Fred Katz
Appearances
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
Yeah, they're doing okay. And part of it is because of what's happening on the other end of the floor, right? I mean, for as great of a player as Jalen Brunson is, he just has weak points on defense. He doesn't have the size and he doesn't have the speed and he doesn't necessarily have the strength and the Knicks end up hiding him.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
And what ends up happening a lot of times late in games when the Knicks are at full strength is that the opponents will put Jalen Brunson and Carl Anthony Towns and pick and roll after pick and roll or just action after action and And when you can get two subpar defenders into the same action, something good will often happen to the offense in those times.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
Deuce McBride is in the starting lineup for him right now, and nobody is arguing the Knicks are better without Jalen Brunson. This story was the opposite of the Knicks are better without Jalen Brunson. This was the Knicks are limited without Jalen Brunson. Here are the ways they're trying to make up for it.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
But there is one part of the game in which Deuce McBride over Jalen Brunson is an upgrade, and that's on the defensive end, where McBride is... I think their best point of attack defender of smalls this year. I think he's actually superior to Mikkel Bridges right now in that aspect. And you can watch how he guarded Stephen Curry in their most recent game when they played on Saturday night.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
He's really feisty.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
And he's long, and that's a huge difference between him and Jalen Brunson. Jalen Brunson's physical, but he's not as fast as Deuce McBride. He doesn't have the agility of Deuce McBride, and he doesn't have length. Deuce McBride isn't very tall. He's got a long wingspan, and he's good at chasing guys around screens. He's good at guarding at the point of attack.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
He's good at guarding pick and rolls, and he's really relentless. The effort level is insanely high with him at all times, and he doesn't really gamble very much, which is what you like to see at the point of attack as well. And all of a sudden you go from the Knicks having two weak points defensively in their starting lineup. So you've got Deuce McBride at the top of it.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
Mikael Bridges doesn't have to guard the other players, the other team's best player every single second of every single night, like he's been doing for most of this year. OG Ananobi can just wall off one side of the court. Josh Hart can do his Josh Hart things and get into passing lanes. And you've got four guys who are pretty good to excellent defensively.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
on the perimeter depending on the guy you're talking about and that can insulate carl anthony towns a little bit better than when you have brunson out there they're playing well defensively they're two and two without jalen brunson they've mostly played well defensively they lost that warriors game it was really tight they could not find ways to score in the half court a lot of the time especially when carl anthony towns wasn't scoring but defensively they were really good i thought against a team that's insanely hot and is really good
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
I think it's made a difference. I think it depends on the night. There are some times where you see like, oh, he looks he looks really good. I don't think he's there as a rebounder right now. The healthiest version of Mitchell Robinson, like what he was before he injured the ankle when he was at full strength. That's the best offensive rebounder in the NBA.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
I mean, he is the single best offensive rebounder in the NBA right now. He's not the single best offensive rebounder in the NBA. There are a lot of balls that I've seen where he kind of gets a fingertip on it. And you're like, you know what? Fully healthy. Mitchell Robinson is, is, is tapping that up in the air four times and actually coming down on it.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
Cause he's really quick when he's at full strength on his, on his second jump defensively. I don't think he's already all the way there either. That being said, um, There have been tons of moments where guys have come into the lane, he's rotated over promptly, and a shot just hasn't gone up. They've just chosen not to go for the layup.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
And you know if Karl-Anthony Towns is that guy, that rotation might be coming a little bit later. Or maybe if Towns even hits it promptly, guys just aren't scared of him. They're still putting up the layup, and there's a decent chance that's still going to go in because it's a layup, and they're not going to feel deterred by it.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
So I do think he's been a net positive in that sense, and I do think the Knicks... Are trying to get to a place to where if Mitchell Robinson can look like himself, even if it's for only 15, 20 minutes a game, I think they would love to be able to get to a place where they could play him and Carl Anthony Towns together somewhat regularly.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
And then all of a sudden you've got a rim protector behind Towns and that changes their defensive dynamic.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
Without question. And I think until that Warriors game the other night, I would actually say he's been struggling of late. You know, he hurt his knee late in the game a few weeks ago, and he hasn't quite looked the same ever since hurting the knee. The shot has been off, finishing around the rim has been off. He's had stretches where he's kind of just not really touched the ball much during games.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
He hasn't really looked like the... Guy who was making a case for first team All-NBA in the early part of the year. I'm not saying he's fallen out of the All-NBA conversation. He just hasn't played at that level until that Warriors game. He got into foul trouble in the Warriors game. I thought it was fantastic in that game.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
Otherwise, first play of the game, it was just pump fake to the hoop and slam it in. He was insanely aggressive on the offensive boards. He was insanely aggressive attacking the rim the entire time through. That's kind of what they need. They've been trying to get him post-ups a lot. That's something they've been going to more often.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
With Brunson out, they're not running as much pick and roll because Brunson is just one of the heaviest pick and roll point guards in the entire league. And you're just not going to be able to replicate that with Deuce McBride, who's much more of an off-ball point guard.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
Or with Mikael Bridges, who's just, he's not going to be your, you know, Mikael Bridges is not in the same level of Trey Young and Cade Cunningham, where you're just running pick and rolls with that guy all the time. That's just not the type of player he is. Same thing with OG Ananobi. So you're going to have to find other ways. So I've tried posting up Cat a little bit more.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
I've always thought if there's one thing I would want to see him get better at on offense, and obviously this is an extraordinary Nick nitpick because he is an unbelievably complete offensive player, but yeah, yes. I've always thought the thing that I would want to see him get better at is just getting better post positioning before he receives the basketball.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
Yeah, and I think it's got to be – the reason why I feel like it's the thing I would want to see him get better at is because I feel like it should be easy for him to get better. It's got to be a mentality thing. I've spoken about it with him a little bit. I've never really gotten a great answer as to why.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
I think he's a little more – I think he's more comfortable in the mid-post because then he can turn around and go to a face-up game when he's in the mid-post. So he kind of almost likes that. But he's – it's not like he shies away from physicality. For all the talk of Kat's reputation of soft or whatever else, Kat is one of the most physical offensive players in the NBA, without question.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
The dude goes right at everybody on his drives. He goes right at everybody on his face-offs. He will battle on his face-ups. He will battle with you. for every single offensive rebound. Like he is crazy physical down low. So it's not a comfort with physicality thing. I think it's a comfort with the geography of the floor thing.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
And I would just love to be able to see him get a little more comfortable catching the ball with a foot in the paint because he's so big. And he can just turn around. And, and, and sometimes it's okay to go get the ball in the mid post.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
You know, I asked Tibbs about it recently and Tibbs was talking about like, sometimes if he's got a center on him, usually that center is going to be less skilled, less quick than he is. So you want to go out to the mid post as opposed to all the way down low where you're allowed to get away with more stuff, according to the rules. Like it's not a foul stuff that you do in the post.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
If you do, you know, 12 feet from the rim. And on top of that, Kat can use his quickness.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
better when he's farther away from the rim it gives him more room to operate he probably throws fouls at a much higher rate when he catches mid post and can rip and go yep but that being said there are a lot of times when opponents will put a wing or a small on him and the knicks are going to see that in the playoffs whether jaylen brunson's there or not they're going to see wings and smalls on him in the playoffs lord knows they're going to see that against boston you're going to see drew holiday guarding cat at times like not like switching on to cat
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
Like, you're going to see Drew Holiday, like, guarding him. And that's if they get past Detroit, who is an incredibly physical defense, and a guy like Isaiah Stewart, who is strong as all hell, but Cat's got, like, five inches on. You know? A guy who is that much smaller than you, push him back, man. Like, push him back before you get the basketball. Do your work early, and you're good.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
And that's something that I would love to see if I were the Knicks – Otherwise, I mean, he's an extraordinary.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
I agree. I think it's a great point. It's something that maybe they could get to a little bit more. Ultimately. I think cat has his spots on the floor where he's the most comfortable and and he likes to operate out of those spots. You know, guys have their spots where they're the best.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
And I think cat likes getting it on the wing and either being able to go up to shoot or being able to just catch and go and attack and drive from there. I think he likes being able to get, operate from the mid post and being able to go to whether it's a hook shot or a face up or a drive or back guy down or whatever it is.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
I think those are the spots where he's generally the more comfortable or obviously he's screening in the pick and roll, which he's been doing way less since Jalen Brunson, um, since Jalen Brunson went down because there just weren't those pick and roll combinations. You know, there are some guys also who he runs pick and roll with. For example, you actually look at the numbers.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
I think the Josh Hart, Carl Anthony Towns pick and roll is the fourth most efficient pick and roll combination in the NBA right now. Which is crazy.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
What kind of sample size is that? It's amongst qualifying pick and roll combos. It's not like they've run like six of them. They run like six or seven per 100 possessions. So it's amongst qualifying pick and roll combos. However, you go look at it and what is the Josh Hart, Carl Anthony Towns pick and roll look like every single time?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
It's Cat coming over and trying to drag Hart's defender over into a switch and then getting a post up.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
and a heart tossing cat the ball and a post up and there are certain things like that where it's just like it we talk about actions so simplistically where it's like once the guy gets the ball but there's stuff you can do away from the ball to make things a little bit easier for cat you can set little cross screens in the post try to get a few there the knicks have absolutely tried some of that kind of stuff as well and we'll see
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a really interesting one because look, Lord knows if Tom Thibodeau can reasonably justify playing a legitimately good rim protector on a team that every single human being who has seen them play for one second knows needs rim protection.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
Then that guy with those players in this situation, if he doesn't opt to play the rim protector, I'm calling it the biggest upset in NBA history. So if Mitchell Robinson looks like Mitchell Robinson and he's able to play real minutes and the Knicks need a rim protector and Tibbs is coaching that team, guess what's going to happen? And everybody and their mother agrees they need a rim protector.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
Yeah. Guess what's going to happen? The guy who goes to bed and dreams about rim protection. Isaiah Hartenstein once told me when I was covering the Knicks, Isaiah Hartenstein once told me that every time he rises for verticality, he can hear in his mind Tibbs yelling at him.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
This is just Tibbs' thing.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
It is a great example of why you play the games. I thought they were going to be really good. I was like, I was on the, I was on the sun's bandwagon coming into the year. I thought they were going to win a lot of regular season games. I thought they were going to be really good. I liked their off season moves. Everybody loved the Tyus Jones signing. They were going to have another year together.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
It's a great example of why you play the games and why basketball isn't like baseball, where you just plug nine players. And if they're all great into a lineup, they'll all be great individually and the team will be great. And sometimes the sum of your parts is less than your whole. And that's kind of where the Suns are at.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
Totally. And look, they can't guard. They're bottom five in defensive efficiency right now. They just can't guard. They don't have rim protection. Their point of attack defense has not been good. They don't rebound on either side of the floor. They've been bottom 10 defensive rebounding, bottom 10 offensive rebounding all year. They're... they're not forcing turnovers.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
They don't get into passing lanes. You can really, we talk about how offensive players want to get to their spots. We talk about like towns wanting to get to his spots and ultimately like that's good. Offense is trying to get to my spot in the most efficient way possible. Where am I the most comfortable and how can I get there in the most efficient way possible? Right? That's, that's good offense.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
Good defense is how circuitous can I make your route to your spot? How can I make you just banana all the way around and make you look like a center fielder who can't judge a fly ball on the way to this thing, right? And that's good defense. And you watch guys playing Phoenix, and they just walk right to their spots every time. Every time.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
And that's how you get the shots you want, even if there's somebody there. And that's how you get the buckets you want, even if there's somebody there. They just... It looked good in the beginning of the year, too. It looked good.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
Yeah. Well, if you if you asked me, what is the biggest problem with the Phoenix Suns right now? And you said I had to answer in one word, which you didn't do that. And you didn't say that.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
But you will. My answer would be organization. And it's not just about organization on the offensive end. It's not just about organization on the defensive end. It's up and down the entire franchise. I mean, look at how they handled the Jimmy Butler and the Bradley Beal situation, right? They were trying to find a third team for Bradley Beal.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
The whole time I'm reporting, they haven't asked Bradley Beal for their list. So is the plan to try to negotiate a trade and then be like, oh, Brad, would you go here? And then find out, oh, no, he won't. He won't go here. So we just wasted everybody's time, including our own. That seems to me like very basic information the front office should be privy to and was not for whatever reason.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
Then at the very last second in the chase for Jimmy Butler, they start shopping Kevin Durant around. That was impulsive. That was lack of organization, lack of a plan. That was, OK, well, now let's see if we can do it with Durant. On top of that, they negotiated a trade with Golden State that at the very least got very far down the line until KD said, I don't want to do that.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
But why did you waste, again, your time and everybody else's time negotiating something that KD eventually didn't want to do when you could have just gotten this information from him at the very start? The lines of communication are – something is off. The lines of communication there are off. There is a lack of organization going on up and down the franchise right now.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
And it shows on the court, but it shows in how they act as well. It shows in how they acted in the Nick Richards and the Yusuf Nurkic trades. They did those trades backwards. Yeah. They did the Nick Richards trade where they traded away three second round picks for Nick Richards weeks before the deadline where they didn't necessarily have to do that.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
Then they did the trade where they traded their own 2031 unprotected pick to Utah for three worse ones, which everybody assumed meant they had another deal lined up, but they didn't. Right. Lack of organization. Then they used one of those first round picks to get off of Nurkic, send him to Charlotte, the same place they got Nick Richards from, and just take back expiring salary.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
Now, if you reverse those trades, if you wait on the Nick Richards trade just a little bit, and Nick Richards couldn't be that important to you because guess what? It hasn't really changed that much. They're playing like 20 minutes a night. He's not your starter anymore. It's like Mason Plumlee is playing over him now. So it couldn't have been that big of a deal.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
You can survive another week or two without Nick Richards. If you just wait on it, instead of trading a first round pick to get off of Nurkic and three second round picks to acquire Richards, you might be able to loop that into the same trade. You know, like a Caleb Martin or Cody Martin, I should say, is not in that deal now. And instead, it's Nick Richards' salary that's coming back.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
And you get Nick Richards and you get somebody else. You get off of Nurkic. You send over one of those first round picks that you got in the Utah deal. And maybe Charlotte would do that. Maybe Charlotte says, you know what, give us a second two. But you're saving one or two second round picks. In that scenario, they just they did the trades backwards. Lack of organization.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
They they are just not quite organized in anything that they're doing. And if it was one thing. If it was one element that I could point to, and I was like, that's not organized. I almost always give franchises the benefit of the doubt on this stuff because they know what's going on behind the scenes in a way that none of us on the outside ever could, no matter how plugged in we are.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
No matter how plugged in we are, they just are there. They know it. And there's always something or often something that we can't even think of or surmise that's happening that makes it make sense. Because normally things that happen make sense. So when it happens one time, I tend to give places the benefit of the doubt and be like, okay, you know what? We don't know. We don't know everything.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
When it's happening perpetually is when you're like, okay, what's going on here? And why is this happening? And that's kind of where I'm at with the Suns right now.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
And he said he was. So we skipped the time and we did it. And I had no, it's not like I went into it being like, I guess OG is going to talk more than he normally does.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
I was until, you know, five months ago at Nick's Beat Writers. So I have covered him. It's not like I've met him before. There's a comfort level between the two of us. And I will say just, you know, knowing him away from on the record interviews and when there's not a microphone in his face, I do think there is...
