Kevin Durant leads Suns past Cavs, Warriors beat Spurs + NBA Mailbag | Hoops Tonight

Kevin Durant leads Suns past Cavs, Warriors beat Spurs + NBA Mailbag | Hoops Tonight

All right welcome to Hoops tonight here at the volume happy Tuesday everybody hope all of you guys are having an incredible week we have a absolutely jam-pack show today we’re going to start off with the Suns who continue to impress with a big win on the road over the Cleveland Cavaliers Kevin Durant

Still red hot big shock Deon Booker made his return as well we’re going to break that game down from the perspective of both teams after that the Golden State Warriors for the first time this season won a basketball game without Steph Curry on the road against the Spurs just

After they had lost to the Spurs without Victor inyama at home a majorly important win considering their situation in the standings and again how much they’ve struggled without Steph this year after that we have not taken an opportunity this year to really do a deep dive on Victor wean yama’s rookie

Season and so I took a lot of time this morning digging into all of the numbers watching a ton of film of all these different play types so that I can give you guys a little scouting report on what Victor we yama’s rookie season has

Been like and then after that we have a a fun mailbag about a dozen questions bunch of different stuff involving NBA history some stuff with the Lakers we’re going to preview a nuggets bucks potential series should they face in the NBA Finals a fun mailbag for the end of

The show you guys know the drill before we get started subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel it 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 if you leave a rating and a review on the podcast feed don’t forget about my Twitter feed _ jlt Where I Leave show announcements as well as film threads from time to time and the last but not least keep dropping mailbag questions in

Those YouTube comments we’re going to be doing a few more mailbags over the course of this week all right let’s talk some basketball so the Cavs really dominated the Suns early in this game Phoenix came out in a really deep drop coverage with Yousef nurkic and their guards just weren’t really sharp chasing

Over the top of screens again when we talk about like the uh pick and roll coverages as like a bracket that’s usually the analogy that I use in the sense that like your on ball guy is the top half of the bracket and the screen Defender is the bottom half of that

Bracket and when you do a deep drop coverage when you pull that side of the bracket further back this side of the bracket has to be especially sharp you have to be chasing over the top extremely well and applying a ton of back pressure because if you do you can

Force the guy to keep driving into where your screen Defender is but when you’re sloppy at the point of attack and you’re in a deep drop coverage you’re going to get killed and Darius Garland absolutely torched them in the first half of this game was killing them with pull up

Three-point shooting and then they brought in Drew Eubanks uh towards the end of the first quarter and they started they put Bradley Beal on darus Garland and started blitzing and at that point he was already in Rhythm so he beat Bradley Beal by rejecting his screen once again like when you bring

The screen Defender way up to the level he has to pick a side of the screen and so it becomes that much more important for the on ball Defender to not get beat the other way because if you get beat the other way you have no backside help

Be got beat the other way once there was a possession where they hard blitzed and Darius Garland just hit like a crazy drifting three along the along the right corner because at that point he’s just already in rhythm again like a lot of times we Overlook what happens at the

Beginning of the game like it doesn’t set the tone if you allow a ball handler to get comfortable and confident then even when you ratchet up the defensive intensity that guy’s already feeling good that guy’s already in Rhythm it’s really hard to slow them down at that

Point there was another play late first half where they lost Garland on a baseline out of bounds where Eubanks even though he was supposed to be up at the level blitzing he was way far back in the lane on the Baseline out of bounds they just did a quick little uh

Dribble handoff with Damen Jones in the left corner Darius scarland got another three so just nowhere near good enough defensively to start this game they found themselves down by 19 points but then right around that middle of the second quarter the sun started to get going offensively they really started to

Attack George’s neang and this is this is one of those things where having Devin Booker back has a bunch of of positive effects down the roster and it’s not just having the ability to have another player the quality of of Devin Booker to initiate offense it it affects

The matchups down the court it affects your off ball spacing for actions that KD and Deon and Bradley Beal run right like we’re going to be talking a lot about that over the course of the show but specifically as it pertains to them attacking George’s neang when you have

Devin Booker out there and Devon Booker and Bradley Beal are both going to draw a significantly uh tough perimeter defense type of assignment right in that situation you just run out of bodies and so the Cavs ended up opting to put George’s neang on Kevin Durant straight

Up and so KD was doing a lot of work on him in ISO any screening action where he would get switched Kevin Durant would just point at Devin Booker point at Bradley Beal and be like go like go take him and they were just literally taking turns just cooking georgees neang on an

Island to George nang’s credit like he was competing he was really trying he’s just he’s overmatched in those specific situations they were also having a lot of success with Spain pick and roll this is an action that the Suns used to run a ton uh uh back in the Monty Williams era

Era with Chris Paul and it’s different players obviously aside from Deon Booker different coach now but it’s more or less the same concept again it’s just a ball screen but you have a shooter come up to back screen the r man uh the r man’s Defender the screen Defender as

He’s relocating to the top of the key which opens up two different things it opens up the lob pass but it also makes it really difficult for the screen Defender to get back and help protect the rim and so they were having success with that as well and then as they

Started to get going offensively attacking the Yang and scoring in ball screens that triggered their defensive intensity and then from there they were able to regain control of the game after being down 19 they did a much better job on Darius Garland in the second half they brought Yousef nerkish up into a

High drop instead of a deep drop that’s where you’re up at the level contesting and then just rotating back as best as you can and nerkach was like nurkic every time I watched him he had a a not his best game in this particular matchup and they ended up closing with with

Eubanks instead just because of his foot speed and because nkuch wasn’t quite as sharp but nkuch made some defensive plays in this game in his drop coverage especially at the start of the second half and like honestly every time I watch nerkish I’m always impressed by

Just how much he tries to make plays defensively despite his lack of foot speed but bringing him up to the level and then just much better on one ball defense helped them really cool off Darius Garland in the second half of this game uh in general their intensity

Went up to the level where we even saw Devin Booker flying around and getting a bunch of offensive rebounds in that third quarter he had a possession where he had three offensive rebounds on the same possession just shooting in from the wing and beating people to the ball

Ended up hitting like a little bank shot on the fourth offensive possession of their or fourth shot of that possession he had four offensive rebounds in total had a nice Tapout rebound later on in the third quarter so the Suns just kind of methodically work their way back in

They go up by nine but then Cleveland who again capable of real defensive runs as well they locked in on defense and the game just turned into an absolute slog on both ends of the floor Cleveland briefly tied the score at 104 uh but then Phoenix got an easy layup for Devin

Booker out of another Spain pick and roll they just had uh um they just had Grayson Allen come up and back scre Jarrett Allen as they were running the ball screen and Devin Booker was able to kind of kind of gather through the digging down def Defender out of the

