your questions in the chat,
(13:46):
then we'll get to them at the tail end of
the show. Moving on, Welcome to Course Correction, brought to
you by Microsoft. Just like star players and teams navigating
performance hurdles, business decision makers today are under immense pressure
to get things right. They must rise to the occasion,
turning challenges into opportun t unities. Microsoft empowers these visionaries
with AI solutions, Simplified Cloud and data management and trustworthy,
responsible AI and when you're in the NBA, you have
(14:09):
your own hurdles to face. This segment, we explore the
challenges faced by teams or star players and how they
can turn things around. Whatever challenge you're facing, Microsoft empowers
you with the expertise to say bring it on. This week,
we're discussing Kawhi Leonard in his latest return to form
from injury. Kawi looked fantastic in the win against the
Cavs last night. We did a full breakdown of it
(14:29):
this morning. You guys can find it a little bit
further back on our feed. He had thirty three, seven
and four with forced deals. You looked athletic. He was
five to six from three. I think he was twelve
for nineteen from the field, super efficient. Again, we spend
a good amount of time on it this morning, especially
talking about how strong his base looks. His legs look strong.
He's the dead giveaway for Kawhi being Kawhi as he
starts to dislodge dudes from their base, when he makes
(14:51):
those aggressive moves into the short to mid range, and
then he's the guy that's getting great lyft and easily
knocking down jump shots in that short to mid range.
I'm just amazed because of how many times we've been
in this cycle with Kawhi. From the knee tendon to
pathy issue that he have with San Antonio that led
to his departure there, the twenty twenty one knee injury
(15:13):
that took him out for two seasons, the twenty twenty
three knee injury that took him out of the playoffs,
the twenty twenty four knee injury that took him out
of the playoffs. This is literally the fourth time that
he's had season ending injury come into the equation and
that he's been able to recover and look like himself
now again. For us as fans, and for like the
(15:33):
Clippers front office or forever Kawhi ends up playing for
for the rest of his career, there are certain realities
that have to be factored in in terms of his reliability,
but that doesn't change the fact that Kawhi just keeps
on coming back. And that's the amazing part to me.
Can you imagine how discouraging it would be to ride
the roller coaster he's been riding the last seven years,
(15:53):
repeatedly working his ass off behind the scenes, to get
back in shape, getting there being within stre viking distance
of his ultimate goals, only for it all to come
crashing down again. Imagine last year in the Dallas series,
after what was a Game three, when he came out
of the game early, after yet another season of working
his ass off to get back into form, they looked
(16:14):
like a bona fide championship contender. Remember they lost their
first six games or whatever it was with James Harden,
and then they just started kicking everybody's ass. For months,
we were talking about them as a bona fide top
tier championship contender, only for him to break down again
and lose. Can you imagine what he was thinking. I
wonder how often the idea of retirement has come up
(16:35):
for him mentally, and yet here he is again, right
back at it, looking like the best player on the
floor in a game against the best team in the league.
My guess is there are two things that keep driving
Kawhi to try again and again in the face of
these issues that he's had. One his love for the
game of basketball. It's crazy how that'll get you to
do anything, like you'll if you love the game, you'll
(16:59):
find a way to play at all costs. And then two,
the simple fact that it only takes one opportunity, one
stretch of things going his way for him to get
what he wants, one season of him actually holding up
until June for him to have a chance to hoist
the trophy again, and if he does, that accomplishment lasts forever.
(17:21):
So I think that's what drives him, and I just
want to shout out Kwhi Leonard for continually trying to
be the best basketball player that he can be despite
the horrible injury luck that he's had in the last decade.
That's it for this week's course correction. Remember Microsoft's AI
solutions empower you to take bold steps and make informed decisions,
sparking new ideas to help drive your business forward. With
Microsoft as your trusted partner, you can navigate your journey
(17:43):
with confidence, finding innovative solutions and reaching new possibilities. Visit
Microsoft dot com slash challengers to learn more. We're gonna
(18:04):
talk Piston's heat for a little bit and then we'll
get into our mailbag. Don't forget keep dropping those questions
in the chat, so the Piston's gonna come from behind,
winning on the road in Miami k got off to
a rough shooting start. I think he was two for
his first nine if I remember correctly, but he got
going eventually, and he just has a lot of size
advantage that he could work against. In this matchup, he
hit a couple of these like left shoulder hooks that
(18:24):
he hit against Heywood, high Smith and hime Hakes where
he just kind of like slowly and methodically backed them
down into a range that he felt comfortable hit him
one more time to dislodge that base and then just
use that momentum to flow into like these easy, breezy
left shoulder hooks, And it was just a reminder of
how good this guy can be in the big picture
(18:47):
as he gets better and better at replicating that easy stuff. Again,
that's the thing with younger players. They struggled to replicate
what's working, and they struggled to stop doing what's not working.
