Luka Doncic, Kyrie & Mavericks scorching, LeBron’s title window + NBA Power Rankings | Hoops Tonight

Luka Doncic, Kyrie & Mavericks scorching, LeBron’s title window + NBA Power Rankings | Hoops Tonight

All right welcome to Hoops tonight here at the volume happy Monday everybody hope all of you guys had an incredible weekend I’m so excited to get back into our groove this week we got a jam-packed show the Dallas Mavericks we had an Unstoppable Force versus an unmovable object last night the Dallas Mavericks

On a six-game winning streak been red hot for a while against a Houston Rockets team at home that was on an 11 game winning streak and the Maverick’s got a big win we’re going to break that game down from the perspective of both teams after that the Oklahoma City

Thunder won a incredibly entertaining back and forth game late against the New York Knicks Jaylen Brunson looked like he won the game and then Shay stole it back and then Jaylen Brunson got a similar look on the other end and missed it super entertaining we’re going to

Break that game down later on in the show we have an interesting quote from LeBron James who went nine for 10 from three last night against the Brooklyn Nets was just toying with them late he had a quote after the game about how much longer he’s going to be playing

There’s some discussion about how much longer LeBron’s window window is in terms of his ability to compete for championships so I want to address that under the frame of the question will LeBron ever play in the NBA Finals again we’ll talk about that and then last but

Not least as we always do on Mondays but didn’t last week while I was skiing up in Lake Tahoe we’re going to do an addition of Power Rankings obviously with two weeks worth of new games to get into so jamack show you guys know uh drill before we get started subscribe to

Our brand new YouTube channel mean a lot to me if you guys would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button don’t forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight it’s also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that

Feed don’t forget about my Twitter feed _ jlt that’s where I’m putting show announcements and film threads I did a long film thread this morning on the first half run that Dallas used to go up by 21 on the Houston Rocket so you can find that again on my Twitter feed _ jlt

And last but not least keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments we’re going to have several mailbags during the week this week all right let’s talk some basketball so the story of this Rockets Mavs game was all about Luka donic the uh the Houston Rockets have

Gone small after Alper and shagon got hurt and they’re basically moving amen Thompson into the starting lineup and he’s basically playing Center for them he’s just this athletic wrecking ball that’s doing as much as they can and obviously like they don’t really have a great option to throw in there jock

Landale in his minutes was a huge problem in this game which we’ll be getting into so as a result you’ve got lots of great perimeter defenders in that group right like Dylan Brooks outstanding perimeter Defender amen Thompson outstanding perimeter Defender Fred Van vet outstanding perimeter Defender Jaylen uh excuse me Jabari

Smith Jr outstanding perimeter Defender honestly Jaylen green is really the only weakly Link in that group but they’re really good at sliding their feet on the perimeter and bothering guards but LCA donic is not like other guards in the NBA he’s way bigger than all of those

Guys and honestly one of the biggest advantages too is like Luca he one of the things that I think often goes overlooked when we talk about Luca’s skill set is obviously he has all this incredible shot making ability and he does have great size but he uses his

Brain not just as a passer but he also uses his brain to get Defenders out of position I talk about this a lot on the show as it pertains to the way he sells his moves like for instance he’s not going to do some big sweeping crossover

Right to left he’s going to do a push cross he’s going to turn his body entirely to the right entirely frame his body language like he’s going one way and then he’s going to come across his body selling it with his body not with the basketball necessarily but in

Addition to that something that we’ve never T haven’t talked enough about over the years is how we can get Defenders out of position with Fakes and with footwork and about body positioning right and this becomes a much bigger deal when you’re going against smaller Defenders because especially smaller

Athletes with long arms and high motor athletes that are constantly playing super hard you want to use that aggressiveness against them and it’s he’s started this game just killing them with pump fakes and footwork and getting to spots and then just rising up with a little shoulder head fake and one of

Houston’s perimeter Defenders would just be too overzealous and jump and get off the ground and he’d either just pivot around and get to a different spot to take a shot or he’d go right back up into them and draw a foul and again like those two elements footwork and pump fix

I want to talk about them for just a second footwork is an incredibly important part of the game of basketball that doesn’t get discussed enough because it’s something that’s not as you know exciting as ball handling or shot making or athleticism or things along those lines and footwork I I was

Actually talking about this this morning with my young players uh that uh that I coach on Mondays and Fridays when we do skills training I I was so impressed because we have a new group coming in right so seniors are out the Juniors that are coming up they’re going to be the

Seniors next year and then we have some new kids that are joining the program or that have been in the program but are joining The Varsity elements of the program that were freshman in sophomore last year and we’re working on some basic footwork Concepts both for uh uh

Like movement shooting also just like off the dribble stuff just basic footwork Concepts uh a lot of it’s attacking Closeouts too which I think is a super important part of the high school game but uh I I was talking to them about how impressed I was that the Juniors coming

Up are so sharp with their footwork now and they used to be terrible with it and all of the younger players right now are really struggling with it and I kind of use it as an example to talk to the kids like look this is what happens like in

Time these movements do become more natural for you they become the uh uh like second nature they become a natural part of of what you do as an athlete the footwork coming off of a of a screening action for a three off the catch is go is the exact Mirror Image going on

Either end of the floor right and looks a little different for a righty than it does for a lefty and you know the the easiest way for me to put it is footwork is how you get to spots right so once you get to the spot your phys

