Kevin Durant & Rockets look DANGEROUS, Ace Bailey looks like the deal real, Lakers vs Warriors Reaction

Jason recaps the 2nd week of NBA Preseason games including Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets beating up on Ace Bailey and the Utah Jazz, Cooper Flagg's preseason debut with the Dallas Mavericks, life without Jayson Tatum for the Boston Celtics, and a Lakers vs Warriors rematch #volume

All lines provided by hardrock.bet

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. All right, Welcoon hoopsaid, I you're at the
volume heavy Monday, everybody. Hope all you guys had a
great weekend. We are doing another round of preseason reaction today.

(00:22):
We're gonna be ing in on a couple of teams
out of Texas, the Houston Rockets as well as the
Dallas Mavericks. A couple of interesting debuts for new and
different looking teams. After that, we're going to talk about
the Boston Celtics. Had a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers
the other night, very fascinating game that showed I thought,
the strong basketball culture of both teams, but also is

(00:44):
an interesting look at a new era of Celtics basketball
that I want to talk about. At the tail end
of the show, just a couple of minutes on Lakers Warriors.
I just have some thoughts on specifically Deandreton as well
as the news that Lebron's going to be out to
start the season. We haven't had a chance to react
to that yet, so we'll have that, some brief thoughts
on the Warriors. And then there's a book that I
just finished reading that I'm excited to tell you guys

(01:06):
about that I think all Lakers fans should look to
get here in the next couple of weeks. You guys
have the joke before we get started, subscribe to Hoops
and Not YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of
our videos. Follow me on Twitter, underscore jcnlt so you
guys don't misshow announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed
wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also
super helpful v leave a rating and a review on
that front. Jackson's doing incredible work on our social media

(01:26):
feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Make sure you
guys follow us there. In the last but not least,
if you want to get questions in our mail bags,
drop them in the YouTube comments and we'll get to
them as we progress throughout this season. All right, let's
talk some basketball. Quick note on the rest of the
schedule for this week, we'll have our contender rankings on Wednesday. Friday,

(01:47):
we had our first mail bag that we've had in
a little bit, questions based on what I saw on
the YouTube comments for the season preview pods, and then
next week we'll have something on Monday, probably just like
a prediction, big like five predictions on the Sea and
something along those lines, and then we're in it and
we're gonna be live on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night,
which would be a lot of fun. All Right, let's
talk some hoops. So starting with Houston. We got our

(02:09):
first look at the KD Kevin Durant Rockets against the
Jazz last week. I'm trying really hard not to overreact
because it was just the Utah Jazz, but I'm not
gonna lie, guys. I was super impressed by Houston on
both ends of the floor. They still very much had
that defense to transition identity. They had a stretch in
the second quarter where it was like steal, runout, dunk, steel,

(02:31):
run out, dunk, steel run out dunk, stop run out dunk,
and it just was that classic type of run that
we're used to seeing from those bench groups with like
Tari Easton and Amn Thompson on the floor just making plays,
sparking those transition runouts where their athleticism can be such
a strong part of their roster. Right again, it's preseason

(02:51):
against the Jazz. Like a lot of those turnovers were
like Sphema kailu and you're not gonna be going against
ball handlers of that quality every night in the Western Conference,
but it's still good to see that that identity is
still there. The big reason why I'm excited is they
were a lot more polished on offense than I was
expecting them to look. And again I'm trying not to
get two ahead of myself here. We'll talk about the

(03:13):
bigger picture here in a minute. But Shanggun looks awesome.
He looks poised for a breakout year. I talked last
week about how I fear I underrated him in our
player rankings. I had him outside of my top twenty five,
and I probably should have had him in that top
twenty five. I looked back at my lit like all
the prep notes that I had, and I had him
at thirty, which I think is too low. And I

(03:36):
just think he looks like he's ready to really go
up a level this year. I thought he looked amazing
with the offense ran through him. He locked thirteen assists
to just one turnover against the Jazz, making nice kickout
reads out of post ups. He has incredible chemistry with
the men Thompson. The two of them were running inverted
ball screens. He was cutting off of his post ups
and on his rolls, he was feeding him in transition

(03:58):
like just I think five of his thirteen assists that
he had in the game where directly to Amen Thompson.
Kevin Durant looked very much like a natural fit on
both ends of the floor. He missed his first three shots,
but then he made seven in a row after that.
We saw some looks at the Durant Shangoon two man game.
As you guys could see, Utah did not want to switch.

(04:18):
I have a feeling in general teams are not gonna
want to switch that that's gonna get Katie all sorts
of opportunities to score getting downhill in ball screens as
as well as opportunities to play make out of those situations.
He scored off ball as well, very much in the flow.
We're going to talk about Ace Bailey in a minute,
and it's so funny because I actually see Ace Bailey
in a lot of ways in terms of the fit

(04:40):
in an offense. I want to see him attack in
similar ways to the way that Kevin Durant does. Very
much like tough shot making, but in the flow of
the offense, which I think is a very important part
of like making you easy to plug and play into
any situation. But Kadie plugs in super nicely into the
offense without having to like co op the ball away
from uh Shangu or anything along those lines. A mean

(05:02):
Thompson got lots of chances to attack off the bounce,
and it wasn't perfect. There were a couple plays that
went nowhere, but he got into the lane a ton
and when he gets in the lane with the amount
of speed that he has, a lot of good things
can happen. I really liked his attacks and semi transition,
like before the defense is really set, if he has
space and he can get to like a move and

(05:22):
a counter move. He's just so athletic that most of
these dudes just can't hang with him in space, and
you got to see a lot of that. Jabari Smith
is shooting the ball super well, which again, like you know,
it's it's kind of a redundancy, and it reminds me
the Lakers, where you basically have two power forwards that
need to start. But Jabari's shooting is so immensely valuable
in this system that desperately needs shooting that I actually

(05:44):
think it's gonna work Obviously there's some things they are
gonna have to figure out in terms of how to
guard against certain types of teams that can really space
them out with speed. We'll see there are gonna be
different types of matchups that they play, because you know,
when you have shanngouon Durant and Jabari Smith not a
ton of foot speed on that front line, but they'd
be able to, you know, counter that with switching and

(06:06):
having your help set up funneling in the right direction,
and just having really strong off ball principles. Right. So, like,
I think there's some parts that they're gonna have to
work out, but Jabari's shooting is just too valuable in
that group, a group that needs shooting. Reach Shepherd. It's
interesting his on ball reps weren't that good, like as
a creator, but I thought he defended like super super well,

(06:27):
Like I've been really impressed by read Shepherd's just activity
on defense, the speed he puts on his closeouts to
chase guys off the line, his ability to slide and
stay in front of the ball and on ball situations
and slap down to the basketball without fouling. You know,
it's funny because I don't think he's even close to
being ready to handle the on ball stuff that this

(06:48):
team needs. But I do think he's the perfect guy
to start with this group simply because what he is
right now is a high floor three and D option.
He's gonna hit his and shoots when they're open, and
he's a guy that can guard the ball. So I
actually think in the meantime he does give them a
really good fit with that starting lineup in just in order.

