Top 5 NBA Takeaways: How Celtics won, what cost Mavericks & Lakers | Hoops Tonight

Top 5 NBA Takeaways: How Celtics won, what cost Mavericks & Lakers | Hoops Tonight

all right welcome to Hoops tonight here at the volume happy Wednesday everybody hope all of you guys are having a great week so far so we were supposed to get to this show last week but then the JJ reic news kind of pushed it off for a couple days and then obviously at the beginning of this week I wanted to get to some draft stuff just so it had a couple of days before the draft actually happened which is very soon as you guys know so we are finally going to get around to our five biggest takeaways from this NBA postseason this is a podcast that we do every single year right after the playoffs it is a basketball tactics focused podcast and the goal of it is to put it simply we are trying to learn as much about the game in the long run we are all students of the game of basketball right so like we want to learn from what happened in this playoff run as well as what has happened in recent playoff Runs put all that information into like a basketball worldview that helps us understand and you know TR obviously predictions are a Fool’s errand no one ever predicts everything correctly but we do want to try to do better right it’s it is a it is a it is something that we strive to do even though we know we’re going to fail right like we’re going to fail we’re going to get wrong picks we’re going to misread series but we want to try as as hard as we can to learn and understand the game at a higher level and so we have two months of data two months of new data from these 15 playoff series that we just watched and we’re going to try to sort through that to find the five biggest takeaways to help us understand NBA basketball at a higher level as we move into future season you guys know the drill before we get started subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don’t miss any more of our videos follow me on Twitter atore jlt so you guys don’t miss show announcements don’t forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight then keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments I know we bumped the mailbag for the JJ reic news so I owe you guys one but we’re going to get to that at the end of this week so that it can run over the weekend so keep dropping mailbag questions in those YouTube comments and the last but not least before we get started I want to talk to you guys about game time an amazing ticket buying experience had a great experience with them earlier this year when I went to male Center to watch the University of Arizona men’s basketball team it’s kind of a last minute thing got a great seat got a great deal knew exactly what I was getting before I showed up to the arena it was just an awesome experience I want you guys to check it out yeah there’s not any professional basketball anymore for us to watch but we’ve got Major League Baseball we’ve got concerts we’ve got comedy shows I’m going to see dead and Company at the sphere the week of the uh the week of Summer League there’s also a USA Basketball show case against Canada that week that you can get tickets to there are plenty of EV events between that kind of stuff Major League Baseball comedy shows there plenty of things for you guys to go see and game time has a great experience for you guys there they’ve all in pricing so you don’t have to worry about getting surprised when you’re checking out it’s not a convoluted process you can check out in as few as two Taps you know exactly what your seat looks like in the app before you actually show up to the arena can’t recommend it enough take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time download the game time app create an account and use code Hoops for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create an account and redeem code Hoops that’s h o o PS for $20 off your first purchase download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed all right let’s talk some basketball so in terms of picks this is actually kind of a funny playoff run so we had 15 Series right we picked 10 of them correctly the blind spots were uh Minnesota and New York so all five series that I picked incorrectly either involved the Knicks or the Timberwolves I picked the Timberwolves to lose to the Suns based on their regular season record also some game plan stuff with Frank vogle that I thought would work against Minnesota could not have been more wrong that was a sweep I picked the Timberwolves to lose to Denver that was one of the most bizarre series I can ever remember seeing between Minnesota going up 20 on the road and then getting their ass kicked at home twice and then Denver winning game five and then blowout game six Denver being up 20 in the second half of game seven Minnesota coming back to win with that crazy run that was a wild series but I picked against the Timberwolves in that one and then I picked for the Timberwolves against the Mavericks and then they ended up getting their ass kicked so Timberwolves were a major blind spot for me this year and then the Knicks I picked against the Knicks in the Sixers series because I thought uh Tyrese Maxi and Joel embiid would just kind of present a you know two two layers of top tier shot creation against one and I just thought in the half court it’d be too much of an advantage but the Knicks more than made up for for it with their toughness and then Jaylen Brunson just reached a level in this playoff run that I didn’t think he was capable of to be honest and he he just just proved me wrong in a lot of ways and then I picked the Knicks to beat the Pacers obviously there were some injuries there but that I did think that was funny looking back out of the uh I picked 10 out of the five 15 series correct and all five of the incorrect picks were involved the same two teams so that goes to show you that that was those were major blind spots for me and I got to try to learn from those so that we can avoid those mistakes in the future so without any further Ado let’s get to the five biggest things that I learned in this postseason run number one regular season success doesn’t protect you from a bad matchup so for instance the Bucks were a better team than the Pacers all year long but even extending into the regular season they could not handle Indiana’s perimeter speed on both ends of the floor just their ability to move quicker cover more ground beat people to spots on offense beat people off the dribble on uh uh when the Bucks were on defense it was just an incessant mismatch in overall speed on the floor Milwaukee could never contain the ball in the half court or in transition it was a problem for them that they never solved and so yeah obviously there were injuries involved but that manifested even before uh giannis’s injury in the regular season when the Bucks just consistently struggled