# NBA Player Rankings #19-17: Karl-Anthony Towns, Tyrese Maxey & Scottie Barnes

An episode of [Hoops Tonight with Jason Timpf](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1536277916), 12 Aug 2026, 34 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/43b25031-f206-48d9-a137-b4a2010f356a/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=9e36bb2c-2512-48e1-92f8-ae510011dd2b

Jason ranks his 19th, 18th, and 17th best players in the NBA, Karl-Anthony Towns (New York Knicks), Scottie Barnes (Toronto Raptors), and Tyrese Maxey (Philadelphia 76ers), while also breaking down how Maxey will fit in with LeBron James and Jaylen Brown on the new-look Sixers. #Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: The volume.
[0:15] Speaker 2: All right, well, good hoops to night here at the
[0:17] Speaker 2: volume heavy Wednesday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are
[0:19] Speaker 2: having a great week so far. We're continuing our player
[0:21] Speaker 2: rankings today with number nineteen, number eighteen, and number seventeen.
[0:25] Speaker 2: You guys know the joke before we started. Subscribe to
[0:27] Speaker 2: the Hoops and O YouTube channels. You don't miss any
[0:28] Speaker 2: more of our videos. You need about six thousand more
[0:30] Speaker 2: subs to get to one hundred and fifty thousand. I
[0:32] Speaker 2: mean a lot to me if you guy would take
[0:33] Speaker 2: a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button.
[0:35] Speaker 2: If you're already subscribed like this video, sign up for
[0:38] Speaker 2: post notifications. That helps us a lot. In the last,
[0:40] Speaker 2: but not least, you guys want to get mail bag
[0:42] Speaker 2: questions into our weekly mail bags. Every Friday during the
[0:46] Speaker 2: entire player ranking series, we're going to be having a
[0:48] Speaker 2: mail bag where we debate the rankings. If you have
[0:51] Speaker 2: a player that you disagree with where they're placed, a
[0:54] Speaker 2: guy that's too high, guy that's too low, to players
[0:56] Speaker 2: that you think should be flipped.
[0:57] Speaker 1: Whatever it is.
[0:57] Speaker 2: You disagree with something with my methodology, it might be
[1:01] Speaker 2: disagree put it in the comments mail bag colon, write
[1:04] Speaker 2: your question that helps me sort through them when I'm
[1:06] Speaker 2: looking for mailbag questions, and we'll get to them on
[1:08] Speaker 2: Fridays the rest of the way.
[1:09] Speaker 1: Our first player.
[1:10] Speaker 2: Rankings mail bag will be this coming Friday. All right,
[1:13] Speaker 2: let's talk some basketball. Number nineteen Karl Anthony Towns seventy
[1:17] Speaker 2: five games played there was actually his most games played
[1:19] Speaker 2: in a single season since twenty nineteen. In the regular season,
[1:23] Speaker 2: twenty points per game, twelve rebounds and three assists, sixty
[1:26] Speaker 2: two percent true shooting is shooting numbers.
[1:30] Speaker 1: The jump shot obviously.
[1:33] Speaker 2: A strong point for Karl Anthony Towns one point zero
[1:35] Speaker 2: five points per shot if you break it down, thirty
[1:37] Speaker 2: eight percent off a catch, forty two percent when he
[1:40] Speaker 2: was unguarded, so very good when he was left open.
[1:42] Speaker 2: Only took forty seven off the dribble jump shots all season.
[1:45] Speaker 2: Not really a huge part of his game. It's gonna
[1:46] Speaker 2: be kind of. One of the big talking points surrounding
[1:49] Speaker 2: Cat today is the difference between like viewing Cat in
[1:53] Speaker 2: the traditional sense of like a shot creating star versus
[1:57] Speaker 2: what he really is to me, which is perhaps the
[2:00] Speaker 2: most valuable spacing five in the NBA because of what
[2:04] Speaker 2: he can do in spot up situations. We'll be talking
[2:06] Speaker 2: a lot about that today, but only took forty seven
[2:08] Speaker 2: off the dribble jump shots, nine for thirty from three,
[2:11] Speaker 2: although we do all remember a very famous pull up
[2:13] Speaker 2: three that he hit over Keldon Johnson on the left
[2:15] Speaker 2: wing during the Knicks comeback in Game four of the
[2:18] Speaker 2: Finals this year. If you break it down by distance,
[2:21] Speaker 2: forty seven percent inside of seventeen feet, thirty one percent
[2:25] Speaker 2: on long twos outside of seventeen feet, thirty seven percent
[2:28] Speaker 2: on all threes, and threes make up the vast majority
[2:32] Speaker 2: of Cat's jump shot diet. Out of three hundred and
[2:34] Speaker 2: seventy two jump shots he took last year in the
[2:36] Speaker 2: regular season, three hundred and seven of them were threes.
[2:40] Speaker 2: Forty four percent on hooks and floaters. Also relatively low
[2:43] Speaker 2: volume and relatively low efficiency for what we consider to
[2:46] Speaker 2: be a you know, a star big in the NBA.
