Giannis & Bucks shut down Nuggets, Wolves blast Clippers, Warriors & Celtics mailbag | Hoops Tonight

Giannis & Bucks shut down Nuggets, Wolves blast Clippers, Warriors & Celtics mailbag | Hoops Tonight

All right welcome to Hoops tonight here at the volume happy Tuesday everybody hope all of you guys are having a great week got a fun show for you today we had two major showdowns last night the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Los Angeles Clippers as well as the Milwaukee Bucks and the Denver Nuggets

And a couple of really impressive wins for the bucks and the Timberwolves we’re going to be breaking down those two games from the perspective of both teams and then I have about a half dozen mailbag questions including some follow-up stuff that I got from you guys involving the Celtics and they’re kind

Of matchup attacking and then the Golden State Warriors and whether or not they have real Championship potential this season should be a fun one today you guys know the joke before we get started subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel would 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 feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight it’s also super helpful for us if you guys would leave a review and a rating on the podcast feed as well don’t forget

About my Twitter feed _ jlt did another film thread this morning on Timberwolves Clippers it’s also where I put show announcements and last but not least keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments we’ll probably do at least one more mailbag this week before we get out of here all right let’s talk

Some basketball so you know I thought the story of Timberwolves Clippers was Rudy gobear not just in his help defense responsibilities but also in when they shifted him onto Russell Westburg some of the damage that he did to the Clippers offense overall this is the eighth time this season that Rudy gobear

Had at least 15 points in four blocks in a game had some really impressive offensive plays in the second half at a pick and roll possession where he caught on the roll and Euro stepped around zubach on his way to the basket he had a

Cut underneath the front of the rim on a baseline Anthony Edwards Drive where he caught and kawh Leonard stepped up into help and he just buried Kawai underneath the basket and dunked on his head was cleaning up the offensive glass too it was a really good two-way effort from

Rudy goar but I want to focus in on the defensive end of the floor he spent a good amount of time on Russell West Brook and just completely shut down the Clippers offense and one of the things that you’d see is kawhai like drive into the lane and see Rudy goar and instead

Of taking a layup have to take like some incredibly difficult left shoulder fade he actually made one that like was a straight up line drive that barely got over the front of the rim but you’d see hesitation there there was a play where Paul George drove into goar goar was

Right there waiting for him he shoveled it off to kawhai Rudy just turns around he’s right there waiting for him and there’s they’re pump baking at ghost they refusing to take shots around the rim he just completely and utterly dominated this game there was even one of the most impressive plays that you’ll

See from a shot blocker a block of a hook shot zubac in the middle of the lane kind of went over to his over his left shoulder for a hook shot in the lane and Rudy just swatted it out of there it was an incredible two-way performance from Rudy goar Jaden

McDaniels did great work on kawhai Anthony Edwards did great work on Paul uh Paul George I thought Kyle Anderson had a key shift in the early fourth quarter because like one of the pathways of this game was as the matchups kind of shook out James Harden was playing

Pretty well in that early third quarter stretch just like hit a step back three made some good plays to get the Clipper or get to get the uh the wolves in rotation where the Clippers were able to get some easier shots because he had Mike connley on him and then when he

Stepped out of the game and Russ came on there wasn’t really a good entry point anymore for the Clippers in their offense completely stalled and then when James Harden came back back into the game in the fourth quarter they put Kyle Anderson on him and he had a really good

Shift on him there to help them continue to grow the lead and then from there just really solid weak side rotations I thought nikel Alexander Walker had a couple of plays where he took away threes that would for sure be decent catch and shoot opportunities for guys

Like Amir coffee or Norman pal he chasing them off the line they held the Clippers to 0.95 points per spot up possession they average 1.13 for the season so almost a 20% increase they’re the second best spot up team in the league behind the Boston Celtics and they just completely shut

Didn’t shut down but did a significant amount of damage to that significant chunk of what the Clippers like to do on offense then on the other end of the floor Anthony Edwards had one of the best one for 11 from three games you’ll ever see he was seven for seven on twos

All right at The Rim analytics guys would have loved his shot charart it was just a bunch of threes and a bunch of layups and Anthony Edwards as we know will take mid-range shots just didn’t take any of them in this game had some unbelievable drives to the rim his

