October 8, 2024 • 43 mins
Jason Timpf continues his NBA power rankings with Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and the Dallas Mavericks. How will the Klay Thompson fit in with the Mavs following his historic career with Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and the Golden State Warriors? How can Dallas look to expand their offense beyond "Luka-Ball" to become a more dangerous unit? And what currently separates Nikola Jokic's Denver Nuggets and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's Oklahoma City Thunder from the Mavericks, who are the first team out of Jason's top tier of championship contenders?
Timeline:
3:00 - Power Rankings #5: Dallas Mavericks
6:00 - Mavericks offseason additions
9:00 - How Klay Thompson impacts Mavs
23:15 - Will Mavericks mix up their offense more?
27:45 - Mavs offense will be elite
29:30 - Mavs defense is shaky
30:30 - Mavericks 2024 Outlook
33:30 - Why Thunder & Nuggets are ranked higher than Mavs
37:30 - Magic-Pelicans
48:45 - Timpf's Tape
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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All right, well coon hoops toight, you're at the volume.
Happy Tuesday, everybody, O ball of you guys are having
a great week. Got a jam packed show for you today.
We are leading off the top with another season preview
from our power ranking series with number five, the Dallas Mavericks.
So we're gonna do a season preview on the Dallas Mavericks.
After that, there was one preseason game last night that
played the majority of the starters from both teams. That
(02:14):
was the New Orleans Pelicans versus the Orlando Magic. So
we're gonna do a breakdown of that game from the
perspective of both teams. And then at the tail end
of the show, I've got five clips for another another
episode of Timpf's tape that we're going to hit at
the tail end of the show. You guys have the
joke before we get started. Subscribe to Hoops Tonight YouTube channels.
You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
(02:34):
on Twitter at underscore Jason LT so you guys don't
miss SHO announcements. Don't forget about a podcast view wherever
you gets podcast under Hoops Tonight, and keep dropping mail
bag questions and those YouTube comments. We are going to
get in the habit of doing probably one or two
mail bags a week during the regular season, So keep
dropping those questions in the comments and we will be
getting to them throughout the regular season. All right, let's
(02:57):
talk some basketball. So number five, this is the last
team in my if things go right tier, I have
four teams in the top tier of championship contenders. These
are teams that I think have way less in the
way of like holes in terms of like talent deficiencies
and specific areas of the roster that could make them
(03:17):
very beatable. Right. So, for instance, like one of the
things we're going to talk about with the Dallas Mavericks
today is like they have a substantial hole in their
starting lineup in terms of perimeter speed. Right You've got
Klay Thompson, who's a very old guard. You've got Luka
Doncic who obviously is a big body point guard who
doesn't cover a ton of ground, and you've got Kyrie
Irving and PJ Washington. So, like perimeter speed is a
(03:39):
substantial weakness of that particular team. As you go to
the teams that are higher up on this tier, they
have more strengths, a little bit less in the way
of weaknesses, fewer ways that you could conceive of them
getting knocked out at various points over the course of
for playoff rounds. So among this tier though, from teams
eleven to five, I do think Dallas is the best
(04:02):
of the if things go right teams, And we're going
to talk about all the reasons why today. So offseason
recap real quick. They lost Josh Green, Tim Hardaway, Junior,
Derek Jones, Alex Fudge, and Greg Brown. They added Spencer
Dinwoodie who was with the Lakers last year, Kessler Edwards
who was with the Kings last year, Quinn Grimes, Naji Marshall,
and Klay Thompson. Before we get into some of the
(04:22):
specifics with the MAVs for this year, let's go really
quickly over their free agent addition. So Spencer Dinwoodie. I
covered him very closely with the Lakers. Mavericks fans will
obviously know him from a few years ago when he
was on the team during the Western Conference Finals run.
Not as good offensively as he used to be. He
just hasn't shot the ball well from the perimeter since
leaving Dallas. He's been below a point per jump shot
(04:45):
in both seasons since leaving Dallas, particularly bad when he
was in Brooklyn. The last time he shot the ball well, though,
was in Dallas, and it was a very different role
in Brooklyn. He was like a primary shot creator for
that team. With the Lakers, they were running a five
out off usually with three ball handlers on the floor,
so it was a lot more read and react and
kind of flowing from side to side, lots of ball
(05:05):
and player movement. Right in Dallas, He's going to go
back to what he did in twenty twenty two, which
is runs some spread pick and roll and they're kind
of four out one in attack and then spotting up
off the ball. And he played really well in that
role last time. I think, for the most part, how
well he does in that role this time will come
down to, as we've talked about, how well he shoots
the basketball. So we'll just see how quickly he slides
(05:26):
back into that comfortable feeling he had when he was
with Dallas last time. I will say when he was
with the Lakers, I was impressed with him defensively. He's
a good athlete. He's got long arms, he competes can
guard the best perimeter player on the other team reasonably well.
I think that's a legitimate weapon to add to this
team off the bench. I think he's a great pickup
(05:46):
at a veteran at a veteran minimum contract. I actually
wish the Lakers would have kept him. I'm not sure
exactly why they just let him walk like the way
that they did, but maybe he just liked the role
that he could potentially have in Dallas better. So Kessler
Edwards is an athletic guard defender. He was a fringe
rotation guy for the Kings last year, didn't play much,
did have his best three point shooting season last year, though,
(06:07):
Quentin Grimes, I want you guys to think of him
as like a discounted, lesser version of Dante DiVincenzo. Like
he's an aggressive shooter with a quick release, jumps a
little higher on his shot than Dante does, but he's
a really good athlete. He competes on defense. He's not
as good as Dante, but he's kind of that archetype
of off ball guard. I think he's perfectly fine as
a back end of the rotation type of guard. And
(06:29):
then Naji Marshall is one of my favorite bench guards
in the league. About half dozen times a year as
I'm watching random Pelicans games, I'll be like, holy shit,
that was a crazy move from Naji Marshall, Like I
get like it just as crazy to me, Like like
for a bench guard. Just like the the the creativity
and the deep bag of dribble commentation dribble combinations that
(06:52):
Nasey can get to. He's got some legit off the
dribble pop. He also just had the best three point
shoot shooting season of his career, shot thirty nine percent
last year. And he's got good size. He's big and
strong as a perimeter defender. I love him as a
guard off the bench for the MAVs. And then let's
talk about the Klay Thompson fit. So Klay Thompson was
a move for the MAVs to go all in on offense.
(07:15):
Last year. The MAVs core lineups all had three iffy
above the break three point shooters on the floor. So
like obviously the center position. Derek Jones Junior shot twenty
six percent on above the break threes in the playoffs
and PJ Washington shot thirty one percent on above the
break threes in the playoffs. So even though PJ and
Derek Jones were both pretty solid from the corners, it
(07:37):
was there above the break three point shot and that
kind of like weakness in their games that became an issue,
specifically once Lucas started having to use them as screeners.
I want you guys to imagine the spread floor in
a four out one end situation, and I want you
to imagine PJ Washington in one corner Derek Jones in
the other corner. Let's pretend Luca's on the right wing
running the action and Kyrie's on the opposite wing. Kyrie
(08:00):
obviously is a great above the break three point shooter.
Someone comes up to set the ball screen, let's call
it Derek Lively, and Luca and Derek get to kind
of work downhill into the lane, and as long as
the team is guarding it two on two, Lucas obviously
gonna either shoot his little patented something in the short
to mid range or he's gonna throw a lob to
the big man if the screen defender commits right, and
(08:22):
then if anybody helps from the weak side. So if
the two guys in the ball screen kind of coalesce
around Luca and the lowman, and let's say PJ. Washington's
in the left corner, that lowman comes over the guy
guarding PJ to tag Derek Lively. That's where Luca throws
the skip pass to the weeks A corner and he's
gonna knock down that corner three. Both Derek Jones and PJ.
Washington shot well on corner threes. Last year. PJ. Washington
(08:45):
shot lights out on corner threes in the playoff run, right,
So like that was kind of how it worked naturally
for Dallas in the majority of their matchups. Then they
run into Boston and Boston takes Chris tops Porzingis and
instead of putting him on Derek Lively and running a
drop cover, they put Jason Tatum on the center for Dallas.
And they put christops Porzingis on PJ. Washington or on
(09:08):
Derek Jones, right, the guys that are the weaker above
the break shooters. So now imagine that same configuration. Right,
I've got PJ. Washington in the left corner. We've got
Dare Jones on the right corner. I've got Kyrie on
the opposite wing. Here comes Derek Lively to set a pick.
Now they're just switching it, and now I have Jason
Tatum on me. And Luca did have stretches where he
scored the ball well against switches. Against Boston, we all
(09:30):
know that he filled the box score up right, But
Dallas's offense overall, on a large scale of the over
the course of the series, their offense completely fell apart.
The specific reason why was Luca is basically only able
to work effectively in ISO so let's say, now we
know we call Porzingis up into the screen, or we
call Derek Lively up into the screen. They're just switching it.
(09:53):
Jaylen Brown runs down with the center. Tatum stays on Luca.
Luca wants to get into a traditional pick and roll
coverage so that he can pick them apart with the
pass right. So now he calls, let's say that PJ.
Washington is being guarded by Chrisops Porzingis. PJ Washington was
all the way in the left corner. So now PJ.
Washington's gonna come up to set the screen. Kyrie is
(10:13):
gonna slide down to the corner. Derek Lively, though, in
this case, because he's not a floor spacer, neither was
Daniel Gafford, that guy's standing in the dunker spot now.
So now as a result of that guy standing in
the dunker spot, Jason Tatum is sitting head directly underneath
the rim in help ready for anything that comes towards
the rim. It's just really congested down there. Now. When
(10:35):
Derek Glavely was setting the screen, him and Luca in
a vacant paint. Him and Luca were rolling together, driving
and rolling into the paint together. But now since he
has to call PJ into the screen, Derek's just sitting
there in the paint, which allows Tatum to be in help.
