# Ranking the NBA's top-3 players: Nikola Jokic, Victor Wembanyama, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

An episode of [Hoops Tonight with Jason Timpf](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1536277916), 16 Sep 2026, 55 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/86543cdc-8a70-4e88-8452-b4c5011c52bd/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=9e36bb2c-2512-48e1-92f8-ae510011dd2b

Jason reaches the top three of his 2026 NBA player rankings and ranks Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets), Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio Spurs), and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (OKC Thunder). He breaks down why he has them ranked the way he does and how little separation there is between the three players. 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

[0:01] Speaker 1: The Volume.
[0:10] Speaker 2: Alright, welcome to Hipster Night here at The Volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody.
[0:18] Speaker 2: Hope all of you guys are having an incredible week. Well,
[0:20] Speaker 2: we have finally made it. to the end of our
[0:23] Speaker 2: annual player ranking series I've decided to jumble three two
[0:27] Speaker 2: and one all up in one video because all three
[0:30] Speaker 2: of those guys are kind of on the same tier
[0:32] Speaker 2: and there's no real separation there I'm gonna rank them
[0:35] Speaker 2: because that's the purpose of this list but I thought
[0:37] Speaker 2: because of the debate surrounding these three guys it made
[0:40] Speaker 2: sense to put them all in the same video. So
[0:42] Speaker 2: we're going to list them all three, and then we'll
[0:44] Speaker 2: kind of dive into the debate about them.
[0:46] Speaker 1: You guys know the drill.
[0:47] Speaker 2: Before we get started, subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube
[0:48] Speaker 2: channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.
[0:51] Speaker 2: We need about 6,000 more subs to get to our
[0:52] Speaker 2: goal of 150,000, so it would mean a lot to
[0:55] Speaker 2: us if you guys would take a second to scroll
[0:56] Speaker 2: down and hit that subscribe button. If you're already subscribed,
[0:58] Speaker 2: like this video and sign up for post notifications. That
[1:01] Speaker 2: helps us a lot. And last but not least, we
[1:03] Speaker 2: are going to be doing a mailbag this Friday where
[1:06] Speaker 2: we debate mostly this section of the rankings, probably a
[1:09] Speaker 2: couple questions about four and five as well. but I'm
[1:12] Speaker 2: certain many of you will disagree. So if you do disagree,
[1:17] Speaker 2: tell me why put mailbag colon, break it down. I
[1:20] Speaker 2: think this guy should be above this guy because of X, Y, Z,
[1:23] Speaker 2: break it down. And we will debate that in our
[1:25] Speaker 2: player rankings, mailbag finale on Friday. All right, let's talk
[1:30] Speaker 2: some basketball. I view these three as essentially tied. I'm
[1:34] Speaker 2: going to place them in order because that's the entire
[1:37] Speaker 2: purpose of this list. But it's important for me to
[1:39] Speaker 2: drive home that there is essentially no significant separation here. Frankly,
[1:46] Speaker 2: to be honest with you, making a case for number
[1:48] Speaker 2: one for literally any of these three guys kind of
[1:51] Speaker 2: sounds hollow and is missing that kind of stereotypical statement
[1:56] Speaker 2: that we expect when we talk about the best player
[1:58] Speaker 2: in the world. Like you make the case for Jokic. Well,
[2:01] Speaker 2: he just lost in the first round and didn't play well, really,
[2:04] Speaker 2: on either end of the floor compared to his standard
[2:06] Speaker 2: in the loss.
[2:07] Speaker 1: Make the case for Shea?
[2:08] Speaker 2: Well, for the third consecutive year, his scoring and efficiency
[2:12] Speaker 2: plummeted from the regular season to the playoffs, and he
[2:15] Speaker 2: kind of got outplayed. I think pretty clearly outplayed to
[2:18] Speaker 2: some extent by Victor Weminyama in the Western Conference Finals
[2:22] Speaker 2: in a loss. And if you make the case for Wemby,
[2:24] Speaker 2: he looked completely inept on offense at several points during
[2:28] Speaker 2: the postseason, and his inability to take control of games
[2:31] Speaker 2: on offense just led to his team putting together a
[2:34] Speaker 2: legendary NBA Finals choke job. So, like, It doesn't sound great, really,
[2:39] Speaker 2: for any of the three guys. Yeah, but Jason, my
[2:42] Speaker 2: guys still put up great numbers.
[2:43] Speaker 1: They all did.
[2:44] Speaker 2: Jokic in the loss to Minnesota, 26-13-10. Shea in the
[2:47] Speaker 2: loss to San Antonio, 26-3-9. Wemby in the loss to
[2:49] Speaker 2: the Knicks, 26-11, with three and a half blocks per game.
[2:59] Speaker 2: they all still put up great numbers while struggling because
[3:02] Speaker 2: that's what top tier superstars do. We had a question
[3:05] Speaker 2: in a mailbag last week about this specific topic. Like,
[3:09] Speaker 2: what is a top tier superstar versus a second tier superstar?
[3:13] Speaker 2: And the definition of a top tier superstar to me
[3:16] Speaker 2: is every night they produce. Now, there's levels to it,
[3:21] Speaker 2: and they can extend beyond that level into exceptional greatness,
[3:26] Speaker 2: and we've seen that from every single one of those
[3:28] Speaker 2: guys at various points over the years. But to me,
[3:32] Speaker 2: a top-tier superstar is, yeah, even when they're not playing
[3:35] Speaker 2: very well, they still give you a lot of scoring
[3:37] Speaker 2: and a lot of impact in other areas in the game.
[3:40] Speaker 1: And that's the thing.
[3:41] Speaker 2: Jokic, Shea, and Wemby all struggled in losses and averaged
[3:46] Speaker 2: 26 points per game. in those games while also bringing
[3:50] Speaker 2: other things to the table. Wemby's defense, Jokic and Shea's playmaking, right?
[3:54] Speaker 2: Like the, both of those guys averaged almost 10 assists
[3:56] Speaker 2: per game. So like, again, that, that is, we know
[4:00] Speaker 2: that there's differences between just putting a box score in
[4:03] Speaker 2: someone's face in the totality of the year, their impact
[4:06] Speaker 2: and what they're capable of when they're clicking on all cylinders.
[4:10] Speaker 2: I mean, I deal with it a lot with, with
[4:11] Speaker 2: Luca fans and Luca fans are always telling me about
[4:14] Speaker 2: his box score performances. And it's like, yeah, well, there's
[4:16] Speaker 2: a difference between a typical Luca box score and a
[4:20] Speaker 2: Luca dominated this game in in that classic Luka Doncic
[4:25] Speaker 2: way type of.
[4:27] Speaker 1: Box score, right?
[4:27] Speaker 2: So like all three guys struggled for different reasons, but
[4:33] Speaker 2: their performances clearly lacked that like best player in the
[4:37] Speaker 2: world statement. The point I'm trying to make is no
[4:40] Speaker 2: one has a great case here. I'd leave the top
[4:42] Speaker 2: spot vacant if that was an actual possibility. But again,
[4:45] Speaker 2: that's not how this list works. But if you're in
[4:48] Speaker 2: the comments making a basketball case for one guy over
[4:51] Speaker 2: the other, that's fine. And we'll get into it in
[4:54] Speaker 2: the mailbag on Friday. Hey, Jason, I think this guy
[4:56] Speaker 2: should be over that guy.
[4:57] Speaker 1: Here's why.
[4:58] Speaker 2: We'll get into that on Friday. But if you're in
[5:00] Speaker 2: the comments just yelling that your guy should be number
[5:02] Speaker 2: one because he clearly got snubbed, I'm just going to
[5:05] Speaker 2: disagree with you. There's no snubs here. All three of
[5:09] Speaker 2: these guys went out with a whimper by the best
[5:11] Speaker 2: player in the world standard. I don't think any righteous
[5:14] Speaker 2: indignation is warranted here.
[5:18] Speaker 1: But three more quick notes before we get started. One.
[5:21] Speaker 2: I do think it's harder than ever to be a
[5:22] Speaker 2: star in the NBA playoffs. Talent, obviously, is always increasing,
[5:27] Speaker 2: generally always increasing. Teams are getting smarter with their defensive schemes,
[5:31] Speaker 2: particularly at getting the ball out of stars' hands and
[5:34] Speaker 2: rotating out of it without giving up too good of
[5:36] Speaker 2: a shot. We're also, I've talked about this at various
[5:40] Speaker 2: points over the years. I won't get into it today,
[5:41] Speaker 2: but everyone talks about like, oh, they added hand checking.
[5:44] Speaker 2: That's when the, or they got rid of hand checking.
[5:46] Speaker 2: That's when the league changed. Actually throughout NBA history, there's
[5:49] Speaker 2: been kind of this constant ebb and flow between things
[5:52] Speaker 2: get a little too loose and they add physicality. Things
[5:55] Speaker 2: get a little too physical, then they loosen it up.
[5:57] Speaker 2: Things get a little too loose, then they add more physicality.