(07:09):
It's just one of those things where when you're talking
about a potential championship ceiling, like contending with the Okacs
and the Denvers of the world, that's where it gets
a little more complicated and you start to think you
need a better ball handler there, and maybe he becomes
that one day. I just don't think he's gonna be
there this year, but I do see a lot of strong,
like foundational stuff as an on ball defender, an off
ball defender, and as an off ball score Again, I'm

(07:32):
not gonna allow myself to have like a super passionate
opinion about the Rockets here, because we just need to
see more like there will be teams that can really
protect the rim that will sag off of the right guys,
and that will make life difficult for this offense. I
do want to see what that looks like. But my
gut feeling after watching that game was that I overestimated
how much the loss of Fred van Vliet would hurt

(07:54):
this team. And if they go into next week and
they look great in their first five games or so,
it's not gonna take me much to vault them up
to the top of that second tier of contenders in
the Western Conference. I was really really impressed by how
they looked, but again, we'll see after we get some
more data against some better competition. Quick thoughts on Ace

(08:14):
Bailey nineteen for twenty nine so far from the field
in preseason, I have loved how Utah's used him. They're
basically channeling his aggression and his tough shot making into
structured offense. Like he's being hyper aggressive, but almost all
of it is coming with an advantage, like curling off
of off ball screens, so he has really simple reads.

(08:37):
Big doesn't step up go all the way to the rim.
Big is, you know, kind of conceding the pull up
but waiting on you to drive. Take the little short
jump shot right. They dig down off the wing, make
the kickout. It makes very simplified reads for him. He's
taking threes off of like relocations and in transition, so
they're pretty good looks from three. Even his tough shot

(08:59):
making is coming in the flow of the offense. He
hit this like left shoulder fade against the Jazz that
came off of a baked in driving lane that I
thought was a classic example of what I'm talking about here.
So he's on the left wing. I can't remember who
has the ball. I think it's like Keyantae George or
something like that. And he's on the left wing and
his man is digging down into nail help. So just
imagine him standing there on the wing with the defender

(09:20):
on his right side pretty far off of him. Right
swing pass comes to him. What do we talk about
all the time on swing passes? On nail help. There's
a baked in driving lane. You don't need to do
anything or make some sort of complicated read catch and
rip because the defender's sprinting off your other side, so
like he's not squared up with you where you've got
to make a move to beat him. The move is

(09:42):
already the window. The driving lane is already there. It's
the left handed rip, and so he catches on the
wing and he rips left and the defender who is
guarding him makes a super aggressive recovery move back towards
the left handed drive, which easily sets up the spin
over him his left shoulder, and he gets tons of

(10:02):
separation and knocks down a short, little like twelve foot
left shoulder fade away. That's a tough shot like that
left shoulder fade away, but because it's coming out of
an advantage situation that baked in driving lane pushing to
his left, it's actually a much easier shot than if
it's one on one. Everyone's standing around and he's breaking

(10:24):
the dude down off the bounce to get to a
left shoulder fade. The defender's probably gonna be more physical
with him and bump him on his spin a little
bit more, which is going to affect his balance, and
now he's not gonna get as much lift on the turnaround,
and that means it's gonna put a lot more emphasis
on the top of the shot, which makes it more difficult,
which makes it less likely that he makes it right.
Like everyone thinks of tough shot making is something that

(10:46):
has to be like like four guys standing around in staring,
not necessarily like you can be a tough shot maker
in the flow of offense. I mean, how Kevin Duran
has literally made a career out of that sort of thing,
And so that was the most encouraging thing to me.
Like it's early, and obviously with his shot diet, he's
gonna have cold stretches like Ace is gonna have games

(11:06):
where he doesn't make shots and maybe a few games
in a row. But in the flow of the offense
like this, he's going to get easier shots. That's s
the like you you look at the Jazz and their
decision to draft Ace Bailey is risky, right, Why was
it risky? It was risky because the stuff from Rutgers
wasn't pretty. The offense and the defensive tape was in pretty.

(11:29):
There was highlights on the offensive end, there are highlights
on the defensive end, but percentage wise and a lot
of the decision making it wasn't pretty. Utah made a
bet that that was a Rutgers problem, not an Ace
Bailey problem, that hey, we can bring a sin and
have him play serious basketball. Was a real structure and
he's gonna thrive. And again it's super early, but the

(11:52):
early returns are that Ace can score the basketball and
structured NBA offense, and that to me is super encouraging.
But I mean, if you're a Jazz fan, this is
where it gets super exciting. I thought he was amazing
on defense, and like, when you're a tough shot maker,
there's gonna be games where you don't make shots. And

(12:15):
if you're a bad defensive player who has a night
where you're missing shots, it can be destructive for your team.
But if you're a guy who is a high defensive
floor and you're competing in the margins and you have
a rough shooting night, that's still a good game. And
then when you have the strong defensive foundation and you're

(12:37):
knocking down shots, that's when you're contributing at an all
star level. He started the game on KD, and it
was the on ball stuff in particular that impressed me.
He started the game on KD and he's like sidling
up over the top of screens and applying real back
pressure on KD, forcing him into some pretty tough pull
up jump shots. At first, I was like, Okay, well

(12:57):
Kd's slower, what about a quicker player. Well, he gets
a mental on a ball screen and he beats over
the top of the screen, stays on him, and Thompson's
side waits for him to expose the ball and slaps
the ball away off of his leg. And I'm sitting
there watching it, and I'm like, this is like a
legitimate defensive talent that we're seeing come together focused in

