February 14, 2025 • 38 mins
Jason Timpf is back reacting to an electric Thursday night of NBA basketball. He kicks things off by talking about Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves defeating Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the OKC Thunder by a score of 116-101. Timpf salutes the Wolves young superstar in Anthony Edwards and breaks down what made Minnesota so capable in their takedown of one of the NBA’s top teams in the Thunder.
Then, Timpf dives into the Golden State Warriors, led by stars Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler, and how the Dubs have been so effective since acquiring the formerly embattled Miami Heat superstar. Next, Timpf takes YOUR questions in another exciting edition of the mailbag where he touches on the New York Knicks, the Miami Heat, and much, much more.
Timeline:
4:15 - Intro
5:30 - Wolves/Thunder
14:00 - Warriors/Rockets
25:15 - Mailbag
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Episode Transcript
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see dkang dot co slash b ball. All right, well,
goon to hoops toight here at the volume heavy Friday. Everybody,
hope all of you guys have had a great week.
On a Jampacks show for you today. The Minnesota Timberwolves
(01:51):
got a huge winner of the Oklahoma City Thunder last night.
They've won nine out of thirteen and Anthony Edwards is
showing a very interesting side of his game, aim that
wasn't on display in the early part of the year
thanks to some offensive production out of the front court.
We're gonna be talking about that. After that, we're gonna
get into the Golden State Warriors getting a huge win
on the road against the Houston Rockets. I'm gonna talk
(02:11):
a little bit about Moses Moody and Brandon Pajemski in
the way that their roles have become more defined and
how that has helped them. And then after that, like
we do always on Fridays, a mail bag gonna be
bouncing around the league, a bunch of Laker stuff, bunch
nick stuff, a bunch of other stuff from other teams
around the league. You guys know the joke before we
get started, a subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel
so you don't miss any more of our videos, follow
me on Twitter and underscore jcnlts. You guys, don't miss
(02:33):
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that front. Don't forget about a brand new social media
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the year and last but not least, if you want
to get questions in these mail bags in the YouTube comments,
the word mail bag with a colon, write your question.
That's how I sift them out of all those comments.
(02:54):
Drop the mail bag questions in those YouTube comments and
we'll get to them on Fridays throughout the remainder of
the season. All right, let's talk in basketball. So Timberwolves
get a huge win against the Thunder last night. They've
won nine out of thirteen. They are eighth in offense
over that span, to go with also being fifth in
defense six to net Ratings. Several quality wins in that
span too, against Denver, Dallas, Atlanta, Phoenix, Houston, and then
(03:17):
last night, culminating with the win against Oklahoma City. That's
a hell of a run and most of it is
centered around they're scoring the ball and a much more
efficient clip to allow their defense to push them over
the top. And that's come down to the recent surge
of Jaden McDaniels and nas Red. Jaden McDaniels in this span.
In this thirteen game stretch, sixteen points per game to
(03:38):
go with seven rebounds thirty seven percent from three on
four attempts per game. He's finally starting to hit some shots.
He's also doing more self creation. In the last four games,
Jada McDaniels has scored sixteen points as the ball handler
in ball screens, so he's doing some stuff on the
ball as well. Naz Reid since Julius Randall went down
in his last seven games, twenty one points, ten rebounds,
(04:02):
four assists, sixty percent true shooting, just frying teams and
picking pop action. He's scoring out of the post. He's
up to one point two to three points per post
up including passes this year only fifty three reps. But
he's been doing it a lot more obviously as of late,
as they've been leaning on him more. Just a bunch
of excellent footwork and finishing moves going both directions. You know,
(04:24):
I always talk about with big guys there being like
a heavy emphasis on short range shot making like hook
shots and floaters. Nasrid is fifty for ninety four this
season on floaters and hooks. That's fifty three percent. He's
been really really effective in that range, and he's been
one of the very best jump shooters in the entire
NBA this year. A Nasried jump shot of any kind
(04:45):
has been worth one point two to one points per
shot this year. Among the eighty two players in the
NBA to take at least three hundred jump shots this season,
Nasrid ranks third in overall efficiency. A little trivia for
you guys, who do he thinks above them? Number two
is Norman Powell. Number one, the guy who's been super
hot as of late. Gary Trent Junior, the best jump
(05:08):
shooter in the league at volume this year. But this
is the important detail. Obviously, nas Reed's been incredible. It's
been a revelation. He was the guy who's getting a
lot of the big buckets. The two guys that really
stood out to me at the end of the Thunder
game where nas Reed scoring the ball and then Luca
Garza just kicking the thunders ass on the glass there
underneath the basket, doing a bunch of damage during their
late game run. But the extra production out of the
(05:30):
front court offensively has opened things up for Aunt to
be more of a downhill score and he's been playing
his best ball of the season. Anthony Edwards' last ten
games thirty three points per game, six rebounds and five assists,
sixty percent true shooting. And here's the big difference. Here's
the obvious difference between before and how things look now.
(05:51):
He's getting to the basket more. In the previous forty
four games. Before this ten game stretch to start the season,
he was getting to the restricted area for a shot
just four point one times per game. In the last
ten games, he's at six point one, so literally a
fifty percent increase there. Get this, his free throw attempts
(06:11):
per game in this ten game span have doubled. He
was at five free throws per game in the first
forty four games of the season. He's at ten free
throws per game in the last ten games, so a
legit fifty percent increase in attempts at the rim in
doubling his free throw attempts. An interesting case study and
something I've been talking about for years now, which is like,
(06:32):
what would it look like if we just gave Anthony
Edwards better space. By the way, that's with Rudy Gobert
playing for the most part, but because Jadon McDaniels is
scoring the basketball knocking down spot of jump shots at
a higher clip because nasried is shooting better than anybody
in the league except for a handful of guys this year.
You're getting a lot of space for Ant to operate,
and he is getting downhill and getting to the free
(06:54):
throw line more than he had by a substantial margin
compared to the beginning of the season. That's the exciting part,
and that's what I kind of envision is the big
picture goal for this team as we get into like
further iterations of it. I want to see Ant play
with space. That's his superpower, superpowers downhill, and I understand
he cand settle from tough shots sometimes, Like it was
(07:14):
interesting I saw a bunch of Wolves fans molenting the
step back three that he took late in the game
against the Bucks, and like, I get it, under the circumstances,
you prefer the better shot. But like he was attacking,
he got a like a really clean look at a
mid range jump shot a couple possessions earlier, or a
pump faked, and the dude ran by and he was like,
(07:35):
stand still fourteen feet from the basket. That's just a
great look. He had a beautiful driving skip pass to
nas Reid in the corner for the shot that it
would either tie the game or game in the lead.
I can't remember exactly. I think it put him up
by two if I remember correctly. Like Ant is doing
some attacking, he is doing getting closer, better shots in
those situations. He just didn't love the shot that he
(07:56):
got at the very end of the game. But at
the same time, like I kind of like we're spect
in that situation in the sense that like he's been
working relentlessly on that shot. It's been one of the
most efficient shots in all of basketball this year. Is
just Anthony Edwards taking a three of any kind. I
think you had an opportunity there to go for the win. Again,
ideally you get something a little more reliable. But I
(08:17):
have a feeling Ant's gonna hit some big ones like
that over the years, and he has by the way
that there was several examples this year where he's been
able to go to that shot and knock it down
when it matters. It just he's he's leaning a little
much on variants there, and that's where him working closer
to the basket, he can compete or contend against his
own variants and rely a little bit less on long
distance shot making. But I mean, he's one of the
(08:38):
best three point shooters in the league this year, So
I can't like just say it's a terrible shot, you know,
you could just argue that he could have gotten something better.
But again, well you're getting some of the best basketball
of Anthony Edwards's career just by virtue of him getting
real scoring pop out of the three and four spot. Again,
you're getting, like, damn, youre, what, thirty seven points a
game out of those guys in the last month. Like that,
(09:01):
That's gonna just make life so much easier compared to
the early part of the season when there was just
very little in the way of shot making in that
front court. But I had one more note I wanted
to hit on before we move on from the Wolves.
I thought Minnesota really mauled Oklahoma City physically in that
fourth quarter. They held him to just fourteen points, They
flipped the game into a blowout when it was tied
in the third quarter. They chewed them up on the glass.
(09:23):
They had twenty offensive rebounds. I talked earlier about how
Luca Garza just absolutely destroyed them on the offensive glass
there in that run that they went on in the
fourth quarter and they guarded Shae better than anyone has
all year. It was the first time this entire season
that anyone has held Shay to below twenty five points
on less than thirty percent shooting. It's only the second
(09:43):
time this year at all that any team held them
below thirty percent shooting. They did a number on him.
It reminded It reminded me of what happened in the
Denver Game seven last year. If you guys remember, Minnesota
really ratcheted up the physical intensity and just basically ran
them over the rest of the way on both ends
of the floor. And he got me thinking as I
was watching last night and I was recording with the
(10:06):
Nerd Sash guys earlier today, was a fun one. You
guys will get to see that if you go to
the Nerd Sash channel. Carson and I vehemently disagreed about
I had the Lakers on the same tier with Denver,
and he just views there as a gap then there
being a gap there, and we got into this like
debate for like twenty five minutes about it. You guys
will enjoy that. But I got me thinking about the
(10:27):
contender tiers. And then after I finished that recording, I
went and watched Minnesota Oklahoma City, and as I'm watching that,
I'm just sitting there thinking, like, are we underrating Minnesota
because we're forgetting that when we get to the postseason,
their physicality is just a huge problem. Do you guys
remember how the Suns just killed the Wolves last year
(10:47):
in the regular season, including on like two days before
the series started. Then what happened. They got absolutely annihilated
in the playoffs. They beat the shit out of Phoenix
in large part because they ratchet up that physicality, and
that's the environment where that trait becomes the most valuable.