When you become a veteran, a lot of times, like
any skill improvement gets undercut by your diminishing athleticism. But
what changes is your understanding of the game and the
way that you can parse out the things that work
(19:09):
really well for you and hyper focus on them and
limit the things you struggle with to improve your efficiency.
And again, like there's going to be a lot of
that kind of stuff with Caid when he's in the
heart of his prime, where he's taken some, you know,
not necessarily the most skillful shots in the world, like
crazy step backs or nifty combinations of dribble, combination of
(19:29):
dribble and footwear combinations. But he's going to have a
lot of these easy, breezy shots because he's six', eight
he's big and, strong and he can get to wherever
he wants on the. Floor he did a lot of
great work putting defenders in jail in this. Game he
had a fun. Work, again whenever we talk about putting
defenders in, jail all that is is when you get
an angle on a, player whether it's in, transition whether
(19:50):
it's in AN, iso whether it's in a posset up,
situation whether it's in a pick and, roll whatever it,
is when you get the defender onto your hip or your,
backside when you slow down and you basically revert post,
up meaning you're posting, up but instead of trying to
back the dude, down you're leading him forward while trapping
him in a position on your body that you feel comfortable,
with and you have an open lane in front of,
(20:11):
you which forces the defense to make a. Decision he
had a fun one in the fourth quarter where he
pump faked like four or five times while dudes are
just flying around about, him and he hit like a
little casual six foot fade away over the. Top he's
getting really good at using his size and transition as
an opportunity to get that easy. Angle like he'll look
up at the rim with the ball in his right
(20:32):
hand and he'll just like do that push cross and
drop his right shoulder and he'll take an aggressive dribble
and then the defender's on his side and he'll get
that advantage at like twenty five feet and, then just
like he does in a ball, screen he'll just work
his way. Downhill no one stops, him he'll go all
the way to the front of the. Rim if, not
he'll just kind of wait for the defense to. React
and again when he gets into those, situations that's where
(20:52):
the similarities To luca are like jarring for, me because
there's a dynamic that takes place when he gets the
defender on his hip er on his, back he slows
way the hell. Down he can get painfully slow sometimes
on his drive in that sort of position when he's
got the defender, pinned AND i say pin painfully for the.
Defense dribble penetration makes help defenders make. Decisions him slowing
(21:17):
down is what allows those openings to fully. Form while
he's going, slow defenders are flying and they're making, decisions
and they're fully committing to whatever defensive read they. Make
that allows him to allow the play to develop so
that he can find the read and make. It and
from there he just has his reads down Pat every
(21:37):
one of his teammates know where to. Be Tim hardaway
And Malik beasley know that If kate throws him the
ball and a kick ahead and transition or a kickout
in a ball, screen even if the closeout is, there
he wants them to shoot. It he's rifling it to
them because he knows they're good contested three point. Shooters
he wants them to take. It he got a dunk
For Jalen duran in the second half when he got
(21:58):
blitzed around the right elbow And miami forgot to tag
the roller just elevated and rifled pass The dalen during
easy dunk it actually might have Been Isaiah. STEWART i
can't even remember who's in the game at that. Point
he's developing this really fun chemistry With Asar thompson. Too
he generated three dunks for him off of cuts in various.
SITUATIONS i talked about this concept With Jonathan kaminga a
(22:19):
couple of days. Ago but the idea of, runways you,
know we always think about help side defense as an
opportunity to get a wide open catch and shoot, Three
but the same exact thing happens for an athlete in
a different way in the form of a runway. Appearing
so you can imagine if you're a in the corner
and the ball gets skipped to you in your, helper
(22:39):
the guy who's guarding you steps into the. Paint you
think of it as this wide open catch and shoot.