Physicality your lift your shot making takes over right but to get to the spot you need a certain footwork imagine you’re coming off of a ball screen to your right hand side guys’s chasing over the top big man sitting a little far back but you see a little opening maybe

Five feet in front of you and five feet off to the right you need to have the ability to do a single push dribble in that direction but to take off with a left right takeoff and get Great Lift to take advantage of that spot because if

You stutter step to that spot or you go right left to that spot it’s going to be janky it’s going to be awkward you’re going to have to pick up your dribble and you’re going to end up passing it out from there the ability to actually

Get two spots on the floor where you can where you can do work depends on footwork for instance there was a post up of uh from Luca on Jabari Smith if I remember correctly on the right block I clipped this possession you can see it

In my uh in my Twitter feed on the thread that I did for this particular game but the ability to as as Luca is is is backing Jabari Smith down on that right block using his right shoulder to kind of create a little bit of Separation there is a a step through

Footwork element he goes to where he pivots over his right shoulder and pump fakes but he has a really wide base and he plants that left foot in a way where he can go straight up if he wants but he also can just plant it and pivot back

The other way or step through and in this case he actually held his ground and pump faked and when Jabari Smith left his feet he was already set in his footwork to be able to go right back up into Jabari and draw the foul there is a

Balance element when you get to those spots that is about having your base constantly underneath you and the only way to have your base constantly underneath you is to have the appropriate footwork to get to your spots with balance and with a good strong wide base and then the second

Element of it is the pump fakes so obviously the easiest way to take advantage of over zal’s defense off the ball is your back cut right like if you’re on the wing and the guy’s up in deny and he’s and he’s playing the pass

In Lane all you have to do is make it look like you’re ready to catch and then cut back door and you could take advantage of overzealous defense on the perimeter with body movement but on the basketball it’s all about fakes pump fakes footwork fakes things along those

Lines and again like Luca when when he’s dealing with these guys he can shoot over the top right like he can take difficult shots over the top but he doesn’t need to if he can take advantage of their overzealous approach to defense by using fakes to get them out of

Position Luca’s first three buckets in this game were right at the rim and all three of them were like 100% shots not like oh I took a tough little hook shot over the top and it may or may not go in no no no he was getting easy layups

Right under the basket by using fakes to get smaller Defenders out of position and once they leave their feet is I just might as well be a Mike and drill at that point right like he’s just taking an easy layup right underneath the basket so he was killing

Him in switches again cuz Houston was switching everything with that lineup significant size advantages all over the floor using those footworks that that footwork in those pump fakes to easy shots around the rim so then Houston brings in Jack landing and Luca starts picking on him

In switches and jock is giving him space and offering a token contest at the end but Luca just doesn’t even see that contest especially with his size and he just started killing him with pullup jump shots over the top Luca took 22 pullup jump shots in this game and made

12 of them he took 15 pull up threes and made eight of them he had 32 total points on 22 pullup jump shot attempts that’s 1.45 points per pull-up jumper that’s completely absurd and that doesn’t even count all the times that he got to the

Foul line by pump faking on one of those shots it it’s be it’s arguably the biggest difference between this year and last year with Luca is he’s just so much more effective with his pull-up jump shot game which has just made him that much harder to guard he’s actually

Shooting 37% on the season on pull-up threes honestly it was just comical how much better Luca was than everybody else on the floor in this game it kind of reminded me of some of the games when LeBron James was at his Peak and when he was better than everybody in the league

Where he would just kind of mess around like you’d be in this like dead serious NBA game between like two teams that were really good and LeBron would just be like trying and those of you guys who were uh uh who were watching the league during that phase when LeBron

Was in his prime you know exactly what I’m talking about and like Luca like purposely banked in a three-point shot in this game just for fun like imagine how unbothered and unthreatened you’d have to feel on the road against a team on an 11 game winning

Streak to just be like I’m gonna try to Bank in this three in the first half the game was still in question at that point he banked in another Jumper in the first half and then in the second half he had this step through move where you like

Pump faked at the three-point line step through with his left foot again a footwork element there he just is when on his base he always knows he can take an additional step to get to his spot as long as he landed on that on that jump

Stop right so he steps through with his left foot then Scoops up underneath and just throws up a scoop shot from like 20 feet away from the basket and puts it in just trying that is absurd let alone making that shot the level of confidence

It requires to do that in the NBA at all let alone in this important of a game completely crazy because again you got to remember this all these games are must-win games for the Houston Rockets as they try to get into that 10 seed it was just unbelievable other Mavs

Pitching in Kyrie Irving at 24 points and seven assists with only one turnover PJ Washington hit a couple of huge above the break threes during that second quarter run uh when the Mavs went up by 21 honestly PJ Washington’s uh three-point shooting is going to be a

Huge swing factor for the Mavs when they get into the postseason this year uh Dante exom five for five from the field he’s shooting over 60% on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots this year not effective field goal percentage not waited for threes just field goal percentage shooting

60% 91% when you weight it for threes in effective field goal percentage he’s getting 1.81 points per unguarded catch and shoot jump shot and like again if you look back at what he did overseas the previous two years this has been a trend that has continued he’s fixed his jumper

While he was overseas and he’s brought it back to the NBA and it’s made him a very impactful player and honestly it gives the Mavs all these different options that they can go to cuz like you know I like d J he started the game uh guarding Jaylen green did a really nice

Job had a rough offensive game but a really good perimeter defense game you can go with a guy like that you can go with a guy like Josh Green you can go with the guy like PJ Washington you can go with the guy like Dante xon they have