[2:50] Speaker 2: Only forty makes all season on hooks and floaters, fifty
[2:54] Speaker 2: nine percent at the rim. Obviously not great for his center,
[2:57] Speaker 2: although I would argue again, if you dig into that,
[3:00] Speaker 2: I'd argue his ability to drive closeouts, you know, when
[3:02] Speaker 2: people do chase him off the line and you know,
[3:04] Speaker 2: get into those rumble and stumble and right hand drives
[3:07] Speaker 2: as he you know, barrels downhill. It's a huge part
[3:09] Speaker 2: of his value out of spot up situations and pick
[3:13] Speaker 2: and pops in particular. So again we're like, nothing super
[3:17] Speaker 2: impressive there. Fifty nine percent of the ram first center
[3:19] Speaker 2: is bad, forty four percent on hooks and floaters. For
[3:21] Speaker 2: like an offensive big is bad off the jump shot, off,
[3:24] Speaker 2: the dribble shooting.
[3:26] Speaker 1: Is not there.
[3:27] Speaker 2: But ultimately, when you dig into the play type data,
[3:29] Speaker 2: the real thing that separates Kat from his peers is
[3:32] Speaker 2: what he can do in spot up situations. He got
[3:34] Speaker 2: one point one five points per possession last year forty
[3:38] Speaker 2: one percent on spot up. Three's that one point one
[3:41] Speaker 2: five includes all spot ups, so driving closeouts as well.
[3:45] Speaker 2: But again, and I'm gonna be emphasizing this a lot today,
[3:48] Speaker 2: Karl Anthony Towns's ability to spread the floor from the
[3:51] Speaker 2: five spot, not in just like a oh he can
[3:54] Speaker 2: make shots, but in like an oh shit, we can't
[3:57] Speaker 2: leave that guy open type away. The act actually causes
[4:00] Speaker 2: the defense to react to him is what makes him
[4:04] Speaker 2: so immensely valuable despite his flaws. Again, there's a difference
[4:08] Speaker 2: between shooting threes and actually scaring teams with your ability
[4:12] Speaker 2: to shoot threes. He had thirty nine made twos out
[4:15] Speaker 2: of spot ups, almost all at the rim because he
[4:18] Speaker 2: can drive those closeouts as effectively as he does. But again,
[4:22] Speaker 2: the on ball stuff isn't great. He ran three hundred
[4:24] Speaker 2: and ninety two to one on one reps last year
[4:26] Speaker 2: so post ups and ISOs including passes, and got just
[4:30] Speaker 2: zero point ninety two points per possession three hundred and
[4:33] Speaker 2: ninety two possessions.
[4:34] Speaker 1: This is way below average.
[4:36] Speaker 2: Now, he did have some impressive moments in the playoffs
[4:38] Speaker 2: as a passing folkram Again, those plays where he'd have
[4:41] Speaker 2: the ball at the top of the key year the
[4:42] Speaker 2: elbow extended while they're running off ball action, and his
[4:45] Speaker 2: playmaking talent really started to show there. He had ninety
[4:48] Speaker 2: four assists in this year's playoff run. He had one
[4:51] Speaker 2: hundred assists in his entire playoff career before last year,
[4:55] Speaker 2: so one hundred assists in his first fifty playoff games,
[4:59] Speaker 2: ninety fi four in the nineteen playoff games that made
[5:03] Speaker 2: up last year's playoff run. But again, the truth is
[5:06] Speaker 2: for Kat his best value in the NBA is his
[5:09] Speaker 2: ability to space the floor and offense off the ball. Again,
[5:13] Speaker 2: like when you look around the league, in the types
[5:16] Speaker 2: of rim protecting talent we have, I mean even just
[5:18] Speaker 2: looking around at the teams that they're playing. You're playing
[5:20] Speaker 2: the Calves and they're spacing you out, or you're they're
[5:23] Speaker 2: putting two bigs on the floor Devan Mobley and Jared Allen.
[5:25] Speaker 2: You're playing the Spurs, it's Victor Wemnyaman. You're playing Chet Homegrin.
[5:29] Speaker 2: It's you know, elite rim protection against OKC. You're playing
[5:35] Speaker 2: against Philly. If Joel Embiid's able to sit back at
[5:38] Speaker 2: the rim, you're kind of screwed right, Like it's that again,
[5:43] Speaker 2: like most of our spacing fives. Like even look at
[5:45] Speaker 2: Victor and Chet, Like if Chet takes a pick and pop,
[5:48] Speaker 2: three defenses are like, no, let's see him make a
[5:52] Speaker 2: couple and maybe we'll react, or we'll throw a late
[5:55] Speaker 2: close out and we think we can spook him.
[5:57] Speaker 1: And that, by the way, is what happened to Shed.
[5:58] Speaker 2: If you threw a close out at him kind of
[6:00] Speaker 2: pump baked and got rid of the basketball er, drove
[6:02] Speaker 2: the close out in no man's land into the middle
[6:04] Speaker 2: of the floor, right Victor wmen Yam the same thing.