[6:00] Speaker 2: And we are definitely in a phase where officials are
[6:03] Speaker 2: allowing more physicality than usual. And so that, combined with
[6:08] Speaker 2: the improvement in defensive schemes, combined with the increase in talent,
[6:13] Speaker 2: it's just harder to be a star than it's ever
[6:15] Speaker 2: been in the NBA playoffs. Secondly, all three of our
[6:20] Speaker 2: candidates ended up losing quite literally to their worst possible
[6:26] Speaker 2: matchup in the entire NBA. No team in the NBA
[6:30] Speaker 2: has given Jokic more issues than the Timberwolves, simply because
[6:34] Speaker 2: they employ... probably the best defensive center of this particular
[6:40] Speaker 2: era in Rudy Gobert, who is very good at guarding
[6:43] Speaker 2: Nicole Jokic and two additional big, strong bigs that can
[6:48] Speaker 2: bang with him. So they're constantly rotating in a lineup
[6:51] Speaker 2: of bigs that beat the shit out of Jokic and
[6:53] Speaker 2: Jaden McDaniels can neutralize his two man game partner. It's
[6:57] Speaker 2: caused problems for the nuggets constantly over.
[7:00] Speaker 1: The last few years.
[7:02] Speaker 2: The Spurs, they clearly demonstrated last year that they were
[7:06] Speaker 2: constructed in a way that shuts down Oklahoma City's offense
[7:10] Speaker 2: because of how athletic they are on the perimeter. Guys
[7:13] Speaker 2: like Castle and Harper and Vassell and Champagny and their
[7:15] Speaker 2: ability to provide real length and athleticism against Shea and
[7:19] Speaker 2: get good contests on his mid-rangers while also having Victor
[7:22] Speaker 2: Wim and Yama at the rim in the Thunder have
[7:25] Speaker 2: really struggled to space Wimby away from the rim. So
[7:28] Speaker 2: that was a nightmare matchup for OKC. And then the
[7:32] Speaker 2: Knicks were the same with respect to San Antonio. Carl
[7:36] Speaker 2: Anthony Towns is perhaps the only player in the entire
[7:39] Speaker 2: NBA that can both reliably pull Wemby away from the
[7:43] Speaker 2: rim in space, but also credibly guard him on the
[7:47] Speaker 2: other end of the floor with strength and physicality by
[7:49] Speaker 2: getting up underneath him. And then Jalen Brunson is shorter
[7:53] Speaker 2: and quicker than Shea, which proved to be more useful
[7:56] Speaker 2: against San Antonio's more upright defenders than what Shea was
[8:00] Speaker 2: able to accomplish. All three of our candidates ran into
[8:05] Speaker 2: nightmare matchups, the peak of difficulty in NBA basketball and
[8:11] Speaker 2: struggled in an era where it's harder to be a
[8:15] Speaker 2: star in the playoffs than ever before. In other words,
[8:18] Speaker 2: I've seen some people say things like, Oh, like the
[8:21] Speaker 2: stars were just better back in the day. This is
[8:23] Speaker 2: revealing that our stars just aren't that good. And like,
[8:27] Speaker 2: Do I think these guys are 2018 LeBron?
[8:30] Speaker 1: No.
[8:30] Speaker 2: But I would slow down a little bit with the
[8:32] Speaker 2: criticism of them. Like this year was a perfect storm
[8:36] Speaker 2: of matchup luck that led to some embarrassing showings from
[8:40] Speaker 2: our top tier stars. And it did speak truthfully about
[8:43] Speaker 2: their weaknesses as players, which we're going to discuss today.
[8:45] Speaker 2: But I just would be careful about underestimating these guys' weaknesses.
[8:50] Speaker 2: Moving forward, I still think these are all fantastic basketball
[8:53] Speaker 2: players that are deserving of the mantle of being our
[8:57] Speaker 2: top tier stars in the most talented era in NBA history.
[9:01] Speaker 2: I just think, again, perfect storm, tough circumstances. They all struggled.
[9:06] Speaker 2: They are flawed. But let's not bury them all either,
[9:10] Speaker 2: if that makes sense. And lastly, I'm going to kind
[9:12] Speaker 2: of go through the rankings individually first. Then at the end,
[9:16] Speaker 2: I'll kind of talk about how I compare the three
[9:18] Speaker 2: of them. Without any further ado, let's get going. Number three,
[9:22] Speaker 2: Shea Gilders and Alexander. 68 games played, 31 points, four rebounds,
[9:28] Speaker 2: and seven assists per game on 67% true shooting. This
[9:31] Speaker 2: was the best scoring and efficiency season for a guard
[9:34] Speaker 2: since 2016's Steph, which is no small feat. That guy
[9:38] Speaker 2: was a unanimous MVP. Going through the shooting numbers, 1.1
[9:41] Speaker 2: points per jump shot.
[9:42] Speaker 1: That's obviously great.
[9:43] Speaker 2: If you break it down off the catch from three, 38%,
[9:47] Speaker 2: although only 55 reps, was actually a touch better when
[9:49] Speaker 2: he was against a contest versus when he was wide open.
[9:52] Speaker 2: That's somewhat something I've seen occasionally over the years with
[9:55] Speaker 2: guys who are like real set shooters. They don't get
[9:56] Speaker 2: a ton of lift on the, on their shot. 39%
[9:59] Speaker 2: on off the dribble threes, 243 reps. That was a
[10:02] Speaker 2: real part of his game in the regular season. So
[10:04] Speaker 2: much so that it was probably the defining moment of
[10:06] Speaker 2: the regular season in that shootout that he had with
[10:09] Speaker 2: Nicola Jokic, where he ended up hitting the game winner
[10:11] Speaker 2: over Spencer Jones. Like that, It failed him in the playoffs,
[10:14] Speaker 2: and we'll talk more about that later on, but it's
[10:16] Speaker 2: clear that he was trying to build that part of
[10:18] Speaker 2: his game out, and it was very successful in the
[10:20] Speaker 2: regular season. Break down the jump shot by distance. 57%
[10:24] Speaker 2: inside of 17 feet. That's absurd. That's best in the
[10:26] Speaker 2: league that you'll find. 52% on long twos, 39% on
[10:31] Speaker 2: all threes. Not really much of a floater. Only 22
[10:34] Speaker 2: makes all season, but he made 49% of them. That's
[10:37] Speaker 2: another area where he can add some variety, which will
[10:39] Speaker 2: be the theme of this segment. And then 67% at
[10:42] Speaker 2: the rim on six and a half, attempts per game,
[10:44] Speaker 2: which are both great numbers for a guard, obviously. Play
[10:47] Speaker 2: type data, he was the best pick and roll player
[10:49] Speaker 2: in the league last year by per possession efficiency. He
[10:52] Speaker 2: had 1,221 reps, 1.13 points per possession, including passes. He
[10:56] Speaker 2: was the second best ISO player in the league behind
[10:59] Speaker 2: Luka at 1.17 points per possession, including passes, 734 reps.
[11:04] Speaker 2: And then 99 post-ups, actually a little bit more of
[11:06] Speaker 2: his game than you would think, just really gets into
[11:09] Speaker 2: his bag and then goes to that little turnaround fadeaway.
[11:11] Speaker 2: 1.04 points per possession, which is okay. Not a huge
[11:14] Speaker 2: part of his game, but a small part of his game.
[11:18] Speaker 2: Speaking strictly through the lens of the regular season, to me,
[11:21] Speaker 2: Shea is the James Harden of this generation. And I
[11:24] Speaker 2: want to be clear up front. I mean that as
[11:27] Speaker 2: a compliment. Even though SGA has shown himself to be
[11:31] Speaker 2: a playoff dropper, I don't compare him to James Harden
[11:35] Speaker 2: in that specific way in its entirety. Because what happens
[11:39] Speaker 2: to James in the playoffs is deeper than basketball. He
[11:43] Speaker 2: straight up experiences this weird void in like intensity and
[11:47] Speaker 2: focus that leads to these bizarre no-show performances.
[11:52] Speaker 1: That's not Shea.
[11:53] Speaker 2: I have never once, not even for a second, felt
[11:56] Speaker 2: like Shea was missing the fire and the fight. that
[11:59] Speaker 2: you need to compete on that stage. I am using
[12:03] Speaker 2: James Harden in the regular season as a comp for
[12:06] Speaker 2: Shea as a compliment. James Harden mastered regular season basketball.
[12:11] Speaker 2: He found a formula with his attacks that became completely
[12:15] Speaker 2: unstoppable over the large sample of an 82-game season. And
[12:19] Speaker 2: he basically just spammed it into oblivion, leading to these
[12:23] Speaker 2: remarkable individual production seasons and team success to follow. He
[12:28] Speaker 2: averaged 35 points per game on 62% true shooting over
[12:33] Speaker 2: 146 game span over two regular seasons in 2019 and 2020.
[12:38] Speaker 2: That's insane. So that's why I mean it as a
[12:41] Speaker 2: compliment to Shea. Those numbers are no small feat. Now,
[12:45] Speaker 2: James did hit some higher scoring volume, mainly because he
[12:48] Speaker 2: incorporated much higher volume from the three-point line, but Shea
[12:52] Speaker 2: did find a similar formula of balancing drives and pull-ups,
[12:56] Speaker 2: working the refs to get to the foul line, and
[12:59] Speaker 2: mastering the easy passing reads that came about as the
[13:02] Speaker 2: defense reacted to his scoring, and he spammed it over
[13:06] Speaker 2: and over the last couple of years to great regular
[13:09] Speaker 2: season effect. They even both drove defenses to some of
[13:12] Speaker 2: the most aggressive coverages that we've ever seen. Harden to
[13:15] Speaker 2: an even greater extent with like the bizarre, like let's
[13:18] Speaker 2: guard him from behind and funnel him into the lane stuff. And,
[13:22] Speaker 2: you know, guys putting their hands behind their backs because
[13:24] Speaker 2: they're terrified to commit fouls. Like it was a little
[13:26] Speaker 2: bit more insane with Harden, but Shea too has seen
[13:29] Speaker 2: some ridiculous overload schemes and aggressive double teams deployed against
[13:33] Speaker 2: him by many teams throughout the regular season and the playoffs.