with that Indiana Pacers team I think the Nuggets were a better basketball team overall top to bottom than Minnesota but Minnesota had the ability to back pressure Jamal Murray in ball screens in the size to fatigue joic and play him into a bad defensive series and they couldn’t keep Anthony Edwards in front off the dribble in retrospect looking back at that Bruce Brown piece that they let go over the summer that would have been a guy that could have swung that series back in favor of Denver something to keep in mind as we see teams that let go of important role players after winning a title we saw the bucks after 2021 they let go of PJ Tucker that that they end up uh losing in the second round the next year obviously injuries played a role right we even see just decline from specific players from the Warriors they look like a different team the Lakers throw us throw out their entire championship roster two years later they end up falling apart like a lot of times we underrate the contrib of important role players and Bruce Brown was the one player on Denver that could have athletically at least given Anthony Edwards a tougher job to beat off the dribble and uh in terms of just matching some of his physicality I also think Jamaal Murray’s injury was something that I thought was interesting there in the sense that I talked about during the regular season I would have been surprised if Denver didn’t win the title as long as all five of their starters were healthy and as it turned out Jamal Murray with his calf that ankle injury that cavius call Will po suffered in game five against the Lakers where he was starting to get he ended up having to go back to the locker room in that game they just got a little banged up a little fatigued and it ended up being an issue but during the regular season I thought the Nuggets were a better basketball team than Minnesota big thing that people forget too is when Jamal Murray was healthy the Nuggets won at over a 61- win pace so like they were a team on Boston’s tier when they were actually healthy and whole it was Jamal Murray was out that they you know kind of hovered around 500 and it put them into a predicament in the standings but the Nuggets were a traditional top tier Contender that ran into a tier 2 Contender but because it was a bad matchup they ended up losing and we’re going to get into some of the matchup stuff later but like the Timberwolves were a better team than the Mavericks all year long but the Mavs couldn’t protect the rim and Luca was too big for all of Minnesota’s uh excuse me the Mavs could protect the rim so like Anthony Edwards driving against Yousef nurkic no matchup there Anthony Edwards driving against Nicole yic no problem there right Anthony Edwards driving with Daniel Gafford and Derrick Lively under the rim totally different situation his Rim attempts and efficiency cratered in that series it was a huge problem right so like even though the Timberwolves were a better team than the Mavericks all year long the Mavs could keep Anthony Edwards away from the rim and Luca was too big for Jaden McDaniels and he was too big for Anthony Edwards and he was too big for everybody and it rendered the strength of Minnesota’s defense their perimeter core it rendered it effectively useless and that became a problem that uh Minnesota couldn’t overcome so like regular season success just does not protect you from a bad matchup the last example that I wanted to give was uh the Mavericks defense the Mavericks defense was really good in the first three rounds they had a 111 defensive rating but they fell apart in the finals and everyone’s going to point to the offensive rating cuz Boston only was at I think 116 offensive rating or something like that but it wasn’t about the aggregate offensive rating it was moments in time where Dallas literally could not get stops in the first half of game one Boston had a 134 offensive rating as they built that massive deficit which effectively was the game in game two there was a 16-minute span between the second and third quarters 16 minutes so a little over a quarter where Boston scored 44 points on ‘s defense went from a one-point game to a 13-point game in 16 minutes because their defense completely fell apart in game three it was a seven-point game with three minutes left in the third quarter Boston scores 19 points over the next four minutes and they’re up by 21 it was an onslaught where Dallas’s defense cracked right in game four Boston had a 146 offensive rating in the first half so just time and time again the the that defense for Dallas which was a strength in specific matchups as soon as they ran into Boston a team that could truly space them out drive and kick at every single position all of a sudden Dallas’s defense looked like it wasn’t up to the challenge and so that’s the key here that’s the first major lesson matchup resiliency matters to win four rounds and again to hoist Larry O’Brien you need to win four rounds not three not two you have to win four in order to win four rounds you will likely have to beat different types of teams led by different types of stars Minnesota was able to guard Devin Booker and Kevin Durant extremely well they were and Bradley Beal they were they were able to guard Jamal Murray extremely well they could not guard LCA donic so like again it’s about beating different types of teams it’s about being able to contend with different types of stars it’s that that is look at Denver last year having Aaron Gordon to guard every big forward along the way Aaron Gordon can guard LeBron who’s big and strong like Jaden McDaniels is a better Defender than Aaron Gordon he’s capable of guarding more types of guys but Aaron Gordon is good at guarding big forwards so that specific matchup gave Denver a defensive strength for the types of players they had to go through KD no problem LeBron James no problem Jimmy Butler no problem right Jaden McDaniels on Luca big [ __ ] problem right and so that’s where that matchup resiliency matters number two the team that is the most matchup resilient is always a team that is at or near the top of the standings this was a fascinating stat that I pulled uh those of you guys who listen to the coward show after the finals will remember this one or actually I think this was from the Yovan bhha show in the last 13 years 12 of the NBA champions had one of the four best records in the league 12 out of 13 times top four in the standings the one exception was the 2021 Milwaukee Bucks who if I remember correctly Brook Lopez missed a huge chunk of that season they were consistently a top of the standings team in the Years surrounding that year and that was that weird covid season where all those replacement players were playing it was just a weird season right so like you can kind of throw that one out NBA history tells us modern NBA history tells us if you want to be if you want to actually Hoist the Larry