(13:18):
an on ball roll. Now we'll see how does it
go when he goes against teams that are better at screening.
How does it go when he's in situations where he's
taxed more off the ball. There's a lot more that
goes into defense than just guarding pick and roll on
the ball. But when I was watching that, I was like, man,
if he can score the basketball in the structure of
NBA offense and he can guard the ball at various

(13:41):
different types of ball handling talents, that's like a really
high level talent there. And it's just exciting for the
Jazz because the Jazz just they needed a bit of
real optimism, like a guy who was truly capable of
being a franchise altering talent. I'll admit I was skeptical
after the pick. I've said it on the show The

(14:02):
stuff from Rutgers wasn't pretty, but like, I actually see
a little glimmer of hope, now real glimmer of hope
that exists in the form of Ace Bailey as like
a franchise altering talent for Utah and that was that
was really really exciting to watch. Katie spoke very highly
of him after the game as well. Today's show is
brought to you by our new presenting sponsor, hard Rock Bet.

(14:25):
The NBA season is right around the corner and we're
incredibly excited. Haven't placed your first bet yet? Now is
the perfect time. Bet five dollars and if it wins,
you don't just get your payout, you also cash in
one hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets on top.
If you're looking to bet NBA futures, they're live on
hard Rock Bet. You can bet on the Finals, MVP,
Rookie of the Year, sixth Man, and a lot more.

(14:47):
Open up the app to see everything that's live and
lock in today's odds if you like what you see.
And on Wednesdays, if you're already betting on the hard
Rock Sports Book app, you know what that means. It's
the last day to use your legendary reward drops. Open
up the app today you can have a bonus bet
or who knows what's in there? More drops every Thursday.
The rewards and promos are NonStop. Download a hard Rock

(15:09):
Bet app today and make your first deposit payable and
bonus bets not a cash offer offered by the Seminole
Tribe of Florida. In Florida, offered by Seminal hard Rock
Digital LLC. In all other states. Must be twenty one
plus and physically present in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana,
New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, or Virginia to play. Terms and

(15:29):
conditions apply. Concerned about gambling in Florida, call one eight
eight eight Admit it. In Indiana. If you or someone
you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call
one eight hundred and nine with it. Gambling problem called
one eight hundred gambler in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee,
or Virginia. All right, let's go a little bit further

(15:54):
north to the Dallas Mavericks. This is one of the
teams that I was most excited to watch in preseason
because they have such an interesting configuration. And there's a
lot of buzz coming out of the Oklahoma City game
because they thrashed him in the first half. And so
I went this morning and I watched the first half
of both of their games against Oklahoma City and against Charlotte,
and there was a ton of interesting stuff to get into.
So I want to start with Cooper flag because he's

(16:15):
the guy who's giving Dallas fans so much to be
exciting about. Excited about, right, The most impressive thing by
far with Cooper is just his ability to make reads
on both ends of the floor. He's a playmaker. He'll
jump a passing lane first deal and spark a fast
break and then make a great read for an open
three or for a layup. He'll make a backside rotation

(16:37):
and block a guy at the rim that leads to
a fast break that leads to a lob dunk for
Anthony Davis. He'll slide his feet. One on one, he
had to play against Colin Sexton where he beat him
to the spot, stonewalled him so hard that literally Colin
just lost control of the basketball and it sparks a
break going the other way. That's a defensive playmaking that
comes from his IQ in combination with his supreme physical

(16:59):
gift compared to most people his size. And then on offense,
he just takes the reads that are available to him.
And this was something that stood out to me in
his Duke tape as well as its Summer League. He
doesn't over complicate things. He probes the defense with the
dribbler coming off of screening action, whatever it is, and
when he probes the defense, he just takes what's there.
If there's an open kickout, he throws it. There's a

(17:21):
drop off, he throws it. If there's a guy trailing
the play, he'll hit the trailer. He just takes the
easy pass and then he relocates out and gets ready
to get the basketball again. Like he's the definition of
a wheel greaser for an offense. I think we'll see
some offenses down the line in his career when he's
really surrounded by lots of talent where that particular trait

(17:42):
comes to the forefront and he really greases the wheels
for a great offense. I mean, we saw a version
of that in twenty twenty four with Jason Tatum with
the Celtics, where he was around a ton of talent,
and he's kind of like the perfect star for that
talent because he just keeps the ball moving by making
simple reads right. And i think the level of read
and react to play that we're seeing from Cooper Flag
is basically unheard of for rookies. And I've just been

(18:05):
super impressed by his floor game over the course of
the Over the course of the first couple of preseason
games that he's played, he's actually second on the team
and assists so far behind D'Angelo Russell. The jump shot
looks amazing. I'll be a small sample, obviously, he's only
taking nine of them, but he's five for nine overall,
and eight of those nine were off the dribble. He's

(18:25):
five for eight on off the dribble jump shots. He's
two for four from the mid range. Overall, he's three
for five from three. He's showing it in all sorts
of situations, like he's hitting pull up threes in ISO
guy sagging off, he just kind of takes a hop
step and elevates knocks down the jump shot. In ball
screens going to his left against drop against Oklahoma City,

(18:45):
he hits a pull up three going to his right
against drop against Charlotte, he hits a pull up three's.
That's that combo footwork going both ways off of ball
screens that you need to hit. He had a couple
of really high level mid range ISO jump shots in
the Charlotte game. One behind the back move against LaMelo
hard drive to the left, snatch dribble back, just sheds

(19:07):
LaMelo off and just elevates and knocks down that little
jump shot moving towards his right. Did it again, not
off of a pullback dribble, but off of just like
a one dribble pull up push dribble to the right
against Miles Bridges. You can tell kind of like Devin
Booker like, there's some of these right handed A lot
of right handed shooters are more comfortable going towards their left.
I personally am more comfortable going towards towards my left,

(19:28):
especially when I'm running into a shot. It's just easier
footwork to plant that right foot and than your left foot.
But there are certain players that, for whatever reason, are
more comfortable going to the right as a right handed player.
Devin Booker's talked about this a lot. He talks about
how it's about his elevation. He really gets lyft because
he knows he needs to square up in mid air,
and so it just engages his lower body more on

