November 3, 2025 • 41 mins
Jason reacts to the Ja Morant suspension from the Memphis Grizzlies and then gives his first power rankings of the NBA season including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Oklahoma City Thunder, Victor Wembanyama's San Antonio Spurs, Tyrese Maxey's Philadelphia 76ers, Kevin Durant's Houston Rockets, and more.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. All right, Well, good to hoop tonight. You're
at the volume heavy Monday, everybody. If all of you
guys had an incredible weekend and got a jampack show
for you today, We're gonna lead with that bizarre storyline
(00:23):
going down in Memphis with John Morant being suspended for
a game for conduct detrimental to the team. I want
to talk some about the numbers that are coming out
from this latest campaign from Jaw, the disturbing trends from
the last five years of his career, and kind of
what I think it means for the Grizzlies and their future,
as well as John Morant's future. When we're done with that,
we're gonna beginning. We didn't do it last week just
(00:45):
because we had such a small sample size from every team,
but on Mondays, for at least the presu for the
foreseeable future, we're going to be doing power ranking, so
we'll have our top ten teams in the league ranked.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
In the tail end of the.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Show, you guys have the Joe before we get started.
Some describe to the Hoops to Night YouTube channels. You
don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on
Twitter at Underscore jcnlts you guys don't miss show announcements.
Don't forget about our podcast feed where you get your
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you leave a rating in a review on that front.
Jackson's doing incredible work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,
and TikTok. Make sure you guys follow us there for
more content throughout the year. The last, but not least,
(01:19):
if you want to get questions into our Friday mail bags,
drop them in our full episodes on YouTube. In the comments,
just write mail bag with a colon A write your question.
That helps me find him when I'm looking through the comments.
We'll get to them on Fridays throughout the remainder of
the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So on
Friday night one of the most most bizarre job Morant
(01:39):
games I've ever seen. There was some passing highlights. He
had a little sequence in the third quarter where he
h through a lob and then a skip pass for three,
and like the couple of sequences where he made some plays,
But for the most part he was kind of just
floating through the game, and in the second half in particular,
particularly looked like he was openly pouting. The Lakers were
(02:01):
packing the paint on his drives, which that's the game
plan from JJ, but we've talked about that throughout the
season already, like that's what every team's gonna do to
Memphis because they're a bad jump shooting team, so they're
gonna pack the paint, They're gonna dare John Morant to shoot.
And he would zero for six from three in that game.
He's five for thirty two from three to start the season.
(02:22):
And it just got ugly and the Lakers ended up
cruising to a victory there. And the body language is bad,
the effort was bad. It just looked like a combination
of him pouting and him losing some of his confidence
to a certain extent as Luca was having another insane game.
And then we find out after the game from Sam
Sharania that John Morant's been suspended for game for conduct
(02:45):
detrimental to the team, and it was because Isaalo ended
up calling him out in front of the team for
his lack of effort and leadership and job apparently was
disrespectful back to him.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
And so as I look.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
At this, I've been kind of feeling this way for
the better part of a year now.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
It's just really hard to.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
It's been really hard to really come to this conclusion,
just because I'm such a big believer in Jaw, Like
I'm I view that combination of the ability to get
into the paint and short range shot making combined with
playmaking as like a really strong foundational superstar trade, which
is what makes Jaw so hard to quit on, you know,
as a fan. Right, But I think it's time for
(03:25):
the Memphis Grizzlies to start thinking about the era after
John Moran. Like this has been a fifth consecutive season
of him declining across the board in almost every major
statistical category. And there's really two reasons why I look
at this situation with Jaws untenable from Memphis moving forward.
(03:49):
On one hand, the consistent year over year decline, and
then on the other hand, a seeming unwillingness to accept
any personal responsibility for it in a lack of self
awareness over what his role is in his current situation.
That's the trouble with what happened Friday night, Right, You've
got a guy who's clearly blaming the coaching staff for
(04:12):
what's happening when there is clear sign that him as
an individual basketball player continues to get worse. You know,
we've talked a lot about the jump shooting, and it
hasn't been pretty Like. He shot thirty four percent from
three to the year he made the All NBA team
in twenty twenty two and hasn't shot over twe hasn't
shot over thirty one percent in a single season since then,
(04:32):
and again he's just five for thirty two to start
this year sixteen percent. But by far the biggest concern
has been his ability to get to the rim. It
has declined every single year since that twenty twenty two
All NBA campaign. These are numbers percentergy. I looked these
numbers up this morning and I was shocked. Twenty twenty
(04:53):
two the year he makes All NBA nine point six
attempts at the rim per game, twenty twenty three, eight
point eight, twenty twenty four, seven point one, twenty twenty five,
six point eight. So far this season in this part
of the campaign, four point seven attempts at the rim
(05:14):
per game four point seven. That's less than half in
the All NBA campaign in twenty twenty two. So, like
above and beyond anything with his jump shot, even his superpower,
his ability to get into the paint is declining year
over year. Now some of that, like you would expect.
(05:38):
It's a poor jump shooting team, and as he gets older,
you want him to refine his game into a little
less reckless, a little bit more pace, change of pace,
a little bit more shot making, right, but the shot
making hasn't been there. There hasn't been a commensurate increase
in perimeter polish to go with the decrease in his
(05:59):
ability to get to the rim. Now, do I think
it's going to be four point seven attempts per game
for the rest of his career.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
No.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I do think that is being exacerbated by his kind
of poudy behavior and him not really bringing the level
of aggression that we know that he's capable of. But
there's been a clear decline and that is why it's
so frustrating in the context of his behavior, Like when
(06:26):
when you blame the coaching staff when we can all
see that you are declining as a basketball player, it
reeks of a lack of self awareness, and it's like
it's one of those things where we saw last season
after Taylor Jenkins was let go towards the tail end
(06:48):
of the year, they went away from the driving kick
attack and they gave the ball to jaw constantly. He
had his highest usage rate stretch in recent history. He
averaged twenty seven points per game and seven assists over
his final twenty two games, and they were a five
hundred team. So, like what Taylor Jenkins was trying to
(07:10):
do at the beginning of last year, what isala is
trying to do to start this year? This ball in
player movement. Let's play with more pace, Let's try to
make life easier for you. All they're doing is their
job as the coach to attempt to make life easier
for you on offense so that the team, not you,
(07:31):
the team can score the basketball. And we see this
across the league. We know that Josh Giddy can spam
high pick and roll. But guess what, the Bulls are
trying to play fast and they're trying to get the
ball moving because that is how they are going to
score as a team. The Miami Heat are doing the
same thing. We watched Tyler Harrill run a million dribble
(07:52):
handoffs and pick and rolls and we couldn't score. So
how about we run the ball up the floor, and
we play with pace, and we drive and kick early
in possessions, and we try to keep everybody involved with
ball and player movement. This is what everybody who is
smart in the NBA is trying to do right now.
And because it's not on John Morant's terms and it
doesn't involve him just dancing around at the top of
(08:13):
the key doing his own thing every single time, he's
not happy with it. And it's just frustrating because like again,
like there is clear indicators that his individual performance is
not where it needs to be in order to anchor
a team as like this heliocentric give me the ball
(08:34):
every time and get out of my way type of
shot creator. You need to be getting to the rim
a lot more and making a lot more jump shots if.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
You're going to be that type of player.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
So of course you, Sallow and all these other coaches
around the league are looking at situations when they don't
have a Luka doncicch level primary ball handler, when they
don't have like a foundationally great offensive player. They're trying
to generate a system that can cultivate offensive success for
the unit. That's all he saw was trying to do,
and like Josh kicking and screaming during that, And again,
(09:06):
like I think there's two different ways to look at this.
There's like an in a vacuum conversation I have about
Jaws a basketball player, which is what we're having right now,
Like he's declining as a basket attacker, he's declining as
a three point shooter. He's not the kind of guy
that you want to be playing heliocentric basketball with. But
it's also complicated in the context of this Memphis Grizzlies team,
(09:27):
who is not a very good spacing team. They don't
shoot the basketball well as a team. I would argue,
if you were trying to construct an ideal situation for
John Moran, you want him surrounded with guys who can shoot,
because playmaking is a strength of his On offense, short
range shot making, if he can get to the basket
(09:49):
is a strength of his. But if he can't get there,
then it's going to become an emphasis on his jump shooting.
And so if you can't space the floor, he's going
to have to settle for jump shots and he's going
going to miss them. So there's also like a team
specific conversation around the Grizzlies, where like, even if you
believe in Josh still it's just not a good fit.
(10:10):
So I'm looking at this as a situation where it's
a sinking ship, so to speak with JA, but it's
also uniquely poorly situated in Memphis for him there, So like,
I'm such a big believer in John Morant that like,
if there was any sign of it trending upwards, I'd
(10:31):
still be in for Memphis. But it's the opposite. He's
trending in the wrong direction and it's a bad fit.