They're tricky things here, like you got to figure out
where Julius Randall fits into all of this. But to me,
(11:08):
Minnesota has shown some real upside. They have eleven wins
now against teams in the top ten and point differential.
That's the fourth most in the entire NBA top six
in both offense and defensive rating in those matchups against
top ten point differential teams, and that top six offense
is interesting to me, and it just goes to show you,
like their athletes can get to spots and can score
(11:30):
even when the intensity ratchets up. Wolves playing some great basketball.
Moving on to the Warriors versus the Rockets. Really good
defensive effort from the Warriors in this one. They were
doubling Alpern Shangoun and rotating out of it well without
giving up any advantage. They were doing a lot of
short closing out, like baiting on the indecisive shooters from
Houston that will shoot when they're wide open, but if
(11:50):
you kind of stunt at them, they might pump fake
and try to drive. And they were just focusing more
on containing the ball instead of chasing people off the
three point line, keeping the ball in front, making used
to make jump shots. But I thought the story of
the game was the role player contributions. They got twenty
eight points, eleven rebounds, and five assists with only one
turnover from Moses Moody and Brandon Pajemski. And so I
(12:11):
wanted to kind of zoom in on this concept of
role player depth because this was something I was harping
on a lot before the Jimmy Butler trade. I talked
a lot leading into the Jimmy Butler trade about the
idea that you can afford to lose some role player
depth with this group if all fifteen of your guys
can realistically play a role, but only one guy can
play a lead role, you're gonna get diminishing returns. It's
(12:33):
obvious in the rotation pods is averaging thirty three minutes
per game since the Jimmy Butler trade. As a result,
he's in more of a rhythm. He's averaging fifteen points,
six rebounds, and five assists with two steals per game
in that span. That's an excellent set of production. Before
the trade, his minutes were all over the place, averaged
twenty four minutes. He had ten games where he didn't
even get to twenty minutes. Why because they had a
(12:54):
million rotation players. Skurrz always trying new things. Oh this
guy's not playing well, I'll try somebody else, and like
there was a shorter leash on everybody. The rotation was
bouncing around. It was tricky, and that's what happens when
you have so many guys that can play. Now he's
averaging thirty three minutes per game. He's getting starter minutes consistently,
Big Shot, he's playing his best basketball this season. Moses
(13:18):
Moody was like a redundancy with Andrew Wiggins before the
Jimmy trade. His minutes were crazy sporadic before the trade,
eighteen minutes per game. He had four games where he
didn't even reach ten minutes. He was a garbage time
guy some nights. He had twenty five games this season
where he failed to reach twenty minutes. You could argue
that's a waste of Moses Moody. He's capable of doing more.
(13:41):
The Jimmy Butler trade balanced the roster more gave him
a more clear cut roll. He's averaging thirty minutes per
game since the trade, and he's struggling to shoot the
ball a little bit. And by the way, that's part
of what happens when your workload increases, you lose your
legs a little bit. I think the shots will fall
once he gets more used to his higher minute load.
But I think he's been fantastic overall. As like a defender,
(14:03):
closeout attacker. He's contributing well. I think he's giving you
a reasonable facsimile of what Andrew Wiggins did. Everyone was
so concerned about gutting the team's depth. Last night, Gary
Payton the Second didn't play. Tray Sjackson Davis is still
completely out of the rotation because Quinton Post is playing
so much better than him. Kurran a ten man rotation
(14:25):
last night, and you had two guys that absolutely could
play that were out. I guess I mean Gary Payton's hurt.
But the point is is like you still have depth,
you still have guys that can play, except for now
you have Jimmy Butler on your team, and you've won
three out of four while on a really tough road trip,
including beating the Bucks in Milwaukee and beating the Rockets
(14:46):
in Houston. It was just about balancing things out. There
were a lot of guys in Golden State Warriors jerseys
that were capable of doing more role player stuff, but
instead you were asking those role players to do more
star starf and then bitching that they were all inconsistent.
Of course they are. They're being asked to do stuff
that's beyond their pay grade. Now you've balanced things out better,
(15:09):
and I think we will continue to see the rewards
being reaped by Golden State throughout the rest of the season.
As a result of that, they ended up going up
by twenty four in this game, and the inevitable Houston
ball pressure and physicality ran came right like they always bring. That.
That's part of beating Houston and Houston that's just how
it goes. They do to everybody. Their bench guys come in,
they just start playing super hard. They're big, they're athletic,
they can make a mess of things in a good way.
(15:31):
For Houston, I thought you could see Golden State's younger
players get a little sped up and start making some mistakes.
The one that was the dead giveaway to me was
when Gies Santos got that pretty open three in the
left corner, but there was a pretty hard close out
and he like panicked and shot it off the corner
of the backboard. That's kind of an example of what
it looks like when players are rushing right. But I've
always found it fascinating how the best players in the
(15:52):
world just somehow seem to slow down when things speed
up like that, Steph just kept making plays by weaponizing
their aggression against them. He had a huge three on
the left wing off of a pump fake or he
just pump faked, waited for the guy to go by,
and then just calmly settled into that three above the
break on the left wing and knocked it down. It's
a huge shot in the game that put him backed
up seven and then the action that ice the game,
(16:14):
a play I loved. They put pods in Moody on
the right wing in corners out of the way, and
Draymond Green's in the left corner. Steph's right under the basket.
Jimmy Butler's got the ball on the left wing, and
all he does is just pitch it to Draymond and
back cut off of Steph and Jay Chon Taate like
hesitates because he's not sure if they're switching or not, which,
by the way, that's what happens when you're playing against
(16:34):
Steph Curry. He's gonna cause confusion with your switching because
you don't want to leave Steph. Draymond throws a beautiful
bounce past to Jimmy Butler for dunk. Every time I
watched that group, it just seems like such a more
dynamic trio to run three man action and just to
have versatility on both ends of the floor. It just
it makes a lot of sense for me. It's impressive
(16:55):
one on the road, the three and one so far
with Jimmy fifteenth and offense fourth and defense on the rockets.
It's just a tough matchup for them without Fred van Vliet.
Draymond Green gave Shangun all sorts of issues album to
four for ten, shooting only four assists and three turnovers.
The Warriors just swarmed every Jalen Green drive, and of
course Jalen Green just never wants to pass out of
those drives. I thought Aaron Holliday did an admirable job
of trying to fill the Fred van Vliet role. But
(17:17):
this team just really needs advantages to succeed, and they
didn't have anybody who could consistently generate advantages except through
the strength of their defense and trying to run out
and transition, which worked until Steph, Jimmy and Draymond just
reasserted control because they're the grown ups that can slow
down and play patient discipline basketball. Little shout outs for
Jock Landale and Nate Williams. I thought they did the
(17:38):
majority of the damage during that run, just but playing hard,
grabbing rebounds, pressuring the rim. Jock Landell's shooting was valuable
in that run as well. Again, they're gonna be fine.
They're playing a lot of weird lineups right now. We
saw Jeff Green last night. Red Shepherd, who's been bad,
is still playing a lot like they're the Rockets are
just in a little bit of a funk right now.
That has to do with injuries to core guys in
their rotation. All right, let's get to our mail bag
(18:18):
first thing. Before we get in any questions. I always
have to clarify this, guys, I don't make the thumbnails.
I am in charge of content. The volume is in
charge of distribution. They are got the people that come
up with the marketing strategy for the show. If you
see a thumbnail, that's not something that or or a
title or something like that, I had no take. I
have no say in anything like that. I'm just here
(18:39):
making the content. So like I just say. I just
say that because I constantly see comments of people freaking
out about the thumbnails, and that's that's just not something
I have anything to do with. It seems more likely
than not that Mitchell, Robinson and og And and Obi will
return to the Knicks after the All Star break. Does
it make sense for the Knicks to experiment with Mitch
in the starting lineup alongside Kat or should he continue
(19:00):
to come off the bench Considering how well the current
starting lineup has been performing. I think you absolutely have
to experiment with Karl Anthony Towns alongside Mitchell Robinson. There's
several reasons for this one. It's a matchup thing. I've
always just been a big believer that you want to
have different looks when you get into the postseason if
you can afford it. It's one of the big reasons
why I'm bummed out about the Lakers not getting a center,
like I believe in their small ball looks. I think
their small ball looks are going to be tough to
(19:21):
contend with, but I think it's advantageous if the situation
arises in the postseason and you need to go bigger
that you're able to do so. Right like not the
least of which is for Nikola Jokich. Right as far
as New York goes like, there's not necessarily a team
in the there are certain teams. Milwaukee is an example
of the team, especially with Kyle Kuzman now, that can
provide a very big frontline to where you might want
(19:41):
to try to match size for size. I think a
big part of it is the defense of flexibility. A
big part of what's caused problems for the Knicks defense
over the course of the season is teams picking on
Brunson and Cat, usually at the same time, getting Cat
into the screening action after they bring Brunson in onto
the primary ball handler as a defender by just setting
an early screen with a go or something along those lines. Right,
(20:02):
But if you have a legitimate rim protector like Mitchell
Robinson behind the play, or if you can bring Mitchell
Robinson up into action and have Karl Anthony Towns operate
as a low man, that's just a more achievable defensive
role for Kat. If Kat knows I've got help on
the back line, or I don't have to be the
guy that's coming up into these ball screens, that goes
a long way towards towards giving you an easier job
(20:26):
for Kat to do. Like, for instance, right now, Kat
is pretty much guarding the center as often as you
can imagine to try to give him an achievable defensive role.
