November 1, 2025 • 42 mins
Jason reacts to the San Antonio Spurs getting a hard-fought win against the Miami Heat including a good game from Victor Wembanyama in a tough matchup against Bam Adebayo. He breaks down how the Spurs have exceeded expectations and how good they can be when they get fully healthy. Then he answers mailbag questions on a variety of topics including comparing Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic and Golden State Warriors guard Steph Curry, whether the Los Angeles Lakers should bring LeBron James off the bench, and more.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. All right, Well, good to Hoops Tonight.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
You're at the volume heavy Friday, everybody. Hope all you
guys are having a incredible end to your week. We
have a jam pack show for you guys today. We're
gonna lead with a little instant reaction of last night's
really fun to watch show down between bam Adebio Victor
Woman Yama and the Heat and the Spurs are gonna
be breaking that game down in detail. And then after that,
(00:37):
as we typically do on Fridays, we're gonna get into.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
A mail bag.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I've got about eight or nine questions from around the
league from you guys. You guys are the drip before
we get started. To subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube
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(01:02):
you guys follow us there. Throughout the year for additional content.
In the last but not least, if you want to
get questions into these mail bags, going to our full
episodes on YouTube in the comments right mail bag with
a colon and the right question. We'll get to them
on Fridays throughout the remainder of the season. All right,
let's talk some basketball. So both teams down some key
players in this Heat Spurs game. The Spurs were down
Luke Cornett, which led to these Bismack Biambo minutes that
(01:25):
were particularly rough, and there was even a stretch where
they went centerless to try to address that issue. And
then the Heat were down Norman Powell, which was obviously
a bummer for this matchup as a test for the Spurs,
but we still got a good look at the dynamic
because shout out to Simoni Fontekio. He came in and
played incredibly well and put on a Norman Powell impersonation,
(01:45):
just flying off of screens and hitting all of these
tough movement threes. That kind of brought that dynamic to
the offense. And honestly, I thought the Heat threw a
hell of a punch. Bam was very much not afraid
of Victor wimbn Yama and attacked him early and often.
He had a rip through kind of chicken wing for
a layup. He had another rip through on a close
out in the left corner with Wenby, where he went
(02:06):
and just threw down a vicious right hand dunk. He
was going right at him in the post for a
little baby hooks over his left shoulder.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
He hit a couple of.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Threes when Wemby was roaming off of him, he threw
a great punch. It was a nice challenge for Wemby
and the Spurs. Andrew Wiggins did a ton of damage
in this matchup as a score, driving one on ones,
hitting little pull ups, hitting threes. I every time I
watch Andrew just want him to be a Laker because
he's literally the one guy that I think would address
all of their problems. But that's just me channeling my
(02:37):
fanhood there. And then the Spurs ended up taking control
in the late third quarter. They went up by fifteen
to end the third quarter. In Eric Spolstra, as he's
known to do, broke out that famed Miami Heat two
three zone, actually for the first time this season, and
he had his two top guys in the zone, extending
out to pressure the ball. He had Bam kind of
(02:59):
extending out from the middle on Wemby's catches around the elbows,
and the other four guys when Wemby would have the
ball there did a great job of filling the gaps
around him and closing those passing lanes, and the Spurs
kind of decomposed a bit. They blew the fifteen point
lead like that, and all of a sudden, we had
a close game on our hands. So shout out to
the Miami Heat. They gave the Spurs a really good
test last night. It was a good opportunity for I
(03:19):
was looking forward to seeing the Spurs play against a
good team because they've had an incredibly light schedule to start,
and they rose to the occasion. I thought Julian Champagne
was one of the key figures in that fourth quarter
run when the Spurs finally pulled away. He had two
massive offensive rebounds out of the left corner that both
led to wide open threes for the Spurs, one where
he got his own rebound following along the baseline. That
(03:42):
one got kicked out and moved over to Devin Vessel
on the left wing. He had a three and then
another one where Wenby's posting up there on the right block,
he takes a little right shoulder fade you can see
Julian just come flying in out of the corner and
he rocks Simoni Fontechio with a box out right there
along the baseline, gets that inside position, taps the ball out,
(04:02):
then has the wherewithal to turn and set a pin
in flare on Simoni Fontechio to prevent him from closing
out to the corner where Harrison Barnes had relocated, and
he hits a wide open three that ended up putting
the Spurs up six. And then on the other end
of the floor, he had a really nice dry defensive
possession where he stonewall to Davion Mitchell drive and got
a steal, scrapped his way into a bunch of winning
(04:25):
impact down the stretch. Julian's been struggling to shoot the
ball a little bit at the start of the season,
but in general, he just adds another layer to the
overall scrappiness of this Spurs team, which is something that
I've been really keyed in on. Like Julian Champagnee is
averaging eight rebounds per thirty six minutes. He's super active
(04:47):
on the glass for a wing. This first team has
a unit has six rotation players that rebound at a
rate of at least six rebounds per thirty six minutes
or better. Both big Z obviously Luke Cornett super active
on the glass, victor when Minyama is super active on
the glass. We talked about Julian champagnee Keldon Johnson just
(05:08):
comes in every single game off the bench and is
just an athletic wrecking ball. He gets nine rebounds per
thirty six He's had several late third quarter stretches this
year where he's helped blow games open. He's also just
super physically aggressive around the rim. He had to play
in the late third quarter where he posted up kell
el Ware again over seven feet and just powered through
(05:28):
him as like a post up for a little scoop
shot and yelling and screaming while he's doing everything. He's
just an athletic wrecking ball. And then both of the
young guards, Steph Castle and Dylan Harper, they are both
great rebounders for the guard position, and this is a
big part of what makes the Spurs such a dominant
rebounding team. They are number one in rebound percentage in
(05:50):
the entire NBA on both ends of the glass too.
Their top five offensive rebounding team and their top five
defensive rebounding team. It is just a margin where they
are winning and they're just scrappy in general. Like it's
been fun to watch Steph Castle and Dylan Harper pressure
the ball and play passing lanes. They had the sequence
(06:10):
against Davion Mitchell where Deveon drove off of the right
wing and Steph Castle sliding with him, and he swipes
at the ball and kind of knocks it free, and
here comes Dylan Harper digging down from the wing.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
He takes it away. Now they're running the other way.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
It's just everybody's big and athletic and scrappy and rebounds well.
And it's a big thing that triggers their transition attack,
where they've been getting twenty eight transition points per game,
which ranks eighth in the entire NBA. That combination, big,
athletic and scrappy on the perimeter with Victor women Yama,
(06:46):
that is what causes them to have so much success
in these margins. They're number two in defensive rating, number
one in rebounding and number eight in transition points scored
per game percentergy, So, like that is a classic defense
rebound run, defense rebound run, and that is something that
is going to be there for them every single night
(07:08):
in the regular season. It's one of the big things
that I miscalculated about this team. I was so focused on,
like their refined offensive skill. How many like really good
refined offensive players do they have, And that's shown up,
Like that's part of why they struggled against the zone.
They've been a mediocre half court offense to start the year.
We'll talk about that in a minute. But what I
(07:28):
underestimated with this team here in the early going is
they're just really big and athletic off of Wemby, which
is going to give you just a really high floor
night tonight in the NBA regular season. I really liked
that game from Victor last night because it kind of
showcases versatility. Like he didn't have a good shooting night.
His three point shot was way off, he had some bricks.
He shout out the heat too. They had some great
(07:49):
contests on him and they had, you know, they were
physical and up underneath him in his post ups and
kind of stopped him from getting directly to the rim
on his ISOs. He was kind of missing his mid
range jump shot last night, so like what do you
do when that stuff's not going for you?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Right?
Speaker 2 (08:04):
But I thought he was his usual dominant self on defense. Obviously,
you know, Bam stretched him out a few times with
some threes and he got some one on one buckets
on him, But outside of that, I thought he generally
won the matchup. Like Bam tried so hard to space
Wenby out taking threes that he took thirteen of them
in the game and only made four. That's less than
(08:25):
a point per shot. Was especially cold down the stretch,
and that's a big part of what allowed Wenby to
roam and cause problems around the basket as a shot blocker.
And then Victor's defensive impact overall just continues to be
really difficult to quantify, Like he had five blocks last night,
but it's deeper than that, Like there are a lot
of possessions where guys are driving into the lane and
running into him and Victor's not getting a block or
(08:48):
even a deflection sometimes, but he's swarming and the dudes
just don't have the kickout angles and so then it'll
end up being a turnover because the guy throws a
bad kickout pass or a bad kickout pass that breaks
the rhythm of the possession and the advantage is gone
because it's off target. So the guy who has to
go get it has to like lunge out of position,
(09:09):
and by the time he gets it, the spurs can
rotate back out of it. He's just literally breaking offenses
with his length right around the basket. Now, again, it's
not all perfect with San Antonio. They struggled with Miami's
zone in the second half. They had just eight points
on sixteen possessions against that zone. Albeit they did get
some offensive rebounds. I think they had three in the
fourth quarter. And on this season so far, the zone
(09:31):
has been a little bit of an issue. They faced
thirty four possessions of zone and they've gotten just twenty
two points on that that's a sixty five offensive rating.
They're shooting just three for ten on threes against zone
so far to start this year. They're five for fifteen
on twos, and they've turned the ball over on twenty
one percent of their possessions against the zone. I think
(09:52):
there's a couple things they could do there, like, they're
using Wemby a lot in the middle, and they're not
getting easy like dunks. So I'm wondering if it makes
more sense to have Wemby almost as a baseline outlet
and try to get the ball to somebody else in
the middle of the floor, someone who's really comfortable passing there,
someone like Steph Castle. If Steph Castle catches in the
middle of the floor, he's a guy that can quick
turn and score, but he's also a guy who's got
(10:13):
really good lob chemistry with Wemby. And often, like when
Wemby was catching there again at the middle, when Bam
would step up, there's opportunities at the rim, but often
that's not a pass that is available to some of
the smaller athletes on the floor. Right, But if Victor
is underneath the basket, that's another vertical spacing window.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
For you to go at.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
And again, some of this is just that refined offensive
skill right. Collectively as a team, the Spurs are just
fourteenth and half court offensive rating to start the season,
and by the way, three of their five wins have
been against bottom five defenses in New Orleans, Toronto, and Brooklyn.