And now he's pouting, so it's time for the Grizzlies
to move on. So again, now looking at it at
a basketball context, this is where it gets complicated because
of the lack of self awareness, because of the inability
to accept personal responsibility and some of the attitude issues
(10:54):
that John Morant's had over the years. It makes it complicated. Like,
for instance, I kept thinking, what about Boston has a
couple of large salaries that they can move. Boston kind
of could benefit from some real dribble penetration, like a
guy who can really beat people off the dribble and
playmake Boston is a team that can space the floor
(11:17):
for him. But is Boston's upper management gonna look at
John Morant in his attitude and be like, Yeah, let's
bring this guy into our system and potentially risk the
basketball culture that we've been building for so many years.
So it's tough because, like, I want to see Joh
go to a strong basketball culture that can space the
(11:38):
floor for him, but he's making himself undesirable for that
very type of team with some of his behavior. So
like I, on the one hand, it feels like it's
kind of time to move on for Memphis, but it's
gonna be a lot harder to move on than people think.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
And overall, I just think the situation is sad.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
It's sad because John Mourant had Like how many players
in the NBA truly have a foundational superstar trade?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Not many. There might be a dozen in the entire league.
Joh did. Joh had it.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
He could beat everybody off the dribble, He had the
short range shot making, and he could pass when he
got to the middle of the floor. And because of
the lack of skill refinement behind the scenes, like he's
just not putting in the work to become the jump
shooter that he needs to be and he's declining in
all these other areas. It just is starting to look
like a story that doesn't have the happy ending that
(12:34):
we were all hoping for when Jah kind of took
the league by storm in twenty twenty two. He was
second team All NBA, definitively a top ten player in
the NBA in that season, and it's just been all
downhill since then. It's just really sad, and I wish
it had a happier ending, but I just to me,
it's trending in the wrong direction. All right, let's get
(12:55):
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(14:43):
To be clear, this is not the same as our
contender rankings. This is a list intended to call attention
to the teams that are playing well in the regular season.
So we will periodically approach our contender rankings, probably once
a month or so, when however, I see somebody that
I need to move up or down for one reason
(15:04):
or another. But that kind of change is going to
be slow because I'm not going to overreact to a
week of regular season basketball. When it comes to contender rankings,
we will touch base on that periodically. You'll know because
I'll call it contender rankings when we get to that point.
But on Mondays we're going to be doing power rankings.
It's intended to call attention strictly to who's playing well
in the regular season. Now right now, we're looking at
(15:25):
the whole season, because we only have a week and
a half's worth, but as we get further along, we'll
be also adding special emphasis on recent weeks. So let's
pretend we're halfway through the season and there's a team
that's twenty and twenty five, but they've won seven out
of eight over two week span and they're starting to
encroach on the play in or something like that. We
might give them a spot towards the bottom of the
(15:46):
power rankings as an opportunity to give them a shout out.
This is very much who's playing the best as of late. Okay,
we're going to start with number ten and work our
way up.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Number ten.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
The Houston Rockets three straight wins after their two heartbreaking
losses to start the year. A shay Gilles Alexander jump
shot over a Men Thompson on the left wing and
then a wide open three from Jabari Smith on the
left wing from being five and zero, that's the slim
margin that they've been dealing with to start the season.
(16:18):
They've been the number one offense in the league, shocking.
They've also been shooting the shit out of the basketball,
which has been an unusual trend from them given what
we thought about this team on paper. They're number twelve
in defense and number two in net rating, number one
in rebounding, fueled by the fact that they've grabbed a
preposterous forty two percent of their own misses this season.
(16:39):
That is one of the crazier stats that I've ever seen.
They're really starting to find a groove on offense. The
thing that has stood out to me is just how
excellent their top three shot creators are, Like Kevin Durant,
Alprinshangun and Men Thompson are just so good individually that
it makes their offense flow, even though they don't have
as much refined offensive skill as the team as you
would think. And again, as I mentioned earlier, they've been
(17:01):
shooting the shit out of the ball to start the season.
They are shooting fifty four percent on unguarded catch and
shoot threes to start the season. Last night, or I
guess it was two nights ago, in the win against Boston,
they a Men Thompson, Josha Kog and Tari Easton. Those
three were eight for twelve from three. So like there's
(17:24):
a lot of like when those guys are shooting, they're
just gonna win games. I don't think they're gonna Obviously
they're not gonna shoot fifty four percent on unguarded catch
and shoot threes this year, but they may not be
quite as bad as we thought they were. Gonna be
something to keep an eye on. The start of the
Celtics game is actually a classic example of what I'm
talking about with their top tiershot creators. Kevin Durant first
play of the game gets a little screening action drop
(17:47):
coverage look nails a little eighteen footter easily off the dribble.
Very next possession of Men Thompson just toases man Josh
might not off the dribble, dunks it with two hands,
and then Alprin Shangun takes Nimius Kida right under the
basket and bullies him for a layup like bang bang
bang to start the game. You can't guard Kevin Durant,
(18:07):
can't guard Evn Thompson, you can't guard al burn Shanghun,
And like that's really the foundation of their offense to
start the year is they just have three dudes that
are massive matchup problems all over the floor, and when
they shoot as well as they did in that Celtics game,
they're just gonna be really hard to beat.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
It hasn't been perfect.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
As good as they've been on the offensive glass, they've
been a mediocre defensive rebounding team, and they haven't been
as good on defense as you would expect them to be.
As in both cases, I actually attribute it to speed.
They can get beat to loose balls by smaller, quicker teams,
and they can give up some dribble penetration. But I
thought the Boston game was actually a good step forward
for them on defense, and Ree Shepperd, who had a
(18:45):
rough start to the season, had his best game of
the season in Boston. Houston is trending in the right direction,
and they've looked downright scary over their last three games.
Number nine the Detroit Pistons Kate Cunningham is off to
a rough start on offense to start the season. He's
been better at the rim than he was last year.
Last year he was below fifty percent on layups. He's
been in the high fifties at the rim to start
this season, so that's a plus. But his jump SHOT's
(19:07):
been off from basically every range, including short range, which
is strange. But that didn't stop the Dallas Mavericks in
Mexico City from doubling and blitzing Caid all over the floor,
and presumably because of the injuries to their center rotation
and how they just didn't trust their rim protection but
Caid picked them apart just making great reads every single time.
Jalen Duran was an absolute monster in that game, cleaning
(19:30):
up everything at the rim. I haven't loved everything I've
seen from Detroit this season, Like they haven't been attacking
in transition as much as I would as they used to.
Last year they were fifth and transition points per game
this year their eighteenth. I think they're missing guys like
Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway junior that ran the floor
really well for threes, and Caid was hunting those dudes
all the time with kick aheads. I think that's something
(19:51):
they're missing a little bit. I think in general, they
haven't been pushing as much as they could, and then
their secondary ball handling has been a disaster, like Kris
LeVert has not been great to start the season, and
then they fall off a cliff from there. Obviously, you
want to see Jade and Ivy come back at some point,
and obviously you would have hoped to have seen more
scoring polished from Caid. But overall, the reason why I'm
(20:11):
still pretty high on Detroit is they just have a
really strong physical foundation. They are this ass kicking physical team.
On the margins, they're seventh in defensive rating, they're eighth
and rebounding. They're fourth in opponent's points in the paint
allowed per game. I was really impressed in the win
against Houston. How good of a job they did against
Shanng Goon and all of his bully ball attacks. That's
(20:32):
guy who bullies everyone. They're tied for sixth in opponent
transition points per game. So they just have such a
strong foundation night tonight on the margins because they're so
athletic and physical and they play super hard that it's
allowed them to be four and two despite getting a
mediocre start on offense, and they will get better there.
Cade will hit shots, LeVert will play better than he
(20:52):
has sar Thompson will be better on offense than he
has been, Jade and Ivy will eventually return, and who knows,
they may even make trade at some point. So all
things considered, being at fourign two, I think that's a
solid start for the Pistons. Number eight, the Denver Nuggets
kind of a weird start for Denver. They've toasted off
two games in crunch time to the Warriors and Blazers.
Otherwise they'd be undefeated. This Steph game, you know, he
(21:17):
like literally had thirteen straight points and hit a contested
thirty eight footer to send the game to overtime. So
I don't know what you're gonna do about that. But
the Portland game was just mental lapses. There was a
and one that Denny Avdia got spinning off of Cam
Johnson where the Nuggets did not have their help side
defense set up and they were not sagging off some
of the non shooters that they should have been, and
they ended up giving up an and one when they
(21:38):
should have contained the ball better. Jeremy Grant beat everyone
up the floor in transition to draw a foul. Just
bad transition defense. And then Aaron Gordon for the game winner,
gets his handcought in the cookie jar against Jeremy Grant
and just gives him an easy trip to the foul
line to win the game. So just some mental lapses,
highly unusual for a team in Denver that's known as
being one of the best late game execution teams league.
