NBA Power Rankings: Celtics on top, Nuggets fall, Timberwolves massive jump | Hoops Tonight

NBA Power Rankings: Celtics on top, Nuggets fall, Timberwolves massive jump | Hoops Tonight

All right welcome to Hoops tonight here at the volume happy Monday everybody hope all of you guys had an incredible weekend we are going to talk about that travesty of an All-Star game but we’re going to do that in our mailbag portion later on in the show today to give you

Guys a breakdown of how this week is going to go in this episode we’re doing Power Rankings like we do every Monday then we’re going to do a mailbag I sent out a tweet earlier this morning we had like 4050 something questions come in so

I’ve got a bunch from there as well as some from the YouTube comments over the weekend so we’re going to do a mailbag in that segment going to talk about the allstar game and then later today I’m actually recording with s Vini from the athletic one of my favorite people to

Talk basketball with one of the smartest basketball Minds that I interact with we’re going to go through Contender rankings that will be coming on the YouTube feed on Tuesday and then we’ll actually run all of them as breakouts as well throughout the week so you guys can

See your specific teams but I think now is a great time to just kind of revisit the contenders in really put them into tiar and really rank them based on what we’ve seen through 50 some games to this point in the season so that’s what we’re going to be doing over the Tuesday

Wednesday Thursday portion of the week and then Thursday evening when the League returns back to game playay we’ll be back on YouTube live after the final buzzer of Warriors Lakers uh there’s also a big showdown between the Suns and the Mavs that night that will probably

Have to hit the next day because of weird blackout rules involving the Phoenix Suns uh where I live here in Tucson but we’ll hit that show that game on Friday as well but a big jam-pack schedule over the next couple of weeks as the NBA kind of takes control of

Things now that football is over but that gives you guys a little breakdown how the week’s going to go again today just Power Rankings and our mailbag you guys know the drill before we get started subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel mean a lot to me if you

Guys take a second to scroll down hit that subscribe button don’t forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight it’s also super helpful if you guys leave a rating and a review on that front follow me on Twitter _ jlt for film threads as well

As uh show announcements and then last but not least keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout the season all right so no inor out teams in this year’s or this week’s Power Rankings but there is some shuffling based on where we were last week number

10 the team in freef Fall since changing their coach the Milwaukee Bucks they start the week by kicking the out of the Denver Nuggets and then Pro ly lose two games in a row to the in injury ravaged Heat and the injury ravaged Memphis Grizzlies and once again as has

Been the issue since doc took over it’s the offense the two losses to Memphis into Miami a 102.5 offensive rating two more stinkers from Dame he was 12 for 35 from the field in those two losses he has shot below 40% from the field in 10 of his

Last 15 games it’s becoming a pretty consistent Trend and again he’s not going in the right direction on that front he’s going in the wrong direction on that front he’s had 23 games already this year where he shot below 40% from the field in 51 games I think in 55

Games last year I if I remember correctly that’s the total but he had 23 games uh excuse me 16 all of last year where he shot below 40% so 16 and 55 games or so last year 23 times in 51 games this year 10 of the last 15 definitely trending in the wrong

Direction on that front and here’s the thing the entire construct of the Milwaukee Bucks when you sent out one of your best two-way athletes in Drew holiday and in general when you look at the team and the fact that they just don’t really have a ton of Veteran speed

They’ve got athletes on the roster but they’re very young and not really involved in the rotation you’re a slow team this team the entire construct is built around them being a dominant offense particularly in the half court and so things won’t really turn around for them until things turn around for

Dame and that’s going to be something we’re going to be keeping an eye on down the stretch of the season number nine the New York Knicks 0 and2 this last week losses to Orlando and Houston the Knicks lost both of their starting forwards on January 27th Oobi and Julius

Randle since then they are four and five 11th in offense but 23rd in defense and Ninth in rebounding at just to give you guys an idea of how bad that is relative to where they usually are at at the time of their injuries they were seventh in

Defense on the season seon in number one in rebounding so the two biggest areas where they like to dominate basketball games are fundamentally altered by the fact that they’re two best forwards are out of the lineup and like again it doesn’t matter how good Jaylen Bruns is

Playing it doesn’t really M like none of that matters I you know basketball we have a tendency to like make it very video gamees can we focus on who’s the best player and what if this best player plays this well or you know so and so outplayed this guy and it’s like yeah

Don’t get me wrong matchups are a big part of the game but at the end of the day basketball is a team for it is a fiveman unit against a fiveman unit and it doesn’t matter how good your Superstar is if you don’t have quality role players around them and this is a

Great example like decimate one position group that forward position fundamentally Alters their defense and their ability to dominate The Glass the way they do and now they’re struggling to win games not not doesn’t mean anything as far as the Knicks and their long-term potential because obviously we

Got to evaluate them with OG and Julius Randall but right now it doesn’t really make a lot of sense to take to have major takeaways from the Knicks because they’re basically playing with a with a different identity right now while they’re waiting to get healthy Knicks are down at nine number eight the

New Orleans Pelicans that beat Memphis and Washington last week obviously a lighter stretch of their schedule big thing standing out to me as of late with the Pelicans is Zan Williamson is really starting to pick up steam his first 31 games this year he was at 21.7 points

