# NBA Preseason Reaction: Giannis’ Heat debut, Steph & Warriors lose, Nuggets-Jazz + 76ers scrimmage

An episode of [Hoops Tonight with Jason Timpf](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1536277916), 5 Oct 2026, 51 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/clrtpod.com/m/arttrk.com/p/D5CA5/prfx.byspotify.com/e/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/90447913-4e20-4e90-aa1e-ae510011dd1d/baf3720d-938d-4c3e-b3c3-b4da011af9a7/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=9e36bb2c-2512-48e1-92f8-ae510011dd2b

Jason reacts to the opening weekend of NBA preseason games including Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Miami Heat vs. the Toronto Raptors without Kawhi Leonard, Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets facing the Utah Jazz, Steph Curry's Golden State Warriors against the Los Angeles Clippers, and LeBron James’ first look with the Philadelphia 76ers in their interteam scrimmage. Join polymarket: https://app.polymarket.us/S8ac/HOOPSTONIGHT 18+ Only. Restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Not available in all jurisdictions. Trading is risky. 100% loss can occur. See polymarket.com/tos for more information. The Polymarket US App serves as an indepdent software provider and affiliate of Polymarket US and Polymarket Clearing, the CFTC-regulated exchange and clearing organization. #Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: The Volume The Volume All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight
[0:16] Speaker 1: here at the Volume Heavy Monday, everybody. Hope all of
[0:18] Speaker 1: you guys had an incredible weekend. We have NBA basketball
[0:22] Speaker 1: to react to today. We're going to keep it very simple,
[0:25] Speaker 1: just an old school episode of Hoops Tonight. We've got
[0:27] Speaker 1: three games to react to, three preseason games. We had
[0:30] Speaker 1: the debut of the Miami Heat with Giannis Antetokounmpo and
[0:34] Speaker 1: Bam Adebayo. We're going to lead off there today because
[0:36] Speaker 1: I was moved by what I saw in that game.
[0:39] Speaker 1: We're going to break down a little bit of Nuggets
[0:41] Speaker 1: Jazz as well as Clippers Warriors. And then at the
[0:43] Speaker 1: tail end of the show, I was genuinely curious to
[0:46] Speaker 1: see the first little bit of on video basketball of
[0:49] Speaker 1: the Philadelphia 76ers. And so I watched the scrimmage that
[0:52] Speaker 1: they had the, uh, the free scrimmage where they had
[0:55] Speaker 1: pretty good turnout there in Philly. And we got to
[0:57] Speaker 1: see the six or starting five play for the first time,
[0:59] Speaker 1: as well as some different kinds of groupings of them
[1:01] Speaker 1: with their bench talent. So we'll talk briefly about that
[1:03] Speaker 1: at the tail end of the show, and then we'll
[1:05] Speaker 1: get out of here. You guys know the Joe, before
[1:06] Speaker 1: we get started, subscribe to the hoops tonight, YouTube channel.
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[1:15] Speaker 1: second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button if
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[1:23] Speaker 1: not least we will be getting back to our mailbags
[1:25] Speaker 1: this week so if you have a mailbag question about
[1:26] Speaker 1: anything involving this uh upcoming nba season drop them underneath
[1:31] Speaker 1: this video in the comments, right? Mailbag colon, write your question.
[1:36] Speaker 1: We will get to them on Friday later this week.
[1:39] Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So starting with the
[1:42] Speaker 1: Miami heat and the Toronto Raptors, to be clear, I'm
[1:46] Speaker 1: not usually moved by preseason basketball. I, you know, look
[1:50] Speaker 1: in on some specific things. I want to see if
[1:52] Speaker 1: there's anything different that they're doing offensively. Maybe it's a
[1:55] Speaker 1: young player that's coming in through the draft that You
[1:58] Speaker 1: want to see what he looks like for the first
[1:59] Speaker 1: time against real NBA competition. Maybe it's, you know, there's
[2:04] Speaker 1: a new coach that you want to see if they
[2:06] Speaker 1: changed anything. Maybe it's a new player, like a legitimate,
[2:09] Speaker 1: you know, change in the starting lineup because you swapped,
[2:12] Speaker 1: you know, like a Porter junior for cam Johnson or
[2:15] Speaker 1: whatever it might be. Usually there's something to keep an
[2:17] Speaker 1: eye on, but for the most part, teams don't experience
[2:20] Speaker 1: radical change every single summer. And the preseason can be
[2:23] Speaker 1: a little sloppy. That was something that always stands out
[2:25] Speaker 1: to me going from, watching playoff basketball to watching preseason basketballs.
[2:30] Speaker 1: It can be a little sloppy sometimes, but every once
[2:32] Speaker 1: in a while we get teams that have dramatic changes
[2:36] Speaker 1: and the preseason ends up being your very first opportunity
[2:39] Speaker 1: to just see conceptually what it looks like to watch
[2:42] Speaker 1: a new group of basketball players play together. And we
[2:44] Speaker 1: have a couple examples of that today between the Miami
[2:47] Speaker 1: heat and the Philadelphia 76ers later in the show. And
[2:51] Speaker 1: there are some times that I watch a preseason set
[2:54] Speaker 1: of basketball and I just immediately go, Oh, like that's
[2:58] Speaker 1: gonna work that what we're watching. We don't need to
[3:02] Speaker 1: overthink it. That's going to work. A kind of exaggerated
[3:06] Speaker 1: example of this would be the very first time Anthony
[3:08] Speaker 1: Davis played what the Los Angeles Lakers in a preseason game,
[3:11] Speaker 1: they had this game against the warriors where they just
[3:14] Speaker 1: beat the living shit out of them to start. I
[3:16] Speaker 1: think they went up 27 to nine, Anthony Davis, like
[3:19] Speaker 1: had a crazy stat line just in the first quarter.
[3:21] Speaker 1: And when you watched the combination of LeBron James and
[3:25] Speaker 1: Anthony Davis with all of that big physical athleticism and
[3:29] Speaker 1: high IQ basketball players that they had around them. It
[3:32] Speaker 1: was easy to watch them and just go, this team's
[3:34] Speaker 1: going to be really good. Like it wasn't, there was
[3:36] Speaker 1: no overreacting there. It was a simple proof of concept
[3:40] Speaker 1: that we were seeing in between the lines. Now I
[3:43] Speaker 1: wouldn't say this heat game was anywhere near as impressive
[3:46] Speaker 1: as that 2020 Lakers debut. And this heat team certainly
[3:49] Speaker 1: is not as talented or as good as that team,
[3:51] Speaker 1: But it was similar in the sense that it was
[3:54] Speaker 1: the first time that we got a look at what
[3:56] Speaker 1: amounts to essentially a brand new basketball team. And they
[3:59] Speaker 1: were immediately impressive in a lot of ways that just
[4:02] Speaker 1: made me think, yeah, this is going to work. First
[4:06] Speaker 1: of all, just in the numbers, they put up 76
[4:08] Speaker 1: points in the first half, despite turning the ball over
[4:11] Speaker 1: 13 times. We'll talk about the turnovers in a minute.
[4:14] Speaker 1: And that's going to be kind of part of the
[4:16] Speaker 1: story with this team. They had a 131 offensive rating
[4:19] Speaker 1: in the first half. a 97 defensive rating in the
[4:23] Speaker 1: first half, they grabbed 57% of all available rebounds against
[4:28] Speaker 1: a big physical Toronto Raptors team. And they had 37
[4:32] Speaker 1: transition points just in the first half per game.
[4:37] Speaker 2: Last year, they averaged 32.
[4:39] Speaker 1: They were running it right down Toronto's throat.
[4:41] Speaker 2: It's off of rebounds and turnovers. So those are the numbers.
[4:46] Speaker 1: That was how impressive statistically that first half of basketball would,
[4:51] Speaker 1: you know, the heat actually playing their starters looked like,
[4:53] Speaker 1: but here's what it looked like in practice. And you
[4:55] Speaker 1: have to start with the defensive end of the floor,
[4:57] Speaker 1: specifically at the point of attack. Like, you know, I, I,
[5:02] Speaker 1: it's always interesting to me. The first time you see
[5:04] Speaker 1: a team take the floor in a competitive environment and
[5:06] Speaker 1: Just to look at like what their care factor is
[5:10] Speaker 1: on defense. Cause I think it's emblematic of just how
[5:13] Speaker 1: dedicated they've been to it culturally from the start of camp.
[5:17] Speaker 1: Like even in a preseason game, if they just come
[5:19] Speaker 1: out and they go, we're getting in your Jersey and
[5:21] Speaker 1: we're playing great defense. That's part of like what establishes
[5:24] Speaker 1: a culture of consistent effort and intensity on that side
[5:27] Speaker 1: of the floor. Take like the Phoenix suns, for example,
[5:30] Speaker 1: like there's a defensive personnel, a defensive game plan, a
[5:33] Speaker 1: defensive coaching element, but then there's like a defensive, like
[5:36] Speaker 1: how hard are we playing on the side of the floor?
[5:37] Speaker 1: Like how much, how much is this just part of
[5:40] Speaker 1: who we are as a basketball team? And it became
[5:41] Speaker 1: abundantly clear that was part of Phoenix's culture. And then
[5:44] Speaker 1: all year long, they just played really, really hard on
[5:47] Speaker 1: defense and it made them a pain in the ass
[5:48] Speaker 1: to score against. And they made the playoffs as a result.
[5:51] Speaker 1: which is super impressive relative to the amount of talent
[5:54] Speaker 1: that they had in house. And some of the teams
[5:56] Speaker 1: that ended up not making the playoffs last year, like
[5:58] Speaker 1: the Clippers and the Warriors. Right. So it was this,
[6:02] Speaker 1: I thought when you watched the way that, that Miami
[6:06] Speaker 1: came out and Davion Mitchell is like, chaotically chasing over
[6:11] Speaker 1: the top of a double drag and like a random
[6:13] Speaker 1: preseason game, 35 feet from the basket. And he's just
[6:17] Speaker 1: psycho running over the top of the screen, sidling over
[6:19] Speaker 1: the top and staying in front of the ball. Or like,
[6:22] Speaker 1: you know, Davion's got this, like little bit. He's a,
[6:25] Speaker 1: he's a little bit of a nut job on the
[6:26] Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor in the sense that like he,
[6:29] Speaker 1: he takes this insane amount of like passionate joy in
[6:35] Speaker 1: playing defense.
