Hoops Tonight - NBA Mailbag: Lakers PLAYING Bronny James!? Warriors ideal trade, Celtics #1 obstacle
January 31, 2025 • 52 mins
Jason Timpf answers listener questions during an NBA mailbag segment. Jason discusses his thoughts on Bronny James receiving meaningful playing time for the Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James and LA's ideal starting lineup, and a trade target he thinks would be a strong fit with Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors. Later, Jason discusses Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks' improved defense, the biggest obstacle for Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics, and whether the Detroit Pistons need to make a move to support Cade Cunningham.
Timeline:
4:15 - Introduction
5:00 - Why Giannis doesn't guard on-ball
11:00 - Deuce McBride
12:00 - Are defenses catching up on 3-pointer?
19:45 - Has Jason considered coaching?
26:30 - Bronny James
34:45 - Rockets are doing special things
36:30 - Impressed with Knicks defense recently?
39:00 - What will make or break Celtics
43:15 - NBA's urgency problem
52:15 - Lakers ideal starting five
55:00 - Do Pistons need to make a trade?
1:00:00 - Why Cam Johnson fits Warriors
#Volume #Herd
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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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Speaker 2 (01:44):
All right, welcome to hop.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Tonight here at the volume. Happy Friday, everybody. Hope all
of you guys are having a great end of your week.
Today is mail bag Day. We're gonna be bouncing all
around the league. I appreciate you guys for dropping questions
in the YouTube comments. Remember if you want to get
in on our mail bags any one of our full episodes,
just going of the YouTube comments, type mailbag with the
colon and type your question That's how I can find
them in the mix of all those comments. Drop your
(02:07):
questions in there and we'll get to them in Fridays
throughout the remainder of the season. You guys know the
drill 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 JCNLTS. You guys don't
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on that front. Don't forget about our new social media
feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout
(02:29):
the year. And then, last but not least, keep dropping
mail bag questions in the YouTube comments. Like I mentioned earlier,
we get to them on Fridays throughout the remainder of
the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. First question, Hey, Jason,
I believe Jannis is a capable and good defender, even
won Defensive Player of the Year. If I'm not mistaken,
you are not mistaken, But it seems he never actually
defends and guards players with the ball. I watched Clippers
(02:52):
and Blazers beat the Bucks, and he never took on
the challenge of guarding Zubacher Aighton who both had great games.
We have seen in the past Jimmy Butler Jason Tatum
kill smaller guards, but he won't guard them, and he
says just doing what coach thinks is best. Is there
any particular reason Giannis has labeled such a great defender
but never takes on any challenges of actually guarding the
(03:13):
ball on players. I believe he's fully capable of defending.
Shout out to Sauarro bear Down must be a Tucson guy.
So when you're deploying your defensive resources, you want to
deploy players into areas where their individual skill set matches best.
When you're looking at a team defense, there are several
(03:33):
different roles that need to be filled. The three that
are most common and most important are your primary on
ball guard, your ballscreen defender, the guy who's going to
be guarding the opposing team's center, and then the guy
who's in the low man position. Now there's two other
jobs there, and again it differs from team to teams.
Some teams have more guards, some teams have more bigs.
(03:54):
Some teams do a lot of attacking through ISO and
post up situations, and some teams run a lot more motion.
Everyone's getting put through a blender. So it's not like
a it's not like a just a clean answer for
every situation. But the gist of it is, you gotta
have a guy that guards the other team's primary ball handler,
the guy who's running the most ball screens. That guy's
gonna have to be quick, he's gonna have to be
(04:15):
good at navigating screens, good at back pressure.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Right.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Then your ball screen defender. This is a guy who
rides the yo yo right like he's always got to
go up to the level to show against ball handlers
that can shoot off the dribble, but then drop back
in that coverage and then get back up to the
level and then drop back into that coverage that is
typically best served by a player that's good with his
hands and that has great size, right.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
And then you have your low man.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
That guy's going to be playing off the ball, usually
on the weakest.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Offensive player in the front court for the opponent.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
And that's the guy that when the big man goes
up to the level, that fills that gap underneath the
basket and then gets back to the to the weak
side whenever that big guy drops back. Right, the other
two jobs are typically there's a less ball handler, right,
So a guy that still runs action but not as much.
You're usually gonna put your skill guard, your guard that's
not as good of a defensive player in that type
(05:08):
of matchup, think like a Damian Lillard, right. And then
most teams at the three have a guy that is
like a little bit of a score, a little bit
of a ball handler, a little bit of a spot
up shooter, kind of like a guy who's a jack
of all trades but a master at none. Type of
guys usually what teams have kind of operating around the three,
that's where you're gonna put your other front court player.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
So, like, as you're determining how to use resources, as
you're looking at Yannis, it's a poor use of resources
to be like, I want you to guard the opponent's
best post player. Why because Brook Lopez is not as
good at covering ground in rotation and help in recovering
situations as Yannis, but he is really big. So you're
(05:52):
better off using Brooke to defend centers and having Yannis
function more off ball as a help and recover guy.
Yannis can do it, It's just not the best way
to allocate Brooke and Giannis. Same goes for on ball
stuff on the perimeter. For years, that used to be
things something that people would talk about around like that
twenty nineteen to twenty twenty one area era. Why doesn't
(06:13):
Yannis guard perimeter ball handlers? And it's like, first of all,
like Yannis is incredibly big, incredibly strong, and he is
incredibly fast when he gets going, but he's not like
the quickest tight space movement type of player. Like they're
like a guy like an Andre Jackson or a guy
like AJ Green who's been guarding ball handlers and navigating
screens and doing all that for his entire life, is
(06:35):
going to have a better time navigating that responsibility than
putting Yannis on some perimeter guard and asking him to
navigate screens and do all that kind of stuff. As
you look at the layout of the roster, that's why
the the stability that came for the Bucks defense from
guys like Andre Jackson and and AJ Green kind of
stabilized things. They kind of figured out the roles right,
(06:58):
Like they put Aj Green or Ajax on the best
guard to chase over the top of screens. You put
Brooke in ball screen actions, coming up to the level
and dropping back, Jannis is operating as a lowman. Dame's
guarding the worst opponent guard, and Chris Middleton atorium Prance
is guarding that third player that's on the perimeter. Right, Like,
(07:19):
that's just the best way to deploy your resources. As
soon as you move Giannis into a different spot, whether
it's the primary ballscreen guy or the primary perimeter guy,
he's going to be doing a job that he doesn't
have as much practice. And guess what, Like, Yiannis at
center is a look that the Bucks have had and
have used. And Yannis is a capable ballscreen defender. Some
of the greatest highlights that I've ever seen from a
(07:41):
ball screen defender have come from Yannis. He's very good
at that. But it's one of those things where if
you use that exclusively and now you have a tough
time finding something for Brooke to do right. If you
put him out on the perimeter, you have a hard
time finding someone to do that lowman job right. So, Like,
as much as I understand and the idea of wanting
to take Giannis and use him to plug holes elsewhere
(08:03):
in your defense. He is best served as that kind
of low man help side defender because the other jobs
are actually more achievable for the role players than if
you kind of Jerry rigged it around and you moved on.
So like that's the gist of it. Giannis is at
his best as a help defender. That's the thing that
he's best at, and it's what also allows the other
(08:24):
Bucks defensive players to slot into roles that best fit
their skill sets. Was gonna subscribe at twenty two forty,
but you said Quentin Grimes played good defense on You
said Quentin Grimes played good defense on Desmond Bay, and
we traded Grimes last year. Other than that, pretty decent content,
Go Nix.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
This was in.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Reference to our show the other day where I accidentally
said Quentin Grimes instead of Duce McBride. I do hours
and hours and hours of content throughout the year, hundreds
and hundreds of hours. I'm gonna make mistakes. All that
happened there is I just misspoke. Duce McBride is one
of my favorite players on the Knicks. Those of you
(09:00):
guys who've been listening to the show the last few
years have heard me talk about how much I love
Duce McBride. I even talked before the season that I
really liked his fit with the starters in place of
Josh Hard at times. So, like you guys know, I'm
a big believer in Duce McBride. I just misspoke. That's
kind of part of the job that happens, and it
wasn't the first time, and it won't be the last time.
This is an interesting one. Our defense is catching up
(09:22):
to the three point offensive trends to me against three
point teams, it certainly feels like defenders know a drive,
a drive means a kick, a perimeter pass means a
swing pass is likely, etc. It feels like easier to
stop now than last season. There is no doubt that
in terms of defensive strategy, because like that's the way
the game changes. Either a defense comes up with a
(09:44):
new strategy that forces a offensive adjustment, or an offense
comes up with a new strategy that comes up with
a defensive adjustment. Right, I'll give you a couple of
basic examples. Offense makes an adjustment in the sense that
about ten years ago, every single guard just started becoming
really damn good at pull up three point shooting off
of ball screens, following in the trend of Steph Curry. Right, So,
(10:08):
all of a sudden, ball screen coverage has changed and
it turned into now you actually have to chase everybody
over the top of screens. That caused a boatload of
problems for defenses, right, Like that was the whole Like
every team starts cooking drop coverages, right like the Atlanta Hawks,
for instance, with Trey Young in the Eastern Conference Finals
run that they had, right Like, you have this stretch
(10:29):
there where you have all these dudes that are just
torching drop coverages.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
But then the defense is adjust and they kind of
figure out this concept of lowman rotation. So essentially they
just started bringing the big up to the level and
then using the lowman to kind of split the difference
between the roleman and the guy in the weak side corner.
So the way that the offense had to adjust to
that is now what you're seeing is that the offense
(10:54):
the pick and roll ball handlers that are great at
the skip pass, the guys that can come off the
ball screen and whip it across the court over the
lowman into the corner. Where the guy the low man
is supposed to be guarding is. That's where you can
break down those defenses. Right, So like there's an action
and equal and opposite reaction, right as the offenses and
defenses are constantly adjusting to each other. As teams have
(11:17):
looked at the analytical side of things more, they've discovered
an order of operations for what makes a great shot. Right,
an uncontested rim attempt is still the best shot in basketball.
A uncontested three point shot is still the second best
shot in basketball. But you start to work through and
it turns out that, like on defense, you should have
(11:38):
the same exact approach. You should take away the rim first,
and then the very next priority should be the three
point line. So like when you're closing out to the perimeter,
there's no reason to close out with the intent of
containing anymore obviously if you can't. If you can, if
you have an athlete that's good enough, if you have
a Derek Jones junior that can fly out, contest a
(11:58):
guy and contain great But like if you have to
choose between closing out short and allowing a guy to
shoot while you contain him or chasing him off the line,
you're gonna chase him off the line now, because if
you chase him off the line, there's another step in
that progression where someone can come over and help at
the rim. So essentially, these defenses are saying, we're gonna
take away the rim and we're gonna chase you off
(12:20):
the three point line, and there's just gonna be a
boatload of space in the middle of the floor where
you can work right or you're gonna have to make
multiple driving kicks, like you're gonna have to get to
the rim kick, drive kick, drive kick, and then maybe
at the end of the shot clock you get a
good look. It's testing teams in their diligence to break
(12:41):
down a defense through multiple driving kicks on the same possession,
because teams are so good at taking away the rim
and taking away the three point line now, and so,
in a weird way, like I think it's been, I
think it's been a little bit more of a shift
towards playmaking and guys that are really good at getting
into the teeth of the defense and making the next read.
(13:04):
That's why I think a team like Boston did so well.