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
more personality than oh yeah he shows yeah i think some of that is this is my opinion but my i think it's totally intentional the way that he just walls himself off publicly i think he's to a degree playing a character and i think he actually has a it's almost like it's why leonard
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
I don't think he's actually like I think Kawhi is actually like that. Yeah. I don't I don't think OG is. Look, I'm not saying that you take the mic away from OG and he's Josh Hart. Like it's not like he's right. He's not going out there and he's just like Jim Carrey, just doing crazy impressions. You're like this guy. Yeah. this guy could play the mask.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
He has this very dry is this very dry sense of humor. And he's a very bright person as I think comes through in that interview that I did with him. He's just a really smart person. And I think sometimes if, You ask people the right questions, smart people can say smart things. It does happen.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
And I think this is just one of those instances where he was willing to kind of open up and talk about this stuff. And I walked away from that interview being like, oh, that was really cool. Like now, I was like, sometimes you do an interview and... you're like, okay, it's on me to make this story good. Like I can make this story good or I can mess it up and we'll see how I do.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
And then sometimes you walk away from an interview and you're like, wow, I have to release, I have to screw this up for it to not be good. Like it took me, I wrote that piece so fast. I wrote that piece.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
really fast like i i walked out of the interview i was like i know exactly how to do this piece the whole thing it was just because i had that interview went so uh it was you know i it's always fun to get into the mind of of a really smart player like that when they kind of take you behind the curtain yeah especially one who's like i mean just he is not only smart but he's well regarded totally for what he does um i you know
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
Off the ball, I think he's right there in the tier one. I think you could argue maybe a couple of guys are better than him. I think if you wanted to argue that he was the best off-ball wing defender in the league, I think that would be a completely reasonable opinion, too. I think you could call Herb Jones that guy.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
You want to call Jonathan Isaac the best perimeter defender, even though Jonathan Isaac might be kind of a big... You want to call him still the best... But he still might be the best perimeter defender in the league.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
Fine. Whatever. There are a few guys on that level. I'm like, those guys are great. And I struggle to put a guard in that conversation. I struggle to put a Caruso or a Drew Holiday in that conversation just because size matters and positional versatility matters. And the fact that...
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
You know, it could be game four of a first round playoff series against Philadelphia and Tom Thibodeau, who does not cross match, like probably cross message less than any coach in the league. And Tom Thibodeau can say, you know, screw it. We're putting Ananobi on Embiid and you just have him guard Embiid as his primary assignment. And not just you feel comfortable doing that.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
He then shuts down Embiid for an entire fourth quarter of a playoff game and wins you a playoff game. Like the fact that you can do that with OG Ananobi. There are very few wings who you can do that with. And then the next game, as the next kid, you can come out having Ananobi guarding Tyrese Maxey. That's not a thing. There are so few defenders in the league.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
There might be one defender in the league who can honestly do that. If you're going to say that Jonathan Isaac just couldn't do it from a Nets perspective because he doesn't start... So I think he's pretty extraordinary on the perimeter and is right up there. I forget if I said Herb Jones. I love watching Herb Jones defend. Herb is great. He's amazing. Dyson Daniels is incredible.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
Yeah, Dyson Daniels is incredible. But to me, what I really wanted to spotlight here was just how good OG is off the ball. We focus so much on on-ball defense. Dyson Daniels is such a pest on the ball. But off-ball defense is harder to see. Takes more of a trained eye. And it's much more nuanced. And there are no good stats for it. There are just none. At least not publicly.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
You know, I talked about that with Jalen Williams actually the day that podcast came out because I happen to be covering a Thunder game and I was in their locker room after the game and I mentioned it to him. I think it's actually not a not a bad idea. I really do think it's not a bad idea. I kind of do like it.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
I don't know if you need to defend like I could see, you know, a big man defensive player of the year and a perimeter defender of the year. Like you could have defensive player of the year that goes to the best defensive player and you can go to perimeter defender of the year the same way how you have an MVP in baseball that goes to the most valuable player no matter position.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
But you also have Cy Young. Because because because a pitcher can win MVP and is eligible to MVP, but usually does not has to be a really down year for position players and extraordinary.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
And I'm totally into the idea of having a perimeter defender of the year. I think that would be great. Why not? That's look, the NBA added a new award, a new legitimately large award three years ago, clutch player of the year. And I say legitimately large because it's like it is voted on by the media in the same way that all the other major awards are. And it is the dumbest award ever.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
Are you hearing me? Anyone in the league office, when you criticize the league office, you get the call immediately. You really are going to say that. I'm telling that that is the dumbest award. It's a bad history of awards. That is that is dumber than if the NBA gave out participation trophies. That is that is the dumbest clutch player of the year.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
Not saying clutchness doesn't exist, but clutchness is an innate ability. And is somebody less clutch one year than they were the previous year? Are we really just going to measure it off of what you shot during what they call clutch time? I kind of agree with this. I agree with that. It's so ridiculous. That's a really good take. Perimeter Defender of the Year, that would be... Way better.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
totally ridiculous thing that no one could actually have an opinion on it's so nebulous it should just be an award cool guy cool guy of the year i love that you're in this i actually would like cool guy of the year more than clutch cool guy of the year would be great cool guy of the year is jared allen every year we can't like it's an award that we would name after him so right all right but like you're not gonna look at cool guy of the year and be like i can't believe someone voted for saban lee
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
It depends on how they get there. Let's assume that Beal is going somewhere. And I don't know that it's a done deal. But let's say, assume that Beal is going somewhere and Jimmy's coming in and those three picks they got from Utah are going out.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
I just don't really see what it does other than lose the Suns more draft assets and assuming they pay Jimmy Butler, assuming they give him a ton of money in a long-term extension, Continue to lock up their future. They've got their 2032 pick. That's going to be frozen because they're above the second apron.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
They're not going to have control of any of their own first round picks all the way until beyond that. They're not going to have control of any of their second round picks until then. So like, I just don't see it. This team is 21 and 21. I did a story earlier than this week. I guess there'll be a different record by the time this podcast is over because they have Brooklyn tonight.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
But I did a story earlier this week on Phoenix, and I went into that story thinking, you know what? Everyone has covered the suns like a circus. Everyone has gone there and been like, this place is on fire. Let's bring some damn gasoline and see what happens. I just... I felt like there wasn't a good enough narrative around like, okay, but how did the Suns get here?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
How did the basketball end up like this? Yeah, they're trying to get Jimmy Butler. And yeah, they're in this bad place with Bradley Beal. And yeah, they're 10th in the West. But they had to do something wrong as a basketball team in order to be 21 and 21. They had to disappoint on the court. How did they actually get here? That team right now defensively is not there.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
The rim protection is not great. We'll see what Nick Richards does for that. The perimeter defense, the point of attack defense has not been great. We'll see what Ryan Dunn in the starting lineup does for that. He's been a little bit better, but their defense over the stretch with Dunn in the starting lineup, it's still bottom half of the league.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
Still giving up over 115 points per 100 possessions during the stretch. So it's not like they just put in Ryan Dunn and they're good to go. They've made an effort to separate their worst perimeter defenders, like Tyus Jones and Beal are not playing as much together. But this team is very imperfect. The rebounding is not very good.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
This team is just very far from perfect.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
Even if you get the best version of Jimmy, I... Look... You can make a run. You can maybe win a playoff series, winning three playoff series. And you're getting older with Jimmy Butler. And it's one of the few scenarios where you're treating badly Bradley Beal. And you can't definitively argue you're getting healthier either. You're getting five years older and you might be getting unhealthier.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
You're certainly not getting healthier. And you're still digging in to that money if you pay Jimmy Butler on a long term, you know, a 50 something million dollar salary long term. If you get him to opt out of his deal and maybe you pay him 30 a year for three years or something like that.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
And as opposed to picking up the 52 million dollar player option, maybe we can have a little bit of a different discussion because that might be a more. movable sort of contract because when jimmy butler plays and when he doesn't go out of his way to intentionally derail your entire team he's still a really good basketball player but I don't know, man. It's tough. It's not enough.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
Durant's eligible for an extension.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
Oh, you know, same old getting paid to watch basketball. What's better than that, right?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
Apparently getting paid to watch basketball with OGN and OB.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
My favorite thing so far in the NBA season? I'm going to say, you know, I'm going to go a little off the beaten path. And I could say watching the Cleveland Cavaliers who play beautiful basketball together. Yeah. I could say watching the Oklahoma City Thunder who play beautiful basketball together. But I think I'm going to say watching the Detroit Pistons. Yes. Another believer.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
I don't know if they're good or average or what, but they have been like one of my go-to league pass teams. And I didn't expect them to be. It's not even that they're decent, independent of their quality. They're fun. They are what a basketball team is supposed to be. They play well together. They play super hard. JB Bickerstaff is doing a great job there. They're well coached.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
Cade Cunningham is turning into a superstar. Like he is a star now. Cade Cunningham is a star. He is a shoe-in all-star, in my opinion. He should be there. I don't think he'll make it as a starter, but he should absolutely be there easily as one of the reserves. He runs an offense beautifully. He's shooting better than ever. Pistons play really pretty basketball. They play so hard.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
They just dart after 50-50 balls, and Isaiah Stewart is liable to fight literally anyone at any moment. They're just fun. They play very passionate basketball. I never saw it coming because last year they were the exact – opposite for me. I actually watch them a ton on League Pass, but
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
the same way how you kind of slow down when you see an accident on car crash, just to check it out and change, man.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
How about the fact that miles Turner is, Sorry, not Miles Turner. Isaiah Stewart is allowing like 47% shooting on dunks and layups when he's the closest defender, which is literally the best number in the league. Like he's about a percentage point, a percentage point and a half ahead of Victor Wimbanyama. He's a little ahead of Rudy Gobert.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
Isaiah Stewart, the dude who they were playing as a stretch for the last few years because they had so many centers and they finally put it in his natural position, even though he's an undersized five, is now the league's leader in the sports prevailing advanced tracking analytic that's public. That is wild. He has. You think the Pistons saw this coming?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
I wouldn't quite compare him to Ben Wallace.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
go that far i don't even know if he's going to be on all defense but he's a good defender and he can switch and he's got good footwork and no one is ever going to accuse him of not playing hard i promise you that i don't think anyone's ever watched isaiah stewart and said wish that guy doesn't yeah exactly i just wish you would care a little bit more i don't think anybody's ever said that about that guy
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
No, he's not talking anymore. In New York than you did in Toronto. I don't know. That might honestly be, I'm going to give the answer that always frustrates me when I ask it to coaches or players and they say, when I ask questions to coaches or players about somebody else and they respond this way. But I don't know how else to answer it. That might be a better question for him.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Sengun & Rockets stun Cavs | Is Jimmy Butler worth it for the Suns?