Then from there, as Luca comes off the screen, Porzingis
is there to corral him coming off, and Jalen Brown
(10:57):
is chasing over the top, and PJ. Washington's only spot
he can go to because Kyrie's in the left corner
and Derek Jones is in the right corner, or if
Derek Jones and PJ are switched, then it's PJ in
the corner. Whoever it is, there's somebody in the corner,
but there's the only opening for PJ to go is
above the break because if he rolls now, there's a
shit ton of congestion in there because Derek's already in
(11:17):
there with Tatum on him, Luca's driving in there, and
like literally, Porzingis the guy who's guarding him, is sitting
in a drop coverage guarding Luca coming downhill or Horford
guarding downhill, right, although Horford did some switching in the
series as well. But PJ. Washington would then pop above
the break because that's the only opening that he can
go to and he's not a good above the break shooter,
(11:39):
and so that was kind of where things fell apart
for Dallas. The pick and roll attack, which was predicated
on picking on the opponent center in mistakes that he
might make, was shut down by Boston's ability to put
their center onto a weaker above the break shooter. And
so here's the thing, just simply by we all know
that Derek Jones Junior is a much better defensive player
(12:03):
than Clay. That goes without saying, but Clay is the
second best shooter in the history of the sport. So
one other thing I'll say about this, PJ. Washington has
good form on his jump shot. The elbows in he's
in a line, gets good lift, it's fluid, there's not
a hitch, there's not a lot of wasted motion. And
he did shoot thirty seven percent on above the break
(12:26):
threes for Dallas in the regular season. So the upside
for this move is you're taking Derrek Jones Junior, who's
a guy who is a week above the break shooter,
out of the equation, and you're plugging in Klay Thompson,
who's one of the best at it in the history
of the league. Right, But Also, the weak point is
still there with PJ Washington. Imagine if you face Boston
again with this exact same lineup, all that's happening is,
(12:50):
instead of them being able to help off of Derek
Jones Junior two, in a lot of these cases, they're
just still going to be helping off of PJ Washington,
They're just gonna be glued up to Klay Thompson off
the ball. So let's say it's Drew Holliday on Clay,
He's gonna be glued up on Clay. You're right, But
they're still going to put Porzingis on PJ Washington. They're
still going to put Tatum on Derek Lively, They're still
going to put Jaylen Brown on Luka Doncic. They're still
(13:13):
going to switch those ball screens, and they're not just
gonna suddenly roam off of Clay. They're going to continue
to roam off of PJ. With the rim protector. So obviously,
Clay increases the aggregate shooting talent that's on the floor,
But schematically, in order for this to all work, PJ.
Washington inevitably is going to have to be able to
(13:33):
hit above the break threes for the specific matchup of Boston. Now,
as we talk about this, like, here's the thing. The
West is kind of wide open. I have Denver and
Oklahoma City above Dallas. We're gonna talk about why in
a little bit. I want to make sure I give
my explanation, like I always do when I make these
sorts of decisions. I want to explain why but the East, Like, yeah,
the Nicks have a shot, Yeah the Sixers have a shot,
(13:56):
Yeah the Bucks have a shot. But Boston. I think
the gap between Boston and the rest of the East
is larger than the gap between let's say, Oklahoma City
or Denver in the rest of the Western Conference, right,
And so like, with that being the case, the inevitable
kind of like a barrier standing between Dallas and the
NBA Championship is Boston. And in order to beat Boston, PJ.
(14:20):
Washington's going to have to hit above the break three.
So like, even though I think Clay is a massive
influx of offensive talent, he's going to make them so
much better offensively over the course of the season. I
think Dallas is going to be top three offens this year.
We're gonna continue to talk about all those reasons why
but the reality is is the ultimate goal their goal
of beating Boston if they were going to get out
of the West and win the NBA Championship. I do
(14:41):
think PJ. Washington eventually is going to have to hit
above the break threes at a certain rate. And it's
a copycat league too. Like any team that has two
forwards now that they feel realistically could guard Luca at
least make Luca work, they're just gonna even just one
because Gafford and Lively are not like back to the
(15:03):
basket like beat switches types of centers. They're gonna put
the guy that they think can guard Luca on Luca right,
and then they're gonna put their bigger forward on the center,
in this case Lively or Gafford right, They're gonna switch it,
and then they're gonna leave their center on PJ. Washington.
Teams are going to copy that. Like it was statistically
(15:25):
devastating what it did to Dallas's offense, any coaching staff
worth their salt is going to continue to explore that
concept as a way to guard Dallas. So with that
being the case, PJ. Washington's offensive development particularly is an
above the break shooter, and I think there's some upside there.
Like I said, his form looks good. He did shoot
pretty well there in the regular season. PJ Washington's growth
(15:46):
as an above the break shooter is going to be
a key thing to keep an eye on from Dallas
this season, and one of the things I hope they
do is don't just only plug PJ in the corner
and make sure that he gets plenty of above the
break attempts over the course of the season to help
kind of polish that up and make sure that he's
comfortable by the time you get to the postseason. Will
(16:21):
the MAVs run more action? Klay Thompson hit one hundred
and sixty three shots coming off of off ball screens
last year, is most in the league by far. It's
eighty four more than any non Warrior in the entire NBA.
Last year. He also got one point one points per
shot in those situations in half court settings. One point
one points per shot is very efficient. Offensive ratings tend
(16:43):
to get closer to one twenty for the best or
a little above one twenty for the best offenses in
the league, but offensive ratings are inflated by things like
offensive rebounds and transition scoring right because transition offensive ratings
are typically way higher. One point one points per shot
in the half court is a really good shot. Can't
hope to do much better than a one to ten
(17:04):
offensive rating in the half court. Here's the thing too,
Naji Marshall can dribble shooting pass. Spencer Dinwoodie can dribble
shooting pass, Kyrie Irving can dribble shooting pass. Derek Lively
at the center position is like, in my opinion, one
of the better like five out prospects that we have
in the league at the center position because he's so
good at making reads and making passes out of overplay situations.
(17:27):
This is a different roster than Dallas had last year.
It's a lot more ball handling, a lot more guys
who are capable of doing more than just shooting catch
and shoot threes on offense. So I'm really curious to
see if Jason Kidd implements more ball in player movement
this year. And there's a very specific reason why I
believe in that those of you guys who watched Timp's
tape yesterday will know what I'm talking about. When you
(17:48):
have more on ball action and off ball player movement
and screening. It makes it so that the defense has
to make more decisions, right, and the more decisions that
the defense has to make on any given possession, the
more possibility for them to make a mistake, and a
mistake almost always ends in a open shot or a layup. Right.
(18:10):
So this is where like, am I asking the MAVs
to ditch Lucaball. No, that absolutely should be their main pitch,
But Lukaball the spread pick and roll for out one
end concept that relies entirely on Luca's superpower. The way
to the defense doesn't make mistakes against Luca Ball. It
(18:34):
decides what they want to do, make Luca score or
make him a passer. Right. But when you have more
off ball action and player movement and on ball action
to start possessions, that's where you can start getting more
defensive mistakes where guys just fuck up and someone ends
up wide open. And so my thing is like, I
want to see them build that out as a pitch.
(18:55):
If Luca ball is going to be the fastball, I
want to see this as a change up. I want
to see them build it out over the course of
the season. And No, by the way, when I say
five out concepts. This doesn't mean just plug Maxi Kleiba
in that center. That's not what five out is. That's
just the stretch. Five five out is about multiple actions
(19:16):
on the same possession. We're getting side to side, we
are involving multiple ball handlers. There is a flow. It
is a blender both on and off the ball. That
is five out. I would like to see Dallas build
that out as their change up this year so that
if they run into a matchup where it's like, hey,
they just tucked the center on PJ. Washington. He's just
(19:39):
missed two or three consecutive above the break threes. He
looks a little sketched out by it. Luca is now
having to attack big forwards and switches. Our offense is
grinding down a little bit. Hey, why don't we plug
in an extra ball handler, Like, why don't we throw
in you know, we'll go you know, Luca, Kyrie and well,
(19:59):
hell like just say with Clay on the floor, even
with just those three, and let's just kind of tweak
the way we play and get a little bit more
side to side, have a little bit more action being run,
and see if we can't just loosen things up a
little bit for a few minutes. My prediction is that
they won't do that. My prediction is that they'll more
or less do exactly what they did last year, but
then add like four to five possessions of game where
(20:21):
they run Klay Thompson off of some sort of like
double wide stagger floppy action underneath the basket, something like that,
where they try to get Clay some catch and shoot threes,
just kind of randomly mixed in surrounded by typical Luca ball.
But I'm hoping that they add more of a five
out look over the course of this season. Either way,
I expect the MAVs to be a top three offense
(20:42):
this year. The Luca and Kyrie fit is perfect. Clay
is a massive upgrade of Derek Jones Junior. On offense.
I think PJ. Washington will continue to improve this year.
They have an existing offensive framework that works really well.
Even the issues that talked about are more matchup specific,
Like here's the thing, not every team has Jason Tatum
and Jaylen Brown at the guard or at the forward positions,
(21:02):
right like I was. I was like kind of going
through the league and looking at it, and there are
there are, there are teams, and they're all the good teams, right,
like the Knicks have some really like a guy like
the Knicks could put uh og An Andobi on Gafford
and Lively and look to switch those types of actions.