Left corner and finished with a left-handed layup then a couple possessions later they had a really good defensive possession where they blitzed Darius Garland at the top of the key and got into rotation as Garland hit Jared Allen slipping and Jared Allen made a kick out to the left corner and it was

Like bang bang bang P balls getting pass around but every sun was just on a string flying around they ended up forcing a tough skip pass that Royce O’Neal was splitting the difference between two offensive players and was able to get a steal they ranan out the

Other way and Kevin Durant got a layup Suns built a little bit of a margin again and they were able to kind of stiff arm him from there got a little sketchy late Phoenix got a little sloppy in the late fourth quarter here couple of bad turnovers uh gave up four

Offensive rebounds in the corner they were just a quarter they just weren’t boxing out but Grayson Allen got two key stops at the end of the game in ISO against Darius Garland the first time he slid his feet really well and stopped him in the middle of the floor killed

The Possession and then after that there was the play where Jared Allen actually had a decent opportunity to tie the game with the lob pass but I want to give Grayson Allen some credit here so I think it was 113 111 so it’s a two-point game darus garlanda just tried attacking

Grayson Allen and couldn’t beat him so then on this possession he’s on the left wing Grayson Allen on an island he’s picking on him in a switch they’re specifically going after Grayson Allen here Grayson Allen slides his feet and cuts off like four or five different moves from Darius Garland and then

Finally after like the fifth or sixth move Garland’s able to get a angle on Grayson and beat him off the dribble but at that that point when he beat him off the dribble he was so sped up by just the sheer number of moves he had just

Made that when he threw the lot pass he threw it too high and it’s one of those things like you have your jobs in when you switch when you’re the weaker Defender that someone’s targeting no one’s expecting you to suddenly turn into Jaden McDaniels and get a bunch of

Stops like what they’re expecting you is just to do the best you can and in that situation against a quick guard like Darius Garland especially one that had been shooting the three really well and you got to factor in CL uh uh time and score like in a two-point game the last

You want to do is give up a step back three to a guy who’s been hitting his three all night long and suddenly you’re down by one and it’s a completely different game trust your backside help chase him off the line and he just made him make enough moves made him work hard

Enough that he sped the play up and just a little bit of a difference like that pass is six inches lower and six inches to the right Jared Allen dunks the ball and it’s a tie game but no it was a little bit too high and a little bit to

The left Jared Allen the ball was like on the backboard when Jared Allen caught it and that kind of disrupted his catch and he fumbled it away and they were able to get a stop and they escaped with a huge Road win in Cleveland and again

Like especially after you you C like you know this is typical right especially on the road especially against a team that I don’t think Phoenix sees as particularly threatening especially without Donovan Mitchell in the lineup like it’s just kind of Trap game especially after a couple of really

Tough games against the nuggets and Celtics right and you get slapped in the face early and you find yourself down big but they methodically executed their way back into the game and then they were able to close CL the game out in the fourth quarter which obviously has

Been an issue for them at times this season major takeaways on the Suns front uh good comeback game for Deon Booker 27 points and seven assists on 50% shooting really active as an athlete in the second half not just on the glass but defensively as well interesting

Adjustment from Frank vogle to go with Drew Eubanks late in the game so they had more speed on the floor to deal with Garland especially they did some switching and more blitzing at the end of the game with Garland and they just needed more speed in that situation

Kevin Durant still on an absolute heater as his fourth straight game with at least 35 points barbecuing georgees neing like we were talking about but again one of the key things for Phoenix that I’ve been paying attention to real defensive runs we’ve seen that uh in the

Denver matchup we saw that even for stretches in the Celtics game again to get back into the game in that third quarter run and then held the Cavs to 20 points in the fourth quarter as well just just a like really impressive defensive ceiling that they’re starting

To demonstrate even if it’s not as consistent as you would like it to be I saw a a video from KOC Kevin oconor from The Ring this morning he was um on his podcast with Chris Vernon talking about whether or not the suns were the biggest

Threat to the nuggets out west and you know it’s interesting I I’m I’m still a little bit on the fence because I think uh the Clippers just have better defensive Personnel but the Clippers have been pretty mediocre for like a month now and the suns are really starting to put together some highlevel

Basketball they’re starting to attach some highle defense to the work that they’re doing offensively with the three stars and it’s really starting to take shape I’m I’m kind of like let’s just put it this way I still think I lean slightly towards the clippers but I’d put the

Suns like pretty much on that level at this point really starting to believe in them I think they have some good matchup advantages across the board again specifically like when KD is making his pull-up jump shot he doesn’t really get bothered that much by Aaron Gordon it’s

Just a question of whether or not he can make him and then Yousef nkit just a big body that can actually bang with jic and cause him some issues down there they they do they are absolutely a threat I’m just not quite sure if I’d put them on

The same level as the Clippers at this point on Cleveland uh D like this is a a classic issue I see around the league with a lot of the smaller guards uh especially ones that aren’t like absolutely insane athletes the um the difference between playing against a deep drop coverage

Versus more aggressive coverages and in ISO situations so like Darius Garland in the first half was just absolutely cooking the Suns because they weren’t very aggressive on the ball there wasn’t a ton of ball pressure and they were in just such a deep drop coverage and so he

Was able to get going with what I call like baked in shots like these are shots that are the coverage itself is designed to give up so like in that the point being like if you can if if anybody at the like just take a random you know

College basketball player is is capable of hitting a mid-range 16-footer right like then if that this coverage literally concedes that shot so like anybody can make that shot now the best players in the world can make it at a much higher rate right and Garland is absolutely barbecuing it but there’s a

Difference between the shot that is baked into the coverage versus what happens when the intensity picks up and suddenly there are no baked in shots and it’s shots that you have to create yourself and like don’t get me wrong Garland still had some success getting downhill when they started bringing

Aggressive coverages and uh hitting the slipper and that’s still creating an advantage in those situations but when it comes to scoring the basketball Darius Garland is definitely one of those guys that kind of needs some of the shots that are baked into the coverage he’s not a guy that like

Against really Elite locked in physical defense can consistently just generate his own shot on an island and I thought that those last two possessions against Grayson Allen and just how difficult it was for Darius Garland to break free I thought was a a strong indicator of that because Grayson Allen at the guard

Position is very much an average defensive player right just a something to keep in mind and honestly that’s why you need a guy like Donovan Mitchell and I i’ I’ve actually come around in a lot of ways on the Mitchell Garland back court in the sense that like when

Donovan Mitchell is defending the way that defended this season and really leveraging his athletic gifts that’s where it starts to look more like that skill guard athlete guard type of mold it’s when Donovan Mitchell leans into the skill guard stuff and doesn’t compete as an athlete that that backourt