Per game 58% from the field just three 30o games games in 31 tries last 13 games 24.1 points per game 59% shooting and he’s had five 30-point games in the last 13 games so really starting to pick up steam on that front the big the big

One to me is his athleticism appears to be getting closer to what we expect from Zion early in the year I thought he was like 80% of the athlete that we’ve grown accustomed to seeing with Zion but then he had like that big transition game uh game winner against the Spurs where he

Got to that left-handed uh a scoop shot off the glass that was a really athletic play I can’t remember which game it was last week I think it was the Memphis game but where uh where he ended up getting his head above the rim on a

Block and like you could just tell like he’s starting to get more of that vertical pop that we’re accustomed to seeing from Zion and again he relies a lot on his physical gifts and so him getting back into you know Peak shape on that front could Bode uh could bode well

For the additional level they can get to especially on the offensive end of the floor number seven the Phoenix Suns they beat Sacramento last last week as well as Detroit Kevin Durant it’s on a ridiculous heater right now he shot over 60% in five of his last eight games

Averaging 28 8 and six over that span shooting 57% from the field 40% from three and 85% from the line also 2.9 stocks per game steals plus blocks per game over that span the suns are fourth in defense over their last 15 games in large part because they’re anchored by

Kevin Durant they have a big Showdown on thir Thursday against the Dallas Mavericks that we will be covering most likely on Friday morning because of the blackout restrictions here in Arizona but I’m really looking forward to that game CU both of those teams uh have been facing some easier opponents as of late

And need kind of a signature win and they’re kind of headed for a showdown there on Thursday night that’s going to be a fun one number six the Oklahoma City Thunder only one game last week they beat the Orlando Magic jdub and Shay gilders Alexander were insane in that game they

Combined for 65 points Jaylen Williams I can’t say enough about this kid he’s an absolute stud absolutely torched Orlando in transition in particular coming off of that wide dribble handoff that Oklahoma City always runs for him hit a couple of nasty step back threes in this

Game one where he pounded uh between his legs and the other one where he kind of did a a hard side step and covered a bunch of ground his pull-up shooting has been kind of a revelation this year 53% overall 59% in effective field goal percentage weighted for threes

1.18 points per shot I don’t know if you guys were remember about a week and a half ago I was talking to you guys about how James Harden has been the best pull-up jump shooter in the League this year guess who’s second on that list Jaylen Williams there are 45 44 players

Excuse me in the league that have attempted at least 200 pull-up jump shots this year Jaylen Williams is second place on that list at 1.18 points per shot that’s highly unusual for a guy this early in his career and again like you could see it with uh with his

Ability to turn the corner against Orlando and get to that right-handed l L up off the glass like it’s just a combination of downhill force that allows him to get great Separation on those step backs because again as a Defender you got to make decisions and when Jayla Williams is hitting you with

That hard between the legs dribble to the right you have an option there you can press up on it take away that step back three but then you’re giving this outstanding athlete the ability to blow by you to his strong hand to the right hand side and like again as you saw in

That Orlando game in particular he’s just so good at getting that left shoulder lower and past the defender so that he can kind of turn around and pivot and get that right-handed scoop shot off the glass it’s a really fundamentally sound game which is what’s allowing him to be so efficient it is

Not a Reliance on super difficult shot making it’s using his athletic gifts to generate high quality shots for himself and he’s hitting them at a high rate his scoring volume is going up as well first 35 games of the year 18 points per game his last 13 games 20 22 points per game

He’s also had 20 plus points in nine of his last 13 nights so hot streak there for Jaylen Williams again light week for the Thunder but a lot of encouraging stuff coming out of Oklahoma City number five the Cleveland Cavaliers took a bad loss at home against the injury injury

Riddled Sixers was bad defensive effort game for them they had a 130 defensive rating in that game against Philly but they did bounce back and beat the Bulls effort is a huge determining factor for the Cleveland Cavaliers they do not have talent advantages over their opponents

On most nights but they have a they’re very well coached they play super hard every guy does their job on defense and then they’re good enough running in transition when they have opportunities and Donovan Mitchell’s playing well enough that they’re able to win games but again the effort has to be there

They do not have talent advantages over most of the teams in the league you see that in the record by the way they’re 23 and two this year when they play teams that are below 500 but they’re just 13 and 15 when they play against 500 or

Better teams and so that effort thing like when they bring Knights like they did against Philly they’re going to lose in a lot of cases number four the Denver Nuggets they dropped uh two games last week to the Bucks and the Kings cavius cell Pope and Jamal Murray both went

Down with injuries in the Bucks game kcp I believe was a hamstring and then Murray I believe was shinsplints if I remember correctly but they were kind of getting punked anyway at the time that they left the game then both guys were out for the Sacramento game uh the

Sacramento loss was kind of weird because I felt like Denver was in position to win that one and then they went to this bizarre like coverage where like the guard was on the ball was uh which ended up being Justin holiday and Aaron Gordon but they they were in their

Possessions on um on dearn Fox they were defending like it was an ice coverage like they were trying to deny the ball screen and force him away from the screen but the actual screen Defender typically in an ice coverage when a guy is like denying the use of the ball

Screen the guy that’s guarding the ball or the guy that’s guarding the screener typically drops into the lane so that you’re forcing him to drive away from the screen right into your helper but what Denver was doing which was weird is they had the onall guy up denying the

