Jason Timpf starts with reacting to the Los Angeles Lakers trading for Mark Williams with the Charlotte Hornets. Jason breaks down why Williams is a perfect fit alongside Luka Doncic and LeBron James in the Lakers' offense and why LA has the pieces in place to make a run in the NBA Playoffs.
Then he discusses Kevin Durant turning down the opportunity to reunite with Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and the Golden State Warriors. Will KD regret this decision as he stays with the Phoenix Suns? Jason also breaks down his thoughts on De'Andre Hunter to the Cleveland Cavaliers, De'Aaron Fox to the San Antonio Spurs to join Victor Wembanyama, Zach LaVine to the Sacramento Kings, the Milwaukee Bucks trading Khris Middleton for Kyle Kuzma, and the Toronto Raptors acquiring Brandon Ingram!
Timeline:
4:15 - Introduction
5:00 - Details of Mark Williams trade
6:45 - Lakers all-in on offense
15:00 - Mark Williams is NOT a good defender
24:15 - Cavaliers acquire De'Andre Hunter
29:00 - De'Aaron Fox to Spurs
35:45 - Zach LaVine to Kings
37:30 - Bucks trade Khris Middleton
48:00 - How Lakers saved their season & future
53:00 - Kevin Durant turns down Warriors
54:45 - Marcus Smart to Wizards
55:15 - Pistons get Dennis Schroder
56:15 - Bojan Bogdanovic to Clippers
57:00 - Suns make a move
57:30 - Heat acquire Davion Mitchell
58:15 - Brandon Ingram to Raptors
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(01:45):
to Hohop tonight. You're at the volume heavy Thursday. Everybody
hope all you guys are having a great week so far.
As of right now, we are twenty two minutes away.
As of the time of me recording this, we are
twenty two minutes away from the NBA trade deadline. We
are going to have a full trade day deadline reaction
breaking down all of the incredible deals from the last
couple of days. I did want to take like ten
to fifteen minutes right now to just talk about the
(02:08):
Lakers getting Mark Williams. Do you guys are the joke?
Before we started? Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels.
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(02:28):
comments so that we can hit them on Fridays throughout
the remainder of the season. So the Lakers get Mark Williams.
Here are the details of the trade. Charlotte is getting
Dalton Connect Cam Reddish. By the way, for your Hornets fans,
Dalton Connect, you'll like him. Really good movement shooter. I
think he hasn't shot the ball overly well this year,
but his rotation minutes have been super inconsistent and he
hasn't been very prominently featured in the offense. I think
(02:51):
that Charlotte's going to give him much more of that
kind of opportunity. The dude can shoot the ball. He's
a complete mess on defense, and there's a bunch of
stuff that has to get worked out there. But he's
super young, and he's big, and he's athletic, so he
should be able to, at least in the long run,
become a serviceable defensive player who's a movement shooter, a
guy who can run action, a transition weapon. You guys
will like Dalton Connect. He just wasn't somebody that fit
(03:12):
into the Lakers timeline. You guys, let you Laker fans
who followed the show. You'll notice I didn't spend a
ton of time talking about Dalton Connect and my big
picture Lakers stuff this year because I just didn't think
he was ready. It's no disrespect to Dalton. He's just
a young player that needs to have some stuff worked out,
and the Lakers aren't a more urgent timeline. So within Charlotte,
I actually like Dalton Connect much more as a player
that can develop into the high level offensive player that
(03:35):
he can be on his own pace and learn how
to play defense over time. Cam Reddish also is in
the deal the Lakers twenty thirty one unprotected first round pick.
Those twenty twenty nine to twenty thirty one first round
picks were more valuable before Luca came to town, but
still here in the year twenty twenty five, that's six
years from now. A lot can change by then, So
an unprotected Laker thirty one first round pick is a
(03:56):
good piece of value, and they're getting a swap with
the Lakes in twenty thirty so they can get the
better of those two draft picks. The Lakers in the
deal get Mark Williams. This is a move to go
all in on offense. The Lakers could have gone several
different directions with this center spot. They could have gotten
like a big bruising guy, someone who's mostly unavailable, like
a Walker Kessler, someone like a Yaka partle Yonis Malancun
(04:19):
has ended up going to Sacramento, but like that kind
of guy. You could get like a bigger, bodied, bruising center.
You could get a defensive anchor, someone like Nick Claxton.
This is the direction I thought they would go, considering
just the reality of some of the limitations of Luka,
Doncic and just Lebron being older and losing Anthony Davis
and some of the stuff we've learned in NBA history
about how your ability to protect the rim in the
(04:42):
front court is such an important part of playoff defense.
I thought that would be the direction they would go. Now.
To be clear, I want to get a little further
into the Lakers on defense later on in the show,
because I do think the Lakers are going to be
better defensively than people think. But we'll talk about that
in a minute. They didn't go either of those directions,
though they went with the dynamic screen and roll threat.
They gave Luca and Lebron one of the best young
(05:04):
screen and roll prospects in the NBA. This is the
first part of Mark Williams that Lakers fans need to
familiarize themselves with. He is just an awesome weapon in
the screen and roll game. He sets good screens, he
seeks out content, He makes good hard hits on people
in screens. But he also has a good feel for
one to slip out of screens when the action dictates that,
when the when that's the read in that situation. He
(05:27):
has absolute magnet hands, catches everything in traffic doesn't turn
the ball over very much. For a center, he provides
a huge vertical spacing window, which is just a vital
part of what Luca and Lebron do in Pick and Roll.
I talked about this a lot, but there's like a
there's like a progression in ball screens. I'm gonna do
a full breakdown of it in a minute, and one
of those important reads in that progression is that vertical
(05:49):
spacing window in the lot like a lob as you're
coming downhill in the ball screens, and Mark Williams just
perfectly fits into that. Into that mold, He's got like
a super high stain reach. I think it's like nine
feet nine inches, and change just gets. But he also
can catch everything. It's not just dunks either, Like if
it's a little bit of a bad pass, he can
kind of guide it into the basket at a really
(06:11):
high level. No matter what you want to talk about
with Mark Williams, even when you started to get into
his defensive limitations, which we'll talk about in a minute,
the dude is an incredible offensive weapon and he's going
to make life easier for the Lakers on the offensive end.
So let's zoom in on that for a minute. We'll
get to the defensive stuff in a little bit. If
your goal was to make the Lakers completely unguardable on offense,
(06:31):
this was the kind of move you had to make
because in order for a Luca or Lebron led offense
to be unguardable, you need several things. I have four
things on this list. One, ideally you need a legit
number two so that Luca or Lebron don't have to
do everything, so they don't wear down over the course
of games and overseasons. While I'd argue Lebron and Luca
together compliment each other in that way, giving each other
(06:54):
the ability to rest, take it easy when the other
is on the floor and they need a break. And
with Austin they have plenty of depth in that regard.
I'd argue they're the best shot creation trio in the
entire NBA right now, when you get down to it,
to Austin for weeks now has been like twenty points
per game on fifty to forty ninety. That's what you're
complimenting Lebron and Luca with. Secondly, you need a legit
vertical spacing threat, a dynamic above the rim, kind of
(07:17):
thing that the defense has to account for. Here's why
the vast majority of teams are going to guard Lebron
and Luca up at the level because they don't want
to let them get downhill. Even when they don't, the
role man is going to have to excuse me, the
screen defender, the guy guarding Mark Williams is going to
have to come up to at least account for Lebron
and Luca as scores. You guys have all seen it before.
(07:38):
If you let Luca have the defender chase him over
the top of the screen and he could pin him
on his backside, and if you let him just methodically
roll down the lane, he's gonna get to one of
those little five to seven foot push shots that he
just never misses. Right. So, like you have to account
for Luca on the role, and Lebron is like the
downhill threat. If you let Mark Williams screen for Lebron
and you let Lebron go screaming down, he's going to
(08:01):
break your defense down. So you have to account for
Lebron by meeting him, meeting him up high so that
he doesn't get ahead of steam. You need Lebron to
come off of those ball screens slowly right, And the
only way you're going to do that is by bringing
a big up to the level so Lebron doesn't see
a runway to go downhill. Right. So in those two situations,
if the screen defender has to account for Luca, if
(08:23):
Mark Williams defender has to account for Luca, if Mark Williams'
defender has to account for Lebron, Now Mark Williams is
open rolling to the basket in that lob window, right,
how do teams account for that? They account for that
by bringing a guy over from the weak side to
tag the roller, right. But the only way they're going
to do that, the only way they're going to account
for that role man, is if they view him as
(08:44):
a real vertical spacing threat. So that's the second most
important part to making a Lebron or Luca led offense unguardable.
You've got to have depth of shot creation. You've got
to have a vertical spacing threat so that you can
throw the lob when the screen defender comes up. Thirdly,
you need to have guys who can finish plays by
capitalizing on the advantages that are created as the defense
(09:09):
shades towards Lebron and Luca and towards Mark Williams. Right,
So imagine we have a guy who's guarding Ruey hatchra
Mura in the weak side corner. That guy is going
to come over and basically box out Mark Williams so
that he can't roll to the rim for a dunk,
for that easy lob dunk. Right, this is where those
skip passes are open. Two of the best passers in
(09:30):
the history of the NBA in ball screens to that
skip to the corner are Luca and Lebron. You have
to have guys that can score the basketball on the
weak side of the floor, and this team will constantly
have when Luca has the ball, Lebron off the ball,
Austin reeves off the ball, during Finney Smith, who's knocked
down three point shooter off the ball, Ruey Hatchimura a
(09:52):
guy who can score the basketball. Even Gabe can both
hit shots, but can put the ball on the floor
and make extra moves in the mid range score in
close out situations. Right, Like when you play playoff defense,
a really good playoff defense, it's not a lot of
catch and shoot jump shots. It's not a lot of
easy stuff at the rim, it's a lot more of
like you get an advantage, this guy has to score.
(10:12):
This guy might have to put the ball on the
floor and hit a mid range jumper. This guy might
have to put the ball on the floor and make
that next read to further break down the defense. This
is a strength on this roster. Now, the Lakers always
had these guys that can do a little bit more offensively,
guys like Austin, guys like Rui, guys like Gabe, but
they couldn't create good enough advantages for them consistently. Now,
(10:34):
because Lebron is slotted as your second best shot creator,
because Austin is slotted as your third best shot creator,
because you have the lob threat, the legitimate lob threat
that Mark Williams brings to the table, you are going
to provide guys like Ruy, guys like Austin, Guys like Lebron,
even Luca when he's off the ball, Guys like Gabe.
You're going to be providing them really high quality advantage
(10:57):
situations as defenses have to account for more Mark Williams
on the roll, and if they don't, if that Loman
doesn't come over, if they stay glued up to Ruey, Austin, Lebron,
whoever it is on the weak side, Mark Williams is
gonna get a dunk every single time down the floor.
It like every team in the NBA is going to
have to make a decision with how to guard the Lakers,
because that's the last piece. If first it's depth of
(11:19):
chock creation, second a vertical spacing thread, third week side scoring.