Becomes untenable so like I actually believe more in the Garland Mitchell back court now than I used to just because of Donovan Mitchell’s leap that he’s taken just in the Dirty Work areas of the game this year but I did think that game last night was just an

Indicator of the ceiling the certain ceiling that Darius Garland has as a scorer which depends so much much on what the defensive coverages are obviously no Evan Moy just means a lot of georgees neang and georgees neang was just having one of those games where he wasn’t hitting shots and if he’s not

Hitting shots and he’s such an easy target on the defensive end of the floor things can fall apart pretty quickly but even despite all of that like Jared Allen better better pass from Darius Garland on that last possession and and Jared Allen uh catches the ball cleanly

It’s it’s a 113 113 game and the real reason why they had that chance is because they are still capable of these crazy defensive runs like they went on in the like late third quarter into the fourth quarter and that again is like defenses will just keep you in

Basketball games and and again like that that’s I think I think when you factor in the Improvement that Donovan Mitchell has made and just the Improvement in terms of the overall amount of offensive skill on the floor if they can compete defensively well enough to keep these games close as long as Donovan

Mitchell’s hitting shots so they they they have a chance to beat anybody it’s just a question of whether or not he can kind of meet other stars at that level as a shot maker the thrill and excitement of March Mania is here and draftking Sportsbook one of America’s

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Going to be breaking down the Golden State Warriors on the road getting their first win of the Season without Steph Curry in the lineup another defensive run the Spurs had 68 points with 10 minutes to go in the third quarter they led by 10 68 to 58 and uh the Spurs had

72 points with a little over three minutes left in the third quarter so they held him to just four points over a seven minute span at that point the warriors were at 14 86 to 72 so a 28-4 run in about seven minutes of basketball they logged a defensive rating of

78.3 in that quarter on tape just really good game plan discipline lots of lineups because it spans the middle of the third quarter uh multiple lineups for both teams were on the floor during that stretch but the gist of it was any screening action that involved Draymond Green Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Kinga

Was a switch they were willing to switch Wiggins and kaminga onto Victor wanyama in those screening actions which shut those particular actions down uh obviously they had some issues like Victor wanyama had a drop step dunk on on Jonathan kaminga and a switch where he just didn’t really hold his ground

Well enough but then when the guards were on the ball so whether it was pamy or Gary pton they were just ducking under picks on Trey Jones so they would live with pullup threes on Trey Jones and then they were chasing like crazy on Devon vasel and both guys were awesome

In this D both um Brandon psky and Gary pton just really controlled that perimeter defense stretch after the middle portion of the fourth quarter when the guards checked in um I clipped a specific possession of Gary pton the second just showing him chasing around on Devon vasel and you know one of the

Things that Gary pton does super well that that’s always impressed me is he’s so incredibly athletic that he’s capable of gambling or taking risks jumping into passing Lanes or reaching and getting off a balance but still has the speed to recover and in this specific play that I

Clipped that you’ll find him my Twitter feed _ jlt there’s an example of Gary pyton lunging on one side of the screen and then chasing over the top and reaching in aggressively and yet in both situations having the speed to recover so when Devon Vel got downhill and got

To like a little pullup 15 footer along the left Baseline he actually got a great contest on it just because he has the crazy speed to be able to recover after being aggressive and that I think I think that sort of thing well is super frustrating for offensive players

Because like you have these counter moves designed like when a guy makes an aggressive move I whip it behind my back this way and I have an angle but it’s like against the best athletes in the world they can just recover and it’s like I did everything right on that

Possession and he’s still right in my face right and then Trey Jackson Davis was just really a force around the rim defensively uh in the second half of this game actually had a possession in the fourth quarter where he blocked Trey Jones and Zack Collins backto back on the same possession weirdly enough

Didn’t get credited for a block in the Box Score which I thought was was really interesting and then on the offensive end of the four Klay Thompson and Chris Paul did a really nice job running the offense Klay was able to hit some jumpers against the Spurs and their Dro

Coverage and you know some of those classic like come off of a dribble handoff the guy’s kind of in a trail position and just hits him with a hard like right shoulder uh step back moving to his left and knock it down like that sort of thing Chris has his usual Chris

And uh his like Chris and Trace Jackson Davis pick and roll chemistry thing just on level 10 throughout this entire game hit him for lobs and finishes around there Trac had a ridiculous right-handed finish uh around Zack Collins where he jumped into him and like scooped around

With his offhand to finish like just just a ridiculous play uh we we haven’t even got to it yet but like at the end of the game when uh uh when Victor wanyama reached to his right hand side and he spun off of him just one of the

Most ridiculous dunks you’ll ever see as he as he like palmed it as best as he could have just threw it over the top of the rim into Victor wanyama that’s a highlight that Trace will be looking at for the rest of his life I’m sure especially when Victor’s running rough

Shot over the rest of the league in five years I’m sure that’ll be a fun one for him to look back at uh but Chris had his mid-range jump shot going as well he h six shots in the mid-range in this game which obviously is such an important

Part of Chris being able to navigate in pick and roll situations he has to be a threat to score in order to bring the screen Defender up enough to open up those R man opportunities and that’s what just kind of brings that two-man game two fruition is like Chris’s

Willingness and ability to knock down those mid-range jump shots and then Trace after the screen rolling hard to the rim and bringing that vertical spacing Andrew Wiggins had 16 points on eight shots he a massive three in the third quarter kind of moving to his right he’s really bringing confidence to

The three-point stroke now that we haven’t seen really since the playoffs in 2022 shooting 49% from three on 3.3 attempts per game in his last 18 games averaging 14 points and shooting 54% from the field overall so Andrew Wiggins really encouraging stretch from him as of late and then Jonathan kaminga 22

Points the usual getting out in transition hit a couple ISO jumpers attacking in face up situations big win for the Warriors this was a tough one CU again the Spurs have been sneaky tough to play for a while now uh as the Warriors know very well they just lost

To him at home without Victor wanyama and so adding wemi on the road really nice bounceback win a very important one for them in the standings as well um so obviously we have not taken the time yet this season we’ve had brief conversations about Wy but we haven’t

Really talked about um his season in totality and I haven’t because how bad the Spurs have been I haven’t really taken the time to dig into Victor wanyama and the tape and and the numbers this year so that’s what I wanted to do here for a few minutes is just kind of

Do like a deep dive on Victor Wiman yama’s rookie season so for the season averaging 21 points 10 rebounds and three assists 1.3 steals 3.4 blocks on 57% true shooting obviously awesome but since December 28th Victor took a leap in the middle of the Season which is