(19:48):
the shot and he can rise up and knock those
shots down. It kind of feels similar for Cooper flag
it seems like he's more comfortable going aggressively towards his
right and then just left right plant get as much
elevation as he can and rise up and knock down
the shot. Again. Obviously, it's early and all eyes will
be on the jump shot for Cooper, but a really

(20:08):
good start for him in preseason. He's just gonna be
an awesome player for a long time. And I'm very
happy for MAVs fans because they just had the year
from hell and Cooper I'm sure takes some of the
sting off of that. Looking at the team on both
ends is a little more mixed results for me. Let's
start with the defense. I'm a big believer in Dallas's defense.
In the big picture, I would be stunned if Dallas

(20:28):
was like healthy this year and they weren't in the
top six or seven. But I think they got some
work to do to get there. I was skeptical after
the first half against Oklahoma City, just simply because Oklahoma
City is devoid of offensive talent once you get off
of their stars, right, like the shooting and ball handling talent,
and okay, see, he just isn't there compared to other
teams in the league after their stars. It's a big

(20:48):
part of why I'm not as high on them as
some of my peers in the business. Like, I still
view them as a top tier contender, but I don't
view them as a runaway favorite the way that some
people in the business do coming into this season. And
when I watched that game, it just looked a lot
like Oklahoma City's bad offensive players trying to score over trees. Right,
Because Dallas is so huge, right, Charlotte provided a very

(21:11):
different challenge. Right. You have a real offensive engine talent
in LaMelo Ball. You have some talented shooting and finishing
talent off the ball, and LaMelo just fried him up.
He fried the Mavericks in that game. He had a
one forty two offensive rating the Hornets had in twenty
three minutes when LaMelo was on the floor. That's obviously
nightmarish for Dallas's defense. And I want to start on

(21:34):
LaMelo for a second. It's funny because we just did
our season preview on Charlotte and I talked about how
I'm kind of out on LaMelo as a franchise cornerstone.
He's just his injury history and there's a general air
of unseriousness with him, which I think is tough to
build a team around. But I remained a huge believer
in like his natural talents as an offensive engine in

(21:55):
this league. And boy did LaMelo demonstrate that in this game.
He picked them apart with pull up threes and floaters
in the lane and driving layups through traffic where he's
like weaving through two seven footers and getting left handed
reverse layups. He was absolutely demolishing Max Christy in this game,
like taking it personal, how he wanted to kind of

(22:16):
humiliate him in this game. Beautiful pass after beautiful pass.
He never seems to miss a read. He always seems
to put the perfect touch and location on his pass
to set his teammates up to score. There's one with
Brandon Miller. I think it was an offensive rebound and
LaMelo catches up on the left wing and Brandon kind
of flashes to the middle of the floor and LaMelo
like throws the ball high and towards the rim, basically

(22:40):
leading Brandon in his catch into a layup. And I
was like, that's a little thing where like, if he
just throws him the ball there, that's probably a fifteen
foot jump shot and that has a roughly fifty percent
chance of going in right. But by leading him to
the basket with the pass, it actually led to a layup.
These are the kinds of little things that like the
transcendently great passers in the league are always so good

(23:01):
at the touch on that beautiful lob pass he threw
to Miles Bridges on the back cut, like he just
he's just such a gifted offensive player. And it's funny
because LaMelo can really transform me into a grouchy old
man who's yelling from the porch sometimes and I hate that.
But at the same time, I'm not a denier of
his talent. The talent is real. It's just a question

(23:23):
of can he start to become the type of serious
player that builds a competitive culture for a Charlotte team
that's been bad and can he stay on the floor.
Those are the two things that he needs to address
in order to really in order for me to believe
in him as a franchise altering talent again. But really
going back to Dallas, what LaMelo and the Hornet's exposed

(23:44):
in this phase of Dallas's defensive development was their lack
of attentiveness and effort and quickness on the perimeter. The
interior defense is gonna be ridiculous. We've seen sequences where
they just it seems like they have four rim protectors
on the floor and no one can get a shot off.
They had to stretch in the second quarter of the
Hornets game. Just the second quarter of the Hornets game,

(24:05):
they had five blocks. Like, there's gonna be a lot
of moments like that where their interior defense is frightening.
That's gonna be easy for them, but they do have
a lot of work to do outside the paint. There's
a tendency with bigger interior players versus smaller, quicker perimeter players.
There's a tendency with some of those bigger players to
give up catch and shoot openings, and we've seen a

(24:26):
lot of that so far with Dallas. So like, for example,
simple interchanges or screening actions. Guards they're so used to
guarding dudes who can shoot really well since they were kids,
that they're usually up to touch, like they're up on
the other side waiting for the guy coming off, and
they don't concede easy openings out of those things. Bigs

(24:48):
have a tendency to kind of soft switch, like, yeah,
I'm here. If you try to turn the corner, you're
gonna run right into me. But like, if you want
to come off with that dribble handoff and shoot, like
I'm gonna let you take it. And NBA players are
really d good and they're gonna knock that shot down.
Like there's another level of shooting talent throughout the league
compared to what it was like five ten years ago, right,
And like that's why you know, when you have more

(25:09):
bigs on the floor, you have fours playing the three
and five's playing the four, they're gonna be guarding guys
that can shoot better than they're typically used to guarding.
And so you know that even goes into help defense situations.
Guards they're so used to guarding shooters, they'll get a
foot in the paint and they'll dig down and they'll
sprint out to the perimeter with urgency because they've been
guarding shooters their whole life, and they just know how

(25:30):
to get back out to the perimeter, and like Bigs,
they have a habit of sagging into the paint to
help and like not having that same level of urgency
to get back out to the perimeter. And there just
were a lot of situations like that where Dallas was
giving up pretty easy over the top catch and shooter
off the dribble jump shots because they just weren't bringing
that level of perimeter intensity from their front court positions. Overall,

(25:54):
in the first half of both of their games, Dallas
gave up forty catch and shoot jump shots just in
the first half of the two games. As a team
in both games. In total, they're averaging allowing thirty five
catch and shoot looks per game, that ranks sixth worst
in the NBA so far in preseason. That that's a
big part of that, like perimeter intensity that they're gonna

(26:16):
have to pick up on. And the main culprit here
on film has actually been Anthony Davis. And I'm gonna
try really hard to not overreact here, but in general,
I've just been super disappointed in ad to start this
training camp. On the one hand, I'm not super surprised
because this is exactly what it was like with the Lakers.
He'd always come into camp out of shape and unpolished,
and it always took forever for him to like really