The last thing is what if they switch? If they switch,
you gotta have guys who can beat a switching defense,
and Luca just puts you into much better position to
handle that type of defensive look. You will have more
favorable matchups all over the floor as defenses have to
account for Luca. What decision are you gonna make as
(11:40):
a defense guard in the Lakers? Do you want to
let Lebron and Luca just pick on your weakest defender
and switches. That's probably not gonna go. Well, do you
want to let Lebron and Luca get downhill in ball
screens and pick you apart. That's probably not gonna work. Okay,
So then you're gonna have to come up to the
level that's gonna open those skip passes and lob passes
or you're gonna have to double when they're picking on switches,
(12:01):
which is just gonna lead to more of those advantages
which the Lakers have guys to capitalize on. I think
this team has the potential to be the most resilient
playoff offense in the NBA, aside from maybe the Nikola
Jokich Denver Nuggets. I think they're on that tier now. Jokic,
I think is the best tight space playoff shot creator
(12:22):
in the NBA. But Luca is right there at number two,
and they have Lebron James, and they have Austin Reeves
and so like, I don't even want to overthink things.
This team is going to score the basketball. But let's
talk about defense. Mark Williams is flat lee not a
good defensive player right now. He produces statistically, he's very
(12:42):
good rebounder. We'll talk about that in a Minute's important
part of defense. He does block a good amount of shots.
He blocks one point seven shots for thirty six minutes,
which is not bad. It's not great for a guy
his size, but it's not terrible. But he's not particularly
good at anything on defense. He has really bad technique
on the perimeter, does a lot of opening his stance,
so like try to contest shots by going sideways, which
(13:02):
just leaves his stance open so guys can drive by.
He leaves his feet on ball fakes and gets out
of position really really bad on the perimeter. So Charlotte
tried to account for this by just exclusively using Mark
Williams in like a super deep drop coverage, meaning like
as the ball screen was taking place, he would just
sit back in the paint and try to keep him
around the rim. And he does have some value there again,
(13:23):
like he's a great defensive rebounder. This is a Laker
team that has struggled to rebound at times this year.
He has good length, He's going to be an asset
down there. But even around the rim, he goes for ballfakes,
he gets out of position. He's not a good defensive
player right now. So, like, whether or not Mark Williams
can be a high level rotation piece for the Lakers
will come down to JJ Reddick's ability to find a
(13:43):
way to make Mark useful on the defensive end of
the floor. But I just think when we're having that conversation,
we have to at least acknowledge what he brings on
the offensive end. And that's why I actually look at
this trade as more of a way just to give
the Lakers a different configuration that they can go to.
We saw this look really good playing small balls in
the last week without Anthony Davis. They did have Max
(14:05):
Christy in the next game, but they didn't have Max
Christi in the Clippers game. Against the Clippers and against
the Knicks, they executed their small ball looks really well.
A lot of like Lebron Ruey van Do Dorian Finney Smith.
Just these big rangey six 's eight six ' nine,
big strong forwards all over the floor that are switching
and swarming around and rebounding and doing all the things
(14:28):
they knew to do need to do that. John I
talked a lot early in the season about how like
JJ Reddicks switching scheme can work, the Lakers just weren't
doing it well. They they've been doing it in the
last week. I actually think this team will have small
ball looks that can defend. There's a lot of talk
about like, how are the Lakers going to get any stops.
They've been getting stops with the same guys over the
(14:48):
course of the last week. I don't think the Mark
Williams looks are with like the lineups with Mark Williams
and Luke on the floor are going to struggle to guard.
That's gonna be a problem, but they're also going to
score really, really well. There are good defenders in rotation.
Lebron James when he's engaged in the last week, has
been an excellent defender. Dawren Phinney Smith good defender, Jared
Vanderbilt excellent defender, gave Vincent good defender. They have good
(15:10):
defensive players in this rotation, and I just kind of
see them having these different configurations. I think they'll have
small ball looks primarily anchored by Lebron, where it's Lebron
in a bunch of forwards and they're guarding and they're
doing everything that they did against the Clippers and the Knicks,
and then they'll have these other looks, especially like Luca
on the floor Lebron off, where it's like, hey, let's
(15:30):
just try to outscore teams. It's gonna be Luca, it's
gonna be you know, Austin, It's gonna be Mark Williams,
it might be Ruy Hatchamura in that look, and maybe
Jared Vanderbilt to guard the other team's best player or
something like that. They're gonna have looks for all of
these different parts of the game, and you're right, like,
there might be a time when it's like, oh shit,
we can't play Mark Williams against these guys. He's getting
(15:51):
absolutely fried on defense. They can go to small ball looks.
They have the personnel for that now because instead of
having a bunch of small guys, they've got six or
seven dudes that are between six ' eight and six '
nine and two hundred and forty pounds plus, Like, they
just have a lot of bodies to be able to
defend in small ball looks, to be able to rebound
(16:13):
in small ball looks in a way that they didn't
earlier in the season because of bringing in Dorian Finney
Smith because of the health of Jared Vanderbilt. I think
having multiple looks is a good thing. The main concern
that I have is like, are they going to be
able to hang with like a team like Denver And
that's where it's gonna get tricky. Do they need to
get in the next seven minutes here? Do they need
to try to get a bigger center that can bang
(16:36):
with Jokic? A little bit and give them at least
a little bit more matchup or versatility in that regard.
But as I look out from the Mark Williams thing,
this team has the potential to be the most unguardable
playoff offense in the NBA. But they're going to have
defensive holes that they have to fill. Let's just acknowledge
that they have more good defensive personnel than I think
the public opinion would lead you to believe at this point.
(17:12):
The Cleveland Cavaliers get DeAndre Hunter in the arms race
in the Eastern Conference. Details on the trade. The Calves
get DeAndre Hunter, the Hawks get Karis Lavert, Georgia Niang,
three second round picks and two swaps. I love this
deal for the Cavs. The Calves had hit a little
bit of an offensive low. They're eight and six in
their last fourteen games, and there have been games where
(17:34):
the offense looks great, but in the six losses they
only logged an offensive rating of one hundred and thirteen
and cooled off a little bit from three. They were
only thirty four point five percent on catch and shoot
threes in those six losses. DeAndre Hunter represents two value
adds for the calves offense. First of all, he's just
a knockdown catch and shoot guy. Shoots forty five percent
(17:55):
on unguarded catch and shoot threes, so that will help
in that specific regard. But he's also just an overall
talent ad on the offensive side of the ball. You
can shoot off the dribble really well. Shoots forty six
percent field goal percentage on pull up jump shots. When
you wait for threes, it comes down to one point
zero seven points per shot. As a matter of fact,
out of the ninety three players in the NBA this
year that have attempted at least one hundred pull up
(18:16):
jump shots, DeAndre Hunter ranks eleventh out of ninety three
in efficiency. So I got a little bit of off
the dribble pop. He has a decent floater that he
hits at about forty two percent, and he's just got
some real scoring chops. He's run one hundred and thirty
three pick and rolls, ISOs and post ups this year
right at about a point per possession, especially good shooting
out of ball screens as the handler. And so what
(18:37):
I think about when I look at this deal is
the reality of breaking down playoff defense. Is this is
a concept I've talked about a lot over the course
of the last few years, which is like, during the
regular season, you're gonna get a lot of wide open
catch and shoot threes, You're gonna get a lot of
layups things like that out of defensive breakdowns. But then
what ends up happening inevitably is you get into a
playoff series, the intensity and the quality of the opponents
you're playing goes up, and you're not getting those super
(18:59):
easy trainsansition opportunities as often. The defensive breakdowns aren't happening
nearly as often the rotations are super sharp, the game
planning is so intense. The best you can hope for
a lot of the times is a little bit of
an advantage on the other side of the floor, Like
maybe we can get this skip passed because they load
up on the ball screen on Garland or Mitchell or
wherever it is, and they're loading up on the roll man,
(19:21):
and we wit the cross pass across the court, and
we can get a guy a chance to catch with
a defender sprinting at him, a good elite playoff defender
sprinting at him. And that's where it helps to have
scoring chops off the ball, and the Cavs do have
a lot of guys that can shoot, that can knock
down catch and shoot threes. But DeAndre Hunter is a
(19:42):
guy that brings just another layer to those advantage creation
situations where he's gonna be able to hit some of
the playoff shots. He's gonna be able to do more
off the bounce on the skip than a guy like
Dean Wade. He's gonna be able to do more off
the bounce off the skip than a guy like George's
Niang was able to do. Right, And so it's just
a talent ad. It gives them another guy that a
(20:04):
lot that with more offensive firepower to break down playoff defenses.
I was literally talking about this on the the I
appeared briefly on the Athletics Big Trade Deadline special today
and I was talking about it there, like your aggregate
ball handling, your aggregate skill, your aggregate shooting ability, your
aggregates scoring chops. I always talking about scoring as a
(20:25):
separate category from shooting, because scoring to me is about
like audacity and confidence, the willingness to take tougher shots
and then having like the creativity, the footwork and the
dribble combinations and the tweaking your release angles and shooting
with a little more arc, a little less arc, whatever
it is you need to do to make a bucket
happen in kind of a weird fluid situation that's not
(20:49):
like just you standing still or doing some sort of
basic drill. That's scoring in my opinion, and so aggregate scoring,
aggregate shooting, aggregate passing, those things matter more now than
they used to because of the way defenses have gotten
so good at loading up on the strong side, taking
the ball out of your primary ball handler's hands. So
to me, DeAndre Hunter is just an influx of talent
that gives them a better chance to survive as things
(21:12):
get tougher in the postseason. He also gives them more
size on the perimeter, which will help them match physicality
with teams like Boston. That's really what this was to me.
They're trying to close the talent gap with Boston as
much as they can, and this was a big step
in that direction. I like Niang, he did some stuff,
but DeAndre Hunter's just better. And the emergence of Ty
Jerome as one of the best backup guards in the
(21:33):
league made Karris Lavert a little bit redundant, and I
like Harris, and I thought he had some value, especially
like I thought he was the best calves defender on
shake yos as Alexander in the matchups that they had,
And so yeah, if they got to the finals, that
could be something that is a little bit of an issue.
But it's just such a small little bit of utility
in the big picture that actually think this was a
smart trade. Cleveland is approaching this season with some real urgency,
(21:57):
and I like it. They have a five game lead
on the Boston Celtics. If they can maintain that, they'll
have home court advantage in the conference finals and they'll
have their chance to eliminate the Celtics. The second trade
we're getting today dearon Fox, to the San Antonio Spurs.
I've been asking for this trade ever since Sacramento got
off to such a terrible start this season. This is
like the half dozen time we've talked about it, so
I won't go two into detail, but I've been hung
(22:19):
up on this specific concept, which is that San Antonio
has a lot of young, developing talent, but that one
of those guys is just so far ahead of his
teammates in that development trajectory that you can't afford to
just let them slowly grow together. By this time next year,
Victor Weman Yama will probably be a consensus top six
player in the NBA Jokich, Luca, Jannis, Shay Tatum, and
(22:40):
Victor some order, and some folks might even add Victor
higher than six. When the time comes and you can't
just let a hyper competitive, super talented dude who's one
of the top six basketball players in the world just
sit around and wait for his young teammates to slowly improve.
I thought Deeron Fox was the perfect player to address
that conundrum three reasons. One, he's older than Wemby, but
(23:03):
he's just starting his prime. I think he has at
least five years left playing at the level that he's
currently at. That is a good long window to justify
this type of investment. Two, he's legitimately good enough to
be Wemby's number two. I had Darren Fox in my
top twenty five this summer. I think his combination of
downhill speed and over the top scoring ability. And again,
he hasn't shot as well from the perimeter this year,
(23:25):
but he's got such good short range shot making ability
to short lean back jumpers, floaters, things along those lines.
It's just such a devastating combo to be able to
be a real threat downhill, but to always be able
to stop on a dime and shoot over the top.