[6:06] Speaker 2: We know he's a capable shooter, but like most teams
[6:10] Speaker 2: are kind of like, we're gonna live with Victor women
[6:11] Speaker 2: Yama shooting threes. We'll see how much longer that lasts.
[6:14] Speaker 2: I think Victor is gonna be a great shooter as
[6:15] Speaker 2: the time goes on. But Kat is like very rare
[6:19] Speaker 2: in the sense that like you go into a game
[6:22] Speaker 2: with the game plan being, we can't let cat shoot threes,
[6:26] Speaker 2: and when you look around the league with the type
[6:28] Speaker 2: of rim protecting talent and how that can really bog
[6:31] Speaker 2: down an offense. I mean, look at that Celtics offense
[6:34] Speaker 2: and how it bogged down just simply because they could
[6:36] Speaker 2: not move Joel Embiid away from the rim in that
[6:39] Speaker 2: first round series. I'd argue was instrumental in the Knicks
[6:43] Speaker 2: winning the title this season. Like again, like if you
[6:45] Speaker 2: look at the numbers, ogn Andobi, you know arguably was
[6:49] Speaker 2: statistically their second best player. Jalen Brunson is going to
[6:52] Speaker 2: be very high on the rankings this year. But to me,
[6:55] Speaker 2: the second best player on the Knicks and the guy
[6:59] Speaker 2: that brought the most value beyond Jalen Brunson's ability to
[7:02] Speaker 2: close games was literally Karl Anthony Towns in him creating
[7:07] Speaker 2: true five out looks that just fucked up other defenses
[7:10] Speaker 2: and them not really having answers for it. Which brings
[7:14] Speaker 2: me to the defensive end of the floor. I talk
[7:16] Speaker 2: all the time about your value as a basketball player
[7:19] Speaker 2: is unique to your team and what they need from
[7:22] Speaker 2: you and how good you are at filling those particular needs.
[7:26] Speaker 2: We used to talk about that a lot with Jamal Murdy. Right,
[7:29] Speaker 2: is Jamal Murdy the best.
[7:30] Speaker 1: Guard in the world.
[7:31] Speaker 2: Probably not, But like specifically with what Denver needs as
[7:34] Speaker 2: a two man game partner with Jokic, he brings a
[7:37] Speaker 2: ton more value than his talent would in.
[7:39] Speaker 1: A vacuum, right.
[7:40] Speaker 2: I think Kat deserves a ton of credit for the
[7:42] Speaker 2: defensive work that he did in that playoff run. It
[7:45] Speaker 2: wasn't perfect. Picked up a lot of silly fowls. This
[7:47] Speaker 2: is actually a crazy stat. Kat had at least four
[7:50] Speaker 2: fouls in fifteen of the nineteen Knicks playoff games.
[7:55] Speaker 1: Which is actually crazy.
[7:56] Speaker 2: Picked up some silly fouls, made the occasional mistake here there,
[8:00] Speaker 2: he avoided the catastrophic mistakes. Again, if you look at
[8:03] Speaker 2: previous playoff runs like really silly mistakes either at the
[8:06] Speaker 2: end of games or just like transition mistakes against like
[8:09] Speaker 2: offensive rebounding mistakes against Indiana that triggered their transition attack.
[8:12] Speaker 2: He avoided those catastrophic mistakes this year, and he actually
[8:16] Speaker 2: brought surprising rim protection value. He blocked twenty four shots
[8:22] Speaker 2: in this playoff run. He had again similar to what
[8:24] Speaker 2: we talked about with the assists. He had thirty six
[8:27] Speaker 2: blocks in his entire playoff career before this year, So
[8:31] Speaker 2: thirty six blocks in fifty playoff games and then twenty
[8:35] Speaker 2: four in the nineteen playoff games of this playoff run.
[8:39] Speaker 2: Just a combination of several things. Again, I thought that
[8:41] Speaker 2: Nixon general on defense, and dating back to the Celtics
[8:45] Speaker 2: series last year, this was really the kind of like
[8:48] Speaker 2: turning point for the Knicks defense. It's when McHale, Bridges,
[8:53] Speaker 2: nog A, Andobi and Josh Hart are really locked in.
[8:57] Speaker 2: They cover so much ground and they shrinked the floor
[9:00] Speaker 2: so well that Brunson and Kat's jobs become more manageable, right,
[9:05] Speaker 2: and so like like Kat in some of the decisions
[9:07] Speaker 2: he had to make in help situations at the basket
[9:11] Speaker 2: favored him. I think there's some matchup stuff in there too,
[9:13] Speaker 2: like Cat. You know, it's it's harder for Cat to
[9:15] Speaker 2: block shots against that Indiana Pacers defense than it is
[9:17] Speaker 2: against the Spurs team that kind of just drives right
[9:20] Speaker 2: at the rim despite some poor spacing, you know, with
[9:23] Speaker 2: some of their non shooting guards. Right, Like, it's not
[9:26] Speaker 2: all just you know, like internal improvement. But I think
[9:30] Speaker 2: he got better and had a really nice defensive playoff
[9:33] Speaker 2: run and made a lot of big defensive plays. And
[9:35] Speaker 2: most importantly, he was not a breaking point for the
[9:39] Speaker 2: Knicks defense like he has been in previous years. In
[9:42] Speaker 2: previous years, Kat in his failing defense was a part
[9:47] Speaker 2: of why they lost. Instead, it felt like he was
[9:50] Speaker 2: a contributor on that end of the floor this year.
