October 28, 2025 • 39 mins
Jason reacts to the Golden State Warriors’ win over the Memphis Grizzlies including more impressive play from Steph Curry, Jonathan Kuminga, and Brandin Podziemski. Then he breaks down how VJ Edgecombe and Tyrese Maxey led the Philadelphia 76ers to a win over Paolo Banchero and the Orlando Magic, what's going on with the Banchero and Desmond Bane pairing, and Jamal Murray's hot start for the Denver Nuggets.
All lines presented by Hard Rock Bet.
#Volume
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
All right, well, good hoopson, I here at the volume.
Happy Tuesday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having
a great early part of your week. Out A Jampack
show for you guys. Today, we're going to be reacting
to Memphis versus Golden State from last night. Got some
thoughts on both teams, my first impressions on the Memphis
Grizzlies this year. After that, these Sixers end up beating
the Magic to continue their undefeated start to the season.
(00:37):
I want to talk about Philly's number one offense in
the NBA as well as what is going on with
the Orlando Magic. I know they're one in three, twenty
fifth in offense to start the season, but I actually
came away from that game a little bit more bullish
about them in the big picture than I had been
in the early part of the season. So we'll talk
a little bit about their offense, and then at the
(00:58):
tail end of the show, I just had some brief
thoughts on Jamal Murray, who had a forty three point
outburst last night against the shorthanded Minnesota Timberwolves, and talk
about some of the strong indicators we're seeing from him
to start the season and what it means for this
Denver Nuggets team. You guys owe the joke before we
get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so
you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
on Twitter at underscore JSNLT so you guys don't miss
(01:20):
show announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you
get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful
if you leave a rating and 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
content throughout the season. And then, last but not least,
if you want to get questions into our mail bags.
We're going to have mail bags on most Fridays throughout
the rest of the season. Make sure you drop them
(01:41):
in the YouTube comments with mailbag with a call in,
write your question and we'll get to them on Fridays
throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk
some basketball. So a fantastic game for the Warriors role
players sixty eight combined points from Jonathan Kaminga, Brandon Pajemski,
Moses Moody. This allowed Steph Curry to play more of
(02:02):
a passive role throughout the game as a scorer. Still
hunted his opportunities when he can hit a couple of
nasty shots, you know, trying to shed off Cedric Coward
for a little step back jumper on the left wing.
He's gonna mix that sort of thing in, but didn't
need to over exert himself. The Warriors controlled the game
without him needing to really hit the gas as a scorer,
(02:24):
and that sort of thing is super valuable over the
course of an eighty two game regular season. I talked
a lot about before the season, if you guys remember,
I talked about how I expected Steph to come out
guns blazing this year, and in large part because I
was pretty pessimistic about the Warriors' overall offensive talent, and
so I thought Steph was gonna need to score a ton.
(02:45):
And I just am a huge believer in these APEX
competitors when they sense a real opportunity to win the trophy.
So I was expecting really good things out of Stephan.
And by the way, I think Steph's looked fantastic to
start the year. But the more ights like this where
Steph doesn't need to go drop thirty thirty five points.
That is actually better for the Warriors in the big
(03:08):
picture because it makes it more likely that Steph and
Draymond and Al and Jimmy will actually make it through
the season intact. So nights like last night where you
get sixty eight points from your three best young players
are really important for the big picture goals that the
Warriors have this season in surviving the regular season. So
(03:29):
let's actually start with Brandon Pajemski here. He started the
game with John Murran guarding him, and he burned him
a bunch of times by hitting threes. He actually ran
an action for him to start the game with him
coming off of a little flare screen from Steph Curry.
John Moran ran into the pick wide open look for
Moses Moody. He or excuse me for Brandon Pajemski. He
knocked it down, beat him in help a few times
when Joe was just not paying attention roaming around. But
(03:52):
in the second half, Brandon really started to get going
as a score in action. He hit some floaters coming
off of screens, hit a super tough floater at the
end of the third quarter, there's a big shot that
helps stiff arm Memphis as they were trying to advance,
you know, out of a classic back and forth. Golden
Say goes up twenty Memphis starts to work it down.
There's some big shots late in that quarter, including a
tough deep floater from Brandon Pajemski, and then he started
(04:15):
hitting iso threes. He's been getting that little bit of
like jab step space where he just kind of stands
on the perimeter, just throws a jab. Guy gives him
some space he can rise up and knock down the
jump shot. And it was actually fascinating because he was
scoring so effectively that he generated one of those patented
Golden State Warriors blitz sequences. Runs a ball screen about
(04:37):
thirty feet off the left wing, draws a second defender,
hits Trey Jackson Davis on the short roll. Trace makes
a quick little drop off pass to Gary Payton Junior.
Gary Payton the second excuse me, he gets a layup
like that's the kind of sequence that you typically only
see from Steph Curry, but that was the kind of
sequence Brandon was drawing. Because he had twenty three points
on fourteen shots, six assists with no turnovers, four rebounds,
(05:02):
just a really nice game from Brandon Pajemski against Memphis
last night. And then we had the Moses Moody show
in that second half, and like he was an absolute
wrecking ball in that third quarter. Really was the guy
in my opinion, that sparked a run that blew the
game open. And it wasn't anything overly complicated. He was
hitting his catch and shoot threes over and over again,
(05:23):
even drawing a three shot foul on Jaron Jackson off
the right wing when Jaren started reacting to how well
he was shooting the ball. And then on the other
end of the floor, he just on defense annihilated Santi
al Dama, just blocked him on a quick post up,
stripped him when he wasn't protecting the basketball, spooked Santy
so bad that Santy had a third ISO attempt against
(05:46):
Moses where he just settled for some garbage little right
shoulder fade away from like twenty feet away from the
rim that had no chance of going in. Like just
a classic three and D sequence, knocking down shots, playing
defense and guarding one of the more important offensive players
on the other team, and it helped blow the game
open and then for Jonathan Kaminga, he just kind of
continued that trend of having somewhat uneven first halves but
(06:10):
then being excellent in the second half. Like he scored
really well in the first half. He boldied his way
to the rim a bunch of times for buckets and fouls,
but he missed some jumpers and took a couple questionable
jumpers and had a few off ball defensive mistakes. I
thought he got lucky in the late first half because
he left Contavious Cabo Pope and Santi Aldama for two
wide open looks on a couple of transition plays where
(06:30):
he just kind of fell asleep. Fortunately both shots were misses.
But then Kaminga came out in the second half and
immediately made a bunch of plays in a row that
blew the game open. He started to have Steph gets
beat off the dribble I think by Jalen Wells off
the right wing, Jalen drives, Jonathan Kminga comes flying over
and blocks the shot with two hands, a really nice
help a help sequence at the basket to help Steph out,
(06:52):
and then he did a ton of damage as a
cutter in the second half. He ended up getting this
like super fascinating lob that Steph threw that was like
off target off the glass, but instead of like going
to try to get it off the glass, Kaminga stayed
back and like redd it right and caught it bouncing
off the glass and like immediately put it back up
in the basket. He had a really nice sequence with
Jimmy Butler where Jimmy drove off the left wing and
(07:15):
Jimmy gets down to like the block kind of a
slashing towards almost the baseline, and Jonathan just kind of
relocated up right in front of the rim and basketball
they call this teeing up. So like, essentially, when you're
a cutter, there's two different reads that you're trying to make.
You're always off the ball in the dunker spot when
you're a cutter, right, so like wherever the ball is,
you want to be opposite of where the ball is, right.
(07:37):
But again, if a guy is driving towards the baseline,
it's a different read than if he's driving towards the middle.
So like if Jimmy slashes across the middle from the
left wing, then Jonathan's job would be to cut along
the baseline to the opposite dunker spot to make himself available, right.
But if Jimmy drives more towards the left side of
the basket, then instead of kaminga standing there and a
(07:59):
dunk Chris spot, he's going to want to tee up,
meaning he's going to want to locate right in front
of the rim, because essentially, you want to stay in motion, right.
You never want to be standing still. That's what makes
you easy to guard. Your help defender is watching man
and ball. If he's looking back and forth and then
all of a sudden he gets keyed in on the driver.
He's counting on you being in one place, but if
(08:20):
you move, you can make yourself available. Get a really
nice tee up cut off of Jimmy Butler another easy
bucket right there in front of the rim. Finished with
twenty five points in this one. Got to the foul
line eight times with this physicality attacking the basket. Johnathan
Minga continues his really impressive start to the season. And again,
as I mentioned earlier in the show, the more of
(08:40):
these kinds of nights that the Warriors get from their
young guys, the better off they're going to be in
the long run with their health in this eighty two
game regular season. Now on the Grizzlies front, this was
my first time checking out the Grizzlies this year, and
I was incredibly underwhelmed. Their spacing is really poor. Like
Jaws a gifted passer, and he did a great job
beating the Warriors back line help whenever they would like
(09:02):
load up and get two keyed in on him and
guys would kind of slip along the baseline, similar concept
to what we were just talking about with relocating it
from dunker spot to dunker spot, and he kept hitting
guys down there for easy layups. And Jos still an
insanely good short range finisher. He hit a bunch of
floaters last night. He's now ten for fourteen on the
season on floaters, which is just outrageous. Strong indicator of
(09:25):
the stuff that's always had me so excited with joh
like downhill force, quality playmaking, and the ability to stop
and pop from like five to eight feet from the
basket for these little short floaters that he hits. The
problem is is the spacing is super poor, like this
Memphis team to start the season is bottom five and
catch and shoot efficiency, and what it's causing is a
(09:46):
problem where John Moran is dealing with a lot of
defenders in front of him and he's got no choice
but to settle for jump shots, and that just highlights
Jaw's biggest weaknesses. Of his biggest weakness, which is that
he can't shoot the basketball. Was five for fourteen on
jump shots against Golden State. Fourteen attempts is a good
example of what I'm talking about with the spacing and
(10:07):
him kind of having no choice but to settle for
really tough shots just because of the dynamic he's dealing
with in front of him. And John right now is
nine for thirty eight on jump shots to start the season.