Screen like he was icing and then they had the screen Defender all the way out on the other side of the screen for a hedge which doesn’t make any sense why would you deny use of the ball screen but then also have help at the ball

Screen the whole point is the on ball Defender is not letting him get there Daren Fox was just like literally just driving into a handcrafted easy driving lane and just torch Denver at the end of the game with layups and floaters and it was just a really really confusing defensive

Strategy down the stretch and again like here’s the thing I’m not worried about Denver but the lifeless losses are starting to pile up just a little bit and all it means is that they do need to kick in with a little bit more urgency here down the stretch of the season

Number three the Los Angeles Clippers Minnesota loss was a bit concerning they got strangled by the perimeter defense of Minnesota and then overwhelmed by their size on the offensive end of the floor but I was really impressed by the Golden State Warriors win the other night no Kawhi Leonard had a big run

From Golden State like they typically bring in the third quarter as they went up double digits would have been really easy just to be like not our night but nope they weathered it they played uh Clippers basketball down the stretch really smart drive and kick possessions to Great Shooters in the corners and

They got a really impressive Road win hitting a lot of the check boxes that I look uh for Championship contenders the Clippers at number three number two the Minnesota Timberwolves three and 0 week followed up their dominance of the Clippers with back toback wins over the

Blazers they’ve won four in a row since their clutch collapse against the Chicago Bulls and all have been blowouts and again if you have issues with late game execution that’s a great way to avoid those situations be a dominant basketball team this was a big thing for

The uh the the Lakers in the 2020 year where like they leaned heavily on defensive personnel ran a lot of big lineups where they’d play you know a center next to Anthony Davis and stuff like that and what ended up happening is throughout That season they would

Struggle a little bit in the half court just because of the lack of offensive skill off of LeBron James and Anthony Davis but they just defended like crazy got out and transition a bunch and didn’t let games get close late you know like like even if you look in the finals

It’s like they lose that one game where Jimmy Butler scores all those points but then they just blow him out in game six and that’s got to be the pathway for Minnesota they’re not going they don’t have the Personnel to be a surgical halfcourt offense but they do have the

Personnel to win games by 10 15 points strangling teams with their defense and that just needs to be their MO here down the stretch number one Boston Celtics 2-0 with two wins over the Nets as I predicted before the season I thought they’d run away with the conference they

Are uh now six games up on the East two seed they have a four game lead over the Minnesota Timberwolves for the number one overall seed they also have the third easiest remaining schedule like they proved themselves to be the best regular season team while playing a very tough schedule earlier in

The year most of their tougher opponents were front-loaded and so they actually have a much easier schedule here down the stretch so their reward is they can be really cautious with injuries and guys that are a little banged up uh they can mess with lineups they can tweak

Strategies and and and and they could they just have an enormous margin for error they have the ability to really kind of like uh flush things out in terms of what they want to have in their bag is like punches and counters and and adjustments when they get to the

Postseason just because of all of the leeway that they’ve built for themselves in the standings they do have a little bit of a tough schedule to kick off the post All-Star stretch they go to Chicago then to New York although the Knicks are a little beat up right now then they

Come home for Philly and Golden State that’s a a little bit lighter stretch but then they go to Cleveland to Denver to Phoenix so going to learn a lot about the Celtics and some of their offensive progression here and in the next couple of weeks but then their light their

Schedule lightens up again after that so I don’t think it’ll matter in the standings at all but this next few weeks is going to be a good opportunity for us to learn more about the Celtics we’re going to be covering them very closely over that stretch there you go there’s

Our power rankings get in on the action with draftking Sportsbook an official sports betting partner of the NBA new customers who deposit $5 or more can get a no sweat bet up to $11,000 back in a bonus bet I was looking at NBA Futures this morning the Golden State Warriors are plus 5500

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Mailbag I got 17 different versions of this particular question but I just picked one how would you CU I thought this was the best one that kind of En encapsulated like the broader issue how would you incentivize players to play more competitive in the All-Star Game it

Feels like the game becomes more boring to watch every year and the offensive highlights cannot compensate for the lack of competition greetings from Germany really enjoy watching the show thank you for supporting the show as always I appreciate the kind words that you guys drop in the comments um I

Didn’t even watch the game last night I was actually joking with my wife um as we were uh just relax we typically take Sunday to kind of uh Saturday’s more of like a busy do stuff around the house day and then Sunday’s like a chill day

And at one point I looked over at the clock and it was like 7 and I I I told my wife I was like I’m pretty sure the All-Star game is like on now or starting soon and I was like I could not care less about watching the game I remember

The last time that was like appointment viewing for me with the allstar was when they launched the Elum ending just because I have always been a fan of the Elum ending and I wanted to see it and we got a couple good ones and then the Elum ending even ended up kind of

Crapping out there towards the the end and like I I think part of the issue too like one of my like fundamental things that I think causes the poor effort first of all Anthony Edwards is right uh the guys just they’re looking for a break they don’t want to compete

They want a break just imagine the grind of the 82 game regular season and then suddenly it’s like okay from Thursday to Thursday there’s no games so you can take a break and it’s like okay but I have to fly to Indiana for this Allstar event you know even LeBron like comes in

The day of the game right you know these guys are they’re they’re exhausted from the 82 this is just another thing they have to deal with during the season and so I think I think that’s why they don’t necessarily want to go all out while they’re there but then the format itself