[13:37] Speaker 2: Where I think the spamming has become problematic for Shea
[13:41] Speaker 2: is in the playoffs. There's two parts. If you look
[13:44] Speaker 2: at the James Harden struggles in the playoffs, there's two
[13:46] Speaker 2: pieces to it, right? There's that mental part, which has
[13:49] Speaker 2: nothing to do with Shea. Shea's wired completely differently and
[13:53] Speaker 2: wired like the all-time greats, right? But where he does
[13:57] Speaker 2: have similarities to James Harden is in that repetition, in
[14:00] Speaker 2: that lack of variety in his game. Again, now, it
[14:04] Speaker 2: was more dramatic for Shea, or for James Harden, but
[14:08] Speaker 2: Shea's style has run into some similar issues that James
[14:11] Speaker 2: Harden ran into in the postseason stage. Really comes down
[14:15] Speaker 2: to two things. One, a two-dimensional approach, and two, repetitiveness.
[14:21] Speaker 2: With the two-dimensional approach, James Harden, if you watched him,
[14:24] Speaker 2: it was like he had the drive, either through the
[14:27] Speaker 2: left-handed drive or the crossover left-to-right drive, and he had
[14:30] Speaker 2: the step-back three, almost always going towards his right-hand side.
[14:34] Speaker 2: He would occasionally mix in a step-back going left, but
[14:37] Speaker 2: for the most part, going to his right-hand side. Those
[14:40] Speaker 2: were the only two reliable parts of his game at
[14:42] Speaker 2: that point in his career. He eventually added a floater.
[14:46] Speaker 2: He eventually implemented more attempts from the mid-range, but not
[14:50] Speaker 2: until after his body started to fail him. During the
[14:54] Speaker 2: prime of James Harden, it was the step-back three in
[14:56] Speaker 2: the drive. With Shea, similarly... He's tried to add some
[15:00] Speaker 2: stuff in the regular season, like the step back three,
[15:03] Speaker 2: but for the most part, it's the drive in the mid.
[15:05] Speaker 1: Range pull up.
[15:07] Speaker 2: And when your game is basically predicated on one simple
[15:11] Speaker 2: given take, it leaves out solutions to the test. It
[15:14] Speaker 2: leaves out things that you can go to. If a
[15:17] Speaker 2: defense figures out a way to slow down your primary attack,
[15:22] Speaker 2: like even in game seven of the San Antonio series.
[15:24] Speaker 2: And like, it was really fun to watch and Shay's
[15:26] Speaker 2: a great player. And he hit a lot of incredible
[15:28] Speaker 2: shots and, It was certainly a moment. But it's not
[15:31] Speaker 2: like Shea figured out anything and started generating easier shots
[15:36] Speaker 2: for himself. He just hit a bunch of the crazy
[15:40] Speaker 2: difficult shots that he was missing for most of the series.
[15:43] Speaker 2: It was just variance starting to come around a little
[15:45] Speaker 2: bit for him. Repetitiveness is the second piece of this.
[15:52] Speaker 2: Repetitiveness doesn't work in the postseason. When you attack in
[15:56] Speaker 2: the same way, From the same spots on the floor,
[15:59] Speaker 2: with the same moves over and over and over again,
[16:03] Speaker 2: it allows defenders to kind of pick up on your
[16:05] Speaker 2: cues and then they build rhythm guarding you. All of
[16:10] Speaker 2: a sudden, those moves don't work as well as the
[16:13] Speaker 2: series progresses. To be clear, Shea is a much better
[16:18] Speaker 2: player than James Harden was. And he has the competitive
[16:23] Speaker 2: spirit to solve this problem. He just needs to add
[16:27] Speaker 2: variety to his game. The three-point shot is a great start.
[16:31] Speaker 2: And he started it in the regular season. I would
[16:33] Speaker 2: index even further towards that in his volume because that
[16:37] Speaker 2: is a shot that I think is going to give
[16:39] Speaker 2: him a lot more of that variety when he gets
[16:42] Speaker 2: into the postseason.
[16:44] Speaker 1: Two, the floater.
[16:46] Speaker 2: He only made 22 of them all season last year,
[16:50] Speaker 2: especially as he's dealing with the Victor Weminyama problem. Having
[16:54] Speaker 2: the ability on his drives to get to a shot
[16:58] Speaker 2: that doesn't involve him challenging someone at the rim is
[17:02] Speaker 2: an interesting counter for him to add in those situations.
[17:04] Speaker 2: I'd like to see him add a little bit more
[17:05] Speaker 2: of a floater. But this is probably the biggest piece
[17:08] Speaker 2: of it. Attacking out of action more than attacking with
[17:13] Speaker 2: a live dribble. What I mean by that is, when
[17:16] Speaker 2: he gets into a situation where he's dribbling on the
[17:18] Speaker 2: left wing against Steph Castle and the defense is set
[17:21] Speaker 2: up in a way, you know, where, you know, he's
[17:23] Speaker 2: got his corners occupied. He's got a guy in the
[17:25] Speaker 2: vertical spacing slot. Like he's got the floor spaced with
[17:27] Speaker 2: guys who can make shots, but you know, Steph Castle's
[17:31] Speaker 2: just kind of sitting on his right hand and kind
[17:32] Speaker 2: of funneling him to the left. And the Spurs defense
[17:36] Speaker 2: is layered in a way where they kind of are
[17:38] Speaker 2: prepared for him to drive into that gap. and they
[17:41] Speaker 2: know how to rotate when he gets into that gap,
[17:43] Speaker 2: it kind of becomes this repetitive situation where he's facing
[17:47] Speaker 2: ball pressure up the floor. He ends up in that
[17:49] Speaker 2: same left side slot. He ends up making that same
[17:51] Speaker 2: left-handed drive. He either drives into the lane and tries
[17:54] Speaker 2: to throw a kick out pass, which leads to the
[17:56] Speaker 2: same sequence of rotations. Or he goes to that step
[17:59] Speaker 2: back going to his left, which is the same type
[18:02] Speaker 2: of shot he's going to get every single time he
[18:03] Speaker 2: goes to his step back when Steph Castle's sitting on
[18:06] Speaker 2: his right hand, right? So it becomes very, very repetitive
[18:10] Speaker 2: when he's attacking with a live dribble like that constantly. Yeah,
[18:13] Speaker 2: they can make little tweaks here where it's like, oh, well,
[18:15] Speaker 2: what if we leave the strong side corner vacant? Maybe
[18:18] Speaker 2: we can get some cleaner looks this way. And it's
[18:20] Speaker 2: like they can make little tweaks like that, but it's
[18:23] Speaker 2: still the same fundamental thing with Steph Castle sitting on
[18:26] Speaker 2: the right hand, funneling him towards the sideline with the
[18:29] Speaker 2: length to contest and with the help to rotate out
[18:32] Speaker 2: of it. If he gets by him towards the basket,
[18:35] Speaker 2: getting him attacking more out of action. What I mean
[18:39] Speaker 2: by that is like, has somebody else bring the ball
[18:41] Speaker 2: up the floor and Have him start in the corner
[18:43] Speaker 2: and come off of a Chicago action. Have him start
[18:46] Speaker 2: a possession on one side of the floor as you're
[18:48] Speaker 2: running action on the opposite end of the floor and
[18:50] Speaker 2: then come over to Shea against a shifting defense. Getting
[18:55] Speaker 2: him into situations where he's attacking more without a live
[18:58] Speaker 2: dribble from the same damn spot on the floor over
[19:01] Speaker 2: and over and over again will put him in situations
[19:04] Speaker 2: where he has advantage while also giving him more variety
[19:08] Speaker 2: in the way that he's attacking. If you get him
[19:12] Speaker 2: in those situations coming off of off-ball action, meaning like
[19:16] Speaker 2: he starts in the corner and the guy who's dribbling
[19:20] Speaker 2: towards him, he has a pin-down screen from the first
[19:22] Speaker 2: guy and then a handoff from the second guy, or
[19:24] Speaker 2: like we talked about earlier, if he's attacking from the
[19:27] Speaker 2: second side after you've already ran action on the strong side, you.
[19:29] Speaker 1: Get a shifting defense.
