Celtics bully Kevin Durant & Suns, Mavericks-Thunder reaction + NBA Mailbag | Hoops Tonight

Celtics bully Kevin Durant & Suns, Mavericks-Thunder reaction + NBA Mailbag | Hoops Tonight

All right welcome to Hoops tonight here at the volume happy Friday everybody hope all of you guys are having an incredible week we got a jam-packed show for you today we’re going to hit the two TNT games from last night the Phoenix Suns went into Boston and kind of got

Their butt kicked a little bit especially in that third quarter run as the Celtics pulled away and went up by 20 we’re going to break down that game from the perspective of both teams and then after that Dallas Mavericks without Luca donic and then suffering a couple

Other injuries along the way went into Oklahoma City and ran into a bit of a buzz saw but they hang tight on the strength of an incred ible Kyrie Irving performance 36 points and 12 assists on just 18 shots as he kept him close throughout but the Thunder were able to

Pull away at the end so we’re going to break that uh break down that those two games from the perspective of both teams after that I’ve got four mailbag questions for you guys we’re going to hit a couple about the Isaiah Thomas Draymond Green interview specifically some of the revisionist history

Surrounding the 2017 2018 Warriors and what would or would not have happened if KD went there and then also the perception of Steph Curry as a point guard so lots fun stuff for the mailbag as well you guys know the drill before we get started subscribe to our brand

New YouTube channel mean a lot to me if you guys would take just a couple of seconds 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 that front don’t forget about my Twitter feed atore jlt where I put film threads and show announcements and then also keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout the rest of the season and then lastly before we get started you know this time

Of year is uh an the time where we get to my favorite type of live sports event to go to which is a NCAA Tournament game if you’ve ever been to one there’s nothing quite like it because the sheer level of intensity the intensity that you get from single elimination

Basketball obviously getting to the phase where we have the best teams in the country on display but also when you go to these arenas for an NCAA Tournament game they are wild fan experiences because there’s legitimately thousands of fans from both teams in the arena and there’s this crazy back and

Forth Vibe they’re a ton of fun I really want you guys to get out and check out an NCAA Tournament game this year this is where we’re going to talk about game time the fastest growing ticketing app in the United States game time has an amazing user experience they have an

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Game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed all right let’s talk some basketball so um this sun Celtics game again we just saw them play uh what was it about a week ago in Phoenix and we got a crazy Kevin Durant performance that kept it close uh the first quarter really for

The first quarter and a half or so kind of felt a little bit like the game in Phoenix like there was a lot of shot making from Phoenix Kevin Durant rode that hot streak into that first quarter came out red hot Bradley Beal hit some shots in the first quarter they were

Able to keep it close but the Celtics Talent Advantage just started to take over as they got into that uh tail end of the second quarter uh Tatum who hasn’t been shooting super well as of Lake kind of got going he seems to really get invigorated by the individual

Matchup with KD it seemed like every time he had an opportunity in ISO with some space he was trying to hit KD with dribble combinations and to pull up jump shots and he was hitting them in Phoenix hit him again here in Boston he had an incredible game uh Jaylen Brown got off

To a little bit of a rough start trying to be aggressive in the post but he really started to get going in that second quarter attacking Bradley Beal and Devin Booker going to the rim but I thought the story of the game was Al Horford and he stepped in with christops

Porzingis being out and you know again like when we talk about the Suns we’re going to dive a little bit deeper into this but they’re just like all the teams that are after the Denver and Boston tier they’re pretty matchup dependent right and so one of the things specifically that

Phoenix is good with in terms of their interior size is like nurkic is a big body and so when he can play a drop coverage and kind of hang out by the basket and when he needs to bang with the other big bodied centers in the league you know there’s real value there

But when it comes to defending on the perimeter especially against a team like Boston that picks and Pops a lot that puts them in a predicament where nurkic can struggle to defend in space and so from the opening tip of this game it became a problem for Phoenix started

With Horford hitting threes in the first half a couple early ones uh spacing the floor and in pick and pop situations then they come out in the third quarter and Frank vogle tries to address the problem by putting Devin Booker on Al Horford and then putting uh Yousef

Nurkic on Drew holiday I’m I’m assuming making it an easier rotation so he can kind of help Drew holiday typically spaces to the corner because he’s been such a good Corner three-point shooter this year and so he can maybe take an easier couple of steps out to offer a

Contest I’m guessing that was the rationale behind it but Horford you know he’s had experience as an on ball guy in the post a lot in uh in the Atlanta Hawks phase of his career right like he just went to work and did some damage in