Three but if you read it before the pass and
the defender steps, up all of a, sudden there's like
twenty five feet of space or twenty two feet of
space between you and the corner and the front of
the rim with nobody standing, there and that's an opportunity
for an athlete to get a running. Start And asar
is just finding those runways in two day diferent spots
(23:00):
along the baseline when he's in the. Corner but he
also got one off Of kid's drive swooping in from
behind along the. Wing this is Where kaid's slowing down
as an. Advantage he slows down the play, develops everyone
kind of coalesces around. HIM A sara finds an opening
and just zooms in from. Behind he drops him. Off
it doesn't matter if there's congestion in the. PAINT a
star sits a freak. Athlete once he gets ahead of
(23:22):
steam like, that no one's jumping with, him no one's
stopping him there, again he had three dunks tonight on
cuts off of k, drives and then of Course kay
tops it all off by stealing victory from defeat with
a couple of threes down the. Stretch there was a
missed three From Elik beasley on the right. Wing Jalen
duran just Buries kalel where right under the. Rim and
(23:43):
by the Way kalel was rough down the stretch of this,
game he didn't really understand what he was doing around the.
Rim he gave up that key offensive. Rebound he had
another weird play where he tried like a corn test you,
know The Luke cornett like jump up and just clap
from underneath the. Basket he tried one of those on
a post move where he had no chance to block the,
shot and thanks to him leaving his, feet he was
(24:04):
not in a position to get the defensive, rebound and
someone just swooped in right behind him and got the
offensive rebound put. Back i'm, like what are you, doing?
Dude but the heat look really. Bad we're going to
talk about that in a. Minute that's an entirely separate.
Issue but, Anyway durren gets the offensive, rebound pitches it
out to. Kid he hits the three to put The
pistons up. Two Then Tyler harrow ties the, game drawing
a foul On Jalen. Durnant and that really is the
next step For Jalen duran in his. Development he's got
(24:25):
to learn how to defend on the. Perimeter you got
switched on to a. Guard your job at that, point
depending on the game, plan whatever the coach that tells you.
Is you, know if he's an elite jump, shooter let's
Say Steph, curry your job is to play up on
the jump shot and funnel him in a direction where
you have planned. Help if it's a guy that you're
less worried about him making a pull up jump, shot
(24:46):
then it's about containment and from there you don't need
to block the jump. Shot no one's asking you to
block the jump. Shot they're asking you to contest the jump.
Shot they want you to at least make the guy
make it contested. Shot it If Tyler harrow hits a
contested seventeen foot or off the, bounce there you kind
of have to live with. That leaving your feet trying
to block the shot Allowed Tyler harrow to get two
free throws which he's going to, make and again that's
(25:07):
just the stuff that he's got to work on in his.
Development you put your hand, up you live with the
results in those situations instead of jumping out of your.
Shoes guards are always going to go for fakes against
a big man in space because once big dudes start
moving one way or the other or leave their, feet
they're so big that it's hard for them to change
direction and regain control of their. Body once they get
(25:29):
you a lunge one way or to leave their, feet
that's where the quickness comes in for the guard and
they're going right around. You that's why it's about positional,
defense staying, disciplined doing what the game plan needs from
you in that sort of. Situation he'll get better in.
Time he just needs. Reps The it would Do jalen
a lot of good to this summer to start showing
up to some workouts with some PERIMETER nba players and
(25:50):
just ask to guard and be, like, oh you guys
are doing. Ones let me hop in and just get
reps guarding you guys one on, one because that's the
kind of thing that will help him when it comes
to defending out on the. Perimeter but, anyway herotize it
and Then kate ends up banking in the pull up
three Over bam at the. Buzzer really high degree of difficulty,
shot but he got it up over the. Contest and,
again when you shoot it right there at the top
of the, key you can afford to miss. Long you missed,
(26:11):
long but went right in off the back of the.
Rim they're off the. Backboard kate finished with twenty five
twelve and. Eleven it's his ninth triple double this, season
his second twenty five point triple double of his. Career
pissons are, fun, Man they have so many fun, subplots
LIKE i don't really know what to think Of Ron
holland yet BECAUSE i don't know what he'll become. Offensively
but he had a really fun stretch of this game
(26:33):
where he just ball pressured the hell out Of Alec
burk's in the second, half and you could see him
really becoming a defensive. Weapon sooner than. Later he was
plus eleven in twelve. Minutes Malik beasley hasn't just been
one of the best three point shooters in the league this.