O’Brien then you need to be one of the four best records in the league over the course of the 82 right now why is that because what like we do see teams get close right over the course of 82 is when you establish habits it’s when you demonstrate your attention to detail habits in attention to detail are what carry you in adversity when you find yourself in a big game and it’s game five of the series and it’s 8585 with 5 minutes left and everyone’s nervous no one’s shooting well it’s a rock fight what are we going to do generally speaking the team that is really sharp with their habits that shows great attention to detail they’re going to make fewer mistakes and execute better over the final 5 minutes and give thems a better chance to win that is why it’s one of the top four seeds that always wins it’s not just talent talent is a big part of it and that’s what I have next on the notes reflection of talent super talented teams will just find a way to win games and therefore will be at the top of the standings but it is both it is a demonstration of your talent and it is a demonstration of your attention to detail and the time you’ve spent establishing habits that will carry you when you get into adverse situations in the NBA postseason so we know from number one you got to be able to beat different types matchups right like that like teams lose to lesser teams in the standings all the time because of a bad matchup that said the team that is most matchup resilient is always at the top now I say in the top four meaning sometimes those guys get exposed but the team that actually holds the trophies going to be one of those teams what that means is next year when there’s a team that is the seventh best record in the league or the ninth best record in the league and we’re like this team can win the title probably not though NBA history tells us probably not right and and again like that that that to me is a consistent piece it’s like I’m a I’m a Lakers fan you guys know I have bias there right there’s a reason why I never put them in that top tier of contenders and the reason was simple NBA history tells us you got to be one of those teams you it is always a oh the one Laker team that won Under LeBron James started 24 and three was the number one seed in the Western Conference that’s not a coincidence that is a reflection of one how talented that team was and two how seriously they approached the regular season from day one so I do think that at some point in the next 10 years we’ll see a team that’s outside of the top four that sneaks in and wins a championship it’ll probably happen just like the Bucks did in 2021 right but that is exceedingly rare and so when we’re talking about these things when it comes time to rank contenders at the end of the at the end of the year or in the middle of the Year chances are the team that hoists the trophy will be in that top four get ready for a night full of big fights and big action it’s UFC 303 and it can be even bigger jump in on all the action at draftking Sportsbook the official sports betting partner of the UFC it’s super easy for first- timers to get started try betting on something simple like picking a fighter to win go to the DraftKings Sportsbook app select your fighter and place your first bet it’s that simple the light heavyweight title is on the line in the main event but there are so many more Amazing matchups happening in Vegas and speaking of amazing if you’re new to DraftKings listen up new customers $5 to get 150 in bonus bets instantly download the draftking Sportsbook app now and use code Hoops that’s ho o o PS that’s code Hoops for new customers to get $150 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks get that big fight feel only on DraftKings DraftKings the crown is yours number three getting into some basketball tactics Rim pressure is the primary driving force behind shot quality however it can be generated in a bunch of different ways it is a team Endeavor what is Rim pressure Rim pressure is the ability to get the ball close to the rim either for Quality Rim attempts or to draw multiple Defenders for Quality perimeter attempts right but everything starts with Rim pressure a good NBA shot a good basketball shot begins with a paint touch begins with the ability to get the ball in the paint in some way shape or form and that is a prerequisite so what I mean by that is when we see teams that struggle to generate Rim pressure something to keep in mind when we get into later playoff rounds and how resilient their offense can be right how do you generate Rim pressure as I mentioned there’s a bunch of different ways one beating people off the dribble this is the most basic version of it right this is what Boston does most of the time they Boston generates Rim pressure in other ways too like they’ll slip out of actions into the short roll area and just throw the ball over the top they’ll post up sometimes Boston does it different ways but the the main way that Boston generates Rim pressure is just you can’t keep Jason and Tatum Jason Tatum in front off the dribble you can’t keep Jaylen Brown in front off the dribble neither like you’re going to see Drew holiday beat people off the dribble you’re going to see Derek white beat beat people off the dribble they generate space and they beat people off the dribble that is the foundational starting point of Boston’s offense once they beat someone off the dribble that’s when they start playing Advantage Basketball which we’ve talked about at length on this show but that first step is the important part if you can’t get that first bit of dribble penetration then Boston’s offense can struggle right if you can’t get that first slip of a ball screen that gets that paint touch that’s where everything starts like when M when Boston had that really rough stretch of offense spanning the second and third quarters of game one in the finals there was a stretch there for like four minutes where they literally didn’t get a single paint touch that is the the foundational piece of quality NBA shots got to get the ball in the paint so beating people off the dribble roll gravity in pick and roll right so like Dallas for instance their Rim pressure wasn’t Luca or Kyrie toasting people off the dribble on straight line drives it was methodically working downhill with this vertical spacer this Rim threat barreling down the lane that if you didn’t tag he was get dunking everything and if you did tag that was where they got the quality perimeter attempts in the skip pass to the corner right so roll gravity and pick and roll is another way to generate Rim pressure that that extends Beyond traditional pick and roll too to uh slipping so like when Luca would get blitzed if he could throw the ball to Derrick Lively Derrik Lively’s barreling down the lane that’s Rim pressure in a different way right three cutting along the Baseline so this is like like I talked about