You can tuck him away on a week forward. If
you have a center that can guard the opposing center,
I think it's absolutely worth trying to build out that look,
even though, yeah, you're obviously going to stagger them a
(20:47):
lot throughout the game. It's only been two games. But
if you've seen any differences in how the Lakers are
using Luca as opposed to Dallas. Here's the thing. Luke
has been very unaggressive over the course of the first
two games. That's been especially the first like the game
on Wednesday, it was just like one of the worst
Laker efforts of the season. I basically just crumple up
that game and throw it away. The Monday game, though,
(21:07):
like Lebron and Austin were super aggressive, like right out
the gates, and Luca was kind of passive and just
kind of watching things and not really getting very involved
in the offense. I don't think either of those games
represent what this is going to look like. My guess
is that JJ Reddick, over the course of this weekend
and running into practice on Monday and Tuesday, is going
to heavily emphasize at least either specific lineups that will
(21:29):
flow through Luca, or even with the starting lineup, asking
Lebron and Austin to just play off of Luca more
and let Luca get the ball, because, like again, Luca's
best asset to this team is shot creation. You could
argue the more you put on Luca offensively, the more
you can rely on Lebron as a defender and as
a rebounder, the more you can rely on Austin as
(21:50):
like a close out attacker, as like a guess what
Austin is a capable defender. This is one of the
things Carson and I got into an argument with about
earlier today. But like you, Austin, when he doesn't have
to do everything on offense, he actually can be a
dependable defensive player at the guard position. Not a great defender,
but he can be a good defender. Shouldn't be guarding
the other team's best player, but he can guard. And
(22:12):
so like putting him in a situation where he doesn't
have to do as much offensively as advantageous in this situation, right, So,
like I think we will see a lot more Luca
helio centric type of stuff coming out of the All
Star Break. But the flip side of that is what
I talk about after the Finals with Dallas, I talked
about how there's certain limitations on Helio centric basketball, and
(22:34):
there is an upside to Luca being more of a
willing like cog in an offensive system rather than just
the head of the stake, because it'll give them more
versatility against the best defenses. And here's the bottom line,
Like when they play against the best defenses, like when
they play against Oklahoma City, it's not gonna be Luca
picking them apart and just throwing out for catching shoot threes.
It's gonna have to be against an elite defense like
(22:56):
that that skip pass, driving a close out, really good
driving kick possessions, deliberate offense to get great shots. And
that is going to require all three of them. It
might be Luca running the first ball screen, but I
might be Lebron attacking on the skip or Austin cutting
along the baseline after Lebron attacks off the skip. It
might be three, four or five attacks on a possession
(23:18):
before they actually get what they want out of it.
And so again, like I think it'll be a lot
more heliocentric post All Star Break, but I do think
we're gonna see a good amount of equal opportunity basketball
from them against the best teams in the league. Hey Jason,
longtime listener, congrats on all your success. I noticed a
few months ago you tweeted out a Stanley Johnson and
how he should be on an NBA roster. Sure enough,
the Lakers get him on their G League team. Are
(23:39):
you someone that ever watches the G League? And if so,
would you ever do a segment on G League guys
or out of country guys we should watch or you
think are ready to play in the NBA. So I've
just found that the NBA itself is so damn difficult
to cover just because of the sheer amount of games,
the seer amount of teams that like, I don't focus
on scouting much at all, Like when we get into
(24:00):
July or late August or excuse me, late June, I
should say I will spend time learning as much as
I can about draft prospects in that short period of time.
But like, there are people that devote a lot more
time and energy to scouting outside of the NBA, and
those people are just going to do a much better
job than ever I than I can ever hope to do.
So I'm a big believer and like I'd rather be
(24:21):
great at this than try to be have my hands
in like you know, six different pots, but that I'm
not particularly good at any of them, right, So, like
I'm I really like to focus on NBA basketball. That said,
Stanley Johnson, I do think is a guy that could
play at the NBA level. He's a career six rebounds
and two stocks per thirty six minutes in the NBA.
(24:41):
Like he's a useful athlete, he does have switchability. He's
a fire hydrant that's difficult to go through. And the
biggest issue was he couldn't shoot, and over the course
of the last two seasons in the G League, he's
shooting forty one percent from three on five attempts per game.
I don't think the Lakers are gonna pick him up.
I think if they converted a wing, it'll be Jordan Goodwin.
But like if you told me stan only Johnson was
on this roster, I would be happy with it because
(25:02):
I like Stanley. And I'm a little biased too because
I'm from Tucson, Arizona. He came through Arizona. Stanley and
I played against and with each other at times while
he was here, just playing pickup and stuff. So I'm
a big fan of Stanley. But that said, I do
think that he can help and I hope he gets
another opportunity in the NBA at some point, and with
the growth as a shooter and with his impactfulness as
an athlete, I think he should get that opportunity. With
(25:25):
Mataspizzellis now hitting the double digit scoring mark eight games
in a row and Zach Lavine gone, what can Slash
should the Bulls do this season to ensure they are
rebuilding the right way? Continue to give him the ball
as much as possible. Everything about being bad with a
purpose has big picture goals, right, Like, if you're going
(25:46):
to be bad, you want to be bad while accumulating assets,
and you want to be bad while evaluating young talent.
I've joked about how like a lot of times when
you're rebuilding, you'll take on bad contracts with draft compensation
being the reward for the bad contracts. Then what ends
up happening is you have a bunch of guys on
these rookie deals where they're making somewhere between you know,
two and eight million a year that are on these
(26:09):
like cost controlled contracts that you're actually playing while you
take those guys, you need to determine which ones of
those guys can be extended, should be extended, are part
of your big picture goals as a franchise and the
team that you're trying to build. You need to find
out what modest Bozellis is? Is he just like a
(26:29):
Michael Porter Junior week side wing defender, rebounder, guy who
attacks with an advantage, or see a guy that can
run action and run a lot of it, right, Like,
that's the kind of stuff that you got to figure
out because which one of those two players he becomes
plays a big role. You might find out, Oh, he'll
never be good enough defensively for this to work. Okay,
well we need to find out. We need to play
him a large amounts of minutes, give him lots of repetition, right,
(26:52):
and so the best thing you could do is put
the ball in his hands and just find out what
this kid is capable of in these moments where where
you can afford to give them that opportunity as currently constructed,
Where do you believe that the expectations should be for
the Lakers this postseason? I'm borderline wanting to consider them
contenders because of the sheer fact that they have Luca
and Lebron, who are two of the most consistent guys
(27:13):
in the league. But I want to be cautious. I'm
going to say exactly what I said to the Nerd
Sesh guys earlier today. I don't know what the Lakers
are going to be I haven't seen them play nearly
enough basketball. I need to see a lot more. That said,
there's somewhere between, in my opinion, a second tier contender
and a third tier contender. To me, right now, I
kind of you as of like Boston Oka. See at
the top, I'm starting to slot Cleveland in that second
(27:35):
tier these days. Denver to me, is in that second tier.
The Lakers are either going to be in that second
tier with Denver and Cleveland or in the tier right below.
But we need to watch them play a lot more basketball.
I think here's the thing. If they're a second tier contender,
let's say that we end up putting them in that
second tier. I'm still worried about a Yokich matchup. I'm
(27:56):
still really worried about a Celtics matchup because it's the
same reasons that Dallas struggled last year trying to guard
Boston at times. Right, So, like, I think they have
matchup weaknesses. But I also just put this like simple,
I've presented this Carson today. If it's Lebron, Luca Austin,
Dorian Phinney, Smith, and Ruey, how are you getting stops
against the Lakers in a big spot, Like, how who
(28:18):
are you helping off of? Dorian Phinney. Smith is a
knockdown three point shooter. Ruey can drive close outs, Austin
can drive close outs, Lebron can drive close outs, Luca
can drive close out. So you can't leave any of
them open. Like they're gonna have legitimate five out spacing
with that group, Like Lebron and Lucas should be able
to get to the room whenever they want. Okay, you
have a big enough let's take Oklahoma City for example,
(28:39):
to have lou Dort. They're gonna put lou Dort on
Luca and it's gonna make life really difficult for Luca. Okay,
who's guarding Lebron Jalen Williams? Like Lebron's gonna do a
lot of damage to Jalen Williams, you know what I mean.
So like that, that's not to say that I wouldn't
that I would pick the Lakers over the Thunder. I
don't know. I honestly got him. Not going to give
you guys my like contender ranking for the Lakers until
I watched them play a lot more basketball. They're brand
(29:00):
new theoretical team right now that's played the Utah Jazz twice.