And Lord knows he won't answer it. I don't really know the answer. I didn't manipulate anything. I said to him, hey, I have this idea. And I want to do it. And I want to zero in on this really specific part of your defense on these stunts. And I had already done the work. I went through the film and... I cut through, you know, the video and I was like, you down to talk about this for a little bit.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
And he's just going to basically play as if he's in the middle of a two, three or something like that. And yeah, He blocked five shots because he could hang around the rim and he was going to do anything with it.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
Well, I think either way, if you're going to make a move in the first unit, which I don't know if you necessarily have to, but I do think there's a medium here, right? Like, you don't have to make the move in the first unit. You're up three, two, a lot of this success that's happened just happened with the starters out there.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
In spite of the numbers that I just said, like a lot of successes come from the starters, including Josh Hart, who was not against Boston though. Well, in game four, it did in game four, those guys were good together. Yeah. I will say the reason that it kind of has to be Josh Hart is not because of Josh Hart getting demoted.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
It's because Josh Hart with a non-shooter like Mitchell Robinson just doesn't work. And if you're going to put in Deuce McBride- Right. Exactly. And if you're going to put in Deuce McBride, then you're, you're just going to go all in on a five out lineup. Yeah.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
I think there's an argument to be made, play Mitchell Robinson, not because Josh Hart has lost the spot, but because Mitchell Robinson has won the spot and his minutes need to be maximized. And if they're going to hack him, it's harder for them to hack him.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
If he's in the start, if he's in the starting lineup, as opposed to off the bench, because a greater, even if he plays the same amount of minutes, a greater proportion of his minutes will be played when his team is, when the Celtics are not in the bonus. Right. And that is going to be that will make things easier. That being said, he made all six of his free throws in this game.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
And maybe he went away from him. Right. I mean, look, they have to go away from it. They have to look independent of whether he's making his free throws or not, because the reality is say the math would say you stick with it.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
Really? Yeah. Regardless. Regardless. Here's why I say that. And, you know, I'm I'm not a. Oh, I know who the math kind of guy. But here's why. Because Porzingis isn't playable right now. He either literally is unplayable or he's figuratively unplayable. And as Mr. Robinson was getting rebounds and Cornette was hacking him, I was like, oh, they're screwed. If Luke Cornette gets in foul trouble.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
So maybe you don't have to completely go away from hacking, but I do think you have to edit the strategy to some degree because Luke Cornett is picking up two, three, four superfluous fouls throughout a game. And that theory is, that strategy is viable when you're like, we need 15 good minutes at Luke Cornett, but you need 25 good minutes at Luke Cornett now.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
So don't give him two or three or four extra fouls on his record. That's, He doesn't actually have six fouls to play with anymore.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
Joe Mazzulla loves Mitchell Robinson, too. Like, Joe Mazzulla is doing this because he has the highest esteem for Mitchell Robinson. He wants him off the court. But I would just worry about Cornett's fouls with the way that Porzingis is playing. Like... that is an adjustment you're going to have to make moving forward.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
I think where you're going to have to re proportion who's actually fouling and when you're doing it and how you're doing it, because I don't think you could just say, look, cornet, take three fouls and you're good. I just, I don't know if you can do it. It also allows the Knicks to get their defense set up when they hack.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
And that's part of the reason why Mitchell Robinson lineups are defending so well, because they're just able to keep their matchups and look at the Celtics, all the three Celtics got tonight. How many of those threes happened? Because the Knicks just didn't match up for whatever reason. They didn't run back. They didn't communicate. They didn't pick up Derek White.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
They didn't pick up Peyton Pritchard. They didn't pick up their own guy. And so there was a mismatch that Celtics could exploit, and the Knicks had to go into rotation. They weren't switching well either, so they were screwed on that. Like, how many times did they just get...
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
Of course they can. I hate that we as a society are such prisoners of the moment that we couldn't say that, of course, they can when it was 3-1. I mean, didn't didn't. Everyone who didn't wear orange and blue coming into the series picked the Celtics. Didn't tons of people pick the Celtics in five? Didn't tons of people think it wasn't going to be much of a series?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
So if you thought the Celtics could win four out of five to win the series, then can't the Celtics win four out of five to close out a 2-0 deficit? Can't the Celtics win three out of three? Look, I know they don't have Jason Tatum. That's obviously a huge part of this. I feel like we just, because of two or three or four people
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
weird celtics games we forgot very weird who the celtic it's super weird no question like the weirdest but have we totally forgotten who the celtics are in like a week don't we have don't we have years of evidence that show that this team is awesome then you can win two games they win two games against the team they they beat for i'm not saying they totally will but
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
Like, they don't have Jason Tatum.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
They crushed the finals last year. And Jason Tatum was not even, like, the dude in the finals. It was Jalen Brown. Yeah. Like, this team without Jason Tatum is loaded. Yeah. this team is loaded. They're really good. They can beat the Knicks. They could also go on and beat Indian the next round too. If they do that, like this team is, is still crazy, crazy good.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
The fact that we're talking about them, like, Oh, could they come back from down three? One? Of course they can. Obviously, ask you which basketball.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
No, but I know with your tone.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
You're asking me like it's like, no.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
Well, if it's going seven, then the Knicks are in trouble. Because that means it's going back to Boston for a game seven. And those are not easy to win on the road. So if it's going seven, the Knicks are in trouble. I will say what we have seen from the Knicks side is that when Jalen Brunson goes nuts, they can be in a pretty good place. And Brunson was not himself at all tonight. I mean...
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
That sixth foul that he got was so... And his fifth foul, too. Both of them. So out of character. So incredibly out of character. You know, Brunson will play when he's in foul trouble all the time. Tips leaves a man when he's got two fouls in the first quarter, three fouls in the second quarter. Tips is really big.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
One thing that I think is a really great tips trade is he's really good at not fouling his own players out. And he's really good at knowing who he can play when they're in foul trouble and who he can't. And he lets Brunson play in foul trouble all the time.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
He, even though, you know, you can make jokes about how Brunson doesn't defend, but like he, Brunson's actually pretty physical as a defender. Like he tries to get under guys and take charges and all that stuff. And he does all the, you know, trying to be a salesman and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. And.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
He doesn't really pick up that extra foul when he's got four in the third and he's still playing or three in the second and he's still playing. And the fact that he got one on a region and one on a play where he was he was trying and the sixth one was on a play where he was trying to show him recover.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
on a coverage and Jalen Brown just knew he was going to show and recover and hadn't even started moving yet. And Brunson still jumped at him. It was like, you know, 35 feet from the basket or wherever he was. Those were very out of character plays. Like a lot of the stuff from him tonight was out of character. Karl-Anthony Towns has made two three-pointers in this entire series, which is...
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
wild to me i get one today right i'm sure you saw i saw him hit one today yeah he's being guarded with wings uh i get it and smalls but okay figure gotta figure something out with his with his shooting look you're you're playing against the celtics and you know they're gonna try to get 53s
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
It's especially the thing with them when they play against a team that is willing and able to put smalls on town. I did a story a couple of weeks ago on...
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
how this is when Detroit was putting Tobias Harris on him on how towns as habits just completely change, not his production, even just his habits completely change when he has a small on him versus a big and how that affects the Knicks, how his shot selection changes. He takes way fewer threes when he's a small on him than when he has a big on him. He doesn't get to the line as much.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
And the Knicks are way worse. The Knicks offense is way worse when the Knicks are, When towns was primarily guarded by a non big man during the regular season, the Knicks went 11 and 14 in those games. when he was primarily guarded by a big man, they went 35 and 12 in those games. That is such a ginormous difference.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
And when the Knicks fell off at the end of the year, when the offense started to look worse at the end of the year, guess what that coincided with? It coincided with about half the league starting to put wings on towns, which was something that only really happened with the super elite defenses at the beginning of the year. Now the whole league started to catch on and everybody was doing it.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
And the Charlotte Hornets were doing it. And the Washington Wizards were doing it. And you didn't have to be an elite team or an elite defense in order to do it. And the Detroit Pistons did it throughout that series in the first round. And Boston, you knew, was going to do it. They did it all regular season. And it is just something they have to figure out the habits.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
Like, Towns takes like three threes a game when there's a small guarding him as his primary guy. And that... It just can't be the case.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
Who gave them a chance? The Boston Celtics trying to silence the doubters. Who would have ever thought they could make the conference finals for the 907th season in a row? Nobody would have ever predicted it. But we believe Celtics, man.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
It was absolutely a dud for the Knicks. I don't think there's any playing around with it. They were okay in the first half. They got off to an okay start and it was tied at halftime. And then all of a sudden, Boston just completely torched them to begin the third. And by that point... It was just done with. Boston shot 18 free throws just in the third quarter.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
Jalen Brunson had five fouls in one quarter. The Knicks were put into rotation constantly. They didn't pick up guys in transition. Boston completely took advantage of that, which was somewhat of a problem all night. Derek White was freeing himself left and right. No rhyming scheme intended whatsoever. They... Boston just played like a much better team. Fantastic game from Jalen Brown, I thought.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
Fantastic two-way performance, picking it up with Jason Tatum missing his first game. And Luke Cornett with a third quarter for the ages, five blocks in the third quarter for Luke Cornett, with him being the halftime adjustment. But Kristaps Porzingis not coming out to start the second half and Luke Cornett starting there. So, I mean, a bad night for the Knicks, but a really great night for Boston.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
Could be. I mean, there are a couple of questions that I have after that game five. And they're kind of all and maybe they're more than a couple, but all of them involve the starting lineup to a degree. I mean, Mitchell Robinson has been.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
best non-brunson player in this series so far you look at the impact metrics and it's not even close he coming into this game he and miles mcbride were the only two players on the team who were a plus when they were on the floor and robinson was a plus 35 mcbride was a plus five and the reason he's a plus five is because he plays so many of his minutes with mitchell robinson because they come off the bench together
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
I mean, when Mitchell Robinson was on the court coming into this game, the Knicks were recovering 38% of available offensive rebounds, which is just obscene. It is an unbelievable number. And you watch the games and you're like, how is it not more like he's just is getting a hand on everything. Their defense is a million times better when he's out there because it was pick and roll defense.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
And he hit all six of his three throws in the game tonight. So obviously that wasn't a problem. That could be something you go to that double big lineup. You know, Mitchell Robinson ended up closing that first half for the Knicks over Carl Anthony towns. Cause towns had three fouls and he was playing well enough and towns was struggling enough to,
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
that you kind of forgot that the reason that he was playing was because Towns had three fouls. He kind of felt like it could have, if Towns had two, kind of felt like it could have just been a basketball decision because earlier in the playoffs, Tibbs actually closed the game with Mitchell Robinson. I wonder about the starters in general.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
You know, the starters all year have been somewhat underwhelming compared to what we thought this team was going to be given its lineup construction. They were only plus 4.1 per 100 possessions during the regular season. which is obviously above average.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
But the way the Knicks are constructed with a bunch of top-tier talent in their first unit, you want that lineup to be a really way, way higher number than plus 4.1 per 100. In the playoffs, they're a net negative. Coming into this game tonight, they were minus 22, the starting lineup was. In the Boston series, it's going to be worse after the way they got throttled in the third quarter.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
You mentioned Luke Cornett's success. Part of the reason Luke Cornett had so much success is they could put him on Josh Hart and they weren't guarding Josh Hart and just let the dude hang in the middle. Like we say he was guarding Josh Hart. In reality, what they played was the opposite of a box. It was the opposite of a box and one. It was, it was Luke.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves advance to Conference Finals + Can the Celtics come back?
Yeah. One in a box. That's what we're going to call it. And it was four dudes playing man to man defense. And it was Luke Cornett playing his own, which is what they did. Like, it wasn't like we're roaming off of Josh Hart. It was just Luke. We're not going to play his own in the middle of the court.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
I think it did a decent amount, especially when he was younger. I mean, you look at guys who have this sort of unique pace that they play with, and it's very rare that someone develops that later in life. You know, when I...