earlier if Derek Lively is barreling down the lane and you have that opening for a guy to cut along the Baseline if it’s an athlete that can dunk everything that is Rim pressure Aaron Gordon does that for the Nuggets Ruby haimura and LeBron and AD all three of them do that for the Lakers right like roll rolling and cutting are important ways to generate Rim pressure in similar ways to what dribble penetration does and then lastly attacking the offensive glass this was what the New York Knicks did for Rim pressure Jaylen Brunson wasn’t toasting people off the dribble they pressured the rim with relentless crashing from the perimeter mainly by their guards but also from their bigs to dominate on the offensive glass that was how they pressured the rim right but all of those different methods dribble penetration roll gravity cutting gravity offensive glass crashing all of those have counters that defenses can use to minimize right so for instance like Minnesota was really good at beating people off the dribble but as soon as they packed the paint with Rim protection it rendered that useless and suddenly Minnesota had a big problem right Dallas they had the advantage of roll gravity for their Rim pressure well Boston puts Jason Tatum onto their Center and Al Horford switching screens uh that involve pet uh Derrick Jones Jr suddenly that roll gravity is completely mitigated Dallas can’t generate Rim pressure their offense falls apart right so as much as pressure is valuable it’s important to be able to do it in a resilient way against different kinds of Defense how do you handle beating people off the dribble by packing the paint how do you handle roll gravity switching ball screens how do you handle cutting along the Baseline in order for cuts in order for cuts to be open you have to have that initial Advantage so as long as you shut off the dribble and shut off the pick and roll those cuts aren’t even open anymore and then as far as the offensive uh as far as the offensive glass goes it’s much harder to defensive rebound when you’re in rotation so if you’re containing the ball and you’re containing the roll offensive rebounds are that much harder to get right so like it’s not just Rim pressure it’s resilient Rim pressure so for instance Dallas was good at generating Rim pressure on the roll but bad on the dribble and so when the roll was shut down they had no other way to generate Rim pressure right offense falls apart Minnesota great at driving but no additional kinds of Rim pressure their roller Rudy goar is one of the worst role men in the league has stone hands struggles to make layups if it’s not a wide openen dunk he’s not getting it right also Minnesota’s passers are not great at actually making the lob pass when it’s available and so basically the roll gravity piece is missing for Minnesota right and so when one gets shut up off everything gets shut off right so what’s fascinating to me about Boston is they had resilient Rim pressure if you put an excellent perimeter defender on Jason Tatum and you made his life a living hell someone else was beating somebody off the dribble try packing the paint against Boston it’s not going to work they’re too good at shooting right so like when I when we see a dribble Drive team with a dribble Drive guard if they’re going to win four rounds they’re probably going to need to space the floor really well meaning they’re going to need to have a lot of shooting around them right if they’re a pick and roll team and they generate their Rim pressure through the roll they better have a counter so for instance one of the things that I was kind of disappointed in is I did not think Luca did enough work in the post against Boston that is a great counter and I should have listed that as one of the ways you can generate Rim pressure posting up is a way to generate Rim pressure and that’s the thing like when teams switch ball screens against LeBron and AD what do they do they spam LeBron and AD post-ups as a counter to that right so like again having multiple ways to generate Rim pressure so that you can do so against multiple types of defenses that ultimately will lead to consistent highquality shots right so the last piece of this is creating space if you can create space that allows you to maintain Rim pressure how can you create space two ways shooting and spacing the floor with ball and player movement right start with shooting the last three Champions were all Elite shooting teams Boston Elite Shooters at all eight rotation spots that was how they generated spacing Denver it was kind of inverted but because Aaron Gordon was running along the Baseline and he’s not a good spacer but because joic could operate away from the basket that create that created a spot for Aaron Gordon to operate along the Baseline and then all four other starting spots were Elite Shooters when they won the title joic was an elite shooter Jamal Murray was an elite shooter Michael Porter Jr was an elite shooter kentavius cell Pope was an elite shooter so like they had Elite shooting at at the other four spots in a perfect spot on the floor that was vacant for Aaron Gordon to operate that was where they generated their spacing Golden State Kavon Looney and Draymond Green were dribble handoff guys so like they didn’t need to shoot they were primarily operating as fulcrum in the offense but every other player could shoot they shot 38% from three as a team in that playoff run lots of guys for them stepped up and knocked down shots and so the ability to shoot the basketball is a prerequisite nowadays the last three Champions were all really good shooting teams the second piece of it spacing the floor with ball and player movement so this was the rub on Dallas right they ran the occasional action but for the most part it was a root Force here’s a guard screen at the start of the possession to get a switch for Luca now we’re going to run a ball screen they did some things like they clear the side occasionally they’ uh they’d occasionally run a stack pick and roll or a double drag or something like that they ran occasional action but for the most part it was very heliocentric very Brute Force very methodical very predictable right and they made themselves easy to guard and Boston shut them down the last three teams to win the title were all teams that that either had excellent ball or player movement how did Boston win ball movement right beating someone off the dribble trusting the pass the ball’s popping around this guy’s driving that guy’s driving this guy’s driving that guy’s driving we’re getting a great shot out of it right how did Denver win awesome player movement right they’re a quintessential five out offense how did Golden State win awesome player movement right they’re a quintessential five out offense they had to rely on some pick and roll against Boston’s drop coverage in the uh in the NBA Finals but they o ran a lot of their five