(22:00):
They have a one to sixty seven defensive rating so
far in thirteen minutes of clutch basketball, and that's usually
a good clutch defense. They've been strong in the metrics
on defense in clutch time over the course of the
last few years. The Blazers game was also the first
time this season that they got smashed with Jokic off
the floor, and it cost him a game. I think
they were minus eleven in the minutes when Jokic was
(22:22):
off the floor in that game. But other than that,
things have been pretty encouraging for Denver. The offense looks incredible,
and that's with them not even getting Cam Johnson into
rhythm yet. Their third in offensive rating, fourth in defensive
rating third, and net rating fourth and rebounding, so lots
of strong metrics for them across the board.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
All of their big three look great.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Jamal Murray is in the best early season shape that
he's ever been in, Aaron Gordon looks fantastic obviously, Jokic
looks great. They just need to get Cam Johnson a
little bit more involved and clean up.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Their late game execution Number seven.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
The Portland Trailblazers fifth best defense in the league in
the early going and boy was it on display. Late
in the game against Denver Toamani Kamara had a really
impressive help side block against Cam Johnson at the rim,
sent him flying out of bounds. Shade and sharp on
this jump ball sequence at the tail end of the game,
came flying in and blocked and Aaron Gordon turn around
jump shot. They're just so big and so strong an
(23:19):
athletic on the perimeter, and they have rim protection to
back it up, and the all their forwards are so big,
strong and athletic that they can even go small. They
ended up going without a center down the tail end
of the Denver Nuggets game, which is like a kind
of crazy to think about it against that particular team,
But they're just swarming and then on offense, like I
talked about before the season, I thought the tape from
Denny Avdia at the end of last season was legit.
(23:42):
Like I didn't think it was just a guy putting
up numbers. He looked like the classic big, versatile ball
handler that can hit a pull up jump shot that
can get a guy trapped on his hip off of
ball screens and kind of methodically work into the middle
of the floor. He had a lot of like pump,
fake step through type of like kind of nifty foot
work around the basket to get by rim protection for
(24:03):
easy layups and short shots that he can make. But
at the same time, he's like brings like a real downhill,
like slashing force to the table. And I think he's
a pretty underrated passer, and so I was encouraging. I
actually said in our season preview that I expected Denny
Avdia to come out and put up big numbers to
start the year, and he's looked fantastic after a rough
(24:24):
first game where his jumper looked kind of hitchy and off.
Over his last five games where the Blazers are four
to one, Denni avdi is averaging twenty three points, six rebounds,
and five assists on fifty one percent from the field
and forty seven percent from three. Drew Holliday has been
great over the last few games. He's put poured in
twenty one to five and nine over the last four games.
(24:45):
Jeremy Grant's been great surprisingly to start the season, and
they're a devastating transition team. They're scoring thirty four transition
points per game. There have been three teams that have
really stood out to me as like transition attack teams,
and Portland's been one. It's like Miami, Portland and Cago.
Those three teams have been like chaotically fast with the
way that they're playing, and Portland's been one of those teams.
(25:07):
They have thirty four transition points per game, which ranks
second in the NBA. They get stops and they run
it down your throat. Then they pick you up full
court and they force the most turnovers in the league
with their ball pressure, and then they run it back
down your throat again. They're going to be a pain
in the ass for every team in the league to
play against. The Lakers get them tonight on the tail
and back to back. I'll have my eye on that game,
(25:29):
and I'm worried about it for the Lakers because they
can struggle with ball pressure a little bit. Portland is
a paint gonna be. They're gonna be a team that
everyone's gonna have to deal with this season, and it
won't be easy.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Number six.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
The Milwaukee Bucks really bad night on defense against the
Sacramento Kings. Kind of a letdown game for them after
upsetting the Warriors without Giannis. But I've been very impressed
by the Bucks in the early going. This season, Miles
Turner has added this like other layer of athleticism to
the front court, and then they're playing the right guys
(26:00):
in their backcourt. And when you sub out guys like
Torrian Prince and Damian Lillard from that starting lineup, like really,
that to me is the biggest change in the team
is just how physically imposing they are. Think about last
year when we were seeing a lot of like Dame
Gary Trent, Torrian Prince, Giannice Brooke, And you turn Brooke
(26:21):
into Miles, who's a much better athlete. You turn Torrian
into aj Green, who is a quicker, better perimeter defender,
and then you turn Damian Lillard into Ryan Rollins, who
is a big, athletic guy that can play both ends
of the floor. All of a sudden, it goes from
being kind of like a slow Bucks team to like
a pretty big and athletic Bucks team. And so that's
(26:43):
allowed them to have a better defensive ceiling. It hasn't
been super great in the metrics, the eighteenth in defensive rating,
but they've had really good stretches of defense, and that
number is pretty strongly influenced by them giving up what
like one hundred and thirty five points to the Sacramento Kings.
But overall they've been much more physically imposing on defense,
and they've added this like very basic construct on offense
(27:06):
that works. This has been the fourth best offense in
the league here in the early going, and it's very
simply rim pressure and playmaking mixed with jump shooting. Right
bringing in a guy like Cole Anthony who can beat
people off the dribble and make kickout passes, Ryan Rollins
who's been excellent at the rim and excellent making the
reads in pick and roll, and then Giannis who's been
(27:28):
playing at an MVP level. You have those three dudes
surrounded by a big dude in Miles Turner who can shoot,
and lots of jump shooting talent around them on the perimeter.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
It just works.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
It is classic rim pressure balanced with catch and shoot
shooting that is making it successful on the offensive end
of the floor. There again, fourth and offense, eighteenth in defense,
seventh in net rating, way more physical than I expected
them to be. The they got a young guy to
pop in, Ryan Rollins, who had a couple of massive
games last week. Again, it started with me early in
(28:01):
the season just thinking Ryan had like really good natural
give and take with Giannis, but now he's starting to
add the pull up jump shot to the mix. He's
hitting that at a high clip. He's hit more pull
up threes to start this season than he did in
the entirety of last season in a Bucks Jersey really
really nice pop from there. And then they just in
general look like a more serious threat in the Eastern
(28:23):
Conference than I originally thought. I had them at the
top team in my third tier of contenders to start
the season. They're looking more like a second tier contender
to me. Obviously too early to make some sort of
substantial change. We'll talk about that when we do our
next contender rankings over the course of the next couple
of weeks, but I'm looking at them as much more
of a second tier contender at this point. Number five
(28:47):
the Los Angeles Lakers one of the more impressive starts
in the league when you consider the injuries they've dealt
with and their strength of schedule. They've played the third
toughest schedule in the league to start the season, with
quality wins against Minnesota twice against the Miami Heat last night,
a big test for their offense, we'll talk about that
in a minute. And Luca's only played in four of
their seven games. Lebron has missed all seven of their games.
(29:08):
Marcus Smart, Gabe Vincent, and DeAndre Ayton have all missed time,
lots of guys in and out of the lineup, and
they just keep winning. And they're winning primarily as a
product of them being the second best half court offense
in the league to start the season. I expected the
Lakers to be an excellent offense this year went healthy,
But if you would have told me they'd be the
second best offense half court offense in the league with
(29:29):
the injuries that they've had, I would have been blown away.
And it's really just because of how incredible Austin and
Luca have been. Out of the forty one players in
the NBA that have ran at least fifty pick and
rolls to start this season, they were third and fourth
in that list, respectively in their efficiency on those actions,
both players getting over a one to twenty five offensive
(29:50):
rating when you include passes on their pick and rolls.
They're averaging a combined seventy two points per game between
the two of them, and they just have tons of
play finishing talent. Off of that, they have their top
five in scoring off of cuts. They're shooting forty one
percent on catch and shoot threes. Jake Laavia and Marcus
smart have both been revelations on offense as connective offensive players.
(30:13):
Jake hitting catch and shoot threes and running the floor
in transition and as a cutter. Marcus Smart more is
like a connective playmaker, just kind of playing off in advantage.
He can also score off the bounce every once in
a while. They've been getting quality play on the role,
like DeAndre Ayten has been scoring on the role. I
think Jackson Hayes has been really good over the course
of the last few games, bringing vertical spacing, but also
(30:36):
especially in the Memphis game, he was picking them apart
with his short role passing, making really good reads in
the middle of the floor to start those four on threes.
The Miami Heat game in particular, was a good challenge
for the Lakers because you knew they weren't going to
run any drop coverage. It was going to be a
steady diet of switching and doubling and zone and you
saw it affected Luca and Austin individually. They were eighteen
(30:57):
for forty four from the field, but they still got
to fifty five five points between the two of them,
and the team logged a one to twenty two offensive
rating against that Spurs team, which is the third best
defense excuse me, the Heat team. Excuse me that it
was the third best defense in the NBA coming into today.
So really impressed by the Lakers on offense to start
(31:18):
the year. They've been a little better on defense to
start the season than I expected. They were seventeenth in
defensive rating at this point, also seventeenth in defensive rebounding.