It kind of like breeds a certain amount of of Lac ofical effort what I mean by that is like let’s say I’m throwing the opening tip there’s 48 minutes of basketball to play if there’s 48 minutes of basketball to play like of course you’re going to be chilling at the start

Of that game one of the things that I think made the Elum ending work at least there at the beginning was like it was a very small sample size of basketball at the end of the game 24 points you get 24 points here at the end and but even then

When we got to the later phases of that Elum ending phase the the one team would be up 10 12 points by the time they got to the fourth quarter and so it didn’t really feel like it was in flux but and so like there’s different things you can

Try I’ve seen people say well what if we did USA versus the world yeah I think that would I think that’s a little thing that would breed more competitiveness is like the guys just out of Pride might feel more interested in competing but that’s never going to work because you

Can’t have a system where you pick 12 All Star from outside the US and 12 allst star from inside the US it doesn’t balance out equally with the uh with the talent or the conferences it just would never work and so there would be you know maybe eight four in allars and you

Know 14 us Allstar it just wouldn’t work you could never do that so it’s a good idea but would never work what if you had the home court advantage in the NBA Finals determined by who wins that game that’s a terrible idea because that specific format is already so loose and

Sloppy and it’s way too big of a swing to to leave in the hands of basically a a just for fun type of event you know baseball doesn’t rely on effort that’s why they can get away with that baseball doesn’t rely on effort so like they can

Have an All-Star Game and like gu guys are going to still have like a a pretty normal looking baseball game because it’s not that type of environment right so like I I don’t think that’s a good idea for uh uh for an NBA All-Star Game to have some sort of massive uh like

Swinging factor of the NBA playoffs at stake in that environment there what I would do if I wanted to try to manufacture some competitiveness is create a shorter game and what that means is like what if you just took 10 AllStars from both conferences and you made four teams of five

And you played four or you played two Elum ending games just game to 24 twos and threes toss up the ball let’s play then do another game to 24 twos and threes toss up the ball let’s play maybe you add a king of the Court element by

Position group like how fun would that be to watch like joic and mbid just play one-on-one against each other or like the the stuff that you see at Team USA where you see Paul George and Kevin Durant and all these guys just playing King of the court from the elbow two

Dribble limit that kind of stuff like I would turn it into an event where you have these shorter bursts of higher competitive energy two five on five pickup games where all the bench guys goes all the bench guys go against each other all the starters go against each

Other because that’s the thing like you throw the ball up at Center Court and it’s like first one to make 10 baskets basically like that’s a way more like achievable effort thing then to throw the ball up at Center Center Court in a 48 minute game and be like come on guys

Play hard at the very at the very least they’re sitting there going like we’re going to at least chill for 20 of these minutes maybe 30 of these minutes and maybe we’ll pick it up towards the end like 48 minutes is way too long to expect guys to go hard in that

Environment but at the end of the day make no mistake even with my idea the idea of like having a couple a pickup games and maybe some King of the court stuff even in that specific format it doesn’t matter unless the guys compete and so everything fundamentally comes

Back to what Anthony Edwards says we can do whatever we want to try to foist some competitive energy onto them but they have to bring it it’s inevitably on the players and the players have told us they don’t care about playing hard in this environment and so what I’ve always

Told everybody on the show is like if you’re a fan of a team and the team you’re rooting for is not bought into the goal and they’re not playing hard on a nightly basis then you need to adjust your expectations with what you expect from from that team same thing goes for

The All-Star game if the players aren’t interested in it adjust your expectations and then you won’t be disappointed like it’s very clear that they don’t care but if I was the league and I was trying to force them to care that I think is the move smaller bits of

Basketball that don’t have this long 48 minute commitment where you can get guys to play hard for a short burst of time the one thing I like about the king of the Court format too is I think guys would be a little less worried about injuries because you’re not as worried

About you know stepping on help Defender foot or going up for a rebound and having a guy come up underneath you it’s a little bit easier to avoid injuries in a one-on-one format which I think could uh could bring some more effort out of the guys but I mean here’s the thing

Guys your guest is as good as mine the League’s tried everything and nothing’s worked so it is what it is at this point next question hey Jason thoughts on the biggest MVP snub ever is there a year that sticks out to you and makes you think for instance 2017 Harden instead

Of Russ for example 2017 Harden over Russ is a really good example the one that I that always sticks in my CW obviously as a LeBron fan is 2020 I thought who is the best basketball player in 2020 LeBron who was the best basketball team in 2020 the Los Angeles

Lakers literally the league was incredibly deep in the Western Conference and then the bottom of the Eastern Conference was historically bad there were like eight terrible teams in the Eastern Conference and so Giannis and the Bucks would just beat the living out of all of the these bad teams

And remember you play the other conference for 30 of your games you play your conference for 52 of your games so like when the east and by the way it’s happening again this year same thing’s happening in the Eastern Conference this year a less dramatic version of it but

The bottom of the Eastern Conference is substantially weaker than the bottom of the Western Conference that’s why when you look at the cross Conference record the West is kicking the out of the east in their interc conference play uh but anyway in that 2020 20 Season the Bucks kicked the out of everybody

Giannis only played like 32 minutes a game or something like that and it was because they were playing all these bad teams and it massively inflated all the uh uh Advanced metrics remember the whole thing about per 36 and like Giannis was averaging this per 36 and

