Hoops Tonight - NBA Mailbag: Lakers TRADE TARGETS, Warriors potential, Thunder trade for Giannis? - Hoops Tonight with Jason Timpf

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Game Time today. What time is it? Game time? All right,
let's talk some basketball. If only one possible trade can

(04:26):
be made, what would be more essential for the Lakers?
Prioritizing an athletic guard who can defend and create or
a backup big who can defend. This has been the
big question surrounding the Lakers coming into this year, and
there's been a lot of talk about like, oh, should
they go after Kessler Edwards? Should they go after Robert Williams?
Should they be hunting a center that can anchor units

(04:48):
when AD's off the floor and give them a better
chance of contending when AD needs to sit out a game.
And I totally understand that point of view. For the record,
and I certainly would like to have a better backup
center off option than Jackson Hayes. That said, I think
by far the biggest issue with this roster is the
lack of PERIMETERI athleticism, And we're talking about this with
the Nerd Sash guys on Wednesday, if you guys remember,

(05:09):
But it's been like one of the biggest lessons I've
learned in the league over the last year or so,
extending into the tail end of last year and this year,
where it's like your ability to cover ground in rotation
and cover ground in transition and get up into ball
handlers with ball pressure is such an underrated part of
today's game. I you know, just go look at the metrics,
like these teams are playing in transition. Damn near twenty

(05:31):
percent of the game at this point, like like one
fifth of the basketball is being played in an up
and down setting with guys flying around the floor in transition.
You need speed, you need athleticism on the perimeter, you
need guys that can guard the ball. And the Lakers,
you know, when you look at their perimeter core, it's
in terms of athletes, like they've got other perimeter players,

(05:52):
but when you're looking at athletes, like guys that can
really kind of cover ground. It's like Dalton connect who's
a rookie and at this point hasn't been able to
turn his his athleticism into really functional defense. Yet there's
Gabe Vincent who can't put the ball in the basket
for whatever reason. Like it's like he's one for four,
one for five every single game. Max Christy, who I
really think could be a useful three and D player

(06:13):
if he ever embraced being a three and D player,
but he's just convinced he's going to be more of
an on ball creator. And I just think he's a
really immature offensive player right now. So at this point,
he's at this point you almost have to go a
different direction just because he's been so bad to start
the season. And Jared Vanderbilt, who's always hurt in Cam Reddish,
who is a NBA journeyman who brings some functional athleticism

(06:33):
but is so limited offensively that he becomes very difficult
to play. So, like all of the perimeter athletes on
the Lakers come with massive question marks when you look
at their actual like playable rotation guys. It's Austin Reeves,
you know, average to blow average athlete, D'Angelo Russell, below
average athlete. Ruiy Hatchamurro is very big and definitely a
decent athlete, but he's not what I would consider to

(06:55):
be a fast player. Lebron James, who's fast when he
wants to be, but he's forty years old and so
going to be fast and the majority of the time.
And ad who's fast for a center, but he's not
going to be covering ground on the perimeter doing all
the work that the Lakers need from their perimeter core.
And so when you combine that being just such a
big weakness on this Laker roster, which by the way,
I've been complaining about this exact weakness on this exact

(07:17):
roster for more than two years now. This has been
the consistent thing that I've pointed to. They're not athletic
enough at the guards. They're not athletic enough after the guards.
Right after the Western Conference Finals appearance, I said going
into the season, they need to make a d angel
A Russell trade because they are not athletic enough in
the backcourt. This is something I've been consistently tied in on,
and it's only become exacerbated by the fact that my

(07:40):
view of the game has shifted towards valuing that type
of skill, or I should say that type of roster
trade more than anything else. So given the option, if
the Lakers could only make one trade, I would prefer
them go find some functional perimeter athleticism. Same thing goes
for that backup center spot. Where it's like when you're
talking about backup center for a guy like Anthony Davis,

(08:01):
who's gonna play a lot. Again, this is not Dallas
where they're splitting their center minutes more closer to the middle, right,
or a team like Golden State who's holding Draymond in
the mid to high twenties in his minutes, right, Like
Anthony Davis is gonna play thirty five minutes a game
in the regular season in forty plus minutes a game
in the playoffs. So like the benefit of having a

(08:22):
really good backup center is real on the stretches of
the game when AD's out and god forbid if you
misses some time. But like in the idealized version of
your team, that's a player and you're not using very often.
And like again, maybe if you want to go huge,
if you can find a caliber center that you can
play next to Anthony Davis. That seems appealing on the
defensive end. But here we are a little chunk into

(08:44):
the season and Anthony Davis is still not shooting the
three ball particularly well or particularly often, So like, I
don't know that you can really get away with that
unless Anthony Davis becomes a knockdown shooter, and he just
hasn't been to this point. So like, ideally I'd like
to have both, but if I could only have one,
I would take an athletic guard who can defend and
create over a backup center for the Lakers. Next question, Hey,

(09:05):
Jason love your content. Turns out that the Nets have
too many good role players and have become competent, which
is bad because they need to be in the Cooper
Flag stakes. What would be your thoughts on a Schroeder
Dorian Finney Smith trade for d LO and another player
to match contracts in a pick and a pick trade. So,
Dorrian Finnehsmith is a guy that everybody should be looking at.
Dennis Schroeder to me, is a really good player. I like,

(09:28):
I've loved him when he was with the Lakers. I
thought he defended hard. I thought he was super competitive.
I thought he brought dribble penetration, which was really important. Like,
is he a guy that you want you're starting five
if you're a dead series championship team. No, But like
I would think I would take him as a backup
guard over many of the options that are around the NBA.
I think Dorian Finney Smith is kind of a prototypical

(09:49):
three and d wing. I think he's a guy that
could help a lot of teams, even like a guy
like Zira Williams is a guy that brings real functional
athleticism to the perimeter that could be had for cheap
And so like teams like Brooklyn other teams around the
NBA that either like you're talking about them overperforming, but
we got to look out for teams that underperform too
over time that might look to decide to flip players.