That's just zero point five to three points per attempt,
two for twenty on threes, and so like all of
his years in the NBA, he's just never improved on that.
(10:29):
He's never become a better jump shooter. In fact, he's
become worse as the years have gone by. And the
problem is is that the roster is built in a
way that kind of depends on his ability to shoot
because of the way that they can't space the floor
for him. And it's just going to be a problem
as long as one of those two things doesn't change.
If they can't figure out a way to space the
(10:49):
floor for him, or if he can't figure out a
way to become a better jump shooter, it's just going
to continue to be a problem. Jaren Jackson was bizarrely
uninvolved in the offense. They didn't really try to start
feeding him until the third quarter, and he finished with
just nine shot attempts in the game. Missed a handful
of little easy kind of like hooks and floaters that
he's gotten good at over the course of his career.
(11:09):
It wasn't all bad like jack Landiald did some damage
on the offensive glass.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
I thought Cedric.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Coward looked good, a big athlete with a high motor,
spent some time guarding staff, he shot the ball well.
Then I just found them to be really underwhelming and
a lot like last year. Right Like, they're two and
two with two wins versus severely limited teams, and then
they've been outclassed in the games they've played against good teams,
which was literally the story of last season for the
(11:34):
Memphis Grizzlies. Today's show is brought to you by our
new presenting sponsor, hard Rock Bet. The NBA season is
heating up and every night is a shot to score
a major bucket on hard Rock Bet, your home for
hoops action all season long.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Needle'll help with your first bet. Check out the.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Streaks heating up inside the hard Rock Bet stats hub.
You can find live odds to bet on all of
the streaks right in the hard Rock Bet at If
you haven't tried your first bet on hard Bet, there's
still time for you to get one hundred and fifty
dollars in bonus bets if you win. Just place a
five dollars bet and if it hits, you not only
get your winnings, but one hundred and fifty dollars in
(12:10):
extra bonus bets plus. All week on hard Rock Bet,
you can get an NBA parlay boost for the games.
There's new promos every day. Boost your same game parlay
or SGP max so your bet pays extra winnings. Download
a hard Rock Bet app today and make your first deposit.
Payble and bonus bets not a cash offer offered by
(12:30):
the Seminal Tribe of Florida in Florida, offered by Seminal
hard Rock Digital LLC. In other states. Must be twenty
one plus and physically president in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana,
New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, or Virginia to play. Terms and
conditions apply. Concerned about gambling in Florida, call one eight
three to three play wise. In Indiana. If you or
(12:53):
someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help,
call one eight hundred and nine with it gambling problem
called one hundred gambler in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee,
or Virginia. All right, Orlando Philly. Yesterday I mentioned how
the Sixers have become one of my favorite teams to
(13:14):
watch here in the early part of the NBA season,
but that was actually not why I chose to watch
them yesterday. I was keyed in on the Orlando Magic.
We're off to a one in three start. I really
want to talk about some of their struggles. I have
some thoughts about that here in a minute. Obviously, we're
gonna start with Philly because they won this game. But
the Magic ran much better offense last night. They actually
logged to one twenty seven offensive rating, and so I
(13:34):
have some stuff that I want to get into there,
because there were some interesting details in the way that
they kind of got their offense going last night, but
as a result of me keying in on that game,
got to watch Philly again. As I mentioned, Philly's been
one of my favorite teams to watch early. Philly wins
this one one thirty six to one twenty four, and
like big kind of physical dynamic that stands out when
(13:55):
you're watching as like as big and as athletic as
Orlando is. Philly looked like the much faster team in
this game, and they cut the magic to pieces twenty
seven transition points, had a one to fifty nine offensive rating,
and transition super efficient there. And there's just this consistent
dynamic with their perimeter players, with Maxi and edgecomb and
(14:17):
even Kelly Oubray just cutting through Orlando's perimeter defense and
either scoring in the lane or kicking out the shooters.
Philly scored twenty five points on isolation possessions in this game,
including passes and converted spot ups as a team at
one point four to four points per possession, which is
outrageously good. And there's just a lot of variety, Like
(14:41):
Tyrese Maxie's frying everybody in the entire league, like he's
looking like some sort of freaky, lightning fast version of
Steph Curry. To start the year, he's averaging thirty seven
points per game on sixty two percent through shooting. He's
shooting forty six percent off the catch. He's shooting forty
six percent off the dribble, so there's no drop off.
Mem that was a kind of a connection that he
(15:01):
struggled with in the pass, where he'd be really good
off the catch, but he'd struggle off the dribble. He's
got that off the dribble efficiency up to where he's
off the catch efficiency is he's shooting sixty percent on floaters,
which is making him so difficult to guard because he
comes cruising downhill off of any drive or like off
ball screen or on ball screen right, and then he
just comes screaming down the lane, and if you bump
(15:22):
him at all, because he's so good at shooting that
little floater, he'll just draw a shooting val and he's
knocking down that floater again. At sixty percent, he's getting
to the foul line ten times a game because of
that speed that he's attacking with downhill, and guys are
just out of position and they're bumping him. He's got
the step back three and the pullback three completely dialed in.
(15:42):
He's shooting well on the move. He's just looked like
an all NBA player here in the early going of
the season. He's just on an absolute heater and then
with VJ edgecomb, I'm finding it really hard to not
get overly excited here. It's becoming undeniable, like he's scoring
in the flow but also.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Scoring on an island.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
He once again last night hit a couple of really
tough buckets against great defense when things broke down, and
feels like he gets good separation even on the ones
he misses. He's hitting his catch and shoot jumpers at
thirty nine percent. He's seventy two percent at the rim,
which is insane for a guard that's like Yanni's type
of prime Yannis type of numbers there. He's driving closeouts
(16:23):
and finishing at the rim. He's finishing in transition off
of different pieces of footwork and traffic. He's forty four
percent on floaters, and this is a big part of
how he can score in action. When he comes curling
off the screens, he runs into that rim protection. You
could just stop and pop off the ground and hit
that little floater, and then again he's hitting thirty nine
percent of his off the dribble jump shots, just like
(16:43):
he's hitting thirty nine percent of his catch and shoot
jump shots.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
So like that's given.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Him the ability to, you know, he's doing the basic
stuff in the flow right, scoring in transition, scoring off
the catch, scoring driving closeouts, but then he's also able
to come off of action and hit little floaters. And
then every once in a while and the things break
down and they need him to go get a bucket.
He's getting to his spots, hitting a decent percentage of them,
but like also feels like there's this otherworldly potential in
(17:11):
the future if he can add a little bit more
proficiency in his shot making. He had like a play
against Palette on Caro today or last night, excuse me,
where he like got him on a switch late in
the clock off the right wing was in the first half,
and he just like went downhill with this crazy dribble
combination into his step back and Pallow just buckled backwards
and VJ got tons of separation and rose up and
(17:33):
knocked down at three. He just looks like an awesome player.
He's averaging twenty five points per game to start the
season on fifty percent from the field and forty percent
from three in his first three games, and he made
some big plays on defense. In the second half of
this game, he had two help side defense plays where
he blew up possessions. He's averaging two point five stocks
per game here in the early going, and then one
(17:55):
of the revelations of Sixers basketball here in the early
going has been Kelly Oubre In addition to shooting forty
percent from three, which obviously is super helpful, he's doing
some really impressive work on his drives. He got a
lot of like one on one buckets against Orlando. He's
putting his head down and then getting into that short
to mid range where he's able to hit these little
short jumpers and floaters, and he's getting a lot of
(18:15):
self created buckets. He's four for five on off the
dribble jump shots to start the year. He's yet to
miss a mid range or he's pouring in the mid
range against Orlando. He's run eleven pick and rolls, ISOs
and post ups as the handler, including passes, and has
generated seventeen points up over one and a half points
per possessions. So some really impressive shot creation, albeit in
(18:38):
smaller volume for Kelly u Brady to start the season,
and then Quinn Grimes. What he brings that's super dynamic
to this team is aggressive catch and shoot shooting like
he doesn't need a ton of space. He's good at
just elevating over the top, and so he's manufacturing a
lot of points and fouls by just being aggressive off
the catch when he catches on the three point line.
Philly has the best offense in the NBA here in
(18:59):
the early going. They have a one twenty five offensive rating,
and it's just because they're so damn dynamic on the perimeter.