(26:39):
find his groove. But I'm especially disappointed this year just
because I thought he'd come out for blood, Like, dude,
you just got traded. I thought you'd come into camp
in the best shape of your life, with a new opportunity,
legitimately a better roster than when you last played in
Los Angeles, like probably the best like overall talented roster
you've been on in years, a real opportunity to win

(27:01):
the title if Kyrie Irving can come back towards the
end of the season, and especially if you hit on
some sort of roster balancing trade and you came into
camp fatter than you've ever been. And it hasn't been
pretty on film, Like he's bricking jumpers, he's throwing these
aimless drives where he just smokes layups and falls on
the ground and cries for fouls. On defense, he was

(27:22):
legitimately awful against Charlotte. He got fried by Miles Bridges
because he just wasn't paying attention to him half the time,
batching his screen coverages, not being up to touch against shooters,
he's just not locked in right now. And again, I
know it's just preseason, and I probably sound ridiculous right now,
but I just thought we'd see a different version of
AD this year. I'm a huge believer in Anthony Davis's sailing.

(27:47):
I've talked about it so many times on the show.
I think he was the best defender in the league
when he was healthy and locked in before Victor Wemenyama
came around. He's like an efficient twenty six points per
game when he's healthy and locked in on offense. And
like I just I believe in what he can be
and what he is when he's healthy, But this stuff
just gets so frustrating. And like, again, one thing I'll

(28:10):
say about the oh, it's just preseason thing, he looks
like this in the regular season sometimes too, And this
team is going nowhere fast unless they can get Anthony
Davis like locked in, focused and playing to the level
he's capable of. And so I hope this is me
just being ridiculous, and I hope that this is AD
just coasting in preseason and that he comes out in

(28:32):
the regular season and he kicks ass, and this Dallas
team has something to really show the league. But overall,
I just have been disappointed with the level of like
conditioning and just engagement from Anthony Davis and the preseason
games that I've seen to this point. Maybe it looks
way better behind closed doors in camp, I don't know,
but I've just been a little disappointed overall with Dallas's defense.

(28:54):
Though again, I think they're gonna be fine. They just
have some work to do, and I think they are
gonna have some trouble with quick Their backcourt is slow, right,
like Dlo and Clay. That's not a foot speed machine, right,
And even when Max Christie gets in the game, they
have him chase over the top. And as soon as
Max got caught on the screen and LaMelo got downhill,

(29:15):
LaMelo did whatever he wanted, scoring in the mid range
and knifing around bigs in space and getting to the rim, right,
So like they're gonna have to figure something out for that.
I think a potential solution there is to do more
switching and then just basically have your big setup to
try to contest pull up threes, and then if they
do get beat on the dribble, like funneling them in
a specific direction where your health defense can be a

(29:36):
little bit more prepared, but overall, like overall, I just
think they're pretty far from what they need to be defensively,
Like they need to be a truly elite defense in
order for Kyrie to come in and make this team
a serious championship contender. They have the personnel for it.
I do believe they'll get there. I just think right
now on the perimeter, they've got some work to do,

(29:57):
and Charlotte kind of expose them a little bit in
that particular game. On offense, predictively, predictably, they've struggled. But
I do like some of the stuff I'm seeing. Like
we talked about Cooper flags shooting and passing earlier, that's
a positive. I haven't loved all of the shots that
Delo's taken. I think he's been a little too aggressive,
but I do think overall, you can see how his
handling and his playmaking will be high value with this team.

(30:19):
Jason Kidd is clearly heavily emphasized bat cutting, which I
think is super smart. When you don't have a ton
of ball handling and you need to get the ball
into the paint, manufacturing penetration with cutting is a great
way to do that as long as you have guys
who can pass, and like Derek Glively can pass, Anthony
Davis can pass, your bigs can pass pretty well. D'Angelo
Russell's hit Max Christy on like five bat cuts already,

(30:41):
right But you're also seeing some of the clunkiness. Like
we talked about earlier, Ad right now is not even
close to polished enough offensively to play the four. That's
gonna be something they're gonna have to figure out. He
just has to get better. You can see that on
his drives. They look kind of aimless, and he looks
slow on his drives. His jumper looks nasty right now.
The lack of ball handling is forcing guys like Cooper

(31:02):
and Delo to take some tough shots. That's something that
stood out to me early, Like Cooper's taking some tough
off the dribble shots. He's hitting them right now, But
Delo's had to take some too. That's a tough shot,
diet And as a team, they just don't have very
much shooting. So far through preseason. They're twenty nine for
ninety one on all jump shots. That's just zero point
eighty seven points per possession. So teams will eventually just

(31:23):
start packing the pain on them. And like even the
Oklahoma City game, like they got most of their back
cuts in the OKAC game because OKAC is pressuring and denying.
But when when a guy denies, it's easy to backcut.
But what if the guy doesn't deny and he just
SAgs in the paint, Then those backcuts aren't open, and
all of a sudden, it's going to be about guys
being able to really process an interior passing and knocking

(31:45):
down shots over the top, which is a weakness for
this particular team, right, one last positive thing that all
that I want to end on. Though, they're going to
struggle to score, right, which is why it's important for
them to be a top tier defense, like we talked about.
But they have looked awesome in transition, and this is
the potential for this team. All of their bigs and

(32:09):
forwards run the floor super well, and they get so
many opportunities to run out because they force a lot
of jump shots and they're gonna get a lot of
blocks and deflections and things like that that lead to
runouts in those situations, they're making great raids. Both Cooper
and d Lo have been great with their passing leads
in transition situations. Cooper's made set. A bunch of his

(32:31):
assists have come in transition. D Lo hit that lob
to Cooper in the first half of the Charlotte game.
If they are a truly elite, top tier defense and
they use that to be a dominant transition team and
Kyrie comes back and polishes them up in the half
court a little bit, that's where they become a serious

(32:51):
threat out in the Western Conference. All right, let's talk
about the Boston Celtics for a little bit. I watched
the first half of their game mans Cleveland. They with
the Pritcher Derek White, Jalen Brown, Sam Houser, Chris Bouchet lineup.
They use a bigger version of that lineup with Xavier
Tillman the last time they played their starters. But I
actually liked this lineup a lot in a couple of reasons. Bouchet,