(10:09):
The Clippers are a team I could see. I would
see teams targeting Terrence Man. I would see teams targeting
Derek Jones Junior. Closer to the deadline. There's a lot
of perimeter athleticism that is not playing for top tier
championship contenders out there that can be had, and you
just got to kind of kind of have to look
around and wait for that right opportunity to pop up

(10:30):
to me. I look at it as like Ruey is
the more functional piece between him and de Lo. I
think both of them have their issues. Ruey's played two
playoff runs with the Lakers. I thought he was awesome
in twenty twenty three. I thought he was really bad
in twenty twenty four, albeit it is in one small
series that was only five games long, right, So like,
if I had to choose between those two guys, I

(10:51):
prefer to keep RUI So like, I'm looking at a
really athletic guard that can defend at the point of attack,
fly around and transition slot. Austin Reeves properly is a backup,
not a backup, but as a secondary perimeter defender, so
that he's guarding the other team's second best player instead
of best player. And then I think things kind of
fall into order. So like, if the Clippers continue to struggle,

(11:11):
Terrence Mann is a guy that I would love to
have playing the two next to Austin Reeves if Bruce
Brown could get healthy. He's like the perfect example of
this type of archetype, like keeping an eye out for
a really athletic two that has some strength to him,
that is also a functional offensive player. That's the type
of guy I'd be looking at. We'll see how it

(11:33):
shapes out over time. You know, these trade markets that
are so volatile and they shift all the time that
it's really hard to zero in on one particular guy.
But to me, it's like starting caliber between I'd say
six to four at the lowest, but between sixty four
and sixty six sixty seven at least two hundred and
twenty pounds of like solid functional strength and a really
good athlete who at least just knows how to play

(11:55):
alongside other good basketball players. Is the type of guy
I'd be looking for. I hate looking into this so much,
but why did Paul George have the ball at the
end of the Sixers game? With Maxie Ball watching? Also,
are Joel Maxi and Paul George going to have to
make the required sacrifices like oh wait Boston did to win?
Second part is obviously yes, right, like all of them
are going to have to And Bid can't play completely
in a heliocentric manner because he's got to try to

(12:17):
keep Paul George and Tyrese Maxi in Rhythm. You can't
just let Tyres Maxian and Joel Embiid run two man
game and turn Paul George into just solely Michael Porter Junior,
because that's going to be a misallocation of resources. You
gotta run action, you gotta keep everybody involved, and so
certainly navigating that balance is going to be a big
part of Philly's success. I watched the end of that game,

(12:39):
the Sixers Suns game. That was just unbelievablecause Vin Durant
just completely took over that game. I live in Tucson two,
so it was like difficult for me to track down
a stream of that game, but I was able to
watch it. It's just all these stupid politics with these
regional networks and how difficult it is to get there
to get their games when you live inside that when
you live in those particular areas anyway, the random soapbox.

(13:02):
But when it comes to the end of that Sixers game,
like I saw lots of people complaining like, oh, Paul
George looked off Tyrese Maxey blah blah blah, and I
get it. I think Tyres is a better player than
Paul George, I ranked him above I ranked Tyree's in
the top twenty five for me, and it did not
rank Paul George right, Like, I am a big fan
of Tyresse Maxey, big believer in who he is. That said, like,

(13:26):
there is something to be said about like the big
pull up shooter being sometimes as safer option in those
late game situations. So for instance, let's just take the
last two shots that both players took. So the last
shot Paul George took was a pull up jump shot
around the top of the key long two. Yeah, I
agree with some of the criticisms like, Okay, I'd rather

(13:46):
have Paul George take a three there. Yeah, I agree
with you for the record, But it was a good
look at a shot that Paul George definitely can make
and he missed it. Tyrese Maxey's last shot, And again,
a big difference there is he's a speed guard who's
smaller and not as physically strong. So we talked about this,

(14:08):
like it's like the Steph Curry versus Kevin Durant thing,
Like you could argue Steph Curry's a better player, but
if I'm in a singular possession and I need a
guy to just get a shot. For the twenty seventeen Warriors,
it's probably KD because KD can hit into a high
hesitation and wait for the defender to buckle a little bit,
and he can get a decent look at a pull

(14:29):
up jump shot whenever he wants, whereas with Steph, like
he can run around and make moves and do whatever
he wants to do. But if like a really good
defender stays attached, what Steph doesn't have is like that
ability to get quick immediate separation for a shot off
over the top right. Same goes for Tyrese Maxy. Like
that floater that he took in the ball screen like
it was not a good shot. It was heavily contested,

(14:51):
it had almost no chance of going in. And it's
That's not to say that Tyres or a guy like
Steph is incapable of creating their own shot. Of course
they are. But like I just say, I'm just saying
it's defensible. I think it's defensible that Paul George was
the better option for them to go in that specific
situation before he takes a three. Also, Paul George didn't
really have it going that game, like he was kind

(15:13):
of out of rhythm. So like that's the other counterpoint is,
like I would also understand if Tyres Macks he took
over the offense at the tail end of the game
because he's a better player, who's more in rhythm, who's
been playing more lately and has his legs underneath him,
is in better shape. Like I understand that too, But like,
I just didn't think it was as egregious as some
of the comments that I saw on Twitter, just simply
because Paul George is six ' eight six ' nine,

(15:34):
and he got a decent amount of separation and had
a pretty clean look. He just missed it. And like,
I think that those big, tall wings have that ability
to on a spot just kind of rise and fire,
and I'm always gonna view that as a as a
as a viable option for late game offense. I mean,
Kevin Durant's been straight up stealing games for the Phoenix

(15:56):
Suns with that kind of shot making. What is your
favorite offense to watch in the NBA? I thought about
this one a lot, and there's a lot of you know,
it's it's interesting because they're different, right, Like I really
enjoy watching Boston's offense because they're the best driving kick team.
So like there there's an ape. There's a visually appealing
element to driving kick basketball when when guys get in

(16:18):
the lane and make reads and it's like drive kick,
drive kick, drive kick. Now we get a wide open
shot making the extra pass with that that that like relentless,
like rim pressure from guys driving the basket. I've really
enjoyed watching Boston's offense over the course of the tail
end of last year. In the beginning of this year,
I really like watching Denver's offense for a completely different reason.