I think that's where you can see just a little
bit of that. These are young talented players that aren't
(10:55):
quite as refined yet as they will be in the
long run. It's been interesting because, like their catch and shoot,
shooting from the role players has actually been fine. That's
been kind of a pleasant surprise this year after a
lot of the talk around they're shooting over the summer,
but it's actually been more of the ability of the
defenses against their ball handlers to go underscreens to force
(11:15):
their guards to take pull ups which they're not making.
And then Wemby has been kind of off, especially in
his catch and shoots to start the year. But overall,
we knew the Spurs would have some issues with half
court offense. We knew the Spurs would have some issues
with refined offensive talent. I think the real story here
in the early part of the season is that the
Spurs are just way more physically imposing than we thought
(11:38):
they would be night to night in the regular season.
If they're going to be a top five defense and
a top five rebounding team with a top ten transition
attack all year, that's just a really strong foundation to
rack up regular season wins with or without a great offense,
and again, the story of their ceiling, what they actually
can achieve as a unit in the big picture will
(12:00):
be determined by whether or not they can kind of
polish up those things in the half court. On offense,
some brief thoughts on the heat before we move forward
to the mailbag. There's been a lot of hooplot about
the offense. We talked about this in our five most
Impressive Teams video on Monday, But there's this idea that
you're essentially just pushing the ball up quickly and hitting
(12:23):
gaps right. Whoever has the ball is empowered to just
attack their matchup one on one, and with the idea
that if the defense reacts, you can make these kickout
passes and go from there. It's a kind of a
simple concept because we talk about the idea of running action.
Why do you run action? Why do you run a
pick and roll? Why do you run Chicago? Why do
you run split cuts? Why do you run any of that?
(12:44):
You run that sort of thing to get a situation
where a guy is standing on the perimeter open with
a kickout pass and a defender running at him right.
You're running action to create an advantage. And so there's
this idea that the only way to create advance is
through running action, and that's not true at all. I
think the Indiana Pacers in particular, demonstrated for us last
(13:06):
year that you can generate a lot of advantage just
by pushing the ball up the floor and by attacking gaps.
And I said this in the most improved video. But
I'm not the least bit surprised that Miami has adopted,
as a very smart organization, has adopted something that we
saw work to resounding success last year in the postseason
with Indiana.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Push the damn ball up the floor.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Attack gaps, take the kickouts that are available, and play
driving kick basketball off of that. It's empowered guys like
Andrew Wiggins, who's looked great at times this year, Jaimehakez
who's having a excellent third campaign, Simoni Fontakio obviously attacking
and shooting coming off of off of movement and even
off of dribble handoffs and things like that off the ball. Like,
(13:47):
there's a lot of guys that are being empowered. The
downside is, though, it can also empower players to take
bad shots sometimes, so like if you give a guy
the freedom to on an early possession sequence, attack is
man one on one. There's a lot of those that
are ending in some questionable shots. Like they took eleven
mid range jump shots in that game last night against
the Spurs and made just.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Four of them.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
A lot of like driving into Wemby and then turning
it over or getting blocked, and so some of that
I think is the growing pains of trying a new offense.
Like it's just very important that at the expense of pace,
you don't go and take bad shots early in the
clock either, like you want to get the ball up
the four quickly. You want to attack, attack, attack, but
(14:30):
the purpose is to get layups and threes. Layups and threes.
You want to get the defense to react to you
so that you have those kickout opportunities available. And I
mean one last thing on the heat. They're kind of
investing in this big man shooting threes kind of idea,
and Bam shot him well to start the year. But
last night Bam and Kelll combined four for seventeen from three,
(14:53):
and I do wonder if there's a little bit of
an over indexing on that side of things towards the
three point shot. But the heat of I had a
fun team to watch here in the early part of
the year. Obviously, they didn't even have Norman Powell last night.
Tyler Harrow is gonna fit into this somehow. I wonder
if he'll bring more of a ball screen element. I
don't think Tyler Harrow is really much of a one
on one player. But this is an interesting new system.
(15:15):
It's a it's a new idea that's kind of taking
hold in the NBA, the idea that, like, we can
generate advantage just by pushing with pace and by attacking
gaps rather than having to run action. All right, let
us get into our mail bag. We've got about eight
or nine questions here from around the league that we'll
be getting into. Today's show is brought to you by
(15:37):
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called one eight hundred Gambler in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee,
and Virginia. First question Hey Jason, thank you for your
work From Sydney, Australia. Going into the next era, I
(17:06):
feel like things are taking shape in regards to the
power hierarchy.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
In the league.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yo Kitchen Wenby feels like it could be the new
Lebron Kobe Shay and the Thunder feel like the old
Tim Duncan and the Spurs. So my question is, if
you had to pick, which players of this or the
next generation are have a chance to go ringless, let's say,
from the twenty eighteen draft on and Luca, Trey Zion
or jaw. This is a really interesting question and it's
(17:32):
complicated because I don't think it necessarily has to do
with the player. Like, it's just really difficult to win
a championship. I mean we've seen, especially since Katie left
the Warriors, like it's teams that are winning, not stars.
It's like a different star every single year. I think
Jokich has been the best player in the world now
for three four years and he's only got one of them, right, Like,
it's very much a team construct that's winning the title.
(17:56):
And so as we kind of go through these players,
it has less to do with who they are as
a player. And more to do with what they're surrounding
circumstances are. So let's start with the I kind of
put them into like three groups here. So the first
group is Zion and Ja, and this is where it
gets more related to the player, because I would be
shocked if either Zion or Ja won a championship. The
(18:18):
reason why is like Zion is not close to as
good as the top guys, and he hasn't taken great
care of his body, so I feel like his window
is relatively short compared to some of these teams, some
of these stars, and the Pelicans are far far far
away from accomplishing anything. They've been one of the worst
teams in the league to start the season. Same with Jaw,
like he's trending in the wrong direction with his player development.
(18:41):
He's this small guard that falls down and gets hurt
a lot. So it feels like his window is relatively short.
And Memphis is worse than they were a couple of
years ago, and they don't have like some direct pathway
to contention that lies right in front of them. So
with that group, I think it's it seems pretty sick.
It seems like a long shot to me. I should
say for either of those two to win a championship.
(19:03):
The kind of middle tier here is Trey young, you know,
kind of older, a guy that could end up on
a bunch of different teams at any point in the future.
And what I thought about with Trey is if there's
somehow a shot that he gets paired with Yiannis, then yeah,
I feel like Trey and Yannis could win a title,
But that feels like a long shot to me. So really,
(19:24):
for Trey, it's so much comes down to which team
he ends up with in the long run. And Luca
is the really interesting group out of the names that
you mentioned. Both guys are young, Both guys should theoretically
have long championship windows in front of them, like the
better part of a decade worth of championship contention in
front of them. Both guys are in less than ideal situations.
(19:44):
I don't think the Lakers are a very well run organization,
so Luca will have to contend with that his entire
time in Los Angeles. Their front office has a convoluted
decision making process with some people that aren't necessarily basketball
experts making decisions, and they've demonstrated over the last decade
as a front office, they don't really have much in
the way of core basketball beliefs. Every summer they're doing
(20:06):
something different. They're indexing this way or that way, or
this way or that way. It's not like you see
with Indiana or Oklahoma City or Miami, where they just
seem to keep finding the same types of players. Golden
States like that as well. They have a culture, they
have an identity, they have a type of player they
look for. They keep finding those guys. They always seem
to fit into their system well, and they're able to
win with that interchangeability. The Lakers don't have that, And
(20:28):
then with Minnesota, they're in the awkward position of having
some of their core talent being older and on the downslope.
So the internal improvement of guys like Anton Jaden Jayden
looks fantastic to start the year. Obviously Anthony Edwards is
going to continue to improve at his age, but that
clashes with the downslope of guys like Rudy Gobert and
(20:48):
Mike Conley and who's going to be their secondary ball
handler in the long run. The clunkiness sometimes of the
fit with Julius Randall. Although I'm higher on that than
I was last year, and the Wolves don't really have
a ton of draft like capital available to improve the team,
So like both situations look less than ideal. If I
had to guess which one of those guys is most
likely to win, I'd say Luca, just because he's achieved
(21:10):
the status of undeniable top tier superstar. He's shown the
ability to get closer to the goal. He got three
wins away from the title and it's never gotten any
closer than seven wins away from the title, And in general,
I kind of gravitate towards Luca's archetype a little bit
more that said, I think there's a version of this
where both guys win, and I think there's a version
(21:31):
of this where both guys don't, because sometimes that's how
this goes. Sometimes you the opportunities slip, and all of
a sudden you're a little older and not quite as good,
and then you can't uplift rosters the way you used to.
And you know, it does happen. It does happen in
NBA history. But great question, though I enjoyed that one.
How would you assess Ayton's defense so far? Will he
be the rim protector the Lakers need based on his
(21:53):
performances this season. So let's dig into this a little bit.
First of all, team wide, the Lakers have been a
little better on defense than you think. They've avoided the
bottom ten and they are twelve in points in the
paint allowed. But to be clear, a good portion of
that is when Ayton's off the floor. The defense has
been pretty bad when Ayton's been on the floor this year.