(33:15):
excuse me. He brings like that willingness and ability to
take and make above the break threes. He took three
of them in the game and made two. He shot
them all pretty well in preseason so far. He also
just generally brings more like foot speed and switchability to
those lineups, and they're going to have to play fast,
and they generally are playing pretty fast, and so I
think that that is something that will fit that starting
lineup really well. You can feel that emphasis on transition

(33:37):
speed through the Celtics first couple of preseason games pretty
heavily right off the bat. Though, before we talk about
some of the details for the Celtics, I just want
to shout out both of these teams for their intensity
in this game. Right from the jump. Both teams were
competing at an insanely high level and playing in a
way that was consistent with their identities. And by the way,

(33:59):
I didn't mention it earlier, I'm talking about the Cleveland game.
Both teams came out guarding like crazy and like pressuring
the ball. Cleveland's like pressuring all the way up to
half court and Larry Nts is like jumping passing lanes
out on like bigs that are flashing for a high
post catch. They again, that's a big part of their identity,
right turner for forcing turnovers and getting out in transition

(34:22):
on offense, Cleveland is like cutting and moving without the
ball super well, and like running like crazy to get
out in transition whenever they can. Boston playing super high
level smart NBA offense, like simple advantage creation, driving closeouts,
extending advantages and knocking down and taking every quality three
that can get their eyes on. They hung seventy points

(34:44):
on the Caves and again, like I know, they didn't
have their usual personnel out there, but they were like
that cas defense was playing super hard and they were
pressuring and flying around in rotation one like they were
just letting Boston score. I just want to compliment both
teams because I think they represent very strong basketball cultures.
I know there's this tendency to see a lot of

(35:04):
teams kind of going through the motions in preseason and
for us to be like, ah, whatever, like it's fine,
it's preseason. It's gonna be a long eighty two games.
This is a marathon, not a sprint. All that shit, right,
I personally have never bought into that idea. I recognize
it as a human reality, like every one of the

(35:25):
NBA's thirty teams will have nights where their heart just
isn't in it. I'm not, you know, denying that as
a reality, but I just don't think you can win
an NBA championship without a dead serious culture that approaches
things day to day with a level of intensity and
a desire to get better. There are a few exceptions
over the years, repeat champions usually those that will like

(35:49):
kind of ease their way through the season. But those teams,
all those repeat champions have had huge talent advantages to
cover for their lack of intensity. For the most part,
you have to be a serious team that from day
one of training camp is attacking things in order to
get to where you want to go. And what's fascinating

(36:11):
to me about these two particular cultures, Boston and Cleveland
is it shows what the roster changes. Boston's missing Jason
Tatum and from last year Drew Holliday and Al Horford
and Chris tops Porzingi's core parts of that culture. But
the Celtics just play basketball a certain way. It's part
of who they are as an organization, and that is

(36:31):
translated to this year even with new and different personnel.
The Cavs are sitting all their starters, but their basketball
culture is so strong that the next dudes in line
come out and compete their asses off. Even though they
were hopelessly outgunned in terms of talent. They didn't have
the shot creation talent to generate good shots in this
particular game, right, Like we saw Proctor quite a bit

(36:54):
and Porter Junior and those guys were struggling, but like
the team was moving and run and in pressuring and
denying and flying around and like just playing really good basketball.
I think that these two teams represent two of the
strongest basketball cultures in that conference. I should add Indiana
the Pacers to this list as well. I'm just I

(37:15):
didn't watch that particular game. I don't think their consistent
success as an accident. I think it is bred top
down by organizational excellence day to day in their process.
And I just wanted to shout those teams out. But anyway,
really impressed by Boston. I love the defensive pressure on
the perimeter. I know they have severe front court limitations.
I think we saw that mostly on the glass, like

(37:36):
Cleveland had twenty one offensive rebounds in this game. Overall,
Boston's defensive rebounding percentage in preseason is sixty four point
three percent, which is really bad. That's bottom six in
the league right now so far through preseason. But that's
the reality of the personnel limitations. Jason Tatum was like
a Swiss army knife that covered a lot of those
problems on the glass, and then your center rotation fell

(37:57):
off a cliff this year compared to last year. Right,
But they do have an athletic strength on the roster
on the perimeter, and that shows up in their ball pressure,
in their ability to force turnovers like they forced twenty
one turnovers so far per game in preseason, which is awesome.
It also helps in their ability to fetch long rebounds, right,
Like you shoot a lot of threes, which means a

(38:18):
lot of long rebounds, and their foot speed can win
those battles for long rebounds. And so for all their
defensive rebounding struggles, the Celtics have grabbed thirty nine percent
of their own misses to make up for it. So
like that's gonna be a margin where they're gonna have
some success. A lot of encouraging stuff on offense though,
like Peyton Pritchard looks amazing and poise for a breakout

(38:40):
season in a starting role. He blit up the caves
to start this game. Anthonty Simons has shot the ball
well and he's competing on defense like he's trying he's
pressuring the ball. He's doing at least trying to do
what Missoula is asking him to do. By one big
disappointment with Anthony so far is that he hasn't generated
much dribble penetration yet. It's something that I was hoping
he'd bring to the table, and he seemed to kind

(39:02):
of retreat against ball pressure and want to attack ball
pressure with like aggressive step back moves to get the
threes instead of like beating those dudes off the dribble.
But it's early, we'll see if that changes in a
larger sample. Jalen Brown's been pretty mediocre so far. Actually,
it looked like the Cleveland game was like moving too
fast for him, which is obviously strange, and it's we
know Jalen Brown. The game doesn't move too fast for

(39:23):
Jalen Brown. He's fine. It's just a sign that he's
probably a bit too relaxed right now, and I think
that will change as he gets into the flow of
the season. But overall, I'm encouraged about Boston as a
middle tier Eastern Conference team. They have one of the
more talented perimeter cores in the conference. They have extremely
strong basketball culture, which will help them on the margins.
Like whatever margin they lose with their lack of front

(39:45):
court talent, it will be mitigated to a certain extent
by strong modern fundamentals. Ball pressure, transition, pushes high value
shot profile threes and layups right, strong offensive rebounding, winning
the possession battle, or at least counteract some of the
possession battle problems they'll have on the other end of
the floor. I think Celtics fans will really enjoy rooting
for this team. By the way, if you missed our

(40:07):
full season preview, you can find that on the Hoops
Tonight channel under Atlantic Division Season Preview. You can find
that there. I also did an hour long season preview
with Adam Taylor, friend of mine who covers the Celtics
in the UK. We went into extreme detail on every
Celtics storyline, including all their position groups. You can find
the link to that podcast, Adams Podcast on my Twitter feed.