That's why I think when you see these teams that
have small ball looks and all these guards that can
drive and kick well like Oklahoma City does, Like now
with Cleveland having all of these different guys that can dribble,
shoot and pass on the perimeter, and they've been one
of the biggest assist percentage teams in the league this year,
right Like, that's an important part of how the game
(13:25):
has shifted. It's now not just about driving. It's not
just about knocking down three point shots. It's about having
enough aggregate ball handling, shooting, and basketball IQ on the
floor to break down a defense through several attacks. I
was curious, though, I just wanted to look. I wanted
to see if there were any trends that statistical trends
in terms of three point volume and then other trends
(13:48):
around the league. So these are the teams with the
top ten records in the NBA right now. The Calves,
the thunder the Celtics, the Rockets, the Grizzlies, the Knicks,
the Nuggets, the Lakers, the Bucks, and the Clippers. Those
are your top ten by when percentage. Okay, the Calves
are fifth and three point volume, and the Celtics are
first in three point volume. The thunder or eleventh. The
Rockets are twentieth, the Grizzlies are nineteenth, the Knicks are
(14:10):
twenty third, the Nuggets are thirtieth, the Lakers are twenty seventh,
the Bucks are sixteenth, and the Clippers are twenty sixth.
That's in three point attempts per one hundred possessions. So
of the top ten records in the league, only two
of them are top ten and three point volume. Now,
it's worth at least mentioning so that we are being
honest about the data here. It's worth at least mentioning
(14:32):
that those two that are in the top ten and
three point volume, Cleveland and Boston are two of the
top tier championship contenders in the league. Right, But seven
of the ten that are in the top ten in
records are in the bottom half of three point attempts
in this league. That is an interesting stat So I
was curious. I just wanted to look around. Is there
any statistical correlation with winning this year? Is there any
(14:57):
like clear stat where like everybody use good is good
at this And here's what I was able to come
up with just poking around rebounding Each of the top
four rebounding teams in the league. Houston, Memphis, Denver, and
New York all have top ten records, and the Clippers
also make that list at seven, but each of the
top four all being top ten records I think is interesting.
(15:17):
Rebounding is very important in this league. Assist to turnover ratio.
This is one of the more interesting stats that I've
come across in my time covering the league. This year, Boston, Cleveland,
and Oklahoma City, in addition to having the three best
records in the league, also have the three best assist
to turnover ratios in the league. I thought that was
(15:38):
super fascinating. So the teams that are best at playmaking
for others while not turning the basketball over are also
the three best teams in the league. Where this kind
of comes to fruition for me as a concept points
off of turnovers. Six of the top ten teams in
the league in terms of record are top ten in
(15:59):
points off of turnover, meaning they turn their opponents over
and they get out and transition off of it opponent
points off of turnovers. The top five in opponent points
off of turnovers per game are OKC, Boston, New York, Houston,
and Cleveland. That's really interesting. What is that telling us.
(16:20):
That is telling us that if you can make plays
in drive and kick without turning the basketball over so
that you stay out of transition defense, but at the
same time, on the other end, you play good defense,
force turnovers, and get out in transition, you're winning in
the modern MBA, which I think is super fascinating because
of something I've been talking about almost NonStop this season,
which is the concept of speed and how valuable speed is.
(16:42):
As the game has shifted more towards transition basketball, about
a fifth of these games, roughly twenty percent of these
games is taking place in transition. When you play in transition,
you're usually about twenty percent more efficient than you are
when you play in the half court. So your ability
to get out out and transition and keep your default
keep your opponent out of transition are two of the
(17:05):
biggest dynamics that's leading to wins and losses in the
modern MBA. I think that's super fascinating. So just a
couple of statistical trends to keep an eye on as
we as we move forward with our coverage of the league. Hey, Jason,
huge fan of the show, been watching since the beginning
of your time with the volume. I did want to ask.
You've mentioned before you do a little bit of coaching.
Have you ever considered getting into that full time or
even training guys? Yeah, so I train high school kids.
(17:29):
I did it this morning. I do it on Monday
and Friday mornings throughout the season. It's something that I
can relatively easily achieve within my schedule to where I
get to scratch that itch of coaching, so to speak.
And I really love the group of kids that I
work with, and I just enjoy it so much. But
at the same time, it doesn't take so much away
that I lose control of my situation with work. And
(17:50):
also I work so much, and I have my wife
behind the scenes constantly advocating for me to work less,
and so like, if I took on more in terms
of coaching, that would be problematic. But I also spend
a lot of time playing basketball right now, so like
I would imagine that in the time when I decide
to stop playing, that time will be time that I
then shift to devoting towards coaching.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Training is cool.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Skills training is probably one of the things that I
have the most experienced with because it's just what I do.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
It's what I do for my program.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
I've done individual skills training as well, outside of the
high school concept or context. I love skills training because
it's just what I did to myself, like to become
a good basketball player in my thirties. I've worked relentlessly
over the last ten years on skills development, footwork, dribble combinations,
scoring moves from various spots on the floor, just all
(18:43):
of these like little different like skill things that I
like to help teach the next generation of basketball players
how to do. That. Said, like, ultimately, basketball coaching at
the team level is what I would like to do
when the time comes. I would like to get more into,
Like i'd love to coach a high school team once
I get to the point where I'm not playing, But
(19:04):
it'll just have to be at a point in my
life where I have more time, and right now I
just don't have the time for it, so we'll see.
It's definitely a big picture goal of mine. I love coaching.
I think the high school level would be the most fun,
and it just is more realistic with my big picture
career goals in terms of sports media, So I think
that's the direction will eventually end up going thoughts on
(19:37):
Bronni's latest NBA stint. So this was the big story
that was going around as Bronni got first quarter minutes
and an important game for the Lakers on the road
in Philly.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
A couple things.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
There's a lot of different angles that come at this
from first of all, I didn't think his stint was
quite as bad as everyone made it sound like. He
had two really bad turnovers. He had a high post
entry to Anthony Davis out of a horn set where
Anthony Davis was not ready for the basketball, and Bronni
threw it anyway, and Yabuselli just blew through AD's left shoulder,
got the ball and went down the other end and
(20:09):
got it done. Okay, that is on both guys. Though
Bronnie shouldn't have thrown the pass because there was no
angle for it, So that's one hundred percent on Bronnie
to not make that decision. However, Yabuseli was kind of
like beating Anthony Davis with physicality a lot in that
first quarter, and Ad has to do a better job
fighting for positions, so I won't put that one hundred
(20:30):
percent on Bronnie. But again, your point guard needs to
make sure that the players are ready before he throws
a pass, so that was a mistake. And then he
drove a close out on Tyrese Maxi on the left
wing where Maxi reached around and poked.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
The ball away.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Always pushed the ball forward when you beat someone off
the dribble. This is a lesson for all basketball players
at every level. Like if you beat someone off the dribble,
whether it's in a ball screen, whether it's in a ISO,
whether it's in a closeout situation, push the ball forward
because the last resort for every defender is just swipe
around from behind and see if they can't poke it away.
As you're down in a dribble stance with the ball
at your hip, that's when they can get at it.
(21:05):
So a couple of bad turnovers. He missed a spot
up three, but he also had a beautiful feed off
of a back cut to Jackson Hayes, a really nice
read out of a three man action where he determined
that no one was on his bottom side and he
had an opportunity to slip. He slipped out of it.
Eighty hit him on the bounce. He drew multiple players
in help. He dropped it off to Jackson Hayes Jackson,
He's got a dunk. It was a really nice play.
(21:25):
And then he also had a nice driving kick off
of the right wing to Dorian Finney Smith who missed
a three, but he generated an open three with a
nice little clothes out attack. So like, again, there were
mistakes on offense, but he also made a couple of
plays on offense and on defense, Like all three shots
that Tyrese Maxey made were super tough contested mid rangers,
which is literally your job guarding Maxie. Like if I
(21:46):
was talking about Max Christy guarding Tyrese Maxey, this is
what I would say. I'd be like, keep him off
the three point line, try to keep him from getting
completely downhill towards the rim, try to force him into
tough contested mid range jump shots, which is literally what
Bronnie did. However, he had a weird botch switched with
Dorian Finney Smith where he kind of like jumped away
(22:06):
and just let MAXI drive. That was a bad defensive play,
and then he fouled Tyrese Maxey on a separate drive.
So the point being like that was that stint looked
exactly like what I would expect from a young super
raw NBA prospect that has some NBA tools, but that
is years away from being an NBA rotation player.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Flashes of good.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
And mistakes that are pretty much unacceptable for a pro right, Like,
that's exactly what I would have expected. So it wasn't
like the complete dumpster fire that everyone made it sound,
but it looked exactly like what you would expect for
putting Bronnie in the game. This is where I think
there is fair criticism to Levy towards JJ Reddick. He's
kind of setting Bronnie up to fail there. Bronnie shouldn't
(22:49):
be in that situation. Yes, the Lakers were down on
a road trip, down bodies, specifically at the guard spot.
They needed someone to step into that spot, but it
should have been Cam Reddish, not Bronni. Like, there isn't
a single thing that Bronni does on a basketball court
better than Cam Reddish. Yet at this point in his career,
(23:10):
maybe in the big picture, Bronni will become this on
ball guard. I want to talk about that here in
a minute, But like, what you do in that spot
is you play Cam Reddish. Cam Reddish doesn't do much
on offense. But the one thing he doesn't do is
he doesn't turn the ball over, like he knows how
to not do too much and make sure the ball
stays in possession. With his team, Cam Reddish isn't a
good spot up player, but he'll play within a role
(23:33):
and he'll do his job. And right now, Bronnie has
at no point in his career demonstrated the ability to
knock down three point shots at the NBA level. So
like any's shooting concerns, the same concerns are there for
Cam Reddish, or the same concerns are there for Bronnie,
right and then lastly, Cam is just a better defender
than Bronnie at this point in his career in every vesset,
So like within the context of trying to win that
(23:54):
game and you're in a guard depth situation, the obvious
call is play Cam Reddish, which is a fringe NBA player,
but that is much more capable of playing a role
within an NBA team right now than Bronni is. I
am not like the Bronnie haters out there. I don't
think he's just some nepotism case. I think he has
(24:15):
legitimate NBA tools. I thought he was a reasonable late
second round pick. Lots of guys in the second round
if you put him in the NBA would look like
Bronnie does. Okay, Bronni needs time, He needs years of
reps before he's ready. I think he belongs, he deserves
his shot. Let him take his time and figure it out.
The problem I have is what I said before the season.
(24:35):
He should absolutely never play meaningful rotation minutes. I said
that because he needs to earn that right behind the
scenes over the course of years, demonstrated, because like he
hasn't demonstrated it in college. He started, He's shown the
ability to get buckets in the G League, but he
needs to do it in a larger sample, and then
he needs to come to the NBA level and demonstrate
(24:57):
in garbage time that he can play. Then he can
get an opportunity. There's an order of operations to bringing
Bronni into real rotation minutes, and it wasn't bring him
in on the road in Philly and have him get
attacked relentlessly by Tyree Smacksy when he's literally on fire. Right, So,
like I disagreed, it wasn't the end of the world.
(25:18):
They were gonna lose that game in Philly anyway, that
they were banged up, Ad got hurt, they had other
guys al Vanderbilt was out, Gave Vincent was out. It's
a road trip long Lakers have been bad on long
road trips all year long. Like I don't, I don't
really take too much from the loss, but like, yeah,
I would recommend not playing Bronny in real rotation minutes
until he shows the ability to play well in garbage time,
(25:41):
and then I would I would consider that sort of
option in a case where injuries dictate that the end
of your roster plays more. One other thing I'll point
out there was this weird my friend Raj who was
my former co host when I used to do State
of the Lakers before I worked for the volume. He
covers the South Bay Lakers, and he asked Bronny one
(26:01):
day and said, like, what do you see yourself as
in terms of your role in the NBA? And he
said he sees himself as an on ball guard. And
I was a little concerned by that because like, I
think Bronnie is years away still from being a off
ball defensive guard. But he's many I think he's really
(26:23):
far away from being like like a legitimate NBA guard
that can run action for extended stretches. So like, it's
kind of interesting to me in terms of like his
career path. Like, to me, if Bronnie wants to look
like an NBA player inside of his first contract, the
pathways get really good at defense, and get really good
at catch and shoot threes, get really good at making
(26:45):
driving kickreads, short role reads like when he ran that
inverted ball screen with Ad like that kind of stuff.