They have a guard in Tyrese Maxie who's playing as
well as anyone else in the NBA right now, and
three freaky athletes that are consistently attacking in space off
of him. They're pushing the ball up the floor. Lots
of contributions down the bench again, like Adam Bona came
(19:20):
in and blocked three shots in the opening minutes and
ended up I think with four in the game. Just
every you could just hear in the broadcast every time,
just give me that shit every single time he gets
a block, just bringing kind of like energy and rim protection.
Justin Edwards hit a couple of huge shots in the
second half of you had a three and they had
a driving, tough bucket, a little like left shoulder, right
shoulder hook with his left hand over the top of
(19:41):
Desmond Bane and crunch time.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
That was a big shot.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
We got a first Eric Gordon appearance and came in
and hit a couple of threes, a deep one, had
a driving layup as well, where he looked strong and athletic.
Three and zero start for the Philadelphia seventy six ers.
I've just been super impressed by them. And again they're
playing a super fun brand of basketball. Like if you're
basketball fan, you haven't had a chance to watch the
Sixers yet, I highly recommend you get yourself to a
(20:04):
television at some point on league pass and check them
out here in the next couple of weeks. On the
Orlando front, it looks bad. They're one and three. They're
twenty fifth in offense. The defense has been mediocre. They've
really struggled to guard speed and movement. That's one of
the things that stood out to me. And again, there's
(20:24):
some tough matchups in there, like Philly puts you in
a really tough spot with guarding their guards because your
bigs have to be up and they have to guard speed,
and that's just a really difficult matchup for most of
the bigs in the league. But I thought their bigs
did a really poor job of showing up to the
perimeter against Philly's off screen players in last night's game,
(20:45):
and in general, I thought they struggled defending in space.
But I want to focus on offense because I'm not
worried about Orlando's defense. Orlando is one of the very
best defenses in the league over the last couple of years.
I expect Orlando to be good on defense. The problem
is they're twenty fifth in offense. That's been a big
part of why they've struggled, And I did think last
night was a significant step forward for the Magic on
(21:07):
the offensive end of the floor. Like in large part
part of what they've struggled with here in the early
going is Palo hasn't been good, and they finally got
Paalo going last night. He had his best offensive game
of the season in my opinion. But a big part
of that is I thought they were running some really
rudimentary offense and making life harder for Paalo. So the
easiest way I can describe this is like when I
(21:28):
watch Fronz and Pallo and their dynamic, Like, Franz is
a much more deliberate offensive player, and what I mean
by that is he's like really picky and choosy about
how he attacks, so like he's going to try to
get into his ball screens where he can make his
reads right like you ran a lot of stack last night.
He's going to get into sequences where he can get
(21:49):
the defender trapped on his backside, get downhill into the lane,
and either get to his float or have the passing
reads that are available to him. He's kind of like
your traditional methodical pick and role player, and he like
even with his post up type of stuff, like he'll
be picky about getting a guard on a switch before
clearing aside and like getting to the left block so
he can kind of work with his right hand towards
(22:12):
the middle and once again get to his left shoulder
hook or be able to spray out to the passing
reads that become available in those situations. Like Fronds, to me,
is a guy that doesn't need as much like tactical
support offensively he's not as naturally gifted as Polo for
obvious reasons. Paulo is a bigger, better athlete, but like
(22:32):
with Franz, he's just a a He's a more methodical
offensive player and things come a little easier for him there.
Paalo can be his own worst enemies sometimes, like he'll
just attack one on one without much intentionality, without much
thought as to who he's attacking. And it's made harder
by the fact that because he's so damn big, a
lot of teams are happy to switch big, big actions
(22:55):
with him.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
And then back in the past.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
When they would screen for him with guard, it would
just be okay with those guys shooting out of hedges
because they weren't great shooters and so there wasn't much
consequence there, and it was just difficult for Palo right
And despite that, because of how freaky talented he is,
he obviously still had a lot of moments over the years.
But I was particularly hoping that Desmond Bain could help
with that issue by allowing Palo to play with an
(23:20):
advantage more, allowing him to get more easy opportunities to
bolster what he does with his tougher shot making.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Because of his supreme gifts right.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
So one of the actions that I've been talking a
lot about over the course of the summer ever since
Desmond Bank got traded to Orlando is the idea of
using Desmond Bain as a screener for Palo. The reason
why I've been keyed in on this is I've just
seen so many examples of it elsewhere in the league
that have worked extremely well. We see when you have
a real shooter, like when you have a real shooter
screening for a bigger athlete, you can have a lot
(23:51):
of success over the years. In Golden State before the
Andrew Wiggins trade, it was one of their pet actions
they have Andrew Wiggins dribble with Steph screening for him,
and then Wiggins would be able to get downhill. Yiannis
a ton of this kind of thing. Yiannis with like
AJ Green or Gary Trent Junior screening for him, he
has the ability to get downhill. Lebron in Los Angeles
has run a ton of inverted ball screens with Austin Reeves.
(24:14):
What ends up happening with these types of situations when
you have a really good offensive player that like a
really good skill guard, a guard that has like a
lot of gravity, so to speak, because he's a great shooter.
It puts the defense in a really difficult position when
they're guarding that action.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
You have a big bodied.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Athlete guarding your ball handler, your Paolo, You're Yannis, your
Andrew Wiggins, your Lebron for the four examples that I
gave right, and then you've got a smaller, quicker guard
guarding the guard. Right and in these sequences, they don't
want to switch because then all of a sudden, you've
got a little guy that is guarding your big forward
who can immediately take him down to the block. Or
(24:57):
you have a bigger, slower player that's got a guard,
your freaky skilled guard in this type of action, right,
And so often what will end up happening is they
won't switch, in which case the bit your bigger ball
handler can just cruise downhill. Giannis will get all sorts
of dunks and easy opportunities out of at the rim,
out of this kind of stuff. Wiggins would get all
(25:18):
sorts of layups and shit coming off of those inverted
screens with Steph or they hedge, and if they hedge,
then all of a sudden you've got Steph Curry wide open.
You've got Austin Reeves wide open. You've got you know,
a really good offensive player slipping out of the action
into space where he's gonna hit shots. AJ Green was
gonna hit shots if you hedged on Giannis, and then
(25:38):
if you switch, you generate these quality advantages on both
sides of the action. It's just a very difficult action
to guard relative to traditional pick and roll where your
center is involved, where they can run no roller behind coverage,
simply because the big man is not as dynamic offensively
as the screeners that you're using in these inverted actions.
And so I really really wanted to see a lot
(26:00):
of Polo dribbling on the perimeter with a band coming
up to screen for him and then him slipping out
of the action so that Powlow could attack or have
an easy read that becomes available to him based on
how they're guarding it. And early in the season they
just weren't running it that much. It was driving me
crazy to watch them because they they would just kind
of play your turn, my turn basketball.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Well.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
I charted every single possession that they ran it against Philly.
They ran it seven times in this game. Most of
the time off of the left wing, although they ran
it in the middle of the floor once, but out
of the seven times they ran it, they got a
great shot every single time, and they scored on six
of them. And what's especially frustrating about this is like
(26:44):
that was a huge step forward, and I still felt
like they left a ton of meat on the bone
because they don't spam it the way that they should.
They go away from it. They'll run it a couple
times and then they'll do something else. So like they
run it twice in the middle of the first quarter
in that action, so they don't run it to start
the game. But then in the middle of the fourth
quarter first quarter, they run it two times in a
row off the left wing. The first time they hedge,
(27:07):
so when Bain slips out of it, Paalo throws an
easy behind the back pass. Bain is wide open, the
guy closes out on his right shoulder, he rips the
close out gets all the way the basket for an
easy layup. Then they run it again. On the very
next possession, they switch it. Pallo posts up. When he
posts up on Bain's defender, because he's a small he
(27:29):
immediately draws a double team, kicks out to Bain, they
close out, he drives that close out. Both defenders go
with Bain. Polllow gets a wide open three off of
the left wing and he knocks it down. So they
run it two times in a row, get a layup
in a wide open three, make them both and then
they went away from it. They didn't run it the
next few minutes while they were on the floor together.
(27:50):
They come back to it eight minutes and forty seconds
left in the second quarter, they get a switch. They
don't double this time. Palllo gets an easy little short
jumper over at Quinton Grimes and he knocks it down. Now,
remember with Paalo, it's getting inside of seventeen feet. When
he gets inside of seventeen feet, he's a very efficient score.
When he's outside of seventeen feet off the dribble, when
(28:10):
he's taken like eighteen nineteen foot off the dribble jump shots,
he's short almost all the time, and he becomes very
inefficient on that shot. And so getting the switch for
a favorable matchup with better spacing, because Bain just burned
them on a hedge and they burned him on a
double team by getting a wide open shot for Polo.
So Polo gets a good one on one, gets to
(28:31):
his right shoulder, fade right at like fourteen to fifteen
feet and knocks it down. Didn't go back to it
until three minutes left in the second quarter. So again
they're three for three, three great shots, all of them
went in three minutes in the second quarter. Pallo rips spaceline,
gets the defense in rotation, Bain gets a wide open
catch on the perimeter, He drives the close out and
(28:53):
hits a floater. So now they've run it four times
and gotten four great shots and didn't we go back
to it the rest.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Of the half.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Like right after running that action and getting Bain an
easy close out for a floater, they just go to
Jalen Suggs for a few possessions in a row. Like
there's not they're still lacking some of the intentionality that
they can get to there. They ran it with five
minutes left in the third quarter. That was the next
time they ran it, so they didn't run it for
most of the first stretch of that Like the first
seven minutes of the third quarter, they don't run it.