They have some smart defenders who are usually in the
right spot. It's amazing how often the ball will just
like end up with Marcus Smarter Jacob Ravia because they're
just always positioned properly on defense, the defensive rebounding piece
(31:39):
and overall the defense I think is something that Lebron
can be a great help with. So, you know, given
how they looked in training camp and on opening night,
the Lakers have completely flipped the script.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Over the last six games.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
And with Lebron come in here in the next week
or two, I'm really excited to see what they can
accomplish on the margins, which has been really their only
weak spot at this point. Number four, the Philadelphia seventy
six ers the second best offense in the entire NBA,
fueled by their incredibly fast and talented backcourt. They've scored
the sixth most transition points in the NBA to start
(32:13):
the year. All of that speed on display in the
half court. There's seventh in offensive rating, fueled primarily by
the shot creation of Tyrese Maxi, but also all the
shooting and slashing around them. So Tyreese has been amazing
thirty four points per game, nine assists per game, sixty
three percent true shooting, he's shooting fifty percent on pull
(32:33):
up threes, fifty eight percent on floaters, really impressive playmaking
out off of his rim pressure.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
That dynamic is really the.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Floater pull up three is really the dynamic he's torching
everybody with. If you overplay the drive, it's a pullback,
dribble or a step back. He gets tons of separation
and he's nailing that at fifty percent. And that if
he gets his shoulder past you, he just takes off
at full speed and just softly puts that floater up
and hits it. And if you react to him at all.
(33:04):
On the drive, he's making the appropriate kickout reads. And
then as a team, they're tenth in catch and shoot efficiency,
but they're fifth in spot up efficiency, and a lot
of this has to do with the slashing. It's not
just again like when you're open, it's not just knocking
down to catch and shoot three. If you can drive
that close out and get layups and dunks like VJ.
Edgecomb and Kelly Oubrey both are slashing closeouts extremely well,
(33:29):
getting layups and easy shots at the rim, and then
the pressure just never stops like Embiid. Strangely enough, even
though he's been kind of waddling around and looking unathletic,
he's at seventeen points per game on fifty nine percent
true shooting. He's looking a little more mobile each game,
which is something to be excited about if you're a
(33:49):
Sixers fan, because his immobility has been part of the
reason why they've been bad with him on the floor
relative to when he's been off the floor to start
the season. But Embiid should be able to If he's
trending like this, maybe he'll never be the MVP again.
That if he can trend to the point where he's
at least a little bit more impactful defensively on the
(34:10):
defensive glass and in transition defensively, if he can keep
up a little bit and he keeps scoring the ball
this efficiency, I think, this efficiently, I think that's going
to add an element to this. Paul George, obviously everyone
talks about how, you know, the Sixers need to stick
with their young guys. I don't necessarily disagree, but like
Paul George can do a lot of things on the
(34:30):
basketball court, I don't think adding him to the rotation
is going to hurt things in any real way. And
then you get this consistent pressure right like you're seeing
Quinton Grimes come in and he's playing really well. The
lineups where he's on the floor performing really well.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
VJ.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Edgecomb is having these little spurts of shot creation. They're
just really deep with athletic shot creation talent, and they've
got these older guys that, like, if any of them
pop at any point this season, they're going to be
even more dynamic. Tyres Max, he's looking like a first
team All NBA guy to start the season. They're just
much better than I thought they would be at this point.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Number three.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
The San Antonio Spurs finally dropped the game against the
Phoenix Suns last night. Super ugly night from Victor Wembin Yama.
The Sons were double teaming him all over the floor
and he just didn't handle it well. I do think
that was the ugliest version of what this will look
like this season, because on the one hand, you gotta
be realistic, like, this is a poor jump shooting team
(35:30):
San Antonio. They teams aren't going to double team Wemby,
They're not gonna let him cook one on one.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
This is a coverage you're gonna see a.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Lot, and so there will be some weaknesses that will
come to the forefront as a virtue of this coverage
throughout this season. But that one last night was so
exceptionally bad, Like Wemby almost looked like a rookie with
the way that he was just struggling with physicality and
ball pressure, getting his base dislodged, having the boss why
(36:00):
away from him all over the place. His kickout passes
against the doubles were bad, like some of it was.
Wenby just had a really bad game. And that's gonna
happen with younger basketball players like and That's part of why,
like I talked about, when we start having the conversation
about Wemby with the best player in the world. I
certainly think that Wemby has a great chance to become
(36:20):
that at some point in the next few years. But
one of the biggest things that younger players can struggle
with is they can have a night like this where
they're not just bad, but they're like really really bad.
And so these are the kinds of little details that
are just standing in the way between where Wenby is
now as like towards the bottom of the top tier
of superstars and the legitimate best player in the world.
(36:40):
There's a consistency piece, there's a can you do it
against every single coverage? Can you do it in the
postseason when teams are scouting for you and dealing with
you for two straight weeks? Like there are checkpoints, and
Wemby's hit every checkpoint so far, but there are still
checkpoints he has to hit in the future in order
to actually get to that point where he's the best
player in the world. And part of that is like
(37:01):
when teams get super physical and double team you and
sag off of shooters, are you gonna have you know,
what was.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
It that he had last night? Like six or eight
points and six turnovers.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Right, You're gonna have really really rough games where you
decompose like that. That's part of that growth process him
kind of trimming the fat there. Overall, though, in that
Suns game, I thought the biggest issue was they didn't
get any stops. And again, like, if you look at
this Spurs team in the aggregate, the thing that I've
been most excited about them with the early part of
the season is like Julian Champagne's this big, scrappy perimeterive player,
(37:34):
Steph Castle's big and scrappy, Dylan Harper's big and scrappy,
Like they're Keldon Johnson's big and scrappy. They're big and scrappy,
and they had Victor webin Yama anchoring it all. And
so this is very much a defense to rebound to
run type of team defense rebound run. Like even when
they were undefeated, they were a mediocre half court offense
(37:54):
that struggled against his own defense. Right, So, like a
big thing for them is going to be on nights
like this where they don't get stops, it's gonna be
really hard for them to overcome it because they were
never that great of a half court team to begin with.
We'll see how much Darren Fox helps with that in
the big picture, But I thought the bigger story in
that Sun's game was they weren't getting out in transition
because they weren't getting enough stops. So far to start
(38:17):
the season ninth in offense, second in defense, fourth and
net rating, way more physically imposing as a team than
I expected to them to be, which I think gives
them like a strong foundation to build night tonight in
the regular season. But last night you got to see
a little bit an exaggerated version of what it will
look like when teams try to take the ball out
of Victor women Yama's hands. Number two the Chicago Bulls,
(38:39):
who finally dropped a game last night in Madison Square
Guard and the Knicks offense was just in a really
good groove all night, and the Bulls had a particularly
rough third quarter where they lost control of the game.
But they've been one of those three teams that I mentioned,
the Bulls, the Heat, and the Blazers. They've been one
of several teams in the NBA that have really embraced
transition basketball to start this year and it's been working
(38:59):
wonders for them. As a matter of fact, they've been
the best transition offense to start the season. And then
when they get into the half court, it's very simple.
They don't overly complicate things. It's a steady diet of
Josh Giddy pick and roll or pick and pop with
Vouch and then post ups for Vuchib.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
It's a lot of two.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Man game with Gideon vuch they initiate things and then
they just play drive and kick off of it. And
they've got a lot of guys that attack the rim
with a ton of force. Madus Bozellis has been a
dominant force attacking the basket as a cutter, as a slasher,
and as a transition weapon. They are playing off that
advantage and they are attacking the rim very well. And
(39:38):
then on the defensive end of the floor, it's been
kind of like a weird inverse of the Chicago of
the Boston Celtics, where they are giving up a million
paint points, but they're defending the three point line very well,
and that has been a good strong foundation for them
on the defensive end, which is triggering that transition attack
very very impressive start for the Chicago Bulls. Josh Giddy
(39:59):
in particular has been fantastic. I talked a lot this
summer about how I didn't think he was good enough
to be like the lead shot creator and a dead
serious team. It's still very early, but he's been better
than I expected to start the season, and if that
kind of thing gets maintained, it becomes more like, holy shit,
you're getting that for twenty five million. Now we're having
(40:21):
a different conversation, right. He's been better than I expected
to start the year. Number one, the only undefeated team
in the NBA, the seven to zero Oklahoma City Thunder
seventh in offense, first in defense, first.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
In net rating.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
Hit a timely stretch of easy schedule last week. With
Chet Holmgren being out with some back issues in Jadub
obviously out, getting Isaiah Joe back has been key giving
them some more offensive pop. I've been generally super impressed
with the job of Isaiah Joe, aj Mitchell and Aaron
Wiggins kind of providing the offensive support that they've needed
(40:56):
with Chet and Jadubb both being out. Shay has done
a great job with his game management. I thought he
was exceptionally good in the early part of the season
when they were playing those tougher games, pulling out losses
from the jaws of defeat with incredible shot making and
incredible playmaking. Lou Dord has been an absolute menace on
defense to start the season. I think seventy wins is
legitimately on the table for this group. They have a
(41:17):
much tougher schedule on the perimeter. This week they go
on the road to the Clippers and onto the Trailblazers before.
I think they're in Memphis and Sacramento. Memphis and Sacramento
thore should be wins, but Portland and the Clippers are.