They have over a one to twenty defensive rating with
(22:15):
Ayton on the floor, according to Cleaning the Glass, that
goes down to one oh seven when he's off the floor.
That said, I don't think it's as simple as just
the statistics. I think the foundational skills are there. We're
seeing a lot of just his size and athleticism make
impact on defense, blocks, deflections, just a big body around
(22:38):
the rim. We're seeing a lot of the upside. He's
run the floor really well. I think that's been his strength.
But there's been downsides too, like he's had a propensity
to commit fouls where he doesn't quite get into positions
soon enough. There have been some off ball sequences where
he has, you know, just been a little bit too
glued up to his man because of a switch, and
he's not offering help at the rim that weighed he's
(23:00):
capable of. He hasn't been covering for his teammates as
much with anticipatory like peeling off and helping at the rim.
There's been just a little bit of that lack of
like refined defense from him to start the year. But
I actually look at that as like an area of
opportunity that the Lakers should be able to help him with.
Like I think you couldn't conceptualize of a better player
(23:25):
to anchor behind Ayton to help him with his decision
making and his read and react play on defense than Lebron.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
James.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Lebron is the kind of guy that's going to help
right behind him to communicate actions, help him see what's
coming before it gets there. Help you know, yell at
him to get up higher, to get down lower, to
do this or to do that. He's going to be
the brains behind Aten's bronze, so to speak. Connecting his
physical talents with having a high IQ anchor behind him.
(23:52):
I think it's something that has a lot of potential
to be better. To be clear, I think the eight
and experiment has been a resounding success so far. He's
been so good on offense. His scoring on the role
has been vital to this offense in the early year.
They do not win those games without Luca without having
a legitimate screen and role partner with Austin that can
(24:13):
really make teams pay for keying in on Austin. I
think it's been a resounding success. I'm just saying the
defensive end has been more like highlight good than statistically good,
and I think connecting those two is going to be having.
What will help connect those two is having higher IQ
defenders on the floor like Lebron. Even having Luca back
that can help him kind of get to a higher
(24:34):
level on that side of the floor. Jason, what are
your thoughts on the rockets last two wins since the
zero to two start. I'm a Rockets fan and I've
seen some great signs of this team potentially being a
high scoring offense, while some concerns with the defense, but
I think that will be resolved when Story and Finney
Smith comes back. Another question I have is who, in
your eyes, is a realistic guard option the Rockets can
obtain after December fifteenth. Derek White is the dream fit,
(24:56):
but not realistic. I've heard Drew Holliday and Kobe White
as some names, but I think CJ McCollum is the
most realistic. With Houston's cap situation, He's on a lottery
team with the potential of being bought out. And while
CJ may not be a positive defender or the most
athletic player, I believe you can provide the ball handling
and playmaking aspect and the shooting shot making ability that
can fill the void of what this team needs with
Van Vliet being out. When acquiring CJ moved the needle
(25:19):
for you at all. For Houston and your contender rankings.
Thank you for your great basketball analysis and all the
hard work that you provide in all your content. Thank
you so much for supporting the show. I agree with
your kind of early assessment in the sense that they've
been better on offense than I expected in terms of
just having some really high level initiators that kind of
counteracts a lot of the issues with their spacing. Also,
(25:40):
all three of those guys have a little bit of
like a resilience against spacing concerns. A men, Thompson is
so good at just kind of popping off the ground
in the short range and shooting little floaters in short
jump shots over the tops of rim protectors. Kevin Durant
obviously the best jump one of the best jump shooters
in the league in recent history, albern Jhangun and ability
to hit little hook shots over his left shoulder. They
(26:02):
have more resilience to spacing than I thought. And I've
been a little underwhelmed with the defense in the sense
that their lack of foot speed has obviously come to
the forefront on certain occasions against faster teams. Right, So
I agree with your assessment there. To be honest, as
far as their last two games go, Brooklyn and Toronto
have both been really, really bad to start the year.
So it's kind of similar to what we talked about
(26:23):
with San Antonio. It's hard to really learn from those
matchups as far as the guards that you're talking about, Like,
I don't think it's off the table for Houston to
trade for a bigger name, And I think a lot
of it's going to come to how they look over
this larger sample, Like you're going to see over a
larger sample, do they think that they're close and they
need a high level ball handler, or do they think
that they're you know, really close, and they only need
(26:46):
a mild upgrade that can sustain some of their long
term flexibility without having to give up draft assets. Like
those are the kinds of decisions they have to make, right.
A guy like CJ, for example, I think would be
a great fit. He's a methodical skill guard, Houston has
really good screeners that can help free him up, an
excellent over the top shooter, an underrated passer in those situations.
(27:07):
If you could get him on a veteran minimum contract
and a buyout, I mean, let's not overthink it, that
would be a really nice fit. But I think it
depends on how much Houston feels they need a modest
upgrade versus a substantial upgrade. The problem with a guy
like Kobe White is he's going to be attached to
a long term deal at the end of that. Guys
like Derek White same thing. You're matching a big salary.
(27:29):
But my whole opinion on this is like, we just
need to see a lot more rockets basketball before we
start really defining what type of player they need.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
So like, for instance, a.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Guy like Derek White, he provides a lot of pull
up shooting, but not a lot of rim pressure, So
I really want to see how much that specific dynamic.
What do they need more? Do they need a guy
who can get to the rim more, or do they
need a guy who's a better pull up shooter. I
just want to see more of that dynamic bear out
over the course of the season. Next question, I agree
with your assessment of Lebron's value you However, I would
(28:01):
love to see him in a Manugeen Nobly style role
off the bench, reduce his minutes slightly to ensure he's
fresh for the postseason, bolster the second unit offensively while
making it even more dangerous defensively. He would still be
a closer, but I think that with Luca usually being
in attack mode from the get go and matchups, that
means Lebron is less needed at the start of a match.
Your thoughts, So, I look at Lebron as very much
(28:22):
a Swiss army knife, and I think it's very different
than the dynamic when these guys all started playing together
at the end of last season. I talked about this
with Pete and Darius on the Laker Film Room podcast
last night. You guys can check that out on their feed.
But we went heavy into this concept, the idea of
Lebron joining this team. And remember last year, Lebron was
(28:43):
playing at one of the top levels in the league.
He was literally looking like a first team All NBA
guy in that February March stretch before he got hurt.
And so adding Luca and Austin to that is complicated
because Luca came in and didn't really want to step
on Lebron's toes and it was clunky for they lost
games to Utah and Charlotte as they were kind of
feeling that transition out.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
This is very different.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Luca and Austin are in full rhythm, and Lebron's coming
back from sciatica and hasn't touched a basketball. It hasn't
played meaningful NBA basketball in a very long time. So
like Lebron is going to very much ease his way
into this situation. I look at him as a guy
that can be really impactful off the ball. He's a
mid forties catch and shoot player, a great cutter, a
great short role player off of blitzz. He's going to
(29:29):
be able to impact winning with the starting group. I
don't see any reason to bring him off the bench
because the starters need him. Eight needs him as a
defensive communicator. They're not a good defensive rebounding team. They
need Lebron to help with defensive rebounding. Lebron is an
additional offensive skill to help grease the wheels for that unit.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
He's also forty one years old.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
You don't want him warning up, warming up for the game,
and then immediately sitting on the bench. You want him
playing with the starters. There are ways to accomplish lineups
through staggering to achieve some of the stuff you're talking
about in terms of lineup bou and that's something they'll
figure out. But I would keep starting Lebron. I don't
see any reason not to do that. I think a
lot of people are overthinking the Lebron thing. He's just
gonna help them, Hi. Jason Detroit's had a decent start
(30:11):
to the season, but the w against Orlando might have
set off a catalyst to jumpstart our sluggish half court offense.
Going back to using Kid in the post. In an
episode last season, you mentioned how hyper efficient he is
with that baby hook shot, but it also cuts down
on his turnovers compared to when he initiates from high
pick and roll or a drag screen. Combine that with
Duran's increased aggressiveness on dribble drives from the high post,
and Nasar's increased ball handling responsibilities, we just might have
(30:34):
enough aggregate ball handling slash initiation to craft an average
offense until Ivy returns. My question is twofold, do you
think this approach is sustainable? And how would you defend
against kid and back downs, especially given that he's really
the only true big point guard in the East. Thanks
as always for your content. So this is interesting. So
Kate has been only getting zero point nine to one
(30:57):
points per possession and pick and roll including passes to
start the year. That really is I kind of synthesize
the issues that the Pistons are having to start this
year down to two things. One kid hasn't been very good.
He's shooting just twelve for thirty on twos in pick
and roll, in large part because he's just five for
seventeen on mid range jump shots, and he's just fifty
(31:20):
three percent at the rim. You're right about him breaking
out the post ups against Orlando. He hit a little
left shoulder hook over Desmond Bay and he got another
one over Anthony Black but he's actually only run three
post ups this entire season, so I'd like to see
him increase his volume.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
There.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
You mentioned the turnovers, that's a good point. The turnover
percentage when kid shoots out a pick and roll is
like just shy of twenty percent. But like when you're
posting up, it's easier to protect the basketball in traffic
because you have your back turn to the defense to
the defender. So that's an interesting kind of idea. I
think Caid will be a better pick and role player
in time. I just think he's not playing well. So
for me, it's more about just variety getting Kaid back
(31:57):
to form by adding variety. He needs more post ups
in his diet, just so that he's not doing the
same thing every single time down the floor. James Harden
in twenty eighteen to twenty twenty. That's the case study.