The uh on the offensive glass got a couple of big offensive rebounds in that third quarter and then there was a play where he just like deep sealed on Devin Booker early in an offensive possession created in easy passing angle got to the foul line so he just started punishing

The smaller players for being switched onto him from there vocal ends up pulling the plug on that going back to nurk John Horford and then he just goes right back to hitting threes and he just completely lit up Phoenix and that was the big problem and there was just

Nothing that Phoenix could do to overcome it at that point and then in the third quarter they started to get hot from three again Jaylen Brown hit a couple Sam Hower hit a couple uh there was another Horford play where he got de Devin Booker on his top side and created

A passing angle at the foul line and Jason Tatum made a really nice kind of over the top feed soon as he caught it they had no choice I think it was Royce O’Neal covering uh Sam Hower in the corner he had no choice but to step over

And help Horford made the extra pass Horford Hower was wide open in the corner knocked it down Hower got a little bit of Rhythm from that came flying off of a a a screening action on the right side of the floor and came off and hit a three broke the game open from

There went up by 20 and never looked back it was just a an absurd jump shooting game from Boston they took 25 threes and made 50% of them so 25 for 50 from the field they took 48 jump shots overall um made uh uh 70 or excuse me

Scored 70 points on the 48 jump shots 1.46 points per shot which is completely insane 25 points on 18 pull-up jumpers too so they were deadly on off the dribble jump shots they converted isos at 1.29 points per possession uh so like just all their sheer Talent stuff

Shining through in this game 1.09 points per ISO and postup combined uh they converted spot up possessions at 1.75 points per possession just a completely ridiculous demonstration of skill from the Boston Celtics in this game I was on the sport uh uh I was on Fox Sports

Radio in Phoenix this morning and one of the uh uh Benjamin the guy who’s hosting the show this morning asks me he goes like hey like like what can the Suns do like what what was it that they were unable to match in this particular game

From uh from Boston and one of the things I said to him was like like there’s two ways to look at it there’s the matchup element like Phoenix is you know Boston’s kind of a tough matchup for Phoenix but there’s also just the absurdity of Boston ceiling which is

Something we’ve glossed over a lot when we talk about the Celtics in general in terms of the way I see the Celtics discussed around the league like do they have some issues of course just like every team in the league does right but like their ISS shoes rear their ugly

Head rarely and more often than not they make the shots they take they shoot you know you know a 50 something jumpers and convert them at almost a damn near a point and a half per shot and they kick everyone’s ass and that’s always on the

Table as an outcome with this team and that’s why despite the fact that I view Denver is the safer bet to win the title I VI Boston on the same tier as them because you can’t count out the idea that potentially they might just out Talent everybody like they have the

Ability to take 18 pullup jump shots in a game and make 25 or score 25 points on them like they have the ability to just get so damn RedHot that there’s nothing you can do defensively to cover for it like that’s the thing especially when it comes to Horford and

Porzingis when they’re hitting the pick and pop threes and the spacing threes it just it just completely wrecks any defense because if you’re going to have any hope to deal with these rangy wings and guards that they have you’re going to have to have backside help and if

You’re going to have backside help you’re typically going to do that from the center position whether it’s in pick and roll or even just in off ball situations and most teams you can live with that because they don’t have the the plethora of shooting at the center

Position that Boston has but Boston just has a ton of shooting at the center position like again this porzingis didn’t even play tonight and they torched them with pick and pop basketball so like at the end of the day like we’re going to talk about Phoenix

And and the matchup here a little bit more deep but like the reality is is sometimes with Boston you just get to lose sometimes like when like Jaylen Brown’s playing like a top 10 player as of late he’s averaging 30 points and six uh six rebounds in his last nine games

Uh 2.83 assist to turnover ratio over that spans who’s taking care of the basketball making good plays he did just did an unbelievable job on the ball on Devin Booker last night he’s playing legitimately like a superstar over the course of the last few weeks and you’re combining that with Jason Tatum who’s

Been a top 10 player forever right and you’re combining that with drick white and Drew holiday these amazing two-way guards you’re combining that with what Al Horford and christop porzingis bring at the center position and what Sam Hower brings and shooting Off the Bench it is just an absurdity of talent and

When it’s clicking on all cylinders there’s literally nothing you can do all you can do is try to play them into their worst Tendencies and pray that they start getting cold and they start to kind of fall apart from there but again there’s a certain amount of that

That you can’t control just with the sheer amount of Talent on the floor and it’s hard enough to guard any team in the NBA when they spread you out let alone a a team that has this kind of talent um as far as the matchup goes for

Phoenix you know I’ve talked a lot about this specific concept over the last month since the All-Star break is we’ve been diving deeper into the playoff teams and their strengths and weaknesses in my opinion once you get past Boston and Denver every team beyond that Minnesota Milwaukee the Clippers the