That could be something that they that they look to
do out in the Western Conference. Oklahoma City now that
(21:23):
they have a little bit more interior size, now that
they have Alex Caruso is another option. You can imagine
a situation where they put lou Dort, even Uh on Luca,
but then put a Uh like a big a bigger,
stronger forward, or even even put lou Dort on the
center and put Caruso on Luca and then they can
switch ball screens. Like I think there are gonna be
a lot of teams that try to mimic what Boston did, right,
(21:47):
but even that's all. That's all specific playoff match matchups
for like the later rounds, right Like over the course
of the eighty two they're gonna dice everybody up. They
just are. They have too much talent and there's not
enough teams in the league to have the person l
to give Dallas the issues that Boston gave them. Defense
will be tricky Clay fell off of a cliff defensively
(22:07):
after winning the title in twenty twenty two. Twenty twenty
two was like an underrated defensive moment of Clay's career,
Like he kind of switched on to Jaylen Brown about
halfway through the series and just did a really nice
job on him. But since that series, he's kind of
fallen off of a cliff. Kyrie will be their best
guard defender in the starting lineup. In a lot of matchups,
They're probably going to have to put PJ Washington on
(22:28):
the other team's best perimeter player. I'm just curious to
see how they deploy everyone, Like are they going to
ask Kyrie and Clay to guard guards so they can
keep PJ as a low man, or are they going
to put PJ on the ball and ask Clay to
spend more possessions and help. I'm really curious just to
see how they deploy everyone. I don't think they can
get to a top ten defense with Clay in for
Derek Jones Junior. I don't think that that's an outcome
(22:49):
that's on the table for them. But I do think
they can get to fifteen if everyone buys in. They
have the rim protection. That's always a great foundation. They
have size. They are just a little too slow the
perimeter to be a top ten defense, But defense is
going to be the main thing. I'm watching with Dallas
in the early part of the year to see how
things shape up. In summary, I have Dallas as the
best of the if things go right teams. I do
(23:12):
think they're a little matchup dependent, and that's the main
reason why I don't have them in the top tier.
Teams that can that have two good forwards that can
switch their one to five pick and roll, teams that
can spread them out and attack their weaker defenders in
space right on the defensive end. Teams like when Luca's
in help, he's fine. But as soon as there's a
team that can really spread them out and can attack
Luca off the dribble consistently, that's where things become a problem.
(23:36):
I think it would be helpful if Luca got into
a little bit better shape and got to the point
where he could hedge and recover, because then he wouldn't
have to necessarily worry about holding his own on an island.
If he could just throw a hedge and then sprint
back to a shooter and chase them off the line.
We'll see if that's something that they deploy more this year,
because like they just went with like asking Luca to
guard in the postseason, and that just didn't work. It
(23:58):
went horribly well. So so like that's something that I
would like to see them explore a little bit more
as having Luca just see if he's capable of hedging.
I'm not sure his feet are quick enough, but we'll see.
But among all the teams in this five through eleven tier,
like we talked about the Minnesota Timberwolves, we talked about
the Lakers, and the Suns, and the Memphis Grizzlies and
(24:22):
all these teams, the Philadelphia seventy six ers, all these
teams that are in this tier, I think Luca is
the best player in that tier considerably. Giannis is the
one guy that you could take closer. But I don't
think Milwaukee has the talent that Dallas has, So I
think they're clearly the best of this particular tier of teams.
I think Boston would kick their ass again if they
(24:42):
played again. I don't think Clay solves the Boston problem, because,
like I told you guys, they're still just going to
put Porzingis on PJ. So the upside if you were
going to be like, hey, Jason explained to me how
Dallas could beat Boston this year. It's PJ Washington gets
better at above the break threes. PJ. Washington gets better
above the break threes. Luca gets in better shape and
(25:03):
becomes a better perimeter defender. Those two things happen, you
give yourself a fighting chance against Boston. I think they'd
get killed by Boston if they played him again. Though,
Let's say a team like Philly or Milwaukee gets through.
Though Philly's gonna have Kelly Ubray and Caleb Martin on
the floor, those are guys that Dallas could deploy Luca
on and continue to pack the paint, keep him out
(25:25):
of dribble drive situations, make if he shooters make shots,
kind of like they did with Minnesota. I think that
Dallas has a chance, Like I think Dallas would beat
Philly in a series. Milwaukee another team where there's gonna
be guys on the floor. They feel comfortable helping off
and sagging into the paint and packing the paint, not
having to guard so much in space. Milwaukee is a
(25:45):
team that I think Dallas would beat in a playoff series.
So if Dallas can get out of the Western Conference
and if somebody can upset Boston, I think they have
a real chance to win the title, and that to
me puts them kind of classically in this tier of
if things go right, I don't think there'll be a
dominant regular season team. I think they'll be above the plan,
but most likely in that three to six range. So
(26:07):
the last question is why do I have Oklahoma City
and Denver above them? Oklahoma City has considerably more talent.
They're the most talented team in the Western Conference by far.
That to me is a pretty straightforward explanation. Denver, talent wise,
is more on the same level as Dallas. Why do
I have Denver over Dallas Because Denver presents more matchup issues,
(26:30):
specifically for Boston. Boston does not have a soul who
can remotely make Jokic feel uncomfortable. Meanwhile, Boston is built
to stop Dallas like they're built to slow down that offense.
I think Boston is most likely going to win the East.
So therefore, Denver is clearly a better candidate to get
(26:50):
the trophy because they have more capability of beating Boston.
In a series than Dallas does. But if Boston gets upset,
I think Dallas has a real shot. All right, let's
get into Magic Peals also real quick before we get
into this game. I've every time we get into the
start of the year, I always have to kind of
explain this to people. I cover a shit ton of games.
(27:13):
I would say, we go what on average, five times
a week and then maybe like a sixth episode for
something that's usually a big NBA story that drops down
or something along those lines. Right, But in the five
games five days a week, I'm on average covering three
to four games. So we're covering somewhere between fifteen and
twenty games a week. Okay, I'm going to hit the
big market teams. I'm gonna hit the Knicks, I'm gonna
(27:36):
hit the Celtics, I'm gonna hit the Sixers, I'm gonna
hit the Warriors, I'm gonna hit the Lakers. I'm gonna
hit all like those are the We just have to
that's just smart business. The way I compensate for that
is I just work more and I make sure that
I cover more games. So like we are still going
to hit between five and ten games a week. That
cover teams that are outside of like kind of like
(27:57):
the major market teams. We are going to cover the Pelicans,
We're going to cover the Magic as much as most
of the other national NBA shows in the league. We
just supplement it by doing more. So, like, here's the thing,
Not only are there big market teams that I want
to hit, like the Lakers are my favorite team. You
don't think I'm gonna watch all the Laker games. Of
course I'm gonna come on here and share my thoughts.
(28:19):
There's gonna be and because we market the show based
on what gives us the best chance to work in
search engines, Like, yeah, there's gonna be a lot of
thumbnails that have Lebron James on it. There's gonna be
a lot of titles that say Lakers this or Warriors that,
or Nick's this or Celtics that. But usually there's four
to five segments in that show. And of those four
(28:40):
to five segments, yeah, two or three of them are
gonna be hitting major market big topics. But I'm always
going to do the work to cover the rest of
the league. So it's one of those things where one
of the ways that we fight that breakout clips look
for breakout clips. But two, we put in chapter markers,
So like, if you don't want to hear Lakers, if
you're sick of hearing fucking Lakers, click on the video,
(29:01):
fast forward past the Lakers part, and then you'll get
to everything else. Again, I always just have to say
this about once a year just to kind of remind people, like, Yeah,
we're going to cover a lot of the mainstream stuff,
but that doesn't mean we're not covering everything else. I
work really hard to make sure that we get to
a shit ton of games so that we can compensate
for the fact that we hammer some of the mainstream stuff.
(29:22):
And again, like, as a basketball fan, yeah, when Lebron retires,
I'm not going to have a team anymore. He's my
one sentimental attachment in the NBA right now, and at
that point, I won't have that specific, you know, desire.
But like, yeah, we're gonna cover most of the Laker games.
Why cause I'm going to watch most of the Laker
games because I'm a Laker fan and I'm gonna have
opinions about it, and I'm fortunate enough to have a
(29:42):
situation where I can talk about them. So like, again,
it's not. And quite frankly, the Lakers have a massive
fan base, so that stuff makes us money. That stuff
gives us like a means with which to pay the
bills and to keep the lights on right. So like again,
I just have to say that about once a year.
And on that note, let's talk about the Orlando Magic
in the New Orleans Pelicans. So Zion looks amazing. He
(30:05):
had three straight driving assists to start the game. The
one that was on the first possession of the game
was kind of like the classic Zion where he comes
up the right wing, He's got the ball in his
left hand. He just kind of hits that high hesitation
and just kind of dribbles a little bit towards the elbow.
The entire Magic roster just like coalesces around the paint.
He throws a kickout pass to the wing and I
(30:25):
think it was Herb Jones, but I can't remember who
it was. But one of the Pells role players knocks
down a shot and then next possession, similar thing, next possession,
similar thing. The Magic we're doing a lot of switching,
and so even when he would get get different guys
on switches, he's just trying to get downhill and make
a kickout pass. There was also a couple of plays
in that first quarter stint, and both of these made
(30:46):
my TIMPs tape segments, so you guys will see him
here in a second. But Zion had these plays where
he drove really hard to the right. I think one
was over Wendell Carter Junior and one was over Pala Bancaro,
but really hard. Dribbles to the right and he gets
cut off, and then he ends back to the left
and goes to a hook shot kind of in the
middle of the floor and knocks it down. This is
that like over the top shot that I say is
(31:08):
so important for these downhill guys. This is the one
that I've been begging Giannis to get forever. Even if
you're the best athlete in the league at your position,
you are inevitably going to run into somebody who is
close to your level of athleticism and can stop you
from just running rough shot over them all night long.
Even the guy that is arguably the best athlete NBA history,
(31:28):
Lebron James, look at his career history, it's like he
runs into Andrea Guadala, he runs into Kawhi Leonard, even
in recent years, he runs into Aaron Gordon. Mind you,
he's not the athlete he was when he was younger,
but like inevitably, you run into a guy that can
kind of sort of beat it a spot's chest you
up and force you to make something over the top.
Doesn't mean you have to make a three. If you
(31:50):
can drive at that guy and then he cuts you
off and you can counter back the other way and
hit something over the top, that is something that you
can rely on in a tight spot when the defense
is guarding you one on one and not really helping
off super far, and there's not a great look elsewhere,
and that's kind of the best you can do on
that possession. If you can get to a bucket where
you could like, hey, I can hit this shot fifty
(32:12):
to fifty five percent of the time, that's something that
could really carry you in tight half court situations. Back
to back of them that looked really, really good. Jonathan
Isaac checked in off the bench for the Magic Zion
immediately started bullying him underneath the basket. The Pelicans are
even just barely scratching the surface of what this can become.