[19:31] Speaker 2: Instead of Shea dribbling with everybody loaded up on him,
[19:35] Speaker 2: the defense is shifting towards him as it's coming from
[19:38] Speaker 2: a different spot on the floor, right? Get him against
[19:41] Speaker 2: a shifting defense. Two, it avoids ball pressure. Part of
[19:45] Speaker 2: the reason why Shay's three point shot fails him in
[19:48] Speaker 2: the postseason is because it's one thing to make threes
[19:52] Speaker 2: in regular season basketball. And it's another thing when the
[19:55] Speaker 2: physicality is increased and fatigue is more of a factor. Like,
[20:00] Speaker 2: it's not like Shay forgot how to shoot threes when
[20:03] Speaker 2: he got to the postseason. The game just got more
[20:05] Speaker 2: physical and more difficult and he struggled to get the
[20:07] Speaker 2: lift he needed to knock them down. So if you
[20:10] Speaker 2: can find little ways throughout the game to ease up
[20:13] Speaker 2: his workload by like lightening up his ball pressure, meaning
[20:16] Speaker 2: like instead of him dribbling up against ball pressure every time,
[20:19] Speaker 2: have him start from off the ball more. That sort
[20:21] Speaker 2: of thing will go a long way to saving his
[20:24] Speaker 2: resources physically to be able to knock shots down. And
[20:28] Speaker 2: then lastly, most importantly, variety. The more often that you
[20:32] Speaker 2: get him attacking from different spots on the floor out
[20:35] Speaker 2: of different types of plays, the less likely it is
[20:39] Speaker 2: for the defenders to pick up on the cues and
[20:44] Speaker 2: build rhythm guarding him. So let me provide a very
[20:47] Speaker 2: simple example using James Harden as a come. If James
[20:51] Speaker 2: Harden is dribbling at the top of the key, and
[20:54] Speaker 2: you know, because you've been guarding him for two weeks,
[20:56] Speaker 2: that he's going to go to his step back, go
[20:58] Speaker 2: into his right hand, And he's trying to set me
[21:01] Speaker 2: up for his crossover. And I know he's got this
[21:03] Speaker 2: left-handed drive, this left-to-right crossover, this step-back move going to
[21:07] Speaker 2: his right. And you just sit on it over and
[21:09] Speaker 2: over and over again. You see those moves. You might
[21:13] Speaker 2: get busted by the first crossover. You might get busted
[21:16] Speaker 2: by the second crossover. But like that eighth or ninth crossover,
[21:20] Speaker 2: you start to kind of pick up on the cues.
[21:22] Speaker 2: You start to see it coming more. You start to
[21:23] Speaker 2: beat him to spots. All of a sudden, you're getting
[21:26] Speaker 2: back in front of the basketball, right?
[21:28] Speaker 1: But.
[21:29] Speaker 2: If he's coming off of a curl out of the
[21:31] Speaker 2: left corner and you're just chasing in lock and trail position,
[21:35] Speaker 2: it doesn't really matter what his crossover is. It doesn't
[21:37] Speaker 2: really matter what kind of moves he has and whether
[21:39] Speaker 2: or not you've picked up on them visually. He's attacking
[21:43] Speaker 2: downhill off of the catch. Now it's just if you're
[21:47] Speaker 2: too far behind, he's going to knock down the shot.
[21:49] Speaker 2: If you're trailing him and funneling him, he's going to
[21:51] Speaker 2: go all the way to the rim. If he goes
[21:52] Speaker 2: all the way to the rim, he's got these reads
[21:54] Speaker 2: available to him, either as a finisher or as a passer, right?
[21:56] Speaker 2: Like getting him into more situations where it's not him
[21:59] Speaker 2: dribbling against Steph Castle one-on-one, but rather variety, attacking off
[22:05] Speaker 2: the catch, attacking out of action, that will make it
[22:08] Speaker 2: so that it's less likely for defenders to pick up
[22:11] Speaker 2: on his cues. This showed, by the way, last year,
[22:14] Speaker 2: just in very small volumes. He had 23 plays all
[22:17] Speaker 2: season last year where he attacked coming off of an
[22:19] Speaker 2: off-ball screen. He shot 16 for 23 in those situations.
[22:23] Speaker 2: Damn near unguardable. In the Spurs series, he did it
[22:28] Speaker 2: seven times and shot five for seven when he did.
[22:34] Speaker 2: So increasing volume there could go a long way towards
[22:37] Speaker 2: making his life easier. And then the last piece of
[22:40] Speaker 2: it on that front, it's kind of in the same vein,
[22:42] Speaker 2: is getting him to attack more off of the catch
[22:45] Speaker 2: as a shooter.
[22:45] Speaker 1: Like, he's a.
[22:46] Speaker 2: Very good jump shooter. So, like, adding more of that, like,
[22:50] Speaker 2: Ray Allen, Richard Hamilton, like, let me run off of
[22:53] Speaker 2: an action and just catch and fire to his game
[22:56] Speaker 2: could go a long way to getting him easier jump shots.
[22:59] Speaker 2: And again, like, he didn't shoot poorly on those midi
[23:02] Speaker 2: pull-ups because he just got cold in the playoffs or
[23:04] Speaker 2: he was choking under the pressure. No, like, it's... elite
[23:08] Speaker 2: defenders that knew they didn't have to worry about the
[23:11] Speaker 2: rim because Wemby's behind them and that had the length
[23:14] Speaker 2: and athleticism to get great contests. They were low quality
[23:17] Speaker 2: jump shots. That's why he was missing them. Getting him
[23:21] Speaker 2: higher quality jump shots could go a long way to
[23:24] Speaker 2: increasing his efficiency on that stage. I can already see
[23:28] Speaker 2: the future and I know people are going to be
[23:29] Speaker 2: all up in arms about me comparing him to James Harden.
[23:33] Speaker 2: But I sincerely mean it as a compliment. Because while
[23:36] Speaker 2: there are similarities there, Shea is everything that Harden isn't.
[23:41] Speaker 2: He's wired like the all-time greats competitively. And most importantly,
[23:46] Speaker 2: he'll care for his body in a way that will
[23:49] Speaker 2: avoid that early decline that James Harden experienced. I'm a
[23:53] Speaker 2: big believer in Shea, and I do believe he'll eventually
[23:57] Speaker 2: solve the playoff puzzle and cement himself among the all-time
[24:00] Speaker 2: greats in this game. Harden was an all-time great in
[24:05] Speaker 2: the making, but who couldn't conquer his flaws. Shea can
[24:10] Speaker 2: conquer his flaws, and I believe he will. Basketball is back, folks,
[24:15] Speaker 2: and you need to change the way you invest in
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[24:31] Speaker 2: wins it all to whether Shea Goodis-Alexander wins MVP to
[24:35] Speaker 2: whether Victor Wimonyama finally takes the MVP crown himself to
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[24:40] Speaker 2: class led by AJ DeBonsa and Darren Peterson. We hear
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[25:43] Speaker 2: independent software provider and affiliate of Polymarket US and Polymarket Clearing,
[25:48] Speaker 2: the CFTC-regulated exchange and clearing organization. Number two, Victor Wimonyup.
[25:55] Speaker 2: 64 games played last year, averaged 25, 12, and three
[26:00] Speaker 2: 4.1 stocks per game, a league best 3.1 blocks per game, 63%
[26:05] Speaker 2: true shooting 0.95 points per jump shot, 37% on catch
[26:11] Speaker 2: and shoot threes, 46% when unguarded, there's a huge difference
[26:14] Speaker 2: in Wemby's shooting efficiency when he's stable versus when his
[26:18] Speaker 2: base is disrupted. And that goes all the way back
[26:20] Speaker 2: to the first time we scouted him when he had
[26:23] Speaker 2: that showcase against Scoot Henderson. Those of you guys who
[26:26] Speaker 2: remember that video, we talked a lot about that concept
[26:28] Speaker 2: of his base being disrupted. We're going to just dig
[26:30] Speaker 2: more into that later because I think that's really the
[26:32] Speaker 2: key to his offensive weaknesses that he can address. 29%
[26:35] Speaker 2: on pull-up threes. If you break it down by distance, 42%
[26:39] Speaker 2: inside of 17 feet, 38% on long twos, 35% on
[26:42] Speaker 2: all threes. Very few floaters and hooks, only 37 attempts
[26:45] Speaker 2: all season, made 15 of them. That's 41%. Definitely an
[26:48] Speaker 2: area of improvement for him there. 71% at the rim,
[26:51] Speaker 2: but a pretty big difference between dunks and layups.
[26:54] Speaker 1: 91% on dunks, 54% on layups.
[26:57] Speaker 2: His play type data is low volume compared to his peers, predictably,
[27:00] Speaker 2: because he's not a guard. 131 pick and rolls, including passes,
[27:04] Speaker 2: 131 points generated. You can do the math there. He
[27:07] Speaker 2: did run quite a few one-on-ones, 441 isos and post-ups,
[27:09] Speaker 2: but he only generated 415 points, including passes. That's 0.94
[27:11] Speaker 2: points per possession. I want to focus on the offensive
[27:20] Speaker 2: end for this segment, but very briefly with respect to
[27:23] Speaker 2: Wemby's defense, he's number two on this list despite his
[27:26] Speaker 2: offensive shortcomings because he's quite simply the best defensive player
[27:29] Speaker 2: in the NBA by a country mile. He's a game-breaking
[27:32] Speaker 2: defender that has to be accounted for at all times.
[27:36] Speaker 2: If he's in the general vicinity of the play, it's
[27:38] Speaker 2: probably not going to work. Every single possession of this
[27:42] Speaker 2: NBA playoff run kind of felt like a puzzle for
[27:45] Speaker 2: opposing head coaches.
[27:46] Speaker 1: How do we score on this guy?
[27:49] Speaker 2: Like, even with all the issues the Spurs had on offense,
[27:52] Speaker 2: they were still plus eight in the NBA finals with
[27:55] Speaker 2: Victor Weminyama on the floor. Because that's how difficult he
[27:59] Speaker 2: makes life for you there. And the crazy part, the
[28:02] Speaker 2: thing that should be terrifying for the rest of the league,
[28:06] Speaker 2: is that it's really like 90% just his natural ability
[28:09] Speaker 2: at this point. He's still very mistake prone on defense.