Something we’ll talk about in a little bit but since December 28th so his last 31 Games 2 three points per game 10 rebounds and four assists 1.2 steals with 3.7 blocks per game 50% from the field 38% from three and 82% from the line so 60.4% true shooting so before we

Go any further a rookie averaging 2310 and four with five stocks per game on over 60% true shooting is completely insane especially when you factor in that like most rookies around this time of year start to hit a wall they start to struggle with fatigue because the

Length of the season is just different than what they’ve dealt with when they were younger although overseas uh Victor obviously has had a different experience than most college players U so Victor’s probably more uh capable of handling the physical nature of an 82 Game season but still it’s an adjustment it’s different

Uh than what he was dealing with but for all rookies that’s an adjustment right we’re seeing Brandon pmy run into this a little bit with the Warriors right um also teams have started to put together a good amount of film so like again when you look at scouting yeah uh once you

Have like 50 games worth of sample these scouting departments they have really good uh data to look at they can really find out like okay this particular action if we guard it like this he struggles in ISO if we sit on this hand and we prepare for this counter move we

Can we can handle it right like there are a lot of ways that teams just get better at scouting rookies as More film becomes available and so so many rookies run into a wall at this point in the year and instead Victor with minyama is

Just going up a level and again 2310 and four with five stocks and over 60% shooting is just completely insane for a rookie regardless of the circumstances so looking into Play Type data he’s having a tough spot up season 0.77 points per possession which is really

Bad uh there are 143 players in the NBA that have logged at least 150 spot up possessions and that ranks 140th so he’s been one of the worst spot up players in the league combination of a couple things he’s really struggling in catch and shoot situations he’s been a good

Jump shooter decent jump shooter in pull-up situations but he’s been really bad off the catch that’s a concept we’re going to dive into a little bit more when we get to the to the off the dribble shooting but also just when he attacks Closeouts he has a tendency to

Drive into traffic and tall guys have a have issues dribbling the basketball in general when it comes into traffic by the way this is something that happens with Kevin Durant which is why he turns the ball over most or more than uh most of his peers at uh that are perimeter

Ball handlers it’s because when you’re just dribbling it that high off the ground there’s just a larger distance for Defenders to get involved with disrupting the basketball right and so you have to be really careful as a tall player about when and where you drive the basketball and so just struggling to

Shoot catch and shoot and struggl uh struggling to maintain control the bask when he drives into traffic those are the main things that are hurting him in spot up situations he’s been very good in ball screens as the screener he’s shooting 59% in effective field goal percentage when he pops or rolls which

Is awesome he’s in the 60th percentile overall in points per possession on Roll man possessions which especially when you factor in the spacing that he’s around really impressive there a lot of guys on the Spurs that team just don’t need a guard at the three-point line or they’re conceding threes to Kellin

Johnson they’re ducking under picks on Trey Jones no one’s guarding Jeremy sine out there like there’s just a lot of of of like a ability to kind of pack the pain on him which can cause some issues uh for any basketball player let alone a rookie on the ball he’s run 183 inverted

Ball screens uh resulting in 0.86 points per possession including passes passes out of those ball screens almost uh like almost about two-thirds of the time a lot of turnovers in those situations he turns it over about 30% of the time that he passes out of ball screens really he

Just makes really aggressive passes to the slippers so like when he sets those inverted ball screens he’s getting pretty aggressive coverages and those guards are slipping out of it and like they get a lot of for the record they get a lot of great stuff out of this too

Where like he’ll throw the pocket pass and the guard will have like a good angle and get into the paint and finish uh they had a similar play in the second half against the Warriors last night um I I want to say it was Malachai brandham that slipped but I can’t remember

Exactly but they hit a little pocket pass get a layup in the middle of the lane but he just he kind of throws it every time regardless of whether or not it’s open so that’s just a rookie thing like in time he’ll just get better about being more picky about when he makes

That pass because sometimes it’s not open right or sometimes it’s better to throw the swing pass and let the swing pass guy make the pass if he has a better angle right and then he’s personally shooting just 41% out of ball screens as the Handler uh similar kind

Of stuff that we were talking about earlier he’s actually been pretty good shooting pull-up threes in that situation but when he puts on the ball on the floor and tries to drive again when he gets into track trffic he can have some issues ISO he’s been awesome

94 points on 88 isos including passes really deadly face up jumper it’s something that he’s been shooting really well all season it’s funny certain shot types he’s been shooting really well he’s been really good in face up jumpers pretty average in dribble jumpers and then bad in catch up uh catch and shoot

Jumpers now face up jumpers are like I catch I turn and I face maybe I Rise up if I have space or maybe I jab step and then I Rise up that’s what I qualify as a face up jumper on Synergy they classify them as early jumpers but it

More or less means the same thing um but he’s got in the iso situations a lot of face up jumpers good step back going both directions uh when he drives he likes to when he gets cut off moving towards his right he likes to step back going right or spin back towards his

Leftand side and sometimes when he gets into that spin he can get into some trouble where he’ll turn the basketball over but overall he’s been really good in isos okay in the post 256 possessions 241 points at 0.94 points per possession that ranks ninth out of the 10 guys in

The league that are high volume post up players over 250 possessions once again surrounding talent and shooting are the important like kind of context there he’s just he’s not in a situation where guys are going to make team make him pay consistently make teams pay consistently for throwing second Defenders at him at

His best in the post it’s when he’s quick and decisive like catching second Defender Quick kickout Pass just like really uh fast decision-making and then also quick aggressive moves towards the rim do doesn’t really need to shoot a hook shot thankfully just because of how

Tall he is and he’ll just make like an aggressive move towards the middle and like almost shoot like a sliding scoop shot with his left hand into the lane or a sliding scoop shot with his right hand in the lane like he’ll just catch and basically pivot over that shoulder right

Away even if the defender bumps him and kind of flattens out the drive as long as he’s close enough to the basket and the Spurs do a lot of smart stuff they run him off of a ton of wedge screens or like they’ll uh start him at the elbow

And like screen have him flash to the post to try to get him some deeper position and like again just quickly pivoting towards the middle over whatever shoulder that is and going to that scoop shot in the lane he’ll get a bunch of good stuff out of that again

When he goes quick that’s when he’s best has a tendency sometimes to settle for Unnecessary tough like turnaround jump shots off the glass and stuff like that that’s usually where he’ll have misses in those situations had a really good postup sequence against Indiana late in

A win last week uh it was 103 to 102 with four minutes left the Spurs were up he had an aggressive Baseline move on cakam just one of those quick attacks to get and one and then he had an aggressive move on Turner on the opposite block where he drew a foul then

On the next possession they hard double teamed him and he hit Jeremy soan on a cut on a cut and he uh made a layup at the basket so like spamming a an action to close a game against a really good team and again Indiana’s defense has not