Year he's shown some really impressive scoring, chops like hitting
tough shots off of different bits of footwork and ball
(26:54):
handling over great, contests doing excellent work off the. Bounce
he's shooting thirty eight percent off the dribble jump shots this,
year waited for. Threes he's getting over a point per.
Shot he's having a wonderful scoring. Season Tobias harris is
having a great season and really coming around as a
secondary shot creator for them after The Jaden ivy. Injury
Asar thompson's in a different role than his. Brother Like,
(27:16):
Amen thompson is getting a lot of inverted spacing situations
because Of. Shanggoon i've talked about this concept with Like
Aaron gordon and Nakolea. Jokic an athlete on the back
line has infinitely more value when the big man is
playing out around the elbows because that is pulling the
rim protector out to guard the big man out around the.
Elbows that allows those runways to appear more frequently along
(27:41):
the back. LINE a Men thompson is going to have
a lot of success feasting off of The shannggoon inverted.
Spacing with The Detroit, pistons they don't have that type
of inverted, spacing so those opportunities are fewer and further
between for us are but you can still see some
similar flashes of his vertical spacing ability of the wrecking
(28:01):
ball that he can be on defense just like A
Men thompson can. Be he ran some ball screen action
of his own in the second half of this game
With Jalen, dura and he got a good downhill rep
against Kalel ware where he caved his chest in and
got an easy little left handed layup right at the
front of the. Rim, again The pistons are just fun
and now they're only one game back Of indiana and
the standings for the four seed and potentially home court
(28:22):
in the first. Round that, said they do have a
very tough remaining. Schedule the remaining schedule opponent combined opponent
win percentages over fifty five, Percent SO i think they're
probably headed for that sixth seed and a first round
series against The, knicks unless obviously some things go. Differently that,
said like we've talked about in the, PAST i think
The pistons might actually match up better With New york
(28:42):
than they do With indiana Or, milwaukee so that that
would be a really fun first round. Series AND i
guess we'll see when the time. Comes BUT i thought
like the most interesting story of that game was just
how lifeless The Miami heat. Looked they've lost nine in a,
row but that's underselling the. Situation they're just four and
sixteen in their last twenty. GAMES i, mean can you
remember a worst stretch Under Eric. SPOULSTRA i, can't at
(29:04):
least not in these serious years over the last half.
Decade the twenty eighth in offense in that, span seventeenth in.
Defense and the scary part is when you watch, them
they literally look like a team that's let go of the.
Rope that's not believing in what they're. Doing that's given
up one of the Strangest heat Games i've watched in
a long time in terms of, process just Because i'm
so used to The heat being the sharp effort and
(29:26):
execution team Hashtag heat. Culture they brought out their zone
to start the fourth quarter and they immediately gave up
a easy driving scoop shot foul On Dennis schroeder Because
bam was kind of asleep on his back line and
didn't make a. Rotation they gave up a dunk To
Tobias harris in crunch. Time it was a three point
game with five minutes, left And Tobias harris was just
(29:47):
standing on the left wing completely. Unguarded caye just threw
in the, ball he drove down the lane and dunked.
It you know how bad of a transition defensive possession that.
Is for it to be like a semi, transition like
we're back on, defense we're not Guarding tobias and no
one's helping at the. Rim that's beyond. Sloppy that's Very Unmiami,
(30:09):
heat like just to sleep at the. Wheel but, again
the offense was WHAT i found super. Bizarre what used
to be a sophisticated system of ball in player movement
has degraded to what looks like a pickup. GAME a
lot of the. Time they have these weird possessions where
they just Let Davion mitchell dribble the ball up the
court and play like one on one off the, wing
(30:32):
like He's John morant trying to initiate, offense LIKE i
don't understand. It they have these super ugly bam at
a bio possessions where he's just facing up in a
triple threat and everyone's just kind of standing, around and then,
suddenly with three seconds, left after he's done, nothing he'll
either throw some bs up or he'll turn and run
a last second dho With Duncan. Robinson a lot of
(30:53):
rushed bad shots From Duncan robinson And Tyler. Harrow Tyler
harrow shot a floater over a double team that hit
the top of the. Backboard in the fourth, Quarter Duncan,
robinson with eleven on the shot, clock took a, drifting
fading jump shot out of the right corner that missed
the basket by several. Feet there's no point in even
discussing anything further with this team because they look like
(31:15):
they aren't even. Competing most of these Plays i'm discussing
took place in a close game in the fourth. Quarter
it's just. Bizarre and the scariest thing is there isn't
any upside to this. Situation harrow's having the best season
of his, career and he looks like he's not good.