Physical imposition in the G on the game makes it so that even against excellent perimeter defense teams like the Clippers he can just get to his spots he had this like pure wedding spin move off of one leg where he got into the lane and Terence man was a big physical guard was

Being physical with him and Walling him up and taking the contact in the chest and he just powered through all of that and got all the way to the rim and scooped it in with his right hand I I’ve talked a lot about this with the young

Players that I coach but like getting in the weight room and specifically leg strength is so incredibly important to get to your spots because when you’re fighting through contact every one of those bumps is like a battle and if you are the bigger stronger player you’re

Going to be able to it’s just simple physics you’ll be able to absorb that contact better than if you are the smaller player in those altercations and and don’t mistake the weight room and the that plays in Anthony Edwards ability to get to the rim he had eight

Assists and one turnover good job driving and kicking to Shooters one thing with him i’ I’ve harped a lot on on Jason Tatum for this so I want to be fair he does have a tendency to settle for really difficult pullup three-point shots and he’s not particularly good at

Them and you know in general I I I pulled this out for the for that Tatum discussion but when you look at all the guys in the league that attempt over have attempted over 400 pullup threes this year or pullup jump shots this this year all of them are guys that don’t

Have great physical tools and are great at that shot so they shoot incredible you know you know 52 53% effective field goal percentage so they’re getting over a point per shot on it Jason Tatum and Anthony Edwards they take they both take almost half their shots in the form of

Pull-Up jump shots and both of them are really inefficient as a matter of fact ant is worse with it even than Jason Tatum is and so both of them you got to remember they’re kind of cutting the defense a break when they settle those kinds of shots because of how dominant

They are Elsewhere on the floor again seven for seven when he went to the rim and 1 for 11 when he pulled from the perimeter so I’m being nitpicky here but i’ like to see a little better balance there from Anthony Edwards again for both of those guys just cut it from half

Your shot diet to like a little bit under a third of your shot diet like 30% of your shot diet now you’re doing what all of the great efficient scores of all time do from the standpoint of not uh letting the defense off the hook really balanced scoring game from cadd

At 24 points a little bit of everything was scoring out a spot up scoring on Cut scoring on offensive rebound put back scoring out of the post scoring and ISO had a really oppressive hockey assist in the second half where he was uh uh driving along the left wing I think he

Was driving on teren man if I remember correctly but James Harden turns to double team and he re uh kawh Leonard made a perfect textbook windshield wiper rotation remember windshield wiper rotations is like when the double comes the other guy rotates with him to take away the first pass because the majority

Of players when they get double teamed panic and try to just make the quick Outlet pass rather than making the kill pass the pass that beats the defense and C just didn’t Panic pivoted back over his left shoulder read that Harden was kind of playing that passing Lane and

That Kawhi Leonard had jumped up to Mike Conley whipped it across the court to Anthony Edwards on the uh right wing extra pass I think Paul George rotated up extra pass to the corner to Jaden McDaniels and he knocked down the three really really high level playmaking from

Carl towns and then as a team they just completely dominated the Clippers in the paint outscored them 64 to 42 the Clippers as I’ve talked about a lot this year they rely on pull-up shooting they take them the second most in the league behind the Dallas Mavericks and they’re

18th in points in the paint scored per game so they went one for 11 on pull-up threes kind of mimicking Anthony ever’s number uh the Clippers as a team went one for 11 on pullup threes and 10 for 32 overall on pull-up jump shots they had 21 points

On 32 pullup jump shots what’s your next punch when that’s not working what’s the next thing that you can do and as you saw in that second half when James Harden came out and they had that long stretch with Russ and then when Harden came back in and he had a better

Perimeter defender on him it just they weren’t able to generate that driving kick offense that they can go to as an alternative to their pull-up jump shooting attack and like the the the Wolves to their credit like they only they’re a great three-point shooting team they only shot 32% from three

They’re a bad spot up team when you chase them off the line but like that’s an important part of their game is their ability to knock down catch and shoot threes they weren’t shooting well right Anthony Edwards went one for 11 and they’re just good at doing other stuff

They’re a great transition team they’re a great postup team they’re one of the best teams in the league at scoring on offensive rebound putbacks a lot of stuff like what you saw from Rudy goar in that game so they can win ugly they can win when it goes one for 11 from

