The Eastern Conference Contenders So Far

The Eastern Conference Contenders So Far

Okay boys let’s talk about the top of the Eastern Conference for a bit and yes Miami is in this video because I will always be terrified of him and also they’re right there at the fourth seed apologies to the magic who are tied with the heat for the fourth seed right now

But I think you got to give Miami The Edge I’ll talk about the magic and some other teams at the very end uh anyway let’s start with the books who have quietly not quietly I don’t know had a great offense for a minute now obviously Dame and Giannis are going to do their

Thing but let’s talk about Chris Middleton who has had more minutes more shot attempts more pick and rolls he’s had some catch and shoots from the opposite when the Dame Yannis pick and roll happens or if it’s like the Dame Brooke pick and roll he’s gotten his own

Pull-up shooting on off of Brooke or Bobby pora screening for him some of Giannis as well they’re running some empty Corner actions with Giannis and Middleton whether it’s a dho or a typical screen action and he’s just been back to doing the signature Middleton thing to me which is he typically will

Get like a screen like from the middle of the floor flash out to the three-point line catch the ball then they immediately flow into like you know aack off the catch if the opportunity is there or get the screen from the guy who set the screen at the free throw line to

Get on the ball he’s also like keeping his dribble low coming around screens from Brooke and then flipping it to Brooke around like the free throw line for floaters or you know Hill hit Dame on the opposite Wing if he’s running a screen action as well like the Bucks

Offense to me is really uh coming together here now whether people are satisfied with the amount of pick and rolls Dam and Yannis are running I don’t know but there’s other things happening here so there’s that now as far as the defense it has been trending upwards I

Do know that they just lost to the Knicks on Christmas day with Brunson going crazy but they did beat the Knicks just two days earlier except that one wasn’t on Christmas um there shot chart is beginning to resemble the bud bucks right like they’re leading the league and opponent mid-range attempts per game

That’s by Design Brooke is all the way back and drop uh they’re giving up about the least amount of corner threes in the league that’s good their last 15 games they’re 11th in defense still wish the defensive rebound percentage was better however and I think those recent Knicks

Games both of them can kind of show this Brunson was able to comfortably get around screens even if it was like Malik Beasley guarding him or Andre Jackson or Middleton for a little bit or Dame for a little bit the effort is good it’s it’s

Just you know he’s got a lot of daylight around these screens because it’s different than when it was Drew or Javon Carter fighting around these screens right we all get this um so even if Brooke is doing his his job it’s still there’s daylight right however in that

First Knicks game RJ Barrett really struggled against the drop defense which that’s another conversation the consistency of RJ and where that stands for the Knicks but that’s another video and so yes the perimeter defense is always going to be a bit of a conversation and I mean if there’s

Anything that’s going to be there undoing when we get to you know the playoffs it could be that or it could just be that the Celtics are that good and we’ll get to them in a second but but with that said I think everything is trending upwards with this team and I

Think the blueprint is there for them to be I mean they’re top five offense right now so there you go and then I don’t know the 12th best defense and then you just hope in the playoffs that you can just really ride the fourman group of Giannis Dame Middleton Brook and then

That fifth guy whether it’s Jackson Bo champ uh Beasley conon Crowder if he can come back yeah that’s the Bucks uh now if we can go on to my beloved Boston Celtics Derek White’s the best player in the NBA the jayen Pingus two-man game is great whether it’s porzingis setting a

Down screen for Jaylen in the corner whether it’s just an empty corner like pick and roll reject screen dho action sometimes just something simple up top it’s just porzingis pops or rolls or jayen drives or you know porzingis might like fake a screen and then cut off of

That or I mean of course it opens up Cutters for other guys that’s just the thing with pringus of spacing Tatum screening for the guards the guards screening for Tatum that’s great defensively porzingis dropping back protecting the rim or Drew guarding anybody or Horford and P out there