out motion over the course of that Series so they generated space with ball and player movement you have to be able to shoot you have to keep defenses guessing with the ball in players moving around as much as possible number four offensive organization matters this is something that I was late to the party on and it’s something that I uh I I had a little bit too close-minded of an opinion on before the last couple of seasons and something that just covering the NBA very closely helped me learn I used to be those of you guys who have listened to the show for a while will remember this I used to believe I used to be a believer in Brute Force offense and part of that is because I grew up watching LeBron James the one guy in NBA history who’s been able to like dominate games in a very heliocentric type of manner although I think it’s overstated how heliocentric he was compared to some of the guys that do it now but LeBron was a guy who could slowly dribble the ball up the floor and call for a ball screen and it just somehow was resilient through four rounds of the playoffs consistently right like it worked for him in a in a way but I mean like LeBron is probably the most gifted athlete to ever play in the NBA if not the most gifted athlete to ever play a sport so like he’s the exception that proves the rule right but like when it comes to Brute Force offense it worked in in NBA history with overly dominant physical presences right but for the most part in order to be a functional offense through multiple rounds through multiple matchups with real resiliency you do have to be more complicated in your offensive approach this is something again I was late to the party but I to me the Dallas series just hammered at home Luca in terms of the heliocentric guy no one’s doing it better than Luca right now and ly on the offensive end he was doing it at a level pretty close to what prime LeBron did right like that’s how good Luca was and Boston shut their offense down guys it wasn’t they were down a little bit they were down like 20% from where they were in the regular season their offense completely cratered against Boston because they were too rudimentary there wasn’t enough complication in their approach they made themselves easy to guard and even the guy that might be the best player in the world I think he’s probably closer to second but a guy who is a Bonafide top tier Superstar was rendered relatively ineffective regardless of what his box score numbers were their offense didn’t function and that that to me was like the final nail in the coffin for that archaic belief that I had I I I think you need to have legitimate ball and player movement to win in the modern NBA and so I broke this down into four parts I should say three parts with an overarching take first of all you got to run action to start possessions like at the very least you need to be diligent when you get the ball up the floor in the early phase of the clock to run something that is more complex than just a ball screen with a spaced floor to me what I’m looking at here for the most part is things like three-man action so let’s just take horn sets for example if you at least start the possession with three guys involved a ball handler and two additional screeners and maybe it’s a screen the screener maybe it’s a double drag maybe it’s just something complicated at the start of The Possession It will make it harder for the base defense to run their base defensive scheme right they’re going to get into some confusing situations because there’s three people involved with that initial action rather than two and like again there are going to be possessions where you run Twan game early in sets right if you push in transition and the transition defense gets back and you swing it back out to the perimeter and you flow into a ball screen I’m not saying that you’re not going to have possessions like that that are in the flow of course you are but I think every NBA team should be striving to have a higher percentage of their offense a higher percentage of their possessions that begin with something more complicated just something simple like like think of like think of uh for example like Horn’s chest the play that the Lakers used to run for LeBron to or still run for LeBron to get a jump shot right so Anthony dve just imagine I’m the ball handler I’m standing at the top of the key extended Out close to half court right I’ve got Anthony Davis on the left elbow extended up to the top up to the three-point line and I have LeBron at the right elbow extended up to the three-point line I dribble off of LeBron on a ball screen and then LeBron comes off of ad in a flare screen you skip the the ball to LeBron over there from there if he’s not open LeBron can catch and flow into a dribble handoff with the guy coming out of the corner and now we can run five out motion right but at the very least at the start of the possession we’re going to make them defend something complicated right and the idea is let’s say that’s Austin Reeves that’s on the ball if Austin Reeves comes off of LeBron at that right elbow if LeBron’s Man shows at all then LeBron already has separation as he comes off that second screen if LeBron’s man doesn’t show and LeBron sets a good screen Austin Reams is going downhill of the basket he has to show right but once he shows now as LeBron comes off the screen from ad now ad’s man has to show if he doesn’t then LeBron gets a wide open catch in three and he got a lot of wide open Catch and shoot threes out of that set this year is a big part of they ran it a lot because LeBron was shooting catch and shoot threes so well right so if if LeBron’s man doesn’t show Austin’s going to the rim if he does when LeBron comes off ad now ad’s man has to make a decision if ad man ad’s man shows and Austin’s man is chasing him and LeBron’s man showed on Austin now ad is wide open on the role right it gets much more complicated even from the standpoint of switching there are ways that that gets complicated okay Austin’s man switches on to LeBron LeBron’s man switches on to Austin then ad’s man switches on to LeBron blah blah blah blah that gets complicated and now that opens things up for switches B bot switches slips like what if LeBron ran like he was going to go off ad and then just suddenly cut down to the basket they [ __ ] up the switch now he’s wide open on the slip like that sort of three-man action is just so much harder to guard than a two-man action a two-man action it’s like are we switching cool are we icing cool are we in drop are we in deep drop or am I blitzing am I hedging whatever it is it’s just so much easier to manage in a Twan G in a two-man game than it is in a three-man game if you just run up the floor and run stack pick and roll meaning like you set up a ball screen but you have as LeBron’s coming off of AD you have Austin back screen for ad’s man it’s the same sort of thing