Three and win big because as we know the Timberwolves biggest weakness is their late game scoring the stuff that they do offensively when it’s you know a three-point game with five minutes left that’s usually their biggest issue and they can win ugly and win big and not

Even have to put their offense in that sort of predicament really really impressive dominant defensive performance from the Minnesota Timberwolves again and like I I’ve been I’ve talked about this with the timber rolls I’ve been a little bit critical from the standpoint of their uh late

Game offense I want to be clear aside from the Nuggets all of these teams have big red flags so whether it’s Boston and their offensive execution Minnesota in their offensive execution Milwaukee in their point of attack defense like the Lakers in their complete an utter lack of a point of attack Defender the

Warriors in their lack of like a good veteran second option behind Steph Curry like all these teams the Thunder are super young and super small right like that all of these teams have big red flags and so don’t mistake me being critical of the Wolves late game offense

As me saying they can’t win that’s just if they lose that’ll be what gets them beat but there’s all these other teams that have similar flaws that could just get beat for their own reasons if that makes sense on the Clippers front I talked about the entry points earlier

James Harden on Mike Conley that matchup piece is a big part of it I thought they stayed with Russell Westbrook way too long in the middle to late third and then into the fourth quarter and he had some disastrous mistakes there was a play where he smoked a transition layup

Off the back of the rim which led to a wide open Anthony Edwards three which he missed but Rudy goar got an offensive rebound put back and one as a result of them being only five on four on the other end of the floor because remember I talked about this yesterday with

Spencer Denwood he smoking a layup especially in transition you’re going to have a guard who’s typically responsible for being the first line of transition defense you’re going to have a guard behind the back of the backboard and that that’s always just going to put your defense in a compromised position

But that’s a five-point swing smoked layup run out for Rudy goar and one Rudy and for the record Russell Westbrook shooting 51 something perc from from on layups this year he’s one of the worst layup Shooters in League this year and so when he when he takes uncontested

Layups in his spaced out environment he typically makes them but when he goes into traffic he misses them almost every time at this point and there was wide open Kawhi Leonard on the left wing on this transition play that led to the five-point swing there was a play where

He caught in the right corner whipped by Rudy goar beat him on a close out and then tried to dunk it off of like straight vert which like 32-year-old Russ would have done just fine but at this point in his career he can’t do anymore and it ended up being another

Run out that led to a foul and it was a four-point swing and then lastly there was about it was somewhat late shot clock it was like six or seven seconds on the shot clock but instead of swinging it to a better offensive player he tried to attack Rudy gobear on an ISO

Who was clearly backpedaling and taking the rim away smoked a layup over the top and it went ran ran out the other way and Minnesota hit a three that’s a five-point swing a four-point swing and a five-point swing off of three mistakes from Russell Westbrook it was a 14-point

Swing all in that third quarter but even be on just those three plays with Rudy gobear on him the ball just kept ending up in his hands because again a lot of these offensive players they’re making instinctual plays like they’re used to driving and kicking a certain way when

They are they’re programmed when they see a guy open wearing their Jersey to throw that ball especially as a guard especially a player of Russell Westbrook’s reputation but when the ball kept ending up in his hands that was usually where the offensive possession would fall apart and I thought tyo just

Stuck with him way too long in this game he had 29 minutes the Wolves uh were plus 21 when Russ was on the floor and it was an even game when he was off the floor and I saw a lot of Clippers fans talking about like oh they tried to go

Small not just Clipper fans but Clipper uh people watching the game like the Clippers tried to go small and they still couldn’t score and it’s like yeah they went small but they went small with Russ when you go with small with Russ it’s effectively like having a center on

The floor offensively a center that’s going to struggle to finish around the rim so they’re small but they’re Limited on offense when they go with that group and if you as as we’ve talked about so much on this this show when you go small you better be damn good at being small

Or the big team is just going to demolish you because the big team has all of these advantages as well you need to pick them apart on offense if you’re going to be small and that’s not what they did and then lastly on the Clippers front can they hold up against interior

Power teams after last night 0 and2 versus The Wolves one and two versus Denver one and two versus the Lakers that’s two and six against the big front lines of the Western Conference and this has been a consistent thing I’ve talked about like like they’re a bad defensive