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
You know, I covered Jalen Brunson for a number of years, and he's a guy who I compare to SGA, not because of anything in terms of like this guy is equal to this guy, but more just because Brunson plays in a way and at a pace and changes speeds in a fashion that nobody else in the league does. He just stylistically is different from it. Everybody else.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
And I feel the same way about Shea Gilgis Alexander. I feel the same way about Nicole Jokic. Just plays at a pace and a speed and with a style that nobody else aesthetically matches, especially not at that level of contributions that those guys give. And normally when you have a player like that, it's not like they're just this normal cookie cutter sort of style until they're 22 years old.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
And now all of a sudden they develop something different. It's something innate. It's something that happens, whether because of nature or nurture. It's something that happens throughout their developmental years. And so I wanted to find out during this story, okay, how did Shea develop this?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
And I find that a lot of the reasons for why some of these elite players have quirks in their games, it's to compensate for something. Sometimes for lack of athleticism, for lack of speed, for lack of jumping ability, for lack of size. Shea's pretty fast. She's pretty athletic. She's a really tall point guard. She's pretty long. I'm like, where did this come from? How did this come to be?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
And part of it, which I didn't know going into the story, is that he wasn't always so big. He had a late growth spurt. He was 5'6", 5'7", when he was 13 years old. And he was in eighth grade. And he started working with the coach you just mentioned, Dwayne Washington, who was his club coach. And Dwayne Washington was also a science teacher at the first high school that Shea ended up going to.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
He never actually had him in science class. I asked that. I wanted to know what Shea got, what grade Shea got in his class, because I thought that would be a great detail for the story. And he didn't have him in the class. And I was like, damn, that really kills the narrative. You can go back to high school, take his class and see what you get just to get it.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
Yeah, exactly. But so Dwayne Washington, when he coached him, was like, I'm going to blend the two things I know best in teaching. And for what it's worth, you look at some of the other guys we've worked with, because Shea is not the only NBA player who has worked with.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
And I didn't include this in the story because I thought it kind of led me on a path to a place that like made the story too long and kind of not as focused. But you look at Andrew Nembhard, Andrew Nembhard's ability to stop on a dime. All these guys are elite at changing speeds and stopping. Andrew Nembhard, not as good of a player as Shea Gildress Alexander, but he's good. He's very good.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
And he is elite at playing with speeds. And he taught Shea how to play with speeds, how to compensate for that lack of size by messing with timing. He taught him about acceleration and deceleration. He used the analogy of Shea being a car that has four gears. And he came up with a formula that Shea could use at the time.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
You never want to go to fourth gear because then you're going to lose control of the wheel. You don't really want to vacillate between second and third gear because that's too predictable. They're too similar. So you want to go from three to one, one to three, ratchet back down to two, and then two to one, and then one to two or one to three.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
And that's the way that you can just kind of mess with people's timing. So she started working on shifting between those gears. And he taught him about the strength of triangles, which is not really. I mean, look, if I'm going to have a criticism of this story, if I'm a reader and I'm non-bias, I said science. And I mentioned it is geometry, but geometry is not science. It's math.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
You know, it's math. It's not it's not science. So I really could have said science.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
The strength of triangles, though, we're really just talking.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
So first of all, I just want to say I'm so happy you made a baseball reference. I never go on a basketball podcast and fail to be the first one to make the baseball reference. So I'm so happy that you did it for me.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
That's right. You know what's funny? You know how I got that anecdote about pacing? I was like trying to figure out the pacing and how they got there. And you know how I got that out of... like Dwayne Washington, I got him to open up on it, was I made an analogy and I was like, tell me if you agree or disagree. I was like, I feel like most elite NBA point guards are more like Randy Johnson.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
where they're just going to blow you away. 97 mile an hour, fastball giant size, giant size, 97 mile an hour, fastball mix in just a power slider. Like they, that's how most NBA start point guards play. Shea is like Greg Maddox. And where he's just he's ninety one, ninety two on the fastball, but he's just going to paint corners and everything is precision, accuracy and intelligence.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
And I made that analogy and he wasn't a baseball fan, so it didn't work. But then I explained the analogy to him. And he was like, oh, yes, 100%. Funny enough. And it got him to open up.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
That's all I want. What's the next thing? Let's talk about.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
Well, honestly, I think he needs to use a sweeper. I really think he needs to add that. Old school pitchers just have the curveball and the slider. He needs the sweeper. Maybe he could sneak in a spitball if he can get it by the umpires. What can he do to get better? You look at his shot breakdown, and what's really interesting, he takes about 20 shots a game.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
And he's about five in the restricted area, five in the paint, non-restricted area, five mid range and five threes. That's approximately the breakdown. So when you really talk about, and I'm a big believer that we should talk about four level scorers. not three level scores. Cause there's a difference between the long two and the short mid range. There's a huge, huge difference.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
Kevin Durant is a master of the short and the long mid range. There are guys who are unbelievable in the short mid range, bad in the long marriage. You don't want them taking them. A 12 footer is not the same thing as a 19 footer. It's just not the same thing. And to me, Shay, Shay is a four level scorer right now. To me, the thing where the place where he can get better is,
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
is maybe as a passer, he's already really good at knowing the first read and You know, he's really difficult to blitz. I actually wrote something last week about how many guard to guard screens the Thunder set and how he's really good at just getting off the ball when he gets blitzed.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
And the Thunder have creators who are receiving the ball in those scenarios because it's Alex Caruso or it's Lou Dort or it's J-Dub or it's Kasem Wallace or it's Wiggins. It's like guys who are comfortable handling the ball or even Isaiah Hartenstein who are comfortable handling the ball in those scenarios who can then make plays.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
And Shea is really good at getting off the ball, making the intuitive pass. In terms of passing guys open, in terms of getting all the way to the hoop and then creating cross-court passes from there, I think that's something that maybe he could get a little bit better at.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
I also think really more of the improvement comes on the other side because he's such an incredibly complete offensive player where he is very good in passing lanes. He is a legitimately good defender. but on the ball, he can get bullied. And look, I mean, everyone's got something. Everybody's. Yeah, exactly.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
I think there's no question they're the team to beat in the West. I mean, they're 11 games better than anybody else. They have by far the best defense in the league. They are able to play the greatest amount of varieties now that they have Chet Holmgren back. They can go really, really big with that double big lineup they're using with Chet and with Hartenstein.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
And they can throw Dort out there and they can throw J-Dub out there and they can throw Shea out there. And that is just a massive lineup. They can go small and they can go five out with Chet. They can have a playmaker in the middle but still have size with Hartenstein. They have a gazillion wings and switchable defenders who come off the bench.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
Alex Caruso is the best defensive player on just about every single team in the league. And it's just like, where does he even rank? You could have arguments about where he ranks. Shea Gilgis-Alexander, if he were on... A average team might be your second best defender. He might be. I think there's an argument he's their seventh or eighth.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
When you go through it and you talk about just pure impact, I mean, Chet and Hartenstein are the guys who protect the rim, and they're there. Dort is going to make his first all-defense team this year, and it'll be well-deserved when he does. Caruso is a perennial all-defense guy and would be in that conversation if he hadn't missed too many games this year.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
Kasem Wallace is one of the most underrated defenders in the league and is fabulous. Aaron Wiggins is a really good defensive player. And I feel like I might even be forgetting about somebody else, too. Oh, J-Dub. J-Dub. His rim protection was excellent. J Dub is one of the most versatile defenders in the league. I mean, he legitimately like they start him on one through five.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
He's kind of the guy who unlocks everything they do defensively because they're able to put their centers on non shooters and have J Dub guard the other team center because they trust him so much because he's so physical defensively. And he'll be like, I don't know if he'll make all defense, but he's going to get votes and they will be deserved votes.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
He is a legitimate candidate to put on an all defense ballot. So by the time you get to it, we're talking about Shay is like the eighth or ninth best defender on that team. I think they're in really good shape in that sense. Uh, They are the team to beat in the Western Conference, in my mind, without question. Offensively, they're already up into the top five now in points per possession.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
I get it that people get a little bit concerned about them not having a ton of creation and J-Dub not having as great of a year as a creator. I'll tell you what.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
So here's the other part of it, too. In the playoffs where. A lot of refs let a lot more stuff go. And that's not just a cliche. That's true. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Thunder defense might be better. What's their biggest flaws of defense right now? They foul too much.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
They're probably not going to foul as much. What's their biggest flaws in offense right now? Even though they're top five in offense. They don't get to the line as much. They have by far the largest free throw disparity in the league in the wrong direction. By far, they give up way more free throws than they get. Well, there's a decent chance that in the playoffs, that gap,
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
while it still may exist, it's going to be smaller.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
Yeah, that caught me so off guard because the Thunder are like 28th in free throw attempts.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
He literally has 200 more drives this season than any other player in the league. Absurd. Yeah. He has like 1200 drives this season. Yeah. Second in the league is like a thousand. He, he literally drives to the hoop more than anybody else in the league. Of course he gets to the line. Like, of course he gets a, someone's got to lead the league in free throws.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
Yeah, the field has a better chance.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
It's going great. It's going great. Did you have a good trip to Canada? Yeah, it's going wonderful. Hamilton. Great trip to Hamilton, Ontario. I hear it's very industrial. Yes. Yeah.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
I knew he was going to be really good his rookie year during that first round series. The Clippers played against the Warriors. Yeah. If you remember that series, he started in that series and he was so composed throughout that entire series. And if you remember that series, that was the year before the Clippers got Paul George and Kawhi. So it's like post Blake Griffin series.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
And the Clippers are the scrappy upstart team that wins 48 games. And everybody's surprised that they win 48 games and they kind of take the world by shock. Right. And they end up playing a really competitive series against the against the Warriors. And this is the KD Warriors in the first round of the playoffs. I think they won two games in that series. And Shea was just making every right read.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
He was getting the ball on a catch and go. He was hitting the paint, and he was reading the low man, and he was kicking to the corner. He was making every proper read he was supposed to make. And I was like, you can't speed this guy up. And I think that's probably the moment when I realized – all right, this guy's pace is something a little different.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
You're not going to make him play at your pace, no matter the scenario. I think that's probably when I noticed he was going to be really good. That being said, I didn't sit there in that moment and say, this guy's going to be an MVP one day. I did not think that highly of him in that moment. I don't think the Clippers thought that either.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
I don't think the Thunder thought that when they made that trade. I mean, I think the Thunder were really high on him. They thought he was going to be really good. They trusted their internal development, all that kind of stuff. But I don't think they made that trade being like Shea Gildas Alexander is going to be a perennial MVP candidate.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
And I will disagree with you, Dave, even though I wrote the story. I don't know if he's got MVP locked up. Really?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
I can't tell you how the other voters are going to react, but in my mind, Jokic is firmly in the race. Firmly. And we'll see what happens over this last next month and a half. But it's too, it, to me, it's one of those situations where I don't really, I don't have a problem with either of the votes. Yeah. You're there too. There's something here where it's like bad candidates.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points
These are great candidates. Yeah.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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Okay. Not as consequential a situation as Gordon Hayward was in with a one seed last year. Yeah. But Valanchunas is putting up, Valanchunas was putting up numbers in Washington. When I watched him play, I was like, well, there's a very clear reason why Jonas Valanchunas is putting up numbers in Washington.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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And it's because he is going out there and he's like, I'm going to handle getting my numbers in Washington. And it's very easy to get your numbers in Washington because nobody else is getting the numbers in Washington other than Kyle Kuzma, who we might talk about.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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Somebody's got to score the points. He does not look to get into any action when he gets the basketball. He's kind of stylistically the exact opposite player of DeMontis Sabonis. I am curious to see how the Kings even use him. It's a weird one. I don't. I don't hate it. Maybe he'll just put up numbers and it'll be fine.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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But I could totally see a situation where it's like, this is not the dude who we thought it was.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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If Kuzma plays the way he did in Washington, then him playing more is not helpful. No, because he was extremely, he was the tank commander. He was, he was, he's been the single most detrimental player to his team's hopes of winning in the NBA this season.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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shot selection defensive intensity defensive decision making i actually have a note in my friday morning notebook about kuzma it's funny you met you mentioned kuzma for this and i mentioned williams because i had written this i sent this to you before you sent me the awards for the podcast and i literally called the section of my notebook the pj washington corollary and i wrote about williams and kuzma as the two guys who fit the pj washington corollary
The Athletic NBA Daily
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And there's a sequence that I mentioned that Kyle Kuzma had two weeks ago. which I was like the worst decision of the NBA season was not made by anybody making a trade.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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It was Kyle Kuzma for these 20 seconds when he grabbed a defensive rebound, went the other way, pulled up for a 21 foot two pointer with both of his feet inside the three point arc, like just barely with 21 seconds on the shot clock, just clanked it. Kevin Durant got the rebound and, Kuzma was guarding Kevin Durant in the other end, and Durant was on the left wing, didn't have the ball.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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15 seconds later, Devin Booker tried a step-back move from the mid-range, like 15 feet away from Kuzma. And Kuzma... just sprinted away from Durant and flew at Devin Booker. Like, oh, no way is this guy going to shoot this contested fadeaway 16-footer without me getting in his face. And he just flew by him. And Booker was just like, Booker, Booker.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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You can't see his face because the back of his head from the TV camera. I like to think that Booker smiled. I like to think that he smiled based on how the muscles in the back of his head showed. I like to think that he smiled as Kuzma just soared by him.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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Yeah. Soared by him. And Kuzma just unperturbed, just passed it out to Kevin Durant and hit a wide open three because Kuzma decided not to guard him. And it's like, You know who never does that? Chris Middleton. Chris Middleton may not stay on the floor, but you know who's shooting 50 from the field and 40 from three right now? Chris Middleton. You know who's going to make the right decisions?
The Athletic NBA Daily
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Chris Middleton. You know how I watched 24, 9, and 5 in a playoff series like nine months ago? Chris Middleton. It gets them out of the second apron.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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I don't have an answer. I like Corey Kispert. Corey Kispert would be good on a winning team. He's a really good shooter. He's really good running around screens. Good cutter. Underrated defender. He's not a bad defender.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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Yeah, I mean, it's it's Luka Doncic to the Lakers for a really small package. It's it's a star going to the Lakers for a really small package. Same thing as Pau Gasol. And you know what? The Pau Gasol trade in retrospect ended up being a lot better for Memphis than we realized because there was a completely forgotten guy who was in that deal who nobody thought anything of at the time of the trade.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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the way that he plays you know the game of basketball and i just don't love his fit with with this team and i think giving up a first is just too much fair point i hadn't really thought about it like that but that is a good point i will add one thing everybody is there's no question everyone's going to be like why did they give up another first Because they've done this.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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They have traded a first-round pick for a rental for consecutive trade deadlines. We could call this... We don't have to call this the Yacob Perdle Award. We could call this the Elio Lineker Award.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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Exactly. I mean, they have traded first-round picks for rentals for trade deadlines in a row. And people are going to talk about the mismanagement of...