Those are gonna be a couple of tough challenges for
them on the road. If they come out of that
eleven and zero, that would be an unbelievable start to
(41:39):
the season, given some of the injuries that they have
dealt with. All right, guys, it's all I have for
today is always to sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting
us and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow morning
with some game reactions. I'll see you guys then.
The volume. All right, Well, good to hoop tonight. You're
at the volume heavy Monday, everybody. If all of you
guys had an incredible weekend and got a jampack show
for you today, We're gonna lead with that bizarre storyline
(00:23):
going down in Memphis with John Morant being suspended for
a game for conduct detrimental to the team. I want
to talk some about the numbers that are coming out
from this latest campaign from Jaw, the disturbing trends from
the last five years of his career, and kind of
what I think it means for the Grizzlies and their future,
as well as John Morant's future. When we're done with that,
we're gonna beginning. We didn't do it last week just
(00:45):
because we had such a small sample size from every team,
but on Mondays, for at least the presu for the
foreseeable future, we're going to be doing power ranking, so
we'll have our top ten teams in the league ranked.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
In the tail end of the.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Show, you guys have the Joe before we get started.
Some describe to the Hoops to Night YouTube channels. You
don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on
Twitter at Underscore jcnlts you guys don't miss show announcements.
Don't forget about our podcast feed where you get your
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you leave a rating in a review on that front.
Jackson's doing incredible work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,
and TikTok. Make sure you guys follow us there for
more content throughout the year. The last, but not least,
(01:19):
if you want to get questions into our Friday mail bags,
drop them in our full episodes on YouTube. In the comments,
just write mail bag with a colon A write your question.
That helps me find him when I'm looking through the comments.
We'll get to them on Fridays throughout the remainder of
the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So on
Friday night one of the most most bizarre job Morant
(01:39):
games I've ever seen. There was some passing highlights. He
had a little sequence in the third quarter where he
h through a lob and then a skip pass for three,
and like the couple of sequences where he made some plays,
But for the most part he was kind of just
floating through the game, and in the second half in particular,
particularly looked like he was openly pouting. The Lakers were
(02:01):
packing the paint on his drives, which that's the game
plan from JJ, but we've talked about that throughout the
season already, like that's what every team's gonna do to
Memphis because they're a bad jump shooting team, so they're
gonna pack the paint, They're gonna dare John Morant to shoot.
And he would zero for six from three in that game.
He's five for thirty two from three to start the season.
(02:22):
And it just got ugly and the Lakers ended up
cruising to a victory there. And the body language is bad,
the effort was bad. It just looked like a combination
of him pouting and him losing some of his confidence
to a certain extent as Luca was having another insane game.
And then we find out after the game from Sam
Sharania that John Morant's been suspended for game for conduct
(02:45):
detrimental to the team, and it was because Isaalo ended
up calling him out in front of the team for
his lack of effort and leadership and job apparently was
disrespectful back to him.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
And so as I look.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
At this, I've been kind of feeling this way for
the better part of a year now.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
It's just really hard to.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
It's been really hard to really come to this conclusion,
just because I'm such a big believer in Jaw, Like
I'm I view that combination of the ability to get
into the paint and short range shot making combined with
playmaking as like a really strong foundational superstar trade, which
is what makes Jaw so hard to quit on, you know,
as a fan. Right, But I think it's time for
(03:25):
the Memphis Grizzlies to start thinking about the era after
John Moran. Like this has been a fifth consecutive season
of him declining across the board in almost every major
statistical category. And there's really two reasons why I look
at this situation with Jaws untenable from Memphis moving forward.
(03:49):
On one hand, the consistent year over year decline, and
then on the other hand, a seeming unwillingness to accept
any personal responsibility for it in a lack of self
awareness over what his role is in his current situation.
That's the trouble with what happened Friday night, Right, You've
got a guy who's clearly blaming the coaching staff for
(04:12):
what's happening when there is clear sign that him as
an individual basketball player continues to get worse. You know,
we've talked a lot about the jump shooting, and it
hasn't been pretty Like. He shot thirty four percent from
three to the year he made the All NBA team
in twenty twenty two and hasn't shot over twe hasn't
shot over thirty one percent in a single season since then,
(04:32):
and again he's just five for thirty two to start
this year sixteen percent. But by far the biggest concern
has been his ability to get to the rim. It
has declined every single year since that twenty twenty two
All NBA campaign. These are numbers percentergy. I looked these
numbers up this morning and I was shocked. Twenty twenty
(04:53):
two the year he makes All NBA nine point six
attempts at the rim per game, twenty twenty three, eight
point eight, twenty twenty four, seven point one, twenty twenty five,
six point eight. So far this season in this part
of the campaign, four point seven attempts at the rim
(05:14):
per game four point seven. That's less than half in
the All NBA campaign in twenty twenty two. So, like
above and beyond anything with his jump shot, even his superpower,
his ability to get into the paint is declining year
over year. Now some of that, like you would expect.
(05:38):
It's a poor jump shooting team, and as he gets older,
you want him to refine his game into a little
less reckless, a little bit more pace, change of pace,
a little bit more shot making, right, but the shot
making hasn't been there. There hasn't been a commensurate increase
in perimeter polish to go with the decrease in his
(05:59):
ability to get to the rim. Now, do I think
it's going to be four point seven attempts per game
for the rest of his career.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
No.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I do think that is being exacerbated by his kind
of poudy behavior and him not really bringing the level
of aggression that we know that he's capable of. But
there's been a clear decline and that is why it's
so frustrating in the context of his behavior, Like when
(06:26):
when you blame the coaching staff when we can all
see that you are declining as a basketball player, it
reeks of a lack of self awareness, and it's like
it's one of those things where we saw last season
after Taylor Jenkins was let go towards the tail end
(06:48):
of the year, they went away from the driving kick
attack and they gave the ball to jaw constantly. He
had his highest usage rate stretch in recent history. He
averaged twenty seven points per game and seven assists over
his final twenty two games, and they were a five
hundred team. So, like what Taylor Jenkins was trying to
(07:10):
do at the beginning of last year, what isala is
trying to do to start this year? This ball in
player movement. Let's play with more pace, Let's try to
make life easier for you. All they're doing is their
job as the coach to attempt to make life easier
for you on offense so that the team, not you,
(07:31):
the team can score the basketball. And we see this
across the league. We know that Josh Giddy can spam
high pick and roll. But guess what, the Bulls are
trying to play fast and they're trying to get the
ball moving because that is how they are going to
score as a team. The Miami Heat are doing the
same thing. We watched Tyler Harrill run a million dribble
(07:52):
handoffs and pick and rolls and we couldn't score. So
how about we run the ball up the floor, and
we play with pace, and we drive and kick early
in possessions, and we try to keep everybody involved with
ball and player movement. This is what everybody who is
smart in the NBA is trying to do right now.
And because it's not on John Morant's terms and it
doesn't involve him just dancing around at the top of
(08:13):
the key doing his own thing every single time, he's
not happy with it. And it's just frustrating because like again,
like there is clear indicators that his individual performance is
not where it needs to be in order to anchor
a team as like this heliocentric give me the ball
(08:34):
every time and get out of my way type of
shot creator. You need to be getting to the rim
a lot more and making a lot more jump shots if.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
You're going to be that type of player.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
So of course you, Sallow and all these other coaches
around the league are looking at situations when they don't
have a Luka doncicch level primary ball handler, when they
don't have like a foundationally great offensive player. They're trying
to generate a system that can cultivate offensive success for
the unit. That's all he saw was trying to do,
and like Josh kicking and screaming during that, And again,
(09:06):
like I think there's two different ways to look at this.
There's like an in a vacuum conversation I have about
Jaws a basketball player, which is what we're having right now,
Like he's declining as a basket attacker, he's declining as
a three point shooter. He's not the kind of guy
that you want to be playing heliocentric basketball with. But
it's also complicated in the context of this Memphis Grizzlies team,
(09:27):
who is not a very good spacing team. They don't
shoot the basketball well as a team. I would argue,
if you were trying to construct an ideal situation for
John Moran, you want him surrounded with guys who can shoot,
because playmaking is a strength of his On offense, short
range shot making, if he can get to the basket
(09:49):
is a strength of his. But if he can't get there,
then it's going to become an emphasis on his jump shooting.
And so if you can't space the floor, he's going
to have to settle for jump shots and he's going
going to miss them. So there's also like a team
specific conversation around the Grizzlies, where like, even if you
believe in Josh still it's just not a good fit.
(10:10):
So I'm looking at this as a situation where it's
a sinking ship, so to speak with JA, but it's
also uniquely poorly situated in Memphis for him there, So like,
I'm such a big believer in John Morant that like,
if there was any sign of it trending upwards, I'd
(10:31):
still be in for Memphis. But it's the opposite. He's
trending in the wrong direction and it's a bad fit.
And now he's pouting, so it's time for the Grizzlies
to move on. So again, now looking at it at
a basketball context, this is where it gets complicated because
of the lack of self awareness, because of the inability
to accept personal responsibility and some of the attitude issues
(10:54):
that John Morant's had over the years. It makes it complicated. Like,
for instance, I kept thinking, what about Boston has a
couple of large salaries that they can move. Boston kind
of could benefit from some real dribble penetration, like a
guy who can really beat people off the dribble and
playmake Boston is a team that can space the floor
(11:17):
for him. But is Boston's upper management gonna look at
John Morant in his attitude and be like, Yeah, let's
bring this guy into our system and potentially risk the
basketball culture that we've been building for so many years.