They tried in one game and kick the shit out
of them. They didn't try in the next game and
got their shit kicked out of them. So, like, I
don't know exactly what they're going to be yet. We
will find out. But like I mean, Lebron is forty
years old and he's a championship or bust kind of guy,
and I'm sure that he thinks that they can win,
and I would imagine they're gonna view anything other than
(29:20):
them winning as a failure. But like, I don't know
what they're going to be, and we just need to
see a lot more basketball before we can make that
kind of decision. So with the Mark Williams trade falling through,
the Lakers are obviously aiming for free agency to grab
that lob threat big. How would you feel about Jalen
Duran to the Lakers. He's only twenty one years old,
six ten, two hundred and fifty pounds and is a
lot threat and is a free agent this summer. He's
(29:41):
also averaging seventy percent from the field. And I know
it's early, but any for realistic free agents you see
on the Lakers, I have a hard time believing Detroit
is gonna give up on Jaalen Duran. He's had some
issues with like guarding on the perimeter against stretch fives,
but I think he's been really good outside of that,
and he's a really nice fit with Kate, got good hands,
(30:02):
finishes everything around the basket. So I mean, when I
look at this summer for the Lakers, I think they're
gonna be keyen in on guys like Rob Williams, Nick Klaxton,
guys in that like less than twenty five million a
year range that they think they can piece together a
couple of guys to just match salary and get I
(30:24):
inclined to say Robert Williams because he's a little bit
more affordable, but Nick Claxon would be a little bit
more of a big picture option because he's younger and
it doesn't have the injury history. Actually, I think Nick
Claxon might be a little older than Rob Williams. I'm
actually not sure which one of those guys is younger,
but his body's younger. He has men is injured in
his career, as Robert Williams has been. But my guess
is that they're kind of key in on those two
(30:44):
guys this summer, Nuggets in four, just kidding, but not
so much. Without Ad, I don't see how the Lakers
stand a chance against Yokic. How do you feel about
the Lakers vers Nuggets playoffs with the current rosters injuries aside?
Got into this with Carson today extensively. Like I said,
so you guys can find that on the nerd set feed.
But like, again, the way I look at it, like
I don't think the Lakers are gonna be able to
(31:05):
guard Denver, but I also don't think Denver's gonna be
able to guard the Lakers. So if neither team can
stop the other team from getting good shots, it's gonna
be a shot making series. So I think it'll be
it'll come down to like game planning, Like will Mike
Malone be able to punish the Lakers for playing guys
like Jackson Hayes Jared Vanderbilt? Right? Will jj Reddick be
(31:27):
able to punish Mike Malone for playing guys like Christian
Brown or Russell Westbrook, right, And both of those guys
have been awesome this year, right, and and so like
it's it's it's one of those things where like I
don't think either team has an answer like he was
the Carson was saying, like, there's nobody on this team
that can stop Jokics from getting great shot. You're absolutely right,
But I'm gonna present you the exact same thing I
(31:47):
just said earlier. If Denver has to guard a lineup
with Lebron, Luca Austin, Dorian Finney Smith, and Ruby Hotcha Mura,
how are they going to stop the Lakers from getting
good shots? How they're not going to be able to So, like,
I think it would be a very very high scoring
series relative to other playoff series. Is I think it
would be a very interesting playoff series. I will admit
(32:09):
freely that as as a Lakers fan, when I saw
this trade go down in the aftermath, the two teams
that I got legitimately concerned about were Denver and Boston.
So like, for the record, I would be scared in
that kind of matchup, But I just think, given how
theoretical the Lakers are, I think it'd be foolish just
to completely write them off. Four more, Hey, Jason, with
(32:30):
the Spurs now fall into twenty three and twenty nine,
in the refusal to replace Chris Paul in the starting
lineup with Stefan Cassel. Do you think the Spurs should
semi tank the rest of the season to secure two
lottery picks other via Atlanta to help complete their rebuild.
I think that the entire purpose behind making a Deer
and Fox move is to advance the timeline, specifically to
appease Victor Weminyama and his competitive nature, but also to
(32:53):
get these guys reps so you can start to learn
you have a core. Now your core is Fox, Vecel Castle,
wemb soh right, Like that's your core, five guys that
you're building around. You need to get those guys into
a high leverage situation against an elite team in a
playoff series so that you can learn about what they
need to be supported with over the course of the
(33:14):
next few years. So again, they're in a tough spot,
but you go for it. You absolutely go for it.
You want to find as much high leverage basketball for
these guys as early as possible. That was the entire
purpose behind the Daron Fox trade. Do you think that
Lebron and Yokiic are the only players in NBA history
to have seen every adjustment, every coverage, every double or
blitz thrown and have always found new angles to dominate
the game at the level they've dominated for so long
(33:35):
and with such offensive consistency. I don't think it's only
those two. I generally think that all basketball players have
gotten better, even just in this era. I think Steph
Curry is another guy where like he's competed against switching
by just running around like crazy and forcing teams to
make mistakes when they're switching. He's beat switching big looks
by just attacking them off the bounce. Famously did a
(33:57):
lot of picking on Horford and Robert Williams in the
NBA Finals twenty twenty two. He's a drop coverage killer.
He annihilated the Celtics drop coverage for the most part
over the course of that series, which is a big
part of why they had to switch at times. Right, Like,
he's done a ton of days it blitz him. Yeah, yeah,
be my guest. That was literally how they won the
twenty fifteen finals. Like that was how Andre Gudalla got
(34:18):
Finals MVP. So like, I think he's countered all these
different coverages as well. Again, like when I think about
like peaks, I think Jokich has reached an offensive peak
that no player ever has. I think Lebron has reached
a two way peak that no player ever has. And
I think at Lebron's peak, Steph was also about as
good on the offensive end of the floor when he
(34:39):
was at that point. So like again, they all have
like these different kind of calling cards, But there are
definitely a lot of players in NBA history that have
overcome anything a coach can do, Like Michael Jordan wasn't
a guy that in the nineties was struggling with any
specific coverage. If that makes sense, Why aren't people, including you,
talking about what the Thunder are doing at the All
Star break? They have the best net rating of time,
(35:00):
as well as the best relative defense ever. I just
don't understand why they're not being talked about at all,
much less like the all time great team they've been
to this point. It's not a small sample size anymore.
A couple of things. I did just talk about them yesterday.
I think we just got into them in the defensive
run that they went on at the tail end of
the game against was it the Mimay Heat, Yeah, Miami Heat,
(35:22):
and I talked about their defense now it was so
exceptionally great. The other thing, too, is like the dominant
regular season team is always the least interesting NBA regular
season story. It's unfair that it works that way, but
it's just the reality. Like there's no debate about it.
There is debate surrounding bad teams or teams that have
(35:42):
more significant flaws, because then you can argue these are
their flaws or these are their strengths, right, Like, it's
kind of weird out works in the NBA how the
teams that dominate kind of disappear into the top, and
the teams that suck disappear into the bottom, and then
we spend all this time debating the middle tier. Like
that's kind of like how it works for whatever reason.
So I understand that I don't talk about the Thunder
as much as I do some of the other teams
(36:03):
in the league, but we do talk about them. We
hit them a few times a month, and we just
hit them earlier this week. I again, I have a
similar type of response to the all time great stuff
that I do with Boston, Like, I don't think all
time great is something you accomplished in the regular season.
I don't think it's something you accomplished with advanced metrics.
I think it's something you accomplished with multiple deep playoff
(36:27):
runs where you win multiple championships. That's how you achieve
all time great that is, it's just a different kind
of like goalpost for me. I guess I view the
Thunder as kind of like a combination of a legitimate
championship contender while also being a little bit Houston Rocket
see in the sense that, like they're young and freakishly athletic,
and they're playing harder than everybody every night. That's going
(36:49):
to go a long way in the eighty two. So
like on one hand, on the one hand, I viewed
them as a legitimate contender, but I don't think they're
as good as their record or their net rating would
lead you to believe. And they still have some big
question marks to me, Like Minnesota kind of mauled them
in the in the fourth quarter yesterday, got a bunch
of stops, ate them up on the offense. They had
twenty offensive rebounds in that game. And like I do
think about certain teams that have physical size mismatches that
(37:12):
they can present. I do worry about the multiple times
this year in big spots, whether it's against a good
team on the road or whether it's in the n
Ceason Tournament championship where their offense just falls apart and
it becomes can Shay make shots? And he takes a
lot of mid range shots that he just has to
hit at a super high efficiency for them to be
worth it, right, and he does for the record, But like,
(37:32):
there's a certain amount of like frail tea with them
that I see with every team in the league except
for basically Boston, and even then there's there's a little
bit of frailty just in there defending championship itis where
they've been so sloppy with their shot selection at times
this year last. Actually, we already that's my bad. I
have the Mitchell Robinson one in here again, so I
already hit that one. So we're actually done for the day.
(37:53):
All right, guys, It's all I have for today is
always to sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and
supporting the show. I hope you guys enjoy the weekend.
We'll be back on We'll enjoy the All Star break.
We're gonna do. We're gonna do some stuff that the
games get started back up on Wednesday, but we're gonna
do some stuff on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, like contender rankings,
maybe a check in with the nerd Sash guys. We'll see.