Enough like IF i ask you who's Better Tyler harrow
Or Austin, reeves it's. Close that's not enough to build
(31:40):
a franchise. Around if you're waiting on Bam adebio to
develop on, offense he's twenty seven years, Old i'm not
sure that's ever gonna. Happen Kell aware has some, tools
but he's super raw and mistake prone like most young.
Players he certainly doesn't look like a franchise altering. Talent and,
yeah they have some scrappy role player, dudes but they're
(32:01):
useless without the star. TALENT i don't know what saves this.
Situation it's definitely bleak times For heat fans for. Sure All,
(32:23):
Right so a couple about a month, ago we got
a new producer for a, Show Jackson. Staphone he's been
doing incredible work for us adding, film you guys are
always in the comments telling us how much you desperately
want film in the, show And jackson's been fighting the
good fight behind the, scenes trying to add film whenever he.
Can we're gonna hit about fifteen minutes or so questions
(32:44):
from the. Chat jackson is one of my favorite people
to talk basketball. With he's gonna come on and help
us answer some of these. Questions all, Right, jackson what
do we got so?
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Far what's going?
Speaker 2 (32:53):
On?
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Jason thank you for the, warm warm, intro and what's
up to the hoops? Tonight, listeners, everyone just keep dropping
your questions in the live in the YouTube chat AND
i will pick the best. Ones but first it's From.
Eric let's see. Here WHILE i think the most most
of the recent play and playoff exits are due to,
injury how long Can yiannis be largely out of THE
(33:16):
nba title picture until he isn't a consensus top three
player in the.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
WORLD i always have such a hard time with this
sort of thing because of what happened With, steph what's
currently happening WITH, kd what even happened With lebron early
in the, Year and those players aren't even close to
the athletic prime That giannis is still. IN i think
that playing bad basketball and losing games is super, discouraging
AND i think it's starting to wear on him a little.
(33:41):
Bit he's not playing. WELL i talked about this in
my show this. Morning his three worst field goal percentage
games of the entire season took place in the last. Week,
so like you can, tell he's starting to kind of
get a little frustrated or at least be banged up
or missing that extra bit of. Exertion but LIKE i,
mean MY i don't know about, You. JACKSON i have
a feeling The bucks if they lose in disappointing fashion the,
(34:03):
summer that this whole thing's blown, up don't you, Think
oh for?
Speaker 1 (34:07):
SURE i mean it didn't feel like they got a
fair shake on. There you're one of The dame experience
because of the. Injuries but this, year assuming they're, healthy
if they don't get past the second, round it's, like
what are we doing all this?
Speaker 2 (34:18):
For they can't. Score it's the craziest.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Thing it's insane to Replace Drew holliday With Damian. Lillard
the only place you're upgrading is on one side of the, floor,
obviously and like by a LOT i THINK i think
it's fair to say buy a lot and they still
can't score. It they just can't get generate good.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Shots it's busy despite having a lot of shooting. Too
like it's it's really strange to, me but LIKE i,
mean it's one of those things where LIKE i can't
write them off completely because you get in a playoff.
Setting we haven't seen Playoff giannis since that second round
series against The celtics when he was a literal wrecking
ball that like single handedly extended that series to seven.
(34:57):
Games and Obviously dame presents the problems that he. Presents the,
teams and they do have a lot of three point,
shooting and they do have a lot of, size but
the they, just to, me they're not LIKE i always
talk about like having an elite. Unit they don't have
any a unit on either end of the floor THAT
i think strikes real fear in.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Anybody, yeah AND i to your point About. GIANNIS i
was talking about this with some other with some friends
the other, day like teams that have the capability to
win the title this, year AND i think you still
have to include The bucks in that list because Of
giannis could just turn into a superhero for two months
and take them all the way. There but so because of,
(35:35):
that it's hard to really write them. Off but they
haven't looked very good at.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Really much of.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Anything LIKE i, mean they're, good they're, fine they're like
a fine basketball, team but they haven't looked elite at.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Anything they're really, big AND i think that will give
them the ability to present some problems that they get
a favorable matchup here. There they've weirdly been good against
The celtics for the last couple of, years like they've
had some big wins, there but, like but, yeah so
a lot of that stuff was schedule related To so
it's hard for me to. Say here's the. THING nba
history tells us that The bucks don't, Win so do
(36:08):
with that information what you will, anyway.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
All, right all, right next, one because you mentioned The,
celtics and BECAUSE i am A celtics, fan will go From,
chris do you Think boston's three point obsession will come
back to haunt them in the playoffs this?