Rebounding team they rely on pullup jump shooting they don’t score in the paint those are significant concerns against traditional playoff powerhouses does it I still have the Clippers up at fourth in my contenders list I’m not taking them off that list but like I talked about earlier with Minnesota if the

Clippers lose this is how it will look it will look like them going cold from the perimeter in a physical kind of playoff like environment and getting dominated inside of the paint get in on the action with draftking Sportsbook an official sports betting partner of the

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Season they had an 88 defensive rating against Denver in the first half when they won up by 20 plus I thought it was Brook Lopez’s best defensive game of the season you know I’ve talked a lot about in drop coverage drop coverage is like a

Bracket right like if you think of it as weak back pressure and weak Rim protection the bracket is weak right it’s spread out like if the big is too passive and he’s sitting back too far to the basket and he’s not contesting those mid-range shots and then the on ball

Defender is not getting over the top of the screen and applying back pressure if they’re not doing their jobs to kind of pinch that opening there’s an opening there for a guard to feel really comfortable and to make plays but one of the most important parts of that bracket

Is Brooke being aggressive up in his cover and I’m not talking about like coming out of his drop I’m talking about when the opportunity comes to contest there’s a difference between like taking a soft step up and raising your hand versus like making the read oh he’s

Shooting now I’m going to close this Gap and get up in his face he disrupted several Co yic little pop shots in the lane with stuff like that disrupted Jamal Murray floaters and mid-range shots with stuff like that I thought it was his best defensive game of the

Season he had three blocks also really set the tone offensively in this one early he had a couple of big threes that kind of like just made it feel like more of an open type of game and then Giannis was just a complete wrecking ball they

Put him on Aaron Gordon a lot of timely doubles aggressive doubles attacking the basketball he had three Steals and got out and transition off of that like Giannis always does he had 13 of his 36 points on runouts going the other way in transition as a matter of fact Milwaukee

Had 19 points on 13 Denver turnovers and had a 24-1 transition Point scored Advantage according to Synergy they completely outclassed them in every single phase of the game uh kavus K Pope left early with like hamstring tightness a good smart move from Denver to kind of take it slow

There Jamal Murray left early with shinsplints once again the game was kind of over at that point it was smart for them to kind of take it easy just a rough night from from the Nuggets they were sloppy from the jump cavius cwell Pope and Michael Porter Jr both missed

Wide open completely unguarded Corner threes to start the game that felt like kind of like a missed opportunity Jamal Murray and Nicole yic both missed kind of like easy floaters there were a lot of turnovers like it was just just kind of a funky night for Denver back-to-back

Funky nights blowouts at the hands of the Kings and the bucks now one of the things that I’m sure some people will ask is like why do you keep giving Denver slack in situations like this where you don’t give other teams slack and the answer is really simple they’re

The defending champs not just the defending champs but the dominant defending champs that never really truly felt threatened by the Suns or the Lakers or the wolves or the Miami Heat and so for me when it comes to looking zooming in at Denver they deserve a certain margin for air winning the

Championship buys you margin for erir that’s just what it does and in spite of all of that defending Champions typically experience a little bit of a dip effort defending Champions typically get the best shot from everybody every single night as they come out with crazy effort to try to beat the defending

Champs and they still are within Striking Distance of the number one seed in the Western Conference and they still have had a bunch of these Marquee major national television wins and so I I do just give them a lot of slack and I think that’s slack that they deserve

Quite frankly on the Bucks front one of the things I talked about a lot uh when Doc Rivers took over the coaching job was the simple fact that like I thought he could get better commitment out of the older veteran players on this roster specifically with Milwaukee they’re slow

When Giannis is not in the equation and even when he is in the equation their fiveman groupings tend to lack some speed Brook Lopez not a particularly fast Center D Jay Crowder who’s playing with Chris Middleton out of the lineup not a particularly fast Wing uh Malik

Beasley and Damen Lillard are both very fast as guards but they are both very small and so even when they are moving around they don’t bring as much length to the table they are not a fast team that is not their strength and so it is abundantly important for them to always

Be in the right spots execution is is going to make or break the Milwaukee Buck season I’ve talked about this with you guys on the show before but like if you look at the scale between a good defense and a bad defense a a good chunk