(29:23):
They run it with five minutes left in the third quarter.
Bain gets Tyrese Maxi excuse me. Palo gets Tyrese Maxey
on a switch. They run the action, they switch it,
Pallo gets Tyrese Maxey draw double team. Bain ends up
catching wide open, drives the close out again, kicks back
to Pallo. He is butt naked on the right wing
for three airballs. It but a great look again, So
(29:46):
you've run it five times and you've gotten five great looks.
He finally misses one. Whatever. They go back to it
in the mid fourth quarter. Four minutes and forty five
seconds left in the fourth quarter, Kelly Ubre dumps way
on the high side, so like Quentin Grimes is guarding Baine,
Bain goes to set the screen. Quentin Grimes is hugged
up on Bain and Kelly Ubray jumps way on the
(30:09):
high side off of the left wing, and Palo just
rips through and gets like the easiest little short driving
floater that he's gotten all night, because Kelly gave him
a driving lane, because Quintin Grimes wouldn't leave his man,
and because Kelly Ubray was trying to get ready for
a screen from Desmond Baine. Like super easy offense. They've
run it now six times, they've gotten a great look
(30:32):
every single time, and they've made five of them. They
go back to it a minute later, about three and
a half minutes left in the fourth quarter, Paalo gets
the switch. Desmond Bain sets the screen, they switch VJ
Edgecomb is now on Palo. Pallo backs him down to
the elbow. They double team off of Bain and Baine
throws an easy little kick or Palo throws an easy
little kickout to Desmond Baine in the left corner. He's
(30:54):
wide open and he knocks down the three. So they
ran it seven times in the game, and then they
got six makes, and I thought all seven shots that
they got were great. The toughest shot that they got,
the only really tough shot in that seven possessions, was
a great matchup for Paalo one on one left elbow
against a small guard and he got to a short
(31:16):
jump shot over his right shoulder and he knocked it down.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Like they're they just.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Are there is an easier way to do things than
they've been doing it. Like what's crazy is they ran
that with three and a half minutes left for the
seventh time, got great stuff on it every single time.
Right then all of a sudden, there's like a random
Jalen Suggs Wendell Carter junior pick and roll and Jalen
Suggs throws the lob out of bounds, and so this
is the crazy thing. Like you, Franz is obviously methodical,
(31:43):
doesn't need as much support. It looks smooth when he's
out there right then you get these easier opportunities for Paolo.
He ends up having his best game of the season,
and it still feels like they didn't intentionally go.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
To it as much as they should.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Like when I was watching that game, it felt to
me like an action they should have run fifteen times.
It felt to me like something they should have worn
out because they weren't getting again out of those actions.
Only one time did they have to take a tough
isolation jump shot because they were getting wide open threes,
layups and easy close out attacks for short jump shots
(32:21):
that were like wide open or short floaters that were
wide open that were great looks. Again, it's about making
life easier for Paolo, offering him tactical support. That's the
wonderful thing about having Desmond Bane that you didn't have
in the past. A guy that has to be guarded
by a very different type of defender, but that can
consistently make teams pay when he gets left open.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
And so it just again, it was.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
A good step forward last night, but I still feel
like there's a lot of room for improvement there, and
I really really want to see them continue.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
To wear out that action.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Hugely encouraging that we see, you know, six of them
off the left wing, off the same spot with a
clear left corner, which is like a clear sign that
they're making some efforts to start running this action. I
just want to see it more. I want to see
it more. These inverted ball screens with the big ball
handlers are a big market inefficiency in the NBA right now.
(33:13):
I want to see more and more of that from
Pallo and Bain. All right, last note before we get
out of here for today. Jamal Murray drops forty three
points last night against an undermanned Minnesota Timberwolves team. I
said before the season, if you guys remember, I ended
up ranking Jamal Murray twenty fifth in my player rankings.
I had him ahead of guys like Karl Anthony Towns
and James Harden. I ended up catching a lot of
(33:34):
shit for that and I'm not here to take a
victory lap because it's only been three games. I'm not
you know, I'm not into like overreacting to early seasons
stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
But that said, I.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Do think Jamal looks great to start the year, and
I think that that's a strong indicator for the Nuggets
in their future. First of all, the reason why I
put him at twenty fifth is because I am projecting forward.
The entire purpose of our player rankings as I'm looking
for this October through this June, not as necessarily what
happens in the past. We're using that to inform, but
it's not necessarily the end all be all for the
(34:05):
way I'm looking forward. So like, for instance, with Luca,
I had Luke at number two because I'm like, yeah,
he looked bad and fat last year, but I just
expected him, after the most humiliating moment of his career,
to come back in great shape. And guess what, Luca
came back and he looks fucking incredible, right, So, like
I've you know, was projecting what I expected to see
from Luca, similar from Jamal. I want to say, what
(34:27):
I was talking about was Steph Curry earlier, Like I
like these APEX competitors when they sense a real opportunity
to get the trophy. Jamal has caught some shit over
the years for showing up to camp out of shape
and not being at his best when his team needs
him to be. I looked at this year as like,
this roster is the best version of the Nuggets roster
since Nicole Yogis joined the team. You have this obvious
(34:49):
opportunity in front of you. I expected Jamal Murray as
a competitor to show to camp in shape and be
ready to attack the season. And he looked amazing last night.
He was hitting flow against drop coverage to start the game,
really got his three point shot going. And again, like
I know it doesn't seem like this, it seems kind
of counterintuitive, but that's a strong indicator of your legs
and your base. Like that's a deep shot. You're playing
(35:11):
physical basketball games. If you're getting your legs up into
your shot, that's a strong indicator of where your body's at.
So the fact that he's shooting the three ball so well,
I think is a really strong indicator. And then in
crunch time he started hitting like tough mid range shots,
like step backs, going to his right and turn around
right shoulder fades when he'd get a small Minnesota guard
on a switch like really impressive shot making. Is Denver
(35:32):
spammed the two man game down the stretch and Jamal
just looks amazing. He's averaging thirty points, five rebounds, and
six assists to start the season on sixty three percent
for shooting and lots of strong individual indicators. So, for instance,
he's shooting fifty two percent on off the dribble jump
shots to start the year, seven for fourteen on pull
up twos, and nine for seventeen on pull up threes,
(35:54):
and again, those are great signs of where his body's
at because he's got to hit a move to get separation.
He's hitting a dribble combination and covering ground and planting
his feet and then getting lift over a great defender
to knock a shotdown, especially on like those tough mid
range fadeaways and some of the longer jump shots further
away from basket. I think that's a great sign of
where his body's at. And then he's fifty eight percent
(36:16):
at the rim, which is really solid for a guard
his size who isn't an elite athlete. The floaters deadly
to start theory, he's killing it with that last night.
He's been one of the best pick and role players
in the entire league to start the year. This year,
he's run sixty three pick and rolls that have led
to eighty three points. Eleven NBA players to this point
in the season have run at least fifty pick and rolls.
(36:38):
Only Luka Doncic has has been more efficient including passes
than Jamal Murray has been to start the season. Obviously,
Nikola Jokic is a factor. There don'tant to like completely
gloss over that. But the point is Jamal looks great,
and I would argue of all the swing factors, and
there's a lot of swing factors, Like everyone's got to
stay healthy. Is Aaron Gordon gonna stay healthy? Different bench
(36:58):
guys got a pop. Camjjohnson hasn't been super involved in
the offense to start the season. Like they're gonna need
to get more out of Cam Johnson to get where
they want to go. Different bench groups and lineups have
to succeed a certain way. Different young players have to pop.
But I'd argue Jamal Murray being that legit number two
All Star type of option is the biggest and most
(37:22):
important swing factor for this team. I mean, when this
team won the title in twenty twenty three, this guy
averaged twenty six points per game on fifty nine percent
true shooting. He had eight thirty point games in that
playoff run for Denver. So again, like that, to me,
is gonna be the key indicator for them getting to
where they want to go. And like, he's still hit
(37:43):
shots in the playoffs, He's at clutch shots. He's had
big games. He had a monster game against Oklahoma City
last year. He had the game winners against the Lakers
two years ago. But there's been like an inconsistency, largely
fueled by the fact that his body hasn't been where
he's needed it to be. He come into camp out
of shape. Then as he's playing his way into shape,
he inevitably gets banged up because his body's not prepared
(38:05):
for NBA action. Then he's in and out of the
lineup throughout the year, and by the time he gets
to the postseason, he's not like really put together physically
the way that he needs to be. This season, he
looks like he's ready for the grind. He looks like
his body is ready which should make him more able
to avoid the like nitpicky injuries, the nagging injuries that
can happen over the course of the season. The team
(38:27):
is deeper, so they should be able to lighten his workload.
This is setting up. Like again, it's early, but these
are good check marks. These are good checkpoints for the
Nuggets in their championship pursuit that Jamal looks the way
that he looks here in the early part of the season.