(40:31):
If you go back to October eighth, you'll find that
I tweeted out the link there. All right, quick thoughts
on Lakers Warriors. I'm only gonna go a couple minutes
here and then I want to tell you guys about
a new book that I recommend So on the Lakers front,
we got a really good look at the value of
DeAndre in short range scoring. We got a good, like

(40:53):
high volume sample of Austin reeves DeAndre and pick and
roll in this game. And he also ran quite a
few handoffs with j Laravia and Dalton connect and so
Aiden got a lot of catches in the middle of
the floor, and he showed it all there, catch and
shoot mid rangers at the elbow, turnarounds over his right shoulder,
out of the post, floaters in the lane. He's just
gonna be such an important release valve for this team

(41:16):
there in the middle of the floor. Like the vertical
spacing piece. You could tell they struggle to get even
Austin struggles to kind of find the lob angles for him.
It's gonna be a Luca thing. Luca's gonna be the
guy that really unlocks DeAndre as a like above the
rim vertical spacer. But he's gonna be a release valve
for everybody in the middle of the floor. Think like Isaiah Hartenstein,
think like what Jared Allen does for the calves. The

(41:38):
ability to do that like short range to like short
mid range scoring, that's just that's the release valve for
these guys. When they get into the lane, they could
pitch it back and Aiden can just elevate over the
top and knock down a short shot which can which
can be a real ceiling razor for that offense. I
also thought his short role reads were solid rast night,
Like this was an area that I had with Ayton

(42:01):
watching the film, was like, is he gonna be able
to make the short range reads? And like last night
again one game, just preseason, but I thought he was
really good in the middle of the floor last night,
making like patiently waiting for the opening on the weak
side and making the right kickouts. He had just five
assists to one turnover in that game. He had eight
rebounds and three stocks in just twenty six minutes. A

(42:23):
really nice night from Mayden and a good representation of
how much better he is than the centers that were
playing for the Lakers after the Anthony Davis trade last year.
Austin looked great again. Only real concern with him is
he appeared to tweak his ankle on the weird kind
of transition collision with Brandon Pajemski. So hopefully Austin's all right.
Jared Vanderbilt missed all four of his threes, but I

(42:44):
still like the way the release looks, and he does
look amazing athletically. He had two drives to the rim,
one where he made a layup and one where he
missed a layup but got his own put back that
were super athletic plays and just a reminder that he's
a different player than the guy that we saw last
year playing for the Lakers. The news, of course, though,
is that Lebron is going to be out to start
the season with sciatica. It looks like that can arise

(43:07):
from something in the muscle or something in the back.
I'm not sure which of the two he's specifically dealing with,
but from what I hear, it can be pretty debilitating,
and so obviously it's a huge bummer. My first thought
when that happened was like, oh, man, I hope this
isn't the beginning of the end. But secondly, even though
we can acknowledge that this Lakers team has no championship

(43:28):
ceiling without Lebron, even though it was a thin window
to begin with, I'm reasonably optimistic about the Lakers' ability
to compete in the regular season and just stay afloat
for a month or two without him, and one of
the reason why is because the one position where they
are redundant with starting level talent is the power forward spot.

(43:49):
They don't have a starting caliber two way wing that
can play the two or the three, but they have
like three dudes who can play the four right, and
two of them at a starting less in Lebron James
and Ruby Hachimura right. And so I actually kind of
see it in a strange way, kind of like landing
into a Van do Oh Rui three four setup, because

(44:12):
on the one hand, you need a guy who can
guard the ball to start every game. That's something that
Jared Vanderbilt can do at an extremely high level. Right
you have you got to have someone that can guard fors,
be a low man, help defensive rebound, that sort of thing.
Rui can do that job. When he's at the three
and he's asked to cover on the perimeter more, it

(44:33):
can be exposed as a major weakness for Rui, but
at the four, it's actually a more achievable defensive role
for him. He's been on the record in training camp
and in media appearances saying my natural position is the four,
and so I look at like Austin, Luca, Ruey vand
Oh and Ayton is a lineup that makes some sense
to me for starters, Like that's the luxury of having

(44:56):
a guy like Austin, you know, like when it was
the Anthony Davis can figuration of the team, he was
so important as a primary shock crator on the floor
alongside Lebron. But then you brought Luca into the equation
and in many ways Austin was marginalized a bit, right,
But with Lebron being out, it's like, all of a sudden,
Austin's ability to like run high volume pick and roll

(45:16):
DeAndre Ayton is super valuable. That that's a real value
add for this team, a luxury to have a guy
like Austin Reeves, right, you have a guy who can
guard the ball and Jared Vanderbilt. You have weak side
scoring and pick and roll scoring in the form of
Ruy Hachimura and DeAndre Ayton. You have two high level
shot creators. Obviously, they're not going to be as good

(45:37):
as if they had Lebron. And we have a question
in our mail bag on Friday that has to deal
with like what the starting lineup should look like? When
they're healthy, and we'll talk about that when we get there,
But like, that is a lineup that makes some sense.
And then you go to the bench and it's like
Gay Vincent is a guy that you know, ideally you
don't want him to be your third best ball handler,

(45:58):
but he can be the third best ball handler for
a month when you need him to. Right in a
regular season context, Jake Lavia is a solid wing to
bring off the bench. Obviously you have Jackson Hayes and
Marcus Smart. Like, it's not a team that's gonna go
rip off and go ten and two over a twelve
game span. That's not what I'm saying. But can they

(46:20):
stay afloat in the Western Conference and have Lebron come
back when they're ten and eight and you know, two
games back of the three seed, Like, yeah, I think
they can. I think that's something that they can do.
And so, in a weird way, I'm bummed about the
Lebron news, but like, it literally doesn't make sense for
Lebron to come back until he's one hundred percent recovered.