Suns all those teams all of them have flaws right and they have strengths as well all those teams have like absurd strengths right like we talk about the Knicks it’s like they just have a really physically imposing team one through five when they’re healthy right you

You’re not going to find a more like like like Stout physical strong you know bully ball on both ends of the four type of lineup than Jaylen Brunson Dante Devan chenzo with ojan and noi Julius Randall and Mitchell Robinson when they’re healthy right Giannis and Dame

For the bucks you know the the insane amount of shot creation for the Clippers the insane amount of shot creation for the Suns all those teams have strengths but they also have weaknesses and what that means is who they play is going to play a massive factor and who ends up

Advancing in this playoff run and that’s why we’re going to continue to build that concept out the matchup strengths and weaknesses of both teams as we head into mid April because once we get to those first round series and we start doing our series previews that’s going

To be a big thing that helps determine which teams I pick to advance it’s going to have to have a lot to do with matchups so for instance we’ve talked about um like teams like Sacramento giving the Lakers issues with perimeter speed well they’ve also struggled with the Nuggets because of their interior

Size right Nicole yic can bury Anthony Davis under the rim sabonis can bury Anthony Davis under the rim well nkit is actually one of the bigger bodied centers in the league and he can hold up really well against that sort of thing and so he can actually make the game a

Little bit tougher for yic than a lot of other centers can and so in that specific Dynamic and especially this season cuz jokic’s jump shot has continued to Trend down he’s down to 0.99 points per jump shot so he’s below a point per jump shot this year when he

Was at 1.17 points per jump shot last year so they’re not as much of a pick and pop team as they showed in the postseason last year because joic is just one of those guys now where you don’t necessarily have to close out as hard on him at least with the way that

He’s been shooting as of late maybe that changes when we get to the postseason so for Phoenix nurkic can drop back in ball screens right they can put speed on the ball like whether that’s Bradley Beal or or Royce O’Neal or Grayson Allen right they could dig down off the on the

Perimeter because they have the speed in rotation it’s a matchup that works well for Phoenix by the way I’d picked Denver to beat Fenix in a series but that’s why I look at Phoenix as a team that’s a legitimate threat to knockoff Denver it’s a good matchup there now we go to

Boston Boston is this interesting team because they have a not only do they have a significantly better Arsenal perimeter Defenders to throw at Kevin Durant Devon Booker and Bradley Beal in terms of just the the like Jaylen Brown Jason Tatum Derrick White Drew holiday and just the level of perimeter defense Talent

Compared to kcp and eron Gordon who are two really good players in that regard kcp is going to make an all defense team this year but there’s a certain amount of like they they they just have so much more that they have to do and they don’t have uh continuing options down the

Roster to keep throwing at KD and and Bradley Beal and Deon Booker right so Boston has these perimeter advantages but also they are a five out team that plays a lot of pick and pot basketball and so that makes it so that nurkic is not gaining the advantage of being able

To body a a a bigger Center nurkic this year has been capable of scoring in the post against mismatches but it also can get ugly too how many times did you see last night nurkic try to you know bully his way underneath the basket he just exposes the basketball too much and guys

Can knock it away from him he tends to either Miss shots or turn it over down there quite a bit so like he’s not you’re not getting as much of the benefits of nurkic being out there and then on the other end of the floor they can just

Continually uh uh uh put him in space and put him in pick and pop situations and pick them apart from the three-point and so like that that it’s just a tough matchup they’re they’re they’re they’re going to make the Suns make a ton of pullup jump shots against a team that’s

Going to be really good at defending them and and yeah so like that that specific issue is something I’m going to continue to dive in as we get into the next month but like this is the kind of team that Phoenix is going to struggle with a real pick and pop team Oklahoma

City is another great example like uh so one of the things that kind of reared its ugly head in that second half for the Suns is a lot of the same stuff that they struggled with all season like they had some turnovers they had five turnovers in the

Third quarter Bradley Beal had three uh Drew holiday kept like poking the ball away as dudes were trying to snake and pick and roll and just with his Relentless back pressure and stuff like that like the Thunder do that too the Thunder are a team that’s really aggressive on the ball they’re way

Better at forcing turnovers than Boston is Boston’s actually not all that good at forcing turnovers right so like Oklahoma City is playing passing lanes and being super aggressive we’ve seen what they can do to Phoenix and same sort of thing with Chad hren as a pick

And pop guy and you know uh putting nurkic into a predicament Now nurkic can do a lot of damage on the glass in that matchup but he struggles defensively and then obviously it’s a bad match up for the Suns perimeter players for all the reasons we just talked about so like