Together which doesn’t happen all the time but when it does it gives you more versatility with like porzingis potentially being able to be a help guy like there’s a million options the team’s very talented they’re great and once again Derek white I mean you talk about just the perfect guy to average 16

Points a game on a title Contender between his aggressiveness on threes or how he’ll get downhill and like be physical on drives and make the right play out of pick and rolls and make the swing passes and he’s awesome on screen navigation one-on-one defense Rim protection it’s like it’s crazy there is

One thing with this team uh they in the last 10 games have shot the second least amount of shots in the rim in the league uh if you want to go for the season overall they’re like fourth or fifth least in shot attempts at The Rim per

Game they’re also like 20th and free throws per game on the year if you want to go more recently they’re more of like a mid-tier free throws per game team so we’ll see look in their last Laker game you had a number of possessions where porzingis like would have like a seal in

Transition on ruy and they would find him immediately in the paint and he’s going to like his seven foot jumper or whatever it is uh he had a switch on cam reddish in the Lakers game where he immediately fights to get a seal right in front of the rim and then I think

Derek white like clears out and it’s just like kp’s got all the space in the room to operate Drew entry pass and then he had a three-point play hook shot over cam so they’re already showing those signs if you want to go back a little bit like to their recent Cleveland game

I mean Jaylen was pretty much living in the paint in that game some of it being like screening for Derek white and then attacking in a straight line dribble or just kind of being ruthless going to Max Ru in one-on ones or you know like the signature empty side action that he runs

With porzingis like it’s porzingis dho with Jaylen except they fake the dho and then Jaylen just cuts the other way right like so they can do these things and the their shot chart is always just going to be baked into the team it’s just a matter of like instead of being

20th in shots at The Rim can you be like 13th I guess and also I think part of this too was like the Tatum sidestep three which uh you know there was a bit of conversation on Twitter about and this was something that I’ve kind of

Alluded to but I haven’t been super loud about but like yeah Tatum’s side step three step back three it’s considered a pullup three on nba.com whatever we all know what talking about yeah it’s been slipping the past couple of years now besides that Tatum has been great with

The aggressive drives and being in the post more and I mean I’ve already mentioned I love whenever he screens for the guards I think it’s just like one of the best things they can do or the other way around I do think the Celtics could use like a three4 the problem is that

They just don’t have a lot of money to move I mean they have picks to move but when you start to put together the contract there’s just not a whole lot there um also just obviously pring’s health is huge Horford while he is still as solid as ever and I appreciate the

Fact that he could still like give him real minutes and be solid defensively and everything like okay his age is what it is we’ll see now we can go to Philly Philly is very good Joel has been better this year than his MVP season uh the

Two-man game with him and Maxi is more Dynamic than the Harden one I mean the Harden and bead one was like pretty mechanical it’s pick and roll and let’s go from there whereas the Maxi it’s like you know fake dhos and Maxi throw it to embiid and then immediately run into a

Sprint to get the hand off and then we’re going from there or it’s embiid just throws the ball behind him like going a bounce pass and because he knows Maxi’s going to catch it in stride and then we’re going to the next thing defensively I think Joel’s been better

Than he has the past couple Seasons as well I mean his Rim protection stats suggest once again he’s like among the best Rim protectors in the league look I actually want to talk about Tobias for a bit I know sixer fans are lukewarm on Tobias right now I would say and his

Last three games have actually been really good with his three-point rate being higher which is probably the biggest thing for Tobias because it’s like sometimes he just doesn’t go into Gunslinger mode I guess on like good threes pretty much and uh I like when he’s involved in the stuff whether it’s

Like Maxi sets him an off ball screen at the top of the keys where he can cut when embiid’s got the ball like around the elbow so cuz it beats passing has been you know much better this season of course but like I said Philly fans are

Lukewarm on Tobias even with these three recent games and a lot of it is because like we have a history of Tobias being fine he’s a good player but if you want him to be your third option on a team hoping to win a title I don’t know about