It’s like LeBron was a better basketball player playing better basketball for a better team in a tougher conference still was right next to him in the standings it just beat him head to-head before the end of the season the only reason they won in Milwaukee is Giannis

Made uh Milwaukee won in Milwaukee was because Giannis made five threes in the game like the Lakers were just better LeBron was just better I thought he clearly deserved MVP That season it’s actually of all of the season in LeBron’s career it’s the one time I thought he got robbed uh Lebron fans

Like to say that he deserves to have 10 MVPs and voter fatigue is what killed him and I tend to go the other way on that because LeBron tends to be a guy after Miami who super chills in the regular season but that one year that 2020 season with the Lakers from the

Start of training camp to the moment he hoisted the trophy he attacked the season with a crazy level of intensity I thought he was by far the best player in the world that year I thought he got robbed of the MVP that should have been his number five next question it’s no

Secret that Steph and LeBron draw the best ratings however is it a factor of Stephen LeBron just being simply better or is it an issue of the NBA failing to market the newest uh the newer teams better Minnesota Oklahoma City Etc so I actually think the league does a better

Job uh of marketing maybe not relative to what we want but relative to what it used to be because of the tools we have at our at our disposal because of social media because of even like little things like just league pass and how easy it is

To find NBA content whether it’s team specific podcasts YouTube channels so many people out there do such an amazing job covering the Le like when people complain about like oh ESPN they never talk about these other teams all they do is talk about LeBron and stuff on first

Take and it’s like I’m like okay sure but like you don’t have to turn on ESPN I never ever ever turn on ESPN unless I’m watching an NBA game on ESPN like if I want to listen to NBA content I go to the people I want to listen to

So that to me never and it’s easy to find that stuff so like to me I’ve never understood the like like the league is responsible for no we all are all of us as fans by virtue of the way this new ecosystem works we are responsible for how the league is marketed there’s

Oklahoma City fans and and media members who do an amazing job marketing their talent Minnesota fans and they all do a great job you want to know why Stephen LeBron are more famous and popular than all these other players because they’ve won eight of the last 12 championships

Guys they’ve won eight of the last 12 think about that the rest of the league combined has won the same number of titles as LeBron and Steph individually have won over the last 12 years that is why Steph and LeBron are revered the way that they are that is why they are the

Face of the league that is why they are such a big draw on National Television by the way you know what one of our at Hoops tonight one of our more successful teams to cover as of late in terms of performance on the channel the Denver Nuggets you know why because they’re a

Truly special basketball team with an all-time great player who in my opinion as long as he stays healthy and his team stays healthy is going to win a bunch of championships over the course of the next 5 years like and guess what by the time we get further down the line there

Nicole will have a level of Fame and notoriety here in the US similar to what Steph Curry and LeBron James do throughout NBA history throughout all of history that’s the way it works who are the most famous players in NBA history Michael Jordan six championships Kobe Bryant five championships Magic Johnson

Five championships Larry Bird three championships like that’s that’s how you become a legend that’s how you become famous in this league you Hoist the damn Trophy and by the way that is why I’m a loyalist to the banner that’s why I care about it so much it it is eternal it is Everlasting

It is the thing that it’s the one thing you can do in this league that transcends everything else Stephan LeBron have done it more than everybody else that’s why they’re the faces of the league that’s why they’re as popular as they are next question what do you think of

The Paul George fit with the Warriors if they somehow manage to sign him as a free agent next season so the idea behind this kind of idea um is and by the way like Paul George has not signed an extension yet the idea here is the second apron and

The the more and more I talk to people around the league um or other people who cover the league the biggest thing that that’s becoming like a talking point as of late is the new CBA and the fact that like starting next year there’s all of

These crazy rules in place that make it a lot harder to work around the margins once you enter into that second apron and so I think in general you’re going to see a lot of teams that are going to make tough decisions on who they retain

And who they don’t so like for the record my guess is knowing Steve Balmer he’s probably going to find a way to bring Paul George back I expect him to be a Clipper but if there’s a version of this where it goes south what it would

Look like is the Clippers would sit down and they’d go hey we want to have a a sustainably great team we just built this brand new Arena it’s going to I think they’re moving into it next year like we we need to build sustainable model we cannot

Just go all in on this kawhai Paul George fit and then have a situation where they both age out and then suddenly we’re a complete full rebuild team so let’s figure out a way to do this um how about James Harden we could bring him back for 20 million a

Year and have him long term or we can bring Paul George back and we have to pay him 50 to 60 million a year well what if we just bring back James Harden and what if we you know kind of let Paul George go as our means with which to

Have a more sustainable model in terms of having more flexibility to make moves on the margins and to come up with cap space quickly if needed and things along those lines okay all of a sudden uh uh Paul George becomes a free agent or the the Clippers look to trade him to get

Asset return so that they don’t lose him for nothing okay now A Team like Golden State jumps in and goes here’s Jonathan kaminga here’s you know two first- round draft picks whatever it is like that that that would be the framework of how that would work I don’t think that’s

Going to happen I think Paul George is going to stay with the clippers but I do think you will see teams around the league that will make tough decisions about really great players because of their goal to avoid that second apron and all the limitations that come with

It does Paul George fit with the Clippers absolutely he’d be amazing in that situation not just as one of the best closeout attackers in the league but I think he’s a good enough passer and offscreen player to thrive in their five out uh system he’s an excellent