Again I like I’m a big believer in Phoenix I think they have a real chance to uh uh to get out of the Western Conference I would say I’m I was originally on the Clippers in this regard but they continue to play some relatively mediocre basketball so like

I’m kind of on the fence between Phoenix and and the Clippers as that number two team in the West behind Denver but I’m tempted to pick Phoenix it just once again like all these teams it’s going to come down to their matchups and who they face along

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Draftking Sportsbook with code Hoops that’s h o o PS the crown is yours all right moving on to Mavs thunder so obviously the Mavs are down Luka donic in this game uh Dante exom got hurt in the second half on kind of a gnarly play Josh Green twisted his ankle at the

Start the game so like obviously not a whole lot you can take from the Mavs um Kyrie did just play a magnificent game as an offensive initiator to keep him in it 36 points on just 18 shots 12 assists the Thunder throwing everything at him too in the third quarter they started

Just sending straight up double teams when Kyrie was just dribbling 30 feet from the basket in single coverage not even in a ball screen they were just sending a double team they started blitzing him in ball screens helping hard on his drives but it didn’t matter because Kyrie’s Kyrie and D’s incredible

And we’ll get a little bit further into that but that kept the game close but a monster game from Jaylen Williams on the Oklahoma City thund side at 27 excuse me at 27 points 13th time the season he scored at least 25 in a game had everything going uh several nice driving

Finishes and scoop shots including a nasty one against Daniel Gafford in the fourth quarter where Gafford went straightly straight vertical got into his body and finished on the side of him he had his catch and shoot three going uh those bump off pull-up jumpers that he hits where like he just drives really

Hard to the uh to the right and then like hits and then squares up in midair and hits that like little 12-footer Jaylen Williams actually is up to 1.14 points per pull-up jump shot and Harden has gone down a little bit level so J Jaylen Williams is now the best high

Volume pull-up shooter in the League this year how crazy is that 40 players have attempted at least 250 of them Jaylen Williams is 1.14 points per possession ranks first in that group but it’s even bizarre just watching it on tape because like he’s a 22y old and

He’s like Bing grown men in the NBA there was a play where he bodied Dante XOM and took like a little fade away and like Dante XM is a pretty big and strong guard who’s like healthy into his career like a grown man in in his prime athletically and and Jaylen Williams

Just bullied him to get to his spot and then like his competitiveness just screams off the screen he had this block on a one-on-one break with uh Derrick Jones Jr where he blocked him and just screamed to the crowd he had a missed a three with just under a minute left in

The fourth quarter and there was an offensive rebound he cut down the lane went back door just dunked it and screamed to the crowd and like that was something that stood out to me when I saw him in summer league but like Jaylen Williams to me the work ethic and the

Competitiveness combined with the natural gifts that he has the dude’s just going to be a star and and last night was just another little sneak peek of what it’s going to be like nightly when we get a couple years further into his career uh Josh gidy the Dallas was

Really ignoring him all night on the three-point line a coverage he’s seen a lot this season but he did hit two huge ones in the second half when he finally found his stroke uh Shay G Alexander put in an efficient 31 like clockwork like he always does but I want to focus on

Oklahoma City’s defense uh they forced Dallas into 19 turnovers they scored 34 points on those turnovers they lead the league in turnover turnovers and this concept we’ve talked about a lot this year but like they ball pressure and then they have a ton of perimeter speed so they’re really aggressive in passing

Lanes now there’s a downside to that when you get aggressive in passing lanes and you miss the basketball you can leave openings and they do give up a lot of three-point shots as a result they give up 19 wide open threes per game meaning the defender is at least six

Feet away that’s the 11th most in the NBA they give up 30 six three-point attempts total which is eighth most in the NBA but the the flip side of that is because they’re playing the passing lanes and they’re so aggressive and their coverages they just force so many

Turnovers and they get out and transition so much that more often than not that transition that uh tradeoff Works in their favor like even in Kyrie Kyrie had a great game right 12 assists but he had four turnovers and there were a couple ones that he had there in the

Second half that were just pick sixes were like here comes the Blitz and he just throws some looping pass over the top that has no chance somebody shoots in underneath it sends it out the other way and they’re running right like they just they they play that trade-off game

They’re going to give up some offensive rebounds they’re going to give up some wide openen threes because of their aggression but the flip side is is they just get out and transition that’s 36 points off of Turn or 34 points off of turnovers that’s a significant swing in

This particular game um really smart adjustment too in the fourth quarter from Mark dnal there was a moment where Jaden Hardy started going and pick and roll was really getting downhill and getting to the rim and finishing there’s actually kind of a fun back and forth between jdb and uh and um