(16:39):
Right Like Nicole Jokic, the way that he can manipulate
help side defense and generate openings first teammates is really
fascinating to me. His passing connection with Aaron Gordon on
the baseline is something that I've always found really fun
to watch. I think tough shot making is fun. So
guess what I do enjoy watching Jamal Murray hit tough
step back jump shots. I do enjoy watching the Suns

(16:59):
and watching Kevin Durant and Devin Booker just hit tough
shot after tough shot. I've always as a basketball fan
and is a guy who plays the game at a
certain like I played in college, and I still play
as an adult for fun all the time. I enjoy
watching those things. But if I had to pick a
single offense, I'd probably say the Golden State Warriors. And
the main reason why is I find their five out

(17:20):
ball in player movement to be the most visually appealing
in the league. It's literally like a blender. There's nobody.
Even with all the teams that run five out and
all the teams that run some similar actions, there are
teams that copy Warriors split action. Now. There are teams
that copy a lot of the Warriors, like Chicago, you know,
like drible handoff stuff with guys back cutting out of

(17:41):
it and all the different things that the Warriors do.
There's a lot of teams that are copying it, but
nobody does it as often or as effectively as the
Golden State Warriors do in terms of their ball and
player movement. And it's just really fun to watch. And
I'm really really excited to see it in the next
couple of weeks too, because they've got some tougher matchups
for them. On that note, or next question, what should

(18:02):
we look for and the Warriors next three games to
indicate they could be a serious team regardless of whether
they win or lose. Keep it up. Not all Warriors
fans think you're a hater. I appreciate the kind words.
For the record, I always say this to you guys,
but there are far more of you guys that are
kind and who are willing to have discussion and are
willing to appreciate the dynamic between like, hey, this is

(18:24):
just my opinion, this is your opinion, let's talk about it.
There are far more of you guys than the nasty,
disrespectful people. And spend any time online as an adult
and you find out pretty quickly there's lots of nasty,
disrespectful people. So like I fortunately at this point, Fortunately,
at this point, I'm getting close to three years into
working with the volume, I've gotten pretty used to it,

(18:46):
and I just kind of shake it off and move on.
But I do always appreciate you guys that bring kindness
and respect, because that's always the stuff that just keeps
me going. So I sincerely appreciate it. So the Warriors
heading into a tough little road trip here right the
playing the celt tonight. Super excited to watch that game.
They played the Calves, I believe and then who's the
third team? Is that the Knicks, I think, But they're
playing a couple of really tough road games at this

(19:09):
point in the season. And I was actually talking about
this with the Nerds the other day at Thunder. So
it's at Celtics at Calves at Thunder than home for
the MAVs. So I was talking about this with the
Nerds on Wednesday. But like, I'm specifically really excited to
watch their defense. So, like, we all know that the
ceiling of the Warriors comes down to whether or not
Steph can get back to a top ten, top five

(19:29):
type of level, right, and who is their secondary shot creator,
whether that's in house, like oh, suddenly Buddy Healed after
six hundred games as a pro becomes an all star
level shot creator, that that's our guy, or maybe Andrew
Wiggins has a kind of a renaissance to what he
was in twenty twenty two, right, like, or it's a
trade that where they bring in a high powered star, right,

(19:49):
whatever that is. We know that the ceiling of the
Warriors is going to come down to Steph returning to
superstar form, like super duper star form, and who's their
number two, right, that's their ceiling, and I don't think
we're gonna know that for a while. I don't expect
Steph to play like the best player in the world
tonight against Boston. I mean, maybe he will, but like
I shouldn't even say against Boston in the next four
game stretch, I don't expect Steph to just play like

(20:12):
the best player in the world. He's just coming back
from an injury. He played on a minute restriction in
their last game. It would be absurd to expect him
to go into these next four games and average thirty
five points a game on seventy percent from shooting and
just light the world on fire. Right, But I do
think it's realistic that by the end of the season,
at some time between now and the end of the season,
after getting a bunch of games under his belt, when

(20:33):
he gets into game shape and he's consistently playing thirty
five minutes tonight, I think there's a chance that Steph
could get back to that level. But we're probably not
going to see it in these specific games tonight, right
in this next week. So what can we learn in
the next couple of games for the Warriors? How legit
is this defense? What can this defense do. I talked
about it with the Nerds. We argued about who is

(20:55):
more likely to be a championship threat. The Cavs are
the Warriors, and even though the ca have more talent,
the reason why I picked the Warriors is the Warriors
are super fast on the perimeter and can contain the
ball pretty well. The Cavs still have some big entry points, right.
They still have some guys in their life, like Darius
Garland and Donovan Mitchell is still a generally weak defensive backcourt, right,

(21:16):
Like you're whoever it is that they have at the three.
There are guys that they can look to attack there.
You know, Jared Allen's very good defensive anchor, but can
he defend in space the way that Draymond Green can know? Right? So,
Like there's a lot of like things with Cleveland where
I'm like, Okay, they're great, they're interesting, they're gonna be uh,
we're gonna talk about them in a little bit, But like,
do I think they can guard the Celtics, Like I
don't know, right, Whereas Golden State they can put out

(21:39):
lineups where it's like here's Andrew Wiggins, Here's you know,
Brandon Pajemski, and Dean Anthony Melton with Draymond Green, and
they're going to switch everything and fly around and contain
the ball. And like, that's the part that I'm looking at,
is like, can the Warriors defense really slow down the

(21:59):
Celtics offense? Can it really slow down the Thunder offense.
Those are the things that I'm looking at as areas
for Golden State to show real potential, because again, the
offensive end, like if you get if you get a
couple of thirty point games out of step against the
Celtics and the Thunder, you're getting away with Murder because
he's just coming back from an injury. He's easing his
way back into the game. So like I'm less worried

(22:20):
about the offensive end, I'm more worried. I'm more interested
in can the Warriors defense cause any real problems for
the Celtics offense and for the Thunder offense. Those are
the things that I'm going to be looking very closely
at with the Warriors over the course of the next week.