there’s if Austin’s Man shows to stop ad on the roll then Austin is going to be wide open for three at the top of the key right if he doesn’t then ad is going to be wide open on the lob or LeBron’s going to be able to go all the way to the rim for a layup because Austin just back screened their rim protector right like those are again I’m not sitting here acting like they’re the magic Elixir like if you run three-man action you’re just going to get a wide open look every single time it just makes it harder it makes it easier for you as the offense to get the defense in rotation again if LeBron let’s imagine the horns chest set like I just described which again is just Austin dribbles off le Lebron comes off a flare from ad at the top of the key if LeBron catches there on the wing and he’s not wide open chances are the defender is closing out at him if he’s closing out at him LeBron can flow into a dribble handoff and now that next action gets complicated because LeBron’s Defender is out of position all it is is like think of it as like trying to crack the defense the defenses right you crack it at first so it breaks on the next action and those are the f phes right there’s all these phases to offense right there’s the push and transition right then there’s early offense which is like semi-ring transition and you don’t get a dunk usually teams will have basic transition principles for early offense right like early things you run in the first few seconds of the clock right in the event that that doesn’t work you either run into five out flow or you go run a set right depending on how much time is left on the clock right but let’s say a guy makes a free throw guy makes a free throw you’re walking up the floor the first step is run an action run that three-man action somewhere some sort of set to at least crack the defense then you go into your five out flow five out flow is just playing basketball off of whatever the initial Advantage is so for instance if LeBron in Horn’s chest catches on the left wing and he dribbles into a dribble handoff with let’s call it uh ruy hamura coming out of the left corner let’s there would be a second guard so let’s call it D’Angelo Russell or hypothetical third guard that or second guard that the Lakers trade for okay so let’s just say pretend it’s dejonte Murray okay LeBron go flows into the dribble handoff hands it to Deonte Murray as Deon Murray comes out Anthony Davis is sliding over to set the second ball screen right and it’s just you’re flowing in basic five out principles which are basically just dribble handoffs and ball screens that flow into one another and whoever’s in that opposite corner whoever catches the kickout pass if he’s not open for three if he’s not open to drive a close out he can flow into another action you run you run your initial set and then you run five out o uh motion until you get some sort of compromising of the defense meaning they’re actually in a straightup closeout situation then you play drive and kick basketball right there’s a phase to it and what I’m saying here is too many teams skip that first phase which is running in action at the start of the possession and when you skip that you just make life harder for you if I’m LeBron James and I’m just running a dribble handoff with dejonte Murray out of the left corner in a set defense situation it is very unlikely to end in something successful but if I run that dribble handoff as it flows out of a three-man action on the top of the key it’s much more likely that there’ll be they’ll just be more disheveled on that side of the floor which will create opportunities to extend the advantage there and you just keep running it until you get a close out and from there you play drive and kick it’s just it’s to me it it’s really this simple it’s about being resilient to defensive adjustments if you run Brute Force slow down Spread spread pick and roll spread post up whatever it is you’re going to do if you run that stuff a specific matchup like a Defender who’s good at guarding your star could cause problems an adjustment like switching matchup like okay we’re going to have a forward guard your Center that can screw things up but as soon as you turn your offense into a blender with lots of ball and player movement it just makes you more resilient to those defensive adjustments and so one of the biggest lessons that I’ve learned this year and it’s been a lesson that I’ve been slowly learning over the last few years is like it doesn’t matter how good your star is you need to run complicated organized offense to try to make these defenses work harder NBA defenses have I know it’s it’s hard to imagine just with the way scoring has gone over the last few years but most of that has to do with three-point shooting NBA defenses are profoundly sophisticated they’re profoundly sophisticated and they’re profoundly athletic everyone’s so fast everyone can cover so much ground in rotation it is the game plans are getting more and more complex in a good way like they’re they’re figuring out how to slow down these modern offenses you have to be one step ahead of them and the only way going to be one step ahead of them is if you mess up their execution it’s one thing to have a game plan in place it’s another thing to actually do it and it’s it’s easier to defend a two-man action than a three-man action it’s easy to defend a two-man action against a set defense than a two-man action when the defense is disheveled and so everything is about making those uh diligent Steps early in possessions to break down the defense and make things easier for you lastly number number five defensive versatility it doesn’t matter if you have a good base scheme if you can’t handle a team that takes you out of your base scheme so Dallas they were a load up the strong side uh like like pack the paint type of Defense didn’t matter against Boston when they could spread them out right Minnesota was a uh a drop coverage team with Rudy goar right with excellent perimeter Defenders they wanted to stay home off the ball that didn’t work because of specific Personnel issues that they had involving Luca donic right just being too big for them their their defense didn’t just fail against Dallas it failed miserably right something silly like Miles Turner hitting pick and pop threes and the issues that presented for Milwaukee and for New York and even for Boston early in the series right they ended up having to put Jason Tatum on him and and have Pascal sakam be guarded by Al Horford right so like it’s one thing for your defense to succeed against it against a specific type of matchup or in your base scheme but you need to be able to guard in different ways what do you need to be able to guard in different ways you need you have you need to have all five players on the floor be at least decent at guarding in space this is where there I want to draw attention to the difference