[28:13] Speaker 2: He gets out of position all the time or he'll
[28:14] Speaker 2: make that reads often throughout games. And it just doesn't
[28:18] Speaker 2: matter because he's so ridiculously long and mobile that he
[28:21] Speaker 2: can erase mistakes with his range. And just by being, again,
[28:25] Speaker 2: in the general vicinity of the rim, he shuts that off,
[28:28] Speaker 2: which changes the entire way opposing offenses have to play.
[28:31] Speaker 2: It's terrifying because he will get better at the positioning,
[28:36] Speaker 2: at the reads, as the years go by. Wemby's ability
[28:41] Speaker 2: to impact the game on defense is so substantial that
[28:44] Speaker 2: he comes in at number two on this list, despite
[28:46] Speaker 2: being an incredibly flawed basketball player outside of that single trait.
[28:51] Speaker 2: It's honestly like a pretty interesting conundrum for a list
[28:55] Speaker 2: like this. He's a unprecedented type of basketball player in here.
[29:00] Speaker 2: Cause like you, you can sit here and just list
[29:03] Speaker 2: his flaws. I've seen people doing it on Twitter all summer.
[29:07] Speaker 2: Like just a bunch of people talking about how terrible
[29:09] Speaker 2: Wemby is at this and that and this and that.
[29:11] Speaker 2: And a lot of it is based somewhere in reality
[29:14] Speaker 2: in terms of some of his weaknesses. But it undercuts
[29:18] Speaker 2: the simple fact that despite all of that, his presence
[29:22] Speaker 2: on the floor impacts the game defensively to such a
[29:24] Speaker 2: great extent that despite those flaws, he is clearly one
[29:29] Speaker 2: of the top tier superstars in this league. And most
[29:32] Speaker 2: of the negativity I saw kind of felt like some
[29:35] Speaker 2: sort of bizarre wishful thinking. which I think is hilarious
[29:38] Speaker 2: because the kid's barely scratching the surface of his potential
[29:41] Speaker 2: and he might already be the game's best player. Now,
[29:45] Speaker 2: before we get nitpicky with his offense, I do want
[29:48] Speaker 2: to emphasize his strengths. He's a great standstill shooter, which
[29:53] Speaker 2: provides a lot of spacing value. He's by far the
[29:57] Speaker 2: best vertical spacer in the league. with a preposterous catch radius,
[30:01] Speaker 2: and the ability to dunk basically everything. And this creates
[30:06] Speaker 2: a ton of value on his rolls to the basket.
[30:08] Speaker 2: He draws a ton of help on his rolls, which
[30:10] Speaker 2: opens up the skip pass. As we talked about throughout
[30:13] Speaker 2: the season, San Antonio generated the most corner threes in
[30:15] Speaker 2: the history of the NBA this year. To put it simply,
[30:20] Speaker 2: over the last two rounds of the playoffs against an
[30:22] Speaker 2: elite OKC defense and a great New York defense, he
[30:26] Speaker 2: averaged 27 points per game. And yet we left those
[30:29] Speaker 2: series going, man, this guy has a lot of work
[30:32] Speaker 2: to do on offense. Think about how insane that is.
[30:37] Speaker 2: Wemby's offensive shortcomings to me come down to two things.
[30:41] Speaker 2: One is just reading the game. Kind of similar to
[30:43] Speaker 2: what we talked about on the defensive end. A lot
[30:46] Speaker 2: of the mistakes that Wemby would make on offense, like turnovers.
[30:50] Speaker 1: Bad shots.
[30:51] Speaker 2: They would come down to bad decisions, like driving into
[30:54] Speaker 2: gaps that aren't there. Like when you drive into a gap,
[30:57] Speaker 2: that's not there. It's really easy for a defender to
[30:58] Speaker 2: dig down and swipe the ball away from him. Cause
[31:00] Speaker 2: he's so damn tall that he dribbles the basketball a
[31:03] Speaker 2: lot further up and down off the ground than a
[31:05] Speaker 2: normal basketball player does. Right? Like he would just read
[31:09] Speaker 2: the floor poorly, put his head down and drive into
[31:11] Speaker 2: a gap, turn it over, taking unnecessarily tough shots with
[31:14] Speaker 2: a lot of time on the shot clock. Like Similar
[31:17] Speaker 2: to the stuff we talked about with defense, he'll get
[31:19] Speaker 2: better at this over time. Over time, he'll just get
[31:21] Speaker 2: better at reading the game, and that will help. The
[31:24] Speaker 2: second piece of it, though, is his center of gravity.
[31:27] Speaker 2: It's high and up off the ground, and that makes
[31:30] Speaker 2: it a lot easier for players to get up underneath
[31:32] Speaker 2: him and to disrupt his base. I talk a lot
[31:36] Speaker 2: about this when we talk about skill development, but when
[31:39] Speaker 2: you're taking any sort of shot, there is a transfer
[31:43] Speaker 2: of energy that takes place from your feet, up through
[31:46] Speaker 2: your knees and your hips, up through your shoulders, elbows, wrists,
[31:49] Speaker 2: all the way through the release, right?
[31:51] Speaker 1: There's a transfer of energy.
[31:54] Speaker 2: And disruptions in that transfer of energy make it so
[31:57] Speaker 2: that there is a higher emphasis on the top of
[32:01] Speaker 2: the shot, right? So like, for instance, if I'm shooting
[32:05] Speaker 2: standstill catch-and-shoot threes, it's really easy to have a nice,
[32:10] Speaker 2: clean base, to jump and to get that energy to
[32:14] Speaker 2: transfer from your feet up through your knees, up through
[32:16] Speaker 2: your hips, through your shooting pocket and cleanly at the
[32:19] Speaker 2: top of the shot, right? That makes it so that
[32:22] Speaker 2: you can rely on your muscle memory up top and
[32:26] Speaker 2: knock shots down. That's why when we look at a
[32:30] Speaker 2: lot of these guys and we see, oh, he's got
[32:32] Speaker 2: really high level shooting on unguarded catch and shoot threes
[32:36] Speaker 2: or free throws, we can go, okay, he's got a
[32:39] Speaker 2: good base in terms of his touch to be a
[32:42] Speaker 2: good shooter. But then the players that succeed shooting in
[32:46] Speaker 2: more complicated situations, so like contested threes, movement threes, off
[32:51] Speaker 2: the dribble threes, off the dribble jump shots from anywhere
[32:54] Speaker 2: on the floor, there's a much more complicated energy transfer
[32:58] Speaker 2: that they have mastered, right? Now, instead of my feet
[33:01] Speaker 2: being standing still on a catch and shoot shot, they're
[33:05] Speaker 2: in some sort of footwork in a move, whether it's
[33:07] Speaker 2: a spin or a sidestep or a step back or
[33:09] Speaker 2: a pullback dribble, whatever it might be, my feet are moving, right?
[33:13] Speaker 2: Now I need to, because my body has been moving,
[33:17] Speaker 2: my entire weight of my body has been shifting in
[33:20] Speaker 2: different directions. So now there's more emphasis on my knees
[33:23] Speaker 2: and my hips and my calves to stop my body
[33:26] Speaker 2: weight and to get it established into a base, right?
[33:31] Speaker 2: Also for contested shots, movement shots, ISO shots, I usually
[33:36] Speaker 2: need to get lift to shoot over.
[33:38] Speaker 1: A contest, right?
[33:39] Speaker 2: So there's a much greater taxing on the lower half
[33:43] Speaker 2: of your body on those types of shots. When you
[33:47] Speaker 2: see shooters that knock down really nice, tough, contested pull-ups,
[33:52] Speaker 2: watch their feet. Watch how sharp their footwork is. Watch
[33:57] Speaker 2: how much lift they get. Watch how clean the energy
[34:00] Speaker 2: transfer is on a complicated shot for the best shooters
[34:04] Speaker 2: in our game, right? But what happens when a defender...
[34:08] Speaker 2: gets up underneath and disrupts that process. When you see
[34:12] Speaker 2: a player, it's not like a lot of these dudes
[34:15] Speaker 2: that take hook shots and they shoot 40% on hook shots.
[34:19] Speaker 2: If you put Giannis in the gym by himself and
[34:21] Speaker 2: asked him to shoot hook shots just over and over
[34:24] Speaker 2: again over his left shoulder, even he's probably going to
[34:26] Speaker 2: hit 60-65% of them in the gym by himself. But
[34:30] Speaker 2: if he's got Bam Adebayo up underneath him and he's
[34:33] Speaker 2: bumping him and hitting him on his base, all of
[34:35] Speaker 2: a sudden when you go to shoot that shot, you're
[34:37] Speaker 2: kind of like leaning a little bit. You didn't get
[34:39] Speaker 2: as quite as much lift as you usually do. So
[34:41] Speaker 2: now you're kind of chucking it with your hand instead
[34:43] Speaker 2: of going to your muscle memory. Now it's long off
[34:45] Speaker 2: the back rim or short off of the front rim, right?
[34:48] Speaker 2: That is the process of defense against these elite shooters.
[34:52] Speaker 2: What you're trying to do is disrupt their feet somewhere,
[34:56] Speaker 2: disrupt their base somewhere, make it so that by the
[34:59] Speaker 2: time they get to the top of their shot, something
[35:02] Speaker 2: got damaged. all janky for them. And it's not like
[35:06] Speaker 2: when they were in the gym by themselves. And that's
[35:08] Speaker 2: what happens to Victor when Minyama, when he gets into
[35:10] Speaker 2: these ISO situations against an Isaiah Hartenstein against a Carl
[35:14] Speaker 2: Anthony towns against these big physical forwards that he struggled with.
