The Western Conference Is Insanely Close

The Western Conference Is Insanely Close

Okay boys let’s talk about the middle of the Western Conference uh five teams that are separated by three and a half games Kings Pelicans Mavs Rockets Suns why did I decide on these five teams specifically I don’t know let’s talk about Phoenix who just had a blowout

Lost to the Clippers they had a fourth quarter collapse to the Grizzlies the thre man lineup of KD book and Beal which has played 108 minutes now has a positive net rating of eight so that’s good but still their last couple have not gone well I’m not in love with their

Process right now I mean you can see it in that fourth quarter loss to the Grizzlies where they had a few plays with KD playing with bench lineups where it was like it took them too long to get it to KD on like an ISO on the left hand

Side or there was a couple plays where Katie didn’t even touch the ball at all you had very late there where it was just a couple of simple pick and rolls up top one time jiren Jackson contested Beal at the rim and he missed another time where the Grizzlies put two on the

Ball on KD and they collapsed on nkit at the rim and it just felt like the Grizzlies were very prepared for the offense the suns were going to run even if the Suns can still make any tough shot you know also shout out to V Williams who’s doing some things on

Memphis right now yeah look to talk about be a little bit more I think there have definitely been plays where like he’s attacking off the catch or he’s pushing in transition or he is getting downhill off of an action with nurkic maybe just a screen dho whatever and

It’s like okay that gives them some extra Rim juice because like they’re towards the bottom of the league and rim attempts per game they’re also like second and mid-range and okay they get more leeway than that than your average team they got KD book and Beal okay fine

They’re also 26 and three-point attempts but that is without Beal for most of the season so he could tick that up a little bit and of course when you look at their roster besides Grayson Allen and Eric Gordon there’s just not a lot of guys here who just knock down Shooters right

Bates deop has been disappointing for them you do wish that Wabi was giving them a little more from three though uh Booker just had a quote recently where he was saying that they need to get into their stuff a little faster I forgot if I mentioned this already but they’re

Like 28th in Pace or whatever now the strength of these guys is that there are going to be some games where none of this matters because the shot making of book KD and Beal is just so good that it doesn’t matter if oh they took too long

Want to get into that said oh they you know didn’t take the exact shot chart that you would Envision a team taking in 2024 you know of course KD in books assist numbers have been good I mean you can find plays where like KD will be in

The post and he’ll make a skip pass to somebody for a shot or it’ll be like they’ll skip it to Booker and then Booker will go off the catch and drive and then kick it like Grayson Allen for a three or it’s in there Talent of their

Top three dudes like this offense should and I think will be better I know there’s an argument amongst Suns fans being like well should they get another point guard not to like take the full-time handling duties away from like book and Beal and KD but more so just be

Able to sprinkle in a little bit more variety you know allow those guys to get into like some more offb stuff occasionally and stuff I mean yeah that’s possible but number one you might be getting a little too small two I think they’ve got the guys to figure

This out I mean book even said that in his thing where he was like no we should be able to figure this out by now and even with all that again they’re plus eight with their top three guys in so like maybe everything I just said does

Not matter I mean personally I think a forward who can basically be what they were hoping hoping that bit’s deop could be for them might be a larger need than another guard just a tall help Defender who can make shots pretty much up to this point they’ve been like a mid- tier

Defense I remember going into the year my big question with them was their defense and like would it be more aogi for on ball defense would it be more B to deop for more like wing and help defense and stuff I mean look B to deop

Plays 17 minutes a game makoi plays 20 there’s just a limitation on what some of your defensive guys are going to be able to do for you if on the other end teams just don’t have to guard them that much nurkic has been good I’m going to

Mention that every time because well I was pretty negative when they made the eight and trade and okay Nur has been good he’s been exactly what they wanted him to be screen Setter box out guy better passer than Aon just tough energy dude the whole thing culture guy nurk

Has been good now let’s get to the Mavs of course Luca has been fantastic this year he’s going to be in the middle of the MVP conversation the whole time Kyrie has missed a good amount of games he’s back now Derek Lively has missed the last few games for them and I think

We all understand by now just how massive it is the Lively stepped in as a rookie and was immediately a capable dive guy rim protector and and all that right and also putting the ball on the floor when he’s got space in the middle

Like if they put two to the ball on a on a ball handler um I actually think their fourth quarter against the Wolves recently where they won late kind of sums up a lot of feelings I have with this team positive and negative this was the January 7th game against the Wolves

Not the December 28th one so in that fourth of course you had your plays where like Kyrie is making a tough three over jayen McDaniels or luuk is making a tough step back to okay that’s great those guys can do that but I thought it was interesting how like goar was

Playing off of Grant Williams or Derrick Jones Jr and eventually the Mavs put those guys in screen actions and one time Grant was actually able to pump and drive past Rudy at the rim for a layup which I wouldn’t bet him on him doing

That all the time but he was able to do it and then one time Derrick Jones Jr was able to get a dunk where they put two to the ball on I think it was Luca and then Dwight Powell like sealed Rudy at the rim and Jones was able to drive