Two-way player he can defend the other team’s best player he’s just a way way way way way way way better version of either Andrew Wiggins or Jonathan kaminga and like now I think Jonathan kaminga has the potential to be better than Paul George in the long run but the

Idea there is you put Steph Curry with Paul George and Draymond Green you instantaneously become a top tier Championship Contender that’s the idea so again we’re going to talk about this in a bunch of of ways over the course of the summer when we get into free agency

And stuff like don’t Galaxy brand this stuff when when you put two G when you put two all-time great basketball players next to each other they tend to figure it out so the fit with the Warriors for Paul George would be excellent but again it’s unlikely

Although I do think we’ll see some more player movement in the future surrounding the CBA next question what are your most intriguing teams coming back from the break what will you be looking for with those teams so I’m I for this question I picked one from each conference in the Eastern Conference I’m

Really going to be watching the Milwaukee Bucks they have the third toughest remaining schedule by opponent win percentage and they’re already in freef Fall have lost seven of their last 10 games I think over the next 26 games the final 26 games of the season in

Order for the bucks to be on track for their ultimate goal to win the title I think they need an offensive rating over 120 and a defensive rating below 115 I don’t care about anything else to this point in the season if from right now over the final 26 an off an offensive

Rating 120 tells me that they have gotten to their own offensive ceiling they figured out with that group how to score at a high enough rate to buy them margin for error on the defensive end of the floor a defensive rating below 115 to me would tell me that they are

Committed enough to the details to positionally be in the right spots enough on defense to at least defend well enough so that their offense can put them over the top that to me is the is the bench mark an offensive rating over 120 a defensive rating below 115

Here down the stretch of the season that’s going to be what we’re watching with Milwaukee on a night in Night Out basis out west the team I’m going to be watching most closely is the Dallas Mavericks I’ve had a lot of people say uh why haven’t you talked about Dallas

More Dallas has been a really hard team for me to learn about and one of the main reasons why is they’re just they’ve they’ve every time I turn them on it’s a different team they’ve had 16 different players start a game they’ve had 11 different players start at least five

Games as a point of reference Sacramento Kings have had only eight different players start a game as opposed to 16 for the Mavs that’s half as many they’ve had six different players start at least five games that’s half as many so that go it gives you an idea of just the

Level of like turnover they’ve had Luca and Kyrie themselves have combined to miss 30 Games even it’s like I really want to watch some more Daniel Gafford I really want to watch some more Jaylen McDaniels as we’re trying to not jayen McDaniels excuse me PJ Washington as

We’re trying to figure out whether or not these additions can kind of move the needle for Dallas Post deadline and it’s like I’m watching them against the San Antonio Spurs like for instance Daniel Gafford Daniel Gafford fits into a mold that we’ve seen a lot around the league

Which is like the undersized big that’s a really good athlete and a really solid role man with his ability to finish around the rim but has some defensive limitations and because he’s not necessarily the biggest guy to have around the rim we’ve seen a lot of these

Guys over the years whether it’s like a montre Herold or like a like a Thomas Bryant where they’re like good athletes they play hard they’re they have length and they can finish Above the Rim but they’re just they’re just a little bit undersized for the position and they’re

Not great defensive players and so like for instance like there are some possessions where I’m watching Daniel Gafford against San Antonio and I’m like yeah this is not going to be good enough pick and roll defense to to get the job done but at the same time it’s against

The dam San Antonio Spurs you don’t need to play hard necessarily to beat those guys and so I’m excited just to see them post deadline get get healthy have a bunch of games in a row or they have you know consistency in the lineup so we can

Learn about them finally it’s been tough to learn about them even in this six-game winning streak it’s like they blew out the Thunder that was a huge win dominant impressive performance but their other five wins were against the injury ravaged Sixers the injury ravaged Knicks the Washington Wizards the San

Antonio Spurs and the Brooklyn Nets we are going to learn a ton about the Dallas Mavericks over the course of the next few weeks in uh they play Phoenix on Thursday in that major Showdown I told you guys about out then they immediately go on the road to Indie on

The road to Cleveland on the road to Boston and so we’re going to find out a lot more about Dallas over that span I just want to I I just want to see some consistency in the rotation so we can actually learn about what this group is capable of specifically defensively and

On the glass they’ve defended extremely well they have the number one defensive rating in the league over this six game span but again they’re playing against some inferior competition and so I really want to see what holds up what is translatable to the postseason among their upcoming opponents in the

Tougher stretch of their schedule here in the next couple of weeks so those are the two teams that I’m most intrigued by after the break and that will probably be covering pretty closely Milwaukee and Dallas next question not a question about the All-Star events but I’ve been thinking

About uh about how you brought up that young and fast teams tend to win a lot of games in the January to February part of the season and with the Cavs recent and out of nowhere explosion do you think it’s legit or just January woes so

Here’s the thing uh I don’t I think it’s I think it’s always a combination of factors I don’t want to undercut the success of some specific players on the Cavs Donovan Mitchell’s having the best season of his career in my opinion his playmaking is better than it’s ever been

His defense is better than it’s ever been that’s gone a long way towards helping that situation Dean Wade turning into like a really impressive two-way player very important for the turnaround of this particular team the just around the board Jared Allen’s playing incredibly well they’re just getting really impressive two-way performances