When you spam the exact same damn thing every single time,
you make yourself easy to guard. You want to add variety.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Right.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
The biggest the second piece though, and this is arguably
the most important piece. They're not getting out in transition
the way they used to like this. They used to
be this big physical defense that they would ride to
transition opportunities. They're still the same big, physical defense, but
after being sixth and transition points per game last year,
they're sitting at nineteenth this year. I also think that's
on Cade. Your point guard drives your pace. We talked
(32:35):
about this with Tyrese Haliburton last year. Caid needs to
do a better job of getting them up the floor
and transition faster. As for how to defend Caid post ups,
to me, i'd force him over his right shoulder, especially
when he like he likes to attack off the left block,
so that he can get to his left shoulder in
the middle of the lane for that little right hook
over his left shoulder right. But if you can force
him towards the baseline, the passing angles are harder, and
(32:57):
now he's shooting over his right shoulder, where he's either
gonna have to go to his left hand or a
fadeaway jump shot, which is going to be a lower percentage.
That's how I would guard him there, but again, I
just want to see him do it more.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
A couple more.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Hey, Jason and Jackson, hope you're enjoying the season so far.
Got a warrior's question. There's been a lot of debate
about whether the missing piece is a scoring guard or
an athletic two way wing. In light of the start
to their season, could the missing piece actually be a
regular season innings eter at center with Horford sideline? At times,
their depth at the five dwindles rather fast, and in
the five games, we've already seen how valuable it is
to have bodies to hang in the west, not to
(33:30):
mention the possibility of injuries. Could a consolidation trade involving
some of the guards and maybe even some future picks
be the right move?
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Thanks, So.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
This is one of those things where it's very easy
to tell yourself like, oh, we need this, we need that,
we need this, we need that, because every team has
three or four holes, and you're absolutely right that, Like,
you know, I thought the Horford minutes last night were
a classic example. We've talked about this before when you're
an older player and you're not quite as locked in
and engaged because you're playing against a team that is
siting their best player, and Giannis and Tanankompo, older players,
(34:03):
when they let go of the rope a little bit,
tend to look really bad. And the Warriors got rolled
in the Horford minutes, and there have been times when
you look at it and it's like, oh, Horford's out tonight.
All of a sudden, there's a lot of Trace Jackson,
Davis and Quinton Posts and it doesn't look very good right,
And ideally you'd have a better backup center to fuel
that situation. My thing is, when it comes to expending assets,
(34:24):
you want to expend assets on players that are going
to play a serious role in your rotation. And when
I look at the playoff rotation, at the center position,
there's gonna be a lot of Horford, There's gonna be
a lot of Draymond. There might be a little bit
of room because you're gonna have Draymond at five a
lot of the time and the Horford at the five
alongside Draymond or Horford at the five by himself a
(34:44):
lot of the time. There's not a huge opportunity for
minutes there at the center position. However, swing forward, two, three, four,
there are gonna be potentially some opportunities there for an
upgrade over the course of the of a playoff run.
Minutes that are available, that's where it makes sense to spend,
whether it's for scoring guard or for a versatal forward.
(35:07):
You know, anywhere from that two to that four. It
doesn't matter which guy you go with. There there's minutes
available in the playoff rotation. So like, yeah, ideally, in
a perfect world you'd have a big beast of a
center that you can ride for stretches of the regular season.
And if you can get that sort of thing on
the cheap, sure, but if it's going to be expending assets,
I would spend it on more of a perimeter upgrade.
(35:28):
Next question, if you've seen the book written on the
drama within the Lakers, they seem so incompetent and entitled
compared to smartpront offices like the Warriors and Celts.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Love the show. Thank you for supporting the show.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Yeah, so this you're referencing the book A Hollywood Ending
by Yarren Weizman. I've read it this summer. I highly
recommended if you're a Lakers fan. If you're a Lakers
fan is rooted for the team over the Lebron era,
it's basically just like a behind the scenes history of
that entire era, and it's kind of a trip down
memory lane and both a good way and a bad way.
You're going to be frustrated at times, You're going to
be excited at times. It just was fun as someone
(36:00):
who rooted for that team to go read that book.
I highly recommend that you guys go check that out.
It's a Hollywood ending by Jarn Weizman that said, the
specific points you're making about the front offices, that is
the frustrating part. Is like you watch these teams like
the Warriors, the Celtics, the thunder, the Pacers, these teams
that have like really strong basketball culture. Cleveland is another
(36:21):
team that I would include in that mix. There's several
of them around the league. But there's this idea where
it's like basketball experts are in charge. There's a clear
basketball identity that comes from the top down that continues
to percolate down into even the end of the bench,
guys in the rotation. There's a culture that is strong
there that doesn't exist with the Lakers, in large part
because it's been a very parochial, family based small business
(36:45):
where you know, the decision making process is convoluted and
there are people that don't dedicate their lives to basketball
that are making decisions for them. It just it's discouraging
and it's you know, part of life as a Lakers fan.
I know that you consider Jokic is the greatest offensive
player of all time and Steph as the second, with
your main winning point being for Jokic that he takes
(37:07):
more short range shots, which are less affected by shot variants.
You consider both their gravity to be similar, but I
think Steph's gravity creates more spacing near the baskets. There
are multiple defenders running after him at the three point line,
hence creating more short range shots which are less affected
by shot variants. I know a lot of Jokic's playmaking
also leads to cut straight to the basket, but he
is still occupying that space inside the three point line,
(37:28):
which allows help to recover. At times, it leads to
cycle passes to open threes, which is still a great shot,
but like you said, high variance. Another underrated thing about
Steph's offense, which I don't know if you've considered, is
how much he wears down defenders. Last year in the
playoffs and men Thompson, who's considered maybe the best athlete
in the league, was gassed by the end of the series,
pulled his calf, I think, which also leads to him
being worse on offense. I've really been enjoying the show.
(37:50):
Thank you for supporting the show. Interesting kind of breakdown
of your point of view there. I think there are
a couple things that I disagree with.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
One.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
One of the pieces with Jokic's gravity is he pulls
centers away from the basket, so he removes rim protection
from the equation. That's why they get so many cuts
and so in a lot of ways like he does
generate a lot of those easier twos. I think the
biggest thing that I disagree with you about is when
I'm discussing the short range shot making, it's in the
context of elite defense.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
So yeah, if Steph.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Runs around, he's gonna have sequences where he draws two
with his classic gravity and a guy gets wide open
for a layup, and they're gonna be plays with Jokic
where he looks at one guy like Jamal Murray's backscreening
for Christian Brown and getting ready to come off of
a handoff, and he looks at Jamal Murray and the
defense goes with Jamal and he pitches the ball to
Christian Brown for a wide open layup, and that looks
beautiful and it makes highlights. These are things that help
(38:39):
carry Stephan Jokic's offense over the course of the season.
Here's the thing, though, you end up in a big
game late, you're playing against a great defense. They don't
fuck up, they don't botch the switches, they stay attached,
and all of a sudden, it becomes about your guy
having to get a bucket. And that is where Yokic
has the advantage. He can get five to ten feet
from the basket and can get to left shoulder, right
(39:01):
shoulder moves that he can hit at like sixty five
sometimes even close to seventy percent. That's the specific dynamic
that Jokic has presented that has made me view him
as the greatest offensive player that I've ever seen. He
is this guy that generates countless wide open threes, countless
wide open buckets underneath the basket, countless kick ahead opportunities.
(39:23):
Jokic is one of the best transition passers in the
league while also being this post up threat that has
a score percentage possession of possession that is much higher
than most of the perimeter based stars, including Lebron over
the course of NBA history. All Right, two more quick
ones with the Sixers backcourt of Maxi and Edgecombe setting
the league on fire to start the year. How does
(39:45):
that change what the Sixers do with Embiid and Paul George.
The speed and athleticism of the backcourt seems to clash
with the more slow and methodical style of Embiid In
Paul George, let alone their injury concerns. Both players value
seems like it's currently in the tank right now, and
it is a small sample size for it. Who may
not be putting up twenty a night the whole year.
But does this make the Sixers consider finding a way
to move on from their two highly paid veteran stars
(40:07):
and lean fully into rebuilding and retooling around their young backcourt?
Speaker 1 (40:10):
Love the show?
Speaker 2 (40:12):
So it's complicated because who you trading Embiid and Paul
George too? They both make so much money and both
have looked quite frankly physically decrepit right now. My thing is,
I look at it as more of an upside Like
it's like whatever you get from Embiid is gravy in
the sense that like you've got all these talented young
players you play in this super fun style. Look with Embiid,
(40:35):
he's still finding opportunities to score the basketball in his
face ups, he's providing like a pick and pop threat
with Tyree s Maxy, I think there's a lot of
a potential for Embiid to eventually find a way to
contribute through his talent. Paul George will see again, he
occupies a massive salary slot, but there are a lot
of these minutes going to guys like Jabari Walker and
Dominique Barlow who are playing super hard and they're athletic
(40:58):
and they're doing things. But Paul George, if he comes
in for a couple shifts here and there and can
hit some threes and run some second side action, I
think he can add some value too. I look at
it very simply like you're not going to be able
to trade them. So if you're not going to be
able to trade them, you kind of just have to
try to find roles with them on this team. And
they're so talented still even at their old age, that
(41:19):
I think in smaller roles, under the guise of minute
limits and load management, you can find a way for
them to impact winning for you on your team. Last question,
in your opinion, what will it take production wise and
team record wise? For Wemby to capture MVP this year. Really,
the production he's at right now is more than enough.
Him averaging over six stocks per game and being a
(41:43):
dominant defensive rebounder and averaging close to thirty that's plenty.
The main thing is going to be the team's record.
They're already off to such a great start five and zero.