[6:35] Speaker 2: He had a, a play.
[6:37] Speaker 1: I can't even remember who he was guarding. I want
[6:39] Speaker 1: to say it was against Jamal shed along, like kind
[6:41] Speaker 1: of the short corner on the right side of the
[6:42] Speaker 1: floor on one of the possessions in the, in the
[6:46] Speaker 1: second quarter. And he ends up like sliding his feet perfectly.
[6:49] Speaker 1: He gets a great contest. And then you just hear
[6:51] Speaker 1: him yell out on the broadcast at the top of
[6:53] Speaker 1: his lungs.
[6:54] Speaker 2: Like hell yeah.
[6:55] Speaker 1: Then he like runs back on defense and you're like,
[6:57] Speaker 1: is this like a random preseason possession? He's not fighting
[6:59] Speaker 1: for a starting spot. The starting spots is it's like, no,
[7:02] Speaker 1: this is just what he loves to do.
[7:03] Speaker 2: He loves to guard.
[7:04] Speaker 1: And having dudes like that in the context of this
[7:08] Speaker 1: Giannis Bam build is what makes this defense so terrifying.
[7:12] Speaker 2: And it wasn't perfect. Like Andrew Wiggins kind.
[7:14] Speaker 1: Of struggled a little bit with RJ Barrett early in
[7:16] Speaker 1: the game. RJ Barrett just started going through his chest
[7:18] Speaker 1: and was kind of attacking him early before he could
[7:20] Speaker 1: get his feet set. And he was getting a lot
[7:22] Speaker 1: of good rim pressure early in the game. But as
[7:24] Speaker 1: a proof of concept, you could see like, Davion Mitchell
[7:27] Speaker 1: is getting over every screen and staying in the, the
[7:30] Speaker 1: opposing guards Jersey, just the entire game. And then you
[7:33] Speaker 1: have Andrew Wiggins, who's one of the better defensive options
[7:36] Speaker 1: for these bigger kind of ball handling wings and guards.
[7:39] Speaker 2: Right.
[7:40] Speaker 1: And then you have Bam and Giannis on the back
[7:42] Speaker 1: line and Bam and Giannis weren't perfect on the back line.
[7:43] Speaker 1: Giannis would lose a shooter, you know, over helping off
[7:47] Speaker 1: of the corner. Bam got caught on a back screen
[7:50] Speaker 1: that gave up a wide open layup. I think to
[7:52] Speaker 1: Yaka Purtle, if I remember correctly, cause like some of
[7:54] Speaker 1: those like guard, big interchanges.
[7:57] Speaker 2: They don't want to switch. Right.
[7:58] Speaker 1: So like it, it was just Emmanuel quickly going up
[8:01] Speaker 1: and setting a back screen on bam.
[8:02] Speaker 2: He gets caught. He gives up a little screen, a
[8:04] Speaker 2: layup on the back.
[8:05] Speaker 1: And so it wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination,
[8:07] Speaker 1: but you could see as a proof of concept, the
[8:10] Speaker 1: idea of just, there's all of this rangy athletic size
[8:14] Speaker 1: behind great perimeter defenders. And one of the things I
[8:18] Speaker 1: talked about in our season preview is I really want
[8:21] Speaker 1: to clay to start. I thought it made the most
[8:22] Speaker 1: sense for a variety of reasons. Why? Because one, he
[8:26] Speaker 1: is going to end up having to switch quite a bit.
[8:28] Speaker 1: And clay is a very smart defender. He kind of
[8:30] Speaker 1: understands his job on defense. So like, even when you're
[8:33] Speaker 1: giving up foot speed, there's an element of like, if
[8:37] Speaker 1: I get beat, I want to get beat in this direction.
[8:40] Speaker 1: Cause this is where the help is where like, that's
[8:42] Speaker 1: a big part of being a good defender. It's not
[8:44] Speaker 1: necessarily always stonewalling the drives and making every rotation perfect.
[8:49] Speaker 1: Sometimes it's just about being in the right spot and
[8:51] Speaker 1: getting beat in the right way.
[8:53] Speaker 2: Right.
[8:54] Speaker 1: And clay is big and physical. He's good at defending big,
[8:57] Speaker 1: strong players. And he's smart in the way that he
[9:00] Speaker 1: gets beat against some of the quicker players. So he's
[9:02] Speaker 1: a natural fit alongside a team that has such great
[9:04] Speaker 1: help side defense. And Toronto did on several occasions, try
[9:08] Speaker 1: to pick on clay. And I, you know, all you
[9:10] Speaker 1: had to do is like kind of watch as the
[9:12] Speaker 1: play was developing and you'd see clay, uh, on defense
[9:16] Speaker 1: against like Jamal shed. And there would just be bam
[9:19] Speaker 1: and Giannis and Andrew Wiggins and Davion Mitchell, just shrinking
[9:22] Speaker 1: the floor around him. And like, it's not asking clay
[9:25] Speaker 1: in a one-on-one king of the court scenario to guard
[9:28] Speaker 1: Jamal shed. He'd get toasted off the dribble every single time,
[9:31] Speaker 1: but that's not what you're asking him to do. You're
[9:33] Speaker 1: asking him to defend in the context of all these
[9:35] Speaker 1: great defenders around him. And it just worked, you know?
[9:39] Speaker 1: And I remember when I was watching the, the, the game,
[9:42] Speaker 1: I briefly had this thought. I'm like, well, you know,
[9:44] Speaker 1: This is a tough matchup for Toronto without Kawhi, right?
[9:46] Speaker 1: Because Toronto struggles to shoot the ball on their best day.
[9:49] Speaker 1: You know, you don't, because Brandon Ingram's gone, you don't
[9:52] Speaker 1: have the replacement for Kawhi. You are going to a
[9:56] Speaker 1: lot of these two big looks for culinary boils playing
[9:58] Speaker 1: at the force.
[9:59] Speaker 2: You don't have a lot of jump shots. on the floor.
[10:01] Speaker 2: you have.
[10:03] Speaker 1: In general, like a player trying to lead your offense
[10:06] Speaker 1: and Scotty Barnes, that doesn't really have physical advantages because
[10:09] Speaker 1: he's going against some of the bigger, stronger athletes that
[10:11] Speaker 1: we have in the league. Like I remember sitting there
[10:13] Speaker 1: thinking like, well, you know, if Kauai is out there,
[10:15] Speaker 1: it would just be a lot easier. But then as
[10:17] Speaker 1: I kind of watched the game, I'm like, even with Kauai,
[10:19] Speaker 1: this is a tough matchup. They probably just move the
[10:22] Speaker 1: matchups around. Like Wiggins probably guards Kauai instead of RJ Barrett.
[10:25] Speaker 1: And you probably put Giannis on RJ Barrett and just
[10:27] Speaker 1: basically kind of dare him to shoot. And you know,
[10:30] Speaker 1: there's a, there's a certain amount of like Miami is
[10:32] Speaker 1: just really physically imposing on both ends of the floor
[10:38] Speaker 1: in a way that makes it tough to match up
[10:39] Speaker 1: with that. I remember sitting there thinking like, like, let's
[10:42] Speaker 1: just imagine Miami guarding Philly. It's like, you're going to put,
[10:47] Speaker 1: you know, bam or Giannis on LeBron, right? You're going
[10:51] Speaker 1: to put Andrew Wiggins on Jalen Brown. You're going to
[10:53] Speaker 1: put Davion Mitchell on Tyrese maxi. And the best matchup
[10:56] Speaker 1: you're going to have is VJ edge comb versus clay,
[11:00] Speaker 1: but in the same kind of dynamic where VJ has
[11:02] Speaker 1: got speed, but he's going to have to deal with
[11:06] Speaker 1: all this insane amount of help defense behind him. And like,
[11:09] Speaker 1: you can kind of go down the line with any
[11:11] Speaker 1: of the contenders in the Eastern conference. And it's like, well,
[11:14] Speaker 1: Bam's a really good option for that guy. Oh, well,
[11:16] Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins is a really good option for that guy. Oh, well,
[11:18] Speaker 1: Davion Mitchell's one of the best guard defenders in the league. Like,
[11:22] Speaker 1: like if I'm playing against the Knicks, like there's not
[11:24] Speaker 1: a lot of players I'd rather have for Jalen Brunson
[11:26] Speaker 1: than Davion Mitchell, right?
[11:27] Speaker 2: Like there's just a lot of that.
[11:29] Speaker 1: Type of just physical problem solving that Miami can do
[11:33] Speaker 1: because they just have these bodies. And the same thing
[11:36] Speaker 1: happened on the opposite end of the floor, right? Like
[11:39] Speaker 1: I just, I'm watching these, they have to go to
[11:41] Speaker 1: a too big look because you need to have, when
[11:44] Speaker 1: you're in the bench group, when Scotty Barnes is off
[11:46] Speaker 1: the floor, you got to have a big body to
[11:47] Speaker 1: throw at the too big look for Miami with Giannis
[11:50] Speaker 1: and Bam. So it's like, okay, Colin Murray boils is
[11:52] Speaker 1: guarding Giannis and he's.
[11:53] Speaker 2: Doing a.
[11:56] Speaker 1: On the other side of that, you've got Yaka Pirtle
[11:58] Speaker 1: guarding Bam and he Bam just gets him in space. And,
[12:02] Speaker 1: you know, they just swing the ball to him and
[12:03] Speaker 1: he just rips through to his left-hand side and just
[12:05] Speaker 1: gets a nasty dunk. And it's because he's, you're asking
[12:09] Speaker 1: basically Yaka Pirtle to guard a perimeter player because of
[12:12] Speaker 1: just the way the physical matchups work. Whereas if Giannis
[12:15] Speaker 1: is not on the Miami heat, You can probably just
[12:18] Speaker 1: go with Colin Murray Boyles at the five and you
[12:19] Speaker 1: can have him guard Bam and you don't have to
[12:21] Speaker 1: worry about some other guy on the team that's just
[12:24] Speaker 1: too physically imposing for any of your forwards. It's that
[12:27] Speaker 1: is the physical dynamic that Miami puts you in. That's
[12:31] Speaker 1: so difficult. It's just they have some of the biggest,
[12:34] Speaker 1: strongest and most mobile athletes in the league. And they
[12:37] Speaker 1: have a versatility with the types of positions they can guard.