From these guys but there’s something to be said about the fact that they’re young they’re hungry they’re well coached they’re playing harder than everybody and that absolutely will manifest in wins particularly in the January February stretch of the season this is the stretch of the Year where the younger more athletic teams that

Play hard more consistently will carry weight uh in the standings this is also the stretch in the year where the old older veteran teams that have had a lot of playoff experience that struggle to get up for regular season games you’ll see them drop a bunch of games in this

Stretch of the season I think like I mentioned earlier in the power rankings I think you see that in the the way that the Cavs wins have broken down they’re 13 and 15 when they play teams that are 500 or better and they’re 23 and two

When they play teams that are below 500 they are very much an effort uh and energy and speed type of team next question um which of these teams do you think is more of a threat in the play playoffs this year the Pelicans the Mavs or the Kings I love

This question by the way these types of questions more of those please in the mailbags like little choices between different options I’ve always had fun with those so bigger threat in the playoffs the Pelicans the Mavs or the Kings I go with the Mavs no question and it’s really this simple if you’re

Ranking playoff performers out of that group Luca is a clear number one number two in my opinion it’s like a toss up between either Brandon Ingram Deen fox or Kyrie I think Kyrie Irving’s in that group as one of his three L shot creation is just so incredibly valuable

Especially in a secondary role like and again everyone wants to say like oh who how who’s the best player in a vacuum that doesn’t matter all that matters is how much you impact winning in your specific situation that’s what actually translates to the goal of getting the

Trophy and so I’m always going to like like for Jamal Murray with the nuggets for instance to me it doesn’t matter how he Stacks up against you know a deer and fox who’s in a different role that doesn’t matter that’s not his role his role is next to Nicole yic and he

Impacts winning at an incredibly high level next to Nicole yic that’s who he is as a basketball player in the real sense of what matters in this season in the pursuit of the trophy and so again give me Luca and Kyrie with athletes versus Brandon Ingram with athletes

Versus Daren Fox and uh Malik monk with athletes and D sabonis with athletes like I just think I think when they get into that setting that that Luca and Kyrie just bring so much more to the table in terms of that slow down half court environment I would lean into the

Mavs there next question why isn’t Luca the MVP right now the answer is really simple they have the 12th best record in the league the last time a team with a bad record won the MVP was Russell Westbrook in 2017 they had the 10th best record in

The league so if Luca won the MVP right now he would literally be an even bigger stretch in terms of where they are relative to the rest of the field in the standings than uh Russell Westbrook was in 2017 which retrospectively most people look back at as a mistake as

Someone who didn’t deserve it right we talked about that earlier with James Harden so again like do I think Luca can win the MVP yeah but they’ve got to win a ton of games over the last 26 and by the way I get it they’ve been ravaged

By injuries we’ve talked about all that Luca’s been incredible this year massive leap especially as a pull-up jump shooter I also think he’s having a better defense and rebounding season that he’s had in either of the last couple of seasons like I’m I’m not trying to undercut what luk is doing at

All they just have the 12th best record in the league and like again NBA history tells us the MVP is typically a team a guy from one of the best teams in the league in terms of where they where they land in the standings uh two more questions and then

We’re out of here how do you analyze clutch time defense feels like everyone makes a big deal about clutch offense but I don’t hear a lot of an analysis about what makes clutch defense successful so clutch defense in my opinion becomes more about Personnel than it does about execution it’s the

Biggest difference between the kind of like run-of-the-mill regular season defensive rating stuff it’s a big reason why have you clutch numbers as an important indicator of what a uh playoff team is capable of by the way but while we’re talking about Dallas you know who’s been an excellent clutch team this

Year on both ends of the floor Dallas they’ve actually been uh like a an elite like top tier uh late game clutch situation defense this year I think their defensive ratings like around a 104 if I remember correctly in clutch situations they’ve been a team that’s Dem demonstrated that they have the

Personnel to get stops in like game situations why do I say it leans more on Personnel than scheme over the course of 82 uh there’s a lot of traditional coverages there’s a lot of Base schemes as a result of that it’s more about effort on a night in Night Out basis

Right and that’s why I view defensive rating is more of an effort stat than a defense stat but when you get into late game situations typically you’re just running a set isn’t going to get you a bucket because they’re probably going to switch it and chances are are they

Scouted a lot of your late game stuff and they know how to get in front of it right also more contact is allowed on both ends of the floor so you’re not going to get some of the kind of cheap whistles that you get elsewhere in the

Game so in that situation where there’s more switching more scouting less foul calling it becomes way more about picking on matchups and what athletic gifts your your your lineup has and so there are a lot of teams for instance that will be able to get stops for large

Portions of the game and they get into the final minutes and they struggle to get stops and that to me is a is a big indicator of some of the issues they might have down the line when they get into the postseason and so on that note I mean

Like I I’ll give you an example like do you remember the Utah Jazz teams with Rudy go be they would consistently be an excellent defense in the regular season then they get to the postseason and their defense fell apart because it turned out their base scheme of chasing

Guys over the top and funneling them to Rudy goar worked great over the 82 but when they got into the postseason it was like oh all we have to do is get Rudy into rotation and as long as we’re a little bit more deliberate about the

Next layer of our attack Rudy won’t be there anymore that’s when we can kind of pick them apart for catch and shoot threes and or driving layups and like that was when they started to kind of figure things out and the Clippers just pick the Jazz apart at that point so