All these different options that they can go to and that like honestly will allow as long as Jason kid plays the right buttons based on the matchups and based on how guys are playing it honestly can make them better uh so the Mavs dominate they get a big win there

Uh seventh straight I want to talk about defense for a second you know I always talk about defensive person and just the job that teams do chasing over the top of screens or defending in drop coverage or rotating on the weak side or helping recover situations Closeouts all that

Kind of stuff and that’s all important but most of that has to do with defensive talent and execution right the another half of the defensive equation honestly one that we talk about way more when we get to the postseason and not so much in the regular season is game plan

And you could argue it’s every bit as important as the stuff with the defensive talent and I thought Jason kid had just a really really smart game plan for Houston in this game he put Daniel Gafford on Amen Thompson to start the game and just had him completely ignore

Him so when Thompson was setting ball screens he’d be sitting back in a drop Thompson does is not involved in the play just sitting right basically right under the basket and that just really gummed up H Houston’s offense and then when uh Derrik Lively came in and Jack

Landale came in they were worried about or not worried about jock lale’s ability to score in the short rle and so with Derrik they had him Blitz and they were blitzing ball screens basically staying home off the ball and jock land’s catching in the middle of the floor he

Got a couple of buckets in there but there were based on a per possession basis I think he had like maybe four points in the short roll at least during that first half run and probably had like six or seven catches down there so

Like it was a it was working out to uh uh to Dallas’s Advantage just to basically when gafford’s on the floor Park his ass underneath the basket when Derrik Lively’s out there be aggressive and dare jock landel to beat you on the roll and it worked really really well

Like Houston’s offense was Houston’s offense has been really really good over the course of this recent win streak that they’ve been on they’ve been like up over one 120 points per POS uh per 100 possessions is flying up and down the floor using their athleticism knocking down shots and they just

Completely stalled out Houston’s offense with a really smart game plan and that’s a huge part of it like identifying your opponent’s weakness and building your defensive strategy around that that that is again every bit as important as defensive personnel and being smart with those strategic elements when you get to

The postseason could be the difference between a long playoff run in an early exit since February 5th the Mavs are 19- six that is the second best record in the league over that span behind the Boston Celtics they are eighth in defense 11th in defensive rebounding

Over that span so again this is a significant sample size 25 games more than 30% of the Season by percentage and they’re 11th in defensive rebounding and eighth in defense that’s real two-way basketball that the Mavericks are playing you can even make a case if they move high enough in the standings that

Luca donic should be more seriously taken into consideration for the MVP award that that that’s the type of run that Dallas has been on I think they need to win a few more games here down the stretch but there’s every pae to make that he belongs in that

Conversation now here’s the here’s the question where would I Place Dallas in light of their recent run among the West hierarchy and you know I looked at this for a while this morning to try to kind of come up with a concrete opinion here’s where I’m at obviously Denver’s

Still at the top I still have them in their own tier at least as it pertains to the West I view Boston in their tier but they’re out east right the teams at the bottom of the West that I don’t take seriously Golden State I don’t think they have a real

Title threat in them Sacramento I especially in light of their injuries I didn’t view them as a serious threat before their injuries the New Orleans Pelicans uh I don’t think they’re good enough on either end of the floor uh especially defensively on the front line to win enough games in the postseason

And then Houston if you’re going to include them as the 11th seed as a threat to the 10th seed those are teams that I view as the bottom tier in the west that I don’t think have a real chance to go on a run everybody else though they’re all really freaking good

Minnesota they’ve been one of the best teams in the league all year long they’re the best defense in the league no one can guard ant like Dallas Minnesota it’s tough It’s you could make the case for either right the Clippers they dominated most of the season and they’re completely loaded with talent

And two-way players during the middle third of the season they were the best team in the league basically Clippers Mavs you could make the case for either right Phoenix they’re probably the best matchup with the Denver Nuggets I think they are the team most capable of beating Denver in a seven game series

They are completely loaded with talent and playing much better basketball here down the stretch of the season Phoenix Dallas you could make the case for either one of them right Oklahoma City they’re literally the number one seed in the west and any pessimism surrounding them has to do with size and youth right

And then the Los Angeles Lakers since January 7th a 39 game sample size they have the fifth best record in the league everyone thinks the Lakers suck because they’re lower in the standings because they had a rough stretch right after the inseason tournament where they let their

Foot off the gas and made a bunch of bad lineup decisions where they benched their three of their top five players for a while that threw off everyone’s calculus with the Lakers for half of the Season recently they have been the fifth best team in the league so like you had

To throw them in there too now I’d say the Lakers belong on the bottom of that tier but they’re in that tier all those teams though you could make a case for anyone like there isn’t like when it comes to trying to slide Dallas in there there’s somewhere in there but it’s hard

To make a case that they’re just over all of them and so I kind of land right where I’ve been for most of the last few months I think all of those teams have a chance to make a long playoff run and get out of the West and I think all of

Those teams have a chance to lose in the first round hell the Lakers have a chance to lose in the playing tournament so like so does Phoenix by the way so like really I I think it’s going to come down to matchups it’s going to come down

To who plays who but here is the most important part given all these factors the most important element is going to be who’s playing the best at the right time Dallas is playing their best basketball right now that’s a huge Factor there they can ride that momentum

Into the postseason that could be the Difference Maker with that tier but yeah as I look at the West Denver at the top Golden State Sacramento New Orleans at the bottom and then I have Minnesota the Clippers Phoenix OKC the Lakers and Dallas all in there jumbled up they’re