Of it is Personnel but the rest of it is commitment to those details constantly being engaged in the scheme communicating Sprint ing back in transition having the habits down I talk about habits all the time on the show for a very specific reason because when

hits the fan it is your habits that you fall back on we all have a tendency when stress Rises to kind of go back to whatever our core you know human characteristics are that’s like classic human nature and so when you have baked in habits when like it’s when it’s it’s

Just almost a a natural like automatic thing for you to make a defensive rotation to Sprint back into transition to call out angles on ball screens to call out coverages when when all of that is just baked into your habits then when the hits the fan you can depend on

Those things and that’s why I harp on those things specifically with teams like Milwaukee that have some Personnel limitations in terms of the defensive end of the floor they have excellent interior defensive Personnel Giannis and Brook Lopez are still about as good as you’ll find in the league as a four five

Combo protecting the rim and in helping in recover situations but they’re slow outside of that so it’s vitally important for them to be very attuned to the details and you know even through the rough start I think they were what two and five in their first seven games

With Doc under the hood the uh one of the things I kept harping on is even though they were playing poorly I saw a lot of that defensive commitment starting to rise to the surface and here they are in a couple of back-to-back wins a super impressive defensive effort

Against Denver and they have a defensive rating in eight games since Doc Rivers took over of 112 12.6 before Adrien Griffin got fired to that point in the season they were up over 116 they’re something like eighth in the league I believe over the course of this

Eight game Span in defensive rating so they’re getting a significantly higher level of defensive commitment from this group now again it’s about connecting those pieces because the offense hasn’t been nearly as good which has been a big part of why they’ve dropped so many games and there’s going to be some some

You know transition there because your your body becomes attuned to a certain timing and and uh kind of Rhythm offensively and that is connected to every single other area of the game including the defensive end of the floor like I I do believe that a big part of

Why Milwaukee was so good offensively to start the season was that they were saving their legs by not really competing on the defensive end of the floor and so there’s a phase here where when you really raise your level of commitment to transition defense and half court defense where the fatigue

Element the physicality element kind of throws off some of the Rhythm and timing stuff on the offensive end of the floor and it will take some time for them to connect on that end but when they do when they connect those pieces together I think they have a chance to be a damn

Good team they can get down into that 13 14 15 rank defensive rating and be a top five offense that’s a team that has a real chance to win the title I think that’s where the Doc Rivers hire was smart it just has these guys actually playing hard and committed to the

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Do our mailbag and then we’ll get out of here first question and uh there’s actually three questions I kind of hit this followup I’m going to hit the first two first and then we’ll do the second one so first what can the Celtics do to improve from the middle of the floor or

Is it about the Personnel they use in the middle for example using kp’s length and vision over the top versus defense and then the second mailbag question I got was isn’t it easier for a defense to double team if a player is running a cleared side action because the shooters

On the other side are so close together that three players can guard four Shooters so for those of you guys who aren’t aware of the context here yesterday we did a deep dive on the Boston Celtics and their spacing principles they had 30 plays where they ran isolations or post-ups against Miami

Switches and in those 30 possessions 16 of them they ran in the middle of the floor and 14 of them they ran with with a cleared side and on the cleared side ones it just was consistently a better result they had like something like 1.4 points per possession and that included

Jaylen Brown drawing to foul and Duncan Robinson on a cleared side post up and missing both free throws so they should have been like 22 points on 14 post-ups and isos and then on the middle of the floor ones they were like 13 points on 16 uh post-ups and isos which was you

Know8 points per possession or something like that and one of the things that I’ve been talking about is the idea that in the middle the floor it’s harder to guard but it’s harder to read and so only the highest level Playmakers in the league are guys that can see over the

Defense really well operate really well in the middle of the floor whereas operating with a cleared side it’s easier to guard but it’s easier to make the reads and so like it’s just a more achievable job for the offensive player by making it so that they only have to

Look just think of it think of it really b in a real basic sense if I if I catch the ball in a triple threat in the middle of the floor or on a cleared side I’m protecting the basketball with my back turned to the basket right or I’m

Protecting the basketball by tucking it on my side and creating space with a jab step right like I’m using if I’m facing up if that’s the case right both cases I’m trying to protect the basketball while surveying the floor but if I’m at the elbow it’s just a lot harder to read

Everything happening on all sides of me than it is if I’m on a cleared side and I’m cutting that field division in half now the Baseline is cutting all of this out of my field division and I’m just worrying about this I can kind of turn