Because I didn't even see any really great drive and
(32:32):
kick possessions where they were like multiple touches. I still
think that's the thing that they can get to over time.
Like this team is going to be so good on offense.
If Zion can stay healthy, we could be looking at
a truly special offensive season from him. And I think
it's a top ten offense and one that could get
even higher with Trey Murphy, CJ McCollum. Those guys are
(32:53):
such good spot up players. John Tay Murray, well, see
he didn't shoot the three ball well last night, but
I think he's gonna shoot it pretty well this year.
Jordan Hawkins came in and shot the seams off the
basketball like they just have all this shooting. And then
they have these two guys in Dejonte and in Zion
that can get downhill and can make plays. And even
Brandon Ingram as we've been hearing, has looked really good
in training camp, and so that's another guy that can
(33:16):
kind of break the defense down. Dejhontey didn't shoot it well.
He had a couple of his patent mid range shots
but missed everything else. But he was getting two spots
and he was getting dribble penetration, and again Orlando's defense
is insanely good, so like, this is a tough matchup
for that first version of this offense. At the end
of the first half, they ran some two man game
with Dejonte and Zion, and Zion was setting good screens
(33:38):
and Desonte was easily getting into the paint where he
could make plays. I thought that was kind of an
interesting action that we'll see more of this year. I
think Dejonte's fit overall will take some reps, just because
it's kind of an interesting fit, but I do think
it'll go fine. Cj looked great, shot the ball super
well last year, came right back to work this year.
Nine points on six jump shots yesterday. Jordan Hawkins eighteen
(33:59):
points and two assists in twenty one minutes. Kind of
slided into like the Trey Murphy type of role. And
what really impressed me about Jordan Hawkins was his ability
to get dribble penetration off of his shooting ability. He
was getting a lot of straight line drives off of
dudes chasing him off the line, and he was able
to like he made some drop off passes, made some
mid range stuff. I thought it was a really nice
game from Jordan Hawkins. You can see the formula for
(34:21):
the Pelicans, Zion and de Jonte and Brandon getting dribble penetration,
really high level shoot, drive, pass threats off the ball
to capitalize on that attention. I think they're gonna score
a lot of points this year. Orlando. I really I
love this team because I love a lot of the
players on the team, but I hate watching them on offense.
It always looks worse against teams like New Orleans two
(34:44):
that do a lot of switching. By the way, they've
got a lot of similar sized players, Orland who does
so A lot of teams do a lot of switching
against them. But then they just run into this like
kind of stagnant thing where they they just bring the
ball up the floor and they might have a guard
comes set a screen, but then it just inevitably turns
into kind of like everyone's standing around and watching Palow
or Frontz try to make something happen. It looks like
pickup basketball, but there were some positives. They shot the
(35:05):
ball well from the perimeter in the first half. They
got cold in the second half. But in the first half,
while the Pels starters were still playing, the Magic got
one point one nine points per jump shot on twenty
one attempts. Polo's shot looked good again. He was three
for five on jumpers yesterday. Jonathan Isaac hitd a three,
Jalen Suggs hit a bunch of threes. Again, they cooled off,
but I thought that was encouraging after how poorly they
(35:26):
shot the ball against Cleveland. And then their defense still
looks insane. They have so much speed and strength in
the guard corps, even off the bench, like Cole Anthony
is like competing on the defensive end. Obviously, Anthony Black
his jump shot still looks a little sketch, but he
obviously brings a lot defensively to the back court. And
then they just have so much size and length in
the front court. Like when Jonathan Isaac checked in, he
(35:47):
started like ending up in a lot of help side
possessions and protecting the rim, and like anyone on the
Pelicans who was in Zion was like scared to shoot
around the rim because of Jonathan Isaac. I'm so impressed
by them on the defensive end. I'm so impressed by
their physical profile. We just have to see more offensive
growth out of them over the course of the season.
(36:15):
All right, Let's go to this week's or today's episode
of Timp's tape. First couple of clips are going to
be zion left shoulder hook. So, as I was talking
about in the last segment, inevitably, even if you're a
supreme athlete, you're going to run into a guy that
can kind of sort of match up with you athletically.
In this case, Pala Bunkara. Zion's gonna make a really
(36:36):
hard dribble move to the right, and Palo, who's also
in an elite athlete, beats him to the spot, cuts
him off. What do you do from there? This is
where in situations where you need to create your own
shot and you can't get to the rim, it's important
to have some sort of calendar to make something over
the top. Zion's gonna pivot over his right shoulder and
(36:57):
take like a little five foot hook shot. That is
a shot that Zion should be able to get to
against every defender in the league at any time. If
he can get to the point where he can knock
that down fifty percent of the time fifty five percent
of the time, that can become a huge weapon for him,
especially in a playoff series when things grind down in
the half court. There's another example against Wendell Carter, really
(37:18):
good athlete at the center position. Zion's come in from
the top of the key. This time gonna fast forward
a little bit, get a switch, So Daniel Tye screens.
There's a switch. Now we have Wendell Carter hard drive right.
Wendell beats him to the spot, cuts him off. Zion
pivots over his right shoulder, knocks down a hook. Again,
that was over a center. That's a guy that's substantially
taller than Zion, and he is able to get the
(37:39):
shot off. Because again, anybody who actually cuts Zion off
on his hard drive to the right is gonna have
to really really dig down and take hard slide steps.
He's not gonna be able to quickly recover back going
the opposite direction. But I thought that was really really encouraging,
and I'd like to see Zion take a bunch of
those this year and hopefully hit it around fifty percent.
This was a really impressive defensive possession from Cole Anthony.
(38:04):
So we have the Magic loading up on the strong
side against the Zion drive. Cole Anthony is sinking down
into the lane to kind of make sure that herb
Jones doesn't cut to the basket. His man is actually
CJ McCollum. Watch when the pass gets thrown how quickly
Cole Anthony recovers out to CJ. Sprints Boom. He's there
on the catch, completely glued up. Gets a great contest,
(38:26):
doesn't foul, forces a miss, short catches the ball in transition,
goes the length of the floor, sees a little opportunity
where he goes, Hey, Jordan Hawkins not a great athlete,
not I mean good athlete, but he's not very big
and strong. I might be able to go through him.
Sees the opportunity, drops that shoulder, gets the angle. Nice
(38:47):
athletic finish at the rim. Cole Anthony is one of
my favorite backup guards in the league. But like it's
just an example two of defensive culture. Too. Good athlete
off the bench comes in, brings the same level of
defensive intensity as the starters. This was a fun one.
A little action that the Pelicans ran for Zion that
I really liked. It's kind of a setup out of
a five out concept. All guys on the perimeter. CJ
(39:09):
and Dejonte both just basically cross in front of Zion
and nothing ends up happening, but you do see some
brief confusion out of Orlando. I do think they'll get
some openings this year whereas guys are acrossing, people make
a mistake. I talked to it again. Action gives opportunity
for the defense to make a mistake. Orlando's an elite defense.
(39:29):
They don't make a mistake here, but you can kind
of see the action right these guys cross and notice
how CACP threw a hedge too. You're going to see
some situations where the hedge stays too long and Dejonte
is able to drive that, but inevitably it ends up
settling back into an ISO. But I do think we're
going to see a lot more of that action. I'm
curious to see how it settles down this year. Here's
(39:51):
your textbook driving kick though. So we have Jalen Suggs
with his body completely turned towards Zion looking at the ball.
That gives a close out opportunity for CJ. McCollum. Zion
throws the ball, Jalen Suggs close out. That's that baked
in driving lane that I always talk to you guys
about if He's going to stand here and I get
(40:14):
a pass on the wing. I have a guaranteed rip
through to the right because Jalen Suggs is going to
be closing out at me from my left hand side.
Rip beats him off the dribble. Okay, so now this
is where we're at. Now we're going to talk a
little bit about another element of spacing off ball screening.
Daniel Tye was down here, Dejontay Murray was over here
(40:38):
after the uh, after that crossing action that CJ and
Dejhontey ran, Daniel Tye is going to set a backscreen
on Contavious Cabb of Pope. Instead of digging down here
and trying to box box out for an offensive rebound,
he sets this flare screen for de Jontay Murray, nails KCP.
CJ McCollum makes the kickout pass, we get a wide
(41:00):
open three. So again, Daniel Tice is a situation. In
a situation like that, Wendell Carter's ignoring him and going
towards the basket, he maintains himself as a threat on
offense by being a screener off the ball. Jante misses
the shot, but that's a really good look after an
interesting little action. Then lastly we're gonna go to a
different game. Actually this was a play from Oklahoma City,
(41:22):
San Antonio. I didn't cover this game because there's too
many players out for both teams, and just in preseason,
there's so many games to cover, I want to make
sure I hit ones where everyone's playing. But we get
this really interesting like double drag dribble handoff with Hartenstein
as the hub and I talked a lot about this
in my in my Hertenstein signing reaction. But Hartenstein, I'm
really fascinated with him operating as a passing folk rum
(41:44):
out here at the top of the key. But Kazan
Wallace and Alex Kruzer are gonna set a double wide
pin down for Chet Holmgren. As Chet's gonna come off,
it's gonna turn into a switch. But the main key
here is as the switch occurs, Harrison Barnes is the
guy that ends up having to grab Hartenstein and then
Sohan switches out onto Chet. As Sohan switches out aggressively,
(42:07):
Chet beats him off the dribble, but look at Hartenstein.
The interior seal on Harrison Barnes creates the angle for
Chet to get to the basket and dunk. Again. Watch
Hartenstein right after the pass. He doesn't dilly dally, he
doesn't sit at the top of the key. I'm gonna
play this in full speed. Watch how quickly Hartenstein gets
down from the DHL in here for the seal. See that.
