Suns Death Lineup: The Kevin Durant role that makes Phoenix DANGEROUS | Hoops Tonight

Suns Death Lineup: The Kevin Durant role that makes Phoenix DANGEROUS | Hoops Tonight

All right welcome to Hoops tonight here at the volume happy Thursday everybody hope all of you guys are having an incredible week we just got a quick show today we’re going to hit the Cleveland Cavaliers who have won 11 of their last 14 games and got a big win over the

Milwaukee Bucks last night I’ll be it without Giannis and tenac kmo and then at the tail end of the show I finally got around to watching that Suns comeback against the Kings where Kevin Durant moved to the five they went small and they looked incredible on both ends

Of the floor as they came back to win after being down 22 points in the fourth quarter a lot of really interesting stuff there and what I think could be an interesting lineup for the Suns to to use kind of sparingly as a weapon down

The line I want to dig into that concept you guys know the drill before we get started subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel mean a lot to me if you guys would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button don’t forget about our podcast feeds if you’re

More into the podcast format of the show you can find that wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight follow me on Twitter _ jlt so you guys don’t miss any show announcements as well as the film threads that I do most mornings I did film threads on both of these games that

You can find on my Twitter feed _ jonl and then last but not least keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments I know we’ve kept pushing the mailbag back but I talked to the team and and uh the idea was if I’m going out of town for 5 days we might as

Well run it while I’m out of town so we’re going to be recording that tomorrow so still one more day to get mailbag questions in I’m going to hit a ton of them so keep dropping those mailbag questions in the YouTube comments all right let’s talk some basketball so obviously Giannis was out

But the Cavs blitzed the Bucks from the opening tip they were up 22-2 and I want to focus in on the defensive end of the floor because they here’s the thing even without Giannis and obviously Giannis is an incredibly important player for the bucks he’s the one fast guy really in that starting

Lineup like truly truly like transcendently Fast type of player right and so he’s going to it’s obviously going to hurt for him to not be out there but there’s enough offensive skill in that lineup for them to be decent right especially on the offensive end of the floor like Dame is a transcendently

Great offensive player Chris Middleton is a good very very good offensive player Brook Lopez is a is a big man who brings enough offensive versatility to to make scoring a possibility Malik Beasley has been one of the best Shooters in the League this year Andre Jackson Jr was the one kind of like

Offensive weak point in that lineup but they literally could not generate a quality shot to save their lives to start this game and so it came down to a bunch of of of specific matchup Dynamic so first of all Isaac aoro is on Damen Lillard and he’s one of the few players

In the league that’s big enough or I should say bigger than Dame but also quick enough to stay in front of him and what they were doing is in any Brook Lopez action they were hedging and recovering with Jared Allen and Isaac kakuro would Sprint and meet Dame at

Some point on his drives as Dame would try to beat the Hedge with either a split or by dribbling around uh um by dribbling around Jared Allen and Isaac aoro forced a couple of turnovers that way there was a time where Dame just straight up tried to ISO Isaac aoro

Early in the the game and he just chested him up put his body in the way and Dame and Chris Middleton in particular were playing a lot of grift basketball they were kind of just dribbling into guys chest and throwing junk up and trying to get fouls we’ll

Talk about the bucks later but they they didn’t really attack this game um in any sort of serious manner was a lot of stuff coming out of Milwaukee despite their record that’s kind of weird and and last night was definitely one of those games but Isaac aor on Dame was

The first major matchup the second matchup and I thought the one that was argu the most impactful during this run was Dean Wade on Chris Middleton first of all same thing when Chris Middleton was attacking Dean Wade in isolation situations Dean Wade was playing classic positional defense he was sliding his

Feet taking the contact in the chest keeping his arms up high so that he doesn’t get called for a foul and he’s got good size and so he’s forcing Chris to take tough shots over the top and he was frustrating Chris as he was beating him to spots and Chris was just trying

To throw junk up at The Rim to try to get fouls but the big thing that Dean Wade was doing was his ability to switch they were switching the Dame Middleton pick and roll and putting Dean Wade on Dame Dean Wade got a stop sliding his feet on Dame