(22:46):
Should the MAVs stick with this starting five or should
they try Clay on the bench for more defense in
the starting lineup. I think they should keep play with
the starters I don't think there's anybody on the bench
that actually is like a truly deserving starting caliber player
to slide into that spot. Also, I still think the
MAVs have their issues. They're slow on the perimeter. They

(23:06):
they're like the Pacers game is a perfect examble. They
kind of just got run around, right, Like they just
ran circles around them all night. But they're still top
ten defense. They have a very high defensive floor. Why
because they have lots of rim protection. Right. Rim protection
is a is a basic concept that gives you a
high defensive floor. They're playing forty eight minutes plus of legitimate,
like defensive talent in the front court. So like they

(23:28):
have a really high floor. So my thing is like
lean into Kyrie, Clay and Luca and just try to
be the best offensive team that you can within that concept.
I don't think there's a version of this MAVs team
that is like this incredibly stifling perimeter defense. Anyway, I
talked about this with the nerds the other day, but
like I think if you were ranking the fastest perimeter

(23:49):
players on the team in terms of like real wing athletes,
like Derek Jones was number one, and like you're probably
putting a guy like Josh Green was really fast. Josh
Green had speed, right, So this is not the same
type of raw us. So I would lean into them
being a big front line that can defend and protect
the rim, and just being the best possible offense that
you can possibly be, which will come in time as

(24:09):
you learn how to incorporate Clay, as you learn how
to incorporate all this additional ball handling, as Luca gets
back into shape and reaches the form of Luca that
we all know that he's capable of being. So I
would not tweak the starting lineup, at least not on
the perimeter. I mean, we could all talk about whether
or not Lively should start over Gafford in the big picture,
but that's a different debate. I would not move Clay
to the bench. Why does nobody in the NBA media

(24:32):
remember what happened in May? By the time October comes,
everyone thinks the Cavs are a top three team When
they started last season nine to one, then got throttled
by physicality in the playoffs, same team, same small backcourt,
can kun by the second week of May, so they
are a different team in several different ways. Because of
the way they're playing. They're playing substantially faster than they

(24:52):
did last year. They're doing a lot more switching on defense,
which is allowing them to force more turnovers, which is
allowing them to get out and transition even more. And
they've tweaked their offense approach considerably with the increased usage
of Evan Mobley, who's doing a lot more work on
the ball, running inverted ball screens, looking to drive, looking
to shoot more. They're they're different in some of those ways. However,
I agree that the roster in and of itself kind

(25:13):
of is what it is. And my specific issue with
the Cavs is they don't match up well with Boston
and their ability to really spread them out and the
ability to guard Cleveland's guards and make life difficult on
them and to wear them down, and so like I
agree that I'll be surprised if they're, you know, still
playing basketball in late May. But at the same time,

(25:35):
guys like I think it's completely fair and reasonable for
us to I think it's completely fair and reasonable for
us to acknowledge when teams are playing really well to
start the season. NBA history tells us that championship teams
do attack the season from start to finish. We also
never know what can happen in the long run, Like,
guys like sometimes, but like what if Evan Mobley just
continues to develop him by the end of the season,

(25:57):
he's a sixty percent through shooting twenty plus point per game, right, Like,
we don't know how this is going to go in
the big picture. And so again, like we're just watching trends.
And as I said at the end of our last
mail bag, you know, I had a question that was
like why, like why do we always pretend like the
regular season matters when it doesn't. It's like, guys, this
is the job, Like the NBA media that you're referencing,
their job is to watch their early season games and

(26:19):
have an opinion. It'd be pretty boring if we all
just came on here every day and we were like, yeah,
none of this matters, see you guys in April, right
like that, there's no fun in that. The fun is
let's try to learn about these teams. And so when
a Calves team starts seven to zero, let's talk about
what they're doing differently, let's talk about what they're good at.
And yeah, like I'm not about to move them into
my top tier of contenders. I actually dropped two teams

(26:39):
off my top tier of contenders in the Nerd SATs
Show on Wednesday, Like, I'm going to wait to get
more data before i make any sort of big sweeping
declaration about the Calves, but I think it's okay for
us to acknowledge that they're off to a really good start.
Has the NBA game leaned too heavily into an offense
oriented basketball game emphasis on the three ball? And if so,
are there any changes you would make for defenses so

(26:59):
we can see balanced game slash product that mimics the playoffs.
So there's been this whole debate around the idea of
three point shooting. I've talked about it a little bit
on the show. My main kind of point of view
is essentially that like, it doesn't really matter what the
final shot is, it matters the quality of the basketball. So,
for instance, Boston takes a ton of threes. I do

(27:21):
enjoy watching Boston because they play a really fun brand
of drive and kick basketball. There are a lot of
teams out there that just shoot bad threes for the
sake of getting their three point volume up, and that
is ugly right. There are teams that don't take any
threes where it's pretty right. There are teams that don't
take many threes where it can get ugly sometimes too.
It all just depends on whether or not you're playing
quality basketball. Now. As far as like the leaning too

(27:42):
much on the offensive end of the floor, I am
of the opinion that with how spread out the floor
has got, with how talented and skilled these offensive players are,
I do think we need to give defensive players more
leeway to be more physical and dribble drive situations. So
like some of these calls where like a dude is
very slight out of position and there's a slight bump
and we end up getting a foul call, I disagree

(28:04):
with that. Some of the hand checking and physicality I
wish they would let go a little bit more frequently.
By the way, none of this stuff is like by
the rule book. Hand checking happens on every single possession
that goes uncalled. It's just a question of like how
often it does get called. But like I'm just saying,
within that realm of discretion, I would allow more physicality
from the defensive player because I think it would allow

(28:25):
them to contain drives more and just give the defensive
fighting chance. There are way too many games that just
turn into like neither defense can guard the other, and
that I think becomes ugly basketball pretty quickly. Do you
have an issue with Wemby's shot distribution so far? Eight
point seven to two point attempts at fifty nine percent,
seven point one three point attempts at twenty two percent.
Seems hard for him to get opportunities closer to the basket.

