Benjy Ritholtz
Appearances
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
And they don't have that outlet now in the starting lineup. Now, Deuce McBride's the closest approximation to that guy. He didn't shoot well last night either, but generally a good shooter and a willing shooter, which is why those lineups with Deuce in place of either McHale or Josh have performed so much better offensively.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
I think that's what the team's kind of grappling with is like this starting five, which was the plan, the idea, the vision. It's been disappointing offensively, and I think it's for a lot of the reasons you're pointing out, Dave, which is the ability to load up on Brunson and not get punished for it is really limiting their ability offensively.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
I don't – Tibbs has not gone away from the starting lineup despite the evidence that maybe he should at times. And even if you started that starting lineup, which I understand, maybe even politically I understand because these are your five guys and you spent a lot of equity getting the two of them in this past offseason, so you're not going to bench anybody. Yeah.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
I think it is a fair critique of Tibbs that he hasn't gone away from that lineup early enough in the first quarter or the third quarter and mixed in some of his better lineups over the data suggests there are just better lineups out there than that starting unit. I don't think he's going to break it up. I will say last night's game was the first time that we saw the Mitch plus cat lineup at all.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
They had not done it the first three games Mitch has played. That was the first time we saw it. They actually played effectively together.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
cat defensively we know is just more effective at the four this was obviously Minnesota's conclusion and we saw it tonight switchable you know he was actually pretty switchable out there Luca got him a couple times in overtime on tough shots but you cat did a good job on those possessions did a good job on Reeves a couple times even LeBron a couple times it just that just looks better when he can be a little bit more of a switchable four than a drop five certainly and Mitch allows you to have that drop five that anchor behind him and so I do think those lineups should be a part of the of the of the picture I
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
I just don't think Tibbs is going to start it. Maybe finish it depending on the matchup, but I don't think he's going to start it.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
I hope. Deuce, I think, has to be. He has to be. And look, again, you know, it's... Tibbs isn't really the type of coach, having now experienced him for several years and knowing his history before, that the playoffs come and he's going to severely alter things. That's just not really his style.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
It is a day-to-day progression, get better, get better, get better, and then do the things that you do even better when you get to the postseason. That's more of the philosophy. So I don't anticipate any massive lineup shifts or rotation shifts when they get to the postseason. He has rode this starting lineup. They're playing an insane amount of minutes.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
They're going to break records in terms of... If OG hadn't gotten hurt for a couple weeks there, they were going to have more minutes than any lineup last year played by the 60-game mark. They're playing an insane amount of minutes. So he thinks that they're going to figure it out. And... I think Deuce has to be a larger part of the story.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
I was like, the data tells you, I think there are five best lineups that have played like 50 plus possessions include Deuce McBride.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
Yeah, I would say on the defensive side, too, like he is their best ball pressure guy by a long shot. And he showed it last night. I thought he was phenomenal defensively. He didn't have a good offensive game at all, but he was all over the place.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
Number one for me is schematic versatility on defense. And I think... They've started to sprinkle some stuff in. Again, not necessarily a feature of Tibbs teams to get creative defensively. I think based on the personnel that they have, the fact that your two best offensive players are below average defensive players, you have to get a little bit creative in how you cover pick and roll.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
And this team, you look at the half court defense data, it is really an ugly picture. It's one of the worst half court defenses in the league. as Tibbs' defenses do, they take care of the controllables. They rebound well, and they don't foul. And that allows them to kind of stay in the middle of the pack defensively.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
But when you just look in terms of pick-and-roll efficiency against their half-court defense, their bottom of the league, and it's because for most of this defense,
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
season they've played cat and a drop at the five and that is just easily exploitable and not only that you can you can bring brunson's man into the action they're playing a hedge and recover scheme pretty consistently and teams just get used to that and they start to find their outlets and they make open threes they have to find ways to get either more switchable at times which they've started to sprinkle in you saw it again last night they have to be able to play og at the five and move cat to the four at times even when mitch isn't playing so that og is the one and more of the actions guarding the guarding the main screener
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
This is a pipe dream, but I wish they sprinkled some zone in. They haven't played in one possession of zone all season long. I think you look at the most creative defensive coaches in the league, even on teams that have great defensive personnel, the OKCs of the world, the Miami's of the world. They'll throw zone in there. They throw zone in. The Lakers played zone last night. They did indeed.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
It's like, you know, it's like a little bit, it's hard to digest like a coach who's not willing to sprinkle that in when, again, you're playing Cat and Brunson 35 plus minutes just to give, offenses are too good now. Pick and roll offense is too good now to just never throw different looks in. That's been a little disappointing. I thought he might, do that this season. He hasn't.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