To me, it's like if they if the Spurs get
that like three seed or the two seed, I think
he has to be MVP because the other MVP candidates
are all playing with substantially more talent relative to that
(42:04):
MVP conversation. But I think he's on track. The Spurs
look a lot better with their defense and their rebounding
and their transition attack than I expected them too, so
I do think it's on the table.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
All right, guys.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
It's all I have for today is always sincerely appreciate
you guys for supporting us and supporting the show.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
We will be back on Monday. I will see you
guys that
The volume. All right, Well, good to Hoops Tonight.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
You're at the volume heavy Friday, everybody. Hope all you
guys are having a incredible end to your week. We
have a jam pack show for you guys today. We're
gonna lead with a little instant reaction of last night's
really fun to watch show down between bam Adebio Victor
Woman Yama and the Heat and the Spurs are gonna
be breaking that game down in detail. And then after that,
(00:37):
as we typically do on Fridays, we're gonna get into.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
A mail bag.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I've got about eight or nine questions from around the
league from you guys. You guys are the drip before
we get started. To subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube
channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.
Follow me on Twitter at underscore JCNLT so you guys
don't miss show announcements, don't forget about our podcast fore
you 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 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Make sure
(01:02):
you guys follow us there. Throughout the year for additional content.
In the last but not least, if you want to
get questions into these mail bags, going to our full
episodes on YouTube in the comments right mail bag with
a colon and the right question. We'll get to them
on Fridays throughout the remainder of the season. All right,
let's talk some basketball. So both teams down some key
players in this Heat Spurs game. The Spurs were down
Luke Cornett, which led to these Bismack Biambo minutes that
(01:25):
were particularly rough, and there was even a stretch where
they went centerless to try to address that issue. And
then the Heat were down Norman Powell, which was obviously
a bummer for this matchup as a test for the Spurs,
but we still got a good look at the dynamic
because shout out to Simoni Fontekio. He came in and
played incredibly well and put on a Norman Powell impersonation,
(01:45):
just flying off of screens and hitting all of these
tough movement threes. That kind of brought that dynamic to
the offense. And honestly, I thought the Heat threw a
hell of a punch. Bam was very much not afraid
of Victor wimbn Yama and attacked him early and often.
He had a rip through kind of chicken wing for
a layup. He had another rip through on a close
out in the left corner with Wenby, where he went
(02:06):
and just threw down a vicious right hand dunk. He
was going right at him in the post for a
little baby hooks over his left shoulder.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
He hit a couple of.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Threes when Wemby was roaming off of him, he threw
a great punch. It was a nice challenge for Wemby
and the Spurs. Andrew Wiggins did a ton of damage
in this matchup as a score, driving one on ones,
hitting little pull ups, hitting threes. I every time I
watch Andrew just want him to be a Laker because
he's literally the one guy that I think would address
all of their problems. But that's just me channeling my
(02:37):
fanhood there. And then the Spurs ended up taking control
in the late third quarter. They went up by fifteen
to end the third quarter. In Eric Spolstra, as he's
known to do, broke out that famed Miami Heat two
three zone, actually for the first time this season, and
he had his two top guys in the zone, extending
out to pressure the ball. He had Bam kind of
(02:59):
extending out from the middle on Wemby's catches around the elbows,
and the other four guys when Wemby would have the
ball there did a great job of filling the gaps
around him and closing those passing lanes, and the Spurs
kind of decomposed a bit. They blew the fifteen point
lead like that, and all of a sudden, we had
a close game on our hands. So shout out to
the Miami Heat. They gave the Spurs a really good
test last night. It was a good opportunity for I
(03:19):
was looking forward to seeing the Spurs play against a
good team because they've had an incredibly light schedule to start,
and they rose to the occasion. I thought Julian Champagne
was one of the key figures in that fourth quarter
run when the Spurs finally pulled away. He had two
massive offensive rebounds out of the left corner that both
led to wide open threes for the Spurs, one where
he got his own rebound following along the baseline. That
(03:42):
one got kicked out and moved over to Devin Vessel
on the left wing. He had a three and then
another one where Wenby's posting up there on the right block,
he takes a little right shoulder fade you can see
Julian just come flying in out of the corner and
he rocks Simoni Fontechio with a box out right there
along the baseline, gets that inside position, taps the ball out,
(04:02):
then has the wherewithal to turn and set a pin
in flare on Simoni Fontechio to prevent him from closing
out to the corner where Harrison Barnes had relocated, and
he hits a wide open three that ended up putting
the Spurs up six. And then on the other end
of the floor, he had a really nice dry defensive
possession where he stonewall to Davion Mitchell drive and got
a steal, scrapped his way into a bunch of winning
(04:25):
impact down the stretch. Julian's been struggling to shoot the
ball a little bit at the start of the season,
but in general, he just adds another layer to the
overall scrappiness of this Spurs team, which is something that
I've been really keyed in on. Like Julian Champagnee is
averaging eight rebounds per thirty six minutes. He's super active
(04:47):
on the glass for a wing. This first team has
a unit has six rotation players that rebound at a
rate of at least six rebounds per thirty six minutes
or better. Both big Z obviously Luke Cornett super active
on the glass, victor when Minyama is super active on
the glass. We talked about Julian champagnee Keldon Johnson just
(05:08):
comes in every single game off the bench and is
just an athletic wrecking ball. He gets nine rebounds per
thirty six He's had several late third quarter stretches this
year where he's helped blow games open. He's also just
super physically aggressive around the rim. He had to play
in the late third quarter where he posted up kell
el Ware again over seven feet and just powered through
(05:28):
him as like a post up for a little scoop
shot and yelling and screaming while he's doing everything. He's
just an athletic wrecking ball. And then both of the
young guards, Steph Castle and Dylan Harper, they are both
great rebounders for the guard position, and this is a
big part of what makes the Spurs such a dominant
rebounding team. They are number one in rebound percentage in
(05:50):
the entire NBA on both ends of the glass too.
Their top five offensive rebounding team and their top five
defensive rebounding team. It is just a margin where they
are winning and they're just scrappy in general. Like it's
been fun to watch Steph Castle and Dylan Harper pressure
the ball and play passing lanes. They had the sequence
(06:10):
against Davion Mitchell where Deveon drove off of the right
wing and Steph Castle sliding with him, and he swipes
at the ball and kind of knocks it free, and
here comes Dylan Harper digging down from the wing.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
He takes it away. Now they're running the other way.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
It's just everybody's big and athletic and scrappy and rebounds well.
And it's a big thing that triggers their transition attack,
where they've been getting twenty eight transition points per game,
which ranks eighth in the entire NBA. That combination, big,
athletic and scrappy on the perimeter with Victor women Yama,
(06:46):
that is what causes them to have so much success
in these margins. They're number two in defensive rating, number
one in rebounding and number eight in transition points scored
per game percentergy, So, like that is a classic defense
rebound run, defense rebound run, and that is something that
is going to be there for them every single night
(07:08):
in the regular season. It's one of the big things
that I miscalculated about this team. I was so focused on,
like their refined offensive skill. How many like really good
refined offensive players do they have, And that's shown up,
Like that's part of why they struggled against the zone.
They've been a mediocre half court offense to start the year.
We'll talk about that in a minute. But what I
(07:28):
underestimated with this team here in the early going is
they're just really big and athletic off of Wemby, which
is going to give you just a really high floor
night tonight in the NBA regular season. I really liked
that game from Victor last night because it kind of
showcases versatility. Like he didn't have a good shooting night.
His three point shot was way off, he had some bricks.
He shout out the heat too. They had some great
(07:49):
contests on him and they had, you know, they were
physical and up underneath him in his post ups and
kind of stopped him from getting directly to the rim
on his ISOs. He was kind of missing his mid
range jump shot last night, so like what do you
do when that stuff's not going for you?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Right?
Speaker 2 (08:04):
But I thought he was his usual dominant self on defense. Obviously,
you know, Bam stretched him out a few times with
some threes and he got some one on one buckets
on him, But outside of that, I thought he generally
won the matchup. Like Bam tried so hard to space
Wenby out taking threes that he took thirteen of them
in the game and only made four. That's less than
(08:25):
a point per shot. Was especially cold down the stretch,
and that's a big part of what allowed Wenby to
roam and cause problems around the basket as a shot blocker.
And then Victor's defensive impact overall just continues to be
really difficult to quantify, Like he had five blocks last night,
but it's deeper than that, Like there are a lot
of possessions where guys are driving into the lane and
running into him and Victor's not getting a block or
(08:48):
even a deflection sometimes, but he's swarming and the dudes
just don't have the kickout angles and so then it'll
end up being a turnover because the guy throws a
bad kickout pass or a bad kickout pass that breaks
the rhythm of the possession and the advantage is gone
because it's off target. So the guy who has to
go get it has to like lunge out of position,
(09:09):
and by the time he gets it, the spurs can
rotate back out of it. He's just literally breaking offenses
with his length right around the basket. Now, again, it's
not all perfect with San Antonio. They struggled with Miami's
zone in the second half. They had just eight points
on sixteen possessions against that zone. Albeit they did get
some offensive rebounds. I think they had three in the
fourth quarter. And on this season so far, the zone
(09:31):
has been a little bit of an issue. They faced
thirty four possessions of zone and they've gotten just twenty
two points on that that's a sixty five offensive rating.
They're shooting just three for ten on threes against zone
so far to start this year. They're five for fifteen
on twos, and they've turned the ball over on twenty
one percent of their possessions against the zone. I think
(09:52):
there's a couple things they could do there, like, they're
using Wemby a lot in the middle, and they're not
getting easy like dunks. So I'm wondering if it makes
more sense to have Wemby almost as a baseline outlet
and try to get the ball to somebody else in
the middle of the floor, someone who's really comfortable passing there,
someone like Steph Castle. If Steph Castle catches in the
middle of the floor, he's a guy that can quick
turn and score, but he's also a guy who's got
(10:13):
really good lob chemistry with Wemby. And often, like when
Wemby was catching there again at the middle, when Bam
would step up, there's opportunities at the rim, but often
that's not a pass that is available to some of
the smaller athletes on the floor. Right, But if Victor
is underneath the basket, that's another vertical spacing window.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
For you to go at.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
And again, some of this is just that refined offensive
skill right. Collectively as a team, the Spurs are just
fourteenth and half court offensive rating to start the season,
and by the way, three of their five wins have
been against bottom five defenses in New Orleans, Toronto, and Brooklyn.