It's just a devastating combo. There are a lot of
fast guys in the NBA. There are a lot of
guys who can make shots. There are very few that
(23:45):
can do both at an extremely high level. And even
with his shooting being down a bit this year, he's
still over forty percent on pull up jump shots. He's
still over fifty percent on floaters on high volume, and
he logs in terms of the downhill ability. He logs
the same of drives per game as jam Morant to
give you guys some perspective on how much deeron Fox
can get downhill. Which brings me to the third reason
(24:06):
that I liked deeron Fox for the Spurs. The basketball
fit is utterly perfect. The ideal fit for a pick
and pop big is a downhill guard. Wemby obviously does
a lot on ball for the Spurs. They'll run action
for him around the foul line where he'll catch and
turn and face you know, eighteen twenty feet from the basket,
ISO that kind of stuff. But when he's operating as
(24:27):
a screener in action, he's almost always popping out to
the perimeter, right like, that's what he does. He's a
pick and pop big in terms of his utility in
the flow of the offense. The reason why a downhill
guard is so valuable with the pick and pop big
has to do with the way that speed can break
down traditional ballscreen coverages for starters. You can't switch right
(24:49):
like if you switch with a downhill guard and a
guy like Wemby. The best thing that you can do
when you're a big switching out onto the perimeter onto
a guard is to force him to settle for a
jump shot. And there are a lot lot of skill
guards in the league that will get bigs on switches,
and they'll settle for jump shots, and don't get me wrong,
sometimes they go in. But there's a good amount of
variants there. The death sentence for a big on a
(25:11):
switch is speed, because they really struggle to move laterally
and contain the ball. Deeron Fox can beat biggs off
the dribble for much more reliable offense. Beating switches so
that's a bad idea, and putting a small guard on
a shot maker like Victor women Yama is not not
a good idea either. Right now, let's take a look
at a traditional coverage, meaning the defense does not switch
(25:32):
if you use the screeners man, so Victor's man to
contain the ball, which you have to right because if
you're not switching and Wemby sets a pick on the
guy guarding Daron Fox and Wemby's man doesn't help at all.
Deer's going right downhill. He's flying downhill in your defense, bricks,
So you got to have that screen defender there to
contain the ball. Right. But here's the problem. As Victor
(25:55):
pops above the break, that defender who's containing the ball
now a closeout. He's got to close out from where
the ball handler is all the way back out to
Wemby where he's popping. This is where the downhill element
of Daron Fox's game is so valuable. The longer that
closeout is for that screen defender to get back to Wemby,
(26:17):
the better opportunities that Wenby's gonna get. Right. The more
athletic the guard is, the further he gets downhill, the
more it forces the entire defense to drop back to
contain the even longer that closeout's going to be. Right,
A skill guard who kind of meanders off the ball
screen and pitches it back to Wemby might only be
(26:38):
a ten to fifteen foot closeout. But if Dearon Fox
comes screaming down that ball screen and the guy's meeting
him more by the semi circle instead of up by
the top of the key, as an extra ten feet
that the big guy has to close out. And so
I just imagine like just a ton of these really
really open looks and high advantage situations for in a
(27:01):
wide open top of the key type of situation, I
just think I think it's just a perfect fundamental basketball
fit in two man game to have a guy like
Victor Weminyama that can pick and pop with a devastating
downhill guard like Deeron Fox, and he's also a very
complimentary defensive fit. I've talked about this a lot over
the course of the season. Fox is an attacking, aggressive,
(27:21):
disrupt the ball type of perimeter defender rather than the
sit back and contain the ball type of perimeter defender.
Containing is most important when you don't have strong rim protection.
Attacking can actually be really useful with strong rim protection
because ball pressure usually forces the ball handler to speed up.
It forces them to drive, because that's how you beat
(27:41):
ball pressure. You beat ball pressure by driving. If you
try to retreat, they're just going to keep pressuring you
until you lose control of the basketball. You attack ball pressure,
and so in those situations where you force them to
drive and you pressure well and you rush them, they
go downhill without a plan, and that's where mistakes can happen.
Cleaning up that type of dribble penetration is a thing
that Wemby's better at than literally anyone that's ever played
(28:04):
the game of basketball. So like I viewed as a
really complimentary defensive fit as well. So you've got a
player who won is good enough to help Wemby compete
for championships right away, but is also young enough to
fit the longer term Wemby timeline, while also being the
perfect basketball fit on both ends of the floor. And
you did it without having to give up any of
your most exciting young players. I think it's an absolute
(28:24):
home run move for the Spurs. That's why I've been
pushing for it all season. I haven't watched their debut.
I think they played for the first time together last night.
I've been so focused on the deadline, haven't had a
chance to watch it yet. But super super for all
these guys, by the way, Super excited to dive into
in the next couple of weeks the basketball of these
dudes playing on their new teams. That's why I got
to come back to hoops tonight. On the daily basis,
we do a lot of game breakdowns in the mornings
(28:47):
after these games. Zach Levine to the Sacramento Kings. I
really like Zach Levine, but I think this was probably
by far the most boring place for him to end up. Like.
Zach's really good. He's athletic, can get to the rim
and jump shooter with real scoring chops. He can create
shots for himself out of many different types of footwork,
dribble combinations. He's bucket getter. He's got solid playmaking chops.
(29:08):
He's been an efficient shot creator in every play type
this year. And he's healthier than you would think. His
reputation is that he's never healthy. He had a really
bad year last year, but he played like seventy seven
games the year before but it's boring because we already
know what it looks like. We've literally seen a team
led by Demarta Rozen and Zack Lavine as their two
primary shot creators. I talked about this, but two years ago,
(29:28):
the Bulls had a year where de Levigne, Derozen, and
Vucevich were healthy all year long, and they were bad.
If I remember correctly, the starters had a negative net
rating even though they had super fortunate health that year.
We've seen what this looks like looks like now. I
know that Demonia Sabonis is a much better player than
Nicola Vusovich and that they have him Malik Monk. I
know it's not a perfect comparison, but it's also a
(29:49):
tougher conference at West. But at the very least, we
do know that Demarta Rozen and zach Levine is not
enough offense to be a truly elite game break offense.
And we also know that this King's team is never
going to overwhelm teams with defense, not with the lineups
build around some bonus zach Lavine and DeMar DeRozan. You're
not so like. I don't need to see much or
(30:13):
to overthink this to know that the Kings just continued
to maintain their mediocrity. This felt to me like the
Kings just trying to remain relevant while also acquiescing to
darn Fox trade demand. And they'll be fun. The Kings
will go on some win streaks on some nights, they'll
look really good on offense, and they'll beat really good teams,
but they are going to accomplish anything of significance. And
(30:35):
that's why I thought this was the most boring destination
for Zach Lavine. The Milwaukee Bucks get Kevin Porter, Junior,
Jericho Simms, and Kyle Kuzma for Marjon Bouchamp, Chris Middleton,
AJ Johnson and a pick swap, and I think the
Bucks also might have gotten a second round pick back
in that deal as well, if I remember correctly. I
saw a lot of negativity surrounding this trade from Bucks fans,
(30:57):
and I get it to a certain extent. Like Chris,
when he's at his best, is a better basketball player
than Kyle Kuzma. But Chris Middleton hasn't shown his top
end in a long time. His ball handling has been
valuable to the Bucks this year in the half court.
He's been able to create advantages and just kind of
grease the wheels for them in their offense. But he's
been back for twenty three games and he's averaging twelve
points six points per game. This is not the same
(31:19):
twenty point per game Chris Middleton anymore. He had a
couple twenty point games in the last couple of weeks,
but they were in like losses where the team didn't
look good or I think he had won in Utah
as well. Like, this is not the same Chris Middleton
that was such an important part of the championship team
a few years ago. Now, whether or not this trade
makes any sense will come down to what Kyle Kuzma
turns into. The Bucks need to be able to convert
(31:41):
Kyle Kuzma back into their winning culture because he's been
playing losing basketball down in Washington for a few years now.
And Kyle Kuzma's last year with the Lakers before his
trade to Washington, he had actually turned himself into a
really good role player. First of all, he's a very
good rebounder. Towards the end with the Lakers in the
last year or two, he had become so good off ball, playing,
(32:04):
passing lanes, rotating and just being such a good defensive
rebounder that he actually had turned himself into a really
useful role player. The key will be bringing that out
of him. Again, that's on Yannis, that's on Brook, that's
on Doc Rivers Dame and all the leaders of that
team to refocus Kyle Kuzma's energy in the directions that
(32:25):
made him such a useful player for the Lakers towards
the end. He's got good size, he is a good athlete.
He can win contested rebound battles, he can fly around
in rotation and play passing lanes. He's big, Like this
is a size move for Milwaukee. That Kuzma yanis Brook
Lopez front line is just way more physically imposing than
(32:45):
a like even then a Bobby portis like too big
kind of look because Bobby doesn't move as well as
Kyle Kuzma does. But like certainly like Torrian Prince is
a bad rebounder, like this is a big his eyes, athleticism,
off ball defense and rebounding upgrade for the Bucks if
they can bring that back out of Kyle Kusma, which
(33:08):
again that's the big kind of variable here, right And
then on offense, Kuzma's an interesting case study in how
little efficiency actually matters relative to your reputation in the league.
Like Kyle Kuzma's an inefficient offensive player. His best shooting
year was actually his last year with the Lakers, and
he only shot thirty six percent. He's a career fifty
(33:30):
four percent in true shooting, which is nothing to celebrate.
But he is constantly aggressive. It's actually funny how aggressive
he is. He's a career seventeen field goal attempts per
thirty six minutes in his career. Even his last year
in LA, when he was in his smallest role there,
he still took fourteen shots per thirty six minutes. This
is an aggressive score. He averages seven three point attempts
(33:54):
per thirty six minutes in his career. He shoots so much,
and he always he has this threat that he might
go off. Like Obviously he's been more of a scoring
role with Washington, but even going back to the Lakers,
any giving night he could go for twenty. Any given
night he could go for thirty. The threat was there.
He has ninety seven career games with over twenty five points.
(34:17):
He has eleven career games with over thirty five points.
This has led to and this stood out to me
in such an interesting way when he was with the Lakers.
This led to teams accounting for him on the scouting
report the same way you would for a more efficient scorer.
The way he's guarded is like that of a more
efficient scorer. So his value on offense is greater than
(34:38):
his efficiency would lead you to believe because teams will
account for him. I think he slots in really nicely
as the starting three increases their size and rebounding ability
gives them more scoring pop. The big variable here is
can they get him to commit back to playing winning basketball.
The Bucks also got Kevin Porter Junior. He's just a
bench bucket getter. Nothing too crazy there. He has all
(34:58):
the footwork in dribble comp nations to get his own shot,
but he just isn't particularly good at making shots, for
whatever that's worth. Jericho Sims is just a hyper athletic
center who plays really hard but isn't really good at
anything on either end of the floor. I do think
the Bucks got a little better in this trade cycle.
It certainly would have been better if they could have
pulled off something like a Jimmy Butler deal or Zach
(35:19):
Lavine deal, but they didn't win in those bidding wars,
and so they ended up having to pivot to something else.
And again, like with the urgency surrounding Dame's age and
Gianni's commitment to the franchise, like you had to do something.
It's not perfect, there's risk involved. Kyle Kuzma shares a
certain amount of variability here with his commitment to winning.
(35:40):
But you had to do something, and this is this
at least has the potential to bring real upside for
the Bucks. All right, weving new segments that we're debuting
(36:01):
today from our new partner, Microsoft. So let's get into that.
Welcome to course correction brought to you by Microsoft. Just
like star players and teams navigating performance hurdles, business decision
makers today are under immense pressure to get things right.