Been very good since sakam came over but that is in terms of personnel a good defensive front line in Miles Turner and Pascal sakam and and wemi was just going right through him like tissue paper in terms of shot types he’s been a bad jump shooter overall uh

0.88 points per shot overall that’s a 26th percentile Mark for jump shooting catch and shoot 0.82 points per shot overall uh 30% field goals 41% when you weit it for threes uh when he’s guarded 28% 38% weighted for threes and when he’s unguarded 32% 46% weighted for three so just all

Really bad and all areas where he’ll need to improve in the long run but his pull-up jump shot has been really really uh deadly this year he’s got 35.4% field goal percentage on pullup jump shots 49% waited for three so right around a point per possession to give

You an idea he’s been about as effective hitting pull-up jump shots as Jason Tatum which again as a rookie is a really really impressive Mark but again it’s the face up jumpers where he’s been best shooting 41% overall on face up jump shots 54% weighted for three so

Question is why is it that Victor wanyama has struggled so much in catch and shoot situations but has been pretty good in pullup and face up situations to me it’s all about Rhythm and wemi has a tendency to get a little bit loose with his jump shot form in the sense that

Like he’s relying a lot on just the release at the end his Bas gets a little funky on these where like he’ll he’s drifting a lot on his like off the dribble shots he’ll drift to the left or drift to the right there was a flashing like kind kind of like a movement

Shooter type of shot he took against the Warriors in the second half last night where Draymond was guarding him and he was under the basket and he flashed up to the left wing and he caught in like quick turn and pivot and shot L literally looked like a movement shooter

But on it like he randomly jumped like forward into the left quite a bit uh even though he was unguarded he jumped like forward to the Draymond got a late contest on it but he jumped like forward and to the left a little bit and it’s

Just like different than what he does on a bunch of other possessions and so one of the and by the way this is super typical for young basketball players and like one of the things that that he’ll just have to figure out in the long run is getting super consistent with his

Form and like to me you actually want to build it out out of catch and shoot so like you want to have like this perfect muscle memory from the base up in your catch and shoot shots and once you nail that down you want your your off the

Dribble shots to more or less resemble that in the sense that like obviously there’s going to be some drifting but when you get enough separation to go straight up and down go straight up and down when you’re drifting get great lift and at least from the waist up have the

Exact same type of release and motion as you do when you’re shooting catch and shoot jump shots once you can connect those two then you’ll see the numbers more consistent across the board but right now it’s like when he’s in a rhythm because he’s touching the basketball he shoots well but when he

Has to catch and shoot not so well when he can actually build out his catch and shoot as the foundation of his jump shot and then connect that to his off the dribble shooting that’s when I think we’ll see some real shooting consistency from him but the touch is there I have

No doubt that in the long run he’s going to be a great shooter 35% on floaters only 10 makes on the season though so it’s not a shot he takes a lot only 43% on hooks uh 16 makes though on the entire season like we talked about earlier doesn’t really need it because

He’s so damn tall so it’s more like he’ll like most players while on the Block like drop step and then shoot like a little half hook over their left shoulder wemi can go out to the side and and almost like take a scoop shot so like it’s not really relevant to him

Just because it’s not a shot he needs to take at The Rim 131 dunks that’s tied for the sixth most in the NBA here’s a little trivia you guys want to guess who the six players are that are either tied or above him number six Nick Claxton number five Jared Allen number

Four Aaron Gordon number three Anthony Davis number two Rudy go bear number one drum roll jannis tacumbo big shock I know uh but still uh Victor womy limited minutes at sixth in the most dunks in the NBA only 54% on layups obviously a big area of improvement for him gets

Knocked off of his base relatively easily and and has some can occasionally have some bad misses around the rim but that again is just something I think it comes down to both uh driving into traffic and just being better about his Drive pass decisions and then two just

Putting on a little bit more bulk uh on the defensive end he is already one of the best defensive players in the world he currently has the second best odds on DraftKings in the league to win defensive player of the year leads the league in blocks in limited minutes as a

Matter of fact if you extrapolated out to a 36 minute shift he’s averaging 4.3 blocks per 36 minutes fourth in deflection rate among players who have played at least 1500 minutes this season so just wreaking havoc on the defensive end of the floor he has this tendency uh

This ability that most players don’t have to hang back and make it look like there’s an opening but then just take a simple drop step and reach and be able to cover like 15t of space and and it just makes it so that he can really bait players into situations that they don’t

Want to get into and most of the uh I shouldn’t say most but a good percentage of the blocks that Victor wom y women Yama have they’re not like plays where guys are challenging him they’re plays where they don’t even think he’s around and then suddenly he’s just there and

That and that’s just the advantage of of his ability to kind of Disguise whether or not he’s coming in help or not so in summary he’s already impacting winning at a high level the Spurs are 6.2 points better per 100 possessions when he’s on the court versus when he’s off he’s

Already a top 25 player in the league in my opinion and he can still get so so so so much better on both ends of the floor some specifics again improving as a shooter in every phase of the game which we talked about already so I won’t get into again limiting turnovers

Specifically being more careful about when he tries to thread the needle in pick and roll passing situations just being more deliberate again if if it’s not open you can literally just swing the pass get it back and run another one like you don’t need to force it in that

Specific action uh dribbling into traffic as well um just when he’s attacking Closeouts or driving in ball screens or ISO situations just being more about when he exposes the basketball and then lastly like all young players just kind of shot selection stuff so like finding the right place for tough shot making and

Then maximizing the capitalizing on the low hanging fruit right like this is what we talk about yic all the time like the dude is the best in the league at grabbing all of the lwh hanging fruit on offense and Victor has that type of potential to be a guy who gets 20 25

Points a game just on the easy stuff that’s sitting there right in front of him and so then the tough shot making stuff can push him over the top now right now despite all of these classic rookie issues he’s averaging 26 points and 13 rebounds per 36 minutes right now

For the season and he’s still adjusting to the league so like there’s no reason at all why we couldn’t see a fiveyear run in Victor we’s Victor wey’s Prime where he averages like 325 and seven with like six stocks per game like that’s on the table for him that’s not

Even a long shot that almost feels like a certainty like right now he’s getting you 26 and 13 per 36 as a rookie that’s for the season not including this latest leap that he’s been on there’s no reason at all to think that it’s some improved shooting bumping his minutes up just

Overall better decision-making and Veteran experience that he can’t be up around 32 points per game he’s already grabbing 13 rebounds per game there that’s not a big leap to get up to 15 and he’s averaging four assists per game over this last 31 game stretch and he’s

Still learning how to read the NBA floor and so and and he’s playing around guys that struggle to finish plays around him so it’s just there’s no reason at all to think that he can’t get up to that type of level 3215 and S I think is like an