Those are the kinds of actions that I want to
see Bronny get good at to where I could be like,
oh yeah, third year of his deal, he can play
fifteen minutes a night or good NBA team. That's the
path for him, in my opinion, if he wants to
(27:05):
be a primary on ball guard, like, there are guys
with way more pedigree than him that are not good
enough at that he I think he's really far away
from being like a okay, he's gonna be a fifteen
point for assists per game guy off the bench for
a good team, Like I just don't really necessarily see
that in his trajectory at this point. But if that's
(27:28):
his goal, that's fine. There's a pathway that He's got
the physical tools for it, but his skill development is
going to take so much work over the next few
years to get to that point. And so I just
hope he realizes the type of challenge that's going to be,
and I hope that people around him realize the type
of challenge it's going to be. Clearly a men, Thompson
is not coming out of the starting lineup, But what
about when Jabari Smith is.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Back from injury, he starts for Brooks. How do you
think that.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Lineup would work? Thank you for all the great content.
I think Jabari Smith has got to come back to
the bench.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I think you have.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
I was talking about this with Sam Vessini the other
day on his pod. What we're seeing right now from
the Rockets. I mean, they ended up losing that game
in Memphis last night, but like what we're seeing from
Houston right now is one of the most impressive stretches
of regular season basketball you'll ever see. Like they are
racking up wins against great teams night in and night out.
(28:20):
I have been talking recklessly on my show and on
other people's show about how I think the Rockets need
to make some sort of all in trade because I
think they have a chance to win the title this year.
That's how much I think this That Rockets roster can
contend athletically on both ends of the floor with the
top teams in the league. So like, you don't mess
with that. Even for Brooks. I think Brooks has been
(28:40):
one of the best role players in the league this year.
He was a huge part of their winning Boston with
his shooting. He has been great defensively all all season.
He had another twenty plus point game in Memphis last night.
I would leave Brooks in there, and I would just
bring Jabari Smith in and guess what, He's got to
fight for minutes with Cam Witmore, He's got to fight
for minutes with Jayshon Taate with and he's got to
(29:01):
earn it with those guys. In my opinion, I Jabari
is a good player, but he has a tendency to
settle for tough mid range shots. He hasn't converted spoted
possesions as well as he needs to be. He's a
good defender, but he as an athlete is just another
one of the guys there. So like, I think you
got to make Jabari Smith earn the right to regain
(29:22):
his spot in that rotation. Hello Jason, just a simple question.
Have you been impressed with the knicks of defense during
this recent stretch of games? Yes, I have, More specifically
though their transition attack. This has been something that when
the Knicks have been at their best this year, they've
played fast, they've gotten stops, and they've ran And I thought,
specifically the Nuggets game, what won them that game was
(29:44):
their transition pushes. They actually only turned Denver over I
think fourteen times, but they scored almost every time off
of those turnovers with quick runouts. And like, I've just
seen so many examples of that this year when the
Knicks look good, where it's og An Andobi running his
lane in transition, it's Michale Bridges running to the corner
in transition, it is Karl Anthony Towns trailing the play
(30:06):
in transition. It is like this, we play defense, we
get out and run, then we knock down shots. And
like so much of I talk about in terms of
the top teams in the league, it comes down to margins.
Where are you going to find ways to win? And
there are certain things that the Knicks are going to
struggle with, like the defensive inconsistency this year has primarily
(30:27):
centered around the kind of like undisciplined hedges and from
guys like Jalen Brunson and from Karl Anthony Towns, like
just not doing their job when teams hunt them to
actively attack the ball, get back in rotation or switch
and contain the ball well. Like those two guys have
(30:48):
been the issues, They're going to continue to be the issues.
Even when your defense is at its best. There are
these entry points that people can go at in terms
of Brunson and Cat, so you have to find a
way to generate margins elsewhere. Have a unique set of
offensive talent because they have a stretch five and these
big rangy wings that can run the floor well, and
a lot of playmaking talent that the Knicks can really
(31:08):
be a good transition offense. And so again, like as
we look at the Knicks and their potential big picture
championship goals, I've view a certain number of things as
non negotiable. They've got to become a more consistent defensive
execution team because they need to force turnovers because it
unlocks one of the most important parts of their game
(31:28):
of their game, which is transition attack right and so again,
like you've got to think of it in the big picture.
It's not about beating anybody really other than Boston and Cleveland.
Right now, those are your ultimate goals. To get to
where you want to go, You've got to get through
Boston and Cleveland. And if you're going to beat Boston
in Cleveland, you're gonna have to generate margin because Boston
in particular is going to relentlessly attack Karl Anthony Twons
(31:50):
and Jalen Brunson. And where you can create margin is
by forcing turnovers and getting out in transition. I think
those are easy ways to turn defense into offense more freely,
and I thought the Denver game was a good step
in that direction for the Knicks. All Right, it looks
like we got five more at this point. Hey, Jason,
I'm wondering if you could just take a minute to
(32:11):
talk about Jason Tatum's improvement as a playmaker. I've been
really impressed with him as a game manager this season.
If you watch the Celtics games closely, for the most part,
Jason will start games off a little more passive while
their starting lineup is on the court and create shots
for them. Then Missoula will usually pull most of the
starters besides Tatum and Derek or Tatum and Holiday, which
is when he gets really aggressive scoring because he knows
he's still capable of scoring when the bench group.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Is more limited.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
I found it interesting in last night's game against the Bulls,
closing the third quarter and in the fourth quarter, that
Boston was up fifteen to twenty points and every player
for Boston was hitting shots, yet still every possession Chicago
would send a double team at Tatum. I know about
a week ago you touched on Tatum's ISO this season
and how he's having one of the best ISO seasons
in recent NBA history because he didn't put up stats
like Sga or Jokis, because he's on such a great
(32:54):
team and a lot of people either diminish or don't
understand the actual impact he has on the game. We
just saw a team that was so scared of what
he would do to them in isolation, even down double digits,
knowing that doubling him would open and I would result
in an open shot Boston was making. For the most part,
they were still willing to do it, even if it
meant they were stopping him from getting to the basket.
I'm just curious your opinion on how hard it'll be
(33:16):
to stop Boston when Drew and Jalen get out of
the shooting slumps thro in with Tatum basically being unstoppable
when you try to match him up one on one.
So on that as game plan, Like if I was
game planning for the Celtics, it depends on the roster
that I have. If I have excellent defensive personnel across
the board, guys that can all kind of guard in space,
and I've got good backside help defenders, I'm going to
(33:38):
want to switch contain and force them into ISOs and
hope that they settle for bad jump shots instead of
trying to go through my players. Right, But if I've
got some weak defensive personnel on the floor like Chicago does,
when you've got to Josh Giddy or Nicolavusevich that kind
of thing on the floor, you put yourself in a
situation where you can't really guard in space that well.
So then you start to make a simple calculation at
(34:00):
Boston's three point percentage, no one is really shooting that
well this year compared to last year except for Peyton Pritchard. Right,
So Tatum's this like all world ISO player, Boston's perimeter
shooters have not been that good this year. As a
game plan, you might think, if you have that type
of roster, that your best bet is to get the
ball out of Tatum's hands and force other people to
(34:21):
make shots. That said, inevitably, this story ends with Boston
running into a team that doesn't double that feels comfortable
leaving Tatum and Jaylen Brown one on one. When that happens,
it will be incumbent on Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum
to find ways to draw two to the ball. The
only way they're going to be able to do that
(34:42):
is if they score so effectively in those one on
one matchups at the rim, because if you do it
from the perimeter streaky, you'll have stretches where you make
two or three tough pull up jump shots in a row,
and then you'll miss two or three in a row.
But if they get consistently, if they have better balance
between settling and attacking, and they attack those, it will
become untenable for the defense to leave one on one coverages.
(35:03):
That's when they can bring two to the ball or
they can drive past that first guy and draw helpers
and they can make driving kick passes to get those
wide open threes again, Like it's you got to think
of it beyond the Chicago problem and more like what
about the OKC problem? Like what about what if they
run into a Knicks team and a Knicks team does
more switching, you know, like that sort of thing, Like
it's gonna be like you can't take Jalen Brunson and
(35:26):
settle for pull up jump shots. You've got to take
his ass to the basket. You can't take Carl Anthony
Towns in space and just take step back threes. You've
got to take him to the basket. Like there's Oklahoma
City is the real one that I would worry about
for Boston there because they have the personnel to switch
more effectively. But like that's gonna be the real issue.
I have been really impressed by Tatum as a playmaker
(35:47):
this year, and you can't deny the isolation numbers and
the jump shooting has been a really nice improvement. But
make no mistake, the reason why the Celtics beat the
shit out of the Mavericks last year was because Jason
Tatum and Jala Brown drove past Luka Doncic didn't shoot
over Luka doncicch and so like again like, I think
the doubling will be something that Boston will see from
(36:09):
time to time in the postseason of Tatum, but inevitably
they will run into a matchup where Tatum and Jalen
Brown are gonna have to break these defenses down in
more one on one situations. What do you think about
Adam Silver saying he's a fan of four to ten
minutes four ten minute quarters in basketball? How do you
think this would impact the NBA? Are you four or
against it? Thanks for doing a great job and always
dropping insightful content. I'm a big fan of your show.
(36:30):
Thank you so much for supporting the show. It means
a lot to me. I think shortening the quarters is
really stupid. The NBA has one problem, one big problem
with our television situation urgency. This is something I've been
harping on NonStop. There are lots of things that could
be better. Officiating could be a little better. Yeah, right
(36:51):
now teams are taking a lot of threes, but I
do think defenses will force teams to adapt. There there
are things with the broadcasting where it can be a
little podca has to eat in a little less. Let's
talk about the game. There's a little like media companies
focusing on player movement instead of the quality of the basketball.
I'm there for all that stuff, but those are those,
to me are small issues compared to the much larger issue,
(37:14):
which is that since the year, since the year MJ
retired in nineteen ninety eight two, now we went from
having there's almost nothing on TV. You sit on your
couch on a Wednesday night and the NBA game that's
on is one of the few options to watch, and yeah,
you're gonna watch that game. But now there are thousands
(37:35):
and thousands and thousands of television options, thousands and thousands
and thousands of smartphone options. You're having a hard time
getting people's attention. That said, sports still is one of
the biggest draws when it comes to people's attention.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
The NFL is a great example of this.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
The NFL continues to put up monster television ratings even
though there have been so many more options that have
risen to the surface. Why urgency Every regular season game
feels huge, Every postseason game is single elimination. The urgency
is off the charts. Okay, the bottom line is an
NBA team can lay an egg three games in a
(38:13):
row and it really doesn't matter. I rooted for the
Lakers as they have dicked around at the bottom of
the standings for two consecutive years and barely crawled up
to the seven or eight seed and got into the
playoffs at the end, and they haven't cared. This year
has been a little bit better on that front. But
like the reality is is, you can afford to be
bad for a while in the NBA. The Pacers were
(38:35):
awful to start the year, didn't matter. The mass have
been pretty bad this year because of injuries. If Luca
and Kyrie come back, it's not gonna matter. Like there's
the Suns got off to a great start, now they're terrible.
The Warriors got off to a great start, now they're terrible.
Like both of those teams could easily rebound with a trade.