So it's tough because, like, I want to see Joh
go to a strong basketball culture that can space the
(11:38):
floor for him, but he's making himself undesirable for that
very type of team with some of his behavior. So
like I, on the one hand, it feels like it's
kind of time to move on for Memphis, but it's
gonna be a lot harder to move on than people think.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
And overall, I just think the situation is sad.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
It's sad because John Mourant had Like how many players
in the NBA truly have a foundational superstar trade?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Not many. There might be a dozen in the entire league.
Joh did. Joh had it.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
He could beat everybody off the dribble, He had the
short range shot making, and he could pass when he
got to the middle of the floor. And because of
the lack of skill refinement behind the scenes, like he's
just not putting in the work to become the jump
shooter that he needs to be and he's declining in
all these other areas. It just is starting to look
like a story that doesn't have the happy ending that
(12:34):
we were all hoping for when Jah kind of took
the league by storm in twenty twenty two. He was
second team All NBA, definitively a top ten player in
the NBA in that season, and it's just been all
downhill since then. It's just really sad, and I wish
it had a happier ending, but I just to me,
it's trending in the wrong direction. All right, let's get
(12:55):
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(14:43):
To be clear, this is not the same as our
contender rankings. This is a list intended to call attention
to the teams that are playing well in the regular season.
So we will periodically approach our contender rankings, probably once
a month or so, when however, I see somebody that
I need to move up or down for one reason
(15:04):
or another. But that kind of change is going to
be slow because I'm not going to overreact to a
week of regular season basketball. When it comes to contender rankings,
we will touch base on that periodically. You'll know because
I'll call it contender rankings when we get to that point.
But on Mondays we're going to be doing power rankings.
It's intended to call attention strictly to who's playing well
in the regular season. Now right now, we're looking at
(15:25):
the whole season, because we only have a week and
a half's worth, but as we get further along, we'll
be also adding special emphasis on recent weeks. So let's
pretend we're halfway through the season and there's a team
that's twenty and twenty five, but they've won seven out
of eight over two week span and they're starting to
encroach on the play in or something like that. We
might give them a spot towards the bottom of the
(15:46):
power rankings as an opportunity to give them a shout out.
This is very much who's playing the best as of late. Okay,
we're going to start with number ten and work our
way up.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Number ten.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
The Houston Rockets three straight wins after their two heartbreaking
losses to start the year. A shay Gilles Alexander jump
shot over a Men Thompson on the left wing and
then a wide open three from Jabari Smith on the
left wing from being five and zero, that's the slim
margin that they've been dealing with to start the season.
(16:18):
They've been the number one offense in the league, shocking.
They've also been shooting the shit out of the basketball,
which has been an unusual trend from them given what
we thought about this team on paper. They're number twelve
in defense and number two in net rating, number one
in rebounding, fueled by the fact that they've grabbed a
preposterous forty two percent of their own misses this season.
(16:39):
That is one of the crazier stats that I've ever seen.
They're really starting to find a groove on offense. The
thing that has stood out to me is just how
excellent their top three shot creators are, Like Kevin Durant,
Alprinshangun and Men Thompson are just so good individually that
it makes their offense flow, even though they don't have
as much refined offensive skill as the team as you
would think. And again, as I mentioned earlier, they've been
(17:01):
shooting the shit out of the ball to start the season.
They are shooting fifty four percent on unguarded catch and
shoot threes to start the season. Last night, or I
guess it was two nights ago, in the win against Boston,
they a Men Thompson, Josha Kog and Tari Easton. Those
three were eight for twelve from three. So like there's
(17:24):
a lot of like when those guys are shooting, they're
just gonna win games. I don't think they're gonna Obviously
they're not gonna shoot fifty four percent on unguarded catch
and shoot threes this year, but they may not be
quite as bad as we thought they were. Gonna be
something to keep an eye on. The start of the
Celtics game is actually a classic example of what I'm
talking about with their top tiershot creators. Kevin Durant first
play of the game gets a little screening action drop
(17:47):
coverage look nails a little eighteen footter easily off the dribble.
Very next possession of Men Thompson just toases man Josh
might not off the dribble, dunks it with two hands,
and then Alprin Shangun takes Nimius Kida right under the
basket and bullies him for a layup like bang bang
bang to start the game. You can't guard Kevin Durant,
(18:07):
can't guard Evn Thompson, you can't guard al burn Shanghun,
And like that's really the foundation of their offense to
start the year is they just have three dudes that
are massive matchup problems all over the floor, and when
they shoot as well as they did in that Celtics game,
they're just gonna be really hard to beat.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
It hasn't been perfect.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
As good as they've been on the offensive glass, they've
been a mediocre defensive rebounding team, and they haven't been
as good on defense as you would expect them to be.
As in both cases, I actually attribute it to speed.
They can get beat to loose balls by smaller, quicker teams,
and they can give up some dribble penetration. But I
thought the Boston game was actually a good step forward
for them on defense, and Ree Shepperd, who had a
(18:45):
rough start to the season, had his best game of
the season in Boston. Houston is trending in the right direction,
and they've looked downright scary over their last three games.
Number nine the Detroit Pistons Kate Cunningham is off to
a rough start on offense to start the season. He's
been better at the rim than he was last year.
Last year he was below fifty percent on layups. He's
been in the high fifties at the rim to start
this season, so that's a plus. But his jump SHOT's
(19:07):
been off from basically every range, including short range, which
is strange. But that didn't stop the Dallas Mavericks in
Mexico City from doubling and blitzing Caid all over the floor,
and presumably because of the injuries to their center rotation
and how they just didn't trust their rim protection but
Caid picked them apart just making great reads every single time.
Jalen Duran was an absolute monster in that game, cleaning
(19:30):
up everything at the rim. I haven't loved everything I've
seen from Detroit this season, Like they haven't been attacking
in transition as much as I would as they used to.
Last year they were fifth and transition points per game
this year their eighteenth. I think they're missing guys like
Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway junior that ran the floor
really well for threes, and Caid was hunting those dudes
all the time with kick aheads. I think that's something
(19:51):
they're missing a little bit. I think in general, they
haven't been pushing as much as they could, and then
their secondary ball handling has been a disaster, like Kris
LeVert has not been great to start the season, and
then they fall off a cliff from there. Obviously, you
want to see Jade and Ivy come back at some point,
and obviously you would have hoped to have seen more
scoring polished from Caid. But overall, the reason why I'm
(20:11):
still pretty high on Detroit is they just have a
really strong physical foundation. They are this ass kicking physical team.
On the margins, they're seventh in defensive rating, they're eighth
and rebounding. They're fourth in opponent's points in the paint
allowed per game. I was really impressed in the win
against Houston. How good of a job they did against
Shanng Goon and all of his bully ball attacks. That's
(20:32):
guy who bullies everyone. They're tied for sixth in opponent
transition points per game. So they just have such a
strong foundation night tonight on the margins because they're so
athletic and physical and they play super hard that it's
allowed them to be four and two despite getting a
mediocre start on offense, and they will get better there.
Cade will hit shots, LeVert will play better than he
(20:52):
has sar Thompson will be better on offense than he
has been, Jade and Ivy will eventually return, and who knows,
they may even make trade at some point. So all
things considered, being at fourign two, I think that's a
solid start for the Pistons. Number eight, the Denver Nuggets
kind of a weird start for Denver. They've toasted off
two games in crunch time to the Warriors and Blazers.
Otherwise they'd be undefeated. This Steph game, you know, he
(21:17):
like literally had thirteen straight points and hit a contested
thirty eight footer to send the game to overtime. So
I don't know what you're gonna do about that. But
the Portland game was just mental lapses. There was a
and one that Denny Avdia got spinning off of Cam
Johnson where the Nuggets did not have their help side
defense set up and they were not sagging off some
of the non shooters that they should have been, and
they ended up giving up an and one when they
(21:38):
should have contained the ball better. Jeremy Grant beat everyone
up the floor in transition to draw a foul. Just
bad transition defense. And then Aaron Gordon for the game winner,
gets his handcought in the cookie jar against Jeremy Grant
and just gives him an easy trip to the foul
line to win the game. So just some mental lapses,
highly unusual for a team in Denver that's known as
being one of the best late game execution teams league.