And get a dunk and it’s like if they could just get a few more of those plays a game from their non big role players AKA not Derrik lley I think that’d be nice for him and the number numbers do show this I mean for the season they’re

Averaging the third least amount of shots at The Rim other story lines Dante axim has looked the best he’s ever looked and we hope that he can stay healthy similar to monk with the Kings Hardaway can be a flamethrower any given night even with how much Lively is done

For them they do need some help on the boards I mean Maxi kba while I mean look Maxi kba averages like seven points and five rebounds it’s not like he’s going to kill you with the block score or whatever but he does help this team and

He just hasn’t been there at all this season so yeah but the biggest thing with Dallas man is just you get Kyrie and Luca in a play match up and the other team even if it’s a better team who we would all pick to win just I mean

It’s Kyrie and Luka in a playoff match up good luck you know now let’s go to the Kings who are good and yet there are some things under the hood to be concerned about and this team is a bit of a roller coaster just from game to

Game and their fan base has been I think more aggro than you would think for a team that again is good granted Kings fans have been through some things over the last couple decades let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way first Fox and sabonis are still awesome I think we

All know by now just how good Fox is is from three now and then as for Keegan like you should be still very excited about Keegan long term with that said like if you want to go game by game here you got some games where within the sabonis handoff actions he’s he’s

Getting into his pull-ups everything’s fantastic other times you can go stretches where it’s like oh yeah Keegan Murray’s in the game right now now of course they they’ve given him more responsibility defensively this year and like everybody else I say do not trade him however there’s other things with

This team so uh Kevin herder’s shooting slump has now gotten to the point where it’s like did something happen to Kevin herder Harrison barnes’s Rim rate is way down Malik M can be a flamethrower Off the Bench look I’m going to give you their recent game against the Hawks as

The sort of sum up everything I feel about this team game recently for him they go down by a lot in the first half and in the first quarter look Harrison Barnes and Kevin herder missed some shots there’s a couple plays where sabonis is like a little high on a Trey

Pick and roll and then the help behind him is a little slow and so capella is scoring inside or you’ve got like herder or whoever getting beat on like Deonte just driving in a straight line couple times where they collapse and no one goes out to like sadique Bay for a three

Before you know they’re down 20 points like six minutes into the game it’s like what the hell’s going on and then you fast forward to the fourth quarter and as they come back from down 12 with like eight minutes left uh Barnes and herder are not in the game it’s Fox sabonis

Monk Dart and Keegan Murray and then from there you’ve got like DTE picking up Trey early on possessions which was kind of to mix results Trey was able to get him a couple times you’ve got them like doubling Trey and then getting back to their guys which could be a gamble

But they were a little better at it in the fourth quarter there uh you had dear Fox just making a couple of like pullup threes or tough threes over Deon where it’s like I guess he’s just going to make these one time where Deon falls asleep off ball with fox in the corner

Couple plays where Malik monk just kind of wakes everybody up and gets downhill on a screen action with sabonis and like hits him with a bounce pass or whatever Hawks double Fox and then he throws it to Malik monk gets downhill hits Keegan it’s like what am I supposed to do with

This team they’re a good talented team with two really good top two dudes and as I say all that they lost to the Hornets like a week ago or whatever and their energy was really bad in that game and then they just lost to the Pelicans

And to be honest they kind of just didn’t show up and that was at home also one thing with Fox and simonis while they have been really good both of their free throw percentages are worse this year just something to care about so we’ll see I don’t know Kings fans want

Venko have to get more minutes big picture yeah I think they still need like a really good help Defender and stuff but those guys are hard to come by and now we get to the Pelicans and you know I don’t know how often you would have a team being seven games above 500

Nearly Midway into the season and yet they’re starting five as a net negative on the year and that’s even if you want to do like last 10 or 15 games or whatever it’s not just the whole season and even with that they’re 10 and five in their last 15 games and they’ve also

Got a top 10 defense I mean Zion sure his conditioning has been worse than you would want it to be at this point he can still be a wrecking ball going to the rim he can still go off for 27 points on great efficiency like he did against the

Wolves right but yeah I mean you can just look at the numbers like he has not been as good this year as when we were able to see him last year and definitely not as good as he was two years ago and in that same game Brandon Ingram made

What felt like seven or eight pull-up jumpers versus like go bear in a drop right also Brandon Ingram shooting 50% from mid-range this year man that’s like the magic number when it comes to mid-range jump shots and when I’m watching their offense the biggest thing I’m always saying is just get Zion

Involved in some action screening for CJ screening for Ingram those are the big ones or him just getting a screen coming out of the corners you know down screens I mean I was watching their recent one against the Jazz in the fourth quarter the the dagger of the game was Ingram

Gets a screen from Zion the Jazz put two to the ball on Ingram and then it’s a kick to Trey Murphy for three right but the other thing that happened in that jazz game I was watching is like Nance played more minutes than valunas and gr