They must rise to the occasion, turning challenges into opportunities.
Microsoft empowers these visionaries with AI solutions, simplified cloud and
(36:24):
data management and trustworthy, responsible AI. And when you're in
the NBA, you have your own hurdles to face. In
this segment, we're going to be exploring the challenges faced
by teams or star players and how they can turn
things around. Whatever challenge you're facing. Microsoft empowers you with
the expertise to say bring it on. This week, we're
discussing the challenge faced by Rob Polinka and the Los
(36:46):
Angeles Lakers. Rob Blink and the Lakers were in a
little bit of a bind. They were built around a
forty year old Lebron James and a soon to be
thirty two year old Anthony Davis, who's a little older
than his age would lead you to believe, and they
looked like a team that clearly did not have a
championship ceiling, in large part because of mistakes that this
front office made, the catastrophe of the Russell Westbrook trade,
(37:09):
roster imbalances brought by a failure to prioritize motor and
athleticism around their aging stars. It looked really bleak, But
at the same time, the team this year was showing
some real promise. The Lakers are seventeen and eight in
their last twenty five games, to seventh best record in
the league. Over that span. They've shown some real promise
with their small ball groups on both ends of the floor,
(37:30):
impressive wins against the Boston Celtics, the Knicks without Anthony Davis,
a small ball group the Clippers without They beat the
Clippers without Anthony Davis or without Max Christy, a lot
of small ball groups in those games. Lebron has looked fantastic.
But then Nico Harrison calls with an opportunity involving Luka Doncic.
This is where I thought Rob rose to the occasion
(37:52):
and turned a challenge into an opportunity. Started with self awareness.
Everything in life starts with you being willing to admit
you're good at and admit what you're bad at. There
was a moment there where Rob had to take a
look at this and realize that they're not good enough,
even though they've been playing well, even though it looks
like there's an upside, even though you could argue that
(38:12):
team might have been a trade away. But it was
about looking at that and making a tough decision with
self awareness about where this team was actually going. This
was a high point in Lakers history, this recent stretch
of games that they've been playing in recent Lakers history.
I should say there was a lot of optimism floating around,
(38:32):
but the reality was they weren't good enough to beat Oka.
See they weren't good enough to beat Boston. They might
not have even been good enough to beat Denver. So
first Rob makes the big decision, We're moving on from
Anthony Davis to Luca. But from there he had to
navigate the massive problem that presents for the rest of
the roster when you send out Anthony Davis and you
don't even have a viable replacement at center. From there,
(38:55):
Rob did a really nice job of negotiating with Nico
Harrison holding on to his twenty fie thirty one first
round pick holding on to Dalton connect Those are two
assets that you could argue Nico Harrison should have just
demanded like Dalton should be a mav that pick should
be the MAVs. And Rob held his ground and hung
onto those picks that gave him the ability to make
(39:15):
another trade to find the center of the future in
Mark Williams. And to top it all off, you managed
to clear a roster spot in the process, which is
huge because I think the Lakers are going to be
the premier buyout destination in the entire NBA in the
next month. Any center that signs with the Lakers can
get a pretty much guaranteed rotation spot. Any wing or
swingman that can play some defense and shoot has guaranteed
(39:37):
minutes available. They are the premier buyout destination, and they
cleared out a roster spot. One of the things I
always talk about on this show with respect to players
is the idea of just making a play. It doesn't
matter how bad of a game you're having, it doesn't
matter how bad of a season you're having. If you
just start playing better, then your circumstances will improve. And
it's been a really rough tenure for Rob Polinka as
(39:58):
GM of the Lakers, but he just pulled off the unthinkable.
He just reopened a championship contending window, one that seemed
almost shut, and now it could be open for the
next decade. Now, as basketball fans, we get to do
the fun part, which is watching Lebron James and Luka
Doncic play basketball together. So shout out to Rob Polinka.
He made a play, so to speak, and now he's
(40:19):
completely rewritten the story of his tenure as general manager
of the Los Angeles Lakers. That's it for this week's
course correction. Remember Microsoft's AI solutions empower you to take
bold steps and make informed decisions, sparking new ideas to
help you drive your business forward. With Microsoft as your
trusted partner. You can navigate your journey with confidence. Your
(40:40):
journey with confidence, finding innovative solutions in reaching new possibilities.
Visit Microsoft dot com Slash Challengers to learn more. All right, guys,
before we get out of here, we're going to do
a rapid fire segment hitting through a bunch of other
stuff around the league. First of all, Kevin Durant refusing
Golden State. I wanted Kevin Durant to go to Golden State.
I straight up think he would have had a better
(41:01):
chance to win there than he did in Phoenix. I
talked about this in the Jimmy Butler Show yesterday, but
I think there's a misconception about the Warriors that they're bad,
when really they're just horribly imbalanced. Even after that Jimmy
Butler trade, they still have like eleven rotation players that
can play meaningful basketball, at least within the context of
the regular season, and they were able to bring in
a guy in Jimmy Butler that immediately balances the roster out.
(41:22):
You don't need fifteen guys that can play minutes in
the NBA. You don't need fifteen of them. You can
do it with eleven and give yourself, more firepower off
the top right. I thought KD would have very cleanly
kind of slotted into that Jimmy Butler type of role
that we talked about last night, same concepts that I
talked about last night with respect to playing alongside Steph.
(41:42):
I did have a warrior though, even when all that
buzz was kind of building on Tuesday. This week, I've
just heard from so many different sources like that Kevin
Durant really didn't like the way the whole Golden State
thing went down, and that he looks back at that
era with a little more contempt than people are willing
to realize. And so I was hoping that enough time
(42:05):
had passed and you know, like maybe it would have
been able to Like I'd heard a report too that
like Phoenix was coverting Draymond in that deal. Like I
thought maybe there was some way to work it out
towards Kevin Durant going that direction. But he stepped in
there and he said, I don't want to do it.
I don't want to go back to the Bay. And
I do think that that comes down to the way
everything that went down when he left, and so it's
(42:27):
kind of a bummer and now Katie's stuck on that
Sun's team, which I mean, I guess we're gonna talk
about it in a minute. Maybe they got a little
bit better bringing in Cody Martin, but like, I don't
see anything really substantial there that looks like an opportunity,
So at least Vin doesn't have to move, I guess.
But it was interesting the way he stepped in and
nixed that deal from taking place. Marcus Smart to the
(42:49):
Washington Wizards kind of crazy that they traded two picks,
two first round picks to get him and then had
to pay another first round pick to get off of him.
It's a weird sequence for a front office that's otherwise
been excellent. But the upside for the rest of the
league is that if you are not in the first
Aprin or second Apron, you could potentially get Marcus Smart
in a buyout if he gets bought out before the
end of the season, and I think he would be
a really interesting buyout guy to raise the ceiling for
(43:11):
a team. Golden State would be an interesting spot if
Marcus Martin becomes available. Detroit, the Pistons get Dennis Schroeder.
I actually really like Dennis Schroeder. He had a little
bit of a rough go there with Golden State, but
he was miscast as like the secondary star on the team.
Dennis Schroeder, to me, is an extremely useful player in
that he can guard point guards from the other teams.
He is a savage competitor like legitimately just gives it
(43:34):
his all every single night. I loved rooting for that guy.
Pistons fans, you will love rooting for him. He just
needs to be in a position where he's not depended
on to a great deal to run offense. Now within Detroit,
because of the injury to Jaden Ivy, he is going
to kind of be in that position where he's expected
to do a lot and there will be a lot
of highs and lows for Dennis Schroeder on the offense
at the end of the floor. You need to be
aware of that. But I do like the idea of
(43:56):
at least just giving kid another guy that can help,
other guy that can help handle the ball, another guy
that can handle ball pressure, another guy that can just
carry shifts when he's off the floor. Again, you didn't
want to do anything too crazy because you don't want
to do anything to mess with Detroit's timeline. But at
the same time, this is like a nice inexpensive move
that just gives you a little bit more firepower to
(44:16):
get a more interesting look at Detroit when they get
to the postseason. The Clippers get bogged on mcdonovitch for
Terrence Man and bones Highland, another shot creator for the Clippers.
That's a team that's light on shot creation. Any injury
that takes place all of a sudden, normOn powells your
secondary shot creator and he's been great this year, but
getting ball handling there is definitely an ad for the Clippers.
(44:37):
Terrence Man had been kind of pushed to the edge
of their rotation, which is weird. I actually really like Terrence.
But he fits Atlanta's goal really well, which is Atlanta
has been trying to surround Trey Young with athletes, young
athletes that can cover for his size and limitations and
benefit from his playmaking talent. That is a nice get
for Atlanta there. The Suns turned use of Narkic and
(44:58):
a first round pick into Cody Martin the sila Ja
Mishic and a second round pick. Now Mitchich probably won't
play with the point guards that they already have but
Cody Martin is a useful wing athlete on a team
that doesn't have many useful wing athletes, and use Off
Nurkic was useless, so it cost you to protected first.
But it was a nice moderate improvement and there was
(45:19):
some real urgency here. Again, it's better than nothing, I guess,
but I still don't feel like the Suns are going anywhere.
Mini heat turned PJ. Tucker into Davion Mitchell, a guard
who can really defend, and again this always brings value
in the modern MBA, the ability to guard the ball,
and I like Davion is like a kind of guy
that you can deploy that just changes the flow of
(45:39):
a game. You get into a game and you're playing
against you know, the Nuggets or something like that, or
I'm trying to think of, like just let's just take
any team in the Eastern Conference that has high level
guard plays. Let's play say Milwaukee. Play Milwaukee and Damian
Lillard just lighting up your starters like he's killing Terry Rogier,
he's killing Tyler Harro on switches, and it's not looking
(46:00):
pretty and you just need to do something to change
the flow of the game. You take Davey on Mitchell out.
You put him out there and you say pick up
Dame full court. It can change the tenor of a game.
It can disrupt rhythm. Again, he's not the kind of
guy who's going to be in your closing five. He's
not the kind of guy that you want playing thirty
minutes a night. But it's a useful rotation player. Is
a guard who can defend a kind of guy that
can come in and bring ball pressure and change the
flow of a game. And last trade we're getting into today,
(46:23):
brandon Ingram to the Toronto Raptors. I actually really like
brandon Ingram. I've talked about this before, but I think
he is at his best when you put the ball
in his hands and you allow him to run a
lot of spread, pick and roll. He compared to most
forwards in the league, is actually a really gifted passer.
I think he's a guy that can raise your offensive
floor to a great extent. He actually fits really nice
(46:43):
next to Scotty. Like I look at Scotty is like
the hammer to the brandon Ingram scalpel So to speak Scotty.
It's interesting because like he's just so physically imposing. At times.
I was watching which game was I watching the other day?
I think it was Toronto for Chicago, and he was
(47:04):
doing a lot of work like posting mismatches. He had
a run in the third quarter where he like scored
bucket after bucket after bucket attacking from the post. But
like he just can run into a little bit of
a wall on offense sometimes he has a tendency to
settle for fadeaways in the post quite a bit. Like
I think bringing in Ingram to make Scotty's life easier
on offense is at least a worthwhile endeavor for Toronto
(47:27):
to try. And then guess what you can decide at
the end of this year if you want to resign
brandon Ingram with some sort of long term deal, and
whether or not the deal makes any sense really comes
down to what you end up signing brandon Ingram too.