All right, guys, that's all I have for today is
always to sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and
supporting the show. We would be back tomorrow morning with
(38:48):
another reaction to the Tuesday night slate.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
I'll see you guys then
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
All right, well, good hoopson, I here at the volume.
Happy Tuesday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having
a great early part of your week. Out A Jampack
show for you guys. Today, we're going to be reacting
to Memphis versus Golden State from last night. Got some
thoughts on both teams, my first impressions on the Memphis
Grizzlies this year. After that, these Sixers end up beating
the Magic to continue their undefeated start to the season.
(00:37):
I want to talk about Philly's number one offense in
the NBA as well as what is going on with
the Orlando Magic. I know they're one in three, twenty
fifth in offense to start the season, but I actually
came away from that game a little bit more bullish
about them in the big picture than I had been
in the early part of the season. So we'll talk
a little bit about their offense, and then at the
(00:58):
tail end of the show, I just had some brief
thoughts on Jamal Murray, who had a forty three point
outburst last night against the shorthanded Minnesota Timberwolves, and talk
about some of the strong indicators we're seeing from him
to start the season and what it means for this
Denver Nuggets team. You guys owe the joke before we
get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so
you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
on Twitter at underscore JSNLT so you guys don't miss
(01:20):
show announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you
get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful
if you leave a rating and 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
content throughout the season. And then, last but not least,
if you want to get questions into our mail bags.
We're going to have mail bags on most Fridays throughout
the rest of the season. Make sure you drop them
(01:41):
in the YouTube comments with mailbag with a call in,
write your question and we'll get to them on Fridays
throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk
some basketball. So a fantastic game for the Warriors role
players sixty eight combined points from Jonathan Kaminga, Brandon Pajemski,
Moses Moody. This allowed Steph Curry to play more of
(02:02):
a passive role throughout the game as a scorer. Still
hunted his opportunities when he can hit a couple of
nasty shots, you know, trying to shed off Cedric Coward
for a little step back jumper on the left wing.
He's gonna mix that sort of thing in, but didn't
need to over exert himself. The Warriors controlled the game
without him needing to really hit the gas as a scorer,
(02:24):
and that sort of thing is super valuable over the
course of an eighty two game regular season. I talked
a lot about before the season, if you guys remember,
I talked about how I expected Steph to come out
guns blazing this year, and in large part because I
was pretty pessimistic about the Warriors' overall offensive talent, and
so I thought Steph was gonna need to score a ton.
(02:45):
And I just am a huge believer in these APEX
competitors when they sense a real opportunity to win the trophy.
So I was expecting really good things out of Stephan.
And by the way, I think Steph's looked fantastic to
start the year. But the more ights like this where
Steph doesn't need to go drop thirty thirty five points.
That is actually better for the Warriors in the big
(03:08):
picture because it makes it more likely that Steph and
Draymond and Al and Jimmy will actually make it through
the season intact. So nights like last night where you
get sixty eight points from your three best young players
are really important for the big picture goals that the
Warriors have this season in surviving the regular season. So
(03:29):
let's actually start with Brandon Pajemski here. He started the
game with John Murran guarding him, and he burned him
a bunch of times by hitting threes. He actually ran
an action for him to start the game with him
coming off of a little flare screen from Steph Curry.
John Moran ran into the pick wide open look for
Moses Moody. He or excuse me for Brandon Pajemski. He
knocked it down, beat him in help a few times
when Joe was just not paying attention roaming around. But
(03:52):
in the second half, Brandon really started to get going
as a score in action. He hit some floaters coming
off of screens, hit a super tough floater at the
end of the third quarter, there's a big shot that
helps stiff arm Memphis as they were trying to advance,
you know, out of a classic back and forth. Golden
Say goes up twenty Memphis starts to work it down.
There's some big shots late in that quarter, including a
tough deep floater from Brandon Pajemski, and then he started
(04:15):
hitting iso threes. He's been getting that little bit of
like jab step space where he just kind of stands
on the perimeter, just throws a jab. Guy gives him
some space he can rise up and knock down the
jump shot. And it was actually fascinating because he was
scoring so effectively that he generated one of those patented
Golden State Warriors blitz sequences. Runs a ball screen about
(04:37):
thirty feet off the left wing, draws a second defender,
hits Trey Jackson Davis on the short roll. Trace makes
a quick little drop off pass to Gary Payton Junior.
Gary Payton the second excuse me, he gets a layup
like that's the kind of sequence that you typically only
see from Steph Curry, but that was the kind of
sequence Brandon was drawing. Because he had twenty three points
on fourteen shots, six assists with no turnovers, four rebounds,
(05:02):
just a really nice game from Brandon Pajemski against Memphis
last night. And then we had the Moses Moody show
in that second half, and like he was an absolute
wrecking ball in that third quarter. Really was the guy
in my opinion, that sparked a run that blew the
game open. And it wasn't anything overly complicated. He was
hitting his catch and shoot threes over and over again,
(05:23):
even drawing a three shot foul on Jaron Jackson off
the right wing when Jaren started reacting to how well
he was shooting the ball. And then on the other
end of the floor, he just on defense annihilated Santi
al Dama, just blocked him on a quick post up,
stripped him when he wasn't protecting the basketball, spooked Santy
so bad that Santy had a third ISO attempt against
(05:46):
Moses where he just settled for some garbage little right
shoulder fade away from like twenty feet away from the
rim that had no chance of going in. Like just
a classic three and D sequence, knocking down shots, playing
defense and guarding one of the more important offensive players
on the other team, and it helped blow the game
open and then for Jonathan Kaminga, he just kind of
continued that trend of having somewhat uneven first halves but
(06:10):
then being excellent in the second half. Like he scored
really well in the first half. He boldied his way
to the rim a bunch of times for buckets and fouls,
but he missed some jumpers and took a couple questionable
jumpers and had a few off ball defensive mistakes. I
thought he got lucky in the late first half because
he left Contavious Cabo Pope and Santi Aldama for two
wide open looks on a couple of transition plays where
(06:30):
he just kind of fell asleep. Fortunately both shots were misses.
But then Kaminga came out in the second half and
immediately made a bunch of plays in a row that
blew the game open. He started to have Steph gets
beat off the dribble I think by Jalen Wells off
the right wing, Jalen drives, Jonathan Kminga comes flying over
and blocks the shot with two hands, a really nice
help a help sequence at the basket to help Steph out,
(06:52):
and then he did a ton of damage as a
cutter in the second half. He ended up getting this
like super fascinating lob that Steph threw that was like
off target off the glass, but instead of like going
to try to get it off the glass, Kaminga stayed
back and like redd it right and caught it bouncing
off the glass and like immediately put it back up
in the basket. He had a really nice sequence with
Jimmy Butler where Jimmy drove off the left wing and
(07:15):
Jimmy gets down to like the block kind of a
slashing towards almost the baseline, and Jonathan just kind of
relocated up right in front of the rim and basketball
they call this teeing up. So like, essentially, when you're
a cutter, there's two different reads that you're trying to make.
You're always off the ball in the dunker spot when
you're a cutter, right, so like wherever the ball is,
you want to be opposite of where the ball is, right.
(07:37):
But again, if a guy is driving towards the baseline,
it's a different read than if he's driving towards the middle.
So like if Jimmy slashes across the middle from the
left wing, then Jonathan's job would be to cut along
the baseline to the opposite dunker spot to make himself available, right.
But if Jimmy drives more towards the left side of
the basket, then instead of kaminga standing there and a
(07:59):
dunk Chris spot, he's going to want to tee up,
meaning he's going to want to locate right in front
of the rim, because essentially, you want to stay in motion, right.
You never want to be standing still. That's what makes
you easy to guard. Your help defender is watching man
and ball. If he's looking back and forth and then
all of a sudden he gets keyed in on the driver.
He's counting on you being in one place, but if
(08:20):
you move, you can make yourself available. Get a really
nice tee up cut off of Jimmy Butler another easy
bucket right there in front of the rim. Finished with
twenty five points in this one. Got to the foul
line eight times with this physicality attacking the basket. Johnathan
Minga continues his really impressive start to the season. And again,
as I mentioned earlier in the show, the more of
(08:40):
these kinds of nights that the Warriors get from their
young guys, the better off they're going to be in
the long run with their health in this eighty two
game regular season. Now on the Grizzlies front, this was
my first time checking out the Grizzlies this year, and
I was incredibly underwhelmed. Their spacing is really poor. Like
Jaws a gifted passer, and he did a great job
beating the Warriors back line help whenever they would like
(09:02):
load up and get two keyed in on him and
guys would kind of slip along the baseline, similar concept
to what we were just talking about with relocating it
from dunker spot to dunker spot, and he kept hitting
guys down there for easy layups. And Jos still an
insanely good short range finisher. He hit a bunch of
floaters last night. He's now ten for fourteen on the
season on floaters, which is just outrageous. Strong indicator of
(09:25):
the stuff that's always had me so excited with joh
like downhill force, quality playmaking, and the ability to stop
and pop from like five to eight feet from the
basket for these little short floaters that he hits. The
problem is is the spacing is super poor, like this
Memphis team to start the season is bottom five and
catch and shoot efficiency, and what it's causing is a
(09:46):
problem where John Moran is dealing with a lot of
defenders in front of him and he's got no choice
but to settle for jump shots, and that just highlights
Jaw's biggest weaknesses. Of his biggest weakness, which is that
he can't shoot the basketball. Was five for fourteen on
jump shots against Golden State. Fourteen attempts is a good
example of what I'm talking about with the spacing and
(10:07):
him kind of having no choice but to settle for
really tough shots just because of the dynamic he's dealing
with in front of him. And John right now is
nine for thirty eight on jump shots to start the season.