[9:52] Speaker 2: So he deserves a lot of credit. And I mean
[9:53] Speaker 2: we didn't even mention the job that he did individually
[9:55] Speaker 2: on Victor wemen Yama. Again, like Kat, like removing Victor
[9:59] Speaker 2: wemen Yama as a one on one score, Like Victor
[10:02] Speaker 2: could not score on Kat one on one. Him removing
[10:05] Speaker 2: Victor as a one on one scorer was a huge
[10:08] Speaker 2: defensive contribution. And again like, do I think Kat is
[10:11] Speaker 2: a high level defensive player in a vacuum? No, But
[10:14] Speaker 2: again inside this Knicks system, They've crafted a role that
[10:18] Speaker 2: he can manage. And again, your value is unique to
[10:21] Speaker 2: what your team needs from you. If the team has
[10:24] Speaker 2: a specific job, which is like, hey, I need you
[10:26] Speaker 2: to guard Victor Weman Yama one on one, Kat's actually
[10:30] Speaker 2: a great option if it's Hey, Kat, we need you
[10:33] Speaker 2: to defend one hundred steph Curry pick and rolls or
[10:36] Speaker 2: you know, Tyrese Haliburton pick and rolls on a five
[10:40] Speaker 2: out spacing Pacers team. Kat's not the best guy for
[10:43] Speaker 2: the job, but as things lined up this year, his
[10:46] Speaker 2: role was achievable. He minimized mistakes, he contributed defensively, and
[10:50] Speaker 2: did one of the most important jobs in that final
[10:53] Speaker 2: series with his one on one defense against against against
[10:57] Speaker 2: Victor women Yam Again like, do I think Kat could
[10:59] Speaker 2: go to LA and like anchor a Lakers defense surrounded
[11:02] Speaker 2: by Luka doncij and Austin Reeves. No, but that's not
[11:05] Speaker 2: the job. The job is what he's doing for New
[11:07] Speaker 2: York and I thought he was a plus defender in
[11:09] Speaker 2: that playoff run. Kat is a super unique player on
[11:12] Speaker 2: this list. He's a center, but he's a center that's
[11:16] Speaker 2: not a great defender and He's a center that's not
[11:19] Speaker 2: an offensive engine like Nikola jokicch who like dominates teams
[11:22] Speaker 2: as an offensive initiator. But he is the very best
[11:27] Speaker 2: five out spacing center in the NBA, and that just
[11:30] Speaker 2: brings enormous value when you're dealing with elite rim protectors
[11:34] Speaker 2: that the league presents as obstacles to your excess, to
[11:37] Speaker 2: your success in the modern NBA. Number eighteen Scottie Barnes
[11:50] Speaker 2: eighty games played average eighteen points, eight rebounds, and six
[11:53] Speaker 2: assists two point nine stocks per game last year really
[11:57] Speaker 2: a defensive flashback to some of the potential that we
[11:59] Speaker 2: saw early in his career. Fifty eight percent true shooting
[12:02] Speaker 2: that was a career high. Improved his He improved his
[12:04] Speaker 2: efficiency year over a year from every single distance. When
[12:07] Speaker 2: you go to Basketball Reference, they break down shooting distances
[12:11] Speaker 2: zero to three feet, three to ten feet, ten to
[12:13] Speaker 2: sixteen feet, sixteen feet to the three point line, and
[12:16] Speaker 2: then obviously beyond the three point line. Scotty was up
[12:19] Speaker 2: year over year in every single one of those categories
[12:21] Speaker 2: last year, So just a big bounce back season from him.