They’re all any one of them could be the one that comes out of the way West any one of them could lose in the first round as good as Dallas has been you can’t make a case for them to be definitively above OKC definitively above the Clippers definitively above

Minnesota there there there’s not a definitive case there to make even in light of their recent run but I do think that them getting hot at the right time bodess really well for them the thrill and excitement of March Mania is here and draft King Sportsbook one of

America’s top rated Sportsbook apps is giving new customers a shot to turn five bucks into $150 instantly in bonus Bets with any college basketball bet Yukon is currently the favorite to win the title at plus 500 my favorite team Hometown Tucson Arizona Wildcats are currently plus 1300 plenty of good bets to check

Out download the draftking Sportsbook app and use code Hoops that’s ho o o PS new customers can bet five bucks to get $50 instantly in bonus bets only at draftking Sportsbook with code Hoops that’s ho o o PS the crown is yours all right moving on to the Oklahoma City

Thunder versus the New York Knicks this was a really fun back in fourth game the Knicks went up by 12 points in the third quarter uh at one point they made their first five threes in the third quarter as they went on a run the Thunder bench brought them back Jaylen Williams just

Was ridiculous had everything going he was scoring at The Rim he was making these like push shots in the lane he had uh probably the best dunk of his career so far this like transition push where he Dunked On D dienzo and and Miles McBride like in like a sandwich contest

And he just went up over both of it was one of the most impressive athletic plays of his career to this point he made seven pull-up jump shots in this game all of them from two-point range now James Harden has recently just barely snuck past him in this list but

He’s still the second best pull-up jump shooter in the League this year at a minimum of 300 attempts getting 1.11 points per pull-up jumper crazy thing is most of them are pull-up twos he takes 5.1 pull-up jumpers a game only 1.4 of them are threes so the vast majority of

Them are from two-point range he shoots 42% on those pull-up threes shoots well over 50% on pullup twos and that’s a really high value shot especially when you get to the postseason because I’m a big believer that there’s more resiliency in pullup close range shooting than there is in pull-up long

Range shooting when you get to the later rounds of the postseason so Jaylen Williams starts the Run shot making dunking on people Josh Hart does a really nice job just kind of bringing some intense full court ball pressure on Jaylen Williams which kind of slowed him

Down just a little bit and then Oklahoma City just went to Josh Giddy and Josh giddy was just again kind of a similar thing to what we were talking about with Houston versus Dallas New York just plays a lot of smaller guards and Josh giddy was just taking advantage of the

Small guards by just barreling down the lane and spinning over his left shoulder and making little push shots close to the basket he had 16 points 13 rebounds and 12 assists in this game he also hit a couple of huge threes late in the game game during their second half run when

Uh when New York was leaving him open really really impressive night from Josh giddy late game was a complete show both teams were missing a bunch of free throws as a matter of fact the two teams combined to go 13 for 25 from the foul

Line in this game and so we have this like chaotic finish at the end of the game Jaylen Brunson misses the free throw and there’s this crazy rebound situation the ball goes out of bounds stays with the Knicks the Knicks r on this really smart action like a

Staggered ball screen where they get hren switched down to Jaylen Brunson and then set another brush screen with Josh uh um with Josh Hart that just allows Brunson to get a little bit of an angle on Chad and he just gets into Chad’s body and extends out and makes this

Really nice left-handed hook shot or left-handed scoop shot excuse me off the glass that puts the Knicks up one only four seconds left on the other end of the floor Mark dasal draw draws up this super interesting kind of like decoy action with uh with Jaylen Williams and

Shay so everyone else is out at three-point line Jaylen Williams and Shay are basically right at the left elbow if you’re facing the basket inbounds is on the left side of the floor and essentially what they did is they had Jaylen Williams fake like he

Was going to set a pin down for Shay but then Shay turned around and set a back screen for Jaylen Jaylen rolls to the rim the Knicks actually defend it really well uh uh chasing over the top and Shay actually breaks to the right block and

Ends up with Miles McBride on him with plenty of time plenty of uh space on the floor and he just pivots right over his right shoulder and takes a right shoulder fade Shay didn’t even really have much going in this game because jayen Williams was playing so well and

Obviously he’s coming back from an injury he’s a little uh Rusty but he just gets his lift on that right shoulder fade and knocks the shot down and puts the Thunder back up one they go to the other end the it was off of a different action but they more or less

Get the exact same Mirror Image look for Jaylen Brunson so this time it’s on the right uh kind of block extended but Jaylen Brunson is a left-handed shooter so he pivots over his left shoulder takes the same type fadeaway shot over the same kind of like dominant shoulder

On the Baseline and he it’s dead on straight but he leaves it short and the Knicks end up losing so I want to I want to go back to uh Jaylen Williams for a second I want to use three plays to demonstrate just how crazy Jaylen

Williams is going to be in this league just how crazy good he’s going to be first the transition done so on this play pre precious auua is in the front Court he’s trying to KN around an offensive rebound uh I can’t remember who it was but somebody on the Knicks

Misses a three on the Tapout jayen Williams is dribbling the ball up the right side of the floor and you can see him look to his left and identify that precious is trailing the play he looks up the floor and he sees miles McBride is right in front of him has stopped the

Ball the other three guys uh the other three Knicks are all kind of flaring out to Shooters no Nick actually just runs to the rim which is always like it’s basketball it’s Rim basketball Shooters that’s it’s like an order of operations when it comes to uh uh to transition