Speaker 2 (36:21):
YEAR i literally don't care about three point. VOLUME i
care about shot, Quality like that is the only thing
that matters to. Me, like if you if you are
generating wide open catch and shoot. Threes as The Boston,
celtics you're going to win the. Title, like if they
(36:43):
generate wide open catch and shoot threes in every, round
they're going to. Win to, me if they, lost it
would manifest As tatum And brown missing a lot of
really tough pull up jump shots and these ugly possessions
where they only ask the ball around the perimeter and
they take like kind of semi, contested, good not great
(37:06):
types of. Threes that's when they get into their cold.
Spells is when you have these extended stretches where they're
getting good shots that we know The celtics can, make
but they're not the kind of shots that they won
the title with last. Year the shots they won the
title with last year was when they would Beat Luka
dancis off the dribble pass. Pass suddenly it's a wide
open catch and shoot three off of a paint. Touch
(37:28):
that's when they're at their. Best BUT i don't, THINK i,
THINK i don't think like them missing a bunch of
easy catch and shoot threes is how they.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Lose, YEAH i, AGREE i MEAN i think it's and
that's HOW i. Appreciate that's How Joe missoula talks about it.
Too it's not just about pure, volume although that is
part of the you, know the math, equation but it's
all about. Process and he's, like if it's a good,
three we could take a hundred of. Them like if
it's if it's if it's a high quality catch and, shoot,
(37:54):
LOOK i would take on every single. Possession and that's
HOW i feel it. Too it's less about the make
of the, miss even though ultimately that's sort of what decides.
It but from a process, STANDPOINT i think it's been
a little shakier. ULTIMATELY i mean we've you've talked about
this on the show a couple of times recently about
How Jalen bred And Drew holliday are not shooting as.
Well just straight, up they are not shooting as, well
whether whatever kind of look you want to make, it
(38:15):
they're not shooting as. Well and so if, that if
they continue to shoot in the low, THIRTIES i, mean
it's gonna maybe potentially create some. Problems from a process,
Standpoint it's hard to be too upset about well generate.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Three even the LIKE i don't think they'll lose Because
drew And jalen miss a ton of wide open. THREES
i think they'll lose If drew And jalen miss a
bunch of, contested mediocre threes because they didn't trust their.
Process LIKE i. Was, ACTUALLY i was at a As
i've told you, guys we had a death in the
family about a month, ago and we had an event
(38:48):
today about, that and SO i got to hang out
a little bit with my wife's former high school, coach
and we were just kind of talking like big picture
of basketball stuff because he's coaching somewhere else right now
And i'm coaching some high school and and he was
kind of an old school, dude is, like, yeah like you,
KNOW i like to see more mid. Range everyone's you,
know focusing on the layups in the, threes and you,
KNOW i kind of got into like this philosophical conversation
with him about like shot quality and, process and, like,
(39:11):
honestly it's really simple to. Me the goal of every
possession should be to get a wide open layup or
catch and shoot. Three that should be the. Goal AND i,
SAY i should say a wide open layup or a
wide open catch and shoot. Three that's what you're trying
to do every single time down the. Floor and if
you generate a hundred of. Them, great you're gonna win
and you're gonna score one hundred and fifty, points but
there should be some like what you don't want to
(39:33):
do is take an uncomfortable out of rhythm catch and
shoot three or an uncomfortable forced in traffic rim attempt
over a wide open mid range attempt that's available later
in the shot. Clock that's WHERE i THINK i kind
of differentiate from some of, these uh like more analytically
focused shot, quality you, know some of those, thesis some
(39:55):
of that you, know thought Process i've heard out. THERE
i just think there's an order of, operations and if
you can't get a wide open catch in two three
or a wide open, layup the next best thing is
a good in rhythm shot for a player who's good
at that, shot wherever it is on the. Floor if
that makes, sense.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
One hundred Percent for the next, one let's do a
one that's BEEN i feel like trending online this week From.
Brendan do you Think austin reeves he said it is
one of the best third options in the. LEAGUE i
think that's pretty fair to. Characterize but where would you
say he ranks amongst third? Options in the.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
League, man this is such a tough question because there's
so many different types of third options all around the.