They were switching any sort of uh uh pick and roll with gra uh with Brook Lopez and Chris Middleton so then Dean Wade would just rotate onto Brook Lopez and just kind of battle and they were doubling him out of that there was a possession to Donovan Mitchell’s credit

Who’s having a great defensive season he uh Dean Wade got Lopez on a switch Lopez backed him down on that left block and Donovan Mitchell sprinted in double teamed got him to get rid of the basketball pass went right it was only one pass away easy kick out to Malik

Beasley Donovan Mitchell is an elite athlete at the guard position sprinted out like crazy and chased Malik Beasley off the line and forced him into a dribble pull-up jump shot but that ability of Dean Wade to not be super easily scored on in a switch against a

Big or a guard was a really useful uh tool for the Cavs during that defensive effort that really frustrated the Milwaukee Bucks last night and then they just were pushing in transition on every single stop and Milwaukee’s transition defense is awful they let teams get out and transition over 177% of their

Possessions which ranks dead last in the league according to cleaning the glass but that’s a good game plan from Cleveland they were just running it down their throat every single time a lot of bad floor balance from Milwaukee there was a possession where at one point they

Had all five offensive players below the charge Circle and big shock it ended up leading to I believe if I remember correctly it was Max stru getting a run out a foul but that was all it was it was just incredible defense from all Five Guys completely bought in

Frustrating the Bucks and then sprinting it down the other end in transition and then a mix in of some Donovan Mitchell shot making he hit this ridiculous step back on Isaac aoro where he damn near made him fall down um or not on Isaac cor excuse me it was on Andre Jackson Jr

I don’t know I’m mixing names up today but uh it was a step back on Andre Jackson Jr made him nearly fall down that he knocked down he had to pull up three and pick and roll over the screen he beat Malik Beasley in the mid-range

With a pull-up jump shot it was just that bit of shot making mixed in with running out for wide open layups and dunks and then excellent defense all of a sudden they’re up 2020 22-2 and the Bucks quit and the game is over on the

Bucs front like again I it kind of it it it just was it felt like one of those games where they realized Giannis was out and they went into the game with no real belief that they were going to win and you could see it in a bunch of

Different areas Dame and and Chris Middleton just dropping their shoulder into Defender chest and then just trying to draw fouls by just throwing up weird shots like Dame was drawing multiple Defenders at the ball screen but just swinging the ball out of it not really doing anything to try to compromise the

Defense in that situation and then they were jogging back in transition a lot of basic things too like floor balance stuff where guys are you know it just it just was incredibly slopp uh a basketball from Milwaukee Bucks again it’s one of those ones that you

Just kind of crumple up and throw out but again like milwauke got a really good record but there’s just some weirdness surrounding that team I’m not I’m not sure what it is but at the same time I want to cut them the same slack that I’ve been cutting a lot of teams

Which is this is the NBA in January this is what it can be like sometimes you’re right smack in the middle of things so you’ve been doing this for a long time and you still have a really long way to go and I think that that can go a long

Way towards just kind of like causing wildly oscillating levels of effort from Team night to night right you get a Boston team that beats the Timberwolves and then gets their ass kicked by the Bucks the Bucks kick the out of the Celtics and then go get their ass kicked

By the Cavs right like it’s just this weird dynamic where it’s the oscillating effort that’s primarily dictating whether or not a team you know kind of comes out with the uh uh uh with the win on any given night in this time of year

So I want to cut the buck some slack you just kind of crumple that one and throw away but it definitely was a disappointing effort now on the Cavs front Evan Moy went down after the Orlando game 18 games ago then they quickly dropped three of their next four

And then Darius Garland goes out of the lineup and then everybody in the League’s like hm this is interesting like we’re not sure even if the Allen Moy front Court Works in terms of the playoffs it’s just really difficult for them to score and pick and roll in that

Situation you have two small guards in that lineup now you have Darius Garland and Evan Moy out for a long time the regular season to that point had been that impressive from Cleveland and so you’re like hm like this kind of felt like a teetering Point like it was a

Teetering point where it might be one of those things where Now’s the Time to kind of reconfigure or are they going to kind of Salvage these things nope they salvaged things they went 11 and three over their next 14 game since Dar Darius scarland went out sixth in offense and

Third in defense most of their success comes off of similar stretches to what we saw last night against Milwaukee they defend like crazy and they get out and run as a matter of fact they’re only 24th in the NBA in halfcourt offense so they’re not really great at scoring as a