It depends if you get him at a fair deal
or if you end up having to overpay. And time
will tell in that regard. The team isn't going anywhere,
but it's certainly a hell of a lot more fun
after this. All right, guys, That's all I have for
(47:48):
today is always to sincerely appreciate you guys. For supporting
me and supporting the show. I am very excited to
get back into it, breaking down some games, talking about
these players on their new teams. As of right now,
we might be going live tonight after Warriors Lakers, depending
on whether or not it's Steah plays, so keep an
eye on my Twitter feed. We might have another episode tonight.
If not, we'll be coming out tomorrow. Then we always
(48:08):
have our mail bags like we usually do on Friday,
and then time to start breaking down games. We plan
on covering the Pacers Lakers Luka Doncic his debut on Saturday.
I'm looking forward to that as well. Again, I really
appreciate you guys for rocking with me and I will
see you either tonight or tomorrow morning the volume What's
Up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to
and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful
(48:31):
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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see d KNG dot co slash audio. All right, welcome
(01:45):
to Hohop tonight. You're at the volume heavy Thursday. Everybody
hope all you guys are having a great week so far.
As of right now, we are twenty two minutes away.
As of the time of me recording this, we are
twenty two minutes away from the NBA trade deadline. We
are going to have a full trade day deadline reaction
breaking down all of the incredible deals from the last
couple of days. I did want to take like ten
to fifteen minutes right now to just talk about the
(02:08):
Lakers getting Mark Williams. Do you guys are the joke?
Before we started? Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels.
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(02:28):
comments so that we can hit them on Fridays throughout
the remainder of the season. So the Lakers get Mark Williams.
Here are the details of the trade. Charlotte is getting
Dalton Connect Cam Reddish. By the way, for your Hornets fans,
Dalton Connect, you'll like him. Really good movement shooter. I
think he hasn't shot the ball overly well this year,
but his rotation minutes have been super inconsistent and he
hasn't been very prominently featured in the offense. I think
(02:51):
that Charlotte's going to give him much more of that
kind of opportunity. The dude can shoot the ball. He's
a complete mess on defense, and there's a bunch of
stuff that has to get worked out there. But he's
super young, and he's big, and he's athletic, so he
should be able to, at least in the long run,
become a serviceable defensive player who's a movement shooter, a
guy who can run action, a transition weapon. You guys
will like Dalton Connect. He just wasn't somebody that fit
(03:12):
into the Lakers timeline. You guys, let you Laker fans
who followed the show. You'll notice I didn't spend a
ton of time talking about Dalton Connect and my big
picture Lakers stuff this year because I just didn't think
he was ready. It's no disrespect to Dalton. He's just
a young player that needs to have some stuff worked out,
and the Lakers aren't a more urgent timeline. So within Charlotte,
I actually like Dalton Connect much more as a player
that can develop into the high level offensive player that
(03:35):
he can be on his own pace and learn how
to play defense over time. Cam Reddish also is in
the deal the Lakers twenty thirty one unprotected first round pick.
Those twenty twenty nine to twenty thirty one first round
picks were more valuable before Luca came to town, but
still here in the year twenty twenty five, that's six
years from now. A lot can change by then, So
an unprotected Laker thirty one first round pick is a
(03:56):
good piece of value, and they're getting a swap with
the Lakes in twenty thirty so they can get the
better of those two draft picks. The Lakers in the
deal get Mark Williams. This is a move to go
all in on offense. The Lakers could have gone several
different directions with this center spot. They could have gotten
like a big bruising guy, someone who's mostly unavailable, like
a Walker Kessler, someone like a Yaka partle Yonis Malancun
(04:19):
has ended up going to Sacramento, but like that kind
of guy. You could get like a bigger, bodied, bruising center.
You could get a defensive anchor, someone like Nick Claxton.
This is the direction I thought they would go, considering
just the reality of some of the limitations of Luka,
Doncic and just Lebron being older and losing Anthony Davis
and some of the stuff we've learned in NBA history
about how your ability to protect the rim in the
(04:42):
front court is such an important part of playoff defense.
I thought that would be the direction they would go. Now.
To be clear, I want to get a little further
into the Lakers on defense later on in the show,
because I do think the Lakers are going to be
better defensively than people think. But we'll talk about that
in a minute. They didn't go either of those directions,
though they went with the dynamic screen and roll threat.
They gave Luca and Lebron one of the best young
(05:04):
screen and roll prospects in the NBA. This is the
first part of Mark Williams that Lakers fans need to
familiarize themselves with. He is just an awesome weapon in
the screen and roll game. He sets good screens, he
seeks out content, He makes good hard hits on people
in screens. But he also has a good feel for
one to slip out of screens when the action dictates that,
when the when that's the read in that situation. He
(05:27):
has absolute magnet hands, catches everything in traffic doesn't turn
the ball over very much. For a center, he provides
a huge vertical spacing window, which is just a vital
part of what Luca and Lebron do in Pick and Roll.
I talked about this a lot, but there's like a
there's like a progression in ball screens. I'm gonna do
a full breakdown of it in a minute, and one
of those important reads in that progression is that vertical
(05:49):
spacing window in the lot like a lob as you're
coming downhill in the ball screens, and Mark Williams just
perfectly fits into that. Into that mold, He's got like
a super high stain reach. I think it's like nine
feet nine inches, and change just gets. But he also
can catch everything. It's not just dunks either, Like if
it's a little bit of a bad pass, he can
kind of guide it into the basket at a really
(06:11):
high level. No matter what you want to talk about
with Mark Williams, even when you started to get into
his defensive limitations, which we'll talk about in a minute,
the dude is an incredible offensive weapon and he's going
to make life easier for the Lakers on the offensive end.
So let's zoom in on that for a minute. We'll
get to the defensive stuff in a little bit. If
your goal was to make the Lakers completely unguardable on offense,
(06:31):
this was the kind of move you had to make
because in order for a Luca or Lebron led offense
to be unguardable, you need several things. I have four
things on this list. One, ideally you need a legit
number two so that Luca or Lebron don't have to
do everything, so they don't wear down over the course
of games and overseasons. While I'd argue Lebron and Luca
together compliment each other in that way, giving each other
(06:54):
the ability to rest, take it easy when the other
is on the floor and they need a break. And
with Austin they have plenty of depth in that regard.
I'd argue they're the best shot creation trio in the
entire NBA right now, when you get down to it,
to Austin for weeks now has been like twenty points
per game on fifty to forty ninety. That's what you're
complimenting Lebron and Luca with. Secondly, you need a legit
vertical spacing threat, a dynamic above the rim, kind of
(07:17):
thing that the defense has to account for. Here's why
the vast majority of teams are going to guard Lebron
and Luca up at the level because they don't want
to let them get downhill. Even when they don't, the
role man is going to have to excuse me, the
screen defender, the guy guarding Mark Williams is going to
have to come up to at least account for Lebron
and Luca as scores. You guys have all seen it before.
(07:38):
If you let Luca have the defender chase him over
the top of the screen and he could pin him
on his backside, and if you let him just methodically
roll down the lane, he's gonna get to one of
those little five to seven foot push shots that he
just never misses. Right. So, like you have to account
for Luca on the role, and Lebron is like the
downhill threat. If you let Mark Williams screen for Lebron
and you let Lebron go screaming down, he's going to
(08:01):
break your defense down. So you have to account for
Lebron by meeting him, meeting him up high so that
he doesn't get ahead of steam. You need Lebron to
come off of those ball screens slowly right, And the
only way you're going to do that is by bringing
a big up to the level so Lebron doesn't see
a runway to go downhill. Right. So in those two situations,
if the screen defender has to account for Luca, if
(08:23):
Mark Williams defender has to account for Luca, if Mark Williams'
defender has to account for Lebron, Now Mark Williams is
open rolling to the basket in that lob window, right,
how do teams account for that? They account for that
by bringing a guy over from the weak side to
tag the roller, right. But the only way they're going
to do that, the only way they're going to account
for that role man, is if they view him as
(08:44):
a real vertical spacing threat. So that's the second most
important part to making a Lebron or Luca led offense unguardable.
You've got to have depth of shot creation. You've got
to have a vertical spacing threat so that you can
throw the lob when the screen defender comes up. Thirdly,
you need to have guys who can finish plays by
capitalizing on the advantages that are created as the defense
(09:09):
shades towards Lebron and Luca and towards Mark Williams. Right,
So imagine we have a guy who's guarding Ruey hatchra
Mura in the weak side corner. That guy is going
to come over and basically box out Mark Williams so
that he can't roll to the rim for a dunk,
for that easy lob dunk. Right, this is where those
skip passes are open. Two of the best passers in
(09:30):
the history of the NBA in ball screens to that
skip to the corner are Luca and Lebron. You have
to have guys that can score the basketball on the
weak side of the floor, and this team will constantly
have when Luca has the ball, Lebron off the ball,
Austin reeves off the ball, during Finney Smith, who's knocked
down three point shooter off the ball, Ruey Hatchimura a
(09:52):
guy who can score the basketball. Even Gabe can both
hit shots, but can put the ball on the floor
and make extra moves in the mid range score in
close out situations. Right, Like when you play playoff defense,
a really good playoff defense, it's not a lot of
catch and shoot jump shots. It's not a lot of
easy stuff at the rim, it's a lot more of
like you get an advantage, this guy has to score.
(10:12):
This guy might have to put the ball on the
floor and hit a mid range jumper. This guy might
have to put the ball on the floor and make
that next read to further break down the defense. This
is a strength on this roster. Now, the Lakers always
had these guys that can do a little bit more offensively,
guys like Austin, guys like Rui, guys like Gabe, but
they couldn't create good enough advantages for them consistently. Now,
(10:34):
because Lebron is slotted as your second best shot creator,
because Austin is slotted as your third best shot creator,
because you have the lob threat, the legitimate lob threat
that Mark Williams brings to the table, you are going
to provide guys like Ruy, guys like Austin, Guys like Lebron,
even Luca when he's off the ball, Guys like Gabe.
You're going to be providing them really high quality advantage
(10:57):
situations as defenses have to account for more Mark Williams
on the roll, and if they don't, if that Loman
doesn't come over, if they stay glued up to Ruey, Austin, Lebron,
whoever it is on the weak side, Mark Williams is
gonna get a dunk every single time down the floor.
It like every team in the NBA is going to
have to make a decision with how to guard the Lakers,
because that's the last piece. If first it's depth of
(11:19):
chock creation, second a vertical spacing thread, third week side scoring.
The last thing is what if they switch? If they switch,
you gotta have guys who can beat a switching defense,
and Luca just puts you into much better position to
handle that type of defensive look. You will have more
favorable matchups all over the floor as defenses have to
account for Luca. What decision are you gonna make as
(11:40):
a defense guard in the Lakers? Do you want to
let Lebron and Luca just pick on your weakest defender
and switches. That's probably not gonna go. Well, do you
want to let Lebron and Luca get downhill in ball
screens and pick you apart. That's probably not gonna work. Okay,
So then you're gonna have to come up to the
level that's gonna open those skip passes and lob passes
or you're gonna have to double when they're picking on switches,
(12:01):
which is just gonna lead to more of those advantages
which the Lakers have guys to capitalize on. I think
this team has the potential to be the most resilient
playoff offense in the NBA, aside from maybe the Nikola
Jokich Denver Nuggets. I think they're on that tier now. Jokic,
I think is the best tight space playoff shot creator
(12:22):
in the NBA. But Luca is right there at number two,
and they have Lebron James, and they have Austin Reeves
and so like, I don't even want to overthink things.
This team is going to score the basketball. But let's
talk about defense. Mark Williams is flat lee not a
good defensive player right now. He produces statistically, he's very
(12:42):
good rebounder. We'll talk about that in a Minute's important
part of defense. He does block a good amount of shots.