The NBA regular season is too damn long. I believe
(38:59):
that the NBA regular season to sixty six games will
space the games out more so that more players play
more often in every game than has about twenty percent
more urgency. And then if you want to do a
play in tournament, fine, but don't let twenty teams in
You got to get that back down to sixteen. There
(39:20):
has to be a more realistic like, oh, half the
teams don't make the playoffs instead of oh, two thirds
of the teams do make the playoffs. Urgency is the problem.
It's the number one thing that could be that can
be addressed to actually lead to tangible results. People do
want to watch our best athletes compete when it matters,
(39:41):
but it just doesn't matter enough in the NBA, and
that is that is the main issue.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
Guys like us, people who.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
Really enjoy the game, We're going to get a great
deal of enjoyment and appreciation out of the NBA regular season.
The casual fan is going to tune in and out
based on when they think things matter, and there's just
not a lot of times where.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
In the NBA regular season. Hey, Jason, big fan of
the show, and I feel you're the best in the business.
Thank you. That's a very kind thing to say. My
question is in regards to.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
The Lakers starting five, what do you think of a
lineup of Lebron Austin, Dorian Finney, Smith Ruey, and Anthony Davis.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
I feel that.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Lineup would be good able to switch one through five
and allow Ruie to shift back to his original position.
You talk about how great Lebron is as a hub
for the offense, and with him and Austin trading point
guard duties, I feel like this could work well. Plus
it allows them to play big and even if Lebron
doesn't commit to defense every night, they are a bigger
team and Lebron still has the quickness to handle guards
but could still but could also punish teams with the
(40:48):
size of that position. What also, would love to know
your thoughts and keep up the work. So here's the
thing it. I talked about this with the Bucks earlier.
There are these the defensive responsibilities you want to fulfill.
The Lakers are not good as a switching unit in
the regular season because Lebron and Ruy. Lebron is a
(41:11):
great rebounder and great defender who doesn't try the vast
majority of the time in the regular season, and Ruy
Hachimura is a mediocre to bad defender and a mediocre
to bad rebounder. So when you couple that with Austin
Reeves who's athletically limited, and you put all three of
those guys on the floor at the same time, and
you start switching, you start end up being ending up
(41:32):
in situations where Anthony Davis is on the perimeter. When
Anthony Davis is on the perimeter, you need Lebron and
Rui and Austin to be athletic around the rim as
helpers and as rebounders.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
And it's just a lot to ask.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
So, like, I actually think that this is why the
Max Christi into the starting lineup thing has worked as
well as it has. It's allowed the Lakers to do
less switching with their five man because Max is more
capable of chasing over the top of screens. It allows
them to basically keep into more favorable men, keep Anthony
Davis closer to the ram where he can defend and rebound. Now,
to your point, I don't Let's say the Lakers trade Ruie,
(42:07):
which I think is still a good chance before the deadline.
Let's say a different version of that lineup, so it's Austin,
Dorian van do Do Lebron ad. Could I see them trying
switching in the postseason. Yeah, with that type of lineup, sure,
because all those guys can switch, and because those guys
would be able to end the postseason, because Vando is
an excellent defender and an excellent rebounder, you suddenly have
(42:30):
more of that kind of talent on the floor. Lebron
now in the playoffs is trying harder, so he becomes
an excellent defender, excellent rebounder. Now all of a sudden,
you have the personnel to pull off that type of look.
But that's why I've been talking about that with the Lakers,
Like I think there's one through five switching should be
more of a situational thing and not like a base
scheme because of the fact that they're just not good
at it. Good at it in the regular season. Since
(42:51):
Jade and Ivy's injury, Cade's usage and turnover rate have skyrocketed,
and while initially we got away with it, the last
few L's have all had the same thing, teams realizing
no else can dribble or break down the d from
half court, so they end up trapping and blitzing him
in every pick and roll. I don't believe this is sustainable.
If the Pistons are so serious about making the playoffs,
Cad will wear out and we don't have the high
end talent to keep losing the turnover differential and expect
(43:12):
to keep winning games. I think a trade for CJ,
McCollum or Sexton using Tim Hardaway Junior's expiring plus seconds
is a cost effective solution to add ball handling, slash
scoring punch without sacrificing the future. But no one in
the Pistons community really knows how tradeing will approach this deadline.
My question is would you make this deal for CJ
and Sexton to ease the load off of Caid and
(43:33):
if not, what can be done from a coaching schematic
standpoint to cut down on his usage turnovers. Thanks as
always for your content. So I was watching the Pacers
game this morning, actually is a game I wanted to
get back to, and so Kid's not actually facing blitzes
or traps very often, He's facing a lot of like
traditional coverages that are just the way traditional coverages look
(43:57):
against really good offensive players. There's a thing that happens
when you get upgraded in terms of your level of
respect around the league, where you face aggressive traditional coverages,
whereas there's a thing that you face around the league
when people don't really fear you, where you face passive
(44:17):
traditional coverages. A really basic way to look at that
is the size the type of drop coverage that they face.
He's not facing traps, he's facing big at the level.
That's a aggressive traditional coverage, meaning the guy guarding the
screener is showing at the level of the screen and
then recovering back. He spent a lot of time attacking
(44:38):
Tyrese Haliburton in the Pacers game using Malik Beasley. They're
using a basic hedge in recover scheme. That's literally what
the Pacers use with Tyre's Halliburton against all primary ball handlers.
They'll have Tyree's hedge out, meaning briefly put two on
the ball and then Tyree's is going to recover and
keep his hands up and try to deflect that pass.
You got to steal on Kate Cunningham on one of those, right,
(45:01):
But Malik Beasley's gonna go like he's gonna set the screen,
he's gonna slip, and he's gonna run out to the
three point line. He's gonna catch a pass there. By
the way, Cad did hit Malik on that multiple times
in the first half. He just missed them, right. That's
part of basketball. But when you're facing a bad offensive
player or an offensive player that no one's really scared of.
(45:21):
They are gonna be like, let's run a deep drop,
stay out of rotation. Like, okay, now Malik Beasley's going
to set a screen. Tyrese might linger for a second,
but he's not gonna hard hedge because he doesn't fear you,
because there's not that level of respect. Caid has now
entered into the star ball handler tier, where now he
(45:43):
is gonna see a big at the level every single
time he runs a ball screen, he is gonna see
a hard hedge every single time he attacks a guard
in a ball screen. That's just part of the job. Now,
to your point, I still think Kaid's been navigating that
pretty well. But there's something to be said about you're
talking about, which is there's not enough skill on the
court to quickly translate that into buckets. There were a
(46:06):
couple of, for instance, kickout passes that Caid ran in
ball screens that end up in Ron Hollins's hands. And
Ron Hollind's gonna make some threes, but he's gonna miss
some threes, right, Like, he's gonna probably miss more than
he makes by a lot, right, So, like that's just
a reality of this roster now, to your point, do
I think that the Pistons could benefit from a secondary
(46:27):
ball handler, Yes, Would I do anything that sacrifices future
second flexibility for that, No, that's where like, Yeah, if
you can get a CJ. McCollum, I think Sexton might
be a little bit more expensive. But let's say you
can get a CJ.
Speaker 2 (46:40):
McCollum. If you can get a c.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
J McCollum without including any first round draft compensation in
giving up only one of these veteran players that's on
a contract, I do think it would be worthwhile because
you are probably going to end up in a playoff
series with Kid. If you're gonna end up in a
playoff series with Kid, you want to see what it
looks like if he doesn't have to do absolutely everything.
So it's not about winning the title. It's about getting
good experience for Kate. And one of the best ways
(47:03):
to do that is give him a legitimate experience in
the sense that he needs a secondary ball handler that
can spell him when he's on the bench and run
second side action make life a little bit easier for him. Also,
guess what if it's CJ. McCollum that is setting that
screen and slipping out of it. He's going to have
a opportunity to create with an advantage, and he's a
better ball handler playmaker type, so he'll be able to
(47:25):
help capitalize on those situations better than a Malik Beasley
can when the shots not falling right. So, like again,
I'm not opposed to that kind of move, just everything
has to be within the concept, the context of the
big picture goal, which is this team has real potential
in the long run, because Kate is a superstar in
the making, because I do like Jade and Ivy, because
(47:46):
I do like the pieces that they have around him.
So it's about being delicate and cheap in that regard.
But yes, if you can get CJ. McCollum for cheap,
I do think that's a move that would allow the
Pistons a little bit more of a traditional ball handling
structure as they head into the postseason. Last one, Jason,
you've been advocating for Cam Johnson to be traded to
(48:07):
Golden State to fill the second option role. Laughing my
ass off, Like what, Cam is a great shooter, but
he can't even average over twenty points per game on
the nets. That's why we've been calling you crazy for
the Cam Johnson obsession. Zach Lavine is the obvious ideal option,
even if it costs more. Problem with going with the
zach Lavine type is you have to include Andrew Wiggins
Draymond Green. That just makes it infinitely more difficult. Also,
(48:31):
just as you get into those big salaries, because the
Warriors have six players that make between five and ten million,
you just have to piece too many of them together
and it becomes a depth a problem with your the
amount of depth that you're losing. I'm not saying don't
make a zach Lavine deal. I'd be happy to make
a zach Lavine deal. I think a Jimmy Butler deal
would be good too. I'm not disagreeing. I'm saying Cam
(48:52):
Johnson is also an option. The reason why is I
think Cam Johnson has an offensive skill set that works
really well in Golden State system. So a couple things.
First of all, came Johnson's better on the ball than
you think. He's run one hundred and seventy six actions
this year, so ball screens, post ups ISOs. He's run
one hundred and seventy six actions with passes and generated
(49:12):
one hundred and eighty five points. It's good amount over
a point per possession. That's really solid. Of the ninety
one players in the league this year to take at
least one hundred pull up jump shots off the dribble,
he ranks thirteenth out of those ninety one. In EFFECTI
field goal percentage at fifty four percent, he gets one
point zero eight points per pull up jump shot. That's
really good. He's also shooting fifty two percent from the
(49:34):
field coming off of off ball screens, seventy one percent
in effective field goal percentage when you weigh it for threes,
one point four points per shot. Of the twenty eight
players in the NBA that have run at least fifty
actions off of screens and taken shots, So coming off
of an off ball screen and shooting of the twenty
eight players have done that at least fifty times, he
(49:55):
ranks number one in the entire NBA at it. That
is a specific skill set that perfectly fits into Golden
State system. So he is real on ball pop, great
pull up shooter, and a great off screen shooter. I
keep talking about the concept of value for a team
versus value in a vacuum. The example I always use
(50:15):
is Jamal Murray. Jamal Murray's value to the Denver Nuggets
is much greater than it would be elsewhere in the
league because his pull up shooting over the top is
so immensely valuable. His ability to score against switches with
Jokichen the two man game is so immensely valuable. But
put him in another situation where he's with a less
dynamic ballscreen partner and where he's actually depended on night
(50:37):
and night out to be great, You're gonna be wishing
for more from Jamal Murray. Right if Cam Johnson was
the best player on a really good team, or if
he was in a situation where they already had a
bunch of ball handling and they just need him to
take catch and shoot threes and to drive closeouts and
to play a little bit of defense. His salary slot
(50:59):
doesn't even make sense that point. But on a Warriors
team that could really use a guy that is consistently
good as a scorer coming off of action off ball
and on ball, he is such a perfect shoe in
fit in the Warriors system that I think his value there,
especially on a team that is so utterly devoid of
(51:21):
scoring talent at the top He's such a natural fit
there that his value would be greater there than it
would be elsewhere in the league. That's why I'm advocating
for Cam Johnson. If you could do that and not
give up Wiggins and not give up Jonathan Kaminga, now
we're talking about a roster that has some real upside.