Matter of fact they’re bad at scoring in the slow down halfcourt environment but they’re seventh in Fast Break points per 100 possessions this season they get out and run and that bolsters them on the offensive end of the floor but most importantly they don’t just run for the

Sake of running there are a lot of teams that run out and transition and take bad shots the Cavs do not do that they run selectively when they see good opportunities for them to get great shots they run off their defense in particular they’re not just just playing with unnecessary Pace right

They’re at 1.17 points per transition possession that ranks eighth in terms of efficiency per possession among all NBA teams that’s excellent overall cleaning the glass has this metric it’s a cool metric they call it um transition points added per 100 possessions it’s just a way to kind of like singularly capture

Your volume of transition and your efficiency into like one metric right because there are a lot of teams that run and transition a ton but they don’t necessarily score and then there are selective teams that run a lot or don’t run as often but when they do they get

Layups and dunks right and those are the teams that are more efficient right and then there’s a a metric that cleaning the glass has that kind of combines all of that stuff well for the Cavs they rank third in the league in that kind of combined metric meaning they are the

Third best transition offense in the NBA so the question is why is Cleveland’s defense so successful and the reality is really simple it’s complete total buyin down the lineup from everyone including their star Donovan Mitchell is flying around and helping recover situations Dean Wade we talked about earlier is

Competing in switches against players bigger and smaller than him and he’s guarding Wings well Isaac aoro Max dreu are competing at the point of attack with physicality and Relentless back pressure and and and and just using their quickness and size right aoro specifically is one of those guys he has

His offensive limitations but he’s just he’s just such a useful defensive player with his ability to guard the quick guards in the league with his size that can that can become a problem right and then Jered Allen he’s capable of switching he’s capable of dropping he’s capable of hedging he’s just a versatile

Defensive big he kind of fits into that mold that I talk about in terms of Team construct where you want to have a defensive kind of fulcrum at the center position that can defend in multiple coverages otherwise you become very matchup dependent right the defense is real too regardless of opponent as a

Matter fact they allow just 112 points 112. four points per 100 possessions against the top 10 offenses in the league which ranks number one in the NBA now to be clear they’ve been in an easier stretch of their schedule as of late and things will get tougher but they’re playing some really good

Basketball they’re now going on the road to play four tough games they’re at Atlanta at Orlando at Milwaukee twice then they come home for the Clippers and so we’re going to find out really quickly how much of this is real for them at least in terms of this particular group obviously with Garland

And Moy still being or Garland and Moy still being out specifically it’s going to come down to a couple uh to it’s going to come down to can they get enough stops to get out and transition often enough to bolster their half court offense and then in the half quarter

They’re going to get enough shot making from guys like Donovan Mitchell right like that that’s going to be what’s going to carry them against these better opponents because what’s going to happen is specifically teams like Orlando has really big perimeter offensive players are going to try to attack the smaller Cleveland perimeter Defenders

Right um the Clippers are going to space them out and and test some of their other perimeter defensive players and if they don’t get as many stops they’re not going to be able to run as much which is going to put a strain on their halfcourt offense and they’re at Milwaukee twice

And Milwaukee is going to want revenge so those are going to be some tough games if they can go three and five or three and two in those five games that would be a huge win for this Cleveland cavali team the NBA season is in full

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Correctly and I just kind of cataloged every single possession or the majority of the possessions as the Suns came back to win and you could find that again in that thread on my Twitter feed _ jlt but you know the my main takeaway from watching that group what makes it all work because

They’re pretty small right like you’ve got Kevin Durant but after that it’s like Eric Gordon you know he’s not necessarily the tallest guy in the world you know Grayson Allen not necessarily the tallest guy in the world Bradley Beal not necessarily the tallest guy in the world and Devin Booker’s the second

Tallest guy in the lineup at 66 or 65 or whatever he is right so like it’s a small lineup but the reason why it works is All About Kevin Durant he’s just an unbelievably incredible Defender when he’s locked in like that it’s actually insane like he can guard sabonis

Straight up sabonis was trying to bully him couldn’t move him off his spot he can guard Dean Fox straight up locked him up in an ISO late in the game he can switch he can drop he had a block on Malik monk in drop coverage that was one of the things that was