The Athletic NBA Daily
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assets like that the portal pick ended up being a good pick that was rob dillingham it was a top 10 pick and they just gave that thing x they just gave that up for yaka portal and then they had to pay yaka portal uh who was not a bad player but it's like you're a good player team um you know they they gave emmanuel quickly a huge contract that hasn't worked out yet it looks like it's going to be kind of a lost year for emmanuel quickly so far
The Athletic NBA Daily
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what i'm thinking about honestly is beyond just like the roster building questions and like how did they let van vliet walk for nothing and how did they let lowry get to free agency and did they wait too long on siakam did they wait too long on ogn and obi i don't really see the basketball vision like let's just talk about this as a basketball team not as some sort of he's he's he's buy low sell low buy low sell lower
The Athletic NBA Daily
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It happened to be Pau Gasol's brother, Mark, who ended up being a defensive player of the year. and an awesome player and a deserving Hall of Famer, in my opinion. So, you know, maybe Max Christie is going to make the Hall of Fame. Or maybe that Luka trade wasn't as good for the Mavs as it was for the Lakers. But to be clear, I don't think the Lakers are contenders right now.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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When they buy low, we sell lower. It's a little non-political quote. I just don't see the vision as a basketball team. Like you have now Brandon Ingram at his best when the basketball's in his hands. RJ Barrett at his best when the basketball's in his hands. Emmanuel Quickly at his best when the basketball's in his hands.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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Your best young player, Scotty Barnes, who you want to be able to, doesn't need the basketball to succeed, but you want to be able to give it to him and let him do stuff because he's your most promising young player. And he's like the guy who could end up becoming an all-star out of all of these young guys that you have. And you're just putting together a team of guys who don't enhance each other.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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And then you got Jakob Pertl just parked in the middle, randomly going for 35 in November games. And I don't see the vision. I don't see the movement away from the ball. I don't see the cohesion. I don't see the screening. I don't see the cutting. I don't see the creation yet. Really? Because a lot of those guys are best creating shots for themselves, not for others. I don't see...
The Athletic NBA Daily
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how those players enhance each other. And you're going to have to lock all of them into expensive contracts. Like RJ Barrett is, is honestly very improved this year and has been one of the most improved passers in the NBA. But quickly is, is locked in for five years. Barrett has three more. I think after this one, Ingram, presumably you're going to resign on a long-term deal.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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Barnes, obviously going to be around for a while. Like Barrett, Purtle, you resigned to a long-term deal. Like how do these players enhance each other? And what is the long-term vision here? Just like on the court. I don't, I don't understand.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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The difference between the two trades is like, Powertrade made the Lakers title contenders with the Powertrade. I think the Lakers need a little bit more. And I think the Lakers can be contenders maybe next year. I think they need an offseason to kind of add to the roster to bring in a little more perimeter defense. I need to see...
The Athletic NBA Daily
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Yeah, I like that move for them a lot. They really didn't give anything up to get him. And I mean, with with Jaden Ivey out, that's where it's important, because absolutely when Ivey is not there with Kate off the floor, the offense just doesn't run. So they're. When Ivy and Cade Cunningham are not on the court this season, they are 9.9 points per 100 possessions worse.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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They need one of those guys on the court to run the offense. The offense turns it over about one every six possessions when neither of those guys is on the court. And Schroeder is just going to instill like... Just some stability there. Just like he can run an offense like a veteran, competent point guard. And I think he's going to stabilize them a little bit more.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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He can also play fast like they like to play. He can play frantically on defense like they like to play. He can get into passing lanes like they like to do. He'll play hard like they do. Like I... I think that was a good ad for them, and I think it made them better with really a very low cost. I really liked that move for them. The other one that I considered was DeAndre Hunter.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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But I don't think it necessarily made the Cavs contenders. I think the Cavs were obviously already in that spot. They have the best record in the East. But it's been years that the Cavs have looked for whoever the heck it is to play that three and for it not to be a weakness for them in the playoffs. And somebody, whoever has been at the three, has always...
The Athletic NBA Daily
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It's always been someone who has had a flaw that has come back to bite them in the postseason. It's Isaac Okoro. It's the guy who they park in the corner. You know, it's Isaac Okoro who has to stand in the corner and who defenses in the playoffs are just not going to guard.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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And they're going to help off of them and they're going to come into the lane and you're going to have Mobley out there and Allen out there already. And now you have three guys who you're not guarding and it's going to be a problem. Or it's Dean Wade, who gives you a little bit of everything, but not a lot of anything. Or it is. Ken isn't healthy either and isn't healthy.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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Or it's Karis Levert, who is shooting the heck out of the ball this season, but is can get bullied on defense and historically is not an amazing shooter. And you wonder if those numbers are going to regress. To a degree. And with Hunter, it's like he makes sense. He's big. He's physical. He's having the best year of his career.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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He can knock down corner threes consistently, 39, 40% on corner threes. He's having the best shooting season of his career right now. I think he'll make a ton of sense for them offensively. Keep him in the corners. He's really good at baseline cutting when defenders fall asleep and stuff. He's gotten really good at that. I think... He makes a ton of sense for them. I thought that was a good move.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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Levert has had a really good year. Hunter is maybe the sixth man of the year favorite, though. And Niang had kind of fallen out of the rotation there. So I like that move for Cleveland. And I also appreciate Cleveland being so close to the tax and being like, screw it. We're adding money. We believe in this team.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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Mark Williams in a winning environment before I know that he's going to be an okay backline defender. If he defends the rim the way he did in Charlotte, which he might not. It's totally possible he might not. But if he does, then the Lakers defense will be in a different situation. So we'll see. But it's definitely the Luka trade.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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I think they might. There's no question there are elements that they'll miss. Like... he's had a really good year for them shooting over 40 from three. And he's been a really important playmaker, but they can rejigger their rotation also in ways to make this work.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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Like they've got to elite, elite, elite, all-star level playmaking guards and Mitchell and Darius Garland, who are both literally all-stars. Yeah. Literally all-stars. Both of them are awesome. Garland's having the best year of his career. He has been great. And he's been a great playmaker for them.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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Evan Mobley is not your conventional guard who is going to set up, but he's had a really, really good season as a playmaker and really as a connector. And honestly, I think Ty Jerome gives him a little bit of a nod to that direction, too.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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Ty Jerome has been one of the great surprises in the league this year. He's been awesome for them. And he just comes in and takes 19 floaters in a row. And he hits 16 of them and shoots 40-some-odd percent from three. And he's been good when you give the ball to him in the bench lineups. And it looks real. I don't have any reason to believe that it's not real. Real.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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So I think they have enough ball handling and their ability to go out there and get a wing with size guard a little bit who could shoot, who can cut, who could finish, who's getting the line more than ever now, who's just much stronger on his drives and his cuts than he's ever been. Like, I think their priorities were in line and you just got to give up something to get something.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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And they took that. out of a well where they had a wealth of stuff. Like they have, they are literally the number one offense in the league right now. Like they have a wealth of playmaking. And ultimately when you get to the playoffs, it's like Mitchell's minutes are going up. Garland's minutes are going up. Like these guys are going to be on the fair a lot more.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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It's not going to be as big of a deal. And you want somebody who's going to compliment those guys. Cause that's, who's on the court in the most important moments.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
It's not the DeAndre Hunter move for Cleveland, even though I like that move a lot.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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Well, you left out the second part of the award.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
The NBA sickos obsess over, but it won't move the needle at all.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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I just want to preface this by saying this guy is good. He has had a good year, but also like we really need to freak out about Memphis trading Jake LaRavia.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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really need to just yes we need to bug about memphis trading jake laravia who as of six months ago they didn't even want to pick up his his fourth year rookie team option and and now we're just gonna freak about one of the most well-run organizations being like oh they gave away jake laravia i mean you're capped on how much you can pay laravia this summer anyway although i don't know if he's gonna cost you much more than they're capped at because you're capped at like five million
The Athletic NBA Daily
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Cause you did not decline his option. He's been good for them. He's been good off the dribble. I wrote a whole thing about Jake LaRavia jump passes in my notebook a few weeks ago, because I'm literally the only person who cares about such things and how Jake LaRavia just has the funniest looking jump passes in the NBA ever. And yet they were like the most efficient jump passes in the NBA.
The Athletic NBA Daily
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The Grizzlies were averaging like 1.28 points per possession when Jake LaRavia had a jump pass, which made him the most efficient jump passer in the NBA. It's insane. And yet he averaged only 13 inches of vertical on his jump passes. Like he only jumped 13 inches in the air. Like Jake LaRavia jump passes are, are glorious and they're hilarious.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
And he throws them from ridiculous angles and they look like glitches in, in, in a, in a matrix or something. And he's shooting 40 somehow from three and he's been good, but like, come on, it's fine.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
Yeah. Memphis will be fine. Memphis wasn't going to give Jake LaRavia a ton of money this summer. Like they weren't going to give him $5 million because they're already paying like John Contra or $6 million. They have too many players and they want to be able to have the cap space to renegotiate and extend Jaron Jackson Jr. So it's not like they were giving them the money.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
Obviously behind Oklahoma City. I think I would put them behind Oklahoma City.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
They have too many rotation players. They have too many good players. So. Make the trade and like, you know who wins the title every year without fail? Every single season, every single team in NBA history, you know what they've had in common that has won the title? They haven't had Jake LaRavia. You'll be fine without Jake LaRavia. You can reach the highest levels of success.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
You know who the 96 Bulls didn't employ? Jake LaRavia. Not saying they won because they didn't have Jake LaRavia. I'm just saying not having Jake LaRavia didn't prevent them from winning 72 games in the title and being an epic team. Like you can, you can, you can win without Jake LaRavia. It's okay.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
I like Jake LaRavia. I don't disagree with the people who are like, Jake LaRavia is having a good year. He is having a good year. He is good.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
And I like the move for the Kings. But like, I don't think it's going to change their win total.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
Yeah, I think I would have Denver. Also, just because I'm generally going to pick Jokic, even though Denver... Look, Denver has had its moments where it's looked...
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
That's a great answer. There are basketball fit issues potentially with him and Draymond. That's a good answer. I had Kyle Kuzma for all the reasons that we discussed earlier about Kuzma. But I also don't know if it's overrated. I feel like people's reactions kind of vary. But just giving up a swap for Kuzma and giving up Middleton for Kuzma. There's another part of this, too.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
really not good this year too and yeah if you can figure out a way like if you have lebron and luca on the court at all times like you're probably gonna eviscerate the non-yokage minutes like you're gonna imagine if you can always have either lebron or luca or maybe both in the game when you'll be we should be able to do that yes you're going to destroy the non-yokage minutes.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
And we've obviously seen this in the Luka Dodgers trade, which is like, I've spoken to friends who are Bucs fans. I spoke to a friend who's a Bucs fan and he's just devastated that this was the end of Chris Middleton. Like, you know, it's funny outside of the market. Chris Middleton was there for 12 years. He's a legend.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
Like Chris Middleton should, Chris Middleton should absolutely have his number retired by the Bucs.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
One of the most underrated three-level scorers of the last decade. Just unbelievably efficient from every single area on the court. And just gets you 20 points however you need 20 points. You want a guy to break the math shooting from mid-range? Great. Chris Middleton, anytime Chris Middleton takes a mid-range shot, it's basically a good shot. He had seasons shooting over 50% from mid-range.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
ridiculous. I think you get to the rim, great finisher around the rim. Chris Milton could get to the paint and shoot floaters. He could hit 40% from three. Like he's still shooting 40% from three, even as like, you know, we talk about his body falling apart. He's still shooting 40% from three. I just feel like there's an emotional aspect of that one too, that, that kind of, that kind of gets me.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
And I don't, I don't love, can I make up one more word? Do we have time for me to make up an award?
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
Can we have the Masai Ujiri overplayed his hand award to a GM that should have made certain moves and failed to do so? Does anyone come to mind for you?
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
I just want to give it to Sean Marks. I can't believe they didn't trade Cam Johnson. I couldn't believe. It's not like it came to trade deadline day, and I'm like, they're definitely trading Cam Johnson. We knew they weren't trading Cam Johnson, but when they made the Bridges trade...