Defense and a lot of coaches teach stopping the basketball first because if you stop the basketball first that buys time for other guys to get back if you can make him turn or or change direction or something like that but either way basketball always comes before Wing

Shooters but he identifies he looks up the floor sees precious to a trail on the play looks up the floor sees miles McBride in front of him but sees everyone else kind of spaying out to the three-point line in behind the half court line like 10et behind the back

Court line Jaylen Williams goes it I’m going for it and he just like hits the Jets bodies miles McBride shoves him off Rises up it just and just throws it down there’s a token contest on the side from Dante Devan chenzo but he has absolutely no chance just a ridiculous

Athletic play and again it’s the recognition of what’s happening on the floor it’s the size Advantage just as the ball handler with his size strength and athletic tools and then the incredible StraightLine force in athleticism that he brings to the table second place a fourth quarter hesitation pullup jump

Shot on Alec Burks this actually might have been in the third quarter I can’t remember exactly when it was but uh he gets Alec Burks in isolation at the top of the key and he’s kind of working mixing off the dribble and he hits him with a hard between the legs dribble

Step back and when he makes the move Alec Burks like stutter steps back and like lands with his heel all the way back on the foul line and so Jaylen Williams has realized like oh like he can’t guard me without about being way back on his heels so he knows he’s going

To have an easy pull-up jumper so he gets the ball back into his left hand and takes a hesitation dribble just a high hesitation dribble just to kind of reset his rhythm and then he rises straight up and down and knocks down the jump shot what this demonstrates to

Me in order to guard Jaylen Williams because of his crazy downhill Force which is what we talked about earlier you have to be on your heels you have to be constantly looking to give ground back into the right or back into the left if you play up on him he’s just

Going to go right around you and so he gets these really high quality pull-up jump shots and that’s a big part of why the shooting stats look the way that they do obviously he’s a great shooter but he’s also just getting awesome looks because of his incredible athletic tools

That he brings to the table he is literally as a second-year player the second best pull-up jump shooter in the entire league minimum of 300 attempts and James Harden is like right there and he’s been above him at various points during the season last play 102 to 96

Just under 5 minutes left in the Thunder run a uh a Spain pick and roll which is basically you just have a shooter underneath the basket that relocates to the top of the key as you’re running your ball screen and the shooter in this case is Shay G Alexander the ball

Handler in this case is Jaylen Williams the screen Setter in this case is Aaron Wiggins Josh Hart is on on Jaylen Williams Jaylen Brunson is guarding Aaron Wiggins right and then I want to say miles McBride was was on um was on Shay Gill Alexander so as Wiggins goes

Up and sets the screen Jaylen Williams comes off hard to his right hand side and brings two to the ball he brings Josh Hart trailing the play and Jaylen Brunson comes over basically it amounts to a trap okay so in this case Aaron Wiggins is rolling into the basket and

This is the beautiful part of the play design with Shay G Alexander miles McBride is in position to help he’s underneath the basket he’s there to help in case that rle man comes down unguarded like garon Wiggins was coming down but the play design has Shay gild

Alexander flashing to the top of the key but you can see miles McBride identify it and he kind of stays back to help on Aaron Wiggins and if you watch Jaylen Williams he gives a head fake he looks with his entire body at Shay and when he does that Miles McBride lunges towards

Shay Aaron Wiggins slips behind him Jaylen Williams hits him with the uh with the pass right in stride so that he can slip inside and uh and make the right handed layup on the glass and the most important part there is again the floor recognition but also that

Highlevel pick and roll playmaking to be able to manipulate the defense with your eyes and again like he had I think seven or eight assists in this game with with uh with just one turnover like this has been a consistent theme with Jaylen Williams is like he’s way Advanced as a

Playmaker for a guy his age I legitimately think this kid is not just really good not just star potential I think Jaylen Williams has legitimate potential to become a top 10 player in this league there just aren’t that many prospects that come through the NBA that have this combination of real downhill

Athletic Force outstanding to deadly pull-up jump shooting and high level playmaking how how many guys how many guys can you like genuinely say that about in the league there’s just not that many I it’s hard to even find a comp you talk about a guy like Jaylen

Brown and Jaylen Brown obviously at this phase of his career is a much better player than Jaylen Williams but like Jaylen Brown if you’re talking about his strengths and weaknesses like outstanding downhill athletic Force good pull-up shooter mediocre to bad playmaker right talk about Jimmy Butler it’s like

Outstanding downhill force and it’s like good pull-up shooter you know great playmaker right there’s we haven’t really seen a prospect that can bring all three at an extremely high level to the table now Jaylen Williams has a long way to go to get to that point but I

Really do think he has that potential I think he can be like a better version of Jimmy Butler a Jimmy Butler that’s a more consistent jump shooter and by the way that that that’s not something that that’s not something that I believe to be hyperbole he has the character for it

He has the work ethic for it he has the athletic gifts for it the touch is clearly there the playmaking is clearly there he’s doing it in a smaller role too playing alongside all this Talent like you could make a case if he’s playing in if you’ve swapped him for

Jaylen green right now and he’s playing in Houston he’s probably averaging 25 points a game right now like a lot of it in the Box Score stuff has a lot to do with just what his circumstance is but I just I continue to be completely and utterly Blown Away by

How good this kid is right now and how good he’s capable of being I’m excited to watch him in the postseason he’s going to be a kid I’m excited to watch develop over the coming years all right LeBron’s postgame quotes So Lakers get a big win against the Brooklyn Nets