That's just zero point five to three points per attempt,
two for twenty on threes, and so like all of
his years in the NBA, he's just never improved on that.
(10:29):
He's never become a better jump shooter. In fact, he's
become worse as the years have gone by. And the
problem is is that the roster is built in a
way that kind of depends on his ability to shoot
because of the way that they can't space the floor
for him. And it's just going to be a problem
as long as one of those two things doesn't change.
If they can't figure out a way to space the
(10:49):
floor for him, or if he can't figure out a
way to become a better jump shooter, it's just going
to continue to be a problem. Jaren Jackson was bizarrely
uninvolved in the offense. They didn't really try to start
feeding him until the third quarter, and he finished with
just nine shot attempts in the game. Missed a handful
of little easy kind of like hooks and floaters that
he's gotten good at over the course of his career.
(11:09):
It wasn't all bad like jack Landiald did some damage
on the offensive glass.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
I thought Cedric.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Coward looked good, a big athlete with a high motor,
spent some time guarding staff, he shot the ball well.
Then I just found them to be really underwhelming and
a lot like last year. Right Like, they're two and
two with two wins versus severely limited teams, and then
they've been outclassed in the games they've played against good teams,
which was literally the story of last season for the
(11:34):
Memphis Grizzlies. Today's show is brought to you by our
new presenting sponsor, hard Rock Bet. The NBA season is
heating up and every night is a shot to score
a major bucket on hard Rock Bet, your home for
hoops action all season long.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Needle'll help with your first bet. Check out the.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Streaks heating up inside the hard Rock Bet stats hub.
You can find live odds to bet on all of
the streaks right in the hard Rock Bet at If
you haven't tried your first bet on hard Bet, there's
still time for you to get one hundred and fifty
dollars in bonus bets if you win. Just place a
five dollars bet and if it hits, you not only
get your winnings, but one hundred and fifty dollars in
(12:10):
extra bonus bets plus. All week on hard Rock Bet,
you can get an NBA parlay boost for the games.
There's new promos every day. Boost your same game parlay
or SGP max so your bet pays extra winnings. Download
a hard Rock Bet app today and make your first deposit.
Payble and bonus bets not a cash offer offered by
(12:30):
the Seminal Tribe of Florida in Florida, offered by Seminal
hard Rock Digital LLC. In other states. Must be twenty
one plus and physically president in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana,
New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, or Virginia to play. Terms and
conditions apply. Concerned about gambling in Florida, call one eight
three to three play wise. In Indiana. If you or
(12:53):
someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help,
call one eight hundred and nine with it gambling problem
called one hundred gambler in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee,
or Virginia. All right, Orlando Philly. Yesterday I mentioned how
the Sixers have become one of my favorite teams to
(13:14):
watch here in the early part of the NBA season,
but that was actually not why I chose to watch
them yesterday. I was keyed in on the Orlando Magic.
We're off to a one in three start. I really
want to talk about some of their struggles. I have
some thoughts about that here in a minute. Obviously, we're
gonna start with Philly because they won this game. But
the Magic ran much better offense last night. They actually
logged to one twenty seven offensive rating, and so I
(13:34):
have some stuff that I want to get into there,
because there were some interesting details in the way that
they kind of got their offense going last night, but
as a result of me keying in on that game,
got to watch Philly again. As I mentioned, Philly's been
one of my favorite teams to watch early. Philly wins
this one one thirty six to one twenty four, and
like big kind of physical dynamic that stands out when
(13:55):
you're watching as like as big and as athletic as
Orlando is. Philly looked like the much faster team in
this game, and they cut the magic to pieces twenty
seven transition points, had a one to fifty nine offensive rating,
and transition super efficient there. And there's just this consistent
dynamic with their perimeter players, with Maxi and edgecomb and
(14:17):
even Kelly Oubray just cutting through Orlando's perimeter defense and
either scoring in the lane or kicking out the shooters.
Philly scored twenty five points on isolation possessions in this game,
including passes and converted spot ups as a team at
one point four to four points per possession, which is
outrageously good. And there's just a lot of variety, Like
(14:41):
Tyrese Maxie's frying everybody in the entire league, like he's
looking like some sort of freaky, lightning fast version of
Steph Curry. To start the year, he's averaging thirty seven
points per game on sixty two percent through shooting. He's
shooting forty six percent off the catch. He's shooting forty
six percent off the dribble, so there's no drop off.
Mem that was a kind of a connection that he
(15:01):
struggled with in the pass, where he'd be really good
off the catch, but he'd struggle off the dribble. He's
got that off the dribble efficiency up to where he's
off the catch efficiency is he's shooting sixty percent on floaters,
which is making him so difficult to guard because he
comes cruising downhill off of any drive or like off
ball screen or on ball screen right, and then he
just comes screaming down the lane, and if you bump
(15:22):
him at all, because he's so good at shooting that
little floater, he'll just draw a shooting val and he's
knocking down that floater again. At sixty percent, he's getting
to the foul line ten times a game because of
that speed that he's attacking with downhill, and guys are
just out of position and they're bumping him. He's got
the step back three and the pullback three completely dialed in.
(15:42):
He's shooting well on the move. He's just looked like
an all NBA player here in the early going of
the season. He's just on an absolute heater and then
with VJ edgecomb, I'm finding it really hard to not
get overly excited here. It's becoming undeniable, like he's scoring
in the flow but also.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Scoring on an island.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
He once again last night hit a couple of really
tough buckets against great defense when things broke down, and
feels like he gets good separation even on the ones
he misses. He's hitting his catch and shoot jumpers at
thirty nine percent. He's seventy two percent at the rim,
which is insane for a guard that's like Yanni's type
of prime Yannis type of numbers there. He's driving closeouts
(16:23):
and finishing at the rim. He's finishing in transition off
of different pieces of footwork and traffic. He's forty four
percent on floaters, and this is a big part of
how he can score in action. When he comes curling
off the screens, he runs into that rim protection. You
could just stop and pop off the ground and hit
that little floater, and then again he's hitting thirty nine
percent of his off the dribble jump shots, just like
(16:43):
he's hitting thirty nine percent of his catch and shoot
jump shots.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
So like that's given.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Him the ability to, you know, he's doing the basic
stuff in the flow right, scoring in transition, scoring off
the catch, scoring driving closeouts, but then he's also able
to come off of action and hit little floaters. And
then every once in a while and the things break
down and they need him to go get a bucket.
He's getting to his spots, hitting a decent percentage of them,
but like also feels like there's this otherworldly potential in
(17:11):
the future if he can add a little bit more
proficiency in his shot making. He had like a play
against Palette on Caro today or last night, excuse me,
where he like got him on a switch late in
the clock off the right wing was in the first half,
and he just like went downhill with this crazy dribble
combination into his step back and Pallow just buckled backwards
and VJ got tons of separation and rose up and
(17:33):
knocked down at three. He just looks like an awesome player.
He's averaging twenty five points per game to start the
season on fifty percent from the field and forty percent
from three in his first three games, and he made
some big plays on defense. In the second half of
this game, he had two help side defense plays where
he blew up possessions. He's averaging two point five stocks
per game here in the early going, and then one
(17:55):
of the revelations of Sixers basketball here in the early
going has been Kelly Oubre In addition to shooting forty
percent from three, which obviously is super helpful, he's doing
some really impressive work on his drives. He got a
lot of like one on one buckets against Orlando. He's
putting his head down and then getting into that short
to mid range where he's able to hit these little
short jumpers and floaters, and he's getting a lot of
(18:15):
self created buckets. He's four for five on off the
dribble jump shots to start the year. He's yet to
miss a mid range or he's pouring in the mid
range against Orlando. He's run eleven pick and rolls, ISOs
and post ups as the handler, including passes, and has
generated seventeen points up over one and a half points
per possessions. So some really impressive shot creation, albeit in
(18:38):
smaller volume for Kelly u Brady to start the season,
and then Quinn Grimes. What he brings that's super dynamic
to this team is aggressive catch and shoot shooting like
he doesn't need a ton of space. He's good at
just elevating over the top, and so he's manufacturing a
lot of points and fouls by just being aggressive off
the catch when he catches on the three point line.
Philly has the best offense in the NBA here in
(18:59):
the early going. They have a one twenty five offensive rating,
and it's just because they're so damn dynamic on the perimeter.
They have a guard in Tyrese Maxie who's playing as
well as anyone else in the NBA right now, and
three freaky athletes that are consistently attacking in space off
of him. They're pushing the ball up the floor. Lots
of contributions down the bench again, like Adam Bona came
(19:20):
in and blocked three shots in the opening minutes and
ended up I think with four in the game. Just
every you could just hear in the broadcast every time,
just give me that shit every single time he gets
a block, just bringing kind of like energy and rim protection.