I like that as an option. I like Levine as
(51:41):
an option. I like Jimmy as an option. I'm just saying,
don't discount Cam Johnson as an option because he's a
better offensive player than you probably think he is. All Right, guys,
that's all I have for today. I'm also out of
town for the weekend. I'm going skiing. I'm leaving tomorrow
for my annual ski trip to Breckenridge. I will be
back in time for the trade deadline, so I will
have a trade deadline reaction when I get home. I
also bring my to go gear, so like if I
(52:02):
end up in Breck and a trade goes down, I
will record something at that point. But there's a chance
if nothing goes down that I won't see you guys
until Wednesday. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for
supporting me and supporting the show, and I will see
you guys then the volume. What's up guys, As always,
I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight.
(52:23):
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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Speaker 2 (01:44):
All right, welcome to hop.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Tonight here at the volume. Happy Friday, everybody. Hope all
of you guys are having a great end of your week.
Today is mail bag Day. We're gonna be bouncing all
around the league. I appreciate you guys for dropping questions
in the YouTube comments. Remember if you want to get
in on our mail bags any one of our full episodes,
just going of the YouTube comments, type mailbag with the
colon and type your question That's how I can find
them in the mix of all those comments. Drop your
(02:07):
questions in there and we'll get to them in Fridays
throughout the remainder of the season. You guys know the
drill 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 JCNLTS. You guys don't
miss any sho announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed
wherever you gets podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also
super helpful if you leave a rating and a review
on that front. Don't forget about our new social media
feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout
(02:29):
the year. And then, last but not least, keep dropping
mail bag questions in the YouTube comments. Like I mentioned earlier,
we get to them on Fridays throughout the remainder of
the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. First question, Hey, Jason,
I believe Jannis is a capable and good defender, even
won Defensive Player of the Year. If I'm not mistaken,
you are not mistaken, But it seems he never actually
defends and guards players with the ball. I watched Clippers
(02:52):
and Blazers beat the Bucks, and he never took on
the challenge of guarding Zubacher Aighton who both had great games.
We have seen in the past Jimmy Butler Jason Tatum
kill smaller guards, but he won't guard them, and he
says just doing what coach thinks is best. Is there
any particular reason Giannis has labeled such a great defender
but never takes on any challenges of actually guarding the
(03:13):
ball on players. I believe he's fully capable of defending.
Shout out to Sauarro bear Down must be a Tucson guy.
So when you're deploying your defensive resources, you want to
deploy players into areas where their individual skill set matches best.
When you're looking at a team defense, there are several
(03:33):
different roles that need to be filled. The three that
are most common and most important are your primary on
ball guard, your ballscreen defender, the guy who's going to
be guarding the opposing team's center, and then the guy
who's in the low man position. Now there's two other
jobs there, and again it differs from team to teams.
Some teams have more guards, some teams have more bigs.
(03:54):
Some teams do a lot of attacking through ISO and
post up situations, and some teams run a lot more motion.
Everyone's getting put through a blender. So it's not like
a it's not like a just a clean answer for
every situation. But the gist of it is, you gotta
have a guy that guards the other team's primary ball handler,
the guy who's running the most ball screens. That guy's
gonna have to be quick, he's gonna have to be
(04:15):
good at navigating screens, good at back pressure.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Right.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Then your ball screen defender. This is a guy who
rides the yo yo right like he's always got to
go up to the level to show against ball handlers
that can shoot off the dribble, but then drop back
in that coverage and then get back up to the
level and then drop back into that coverage that is
typically best served by a player that's good with his
hands and that has great size, right.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
And then you have your low man.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
That guy's going to be playing off the ball, usually
on the weakest.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Offensive player in the front court for the opponent.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
And that's the guy that when the big man goes
up to the level, that fills that gap underneath the
basket and then gets back to the to the weak
side whenever that big guy drops back. Right, the other
two jobs are typically there's a less ball handler, right,
So a guy that still runs action but not as much.
You're usually gonna put your skill guard, your guard that's
not as good of a defensive player in that type
(05:08):
of matchup, think like a Damian Lillard, right. And then
most teams at the three have a guy that is
like a little bit of a score, a little bit
of a ball handler, a little bit of a spot
up shooter, kind of like a guy who's a jack
of all trades but a master at none. Type of
guys usually what teams have kind of operating around the three,
that's where you're gonna put your other front court player.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
So, like, as you're determining how to use resources, as
you're looking at Yannis, it's a poor use of resources
to be like, I want you to guard the opponent's
best post player. Why because Brook Lopez is not as
good at covering ground in rotation and help in recovering
situations as Yannis, but he is really big. So you're
(05:52):
better off using Brooke to defend centers and having Yannis
function more off ball as a help and recover guy.
Yannis can do it, It's just not the best way
to allocate Brooke and Giannis. Same goes for on ball
stuff on the perimeter. For years, that used to be
things something that people would talk about around like that
twenty nineteen to twenty twenty one area era. Why doesn't
(06:13):
Yannis guard perimeter ball handlers? And it's like, first of all,
like Yannis is incredibly big, incredibly strong, and he is
incredibly fast when he gets going, but he's not like
the quickest tight space movement type of player. Like they're
like a guy like an Andre Jackson or a guy
like AJ Green who's been guarding ball handlers and navigating
screens and doing all that for his entire life, is
(06:35):
going to have a better time navigating that responsibility than
putting Yannis on some perimeter guard and asking him to
navigate screens and do all that kind of stuff. As
you look at the layout of the roster, that's why
the the stability that came for the Bucks defense from
guys like Andre Jackson and and AJ Green kind of
stabilized things. They kind of figured out the roles right,
(06:58):
Like they put Aj Green or Ajax on the best
guard to chase over the top of screens. You put
Brooke in ball screen actions, coming up to the level
and dropping back, Jannis is operating as a lowman. Dame's
guarding the worst opponent guard, and Chris Middleton atorium Prance
is guarding that third player that's on the perimeter. Right, Like,
(07:19):
that's just the best way to deploy your resources. As
soon as you move Giannis into a different spot, whether
it's the primary ballscreen guy or the primary perimeter guy,
he's going to be doing a job that he doesn't
have as much practice. And guess what, Like, Yiannis at
center is a look that the Bucks have had and
have used. And Yannis is a capable ballscreen defender. Some
of the greatest highlights that I've ever seen from a
(07:41):
ball screen defender have come from Yannis. He's very good
at that. But it's one of those things where if
you use that exclusively and now you have a tough
time finding something for Brooke to do right. If you
put him out on the perimeter, you have a hard
time finding someone to do that lowman job right. So, Like,
as much as I understand and the idea of wanting
to take Giannis and use him to plug holes elsewhere
(08:03):
in your defense. He is best served as that kind
of low man help side defender because the other jobs
are actually more achievable for the role players than if
you kind of Jerry rigged it around and you moved on.
So like that's the gist of it. Giannis is at
his best as a help defender. That's the thing that
he's best at, and it's what also allows the other
(08:24):
Bucks defensive players to slot into roles that best fit
their skill sets. Was gonna subscribe at twenty two forty,
but you said Quentin Grimes played good defense on You
said Quentin Grimes played good defense on Desmond Bay, and
we traded Grimes last year. Other than that, pretty decent content,
Go Nix.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
This was in.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Reference to our show the other day where I accidentally
said Quentin Grimes instead of Duce McBride. I do hours
and hours and hours of content throughout the year, hundreds
and hundreds of hours. I'm gonna make mistakes. All that
happened there is I just misspoke. Duce McBride is one
of my favorite players on the Knicks. Those of you
(09:00):
guys who've been listening to the show the last few
years have heard me talk about how much I love
Duce McBride. I even talked before the season that I
really liked his fit with the starters in place of
Josh Hard at times. So, like you guys know, I'm
a big believer in Duce McBride. I just misspoke. That's
kind of part of the job that happens, and it
wasn't the first time, and it won't be the last time.
This is an interesting one. Our defense is catching up
(09:22):
to the three point offensive trends to me against three
point teams, it certainly feels like defenders know a drive,
a drive means a kick, a perimeter pass means a
swing pass is likely, etc. It feels like easier to
stop now than last season. There is no doubt that
in terms of defensive strategy, because like that's the way
the game changes. Either a defense comes up with a
(09:44):
new strategy that forces a offensive adjustment, or an offense
comes up with a new strategy that comes up with
a defensive adjustment. Right, I'll give you a couple of
basic examples. Offense makes an adjustment in the sense that
about ten years ago, every single guard just started becoming
really damn good at pull up three point shooting off
of ball screens, following in the trend of Steph Curry. Right, So,
(10:08):
all of a sudden, ball screen coverage has changed and
it turned into now you actually have to chase everybody
over the top of screens. That caused a boatload of
problems for defenses, right, Like that was the whole Like
every team starts cooking drop coverages, right like the Atlanta Hawks,
for instance, with Trey Young in the Eastern Conference Finals
run that they had, right Like, you have this stretch
(10:29):
there where you have all these dudes that are just
torching drop coverages.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
But then the defense is adjust and they kind of
figure out this concept of lowman rotation. So essentially they
just started bringing the big up to the level and
then using the lowman to kind of split the difference
between the roleman and the guy in the weak side corner.
So the way that the offense had to adjust to
that is now what you're seeing is that the offense
(10:54):
the pick and roll ball handlers that are great at
the skip pass, the guys that can come off the
ball screen and whip it across the court over the
lowman into the corner. Where the guy the low man
is supposed to be guarding is. That's where you can
break down those defenses. Right, So like there's an action
and equal and opposite reaction, right as the offenses and
defenses are constantly adjusting to each other. As teams have
(11:17):
looked at the analytical side of things more, they've discovered
an order of operations for what makes a great shot. Right,
an uncontested rim attempt is still the best shot in basketball.
A uncontested three point shot is still the second best
shot in basketball. But you start to work through and
it turns out that, like on defense, you should have
(11:38):
the same exact approach. You should take away the rim first,
and then the very next priority should be the three
point line. So like when you're closing out to the perimeter,
there's no reason to close out with the intent of
containing anymore obviously if you can't. If you can, if
you have an athlete that's good enough, if you have
a Derek Jones junior that can fly out, contest a
(11:58):
guy and contain great But like if you have to
choose between closing out short and allowing a guy to
shoot while you contain him or chasing him off the line,
you're gonna chase him off the line now, because if
you chase him off the line, there's another step in
that progression where someone can come over and help at
the rim. So essentially, these defenses are saying, we're gonna
take away the rim and we're gonna chase you off
(12:20):
the three point line, and there's just gonna be a
boatload of space in the middle of the floor where
you can work right or you're gonna have to make
multiple driving kicks, like you're gonna have to get to
the rim kick, drive kick, drive kick, and then maybe
at the end of the shot clock you get a
good look. It's testing teams in their diligence to break
(12:41):
down a defense through multiple driving kicks on the same possession,
because teams are so good at taking away the rim
and taking away the three point line now, and so,
in a weird way, like I think it's been, I
think it's been a little bit more of a shift
towards playmaking and guys that are really good at getting
into the teeth of the defense and making the next read.
(13:04):
That's why I think a team like Boston did so well.
That's why I think when you see these teams that
have small ball looks and all these guards that can
drive and kick well like Oklahoma City does, Like now
with Cleveland having all of these different guys that can dribble,
shoot and pass on the perimeter, and they've been one
of the biggest assist percentage teams in the league this year,
right Like, that's an important part of how the game
(13:25):
has shifted. It's now not just about driving. It's not
just about knocking down three point shots. It's about having
enough aggregate ball handling, shooting, and basketball IQ on the
floor to break down a defense through several attacks. I
was curious, though, I just wanted to look. I wanted
to see if there were any trends that statistical trends
in terms of three point volume and then other trends
(13:48):
around the league. So these are the teams with the
top ten records in the NBA right now. The Calves,
the thunder the Celtics, the Rockets, the Grizzlies, the Knicks,
the Nuggets, the Lakers, the Bucks, and the Clippers. Those
are your top ten by when percentage. Okay, the Calves
are fifth and three point volume, and the Celtics are
first in three point volume. The thunder or eleventh. The
Rockets are twentieth, the Grizzlies are nineteenth, the Knicks are
(14:10):
twenty third, the Nuggets are thirtieth, the Lakers are twenty seventh,
the Bucks are sixteenth, and the Clippers are twenty sixth.