Bouncing back from a tough loss on the road against the Indiana Pacers and he hits nine threes in the game couple of really tough off the dribble ones a drifting kind of like fade away in the left corner and then a step back on the right wing uh to get

His eigh and N threes of the game he had 40 something in the in the game just uh he’s averaging something crazy like 25 uh uh 25 points per game on 63% true shooting which is just completely outrageous for a 39y old guy but he had

A quote after the game he was asked about how much longer he he was like playing he says not very long I’m not going to play another 21 years that’s for damn sure but not very long I don’t know when that door will close as far as

When I’ll retire but I don’t have much time left and so the question that we posed today is will LeBron ever play in an NBA Finals again now here’s the thing of course it’s a possibility I saw Stephen A Smith uh uh uh say either this

Morning I saw it on Twitter this morning but he said he said that he thought that this was uh LeBron’s last chance this year with the Lakers I disagree with that like I I I mean he might fall off a cliff next year but I mean here’s the

Thing you can try to get ahead of the LeBron decline thing I’m not going to be that guy I feel like the people have been trying to get ahead of that just keep getting proven wrong every single year maybe it happens next year maybe it doesn’t but here’s the deal the Lakers

Have access to three first-round draft picks when they get to the draft this year as long as they improve the roster with whatever they do this off season more than LeBron declines it’s a net Improvement for the Lakers so of course they’re still going to be in the hunt I

Think they need a coaching change they need to be as healthy next year as they are this year LeBron needs to avoid any sort of severe injury but whatever decline LeBron experiences as long as as long as they improve the roster around that he’s very much going to be in the

Mix still so I don’t think this is his last chance per se that said do I think LeBron will ever play in the NBA Finals again as a likelihood like like if I had to apply a percentage chance to it it’s going to be below 50% for me and the

Main reason why is I don’t think this team is good enough defensively to win the playin tournament and to win three rounds all without homecourt Advantage all against really good teams I wouldn’t count them out they I would for the record I’d put below 50% chance to make

The finals for literally every team in the west except for the Denver Nuggets but like it is somewhat unlikely that they get through it this year and and as for the offseason I don’t trust the Lakers front office or ownership group to make the necessary TW tweaks to

The roster to push them over the top so to me it’s more likely than not that we don’t get to see another finals appearance from LeBron which is kind of a bummer because like honestly I thought they should have been more aggressive at the deadline this year here they’ve been

The fifth best team in the league over the last 39 games since January 27th and they’ve been like we’re going to go over some numbers when we get to the power rankings but like they’ve been the second best best uh a three-point shooting team over that span they’ve

Been the second by percentage they’ve been the second best point in the paint team over that span like they have a lot of really good things that they bring to the table as a matter of fact to put it simply I don’t think the Lakers are that

Far off I I think it’s about specific weaknesses with them not Talent deficiencies I don’t think the Lakers have a talent issue they have a roster balance issue they have a ton of offensive skill in every single position group and they don’t have anybody who can guard on the per

They have like zero top tier athlete types that play at the one or the two and and that’s been their or or at the three for that matter uh because of Jared Vanderbilt injury so like I really don’t think they need that much to really enter into those conversations

But I just don’t trust this particular franchise to do it again I’ve talked about this on the show before but like like to me incompetence trickles from the top down this is the same owner that let Alex cruso walk like there’s there’s not a GM in the league that wouldn’t have gotten on

Hands and knees and begged for Genie bus to keep Alex cruso because he’s so obviously such a monumentally important piece to winning basketball games and Genie bus just let him walk right and I don’t need to get into it but if you go down if you go down the

Top from the top of the organization you see the incompetence come through whether it’s the medical staff and their incapability to keep people and fans updated on just what’s happening with the players on the roster whether it’s like typos on a damn statue whether it’s hiring someone like

Magic Johnson who clearly was not interested in doing the job with you regardless of of what we want to point the the flashlight at from the top down there’s been incompetence and so like to me when you weigh the realities of their predicament this season against what

They need to achieve this off season with whether or not the leadership is capable of executing that I don’t have great optimistic feelings about their ability to get there so again I’m not writing LeBron off no I don’t think this is their last chance but I personally

Would be surprised if I got to watch LeBron James play in the NBA Finals again all right moving on to our power rankings the one drop off from our two weeks ago list are the Cleveland Cavaliers they are three and five since our last rankings on March 18th they

Lost to Miami twice they lost to Minnesota they lost to Denver and they have a really bad loss to Charlotte bottom 10 in both off offense and defense over that span so we’re dropping the Cavs for now number 10 gasp the Los Angeles Lakers are cracking into our

Power rankings for the first time in forever six and one since our last rankings including yet another win over the Milwaukee Bucks in Milwaukee without LeBron since January 7th a 39 game sample size the Lakers are 25 and4 that is the fifth best record in all of

Basketball during that span again over a sample size of almost half the season they are fifth in offensive rating over that span second in three-point percentage over that span they’re shooting over 40% from three as a team since January 7th they are second in points in the paint per 100 possession

Over that span so a really nice combination of accurate perimeter shooting and interior dominance but here’s the most encouraging stat in the justification for why I have the Lakers at 10th in the power rankings according to cleaning the glass against the top 10 teams in the NBA in point differential

They have 17 wins which is the most in the league they have a 55% win percentage which is the fifth best in the league and they have a plus 1.5 Point differential per 100 possessions which is the fifth best Mark in the league the Lakers have been one of the