[12:40] Speaker 1: And it's again, I don't need to watch a ton
[12:43] Speaker 1: more of that to know that it's going to work.
[12:46] Speaker 2: Like if they.
[12:47] Speaker 1: Get at least 65 games out of their core four guys,
[12:51] Speaker 1: they're going to be a top three defense in this league.
[12:55] Speaker 1: And even when you talk about offense and like there's
[12:57] Speaker 1: sloppy ball handling, right? Like there's a lot of guys
[12:59] Speaker 1: that are good, not great. There was a play where
[13:01] Speaker 1: I watched Davion Mitchell in transition, kind of over-penetrated a
[13:04] Speaker 1: little bit. He picked up his dribble around the foul
[13:06] Speaker 1: line and he kind of is pivoting around. He just
[13:08] Speaker 1: panicked and he threw a pass. I can't remember who
[13:10] Speaker 1: it was. He was running up the left side of
[13:11] Speaker 1: the floor, but he threw it behind him. So it
[13:13] Speaker 1: goes out of bounds.
[13:14] Speaker 2: And you know, one of the things that.
[13:15] Speaker 1: I think is really underrated about high level playmaking is
[13:18] Speaker 1: like slowing down sometimes. Like a lot of, there are
[13:21] Speaker 1: a lot of players out there that like they, that
[13:23] Speaker 1: the game is just when they're doing something with the basketball,
[13:26] Speaker 1: they're kind of always going a hundred miles an hour,
[13:28] Speaker 1: which can lead to good plays, but it can also
[13:30] Speaker 1: lead to mistakes. Whereas some of the players that can
[13:34] Speaker 1: slow down and let things develop, they tend to make
[13:36] Speaker 1: less mistakes. And usually when the defense is in a
[13:38] Speaker 1: chaotic scramble situation, especially in transition, somebody will be open.
[13:42] Speaker 2: So just slow down and let the play develop. Right.
[13:44] Speaker 1: And there's a lot of that. Like Bam can get
[13:47] Speaker 1: sped up. Sometimes he had some transition turnovers. There'd be
[13:50] Speaker 1: plays where the heat would like, play stifling defense, get
[13:53] Speaker 1: a stop, run out the other way and just throw
[13:55] Speaker 1: the basketball away. You know, and like when you look
[13:58] Speaker 1: at the team, I'd argue Giannis is really the only
[14:01] Speaker 1: super high level playmaker they have on the team. And
[14:04] Speaker 1: a lot of their guys can get sped up and
[14:06] Speaker 1: make mistakes. And they did have, you know, 13 turnovers
[14:08] Speaker 1: in the first half. And I would be shocked if
[14:10] Speaker 1: they were not a high turnover team this season. I
[14:12] Speaker 1: wouldn't be, I wouldn't be surprised if they were at
[14:15] Speaker 1: least top 10 in turnover rate, you know, just because
[14:19] Speaker 1: of the dynamic they have with the types of ball
[14:21] Speaker 1: handlers that they have. but their offense was still amazing. Anyways,
[14:24] Speaker 1: they posted over a one 30 offensive rating. They hung 40,
[14:27] Speaker 1: whatever in the first half or first quarter, because they
[14:31] Speaker 1: have several factors working in their favor. Despite the fact
[14:34] Speaker 1: that their ball handling is sloppy for starters, tons of
[14:36] Speaker 1: transition opportunities, like getting 37 transition points and a half
[14:40] Speaker 1: is like kind of bat shit crazy. Like you're on
[14:43] Speaker 1: pace there for 74 transition points. I think they had
[14:47] Speaker 1: one game all season last year with over 70 transition points.
[14:50] Speaker 1: That was against Washington. So like they, there's, that's just
[14:55] Speaker 1: preposterous to be playing in the open court that often.
[14:58] Speaker 1: That is a product of their defense. I don't care
[15:01] Speaker 1: how much you turn the basketball over. I don't care
[15:02] Speaker 1: how limited your playmaking talent is. When you're that athletic
[15:06] Speaker 1: and you're playing in transition that much, your points per
[15:08] Speaker 1: possession and transition is going to be outrageous. I think
[15:10] Speaker 1: synergy logged them at like over a one 60 offensive
[15:13] Speaker 1: rating on their, on their transition possessions in that game.
[15:17] Speaker 1: So like they're going to get out and run a ton.
[15:20] Speaker 1: And that is a huge boost to an offense, right? Secondly,
[15:23] Speaker 1: they have a lot of really good three point shooters.
[15:25] Speaker 1: They made 11 threes in the first half. They were
[15:27] Speaker 1: 11 for 23, which is I think right around like
[15:29] Speaker 1: 47 and a half percent.
[15:31] Speaker 2: Tim Hardaway made three threes. He's a good shooter.
[15:33] Speaker 1: He's going to make them. Andrew Wiggins made four threes.
[15:36] Speaker 1: He's a 40% catch and shoot guy. He's going to
[15:37] Speaker 1: make them, you know, bam, hit a three. He went
[15:39] Speaker 1: one for four. He could, he missed a, a couple
[15:42] Speaker 1: of really good looks at, at, at various points in
[15:44] Speaker 1: that first half. Jovich had like a wide open left
[15:47] Speaker 1: corner three that he knocked down. Bobby Portis hit one
[15:49] Speaker 1: Davion Mitchell hit one. Like they're, these are all guys
[15:52] Speaker 1: that are good tutors. And so the question is, can
[15:54] Speaker 1: you generate for them?
[15:56] Speaker 2: Good looks.
[15:57] Speaker 1: And that brings us to the third factor that they
[15:59] Speaker 1: have working in their favor, which is just Giannis and Tenekumpo.
[16:02] Speaker 1: Giannis looked fantastic. And it's just such a simple dynamic.
[16:06] Speaker 1: And this is something he got really good at over
[16:08] Speaker 1: the course of the last few years in Milwaukee, but
[16:11] Speaker 1: he has a very simple, uh, process when it comes
[16:16] Speaker 1: to attacking the basket where he's, he's not like this
[16:20] Speaker 1: super advanced, you know, Yoke, it's Luca esque, like seeing
[16:24] Speaker 1: two or three plays ahead kind of playmaker. But what
[16:27] Speaker 1: he is, is very good at making the simple reads
[16:30] Speaker 1: that materialize out of his rim pressure. So corner kicks,
[16:34] Speaker 1: for example, like whether it was, you know, he got
[16:36] Speaker 1: one off of a roll where he set a ball screen,
[16:38] Speaker 1: got a ball, got the ball in the pocket, saw
[16:40] Speaker 1: the play developed, whipped it to the, to the left
[16:42] Speaker 1: corner for a wide open three, just attacking off of
[16:45] Speaker 1: the wings off of the dribble. Like I, all I
[16:47] Speaker 1: have to do is to my right to left crossover
[16:50] Speaker 1: and just throw a hard spin move. This dude's going
[16:52] Speaker 1: to pinch off the corner, easy little kick to the
[16:53] Speaker 1: corner for a wide open three, the transition stuff. And
[16:56] Speaker 1: then he's good with baseline cutters too. So it's, it's
[16:59] Speaker 1: kind of like everything that's in front of him. Like
[17:01] Speaker 1: he attacks the rim and he sees corner, corner, cutter, corner,
[17:04] Speaker 1: corner cutter. He sees those three reads really, really well.
[17:08] Speaker 1: And so he can just generate a lot of really
[17:10] Speaker 1: good looks. And I think, I think they generated nine
[17:13] Speaker 1: unguarded catch and shoot threes in the first half and
[17:16] Speaker 1: Miami shot really well on the open catch and shoot
[17:18] Speaker 1: looks that they got in that game because they have
[17:20] Speaker 1: good open catch and shoot shooters. So they're going to
[17:23] Speaker 1: turn the basketball over a lot. If Giannis gets hurt,
[17:26] Speaker 1: obviously the depth of ball handling would be a massive
[17:28] Speaker 1: issue for this team, but when they are healthy, even
[17:32] Speaker 1: with the issues that they have handling the basketball, because
[17:35] Speaker 1: they get out and transition a ton because they have
[17:37] Speaker 1: good catch and shoot players. And because Yannis antenna Kumpo
[17:40] Speaker 1: is one of the best basketball players in the world.
[17:42] Speaker 2: They're just going to score a lot of points.
[17:45] Speaker 1: And look like Toronto may not have had Kawhi, but
[17:47] Speaker 1: they came out playing super hard on defense.
[17:49] Speaker 2: You should have watched Toronto. Like Toronto came out for
[17:51] Speaker 2: a fight.
[17:52] Speaker 1: Like these were two teams that have strong defensive cultures
[17:55] Speaker 1: that are going to play super.
[17:56] Speaker 2: Hard on that end of the floor.
[17:57] Speaker 1: And Toronto brought it in Miami, cut them to pieces
[18:01] Speaker 1: because they're just incredibly difficult to handle defensively.
[18:04] Speaker 2: Physically.
[18:05] Speaker 1: Again, it's just one preseason game, but I was moved.
[18:07] Speaker 1: I like, I don't need to watch much more from
[18:10] Speaker 1: Miami to know that when they're healthy, they're going to
[18:13] Speaker 1: be really good. They're going to be a plus plus
[18:16] Speaker 1: on defense. They're going to be a plus plus in
[18:18] Speaker 1: transition on offense. And they're going to be sloppy on
[18:21] Speaker 1: offense in the half corporate. They're still going to get
[18:23] Speaker 1: a lot of good looks because they're big. They're they
[18:26] Speaker 1: present a lot of physical mismatches and they've got dudes
[18:28] Speaker 1: who can hit catch and shoot threes. It's a simple
[18:30] Speaker 1: science and it's going to work. It's just a question
[18:32] Speaker 1: of whether or not they can stay healthy. On the
[18:35] Speaker 1: Raptors front, not too much to get into. Again, there's
[18:36] Speaker 1: nothing really new about this team aside from Kawhi Leonard.
[18:40] Speaker 2: And he was out, right?
[18:42] Speaker 1: And I thought Scottie struggled in his first shift, but
[18:44] Speaker 1: I thought he was much better in his second shift.
[18:46] Speaker 1: He actually had some really nice two-way sequences right at
[18:50] Speaker 1: the end of his last shift before he got subbed out.
[18:52] Speaker 1: And I thought Ryakovich was basically looking at the situation like,
[18:55] Speaker 1: this game's getting out of hand. We're ready to be done.