That's in three point attempts per one hundred possessions. So
of the top ten records in the league, only two
of them are top ten and three point volume. Now,
it's worth at least mentioning so that we are being
honest about the data here. It's worth at least mentioning
(14:32):
that those two that are in the top ten and
three point volume, Cleveland and Boston are two of the
top tier championship contenders in the league. Right, But seven
of the ten that are in the top ten in
records are in the bottom half of three point attempts
in this league. That is an interesting stat So I
was curious. I just wanted to look around. Is there
any statistical correlation with winning this year? Is there any
(14:57):
like clear stat where like everybody use good is good
at this And here's what I was able to come
up with just poking around rebounding Each of the top
four rebounding teams in the league. Houston, Memphis, Denver, and
New York all have top ten records, and the Clippers
also make that list at seven, but each of the
top four all being top ten records I think is interesting.
(15:17):
Rebounding is very important in this league. Assist to turnover ratio.
This is one of the more interesting stats that I've
come across in my time covering the league. This year, Boston, Cleveland,
and Oklahoma City, in addition to having the three best
records in the league, also have the three best assist
to turnover ratios in the league. I thought that was
(15:38):
super fascinating. So the teams that are best at playmaking
for others while not turning the basketball over are also
the three best teams in the league. Where this kind
of comes to fruition for me as a concept points
off of turnovers. Six of the top ten teams in
the league in terms of record are top ten in
(15:59):
points off of turnover, meaning they turn their opponents over
and they get out and transition off of it opponent
points off of turnovers. The top five in opponent points
off of turnovers per game are OKC, Boston, New York, Houston,
and Cleveland. That's really interesting. What is that telling us.
(16:20):
That is telling us that if you can make plays
in drive and kick without turning the basketball over so
that you stay out of transition defense, but at the
same time, on the other end, you play good defense,
force turnovers, and get out in transition, you're winning in
the modern MBA, which I think is super fascinating because
of something I've been talking about almost NonStop this season,
which is the concept of speed and how valuable speed is.
(16:42):
As the game has shifted more towards transition basketball, about
a fifth of these games, roughly twenty percent of these
games is taking place in transition. When you play in transition,
you're usually about twenty percent more efficient than you are
when you play in the half court. So your ability
to get out out and transition and keep your default
keep your opponent out of transition are two of the
(17:05):
biggest dynamics that's leading to wins and losses in the
modern MBA. I think that's super fascinating. So just a
couple of statistical trends to keep an eye on as
we as we move forward with our coverage of the league. Hey, Jason,
huge fan of the show, been watching since the beginning
of your time with the volume. I did want to ask.
You've mentioned before you do a little bit of coaching.
Have you ever considered getting into that full time or
even training guys? Yeah, so I train high school kids.
(17:29):
I did it this morning. I do it on Monday
and Friday mornings throughout the season. It's something that I
can relatively easily achieve within my schedule to where I
get to scratch that itch of coaching, so to speak.
And I really love the group of kids that I
work with, and I just enjoy it so much. But
at the same time, it doesn't take so much away
that I lose control of my situation with work. And
(17:50):
also I work so much, and I have my wife
behind the scenes constantly advocating for me to work less,
and so like, if I took on more in terms
of coaching, that would be problematic. But I also spend
a lot of time playing basketball right now, so like
I would imagine that in the time when I decide
to stop playing, that time will be time that I
then shift to devoting towards coaching.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Training is cool.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Skills training is probably one of the things that I
have the most experienced with because it's just what I do.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
It's what I do for my program.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
I've done individual skills training as well, outside of the
high school concept or context. I love skills training because
it's just what I did to myself, like to become
a good basketball player in my thirties. I've worked relentlessly
over the last ten years on skills development, footwork, dribble combinations,
scoring moves from various spots on the floor, just all
(18:43):
of these like little different like skill things that I
like to help teach the next generation of basketball players
how to do. That. Said, like, ultimately, basketball coaching at
the team level is what I would like to do
when the time comes. I would like to get more into,
Like i'd love to coach a high school team once
I get to the point where I'm not playing, But
(19:04):
it'll just have to be at a point in my
life where I have more time, and right now I
just don't have the time for it, so we'll see.
It's definitely a big picture goal of mine. I love coaching.
I think the high school level would be the most fun,
and it just is more realistic with my big picture
career goals in terms of sports media, So I think
that's the direction will eventually end up going thoughts on
(19:37):
Bronni's latest NBA stint. So this was the big story
that was going around as Bronni got first quarter minutes
and an important game for the Lakers on the road
in Philly.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
A couple things.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
There's a lot of different angles that come at this
from first of all, I didn't think his stint was
quite as bad as everyone made it sound like. He
had two really bad turnovers. He had a high post
entry to Anthony Davis out of a horn set where
Anthony Davis was not ready for the basketball, and Bronni
threw it anyway, and Yabuselli just blew through AD's left shoulder,
got the ball and went down the other end and
(20:09):
got it done. Okay, that is on both guys. Though
Bronnie shouldn't have thrown the pass because there was no
angle for it, So that's one hundred percent on Bronnie
to not make that decision. However, Yabuseli was kind of
like beating Anthony Davis with physicality a lot in that
first quarter, and Ad has to do a better job
fighting for positions, so I won't put that one hundred
(20:30):
percent on Bronnie. But again, your point guard needs to
make sure that the players are ready before he throws
a pass, so that was a mistake. And then he
drove a close out on Tyrese Maxi on the left
wing where Maxi reached around and poked.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
The ball away.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Always pushed the ball forward when you beat someone off
the dribble. This is a lesson for all basketball players
at every level. Like if you beat someone off the dribble,
whether it's in a ball screen, whether it's in a ISO,
whether it's in a closeout situation, push the ball forward
because the last resort for every defender is just swipe
around from behind and see if they can't poke it away.
As you're down in a dribble stance with the ball
at your hip, that's when they can get at it.
(21:05):
So a couple of bad turnovers. He missed a spot
up three, but he also had a beautiful feed off
of a back cut to Jackson Hayes, a really nice
read out of a three man action where he determined
that no one was on his bottom side and he
had an opportunity to slip. He slipped out of it.
Eighty hit him on the bounce. He drew multiple players
in help. He dropped it off to Jackson Hayes Jackson,
He's got a dunk. It was a really nice play.
(21:25):
And then he also had a nice driving kick off
of the right wing to Dorian Finney Smith who missed
a three, but he generated an open three with a
nice little clothes out attack. So like, again, there were
mistakes on offense, but he also made a couple of
plays on offense and on defense, Like all three shots
that Tyrese Maxey made were super tough contested mid rangers,
which is literally your job guarding Maxie. Like if I
(21:46):
was talking about Max Christy guarding Tyrese Maxey, this is
what I would say. I'd be like, keep him off
the three point line, try to keep him from getting
completely downhill towards the rim, try to force him into
tough contested mid range jump shots, which is literally what
Bronnie did. However, he had a weird botch switched with
Dorian Finney Smith where he kind of like jumped away
(22:06):
and just let MAXI drive. That was a bad defensive play,
and then he fouled Tyrese Maxey on a separate drive.
So the point being like that was that stint looked
exactly like what I would expect from a young super
raw NBA prospect that has some NBA tools, but that
is years away from being an NBA rotation player.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Flashes of good.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
And mistakes that are pretty much unacceptable for a pro right, Like,
that's exactly what I would have expected. So it wasn't
like the complete dumpster fire that everyone made it sound,
but it looked exactly like what you would expect for
putting Bronnie in the game. This is where I think
there is fair criticism to Levy towards JJ Reddick. He's
kind of setting Bronnie up to fail there. Bronnie shouldn't
(22:49):
be in that situation. Yes, the Lakers were down on
a road trip, down bodies, specifically at the guard spot.
They needed someone to step into that spot, but it
should have been Cam Reddish, not Bronni. Like, there isn't
a single thing that Bronni does on a basketball court
better than Cam Reddish. Yet at this point in his career,
(23:10):
maybe in the big picture, Bronni will become this on
ball guard. I want to talk about that here in
a minute, But like, what you do in that spot
is you play Cam Reddish. Cam Reddish doesn't do much
on offense. But the one thing he doesn't do is
he doesn't turn the ball over, like he knows how
to not do too much and make sure the ball
stays in possession. With his team, Cam Reddish isn't a
good spot up player, but he'll play within a role
(23:33):
and he'll do his job. And right now, Bronnie has
at no point in his career demonstrated the ability to
knock down three point shots at the NBA level. So
like any's shooting concerns, the same concerns are there for
Cam Reddish, or the same concerns are there for Bronnie,
right and then lastly, Cam is just a better defender
than Bronnie at this point in his career in every vesset,
So like within the context of trying to win that
(23:54):
game and you're in a guard depth situation, the obvious
call is play Cam Reddish, which is a fringe NBA player,
but that is much more capable of playing a role
within an NBA team right now than Bronni is. I
am not like the Bronnie haters out there. I don't
think he's just some nepotism case. I think he has
(24:15):
legitimate NBA tools. I thought he was a reasonable late
second round pick. Lots of guys in the second round
if you put him in the NBA would look like
Bronnie does. Okay, Bronni needs time, He needs years of
reps before he's ready. I think he belongs, he deserves
his shot. Let him take his time and figure it out.
The problem I have is what I said before the season.
(24:35):
He should absolutely never play meaningful rotation minutes. I said
that because he needs to earn that right behind the
scenes over the course of years, demonstrated, because like he
hasn't demonstrated it in college. He started, He's shown the
ability to get buckets in the G League, but he
needs to do it in a larger sample, and then
he needs to come to the NBA level and demonstrate
(24:57):
in garbage time that he can play. Then he can
get an opportunity. There's an order of operations to bringing
Bronni into real rotation minutes, and it wasn't bring him
in on the road in Philly and have him get
attacked relentlessly by Tyree Smacksy when he's literally on fire. Right, So,
like I disagreed, it wasn't the end of the world.
(25:18):
They were gonna lose that game in Philly anyway, that
they were banged up, Ad got hurt, they had other
guys al Vanderbilt was out, Gave Vincent was out. It's
a road trip long Lakers have been bad on long
road trips all year long. Like I don't, I don't
really take too much from the loss, but like, yeah,
I would recommend not playing Bronny in real rotation minutes
until he shows the ability to play well in garbage time,
(25:41):
and then I would I would consider that sort of
option in a case where injuries dictate that the end
of your roster plays more. One other thing I'll point
out there was this weird my friend Raj who was
my former co host when I used to do State
of the Lakers before I worked for the volume. He
covers the South Bay Lakers, and he asked Bronny one
(26:01):
day and said, like, what do you see yourself as
in terms of your role in the NBA? And he
said he sees himself as an on ball guard. And
I was a little concerned by that because like, I
think Bronnie is years away still from being a off
ball defensive guard. But he's many I think he's really
(26:23):
far away from being like like a legitimate NBA guard
that can run action for extended stretches. So like, it's
kind of interesting to me in terms of like his
career path. Like, to me, if Bronnie wants to look
like an NBA player inside of his first contract, the
pathways get really good at defense, and get really good
at catch and shoot threes, get really good at making
(26:45):
driving kickreads, short role reads like when he ran that
inverted ball screen with Ad like that kind of stuff.