(28:47):
His teams have been sticking smaller stout guys on him
that he can't eat with a live dribble. What would
you change? So this is actually a very similar concept
to something we talked about on the show earlier this
last week. But this is a team that basically every
uh This is a strategy that basically every team in
the league has been deploying against Wemby, which is like
guard him with the wing right. We just saw with
the thunder right, it was like Steady died of, like

(29:08):
Jalen Williams guarding him, Alex Crusoe guarding him, like just
guarding him with small, stout guys that can get up
underneath him because they can beat him to spots and
prevent him from driving. I uh, a couple of different
things as far as the three point shot goes. I
think I said the same thing about Anthony Edwards, Like
I don't care if ant's taking, you know, eleven, twelve,
thirteen three point shots a game if he's making forty

(29:30):
four forty five percent of them, right, Like, that's a
debate that you have if he starts missing a lot.
Like if we fast forward a couple months and he's
still at twelve attempts a game, but he's shooting thirty
six percent on threes, and yeah, we probably should have
a conversation about how he should cut that number from
twelve down to eight, right. Same thing goes with Wemby,
Like he's shooting really poorly seven attempts a game, twenty

(29:51):
two percent. It's not good. But I also like it's
November sixth guys, Like I would say, like, if we
get to December and he's still taking seven threes a
game and his percentage is still in the low twenties,
then there's a conversation to be had. But if he
wants to try to build that out, I respect it.
I think like it's scary to think about what Wenby
could be like if he was a high volume, efficient

(30:11):
three point shooter in addition to whatever whatever else he
does as far as like handling the smaller stout defenders,
that to me is on his own individual skill development.
I talked a lot in our last discussion about this
about Dirk Mimitski and the work he did one fighting
for position, two being really tight with the basketball, not
exposing it so guys couldn't swipe it away, and then
three being able to get to his shooting pocket efficiently

(30:35):
from a kind of like strong tucked position so that
he can deal with ball pressure and shoot over the
top relatively easily. Dirk was also really good at like
leveraging shoulder angles for quick spinoffs and rip throughs and
stuff like that to get triple penetration. Dealing with the
defenders he's dealing with. That is all about the That
is all about the individual development of Victor wemban Yama.

(30:57):
Part of it, too, is like if they're gonna if
teams are going to put a a wing on Victor,
they're probably going to put their center on Jeremy Sohan. Right,
Jeremy zhn is a thumb injury is gonna be out
for a little bit, but like you got to put
together lineup groupings where teams can't afford to put their
center on someone else that's on the front office. Right

(31:18):
in terms of action, it's tough because like when they
put a small on Victor, they're gonna switch ball screens
and that's gonna make it tougher for you to to
actually like get Victor wemen Yama the role opportunities that
he wants. But like that's the truth is, like he's
if he's skinny and can guys can get up underneath
him and beat him to spots, it's gonna be difficult
for him to get dribble penetration. So a lot of
it's gonna come down to his own skill development. This

(31:40):
one's a personal one. Was the transition from hooping professionally
overseas to coaching slash talking hoops hard. What was the
most difficult adjustment to it? So, first of all, I
technically never actually made it overseas to hoop. I tried to,
and I signed a deal with a league called the Uba,
which was in India, and they paid me for I
think two weeks of work, and then the league folded

(32:01):
because of some sort of like international incident involving the
Indian players. I don't I don't remember some of the details,
but at that point I made a personal decision. At
that point, my you know, I had a wife and
two dogs, and we owned a home and we were
very established in Tucson. My wife works for a local
business here in town. So like, it just got to

(32:23):
the point where I was like, you know what, I'm
just going to focus on moving on with my life.
And that's when I got into real estate. And I
use real estate as like the flexible job with which
I could pursue sports media. But I played in college
and obviously, as you know, I was at least trying
to play overseas, right so the you know, it was interesting.

(32:44):
I was actually thinking about this the other day when
there was a question asked to Kevin Durant about his
role in that Starting five show and why he wanted
to do it, and he talked about how he wanted
to do it because he wanted young basketball players to
see the pros and cons of playing in the NBA.
And I thought it was really fascinating when he said that,
because the hardest adjustment for me, by far going from

(33:05):
playing in college and playing against pros, because like during
that time, I was like working out with and working
against pros all the time, And still to this day,
when the pros come back into town, I work out
with them. When the all the college players come back
into town in the summer, I work out with them.
So those are the opportunities I get to still play
with those players. But like, going from that to playing

(33:28):
pick up basketball is an incredibly frustrating experience in terms
of like the competitive engagement. So like, very rarely now
do I find myself in a basketball game where like
I'm really feeling the adrenaline in the challenge of the moment,
where I feel like I'm going against other really high

(33:50):
level players. The game has a certain level of competence
in terms of like people knowing how to play at
a high level, and I really like get to get
my competitive basketball juice is flowing. It happens very rarely now.
The occasional men's league game. I play in a league
here in Tucson where there are a handful of really

(34:11):
good teams and there's the occasional game there where I
get the competitive urge. Money tournaments. I play in about
two of those a year, I get those kind of
like competitive juices flowing. Then over the summer when the
college and pro kids come back and we play a
little bit of a pickup in the summer, there are moments,

(34:32):
but the vast majority of the time I go to
play basketball, I feel very unfulfilled because I'm playing against
like I'm just not playing against super good competition, and
so it breeds laziness and me because I'm not really
playing all that hard. By far, the most frustrating part is,
like you, guys, those of you, guys who have played
basketball at any real level, will know, like there's a

(34:54):
flow that is supposed to take place in a basketball
game when everybody knows what they're doing, meaning like guys
who whenever everyone knows like when to cut, when to screen,
when to throw an extra swing pass, when to relocate
when the spacing is off, how to do basic things
on defense, how to do basic things in transition when
you are playing with a group of players like a

(35:15):
pickup game and there's four or five dudes on the
floor that like don't know how to play it like
dips below a certain It dips below like a certain
like mandatory minimum amount of understanding of the game, and
then the game turns into shit and I end up
I end up being like I leave straight up depressed
sometimes from those types of games, But thankfully I get

(35:37):
I get enough good basketball days a year where I
still I still my love for the game is still engaged,
and I still feel challenged. Just on Sunday, a buddy
of mine, Daniel Kanorke, who is, in my opinion, the
best player that I've ever played against in the Tucson
area of all of the players that I've run into

(35:58):
over the years who are like kind of local guys,
He's like, he's a very good friend of mine. Have
also comp competed with him a lot. I've played in
money tournaments with him, but like every time him and
I go against each other, it just brings me back
to that level. And so like I left Sunday feeling
very thankful that I still get to have moments like
that when I play. When I play the game, but

(36:20):
like that is by far the hardest part of the
transition going from playing at any sort of real level
in basketball to the post basketball life. Is you still
love the game, you still want to play, You're still
super competitive. A guy like me, I'm still thirty three.
I'm a better player now than I ever have been
in my entire life. I'm many times better at basketball
now than I was when I was playing in college.