(42:29):
That's some really impressive two man game from Hartenstein and
Chet Holmer. We will definitely get a good breakdown of
Oklahoma City and as soon as they get their starters
out there, I'm really excited to see those guys. All right,
That is all I have for today. As always, as
sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
We'll be back tomorrow with some more game breakdowns. I
will see you guys then the volume. What's up guys.
(42:54):
As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us
if you guys would take a second and leave a
rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys
supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
do that, I'd really appreciate it.
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All right, well coon hoops toight, you're at the volume.
Happy Tuesday, everybody, O ball of you guys are having
a great week. Got a jam packed show for you today.
We are leading off the top with another season preview
from our power ranking series with number five, the Dallas Mavericks.
So we're gonna do a season preview on the Dallas Mavericks.
After that, there was one preseason game last night that
played the majority of the starters from both teams. That
(02:14):
was the New Orleans Pelicans versus the Orlando Magic. So
we're gonna do a breakdown of that game from the
perspective of both teams. And then at the tail end
of the show, I've got five clips for another another
episode of Timpf's tape that we're going to hit at
the tail end of the show. You guys have the
joke before we get started. Subscribe to Hoops Tonight YouTube channels.
You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
(02:34):
on Twitter at underscore Jason LT so you guys don't
miss SHO announcements. Don't forget about a podcast view wherever
you gets podcast under Hoops Tonight, and keep dropping mail
bag questions and those YouTube comments. We are going to
get in the habit of doing probably one or two
mail bags a week during the regular season, So keep
dropping those questions in the comments and we will be
getting to them throughout the regular season. All right, let's
(02:57):
talk some basketball. So number five, this is the last
team in my if things go right tier, I have
four teams in the top tier of championship contenders. These
are teams that I think have way less in the
way of like holes in terms of like talent deficiencies
and specific areas of the roster that could make them
(03:17):
very beatable. Right. So, for instance, like one of the
things we're going to talk about with the Dallas Mavericks
today is like they have a substantial hole in their
starting lineup in terms of perimeter speed. Right You've got
Klay Thompson, who's a very old guard. You've got Luka
Doncic who obviously is a big body point guard who
doesn't cover a ton of ground, and you've got Kyrie
Irving and PJ Washington. So, like perimeter speed is a
(03:39):
substantial weakness of that particular team. As you go to
the teams that are higher up on this tier, they
have more strengths, a little bit less in the way
of weaknesses, fewer ways that you could conceive of them
getting knocked out at various points over the course of
for playoff rounds. So among this tier though, from teams
eleven to five, I do think Dallas is the best
(04:02):
of the if things go right teams, And we're going
to talk about all the reasons why today. So offseason
recap real quick. They lost Josh Green, Tim Hardaway, Junior,
Derek Jones, Alex Fudge, and Greg Brown. They added Spencer
Dinwoodie who was with the Lakers last year, Kessler Edwards
who was with the Kings last year, Quinn Grimes, Naji Marshall,
and Klay Thompson. Before we get into some of the
(04:22):
specifics with the MAVs for this year, let's go really
quickly over their free agent addition. So Spencer Dinwoodie. I
covered him very closely with the Lakers. Mavericks fans will
obviously know him from a few years ago when he
was on the team during the Western Conference Finals run.
Not as good offensively as he used to be. He
just hasn't shot the ball well from the perimeter since
leaving Dallas. He's been below a point per jump shot
(04:45):
in both seasons since leaving Dallas, particularly bad when he
was in Brooklyn. The last time he shot the ball well, though,
was in Dallas, and it was a very different role
in Brooklyn. He was like a primary shot creator for
that team. With the Lakers, they were running a five
out off usually with three ball handlers on the floor,
so it was a lot more read and react and
kind of flowing from side to side, lots of ball
(05:05):
and player movement. Right in Dallas, He's going to go
back to what he did in twenty twenty two, which
is runs some spread pick and roll and they're kind
of four out one in attack and then spotting up
off the ball. And he played really well in that
role last time. I think, for the most part, how
well he does in that role this time will come
down to, as we've talked about, how well he shoots
the basketball. So we'll just see how quickly he slides
(05:26):
back into that comfortable feeling he had when he was
with Dallas last time. I will say when he was
with the Lakers, I was impressed with him defensively. He's
a good athlete. He's got long arms, he competes can
guard the best perimeter player on the other team reasonably well.
I think that's a legitimate weapon to add to this
team off the bench. I think he's a great pickup
(05:46):
at a veteran at a veteran minimum contract. I actually
wish the Lakers would have kept him. I'm not sure
exactly why they just let him walk like the way
that they did, but maybe he just liked the role
that he could potentially have in Dallas better. So Kessler
Edwards is an athletic guard defender. He was a fringe
rotation guy for the Kings last year, didn't play much,
did have his best three point shooting season last year, though,
(06:07):
Quentin Grimes, I want you guys to think of him
as like a discounted, lesser version of Dante DiVincenzo. Like
he's an aggressive shooter with a quick release, jumps a
little higher on his shot than Dante does, but he's
a really good athlete. He competes on defense. He's not
as good as Dante, but he's kind of that archetype
of off ball guard. I think he's perfectly fine as
a back end of the rotation type of guard. And
(06:29):
then Naji Marshall is one of my favorite bench guards
in the league. About half dozen times a year as
I'm watching random Pelicans games, I'll be like, holy shit,
that was a crazy move from Naji Marshall, Like I
get like it just as crazy to me, Like like
for a bench guard. Just like the the the creativity
and the deep bag of dribble commentation dribble combinations that
(06:52):
Nasey can get to. He's got some legit off the
dribble pop. He also just had the best three point
shoot shooting season of his career, shot thirty nine percent
last year. And he's got good size. He's big and
strong as a perimeter defender. I love him as a
guard off the bench for the MAVs. And then let's
talk about the Klay Thompson fit. So Klay Thompson was
a move for the MAVs to go all in on offense.
(07:15):
Last year. The MAVs core lineups all had three iffy
above the break three point shooters on the floor. So
like obviously the center position. Derek Jones Junior shot twenty
six percent on above the break threes in the playoffs
and PJ Washington shot thirty one percent on above the
break threes in the playoffs. So even though PJ and
Derek Jones were both pretty solid from the corners, it
(07:37):
was there above the break three point shot and that
kind of like weakness in their games that became an issue,
specifically once Lucas started having to use them as screeners.
I want you guys to imagine the spread floor in
a four out one end situation, and I want you
to imagine PJ Washington in one corner Derek Jones in
the other corner. Let's pretend Luca's on the right wing
running the action and Kyrie's on the opposite wing. Kyrie
(08:00):
obviously is a great above the break three point shooter.
Someone comes up to set the ball screen, let's call
it Derek Lively, and Luca and Derek get to kind
of work downhill into the lane, and as long as
the team is guarding it two on two, Lucas obviously
gonna either shoot his little patented something in the short
to mid range or he's gonna throw a lob to
the big man if the screen defender commits right, and
(08:22):
then if anybody helps from the weak side. So if
the two guys in the ball screen kind of coalesce
around Luca and the lowman, and let's say PJ. Washington's
in the left corner, that lowman comes over the guy
guarding PJ to tag Derek Lively. That's where Luca throws
the skip pass to the weeks A corner and he's
gonna knock down that corner three. Both Derek Jones and PJ.
Washington shot well on corner threes. Last year. PJ. Washington
(08:45):
shot lights out on corner threes in the playoff run, right,
So like that was kind of how it worked naturally
for Dallas in the majority of their matchups. Then they
run into Boston and Boston takes Chris tops Porzingis and
instead of putting him on Derek Lively and running a
drop cover, they put Jason Tatum on the center for Dallas.
And they put christops Porzingis on PJ. Washington or on
(09:08):
Derek Jones, right, the guys that are the weaker above
the break shooters. So now imagine that same configuration. Right,
I've got PJ. Washington in the left corner. We've got
Dare Jones on the right corner. I've got Kyrie on
the opposite wing. Here comes Derek Lively to set a pick.
Now they're just switching it, and now I have Jason
Tatum on me. And Luca did have stretches where he
scored the ball well against switches. Against Boston, we all
(09:30):
know that he filled the box score up right, But
Dallas's offense overall, on a large scale of the over
the course of the series, their offense completely fell apart.
The specific reason why was Luca is basically only able
to work effectively in ISO so let's say, now we
know we call Porzingis up into the screen, or we
call Derek Lively up into the screen. They're just switching it.
(09:53):
Jaylen Brown runs down with the center. Tatum stays on Luca.
Luca wants to get into a traditional pick and roll
coverage so that he can pick them apart with the
pass right. So now he calls, let's say that PJ.
Washington is being guarded by Chrisops Porzingis. PJ Washington was
all the way in the left corner. So now PJ.
Washington's gonna come up to set the screen. Kyrie is
(10:13):
gonna slide down to the corner. Derek Lively, though, in
this case, because he's not a floor spacer, neither was
Daniel Gafford, that guy's standing in the dunker spot now.
So now as a result of that guy standing in
the dunker spot, Jason Tatum is sitting head directly underneath
the rim in help ready for anything that comes towards
the rim. It's just really congested down there. Now. When
(10:35):
Derek Glavely was setting the screen, him and Luca in
a vacant paint. Him and Luca were rolling together, driving
and rolling into the paint together. But now since he
has to call PJ into the screen, Derek's just sitting
there in the paint, which allows Tatum to be in help.