between LCA donic and Steph Curry Steph Curry is a weaker Defender right he’s just a little bit small right and he’s he’s bigger than people think but he’s he’s a little bit small right and teams are going to Target them that’s just smart offense going after Luca isn’t a sign of disrespect it’s just being smart if you’re not if you don’t get extra points for attacking the other team’s best defender you need to find the weak link and attack it for the sake of your offense right but from there there’s a baseline level of competence you need in order for the team to still function defensively around you Steph Curry understood if I do my job if I hedge and recover I can protect myself from switches when I get in switches if I just slide my feet and contain and force into tough contested jump shots maybe they go in but at least it’s lower percentage right like Steph has lost some of those battles Lonnie Walker hitting Jumpers in his face in 20 uh in the 2023 season right that was a big swing factor in game four Kyrie Irving hitting the stepback jumper over Steph in the 2016 finals he’s lost some of those battles but but statistically speaking if Steph can at least force them into a tough pull-up jump shot he’s done his job where Luca became a problem was he was straight up completely incapable of doing anything against Boston’s spread out defense he was getting toasted off the dribble like literally no resistance just getting beat in rotation was uh constantly lost in getting caught in no man’s land where he’s not contesting shots or running to the next guy on the defensive glass part of this was fatigue but he kept getting beat to loose balls like he was so bad on defense that it became the way that Boston blew the series open Those runs those big defensive runs that I talked about many of them involved Luca donic there were two runs that I specifically mentioned I think it was game five and game two where there were runs that spanned the half where Boston was straight up attacking Luca every single possession down the floor and so again like it’s not about having five excellent perimeter Defenders you have to have five that are at least decent at guarding in space so that you can construct a team defense around them that is what I’m hoping for from Luca next year just another level of Competency when it comes to guarding in space I know he can be a weak side Defender I know that he can make plays when they’ve loaded up kind of off the ball when he’s focusing more on defensive playmaking but that’s not what it’s going to be like when you have to win four rounds when you have to win four rounds you’re going to face at at least one if not multiple teams that can truly space you out and force you to guard in open ground and it’s just harder that way right ground coverage and rotation this was a big piece that s Vini was talking about when we had did the Pod during the finals and we talked about the different things that we uh uh have learned from this postseason run and this is something I think he’s right on about when you get in rotation your ability to make those shots tougher matters that’s where your overall foot speed and length matters this is something where Boston was great great I’ll give you guys an example do you remember in the Pac through series I did a film session where I showed a play where jayen Brown was guarding Aaron neith on the right wing and he dug way down into the lane down almost to the nail in help and when he was down there the Pacers threw a swing pass to Aaron n Smith on the right wing where Jaylen Brown was like on the ball and he recovered out and blocked Aaron n Smith and then saved the ball off of aarin n Smith’s leg out of bounds that’s ground coverage that’s being two places at once having a low man that can contest pick and roll at The Rim while also contesting the weak side corner on the skip pass that’s what Giannis used to do for the Milwaukee Bucks defense when they were at their best a couple years ago these are all elements of ground coverage the overall foot speed and length of your team will give you more defensive resilience when you end up in trouble it also helps you with defensive rebounding which is a vital part of defense four the big strong athletic forward continues to be the most valuable defensive archetype this was Jason Tatum this year for the Boston Celtics this was Aaron Gordon last year for the um this was Aaron Gordon last year for the Denver Nuggets I even think Andrew Wiggins kind of fell into this role a little bit with the Warriors although um with them they’ve just Draymond Green does a lot of this as well and we saw jayon green switch out and guard Jaylen Brown for as parts of the early portion of the NBA finals right but having that big strong athletic forward is just a must and I’m not talking about the perimeter three I’m not talking about like the jayen McDaniels archetype I’m talking about the big for this is LeBron James this is ruy hachimura this is Aaron Gordon this is Jason Tatum these are guys like 69 or taller and like with real bulk to them those are extremely valuable one they can guard centers allowing for your rim protector to then focus on a poor shooting Wing this was something we saw in the Boston series that I think we’re going to see a ton of over the course of the next few years in the NBA you are going to see teams put their big forward on limited offensive centers that are Rim Runners and then Rim protectors will be put on guys that struggle to shoot above the break threes because from there they can roam off and present all sorts of issues locking down the paint right that’s a specific matchup uh strategy that you can only employ if you have a forward who’s big enough to guard a center they’re vitally important on the defensive glass these are the guys when the big guy has to be pulled out to the level of the screen and there’s a pull-up jump shot he’s the one big body on the backline who can high point the basketball so they’re vitally important there and they are most well equipped to guard the best players in the league if I was listing the best players in the league after joic it’s a bunch of big forwards it’s Luca it’s Giannis it’s Tatum it’s Anthony Davis it’s LeBron James it’s Kawhi Leonard it’s going to be pal Bono here in a couple of years like the best players are big forwards and so you need a big forward that can guard the other teams big forward otherwise they’re going to bully you this is a position CU Carl Anthony towns is basically a center this is this is the position where Minnesota struggled they did not have a big forward that was good enough offensively Kyle Anderson did a decent job but he has his offensive issues they didn’t have a forward who is big enough to guard Luca but also be a plus offensive player it’s a Personnel weakness for them but again that specific archetype is vitally important so all of this amounts to one thing you need