LEAGUE i saw the debate between him And Norman powell
with The. CLIPPERS i tweeted this stat out, earlier But
Norman powell's career high and assists in any basketball game
in THE, nba whether it's regular season or playoffs is.
(40:48):
Six austin eleven times in his career has put up
twenty five points and seven assists in a. Game Like
austin is a whole other level of well round did ball.
Handler but, like, again AS i always talk, about your
value to your team is unique to your value in that,
system and, like there's no doubt That Norman powell's jump
(41:09):
shooting has been immensely valuable off the, ball not just
in catch and shoot, situations but also off the. Move
for The. Clippers where it gets tricky is like kind
of similar to what's happening With. AUSTIN a good amount
of that happened Without Kawhi leonard in the. Lineup and
so obviously it's like a different type of role with
different types of shots, now but as you go around the,
league it's, Like, okay let's talk about chrisops porzingis, well
(41:30):
he's a back to the basket post up threat and
a rim. Protector just a fundamentally different type of player
than what you're looking at with An Austin. Reeves right
as you go around the, league these different guys are
Like Chet holmgren is a very different type of third,
option going To Evan mobley with Or Ti jerome with
the with The, calves Like Ty jerome is in a
(41:52):
bench guard, Role he's in a different type of role
Than Austin. REEVES i Think austin's better Than, tie but
how much it's hard to, dictate, right everything's unique to
your system that you're. In and you, KNOW i Think
austin's been fantastic for The, lakers AND i don't know
exactly where i'd rank, him but he's definitely up there
among the third. Options, YEAH i.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
AGREE i also saw Some Desmond bane, talk WHICH i
think is is a good one THAT i feel like
those two are actually in a similar archetype of can
it function as a true third? Option but also if you're,
like can you just run thing for five?
Speaker 2 (42:20):
Minutes, yeah can you get us forty tonight because we need? It,
yeah that kind of.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
Thing they can totally do, that and then you know
Whichever nick's player is their third best. Player if you
want to pick like that's that's Og McHale Josh hart,
LIKE i think pick your boys in, there but IT'S
i THINK i Think mchal's better Than austin as. WELL
i Think McHale's better Than. Austin all, right next, one
let's do from Chef. Steph what are your thoughts On
(42:46):
kaminga's long term role in The warriors and if The
warriors should still continue investing in him or trade him
for the right player in a.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
Win, now, well If i'm not, mistaken isn't he a
free agent this? Summer he will be AN. Rfa, Yeah,
SO i mean you've crossed your fingers and you hope
that he doesn't get like some massive offer thrown at.
HIM i have a feeling because, again if we talk
about what we were just talking about, earlier with value
in your specific, system there's gonna be some team out
(43:14):
there that's, like, WAIT i can throw a bunch of
money at this six' nine freaky, athletic FORWARD and i
can let him grow in our ecosystem and at a,
certain point, let's say let's say some team throws, four
years one hundred and twenty Million, at kamingo so thirty
million per for. Four years now you're looking at it
As the warriors and, You're, like okay is he remotely
(43:37):
capable of snatching the starting spot From A moses moody
Or A. Brandon, pajemski no they need those roles, too
badly like They need moses. Is awesome he's been doing
so good in, that job in. That job, You Know
brandon pajemski's been doing so good in. That role and,
you know the one Thing that kaminga does well enough
to do it with the starters is like guard. The
(43:59):
ball but there's all these other weaknesses both, off ball
defensively and functioning within their offense with with with the
starters that it just doesn't make a ton. Of sense
SO LIKE i i it would be a bummer to
lose him for nothing, this SUMMER but i do think
it's an outcome that's on. The table, and like as
far as the big picture potential For, the warriors unless
(44:19):
he becomes a knockdown three point shooter and a good
read and react guy and a good off, ball defender
he can't get into the, starting lineup and if he
can't get into the, STARTING lineup i just don't see
a version of that that makes a ton. OF sense, i, mean,
like well let me. Ask you you've been Following the
warriors pretty closely over the last. Few years what do?
You see what do You see kamena's big term long
term POTENTIAL as.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
I don't see it On, the. WARRIORS don't i just
don't see the long term fit on. THE roster, I
mean i think it's so hard to predict HOW these rfa,
situations go especially with the new we haven't had that
many experiences of players in a role like him under
this new Second eight briton sort of. Cap era so
it'll be interesting to see How the warriors. Play THAT
(45:01):
but i just think that he and maybe, rightfully so
wants a lot more touches than he's getting on this on.