[35:18] Speaker 2: Julius Randall gave him issues in the regular season. Aaron
[35:21] Speaker 2: Gordon gave him issues in the regular season because what
[35:23] Speaker 2: happens is he goes to take a shot that we
[35:26] Speaker 2: know he's capable of making because he has the touch.
[35:29] Speaker 2: He is a good free throw shooter. He is a
[35:30] Speaker 2: good three point shooter when he's standing still, but someone's
[35:34] Speaker 2: pushing up underneath him and get disrupting his base. And
[35:37] Speaker 2: so when he goes to take those shots, he can
[35:39] Speaker 2: look like a baby deer out there sometimes as he's
[35:41] Speaker 2: getting pushed around. So one of the things to keep
[35:45] Speaker 2: in mind with Wemby is like, there's a certain amount
[35:48] Speaker 2: of that that is unavoidable. And then there's a certain
[35:51] Speaker 2: amount of that that can be addressed. So what are
[35:54] Speaker 2: the parts of it that are unavoidable? Like, I don't
[35:58] Speaker 2: see Wemby as a player that's going to be breaking
[36:01] Speaker 2: dudes down off the dribble. Because in a clean off
[36:05] Speaker 2: the dribble situation, him against a defender, teams are always
[36:10] Speaker 2: going to put their biggest, strongest forward on him that
[36:13] Speaker 2: can get up underneath him. And so as soon as
[36:15] Speaker 2: he goes into that bag... They're quicker than him, so
[36:18] Speaker 2: they can beat him to spots. And Wemby can't win
[36:21] Speaker 2: a leverage battle against him. So in any of those situations,
[36:26] Speaker 2: Wemby's dead on arrival. And even if he put on
[36:29] Speaker 2: some muscle, his center of gravity is so high that
[36:32] Speaker 2: he's still not going to be able to turn the
[36:33] Speaker 2: corner against those dudes. Now, on occasion, there will be
[36:37] Speaker 2: a matchup where a team has to guard him with
[36:39] Speaker 2: a slow-footed center, and yeah, by all means, he should
[36:41] Speaker 2: get into his off-the-dribble game, and that'll be a part
[36:43] Speaker 2: of his game in those unique situations. But against the
[36:46] Speaker 2: highest-level defenses in the league, he's constantly going to run
[36:48] Speaker 2: into the problem of these big physical forwards that get
[36:51] Speaker 2: up underneath him and disrupt his center of gravity, right? So,
[36:54] Speaker 2: how do you get Victor Weminyama in a situation where
[36:58] Speaker 2: the defender is not already squared up with him?
[37:01] Speaker 1: Because if the.
[37:02] Speaker 2: Defender is already squared up with him, he's screwed, right?
[37:05] Speaker 2: That's where getting him into situations where he's attacking out
[37:08] Speaker 2: of action and you can get him separated from the
[37:11] Speaker 2: defender are the best ways to get him into those
[37:15] Speaker 2: situations where he's separated from the guy. When he's separated
[37:18] Speaker 2: from the guy, then he can shoot where we know
[37:21] Speaker 2: he's a very good shooter or he can get into
[37:23] Speaker 2: his bag a little bit more because now the defender
[37:26] Speaker 2: is detached. So if he sells like he's going to
[37:28] Speaker 2: go right and crosses over left, he might be able
[37:31] Speaker 2: to beat him despite not having a good first step
[37:33] Speaker 2: compared to that guy because he's got the separation already.
[37:37] Speaker 2: So getting him into situations where he's attacking off of
[37:39] Speaker 2: kind of like we talked about with Shea, attacking off
[37:41] Speaker 2: of off-ball action where he can get separated early in
[37:44] Speaker 2: the possession, that's a great way to get him away
[37:47] Speaker 2: from the center of gravity issue. The second piece of
[37:50] Speaker 2: it is, okay, he has to score one-on-one in some way, shape,
[37:54] Speaker 2: or form. under the circumstances because we know defenses will
[37:58] Speaker 2: inevitably switch and take away off-ball action and find a
[38:01] Speaker 2: way to force him to score one-on-one. So what's his
[38:04] Speaker 2: best chance?
[38:05] Speaker 1: Well, we talked about it.
[38:06] Speaker 2: If he's away from the basket, he's not going to
[38:09] Speaker 2: be able to drive because guys will beat him to
[38:11] Speaker 2: spots and put hands on it. He's not going to
[38:14] Speaker 2: be able to get deep post catches because those dudes
[38:17] Speaker 2: will just shove him out of the lane. So if
[38:20] Speaker 2: he can't work in the deep post, but he can't
[38:22] Speaker 2: work with a live dribble from the three-point line, where's
[38:25] Speaker 2: the next best thing? This is where I've always talked
[38:28] Speaker 2: about over the course of the last several months, his
[38:31] Speaker 2: face-up game around that 15, 17-foot area, right? Because if
[38:36] Speaker 2: you get him in a triple threat there, he's close
[38:39] Speaker 2: enough to the basket that even with disrupted rhythm, it's
[38:43] Speaker 2: just an easier shot. We talked about that energy transfer.
[38:46] Speaker 2: From three, you're shooting a 26-footer with a dude disrupting
[38:51] Speaker 2: your base. That's a really hard shot. A 16-footer, that's
[38:56] Speaker 2: a much more achievable shot for him in that specific situation.
[39:00] Speaker 2: It might also allow him to get more into those
[39:02] Speaker 2: like hooks and floaters, right? The short range shot making.
[39:05] Speaker 2: So if he's not going to be a low post player,
[39:07] Speaker 2: cause dudes are going to shove him out of the lane.
[39:09] Speaker 2: And if he's not going to be a live dribble,
[39:11] Speaker 2: three point, a three point line driver, because dudes will
[39:14] Speaker 2: beat him to spots. that, that like mid post area
[39:18] Speaker 2: where he can catch and turn in face and he
[39:19] Speaker 2: doesn't have to dribble. He could just throw a hard
[39:21] Speaker 2: jab and then shoot, or he can turn around over
[39:24] Speaker 2: either shoulder and yeah, he'll have his base disrupted, but
[39:26] Speaker 2: it's a shorter, more achievable shot. Those I think are
[39:29] Speaker 2: the best. ways for him to generate success as a
[39:32] Speaker 2: one-on-one player working off ball more to get separated. and
[39:36] Speaker 2: then working more in the mid-post area where he doesn't
[39:39] Speaker 2: need to drive, but he's closer to the basket so
[39:42] Speaker 2: the shots are more attainable. To be clear, he's not
[39:45] Speaker 2: going to be an A-plus offensive player. He's never going
[39:49] Speaker 2: to be Luka, Shea, or Jokic. That would be an
[39:51] Speaker 2: unrealistic expectation. He doesn't have the... the, the natural playmaking talent,
[39:56] Speaker 2: or frankly, the, the indomitable physical trade as a, as
[39:59] Speaker 2: like a driver to be able to do that sort
[40:01] Speaker 2: of thing. Like Jokic can go through people's chests. Luca
[40:05] Speaker 2: can go through people's chests. Shay can go around people.
[40:08] Speaker 2: Jalen Brunson can go around people. When B can't go
[40:11] Speaker 2: through people and he can't go around people, he can
[40:13] Speaker 2: only go over the top of people. The best spot
[40:17] Speaker 2: on the floor for him to do that is that
[40:19] Speaker 2: mid post area. And by the way, like That's literally
[40:21] Speaker 2: why Kevin Durant has been most successful from that spot
[40:24] Speaker 2: on the floor for.
[40:24] Speaker 1: The same reason.
[40:25] Speaker 2: Can't really get to the basket. That's not really a
[40:28] Speaker 2: big part of his game, but he can shoot over
[40:30] Speaker 2: the top, right? And obviously, Wemby's bag will never be
[40:33] Speaker 2: able to get to where KD is as an off
[40:35] Speaker 2: the dribble three-point player. I think he can get some
[40:37] Speaker 2: of that, but I think closer to the basket in
[40:39] Speaker 2: that mid-post area is where he can have the most success. Again,
[40:43] Speaker 2: he doesn't need to be an A-plus offensive player because
[40:46] Speaker 2: he's already the best defensive player maybe in the history
[40:48] Speaker 2: of the game. A little goes a long way with
[40:51] Speaker 2: Wemby on that end of the floor. Lastly, number one,
[40:58] Speaker 2: culminating our list, Nikola Jokic. 65 games played, 28 points,
[41:05] Speaker 2: 13 rebounds, and 11 assists.
[41:07] Speaker 1: 67% true shooting.
[41:08] Speaker 2: That was actually the second highest scoring volume and the
[41:10] Speaker 2: second highest scoring efficiency season of Jokic's career. 1.12 points
[41:14] Speaker 2: per jump shot. which is also incredible bested of the
[41:18] Speaker 2: three guys on this list. 39% on catch and shoot threes, 43%
[41:22] Speaker 2: when unguarded, 35% on off the dribble threes, break it
[41:25] Speaker 2: down by distance, 53% inside of 17 feet, 59% on
[41:27] Speaker 2: long twos, and 38% on all threes. Hooks and floaters,
[41:29] Speaker 2: as usual, 63% on 230 attempts, and then 68% at
[41:30] Speaker 2: the rim. Play tight data, obviously insane. This is typical
[41:42] Speaker 2: for Jokic. 1.1 points per possession in pick and roll,
[41:45] Speaker 2: relatively low volume. Those are those inverted ball screens that
[41:48] Speaker 2: he runs. Only ran 268 of them last year, but
[41:51] Speaker 2: that's where he's dribbling on the wing. Tim Hardaway comes,
[41:53] Speaker 2: screens for him, slips out, and he makes a play
[41:55] Speaker 2: either as a passer or a driver in those situations.