to have multiple effective halfcourt defensive looks you need a quality drop coverage look preferably with a big forward that can guard on the perimeter and a rim protector so that you can Tinker with matchups like we just talked about like Boston did to Dallas it allows you to deal with pick and roll without getting into rotation so this is your defending ball screens two on two look you have to have this look just a basic drop coverage look imagine what Minnesota does a lot with Rudy gobear where they try to stay home off the ball defend the action 2 on two you need an aggressive look this is like a high drop or a blitz something where you bring your rim protector Out to the Ball screen and you have to tag on the weak side this is defending ball screens three on two you have to have this look this requires rotation this means as you’re aggressive on the ball to get the ball out of Lucas’s hands or whoever the primary ball handler is when the ball does get moved moved you have to be able to quickly spread out and react in rotation so you need a deep drop you need an aggressive look you need a switching look switching is what allows you to shut off pick and roll and to stagnate the opponent right some teams will look to matchup hunt in those situations that’s where you need the Five Guys on the perimeter that can at least do a competent job guarding in space right so in order to have a switching look you need to have those uh that like kind of aggregate perimeter defense right to to go through them all to have a drop coverage look you need a rim protector that can really protect the rim right to have an aggressive look you need a big forward that can help on the backside as your Rim protectors pulled out to the perimeter in order to have a switching look you can’t have weak links on the defensive end of the floor right so like those those looks all require certain uh types of personnel I think you need a Zone look this is a rhythm disruptor it’s something that you just throw into the game to just kind of Jank things up when you need to change the speed teams on a run they’re on a 120 run you throw a Zone look it might get a buy you two or three possessions before they figure it out where you get some quality uh defensive stops and you can run out the other way and again if you understand that you need to beat four quality opponents in increasing levels of difficulty you’re going to need these types of looks right so inmation before we get out of here for the day what will next year’s Champion look like from what we learned they’ll most likely be in the top four of the standings they’ll most likely be led by a Bonafide top tier Superstar again Boston was the exception and I I continue that exception into next year pending Personnel moves we don’t know what’s going to happen over the next couple weeks but Boston as of right now is my favorite to win next year as for my optimism surrounding Denver it has nothing to do with oh Boston won the trophy this year it’s a basketball thing for me watching Boston pick apart in space I know Denver won the two regular season matchups but they were close I worry about Denver’s ability to guard in space as well I I lean slightly towards Boston now in that matchup in a way where I lean slightly towards Denver before watching this playoff run so again I’m not just trying to default to the champion it’s a basketball thing Boston showed me something with the way that they punished Dallas and I think that they would cause similar problems for Denver in the series it’d be much closer I think that’d be a six or seven game series and I would not be surprised if Denver won but like Boston is my my my favorite for next year as of right now pending Personnel moves right and we haven’t even talked about cruso yet we’ll hit that at a later date um but NBA history tells us joic in 2023 Steph in 2022 Giannis in 2021 LeBron in 2020 Kawai in 2019 KD and Steph 2018 KD and Steph 2017 uh you have LeBron in 2016 you have Steph in 2015 like generally speaking you need a top tier star to win the title Boston is the one exception because they have 530 million players that’s that’s the one thing that that um that makes them different in this regard but NBA history what we’ve learned tells us top four in the standings most likely led by a Bonafide top tier Superstar excellent spacing by virtue of shooting and ball and player movement last three Champs uh Boston Denver and uh Golden State were all great spacing teams by virtue of shooting and ball and player movement you need to have multiple Elite defensive looks and you need to have matchup versatility which to me means fewer weaknesses the more weaknesses you have the more likely you are to run into a team that can exploit those weaknesses and beat you so that’s again we’ve gone for 53 minutes at this point that to me is just like a a really like I know that was kind of like a a an overwhelming amount of information but that to me was like kind of my synopsis of this postseason run in what I’ve learned like that uh that those are the kinds of things that I’m going to try to refer back to as we’re looking through teams next season if I see a team that is intriguing but they can’t win enough games in the regular season to be in the top four chances are they’re not winning the title right if we see a team that looks really good in their base scheme but when they get teams that take them out of their base scheme they struggle that’s something that probably will get them beat when they get get to the postseason huge weaknesses that’s probably a thing that’ll get you beat when you get into the postseason right so like let’s just try to kind of keep these things in mind as we get into next season all right guys that is all I have for today as always I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show um we are going to be back on Thursday morning to break down the first round of the of the NBA draft and any trades that took place I’ll see you guys then [Music] h

Jason Timpf shares his Top 5 takeaways following the 2024 NBA season. Jason breaks down the biggest lessons he learned over the course of the regular season and playoffs which ended with Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics defeating Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals. Jason discusses the biggest factors that contributed to Boston’s title as well as what cost Dallas, LeBron James’ Lakers, and everyone else who came up short.

Timeline:
00:00 – Introduction
05:06 – Takeaway #1
12:07 – Takeaway #2
17:20 – Takeaway #3
27:41 – Takeaway #4
40:24 – Takeaway #5
50:48 – What will next year’s champion look like?

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 #nbaplayoffs #nbafinals #nbabasketball #nbahighlights #basketball #sports #losangelslakers #lakers #lebronjames #lebron #bostonceltics #celtics #jaylenbrown #lukadoncic #dallasmavericks #mavericks #nuggets #knicks #timberwolves