[18:57] Speaker 1: But like Scottie just made some plays. Good boost for
[18:59] Speaker 1: his confidence. We'll get him out of there. Scottie was
[19:01] Speaker 1: good in his second shift. when I watched that game
[19:04] Speaker 1: in particular, when they're playing against teams like this teams
[19:07] Speaker 1: that can physically match up with Scotty and Kawhi, I
[19:10] Speaker 1: think that's where Emmanuel quickly and Jamal shed are so important.
[19:13] Speaker 1: I've called attention to these two constantly over the course
[19:15] Speaker 1: of the last couple of years. It just from the
[19:18] Speaker 1: standpoint of how important it is to get dribble penetration,
[19:20] Speaker 1: to break a defense down, right? Like, fundamentally, if you
[19:24] Speaker 1: have a team that is elite on defense and that
[19:26] Speaker 1: has multiple players that can guard multiple positions and they're
[19:29] Speaker 1: good at switching, you're going to have to find a
[19:31] Speaker 1: way to get them into rotation. And again, like, especially
[19:34] Speaker 1: against a team like that, where you're not going to
[19:36] Speaker 1: have Scotty and Kawhi just feasting against physically overwhelmed players,
[19:40] Speaker 1: your advantage is speed. And that's where I think, you know,
[19:44] Speaker 1: one of the most important layers to the Raptors offense.
[19:46] Speaker 1: And like, I take the Raptors dead seriously as a
[19:48] Speaker 1: championship contender when they're healthy with kawaii and i think
[19:51] Speaker 1: that's where quickly and shed are such an underrated part
[19:54] Speaker 1: of this team is they are the counter to the
[19:56] Speaker 1: teams that can physically match up with kawaii and scotty
[19:59] Speaker 1: in the sense that they can beat people off the
[20:01] Speaker 1: dribble which is like fundamentally one of the most important
[20:04] Speaker 1: things in basketball we're going to talk about it with
[20:05] Speaker 1: the warriors with uh um with Brandon Williams, for example,
[20:10] Speaker 1: just like watching a guy who can just toast people
[20:12] Speaker 1: off the dribble. It's just so important for breaking the
[20:15] Speaker 1: defense down. I need to tell you about this new
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[21:25] Speaker 1: the CFTC regulated exchange and clearing organizations. All right, moving
[21:31] Speaker 1: on to Nuggets Jazz. So the Jazz ended up going
[21:35] Speaker 1: with their big lineup like we thought they would with
[21:37] Speaker 1: Nurkic at the five. And they basically played two shifts
[21:39] Speaker 1: with the starters. They played a small ball group in
[21:41] Speaker 1: the late second quarter, and they played their big group
[21:43] Speaker 1: in the early first quarter. And with that big group,
[21:47] Speaker 1: with Nurkic, again, there's something to be said about just
[21:51] Speaker 1: some of the history that we've seen.
[21:52] Speaker 2: Like we saw last year that.
[21:55] Speaker 1: Uh, they almost exclusively played Jaron Jackson at the four
[21:58] Speaker 1: in the minutes that he had last season. And in general,
[22:02] Speaker 1: Nurkic is one of the best, the best passing bigs
[22:04] Speaker 1: in house, which is an important part of their offense, right?
[22:06] Speaker 1: So that's why they ended up going big. Uh, the
[22:08] Speaker 1: nuggets did not have Jamal Murray. So Tyus Jones was
[22:10] Speaker 1: in for him. Tyus at this age is in his thirties.
[22:13] Speaker 1: Now I just don't think he's physically really up for
[22:16] Speaker 1: the challenge on either end of the floor. Uh, but
[22:18] Speaker 1: he was the guy who's playing for the nuggets. The
[22:20] Speaker 1: first starter for starter shift, uh, like the opening minutes
[22:23] Speaker 1: went the way of the nuggets. Uh, the jazz were
[22:25] Speaker 1: running a very interesting kind of like switching scram style defense.
[22:30] Speaker 1: It kind of reminded me a little bit of what
[22:31] Speaker 1: Sean Sweeney was doing with San Antonio, where it's like, it's,
[22:34] Speaker 1: we're trying to keep our bigs on the back line
[22:36] Speaker 1: all the time. So we're switching screens out front and
[22:39] Speaker 1: then we're scramming guys out. So imagine, and this is
[22:42] Speaker 1: the advantage of having multiple bigs is you can switch
[22:45] Speaker 1: a big onto the perimeter and and still have bigs behind, right?
[22:48] Speaker 1: So what ends up happening is like, imagine a ball
[22:51] Speaker 1: screen where Laurie Markkinen ends up switching out onto the
[22:55] Speaker 1: ball handler. And now Keontae George is guarding Jokic or
[23:00] Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon. or Darren Peterson is guarding your kitchen or
[23:04] Speaker 1: guarding Aaron Gordon.
[23:05] Speaker 2: Right?
[23:05] Speaker 1: So then what they would do is Jared Jackson's on
[23:07] Speaker 1: the back line. He would try to like scram out
[23:11] Speaker 1: Keontae or Darren so that they can then rotate to
[23:13] Speaker 1: the corner. So what it essentially amounts to is like
[23:16] Speaker 1: they're switching everything, but they're avoiding mismatches as best as
[23:20] Speaker 1: they can by scrambling with the additional bigs.
[23:24] Speaker 2: That they have on the back line. It was a
[23:25] Speaker 2: little sloppy.
[23:26] Speaker 1: There were a lot of miscommunications and you could tell
[23:29] Speaker 1: it's a relatively new scheme. That's going to take some
[23:32] Speaker 1: time for those guys to get used to. And Denver's
[23:35] Speaker 1: a really tough team to make those specific kinds of
[23:38] Speaker 1: mistakes against because they're a very good passing team. And
[23:42] Speaker 1: they're very good at taking advantage of the vertical spacing window.
[23:44] Speaker 1: That was one of the first things that like blared
[23:46] Speaker 1: off the screen. Watching that game was just like having
[23:49] Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon back who had two easy baseline cuts for
[23:53] Speaker 1: reverse kind of drop-ins, you know, like he's so good
[23:55] Speaker 1: at that reverse because he just kind of has good
[23:57] Speaker 1: awareness of the rim when it's behind him. And then
[24:00] Speaker 1: Christian Brown, I thought looked fantastic athletically in this game,
[24:03] Speaker 1: especially in transition. Like he didn't shoot the ball well,
[24:05] Speaker 1: but he had a couple of buckets on baseline cuts.
[24:08] Speaker 1: And then in transition had a couple of those classic,
[24:10] Speaker 1: like Christian Brown, just flying up the floor, either dunking
[24:14] Speaker 1: in traffic or going to like some crazy Euro step
[24:16] Speaker 1: against apex athletes, like Christian looked athletic. And that is
[24:20] Speaker 1: one of the most important things. If you're talking about,
[24:24] Speaker 1: about like that contract, and all the discussion about whether
[24:27] Speaker 1: or not it's one of the worst contracts in the league.
[24:29] Speaker 1: One of the things I said in the season preview
[24:31] Speaker 1: is like Christian was hurt and he's an explosive athlete
[24:34] Speaker 1: when he's healthy. Let's see what he looks like with
[24:37] Speaker 1: another year under his belt to kind of get his
[24:39] Speaker 1: body right. And I thought he looked great athletically. They
[24:42] Speaker 1: deployed him on Darren Peterson, which was kind of an
[24:45] Speaker 1: interesting decision because it left Keontae George and Isaiah Collier
[24:47] Speaker 1: going against Tyus Jones all night, which was Straight up
[24:50] Speaker 1: barbecue chicken every time down the floor, which we'll talk
[24:53] Speaker 1: about in a minute. But Christian Brown, I thought looked
[24:55] Speaker 1: good on Darren Peterson defensively looked good. He just looked
[24:58] Speaker 1: very athletic and like having those two guys, him and
[25:01] Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon specifically working that baseline spacing angle. having the
[25:05] Speaker 1: type of collective passing talent that Denver has as the
[25:09] Speaker 1: jazz were in their kind of switch and scram system,
[25:13] Speaker 1: Denver was just passing through it and getting a lot
[25:15] Speaker 1: of easy dunks and threes. It's just for, for the
[25:18] Speaker 1: jazz to be implementing a defensive style that requires a
[25:22] Speaker 1: lot of like coordination, that's going to take some work
[25:25] Speaker 1: for them to tighten up. Denver's a tough matchup for
[25:28] Speaker 1: your like first game against that type of look, because
[25:30] Speaker 1: they're just going to pass through you. And that's what
[25:33] Speaker 1: he does so incredibly well. And you'll get your, Jokic
[25:36] Speaker 1: was funny in this game because it was like, he
[25:37] Speaker 1: was trying to make a point that he wasn't going
[25:39] Speaker 1: to shoot. He ended up shooting a little bit more
[25:41] Speaker 1: against the jazz small ball. Look at the end of
[25:44] Speaker 1: the second quarter. He took a little face up jump
[25:46] Speaker 1: shot and he had a deep seal against Darren Peterson
[25:48] Speaker 1: or I think it was Peterson or Collier, but he
[25:50] Speaker 1: got a deep seal where he drew a foul, but
[25:52] Speaker 1: he didn't shoot at all for his first like 12
[25:55] Speaker 1: minutes on the court. And he was just kind of
[25:57] Speaker 1: hanging out there in the middle of the floor. And
[25:59] Speaker 1: one of the things that he does so well is
[26:01] Speaker 1: he baits you into thinking he's not looking and, at
[26:05] Speaker 1: the corners. And so the guy who's guarding the man
[26:08] Speaker 1: in the corner will kind of sink in a little
[26:10] Speaker 1: too much. And then he'll just whip a no look
[26:12] Speaker 1: pass to the corner. And you guys all probably saw
[26:14] Speaker 1: the highlight that this one of the most ridiculous passes
[26:17] Speaker 1: I've ever seen. He's on the left block in through
[26:20] Speaker 1: three jazz defenders. He just whips a behind the back pass.
[26:23] Speaker 1: That's just on a rope that just hits cam Johnson
[26:26] Speaker 1: right in the shooting pocket for three. And it was
[26:27] Speaker 1: kind of funny because the game was at, uh, up
[26:29] Speaker 1: just up the road for me in, in, uh, Boulder
[26:32] Speaker 1: at Colorado. And the student section was right there behind Jokic.