Then from there, as Luca comes off the screen, Porzingis
is there to corral him coming off, and Jalen Brown
(10:57):
is chasing over the top, and PJ. Washington's only spot
he can go to because Kyrie's in the left corner
and Derek Jones is in the right corner, or if
Derek Jones and PJ are switched, then it's PJ in
the corner. Whoever it is, there's somebody in the corner,
but there's the only opening for PJ to go is
above the break because if he rolls now, there's a
shit ton of congestion in there because Derek's already in
(11:17):
there with Tatum on him, Luca's driving in there, and
like literally, Porzingis the guy who's guarding him, is sitting
in a drop coverage guarding Luca coming downhill or Horford
guarding downhill, right, although Horford did some switching in the
series as well. But PJ. Washington would then pop above
the break because that's the only opening that he can
go to and he's not a good above the break shooter,
(11:39):
and so that was kind of where things fell apart
for Dallas. The pick and roll attack, which was predicated
on picking on the opponent center in mistakes that he
might make, was shut down by Boston's ability to put
their center onto a weaker above the break shooter. And
so here's the thing, just simply by we all know
that Derek Jones Junior is a much better defensive player
(12:03):
than Clay. That goes without saying, but Clay is the
second best shooter in the history of the sport. So
one other thing I'll say about this, PJ. Washington has
good form on his jump shot. The elbows in he's
in a line, gets good lift, it's fluid, there's not
a hitch, there's not a lot of wasted motion. And
he did shoot thirty seven percent on above the break
(12:26):
threes for Dallas in the regular season. So the upside
for this move is you're taking Derrek Jones Junior, who's
a guy who is a week above the break shooter,
out of the equation, and you're plugging in Klay Thompson,
who's one of the best at it in the history
of the league. Right, But Also, the weak point is
still there with PJ Washington. Imagine if you face Boston
again with this exact same lineup, all that's happening is,
(12:50):
instead of them being able to help off of Derek
Jones Junior two, in a lot of these cases, they're
just still going to be helping off of PJ Washington,
They're just gonna be glued up to Klay Thompson off
the ball. So let's say it's Drew Holliday on Clay,
He's gonna be glued up on Clay. You're right, But
they're still going to put Porzingis on PJ Washington. They're
still going to put Tatum on Derek Lively, They're still
going to put Jaylen Brown on Luka Doncic. They're still
(13:13):
going to switch those ball screens, and they're not just
gonna suddenly roam off of Clay. They're going to continue
to roam off of PJ. With the rim protector. So obviously,
Clay increases the aggregate shooting talent that's on the floor,
But schematically, in order for this to all work, PJ.
Washington inevitably is going to have to be able to
(13:33):
hit above the break threes for the specific matchup of Boston. Now,
as we talk about this, like, here's the thing. The
West is kind of wide open. I have Denver and
Oklahoma City above Dallas. We're gonna talk about why in
a little bit. I want to make sure I give
my explanation, like I always do when I make these
sorts of decisions. I want to explain why but the East, Like, yeah,
the Nicks have a shot, Yeah the Sixers have a shot,
(13:56):
Yeah the Bucks have a shot. But Boston. I think
the gap between Boston and the rest of the East
is larger than the gap between let's say, Oklahoma City
or Denver in the rest of the Western Conference, right,
And so like, with that being the case, the inevitable
kind of like a barrier standing between Dallas and the
NBA Championship is Boston. And in order to beat Boston, PJ.
(14:20):
Washington's going to have to hit above the break three.
So like, even though I think Clay is a massive
influx of offensive talent, he's going to make them so
much better offensively over the course of the season. I
think Dallas is going to be top three offens this year.
We're gonna continue to talk about all those reasons why
but the reality is is the ultimate goal their goal
of beating Boston if they were going to get out
of the West and win the NBA Championship. I do
(14:41):
think PJ. Washington eventually is going to have to hit
above the break threes at a certain rate. And it's
a copycat league too. Like any team that has two
forwards now that they feel realistically could guard Luca at
least make Luca work, they're just gonna even just one
because Gafford and Lively are not like back to the
(15:03):
basket like beat switches types of centers. They're gonna put
the guy that they think can guard Luca on Luca right,
and then they're gonna put their bigger forward on the center,
in this case Lively or Gafford right, They're gonna switch it,
and then they're gonna leave their center on PJ. Washington.
Teams are going to copy that. Like it was statistically
(15:25):
devastating what it did to Dallas's offense, any coaching staff
worth their salt is going to continue to explore that
concept as a way to guard Dallas. So with that
being the case, PJ. Washington's offensive development particularly is an
above the break shooter, and I think there's some upside there.
Like I said, his form looks good. He did shoot
pretty well there in the regular season. PJ Washington's growth
(15:46):
as an above the break shooter is going to be
a key thing to keep an eye on from Dallas
this season, and one of the things I hope they
do is don't just only plug PJ in the corner
and make sure that he gets plenty of above the
break attempts over the course of the season to help
kind of polish that up and make sure that he's
comfortable by the time you get to the postseason. Will
(16:21):
the MAVs run more action? Klay Thompson hit one hundred
and sixty three shots coming off of off ball screens
last year, is most in the league by far. It's
eighty four more than any non Warrior in the entire NBA.
Last year. He also got one point one points per
shot in those situations in half court settings. One point
one points per shot is very efficient. Offensive ratings tend
(16:43):
to get closer to one twenty for the best or
a little above one twenty for the best offenses in
the league, but offensive ratings are inflated by things like
offensive rebounds and transition scoring right because transition offensive ratings
are typically way higher. One point one points per shot
in the half court is a really good shot. Can't
hope to do much better than a one to ten
(17:04):
offensive rating in the half court. Here's the thing too,
Naji Marshall can dribble shooting pass. Spencer Dinwoodie can dribble
shooting pass, Kyrie Irving can dribble shooting pass. Derek Lively
at the center position is like, in my opinion, one
of the better like five out prospects that we have
in the league at the center position because he's so
good at making reads and making passes out of overplay situations.
(17:27):
This is a different roster than Dallas had last year.
It's a lot more ball handling, a lot more guys
who are capable of doing more than just shooting catch
and shoot threes on offense. So I'm really curious to
see if Jason Kidd implements more ball in player movement
this year. And there's a very specific reason why I
believe in that those of you guys who watched Timp's
tape yesterday will know what I'm talking about. When you
(17:48):
have more on ball action and off ball player movement
and screening. It makes it so that the defense has
to make more decisions, right, and the more decisions that
the defense has to make on any given possession, the
more possibility for them to make a mistake, and a
mistake almost always ends in a open shot or a layup. Right.
(18:10):
So this is where like, am I asking the MAVs
to ditch Lucaball. No, that absolutely should be their main pitch,
But Lukaball the spread pick and roll for out one
end concept that relies entirely on Luca's superpower. The way
to the defense doesn't make mistakes against Luca Ball. It
(18:34):
decides what they want to do, make Luca score or
make him a passer. Right. But when you have more
off ball action and player movement and on ball action
to start possessions, that's where you can start getting more
defensive mistakes where guys just fuck up and someone ends
up wide open. And so my thing is like, I
want to see them build that out as a pitch.
(18:55):
If Luca ball is going to be the fastball, I
want to see this as a change up. I want
to see them build it out over the course of
the season. And No, by the way, when I say
five out concepts. This doesn't mean just plug Maxi Kleiba
in that center. That's not what five out is. That's
just the stretch. Five five out is about multiple actions
(19:16):
on the same possession. We're getting side to side, we
are involving multiple ball handlers. There is a flow. It
is a blender both on and off the ball. That
is five out. I would like to see Dallas build
that out as their change up this year so that
if they run into a matchup where it's like, hey,
they just tucked the center on PJ. Washington. He's just
(19:39):
missed two or three consecutive above the break threes. He
looks a little sketched out by it. Luca is now
having to attack big forwards and switches. Our offense is
grinding down a little bit. Hey, why don't we plug
in an extra ball handler, Like, why don't we throw
in you know, we'll go you know, Luca, Kyrie and well,
(19:59):
hell like just say with Clay on the floor, even
with just those three, and let's just kind of tweak
the way we play and get a little bit more
side to side, have a little bit more action being run,
and see if we can't just loosen things up a
little bit for a few minutes. My prediction is that
they won't do that. My prediction is that they'll more
or less do exactly what they did last year, but
then add like four to five possessions of game where
(20:21):
they run Klay Thompson off of some sort of like
double wide stagger floppy action underneath the basket, something like that,
where they try to get Clay some catch and shoot threes,
just kind of randomly mixed in surrounded by typical Luca ball.
But I'm hoping that they add more of a five
out look over the course of this season. Either way,
I expect the MAVs to be a top three offense
(20:42):
this year. The Luca and Kyrie fit is perfect. Clay
is a massive upgrade of Derek Jones Junior. On offense.
I think PJ. Washington will continue to improve this year.
They have an existing offensive framework that works really well.
Even the issues that talked about are more matchup specific,
Like here's the thing, not every team has Jason Tatum
and Jaylen Brown at the guard or at the forward positions,
(21:02):
right like I was. I was like kind of going
through the league and looking at it, and there are
there are, there are teams, and they're all the good teams, right,
like the Knicks have some really like a guy like
the Knicks could put uh og An Andobi on Gafford
and Lively and look to switch those types of actions.
That could be something that they that they look to
do out in the Western Conference. Oklahoma City now that
(21:23):
they have a little bit more interior size, now that
they have Alex Caruso is another option. You can imagine
a situation where they put lou Dort, even Uh on Luca,
but then put a Uh like a big a bigger,
stronger forward, or even even put lou Dort on the
center and put Caruso on Luca and then they can
switch ball screens. Like I think there are gonna be
a lot of teams that try to mimic what Boston did, right,
(21:47):
but even that's all. That's all specific playoff match matchups
for like the later rounds, right Like over the course
of the eighty two they're gonna dice everybody up. They
just are. They have too much talent and there's not
enough teams in the league to have the person l
to give Dallas the issues that Boston gave them. Defense
will be tricky Clay fell off of a cliff defensively
(22:07):
after winning the title in twenty twenty two. Twenty twenty
two was like an underrated defensive moment of Clay's career,
Like he kind of switched on to Jaylen Brown about
halfway through the series and just did a really nice
job on him. But since that series, he's kind of
fallen off of a cliff. Kyrie will be their best
guard defender in the starting lineup. In a lot of matchups,
They're probably going to have to put PJ Washington on
(22:28):
the other team's best perimeter player. I'm just curious to
see how they deploy everyone, Like are they going to
ask Kyrie and Clay to guard guards so they can
keep PJ as a low man, or are they going
to put PJ on the ball and ask Clay to
spend more possessions and help. I'm really curious just to
see how they deploy everyone. I don't think they can
get to a top ten defense with Clay in for
Derek Jones Junior. I don't think that that's an outcome
(22:49):
that's on the table for them. But I do think
they can get to fifteen if everyone buys in. They
have the rim protection. That's always a great foundation. They
have size. They are just a little too slow the
perimeter to be a top ten defense, But defense is
going to be the main thing. I'm watching with Dallas
in the early part of the year to see how
things shape up. In summary, I have Dallas as the
best of the if things go right teams. I do
(23:12):
think they're a little matchup dependent, and that's the main
reason why I don't have them in the top tier.