Very best teams in the League this year at beating the good teams in addition to playing really really good basketball outside of a brief stretch they were 15- n including the inseason tournament win they are 25 and 14 since January 7th which is the fifth best record in the

League over that span there’s a 3 And1 stretch there in the middle which was right when everyone relaxed after winning the tournament and obviously when Darin ham was tweaking with the lineup and taking their three three of their top five players out I’m again do I think the Lakers are a legitimate

Championship Contender like the the teams at the top of the league no but we’re going to give them a shout out here for how good they’ve been playing over the course of the last couple of months at nine the New Orleans Pelicans they’re losing to the Orlando Magic

Oklahoma City Thunder and the Boston Celtics since our last ranking so they’re dropping a bit obviously Brandon Ingram got hurt and that plays a role here the offense has really fallen off they’re 21st in offense over their last six games and their defense hasn’t been as good either they’re down to ninth in

That span here’s the thing I uh I really wanted to drop the pells too but like when you look through the rest of the league the league is so good and everyone’s kicking the out of everyone there is not a team that I could reasonably put above New Orleans

For now even though I know that relative to most people I’m lower on New Orleans there’s not even a team that I could reasonably put above them because everyone’s kind of hovering around 500 because everyone’s really good and everyone can beat everyone and and it’s making for some funky results at number

Eight the New York Knicks some mixed results since our last rankings they’re four and three had a nice Road win over the Golden State Warriors but they lost to the Denver Nuggets and the San Antonio Spurs obviously lost a complete heartbreak to the Oklahoma City Thunder yesterday concerning stat with the

Knicks they’re just five in 17 this year in that same list the top 10 point differential teams on cleaning the glass they were just five and 17 against those teams obviously injuries have played a role I think like when it comes to the upper level teams execution and effort

And coaching and all those things can only carry you so far when you run into Superior talent and here’s the thing Jaylen Brunson has had to do a ton a lot of guys are being asked to do more than usual and just getting back your best

Players will go a long way to helping that and here’s the Silver Lining they are 39 and 13 against everyone else which means they’re building the habits and the consistency and the basketball culture to where if they add in the talent they should be able to push over

The top number seven the Milwaukee Bucks also mixed results three and three since our last rankings one and three against the quality opponents they faced though they had a nice win against Oklahoma City but then they lost to the Celtics lost to the Lakers lost to the Pelicans

We can zoom out now and take a look at the doc experience Doc Rivers has been the coach of the Milwaukee Bucks for 28 games in those 28 games the Bucks are 15 and 13 that is the 16th best record in the league over that span if you guys

Remember I talked a lot about goals for the bucks under Doc Rivers I wanted to see an offensive rating at 120 because I thought they needed to be a truly Elite offense to win and I wanted to see a defensive rating at 115 which I thought

Was a good Mark to demonstrate a good enough defense to get the job done in the postseason provided that their offense was Elite here’s where they’re at sin went uh joined the team 11 15.1 offensive rating that’s 16th in the league over that span so they’ve been

Very mediocre on offense but here’s a silver lining 11.6 defensive rating over a 28 game sample size 11th best in the league so for what’s that roughly 30 35% of the Season they’ve been a top 11 defense that’s real that’s not something to uh to completely ignore uh overall they

Struggled against some specific matchups particularly guard heavy offenses it’s why they’ve struggled with the Lakers for instance right uh but overall they’ve been really good on that end of the floor and again the offense just hasn’t come around but if the offense comes around that’s where it could

Really take off and I think honestly it’s been a little bit of break rhythm with giannis’s hamstring injury and I think like uh and obviously with Chris Middleton being in and out of the lineup all year so there’s some factors there they’re really good offensively to start

The season I do believe that that offense is still in there but they got to get to that point in order to capitalize and how good they’ve been defensively number six the Los Angeles Clippers they’re going against an easier part of their schedule and they’re getting back on track as a result

They’re 5-2 in their last seven since our last rankings they got the Blazers twice and the Hornets once so some easy ones in there they split a home and home with the Philadelphia 76ers they did lose an ugly one at home to the Indiana Pacers

In that uh span but on Friday night they had one of their most impressive wins in recent months they went to Orlando and got in this Rock fight this really fun Rock fight of a basketball game and just through really high level defense and really high level shot

Making the Clippers got a win 100 to 97 on the road and they looked more or less like the Clippers and I thought that was a really encouraging game for them it’s still in there they just need to recapture it before they get to April we’ve seen teams like Denver last year

Kind of run into similar stretches where they Dominate and then they let their foot off the gas at the end and somehow they get it going in time for the post season that’s got to be the mold for the Clippers number five the Dallas Mavericks not going to talk too much

About them cu just did a whole Deep dive on them again Mavericks fans uh earlier on the feed we did a deep dive on uh uh Dallas vers Houston and just how Luca’s been dominating and how good they’ve been defensively all that kind of stuff

You can find that on our on our YouTube feed but brief synopsis Dallas has been the second best team in the league since February 5th and they’re doing it on both ends of the floor some really encouraging stuff there they’ve been uh good defensive rebounding and defensive rating over that span number four

Minnesota Timberwolves they are 5-2 in their last seven games since our last rankings including some really impressive wins they went into Denver and manhandled the nuggets the other night albe it without Jamal Murray uh since Carl towns went down they uh started playing way better after they