(22:00):
They have a one to sixty seven defensive rating so
far in thirteen minutes of clutch basketball, and that's usually
a good clutch defense. They've been strong in the metrics
on defense in clutch time over the course of the
last few years. The Blazers game was also the first
time this season that they got smashed with Jokic off
the floor, and it cost him a game. I think
they were minus eleven in the minutes when Jokic was
(22:22):
off the floor in that game. But other than that,
things have been pretty encouraging for Denver. The offense looks incredible,
and that's with them not even getting Cam Johnson into
rhythm yet. Their third in offensive rating, fourth in defensive
rating third, and net rating fourth and rebounding, so lots
of strong metrics for them across the board.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
All of their big three look great.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Jamal Murray is in the best early season shape that
he's ever been in, Aaron Gordon looks fantastic obviously, Jokic
looks great. They just need to get Cam Johnson a
little bit more involved and clean up.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Their late game execution Number seven.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
The Portland Trailblazers fifth best defense in the league in
the early going and boy was it on display. Late
in the game against Denver Toamani Kamara had a really
impressive help side block against Cam Johnson at the rim,
sent him flying out of bounds. Shade and sharp on
this jump ball sequence at the tail end of the game,
came flying in and blocked and Aaron Gordon turn around
jump shot. They're just so big and so strong an
(23:19):
athletic on the perimeter, and they have rim protection to
back it up, and the all their forwards are so big,
strong and athletic that they can even go small. They
ended up going without a center down the tail end
of the Denver Nuggets game, which is like a kind
of crazy to think about it against that particular team,
But they're just swarming and then on offense, like I
talked about before the season, I thought the tape from
Denny Avdia at the end of last season was legit.
(23:42):
Like I didn't think it was just a guy putting
up numbers. He looked like the classic big, versatile ball
handler that can hit a pull up jump shot that
can get a guy trapped on his hip off of
ball screens and kind of methodically work into the middle
of the floor. He had a lot of like pump,
fake step through type of like kind of nifty foot
work around the basket to get by rim protection for
(24:03):
easy layups and short shots that he can make. But
at the same time, he's like brings like a real downhill,
like slashing force to the table. And I think he's
a pretty underrated passer, and so I was encouraging. I
actually said in our season preview that I expected Denny
Avdia to come out and put up big numbers to
start the year, and he's looked fantastic after a rough
(24:24):
first game where his jumper looked kind of hitchy and off.
Over his last five games where the Blazers are four
to one, Denni avdi is averaging twenty three points, six rebounds,
and five assists on fifty one percent from the field
and forty seven percent from three. Drew Holliday has been
great over the last few games. He's put poured in
twenty one to five and nine over the last four games.
(24:45):
Jeremy Grant's been great surprisingly to start the season, and
they're a devastating transition team. They're scoring thirty four transition
points per game. There have been three teams that have
really stood out to me as like transition attack teams,
and Portland's been one. It's like Miami, Portland and Cago.
Those three teams have been like chaotically fast with the
way that they're playing, and Portland's been one of those teams.
(25:07):
They have thirty four transition points per game, which ranks
second in the NBA. They get stops and they run
it down your throat. Then they pick you up full
court and they force the most turnovers in the league
with their ball pressure, and then they run it back
down your throat again. They're going to be a pain
in the ass for every team in the league to
play against. The Lakers get them tonight on the tail
and back to back. I'll have my eye on that game,
(25:29):
and I'm worried about it for the Lakers because they
can struggle with ball pressure a little bit. Portland is
a paint gonna be. They're gonna be a team that
everyone's gonna have to deal with this season, and it
won't be easy.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Number six.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
The Milwaukee Bucks really bad night on defense against the
Sacramento Kings. Kind of a letdown game for them after
upsetting the Warriors without Giannis. But I've been very impressed
by the Bucks in the early going. This season, Miles
Turner has added this like other layer of athleticism to
the front court, and then they're playing the right guys
(26:00):
in their backcourt. And when you sub out guys like
Torrian Prince and Damian Lillard from that starting lineup, like really,
that to me is the biggest change in the team
is just how physically imposing they are. Think about last
year when we were seeing a lot of like Dame
Gary Trent, Torrian Prince, Giannice Brooke, And you turn Brooke
(26:21):
into Miles, who's a much better athlete. You turn Torrian
into aj Green, who is a quicker, better perimeter defender,
and then you turn Damian Lillard into Ryan Rollins, who
is a big, athletic guy that can play both ends
of the floor. All of a sudden, it goes from
being kind of like a slow Bucks team to like
a pretty big and athletic Bucks team. And so that's
(26:43):
allowed them to have a better defensive ceiling. It hasn't
been super great in the metrics, the eighteenth in defensive rating,
but they've had really good stretches of defense, and that
number is pretty strongly influenced by them giving up what
like one hundred and thirty five points to the Sacramento Kings.
But overall they've been much more physically imposing on defense,
and they've added this like very basic construct on offense
(27:06):
that works. This has been the fourth best offense in
the league here in the early going, and it's very
simply rim pressure and playmaking mixed with jump shooting. Right
bringing in a guy like Cole Anthony who can beat
people off the dribble and make kickout passes, Ryan Rollins
who's been excellent at the rim and excellent making the
reads in pick and roll, and then Giannis who's been
(27:28):
playing at an MVP level. You have those three dudes
surrounded by a big dude in Miles Turner who can shoot,
and lots of jump shooting talent around them on the perimeter.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
It just works.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
It is classic rim pressure balanced with catch and shoot
shooting that is making it successful on the offensive end
of the floor. There again, fourth and offense, eighteenth in defense,
seventh in net rating, way more physical than I expected
them to be. The they got a young guy to
pop in, Ryan Rollins, who had a couple of massive
games last week. Again, it started with me early in
(28:01):
the season just thinking Ryan had like really good natural
give and take with Giannis, but now he's starting to
add the pull up jump shot to the mix. He's
hitting that at a high clip. He's hit more pull
up threes to start this season than he did in
the entirety of last season in a Bucks Jersey really
really nice pop from there. And then they just in
general look like a more serious threat in the Eastern
(28:23):
Conference than I originally thought. I had them at the
top team in my third tier of contenders to start
the season. They're looking more like a second tier contender
to me. Obviously too early to make some sort of
substantial change. We'll talk about that when we do our
next contender rankings over the course of the next couple
of weeks, but I'm looking at them as much more
of a second tier contender at this point. Number five
(28:47):
the Los Angeles Lakers one of the more impressive starts
in the league when you consider the injuries they've dealt
with and their strength of schedule. They've played the third
toughest schedule in the league to start the season, with
quality wins against Minnesota twice against the Miami Heat last night,
a big test for their offense, we'll talk about that
in a minute. And Luca's only played in four of
their seven games. Lebron has missed all seven of their games.
(29:08):
Marcus Smart, Gabe Vincent, and DeAndre Ayton have all missed time,
lots of guys in and out of the lineup, and
they just keep winning. And they're winning primarily as a
product of them being the second best half court offense
in the league to start the season. I expected the
Lakers to be an excellent offense this year went healthy,
But if you would have told me they'd be the
second best offense half court offense in the league with
(29:29):
the injuries that they've had, I would have been blown away.
And it's really just because of how incredible Austin and
Luca have been. Out of the forty one players in
the NBA that have ran at least fifty pick and
rolls to start this season, they were third and fourth
in that list, respectively in their efficiency on those actions,
both players getting over a one to twenty five offensive
(29:50):
rating when you include passes on their pick and rolls.
They're averaging a combined seventy two points per game between
the two of them, and they just have tons of
play finishing talent. Off of that, they have their top
five in scoring off of cuts. They're shooting forty one
percent on catch and shoot threes. Jake Laavia and Marcus
smart have both been revelations on offense as connective offensive players.
(30:13):
Jake hitting catch and shoot threes and running the floor
in transition and as a cutter. Marcus Smart more is
like a connective playmaker, just kind of playing off in advantage.
He can also score off the bounce every once in
a while. They've been getting quality play on the role,
like DeAndre Ayten has been scoring on the role. I
think Jackson Hayes has been really good over the course
of the last few games, bringing vertical spacing, but also
(30:36):
especially in the Memphis game, he was picking them apart
with his short role passing, making really good reads in
the middle of the floor to start those four on threes.
The Miami Heat game in particular, was a good challenge
for the Lakers because you knew they weren't going to
run any drop coverage. It was going to be a
steady diet of switching and doubling and zone and you
saw it affected Luca and Austin individually. They were eighteen
(30:57):
for forty four from the field, but they still got
to fifty five five points between the two of them,
and the team logged a one to twenty two offensive
rating against that Spurs team, which is the third best
defense excuse me, the Heat team. Excuse me that it
was the third best defense in the NBA coming into today.
So really impressed by the Lakers on offense to start
(31:18):
the year. They've been a little better on defense to
start the season than I expected. They were seventeenth in
defensive rating at this point, also seventeenth in defensive rebounding.