Successful against Sacramento is they were doing a lot of switching but then randomly they wouldn’t and when they wouldn’t they were forcing turnovers and forcing mistakes uh from Sacramento there was a play where like they switched a bunch of dribble handoffs in a row and then suddenly Devon Booker was

Like nope I’m going to shoot the gap on this one and he forced a illegal screen off of Harrison Barnes who was moving when he knocked him over there Kevin Durant would like switch switch switch and then suddenly he would drop and when he would drop it would like catch

Sacramento off guard it was doing a really nice job of kind of throwing off their Rhythm it also just not switching for the sake of switching but switching when guys would get screened was a big thing that was helping and then lastly Kevin Durant an outstanding Lowman help

Defender there was a play where I want to say Eric Gordon got driven by by Malik monk along the right side on the wing and I have this play clipped and Kevin Durant identified I talk often about how help Defenders have a complicated decision because if you just

Help all the time you make these easy kickout reads so you have to make a decision based on how compromised the on ball Defender is is he completely compromised then you got to go help because it’s better to give up a catch and shoot three on the weak side than a

Wide open layup because a catch and shoot three on the weak side might for a really good shooter like Grayson Allen’s one of the best catch and shoot guys in the league catch and shoot three for him is worth 1.4 points per possession but guess how much a driving layup is worth

If the defender is compromised probably going to make it at least nine out of 10 times right there there there’ll be the occasional play where the offensive player is too sped up and he shoots the layup over the front of the rim or something like that right but nine out

Of 10 is 1.8 points per possession so it’s a very important decision that Kevin Durant has to make there to either help or to stay home and on this possession he realized that Eric Gordon was pushing him underneath the basket and so he kind of stayed back to

Watch out for that corner pass Malik monk at the last second decided to jump back and Grayson Allen had done a really had uh done a really nice impromptu switch onto Deon sabonis and kind of fronted him in the post and he was in position to help and knock that ball

Away as Malik monk went up under underneath the basket it was a really nice Lowman possession from Kevin Durant who can also clean up the defensive glass there who can also block shots when the defender is compromised who can also do things like even when open uh

Offensive players are there he can block passing angles there was a play where Darren Fox got down hill and Grayson Allen and Kevin Durant kind of like trapped him and Kevin herder kind of cut right in front of the rim and he was wide open but there was no passing angle

There because Kevin Durant is basically has him swallowed up which allowed Eric Gordon to stay home on the weak side and get a steal as Daren Fox tried to force a skip pass to the right corner the point is Kevin Durant and his ability to guard quick guards guard bigs guard in

Drop coverage you know switch guard in help and recover situations clean up the defensive glass all of that capability makes a lineup like that function in a way that it just wouldn’t for anybody else right and so that’s where Kevin Durant is being basically for lack of a better word a

Superstar can clean up and patch up holes that a lineup would otherwise create from there it’s all about speed and skill again we’re talking about four players in Eric Gordon Bradley Beal Grayson Allen and Devin Booker who are all fast who can all dribble who can all

Shoot who can all pass Eric Gordon to his credit spent some time on Deon sabonis and sabonis had no interest in attacking him and then in all those off ball actions really sharp communication from Bradley Beal Devon Booker um and Grayson Allen there were several there were some complicated interchanges like

Triple switches where like three people were involved in the action and all three of them just kind of ended up in the right place through communication and through effort Grayson Allen in particular was outstanding and help defense he had a couple of turnovers he forced on Deus sabonis like digging down

When he would turn his head as he was trying to bully Kevin Durant I talked about the big block that he had on Malik Monk and then I talked about Devon Booker and how he cost a couple of uh turnovers with impromptu non switches when they were switching interchanges

And then Deon Booker would just go like nope not switching this one and it would just throw the Sacramento King out of out of uh there were there was a play where Malik monk just threw the ball out of bounds and then I talked about the Harrison Barnes illegal screen on the

Dribble handoff but it was just down the lineup a hellacious effort a ton of speed and then Kevin Durant tying it all together and then on offense they were running hard in transition Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant got run out dunks during that stretch and then like I said