That one you know now look there are pretty much no reports at all connecting them to Zack LaVine so I’m just not really going to go there I think they could use and the reports have said they want a two-way guy OG would definitely help them it’s just between what it

Would cost and the contract you have to give them on top of whatever the the Raptors want to do we all know this but just to say it again like they’ve got expiring they’ve got the picks from the James Harden trade all that I’ve settled this before with them I mean Dori Andy

Smith would be a good pick up Caruso definitely now if we want to talk about more of like a combo guard thing which is another thing I’ve talked about like look they got DeAnthony Melton and Beverly and obviously Maxi’s great and Tobias can handle some ball handling but

If you wanted another guy for the sake of when defenses are really loading up and you’re facing better defenses in the playoffs and all that well it is kind of tough to find that guy now we are getting some dejonte noise with reports right now not like connected to any one

Particular team but just hey by the way this is a thing I don’t know whether they entertain it that much right now but okay we’ll just that we’re monitoring that one I guess anyway now let’s go to Miami and I the thing with the heat is like they’re good they just

Haven’t really had their main guys out there together that much like bam and Jimmy have played I think like basically half the season together in fact the trio of bam Jimmy and hero have only appeared in seven games together look Duncan Robinson’s doing more after the dribble and as a playmaker I’ve already

Said hakz just in the last video I mean it’s an amazing pick like the dude is creating his own shot going at NBA Defenders because he’s built like a dude who’s been in the league for like six years already bam is more aggressive going into like his mid-range and all

That look Miami is probably going to win somewhere between 49 and like 52 games or something and I’m just going to be terrified the Celtics could win 66 games Miami could win 48 they meet in round two let’s say and I’m just going to be

Like well here we go again I’m not going to have fun now sure like if a massive Improvement that point guard presents itself I mean Larry’s been fine he’s not scoring a whole lot but he’s been fine but like if that presents itself okay cool or just another point guard in

General U if they could find an opportunity to like beef up the four spot a little bit sure go for it in fact they’ve already been linked to PJ Tucker and yeah I mean that was the best the Tucker looked in the last few years because they actually used him on

Offense they used him in handoff actions they used him in screens and stuff like that he got up to like three assists a game okay that’s a lie it was two assists game but still you know he was he was cool there just a real quick thing with some other east teams look

Like I said in the beginning the magic are tied with the heat for the 4/5 seed right now their defense is great love Jaylen Suggs already said nice things about Anthony black in the draft video just making solid play after solid play Swing pass or you know kick out to

Whoever off of a play rotate from the corner all this good stuff Paulo and fron how good they are this early on in their careers if you’re a magic fan you should be extremely happy with where things are going but I would just put Miami above them uh Cleveland they’ve

Got a bunch of injuries they they just got to tread water for a while there don’t seem to be any actual reports about them wanting to make a major roster shake up I know people are just talking on the internet on if they would so I don’t know the Knicks first off the

Mitchell Robinson injury is just a gut punch and a half man with how good he was playing how mobile he was looking on defense being a monster on the boards I feel like somebody cursed the Knicks to where when Julius is playing well RJ can’t be consistent or it’s the other

Way around like early in the season it was whoa is RJ going to take over julius’s second option spot and now it’s flipped randle’s been way better and now R.J is very up and down would love to see more minutes for Emanuel quickley potentially more lineups where quickley

And Brunson are out there together and I get it there’s going to be a challenge cuz one’s your Sixth Man they’re both guards I get it but you you look at it like Brunson has played with Quinton Grimes dant chenzo RJ way more than he’s played with quickly like we’re talking

Like basically over a hundred minutes with those guys compared to quickly you know so it feels like there could be a little more there and you know you might want to say Well they’re small and all that stuff look Quickly’s activity defensively is good but also uh their

Net rating together has like been very positive so far so yeah that’s that’s the top of the East for you

talking about the best teams in the east
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