Valunas didn’t go off as a score in that one there are some games when valunas will get like 15 points 15 rebounds he’s just a beast and you know grabbing offensive boards and but Nance is a more versatile defensive player than valent junis you he’s more switchable

Definitely now if you want to look at some lineup stuff they are much better on defense with Nance in the game as opposed to valent chunis but they’re much better on offense with valent chunis in there over n of course that’s going to be influenced by the guys

You’re playing with but also I I would like to see just to see what happens I’m not saying that it’s definitely going to work I’m just a guy but it would be cool to see more minutes of Nance with CJ Zion Ingram and Herb because that lineup’s only played 18 minutes so far

It’s a very positive net rating but it’s so few minutes I’m not going to go crazy with it but even as I say that there are some lineups where when valent junas is in the game they still hold up well defensively so I don’t want this to be a

Yonas as the problem type of thing like me and everybody on the internet has been saying nothing but nice things about Trey Murphy for the last couple years and what his potential is as a scorer you know obviously the the the range he has in his three ball and

Everything well he’s not in the starting lineup but you’re not going to take herb out because of how great he is defensively I remember watching that jazz game there’s a play where Jordan Clarkson tries to take herb Jones off the dribble on a drive and it’s just

Like no you’re not buddy Herb’s good at everything on defense of course look the biggest things we’ll see what the lineups long term and then also we’ll see if the crunch time offense just keeps on keeping on with running actual sets and getting into them quickly and

Not just falling into a super heavy ISO Ball even if Brandon Ingram will bail you out with some 17f Footers when you do that sometimes okay now let’s talk about the Rockets who do not have Dylan Brooks currently and obviously what he does for their defense is huge but even

With that said you know I was watching that Bucks game they had recently and the amount of plays especially in the first half when they would like collapse on the Bucks inside but then still close out to Shooters and get a good contest it was good stuff man like you’d have

Like shenon meeting Giannis at the rim and of course shenon have just been better defensively this year and then it’s like Fred would help off of Dame from the wing to go close out to Malik Beasley in the corner and then you’ve got like I think it was Jon Tate as well

As Jaylen green closing out to Dame which you probably don’t want two guys closing out to one guy but whatever and then you had Jabari closing out to Middleton who ended up taking the three and it’s just that constant like on a string everybody knows what to do to

Talk about Jabari a little bit more like as a Team Defender Jabari he’s just damn good I mean whether it’s like quick little stunts helping off of his guy or closing out to his guy or helping on the board Wards or just general help defense things like jabari’s just been Rock

Solid and then on offense his shooting has been better and he does still have these moments where he’ll take like one or two dribbles into a pull-up or whatever and it suggests that there is still like a higher ceiling with his scoring but but even so like for what

He’s been this year he’s just been damn good he’s averaging 13 a game it’s it’s not going to jump out at you like that but Jabari is good but of course the foundation of this offense is the Fred shenon pick and roll and I mean it’s

Just a great time yeah sure it’s a lot of Fred Van vet but also he’s the best chance the Rockets have of good offense so it’s got to be him and shenon man it’s just it feels like I say this every single time with the dude it’s hook

Shots it’s the push shot around the free throw line that he gets to it’s the Durk one-legged fadea away that he’s been doing a little more this year it feels like he’s had more physical just straight line drives when he’s needed it up and unders I mean shenon he’s just

He’s great anyway let’s talk about Jaylen green who shooting has been inconsistent this year we’ll just put it like that and I mean I had a tweet like a week ago saying that the Rockets could be the fourth seed if Jaylen green was good this season like all the time his

Effort was good defensively in that buck game I saw but like with Jaylen look it’s pull-ups whether it’s twos or threes off of pick and rolls off of dhos you’ve got some like pull-ups and transition you have some step back threes as well he’s averaging like six

Pull-up shots on the year and step backs are considered in that that’s nba.com it feels like more than six when I’m just watching them but okay it’s six I guess you know he does have these moments where it feels like he keeps his dribble alive a second longer when the big is

Playing drop on him and then maybe it’ll be a hesitation or whatever and then he gets down Hill and I wish that was happening a little bit more cuz like there was some plays in their Wolves game recently where he was like scoring around go bear doing that and it’s like

Okay let’s go like he’ll have like a blow by on jayen McDaniels where he scores it’s like you know nice it’s not just the pullup all the time right but then I was watching The Net game and it’s like he’s getting blocked by Claxton he got by Doran Smith but he got

Blocked by him and I just I don’t totally know where I’m at with Jaylen green and I think deep down udoka also doesn’t like he’s still going to get a lot of minutes and he’s going to say all the right things about Jaylen green but

I think deep down yok is like if I got to go to Aaron holiday or Dar e and finish out a game I will do that we’ve seen some flashes of Cam and amen recently amen he’s been able to get some Shifty downhill stuff occasionally but I

Don’t know he’s playing like 10 minutes a game cam has also been able to get downhill a bit and yeah you can definitely see the NBA Readiness of Cam Whitmore just going downhill slashing and all that

talking about a bunch of teams
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