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
in June of last year, in conjunction with the bridges trade, they made another trade with Houston to receive back full control of their 2025 first round pick and giving up future first round picks.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
And when they did that, the reason you do that deal at that time is because you're now in control of 2025 and you are saying, well, we're just going to make sure that we stink for 2025 so we can have as good of a chance as we possibly can at getting a high draft pick. And again, Look, they're not good, but I was really surprised this summer because they agreed to that trade in June.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
They had plenty of time. They had the draft. They had free agency. They had time to trade Dorian Finney-Smith. They had time to trade Cam Johnson. They had time to trade their veterans. And they held on to Finney-Smith, and Finney-Smith won them some damn games. The Nets were like 15 points per 100 possessions better when Dorian Finney-Smith was on the floor this year. It was a disaster.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
Jordy Fernandez is a really good coach, by the way. He has done a great job with that team. They play crazy hard. They have great stuff. They all know their roles. He has done a great job. He's too good of a coach for that situation. Too good. But I won't knock him for that because that would be outrageous. And they held on to Cam Johnson because they set too high of a price on Cam Johnson.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
You're not getting two first-round picks for Cam Johnson in a market where Luka Doncic commands one. Like you're not, you're not going to get that. And the fact that they just now have Cam Johnson and just watch, like, I mean, we'll see if, you know, he just gets shut down for the rest of the year because of some mysterious injury or whatever else, but he's won them too many games already. Yeah.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
So maybe the Lakers go from having lost to Denver a few times to being an okay matchup with Denver now because of this trade. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they are right up there. I think Memphis, even though they play a style that people wonder about because it's a lot of isolation and cuts, and I think there are a lot of people in the league who are skeptical about how it might work in the postseason.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
And I, he is a good player who fits in a bunch of places is like one of the most popular teammates in the league. One of the most high character dudes in the league. Everybody loves cam Johnson as a guy. Like he'll fit in anywhere from a personality standpoint, work ethic standpoint, coaches, love them. Players love them. Like, like it's, there should be no challenges in trading cam Johnson.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
And it's not like the nets are going to be an awful spot. They'll be in a spot to where they, they, They might end up, you know, if Toronto wins some games with Ingram, they might end up with a fifth worst record in the league, which puts them in almost as good of a chance to get number one as anybody else. But like, yeah, they could have controlled this thing better.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
Right now, the most likely scenario for Brooklyn, if you have the six best lottery odds, your most likely scenario is you pick seventh. There's a 29.8% chance you pick seventh. And there's a 20.6% chance you pick eighth.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
uh and and those are your most likely there's an 8.6 chance you pick six and right there that means there is a do the math there is an almost 60 chance that you are going to be picking sixth seventh or eighth if you go into the draft or you go into the lottery with the six six worth record so like it's brutal
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
I think Memphis is really good. I think they got a chance. I think Houston's got a chance also. They just play ridiculously physical defense. And I know we're all counting out Dallas because they made this ridiculous trade where they gave away Luka Doncic. But they're still really good. if they're healthy, like they're still deep, they still have talent. They're going to defend.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
Exhausting. Still trying to get over that Charlotte, Oklahoma City trade where they just traded a 2029 second rounder for a 2030 second rounder.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
If you have lively and Anthony Davis protecting the backend, like you are going to be really, really difficult to score on at the rim. It's going to be really difficult to create corner threes. Like that team is still going to be really good. I think I would, I think I'd consider them in that class too. So maybe the Lakers are better than I'm saying. I'm talking to three.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
I think Sacramento got worse, clearly losing De'Aaron Fox and making some of the deals that they made. I'm going to say Sacramento falls out. I don't think Golden State is good enough, even with Jimmy Butler. Maybe we'll talk about Jimmy Butler. I think the hole for San Antonio is too large also. And I think Dallas is legitimately good.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
Like Dallas will get in there and the Clippers defend every single night. That team is second in the league in points allowed per possession. They're not going to get less out of Kawhi Leonard and the rest of the season than they've gotten so far this year. Norm Powell is having a great year for them. I thought the Bogdanovich trade was good for them.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
Terrence Mann is a nice player, and they just extended him. But he has really struggled the last couple of months. And I think the Bogdanovich trade is going to make them better. He's a really good movement shooter. Ty Lue is really good with movement shooters. He's going to be an extra creator in their bench unit as well. He's a good addition for them. I think they got better.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
And the Suns, I just... don't really have faith in whatever is going on there at all. Like they don't have rim protection that are rebounding. They play discombobulated basketball. They don't communicate defensively. Uh, they, you know, feel is now coming off the bench and so often looks lost and, uh,
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
we'll see how Kevin Durant responds to the fact that like the sun's just randomly started trying to trade them out of nowhere for Jimmy Butler.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
Unquestionably, my favorite trade of the trade deadline. It was... It was reminiscent of the KZ Akpala pick protection removal. That's right.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
I don't know. I don't know the answer. I don't know the answer at all. And, you know, all these teams are calling about KD. And then they put out that 2.58, two minutes before the deadline, that, you know what? We're keeping Kevin Durant. That's it. We're keeping Kevin Durant. Yeah, that's right. At 2.59, we're giving the heads up. Like...
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
who knows how he is going to react to that in, on a team that I think is already not super tight behind the scenes. I don't think there are like, I don't think they're like at each other's throats, but they're not a super tight team to begin with. And it comes through in the way they play. And I just, I don't have a lot of faith in what's going on there.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
After I was really high on the suns coming into the year, I thought they were going to be a really good regular season team.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
I think they messed up the Nurkic trade, too. Okay, tell me. All right. So they make this trade with Utah where they trade their 2031 unprotected for Zach Lowe calls it the Horcrux, right? It's a Harry Potter reference. Where Voldemort split his soul into a bunch of different pieces and left it in a bunch of different places.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
And they traded their 2031 first rounder, which was the only first rounder they had, for three crappy first round picks that are all heavily protected slash swaps.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
They do that move after trading three second rounders and Josh Okogie for Nick Richards. Yeah. If they did that move before trading Okoge for Nick Richards, and they just reversed the moves, then they probably, because they were already talking to Charlotte about Nurkic, and they ended up trading Charlotte to Nurkic and expirings, who were just there because they're expirings.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
Years ago that all of us remember so well.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
So they traded three seconds for Nick Richards. Then they traded one of the firsts to get off of Nurkic and bring back expirings. But if they had done it in reverse and they'd gotten the firsts first, then they could just attach one of the firsts to Nurkic, which maybe would be enough to bring back an expiring and Nick Richards.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
And if it's not, maybe throw in a second rounder or something like that. And then not only are you keeping two second round picks that you had to give up or one second round pick maybe that you had to give up, You're also holding on to Josh Akogi, who you signed to an $8.3 million contract before this season with the purpose of trading him in a deal that you traded for Nick Richards.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
So now you can attach what's remaining, maybe another first round pick, maybe all the seconds, maybe some of the seconds. You can attach those to Akogi and you can make another move for a player who makes less than $8.3 million. So I feel like they did it backwards. I feel like they rushed to get Nick Richards. They were like, we cannot survive another second without Nick Richards.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
And if they just hadn't rushed to get Nick Richards, who has been fine, but is a backup center, then they could have made out with more total. They could have traded Okoge for something else if they wanted to.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
Well, P.J. Washington was like wallowing in Charlotte and we didn't know what kind of habits he would bring once he left Charlotte. Right. It was like, is he actually not a defender? Is he actually like a sometimes defender or is this just the circumstances around him? And it's really hard for somebody to shine when they're in a losing situation like that.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
Turns out he went there and he was, he was in a winning situation. He made out well. So I'm not a hundred percent confident in this prediction. However, I do feel like all these signifiers are there. And I'm going to say Mark Williams is the guy who best exemplifies this. The Lakers gave up a lot for Mark Williams. I don't blame Charlotte at all for doing that trade. They got an unprotected first.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
Yeah, they got an unprotected first. They got a swap. They got Dalton Connect out of it, who could be a nice scorer moving forward. That was a good move. For Charlotte, that was a really good move when Mark Williams struggles to stay healthy. His defensive effort is very questionable. And he's extension eligible this summer.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
But here's the thing. Two things. Number one, there are one or two people in your life where you can talk about it. But the one or two people in your life you can talk about it with, you can talk about it for like seven hours. And what's amazing is none of the people that you can talk about it with are people listening to this podcast. And that's how we decided to start the show.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
And you're going to have to pay him a decent amount of money in all likelihood. That being said. Like, opponents are shooting 68% on dunks and layups when he's the closest defender this year. That's a really bad number. That is really bad. He is, according to the advanced numbers, one of the worst rim protectors in the NBA. He's also 7'2". He can jump out of the gym. He's got a 9'9 standing reach.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
Literally, he stands under the basket and puts his hands over his head and his fingertips are one inch short of the rim. He has the physical tools. it's just not always there. But if you give him LeBron and for what it's worth, I think JJ Redick is a pretty good X's nose coach. They, they, they run nice stuff. Like you give him LeBron, you give him JJ Redick, you give him smart basketball people.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
It might look totally different. You give him a competitive environment. Like it might look totally different. And you might be saying the same thing about him defensively that we were saying about PJ Washington defensively last year when PJ Washington was great during Dallas's playoff run. So I'm not just like looking at the defense in Charlotte and being like, Oh, I'm out on Mark Williams.
The Athletic NBA Daily
NBA Trade Deadline Awards | Slam N Jam
He's 23. People evolve depending on the circumstances around them. And maybe he won't. Maybe this is who he is independent of his situation, but yeah, I think it's very reasonable to believe that he can get much better there.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
Can I make one caveat really quickly, Dave?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
Really quick caveat. Yeah, absolutely. Denver has the best player in the world. In the world. And it's not particularly close. And if the best player in the world plays at his A-plus game, then it might not matter. Just all the stuff we just discussed might matter not at all.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
yeah to me so i wrote i wrote this story and it kind of started i i don't like going into a story with an idea of this is exactly what i'm writing about no matter what because i find if if you if you have specific goals going into a story before you know everything then you end up getting tunnel vision and ironically like you end up not being you should treat a story like nicola jokic treats a basketball game
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
This is probably my favorite first round series because sneakily you look at teams, often the team that wins the title is the most balanced, is at least amongst the most balanced teams. And you look four teams finished in the top 10 in offense and the top 10 in defense in the NBA. And it was the three you would expect, Cleveland, Oklahoma City, Boston, and the fourth is Minnesota.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
And when you look at contrast of styles in this series, Minnesota's played great ball to close the year. And you look at contrast of styles in this series, the post Anthony Davis Lakers play really small. They play. And when I say really small, the, the, They're going to use one big man in their postseason rotation, and it's going to be Jackson Hayes.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
And even when they use Jackson Hayes, they tend to employ small team strategies. Now, they're not as small as people say, because like their wings are big. Hachimura is big. And Jared Vanderbilt is big. And like, you look at a lot of their guys, they're big. Luca is a huge point guard. LeBron is big. Like they have big guys, but they employ small team strategies.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
Nobody switches on screens more than the Lakers do right now. That is their number one strategy that they deploy. And they'll put out a lineup. that has Austin Reeves, LeBron, Doncic, Hachimura, and Dorian Finney-Smith, where I don't know who the hell is the center. I don't know if it's LeBron. I don't know if it's Dorian Finney-Smith, whatever else. And they will put out that really small lineup.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
And that lineup is not great defensively. It is insane offensively. When they have Austin Reeves, Luka, and LeBron on the court together, they score 100%. 129 points per 100 possessions, which is otherworldly. It's 99th percentile amongst all lineups. It's absolutely crazy, even if they're giving up points. Minnesota, meanwhile, is capable of going small with Nas Reed at the five, but Minnesota...