We're gonna do some stuff in early next week to
(38:14):
kill time before we get into the rest of the season.
But again, as always, I appreciate you, guys, and I'll
see you next week the volume. What's up guys? 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,
(38:36):
I'd really appreciate it.
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see dkang dot co slash b ball. All right, well,
goon to hoops toight here at the volume heavy Friday. Everybody,
hope all of you guys have had a great week.
On a Jampacks show for you today. The Minnesota Timberwolves
(01:51):
got a huge winner of the Oklahoma City Thunder last night.
They've won nine out of thirteen and Anthony Edwards is
showing a very interesting side of his game, aim that
wasn't on display in the early part of the year
thanks to some offensive production out of the front court.
We're gonna be talking about that. After that, we're gonna
get into the Golden State Warriors getting a huge win
on the road against the Houston Rockets. I'm gonna talk
(02:11):
a little bit about Moses Moody and Brandon Pajemski in
the way that their roles have become more defined and
how that has helped them. And then after that, like
we do always on Fridays, a mail bag gonna be
bouncing around the league, a bunch of Laker stuff, bunch
nick stuff, a bunch of other stuff from other teams
around the league. You guys know the joke before we
get started, a subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel
so you don't miss any more of our videos, follow
me on Twitter and underscore jcnlts. You guys, don't miss
(02:33):
ShW announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feet wherever you
get your podcast under Hoops Tonight, and it's also super
helpful if you leave a rating and a review on
that front. Don't forget about a brand new social media
feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout
the year and last but not least, if you want
to get questions in these mail bags in the YouTube comments,
the word mail bag with a colon, write your question.
That's how I sift them out of all those comments.
(02:54):
Drop the mail bag questions in those YouTube comments and
we'll get to them on Fridays throughout the remainder of
the season. All right, let's talk in basketball. So Timberwolves
get a huge win against the Thunder last night. They've
won nine out of thirteen. They are eighth in offense
over that span, to go with also being fifth in
defense six to net Ratings. Several quality wins in that
span too, against Denver, Dallas, Atlanta, Phoenix, Houston, and then
(03:17):
last night, culminating with the win against Oklahoma City. That's
a hell of a run and most of it is
centered around they're scoring the ball and a much more
efficient clip to allow their defense to push them over
the top. And that's come down to the recent surge
of Jaden McDaniels and nas Red. Jaden McDaniels in this span.
In this thirteen game stretch, sixteen points per game to
(03:38):
go with seven rebounds thirty seven percent from three on
four attempts per game. He's finally starting to hit some shots.
He's also doing more self creation. In the last four games,
Jada McDaniels has scored sixteen points as the ball handler
in ball screens, so he's doing some stuff on the
ball as well. Naz Reid since Julius Randall went down
in his last seven games, twenty one points, ten rebounds,
(04:02):
four assists, sixty percent true shooting, just frying teams and
picking pop action. He's scoring out of the post. He's
up to one point two to three points per post
up including passes this year only fifty three reps. But
he's been doing it a lot more obviously as of late,
as they've been leaning on him more. Just a bunch
of excellent footwork and finishing moves going both directions. You know,
(04:24):
I always talk about with big guys there being like
a heavy emphasis on short range shot making like hook
shots and floaters. Nasrid is fifty for ninety four this
season on floaters and hooks. That's fifty three percent. He's
been really really effective in that range, and he's been
one of the very best jump shooters in the entire
NBA this year. A Nasried jump shot of any kind
(04:45):
has been worth one point two to one points per
shot this year. Among the eighty two players in the
NBA to take at least three hundred jump shots this season,
Nasrid ranks third in overall efficiency. A little trivia for
you guys, who do he thinks above them? Number two
is Norman Powell. Number one, the guy who's been super
hot as of late. Gary Trent Junior, the best jump
(05:08):
shooter in the league at volume this year. But this
is the important detail. Obviously, nas Reed's been incredible. It's
been a revelation. He was the guy who's getting a
lot of the big buckets. The two guys that really
stood out to me at the end of the Thunder
game where nas Reed scoring the ball and then Luca
Garza just kicking the thunders ass on the glass there
underneath the basket, doing a bunch of damage during their
late game run. But the extra production out of the
(05:30):
front court offensively has opened things up for Aunt to
be more of a downhill score and he's been playing
his best ball of the season. Anthony Edwards' last ten
games thirty three points per game, six rebounds and five assists,
sixty percent true shooting. And here's the big difference. Here's
the obvious difference between before and how things look now.
(05:51):
He's getting to the basket more. In the previous forty
four games. Before this ten game stretch to start the season,
he was getting to the restricted area for a shot
just four point one times per game. In the last
ten games, he's at six point one, so literally a
fifty percent increase there. Get this, his free throw attempts
(06:11):
per game in this ten game span have doubled. He
was at five free throws per game in the first
forty four games of the season. He's at ten free
throws per game in the last ten games, so a
legit fifty percent increase in attempts at the rim in
doubling his free throw attempts. An interesting case study and
something I've been talking about for years now, which is like,
(06:32):
what would it look like if we just gave Anthony
Edwards better space. By the way, that's with Rudy Gobert
playing for the most part, but because Jadon McDaniels is
scoring the basketball knocking down spot of jump shots at
a higher clip because nasried is shooting better than anybody
in the league except for a handful of guys this year.
You're getting a lot of space for Ant to operate,
and he is getting downhill and getting to the free
(06:54):
throw line more than he had by a substantial margin
compared to the beginning of the season. That's the exciting part,
and that's what I kind of envision is the big
picture goal for this team as we get into like
further iterations of it. I want to see Ant play
with space. That's his superpower, superpowers downhill, and I understand
he cand settle from tough shots sometimes, Like it was
(07:14):
interesting I saw a bunch of Wolves fans molenting the
step back three that he took late in the game
against the Bucks, and like, I get it, under the circumstances,
you prefer the better shot. But like he was attacking,
he got a like a really clean look at a
mid range jump shot a couple possessions earlier, or a
pump faked, and the dude ran by and he was like,
(07:35):
stand still fourteen feet from the basket. That's just a
great look. He had a beautiful driving skip pass to
nas Reid in the corner for the shot that it
would either tie the game or game in the lead.
I can't remember exactly. I think it put him up
by two if I remember correctly. Like Ant is doing
some attacking, he is doing getting closer, better shots in
those situations. He just didn't love the shot that he
(07:56):
got at the very end of the game. But at
the same time, like I kind of like we're spect
in that situation in the sense that like he's been
working relentlessly on that shot. It's been one of the
most efficient shots in all of basketball this year. Is
just Anthony Edwards taking a three of any kind. I
think you had an opportunity there to go for the win. Again,
ideally you get something a little more reliable. But I
(08:17):
have a feeling Ant's gonna hit some big ones like
that over the years, and he has by the way
that there was several examples this year where he's been
able to go to that shot and knock it down
when it matters. It just he's he's leaning a little
much on variants there, and that's where him working closer
to the basket, he can compete or contend against his
own variants and rely a little bit less on long
distance shot making. But I mean, he's one of the
(08:38):
best three point shooters in the league this year, So
I can't like just say it's a terrible shot, you know,
you could just argue that he could have gotten something better.
But again, well you're getting some of the best basketball
of Anthony Edwards's career just by virtue of him getting
real scoring pop out of the three and four spot. Again,
you're getting, like, damn, youre, what, thirty seven points a
game out of those guys in the last month. Like that,
(09:01):
That's gonna just make life so much easier compared to
the early part of the season when there was just
very little in the way of shot making in that
front court. But I had one more note I wanted
to hit on before we move on from the Wolves.
I thought Minnesota really mauled Oklahoma City physically in that
fourth quarter. They held him to just fourteen points, They
flipped the game into a blowout when it was tied
in the third quarter. They chewed them up on the glass.
(09:23):
They had twenty offensive rebounds. I talked earlier about how
Luca Garza just absolutely destroyed them on the offensive glass
there in that run that they went on in the
fourth quarter and they guarded Shae better than anyone has
all year. It was the first time this entire season
that anyone has held Shay to below twenty five points
on less than thirty percent shooting. It's only the second
(09:43):
time this year at all that any team held them
below thirty percent shooting. They did a number on him.
It reminded It reminded me of what happened in the
Denver Game seven last year. If you guys remember, Minnesota
really ratcheted up the physical intensity and just basically ran
them over the rest of the way on both ends
of the floor. And he got me thinking as I
was watching last night and I was recording with the
(10:06):
Nerd Sash guys earlier today, was a fun one. You
guys will get to see that if you go to
the Nerd Sash channel. Carson and I vehemently disagreed about
I had the Lakers on the same tier with Denver,
and he just views there as a gap then there
being a gap there, and we got into this like
debate for like twenty five minutes about it. You guys
will enjoy that. But I got me thinking about the
(10:27):
contender tiers. And then after I finished that recording, I
went and watched Minnesota Oklahoma City, and as I'm watching that,
I'm just sitting there thinking, like, are we underrating Minnesota
because we're forgetting that when we get to the postseason,
their physicality is just a huge problem. Do you guys
remember how the Suns just killed the Wolves last year
(10:47):
in the regular season, including on like two days before
the series started. Then what happened. They got absolutely annihilated
in the playoffs. They beat the shit out of Phoenix
in large part because they ratchet up that physicality, and
that's the environment where that trait becomes the most valuable.