Justin Edwards hit a couple of huge shots in the
second half of you had a three and they had
a driving, tough bucket, a little like left shoulder, right
shoulder hook with his left hand over the top of
(19:41):
Desmond Bane and crunch time.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
That was a big shot.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
We got a first Eric Gordon appearance and came in
and hit a couple of threes, a deep one, had
a driving layup as well, where he looked strong and athletic.
Three and zero start for the Philadelphia seventy six ers.
I've just been super impressed by them. And again they're
playing a super fun brand of basketball. Like if you're
basketball fan, you haven't had a chance to watch the
Sixers yet, I highly recommend you get yourself to a
(20:04):
television at some point on league pass and check them
out here in the next couple of weeks. On the
Orlando front, it looks bad. They're one and three. They're
twenty fifth in offense. The defense has been mediocre. They've
really struggled to guard speed and movement. That's one of
the things that stood out to me. And again, there's
(20:24):
some tough matchups in there, like Philly puts you in
a really tough spot with guarding their guards because your
bigs have to be up and they have to guard speed,
and that's just a really difficult matchup for most of
the bigs in the league. But I thought their bigs
did a really poor job of showing up to the
perimeter against Philly's off screen players in last night's game,
(20:45):
and in general, I thought they struggled defending in space.
But I want to focus on offense because I'm not
worried about Orlando's defense. Orlando is one of the very
best defenses in the league over the last couple of years.
I expect Orlando to be good on defense. The problem
is they're twenty fifth in offense. That's been a big
part of why they've struggled, And I did think last
night was a significant step forward for the Magic on
(21:07):
the offensive end of the floor. Like in large part
part of what they've struggled with here in the early
going is Palo hasn't been good, and they finally got
Paalo going last night. He had his best offensive game
of the season in my opinion. But a big part
of that is I thought they were running some really
rudimentary offense and making life harder for Paalo. So the
easiest way I can describe this is like when I
(21:28):
watch Fronz and Pallo and their dynamic, Like, Franz is
a much more deliberate offensive player, and what I mean
by that is he's like really picky and choosy about
how he attacks, so like he's going to try to
get into his ball screens where he can make his
reads right like you ran a lot of stack last night.
He's going to get into sequences where he can get
(21:49):
the defender trapped on his backside, get downhill into the lane,
and either get to his float or have the passing
reads that are available to him. He's kind of like
your traditional methodical pick and role player, and he like
even with his post up type of stuff, like he'll
be picky about getting a guard on a switch before
clearing aside and like getting to the left block so
he can kind of work with his right hand towards
(22:12):
the middle and once again get to his left shoulder
hook or be able to spray out to the passing
reads that become available in those situations. Like Fronds, to me,
is a guy that doesn't need as much like tactical
support offensively he's not as naturally gifted as Polo for
obvious reasons. Paulo is a bigger, better athlete, but like
(22:32):
with Franz, he's just a a He's a more methodical
offensive player and things come a little easier for him there.
Paalo can be his own worst enemies sometimes, like he'll
just attack one on one without much intentionality, without much
thought as to who he's attacking. And it's made harder
by the fact that because he's so damn big, a
lot of teams are happy to switch big, big actions
(22:55):
with him.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
And then back in the past.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
When they would screen for him with guard, it would
just be okay with those guys shooting out of hedges
because they weren't great shooters and so there wasn't much
consequence there, and it was just difficult for Palo right
And despite that, because of how freaky talented he is,
he obviously still had a lot of moments over the years.
But I was particularly hoping that Desmond Bain could help
with that issue by allowing Palo to play with an
(23:20):
advantage more, allowing him to get more easy opportunities to
bolster what he does with his tougher shot making.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Because of his supreme gifts right.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
So one of the actions that I've been talking a
lot about over the course of the summer ever since
Desmond Bank got traded to Orlando is the idea of
using Desmond Bain as a screener for Palo. The reason
why I've been keyed in on this is I've just
seen so many examples of it elsewhere in the league
that have worked extremely well. We see when you have
a real shooter, like when you have a real shooter
screening for a bigger athlete, you can have a lot
(23:51):
of success over the years. In Golden State before the
Andrew Wiggins trade, it was one of their pet actions
they have Andrew Wiggins dribble with Steph screening for him,
and then Wiggins would be able to get downhill. Yiannis
a ton of this kind of thing. Yiannis with like
AJ Green or Gary Trent Junior screening for him, he
has the ability to get downhill. Lebron in Los Angeles
has run a ton of inverted ball screens with Austin Reeves.
(24:14):
What ends up happening with these types of situations when
you have a really good offensive player that like a
really good skill guard, a guard that has like a
lot of gravity, so to speak, because he's a great shooter.
It puts the defense in a really difficult position when
they're guarding that action.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
You have a big bodied.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Athlete guarding your ball handler, your Paolo, You're Yannis, your
Andrew Wiggins, your Lebron for the four examples that I
gave right, and then you've got a smaller, quicker guard
guarding the guard. Right and in these sequences, they don't
want to switch because then all of a sudden, you've
got a little guy that is guarding your big forward
who can immediately take him down to the block. Or
(24:57):
you have a bigger, slower player that's got a guard,
your freaky skilled guard in this type of action, right,
And so often what will end up happening is they
won't switch, in which case the bit your bigger ball
handler can just cruise downhill. Giannis will get all sorts
of dunks and easy opportunities out of at the rim,
out of this kind of stuff. Wiggins would get all
(25:18):
sorts of layups and shit coming off of those inverted
screens with Steph or they hedge, and if they hedge,
then all of a sudden you've got Steph Curry wide open.
You've got Austin Reeves wide open. You've got you know,
a really good offensive player slipping out of the action
into space where he's gonna hit shots. AJ Green was
gonna hit shots if you hedged on Giannis, and then
(25:38):
if you switch, you generate these quality advantages on both
sides of the action. It's just a very difficult action
to guard relative to traditional pick and roll where your
center is involved, where they can run no roller behind coverage,
simply because the big man is not as dynamic offensively
as the screeners that you're using in these inverted actions.
And so I really really wanted to see a lot
(26:00):
of Polo dribbling on the perimeter with a band coming
up to screen for him and then him slipping out
of the action so that Powlow could attack or have
an easy read that becomes available to him based on
how they're guarding it. And early in the season they
just weren't running it that much. It was driving me
crazy to watch them because they they would just kind
of play your turn, my turn basketball.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Well.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
I charted every single possession that they ran it against Philly.
They ran it seven times in this game. Most of
the time off of the left wing, although they ran
it in the middle of the floor once, but out
of the seven times they ran it, they got a
great shot every single time, and they scored on six
of them. And what's especially frustrating about this is like
(26:44):
that was a huge step forward, and I still felt
like they left a ton of meat on the bone
because they don't spam it the way that they should.
They go away from it. They'll run it a couple
times and then they'll do something else. So like they
run it twice in the middle of the first quarter
in that action, so they don't run it to start
the game. But then in the middle of the fourth
quarter first quarter, they run it two times in a
row off the left wing. The first time they hedge,
(27:07):
so when Bain slips out of it, Paalo throws an
easy behind the back pass. Bain is wide open, the
guy closes out on his right shoulder, he rips the
close out gets all the way the basket for an
easy layup. Then they run it again. On the very
next possession, they switch it. Pallo posts up. When he
posts up on Bain's defender, because he's a small he
(27:29):
immediately draws a double team, kicks out to Bain, they
close out, he drives that close out. Both defenders go
with Bain. Polllow gets a wide open three off of
the left wing and he knocks it down. So they
run it two times in a row, get a layup
in a wide open three, make them both and then
they went away from it. They didn't run it the
next few minutes while they were on the floor together.
(27:50):
They come back to it eight minutes and forty seconds
left in the second quarter, they get a switch. They
don't double this time. Palllo gets an easy little short
jumper over at Quinton Grimes and he knocks it down. Now,
remember with Paalo, it's getting inside of seventeen feet. When
he gets inside of seventeen feet, he's a very efficient score.
When he's outside of seventeen feet off the dribble, when
(28:10):
he's taken like eighteen nineteen foot off the dribble jump shots,
he's short almost all the time, and he becomes very
inefficient on that shot. And so getting the switch for
a favorable matchup with better spacing, because Bain just burned
them on a hedge and they burned him on a
double team by getting a wide open shot for Polo.
So Polo gets a good one on one, gets to
(28:31):
his right shoulder, fade right at like fourteen to fifteen
feet and knocks it down. Didn't go back to it
until three minutes left in the second quarter. So again
they're three for three, three great shots, all of them
went in three minutes in the second quarter. Pallo rips spaceline,
gets the defense in rotation, Bain gets a wide open
catch on the perimeter, He drives the close out and
(28:53):
hits a floater. So now they've run it four times
and gotten four great shots and didn't we go back
to it the rest.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Of the half.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Like right after running that action and getting Bain an
easy close out for a floater, they just go to
Jalen Suggs for a few possessions in a row. Like
there's not they're still lacking some of the intentionality that
they can get to there. They ran it with five
minutes left in the third quarter. That was the next
time they ran it, so they didn't run it for
most of the first stretch of that Like the first
seven minutes of the third quarter, they don't run it.