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
Minnesota, when they're best utilized, is going to have Rudy Gobert on the court. So what's going to happen here? Like Minnesota is huge, right? Jade McDaniels is a huge three. Anthony Edwards is a huge two. Nikhil Alexander-Walker defensively plays big. The guy is unbelievable guarding screens if he's going to be in parts of those lineups, if Mike Conley is out and Na is in there instead.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
No tunnel vision. Don't lock in on one spot. Just know you got the whole court to work with. So I go in and I'm like, I'm just going to talk to people about things I think are interesting and people are going to explain things to me and I'm going to learn things. And then a story is going to start to form. And you go in with an idea of kind of what you're thinking.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
And then obviously you have Julius Randle, you have Nas Reed, you have Rudy Gobert, who's a giant center. Like How are those two stylistic contrasts going to work? If the Lakers go to their really small lineup without Jackson Hayes, and even if Jackson Hayes is out there, they switch with Jackson Hayes a lot too because he's got really good feet and has been way better the last three months.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
It happened before they traded AD. He started to play way better ball. But there's going to be a really interesting stylistic contrast. Are the Wolves going to kill them with size? The Wolves are also one of the best offenses in the league against switches. Anthony Edwards is really good against switches.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
Julius Randle has been, for all the flak he's taken this year, has been great against switches. One of the best ways the Wolves create threes is with Julius Randle post-ups. He's been one of the most willing passers out of post-ups this year. He is great at finding guys either on the weak side wing who swing it to the corner or just straight to the weak side corner for threes.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
It is going to be really interesting stylistically. It's two, I think, really smart coaches too. I'm very excited for this series. It could go either way. And I think it's going to determine like which team can impose its own style. Is the big lineups for Minnesota going to be too much for the Lakers or the small lineups for the Lakers going to be too much for Minnesota?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
And I think whoever wins that little sort of battle is going to end up winning the series.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
No, you're not discounting Giannis because I think we can all agree he's the best player in the series. But the way the Pacers are playing right now, since like the new year, offensively, I mean, Halliburton has just been insane with his assist to turnovers.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
And a guy who is distributing at that level and playing at that speed, normally the assisted turnover guys are the slower, more prodding point guards. They're Tyus Jones and Chris Paul. They're not dudes who are fast break point guards who never turn it over. Normally, if you're a fast break point guard, it's baked into the formula.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
I also think the Pacers defense is better than it gets credit for, to be honest. Agreed. They got much better this year. Absolutely.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
And originally what I was thinking was, hey, Christian Brown is way better this year. I would like to write something about how Christian Brown has been way better this year and how this happened. Christian Brown was nice enough to talk to me for a very long time. I mean, he gave me a ton of time and was extremely open in our interview.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
And the other side of it is like, yeah, the other side of it is just like, who is stopping Tyrese Halliburton on that Milwaukee team?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
The Knicks are just much more talented than the Pistons. That's a very harsh way of saying it, but I don't think you can make an argument. that the Knicks have anything other than four of the five best players in this series. And if you have four or five best players in a series, you should win. If the Knicks lose this series, it will be because the Knicks let go of the rope.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
I think Cade Cunningham could have an unbelievable put himself on the map. Holy crap. This guy's going to be an MVP series and the Pistons could still lose. Who's second best player on the Pistons? Malik Beasley. Like they, they, That's not Carl Anthony Towns. That's not OG Ananobi. That's not Mikael Bridges. That might not even be Josh Hart.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
There's just a large talent discrepancy and the Pistons play tough and they play hard, but there's kind of a large disparity of wealth in their quality of defenders. On one hand, you got Asar Thompson and Isaiah Stewart who are excellent, but you also have guys who the Knicks will feel comfortable attacking like Jalen Duren, like Tim Hardaway Jr. I think if the Knicks play this right,
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
they should win this series. However, the Knicks have kind of not played things right a little too often this year. So it makes me a little uneasy, whereas the Pistons have gotten everything you could want out of their talent.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
So that part would make me a little uneasy, but the talent discrepancy is so large that I just have trouble not picking the Knicks as much of a feel-good story the Pistons are and as much as I have loved watching them play basketball this year.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
I always appreciate it when guys who I cover can be so honest and available and it's like, that's why you do the job. It was really cool. We had a great conversation. And props to him for being kind enough to do that. And he just kept saying to me, like, I'm not that improved, man. Like, I'm not that improved. And I think he's a very modest guy.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
Shouts to the Pistons young guys, though. Yeah. They are. J.B. Bickerstaff. J.B. Bickerstaff is just one of my favorites. Great coach. J.B.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
And so I think the number one place where that comes from was him being a very humble person. I also think he wasn't lying. Like, I don't think he thought he was lying at least because what he kept saying was he was like, you know, the coaching staff has done an amazing job with me. And then he was like, this is Nicola. Look at what Nicola does with everybody.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
And we dove into, okay, so how does Nicola... help you? Obviously he's going to find you on all these cuts and do all this stuff, but how does he help you? And we start talking about the off the court stuff and he tells me a story about how when he was a rookie, they do these pre-practice stretches and he wasn't taking stretching seriously enough.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
So Jokic, after a little while of telling him to take it more seriously, goes over, takes his stretching mat and plops it next to him and is like, you are stretching next to me, bud. And they still stretch next to each other every day and all these little things. And then it starts to hit me. Like I covered Isaiah Hartenstein when he was with the Knicks.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
And Hartenstein used to tell me that he thinks Jokic is just a total genius. And so he would just, just... just follow around Jokic. And I think even Isaiah was just like, I think I probably annoyed him at different points and would just ask him basketball questions to pick his brain.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
And he would tell me that Jokic taught him that passing is about passing with your eyes, certain ways to manipulate the defense with your eyes. And I always thought that was such a fascinating example. And I was like, there's got to be more examples of Jokic like teaching. We all know he's a basketball genius. You don't have to talk to him to know he's a basketball genius.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
We all know he's a basketball genius. And I was like, there have got to be other examples of guys who have played with Jokic who have learned this ridiculously nuanced stuff that they never would have otherwise thought of. And so I started calling around the teammates and people who I knew already, people whose contact information I was able to get and asking him those questions.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
And every teammate, current or former, that I spoke to of Jokic was like, Oh, yeah, you're on the nose. That's 100% true. And he's got this reputation of being a guy who keeps to himself and, you know, likes his horses and he wins the title and he just wants to get home to Serbia as quickly as possible. And every single person who I spoke to who's played with him was like, That's not it.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
That's like the public persona. He doesn't like being front facing. He doesn't like talking about himself. It makes him uncomfortable. He's too humble. He's too modest with that. But like this dude cares so much about basketball. And here are all of these very specific, tangible examples of how much he cares about
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
why he cares, how it comes through, and how he's taught me about really specific parts of the game that I otherwise never would have known about. And that's kind of what the story became about. And it was really like a dive into Jokic's mind through other people.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
I think he's really studious, to be honest. I mean, look, the number one reason that he's like this is because he's a brilliant dude. That's the number one reason. Does that mean he doesn't have to work as hard? Well, yeah. Maybe. That's how it works. I think if you or Dave or I watched as much basketball as Nikola Jokic, And honestly, we might we might watch as much basketball as Nikola Jokic.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
Oh, yeah. Yeah, nothing. It's not like I've had features that I've been working on forever coming out all week. It's not like I'm working on, you know, post-mortem stuff for 17 teams whose seasons are over and preparing for the playoffs coming up and everything else. None of that is happening. So I'm doing great.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
I watch a lot of basketball. I have ruined my life with the amount of basketball that I watch. I don't do anything. I have to say no to weddings because a game is on, you know, like I don't I don't.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
to anything that is a personal choice Fred but okay it is it is a personal choice but that's my point it's ruining me and I think part of it is just like this dude is brilliant he thinks on another level his mind is his superpower and I think that's part of it I do think he's really obsessive. You know, a note that I had in the story is that like, so Christian Brown is a huge hoops head.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
And when I talk to guys who are huge hoops heads, I like noting that in stories when necessary, because I think people on the outside often think, oh, you're in the NBA. You must watch basketball all the time. I talk to players and I'm not going to throw anyone under the bus, but I talk to players all the time who just like never watch basketball.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
Just never watch. Just don't even follow the league. And still they'll, they'll watch the, the film that their assistant coaches send them leading into games and stuff.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
I'm not saying they don't, they don't work at that kind of stuff and they refuse to do the minimum amount of work, but it's just like, it's a Wednesday night and there's a, you know, seven 30 games on league pass and the 10 o'clock games on league pass. And they're just like, don't even have a league pass subscription. You know, like they're just not even it's just not what they care to do.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
They don't watch. And that describes like a lot of NBA players, like a lot of NBA players, because I think when it's your job and I think we can all relate to this in some way because it's our job, too. When it's your job, it starts to feel like work. And you're like, I need, I need a break. I might love basketball, but I need a break from work. I need a night off. I need a break from work.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
I've been doing basketball all day. I got to do something else at night. And then there are the guys like Kevin Durant who go home every day. And you met Dave, you mentioned John Wall. John was like this, who just go home. And if there is a basketball game on, I don't care if it is a third grade youth league game that just happens to be televised and it's in Des Moines, Iowa.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
Kevin Durant will find that game and put it on and be like, that kid's footwork on the back ends of pick and rolls is a disaster. And like Kevin Durant will watch that game. You know, he's just that obsessed and that in love with the game. I think Jokic is watching a lot of games and Christian Brown is like that.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
He will go home and he will watch games every night and he'll notice tendencies and that kind of stuff. And he's taken to going to Jokic the next days and being like, oh, I noticed this stuff. What did you notice about this? And they'll go through, they'll compare notes and he's kind of picking his brain and learning stuff. And Jokic is quiet. He's a quiet leader.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
He's not someone who's going to yell. He's not someone who's going to be rah-rah. And he's not someone who's going to share everything on his mind just because it's on his mind. Because I don't think he thinks of himself as a basketball genius because he's a humble dude. But he is one.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
And the people who ask him stuff, I have a quote in the story where Hartenstein was just like, just freely admits, like I asked him tons of stuff. And, and Jokic even has a thing where he says like, I don't really think I'm, I'm much of a talker or anything like that. And then he kind of corrected himself. He was like, actually, if people ask me questions, I will, I will answer them.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
And, and something I didn't include in the story, cause it didn't come across as well in, in print. Uh, but in person it was great. And it made me laugh really hard where he said, uh, I mentioned Hartenstein being like, you know, he said, he said he didn't really, You know, he doesn't really share all that much.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
And I was like, well, Isaiah said that he just just followed you around like a little puppy and was just asking you questions. And he was like, oh, yeah, Isaiah was annoying as hell. but he meant it like, like they're really close. Like he meant it with love, but I wrote it in the quote. And I was like, it doesn't come across as like in person.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
It comes across as like such a joke, you know, like he loves Isaiah, but in the quote, I was like, Hey, it doesn't, it doesn't come across.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
Exactly. So I deleted it. I was like, it's, it's not right. So I, I deleted it, but like, Isaiah was somebody who really peppered him with questions. Monte Morris was a guy who was like, and Monte Morris has a quote in the story. He was like, he's the MVP. Maybe I should just try his method.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
And I think Christian Brown has the exact same mentality as well, where he's like, well, this guy is on another planet. So I'm just going to copy everything he does. And look at what's happened to Christian Brown. Yeah. Dude's a better player than he's ever been.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
I think this is just going to be an absolutely fabulous series. I am so curious to see how the Clippers go about defending Nikola Jokic. And ultimately, I think I am picking the Clippers in this one just because I don't know if there's a better coach or I mean, Eric Spolstra is unbelievable. I don't know if there is a better playoff coach than Ty Lue. The guy is so brilliant game to game.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
There might not be a better regular season coach than Ty Lue either.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
I mean, he is just so unbelievably brilliant in terms of getting the most out of everybody. And then you got David Adelman on the other side, who might be amazing. I just don't know. We have no idea. He's coached for a week, and he's got coaching in his blood, but he's coached for a week, and we just don't know.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
And the Clippers, as constructed, with Kawhi playing the best ball he's played all season, the Clippers, as constructed... are just a monster defensively. They really are. Evita Zubats has had one of the best defensive seasons in the NBA, certainly his best defensive season ever. And I put him on my second team all defense. I thought he was great this year. I had him second for MIP.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
You got Chris Dunn, who we talked ball perimeter defense last week on the pod. And you guys were like, how do you not have Chris Dunn? And it's only because he wasn't eligible for awards. That's right.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Wolves over Lakers? + The Jokic Bump
chris dunn is a phenomenal guy to be able to throw on jamal murray and they can create these really creative ways of guarding yokich too you know we've seen teams have success with yokich not necessarily putting their number one best big man defender on yokich you know minnesota had a lot of success against denver where they go okay last year they put cat on yokich they have rudy gobert
The Zach Lowe Show
Playoff Comeback or Collapse?! NBA Breakdowns With Fred Katz and Adam Mares. Plus, a Draft Lottery Preview With J. Kyle Mann.
Can I do that? Please, it's your podcast. You've been waiting. We've been waiting all year, Zach, to hear about you go off on different topics. Please be my guest.
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Don't be done. Don't be done. There's got to be something else in there.
The Zach Lowe Show
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We talk about the three ball as a high variance way to win all the time. And I think sometimes we don't talk about it enough in the other direction too, which is what you're getting at right now, right? Like we look at NCAA tournament upsets and every time an 11 seed beats a three seed and goes to the final four or whatever.
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So often it's because some random dude who you've never heard of hit nine threes and that swung the game. And we talk about it so much. I've received so many texts from friends and people who don't work in basketball. Why are all these comebacks happening in the NBA now? And so much of that is because, well, the three ball changes things. And you think about that is like a team can get hot.
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They hit three threes on three straight possessions. And all of a sudden, the 12 point game is a three point game. And you're right back in it. The double digit lead isn't what it used to be. The opposite is true, too. Because the variance goes in the other direction. And I totally agree with you.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I think sometimes when we look at the shot quality and we look at the shot profile, and just to break down even more what you were saying, like the shot quality data on second spectrum, which accounts for the player who's actually taking the shots, like... They're vastly like the Celtics are vastly undershooting what they're at.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Their effective field goal percentage is like, according to those numbers, it'll even out by game. Exactly. Right. The whole point of that stat is a, it's a projection of if you continue this process over a very large sample size, this is most likely where the numbers will regress to or improve to. That is the point of that stat. But at some point, But you got to actually make the shots.
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And if you're not making the shots, you got to take ones that are lesser variance when you're up 20. Because you don't want high variance when you're up 20. You want high variance when you're down 20. And if you're not the ones creating the high variance, which by the way, the Knicks often aren't. The Knicks are a team that finished like bottom 10 in the league in free throw, right?
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They were a team that finished 28th in the league in three point attempt, right? Like they aren't a very high variance team. They were fifth in the league in offensive rating, but after January 1st, they were 13th, 14th in points per possession. Like this is, this is a team that is good at what it's good at, but it does not play a high variance form of basketball.
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If you're down 20 and you're the Knicks and You are, you are just, you are glowing at the fact that the Celtics are the ones creating the high variance basketball for you. Cause that's the only way you're coming back from down 20 in the second half is to create some sort of element of that.
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And it's just, in some ways, the Celtics are the ones who are doing themselves in with that sort of decision-making.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown have isolated 37 times in this series as a second spectrum. They've isolated 37 times in this series over the first two games. Directly off of those isolations, the Celtics have scored 30 points. That's an 81 offensive rating.
The Zach Lowe Show
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You're going to have to get a life, Zach. We're both going to have to get lives.
The Zach Lowe Show
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This is the pregame locker room availability of swim practice. This is what it is. We go in the locker room pregame and we walk around and people think we're just interviewing people, but we're not. We're just walking around.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Carl Anthony Towns, I feel like, has yet to take a three in the series, Zach.