[12:24] Speaker 2: The jump shot zero point ninety three points per shot,
[12:26] Speaker 2: that was eight points per one hundred jump shots better
[12:29] Speaker 2: than it was the previous season. If you break it down,
[12:32] Speaker 2: cut his three point volume way down. He used to
[12:34] Speaker 2: take like well over four threes per game, just two
[12:37] Speaker 2: point eight threes per game this season. If you break
[12:40] Speaker 2: it down by type, catch and shoot thirty percent overall,
[12:43] Speaker 2: and catch and shoot threes thirty four percent when he
[12:45] Speaker 2: was wide open, and here I'd like to mention he
[12:47] Speaker 2: was eight for eighteen on catch and shoot threes in
[12:49] Speaker 2: the postseason. That was forty four percent, thirty two percent
[12:53] Speaker 2: on pull up threes, low volume. He only took thirty
[12:55] Speaker 2: eights about one every other game last year. If you
[12:58] Speaker 2: break it down by distance, he was forty nine percent
[13:00] Speaker 2: inside of seventeen feet. Scotty's been pretty good at those
[13:03] Speaker 2: little short, minterrange jump shots for a while. We're gonna
[13:05] Speaker 2: talk a lot about that in his improved post game
[13:08] Speaker 2: Here in a minute, thirty eight percent on long twos
[13:12] Speaker 2: outside of seventeen feet and then thirty percent from three
[13:14] Speaker 2: overall last year. That's the breakdown of the jump shooting
[13:17] Speaker 2: by distance. But I thought the story of the season
[13:19] Speaker 2: for Scottie Barnes was his improvement as a one on
[13:22] Speaker 2: one player. We talked about this a lot throughout the
[13:23] Speaker 2: regular season last year, if you guys remember, but he
[13:26] Speaker 2: had one point zero six points per possession including passes
[13:29] Speaker 2: on four hundred and nine one on one so post
[13:32] Speaker 2: ups and ISOs. If you go back to the previous
[13:34] Speaker 2: seasons of his career, he just was well below a
[13:36] Speaker 2: point per possession, just nowhere near as efficient as a
[13:39] Speaker 2: shot creator in one on ones compared to what he
[13:42] Speaker 2: was last year. The key to me was more physical aggression,
[13:46] Speaker 2: especially when turning over his left shoulder. Like his left
[13:49] Speaker 2: shoulder percentage ot of post ups went up from like
[13:51] Speaker 2: the low forties to the mid fifties this year, and
[13:54] Speaker 2: a big part of that is just like, instead of
[13:56] Speaker 2: constantly turning over that left shoulder for like a fadeaway
[13:59] Speaker 2: jump shot, which by the way, like he can really make,
[14:02] Speaker 2: he turned more of them into like balanced jump shots
[14:05] Speaker 2: and like hooks going towards the basket, and like layups
[14:09] Speaker 2: where he's drop stepping and going with power towards the basket.
[14:12] Speaker 2: Just way more physically aggressive powering through guys rather than
[14:18] Speaker 2: always settling for the turnaround jumper. But again, to be clear,
[14:21] Speaker 2: he kind of has a nasty little turnaround jump shot
[14:23] Speaker 2: he got like it's weird. There's certain guys like Devin
[14:25] Speaker 2: Booker is another one of them. Most right handed players
[14:27] Speaker 2: are actually better going left than they are going right
[14:31] Speaker 2: in terms of their jump shot. Most of that has
[14:33] Speaker 2: to do with the natural way their feet are squared.
[14:34] Speaker 2: Most right handed shooters shoot with the right foot forward,
[14:37] Speaker 2: left foot a little bit back, kind of maybe even
[14:39] Speaker 2: can't it a little bit towards the left, And so
[14:42] Speaker 2: as a result, like if you're going to the right,
[14:44] Speaker 2: you have to square up more. It's just harder compared
[14:47] Speaker 2: to if you're going left, you're kind of already squared
[14:50] Speaker 2: up the way that you need to be. But Scotty
[14:52] Speaker 2: is similar to Devin Booker. He just gets a lot
[14:53] Speaker 2: of lift when he goes over his left shoulder, and
[14:56] Speaker 2: he's actually become like a really good turnaround jump shooter
[14:59] Speaker 2: over over both shoulders, but especially over that left shoulder.
[15:03] Speaker 2: So when you combine the physical aggression and just how
[15:07] Speaker 2: many more cause again, like it's really hard to be
[15:10] Speaker 2: super efficient on turnaround jump shots in the post. It's
[15:13] Speaker 2: just a really hard shot. So if you can balance
[15:15] Speaker 2: that out with like easier shorter hooks and layups, that
[15:19] Speaker 2: goes a long way towards helping your efficiency. Scotti's jump
[15:23] Speaker 2: shooting in general was one of the many things about
[15:25] Speaker 2: his first round series against Cleveland that was so impressive,
[15:29] Speaker 2: Like operating with extremely poor spacing. We talked about it
[15:32] Speaker 2: before the series. I said straight up before series, and
[15:33] Speaker 2: I'm like, they're just gonna have to hit a lot
[15:35] Speaker 2: of jump shots because there's not going to be a
[15:36] Speaker 2: lot of space to get to the rim, especially with
[15:39] Speaker 2: the structure of Cleveland's defense, with their layered rim protection
[15:42] Speaker 2: with Evan Mobley and Jared Allen. Scotty averaged twenty four
[15:45] Speaker 2: points per game on sixty one percent true shooting in
[15:47] Speaker 2: that seven game series. It was mostly because of his
[15:50] Speaker 2: jump shot. He was nails on his catch and shoot threes.