(29:23):
They run it with five minutes left in the third quarter.
Bain gets Tyrese Maxi excuse me. Palo gets Tyrese Maxey
on a switch. They run the action, they switch it,
Pallo gets Tyrese Maxey draw double team. Bain ends up
catching wide open, drives the close out again, kicks back
to Pallo. He is butt naked on the right wing
for three airballs. It but a great look again, So
(29:46):
you've run it five times and you've gotten five great looks.
He finally misses one. Whatever. They go back to it
in the mid fourth quarter. Four minutes and forty five
seconds left in the fourth quarter, Kelly Ubre dumps way
on the high side, so like Quentin Grimes is guarding Baine,
Bain goes to set the screen. Quentin Grimes is hugged
up on Bain and Kelly Ubray jumps way on the
(30:09):
high side off of the left wing, and Palo just
rips through and gets like the easiest little short driving
floater that he's gotten all night, because Kelly gave him
a driving lane, because Quintin Grimes wouldn't leave his man,
and because Kelly Ubray was trying to get ready for
a screen from Desmond Baine. Like super easy offense. They've
run it now six times, they've gotten a great look
(30:32):
every single time, and they've made five of them. They
go back to it a minute later, about three and
a half minutes left in the fourth quarter, Paalo gets
the switch. Desmond Bain sets the screen, they switch VJ
Edgecomb is now on Palo. Pallo backs him down to
the elbow. They double team off of Bain and Baine
throws an easy little kick or Palo throws an easy
little kickout to Desmond Baine in the left corner. He's
(30:54):
wide open and he knocks down the three. So they
ran it seven times in the game, and then they
got six makes, and I thought all seven shots that
they got were great. The toughest shot that they got,
the only really tough shot in that seven possessions, was
a great matchup for Paalo one on one left elbow
against a small guard and he got to a short
(31:16):
jump shot over his right shoulder and he knocked it down.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Like they're they just.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Are there is an easier way to do things than
they've been doing it. Like what's crazy is they ran
that with three and a half minutes left for the
seventh time, got great stuff on it every single time.
Right then all of a sudden, there's like a random
Jalen Suggs Wendell Carter junior pick and roll and Jalen
Suggs throws the lob out of bounds, and so this
is the crazy thing. Like you, Franz is obviously methodical,
(31:43):
doesn't need as much support. It looks smooth when he's
out there right then you get these easier opportunities for Paolo.
He ends up having his best game of the season,
and it still feels like they didn't intentionally go.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
To it as much as they should.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Like when I was watching that game, it felt to
me like an action they should have run fifteen times.
It felt to me like something they should have worn
out because they weren't getting again out of those actions.
Only one time did they have to take a tough
isolation jump shot because they were getting wide open threes,
layups and easy close out attacks for short jump shots
(32:21):
that were like wide open or short floaters that were
wide open that were great looks. Again, it's about making
life easier for Paolo, offering him tactical support. That's the
wonderful thing about having Desmond Bane that you didn't have
in the past. A guy that has to be guarded
by a very different type of defender, but that can
consistently make teams pay when he gets left open.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
And so it just again, it was.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
A good step forward last night, but I still feel
like there's a lot of room for improvement there, and
I really really want to see them continue.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
To wear out that action.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Hugely encouraging that we see, you know, six of them
off the left wing, off the same spot with a
clear left corner, which is like a clear sign that
they're making some efforts to start running this action. I
just want to see it more. I want to see
it more. These inverted ball screens with the big ball
handlers are a big market inefficiency in the NBA right now.
(33:13):
I want to see more and more of that from
Pallo and Bain. All right, last note before we get
out of here for today. Jamal Murray drops forty three
points last night against an undermanned Minnesota Timberwolves team. I
said before the season, if you guys remember, I ended
up ranking Jamal Murray twenty fifth in my player rankings.
I had him ahead of guys like Karl Anthony Towns
and James Harden. I ended up catching a lot of
(33:34):
shit for that and I'm not here to take a
victory lap because it's only been three games. I'm not
you know, I'm not into like overreacting to early seasons
stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
But that said, I.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Do think Jamal looks great to start the year, and
I think that that's a strong indicator for the Nuggets
in their future. First of all, the reason why I
put him at twenty fifth is because I am projecting forward.
The entire purpose of our player rankings as I'm looking
for this October through this June, not as necessarily what
happens in the past. We're using that to inform, but
it's not necessarily the end all be all for the
(34:05):
way I'm looking forward. So like, for instance, with Luca,
I had Luke at number two because I'm like, yeah,
he looked bad and fat last year, but I just
expected him, after the most humiliating moment of his career,
to come back in great shape. And guess what, Luca
came back and he looks fucking incredible, right, So, like
I've you know, was projecting what I expected to see
from Luca, similar from Jamal. I want to say, what
(34:27):
I was talking about was Steph Curry earlier, Like I
like these APEX competitors when they sense a real opportunity
to get the trophy. Jamal has caught some shit over
the years for showing up to camp out of shape
and not being at his best when his team needs
him to be. I looked at this year as like,
this roster is the best version of the Nuggets roster
since Nicole Yogis joined the team. You have this obvious
(34:49):
opportunity in front of you. I expected Jamal Murray as
a competitor to show to camp in shape and be
ready to attack the season. And he looked amazing last night.
He was hitting flow against drop coverage to start the game,
really got his three point shot going. And again, like
I know it doesn't seem like this, it seems kind
of counterintuitive, but that's a strong indicator of your legs
and your base. Like that's a deep shot. You're playing
(35:11):
physical basketball games. If you're getting your legs up into
your shot, that's a strong indicator of where your body's at.
So the fact that he's shooting the three ball so well,
I think is a really strong indicator. And then in
crunch time he started hitting like tough mid range shots,
like step backs, going to his right and turn around
right shoulder fades when he'd get a small Minnesota guard
on a switch like really impressive shot making. Is Denver
(35:32):
spammed the two man game down the stretch and Jamal
just looks amazing. He's averaging thirty points, five rebounds, and
six assists to start the season on sixty three percent
for shooting and lots of strong individual indicators. So, for instance,
he's shooting fifty two percent on off the dribble jump
shots to start the year, seven for fourteen on pull
up twos, and nine for seventeen on pull up threes,
(35:54):
and again, those are great signs of where his body's
at because he's got to hit a move to get separation.
He's hitting a dribble combination and covering ground and planting
his feet and then getting lift over a great defender
to knock a shotdown, especially on like those tough mid
range fadeaways and some of the longer jump shots further
away from basket. I think that's a great sign of
where his body's at. And then he's fifty eight percent
(36:16):
at the rim, which is really solid for a guard
his size who isn't an elite athlete. The floaters deadly
to start theory, he's killing it with that last night.
He's been one of the best pick and role players
in the entire league to start the year. This year,
he's run sixty three pick and rolls that have led
to eighty three points. Eleven NBA players to this point
in the season have run at least fifty pick and rolls.
(36:38):
Only Luka Doncic has has been more efficient including passes
than Jamal Murray has been to start the season. Obviously,
Nikola Jokic is a factor. There don'tant to like completely
gloss over that. But the point is Jamal looks great,
and I would argue of all the swing factors, and
there's a lot of swing factors, Like everyone's got to
stay healthy. Is Aaron Gordon gonna stay healthy? Different bench
(36:58):
guys got a pop. Camjjohnson hasn't been super involved in
the offense to start the season. Like they're gonna need
to get more out of Cam Johnson to get where
they want to go. Different bench groups and lineups have
to succeed a certain way. Different young players have to pop.
But I'd argue Jamal Murray being that legit number two
All Star type of option is the biggest and most
(37:22):
important swing factor for this team. I mean, when this
team won the title in twenty twenty three, this guy
averaged twenty six points per game on fifty nine percent
true shooting. He had eight thirty point games in that
playoff run for Denver. So again, like that, to me,
is gonna be the key indicator for them getting to
where they want to go. And like, he's still hit
(37:43):
shots in the playoffs, He's at clutch shots. He's had
big games. He had a monster game against Oklahoma City
last year. He had the game winners against the Lakers
two years ago. But there's been like an inconsistency, largely
fueled by the fact that his body hasn't been where
he's needed it to be. He come into camp out
of shape. Then as he's playing his way into shape,
he inevitably gets banged up because his body's not prepared
(38:05):
for NBA action. Then he's in and out of the
lineup throughout the year, and by the time he gets
to the postseason, he's not like really put together physically
the way that he needs to be. This season, he
looks like he's ready for the grind. He looks like
his body is ready which should make him more able
to avoid the like nitpicky injuries, the nagging injuries that
can happen over the course of the season. The team
(38:27):
is deeper, so they should be able to lighten his workload.
This is setting up. Like again, it's early, but these
are good check marks. These are good checkpoints for the
Nuggets in their championship pursuit that Jamal looks the way
that he looks here in the early part of the season.
All right, guys, that's all I have for today is
always to sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and
supporting the show. We would be back tomorrow morning with
(38:48):
another reaction to the Tuesday night slate.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
I'll see you guys then
Host
Jason Timpf
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Ruthie's Table 4
For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers. Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/ Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/ Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/ For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.