This roster like if you, put him if you swapped
him with any number Of The houston rockets, wing athletes,
right like he would he would love. That team if
he was On The, houston rockets. He fits he Is
(45:21):
A houston rocket functionally with the way he, plays basketball,
right like he is made to be just a run
gun athlete offense downhill and like athletic on ball defender
that kind of makes a lot of, Mental mistakes like
he is A Perfect houston rocket right now that he's
gonna end up there because they had a lot of,
Players ALREADY but i just don't think, that stylistically he's
(45:42):
the type of player that fits all that well In the,
warriors ecosystem and from a financial and, roll STANDPOINT it's i,
DON'T know i find it a little challenging for a
long term that's really.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
Well put so he Souped Up tarry easton is what
you're saying in a in a very. COMPLIMENTARY way I Love.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
Jonathan kaminga he is so fun, to watch but he
he's kind of swooped.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Up here YOU and i have talked. About this it's
it's just the bummer that like it was, right there
the blow it up and rebuild and give the Keys
to jonathan was right there. Right now, it's, like shit
we just run one thirteen out of Fourteen with jimmy
and now are dead serious championship team and we can't
afford To let john mess. Around anymore but it is what. It,
(46:22):
is yeah and. He plays.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
He plays he plays a lot of JOY and i
really like, watching him but it's just it doesn't feel
like the the. Right, thing ultimately, all right let's close
for tonight with one more Question. From wolfe he was
really asking this question. A lot he really wanted to
know the answer to. This. Question uh, wolfe asked would
you ever make a real life? Basketball video you're really
good and it'll be fun to, see it maybe even
(46:45):
collab with other. Content creators jason is very good.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
At basketball he's very. TALL man i had a PHASE
where i was recording a lot of my. Basketball stuff
i've been out of that phase for a. While now
i'm still playing quite, a bit but it's more Just
like i've just been so inundated with other Stuff that
i've been kind of away from some. Of that maybe
This summer i'll try to get. Into It logan logan
(47:10):
is our head of content here at. The volume he
called me about two months ago and wanted to kind
of explore the idea of doing some on. COURT stuff
i would imagine that we'll eventually do, some stuff but
it's just as YOU and, I, know jackson we're so
geared up for, the playoffs, right now it just hasn't
been like Something that i've been really. Seriously Considering but.
(47:34):
I'll try i'll try to make some time before the
end of this calendar year to get some more video
content around. Me playing, but again It's not I'm a
i'm a good, basketball Player but i'm NOT an, Nba player,
so like if, you care if you care, to watch
it's just because you're a fan of the show and
you want to see, me PLAY which. I appreciate i
appreciate the support on. That level, All, right jackson that.
(47:56):
Was fun, all, Right guys it's all we have for
tonight is always sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me
and supporting. The show we have some breakouts from tonight's
show that'll be coming out over the course of the
next couple. Of days i'm. ACTUALLY traveling i didn't think
this trip was going to happen in light of what
happened a few, weeks ago but we are actually doing
one more. Ski Trip so i'm leaving to Go to
(48:16):
idaho TOMORROW and i will be Back on, monday night
and then one more kind of funky WEEK because i
go To see Dead in company next Week. In Vegas
but JACKSON and i have already made a plan to
record a bunch of content during the two and a
half Days that i'm in town so that we'll still
have stuff running on, the show and it kind of
coincides nicely WITH the. Ncaa tournament there's NO national tv
(48:37):
games ON the nba chilled out on the schedule and
gave us a bunch of. Lighter ones so we're going
to take one, last little kind of relatively light stretch
here over the course of the, next week next week and,
a half and then once we Get, into april it's
go time for three straight months of just absolute chaos.
And basketball so we're looking forward to. It again we
appreciate you guys for rocking, with us and we will
(48:58):
see you on two you say.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
The volume?
Speaker 2 (49:05):
What's? Up guys, AS always i appreciate you for listening
to and supporting. Hoops tonight they would actually be really
helpful for us if you guys would take a second
and leave a rating and. A review, AS always i
appreciate you guys, supporting us but if you could take
a minute to, Do that i'd really. Appreciate it
Host
Jason Timpf
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