Like again when you get into the the clutch situations it more closely resembles playoff basketball it becomes more about the actual athletic tools of your defensive lineup that’s why I look at clutch defense as closely as I do uh last question and I actually have two of them

Here because I wanted to just kind of make a larger point about the way we do the show the way Jason has ditched Cleveland all season long is disappointing the second one I got was from the nerd SES guys 17 minutes of talking about a trade that is very

Unlikely and can’t happen until the summer while we are in the middle of one of the best NBA regular seasons is an interesting decision so usually when I see stuff like this it annoys me just because of the fact that like we structure the show for this very reason

So you got to think of it like this there is the basketball nerd side of this show but then there’s the business side of the show and in a typical situation it’s difficult to manage that Dynamic from a Time standpoint and so you kind of have to pick one or the

Other right and so you’ll see major television shows lean big into the business side and it’s a lot of LeBron it’s a lot of Lakers it’s a lot of Warriors it’s a lot of you know big picture NBA topics being aru about on TV and then the niche podcasting World

They’ll devote all their energy to more of the basketball nerd stuff well we’re our show is unique in the sense that we just do more than most shows meaning like in terms of the hours of content that we do like I on average during the season do like six episodes a

Week how many Niche podcasts out there are doing six episodes a week you know what I mean like they’re usually they’re doing three you know what I mean so what we do is both like guess what I did a deep dive on the Cleveland Cavaliers with Carter Rodriguez from the chase

Down podcast less than a month ago brought him on we did 48 minutes of Cavs for that episode I watched a bunch of Cavs tape th this year I’ve watched plenty of Cavs the difference is like what happens is like over the course of a week we’ll have three hours of content

That we put out usually it’s more it’s like four hours and so yeah in that four hours of content you know half of it might be business stuff here’s LeBron topics we cover the Warriors very closely you know why we have a large Warriors fan base we cover the Lakers

Very closely you know why we have a large Lakers fan base we cover the top teams in the league a lot why they are the ones that have the most engaged fan bases because their teams are good and so we can get more of the business side

Out of it but we work so much here that we’re able to hit on everything you this one is the funniest one to me 17 minutes of talking about a trade that is very unlikely and can’t happen until the summer while we are in the middle of one

Of the best NBA regular seasons is an interesting decision it was an hour and a half long show it was an hour and a half we T like like we got into an argument forever about like the the Timberwolves versus the Oklahoma City like we were we did rookie rankings we

Were all over the weeds in that episode that’s the beauty of it when you talk for an hour and a half you can spend 17 minutes talking about a Trey young Anthony Davis Duo and how it Stacks up to the rest of the league that’s the way

It works here like yes you’re going to get a lot of Lakers you’re going to get a lot of Warriors but I don’t just do Lakers and Warriors I do a ton of additional stuff we break it all out into additional clips and we Market it

So you guys can see it like I I I go above and beyond to make sure that we get to as much of this stuff as possible our staff behind the scenes works really hard to edit all that stuff and get it uh put out in a way that is EAS easily

Digestible for you guys so like again like I I chances are if you want to hear me talk about your team all you have to do is look in the feed it’s in there somewhere it just it might not be at the start of the show it might not be

Marketed in the full show thumbnail but it’s in there somewhere you just got to look for it we we do that much content for that very reason and again the only reason why I’m I’m kind of ranting about this right now is like I want these people to know that stuff’s there like

You if you’re like I encourage you CS fans we did a big deep dive not just on the group that went on a run without Evan Moy and without Darius scarland we even broke down how those two guys when they return to the lineup how it’s going

To kind of change things we even broke down big picture what the Cavs look like in five years it was an hour of Cavs content go find it it’s there I encourage you to check it out Carter does great work it was awesome that he

Came on the show and gave us his time and gave us such a interesting perspective I I just want you guys to know that stuff’s there because we work too hard for it to go unnoticed if that makes sense all right I’m off my soap box I appreciate you guys uh for

Supporting the show we’ll be back with San Vini for contender rankings tomorrow I will see you guys then

Jason Timpf drops his weekly NBA Power Rankings where Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics have maintained the top spot for much of the year, and this week is no different. After dominating the first half of the season, the Celtics have looked like the NBA’s best team, and will be a huge threat to Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets in their pursuit of back-to-back championships.

Timeline:
00:00 – Introduction
02:10 – #10: Milwaukee Bucks
04:03 – #9: New York Knicks
05:40 – #8: New Orleans Pelicans
06:56 – #7: Phoenix Suns
07:46 – #6: Oklahoma City Thunder
10:11 – #5: Cleveland Cavaliers
11:05 – #4: Denver Nuggets
12:50 – #3: Los Angeles Clippers
13:31 – #2: Minnesota Timberwolves
14:41 – #1: Boston Celtics
18:58 – How to get players to try harder in All-Star Game
25:44 – Biggest MVP snub ever
28:08 – Why Steph & LeBron get the best ratings
31:12 – Does Paul George fit Warriors?
34:41 – Bucks & Mavs teams to watch for
39:12 – How good are Cavaliers?
40:52 – Pelicans / Mavs / Kings most dangerous?
42:35 – Should Luka Doncic be MVP?
43:40 – How do you analyze clutch time defense?
46:29 – Format of the show

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