(36:42):
And it just feels like a waste. It just feels
it just feels useless, right, and so like that's the
part that gets frustrating. But there's a flip side to that,
And this is the interesting part that I was thinking
about with Kevin Durant. So like, when I look back
at my college career, like, yes, I was competitively engaged.
Yes I was challenged. Yes there was a lot of
upside in that department. But let's be clear, it is

(37:06):
not the same as playing truly care free basketball. When
I was in Juco. I remember my second year, I
was one of only two players on the roster that
got a full ride scholarship, meaning they paid for my lodging,
they paid for my books, they paid for my tuition,
they paid for all my meals. Like I got the
full deal. Right in Juco, that's somewhat rare, and there

(37:29):
was only two guys on the team that got it.
But I went to that school coming off of a
foot injury that happened over the summer and when I
had the foot injury, I put on a bunch of
weight in muscle because I just lifted weights all summer
to try to be useful and productive while I was
while I was injured. And so when I showed up

(37:50):
to the school, I was a little heavier, it was
a little slower, and I was still working my way
back into basketball shape. And I one of the big
things was like I didn't trust my foot, so like,
even though it was healthy, I didn't like really trust
it to plant. And at that time I was playing
around two hundred and twenty five pounds. I was like
a big, heavy dude. So like, if I didn't if

(38:10):
I didn't feel comfortable planting my foot, like I just
wasn't the athlete that I needed to be. And so
I really struggled at the start of the season. And
there was a there was a two game stretch in
the first like five games of non conference play where
after a bad game, I got called into the coach's
office and the coach was this Brazilian dude, total hard

(38:33):
ass in a good way, like it just he just
was a tough dude, but he was a no nonsense
kind of guy, and he was like, what the heck
man gave you a full ride scholarship and you're not
doing shit for me. Like now, he was more delicate
about it, but like that was basically what he said.
And all of a sudden, like and by the way,
he benched me for didn't bench me completely, but took

(38:56):
me out of the starting lineup for two games as
like a as like an attempt to try to like
wake me up and get me going. And it was
so interesting because like everything was fine, Like I eventually
just got my legs back underneath me, and that ended
up actually being my best season in college and I
ended up making the all conference team when we got
to conference play. But like after that, after that meeting,

(39:21):
every day I went to practice, I felt pressure and stress.
Every time I was in the game and I was
taking a shot, I felt pressure and stress, right, because
like there's responsibility, there's expectation that comes from this coaching
staff decided to invest some of their hard they're hard

(39:41):
to find scholarship funds on me, right, and so like
I felt pressure, I felt expectation. The year after that,
I went from being a consistent double figure scorer type
of guy in Juco to playing at an AIA team
that had really good guards, like all American guards, and
they just needed me to defend and to rebound and

(40:02):
to take wide open corner threes. And so my role
completely changed again. And when that happened, it was a challenge.
I remember, like in the early part of the season,
like every day going to practice and going to games,
like how what am I supposed to do? What am
I not supposed to do? I was getting called into
the coach's office to get to talk about like what
shots they wanted me to take versus what shots they

(40:23):
didn't want me to take, because obviously in Juco, I
was more of a scorer, so I needed to have
like my shot diet like kind of reconfigured around more
of like a role player type of role. And it
was there were dark times, like there were times when
like when I when I wasn't playing well where it
was frustrating, right, and like that that's kind of like

(40:45):
the point that I'm getting at. I vividly remember when
I was done playing in college and I came home.
I remember going to play pick up and feeling free,
like feeling this like the pressure had disappeared and the
expectation had disappeared, and like if I decided to jog

(41:07):
back on defense on a specific possession, it wasn't the
end of the world. If I decided if I took
a bad shot every once in a while, it wasn't
the end of the world. If I turned the ball over,
it wasn't the end of the world. And so for
the record, I loved playing in college and I love
pressure and expectation in basketball. It drives me competitively. I

(41:29):
would take that into a heartbeat, Okay, like I love
what I do for a living. If I was not married,
I would have tried more to play overseas, and I
would have tried to I would have been playing overseas
till I was forty. That's how much I love the game.
But I do think there's some legitimacy to the stuff
that Kevin Durant's talking about, where it's like basketball when

(41:51):
it's your job is different than basketball when it's just
for fun, And there is some reality to that, and
I do think it's fascinating. But like I said, the
flip side of that is, like I also have a
really hard time even though I don't have pressure, and
even though I get to have fun playing the game.
I want the way I want to play. It's just
really hard for me to find really good basketball players,

(42:11):
even in a city like Tucson that has over a
million people, And so it's just it's kind of interesting.
That's a very very long answer to your question there.
But it's not very often that I get to talk
about my personal relationship with the game. So I do
appreciate the question, and hopefully that answers what you were
specifically asking. How would you rank the current iteration of

(42:43):
the Clippers if they added Kuzma plus Kawhi getting healthy.
I think the middle of the pack in the Western
Conference is pretty mediocre. I shouldn't say mediocre because they're
all good teams, but mediocre with relation to each other.
And so if Kawhi can get healthy, I think this
current Clippers team was at center with James Harden as
the backup shot creator, with all of the depth of perimeter,

(43:03):
speed and talent that they have, I think right now
they're just as good as anybody else in the Western Conference.
It's not Oklahoma City. As long as Kawhi Leonard can
get healthy and get back to form, and so again
that's a big question mark surrounding Kawhi. An addition of
Kyle Kuzma would certainly be very interesting. It'd be kind
of like a lesser version of Karl Anthony Towns for