Put Nas Reed in the starting lineup they are now eight and4 in those games 16th in offense sixth in defense Anthony Edwards averaging 26 points seven rebounds and six assists I advocated for starting Nas Reed because I thought it was the best option for uh Minnesota

Under the circumstances I I I like Nik Alexander Walker for particular matchups but I just figured especially in the regular season it makes sense to lean into Nas Reed really interesting comments from Anthony Edwards about how Nas Reed in his ball reversal has helped him with his shot selection so this is a

Similar thing I’ve seen uh uh with the Lakers for instance with Jackson Hayes the dude catches on the wing and he just or above the break and he just naturally is part of his basketball kind of character he just kind of flows into a dribble land off on the other end of the

Floor and helps get the action going from side to side and Anthony ever talked about how n re doing that for the uh uh for the Timberwolves has helped him kind of like feel more about feel more aware of the offensive flow and less dribbling the ball up the floor and

Shooting and more running some action and then maybe shooting if you if the ball makes its way back to him and I thought that that was really interesting and a good indicator of the fit with nas Reed in the starting lineup number three the Oklahoma City Thunder they’re 5-2

Since our last rankings they beat the Suns the Knicks and the New Orleans Pelicans in that span held up pretty well without Shay gild Alexander All Things Considered now he’s back in the lineup really just shined the light on how great Jaylen Williams is going to be

Again we did a deep dive on the thunder in an earlier segment today you can find that on our YouTube feed number two the Denver Nuggets 5-2 since the last rankings on March 18th 2-0 with with Jamal Murray in the lineup but in the five games without him they went three

And two Reggie Jackson just wasn’t playing well in the first first four games in that set and that was really leading to some mixed offensive results but Reggie Jackson broke out in a big way against the Cleveland Cavaliers and they looked awesome again big time win

At home over a really good team number one the Boston Celtics five- two since our last rankings couple of impressive wins of in there against the Milwaukee Bucks and the New Orleans Pelicans did have a couple of really ugly losses in Atlanta the first game the guards sat

Out and uh they went really cold less than one point per jump shot lost a game blew a big lead in that game and then the other uh I think it was two day two nights later they played full full strength against or it might have been a

Back toback I can’t remember exactly but they went into Atlanta full strength minus Al Horford and they lost an overtime dog fight to Deonte Murray who had 44 including the gamewinner in that game jump shooting was more or less the issue in both games they took 101 jump shots

In both games and only got 107 points and again that’s more or less the with if there’s one rub on Boston it’s like if they go cold with their jump shooting you can beat them right and that that’s been a consistent theme throughout the season that’s not a hot take that’s just

A statistical fact at this point uh this season they’ve taken 6,667 field goal attempts 3,744 of them have been jump shots that’s 56% of their field goal attempts most in the league so they just have a certain amount of you know um they have a certain amount of like their fate just

Kind of tied up in jump shot result just kind of the reality of the Celtics but again I don’t want want to highlight the Atlanta wins or losses without making sure we uh highlight that they got big wins over the Bucks and the the Pelicans in that span although the Bucks sat out

Some guys um one last note on that front I watched both of the Atlanta games and the one thing that bothers me still is like at the end of these games they don’t really have a bully ball option that they can go to to get a really good

Look close to the basket and so that’s the thing like is Boston a better basketball team than Atlanta yeah but if they get into a mid-range jump shooting contest with dejonte Murray over a small sample size deont can get hot and make them and beat him right and so like as

As long the Celtics more or less have been a good clutch team for most of the Season I’m not trying to like pretend like that success hasn’t been there but we have seen from time to time they can go cold and when they go cold they struggle to find alternative methods of

Offense uh but still at this point five- two in their last seven games number one in our power rankings all right guys that is all we have for today as always I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show we’ll be back tomorrow should be a fun one we got a

Big game tonight between the Pelicans and the Suns and then I plan on doing a little breakdown of Iowa versus LSU that should be fun obviously I don’t uh uh profess to be as well connected with women’s Hoops as I am with the NBA that’s obvious and goes without saying

But I’m a huge basketball fan I view tonight as musty television and whatever basketball thoughts I have from the game I’ll share share with you guys in tomorrow’s show also plan on doing a mailbag tomorrow so make sure you guys get those into the YouTube comments all right guys see you Tomorrow

Jason Timpf reacts to Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and the Dallas Mavericks’ 7-game winning streak, and discusses how the Mavs are a legitimate threat in the West. Jason then explains how much time LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers have left to win another NBA championship before he retires, and drops his weekly NBA Power Rankings.

Timeline:
00:00 – Introduction
02:00 – Mavericks on fire
20:30 – Thunder stun Knicks
31:52 – Will LeBron James play in NBA Finals again?
37:06 – NBA Power Rankings

Follow Jason Timpf on social:
Tweets by _JasonLT
https://www.instagram.com/jtimpf15/

Shop the hottest gear in all of sports podcasting: https://thevolume.com/shop-all-new

Follow us on social media:
https://www.instagram.com/thevolumesports
Tweets by TheVolumeSports
https://www.facebook.com/TheVolumeSports

@thevolumesports

Learn more about the Volume:
https://www.thevolume.com

#nba #basketball #sports #playoffs #nbaplayoffs #lebronjames #lukadoncic #kyrieirving #losangeleslakers #dallasmavericks #nikolajokic #denvernuggets #jalenbrunson #newyorkknicks #oklahomacitythunder #shaigilgeousalexander #powerrankings #top10 #playoffs #championship