Those are the kinds of actions that I want to
see Bronny get good at to where I could be like,
oh yeah, third year of his deal, he can play
fifteen minutes a night or good NBA team. That's the
path for him, in my opinion, if he wants to
(27:05):
be a primary on ball guard, like, there are guys
with way more pedigree than him that are not good
enough at that he I think he's really far away
from being like a okay, he's gonna be a fifteen
point for assists per game guy off the bench for
a good team, Like I just don't really necessarily see
that in his trajectory at this point. But if that's
(27:28):
his goal, that's fine. There's a pathway that He's got
the physical tools for it, but his skill development is
going to take so much work over the next few
years to get to that point. And so I just
hope he realizes the type of challenge that's going to be,
and I hope that people around him realize the type
of challenge it's going to be. Clearly a men, Thompson
is not coming out of the starting lineup, But what
about when Jabari Smith is.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Back from injury, he starts for Brooks. How do you
think that.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Lineup would work? Thank you for all the great content.
I think Jabari Smith has got to come back to
the bench.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I think you have.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
I was talking about this with Sam Vessini the other
day on his pod. What we're seeing right now from
the Rockets. I mean, they ended up losing that game
in Memphis last night, but like what we're seeing from
Houston right now is one of the most impressive stretches
of regular season basketball you'll ever see. Like they are
racking up wins against great teams night in and night out.
(28:20):
I have been talking recklessly on my show and on
other people's show about how I think the Rockets need
to make some sort of all in trade because I
think they have a chance to win the title this year.
That's how much I think this That Rockets roster can
contend athletically on both ends of the floor with the
top teams in the league. So like, you don't mess
with that. Even for Brooks. I think Brooks has been
(28:40):
one of the best role players in the league this year.
He was a huge part of their winning Boston with
his shooting. He has been great defensively all all season.
He had another twenty plus point game in Memphis last night.
I would leave Brooks in there, and I would just
bring Jabari Smith in and guess what, He's got to
fight for minutes with Cam Witmore, He's got to fight
for minutes with Jayshon Taate with and he's got to
(29:01):
earn it with those guys. In my opinion, I Jabari
is a good player, but he has a tendency to
settle for tough mid range shots. He hasn't converted spoted
possesions as well as he needs to be. He's a
good defender, but he as an athlete is just another
one of the guys there. So like, I think you
got to make Jabari Smith earn the right to regain
(29:22):
his spot in that rotation. Hello Jason, just a simple question.
Have you been impressed with the knicks of defense during
this recent stretch of games? Yes, I have, More specifically
though their transition attack. This has been something that when
the Knicks have been at their best this year, they've
played fast, they've gotten stops, and they've ran And I thought,
specifically the Nuggets game, what won them that game was
(29:44):
their transition pushes. They actually only turned Denver over I
think fourteen times, but they scored almost every time off
of those turnovers with quick runouts. And like, I've just
seen so many examples of that this year when the
Knicks look good, where it's og An Andobi running his
lane in transition, it's Michale Bridges running to the corner
in transition, it is Karl Anthony Towns trailing the play
(30:06):
in transition. It is like this, we play defense, we
get out and run, then we knock down shots. And
like so much of I talk about in terms of
the top teams in the league, it comes down to margins.
Where are you going to find ways to win? And
there are certain things that the Knicks are going to
struggle with, like the defensive inconsistency this year has primarily
(30:27):
centered around the kind of like undisciplined hedges and from
guys like Jalen Brunson and from Karl Anthony Towns, like
just not doing their job when teams hunt them to
actively attack the ball, get back in rotation or switch
and contain the ball well. Like those two guys have
(30:48):
been the issues, They're going to continue to be the issues.
Even when your defense is at its best. There are
these entry points that people can go at in terms
of Brunson and Cat, so you have to find a
way to generate margins elsewhere. Have a unique set of
offensive talent because they have a stretch five and these
big rangy wings that can run the floor well, and
a lot of playmaking talent that the Knicks can really
(31:08):
be a good transition offense. And so again, like as
we look at the Knicks and their potential big picture
championship goals, I've view a certain number of things as
non negotiable. They've got to become a more consistent defensive
execution team because they need to force turnovers because it
unlocks one of the most important parts of their game
(31:28):
of their game, which is transition attack right and so again,
like you've got to think of it in the big picture.
It's not about beating anybody really other than Boston and Cleveland.
Right now, those are your ultimate goals. To get to
where you want to go, You've got to get through
Boston and Cleveland. And if you're going to beat Boston
in Cleveland, you're gonna have to generate margin because Boston
in particular is going to relentlessly attack Karl Anthony Twons
(31:50):
and Jalen Brunson. And where you can create margin is
by forcing turnovers and getting out in transition. I think
those are easy ways to turn defense into offense more freely,
and I thought the Denver game was a good step
in that direction for the Knicks. All Right, it looks
like we got five more at this point. Hey, Jason,
I'm wondering if you could just take a minute to
(32:11):
talk about Jason Tatum's improvement as a playmaker. I've been
really impressed with him as a game manager this season.
If you watch the Celtics games closely, for the most part,
Jason will start games off a little more passive while
their starting lineup is on the court and create shots
for them. Then Missoula will usually pull most of the
starters besides Tatum and Derek or Tatum and Holiday, which
is when he gets really aggressive scoring because he knows
he's still capable of scoring when the bench group.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Is more limited.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
I found it interesting in last night's game against the Bulls,
closing the third quarter and in the fourth quarter, that
Boston was up fifteen to twenty points and every player
for Boston was hitting shots, yet still every possession Chicago
would send a double team at Tatum. I know about
a week ago you touched on Tatum's ISO this season
and how he's having one of the best ISO seasons
in recent NBA history because he didn't put up stats
like Sga or Jokis, because he's on such a great
(32:54):
team and a lot of people either diminish or don't
understand the actual impact he has on the game. We
just saw a team that was so scared of what
he would do to them in isolation, even down double digits,
knowing that doubling him would open and I would result
in an open shot Boston was making. For the most part,
they were still willing to do it, even if it
meant they were stopping him from getting to the basket.
I'm just curious your opinion on how hard it'll be
(33:16):
to stop Boston when Drew and Jalen get out of
the shooting slumps thro in with Tatum basically being unstoppable
when you try to match him up one on one.
So on that as game plan, Like if I was
game planning for the Celtics, it depends on the roster
that I have. If I have excellent defensive personnel across
the board, guys that can all kind of guard in space,
and I've got good backside help defenders, I'm going to
(33:38):
want to switch contain and force them into ISOs and
hope that they settle for bad jump shots instead of
trying to go through my players. Right, But if I've
got some weak defensive personnel on the floor like Chicago does,
when you've got to Josh Giddy or Nicolavusevich that kind
of thing on the floor, you put yourself in a
situation where you can't really guard in space that well.
So then you start to make a simple calculation at
(34:00):
Boston's three point percentage, no one is really shooting that
well this year compared to last year except for Peyton Pritchard. Right,
So Tatum's this like all world ISO player, Boston's perimeter
shooters have not been that good this year. As a
game plan, you might think, if you have that type
of roster, that your best bet is to get the
ball out of Tatum's hands and force other people to
(34:21):
make shots. That said, inevitably, this story ends with Boston
running into a team that doesn't double that feels comfortable
leaving Tatum and Jaylen Brown one on one. When that happens,
it will be incumbent on Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum
to find ways to draw two to the ball. The
only way they're going to be able to do that
(34:42):
is if they score so effectively in those one on
one matchups at the rim, because if you do it
from the perimeter streaky, you'll have stretches where you make
two or three tough pull up jump shots in a row,
and then you'll miss two or three in a row.
But if they get consistently, if they have better balance
between settling and attacking, and they attack those, it will
become untenable for the defense to leave one on one coverages.
(35:03):
That's when they can bring two to the ball or
they can drive past that first guy and draw helpers
and they can make driving kick passes to get those
wide open threes again, Like it's you got to think
of it beyond the Chicago problem and more like what
about the OKC problem? Like what about what if they
run into a Knicks team and a Knicks team does
more switching, you know, like that sort of thing, Like
it's gonna be like you can't take Jalen Brunson and
(35:26):
settle for pull up jump shots. You've got to take
his ass to the basket. You can't take Carl Anthony
Towns in space and just take step back threes. You've
got to take him to the basket. Like there's Oklahoma
City is the real one that I would worry about
for Boston there because they have the personnel to switch
more effectively. But like that's gonna be the real issue.
I have been really impressed by Tatum as a playmaker
(35:47):
this year, and you can't deny the isolation numbers and
the jump shooting has been a really nice improvement. But
make no mistake, the reason why the Celtics beat the
shit out of the Mavericks last year was because Jason
Tatum and Jala Brown drove past Luka Doncic didn't shoot
over Luka doncicch and so like again like, I think
the doubling will be something that Boston will see from
(36:09):
time to time in the postseason of Tatum, but inevitably
they will run into a matchup where Tatum and Jalen
Brown are gonna have to break these defenses down in
more one on one situations. What do you think about
Adam Silver saying he's a fan of four to ten
minutes four ten minute quarters in basketball? How do you
think this would impact the NBA? Are you four or
against it? Thanks for doing a great job and always
dropping insightful content. I'm a big fan of your show.
(36:30):
Thank you so much for supporting the show. It means
a lot to me. I think shortening the quarters is
really stupid. The NBA has one problem, one big problem
with our television situation urgency. This is something I've been
harping on NonStop. There are lots of things that could
be better. Officiating could be a little better. Yeah, right
(36:51):
now teams are taking a lot of threes, but I
do think defenses will force teams to adapt. There there
are things with the broadcasting where it can be a
little podca has to eat in a little less. Let's
talk about the game. There's a little like media companies
focusing on player movement instead of the quality of the basketball.
I'm there for all that stuff, but those are those,
to me are small issues compared to the much larger issue,
(37:14):
which is that since the year, since the year MJ
retired in nineteen ninety eight two, now we went from
having there's almost nothing on TV. You sit on your
couch on a Wednesday night and the NBA game that's
on is one of the few options to watch, and yeah,
you're gonna watch that game. But now there are thousands
(37:35):
and thousands and thousands of television options, thousands and thousands
and thousands of smartphone options. You're having a hard time
getting people's attention. That said, sports still is one of
the biggest draws when it comes to people's attention.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
The NFL is a great example of this.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
The NFL continues to put up monster television ratings even
though there have been so many more options that have
risen to the surface. Why urgency Every regular season game
feels huge, Every postseason game is single elimination. The urgency
is off the charts. Okay, the bottom line is an
NBA team can lay an egg three games in a
(38:13):
row and it really doesn't matter. I rooted for the
Lakers as they have dicked around at the bottom of
the standings for two consecutive years and barely crawled up
to the seven or eight seed and got into the
playoffs at the end, and they haven't cared. This year
has been a little bit better on that front. But
like the reality is is, you can afford to be
bad for a while in the NBA. The Pacers were
(38:35):
awful to start the year, didn't matter. The mass have
been pretty bad this year because of injuries. If Luca
and Kyrie come back, it's not gonna matter. Like there's
the Suns got off to a great start, now they're terrible.
The Warriors got off to a great start, now they're terrible.
Like both of those teams could easily rebound with a trade.
The NBA regular season is too damn long. I believe
(38:59):
that the NBA regular season to sixty six games will
space the games out more so that more players play
more often in every game than has about twenty percent
more urgency. And then if you want to do a
play in tournament, fine, but don't let twenty teams in
You got to get that back down to sixteen. There
(39:20):
has to be a more realistic like, oh, half the
teams don't make the playoffs instead of oh, two thirds
of the teams do make the playoffs. Urgency is the problem.
It's the number one thing that could be that can
be addressed to actually lead to tangible results. People do
want to watch our best athletes compete when it matters,
(39:41):
but it just doesn't matter enough in the NBA, and
that is that is the main issue.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
Guys like us, people who.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
Really enjoy the game, We're going to get a great
deal of enjoyment and appreciation out of the NBA regular season.