Interesting kind of goal for Victor to hit during his Prime and then again the last thing I’ll say about Victor took a big leap in the middle of the season when most rookies go down a level that to me is just a huge indicator of his work ethic and his competitiveness and

That to me just that’s like the swing factor in what if you look at like Victor’s career as a spectrum of results meaning like the best possible version of his career and the worst possible version of his career based on his Talent it’s his competitiveness and work

Ethic along with some injury luck that will determine where he lands on that scale injury Luck’s outside of your control but Victor for the record works extremely hard on pliability and flexibility and all that kind of stuff and so he’s doing everything he can on his end to avoid injuries obviously the

Spurs have been really careful with his minutes and stuff as well so that you do what you can to control that but his competitiveness and his work ethic I think are going to help him hit the high end of that Spectrum sky’s the limit for Victor and it was really fun diving into

His film this morning all right let’s get to the mailbag since the 2021 season ad bulked up a bit to better fit Center position what are the pros and cons of this bigger build in playing Center overall so I think it’s uh the the pros are in

Theory it should help him bang with other big centers underneath the basket um and and he for the record he does do better than he used to in that regard and he there are guys that he can bully now that he didn’t used to be able to bully there’s been some upside there

Also I think it’s probably helped him a little bit with his uh injury prevention just by virtue of him just being a little bit more sturdy in his joints and stuff like that uh that said like I think to the cons have outweighed the pros on that front like his foot speed

Is substantially lower than it was before he bulked up and then also I really think it’s led to some stiffness in his joints in the sense that he hasn’t been as fluid as a score and you know for whatever that’s worth like I I tend to think like leaning to your

Advantage like don’t play big guy basketball when you’re not as good at playing big guy basketball as Nicole yic right like don’t you’re not like you’re still running into the zubach and the sabonis and the niches and the yices of the world and struggling and that’s the

Only match up where that size really makes that much of a difference so if it were up to me I would have leaned more into ad’s speed and been like yeah they’re going to be some matchups where we struggle because you know ad is getting buried but like as long as we’re

Playing hard around him and we have advantage of his ability to cover ground in rotation there’s going to be so much more good than bad that comes from that also just think the Lakers would have been in a much better position offensively if they had the Anthony

Davis from the bubble that was capable of being really a highlevel perimeter score and they and he’s just gone down a massive level in in that department which I do think is connected to some of his strength so again there are Pros that have come with it and I understand

Why like conceptually why he did it but personally if I was Anthony Davis I would have lingered more around the body type he was in 2020 hey Jason I love this Channel and I think you provide desperately needed insightful cont content especially for a casual viewer and keep up the great work

Thank you for the uh kind words and for supporting the show I’m not a guy who generally likes plug Inplay players in certain into certain eras and teams but I cannot help but wonder what if someone like Demar de rozan or Paul George was on ai’s Final team finals team I think

The type of player that would greatly benefit the chances of that series being at least more competitive but then again who is guarding Shaq still yeah Shaq still would have been a massive problem but that was a team that grinded it out and just depended on Allen I to take and

Make tough shots and so specifically the guy that I think would have been an interesting option there is a Demar de rozan just because he was the kind of guy that like you could really uh he’s in my opinion a better like on an island scorer uh than Paul George can be

Because Paul George is just a little bit too dependent on his three-point shot he’s not as good at drawing fouls um Demar de rozan I think like is a little bit bigger and sturdier for some of the more physical play back then I think Paul George for the record is a better

Player than demaro Rosen right now that’s not what I’m trying to say but I just think in that like kind of boxed in like we just need someone to grind out points type of environment alongside that uh that Sixers team in 2001 I think Demar D rozan would have been a really

Interesting fit next question hey Jason first off I love the show big LeBron fan here and I know you are as well I’ve said for years that I think personally the 2017 Cavs were better than the 2016 title team and that they just ran into the best team ever I know the regular

Season wasn’t great but when you look at the playoffs their run was insane curious if you agree and if you can provide some context as well so I I thought the 17 Cavs were obviously a much better offensive team than the 2016 team LeBron James kind of went up a

Level as a scorer between that uh from 2016 into that 2017 2018 stretch LeBron really went up a level in terms of his consistency in his jump shot and just his overall feel as a score it was LeBron was really peing in his offensive skill in that 2017 2018 range uh also

Like they just had totally nailed down all their spacing Concepts and the ontwo punch of Kyrie and LeBron they were really humming on all cylinders offensively but it was one of their worst seasons of that era in terms of their overall focus and energy on the

Defensive end of the floor and so here’s the thing I don’t think it would have mattered under any circumstances with how good that 2017 Warriors team was however had Kevin Durant not gone to the Warriors and 2017 was more or less a rematch of the Harrison Barnes Warriors

Versus the uh uh the 2017 Cavs I I think it would have been a great series but the Cavs would have been in some trouble in the sense that like even in that playoff run they didn’t really need to defend that much and so I wonder if their defense in 2016

They were just much sharper defensively overall from start to finish in the season and so I I I I don’t know what would have happened if the Cavs and warriors rematched in 2017 I really wanted to see that which is what kind of sucked about Kevin Durant going there is

It just kind of ruined what would have been a really fun rubber match uh because the 2017 Warriors are the best roster ever assembled in my opinion and they I mean the 2017 Warriors won 15 consecutive playoff games think about that like I don’t even I don’t even know

If we’ve had a team won 15 win 15 straight regular season games this year and the Warriors literally won 15 straight uh playoff games in that 2017 run so like they they were just completely unbeatable and and uh but I do think that 2017 Cavs is playing with

A little bit of fire just with where they were at defensively at that point in the season and it was really just effort and focus and like discipline type stuff hey Jason I like your explanation on a better strategy to lean into higher field goal percentage shots at the end

Of close games is it also better to take higher field goal percentage shots when you have a decent lead to lower the variance of the game and lean into the trending outcome so in general I believe you lean on shot value in the large sample at the end of games yes you want

To hunt High field goal percentage also it’s about feeling the game so for instance like uh when you have a guy that you need to get in Rhythm that hasn’t been involved in the offense you want to find a way to get him in Rhythm when the other team let’s say you have

An 18-point lead and the other team scores 3 four baskets in a row and they’re starting to regain control that’s a possession where it’s really important for you to identify a high field goal percentage shot rather than a high shot value type of shot and again for those of you guys who don’t

Understand what I’m saying like shooting 35% from three is a higher value shot than shooting 40 45% on a two right but in that singular possession 45% is more than 35% so that’s what I mean in the large sample I want to lean into shot value we want to take the highest value