They're tricky things here, like you got to figure out
where Julius Randall fits into all of this. But to me,
(11:08):
Minnesota has shown some real upside. They have eleven wins
now against teams in the top ten and point differential.
That's the fourth most in the entire NBA top six
in both offense and defensive rating in those matchups against
top ten point differential teams, and that top six offense
is interesting to me, and it just goes to show you,
like their athletes can get to spots and can score
(11:30):
even when the intensity ratchets up. Wolves playing some great basketball.
Moving on to the Warriors versus the Rockets. Really good
defensive effort from the Warriors in this one. They were
doubling Alpern Shangoun and rotating out of it well without
giving up any advantage. They were doing a lot of
short closing out, like baiting on the indecisive shooters from
Houston that will shoot when they're wide open, but if
(11:50):
you kind of stunt at them, they might pump fake
and try to drive. And they were just focusing more
on containing the ball instead of chasing people off the
three point line, keeping the ball in front, making used
to make jump shots. But I thought the story of
the game was the role player contributions. They got twenty
eight points, eleven rebounds, and five assists with only one
turnover from Moses Moody and Brandon Pajemski. And so I
(12:11):
wanted to kind of zoom in on this concept of
role player depth because this was something I was harping
on a lot before the Jimmy Butler trade. I talked
a lot leading into the Jimmy Butler trade about the
idea that you can afford to lose some role player
depth with this group if all fifteen of your guys
can realistically play a role, but only one guy can
play a lead role, you're gonna get diminishing returns. It's
(12:33):
obvious in the rotation pods is averaging thirty three minutes
per game since the Jimmy Butler trade. As a result,
he's in more of a rhythm. He's averaging fifteen points,
six rebounds, and five assists with two steals per game
in that span. That's an excellent set of production. Before
the trade, his minutes were all over the place, averaged
twenty four minutes. He had ten games where he didn't
even get to twenty minutes. Why because they had a
(12:54):
million rotation players. Skurrz always trying new things. Oh this
guy's not playing well, I'll try somebody else, and like
there was a shorter leash on everybody. The rotation was
bouncing around. It was tricky, and that's what happens when
you have so many guys that can play. Now he's
averaging thirty three minutes per game. He's getting starter minutes consistently,
Big Shot, he's playing his best basketball this season. Moses
(13:18):
Moody was like a redundancy with Andrew Wiggins before the
Jimmy trade. His minutes were crazy sporadic before the trade,
eighteen minutes per game. He had four games where he
didn't even reach ten minutes. He was a garbage time
guy some nights. He had twenty five games this season
where he failed to reach twenty minutes. You could argue
that's a waste of Moses Moody. He's capable of doing more.
(13:41):
The Jimmy Butler trade balanced the roster more gave him
a more clear cut roll. He's averaging thirty minutes per
game since the trade, and he's struggling to shoot the
ball a little bit. And by the way, that's part
of what happens when your workload increases, you lose your
legs a little bit. I think the shots will fall
once he gets more used to his higher minute load.
But I think he's been fantastic overall. As like a defender,
(14:03):
closeout attacker. He's contributing well. I think he's giving you
a reasonable facsimile of what Andrew Wiggins did. Everyone was
so concerned about gutting the team's depth. Last night, Gary
Payton the Second didn't play. Tray Sjackson Davis is still
completely out of the rotation because Quinton Post is playing
so much better than him. Kurran a ten man rotation
(14:25):
last night, and you had two guys that absolutely could
play that were out. I guess I mean Gary Payton's hurt.
But the point is is like you still have depth,
you still have guys that can play, except for now
you have Jimmy Butler on your team, and you've won
three out of four while on a really tough road trip,
including beating the Bucks in Milwaukee and beating the Rockets
(14:46):
in Houston. It was just about balancing things out. There
were a lot of guys in Golden State Warriors jerseys
that were capable of doing more role player stuff, but
instead you were asking those role players to do more
star starf and then bitching that they were all inconsistent.
Of course they are. They're being asked to do stuff
that's beyond their pay grade. Now you've balanced things out better,
(15:09):
and I think we will continue to see the rewards
being reaped by Golden State throughout the rest of the season.
As a result of that, they ended up going up
by twenty four in this game, and the inevitable Houston
ball pressure and physicality ran came right like they always bring. That.
That's part of beating Houston and Houston that's just how
it goes. They do to everybody. Their bench guys come in,
they just start playing super hard. They're big, they're athletic,
they can make a mess of things in a good way.
(15:31):
For Houston, I thought you could see Golden State's younger
players get a little sped up and start making some mistakes.
The one that was the dead giveaway to me was
when Gies Santos got that pretty open three in the
left corner, but there was a pretty hard close out
and he like panicked and shot it off the corner
of the backboard. That's kind of an example of what
it looks like when players are rushing right. But I've
always found it fascinating how the best players in the
(15:52):
world just somehow seem to slow down when things speed
up like that, Steph just kept making plays by weaponizing
their aggression against them. He had a huge three on
the left wing off of a pump fake or he
just pump faked, waited for the guy to go by,
and then just calmly settled into that three above the
break on the left wing and knocked it down. It's
a huge shot in the game that put him backed
up seven and then the action that ice the game,
(16:14):
a play I loved. They put pods in Moody on
the right wing in corners out of the way, and
Draymond Green's in the left corner. Steph's right under the basket.
Jimmy Butler's got the ball on the left wing, and
all he does is just pitch it to Draymond and
back cut off of Steph and Jay Chon Taate like
hesitates because he's not sure if they're switching or not, which,
by the way, that's what happens when you're playing against
(16:34):
Steph Curry. He's gonna cause confusion with your switching because
you don't want to leave Steph. Draymond throws a beautiful
bounce past to Jimmy Butler for dunk. Every time I
watched that group, it just seems like such a more
dynamic trio to run three man action and just to
have versatility on both ends of the floor. It just
it makes a lot of sense for me. It's impressive
(16:55):
one on the road, the three and one so far
with Jimmy fifteenth and offense fourth and defense on the rockets.
It's just a tough matchup for them without Fred van Vliet.
Draymond Green gave Shangun all sorts of issues album to
four for ten, shooting only four assists and three turnovers.
The Warriors just swarmed every Jalen Green drive, and of
course Jalen Green just never wants to pass out of
those drives. I thought Aaron Holliday did an admirable job
of trying to fill the Fred van Vliet role. But
(17:17):
this team just really needs advantages to succeed, and they
didn't have anybody who could consistently generate advantages except through
the strength of their defense and trying to run out
and transition, which worked until Steph, Jimmy and Draymond just
reasserted control because they're the grown ups that can slow
down and play patient discipline basketball. Little shout outs for
Jock Landale and Nate Williams. I thought they did the
(17:38):
majority of the damage during that run, just but playing hard,
grabbing rebounds, pressuring the rim. Jock Landell's shooting was valuable
in that run as well. Again, they're gonna be fine.
They're playing a lot of weird lineups right now. We
saw Jeff Green last night. Red Shepherd, who's been bad,
is still playing a lot like they're the Rockets are
just in a little bit of a funk right now.
That has to do with injuries to core guys in
their rotation. All right, let's get to our mail bag
(18:18):
first thing. Before we get in any questions. I always
have to clarify this, guys, I don't make the thumbnails.
I am in charge of content. The volume is in
charge of distribution. They are got the people that come
up with the marketing strategy for the show. If you
see a thumbnail, that's not something that or or a
title or something like that, I had no take. I
have no say in anything like that. I'm just here
(18:39):
making the content. So like I just say. I just
say that because I constantly see comments of people freaking
out about the thumbnails, and that's that's just not something
I have anything to do with. It seems more likely
than not that Mitchell, Robinson and og And and Obi will
return to the Knicks after the All Star break. Does
it make sense for the Knicks to experiment with Mitch
in the starting lineup alongside Kat or should he continue
(19:00):
to come off the bench Considering how well the current
starting lineup has been performing. I think you absolutely have
to experiment with Karl Anthony Towns alongside Mitchell Robinson. There's
several reasons for this one. It's a matchup thing. I've
always just been a big believer that you want to
have different looks when you get into the postseason if
you can afford it. It's one of the big reasons
why I'm bummed out about the Lakers not getting a center,
like I believe in their small ball looks. I think
their small ball looks are going to be tough to
(19:21):
contend with, but I think it's advantageous if the situation
arises in the postseason and you need to go bigger
that you're able to do so. Right like not the
least of which is for Nikola Jokich. Right as far
as New York goes like, there's not necessarily a team
in the there are certain teams. Milwaukee is an example
of the team, especially with Kyle Kuzman now, that can
provide a very big frontline to where you might want
(19:41):
to try to match size for size. I think a
big part of it is the defense of flexibility. A
big part of what's caused problems for the Knicks defense
over the course of the season is teams picking on
Brunson and Cat, usually at the same time, getting Cat
into the screening action after they bring Brunson in onto
the primary ball handler as a defender by just setting
an early screen with a go or something along those lines. Right,
(20:02):
But if you have a legitimate rim protector like Mitchell
Robinson behind the play, or if you can bring Mitchell
Robinson up into action and have Karl Anthony Towns operate
as a low man, that's just a more achievable defensive
role for Kat. If Kat knows I've got help on
the back line, or I don't have to be the
guy that's coming up into these ball screens, that goes
a long way towards towards giving you an easier job
(20:26):
for Kat to do. Like, for instance, right now, Kat
is pretty much guarding the center as often as you
can imagine to try to give him an achievable defensive role.