Myself and I can back down and I can do a bunch of different things offensively without having to worrying worry about what’s happening behind me it is again just easier for the offensive player to manage and so I didn’t do a good enough job explaining this yesterday and that’s

On me but the to to put it simple the way I I agree that on the cleared side post-ups in isos it is easier to guard on the weak side because you have more time to rotate out of it to put it simply if you imagine this as the entire

Width of the floor if I am in the middle every pass is like 10 to 15 feet away whereas if I am all the way on this cleared side and I need to hit a shooter over here I might need to make a 25 30 foot pass and that pass if it gets

Deflected or has to be looping in some way shape or form it’s easier to rotate out of it right that is where that principle is true but it doesn’t matter if Jay Brown and Jason Tatum do either one of two things either in the middle of the floor turn the basketball over or

Constantly settle for pullup jump shots because they see all these bodies and they’re intimidated in terms of making those raids and it’s just easier to take a difficult step back jump shot and so in my opinion and I I saw this in the tape yesterday they settled Less on

Cleared sides and so when you clear the side you simplify their reads you make it more likely for them to be physically aggressive when teams double team they have to cross the lane entirely which makes it easier to sneak along the Baseline like that cut from Jaylen Brown

That we saw towards the end of the game right to me it’s just the best opportunity to bring the best out of Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown here’s the next followup interesting breakdown of the Celtics match up attacking I agree clearing the side creates simpler reats Joe Maz clearly believes that the Jays

Are capable of making those more complicated reats he’s trying to give them reps in case they face a team in the playoffs with Personnel that makes those crosscourt passes that come from the clearing the side even more difficult than they are so what he’s saying is basically in the event that a

Really long athletic team is disrupting those skip passes what if it becomes an issue there surprised you didn’t talk about this but all the Zone the Celtics played in the game is another clear indication that they are experimenting essentially practicing for what might come in the playoffs they ran Zone

Versus Miami uh or the Zone they ran versus Miami is different than the one they’ve uh executed well versus Indiana Etc C’s gave up easy looks in that zone as well as a ton of Second Chance points I think Miami had 16 offensive rebounds that’s the only reason Miami was even in

This game C’s caught lacking in last year’s playoffs without a curveball and Joe is doing everything he can to prevent that this year so first of all on the cleared side versus middle of the floor stuff in theory yes it is great to continue to get reps and kind of make uh

Opportunities there in the middle of the floor but in my opinion the dead giveaway that that’s not necessarily the best way to go is if you look around the league there’s really only a few guys that really thrive in the middle of the floor and it’s always like Nicole yic

LeBron James like it’s the best passers in the league that operate well out of the middle of the floor I think that’s a pretty clear IND it’s just difficult it’s really difficult to do against really good NBA defenses to read the floor that quickly in those types of

Situations now I’m not saying you don’t lean into it as a repetition in the regular season but something to keep an eye on in the postseason we tracked it right 14 of the 30 possessions on a cleared side if we get to the postseason and they’re not operating well out of

The middle of the floor we want to see that closer to like 25 out of the 30 possessions on a cleared side that’s what I kept saying talking about with the Celtics as it pertains to like uh uh being diligent about getting the ball to the right spots like it’s one thing in

The regular season to experiment but when you get to the postseason you got to know what your best punch is and you got to go to it as much as possible on the Zone front th% agree find time during the regular season to practice it especially in matchups where you feel

Like you’ve got a good chance to win and you’re not going to hurt yourself in the standings hell the Celtics are going to run away with the number one overall seed like I talked about before the season anyway that gaps going to continue to grow now with the easier

Schedule but like I agree I I think it’s important to be able to have that punch if anything just as a rhythm disruptor if you got a team going on a run in the third quarter and you can go zone for four possessions and just kind of throw

A wrench in things for a little bit that can win you a playoff game and so I I totally agree on that front next question hey Jason thanks a lot for answering my mailbag question I’m going to try my luck with another one in your opinion how should contact to jump

Shooters be officiated can contact to the arm at the end of the release which goes unall a impact the follow-through as well as the result of the shot should Shooters be called for an offensive foul if they contact The Defender as a result of Landing unnaturally in order to avoid