He blocks one point seven shots for thirty six minutes,
which is not bad. It's not great for a guy
his size, but it's not terrible. But he's not particularly
good at anything on defense. He has really bad technique
on the perimeter, does a lot of opening his stance,
so like try to contest shots by going sideways, which
(13:02):
just leaves his stance open so guys can drive by.
He leaves his feet on ball fakes and gets out
of position really really bad on the perimeter. So Charlotte
tried to account for this by just exclusively using Mark
Williams in like a super deep drop coverage, meaning like
as the ball screen was taking place, he would just
sit back in the paint and try to keep him
around the rim. And he does have some value there again,
(13:23):
like he's a great defensive rebounder. This is a Laker
team that has struggled to rebound at times this year.
He has good length, He's going to be an asset
down there. But even around the rim, he goes for ballfakes,
he gets out of position. He's not a good defensive
player right now. So, like, whether or not Mark Williams
can be a high level rotation piece for the Lakers
will come down to JJ Reddick's ability to find a
(13:43):
way to make Mark useful on the defensive end of
the floor. But I just think when we're having that conversation,
we have to at least acknowledge what he brings on
the offensive end. And that's why I actually look at
this trade as more of a way just to give
the Lakers a different configuration that they can go to.
We saw this look really good playing small balls in
the last week without Anthony Davis. They did have Max
(14:05):
Christy in the next game, but they didn't have Max
Christi in the Clippers game. Against the Clippers and against
the Knicks, they executed their small ball looks really well.
A lot of like Lebron Ruey van Do Dorian Finney Smith.
Just these big rangey six 's eight six ' nine,
big strong forwards all over the floor that are switching
and swarming around and rebounding and doing all the things
(14:28):
they knew to do need to do that. John I
talked a lot early in the season about how like
JJ Reddicks switching scheme can work, the Lakers just weren't
doing it well. They they've been doing it in the
last week. I actually think this team will have small
ball looks that can defend. There's a lot of talk
about like, how are the Lakers going to get any stops.
They've been getting stops with the same guys over the
(14:48):
course of the last week. I don't think the Mark
Williams looks are with like the lineups with Mark Williams
and Luke on the floor are going to struggle to guard.
That's gonna be a problem, but they're also going to
score really, really well. There are good defenders in rotation.
Lebron James when he's engaged in the last week, has
been an excellent defender. Dawren Phinney Smith good defender, Jared
Vanderbilt excellent defender, gave Vincent good defender. They have good
(15:10):
defensive players in this rotation, and I just kind of
see them having these different configurations. I think they'll have
small ball looks primarily anchored by Lebron, where it's Lebron
in a bunch of forwards and they're guarding and they're
doing everything that they did against the Clippers and the Knicks,
and then they'll have these other looks, especially like Luca
on the floor Lebron off, where it's like, hey, let's
(15:30):
just try to outscore teams. It's gonna be Luca, it's
gonna be you know, Austin, It's gonna be Mark Williams,
it might be Ruy Hatchamura in that look, and maybe
Jared Vanderbilt to guard the other team's best player or
something like that. They're gonna have looks for all of
these different parts of the game, and you're right, like,
there might be a time when it's like, oh shit,
we can't play Mark Williams against these guys. He's getting
(15:51):
absolutely fried on defense. They can go to small ball looks.
They have the personnel for that now because instead of
having a bunch of small guys, they've got six or
seven dudes that are between six ' eight and six '
nine and two hundred and forty pounds plus, Like, they
just have a lot of bodies to be able to
defend in small ball looks, to be able to rebound
(16:13):
in small ball looks in a way that they didn't
earlier in the season because of bringing in Dorian Finney
Smith because of the health of Jared Vanderbilt. I think
having multiple looks is a good thing. The main concern
that I have is like, are they going to be
able to hang with like a team like Denver And
that's where it's gonna get tricky. Do they need to
get in the next seven minutes here? Do they need
to try to get a bigger center that can bang
(16:36):
with Jokic? A little bit and give them at least
a little bit more matchup or versatility in that regard.
But as I look out from the Mark Williams thing,
this team has the potential to be the most unguardable
playoff offense in the NBA. But they're going to have
defensive holes that they have to fill. Let's just acknowledge
that they have more good defensive personnel than I think
the public opinion would lead you to believe at this point.
(17:12):
The Cleveland Cavaliers get DeAndre Hunter in the arms race
in the Eastern Conference. Details on the trade. The Calves
get DeAndre Hunter, the Hawks get Karis Lavert, Georgia Niang,
three second round picks and two swaps. I love this
deal for the Cavs. The Calves had hit a little
bit of an offensive low. They're eight and six in
their last fourteen games, and there have been games where
(17:34):
the offense looks great, but in the six losses they
only logged an offensive rating of one hundred and thirteen
and cooled off a little bit from three. They were
only thirty four point five percent on catch and shoot
threes in those six losses. DeAndre Hunter represents two value
adds for the calves offense. First of all, he's just
a knockdown catch and shoot guy. Shoots forty five percent
(17:55):
on unguarded catch and shoot threes, so that will help
in that specific regard. But he's also just an overall
talent ad on the offensive side of the ball. You
can shoot off the dribble really well. Shoots forty six
percent field goal percentage on pull up jump shots. When
you wait for threes, it comes down to one point
zero seven points per shot. As a matter of fact,
out of the ninety three players in the NBA this
year that have attempted at least one hundred pull up
(18:16):
jump shots, DeAndre Hunter ranks eleventh out of ninety three
in efficiency. So I got a little bit of off
the dribble pop. He has a decent floater that he
hits at about forty two percent, and he's just got
some real scoring chops. He's run one hundred and thirty
three pick and rolls, ISOs and post ups this year
right at about a point per possession, especially good shooting
out of ball screens as the handler. And so what
(18:37):
I think about when I look at this deal is
the reality of breaking down playoff defense. Is this is
a concept I've talked about a lot over the course
of the last few years, which is like, during the
regular season, you're gonna get a lot of wide open
catch and shoot threes, You're gonna get a lot of
layups things like that out of defensive breakdowns. But then
what ends up happening inevitably is you get into a
playoff series, the intensity and the quality of the opponents
you're playing goes up, and you're not getting those super
(18:59):
easy trainsansition opportunities as often. The defensive breakdowns aren't happening
nearly as often the rotations are super sharp, the game
planning is so intense. The best you can hope for
a lot of the times is a little bit of
an advantage on the other side of the floor, Like
maybe we can get this skip passed because they load
up on the ball screen on Garland or Mitchell or
wherever it is, and they're loading up on the roll man,
(19:21):
and we wit the cross pass across the court, and
we can get a guy a chance to catch with
a defender sprinting at him, a good elite playoff defender
sprinting at him. And that's where it helps to have
scoring chops off the ball, and the Cavs do have
a lot of guys that can shoot, that can knock
down catch and shoot threes. But DeAndre Hunter is a
(19:42):
guy that brings just another layer to those advantage creation
situations where he's gonna be able to hit some of
the playoff shots. He's gonna be able to do more
off the bounce on the skip than a guy like
Dean Wade. He's gonna be able to do more off
the bounce off the skip than a guy like George's
Niang was able to do. Right, And so it's just
a talent ad. It gives them another guy that a
(20:04):
lot that with more offensive firepower to break down playoff defenses.
I was literally talking about this on the the I
appeared briefly on the Athletics Big Trade Deadline special today
and I was talking about it there, like your aggregate
ball handling, your aggregate skill, your aggregate shooting ability, your
aggregates scoring chops. I always talking about scoring as a
(20:25):
separate category from shooting, because scoring to me is about
like audacity and confidence, the willingness to take tougher shots
and then having like the creativity, the footwork and the
dribble combinations and the tweaking your release angles and shooting
with a little more arc, a little less arc, whatever
it is you need to do to make a bucket
happen in kind of a weird fluid situation that's not
(20:49):
like just you standing still or doing some sort of
basic drill. That's scoring in my opinion, and so aggregate scoring,
aggregate shooting, aggregate passing, those things matter more now than
they used to because of the way defenses have gotten
so good at loading up on the strong side, taking
the ball out of your primary ball handler's hands. So
to me, DeAndre Hunter is just an influx of talent
that gives them a better chance to survive as things
(21:12):
get tougher in the postseason. He also gives them more
size on the perimeter, which will help them match physicality
with teams like Boston. That's really what this was to me.
They're trying to close the talent gap with Boston as
much as they can, and this was a big step
in that direction. I like Niang, he did some stuff,
but DeAndre Hunter's just better. And the emergence of Ty
Jerome as one of the best backup guards in the
(21:33):
league made Karris Lavert a little bit redundant, and I
like Harris, and I thought he had some value, especially
like I thought he was the best calves defender on
shake yos as Alexander in the matchups that they had,
And so yeah, if they got to the finals, that
could be something that is a little bit of an issue.
But it's just such a small little bit of utility
in the big picture that actually think this was a
smart trade. Cleveland is approaching this season with some real urgency,
(21:57):
and I like it. They have a five game lead
on the Boston Celtics. If they can maintain that, they'll
have home court advantage in the conference finals and they'll
have their chance to eliminate the Celtics. The second trade
we're getting today dearon Fox, to the San Antonio Spurs.
I've been asking for this trade ever since Sacramento got
off to such a terrible start this season. This is
like the half dozen time we've talked about it, so
I won't go two into detail, but I've been hung
(22:19):
up on this specific concept, which is that San Antonio
has a lot of young, developing talent, but that one
of those guys is just so far ahead of his
teammates in that development trajectory that you can't afford to
just let them slowly grow together. By this time next year,
Victor Weman Yama will probably be a consensus top six
player in the NBA Jokich, Luca, Jannis, Shay Tatum, and
(22:40):
Victor some order, and some folks might even add Victor
higher than six. When the time comes and you can't
just let a hyper competitive, super talented dude who's one
of the top six basketball players in the world just
sit around and wait for his young teammates to slowly improve.
I thought Deeron Fox was the perfect player to address
that conundrum three reasons. One, he's older than Wemby, but
(23:03):
he's just starting his prime. I think he has at
least five years left playing at the level that he's
currently at. That is a good long window to justify
this type of investment. Two, he's legitimately good enough to
be Wemby's number two. I had Darren Fox in my
top twenty five this summer. I think his combination of
downhill speed and over the top scoring ability. And again,
he hasn't shot as well from the perimeter this year,
(23:25):
but he's got such good short range shot making ability
to short lean back jumpers, floaters, things along those lines.
It's just such a devastating combo to be able to
be a real threat downhill, but to always be able
to stop on a dime and shoot over the top.