I think that's where you can see just a little
bit of that. These are young talented players that aren't
(10:55):
quite as refined yet as they will be in the
long run. It's been interesting because, like their catch and shoot,
shooting from the role players has actually been fine. That's
been kind of a pleasant surprise this year after a
lot of the talk around they're shooting over the summer,
but it's actually been more of the ability of the
defenses against their ball handlers to go underscreens to force
(11:15):
their guards to take pull ups which they're not making.
And then Wemby has been kind of off, especially in
his catch and shoots to start the year. But overall,
we knew the Spurs would have some issues with half
court offense. We knew the Spurs would have some issues
with refined offensive talent. I think the real story here
in the early part of the season is that the
Spurs are just way more physically imposing than we thought
(11:38):
they would be night to night in the regular season.
If they're going to be a top five defense and
a top five rebounding team with a top ten transition
attack all year, that's just a really strong foundation to
rack up regular season wins with or without a great offense,
and again, the story of their ceiling, what they actually
can achieve as a unit in the big picture will
(12:00):
be determined by whether or not they can kind of
polish up those things in the half court. On offense,
some brief thoughts on the heat before we move forward
to the mailbag. There's been a lot of hooplot about
the offense. We talked about this in our five most
Impressive Teams video on Monday, But there's this idea that
you're essentially just pushing the ball up quickly and hitting
(12:23):
gaps right. Whoever has the ball is empowered to just
attack their matchup one on one, and with the idea
that if the defense reacts, you can make these kickout
passes and go from there. It's a kind of a
simple concept because we talk about the idea of running action.
Why do you run action? Why do you run a
pick and roll? Why do you run Chicago? Why do
you run split cuts? Why do you run any of that?
(12:44):
You run that sort of thing to get a situation
where a guy is standing on the perimeter open with
a kickout pass and a defender running at him right.
You're running action to create an advantage. And so there's
this idea that the only way to create advance is
through running action, and that's not true at all. I
think the Indiana Pacers in particular, demonstrated for us last
(13:06):
year that you can generate a lot of advantage just
by pushing the ball up the floor and by attacking gaps.
And I said this in the most improved video. But
I'm not the least bit surprised that Miami has adopted,
as a very smart organization, has adopted something that we
saw work to resounding success last year in the postseason
with Indiana.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Push the damn ball up the floor.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Attack gaps, take the kickouts that are available, and play
driving kick basketball off of that. It's empowered guys like
Andrew Wiggins, who's looked great at times this year, Jaimehakez
who's having a excellent third campaign, Simoni Fontakio obviously attacking
and shooting coming off of off of movement and even
off of dribble handoffs and things like that off the ball. Like,
(13:47):
there's a lot of guys that are being empowered. The
downside is, though, it can also empower players to take
bad shots sometimes, so like if you give a guy
the freedom to on an early possession sequence, attack is
man one on one. There's a lot of those that
are ending in some questionable shots. Like they took eleven
mid range jump shots in that game last night against
the Spurs and made just.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Four of them.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
A lot of like driving into Wemby and then turning
it over or getting blocked, and so some of that
I think is the growing pains of trying a new offense.
Like it's just very important that at the expense of pace,
you don't go and take bad shots early in the
clock either, like you want to get the ball up
the four quickly. You want to attack, attack, attack, but
(14:30):
the purpose is to get layups and threes. Layups and threes.
You want to get the defense to react to you
so that you have those kickout opportunities available. And I
mean one last thing on the heat. They're kind of
investing in this big man shooting threes kind of idea,
and Bam shot him well to start the year. But
last night Bam and Kelll combined four for seventeen from three,
(14:53):
and I do wonder if there's a little bit of
an over indexing on that side of things towards the
three point shot. But the heat of I had a
fun team to watch here in the early part of
the year. Obviously, they didn't even have Norman Powell last night.
Tyler Harrow is gonna fit into this somehow. I wonder
if he'll bring more of a ball screen element. I
don't think Tyler Harrow is really much of a one
on one player. But this is an interesting new system.
(15:15):
It's a it's a new idea that's kind of taking
hold in the NBA, the idea that, like, we can
generate advantage just by pushing with pace and by attacking
gaps rather than having to run action. All right, let
us get into our mail bag. We've got about eight
or nine questions here from around the league that we'll
be getting into. Today's show is brought to you by
(15:37):
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called one eight hundred Gambler in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee,
and Virginia. First question Hey Jason, thank you for your
work From Sydney, Australia. Going into the next era, I
(17:06):
feel like things are taking shape in regards to the
power hierarchy.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
In the league.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yo Kitchen Wenby feels like it could be the new
Lebron Kobe Shay and the Thunder feel like the old
Tim Duncan and the Spurs. So my question is, if
you had to pick, which players of this or the
next generation are have a chance to go ringless, let's say,
from the twenty eighteen draft on and Luca, Trey Zion
or jaw. This is a really interesting question and it's
(17:32):
complicated because I don't think it necessarily has to do
with the player. Like, it's just really difficult to win
a championship. I mean we've seen, especially since Katie left
the Warriors, like it's teams that are winning, not stars.
It's like a different star every single year. I think
Jokich has been the best player in the world now
for three four years and he's only got one of them, right, Like,
it's very much a team construct that's winning the title.
(17:56):
And so as we kind of go through these players,
it has less to do with who they are as
a player. And more to do with what they're surrounding
circumstances are. So let's start with the I kind of
put them into like three groups here. So the first
group is Zion and Ja, and this is where it
gets more related to the player, because I would be
shocked if either Zion or Ja won a championship. The
(18:18):
reason why is like Zion is not close to as
good as the top guys, and he hasn't taken great
care of his body, so I feel like his window
is relatively short compared to some of these teams, some
of these stars, and the Pelicans are far far far
away from accomplishing anything. They've been one of the worst
teams in the league to start the season. Same with Jaw,
like he's trending in the wrong direction with his player development.
(18:41):
He's this small guard that falls down and gets hurt
a lot. So it feels like his window is relatively short.
And Memphis is worse than they were a couple of
years ago, and they don't have like some direct pathway
to contention that lies right in front of them. So
with that group, I think it's it seems pretty sick.
It seems like a long shot to me. I should
say for either of those two to win a championship.
(19:03):
The kind of middle tier here is Trey young, you know,
kind of older, a guy that could end up on
a bunch of different teams at any point in the future.
And what I thought about with Trey is if there's
somehow a shot that he gets paired with Yiannis, then yeah,
I feel like Trey and Yannis could win a title,
But that feels like a long shot to me. So really,
(19:24):
for Trey, it's so much comes down to which team
he ends up with in the long run. And Luca
is the really interesting group out of the names that
you mentioned. Both guys are young, Both guys should theoretically
have long championship windows in front of them, like the
better part of a decade worth of championship contention in
front of them. Both guys are in less than ideal situations.
(19:44):
I don't think the Lakers are a very well run organization,
so Luca will have to contend with that his entire
time in Los Angeles. Their front office has a convoluted
decision making process with some people that aren't necessarily basketball
experts making decisions, and they've demonstrated over the last decade
as a front office, they don't really have much in
the way of core basketball beliefs. Every summer they're doing
(20:06):
something different. They're indexing this way or that way, or
this way or that way. It's not like you see
with Indiana or Oklahoma City or Miami, where they just
seem to keep finding the same types of players. Golden
States like that as well. They have a culture, they
have an identity, they have a type of player they
look for. They keep finding those guys. They always seem
to fit into their system well, and they're able to
win with that interchangeability. The Lakers don't have that, And
(20:28):
then with Minnesota, they're in the awkward position of having
some of their core talent being older and on the downslope.
So the internal improvement of guys like Anton Jaden Jayden
looks fantastic to start the year. Obviously Anthony Edwards is
going to continue to improve at his age, but that
clashes with the downslope of guys like Rudy Gobert and
(20:48):
Mike Conley and who's going to be their secondary ball
handler in the long run. The clunkiness sometimes of the
fit with Julius Randall. Although I'm higher on that than
I was last year, and the Wolves don't really have
a ton of draft like capital available to improve the team,
So like both situations look less than ideal. If I
had to guess which one of those guys is most
likely to win, I'd say Luca, just because he's achieved
(21:10):
the status of undeniable top tier superstar. He's shown the
ability to get closer to the goal. He got three
wins away from the title and it's never gotten any
closer than seven wins away from the title, And in general,
I kind of gravitate towards Luca's archetype a little bit
more that said, I think there's a version of this
where both guys win, and I think there's a version
(21:31):
of this where both guys don't, because sometimes that's how
this goes. Sometimes you the opportunities slip, and all of
a sudden you're a little older and not quite as good,
and then you can't uplift rosters the way you used to.
And you know, it does happen. It does happen in
NBA history. But great question, though I enjoyed that one.
How would you assess Ayton's defense so far? Will he
be the rim protector the Lakers need based on his
(21:53):
performances this season. So let's dig into this a little bit.
First of all, team wide, the Lakers have been a
little better on defense than you think. They've avoided the
bottom ten and they are twelve in points in the
paint allowed. But to be clear, a good portion of
that is when Ayton's off the floor. The defense has
been pretty bad when Ayton's been on the floor this year.
They have over a one to twenty defensive rating with
(22:15):
Ayton on the floor, according to Cleaning the Glass, that
goes down to one oh seven when he's off the floor.