Injury when he is clearly about to land in their landing area what should even be considered the landing area if we want to avoid injury to Shooters who jump forward but they shouldn’t get an advantage over shooters that go up and down by forcing Defenders to close out

Shorter in order to not foul how should refs differentiate natural and precautionary motions from flops and unnatural foul grifting should defensive players be called for a foul if kicking the leg on a fedaway shot contacts them when they close out under control and can’t create any additional contact so

Uh I I I’m pretty down the middle on this like I think contact on the forearm on a follow-through should be called every single time it’s just when you look at the Finesse element of jump shooting especially difficult jump shooting like you should not uh like the

Slightest tap on the forearm can cause the shot to miss by 3 feet like it just it matters too much and for the most part I feel like GS uh at least have eye on that sort of thing but the landing area thing I 100% agree with you like I

I do understand that there are certain players that do have a natural kind of like move forward on their jump shot and it’s one thing and this is where I think discretion plays a role it’s one thing when you see a player jump up and land

Like one foot in front of where he took off and the dude comes up underneath him yeah that that should be a foul but when it’s a comical one like some of these James Harden stepb backs when he was with the Rockets he would literally jump

And then in midair be like at a 45 degree angle as he landed forward and then fell and and you’re like that’s that’s just it’s not basketball it’s not nobody would ever shoot like that unless they were trying to grip their way to the foul line right and so

That to me is the delineation like the landing area they need to tighten that up a little bit and give the refs the discretion to not call it if the player’s doing janky stuff same goes for even like on that foul that really bad one at the end of the game against the

Knicks yesterday like one of the things that happens is like if that if Aaron holiday shooting that play in a pick a shot in a pickup game there’s no contact there he’s when he sees the close out coming he’s kind of like leaning into it

A bit and like kind of like taking that contact it shouldn’t have been a foul and then also if you look at it it’s a prayer like he’s throwing up a prayer and the ref is jumping on it as an opportunity to end the game at the foul

Line and so in general just the discretion has gone the wrong way too often this season and I’d like to see them clear that up also while I’m bitching about refs there was a Kenyan Martin Jr dunk in the Sixers game where he got call for Tech and that was

Ridiculous and the refs just simply have to be stopped next question genuine question for you Jason what’s your opinion of LeBron launching the ball straight into Jamal Murray’s face from point blank I know you saw it now let’s address it and I’m excited to excited to

See how you hear how you would spin it because if that’s the other way around you would have condemned it like you always do one rule for LeBron and Draymond and another for Dylan Brooks this is the most ridiculous uh mailbag question I think I’ve ever gotten uh if

You actually think LeBron threw the ball into Jamal Murray’s face on purpose I don’t know what to tell you man I literally don’t even know how to respond to that uh next question when talking about Oklahoma City can you ever just give a small shout out to Jaylen

Williams like comes back last night and balls out yes Giddy and daughter slumping sneaking in a jdub shout out sometimes shees uh so here’s the thing JB is one of my favorite young players in the league I was actually talking with s Vini uh on the phone the other

Day and everyone keeps like talking about including myself Jaylen Brown that can pass Jaylen Brown that can pass and s Vini threw out the name Jimmy Butler as a comp for him and I love that comp because he’s just an insane competitor and he has that like big kind of

Playmaking forward type of vibe who can also be a really really good defensive player huge F fan of Jay dub talked about him a lot this season those of you guys who have followed the show that said one of the things that happens is I’m trying to give you eight to 10

Minutes on a game so that I can hit three four games in a day right whereas like when I was covering the Lakers solely I could go 40 minutes on every single G I did go 40 minutes on every single game immediately after the final buzzer cuz I was just covering the

Lakers so like a lot of times like I choose to highlight specific things that was a power rankings video I was trying to get 30 seconds on the Thunder they going to be longer uh form there’s going to be a lot of longer form Thunder content down the season and J Jaylen

Williams will get plenty of uh uh uh plenty a plenty large portion of the show if that makes sense all right two more and then we’re going to get out of here hey Jason loving the content analysis the Warriors clearly aren’t Championship contenders and the lack of

A trade deadline move confirms that this season is a wash although the athletic lineup of Wiggins kaminga and green has dramatically improved their playoff chances what’s the next move for the Warriors in the offseason so that they do not waste another year of prime step is it making a big splash trade or