Uh I’ve lost my train of thought for there for Jaden Hardy sorry there was a fun little back and forth between jayen hardy and Jaylen Williams in that early fourth quarter stretch dnal made an adjustment though like again when you’re running pick and roll it’s a man-to-man

Type of action he was getting downhill in it just baked in with the way the coverage was set up so by going Zone and they run like this like kind of one two two matchup Zone kind of thing matchup Zone meaning like you’re in charge of an

Area but when a guy comes into your area you guard him like he’s manto man then when he leaves your area you pass him off basically right but by doing that it essentially shut down that pick and roll action and cooled Jaden Hardy off and they were able to kind of regain control

Of the game uh Ju Just just a really good win for Oklahoma City against the team again like Kyrie Irving uh with all those guys out it it’d be one thing to take them lightly and to and to go light into that game but Kyrie threw a great

Punch there was a lot of good for Dallas in this game which we’re going to get to in a minute and they overcame it they got a big win uh on the Mavs front not too much to take away other than just feels like injuries are stacking up again which is really unfortunate

Obviously Lucas hamstring Josh Green turned his ankle Dante exom took a shot in the in the second half always going to be hard to win a road game against a really good team when you’re down that many guys uh but there are four silver linings that I want to hit for Dallas

One Kyrie Irving is just incredible this has been a reminder of why you make this trade last year and it’s why like I looked at it so much as this year being the year for Dallas to be a threat because they actually had the time to surround them with the necessary pieces

That they need but Kyrie’s just demonstrating that that like when it comes to that skill guard role the ability to score and the ability to playmake out of ball screens and to just run in offense he’s still one of the like top 15 20 guys in the league that

Can do that and it’s just a rare asset to have on your team uh Tim Hardway Jr he had been in his shooting slump he got his threo shot going that’s encouraging talked about Jaden Hardy’s Rim pressure in the fourth quarter I thought that was a really nice mixup for them and

Something that I think is encouraging in the big picture because obviously like that downhill speed is something that Luca and Kyrie don’t bring a ton and so Jaden Hardy thought that was an impressive stretch from him and then lastly drik Lively there’s a play um so

You guys might remember it was kind of a broken play transition play for Oklahoma City I think Shay or somebody tried to throw a skip ahead pass and Maxi kba jumped up and knocked it with his hand so it was kind of like a transition chaos possession and on the play Derrik

Lively ended up kesan Wallace on him so they run a quick ball screen with Kyrie and kesan Wallace like shows high and Chad or excuse me uh um Derek Lively slips and when d slips Kyrie hits him over the top but Chad is the low man in

This possession and he comes over and he meets Derek Lively right so Lively’s got the ball deep post position but he’s got a player right behind him and he just patiently worked into a drop step a drop step hook over his left shoulder with his right hand and he knocked it down

And I was like I remember if you guys remember I was talking about how I think drick Lively has the potential to be kind of like a Tyson Chandler and like one of the things that I think can help him really raise his impact overall at the center position is just being able

To make a quick left shoulder right-handed hook over a switch let alone against another Center when you have that deep a position he’s up to 16 for 30 on hook shots this year that’s 53% for a rookie that’s pretty impressive albe at low volume and he does have the touch in the patience

There which I think is super encouraging so again tough one for the Mavs not too much to take away from it considering the circumstances but some Silver Linings there for you guys you’ll know real when you get it it’ll say eBay authenticity guarantee and you’ll feel

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Does Jonathan kaminga need to work on in the offseason besides ball handling and three-point shooting to become a legit number two option so again to become a legit number two option offensively it’s a lot more complicated than just one specific skill right like ball handling and shooting are vague Concepts too like

Shooting could mean just catch and shoot shooting shooting could mean movement shooting shooting could mean off the dribble shooting right ball handling that could mean attacking Closeouts that could mean working in ISO and postup situations that could also mean running ball screens right A big one too for

Golden State which is an important part of this discussion we got into this in the mailbag yesterday but just the difference in the different kinds of offenses right so like the kinds of skills you need in a four out one in offense versus from a role player versus

The kinds of skills you need in a uh a five out offense right and just all the players on the perimeter so in the five out offense specifically the way Golden State plays read and react is a huge part of the skill development what that means is like the ability to quickly interpret

What’s happening in front of you and make these decision so it’s kind of like option routes in the NFL so like if you remember in the NFL like you might have a guy that like reads the linebacker out of the tight end spot and if the linebacker’s here he quick turns for a

Hitch if the linebacker’s there he might run a five yard out instead right like these these are read and react plays for the tight end where he’s coming off the line reading what the linebacker is doing and then making a decision it’s the same kind of thing in five out