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One. And he took one in game one also, and it was an end-of-shot clock three.
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Yeah, I agree. And he tried to take that over a little bit late in that game. As you mentioned, more pick and rolls, more isolations against Steven Chenzo. And I think he did a pretty good job getting switches onto him too. There's even a play earlier in that game where he's got Jaden McDaniels on him and he runs around a little pin down and ends up getting it at the top of the key.
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And then he ends up going at kind of weaker defenders. The thing is with Minnesota is... They just have an insane amount of strength on the perimeter defensively. Nikhil Alexander Walker is as good. I mean, people talk about McDaniels, who's awesome, and Ant, who fights, and DiVincenzo, who's feisty. Nikhil Alexander Walker is... I love the way that he guards screens.
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He gets in this insanely low defensive stance, and he's like a spider. He just springs by a screener, and he always executes the screen coverage properly. He's been struggling with his shot, as every single Timberwolf has, apparently. You want to talk about shot variance, Zach?
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The worst shot quality... The most the team has underperformed its shot quality in a single game during the playoffs was Minnesota against the Lakers in that clincher when I think they went one for 100,000 from three. And this is on three-point shot quality. And the second worst was a Memphis game against the Thunder. And then the third worst performance was Minnesota...
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game one when they shot five of 29 from three. Eventually, some shots will go in. Eventually, Anthony Edwards is not going to start a game 0 for 11 from the field or whatever he was. Finish strong to his credit. Finish strong to his credit. I do think what Curry's absence allows Minnesota to do is it allows them to make sure that
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those sorts of matchups with Butler, they can load up on him a little bit more. And they have so many strong perimeter defenders there that it's, it's really going to have to open up Butler's ability to be able to create on the perimeter. And they're already, they're not guarding Gary Payton the second. And, and, Moody is struggling.
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And if they're going to have to guard, Peyton played the most minutes off the bench for golden state during game one, but they're not guarding him. And to his credit, he hit a huge three during crunch time, which kind of staved off like a sort of kind of fake comeback late in that game. But yeah, they are just sinking guys into the lane.
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They're sinking Julius Randall into the lane and, and they are sinking Rudy Gobert into the lane and not even, it's not even that they're helping off of him. It's like just nobody is guarding him. And it's going to be very difficult for Jimmy Butler to create when he's got an awesome on ball defender on him, basically all the time. And they've got guys packing the paint like crazy.
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and other guys are going to have to hit shots. And I, I do think like the Jimmy Butler finagling is going to have to happen to a degree because the finagling happens when he's on the ball too. It's a good way to describe Jimmy Butler. It happens when he's got the ball also because the Jimmy Butler, the Jimmy Butler free throws are, are finagling the way that Butler will, but there aren't,
The Zach Lowe Show
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Yeah. And look, he had 67 front court touches in game two. He was averaging 40 front court touches a game during the playoffs going into that. Like Steph went down and they were like, you got to run things. But on the other side, like Draymond Green might not hit a ton of threes during game two like he did in game one. You might not have that sort of stuff.
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And especially if you've got like Draymond and Peyton,
The Zach Lowe Show
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on the court together the spacing is going to be interesting and butler is excellent in tight spaces he is going to have to figure out ways to be able to create out of those tight spaces not just for himself but he's going to have to figure out ways to do it um and and and can i just add one more thing i know you love jonathan kuminga it's uh it's not going great he did make a three and the lights the lights flickered and in kuminga keys the lights flickered and they went off again
The Zach Lowe Show
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I want to credit a Jonathan Kaminga thing because he did something, which I don't know. I'm not, I'm not at those games. I've been, I've been on the Knicks games, but I, I, I famously and proudly have no life at all. So I will watch every single game that is in existence. And I, There was a moment with Kuminga where I'm like, I put myself into Steve Kerr's shoes.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And I'm like, Steve Kerr must be so thrilled. There is a play where Kuminga's off the ball. They help off of him. He's on the left wing. And he just, he notices his defender turns away from him. The second he notices his defender turn his head. He cuts the lane. He ends up getting a dunk and a half court possession. And that's the kind of stuff.
The Zach Lowe Show
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That's the kind of stuff that the Warriors want to see out of him. Uh, that's, that's the kind of stuff that like, okay, you're going to play this complex offense with a lot of cutting and a lot of recognition, a lot of just, you have to be able to improv properly. I kind of on both ends because that's what, how Draymond sets up the defense too. And you have to be able to improv properly.
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Like they're going to need that kind of stuff to the off ball movement of just like, we notice, okay, you're helping off of me. You're, you're packing the paint like crazy or you're locked in on Jimmy or whatever it is. I'm not just going to cut because I think people think, okay, you're open cut. There are so many times where, where players will say, we're, Oh, I'm open cut.
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And Kaminga does this sometimes where it's like, all right, I'm open cut. And they cut right into the driving lane. And all of a sudden now the driving lane is somehow even more crowded than it was before. And what you want to do is you want to cut with pace and you want to cut with playing with speeds and you want to cut to the actual right spot. That was a really good play by Kuminga.
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The Warriors are generally really good with that, but all that stuff is going to be so much more important because all those crazy cuts that we see in Warriors games all the time, so many of them happen. Because the defense is having a nervous breakdown about the fact that Stephen Curry just exists and is there.
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And now that Curry's not there, they are going to have to find ways to be able to take advantage of those holes without those sorts of nervous breakdowns. Because even when Buddy Heald is draining all of his threes, nobody creates that sort of effect. Nobody creates that kind of pull other than Curry. And the Warriors are going to have an accident on that.
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I was going to say it's 1999. We got to get Larry Johnson in the building and we'll be good to go. Reggie Miller calling the game.
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I love Andrew Nembhard.
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Zach, Neesmith is so physical now. And I remember when he came out in the preseason last year and he was just guarding dudes in the preseason. I was like, damn. Neesmith got really good. Nemhard's very similar. Nemhard defensively is one of the most underrated players in the league.
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Just put a little pin in that. And Neesmith did a great job on him. Neesmith did a great job on Brunson. Like, I thought Neesmith was one of the best Brunson defenders that I've seen since Brunson kind of hit elite status. I mean, to your point on Nembhard's jump shooting... I don't know, maybe playoff Nembhard's a thing.
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Like last year, game seven on the road at MSG, he literally shot 100% in a game seven. In a game that the Pacers literally broke the record for field goal percentage in any playoff game. Not just the game seven. And they did it on a road game seven in a crazy MSG environment. The thing with the Pacers that I think a lot of people...
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And obviously the fact that the Cavs are missing guys is the most important thing here. I also find Darius Garland's importance to just be unbelievably underrated in terms of their success. He's an all-star point guard. But it's even more than that. Yes, he's an all-star, but people talk about the Cavs as if this is Donovan Mitchell's team. And I get it from a status standpoint. It is.
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And if you ask me who the best player on the Cavs is, I will tell you Donovan Mitchell. However... Who runs more pick and rolls than anybody else on that team? Darius Garland. Who's their leading facilitator? Darius Garland. Who's the one who creates the most threes for his teammates? Darius Garland. Who's the one who basically runs as many isolations as Donovan Mitchell? Darius Garland.
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Who's the one who gets into the paint and has those jump passes that create all these corner threes, which is like part of the strength of the Cleveland offense. It's Darius Garland. And not having that guy is kind of like not having your engine. That being said,
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That being said, one thing that really intrigued me about this matchup, and I'm not going to sit here and say I thought Indiana was going to win, but one thing that really intrigued me about it is as much as Indiana's reputation is this high-powered, fast-paced offensive team, since they started out 10 and 15 to the year, they've been a really good defensive team.
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They've been a really good defensive team. And even when they weren't a very good defensive team last year, one thing that they have been really good at for the last two years is preventing three-point attempts. They gave up, I think, the lowest three-point attempt rate in the NBA last year. They are schematically designed in order to not give up threes. They don't really like helping.
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They like staying on corner shooters. And I think one of the stories of the Eastern Conference playoffs right now is we just talked about it with Boston and New York. Cleveland and Boston are the two best three-point shooting teams in the NBA. Cleveland was, I think, fourth in volume, second in percentage.
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Boston took more threes, made more threes in a single season than any team ever has in a single season ever. And right now, those two teams are down 2-0. And... Cleveland is like 10 for 38 per game over these first two games. It's not going great. And that was after they just annihilated Miami. Just destroyed Miami from beyond the arc.
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And I think the Pacers have done a really excellent job at the point of attack. being able to keep guys away from being able to create threes.
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And I think schematically they've done a wonderful job in being able to help on drivers, but still being able to kind of scurry up to the three point arc, run guys off the three point arc, prevent attempts and, and contest really well, which is something that I think the Knicks have done really well too, as well. Like we talk about, not all three point attempts being created equal.
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Like the Knicks are doing an excellent job.
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Yes, it's going to be crazy. Those playoff games get wild. Thanks for having me, Zach. I appreciate it.
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No, no, I'm, I'm ready to see what you have left. I, what's amazing about the Knicks in particular with what they're doing right now is that It almost felt like that unbelievably wonky and insanely ugly Detroit series changed their character and their personality as a team completely.
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Having watched them the entire season, so much of what they struggled with was physicality and that sort of fortitude that you're talking about. And that was true, I think, across the roster for the most part. And it was certainly true on the defensive end. And that Detroit series was so wild. I was in the locker room after game one when they came back from 20 points the first time against Boston.
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And Cameron Payne kind of joked to me. He was in jest, but he says to me, thank God for Detroit. And that Detroit series was so wild. that was so physical and so much went wrong for both teams at any given point in that series, at least one team had completely and utterly forgotten how to play the sport. And I think there was some truth in what Cam was saying. He was, he was joking around.
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He was being funny, but he said it because it was kind of true. The Knicks are playing very differently now than they did in the regular season, stylistically. And I think they're playing very differently than they did in the regular season, even from a personality standpoint in terms of how they're grinding.
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You know the reason that some of those switches are working, why Brunson is fighting against those switches? I don't think I've ever seen him be this just... It's not that he shies away from contact ever defensively, but I don't think I've ever seen him say, you know what? I am the tinier guy here. They are not going to call anything against me.
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I am just bumping my chest into Jason Tatum when I'm far away from the rim every time. Certainly, Mikael Bridges has never been this physical all year, I should say. Not never in his career, but just this season. Navigating screens, especially. So much of this season, there was just...
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Like discombobulation, Bridges would have a ball screen up against him and he'd pull up short or there'd be miscommunication from the back end or something like that. And I do think the one guy who deserves to be mentioned also, who I think you didn't mention, was Mitchell Robinson, who has been so dangerous. big for them on the defensive end.
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They are winning his minutes by a landslide in this series. I don't think that's a coincidence. He is so much better on switches than he used to be when he would foul like crazy.
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That's a good one.
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I'm doing great. I'm doing great. I'm exhausted from apparently never, ever getting to cover a normal basketball game for probably the rest of my life at this point.
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So Boston averaged 26 assists a game during the regular season. They have 35 total over the first two games of the series.
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They are nine of 45. It's unbelievable. And I do think we've mentioned the switching a bunch of times. And I do think a lot of it has to do with not even necessarily the quality of the Knicks switches, because I think the execution on the Knicks switch has kind of been up and down, depending on which guys we're talking about. But just the fact that it's actually happening.
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I mean, look, Orlando switched so much against Boston. And this is not the first time that a team has just switched a bunch against Boston. Boston saw more switching than pretty much any other team in the league during the regular season. But they are reacting to these switches completely differently.
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And I think when the Celtics offense is going at its best over these last however many years they've been really good, it's because of their side-to-side action. Once the ball, they are as good as any other offense in the league, if not the single best in the league. Side-to-side?
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Yeah, yeah.
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It's when the ball is on one side of the court and goes to the other. You're allowed to go to the side? Like from one side, that's allowed? It's unbelievable. And you could do it without dribbling as well. And the Celtics, when they go swing from right to the left side of the court, they are deathly.
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When they can go side to side twice in the same possession, they are better at executing off of that than any other team in the NBA until three days ago. And I think what's happening with the switching is it's not... We focus so much on... the individual matchups that are created from switching.
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Okay, Jalen Brunson has switched on to Jason Tatum, or Kat has switched on to Jason Tatum, and now it's Tatum versus Brunson, and that's a mismatch. But there's the way you can fan out, and there's the way that it affects the rest of the defense. And what's happening here is the Knicks are able to stay at home on Boston's perimeter shooters a lot more. And it's closing up passing lanes.
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It's closing up the ability to take threes, even though Boston took 60 in the first game. But a lot of those were... I mean, Jason Tatum took 14 threes off the dribble in game one. Like a lot of those are not the Boston-esque threes that we're used to seeing, even though they're unquestionably missing good looks throughout this entire series.
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And I think the way that the Celtics are responding to the Knicks defensive strategy is something that... I've wondered if the Knicks have banked on this because the Celtics, if they have a flaw, it is that they know their identity and they know their strategy is to go out and get threes.
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And I think at times it can slip their mind that as important as shooting threes is, creating threes is more important. I think the Celtics have been really good at shooting threes in this series. They've taken 100 over the first two games on the dot.