Shot but but feeling out the game identifying when it’s important when you need baskets those pivotal possessions having really smart ball handlers that will track down high value shots within that specific possession in terms of field goal percentage usually are the teams that uh manage the flow of offense

Over a game better next question really want to get into podcasting but I really don’t know where to start love basketball uh but I would primarily talk about football at the college and professional level any tips on how to start so a couple things it I think um

It’s a blessing and a curse I think it’s the best possible time in the history of the industry to get involved because anybody can do it and you don’t need a ton in terms of investment UPF front like I uh I personally have a podcast

That I do separate from this um that I produce myself still to this day just like I used to with my basketball stuff before the volume came on board and uh for two suns podcast what I’ll do is like we recorded an episode at my buddy’s house talking about Shogun the

Other day and literally I set up my my phone on a tripod and automatically pairs with my MacBook as a webcam and then I had a microphone that I used a plug a cheap plug-in microphone uh that I had so like you can literally for like

You could buy a used Macbook you know for what 3 400 bucks and you can use whatever iPhone you have and buy a tripod for 30 bucks on Amazon and get a microphone for 30 bucks on Amazon and have all the equipment you need to to

Produce a podcast you can use like there are apps like SP Spotify for podcasters that allow you literally to host a podcast for free right like there like YouTube is a an incredible tool that is completely free for you to distribute content social media is an incredible

Place for you to put content out and advertise your podcast right so like it has never been a better time for you to get involved uh the flip side of that though is that it’s a very flooded field so if you do it very casually and you

Don’t in invest a ton of time into it you have to be prepared for that process to be more slow uh because there are going to be a lot of people out there that are Relentless with producing content that was a big thing that separated for me when I was getting into

This industry I covered every single Lakers game after the game we went we went live right after every single Lakers game and so like we were first and we were going every day basically and then in between I’d cover the rest of the league by myself in these like uh

Other podcasts that I would do so like I was really really grinding at it and I was fortunate I had a flexible job at the time so I was able to kind of just fit it in there I had a wife was very supportive and was helping me uh you

Know pursue my dream of trying to make this happen so like just keep in mind it is flooded so like if you want to separate yourself you have to separate yourself through quality work and through consistency of your work as far as how to do it like it’s really the

Simple set up your and record get something out there when you do distribute it everywhere have it on a podcast feed have it on YouTube make sure you take clips of it put it on social media to direct people to those feeds as far as what content you cover

That’s the beautiful thing about YouTube you can have a podcast titled whatever but on YouTube you can just Target whatever that specific um subject matter is so for me my uh two sons podcast with with my buddy Luke we cover a lot of like TV shows and spef in movies but

Specifically I’m big into fantasy right so like I love Star Wars I love Lord of the Rings I Love Game of Thrones like Shogun is is something that’s right up my alley in terms of what I enjoy and appreciate obviously with the history element of it and so like we the The

Branding of the episode is surrounding the subject matter it’s kind of like these shows like you guys see like we I just do a show but we have a team of people that is really smart about identifying what is most uh you know uh like like interesting about whatever

We’re talking about and they brand it accordingly but like make sure you’re using YouTube make sure you’re using social media the reason why the algorithms on those apps they do the work for you in the sense that like as long as you’re talking about something interesting and as long as you’re being

Interesting in terms of the watch time those algorithms will continue to push your content out to other people and so the point is never been a better time to do it I highly recommend that if it’s something you’re interested in doing that you do it just because like you can

Do it on the side of another career it’s it’s a hobby for lack of a better term right um but as long as you in order to separate yourself you really have to make quality and quantity of content and that that’s just something to keep in mind because it is a very flooded

Industry at this point uh and one last little uh uh note on that front what works for me doesn’t necessarily work for everybody this is just my own personal experience uh being in this industry and I as is always the case I think it’s important to pick the brains

Of uh lots of different people that bring different perspectives because again what works for me might not work for you and what works for you might not work for me it’s just you know everyone’s unique in that regard how important will an improved Jaylen Brown

Be in a playoff series over the last 15 games he has a blistering 67% field goal percentage in 8.2 halfcourt drives per game while only turning the ball over 3.1% of the time how useful will paint penetration be in a potential Milwaukee Milwaukee or Cleveland series I think Jaylen Brown’s Improvement is super

Exciting mainly just because he’s found a way to impact games in a way that doesn’t rely on his skill as much obviously he’s playing a very highlevel skill game right now but he’s really leveraging his athletic tools on both ends of the floor both as an on ball

Defender that also has a physical Rim pressure guy as you’ve been talking he’s been one of the main drivers of the uh the Celtics have been the third best paint offense in the league of um over the last seven games so B like two weeks or so and jayen Brown’s been the primary

Driver force behind that so I absolutely think it’s encouraging and I absolutely think that it could help in the playoffs the main reason why is like so much of basketball can be mental and so having the ability to lean on athletic gifts when you’re not confident mentally is a

Great way to keep impacting winning and I just feel better about Jaylen Brown’s resiliency as a playoff impactor this year as a result next question do you think the NBA would ever consider doing away with the one through eight conference separated playoffs and instead go for a 1 through March Madness

Style bracket think it would be incredible to see a seven game series between teams and players we wouldn’t otherwise see and I think it would open up the opportunity for alltime Legends to face off where they otherwise wouldn’t they’ll never do that just because of travel it’s just too uh

Unrealistic to be imagine a game five a game four five six7 in in basically the same two cities going back and forth like it just it wouldn’t work if you were going across the country what do you think is the realistic ceiling of the Timberwolves and what is their

Championship window this team is clearly wellb built right now but it’s interesting to see that there’s an age gap between the Anthony Edwards cat McDaniels group and the Rudy gobear Mike Conley group I see the issue of relying too heavily on Ant to generate for us and grind down half court offense

Situations and I don’t see how that is improved without some sort of big roster move by a trade because the cold soda ain’t exactly the hottest free agent destination in the nation I’ve never heard that saying before the cold soda uh um my wife actually went and played college basketball up in Minnesota

Though she’s told me a little bit about it I just feel like by the time ant Ant-Man matures enough to make the right decisions and is able to be the best player on a champion team it’ll be 3 to four years from now and those guys will

Be too old can we actually win a chip with this group given the deepness of the league and the odd age gaps with the core guys couple of things I don’t I don’t like right now what’s exciting is the combination of perimeter defense and gobear but when you have Elite perimeter

Defense you don’t need as much in terms of Rim protection this is something we’ve seen with the Nuggets right when you have kcp and Aaron Gordon it doesn’t make Nicole jokic’s limitations matter as much as a matter of fact it gives him a role that he can really thrive in

Defensively right so like that’s kind of the way I look at it in the long run first of all goar is only 31 so like in the event that you move on from goar and goar is not really a tradable contract because of his salary number so it like