Basketball like you’re setting up for this screening action but it’s very read react in the sense that like if if your guy’s top locking you you back door if your guy’s trailing you want to curl right like if your guy’s ducking under the pick you want to flare like there’s

All these different things that you’re reading and especially in three-man actions you might you know change your mind on who’s coming out of the screen right or you might slip out of it entirely there’s so many different things that you do read and react basketball in in five out basketball and

So some of that is not even skill development it’s just reps and like Jonathan kaminga just needs lots and lots of reps playing alongside Steph in this 5 out system to just kind of learn how to be better at reading and reacting but like if I had to put it simply to be

A legitimate second side Creator or I should say a second option on a championship team you have to be truly transcendently great at something now to me for Jonathan kaminga that’s going to be an ISO post thing his best skill right now is he is so freaky athletic at

His size that most of the players that are big enough to handle him are too slow and that are fast enough to handle them are too small right and so he can get Defenders out of position he can draw fouls he can get baskets he’s a

Good on the on an island scorer There’s real value there now to push it to the elite level where he needs to get he needs to be a great playmaker in those situations so again the ability to read the floor identify where the help is coming from a lot of teams bring late

Help on kaminga after he puts the ball on the floor but once he can read those things he can be a truly Elite isolation and postup player because you can run that action 10 15 or like you know 5 10 times a game and in those 510 possessions you’re going to get

Consistent great production regardless of the coverage that he faces right but in addition to that he also has to be able to play in the flow of the offense that’s one of the big things for for kaminga right now is he’s good on an island not so great in the flow and so

That’s going to be H where his areas of improvement are from there it’s going to be about like ball handling specifically ball handling in traffic ball handling in ball screens so being able to oh what that means is like let’s say he brings his man up the floor but he’s got a good

Perimeter defender on it as before he off a ball screen he needs to set him up meaning like he needs to make a move to one side of the screen and then do a retreat dribble to get the defender into a trailing position on that side before

He goes and uses the ball screen that’s a intricate part of ball handling that he have to figure out right then once he’s coming off the screen making those reads okay the defender’s in a deep drop I want to get a head of steam going to the basket okay oh the defender’s a

Little bit higher and uh the on ball guy is trailing behind me I need to use my size to put the defender in jail keep him trapped behind me start working slowly down the floor until something develops in front of me and the the developing part that’s making the reads

Reading the low man okay I brought the screen Defender up which means the guy in the dunker spot’s open hit him or I brought the screen Defender up and they rotated out of the corner I got to make the skip pass right all these reads that

He has to get used to making those are reads that if he wants to be in the five out coming off of those dhos and coming off those impromptu ball screens that he’s going to have to get better at right but again to me to be the legit

Number two he needs to be the best possible version of the iso postup player that he is which primarily is a play a playmaking thing at this point and then to be able to function normally in their five out offense so that he can maintain his impact when he’s not being

Super aggressive on the ball and then from there just you know making the defensive improvements that we we know he needs to right like he’s good on ball guy right now but he can be a little unfocused off ball so like we uh uh there’s lots of areas of improvement for

A player this young but to become a legit number two that’s just kind of a little breakdown of what he needs to do offensively all right next question Cavs fan here I obviously know there’s a defined second round ceiling with them assuming this happens what do

You think they should do this off season personally I think making Moy bulk up and move to the five and replacing Allen with a wing who can shoot and move his feet is a good start so uh one of the things I I I really find this interesting because it actually falls

Very similarly to some of the issues that I’ve been dealing with uh as a c as a Lakers fan right so Evan Mobley is in this Ward position right now where like to play the four he needs to make a significant Improvement offensively right just in terms of his skill ball

Handling shooting all that stuff but to play the five he might have some issues in terms of his overall physical bulk right even if he puts on muscle he might run into similar issues to Anthony Davis now Anthony Davis when he was at the four and had some success with the

Lakers in the 2020 and 2021 Seasons he was a much better offense skill player right a guy you could throw the ball to On the Block and he was going to ISO score and hit a bunch of jump shots and all this kind of stuff right then what

Happened was is he had an offensive Decline and as that offensive decline happened in 2021 2022 all of a sudden it became untenable to run Anthony Davis next to a five because if you ran him next to a five you were physically imposing but you didn’t have the skill

You needed at the four spot to make it work right that was the issue they’d have because you’d have like ad who can’t shoot next to some other shooter uh Center who couldn’t shoot right and like even when they did have a center who could shoot a guy like a you know