Teams that can that have two good forwards that can
switch their one to five pick and roll, teams that
can spread them out and attack their weaker defenders in
space right on the defensive end. Teams like when Luca's
in help, he's fine. But as soon as there's a
team that can really spread them out and can attack
Luca off the dribble consistently, that's where things become a problem.
(23:36):
I think it would be helpful if Luca got into
a little bit better shape and got to the point
where he could hedge and recover, because then he wouldn't
have to necessarily worry about holding his own on an island.
If he could just throw a hedge and then sprint
back to a shooter and chase them off the line.
We'll see if that's something that they deploy more this year,
because like they just went with like asking Luca to
guard in the postseason, and that just didn't work. It
(23:58):
went horribly well. So so like that's something that I
would like to see them explore a little bit more
as having Luca just see if he's capable of hedging.
I'm not sure his feet are quick enough, but we'll see.
But among all the teams in this five through eleven tier,
like we talked about the Minnesota Timberwolves, we talked about
the Lakers, and the Suns, and the Memphis Grizzlies and
(24:22):
all these teams, the Philadelphia seventy six ers, all these
teams that are in this tier, I think Luca is
the best player in that tier considerably. Giannis is the
one guy that you could take closer. But I don't
think Milwaukee has the talent that Dallas has, So I
think they're clearly the best of this particular tier of teams.
I think Boston would kick their ass again if they
(24:42):
played again. I don't think Clay solves the Boston problem, because,
like I told you guys, they're still just going to
put Porzingis on PJ. So the upside if you were
going to be like, hey, Jason explained to me how
Dallas could beat Boston this year. It's PJ Washington gets
better at above the break threes. PJ. Washington gets better
above the break threes. Luca gets in better shape and
(25:03):
becomes a better perimeter defender. Those two things happen, you
give yourself a fighting chance against Boston. I think they'd
get killed by Boston if they played him again. Though,
Let's say a team like Philly or Milwaukee gets through.
Though Philly's gonna have Kelly Ubray and Caleb Martin on
the floor, those are guys that Dallas could deploy Luca
on and continue to pack the paint, keep him out
(25:25):
of dribble drive situations, make if he shooters make shots,
kind of like they did with Minnesota. I think that
Dallas has a chance, Like I think Dallas would beat
Philly in a series. Milwaukee another team where there's gonna
be guys on the floor. They feel comfortable helping off
and sagging into the paint and packing the paint, not
having to guard so much in space. Milwaukee is a
(25:45):
team that I think Dallas would beat in a playoff series.
So if Dallas can get out of the Western Conference
and if somebody can upset Boston, I think they have
a real chance to win the title, and that to
me puts them kind of classically in this tier of
if things go right, I don't think there'll be a
dominant regular season team. I think they'll be above the plan,
but most likely in that three to six range. So
(26:07):
the last question is why do I have Oklahoma City
and Denver above them? Oklahoma City has considerably more talent.
They're the most talented team in the Western Conference by far.
That to me is a pretty straightforward explanation. Denver, talent wise,
is more on the same level as Dallas. Why do
I have Denver over Dallas Because Denver presents more matchup issues,
(26:30):
specifically for Boston. Boston does not have a soul who
can remotely make Jokic feel uncomfortable. Meanwhile, Boston is built
to stop Dallas like they're built to slow down that offense.
I think Boston is most likely going to win the East.
So therefore, Denver is clearly a better candidate to get
(26:50):
the trophy because they have more capability of beating Boston.
In a series than Dallas does. But if Boston gets upset,
I think Dallas has a real shot. All right, let's
get into Magic Peals also real quick before we get
into this game. I've every time we get into the
start of the year, I always have to kind of
explain this to people. I cover a shit ton of games.
(27:13):
I would say, we go what on average, five times
a week and then maybe like a sixth episode for
something that's usually a big NBA story that drops down
or something along those lines. Right, But in the five
games five days a week, I'm on average covering three
to four games. So we're covering somewhere between fifteen and
twenty games a week. Okay, I'm going to hit the
big market teams. I'm gonna hit the Knicks, I'm gonna
(27:36):
hit the Celtics, I'm gonna hit the Sixers, I'm gonna
hit the Warriors, I'm gonna hit the Lakers. I'm gonna
hit all like those are the We just have to
that's just smart business. The way I compensate for that
is I just work more and I make sure that
I cover more games. So like we are still going
to hit between five and ten games a week. That
cover teams that are outside of like kind of like
(27:57):
the major market teams. We are going to cover the Pelicans,
We're going to cover the Magic as much as most
of the other national NBA shows in the league. We
just supplement it by doing more. So, like, here's the thing,
Not only are there big market teams that I want
to hit, like the Lakers are my favorite team. You
don't think I'm gonna watch all the Laker games. Of
course I'm gonna come on here and share my thoughts.
(28:19):
There's gonna be and because we market the show based
on what gives us the best chance to work in
search engines, Like, yeah, there's gonna be a lot of
thumbnails that have Lebron James on it. There's gonna be
a lot of titles that say Lakers this or Warriors that,
or Nick's this or Celtics that. But usually there's four
to five segments in that show. And of those four
(28:40):
to five segments, yeah, two or three of them are
gonna be hitting major market big topics. But I'm always
going to do the work to cover the rest of
the league. So it's one of those things where one
of the ways that we fight that breakout clips look
for breakout clips. But two, we put in chapter markers,
So like, if you don't want to hear Lakers, if
you're sick of hearing fucking Lakers, click on the video,
(29:01):
fast forward past the Lakers part, and then you'll get
to everything else. Again, I always just have to say
this about once a year just to kind of remind people, like, Yeah,
we're going to cover a lot of the mainstream stuff,
but that doesn't mean we're not covering everything else. I
work really hard to make sure that we get to
a shit ton of games so that we can compensate
for the fact that we hammer some of the mainstream stuff.
(29:22):
And again, like, as a basketball fan, yeah, when Lebron retires,
I'm not going to have a team anymore. He's my
one sentimental attachment in the NBA right now, and at
that point, I won't have that specific, you know, desire.
But like, yeah, we're gonna cover most of the Laker games.
Why cause I'm going to watch most of the Laker
games because I'm a Laker fan and I'm gonna have
opinions about it, and I'm fortunate enough to have a
(29:42):
situation where I can talk about them. So like, again,
it's not. And quite frankly, the Lakers have a massive
fan base, so that stuff makes us money. That stuff
gives us like a means with which to pay the
bills and to keep the lights on right. So like again,
I just have to say that about once a year.
And on that note, let's talk about the Orlando Magic
in the New Orleans Pelicans. So Zion looks amazing. He
(30:05):
had three straight driving assists to start the game. The
one that was on the first possession of the game
was kind of like the classic Zion where he comes
up the right wing, He's got the ball in his
left hand. He just kind of hits that high hesitation
and just kind of dribbles a little bit towards the elbow.
The entire Magic roster just like coalesces around the paint.
He throws a kickout pass to the wing and I
(30:25):
think it was Herb Jones, but I can't remember who
it was. But one of the Pells role players knocks
down a shot and then next possession, similar thing, next possession,
similar thing. The Magic we're doing a lot of switching,
and so even when he would get get different guys
on switches, he's just trying to get downhill and make
a kickout pass. There was also a couple of plays
in that first quarter stint, and both of these made
(30:46):
my TIMPs tape segments, so you guys will see him
here in a second. But Zion had these plays where
he drove really hard to the right. I think one
was over Wendell Carter Junior and one was over Pala Bancaro,
but really hard. Dribbles to the right and he gets
cut off, and then he ends back to the left
and goes to a hook shot kind of in the
middle of the floor and knocks it down. This is
that like over the top shot that I say is
(31:08):
so important for these downhill guys. This is the one
that I've been begging Giannis to get forever. Even if
you're the best athlete in the league at your position,
you are inevitably going to run into somebody who is
close to your level of athleticism and can stop you
from just running rough shot over them all night long.
Even the guy that is arguably the best athlete NBA history,
(31:28):
Lebron James, look at his career history, it's like he
runs into Andrea Guadala, he runs into Kawhi Leonard, even
in recent years, he runs into Aaron Gordon. Mind you,
he's not the athlete he was when he was younger,
but like inevitably, you run into a guy that can
kind of sort of beat it a spot's chest you
up and force you to make something over the top.
Doesn't mean you have to make a three. If you
(31:50):
can drive at that guy and then he cuts you
off and you can counter back the other way and
hit something over the top, that is something that you
can rely on in a tight spot when the defense
is guarding you one on one and not really helping
off super far, and there's not a great look elsewhere,
and that's kind of the best you can do on
that possession. If you can get to a bucket where
you could like, hey, I can hit this shot fifty
(32:12):
to fifty five percent of the time, that's something that
could really carry you in tight half court situations. Back
to back of them that looked really, really good. Jonathan
Isaac checked in off the bench for the Magic Zion
immediately started bullying him underneath the basket. The Pelicans are
even just barely scratching the surface of what this can become.
Because I didn't even see any really great drive and
(32:32):
kick possessions where they were like multiple touches. I still
think that's the thing that they can get to over time.
Like this team is going to be so good on offense.