[26:36] Speaker 1: And like right when he threw the pass, the student
[26:38] Speaker 1: section just immediately starts losing it because it was such
[26:40] Speaker 1: a ridiculous passes before Cam even caught the ball. But
[26:43] Speaker 1: that wasn't the only one. He had multiple no look
[26:44] Speaker 1: passes to the corners. He's just he's so good at that,
[26:48] Speaker 1: like kind of just lulling you to sleep by making
[26:51] Speaker 1: it look like he's monitoring something else on the floor.
[26:53] Speaker 1: And then you as a defender, you stand up out
[26:55] Speaker 1: of your stance or you link leak in too far.
[26:58] Speaker 1: And then it's just on a rope, no look to
[27:00] Speaker 1: the corner. He burns you not paying attention, you know?
[27:03] Speaker 1: And like, I think honestly, when we talk about Denver
[27:06] Speaker 1: and I understand that a lot of people are down
[27:08] Speaker 1: on them and for good reason, they were so incredibly
[27:11] Speaker 1: unimpressive last year in the post season. And even though
[27:14] Speaker 1: everyone's healthy now, there's, there's no reason for us to
[27:18] Speaker 1: believe that Aaron Gordon's suddenly going to be able to
[27:20] Speaker 1: hold up this season, but it was just a casual
[27:22] Speaker 1: reminder that out there. And I mean, Jamal Murray wasn't
[27:25] Speaker 1: even out there, but when, When Jokic is out there
[27:28] Speaker 1: and he actually has access to every spacing window, like
[27:31] Speaker 1: an actually athletic and healthy Christian Brown, a vertical spacing,
[27:34] Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon, they're just really hard to guard. And that's
[27:37] Speaker 1: going to put them in a lot of positions where
[27:39] Speaker 1: they can win games because they're just going to score
[27:41] Speaker 1: a shit ton.
[27:42] Speaker 2: Of points, right? The jazz on the offensive end of
[27:45] Speaker 2: the floor.
[27:45] Speaker 1: We'll talk a little bit about the second shift in
[27:47] Speaker 1: a minute, but I want to linger on that first
[27:49] Speaker 1: shift for a minute. Darren Peterson, again, he was a
[27:52] Speaker 1: victim of some of those like defensive confusion moments where like,
[27:56] Speaker 1: you know, he had at one point get scrammed out
[27:58] Speaker 1: of a switch and Randy Keontae George's man. And Keontae
[28:01] Speaker 1: is like pointing to him to go to the cutter,
[28:03] Speaker 1: but then Christian Brown's already there and he's already laying
[28:06] Speaker 1: it up.
[28:06] Speaker 2: And it's like, ah, shit.
[28:07] Speaker 1: Like it just happened way too fast. And again, I
[28:10] Speaker 1: wouldn't blame him specifically for that. I think the entire
[28:12] Speaker 1: jazz team looked a little bit like they were still
[28:15] Speaker 1: in the process of putting together that defensive look and
[28:18] Speaker 1: He got the Christian Brown matchup and Christian Brown did
[28:21] Speaker 1: a really good job in Darren struggled to get his
[28:25] Speaker 1: individual shot off, but he made some very simple reads.
[28:27] Speaker 1: He kind of waited for his opportunities to be aggressive.
[28:31] Speaker 1: He did hit a floater on a play where he
[28:33] Speaker 1: got off of Christian Brown. I think it was when
[28:35] Speaker 1: Ty's Jones happened to be on him on this possession,
[28:37] Speaker 1: if I remember correctly. And he got downhill and just
[28:40] Speaker 1: like bumped him with his shoulder and got like a
[28:42] Speaker 1: little easy floater. But he struggled a little bit with
[28:44] Speaker 1: Christian Brown. But this is the advantage of having two
[28:47] Speaker 1: guards like this. And I talked about this in the
[28:49] Speaker 1: season preview as something that would usually benefit Darren is
[28:54] Speaker 1: by virtue of taking Christian Brown. It forced the Nuggets
[28:58] Speaker 1: worst perimeter defender ties Jones. And I mean, even if
[29:01] Speaker 1: Jamal Murray is in there, he's not.
[29:02] Speaker 2: Great at it.
[29:03] Speaker 1: To guard County George, who's a $ 30 million player.
[29:07] Speaker 2: Right. You know?
[29:08] Speaker 1: And like, and then I say, you call your later
[29:10] Speaker 1: in the game is a very good dribble drive guard.
[29:12] Speaker 1: And it's one of those things where that's the dynamic
[29:15] Speaker 1: where when you have two of those types of guards,
[29:18] Speaker 1: it's hard to find teams out there because most teams
[29:20] Speaker 1: have a skill guard. It's hard to find teams out
[29:22] Speaker 1: there that aren't going to be able to, that are
[29:24] Speaker 1: going to, that are going to be able to actually
[29:27] Speaker 1: physically match up with both of them.
[29:28] Speaker 2: You go play the Lakers.
[29:29] Speaker 1: It's like, okay, Quentin Grimes guards, Keontae George. That means
[29:33] Speaker 1: Austin Reeves is on Darren Peterson. Darren Peterson is going
[29:35] Speaker 1: to have some real physical advantages there, right? So like
[29:37] Speaker 1: he was on the reverse end of that in this game.
[29:40] Speaker 1: because he took the harder matchup, but that's going to
[29:42] Speaker 1: be something that actually benefits him in a lot of
[29:44] Speaker 1: these cases when they're, when they play teams that actually
[29:48] Speaker 1: match up in a way that makes sense.
[29:50] Speaker 2: Like I really do.
[29:51] Speaker 1: I really do think most teams are going to put
[29:52] Speaker 1: their worst perimeter defender on Darren Peterson. Yeah. Laurie marketing
[29:57] Speaker 1: was getting open a ton and pick and pops. And like,
[29:59] Speaker 1: this is one of the things that I think is
[30:01] Speaker 1: important about the size difference between those two guys is
[30:04] Speaker 1: because Laurie is such a, a big physical player. There's
[30:07] Speaker 1: a certain amount of like, it's hard to switch the,
[30:10] Speaker 1: that specific action. Like there was some ball screens with marketing.
[30:14] Speaker 1: And I think with Keontae, if I remember correctly, where
[30:17] Speaker 1: it's like Trevon Brazil is guarding marketing and he doesn't
[30:20] Speaker 1: want to switch. Set the ball screen, easy little pop
[30:23] Speaker 1: wide open look for Laurie and Laurie didn't even shoot well,
[30:25] Speaker 1: but he got some really good looks. And like, as
[30:27] Speaker 1: you can see kind of the nuts and bolts of
[30:29] Speaker 1: how they're going to get a lot of really good
[30:30] Speaker 1: looks by virtue of the fact that they just have
[30:33] Speaker 1: a lot of, of good offensive players at different position
[30:37] Speaker 1: groups that are hard to switch, you know, Jaron Jackson,
[30:39] Speaker 1: you know, bullying through players. towards the front of the rim.
[30:42] Speaker 1: Like that, that dynamic to be avoided, you have to
[30:45] Speaker 1: avoid switching. And if you avoid switching, then there's openings
[30:49] Speaker 1: in the form of pick and pops. Or if you
[30:50] Speaker 1: linger on the pop, then that guy can, the ball
[30:53] Speaker 1: handler can get downhill on the drive. Like you can
[30:55] Speaker 1: see the physical dynamics in the, in the problems that
[30:58] Speaker 1: they present for you.
[31:00] Speaker 2: The, they were a little bit slow footed.
[31:03] Speaker 1: That was what, that was what made the late second
[31:06] Speaker 1: quarter group so much more impressive. The second starter shift,
[31:10] Speaker 1: they're in the late second quarter skewed heavily towards Utah.
[31:13] Speaker 1: So they got revenge on Denver for what happened in
[31:15] Speaker 1: that first quarter shift. Utah went small. They went Jaron
[31:18] Speaker 1: Jackson at the five next to Lori marketing at the four,
[31:21] Speaker 1: a Spaley came in at the three. And then instead
[31:25] Speaker 1: of Keontae George, they went with Isaiah Collier. It was
[31:27] Speaker 1: being guarded by Tyus and Collier was just toasting Tyus
[31:31] Speaker 1: off the dribble every single time down the floor. And the,
[31:35] Speaker 1: you know, I know ties is particularly bad at this,
[31:38] Speaker 1: but I would, we saw this exact dynamic be the
[31:41] Speaker 1: death of Denver's defense where it's like, there's two elements
[31:45] Speaker 1: to defending.
[31:46] Speaker 2: Well, right.
[31:46] Speaker 1: There's resistance at the point of attack. And then there's
[31:49] Speaker 1: your help and recover on the backside.
[31:51] Speaker 2: Right.
[31:52] Speaker 1: In the, when you give up a lot of problems
[31:55] Speaker 1: at one end of that issue, it can still be
[31:58] Speaker 1: too much to handle. Like, I don't care how good
[32:00] Speaker 1: you are at being in help side position and rotating
[32:03] Speaker 1: for each other. If the dude on the initial attack
[32:06] Speaker 1: is just getting absolutely dusted, you're too far behind the
[32:09] Speaker 1: eight ball at the beginning of these possessions. And like,
[32:12] Speaker 1: there's two sides of that, right? Like when we saw
[32:14] Speaker 1: in the, in the playoffs, when Aaron Gordon's hurt, you
[32:17] Speaker 1: also are too small on the back line. And that's
[32:19] Speaker 1: how you end up losing to a team that even
[32:22] Speaker 1: doesn't have Anthony Edwards because you're just you're weak at
[32:25] Speaker 1: the point of attack and you're weak in help.
[32:27] Speaker 2: It's just completely impossible to overcome.
[32:29] Speaker 1: But that last shift, there was a classic example of
[32:32] Speaker 1: the dynamic that's hurt Denver for a long time, which
[32:34] Speaker 1: is like, it doesn't matter how strong your defensive infrastructure
[32:37] Speaker 1: is as a team. If the dude at the beginning
[32:39] Speaker 1: of the possession is getting cooked for a straight line
[32:43] Speaker 1: drive every single time down the floor and call your
[32:45] Speaker 1: was just killing them. And they just got a lot
[32:47] Speaker 1: of really good looks. Some other notes on the jazz bench,
[32:50] Speaker 1: like I just really like Sfima Kailou. He's someone that
[32:52] Speaker 1: has impressed me with that team for a while now.