That said, I don't think it's as simple as just
the statistics. I think the foundational skills are there. We're
seeing a lot of just his size and athleticism make
impact on defense, blocks, deflections, just a big body around
(22:38):
the rim. We're seeing a lot of the upside. He's
run the floor really well. I think that's been his strength.
But there's been downsides too, like he's had a propensity
to commit fouls where he doesn't quite get into positions
soon enough. There have been some off ball sequences where
he has, you know, just been a little bit too
glued up to his man because of a switch, and
he's not offering help at the rim that weighed he's
(23:00):
capable of. He hasn't been covering for his teammates as
much with anticipatory like peeling off and helping at the rim.
There's been just a little bit of that lack of
like refined defense from him to start the year. But
I actually look at that as like an area of
opportunity that the Lakers should be able to help him with.
Like I think you couldn't conceptualize of a better player
(23:25):
to anchor behind Ayton to help him with his decision
making and his read and react play on defense than Lebron.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
James.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Lebron is the kind of guy that's going to help
right behind him to communicate actions, help him see what's
coming before it gets there. Help you know, yell at
him to get up higher, to get down lower, to
do this or to do that. He's going to be
the brains behind Aten's bronze, so to speak. Connecting his
physical talents with having a high IQ anchor behind him.
(23:52):
I think it's something that has a lot of potential
to be better. To be clear, I think the eight
and experiment has been a resounding success so far. He's
been so good on offense. His scoring on the role
has been vital to this offense in the early year.
They do not win those games without Luca without having
a legitimate screen and role partner with Austin that can
(24:13):
really make teams pay for keying in on Austin. I
think it's been a resounding success. I'm just saying the
defensive end has been more like highlight good than statistically good,
and I think connecting those two is going to be having.
What will help connect those two is having higher IQ
defenders on the floor like Lebron. Even having Luca back
that can help him kind of get to a higher
(24:34):
level on that side of the floor. Jason, what are
your thoughts on the rockets last two wins since the
zero to two start. I'm a Rockets fan and I've
seen some great signs of this team potentially being a
high scoring offense, while some concerns with the defense, but
I think that will be resolved when Story and Finney
Smith comes back. Another question I have is who, in
your eyes, is a realistic guard option the Rockets can
obtain after December fifteenth. Derek White is the dream fit,
(24:56):
but not realistic. I've heard Drew Holliday and Kobe White
as some names, but I think CJ McCollum is the
most realistic. With Houston's cap situation, He's on a lottery
team with the potential of being bought out. And while
CJ may not be a positive defender or the most
athletic player, I believe you can provide the ball handling
and playmaking aspect and the shooting shot making ability that
can fill the void of what this team needs with
Van Vliet being out. When acquiring CJ moved the needle
(25:19):
for you at all. For Houston and your contender rankings.
Thank you for your great basketball analysis and all the
hard work that you provide in all your content. Thank
you so much for supporting the show. I agree with
your kind of early assessment in the sense that they've
been better on offense than I expected in terms of
just having some really high level initiators that kind of
counteracts a lot of the issues with their spacing. Also,
(25:40):
all three of those guys have a little bit of
like a resilience against spacing concerns. A men, Thompson is
so good at just kind of popping off the ground
in the short range and shooting little floaters in short
jump shots over the tops of rim protectors. Kevin Durant
obviously the best jump one of the best jump shooters
in the league in recent history, albern Jhangun and ability
to hit little hook shots over his left shoulder. They
(26:02):
have more resilience to spacing than I thought. And I've
been a little underwhelmed with the defense in the sense
that their lack of foot speed has obviously come to
the forefront on certain occasions against faster teams. Right, So
I agree with your assessment there. To be honest, as
far as their last two games go, Brooklyn and Toronto
have both been really, really bad to start the year.
So it's kind of similar to what we talked about
(26:23):
with San Antonio. It's hard to really learn from those
matchups as far as the guards that you're talking about, Like,
I don't think it's off the table for Houston to
trade for a bigger name, And I think a lot
of it's going to come to how they look over
this larger sample, Like you're going to see over a
larger sample, do they think that they're close and they
need a high level ball handler, or do they think
that they're you know, really close, and they only need
(26:46):
a mild upgrade that can sustain some of their long
term flexibility without having to give up draft assets. Like
those are the kinds of decisions they have to make, right.
A guy like CJ, for example, I think would be
a great fit. He's a methodical skill guard, Houston has
really good screeners that can help free him up, an
excellent over the top shooter, an underrated passer in those situations.
(27:07):
If you could get him on a veteran minimum contract
and a buyout, I mean, let's not overthink it, that
would be a really nice fit. But I think it
depends on how much Houston feels they need a modest
upgrade versus a substantial upgrade. The problem with a guy
like Kobe White is he's going to be attached to
a long term deal at the end of that. Guys
like Derek White same thing. You're matching a big salary.
(27:29):
But my whole opinion on this is like, we just
need to see a lot more rockets basketball before we
start really defining what type of player they need.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
So like, for instance, a.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Guy like Derek White, he provides a lot of pull
up shooting, but not a lot of rim pressure, So
I really want to see how much that specific dynamic.
What do they need more? Do they need a guy
who can get to the rim more, or do they
need a guy who's a better pull up shooter. I
just want to see more of that dynamic bear out
over the course of the season. Next question, I agree
with your assessment of Lebron's value you However, I would
(28:01):
love to see him in a Manugeen Nobly style role
off the bench, reduce his minutes slightly to ensure he's
fresh for the postseason, bolster the second unit offensively while
making it even more dangerous defensively. He would still be
a closer, but I think that with Luca usually being
in attack mode from the get go and matchups, that
means Lebron is less needed at the start of a match.
Your thoughts, So, I look at Lebron as very much
(28:22):
a Swiss army knife, and I think it's very different
than the dynamic when these guys all started playing together
at the end of last season. I talked about this
with Pete and Darius on the Laker Film Room podcast
last night. You guys can check that out on their feed.
But we went heavy into this concept, the idea of
Lebron joining this team. And remember last year, Lebron was
(28:43):
playing at one of the top levels in the league.
He was literally looking like a first team All NBA
guy in that February March stretch before he got hurt.
And so adding Luca and Austin to that is complicated
because Luca came in and didn't really want to step
on Lebron's toes and it was clunky for they lost
games to Utah and Charlotte as they were kind of
feeling that transition out.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
This is very different.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Luca and Austin are in full rhythm, and Lebron's coming
back from sciatica and hasn't touched a basketball. It hasn't
played meaningful NBA basketball in a very long time. So
like Lebron is going to very much ease his way
into this situation. I look at him as a guy
that can be really impactful off the ball. He's a
mid forties catch and shoot player, a great cutter, a
great short role player off of blitzz. He's going to
(29:29):
be able to impact winning with the starting group. I
don't see any reason to bring him off the bench
because the starters need him. Eight needs him as a
defensive communicator. They're not a good defensive rebounding team. They
need Lebron to help with defensive rebounding. Lebron is an
additional offensive skill to help grease the wheels for that unit.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
He's also forty one years old.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
You don't want him warning up, warming up for the game,
and then immediately sitting on the bench. You want him
playing with the starters. There are ways to accomplish lineups
through staggering to achieve some of the stuff you're talking
about in terms of lineup bou and that's something they'll
figure out. But I would keep starting Lebron. I don't
see any reason not to do that. I think a
lot of people are overthinking the Lebron thing. He's just
gonna help them, Hi. Jason Detroit's had a decent start
(30:11):
to the season, but the w against Orlando might have
set off a catalyst to jumpstart our sluggish half court offense.
Going back to using Kid in the post. In an
episode last season, you mentioned how hyper efficient he is
with that baby hook shot, but it also cuts down
on his turnovers compared to when he initiates from high
pick and roll or a drag screen. Combine that with
Duran's increased aggressiveness on dribble drives from the high post,
and Nasar's increased ball handling responsibilities, we just might have
(30:34):
enough aggregate ball handling slash initiation to craft an average
offense until Ivy returns. My question is twofold, do you
think this approach is sustainable? And how would you defend
against kid and back downs, especially given that he's really
the only true big point guard in the East. Thanks
as always for your content. So this is interesting. So
Kate has been only getting zero point nine to one
(30:57):
points per possession and pick and roll including passes to
start the year. That really is I kind of synthesize
the issues that the Pistons are having to start this
year down to two things. One kid hasn't been very good.
He's shooting just twelve for thirty on twos in pick
and roll, in large part because he's just five for
seventeen on mid range jump shots, and he's just fifty
(31:20):
three percent at the rim. You're right about him breaking
out the post ups against Orlando. He hit a little
left shoulder hook over Desmond Bay and he got another
one over Anthony Black but he's actually only run three
post ups this entire season, so I'd like to see
him increase his volume.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
There.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
You mentioned the turnovers, that's a good point. The turnover
percentage when kid shoots out a pick and roll is
like just shy of twenty percent. But like when you're
posting up, it's easier to protect the basketball in traffic
because you have your back turn to the defense to
the defender. So that's an interesting kind of idea. I
think Caid will be a better pick and role player
in time. I just think he's not playing well. So
for me, it's more about just variety getting Kaid back
(31:57):
to form by adding variety. He needs more post ups
in his diet, just so that he's not doing the
same thing every single time down the floor. James Harden
in twenty eighteen to twenty twenty. That's the case study.