[15:53] Speaker 2: He was eight for eighteen, forty four percent. We talked
[15:54] Speaker 2: about that earlier, dialed in on his pull up jumper
[15:57] Speaker 2: in the mid range. Took forty nine of them, made
[15:59] Speaker 2: twenty three. That's forty seven percent. That's pretty damn good,
[16:02] Speaker 2: especially in the postseason. And then the playmaking ability, I mean,
[16:06] Speaker 2: we haven't even talked about this yet. For all of
[16:07] Speaker 2: the little short range shot making over the top, the
[16:11] Speaker 2: relentless getting to the rim. I mean, this is a
[16:13] Speaker 2: guy who got to the rim six times per game
[16:15] Speaker 2: against that Cleveland defense despite the poor spacing, and shot
[16:19] Speaker 2: sixty six percent when he got there. So like, he
[16:23] Speaker 2: just brings with the power that he plays with, the
[16:26] Speaker 2: rim pressure, the dynamic of the over the top shooting
[16:29] Speaker 2: which is really coming around, and then you add the
[16:31] Speaker 2: playmaking ability which has always been a strength of his.
[16:34] Speaker 2: He averaged nine points or excuse me, nine assists per
[16:36] Speaker 2: game in that playoff series. Passes really well out of
[16:40] Speaker 2: his one on ones, has very good pick and roll
[16:42] Speaker 2: chemistry when he plays with shooters, So guys like Soandro
[16:45] Speaker 2: mam Kelaspheley or Jamison battle, they would just screen and
[16:47] Speaker 2: slip towards the rim, or screen and slip towards the
[16:50] Speaker 2: three point line. He just consistently he would pass out
[16:52] Speaker 2: of those dynamics, imot. One of the coolest moments of
[16:56] Speaker 2: the postseason was Scotty's game winning assists to RJ Barrett
[17:00] Speaker 2: in Game six. Like, Scotty will have these lebron esque
[17:03] Speaker 2: semi transition moments where and he's sort of like, semi
[17:06] Speaker 2: transition to me is like a fast break is like
[17:08] Speaker 2: you know, one on oh, two on one. You know,
[17:11] Speaker 2: it's very everyone's just sprinting up the floor. Semi transition
[17:14] Speaker 2: to me is like an in between. It's usually like
[17:15] Speaker 2: a four on three five on four defense isn't fully set.
[17:19] Speaker 2: But it's not like a fast break in the traditional sense,
[17:21] Speaker 2: like it's more just like a it's like a mix
[17:24] Speaker 2: between half court basketball and fast break basketball. And in
[17:28] Speaker 2: those situations, Scotty has gotten really good at just like
[17:32] Speaker 2: putting his head down and going and understanding that he
[17:35] Speaker 2: can get a lot of good shots by just pressuring
[17:37] Speaker 2: the rim when they're in that transition phase between like
[17:39] Speaker 2: fast break and half court. And what he'll do is he'll,
[17:42] Speaker 2: you know, just start barreling downhill and three or four
[17:46] Speaker 2: dudes will just collapse on him as he gets to
[17:49] Speaker 2: the basket, and then he'll just have really easy kickout
[17:51] Speaker 2: passes for threes. That's what reminds me of Lebron because
[17:53] Speaker 2: if you remember, Lebron in his prime used to do
[17:54] Speaker 2: that all the time. But in that game six, if
[17:56] Speaker 2: you guys remember, beginning of overtime, Scotty has a semi
[17:59] Speaker 2: train position attack, you know, draws like four defenders and
[18:04] Speaker 2: sets up RJ. Barrett with a wide open catching you
[18:06] Speaker 2: three at the top of the key that he misses,
[18:09] Speaker 2: but then again at the tail end of the game,
[18:11] Speaker 2: same kind of situation presents itself. Scotty drives, Scotty draws
[18:16] Speaker 2: multiple defenders, trusts RJ. Barrett even though he just missed
[18:20] Speaker 2: went right back to him and he cashed in the
[18:23] Speaker 2: three that he missed earlier in overtime, just trusting his teammates.
[18:26] Speaker 2: That relentless read making. That's what always separates the highest
[18:29] Speaker 2: level offensive players from a playmaking standpoint, from the other ones.
[18:33] Speaker 2: It's a relentlessness of taking what the defense gives you,
[18:36] Speaker 2: and that paying dividends over a large sample, like because
[18:39] Speaker 2: over a small sample, a lot of times people will
[18:42] Speaker 2: be like, oh, like he needs to just be aggressive,
[18:44] Speaker 2: like he's asking his teammates to bail him out.
[18:47] Speaker 1: You know.
[18:47] Speaker 2: They used to say that about Lebron all the time too.