It's just a devastating combo. There are a lot of
fast guys in the NBA. There are a lot of
guys who can make shots. There are very few that
(23:45):
can do both at an extremely high level. And even
with his shooting being down a bit this year, he's
still over forty percent on pull up jump shots. He's
still over fifty percent on floaters on high volume, and
he logs in terms of the downhill ability. He logs
the same of drives per game as jam Morant to
give you guys some perspective on how much deeron Fox
can get downhill. Which brings me to the third reason
(24:06):
that I liked deeron Fox for the Spurs. The basketball
fit is utterly perfect. The ideal fit for a pick
and pop big is a downhill guard. Wemby obviously does
a lot on ball for the Spurs. They'll run action
for him around the foul line where he'll catch and
turn and face you know, eighteen twenty feet from the basket,
ISO that kind of stuff. But when he's operating as
(24:27):
a screener in action, he's almost always popping out to
the perimeter, right like, that's what he does. He's a
pick and pop big in terms of his utility in
the flow of the offense. The reason why a downhill
guard is so valuable with the pick and pop big
has to do with the way that speed can break
down traditional ballscreen coverages for starters. You can't switch right
(24:49):
like if you switch with a downhill guard and a
guy like Wemby. The best thing that you can do
when you're a big switching out onto the perimeter onto
a guard is to force him to settle for a
jump shot. And there are a lot lot of skill
guards in the league that will get bigs on switches,
and they'll settle for jump shots, and don't get me wrong,
sometimes they go in. But there's a good amount of
variants there. The death sentence for a big on a
(25:11):
switch is speed, because they really struggle to move laterally
and contain the ball. Deeron Fox can beat biggs off
the dribble for much more reliable offense. Beating switches so
that's a bad idea, and putting a small guard on
a shot maker like Victor women Yama is not not
a good idea either. Right now, let's take a look
at a traditional coverage, meaning the defense does not switch
(25:32):
if you use the screeners man, so Victor's man to
contain the ball, which you have to right because if
you're not switching and Wemby sets a pick on the
guy guarding Daron Fox and Wemby's man doesn't help at all.
Deer's going right downhill. He's flying downhill in your defense, bricks,
So you got to have that screen defender there to
contain the ball. Right. But here's the problem. As Victor
(25:55):
pops above the break, that defender who's containing the ball
now a closeout. He's got to close out from where
the ball handler is all the way back out to
Wemby where he's popping. This is where the downhill element
of Daron Fox's game is so valuable. The longer that
closeout is for that screen defender to get back to Wemby,
(26:17):
the better opportunities that Wenby's gonna get. Right. The more
athletic the guard is, the further he gets downhill, the
more it forces the entire defense to drop back to
contain the even longer that closeout's going to be. Right,
A skill guard who kind of meanders off the ball
screen and pitches it back to Wemby might only be
(26:38):
a ten to fifteen foot closeout. But if Dearon Fox
comes screaming down that ball screen and the guy's meeting
him more by the semi circle instead of up by
the top of the key, as an extra ten feet
that the big guy has to close out. And so
I just imagine like just a ton of these really
really open looks and high advantage situations for in a
(27:01):
wide open top of the key type of situation, I
just think I think it's just a perfect fundamental basketball
fit in two man game to have a guy like
Victor Weminyama that can pick and pop with a devastating
downhill guard like Deeron Fox, and he's also a very
complimentary defensive fit. I've talked about this a lot over
the course of the season. Fox is an attacking, aggressive,
(27:21):
disrupt the ball type of perimeter defender rather than the
sit back and contain the ball type of perimeter defender.
Containing is most important when you don't have strong rim protection.
Attacking can actually be really useful with strong rim protection
because ball pressure usually forces the ball handler to speed up.
It forces them to drive, because that's how you beat
(27:41):
ball pressure. You beat ball pressure by driving. If you
try to retreat, they're just going to keep pressuring you
until you lose control of the basketball. You attack ball pressure,
and so in those situations where you force them to
drive and you pressure well and you rush them, they
go downhill without a plan, and that's where mistakes can happen.
Cleaning up that type of dribble penetration is a thing
that Wemby's better at than literally anyone that's ever played
(28:04):
the game of basketball. So like I viewed as a
really complimentary defensive fit as well. So you've got a
player who won is good enough to help Wemby compete
for championships right away, but is also young enough to
fit the longer term Wemby timeline, while also being the
perfect basketball fit on both ends of the floor. And
you did it without having to give up any of
your most exciting young players. I think it's an absolute
(28:24):
home run move for the Spurs. That's why I've been
pushing for it all season. I haven't watched their debut.
I think they played for the first time together last night.
I've been so focused on the deadline, haven't had a
chance to watch it yet. But super super for all
these guys, by the way, Super excited to dive into
in the next couple of weeks the basketball of these
dudes playing on their new teams. That's why I got
to come back to hoops tonight. On the daily basis,
we do a lot of game breakdowns in the mornings
(28:47):
after these games. Zach Levine to the Sacramento Kings. I
really like Zach Levine, but I think this was probably
by far the most boring place for him to end up. Like.
Zach's really good. He's athletic, can get to the rim
and jump shooter with real scoring chops. He can create
shots for himself out of many different types of footwork,
dribble combinations. He's bucket getter. He's got solid playmaking chops.
(29:08):
He's been an efficient shot creator in every play type
this year. And he's healthier than you would think. His
reputation is that he's never healthy. He had a really
bad year last year, but he played like seventy seven
games the year before but it's boring because we already
know what it looks like. We've literally seen a team
led by Demarta Rozen and Zack Lavine as their two
primary shot creators. I talked about this, but two years ago,
(29:28):
the Bulls had a year where de Levigne, Derozen, and
Vucevich were healthy all year long, and they were bad.
If I remember correctly, the starters had a negative net
rating even though they had super fortunate health that year.
We've seen what this looks like looks like now. I
know that Demonia Sabonis is a much better player than
Nicola Vusovich and that they have him Malik Monk. I
know it's not a perfect comparison, but it's also a
(29:49):
tougher conference at West. But at the very least, we
do know that Demarta Rozen and zach Levine is not
enough offense to be a truly elite game break offense.
And we also know that this King's team is never
going to overwhelm teams with defense, not with the lineups
build around some bonus zach Lavine and DeMar DeRozan. You're
not so like. I don't need to see much or
(30:13):
to overthink this to know that the Kings just continued
to maintain their mediocrity. This felt to me like the
Kings just trying to remain relevant while also acquiescing to
darn Fox trade demand. And they'll be fun. The Kings
will go on some win streaks on some nights, they'll
look really good on offense, and they'll beat really good teams,
but they are going to accomplish anything of significance. And
(30:35):
that's why I thought this was the most boring destination
for Zach Lavine. The Milwaukee Bucks get Kevin Porter, Junior,
Jericho Simms, and Kyle Kuzma for Marjon Bouchamp, Chris Middleton,
AJ Johnson and a pick swap, and I think the
Bucks also might have gotten a second round pick back
in that deal as well, if I remember correctly. I
saw a lot of negativity surrounding this trade from Bucks fans,
(30:57):
and I get it to a certain extent. Like Chris,
when he's at his best, is a better basketball player
than Kyle Kuzma. But Chris Middleton hasn't shown his top
end in a long time. His ball handling has been
valuable to the Bucks this year in the half court.
He's been able to create advantages and just kind of
grease the wheels for them in their offense. But he's
been back for twenty three games and he's averaging twelve
points six points per game. This is not the same
(31:19):
twenty point per game Chris Middleton anymore. He had a
couple twenty point games in the last couple of weeks,
but they were in like losses where the team didn't
look good or I think he had won in Utah
as well. Like, this is not the same Chris Middleton
that was such an important part of the championship team
a few years ago. Now, whether or not this trade
makes any sense will come down to what Kyle Kuzma
turns into. The Bucks need to be able to convert
(31:41):
Kyle Kuzma back into their winning culture because he's been
playing losing basketball down in Washington for a few years now.
And Kyle Kuzma's last year with the Lakers before his
trade to Washington, he had actually turned himself into a
really good role player. First of all, he's a very
good rebounder. Towards the end with the Lakers in the
last year or two, he had become so good off ball, playing,
(32:04):
passing lanes, rotating and just being such a good defensive
rebounder that he actually had turned himself into a really
useful role player. The key will be bringing that out
of him. Again, that's on Yannis, that's on Brook, that's
on Doc Rivers Dame and all the leaders of that
team to refocus Kyle Kuzma's energy in the directions that
(32:25):
made him such a useful player for the Lakers towards
the end. He's got good size, he is a good athlete.
He can win contested rebound battles, he can fly around
in rotation and play passing lanes. He's big, Like this
is a size move for Milwaukee. That Kuzma yanis Brook
Lopez front line is just way more physically imposing than
(32:45):
a like even then a Bobby portis like too big
kind of look because Bobby doesn't move as well as
Kyle Kuzma does. But like certainly like Torrian Prince is
a bad rebounder, like this is a big his eyes, athleticism,
off ball defense and rebounding upgrade for the Bucks if
they can bring that back out of Kyle Kusma, which
(33:08):
again that's the big kind of variable here, right And
then on offense, Kuzma's an interesting case study in how
little efficiency actually matters relative to your reputation in the league.
Like Kyle Kuzma's an inefficient offensive player. His best shooting
year was actually his last year with the Lakers, and
he only shot thirty six percent. He's a career fifty
(33:30):
four percent in true shooting, which is nothing to celebrate.
But he is constantly aggressive. It's actually funny how aggressive
he is. He's a career seventeen field goal attempts per
thirty six minutes in his career. Even his last year
in LA, when he was in his smallest role there,
he still took fourteen shots per thirty six minutes. This
is an aggressive score. He averages seven three point attempts
(33:54):
per thirty six minutes in his career. He shoots so much,
and he always he has this threat that he might
go off. Like Obviously he's been more of a scoring
role with Washington, but even going back to the Lakers,
any giving night he could go for twenty. Any given
night he could go for thirty. The threat was there.
He has ninety seven career games with over twenty five points.
(34:17):
He has eleven career games with over thirty five points.
This has led to and this stood out to me
in such an interesting way when he was with the Lakers.
This led to teams accounting for him on the scouting
report the same way you would for a more efficient scorer.
The way he's guarded is like that of a more
efficient scorer. So his value on offense is greater than
(34:38):
his efficiency would lead you to believe because teams will
account for him. I think he slots in really nicely
as the starting three increases their size and rebounding ability
gives them more scoring pop. The big variable here is
can they get him to commit back to playing winning basketball.
The Bucks also got Kevin Porter Junior. He's just a
bench bucket getter. Nothing too crazy there. He has all
(34:58):
the footwork in dribble comp nations to get his own shot,
but he just isn't particularly good at making shots, for
whatever that's worth. Jericho Sims is just a hyper athletic
center who plays really hard but isn't really good at
anything on either end of the floor. I do think
the Bucks got a little better in this trade cycle.
It certainly would have been better if they could have
pulled off something like a Jimmy Butler deal or Zach
(35:19):
Lavine deal, but they didn't win in those bidding wars,
and so they ended up having to pivot to something else.
And again, like with the urgency surrounding Dame's age and
Gianni's commitment to the franchise, like you had to do something.
It's not perfect, there's risk involved. Kyle Kuzma shares a
certain amount of variability here with his commitment to winning.
(35:40):
But you had to do something, and this is this
at least has the potential to bring real upside for
the Bucks. All right, weving new segments that we're debuting
(36:01):
today from our new partner, Microsoft. So let's get into that.
Welcome to course correction brought to you by Microsoft. Just
like star players and teams navigating performance hurdles, business decision
makers today are under immense pressure to get things right.
They must rise to the occasion, turning challenges into opportunities.