[41:57] Speaker 2: 1.16 points per iso on 161 reps, including passes, and
[42:00] Speaker 2: then 1.16 points per post up on 596 reps, one
[42:01] Speaker 2: of our highest volume post players in the league. I
[42:09] Speaker 2: would split Jokic's season into two parts. To start the year,
[42:13] Speaker 2: he was absolutely insane. It was basically going bar for
[42:15] Speaker 2: bar with Shea's amazing season that he was having in OKC.
[42:19] Speaker 2: Then he hurts his knee, and he looked like a
[42:21] Speaker 2: slightly lesser version of himself all the way through the
[42:23] Speaker 2: end of the season and including the playoffs. I haven't
[42:26] Speaker 2: met number one on this list because I think he's
[42:29] Speaker 2: still the best offensive player in the game. By some
[42:32] Speaker 2: small but clearly discernible margin over the likes of Luka
[42:35] Speaker 2: and Shea Gildas Alexander. He is the only player in
[42:39] Speaker 2: the league that brings the combination of indomitable one-on-one heliocentric
[42:43] Speaker 2: style play when he needs it, but mixed with a
[42:47] Speaker 2: style that brings a ton of variety in ball movement
[42:52] Speaker 2: that keeps the defense off balance and his teammates in rhythm.
[42:57] Speaker 2: Just think about all the different ways that we watch
[42:59] Speaker 2: Jokic attack. It's not the Luka Doncic, Shea Gildas, Alexander,
[43:03] Speaker 2: we spam isos and pick and rolls from 27 feet
[43:05] Speaker 2: off the wing over and over and over again. He
[43:08] Speaker 2: can play one-on-one. He can just go to work in
[43:10] Speaker 2: the post against any individual type of player. He can
[43:13] Speaker 2: run two-man game with Jamal Murray as a screener. He
[43:16] Speaker 2: can set screens for Jamal and then pop to the
[43:18] Speaker 2: three-point line. He can set screens for Jamal and then
[43:19] Speaker 2: short roll into the lane and make his little floater, right?
[43:22] Speaker 2: He can run inverted screens like we talked about earlier.
[43:24] Speaker 2: He'll dribble up to the wing and then he'll have
[43:26] Speaker 2: a guard come screen for him and then slip out
[43:28] Speaker 2: of it. And if the guard sets a good pick,
[43:29] Speaker 2: he can turn the corner and drive. If he slips
[43:32] Speaker 2: out of it and the defensive guard lingers. He can
[43:34] Speaker 2: pitch it to that slipper. We can get an open
[43:37] Speaker 2: layup or an open three. He'll run a lot of
[43:39] Speaker 2: successful inverted ball screens throughout the season. Sometimes he'll just
[43:43] Speaker 2: play to Carl Anthony towns with the Knicks role where
[43:46] Speaker 2: he'll hold the basketball up at the top of the
[43:47] Speaker 2: key and just, there'll be off ball action that the
[43:50] Speaker 2: nuggets are running. And he's just the passing fulcrum, just
[43:53] Speaker 2: dishing the ball to a cam Johnson, a popping open
[43:56] Speaker 2: to the three point line or to Christian Brown slipping
[43:58] Speaker 2: to the basket on a dunk. He can just pass
[44:01] Speaker 2: from the top of the key as a, as a
[44:02] Speaker 2: fulcrum for off ball action. He's a great transition grab
[44:05] Speaker 2: and go player. He can grab the defensive rebound and
[44:08] Speaker 2: throw great kick ahead passes or dribble the ball up
[44:11] Speaker 2: the middle of the floor as the defense is chaotic
[44:13] Speaker 2: around him. He killed the Timberwolves with that at various
[44:17] Speaker 2: points in the series. I know they lost the series,
[44:19] Speaker 2: but that was one of the areas that he had
[44:20] Speaker 2: success offensively. Like he, his, him and his teams are
[44:24] Speaker 2: less susceptible to the lulls that other star offensive players
[44:29] Speaker 2: and other teams have to deal with because of that
[44:32] Speaker 2: variety in the way that he brings rhythm for his
[44:35] Speaker 2: entire team. In other words, he has more answers to
[44:38] Speaker 2: the test because he has so many different ways that
[44:41] Speaker 2: he can play and because there's not a lot of
[44:43] Speaker 2: just him standing and dribbling the basketball, which can be
[44:46] Speaker 2: repetitive and make him easier to guard over the course
[44:49] Speaker 2: of series. This is why I've been drawn to Jokic
[44:53] Speaker 2: a lot over the years. And again, when we're talking
[44:56] Speaker 2: about this specific conundrum where you have three guys that
[45:01] Speaker 2: all have different strengths and weaknesses, but that all have
[45:06] Speaker 2: kind of struggled in this last postseason run, we kind
[45:09] Speaker 2: of have to zoom out and look a little bit
[45:11] Speaker 2: more at the big picture. And over the course of
[45:14] Speaker 2: the last three seasons, despite... the issues that he's had
[45:17] Speaker 2: in specific matchups, I still feel like Nikola Jokic has
[45:21] Speaker 2: been the most reliable offensive player in the NBA, even
[45:24] Speaker 2: in the postseason. And that, again, it comes down to
[45:27] Speaker 2: that very simple dynamic. He has the power to, like,
[45:31] Speaker 2: he'll struggle against certain matchups, like Rudy Gobert's given him
[45:33] Speaker 2: some issues, but if you look around the league, like,
[45:35] Speaker 2: Shea coaches, Alexander's had trouble with Steph castle, for example, right?
[45:39] Speaker 1: Like there are, we, we, the NBA is really good.
[45:41] Speaker 1: We have a lot of really good defenders.
[45:42] Speaker 2: We have a lot of really good players and there
[45:44] Speaker 2: are guys that can give some of these guys issues, but, uh,
[45:47] Speaker 2: Nicole Jokic can generally overpower his individual matchup for the
[45:51] Speaker 2: majority of the teams around the league. And then from
[45:54] Speaker 2: that situation, he's one of the most gifted passers in
[45:57] Speaker 2: the history of basketball. The quintessential offensive engine. I once
[46:03] Speaker 2: upon a time thought he was the greatest offensive player
[46:05] Speaker 2: of all time. I'm not sure if I still feel
[46:07] Speaker 2: that way. That's a conversation for another day. But I
[46:09] Speaker 2: still think he's the best offensive player in the NBA today.
[46:13] Speaker 2: This is where I want to start getting into the why.
[46:15] Speaker 2: Why I ranked the guys the way that I did.
[46:19] Speaker 2: And again, disclaimer, there's no real margin here. Again, like
[46:22] Speaker 2: if you're going to argue to me that you think
[46:23] Speaker 2: Jokic is three and Wemby's one and Shea is two,
[46:27] Speaker 2: I don't think you're wrong. Like we can debate that
[46:29] Speaker 2: more on Friday. Any ordering of these three, I think
[46:33] Speaker 2: is fair given the way that things went. But here's
[46:36] Speaker 2: just a simple kind of breakdown as to why I
[46:39] Speaker 2: had them ranked one, two, three this.
[46:41] Speaker 1: Way this season.
[46:42] Speaker 2: I had Jokic over Shea for a simple reason. I
[46:45] Speaker 2: think he's a slightly better offensive player. He's every bit
[46:48] Speaker 2: the matchup problem one-on-one for the majority of the players
[46:51] Speaker 2: in the league. But he's a far better playmaker. And
[46:55] Speaker 2: Jokic's style and variety gives him more solutions to the
[46:59] Speaker 2: test against more types of teams. In general, and this
[47:03] Speaker 2: is just aesthetic, but I think it leads to a
[47:05] Speaker 2: better aesthetic brand of basketball. And in general, his team
[47:09] Speaker 2: ends up in more rhythm because of his play style
[47:11] Speaker 2: constantly getting rid of the basketball. The ball is constantly moving.
[47:14] Speaker 2: There's tons of player movement. It can be very, very
[47:17] Speaker 2: difficult to deal with defensively with all the variety and movement. Now,
[47:20] Speaker 2: people will bring up defense. And I think this is
[47:22] Speaker 2: where we need to kind of dive a little bit
[47:24] Speaker 2: further into this. I, you know, you'll see people make
[47:29] Speaker 2: cases like, oh, I think Shea is a really good
[47:33] Speaker 2: defender because of this, this and this. And I will
[47:35] Speaker 2: hear you like Jokic stands and Denver Nuggets fans be like, well,
[47:39] Speaker 2: Jokic is actually a good defender because he's such a
[47:42] Speaker 2: great defensive rebounder and he can be active with his
[47:44] Speaker 2: hands up at the level of ball screens. And I
[47:46] Speaker 2: want to be clear, all these guys have upsides. They're not,
[47:49] Speaker 2: you know, like downright damaging defensive players necessarily. But like,
[47:54] Speaker 2: I do think that Shea's secondary rim protection is like
[47:57] Speaker 2: a long term like he has long arms and he
[48:00] Speaker 2: can make plays at the rim with deflections on lobs
[48:03] Speaker 2: and uh you know occasionally get blocked shots at the
[48:06] Speaker 2: rim just with his length like he can make some
[48:07] Speaker 2: plays on defense and yeah Jokic's defensive rebounding is like
[48:11] Speaker 2: a real asset to a defense the dude's one of
[48:12] Speaker 2: the best defensive rebounders in the league and yeah he
[48:15] Speaker 2: can have some plays where he's okay defensively in pick
[48:18] Speaker 2: and roll but the truth of the matter is is
[48:20] Speaker 2: I view both of those guys as weak points to
[48:22] Speaker 2: defense like Shea can get downright physically overwhelmed at times
[48:27] Speaker 2: and was repeatedly physically overwhelmed in the San Antonio series
[48:32] Speaker 2: last year. And Nikoli Jokic, when he does not have
[48:36] Speaker 2: his second wave of rim protection, he can be a
[48:39] Speaker 2: downright bad rim protector. Now, the roster construct has gone
[48:43] Speaker 2: too far away from what they've needed. In the past,
[48:47] Speaker 2: he had this layering of a healthy Aaron Gordon and
[48:51] Speaker 2: of Michael Porter Jr. as these like two 6'10 dudes
[48:54] Speaker 2: at the rim behind him, and it made Jokic more
[48:57] Speaker 2: tenable on defense.