Guys like Thomas Briant briefly there with the Russell Westbrook team or like a Marcus sa they weren’t teams that uh like they weren’t guys that teams were like really guarding out there right and so the issue is If You’re Gonna Play Evan Moy at the four you’re GNA deal much better

Physically with teams because Moby at the four next to a legitimate Center like Jared Allen you’re going to be really physically imposing at times although they did get a little bit overwhelmed by the Knicks last year but that only works if Evan Mobley makes the strides offensively what ended up

Killing them wasn’t just the physical stuff that they dealt with with Mitchell Robinson but their inability to score and pick and roll because of Jared Allen and Evan Mobley operating in the short roll and out of the dunker spot they just couldn’t score effect effectively

Out of there I want to say Evan Moy was like 0 for 10 shooting out of the Roll last year in that Nick Series right so like offensive skill is a prerequisite to play the four now but if you play the five you’re going to run into a lot of

Issues in terms of his overall physical book so uh bulk right so that’s really the the turning point for the Cavs is like is Evan Moy gonna develop offensively or is he the next Anthony Davis the guy that like has offensive moments but for whatever reason just

Never develops in terms of his skill set the way that he needs to and and that’s up to Evan for the record like I I mean I I even feel like with with Anthony Davis like from what I’ve heard behind the scenes like the dude just out of the

Season just takes like two straight months off and like that’s one of those things where like skill development in particular is literally a lifestyle skill development is a 12-month thing and so like it is a it is something that like Evan Mobly would have to commit to

And really spend the time to make those improvements to be good enough from from an offensive standpoint at the four if not if you slide him to the five then your four has to be super physically imposing you’re going to need somebody of Aaron Gordon’s ilk at the four to put

Next to Evan Mobley because of his size limitations right that’s what makes the LeBron ad front line still functional defensively against most matchups Al albe he’s had his issues against those big body centers like we’ve talked about but it’s LeBron James he’s a really big Center and so when LeBron is really

Engaged defensively the two of them make for a really physically imposing four five so like that’s the way I look at it the crossroads is Evan Mo’s offensive development if he becomes a gifted offensive player you keep him at the four if he doesn’t you have to put him

At the five and you have to put some sort of big bodied four next to him all right next more uh we have two questions and then we’re done no Jason we need you to address Zeke disrespecting Steph Curry on draymond’s pod love the show by the way

Thank you for supporting the show um so there’s two things that I wanted to hit from the Draymond Green Isaiah Thomas interview first the idea that like heaven Durant saved them when he went in 2017 here’s the thing do I think if Kevin Durant did not sign with the

Warriors in the summer of 2017 that the war the uh that the warriors uh still repeat and go and win back-to-back titles in 2017 2018 no I don’t think they repeat but they were still one of the very best teams in the league they would have been they would have been

Every bit as likely to win the title as the Cavs in 2017 like I I my best guess is that if you play that same setup again without Kevin Durant going to the Warriors the Cavs split it they probably get one more and the Warriors probably get one more

In the 2017 2018 stretch so like yeah Kevin Durant put them over the top to being completely unbeatable and they won two titles but that doesn’t mean that that Warriors team wasn’t good that’s ridiculous they won 73 games the year before it required absolute heroic basketball from Kyrie Irving and LeBron

James to barely squeak out a seven game win in Golden State in 2016 so like pretending as though they weren’t a championship Contender without uh without KD that’s just something I I I completely disagree with like ktie doesn’t sign with golden state goes somewhere else the Warriors win one of

Those two titles in 2017 or 2018 in my opinion that’s just how good they were so like I I I don’t really buy into that revisionist history like even when we evaluate Steph like no KD I still think we look at him as a three-time champion

And probably a two times Finals MVP and should have been a three-time Finals MVP so like I I I don’t really buy into that line of thinking on the uh point guard front this is something that I find incredibly silly because everyone wants to associate point guard with one

Specific style of play which is like the guy who brings the ball up the floor and makes all the decisions but like that is really a Dying Breed these days you don’t really see that very much in the NBA in general as a matter of fact the

Guys who bring the ball up the floor and make all the decisions now are the James Harden James Harden 2020 2021 it kind of or 2018 2019 I mean kind of stretch and then it’s like Luca donic and like Trey young and it’s like that’s not even like

A positional thing that’s like a heliocentric play style kind of thing the truth of the matter is is like the the positions in the NBA more have to do with who you can guard right like can you guard a guard can you guard a 652 guard can you guard a lanky Wing who

Scores on the perimeter like a Paul George can you guard a power Wing like an Aaron Gordon or a LeBron James or ruy hotch Mur or whatever in the front Court can you guard a big bodied Center can you guard a skinny skilled Center those are the positions but like saying Steph