(43:24):
this team, in the sense that he would function mostly
as an off ball scorer, not an on ball scorer.
But I think that there's real value there playing off
of a guy like James Harden, someone who's like really
aggressive and spot up situations, both shooting threes and driving
closeouts and things like that. Hi, Jason, I've always wondered,
what's the one thing that separates rotation players in garbage
time guys. Is it one single thing or can it
be multitude of things? This came to mind as Jalen

(43:46):
hu Chafino, who's barely played and probably won't get another opportunity.
So I think about this all the time. If you
are not incredible at doing things with the basketball, meaning
like creating shots for yourself and for others, then you
have to be incredible at everything else. And when I
say everything else, I mean all the little things defending

(44:09):
on the perimeter, defending off the ball, running your lane
and transition offense and transition defense, knowing what to do
when you're off the ball in terms of spacing and
screening and things like that, being able to make a
wide open catch and shoot three, being able to make
a quick decision driving a close out, all of the
if you really break it down on with these NBA teams,

(44:30):
there are guys who run action and there are guys
who don't, and the majority of the guys on the
team don't run action, and so it does come down
to with those groups, like actually being able to succeed
in a small role by doing these small things that
help a team win basketball games. And so like rotation players,
I would just put I would just describe that as
any NBA player that is capable of like doing a

(44:52):
little bit of guarding on the ball, a little bit
of guarding off the ball, a little bit of rebounding,
a little bit of spot up shooting, a little bit
of close out attacking like that, Like those are that
those guys that are just rock solid and all those
little things will have an easier time getting a foothold
in the NBA than a mediocre ball handler will, because
mediocre ball handler is a dime a dozen. Remember Alonzo
Trier that like everyone's like, oh, why is an Alonzo

(45:14):
Trier in the NBA. It's not because he's not a
good basketball player. He's a great basketball player, but Alonzo
Trier is a among the NBA ranks, a mediocre ball handler,
and so if he's not elite at the point of attack, defensively,
elite off the ball, defensively, elite rebounding, like then then
he's gonna have a hard time finding a foothold, right
But they're you know, like that, that's the thing, Like

(45:34):
there's they're gonna take a Quinton Grimes, a guy who's
maybe not as shifty, maybe not as as you know,
natural of a score, but that can still do a
lot of that shit. But that's a damn bulldog and
can guard the hell out of the basketball, right like that.
I've always found that sort of thing interesting. My take,
my hot take of the year was that Charlotte was
going to be better than the Heat. Can we get

(45:55):
your take on Charlotte if they can still complete for
a plan or if injuries in roster talent is not
there yet? So LaMelo has been awesome to start the
year twenty nine points, five rebounds, six assists, sixty one
percent for shooting. He's been a super efficient, super high
volume ball pick and role player. He's running like damn
near twenty ball screens a game, shooting the ball really
by shooting forty eight percent field goals out of ball screens.

(46:18):
And then he's also getting one point three points per
pull up jump shot. He's been really gifted at finding
opportunities in angles to get three point shots off off
the bounce, and he's been making them. Trey Mann has
been hooping. He's become one of my favorite players to
watch in the league. They have six players averaging double figures.
The thing with Charlotte is their dead lasting defense and
their third to last in defensive rebounding. So if you
can't guard and you can't actually grab the ball when

(46:38):
they miss, like you're just putting yourself at a huge
disadvantage every single night. And that's why I don't think
the Hornets will make any noise in the playoffs at
this point, or I should say that they won't superseed
the Miami Heat four quick ones or three quick ones
and then a longer one. Hi, Jason, do you think
that the chances are that the Bucks blow up this
team by the trade deadline? I know it's very early
in the season. But even if they turn it around,

(46:59):
I just don't see the Bucks being a real contender
with this roster and coaching staff. I think it's a
very real chance that they blow things up, right, Like,
I think there's a good chance that they end up
two and eight after ten games. I think they'll beat
the Jazz, but I think that I think they play
the Nicks and Celtics after that. Those are probably a
couple of losses, right, And so I think they're probably
gonna be sitting at two and eight. And if they
don't they if they aren't active participants in their own survival,

(47:20):
if they don't dig out of this hole, and if
they find themselves, you know, fifteen and twenty five after
forty games, there's a really good chance that you end
up trading everybody, right, because at that point, it's like,
if you're just bad and you're not close, then there's
no point investing in an older Damian Lillard at that point, right,
And if you can't quickly put a contending roster around Giannis,

(47:41):
he's gonna request to trade anyway. And there are guys
on that roster that are valuable to other teams around
the league, like Brook Lopez is a guy that would
be valuable to some other teams around the league. I
know he would. There's a lot of teams that are
looking for a center. Hell yeah, one that could shoot
the ball a little bit, right, Like, I mean, I
even think that a guy like Chris Middleton would have
some trade value if he could get healthy for a
a decent amount of time. So, like, there's a very

(48:02):
real chance that this goes south and they're completely blown
up before the end of the season, but there's also
a real chance that they figure it out. The blueprint
is the twenty twenty three Lakers, right they started two
to ten. The twenty twenty three Lakers started to and
ten with Lebron and ad combining to only miss three
games in that stretch. Like that's as bleak as it gets, right,

(48:23):
That team made the Western Conference finals, right, So it's
like you can turn it around, and especially in that
Eastern Conference where there's only two teams over five hundred
right now, and if you look at the standings, they're
not really all that far out of the in the
mix because everyone else has been so mediocre. So like
there's a very real chance to figure it out as well.
And I think we gotta make sure that we quantify
that if Giannis becomes available, will the Thunder just say

(48:46):
fit and include Chet and Jalen Williams in a deal.
I'm getting to the point with Chet where I think
he might be untradeable. Like I like, he's if you
were listing the players that have played better than him
the season, and it's not very long, like maybe fifteen guys.
I'm not sure, and he's only in his second full

(49:06):
year playing in the NBA. I don't know that I
would trade jet A Chet even if it was forre
You honest, who is your pick to win the NBA Cup?
Do you think winning the NBA Cup affects the winning
team at all for the rest of the year. I
think Boston is the right pick. I think that they're
the best team playing the best basketball right now. The
Thunder I think also. I think Boston and Thunder, just