[32:55] Speaker 1: He's always been one of their best plus minus guys
[32:56] Speaker 1: because he's just a really good shoot, dribble, pass talent.
[32:59] Speaker 1: And when you have guys that can create advantage and
[33:01] Speaker 1: a guy that doesn't miss open threes, but that can
[33:03] Speaker 1: also hit like some creative threes where it's like pump
[33:05] Speaker 1: and relocate or pump and drive a closeout and make
[33:08] Speaker 1: the passing reads when you get there. It's not hard
[33:10] Speaker 1: to figure out why they've consistently been better when he's
[33:13] Speaker 1: on the floor versus off.
[33:14] Speaker 2: I thought Ace Bailey looked really good.
[33:16] Speaker 1: And I thought it was a classic example of like
[33:19] Speaker 1: how him finding a foundation that's not his tough shot
[33:22] Speaker 1: making is the key to his career.
[33:24] Speaker 2: Cause like he does hit a little tough pull up, right?
[33:26] Speaker 2: It's a tough pull up.
[33:26] Speaker 1: Against DeMar DeRozan off of the short corner on the
[33:29] Speaker 1: right side. But, and you know, that was what he
[33:31] Speaker 1: was known for coming out of college. Like, Oh, this
[33:33] Speaker 1: guy can hit tough shots. But as I've always said,
[33:36] Speaker 1: Paul George is the example I've always used. tough shot
[33:39] Speaker 1: making cannot be your foundation. If it is, it comes
[33:42] Speaker 1: and goes. And so if you don't bring something else
[33:44] Speaker 1: to the table, if you're not like an elite defensive player,
[33:46] Speaker 1: an elite rebounder or a elite catch and shoot player,
[33:50] Speaker 1: or a player that can attack the rim with athleticism
[33:53] Speaker 1: as a foundation that the tough shot making can be
[33:57] Speaker 1: a ceiling razor, then you're going to be in some trouble.
[33:59] Speaker 2: Right.
[34:00] Speaker 1: And like this game was a classic example of the
[34:02] Speaker 1: athleticism being the foundation for ACE. Like gets an offensive rebound,
[34:06] Speaker 1: put back versus Jokic has these crazy finishes.
[34:10] Speaker 2: Athletically at the rim where you could see like, like.
[34:13] Speaker 1: Like he had this transition, like kind of two handed
[34:16] Speaker 1: play that ended up getting called for a goaltend where
[34:19] Speaker 1: the pass was bad and it was behind him, but
[34:21] Speaker 1: he's just such a ridiculous athlete that he just reached
[34:23] Speaker 1: back and was able to put the ball in the basket.
[34:25] Speaker 2: He did that twice.
[34:26] Speaker 1: He had a crazy dunk driving a closeout out of
[34:28] Speaker 1: the right corner. And I remember sitting there thinking like,
[34:31] Speaker 1: this is the pathway to ACE being like the three
[34:33] Speaker 1: man in these small ball looks is like, if he
[34:36] Speaker 1: can knock down his catch and shoot threes and just
[34:38] Speaker 1: apply a lot of rim pressure in transition, driving closeouts
[34:41] Speaker 1: in on the offensive glass where the tough shot making
[34:45] Speaker 1: doesn't have to be there for him to stay in
[34:46] Speaker 1: the rotation.
[34:47] Speaker 2: Right.
[34:48] Speaker 1: Cause like if he has to hit shots to be valuable,
[34:50] Speaker 1: there's going to be a lot of inconsistency there, but
[34:53] Speaker 1: if he brings everything else, then he can go one
[34:55] Speaker 1: for four on his tough pull-ups and still stay in
[34:58] Speaker 1: the game because he's providing a lot of positive impact.
[35:01] Speaker 1: real quickly on the Nuggets bench, Marvin Bagley, they used
[35:04] Speaker 1: him primarily as a backup five. So we didn't get
[35:06] Speaker 1: too much of a, like, we're going to need to
[35:07] Speaker 1: see a lot more of like whether or not he
[35:09] Speaker 1: can play alongside Jokic. But the difference in mobility was shocking.
[35:13] Speaker 1: Like he had a play where he tried to dunk
[35:15] Speaker 1: on a short roll. I think Jackson Hayes blocked him
[35:17] Speaker 1: out of the right corner. And you're like, oh, well,
[35:20] Speaker 1: I'm not used to seeing like a real rim runner
[35:22] Speaker 1: at that position because the Nuggets have gone with the
[35:25] Speaker 1: Jonas Valanciunas look last year, right. Which is slower and bigger.
[35:29] Speaker 1: And He missed some shots. Like he missed a pick
[35:31] Speaker 1: and pop three at the top of the key. That
[35:32] Speaker 1: was wide open. He had a driving layup that he
[35:34] Speaker 1: smoked over the back of the rim, but you can
[35:36] Speaker 1: kind of see the ball skills there. I was intrigued
[35:38] Speaker 1: enough to like, I'm excited to see more. Obviously he
[35:40] Speaker 1: didn't play particularly well. DeRozan was, it was a tough
[35:43] Speaker 1: game because I, what excites me about DeRozan offensively with
[35:46] Speaker 1: this team is more what he can do in two
[35:48] Speaker 1: man game against teams that are not switching. So like
[35:51] Speaker 1: the idea of him being more of a passer, because
[35:54] Speaker 1: he's such a gifted passer where like, if he can
[35:56] Speaker 1: get downhill off of two main game and then make
[35:59] Speaker 1: the reads that are associated with it to generate high
[36:01] Speaker 1: quality catch and shoot looks, but Utah was doing all
[36:04] Speaker 1: the switching. And so he was basically just going one-on-one
[36:07] Speaker 1: and he did hit a couple of shots, but he
[36:08] Speaker 1: ended up having like five points on five shots. And
[36:11] Speaker 1: then he had a bad defensive game. And this is where,
[36:13] Speaker 1: this is really where everything hinges for DeRozan. And I
[36:15] Speaker 1: don't want to fully blame him for Because again, they
[36:17] Speaker 1: were getting cut up at the point of attack, but
[36:19] Speaker 1: just so many of these like unnecessarily unnecessary overhelps where
[36:23] Speaker 1: he just gave up wide open corner threes or wide
[36:26] Speaker 1: open wing threes because he's kind of just standing in
[36:28] Speaker 1: the lane instead of like being attentive to his help
[36:31] Speaker 1: and recover situation. He gave up a couple of tough middies,
[36:34] Speaker 1: one to Markanen and one to Ace Bailey, but those
[36:37] Speaker 1: are whatever. You're forcing a contested mid-range jump shot. Usually
[36:40] Speaker 1: you're not going to lose games because of that, especially
[36:42] Speaker 1: in bench groups, right? But giving up a bunch of
[36:45] Speaker 1: wide-open threes because you're overhelping, that's the kind of thing
[36:48] Speaker 1: that I think DeRozan has to clean up in order
[36:50] Speaker 1: to be impactful for them on defense. All right, moving
[36:58] Speaker 1: on to Clippers Warriors. So the warriors put Yaksa Lindenburg
[37:01] Speaker 1: in with the starters. And then on the very first play,
[37:04] Speaker 1: they ran a play for him off of an inverted
[37:06] Speaker 1: screen from Steph. So they gave him the ball off
[37:07] Speaker 1: the left wing. Steph came up and set the screen.
[37:10] Speaker 1: He got downhill, drew help off the corner, pass it
[37:12] Speaker 1: to Brandon Pajemski in the right corner, gets a wide
[37:14] Speaker 1: open three ends up missing it. But I thought that
[37:16] Speaker 1: was a really interesting vote of confidence from Steve Kerr
[37:18] Speaker 1: between him getting in with the starters, the first play
[37:21] Speaker 1: being ran for him, Steve coming in after the game
[37:24] Speaker 1: and saying he wants him to be more aggressive. I
[37:26] Speaker 1: just think that that's a real big vote of confidence
[37:28] Speaker 1: from that coaching staff to be like, yeah, cause we
[37:30] Speaker 1: want you to be an incredibly important part of this team,
[37:33] Speaker 1: not just in terms of how much you play, but
[37:35] Speaker 1: in how much we use you as a score. And,
[37:37] Speaker 1: you know, I thought about some of the examples, like
[37:39] Speaker 1: he had a deep seal against Max truce early in
[37:42] Speaker 1: the game, right underneath the basket where there was no help.
[37:45] Speaker 1: And he ended up throwing a kickout pass to Al
[37:47] Speaker 1: Horford for three. And it's like, you know, I get it.
[37:50] Speaker 1: It's you're moving the ball. You're trying to be a
[37:51] Speaker 1: team player, but like on a team that needs offensive creation,
[37:54] Speaker 1: if you get a deep seal against a player who's
[37:56] Speaker 1: four or five inches shorter than you turn over your
[37:58] Speaker 1: left shoulder and hit a hook shot, body him and
[38:00] Speaker 1: try to get something close to the rim or draw
[38:02] Speaker 1: a foul, right. Be some, be aggressive there. There was
[38:05] Speaker 1: a play in, I think the early second quarter is
[38:07] Speaker 1: either late first or early second, where he comes off
[38:10] Speaker 1: of a ball screen on the left wing and Isaiah
[38:11] Speaker 1: Jackson's way deep in a drop coverage. And he has
[38:14] Speaker 1: a very good look at a pull up three and
[38:16] Speaker 1: he passes it up. As a result, they kind of
[38:18] Speaker 1: end up in one of these chaos, like throwing the
[38:20] Speaker 1: ball around, trying to generate some driving kick, but no
[38:22] Speaker 1: one's really beaten anybody for, for really good looks and
[38:25] Speaker 1: the Clippers to their credit playing good defense. And it
[38:28] Speaker 1: ends up being like just a Guy Santos playoff. rushed
[38:31] Speaker 1: contested floater up against the shot clock. And it's like,
[38:34] Speaker 1: that's where it's like, yeah, cause you're a really good shooter.
[38:37] Speaker 1: You get a good look at a drop coverage three.
[38:38] Speaker 1: We need you to take it because we don't have
[38:41] Speaker 1: the offensive talent to necessarily get something better. So if
[38:45] Speaker 1: you get a decent look for yourself, you've got to
[38:47] Speaker 1: take it. And I, and I do agree with Steve
[38:48] Speaker 1: Kerr on that specific front, like especially in some of
[38:51] Speaker 1: those bench groups where Steph is off the floor, you get,
[38:54] Speaker 1: you gotta be aggressive when you, when you get a look.