(46:42):
The Lakers have the pieces to be just a coherent
basketball team without him. Right now, they only have value
in Lebron as like a top tier, like as a
second team All NBA type of guy that he was
last year. That's the level he's got to be trying
to get back to. So I think it makes sense
for Lebron to just take his time until he's one
hundred percent recovered. On the Warriors front, we got a

(47:05):
steady diet of on ball Kaminga in this one with
Steph Out It was pretty rough. He was turnover machine.
There were some bright spots, like he had some quick,
efficient ISO attacks, like some baseline drives and post ups.
He hit Pat Spencer on an inverted ball screen for
a layup that I thought was an impressive read. And
you know, we've seen a little bit of that with
Steph where him and Steph have some of that two
man game chemistry where Steph Wull screened for him, but

(47:27):
he came off and Pat Spencer slipped into the lane
and Kaminga just rifled the pass up high where only
Pat can get it. Pat caught it and got a layup.
Really nice game from Brandon Pajemski. He found a nice
rhythm in ball screens in the second half, started to
hit like his pull up jump shot as guys were
sagging off him. He found real good rhythm with his
jump shot, big quality kickout reads when he got down

(47:48):
into the lane. As the Laker defense reacted to him,
He's kicking out to the right guys on the perimeter.
I you know, it's funny because I was on a
light Year's playback video that they had last week and
Sam's FONDIARRII Tal asked me, he goes which one of
the young players do you think has the most pressure

(48:09):
between you know, guys like Moses Moody and Jonathan Kaminga
and Brandon Pajemski, And I actually think it's Brandon because
you know, for all of the needs that they have
for Moses at that position, really they just need him
to guard the ball and to knock down catch and
shoot jump shots and to make decent reads. That's all
they need for Moses Moody. They need him to be,

(48:31):
you know, seventy five percent of what Andrew Wiggins has
been over the course of previous seasons, and like, that's
like a really achievable goal for Moses Moody. And if
he lands seventy percent instead of seventy five percent of
that player, it's not going to dramatically shift the fortunes
of the team. But like that type of player, that
like secondary perimeter score off of Steph Curry has been

(48:56):
a absolute necessity over the years when the Warriors have
competed for championships, whether it was Jordan Poole in twenty
twenty two who would come in and lead units, whether
it was Kevin Durant in twenty seventeen to twenty eighteen,
whether it was Klay Thompson and Sean Livingston and Andrew
Robosa in twenty fifteen, Like they need reliable scoring in

(49:21):
the backcourt off of Steph Curry. Now there's a more
complicated conversation to have, Like Sam Aftly pointed out, like, well,
what the hell are we paying Jimmy Butler sixty million
dollars for if he's not going to be that guy.
But like, to me, I look at I look at
Jimmy Butler as more of like a do a little
bit of everything kind of guy and not a pure
scorer in the in the in the simplest sense of

(49:44):
the term. Now, if Jimmy can gets to the point
where he's averaging twenty five points per game for a
playoff run, then Yeah, now we need to start having
a serious conversation about the Warriors as as like a
real threat to hoist the trophy. But like I look
at Jimmy as like a do everything kind of guy,
not as like the purest form of a bucket getter
in the modern NBA, right, And so, like there is
some pressure on Brandon Pajemski to be a guy who

(50:06):
can run the offense and score the ball a little bit,
And so there's real pressure on him that I don't
think exists for a guy like Moody who's basically a
three and D guy, or for kaminga who you know,
it's kind of like whatever you get from him, you
get from him. He doesn't really fit in the big
picture of the team, and they're trying to trade him, right. So,
like I thought that was a good sign from Brandon Pajemski.

(50:27):
He played really well to end the season last year,
got a bunch of touches last night, and ran the
offense well when he did, especially when he found that
groove there in the second half. Some encouraging stuff from
Brandon Pajemski there. Before we get out of here today,
I just wanted to talk briefly about this Lakers book. Again,
I'm not getting paid to say this. I just really
think Lakers fans would enjoy this book. The book is
called A Hollywood Ending by Yarren Weizman. You can pre

(50:51):
order it right now on Amazon. It's officially releasing on
opening night on October twenty first, but he was kind
enough to send me a copy early, and I finished
reading it last week. And to put it very simply,
if you're a Lakers fan who rooted for this team,
for the lebron Lakers, you absolutely have to read this book.
Yarn went to incredible trouble to conduct over two hundred

(51:14):
and fifty interviews to basically piece together a remarkably detailed
behind the scenes look at everything that happened over those years.
And if you're a fan who rooted for the Lakers
during that era, it's a fun trip down memory lane,
like you'll remember the highs, like the dominant twenty twenty season.

(51:34):
There's a lot of fun details from that stretch, but
it's also super frustrating to like learn about the insanity
that led to their downfall in the years after that,
or some of the incompetence in general in the organization.
It's a fun trip down memory lane because you get
to experience all those emotions again, the good and the bad. Right.
It's also super informative. You get detailed backstory for all

(51:56):
the major characters in this kind of saga, right, like
the Bus family and the role of certain people in
the organization, like Tim Harris and Kurt Rambis, who for
whatever reason was like shoehorning himself into every coaching staff
over the years. And like you learn about Rob Polinka's background,
why he may or may not have the reputation he

(52:16):
does around the league, Rich Paul's upbringing, why he's wired
the way he's wired, Anthony Davis, Like, you just get
a ton of perspective on everything, a ton of behind
the scenes looks at like the process of major Lakers' decisions,
like how they ended up with Russell Westbrook, the fact
that he was actually their third option that summer, and
kind of a fallback in many ways from the type

(52:38):
of player they were looking for. How they lost guys
like Brook, Lopez and Alex Caruso. I don't want to
spoil the book because it's such a great read, and
it just there's a lot of detail that you get
if you read it, but I just highly recommend you
guys order It's not an overly long read. It's not
going to take up the entire year. It's just an
amazing recount of everything that recap of everything that happened

(53:02):
over the course of that era, and it was it
was definitely a great read. I'll give you, guys. It'll
like to put it simply. It'll give you guys some
closure on what it was like rooting for the lebron
Lakers over these years. Again a Hollywood ending by Yarn Whitesmith.
It releases next Tuesday. You guys can pre order it
right now on Amazon. All right, guys, that's all I
have for today is always to sincerely appreciate you guys

(53:23):
for supporting us and supporting the show. We will be
back on Wednesday with our contender rankings and then well
have a mailbag on Friday. I will see you guys there.