When you spam the exact same damn thing every single time,
you make yourself easy to guard. You want to add variety.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Right.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
The biggest the second piece though, and this is arguably
the most important piece. They're not getting out in transition
the way they used to like this. They used to
be this big physical defense that they would ride to
transition opportunities. They're still the same big, physical defense, but
after being sixth and transition points per game last year,
they're sitting at nineteenth this year. I also think that's
on Cade. Your point guard drives your pace. We talked
(32:35):
about this with Tyrese Haliburton last year. Caid needs to
do a better job of getting them up the floor
and transition faster. As for how to defend Caid post ups,
to me, i'd force him over his right shoulder, especially
when he like he likes to attack off the left block,
so that he can get to his left shoulder in
the middle of the lane for that little right hook
over his left shoulder right. But if you can force
him towards the baseline, the passing angles are harder, and
(32:57):
now he's shooting over his right shoulder, where he's either
gonna have to go to his left hand or a
fadeaway jump shot, which is going to be a lower percentage.
That's how I would guard him there, but again, I
just want to see him do it more.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
A couple more.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Hey, Jason and Jackson, hope you're enjoying the season so far.
Got a warrior's question. There's been a lot of debate
about whether the missing piece is a scoring guard or
an athletic two way wing. In light of the start
to their season, could the missing piece actually be a
regular season innings eter at center with Horford sideline? At times,
their depth at the five dwindles rather fast, and in
the five games, we've already seen how valuable it is
to have bodies to hang in the west, not to
(33:30):
mention the possibility of injuries. Could a consolidation trade involving
some of the guards and maybe even some future picks
be the right move?
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Thanks, So.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
This is one of those things where it's very easy
to tell yourself like, oh, we need this, we need that,
we need this, we need that, because every team has
three or four holes, and you're absolutely right that, Like,
you know, I thought the Horford minutes last night were
a classic example. We've talked about this before when you're
an older player and you're not quite as locked in
and engaged because you're playing against a team that is
siting their best player, and Giannis and Tanankompo, older players,
(34:03):
when they let go of the rope a little bit,
tend to look really bad. And the Warriors got rolled
in the Horford minutes, and there have been times when
you look at it and it's like, oh, Horford's out tonight.
All of a sudden, there's a lot of Trace Jackson,
Davis and Quinton Posts and it doesn't look very good right,
And ideally you'd have a better backup center to fuel
that situation. My thing is, when it comes to expending assets,
(34:24):
you want to expend assets on players that are going
to play a serious role in your rotation. And when
I look at the playoff rotation, at the center position,
there's gonna be a lot of Horford, There's gonna be
a lot of Draymond. There might be a little bit
of room because you're gonna have Draymond at five a
lot of the time and the Horford at the five
alongside Draymond or Horford at the five by himself a
(34:44):
lot of the time. There's not a huge opportunity for
minutes there at the center position. However, swing forward, two, three, four,
there are gonna be potentially some opportunities there for an
upgrade over the course of the of a playoff run.
Minutes that are available, that's where it makes sense to spend,
whether it's for scoring guard or for a versatal forward.
(35:07):
You know, anywhere from that two to that four. It
doesn't matter which guy you go with. There there's minutes
available in the playoff rotation. So like, yeah, ideally, in
a perfect world you'd have a big beast of a
center that you can ride for stretches of the regular season.
And if you can get that sort of thing on
the cheap, sure, but if it's going to be expending assets,
I would spend it on more of a perimeter upgrade.
(35:28):
Next question, if you've seen the book written on the
drama within the Lakers, they seem so incompetent and entitled
compared to smartpront offices like the Warriors and Celts.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Love the show. Thank you for supporting the show.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Yeah, so this you're referencing the book A Hollywood Ending
by Yarren Weizman. I've read it this summer. I highly
recommended if you're a Lakers fan. If you're a Lakers
fan is rooted for the team over the Lebron era,
it's basically just like a behind the scenes history of
that entire era, and it's kind of a trip down
memory lane and both a good way and a bad way.
You're going to be frustrated at times, You're going to
be excited at times. It just was fun as someone
(36:00):
who rooted for that team to go read that book.
I highly recommend that you guys go check that out.
It's a Hollywood ending by Jarn Weizman that said, the
specific points you're making about the front offices, that is
the frustrating part. Is like you watch these teams like
the Warriors, the Celtics, the thunder, the Pacers, these teams
that have like really strong basketball culture. Cleveland is another
(36:21):
team that I would include in that mix. There's several
of them around the league. But there's this idea where
it's like basketball experts are in charge. There's a clear
basketball identity that comes from the top down that continues
to percolate down into even the end of the bench,
guys in the rotation. There's a culture that is strong
there that doesn't exist with the Lakers, in large part
because it's been a very parochial, family based small business
(36:45):
where you know, the decision making process is convoluted and
there are people that don't dedicate their lives to basketball
that are making decisions for them. It just it's discouraging
and it's you know, part of life as a Lakers fan.
I know that you consider Jokic is the greatest offensive
player of all time and Steph as the second, with
your main winning point being for Jokic that he takes
(37:07):
more short range shots, which are less affected by shot variants.
You consider both their gravity to be similar, but I
think Steph's gravity creates more spacing near the baskets. There
are multiple defenders running after him at the three point line,
hence creating more short range shots which are less affected
by shot variants. I know a lot of Jokic's playmaking
also leads to cut straight to the basket, but he
is still occupying that space inside the three point line,
(37:28):
which allows help to recover. At times, it leads to
cycle passes to open threes, which is still a great shot,
but like you said, high variance. Another underrated thing about
Steph's offense, which I don't know if you've considered, is
how much he wears down defenders. Last year in the
playoffs and men Thompson, who's considered maybe the best athlete
in the league, was gassed by the end of the series,
pulled his calf, I think, which also leads to him
being worse on offense. I've really been enjoying the show.
(37:50):
Thank you for supporting the show. Interesting kind of breakdown
of your point of view there. I think there are
a couple things that I disagree with.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
One.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
One of the pieces with Jokic's gravity is he pulls
centers away from the basket, so he removes rim protection
from the equation. That's why they get so many cuts
and so in a lot of ways like he does
generate a lot of those easier twos. I think the
biggest thing that I disagree with you about is when
I'm discussing the short range shot making, it's in the
context of elite defense.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
So yeah, if Steph.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Runs around, he's gonna have sequences where he draws two
with his classic gravity and a guy gets wide open
for a layup, and they're gonna be plays with Jokic
where he looks at one guy like Jamal Murray's backscreening
for Christian Brown and getting ready to come off of
a handoff, and he looks at Jamal Murray and the
defense goes with Jamal and he pitches the ball to
Christian Brown for a wide open layup, and that looks
beautiful and it makes highlights. These are things that help
(38:39):
carry Stephan Jokic's offense over the course of the season.
Here's the thing, though, you end up in a big
game late, you're playing against a great defense. They don't
fuck up, they don't botch the switches, they stay attached,
and all of a sudden, it becomes about your guy
having to get a bucket. And that is where Yokic
has the advantage. He can get five to ten feet
from the basket and can get to left shoulder, right
(39:01):
shoulder moves that he can hit at like sixty five
sometimes even close to seventy percent. That's the specific dynamic
that Jokic has presented that has made me view him
as the greatest offensive player that I've ever seen. He
is this guy that generates countless wide open threes, countless
wide open buckets underneath the basket, countless kick ahead opportunities.
(39:23):
Jokic is one of the best transition passers in the
league while also being this post up threat that has
a score percentage possession of possession that is much higher
than most of the perimeter based stars, including Lebron over
the course of NBA history. All Right, two more quick
ones with the Sixers backcourt of Maxi and Edgecombe setting
the league on fire to start the year. How does
(39:45):
that change what the Sixers do with Embiid and Paul George.
The speed and athleticism of the backcourt seems to clash
with the more slow and methodical style of Embiid In
Paul George, let alone their injury concerns. Both players value
seems like it's currently in the tank right now, and
it is a small sample size for it. Who may
not be putting up twenty a night the whole year.
But does this make the Sixers consider finding a way
to move on from their two highly paid veteran stars
(40:07):
and lean fully into rebuilding and retooling around their young backcourt?
Speaker 1 (40:10):
Love the show?
Speaker 2 (40:12):
So it's complicated because who you trading Embiid and Paul
George too? They both make so much money and both
have looked quite frankly physically decrepit right now. My thing is,
I look at it as more of an upside Like
it's like whatever you get from Embiid is gravy in
the sense that like you've got all these talented young
players you play in this super fun style. Look with Embiid,
(40:35):
he's still finding opportunities to score the basketball in his
face ups, he's providing like a pick and pop threat
with Tyree s Maxy, I think there's a lot of
a potential for Embiid to eventually find a way to
contribute through his talent. Paul George will see again, he
occupies a massive salary slot, but there are a lot
of these minutes going to guys like Jabari Walker and
Dominique Barlow who are playing super hard and they're athletic
(40:58):
and they're doing things. But Paul George, if he comes
in for a couple shifts here and there and can
hit some threes and run some second side action, I
think he can add some value too. I look at
it very simply like you're not going to be able
to trade them. So if you're not going to be
able to trade them, you kind of just have to
try to find roles with them on this team. And
they're so talented still even at their old age, that
(41:19):
I think in smaller roles, under the guise of minute
limits and load management, you can find a way for
them to impact winning for you on your team. Last question,
in your opinion, what will it take production wise and
team record wise? For Wemby to capture MVP this year. Really,
the production he's at right now is more than enough.
Him averaging over six stocks per game and being a
(41:43):
dominant defensive rebounder and averaging close to thirty that's plenty.
The main thing is going to be the team's record.
They're already off to such a great start five and zero.
To me, it's like if they if the Spurs get
that like three seed or the two seed, I think
he has to be MVP because the other MVP candidates
are all playing with substantially more talent relative to that
(42:04):
MVP conversation. But I think he's on track. The Spurs
look a lot better with their defense and their rebounding
and their transition attack than I expected them too, so
I do think it's on the table.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
All right, guys.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
It's all I have for today is always sincerely appreciate
you guys for supporting us and supporting the show.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
We will be back on Monday. I will see you
guys that
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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