[48:58] Speaker 1: The Michael Porter Jr.
[48:59] Speaker 2: Trade, the downside, and we talked about it at the time,
[49:01] Speaker 2: Cam Johnson is a great player in just a different way,
[49:04] Speaker 2: but we talked about it at the time, Michael Porter Jr.
[49:07] Speaker 2: going out was going to be a decrease in defensive
[49:09] Speaker 2: rebounding and a decrease in defensive rim protection. Now, the
[49:13] Speaker 2: question at the time was, could they use more of
[49:15] Speaker 2: a perimeter defender, right? And, you know, the Cam Johnson
[49:18] Speaker 2: experience is, is very complicated, and we'll talk about that
[49:21] Speaker 2: more when we do our season preview on the Nuggets.
[49:25] Speaker 2: But if you look at the situation, the loss of
[49:27] Speaker 2: Michael Porter Jr., and then Aaron Gordon becoming injury-prone, put
[49:31] Speaker 2: a much heavier emphasis on Jokic's ability to protect the
[49:35] Speaker 2: rim by himself, and it's just not something he's good at, right?
[49:39] Speaker 2: So when you're talking about defense, I don't really see
[49:43] Speaker 2: an upside for either player in this discussion. I think
[49:46] Speaker 2: both Jokic and Shea, in the grand scheme of against
[49:50] Speaker 2: the best offenses in the league, I think they're generally
[49:55] Speaker 2: kind of net negatives defensively. on the defensive end of
[49:58] Speaker 2: the floor who brings some positive impact Shea with his
[50:01] Speaker 2: secondary rim protection Jokic with his defensive rebounding but it
[50:05] Speaker 2: wasn't like a real differentiator for me there the real
[50:08] Speaker 2: question is for the purpose of this list from October
[50:12] Speaker 2: 1st through to June the middle of June who do
[50:16] Speaker 2: I think is the best basketball player to lead my
[50:19] Speaker 2: team through all of that I lean slightly towards Jokic
[50:23] Speaker 2: because of the fact that I think he's a better
[50:25] Speaker 2: offensive player as indomitable one-on-one with higher level playmaking talent
[50:31] Speaker 2: in a style of offense that's harder to guard because
[50:34] Speaker 2: it has more variety and more movement from his teammates.
[50:40] Speaker 2: Then I had Wemby over Shea because they literally just
[50:43] Speaker 2: played each other in the playoffs and Wemby just looked
[50:45] Speaker 2: like a better player. Once again, by a small margin,
[50:49] Speaker 2: but like if you watch that series, the difference was
[50:52] Speaker 2: Wemby and what he does and what he brings to
[50:54] Speaker 2: the table. impacted winning more for San Antonio than what
[50:59] Speaker 2: Shea did for his team in that particular series, right? Now, again,
[51:05] Speaker 2: we zoom out and look at it a little bit
[51:07] Speaker 2: more in the vacuum. We talk about from October 1st
[51:11] Speaker 2: all the way through to the middle of June, and
[51:13] Speaker 2: you're telling me which player between Shea and Victor Weminyama
[51:17] Speaker 2: gives me a better chance to win the title, leading
[51:20] Speaker 2: the team from October through to June, What I'm looking
[51:23] Speaker 2: at with Victor Wemenyama is just right off the gates,
[51:26] Speaker 2: having him on the floor gives me a great chance
[51:29] Speaker 2: to win defensively. Again, the dude was this close to
[51:32] Speaker 2: winning the title with his offensive supporting cast being a
[51:36] Speaker 2: rookie Dylan Harper, a deeply flawed Steph Castle, and a
[51:39] Speaker 2: deer in Fox that really just completely fell apart, right?
[51:43] Speaker 2: And yet he still was able to, over the final
[51:45] Speaker 2: two rounds, despite his offensive weaknesses, to average 27 points
[51:49] Speaker 2: per game and to impact the game the way he
[51:51] Speaker 2: did defensively, to win his individual matchup against Shea Gilders Alexander,
[51:55] Speaker 2: and then in the finals, they were plus eight when
[51:58] Speaker 2: he was on the floor. Again, I don't think that
[51:59] Speaker 2: tells the whole story because Wemby was bad at the
[52:01] Speaker 2: end of games, but to me, Victor Weminyama, just slightly,
[52:05] Speaker 2: because of his overall defensive impact... while still bringing some
[52:08] Speaker 2: offensive impact as a volume scoring play finisher, and with
[52:12] Speaker 2: his ability to be a gravitational force around the rim,
[52:16] Speaker 2: I gave him the slight edge over Shea, kind of
[52:19] Speaker 2: anchored a little bit by his individual performance against him
[52:22] Speaker 2: where he outplayed him in the playoffs. So again, when
[52:24] Speaker 2: we're looking at this in the big picture, I'm not
[52:27] Speaker 2: going to sit here and get... I'm not over here
[52:30] Speaker 2: making some... profound proclamation. Like Jokic is the best player
[52:34] Speaker 2: in the world. And I feel very strongly about this note.
[52:37] Speaker 2: Like all three dudes had rough exits against tough matchups
[52:42] Speaker 2: that expose their weaknesses. All these dudes have weaknesses. You
[52:47] Speaker 2: could order them in any individual way. I ended up
[52:50] Speaker 2: leading for the, for the, for the sake of this list,
[52:53] Speaker 2: I ended up leaning slightly towards Nicola Jokic as the
[52:56] Speaker 2: best offensive player in the world. and then Wemby as
[52:59] Speaker 2: the ascending.
[52:59] Speaker 1: Player that he is.
[53:00] Speaker 2: Out of all three guys, Wemby has the most to
[53:04] Speaker 2: improve on between last year and this season as a
[53:06] Speaker 2: player in his early 20s who is dramatically improving as
[53:10] Speaker 2: all players in their early 20s do. I gave him
[53:13] Speaker 2: a slight edge over Shea, and I gave Jokic the
[53:16] Speaker 2: title as best player in the world. Again, if you disagree,
[53:19] Speaker 2: let's get into it. Explain why in the comments. We'll
[53:22] Speaker 2: talk on Friday in our mailbag. Again, I sincerely appreciate
[53:25] Speaker 2: you guys for supporting us and rocking with us through
[53:27] Speaker 2: this list. It's an extremely time-consuming thing that we do
[53:31] Speaker 2: every summer, but it's one of my favorite things to
[53:33] Speaker 2: do every summer. It's a great way to kind of
[53:35] Speaker 2: like zoom out and get a snapshot of what the
[53:37] Speaker 2: league looks like at this point in time. I'm not
[53:40] Speaker 2: always right. We went over it in our video a
[53:44] Speaker 2: couple weeks ago. There are major things about the 2025
[53:48] Speaker 2: list that I got wrong. There are things that I
[53:50] Speaker 2: got right. I'm sure we'll feel that way as we
[53:52] Speaker 2: go into next summer. And by the way, when we're
[53:56] Speaker 2: talking about these three guys, that's the beauty of basketball.
[53:59] Speaker 2: We check ball here in a couple weeks. We start
[54:02] Speaker 2: playing hoops again. And Jokic is going to have his
[54:04] Speaker 2: chance to make a case. And Shea's going to have
[54:06] Speaker 2: his chance to make a case. And Wemby's going to
[54:09] Speaker 2: have his chance to make a case.
[54:10] Speaker 1: And guess what?
[54:11] Speaker 2: Don't count out Luca or Giannis in that debate either.
[54:14] Speaker 2: Both of them will have something to say as well. Again,
[54:17] Speaker 2: this was a lot of fun. I really appreciate you
[54:19] Speaker 2: guys for supporting us and supporting the show.
[54:21] Speaker 1: We'll have our.
[54:21] Speaker 2: Mailbag on Friday, and then we're getting right into season previews.
[54:24] Speaker 2: We're going to go through for the next two weeks.
[54:26] Speaker 2: We're going to have division previews for each of the
[54:28] Speaker 2: six divisions on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for those two weeks.
[54:31] Speaker 2: Then we have preseason basketball, and we'll be talking about hoops.
[54:34] Speaker 2: We're going to start having some guests on the show.
[54:36] Speaker 2: And then before you know it, it's going to be
[54:37] Speaker 2: October 20th, and we'll be starting this thing. Again, I
[54:40] Speaker 2: appreciate you guys, and I'll see you on Friday.

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