[18:49] Speaker 2: They say that about Jokic all the time. But it's like, ultimately,
[18:52] Speaker 2: over a large sample, when you consistently take advantage of
[18:56] Speaker 2: the easy reads that are available, it tends to manifest
[18:59] Speaker 2: and high team offensive ratings. It tends to manifest and
[19:03] Speaker 2: high team rhythm and like like we talked about when
[19:06] Speaker 2: we were talking about Donovan Mitchell versus Devin Booker. That's
[19:09] Speaker 2: something that I'm always very keyed in on, like guys
[19:11] Speaker 2: that drive high level team offense, and I view Scotty
[19:15] Speaker 2: as that type of player when you really start to
[19:18] Speaker 2: piece together who Scotty Barnes is a basketball player. He's
[19:21] Speaker 2: everything you want in a foundational star. He's an apex
[19:24] Speaker 2: athlete who's big, strong, fast, vertically athletic latterly athletic averages
[19:29] Speaker 2: over seventy played games in his career per season, so
[19:32] Speaker 2: he can physically handle the responsibility. He's one of the
[19:36] Speaker 2: very best defensive players in the league, an extremely versatile
[19:40] Speaker 2: forward that can guard multiple positions because of his size
[19:43] Speaker 2: and athleticism. He's very good in one on ones. Last year,
[19:46] Speaker 2: he guarded ninety two ISOs and allowed just zero point
[19:49] Speaker 2: eighty six points per possession, a career high two point
[19:52] Speaker 2: nine stocks per game. With his activity in passing lanes
[19:55] Speaker 2: and around the rim. So we're literally talking I mean
[19:57] Speaker 2: he made the All Defense team last year. We're talking
[19:59] Speaker 2: about one of the very best defensive players in the league.
[20:02] Speaker 2: Andy's everything you want. An offensive player too, gets to
[20:05] Speaker 2: the rim, a ton great passer, got to the foul
[20:08] Speaker 2: line a lot in this postseason run a legit short
[20:11] Speaker 2: range over the top score, which again that's super valuable
[20:13] Speaker 2: in the postseason when you can get inside his seventeen
[20:15] Speaker 2: feet and hit about half of the types of shots
[20:17] Speaker 2: when you get there. Scotty's that kind of guy. And look,
[20:20] Speaker 2: I know he had a somewhat disappointing start to his
[20:22] Speaker 2: career after that Rookie of the Year campaign and all
[20:24] Speaker 2: the buzz and optimism that surrounded him and kind of
[20:27] Speaker 2: fell flat over the previous couple of seasons, but that
[20:30] Speaker 2: playoff series was the payoff for belief in Scotty, Like,
[20:35] Speaker 2: I think it was real. I think there's a lot
[20:36] Speaker 2: of things from that he brings to the table that
[20:39] Speaker 2: are the kinds of things that dependably work in the postseason.
[20:42] Speaker 2: S I strength, athleticism, high level I like playmaking IQ stuff,
[20:47] Speaker 2: you know, competes on the defensive end of the floor,
[20:50] Speaker 2: short range scoring like those are all things that are
[20:53] Speaker 2: just proven to me to be successful in the in
[20:56] Speaker 2: the super physical environment that is the NBA postseason. So
[20:59] Speaker 2: Scotty bart it comes in highest he's ever been on
[21:01] Speaker 2: this list, Number eighteen. Lastly for today, number seventeen, Tyre
[21:05] Speaker 2: Smaxi seventy games played last year, average twenty eight points,
[21:10] Speaker 2: four rebounds, and seven assists, two point seven stocks per game.
[21:14] Speaker 2: A lot of people don't realize this. Tyris Maasy was
[21:15] Speaker 2: fifth in total steals last year in the entire NBA
[21:19] Speaker 2: fifty nine percent true shooting. Kind of has the shot
[21:22] Speaker 2: diet you really like to see for efficiency, right, Like,
[21:25] Speaker 2: gets to the rim seven times a game and makes
[21:27] Speaker 2: his layups sixty percent as a small guard is awesome.
[21:30] Speaker 2: Gets to the rim seven times a game, so it
[21:31] Speaker 2: gets to the rim a ton makes his layup when
[21:33] Speaker 2: he gets there. Got to the foul line a career
[21:35] Speaker 2: high six times per game last year and gets up
[21:38] Speaker 2: nine to threes per game. We talked about that constantly
[21:40] Speaker 2: on the show. Get to the foul line, get to
[21:43] Speaker 2: the rim and make your layups, get up a lot
[21:44] Speaker 2: of threes. You're gonna be efficient. And that's exactly the
[21:48] Speaker 2: type of shot diet that Tyres Maasy is built up
[21:50] Speaker 2: over the course of his career. Now, I want to
[21:52] Speaker 2: focus on the shoot here for a minute, because I
[21:54] Speaker 2: think this is fascinating. Maxi's had this issue for years.
[21:57] Speaker 2: We've talked about it on the show. Periodically over the
[21:59] Speaker 2: life several seasons. But there are dramatic differences for Maxi
[22:03] Speaker 2: between his efficiency off the catch as a jump shooter
[22:07] Speaker 2: versus his efficiency off the dribble last year, for example,
[22:10] Speaker 2: forty two percent on catch and shoot threes, forty six
[22:13] Speaker 2: percent when he's wide open, clearly a great touch guy,
[22:16] Speaker 2: forty six percent when he's wide open, makes his layups.