They have some smart defenders who are usually in the
right spot. It's amazing how often the ball will just
like end up with Marcus Smarter Jacob Ravia because they're
just always positioned properly on defense, the defensive rebounding piece
(31:39):
and overall the defense I think is something that Lebron
can be a great help with. So, you know, given
how they looked in training camp and on opening night,
the Lakers have completely flipped the script.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Over the last six games.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
And with Lebron come in here in the next week
or two, I'm really excited to see what they can
accomplish on the margins, which has been really their only
weak spot at this point. Number four, the Philadelphia seventy
six ers the second best offense in the entire NBA,
fueled by their incredibly fast and talented backcourt. They've scored
the sixth most transition points in the NBA to start
(32:13):
the year. All of that speed on display in the
half court. There's seventh in offensive rating, fueled primarily by
the shot creation of Tyrese Maxi, but also all the
shooting and slashing around them. So Tyreese has been amazing
thirty four points per game, nine assists per game, sixty
three percent true shooting, he's shooting fifty percent on pull
(32:33):
up threes, fifty eight percent on floaters, really impressive playmaking
out off of his rim pressure.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
That dynamic is really the.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Floater pull up three is really the dynamic he's torching
everybody with. If you overplay the drive, it's a pullback,
dribble or a step back. He gets tons of separation
and he's nailing that at fifty percent. And that if
he gets his shoulder past you, he just takes off
at full speed and just softly puts that floater up
and hits it. And if you react to him at all.
(33:04):
On the drive, he's making the appropriate kickout reads. And
then as a team, they're tenth in catch and shoot efficiency,
but they're fifth in spot up efficiency, and a lot
of this has to do with the slashing. It's not
just again like when you're open, it's not just knocking
down to catch and shoot three. If you can drive
that close out and get layups and dunks like VJ.
Edgecomb and Kelly Oubrey both are slashing closeouts extremely well,
(33:29):
getting layups and easy shots at the rim, and then
the pressure just never stops like Embiid. Strangely enough, even
though he's been kind of waddling around and looking unathletic,
he's at seventeen points per game on fifty nine percent
true shooting. He's looking a little more mobile each game,
which is something to be excited about if you're a
(33:49):
Sixers fan, because his immobility has been part of the
reason why they've been bad with him on the floor
relative to when he's been off the floor to start
the season. But Embiid should be able to If he's
trending like this, maybe he'll never be the MVP again.
That if he can trend to the point where he's
at least a little bit more impactful defensively on the
(34:10):
defensive glass and in transition defensively, if he can keep
up a little bit and he keeps scoring the ball
this efficiency, I think, this efficiently, I think that's going
to add an element to this. Paul George, obviously everyone
talks about how, you know, the Sixers need to stick
with their young guys. I don't necessarily disagree, but like
Paul George can do a lot of things on the
(34:30):
basketball court, I don't think adding him to the rotation
is going to hurt things in any real way. And
then you get this consistent pressure right like you're seeing
Quinton Grimes come in and he's playing really well. The
lineups where he's on the floor performing really well.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
VJ.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Edgecomb is having these little spurts of shot creation. They're
just really deep with athletic shot creation talent, and they've
got these older guys that, like, if any of them
pop at any point this season, they're going to be
even more dynamic. Tyres Max, he's looking like a first
team All NBA guy to start the season. They're just
much better than I thought they would be at this point.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Number three.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
The San Antonio Spurs finally dropped the game against the
Phoenix Suns last night. Super ugly night from Victor Wembin Yama.
The Sons were double teaming him all over the floor
and he just didn't handle it well. I do think
that was the ugliest version of what this will look
like this season, because on the one hand, you gotta
be realistic, like, this is a poor jump shooting team
(35:30):
San Antonio. They teams aren't going to double team Wemby,
They're not gonna let him cook one on one.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
This is a coverage you're gonna see a.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Lot, and so there will be some weaknesses that will
come to the forefront as a virtue of this coverage
throughout this season. But that one last night was so
exceptionally bad, Like Wemby almost looked like a rookie with
the way that he was just struggling with physicality and
ball pressure, getting his base dislodged, having the boss why
(36:00):
away from him all over the place. His kickout passes
against the doubles were bad, like some of it was.
Wenby just had a really bad game. And that's gonna
happen with younger basketball players like and That's part of why,
like I talked about, when we start having the conversation
about Wemby with the best player in the world. I
certainly think that Wemby has a great chance to become
(36:20):
that at some point in the next few years. But
one of the biggest things that younger players can struggle
with is they can have a night like this where
they're not just bad, but they're like really really bad.
And so these are the kinds of little details that
are just standing in the way between where Wenby is
now as like towards the bottom of the top tier
of superstars and the legitimate best player in the world.
(36:40):
There's a consistency piece, there's a can you do it
against every single coverage? Can you do it in the
postseason when teams are scouting for you and dealing with
you for two straight weeks? Like there are checkpoints, and
Wemby's hit every checkpoint so far, but there are still
checkpoints he has to hit in the future in order
to actually get to that point where he's the best
player in the world. And part of that is like
(37:01):
when teams get super physical and double team you and
sag off of shooters, are you gonna have you know,
what was.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
It that he had last night? Like six or eight
points and six turnovers.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Right, You're gonna have really really rough games where you
decompose like that. That's part of that growth process him
kind of trimming the fat there. Overall, though, in that
Suns game, I thought the biggest issue was they didn't
get any stops. And again, like, if you look at
this Spurs team in the aggregate, the thing that I've
been most excited about them with the early part of
the season is like Julian Champagne's this big, scrappy perimeterive player,
(37:34):
Steph Castle's big and scrappy, Dylan Harper's big and scrappy,
Like they're Keldon Johnson's big and scrappy. They're big and scrappy,
and they had Victor webin Yama anchoring it all. And
so this is very much a defense to rebound to
run type of team defense rebound run. Like even when
they were undefeated, they were a mediocre half court offense
(37:54):
that struggled against his own defense. Right, So, like a
big thing for them is going to be on nights
like this where they don't get stops, it's gonna be
really hard for them to overcome it because they were
never that great of a half court team to begin with.
We'll see how much Darren Fox helps with that in
the big picture, But I thought the bigger story in
that Sun's game was they weren't getting out in transition
because they weren't getting enough stops. So far to start
(38:17):
the season ninth in offense, second in defense, fourth and
net rating, way more physically imposing as a team than
I expected to them to be, which I think gives
them like a strong foundation to build night tonight in
the regular season. But last night you got to see
a little bit an exaggerated version of what it will
look like when teams try to take the ball out
of Victor women Yama's hands. Number two the Chicago Bulls,
(38:39):
who finally dropped a game last night in Madison Square
Guard and the Knicks offense was just in a really
good groove all night, and the Bulls had a particularly
rough third quarter where they lost control of the game.
But they've been one of those three teams that I mentioned,
the Bulls, the Heat, and the Blazers. They've been one
of several teams in the NBA that have really embraced
transition basketball to start this year and it's been working
(38:59):
wonders for them. As a matter of fact, they've been
the best transition offense to start the season. And then
when they get into the half court, it's very simple.
They don't overly complicate things. It's a steady diet of
Josh Giddy pick and roll or pick and pop with
Vouch and then post ups for Vuchib.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
It's a lot of two.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Man game with Gideon vuch they initiate things and then
they just play drive and kick off of it. And
they've got a lot of guys that attack the rim
with a ton of force. Madus Bozellis has been a
dominant force attacking the basket as a cutter, as a slasher,
and as a transition weapon. They are playing off that
advantage and they are attacking the rim very well. And
(39:38):
then on the defensive end of the floor, it's been
kind of like a weird inverse of the Chicago of
the Boston Celtics, where they are giving up a million
paint points, but they're defending the three point line very well,
and that has been a good strong foundation for them
on the defensive end, which is triggering that transition attack
very very impressive start for the Chicago Bulls. Josh Giddy
(39:59):
in particular has been fantastic. I talked a lot this
summer about how I didn't think he was good enough
to be like the lead shot creator and a dead
serious team. It's still very early, but he's been better
than I expected to start the season, and if that
kind of thing gets maintained, it becomes more like, holy shit,
you're getting that for twenty five million. Now we're having
(40:21):
a different conversation, right. He's been better than I expected
to start the year. Number one, the only undefeated team
in the NBA, the seven to zero Oklahoma City Thunder
seventh in offense, first in defense, first.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
In net rating.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
Hit a timely stretch of easy schedule last week. With
Chet Holmgren being out with some back issues in Jadub
obviously out, getting Isaiah Joe back has been key giving
them some more offensive pop. I've been generally super impressed
with the job of Isaiah Joe, aj Mitchell and Aaron
Wiggins kind of providing the offensive support that they've needed
(40:56):
with Chet and Jadubb both being out. Shay has done
a great job with his game management. I thought he
was exceptionally good in the early part of the season
when they were playing those tougher games, pulling out losses
from the jaws of defeat with incredible shot making and
incredible playmaking. Lou Dord has been an absolute menace on
defense to start the season. I think seventy wins is
legitimately on the table for this group. They have a
(41:17):
much tougher schedule on the perimeter. This week they go
on the road to the Clippers and onto the Trailblazers before.
I think they're in Memphis and Sacramento. Memphis and Sacramento
thore should be wins, but Portland and the Clippers are.
Those are gonna be a couple of tough challenges for
them on the road. If they come out of that
eleven and zero, that would be an unbelievable start to
(41:39):
the season, given some of the injuries that they have
dealt with. All right, guys, it's all I have for
today is always to sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting
us and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow morning
with some game reactions. I'll see you guys then.
Host
Jason Timpf
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