[38:57] Speaker 1: some differences in the offense and it's, it's hard, you know,
[38:59] Speaker 1: cause that's been the story of the warriors with camp.
[39:02] Speaker 1: There is some more traditional stuff in their attack, more
[39:04] Speaker 1: two man game at the top of the key, more
[39:06] Speaker 1: three man game, like double drags and stuff like that.
[39:10] Speaker 1: Some of those like flare screens that we've seen so
[39:12] Speaker 1: many other teams in the NBA run where you dribble
[39:15] Speaker 1: the ball up one side of the floor, the big
[39:17] Speaker 1: comes up not to set a ball screen, but to
[39:18] Speaker 1: set a flare screen for the opposite wing. Then you
[39:21] Speaker 1: pitch it to the guy who's coming off of that
[39:23] Speaker 1: flare and it effectively functions as a pick and roll
[39:26] Speaker 1: against a shifting defense. We've seen this a lot in
[39:28] Speaker 1: recent years. San Antonio did it a ton with Luke Cornette,
[39:30] Speaker 1: you know, Indiana did it a ton. I love this
[39:33] Speaker 1: because again, it's just, it's running a ball screen in flow,
[39:36] Speaker 1: but doing it against the defense shifting because you're throwing
[39:39] Speaker 1: a pass against the flare.
[39:40] Speaker 2: And, uh, the, the warriors did this a bunch in
[39:43] Speaker 2: this game.
[39:44] Speaker 1: So that traditional attack is good in the sense that like,
[39:47] Speaker 1: It gives you more opportunity for some of your ball
[39:49] Speaker 1: handlers to find rhythm. So like pods, for instance, he
[39:52] Speaker 1: struggled in this game, but I think it'll benefit him
[39:54] Speaker 1: over a larger sample. If he just has a lot
[39:56] Speaker 1: of opportunity to get to some of the looks that
[39:59] Speaker 1: he practices against drop coverage, right? again, like getting some
[40:03] Speaker 1: opportunities for him to come off of ball screens, uh,
[40:06] Speaker 1: Brandon Williams, like, and we'll talk about him more in
[40:08] Speaker 1: just a minute, but like, I think some of those
[40:10] Speaker 1: tweaks in the offense will allow some of their younger
[40:13] Speaker 1: ball handlers to find more rhythm over a larger sample
[40:16] Speaker 1: because they're the kinds of shots that are, are geared
[40:20] Speaker 1: towards guys that need to dribble the ball a little
[40:23] Speaker 1: bit more to find a feel for the game. Anecdotally,
[40:28] Speaker 1: it looked like they were running more ball screen, more
[40:30] Speaker 1: ball screens physically from the numbers. They ran 33 pick
[40:34] Speaker 1: and rolls totally in this total in this game, including passes.
[40:38] Speaker 1: They averaged 30 per game last year. So not some
[40:40] Speaker 1: sort of dramatic difference there. I just want to see
[40:43] Speaker 1: a lot more so we can learn more about just
[40:46] Speaker 1: how different things are. Cause they still did run some
[40:48] Speaker 1: of their five out stuff. They did still run split cuts.
[40:51] Speaker 1: They did still run a lot of traditional warrior stuff.
[40:54] Speaker 2: As well. So I'm really just curious to see a
[40:56] Speaker 2: larger sample. Brandon Williams.
[40:58] Speaker 1: I was impressed by him. Like he just brings speed
[41:01] Speaker 1: and ball handling a real downhill speed. Like he had the,
[41:04] Speaker 1: they ran one of those like dribble pitch, double drags.
[41:05] Speaker 1: We see this a lot. Now it's basically a double drag.
[41:07] Speaker 1: So again, it's two ball screens at the top of
[41:09] Speaker 1: the key where one guy rolls, one guy pops, but
[41:12] Speaker 1: instead of dribbling into it, you basically pitch it to
[41:15] Speaker 1: the last guy. And then you run into your man
[41:17] Speaker 1: to get a little extra separation and you sprint off
[41:19] Speaker 1: and get a DHO. It functions the same way, but
[41:21] Speaker 1: it helps you get a little bit more separation from
[41:23] Speaker 1: the on-ball defender. And he basically, came screaming downhill off
[41:27] Speaker 1: of it, drew tons of help, pitched it wide open
[41:29] Speaker 1: three in the corner. I think it was for Horford,
[41:31] Speaker 1: but I can't remember exactly who it was for, but
[41:33] Speaker 1: like that, that speed and ball handling is going to
[41:35] Speaker 1: generate some really good looks. He had a play against
[41:37] Speaker 1: Chris Dunn on the left wing. We're just like straight
[41:40] Speaker 1: ISO against Chris Dunn. One of the better guard defenders
[41:42] Speaker 1: in the league just toasted him off the dribble to
[41:44] Speaker 1: his right hand and went inside left-hand Kyrie Irving would
[41:48] Speaker 1: be proud inside left-hand and just spun it off the
[41:50] Speaker 1: glass for like a nasty finish. I'm excited to watch
[41:53] Speaker 1: more Brandon Williams in golden state. Last note on the
[41:56] Speaker 1: Golden State front, Draymond, there's a lot of narrative surrounding
[41:59] Speaker 1: him being kind of out of shape. And I just
[42:01] Speaker 1: very simply have two opinions about this one.
[42:05] Speaker 2: You're right.
[42:05] Speaker 1: Draymond at his pay rate needs to come into camp
[42:09] Speaker 1: in better shape. I can't disagree with you there. But
[42:11] Speaker 1: the flip side is like some of this. I want
[42:14] Speaker 1: to go like if you're asking your old veteran players
[42:18] Speaker 1: to come in like really bought in. I, I, I,
[42:23] Speaker 1: there's a part of me that goes, is the front
[42:26] Speaker 1: office even bought in because they're, they've made no attempts
[42:30] Speaker 1: to surround these guys with any sort of legitimate talent
[42:33] Speaker 1: to compete. They're holding all their assets for the future.
[42:37] Speaker 1: So like, which is fine, but then like, I'm going
[42:39] Speaker 1: to be a little less critical if Steph has some
[42:43] Speaker 1: more sloppy turnovers to start the year. Cause he's not
[42:45] Speaker 1: as focused. If Draymond is somewhat out of shape because like,
[42:50] Speaker 1: there's no way that they're in that locker room believing
[42:52] Speaker 1: they can win maybe Steph.
[42:54] Speaker 2: Cause he's an absolute psycho.
[42:55] Speaker 1: And we saw that, that press conference where he talked
[42:57] Speaker 1: about them, you know, missing the playoffs. But like the
[43:00] Speaker 1: truth of the matter is like, I, I think it's
[43:02] Speaker 1: unacceptable for Draymond to show up in camp out of shape,
[43:05] Speaker 1: but at the same time, like I kind of get it.
[43:07] Speaker 1: in the sense that like there's, I don't think any
[43:10] Speaker 1: of these dudes are under any sort of delusions of
[43:12] Speaker 1: grandeur about what they can accomplish this year. And that I,
[43:16] Speaker 1: I just, I think if you're going to get on
[43:17] Speaker 1: dream on, you got to get on the front office too,
[43:19] Speaker 1: because they basically, they basically punted on the season. So,
[43:23] Speaker 1: you know, do with that information, what you will Clippers
[43:26] Speaker 1: front very briefly, kind of an interesting starting lineup. They
[43:29] Speaker 1: went with Darius Garland and Isaiah Jackson is your pick
[43:32] Speaker 1: and roll pairing. You guys, Isaiah played a little bit
[43:34] Speaker 1: with the Clippers at the tail end of last season.
[43:37] Speaker 1: you might remember him as the backup center for Indiana
[43:39] Speaker 1: for a long time. If you weren't watching the Clippers
[43:41] Speaker 1: last year, kind of a Montrezl Harrell ask like undersized big,
[43:45] Speaker 1: it was actually very good often, very good rebounder and
[43:47] Speaker 1: a very good like role man. There's like deceptively good
[43:49] Speaker 1: as a vertical spacer for someone who's undersized and you
[43:52] Speaker 1: just a very natural pick and roll partner for Darius Garland.
[43:55] Speaker 1: But the three guys around him, they went with Max Truce,
[43:57] Speaker 1: Derek Jones, Jr. And Rui Hachimura. And as I was
[43:59] Speaker 1: watching it, I'm like, this is, these are professional basketball players.
[44:02] Speaker 2: Like, right.
[44:03] Speaker 1: Like, Max Bruce is a legit three and D guy. Derek,
[44:05] Speaker 1: Derek Jones, Jr. More of a D and three guy,
[44:08] Speaker 1: but he can do a little bit of both. And
[44:10] Speaker 1: like what I love about it is like, Max is
[44:12] Speaker 1: not like in Cleveland, the best perimeter defender. He's your
[44:14] Speaker 1: second best perimeter defender. So he's going to guard matchups
[44:17] Speaker 1: that he has a better chance to hold up in.
[44:19] Speaker 1: Derek Jones jr. Is an excellent option to put on
[44:21] Speaker 1: the opposing best ball handler, right? Rui with the Lakers
[44:24] Speaker 1: had to guard on the perimeter quite a bit. He's
[44:26] Speaker 1: not going to have to guard in the perimeter as
[44:28] Speaker 1: much when he's playing alongside Derek Jones jr.
[44:31] Speaker 2: And Max truce.
[44:32] Speaker 1: He's in a position where he's more of a play
[44:33] Speaker 1: finishing offensive player. And it all just kind of like,
[44:36] Speaker 1: made sense watching them. And I thought to myself, like
[44:38] Speaker 1: with a good coach and a strong basketball culture, like
[44:41] Speaker 1: even with all of the damage done by the Kauai scandal,
[44:44] Speaker 1: there's just a strong basketball culture here. And like I said,
[44:46] Speaker 1: in the season preview, like I just expect them to
[44:48] Speaker 1: be feisty. Who knows what they'll do in terms of the, the,
[44:53] Speaker 1: the team building constraints that lay in front of them.