Everyone can dribble shoot and pass at a high level and so Kevin Durant or Devin Booker Kevin Durant would like get an ISO and drive on a guy and then Darren Fox would double team or Devon Booker would run a ball screen and draw two defenders in the ball screen and then

From there they would just play driveing Kick basketball with the other four guys except for all of them can dribble shoot and pass and so it’ be like oh you just ran at Eric Gordon and he threw the extra pass to Grayson Allen on the wing

And he knocks down the three oh you hit Grayson Allen you close out he makes the extra pass to Eric Gordon another guy close out now all of a sudden Grayson Allen’s open again and the ball goes back to Grayson Allen he makes it Kevin Durant was getting open threes as

Well they got wide open open threes on the majority of those possessions down the stretch even some ones that they missed Kevin Durant missed a wide open three on the right wing when they were in their Zone that the Kings ran a few times down the stretch so it just again

Like it it it it discombobulated Sacramento on both ends of the floor because it’s a non-traditional way to play basketball but at the end of the day that’s what that’s what I see that lineup being used as is it tenable long term of course not you’re not going to

Be able to play Kevin Durant at the five big pick for massive minutes it’s too fatiguing it’s too much to ask so how do you use a lineup like that you use it as a death lineup okay this team’s bothering us with size and they’re up five in the early

Second quarter let’s throw out the death lineup and let’s regain control of the game let’s throw a giant wrench and things and retake control of the game okay it’s a close game late and and you know based on this particular matchup we like the ability to go small you go

Small in that situation that that’s the way the death lineup is used or was used by the Warriors it they didn’t start games with it it was literally something that they brought out selectively to regain control of the rhythm of a game or to close a game and that’s kind of

What I see that lineup as for the Suns and there were some issues like there was a play where Keegan Murray got an offensive rebound over um over Eric Gordon just because he’s bigger right there was a player where dearen Fox got an offensive rebound over Grayson Allen

Just because he’s a better athlete right like they’re going to have some limitations but this is one of one of the concepts that I talk about a lot on this show lean into your strengths don’t try to be what other teams are if you’re

Not as good as them at that don’t try to be Denver because Denver’s better at being Denver than you are be the best version of what your team’s strengths are the Phoenix Suns are not physically imposing the Phoenix Suns are not going to bully teams but they probably have

One of the most skilled fiveman groupings that you can put together in the NBA so that’s a great look for them to have while you’re busy doing your thing we’re going to lean into our strengths and try to regain control of the game that way that’s why I really

Really like that lineup by the way 25 possessions so far this year with Kevin Durant Devin Booker Grayson Allen Bradley Beal and Eric Gordon they are plus 64.5 points per 100 possessions in those 25 possessions just unbelievably dominant thought it was really really interesting it’s going to hinge on a

Defensive effort especially from Kevin Durant but I love that as a wrench for them to be able to throw for certain stretches of games all right guys that is all I have for today we’ll be back tomorrow I’ve got a bunch of stuff we’re going to do a mailbag going to do some

Mid-season award stuff it’s going to be basically uh just a bunch of like kind of middle of the Year content as I’m in Breen Ridge and then then we’ll be back on Wednesday next week with game breakdowns and then I’m in town um I think my wife and I might go on we

Usually go skiing for her birthday so maybe in late March I might hop out of town for like a really short trip like a two or three day trip but other than that I plan on being in town until after the NBA finals and so uh

It’s just going to get into that to the rhythm of that Grind from there I will see you guys on Wednesday well I should say I’ll see you tomorrow and then we’ll take a little break and then I’ll be back on Wednesday from there I appreciate you guys I will see you tomorrow A

Jason Timpf reacts to Damian Lillard and the Milwaukee Bucks getting blown out by Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavs defense held Milwaukee to just 95 points, and Jason explains how the Cleveland defense has been so successful this season. Jason then dives deep into the Phoenix Suns roster as they are now healthy, and starting to figure out what their rotations should look like come playoff time. Having Kevin Durant play center gives the Suns so much flexibility on both ends of the floor, and has elevated their play as a team. Does this new lineup make the Suns a more dangerous NBA Finals contender?

Timeline:
00:00 – Introduction
01:25 – Bucks blown out vs. Cavs
08:00 – Cavs surging
10:22 – How has Cavaliers defense been so successful?
13:44 – Suns Death Lineup

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