So that one's probably not going to happen. I do think there are other options that he might go to. Again, having Mitch at the five as a look, OG at the five as a look, I want to see a little bit more. And then mixing in your blitzes, mixing in your switches.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
Anyway. Do some of that as well. Absolutely. Yeah. Because, you know, what happens for this defense too often is Teams target Brunson and Cat, and the Knicks let them do it. And you have Bridges and Anobi behind them who are just too often not involved in the play.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
And if I'm the Knicks, my whole philosophy would be, let's make sure that our wings are involved in the defensive session, no matter what the offense is doing.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
That's right. It could be instructive. And next thing would be a way to do that, right? It's just, OK, you're going to try to get Kat in the action, but now here comes Adam Obi from the weak side, and we're going to get Kat back down into the action. Those types of things, I wish we saw more. Maybe they'll start building some stuff in before the playoffs.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
Um, not great. Uh, yeah, you know, I think, look, Nick's fans, I don't really know if they appreciated that. Like by the all-star break, it was pretty clear. We're going to face Boston in the second round. Like the gap between one and two and three and four remain pretty large.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
Uh, it would take, it would take a pretty Epic collapse by the Knicks or someone on top of them, which isn't going to happen because Boston and Cleveland are too good. Like for, for that matchup to shift. And so I don't think they're ready to beat Boston in a series. I don't think they have the solutions to do that yet.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
And to your point, they're all in, which makes it hard to digest a second round exit, which seems likely. Again, presuming they beat a Detroit or whoever ends up in the six, which let's hope they do. And I think they would, but that might be a tougher series than people realize. Yeah. I think you have to have the perspective of, okay, yes, they're all in, but they're all in in year one.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
I do think that's an important caveat because it doesn't usually happen in year one. First year of developing their identity. First year of finding and starting to problem solve. They'll be able to build the roster a little bit around the edges as more picks come available, et cetera. I think it will take some time. Cleveland and Boston are awesome this season, and maybe this isn't the year.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
Doesn't mean there's no hope for this team to find their contention window at some point in the next two, three years. I think they've built something that can last for a few years, and that's, I think, why they did it. And that might not bring any Knicks fans any comfort, but I do think it's an important perspective.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
down the hallway yeah i would i think it goes back to a theme that we've actually seen all year long uh but it's been exacerbated i'd say of late and as josh hart has gotten less confident shooting the basketball as the season's gone on teams have been more emboldened to stick their centers on him and put their best wing defender or largest wing defender on carl anthony towns and i think what we're seeing is and we saw it down the stretch for sure
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
Cat is basically frozen out of the offense because if you screen with him, it's just an easy switch. Josh Hart's the one that screens over and over again, and it just becomes a lot of Josh Hart. And Josh Hart does a lot of great things. There's a lot of record scratching when he catches the ball because he's not willing to shoot.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
And I just think the Knicks need to find a way to tilt the offense more towards the guy they just traded for to be their second best player, and that's Carl Anthony Towns, who barely touched it in the fourth quarter. I think that, to me, is the biggest takeaway.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
It's a great question. And I'm actually not even sure there's a solution with this lineup unless Josh Hart decides to become a much better shooter in the offseason. And he's so far into his career, this has always been a thing with him. That's hard to imagine that being the fix. I think they could...
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
Do some things the way they initiate possessions to get cat touches, even if it's just like an elbow entry, because they'll go to this offense with the second unit when campaign plays with cat where it's like enter the ball to cat and run some split cut action. Cat's a really good passer out of there.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
And maybe we can get him involved as opposed to just like a pure spacer, which is really what he was in that fourth quarter. I think that's one possibility just to get him involved a little bit.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
But at the end of the day, if you want to free up Brunson, which is the priority, and he saw why, the guy's exceptionally good in these scenarios, you're going to want to screen with whoever the center's guarding, and that is Josh Hart. So I don't know if there's a great solution. I don't know if you guys have any opinion on it.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
Yeah, I think that that's definitely part of it. And the thing with McHale, you mentioned he was he was basically absent less in the last night's game offensively, like did absolutely nothing for the most part. He has struggled above the break, especially like the corner three is there.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
He tweaked his form, maybe raised the release a little bit so that he's having a little bit of trouble generating the power from above the break. And he just hasn't been consistent from above the break. And I don't think teams are really respecting him out there.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
OG Ananobi has shot it really well of late, but generally, and as you know this well from watching him for years, much more of a threat in the corner than he is above the break.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka, Lakers keep rolling | Steph goes for 40
so it's just not that quick release top of the top of the key shooter now it could be cat of course but we know sometimes cat just doesn't want to get the volume up he likes to drive the ball it's not what he wants to do that's why dante devincenzo was such a tremendous loss because talk about a quick trigger from as deep as you want like he would shoot it in an instance so that if you're if you're loading up on brunson the way the teams are it's that quick outlet to devincenzo if there's even a sliver of space because you load it up on brunson it's a shot