Microsoft empowers these visionaries with AI solutions, simplified cloud and
(36:24):
data management and trustworthy, responsible AI. And when you're in
the NBA, you have your own hurdles to face. In
this segment, we're going to be exploring the challenges faced
by teams or star players and how they can turn
things around. Whatever challenge you're facing. Microsoft empowers you with
the expertise to say bring it on. This week, we're
discussing the challenge faced by Rob Polinka and the Los
(36:46):
Angeles Lakers. Rob Blink and the Lakers were in a
little bit of a bind. They were built around a
forty year old Lebron James and a soon to be
thirty two year old Anthony Davis, who's a little older
than his age would lead you to believe, and they
looked like a team that clearly did not have a
championship ceiling, in large part because of mistakes that this
front office made, the catastrophe of the Russell Westbrook trade,
(37:09):
roster imbalances brought by a failure to prioritize motor and
athleticism around their aging stars. It looked really bleak, But
at the same time, the team this year was showing
some real promise. The Lakers are seventeen and eight in
their last twenty five games, to seventh best record in
the league. Over that span. They've shown some real promise
with their small ball groups on both ends of the floor,
(37:30):
impressive wins against the Boston Celtics, the Knicks without Anthony Davis,
a small ball group the Clippers without They beat the
Clippers without Anthony Davis or without Max Christy, a lot
of small ball groups in those games. Lebron has looked fantastic.
But then Nico Harrison calls with an opportunity involving Luka Doncic.
This is where I thought Rob rose to the occasion
(37:52):
and turned a challenge into an opportunity. Started with self awareness.
Everything in life starts with you being willing to admit
you're good at and admit what you're bad at. There
was a moment there where Rob had to take a
look at this and realize that they're not good enough,
even though they've been playing well, even though it looks
like there's an upside, even though you could argue that
(38:12):
team might have been a trade away. But it was
about looking at that and making a tough decision with
self awareness about where this team was actually going. This
was a high point in Lakers history, this recent stretch
of games that they've been playing in recent Lakers history.
I should say there was a lot of optimism floating around,
(38:32):
but the reality was they weren't good enough to beat Oka.
See they weren't good enough to beat Boston. They might
not have even been good enough to beat Denver. So
first Rob makes the big decision, We're moving on from
Anthony Davis to Luca. But from there he had to
navigate the massive problem that presents for the rest of
the roster when you send out Anthony Davis and you
don't even have a viable replacement at center. From there,
(38:55):
Rob did a really nice job of negotiating with Nico
Harrison holding on to his twenty fie thirty one first
round pick holding on to Dalton connect Those are two
assets that you could argue Nico Harrison should have just
demanded like Dalton should be a mav that pick should
be the MAVs. And Rob held his ground and hung
onto those picks that gave him the ability to make
(39:15):
another trade to find the center of the future in
Mark Williams. And to top it all off, you managed
to clear a roster spot in the process, which is
huge because I think the Lakers are going to be
the premier buyout destination in the entire NBA in the
next month. Any center that signs with the Lakers can
get a pretty much guaranteed rotation spot. Any wing or
swingman that can play some defense and shoot has guaranteed
(39:37):
minutes available. They are the premier buyout destination, and they
cleared out a roster spot. One of the things I
always talk about on this show with respect to players
is the idea of just making a play. It doesn't
matter how bad of a game you're having, it doesn't
matter how bad of a season you're having. If you
just start playing better, then your circumstances will improve. And
it's been a really rough tenure for Rob Polinka as
(39:58):
GM of the Lakers, but he just pulled off the unthinkable.
He just reopened a championship contending window, one that seemed
almost shut, and now it could be open for the
next decade. Now, as basketball fans, we get to do
the fun part, which is watching Lebron James and Luka
Doncic play basketball together. So shout out to Rob Polinka.
He made a play, so to speak, and now he's
(40:19):
completely rewritten the story of his tenure as general manager
of the Los Angeles Lakers. That's it for this week's
course correction. Remember Microsoft's AI solutions empower you to take
bold steps and make informed decisions, sparking new ideas to
help you drive your business forward. With Microsoft as your
trusted partner. You can navigate your journey with confidence. Your
(40:40):
journey with confidence, finding innovative solutions in reaching new possibilities.
Visit Microsoft dot com Slash Challengers to learn more. All right, guys,
before we get out of here, we're going to do
a rapid fire segment hitting through a bunch of other
stuff around the league. First of all, Kevin Durant refusing
Golden State. I wanted Kevin Durant to go to Golden State.
I straight up think he would have had a better
(41:01):
chance to win there than he did in Phoenix. I
talked about this in the Jimmy Butler Show yesterday, but
I think there's a misconception about the Warriors that they're bad,
when really they're just horribly imbalanced. Even after that Jimmy
Butler trade, they still have like eleven rotation players that
can play meaningful basketball, at least within the context of
the regular season, and they were able to bring in
a guy in Jimmy Butler that immediately balances the roster out.
(41:22):
You don't need fifteen guys that can play minutes in
the NBA. You don't need fifteen of them. You can
do it with eleven and give yourself, more firepower off
the top right. I thought KD would have very cleanly
kind of slotted into that Jimmy Butler type of role
that we talked about last night, same concepts that I
talked about last night with respect to playing alongside Steph.
(41:42):
I did have a warrior though, even when all that
buzz was kind of building on Tuesday. This week, I've
just heard from so many different sources like that Kevin
Durant really didn't like the way the whole Golden State
thing went down, and that he looks back at that
era with a little more contempt than people are willing
to realize. And so I was hoping that enough time
(42:05):
had passed and you know, like maybe it would have
been able to Like I'd heard a report too that
like Phoenix was coverting Draymond in that deal. Like I
thought maybe there was some way to work it out
towards Kevin Durant going that direction. But he stepped in
there and he said, I don't want to do it.
I don't want to go back to the Bay. And
I do think that that comes down to the way
everything that went down when he left, and so it's
(42:27):
kind of a bummer and now Katie's stuck on that
Sun's team, which I mean, I guess we're gonna talk
about it in a minute. Maybe they got a little
bit better bringing in Cody Martin, but like, I don't
see anything really substantial there that looks like an opportunity,
So at least Vin doesn't have to move, I guess.
But it was interesting the way he stepped in and
nixed that deal from taking place. Marcus Smart to the
(42:49):
Washington Wizards kind of crazy that they traded two picks,
two first round picks to get him and then had
to pay another first round pick to get off of him.
It's a weird sequence for a front office that's otherwise
been excellent. But the upside for the rest of the
league is that if you are not in the first
Aprin or second Apron, you could potentially get Marcus Smart
in a buyout if he gets bought out before the
end of the season, and I think he would be
a really interesting buyout guy to raise the ceiling for
(43:11):
a team. Golden State would be an interesting spot if
Marcus Martin becomes available. Detroit, the Pistons get Dennis Schroeder.
I actually really like Dennis Schroeder. He had a little
bit of a rough go there with Golden State, but
he was miscast as like the secondary star on the team.
Dennis Schroeder, to me, is an extremely useful player in
that he can guard point guards from the other teams.
He is a savage competitor like legitimately just gives it
(43:34):
his all every single night. I loved rooting for that guy.
Pistons fans, you will love rooting for him. He just
needs to be in a position where he's not depended
on to a great deal to run offense. Now within Detroit,
because of the injury to Jaden Ivy, he is going
to kind of be in that position where he's expected
to do a lot and there will be a lot
of highs and lows for Dennis Schroeder on the offense
at the end of the floor. You need to be
aware of that. But I do like the idea of
(43:56):
at least just giving kid another guy that can help,
other guy that can help handle the ball, another guy
that can handle ball pressure, another guy that can just
carry shifts when he's off the floor. Again, you didn't
want to do anything too crazy because you don't want
to do anything to mess with Detroit's timeline. But at
the same time, this is like a nice inexpensive move
that just gives you a little bit more firepower to
(44:16):
get a more interesting look at Detroit when they get
to the postseason. The Clippers get bogged on mcdonovitch for
Terrence Man and bones Highland, another shot creator for the Clippers.
That's a team that's light on shot creation. Any injury
that takes place all of a sudden, normOn powells your
secondary shot creator and he's been great this year, but
getting ball handling there is definitely an ad for the Clippers.
(44:37):
Terrence Man had been kind of pushed to the edge
of their rotation, which is weird. I actually really like Terrence.
But he fits Atlanta's goal really well, which is Atlanta
has been trying to surround Trey Young with athletes, young
athletes that can cover for his size and limitations and
benefit from his playmaking talent. That is a nice get
for Atlanta there. The Suns turned use of Narkic and
(44:58):
a first round pick into Cody Martin the sila Ja
Mishic and a second round pick. Now Mitchich probably won't
play with the point guards that they already have but
Cody Martin is a useful wing athlete on a team
that doesn't have many useful wing athletes, and use Off
Nurkic was useless, so it cost you to protected first.
But it was a nice moderate improvement and there was
(45:19):
some real urgency here. Again, it's better than nothing, I guess,
but I still don't feel like the Suns are going anywhere.
Mini heat turned PJ. Tucker into Davion Mitchell, a guard
who can really defend, and again this always brings value
in the modern MBA, the ability to guard the ball,
and I like Davion is like a kind of guy
that you can deploy that just changes the flow of
(45:39):
a game. You get into a game and you're playing
against you know, the Nuggets or something like that, or
I'm trying to think of, like just let's just take
any team in the Eastern Conference that has high level
guard plays. Let's play say Milwaukee. Play Milwaukee and Damian
Lillard just lighting up your starters like he's killing Terry Rogier,
he's killing Tyler Harro on switches, and it's not looking
(46:00):
pretty and you just need to do something to change
the flow of the game. You take Davey on Mitchell out.
You put him out there and you say pick up
Dame full court. It can change the tenor of a game.
It can disrupt rhythm. Again, he's not the kind of
guy who's going to be in your closing five. He's
not the kind of guy that you want playing thirty
minutes a night. But it's a useful rotation player. Is
a guard who can defend a kind of guy that
can come in and bring ball pressure and change the
flow of a game. And last trade we're getting into today,
(46:23):
brandon Ingram to the Toronto Raptors. I actually really like
brandon Ingram. I've talked about this before, but I think
he is at his best when you put the ball
in his hands and you allow him to run a
lot of spread, pick and roll. He compared to most
forwards in the league, is actually a really gifted passer.
I think he's a guy that can raise your offensive
floor to a great extent. He actually fits really nice
(46:43):
next to Scotty. Like I look at Scotty is like
the hammer to the brandon Ingram scalpel So to speak Scotty.
It's interesting because like he's just so physically imposing. At times.
I was watching which game was I watching the other day?
I think it was Toronto for Chicago, and he was
(47:04):
doing a lot of work like posting mismatches. He had
a run in the third quarter where he like scored
bucket after bucket after bucket attacking from the post. But
like he just can run into a little bit of
a wall on offense sometimes he has a tendency to
settle for fadeaways in the post quite a bit. Like
I think bringing in Ingram to make Scotty's life easier
on offense is at least a worthwhile endeavor for Toronto
(47:27):
to try. And then guess what you can decide at
the end of this year if you want to resign
brandon Ingram with some sort of long term deal, and
whether or not the deal makes any sense really comes
down to what you end up signing brandon Ingram too.
It depends if you get him at a fair deal
or if you end up having to overpay. And time
will tell in that regard. The team isn't going anywhere,
but it's certainly a hell of a lot more fun
after this. All right, guys, That's all I have for
(47:48):
today is always to sincerely appreciate you guys. For supporting
me and supporting the show. I am very excited to
get back into it, breaking down some games, talking about
these players on their new teams. As of right now,
we might be going live tonight after Warriors Lakers, depending
on whether or not it's Steah plays, so keep an
eye on my Twitter feed. We might have another episode tonight.
If not, we'll be coming out tomorrow. Then we always
(48:08):
have our mail bags like we usually do on Friday,
and then time to start breaking down games. We plan
on covering the Pacers Lakers Luka Doncic his debut on Saturday.
I'm looking forward to that as well. Again, I really
appreciate you guys for rocking with me and I will
see you either tonight or tomorrow morning the volume What's
Up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to
and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful
(48:31):
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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