Really as far as goar goes like I actually do think there’s a longer window here than you think but after goar the way I look at it is you slide cat to Center and then you just have to find a Aaron Gordon esque type of power

Forward to put next to him you got to find somebody that can essentially be the low man that can be a rim protector and rebounder that allows Carl towns to be aggressive in pick and roll coverages up the level where he can use his intelligence more than the physical

Gifts that he has right and so from that perspective um uh from that perspective like I actually am not really worried about the timeline stuff and I I do think ant is advancing at a fast enough rate that I think you’ll be able to capitalize on the gobear window at some

Point um few more do you uh do you feel like it is a lock for the 2024 Larry O’Brien trophy to be hoisted up by a western conference or Eastern Conference team I argue that the West has arguably been the more difficult conference particularly this season with the amount

Of tanking SL unorganized teams in the East so I’m on the fence cuz I kind of look at I look at the Clippers and the Bucks as like I put the Clippers slightly above the bucks but they’ve been struggling as of late and then now

The suns are playing better so I got to kind of like kind of factor them into that list a little bit I I would say that there’s I would say that like I give it like an 80% chance that either Denver or Boston wins they feel like the

Clear obvious choices and I definitely lean closer towards Denver in that regard so then the question becomes at of that Phoenix Clippers bucks group who’s more likely and I still lean towards the West between those two teams versus that one so like I’m going to go

With I’m going to go with the Western Conference on that one I think the Bucks might uh I think the Bucks might be the best chance to beat the Nuggets in the finals the gap between the two teams isn’t as large as people make it seem

I’m a fan of both teams mainly because of Giannis and joic are my favorite players to watch over the past three years can you provide in details the advantages that either team has if this wants to play out potentially in the finals because I don’t believe any other

Team even the Celtics can Milwaukee in the East so I disagree in the sense that I think Milwaukee has their work cut out for them to get out of the East but I do think they have a legitimate chance to get out so with that being the case

Looking quickly at matchups Brook Lopez is another guy who will struggle to guard Nicole yic uh over the course of his series he’s had some success with him over the years but he’s got a high enough center of gravity that yic can kind of bump him off um Aaron Gordon is

Actually a decent matchup for Giannis I I think that on the let’s look first at the Denver on offense joic working against Lopez Giannis on the backline that’s like as good of a Duo as you can find there because Giannis has that ability to kind of be in two places at

Once and I think they will have some success there where I worry about Milwaukee’s at the guard position we just saw D’Angelo Russell cook Dame Lillard in large part because of the size differential these bigger skill guards are are starting to give Milwaukee some issues uh this has been

An issue that we’ve seen kind of as of late in general with Milwaukee and I worry about Jamal Murray just like really really really causing problems uh for their back court just because of how much bigger he is than all of them and then I don’t think like a guy like Jay

Crowder can hang with a guy like Jamal either so I worry about that a little bit um you need to keep that size on the weak side because Michael Porter Jr is a guy who can really do damage on the on the offensive glass and then obviously

You need a guy who can bother him with contests at his height so I like how they match up with Denver in the front Court uh just in the sense that I think Giannis is as good of a low man as you could have in that situation kind of

Helping off of Aaron Gordon but worry about them in the back court on the other end of the floor joic and and Aaron Gordon is about as good a front line as you could have to deal with the Giannis problem right and then they’re gonna throw kcp on Dame for the entire

Series um uh again that Aaron Gordon with yic behind him is going to be something they’re going to be able to do against Giannis and have some success I’ve seen even in Euroleague basketball joic do a decent job guarding Giannis for stretches so like I again I just

Think the nuggets are a better team I think they match up a little bit better I think that they’re going to have an easier time generating quality shots that doesn’t mean Milwaukee can’t win I think it would absolutely utterly depend on Dame just being an absolute Superstar

Because in that event you uh if you can actually Force the Nuggets to bring joic way up to the level of the screen and exist in rotation and kill teams with the Dame Yannis pick and roll I think they can have some success but I would still lean Denver in that matchup two

More quick ones a lot of people upset that I didn’t mention D’Angelo Russell in the in the last podcast I swear I talked about him he was the hero of the game made the biggest play of the game at the end with that floater I mentioned him having 21 points in the fourth

Quarter I don’t really understand there’s a segment of Lakers fans I think I hate Dow which is just completely nonsensical D’s won me over this year I’m a huge fan of DLo even before the season I had no issues with DLo I just looked at it as next to Austin Reeves he

Was the obvious guy that you had to trade just based on his salary number the years left on his contract and the fact that he wasn’t as playable in the playoffs last year two things have changed one I was super impressed even when DLo wasn’t playing very well I was

Impressed with his professionalism and then since he rejoined the starting lineup uh a couple months ago he’s just been a better player and like again this is something I harp about on the show but like I’m going to respond to new information and so like DLo is a better

Basketball player now than he was when I was saying some of the things I said about him over the summer like that’s just that’s just a fact and so I’m not married to any opinion I don’t have any personal beef with DLo I like DLo a lot

He’s now become one of my favorite players because I’ve learned learned to love not just his personality and his professionalism but now he’s also improved so much that there’s a lot to love just on the basketball side of things so like I did mention him last

Night big fan of him don’t know don’t really know what else to say last question hey Jason do you really think the Bucks defense got so awesome just because the Bucks went on a small win streak against Bad teams except the Clippers it doesn’t seem like they are

Really any better than they were before Doc Rivers got there and the offense is definitely slower wor and worse off so a couple things first of all I uh actually am more encouraged by their offense than I’ve been all season just just because some of the stuff they’re figuring out

Figuring out with the Dame Yannis pick and roll um they’re just starting to figure out some stuff in terms of their spacing and their timing on the rolls that is really encouraging as for the defense I wanted to wait for this West coach trip to really evaluate them for

That very reason and they haven’t defended well so like I still have major defensive concerns but I do think they’re trying harder since Doc Rivers came and there’s still plenty of time here down the stretch of the season to evaluate them further which we will do

So all right guys that is all I have for today as always I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show um the plan as a right now we’re going to be going tomorrow with a quick instant reaction on a couple of games in another mailbag in the morning and then we will

Have a live reaction to Kings Lakers tomorrow night on YouTube after the final buzzer I will see you guys then

Jason Timpf reacts to Kevin Durant leading the Phoenix Suns past Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers as well as Draymond Green and the Golden State Warriors beating Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs. Then he answers fan mailbag questions on the most pressing topics in the NBA.

Timeline:
00:00 – Introduction
01:35 – Suns beat Cavaliers
16:39 – Warriors win without Steph Curry
21:46 – Breaking down Victor Wembanyama
38:25 – NBA Mailbag

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