(49:27):
like I would say for the championship, they're the two
best basketball teams. I think both. I think Boston, in particular,
because of their reliance on three point shooting, has some
vulnerability in a single elimination format, but they're also so
good defensively that they can kind of level that out.
So I think I go with Boston. Does it affect
a winning team? I thought in the moment, I remember

(49:48):
actually talks about this. I want to say the night,
either the morning after or the night of. But I
was worried as the Lakers were hoisting the trophy in
the N Season Tournament last year, I was like, I
was like, I hope that they don't just immediately relax
after this, And it was literally then. It was right
after the N Season Tournament that they lost three out.
They lost ten out of thirteen games. They completely fell

(50:10):
apart right away because, like they it was like a
sense of accomplishment in the middle of a season when
the other twenty nine teams did not have the sense
of accomplishment, and for a team that already struggled with
motivating itself, that ended up being a real problem. I
think a team like Oklahoma City in Boston, though, I
think they're professional enough and I think they're talented enough
to be able to overcome that last question. I thought

(50:30):
this was really interesting. Why are offenses in general slowly
moving on from pick and roll over the last couple
of years. I had to look it up because I
wasn't sure this was a real thing. Here's a stat
to prove this though. Teams to run pick and roll
over on over thirty five percent of their possessions. Okay,
twenty twenty one, twelve teams ran pick and roll in

(50:53):
over thirty five percent of their possessions. Twenty twenty two,
ten teams, twenty twenty three, six teams. Last year twenty
twenty four, only five teams in the NBA ran pick
and rolling over thirty five percent of their possession. So
there is a clear shift away from ball screens in
the NBA. What's causing that? I think it's a combination
of a bunch of factors. Right, it's always super complicated. One,

(51:15):
there's a lot more dribble handoff stuff as part of
five out Right, Like, there's one of the most common
places you'll see in the NBA Chicago action or zoom action,
whatever you want to call it, which is basically just
big man at the top of the key, ball handler
in the opposite in the right corner or left corner,
whatever it is. Let's call it the right corner, and
then another guard who can do something with the basketball

(51:36):
that is setting the first screen and basically that guy
screens down and the big comes over for a dribble handoff,
and the guy comes out of the corner and gets
the handoff and goes to work. Right. That functions as
a ball screen, but it's not going to be logged
as a ball screen. It's going to be logged as
a dribble handoff. But it functions the same way because
the guy guarding the ball, the guy coming out of
the corner is probably going to lock and trail, and

(51:58):
that's going to get him into trail, and then it's
going to function more or less like a ball screen. Right.
But one of the things we've been seeing all over
the place in the NBA is teams are trying to
deny the use of ball screens as much as possible.
Right on the side of the floor, they are icing
ball screens, meaning that they're taking their defender way up
to the screen side and forcing them to reject and
go back towards the sideline. Situations like Chicago and Zoom,

(52:20):
like I just broke down a lot of times on
the defender of the guard in the corner is just
top blocking and forcing that guy to back cut right,
which is in turn, in many cases forcing the other
guy to turn around and then come off of the
dribble handoff, right, even that guy is in many cases
top locked and forced to backcut. Now the big has
to turn around and look for action on the other
side of the floor. Right, That's really the thing, if I,

(52:43):
if I had to come up with a reason why
beyond the some of the shifts to five out, NBA
team has got pretty good at guarding ball screens, like
it like as is always the case, right, Like everyone
had like different strategies. Like you go back to the
late twenty tens, was a lot of hedging. Bigs were hedging.
They were coming way out to stop the drive and

(53:04):
then sprinting back into the lane. Right. Then there was
a lot of like guards going under right, guards ducking
underpicks and meeting the guard on the opposite side of
the screen. And then when Steph Curry came in, everyone
kind of had to readjust that. Then Dame started doing it.
Then everyone started shooting these off the dribble threes, and
then they kind of crafted this new system. And now
the most common ball screen coverage that you'll see in

(53:25):
the NBA right now is you have the on ball
defender chase over the top of the screen. On any
high ball screen side ball screens, they're icing right, which
means they're forcing him towards the sideline and rejecting the screen.
But anything up in the middle of the floor, you're
chasing over the top. You're bringing the big up to
the level, and you're tagging from the weak side. That
is the way the vast majority of teams are defending

(53:46):
in the NBA. Then what they do is with that
week side two on one, they have the defender kind
of split the difference between the two and they rotate
out of it right. And so that has kind of
become the set way to defend ball screens all around
the NBA. And what's becoming clear is like that's actually
one of the easier to guard actions in the league.
And so I think you're seeing a lot more off

(54:08):
ball action, a lot more big at the top of
the key, with guys cutting and playing off the ball
off of him, right, You're seeing a lot You're just
in general, we've the post up kind of died in
the NBA for a while. That has been a big
return with guys like Nikola Jokic, with guys like alprin
shangun with guys like Joel Embiid, with guys like Anthony Davis. Right,

(54:29):
all the switching that you see in the NBA. Now,
that's another thing too, another big part of why there's
not as much pick and roll. There's a lot more switching.
Where there's more switching, that's gonna lead to more ISO
and post ups, right, Like, there's a lot more of
like Pascal Siakam posting up a small after a switch
in a ball screen. Right. So, like, again, I just
got presented this today. I'm not trying to pretend like

(54:49):
I know the answer, but if you guys are curious,
my guess. My guess is it's a combination of like
shifting to more five out concepts, a lot more switching,
neutralizing some pick and roll entered pick and roll coverages,
reaching the point where they're actually doing a pretty decent
job guarding it. At this point, it's always going to
be a huge part of the game. There's still you know,
the vast majority of teams are still running it roughly

(55:10):
a third of the time, so it's still a huge
part of the game. But it definitely is tweaking down
a little bit, which I do think is fascinating, so
very good question. All right, guys, that is all I
have for today. Is always, I sincerely appreciate you guys
for supporting me and supporting the show. I hope you
all have an amazing weekend. We'll see you on Monday
for some power rankings the volume. What's up guys? As always,
I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight.

(55:32):
It would actually be really helpful for us if you
guys would take a second and leave a rating and
a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us,
but if you could take a minute to do that,
I'd really appreciate it.

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