If Zion can stay healthy, we could be looking at
a truly special offensive season from him. And I think
it's a top ten offense and one that could get
even higher with Trey Murphy, CJ McCollum. Those guys are
(32:53):
such good spot up players. John Tay Murray, well, see
he didn't shoot the three ball well last night, but
I think he's gonna shoot it pretty well this year.
Jordan Hawkins came in and shot the seams off the
basketball like they just have all this shooting. And then
they have these two guys in Dejonte and in Zion
that can get downhill and can make plays. And even
Brandon Ingram as we've been hearing, has looked really good
in training camp, and so that's another guy that can
(33:16):
kind of break the defense down. Dejhontey didn't shoot it well.
He had a couple of his patent mid range shots
but missed everything else. But he was getting two spots
and he was getting dribble penetration, and again Orlando's defense
is insanely good, so like, this is a tough matchup
for that first version of this offense. At the end
of the first half, they ran some two man game
with Dejonte and Zion, and Zion was setting good screens
(33:38):
and Desonte was easily getting into the paint where he
could make plays. I thought that was kind of an
interesting action that we'll see more of this year. I
think Dejonte's fit overall will take some reps, just because
it's kind of an interesting fit, but I do think
it'll go fine. Cj looked great, shot the ball super
well last year, came right back to work this year.
Nine points on six jump shots yesterday. Jordan Hawkins eighteen
(33:59):
points and two assists in twenty one minutes. Kind of
slided into like the Trey Murphy type of role. And
what really impressed me about Jordan Hawkins was his ability
to get dribble penetration off of his shooting ability. He
was getting a lot of straight line drives off of
dudes chasing him off the line, and he was able
to like he made some drop off passes, made some
mid range stuff. I thought it was a really nice
game from Jordan Hawkins. You can see the formula for
(34:21):
the Pelicans, Zion and de Jonte and Brandon getting dribble penetration,
really high level shoot, drive, pass threats off the ball
to capitalize on that attention. I think they're gonna score
a lot of points this year. Orlando. I really I
love this team because I love a lot of the
players on the team, but I hate watching them on offense.
It always looks worse against teams like New Orleans two
(34:44):
that do a lot of switching. By the way, they've
got a lot of similar sized players, Orland who does
so A lot of teams do a lot of switching
against them. But then they just run into this like
kind of stagnant thing where they they just bring the
ball up the floor and they might have a guard
comes set a screen, but then it just inevitably turns
into kind of like everyone's standing around and watching Palow
or Frontz try to make something happen. It looks like
pickup basketball, but there were some positives. They shot the
(35:05):
ball well from the perimeter in the first half. They
got cold in the second half. But in the first half,
while the Pels starters were still playing, the Magic got
one point one nine points per jump shot on twenty
one attempts. Polo's shot looked good again. He was three
for five on jumpers yesterday. Jonathan Isaac hitd a three,
Jalen Suggs hit a bunch of threes. Again, they cooled off,
but I thought that was encouraging after how poorly they
(35:26):
shot the ball against Cleveland. And then their defense still
looks insane. They have so much speed and strength in
the guard corps, even off the bench, like Cole Anthony
is like competing on the defensive end. Obviously, Anthony Black
his jump shot still looks a little sketch, but he
obviously brings a lot defensively to the back court. And
then they just have so much size and length in
the front court. Like when Jonathan Isaac checked in, he
(35:47):
started like ending up in a lot of help side
possessions and protecting the rim, and like anyone on the
Pelicans who was in Zion was like scared to shoot
around the rim because of Jonathan Isaac. I'm so impressed
by them on the defensive end. I'm so impressed by
their physical profile. We just have to see more offensive
growth out of them over the course of the season.
(36:15):
All right, Let's go to this week's or today's episode
of Timp's tape. First couple of clips are going to
be zion left shoulder hook. So, as I was talking
about in the last segment, inevitably, even if you're a
supreme athlete, you're going to run into a guy that
can kind of sort of match up with you athletically.
In this case, Pala Bunkara. Zion's gonna make a really
(36:36):
hard dribble move to the right, and Palo, who's also
in an elite athlete, beats him to the spot, cuts
him off. What do you do from there? This is
where in situations where you need to create your own
shot and you can't get to the rim, it's important
to have some sort of calendar to make something over
the top. Zion's gonna pivot over his right shoulder and
(36:57):
take like a little five foot hook shot. That is
a shot that Zion should be able to get to
against every defender in the league at any time. If
he can get to the point where he can knock
that down fifty percent of the time fifty five percent
of the time, that can become a huge weapon for him,
especially in a playoff series when things grind down in
the half court. There's another example against Wendell Carter, really
(37:18):
good athlete at the center position. Zion's come in from
the top of the key. This time gonna fast forward
a little bit, get a switch, So Daniel Tye screens.
There's a switch. Now we have Wendell Carter hard drive right.
Wendell beats him to the spot, cuts him off. Zion
pivots over his right shoulder, knocks down a hook. Again,
that was over a center. That's a guy that's substantially
taller than Zion, and he is able to get the
(37:39):
shot off. Because again, anybody who actually cuts Zion off
on his hard drive to the right is gonna have
to really really dig down and take hard slide steps.
He's not gonna be able to quickly recover back going
the opposite direction. But I thought that was really really encouraging,
and I'd like to see Zion take a bunch of
those this year and hopefully hit it around fifty percent.
This was a really impressive defensive possession from Cole Anthony.
(38:04):
So we have the Magic loading up on the strong
side against the Zion drive. Cole Anthony is sinking down
into the lane to kind of make sure that herb
Jones doesn't cut to the basket. His man is actually
CJ McCollum. Watch when the pass gets thrown how quickly
Cole Anthony recovers out to CJ. Sprints Boom. He's there
on the catch, completely glued up. Gets a great contest,
(38:26):
doesn't foul, forces a miss, short catches the ball in transition,
goes the length of the floor, sees a little opportunity
where he goes, Hey, Jordan Hawkins not a great athlete,
not I mean good athlete, but he's not very big
and strong. I might be able to go through him.
Sees the opportunity, drops that shoulder, gets the angle. Nice
(38:47):
athletic finish at the rim. Cole Anthony is one of
my favorite backup guards in the league. But like it's
just an example two of defensive culture. Too. Good athlete
off the bench comes in, brings the same level of
defensive intensity as the starters. This was a fun one.
A little action that the Pelicans ran for Zion that
I really liked. It's kind of a setup out of
a five out concept. All guys on the perimeter. CJ
(39:09):
and Dejonte both just basically cross in front of Zion
and nothing ends up happening, but you do see some
brief confusion out of Orlando. I do think they'll get
some openings this year whereas guys are acrossing, people make
a mistake. I talked to it again. Action gives opportunity
for the defense to make a mistake. Orlando's an elite defense.
(39:29):
They don't make a mistake here, but you can kind
of see the action right these guys cross and notice
how CACP threw a hedge too. You're going to see
some situations where the hedge stays too long and Dejonte
is able to drive that, but inevitably it ends up
settling back into an ISO. But I do think we're
going to see a lot more of that action. I'm
curious to see how it settles down this year. Here's
(39:51):
your textbook driving kick though. So we have Jalen Suggs
with his body completely turned towards Zion looking at the ball.
That gives a close out opportunity for CJ. McCollum. Zion
throws the ball, Jalen Suggs close out. That's that baked
in driving lane that I always talk to you guys
about if He's going to stand here and I get
(40:14):
a pass on the wing. I have a guaranteed rip
through to the right because Jalen Suggs is going to
be closing out at me from my left hand side.
Rip beats him off the dribble. Okay, so now this
is where we're at. Now we're going to talk a
little bit about another element of spacing off ball screening.
Daniel Tye was down here, Dejontay Murray was over here
(40:38):
after the uh, after that crossing action that CJ and
Dejhontey ran, Daniel Tye is going to set a backscreen
on Contavious Cabb of Pope. Instead of digging down here
and trying to box box out for an offensive rebound,
he sets this flare screen for de Jontay Murray, nails KCP.
CJ McCollum makes the kickout pass, we get a wide
(41:00):
open three. So again, Daniel Tice is a situation. In
a situation like that, Wendell Carter's ignoring him and going
towards the basket, he maintains himself as a threat on
offense by being a screener off the ball. Jante misses
the shot, but that's a really good look after an
interesting little action. Then lastly we're gonna go to a
different game. Actually this was a play from Oklahoma City,
(41:22):
San Antonio. I didn't cover this game because there's too
many players out for both teams, and just in preseason,
there's so many games to cover, I want to make
sure I hit ones where everyone's playing. But we get
this really interesting like double drag dribble handoff with Hartenstein
as the hub and I talked a lot about this
in my in my Hertenstein signing reaction. But Hartenstein, I'm
really fascinated with him operating as a passing folk rum
(41:44):
out here at the top of the key. But Kazan
Wallace and Alex Kruzer are gonna set a double wide
pin down for Chet Holmgren. As Chet's gonna come off,
it's gonna turn into a switch. But the main key
here is as the switch occurs, Harrison Barnes is the
guy that ends up having to grab Hartenstein and then
Sohan switches out onto Chet. As Sohan switches out aggressively,
(42:07):
Chet beats him off the dribble, but look at Hartenstein.
The interior seal on Harrison Barnes creates the angle for
Chet to get to the basket and dunk. Again. Watch
Hartenstein right after the pass. He doesn't dilly dally, he
doesn't sit at the top of the key. I'm gonna
play this in full speed. Watch how quickly Hartenstein gets
down from the DHL in here for the seal. See that.
(42:29):
That's some really impressive two man game from Hartenstein and
Chet Holmer. We will definitely get a good breakdown of
Oklahoma City and as soon as they get their starters
out there, I'm really excited to see those guys. All right,
That is all I have for today. As always, as
sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
We'll be back tomorrow with some more game breakdowns. I
will see you guys then the volume. What's up guys.
(42:54):
As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us
if you guys would take a second and leave a
rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys
supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
do that, I'd really appreciate it.
Host
Jason Timpf
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