Making multiple moves for better role players so good question I disagree with the first thing about them not being Championship contenders like here’s the thing like do they have a legitimate Bonafide Superstar yes is the defense good enough it has been as of late we’ll

See in a larger sample size but what it has been Jonathan Kingz scored 20 plus points in what 10 of the last 14 games if I remember correctly so they’re getting some pretty good secondary production they have a really deep core of perimeter Defenders now that uh that

Gary pton is back they have a a versatile defensive front line that can both switch and run traditional pick and roll coverage is they check a lot of boxes now do they check as many boxes as some of the teams that are above them in the standings no of course not but I

Think it’d be foolish to count them out because I think Beyond Denver there’s a bunch of red flags like Boston can be out out executed down the stretch of games Minnesota can be out executed down the stretch of games Milwaukee might really struggle to contend on the perimeter like the Clippers can’t

Defensive rebound and they rely on pullup jump shots and can be bulli bullied by bigger front lines the the Lakers have no point attack Defenders the Phoenix Suns can struggle in physical environments although they signed thus young today so like they they’re starting to add some physicality

To their lineup but the every team has giant red flags so to me like if Denver had an in do I think Golden State would beat Denver probably not but like if a significant injury happens to one of the Denver starters then it’s wide open and

I think I think at that point golden state has good a chance as anybody else and so again it’s a small chance but I think riding them off is silly now building from this into the future I think the biggest thing that they’re going to have to look at I I would love

To see them get another movement shooter specifically with the way that they run their five out offense you’ve got a lot of uh of Steph running off of these actions and drawing multiple defenders in causing these openings for the athletes to succeed on the backside but Klay Thompson who’s been playing better

As of late but like as Klay Thompson ages out Brandon pmy is a guy who can shoot but he’s not a guy who comes aggressively off screens looking to shoot I it would just be interesting to see them add another option on that front I think it’s all depth at this

Point really whether or not they can win a title will come down to Jonathan kinga’s development give him another year maybe another playoff run this year to get reps in a playoff setting for him to identify what his weaknesses are at a better level get better at Jump shooting

Get better at reading double teams to me it’s going to be on the margins at this point and then Jonathan kinga’s uh big picture Improvement but yeah like if I had to if I had to pick like a specific archetype to look at just in terms of their shot creation with how athletic

Their front line is getting another movement shooter another higher level offensive guard into that mix uh I think would go a long way to helping them like even just like what if they made a move on the margins this summer for somebody like a Gary Trent Jr for instance would

Be a a pickup that I think would be really helpful for them all right last question and then we’re out here how can you all say that the Celtics have the most talented roster while they have no bench and they’re starting five isn’t better than the Clippers you said kawhai

Is better than Tatum and PG is better than brown and hardan is better than white man is kind of even with Drew who hasn’t roll in Boston only porzingis is better than zubac so I 100% disagree with that I do think the top three guys like Harden Kawai PG are better than Tatum

Brown whoever is your your third guy there but to also have Derek white to also have drew holiday to also have christops porzingis do also have Al Horford like they just that top six nobody touches that top six and that’s why I think that they have the most

Talented roster in the league all right guys that is all I have for today as always I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show we have a quick tomorrow morning breaking down some games from tonight slate then we’re going live tomorrow night I think it’s Clippers Warriors if I remember

Correctly but there’s a major national TV game on Wednesday night that we’ll be hitting so we’ll have that one as well as always I appreciate you guys I will see you Tomorrow

Jason Timpf reacts to Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, and the Milwaukee Bucks’ 112-95 win over Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets. Is Doc Rivers’ squad beginning to turn a corner? Jason also shares his thoughts on Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves’ dominant 121-100 win over Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers before hitting mailbag questions on the Boston Celtics, Golden State Warriors, and much more from the NBA!

Timeline:
00:00 – Introduction
01:09 – Timberwolves blow out Clippers
16:14 – Bucks shut down Nuggets
25:37 – How Celtics can improve in middle of the floor
32:13 – How should contact on jump shooters be officiated?
34:58 – The most ridiculous mailbag question Jason has ever received
35:30 – Jalen Williams shout out
36:54 – Warriors are NBA Finals contenders
38:54 – What Warriors need moving forward
40:10 – Are Celtics better than Clippers?

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