[44:55] Speaker 1: But yeah, As long as these dudes are healthy, I don't,
[44:58] Speaker 1: they're not going to make the playoffs or anything, but like,
[45:00] Speaker 1: they're going to, they're going to be a tough out
[45:02] Speaker 1: on any night in the regular season. Cause they just
[45:04] Speaker 1: have really good professional basketball players in a strong basketball culture.
[45:07] Speaker 1: You got your first taste of Rui Hachimura. I told
[45:09] Speaker 1: you guys all about this guy in the summer. He
[45:11] Speaker 1: does not miss open shots. And when it comes to
[45:13] Speaker 1: the one-on-one stuff, like he's bad as a back to
[45:16] Speaker 1: the basket, like, Oh, you're let's post up somebody small.
[45:19] Speaker 1: He did have a post-up dunk over, um, Gosh, I
[45:23] Speaker 1: can't remember who it was. He had a deep seal
[45:24] Speaker 1: in transition, but it's kind of like a transition seal,
[45:27] Speaker 1: but like where he's really good as a one-on-one players
[45:30] Speaker 1: facing the rim, because he's just a very good, wonderful
[45:32] Speaker 1: pull-up shooter. He did show a little bit of that,
[45:35] Speaker 1: like advanced three point shooting. He had like a really
[45:37] Speaker 1: nice movement three at the top of the key running
[45:39] Speaker 1: to his right, where he got squared up in midair
[45:41] Speaker 1: and got great lift. He had another one where he
[45:43] Speaker 1: kind of like caught, waited for the play to develop,
[45:45] Speaker 1: saw that the player was too far back.
[45:47] Speaker 2: Then he rose up and shot.
[45:48] Speaker 1: I think he had 21 points in the first half,
[45:50] Speaker 1: but like Rue's a good basketball player.
[45:52] Speaker 2: And again, specifically in this.
[45:53] Speaker 1: Role where you don't need anything from him, but his
[45:56] Speaker 1: shot making, I think it's a, it's a good role
[45:59] Speaker 1: for him and I expect him to have a good season.
[46:01] Speaker 1: A lot of good looks from three that he missed.
[46:04] Speaker 1: I think he went one for 10 from three, but
[46:05] Speaker 1: they were good looks. It just looked like he was
[46:07] Speaker 1: rushing things a little bit. You could tell a couple
[46:10] Speaker 1: of his releases looked different, which leads me to believe
[46:12] Speaker 1: he was rushing a little bit, but to his credit,
[46:14] Speaker 1: despite going two for 14 to start the game, kept
[46:17] Speaker 1: his head in it, made a beautiful move on a
[46:18] Speaker 1: little spinning step back at the top of the key
[46:20] Speaker 1: that ended up being the game winner against the bench guys.
[46:23] Speaker 2: Late in the game.
[46:24] Speaker 1: All right, really quickly before we get out of here,
[46:25] Speaker 1: the Sixers scrimmage, and I'm not going to dwell on
[46:27] Speaker 1: this too long. It was nowhere near as intense as
[46:31] Speaker 1: the preseason games that we watched. I was kind of
[46:33] Speaker 1: like one of the little things that was disappointing to
[46:36] Speaker 1: me is like you, you watch the way Toronto and
[46:38] Speaker 1: Miami came out defensively. I would have loved to have
[46:40] Speaker 1: seen that from the Sixers starters and we just did it.
[46:43] Speaker 1: They were like a little bit more relaxed, but at
[46:45] Speaker 1: the same time, like, They scored with such incredible ease
[46:50] Speaker 1: against a bench group for the Sixers that was playing
[46:53] Speaker 1: very hard on defense because, and this is just the
[46:56] Speaker 1: simple reality, they have a lot of really good basketball players.
[46:59] Speaker 2: There's just so much talent.
[47:01] Speaker 1: That was the first thing that stood out to me
[47:02] Speaker 1: watching them is just the sheer amount of talent. And
[47:05] Speaker 1: I would even extend that to the bench guys like
[47:06] Speaker 1: Jabari Walker impressed me in that scrimmage. She's rebounding really
[47:09] Speaker 1: well with good positional size, knocking down catch and shoot threes.
[47:12] Speaker 1: That's a simple thing. especially at a position group there
[47:16] Speaker 1: at the four, that it's going to be important behind
[47:17] Speaker 1: a 41 soon to be 42 year old LeBron. I
[47:20] Speaker 1: just was impressed by him. LeBaron file on showed some
[47:23] Speaker 1: really high level ball handling. He had a, really nice
[47:25] Speaker 1: move against KCP in space. That looks very Kyrie ask
[47:28] Speaker 1: a little mid range pull up off of like three
[47:30] Speaker 1: or four counters.
[47:31] Speaker 2: Area hook, aerial hook.
[47:32] Speaker 1: Porti looked very competent as a backup center. Like you,
[47:36] Speaker 1: you could just see even beyond the starting five guys,
[47:39] Speaker 1: there was just a lot of talent on the floor
[47:41] Speaker 1: for Philly.
[47:42] Speaker 2: It wasn't all great.
[47:42] Speaker 1: KCP looked a little bit like he was a step
[47:45] Speaker 1: slow in in some situations, Joel Embiid, I thought of
[47:48] Speaker 1: all the starters was the guy that looked at least impressive.
[47:51] Speaker 1: Not like they're not like it matters. It's just one scrimmage,
[47:53] Speaker 1: but it was a little too light. If that makes sense.
[47:56] Speaker 1: Like one of the downsides of dropping weight is your base.
[47:59] Speaker 2: Isn't as strong.
[48:00] Speaker 1: And he got kind of pushed off his space just
[48:02] Speaker 1: a little bit. His jumper was a little bit out
[48:04] Speaker 1: of rhythm, but But I want to just see a
[48:07] Speaker 1: lot more of him beat. I think I think him
[48:10] Speaker 1: actually being lighter and being able to stay on the
[48:12] Speaker 1: floor longer will help him get rhythm. And I'd argue
[48:15] Speaker 1: one of the most important things is going to be
[48:17] Speaker 1: the spacing element, just his ability to knock down threes,
[48:19] Speaker 1: which I think he will if he's able to stay
[48:21] Speaker 1: on the floor long enough to.
[48:22] Speaker 2: Build real rhythm. All the other four starters looked fantastic.
[48:25] Speaker 1: BJ edge comb, literally just Vince Carter, dunking everything, Joe, Joel,
[48:30] Speaker 1: or excuse me, Jalen Brown shot the jump shot extremely well,
[48:33] Speaker 1: both him and LeBron shot the three really well, which
[48:36] Speaker 1: I think is going to be one of the most
[48:37] Speaker 1: important swing factors for this team this year. Some off
[48:40] Speaker 1: the dribble stuff, some off the catch stuff. They both
[48:42] Speaker 1: shot the ball really well. just so many good one-on-one options.
[48:46] Speaker 1: A lot of like, just like, they're going to be
[48:49] Speaker 1: able to get the defense in rotation by simply giving
[48:51] Speaker 1: the ball to one of their best players. And a
[48:53] Speaker 1: lot of these cases, like just dumping it to Joel
[48:55] Speaker 1: and beat in the post, dumping it to LeBron in
[48:57] Speaker 1: the post, dumping it to Jalen Brown in the post.
[48:59] Speaker 1: Here comes a second guy, swing, swing, swing, open, look
[49:02] Speaker 1: for somebody. There's just so much talent on the floor.
[49:05] Speaker 1: Like that was kind of the weird vibe for me.
[49:07] Speaker 1: Watching this six or scrimmage was like, I was very
[49:11] Speaker 1: impressed by their offense. Some of my offensive concerns kind
[49:14] Speaker 1: of disappeared under the sheer weight of the amount of
[49:18] Speaker 1: talent that they have on the floor. But I was
[49:20] Speaker 1: disappointed in them defensively. And I like my, this is
[49:23] Speaker 1: just one impression. They have their first preseason game tonight.
[49:26] Speaker 1: We will be reacting to it tomorrow. But my first
[49:29] Speaker 1: kind of like immediate 10,000 foot thought was like, this
[49:33] Speaker 1: strikes me as more of like a top five offense,
[49:35] Speaker 1: top 15 defense. We're going to outscore you type of team.
[49:39] Speaker 1: Then like a, we're super athletic and we're going to
[49:41] Speaker 1: sit in a stance and guard. I, I think that's
[49:44] Speaker 1: going to win a lot of games. I would be
[49:46] Speaker 1: lying to you if I didn't think like, and again,
[49:48] Speaker 1: we'll see how they look tonight. but I would, I
[49:51] Speaker 1: think the pathway to them winning the championship is being
[49:53] Speaker 1: a better defense than they, then we would, then their
[49:57] Speaker 1: initial effort would lead me to believe, but I'm not
[49:59] Speaker 1: going to overreact to scrimmage. I'm just, I'm, I'll be
[50:01] Speaker 1: really curious to see what their defense looks like tonight,
[50:04] Speaker 1: just in terms of overall intensity from the starting group
[50:07] Speaker 1: when they get out there. All right, guys, that's all
[50:08] Speaker 1: I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you
[50:10] Speaker 1: guys for supporting us and supporting the show.
[50:12] Speaker 2: That was fun.
[50:12] Speaker 1: I enjoyed getting back into some real basketball with you
[50:15] Speaker 1: guys scheduled for the rest of this week. Tomorrow, I
[50:18] Speaker 1: will have a preseason reaction with, I think there's like
[50:20] Speaker 1: five games tonight. So I probably won't hit all five,
[50:23] Speaker 1: but we'll have some preseason reaction tomorrow. Pete Zayas, my
[50:26] Speaker 1: good friend Pete Zayas from Laker film room is coming
[50:28] Speaker 1: on the show later this week. That'll be on either
[50:29] Speaker 1: Wednesday or Thursday to do a little Lakers. And then
[50:33] Speaker 1: also just some big picture Western conference. And then we're
[50:35] Speaker 1: back to our mailbags on Friday. So again, if you
[50:38] Speaker 1: will probably record the mailbag tomorrow. So if you want
[50:40] Speaker 1: to get mailbag questions in for Friday, let's drop them
[50:43] Speaker 1: in this video.
[50:44] Speaker 2: If you can.
[50:44] Speaker 1: So drop as many questions, questions as you can regarding
[50:47] Speaker 1: the mailbag in today's video.
[50:48] Speaker 2: All right, guys, that's all I have. I will see
[50:49] Speaker 2: you guys tomorrow morning.

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