The casual fan is going to tune in and out
based on when they think things matter, and there's just
not a lot of times where.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
In the NBA regular season. Hey, Jason, big fan of
the show, and I feel you're the best in the business.
Thank you. That's a very kind thing to say. My
question is in regards to.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
The Lakers starting five, what do you think of a
lineup of Lebron Austin, Dorian Finney, Smith Ruey, and Anthony Davis.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
I feel that.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Lineup would be good able to switch one through five
and allow Ruie to shift back to his original position.
You talk about how great Lebron is as a hub
for the offense, and with him and Austin trading point
guard duties, I feel like this could work well. Plus
it allows them to play big and even if Lebron
doesn't commit to defense every night, they are a bigger
team and Lebron still has the quickness to handle guards
but could still but could also punish teams with the
(40:48):
size of that position. What also, would love to know
your thoughts and keep up the work. So here's the
thing it. I talked about this with the Bucks earlier.
There are these the defensive responsibilities you want to fulfill.
The Lakers are not good as a switching unit in
the regular season because Lebron and Ruy. Lebron is a
(41:11):
great rebounder and great defender who doesn't try the vast
majority of the time in the regular season, and Ruy
Hachimura is a mediocre to bad defender and a mediocre
to bad rebounder. So when you couple that with Austin
Reeves who's athletically limited, and you put all three of
those guys on the floor at the same time, and
you start switching, you start end up being ending up
(41:32):
in situations where Anthony Davis is on the perimeter. When
Anthony Davis is on the perimeter, you need Lebron and
Rui and Austin to be athletic around the rim as
helpers and as rebounders.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
And it's just a lot to ask.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
So, like, I actually think that this is why the
Max Christi into the starting lineup thing has worked as
well as it has. It's allowed the Lakers to do
less switching with their five man because Max is more
capable of chasing over the top of screens. It allows
them to basically keep into more favorable men, keep Anthony
Davis closer to the ram where he can defend and rebound. Now,
to your point, I don't Let's say the Lakers trade Ruie,
(42:07):
which I think is still a good chance before the deadline.
Let's say a different version of that lineup, so it's Austin,
Dorian van do Do Lebron ad. Could I see them trying
switching in the postseason. Yeah, with that type of lineup, sure,
because all those guys can switch, and because those guys
would be able to end the postseason, because Vando is
an excellent defender and an excellent rebounder, you suddenly have
(42:30):
more of that kind of talent on the floor. Lebron
now in the playoffs is trying harder, so he becomes
an excellent defender, excellent rebounder. Now all of a sudden,
you have the personnel to pull off that type of look.
But that's why I've been talking about that with the Lakers,
Like I think there's one through five switching should be
more of a situational thing and not like a base
scheme because of the fact that they're just not good
at it. Good at it in the regular season. Since
(42:51):
Jade and Ivy's injury, Cade's usage and turnover rate have skyrocketed,
and while initially we got away with it, the last
few L's have all had the same thing, teams realizing
no else can dribble or break down the d from
half court, so they end up trapping and blitzing him
in every pick and roll. I don't believe this is sustainable.
If the Pistons are so serious about making the playoffs,
Cad will wear out and we don't have the high
end talent to keep losing the turnover differential and expect
(43:12):
to keep winning games. I think a trade for CJ,
McCollum or Sexton using Tim Hardaway Junior's expiring plus seconds
is a cost effective solution to add ball handling, slash
scoring punch without sacrificing the future. But no one in
the Pistons community really knows how tradeing will approach this deadline.
My question is would you make this deal for CJ
and Sexton to ease the load off of Caid and
(43:33):
if not, what can be done from a coaching schematic
standpoint to cut down on his usage turnovers. Thanks as
always for your content. So I was watching the Pacers
game this morning, actually is a game I wanted to
get back to, and so Kid's not actually facing blitzes
or traps very often, He's facing a lot of like
traditional coverages that are just the way traditional coverages look
(43:57):
against really good offensive players. There's a thing that happens
when you get upgraded in terms of your level of
respect around the league, where you face aggressive traditional coverages,
whereas there's a thing that you face around the league
when people don't really fear you, where you face passive
(44:17):
traditional coverages. A really basic way to look at that
is the size the type of drop coverage that they face.
He's not facing traps, he's facing big at the level.
That's a aggressive traditional coverage, meaning the guy guarding the
screener is showing at the level of the screen and
then recovering back. He spent a lot of time attacking
(44:38):
Tyrese Haliburton in the Pacers game using Malik Beasley. They're
using a basic hedge in recover scheme. That's literally what
the Pacers use with Tyre's Halliburton against all primary ball handlers.
They'll have Tyree's hedge out, meaning briefly put two on
the ball and then Tyree's is going to recover and
keep his hands up and try to deflect that pass.
You got to steal on Kate Cunningham on one of those, right,
(45:01):
But Malik Beasley's gonna go like he's gonna set the screen,
he's gonna slip, and he's gonna run out to the
three point line. He's gonna catch a pass there. By
the way, Cad did hit Malik on that multiple times
in the first half. He just missed them, right. That's
part of basketball. But when you're facing a bad offensive
player or an offensive player that no one's really scared of.
(45:21):
They are gonna be like, let's run a deep drop,
stay out of rotation. Like, okay, now Malik Beasley's going
to set a screen. Tyrese might linger for a second,
but he's not gonna hard hedge because he doesn't fear you,
because there's not that level of respect. Caid has now
entered into the star ball handler tier, where now he
(45:43):
is gonna see a big at the level every single
time he runs a ball screen, he is gonna see
a hard hedge every single time he attacks a guard
in a ball screen. That's just part of the job. Now,
to your point, I still think Kaid's been navigating that
pretty well. But there's something to be said about you're
talking about, which is there's not enough skill on the
court to quickly translate that into buckets. There were a
(46:06):
couple of, for instance, kickout passes that Caid ran in
ball screens that end up in Ron Hollins's hands. And
Ron Hollind's gonna make some threes, but he's gonna miss
some threes, right, Like, he's gonna probably miss more than
he makes by a lot, right, So, like that's just
a reality of this roster now, to your point, do
I think that the Pistons could benefit from a secondary
(46:27):
ball handler, Yes, Would I do anything that sacrifices future
second flexibility for that, No, that's where like, Yeah, if
you can get a CJ. McCollum, I think Sexton might
be a little bit more expensive. But let's say you
can get a CJ.
Speaker 2 (46:40):
McCollum. If you can get a c.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
J McCollum without including any first round draft compensation in
giving up only one of these veteran players that's on
a contract, I do think it would be worthwhile because
you are probably going to end up in a playoff
series with Kid. If you're gonna end up in a
playoff series with Kid, you want to see what it
looks like if he doesn't have to do absolutely everything.
So it's not about winning the title. It's about getting
good experience for Kate. And one of the best ways
(47:03):
to do that is give him a legitimate experience in
the sense that he needs a secondary ball handler that
can spell him when he's on the bench and run
second side action make life a little bit easier for him. Also,
guess what if it's CJ. McCollum that is setting that
screen and slipping out of it. He's going to have
a opportunity to create with an advantage, and he's a
better ball handler playmaker type, so he'll be able to
(47:25):
help capitalize on those situations better than a Malik Beasley
can when the shots not falling right. So, like again,
I'm not opposed to that kind of move, just everything
has to be within the concept, the context of the
big picture goal, which is this team has real potential
in the long run, because Kate is a superstar in
the making, because I do like Jade and Ivy, because
(47:46):
I do like the pieces that they have around him.
So it's about being delicate and cheap in that regard.
But yes, if you can get CJ. McCollum for cheap,
I do think that's a move that would allow the
Pistons a little bit more of a traditional ball handling
structure as they head into the postseason. Last one, Jason,
you've been advocating for Cam Johnson to be traded to
(48:07):
Golden State to fill the second option role. Laughing my
ass off, Like what, Cam is a great shooter, but
he can't even average over twenty points per game on
the nets. That's why we've been calling you crazy for
the Cam Johnson obsession. Zach Lavine is the obvious ideal option,
even if it costs more. Problem with going with the
zach Lavine type is you have to include Andrew Wiggins
Draymond Green. That just makes it infinitely more difficult. Also,
(48:31):
just as you get into those big salaries, because the
Warriors have six players that make between five and ten million,
you just have to piece too many of them together
and it becomes a depth a problem with your the
amount of depth that you're losing. I'm not saying don't
make a zach Lavine deal. I'd be happy to make
a zach Lavine deal. I think a Jimmy Butler deal
would be good too. I'm not disagreeing. I'm saying Cam
(48:52):
Johnson is also an option. The reason why is I
think Cam Johnson has an offensive skill set that works
really well in Golden State system. So a couple things.
First of all, came Johnson's better on the ball than
you think. He's run one hundred and seventy six actions
this year, so ball screens, post ups ISOs. He's run
one hundred and seventy six actions with passes and generated
(49:12):
one hundred and eighty five points. It's good amount over
a point per possession. That's really solid. Of the ninety
one players in the league this year to take at
least one hundred pull up jump shots off the dribble,
he ranks thirteenth out of those ninety one. In EFFECTI
field goal percentage at fifty four percent, he gets one
point zero eight points per pull up jump shot. That's
really good. He's also shooting fifty two percent from the
(49:34):
field coming off of off ball screens, seventy one percent
in effective field goal percentage when you weigh it for threes,
one point four points per shot. Of the twenty eight
players in the NBA that have run at least fifty
actions off of screens and taken shots, So coming off
of an off ball screen and shooting of the twenty
eight players have done that at least fifty times, he
(49:55):
ranks number one in the entire NBA at it. That
is a specific skill set that perfectly fits into Golden
State system. So he is real on ball pop, great
pull up shooter, and a great off screen shooter. I
keep talking about the concept of value for a team
versus value in a vacuum. The example I always use
(50:15):
is Jamal Murray. Jamal Murray's value to the Denver Nuggets
is much greater than it would be elsewhere in the
league because his pull up shooting over the top is
so immensely valuable. His ability to score against switches with
Jokichen the two man game is so immensely valuable. But
put him in another situation where he's with a less
dynamic ballscreen partner and where he's actually depended on night
(50:37):
and night out to be great, You're gonna be wishing
for more from Jamal Murray. Right if Cam Johnson was
the best player on a really good team, or if
he was in a situation where they already had a
bunch of ball handling and they just need him to
take catch and shoot threes and to drive closeouts and
to play a little bit of defense. His salary slot
(50:59):
doesn't even make sense that point. But on a Warriors
team that could really use a guy that is consistently
good as a scorer coming off of action off ball
and on ball, he is such a perfect shoe in
fit in the Warriors system that I think his value there,
especially on a team that is so utterly devoid of
(51:21):
scoring talent at the top He's such a natural fit
there that his value would be greater there than it
would be elsewhere in the league. That's why I'm advocating
for Cam Johnson. If you could do that and not
give up Wiggins and not give up Jonathan Kaminga, now
we're talking about a roster that has some real upside.
I like that as an option. I like Levine as
(51:41):
an option. I like Jimmy as an option. I'm just saying,
don't discount Cam Johnson as an option because he's a
better offensive player than you probably think he is. All Right, guys,
that's all I have for today. I'm also out of
town for the weekend. I'm going skiing. I'm leaving tomorrow
for my annual ski trip to Breckenridge. I will be
back in time for the trade deadline, so I will
have a trade deadline reaction when I get home. I
also bring my to go gear, so like if I
(52:02):
end up in Breck and a trade goes down, I
will record something at that point. But there's a chance
if nothing goes down that I won't see you guys
until Wednesday. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for
supporting me and supporting the show, and I will see
you guys then the volume. What's up guys, As always,
I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight.
(52:23):
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.
Host
Jason Timpf
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