You can tuck him away on a week forward. If
you have a center that can guard the opposing center,
I think it's absolutely worth trying to build out that look,
even though, yeah, you're obviously going to stagger them a
(20:47):
lot throughout the game. It's only been two games. But
if you've seen any differences in how the Lakers are
using Luca as opposed to Dallas. Here's the thing. Luke
has been very unaggressive over the course of the first
two games. That's been especially the first like the game
on Wednesday, it was just like one of the worst
Laker efforts of the season. I basically just crumple up
that game and throw it away. The Monday game, though,
(21:07):
like Lebron and Austin were super aggressive, like right out
the gates, and Luca was kind of passive and just
kind of watching things and not really getting very involved
in the offense. I don't think either of those games
represent what this is going to look like. My guess
is that JJ Reddick, over the course of this weekend
and running into practice on Monday and Tuesday, is going
to heavily emphasize at least either specific lineups that will
(21:29):
flow through Luca, or even with the starting lineup, asking
Lebron and Austin to just play off of Luca more
and let Luca get the ball, because, like again, Luca's
best asset to this team is shot creation. You could
argue the more you put on Luca offensively, the more
you can rely on Lebron as a defender and as
a rebounder, the more you can rely on Austin as
(21:50):
like a close out attacker, as like a guess what
Austin is a capable defender. This is one of the
things Carson and I got into an argument with about
earlier today. But like you, Austin, when he doesn't have
to do everything on offense, he actually can be a
dependable defensive player at the guard position. Not a great defender,
but he can be a good defender. Shouldn't be guarding
the other team's best player, but he can guard. And
(22:12):
so like putting him in a situation where he doesn't
have to do as much offensively as advantageous in this situation, right, So,
like I think we will see a lot more Luca
helio centric type of stuff coming out of the All
Star Break. But the flip side of that is what
I talk about after the Finals with Dallas, I talked
about how there's certain limitations on Helio centric basketball, and
(22:34):
there is an upside to Luca being more of a
willing like cog in an offensive system rather than just
the head of the stake, because it'll give them more
versatility against the best defenses. And here's the bottom line,
Like when they play against the best defenses, like when
they play against Oklahoma City, it's not gonna be Luca
picking them apart and just throwing out for catching shoot threes.
It's gonna have to be against an elite defense like
(22:56):
that that skip pass, driving a close out, really good
driving kick possessions, deliberate offense to get great shots. And
that is going to require all three of them. It
might be Luca running the first ball screen, but I
might be Lebron attacking on the skip or Austin cutting
along the baseline after Lebron attacks off the skip. It
might be three, four or five attacks on a possession
(23:18):
before they actually get what they want out of it.
And so again, like I think it'll be a lot
more heliocentric post All Star Break, but I do think
we're gonna see a good amount of equal opportunity basketball
from them against the best teams in the league. Hey Jason,
longtime listener, congrats on all your success. I noticed a
few months ago you tweeted out a Stanley Johnson and
how he should be on an NBA roster. Sure enough,
the Lakers get him on their G League team. Are
(23:39):
you someone that ever watches the G League? And if so,
would you ever do a segment on G League guys
or out of country guys we should watch or you
think are ready to play in the NBA. So I've
just found that the NBA itself is so damn difficult
to cover just because of the sheer amount of games,
the seer amount of teams that like, I don't focus
on scouting much at all, Like when we get into
(24:00):
July or late August or excuse me, late June, I
should say I will spend time learning as much as
I can about draft prospects in that short period of time.
But like, there are people that devote a lot more
time and energy to scouting outside of the NBA, and
those people are just going to do a much better
job than ever I than I can ever hope to do.
So I'm a big believer and like I'd rather be
(24:21):
great at this than try to be have my hands
in like you know, six different pots, but that I'm
not particularly good at any of them, right, So, like
I'm I really like to focus on NBA basketball. That said,
Stanley Johnson, I do think is a guy that could
play at the NBA level. He's a career six rebounds
and two stocks per thirty six minutes in the NBA.
(24:41):
Like he's a useful athlete, he does have switchability. He's
a fire hydrant that's difficult to go through. And the
biggest issue was he couldn't shoot, and over the course
of the last two seasons in the G League, he's
shooting forty one percent from three on five attempts per game.
I don't think the Lakers are gonna pick him up.
I think if they converted a wing, it'll be Jordan Goodwin.
But like if you told me stan only Johnson was
on this roster, I would be happy with it because
(25:02):
I like Stanley. And I'm a little biased too because
I'm from Tucson, Arizona. He came through Arizona. Stanley and
I played against and with each other at times while
he was here, just playing pickup and stuff. So I'm
a big fan of Stanley. But that said, I do
think that he can help and I hope he gets
another opportunity in the NBA at some point, and with
the growth as a shooter and with his impactfulness as
an athlete, I think he should get that opportunity. With
(25:25):
Mataspizzellis now hitting the double digit scoring mark eight games
in a row and Zach Lavine gone, what can Slash
should the Bulls do this season to ensure they are
rebuilding the right way? Continue to give him the ball
as much as possible. Everything about being bad with a
purpose has big picture goals, right, Like, if you're going
(25:46):
to be bad, you want to be bad while accumulating assets,
and you want to be bad while evaluating young talent.
I've joked about how like a lot of times when
you're rebuilding, you'll take on bad contracts with draft compensation
being the reward for the bad contracts. Then what ends
up happening is you have a bunch of guys on
these rookie deals where they're making somewhere between you know,
two and eight million a year that are on these
(26:09):
like cost controlled contracts that you're actually playing while you
take those guys, you need to determine which ones of
those guys can be extended, should be extended, are part
of your big picture goals as a franchise and the
team that you're trying to build. You need to find
out what modest Bozellis is? Is he just like a
(26:29):
Michael Porter Junior week side wing defender, rebounder, guy who
attacks with an advantage, or see a guy that can
run action and run a lot of it, right, Like,
that's the kind of stuff that you got to figure
out because which one of those two players he becomes
plays a big role. You might find out, Oh, he'll
never be good enough defensively for this to work. Okay,
well we need to find out. We need to play
him a large amounts of minutes, give him lots of repetition, right,
(26:52):
and so the best thing you could do is put
the ball in his hands and just find out what
this kid is capable of in these moments where where
you can afford to give them that opportunity as currently constructed,
Where do you believe that the expectations should be for
the Lakers this postseason? I'm borderline wanting to consider them
contenders because of the sheer fact that they have Luca
and Lebron, who are two of the most consistent guys
(27:13):
in the league. But I want to be cautious. I'm
going to say exactly what I said to the Nerd
Sesh guys earlier today. I don't know what the Lakers
are going to be I haven't seen them play nearly
enough basketball. I need to see a lot more. That said,
there's somewhere between, in my opinion, a second tier contender
and a third tier contender. To me, right now, I
kind of you as of like Boston Oka. See at
the top, I'm starting to slot Cleveland in that second
(27:35):
tier these days. Denver to me, is in that second tier.
The Lakers are either going to be in that second
tier with Denver and Cleveland or in the tier right below.
But we need to watch them play a lot more basketball.
I think here's the thing. If they're a second tier contender,
let's say that we end up putting them in that
second tier. I'm still worried about a Yokich matchup. I'm
(27:56):
still really worried about a Celtics matchup because it's the
same reasons that Dallas struggled last year trying to guard
Boston at times. Right, So, like, I think they have
matchup weaknesses. But I also just put this like simple,
I've presented this Carson today. If it's Lebron, Luca Austin,
Dorian Phinney, Smith, and Ruey, how are you getting stops
against the Lakers in a big spot, Like, how who
(28:18):
are you helping off of? Dorian Phinney. Smith is a
knockdown three point shooter. Ruey can drive close outs, Austin
can drive close outs, Lebron can drive close outs, Luca
can drive close out. So you can't leave any of
them open. Like they're gonna have legitimate five out spacing
with that group, Like Lebron and Lucas should be able
to get to the room whenever they want. Okay, you
have a big enough let's take Oklahoma City for example,
(28:39):
to have lou Dort. They're gonna put lou Dort on
Luca and it's gonna make life really difficult for Luca. Okay,
who's guarding Lebron Jalen Williams? Like Lebron's gonna do a
lot of damage to Jalen Williams, you know what I mean.
So like that, that's not to say that I wouldn't
that I would pick the Lakers over the Thunder. I
don't know. I honestly got him. Not going to give
you guys my like contender ranking for the Lakers until
I watched them play a lot more basketball. They're brand
(29:00):
new theoretical team right now that's played the Utah Jazz twice.