Curry’s not a point guard is not fair because there’s like not that many point guards in the NBA by the traditional mold like what Isaiah Thomas was anyway and by the way just go back and look at why that position archetype was a thing back then the vast majority of forwards couldn’t

Dribble and most hubs were centers and forwards so you needed a a a a ball handling point guard that could bring the ball up against pressure and make a postentry pass or if it’s a wing scorer if they run an action to get that Wing score position somewhere on the floor

You needed the point guard to get the ball to him nowadays the level of ball handling that we get down the roster including at the forward position is so insane that you no longer need a point guard to make a postentry pass and so as a result of that like

That point guard position is actually better to have like a guy who can run pick and roll and score right or do more high level playmaking but like the high level playmaking at a pick and roll piece we literally see every position do that including centers now we see

Giannis and Nicole yic running inverted pick and roll all the time now so like to me that conversation is completely pointless the bottom line is at Steph’s archetype which is like your primary offensive Hub guard which is more or less what the point guard is now in the

The modern NBA he’s been the best at it in this era no one’s done it better at the guard position so like the fact that he’s off ball more than most players is is irrelevant to me and by the way if you ran a spread pick and roll four out

One in system and you just spammed ball screens with Steph like Trey young he would just be a better version of Trey young Steph can do that too if you if you let Steph play the way that uh Trey Young plays he’d average 35 and 12 but

The Warriors wouldn’t be as good Steph Embraces five out off ball basketball the way he does because it makes the Warriors a better team it makes them more versatile and then what ends up happening is when push comes to shove what does he do he runs pick and

Roll when when they when the Warriors pushed the Lakers to six games last year they were the lesser team and a lot of guys who weren’t playing as well as they did last year and so everything fell on step Lakers were playing the best basketball they played since they won in

The bubble and they were playing incredible defensive basketball and the only reason the Warriors had any chance to win that series was Steph with the ball in his hands barbecuing them in pick and roll I rewatched every game in that series over the summer and like it was appalling going back just how

Helpless the Lakers were dealing with him in pick and roll that’s all point guard bring the ball up the floor and make decision stuff he can do that he chooses to play in the this five out system off ball because it makes the Warriors more versatile if they can run

That 30 minutes in a playoff game and he only has to spam ball screens for the other 15 minutes it gives him a better chance of holding up physically it gives him a better chance of not being repetitive and easy to guard so like yeah I I disagree vehemently with both

Of those opinions from Isaiah Thomas from that interview uh last question in your opinion how do you think teams adjusting to playoff pressure will affect their play and what major teams do you think will be playoff risers or chokers whether due to game plan or roster assembly do you think of

Any playoff chokers that can overcome their weaknesses in an extended Series so I’m not going to get into specific teams and players in this particular part just because it’s a mailbag we will get into that when we get into our playoff previews in early April but the main kind of theme behind

It is in my opinion experience tends to be more resilient in the playoffs strength and the ability to hold up under physicality uh tend to be more resilient in the playoffs teams that score a lot in the paint That’s resilient in the playoffs and then a diversity of shot

Creation what that means is if you’re a team that relies solely on ball screens to run your offense you’re going to run into issues look at the Cavs last year the only way they could score was through Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell ball screens and when they had

Issues scoring out of the role their entire offense fell apart right but when you have versatility right like that’s the thing like the Knicks like Jaylen Bruns just is an incredible mismatch attacking switch ISO guy right Julius Randall in theory when he’s healthy can do that kind of thing right so like if

You have a versatility in your shot creation if you have the ability to be like hey this isn’t working let’s try this instead that to me is something that makes a team more resilient when we get in the postseason we will when we get to our playoff previews talk about

Which teams and players I expect to play better and worse when we get to that point I just didn’t want to hit it in today’s mailbag all right guys that’s all we have for today as always I sincerely appreciate you guys supporting the show I had a scheduling conflict so

We’re no no longer going live after Lakers Warriors tomorrow night but I will be breaking that game down on Sunday morning uh probably going to hit Nick Kings as well on Sunday morning so keep an eye on the feeds I will see you guys Then

Jason Timpf reacts to Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and the Boston Celtics’ dominant 127-112 win over Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and the Phoenix Suns. How concerning is this loss for Phoenix? Later, Jason breaks down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 126-119 win over Kyrie Irving, and the Dallas Mavericks, who were without Luka Doncic. Next, Jason answers listener questions during an NBA Mailbag segment including his reaction to Isiah Thomas’ comments to Draymond Green about Kevin Durant saving Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors.

Timeline:
00:00 – Introduction
02:50 – Celtics bully Suns
16:48 – Mavericks-Thunder
24:22 – NBA Mailbag

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