They tried in one game and kick the shit out
of them. They didn't try in the next game and
got their shit kicked out of them. So, like, I
don't know exactly what they're going to be yet. We
will find out. But like I mean, Lebron is forty
years old and he's a championship or bust kind of guy,
and I'm sure that he thinks that they can win,
and I would imagine they're gonna view anything other than
(29:20):
them winning as a failure. But like, I don't know
what they're going to be, and we just need to
see a lot more basketball before we can make that
kind of decision. So with the Mark Williams trade falling through,
the Lakers are obviously aiming for free agency to grab
that lob threat big. How would you feel about Jalen
Duran to the Lakers. He's only twenty one years old,
six ten, two hundred and fifty pounds and is a
lot threat and is a free agent this summer. He's
(29:41):
also averaging seventy percent from the field. And I know
it's early, but any for realistic free agents you see
on the Lakers, I have a hard time believing Detroit
is gonna give up on Jaalen Duran. He's had some
issues with like guarding on the perimeter against stretch fives,
but I think he's been really good outside of that,
and he's a really nice fit with Kate, got good hands,
(30:02):
finishes everything around the basket. So I mean, when I
look at this summer for the Lakers, I think they're
gonna be keyen in on guys like Rob Williams, Nick Klaxton,
guys in that like less than twenty five million a
year range that they think they can piece together a
couple of guys to just match salary and get I
(30:24):
inclined to say Robert Williams because he's a little bit
more affordable, but Nick Claxon would be a little bit
more of a big picture option because he's younger and
it doesn't have the injury history. Actually, I think Nick
Claxon might be a little older than Rob Williams. I'm
actually not sure which one of those guys is younger,
but his body's younger. He has men is injured in
his career, as Robert Williams has been. But my guess
is that they're kind of key in on those two
(30:44):
guys this summer, Nuggets in four, just kidding, but not
so much. Without Ad, I don't see how the Lakers
stand a chance against Yokic. How do you feel about
the Lakers vers Nuggets playoffs with the current rosters injuries aside?
Got into this with Carson today extensively. Like I said,
so you guys can find that on the nerd set feed.
But like, again, the way I look at it, like
I don't think the Lakers are gonna be able to
(31:05):
guard Denver, but I also don't think Denver's gonna be
able to guard the Lakers. So if neither team can
stop the other team from getting good shots, it's gonna
be a shot making series. So I think it'll be
it'll come down to like game planning, Like will Mike
Malone be able to punish the Lakers for playing guys
like Jackson Hayes Jared Vanderbilt? Right? Will jj Reddick be
(31:27):
able to punish Mike Malone for playing guys like Christian
Brown or Russell Westbrook, right, And both of those guys
have been awesome this year, right, and and so like
it's it's it's one of those things where like I
don't think either team has an answer like he was
the Carson was saying, like, there's nobody on this team
that can stop Jokics from getting great shot. You're absolutely right,
But I'm gonna present you the exact same thing I
(31:47):
just said earlier. If Denver has to guard a lineup
with Lebron, Luca Austin, Dorian Finney Smith, and Ruby Hotcha Mura,
how are they going to stop the Lakers from getting
good shots? How they're not going to be able to So, like,
I think it would be a very very high scoring
series relative to other playoff series. Is I think it
would be a very interesting playoff series. I will admit
(32:09):
freely that as as a Lakers fan, when I saw
this trade go down in the aftermath, the two teams
that I got legitimately concerned about were Denver and Boston.
So like, for the record, I would be scared in
that kind of matchup, But I just think, given how
theoretical the Lakers are, I think it'd be foolish just
to completely write them off. Four more, Hey, Jason, with
(32:30):
the Spurs now fall into twenty three and twenty nine,
in the refusal to replace Chris Paul in the starting
lineup with Stefan Cassel. Do you think the Spurs should
semi tank the rest of the season to secure two
lottery picks other via Atlanta to help complete their rebuild.
I think that the entire purpose behind making a Deer
and Fox move is to advance the timeline, specifically to
appease Victor Weminyama and his competitive nature, but also to
(32:53):
get these guys reps so you can start to learn
you have a core. Now your core is Fox, Vecel Castle,
wemb soh right, Like that's your core, five guys that
you're building around. You need to get those guys into
a high leverage situation against an elite team in a
playoff series so that you can learn about what they
need to be supported with over the course of the
(33:14):
next few years. So again, they're in a tough spot,
but you go for it. You absolutely go for it.
You want to find as much high leverage basketball for
these guys as early as possible. That was the entire
purpose behind the Daron Fox trade. Do you think that
Lebron and Yokiic are the only players in NBA history
to have seen every adjustment, every coverage, every double or
blitz thrown and have always found new angles to dominate
the game at the level they've dominated for so long
(33:35):
and with such offensive consistency. I don't think it's only
those two. I generally think that all basketball players have
gotten better, even just in this era. I think Steph
Curry is another guy where like he's competed against switching
by just running around like crazy and forcing teams to
make mistakes when they're switching. He's beat switching big looks
by just attacking them off the bounce. Famously did a
(33:57):
lot of picking on Horford and Robert Williams in the
NBA Finals twenty twenty two. He's a drop coverage killer.
He annihilated the Celtics drop coverage for the most part
over the course of that series, which is a big
part of why they had to switch at times. Right, Like,
he's done a ton of days it blitz him. Yeah, yeah,
be my guest. That was literally how they won the
twenty fifteen finals. Like that was how Andre Gudalla got
(34:18):
Finals MVP. So like, I think he's countered all these
different coverages as well. Again, like when I think about
like peaks, I think Jokich has reached an offensive peak
that no player ever has. I think Lebron has reached
a two way peak that no player ever has. And
I think at Lebron's peak, Steph was also about as
good on the offensive end of the floor when he
(34:39):
was at that point. So like again, they all have
like these different kind of calling cards, But there are
definitely a lot of players in NBA history that have
overcome anything a coach can do, Like Michael Jordan wasn't
a guy that in the nineties was struggling with any
specific coverage. If that makes sense, Why aren't people, including you,
talking about what the Thunder are doing at the All
Star break? They have the best net rating of time,
(35:00):
as well as the best relative defense ever. I just
don't understand why they're not being talked about at all,
much less like the all time great team they've been
to this point. It's not a small sample size anymore.
A couple of things. I did just talk about them yesterday.
I think we just got into them in the defensive
run that they went on at the tail end of
the game against was it the Mimay Heat, Yeah, Miami Heat,
(35:22):
and I talked about their defense now it was so
exceptionally great. The other thing, too, is like the dominant
regular season team is always the least interesting NBA regular
season story. It's unfair that it works that way, but
it's just the reality. Like there's no debate about it.
There is debate surrounding bad teams or teams that have
(35:42):
more significant flaws, because then you can argue these are
their flaws or these are their strengths, right, Like, it's
kind of weird out works in the NBA how the
teams that dominate kind of disappear into the top, and
the teams that suck disappear into the bottom, and then
we spend all this time debating the middle tier. Like
that's kind of like how it works for whatever reason.
So I understand that I don't talk about the Thunder
as much as I do some of the other teams
(36:03):
in the league, but we do talk about them. We
hit them a few times a month, and we just
hit them earlier this week. I again, I have a
similar type of response to the all time great stuff
that I do with Boston, Like, I don't think all
time great is something you accomplished in the regular season.
I don't think it's something you accomplished with advanced metrics.
I think it's something you accomplished with multiple deep playoff
(36:27):
runs where you win multiple championships. That's how you achieve
all time great that is, it's just a different kind
of like goalpost for me. I guess I view the
Thunder as kind of like a combination of a legitimate
championship contender while also being a little bit Houston Rocket
see in the sense that, like they're young and freakishly athletic,
and they're playing harder than everybody every night. That's going
(36:49):
to go a long way in the eighty two. So
like on one hand, on the one hand, I viewed
them as a legitimate contender, but I don't think they're
as good as their record or their net rating would
lead you to believe. And they still have some big
question marks to me, Like Minnesota kind of mauled them
in the in the fourth quarter yesterday, got a bunch
of stops, ate them up on the offense. They had
twenty offensive rebounds in that game. And like I do
think about certain teams that have physical size mismatches that
(37:12):
they can present. I do worry about the multiple times
this year in big spots, whether it's against a good
team on the road or whether it's in the n
Ceason Tournament championship where their offense just falls apart and
it becomes can Shay make shots? And he takes a
lot of mid range shots that he just has to
hit at a super high efficiency for them to be
worth it, right, and he does for the record, But like,
(37:32):
there's a certain amount of like frail tea with them
that I see with every team in the league except
for basically Boston, and even then there's there's a little
bit of frailty just in there defending championship itis where
they've been so sloppy with their shot selection at times
this year last. Actually, we already that's my bad. I
have the Mitchell Robinson one in here again, so I
already hit that one. So we're actually done for the day.
(37:53):
All right, guys, It's all I have for today is
always to sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and
supporting the show. I hope you guys enjoy the weekend.
We'll be back on We'll enjoy the All Star break.
We're gonna do. We're gonna do some stuff that the
games get started back up on Wednesday, but we're gonna
do some stuff on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, like contender rankings,
maybe a check in with the nerd Sash guys. We'll see.
We're gonna do some stuff in early next week to
(38:14):
kill time before we get into the rest of the season.
But again, as always, I appreciate you, guys, and I'll
see you next week the volume. What's up guys? 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,
(38:36):
I'd really appreciate it.
Host
Jason Timpf
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