[22:20] Speaker 1: A lot of guards that are.
[22:21] Speaker 2: Small don't nearly a ninety percent free throw shooter, like
[22:24] Speaker 2: clearly really high level touch indicators, right, but just thirty
[22:29] Speaker 2: three percent on off the dribble threes, forty two percent
[22:33] Speaker 2: on off the dribble twos. And he struggled from float
[22:36] Speaker 2: range last year as well, which we'll talk about more
[22:38] Speaker 2: here in a minute. Yeah, and again, like that same
[22:42] Speaker 2: kind of drop off from off the catch to off
[22:44] Speaker 2: the dribble happened in the playoffs last season, and it's
[22:47] Speaker 2: happened in the previous seasons of his career. There are
[22:50] Speaker 2: a lot of different takeaways that I have from this
[22:53] Speaker 2: dynamic that I want to dive into for a second.
[22:56] Speaker 2: First of all, I think the why is pretty simple
[22:59] Speaker 2: with Tyres. It's about his shot selection. Tyree'se takes extremely
[23:04] Speaker 2: difficult shots, particularly out of ISO, Like if Tyrese is
[23:08] Speaker 2: in a ball screen and the defensive guard gets wiped
[23:12] Speaker 2: out by the pick or goes under, like he's gonna
[23:16] Speaker 2: rise up and knock the shot down most of the time.
[23:19] Speaker 2: Like I'm a believer in Tyrese as a pull up
[23:21] Speaker 2: shooter on good looks, but he'll take some like in
[23:25] Speaker 2: his pick and roll, some extremely difficult like drifting threes
[23:29] Speaker 2: against drop where like the defenders kind of pinned on
[23:31] Speaker 2: his side or on his hip. That'll pull his percentages down.
[23:35] Speaker 2: And then he in ISO will go into these wild
[23:38] Speaker 2: dribble combinations. They're beautiful to watch, but like crazy dribble
[23:41] Speaker 2: combinations and footwork sequences, like you know, like a two
[23:46] Speaker 2: or three dribble combo into a step back where he
[23:48] Speaker 2: just covers a shit ton of ground one way or
[23:50] Speaker 2: the other. Like he just will put together these just
[23:53] Speaker 2: really really difficult ISO threes, and it showed in the numbers,
[23:56] Speaker 2: like he was fourteen for seventy four last year in
[24:00] Speaker 2: the regular season on ISO threes. That's just nineteen percent,
[24:03] Speaker 2: Like that's really pulling the numbers down. As a matter
[24:06] Speaker 2: of fact, on those pick and roll pull up threes,
[24:09] Speaker 2: he's like thirty four and a half percent, which is
[24:11] Speaker 2: again not great because he does take some tough ones
[24:14] Speaker 2: in pick and roll two, but that's like a more manageable,
[24:16] Speaker 2: well over a point per possession type of shot, whereas
[24:19] Speaker 2: the io threes are.
[24:20] Speaker 1: Really pulling him down.
[24:21] Speaker 2: So my initial takeaway is that having Lebron on this
[24:24] Speaker 2: team should help Tyrese a ton getting him set up
[24:28] Speaker 2: on off ball actions for catch and shoot threes.
[24:30] Speaker 1: Like Tyree's.
[24:31] Speaker 2: One of my favorite things about him, dating back too
[24:33] Speaker 2: years ago when he was first starting to show his upside,
[24:36] Speaker 2: is his willingness to behave as a movement shooter and
[24:39] Speaker 2: not just a stereotypical Damian Lillard. I'm just point guard
[24:43] Speaker 2: you know, who is running one hundred pick and rolls
[24:45] Speaker 2: every game. Tyree's is a very good, like sprint into
[24:51] Speaker 2: a jump shot type of player, particularly going to his left.
[24:55] Speaker 2: So like if he's starting in the right corner and
[24:57] Speaker 2: he's coming off of like you know, a Chicago or
[25:00] Speaker 2: some sort of dhow, some sort of something where he's
[25:03] Speaker 2: coming out of the right corner, sprinting towards the basketball,
[25:06] Speaker 2: planting his right foot first, left foot second, elevating off
[25:11] Speaker 2: the ground. He's just money on that shot, and so
[25:14] Speaker 2: getting like Lebron in the picture as a passing fulcrum
[25:18] Speaker 2: where he can have the ball on like the left
[25:20] Speaker 2: elbow and you have like a Jalen Brown screening down
[25:23] Speaker 2: for Tyree s Maaxy coming out of the right corner,
[25:25] Speaker 2: or Joel Embiid screening down for Tyree s Maaxy coming
[25:27] Speaker 2: out of the right corner, some kind of size dynamic
[25:29] Speaker 2: where they don't want to switch, where if they lay
[25:32] Speaker 2: a decent screen, MAXI can come in and catch the
[25:35] Speaker 2: basketball off of that right wing or right at the
[25:37] Speaker 2: top of the key and rise and fire. Those are
[25:39] Speaker 2: shots that I think he's going to hit it. He's
[25:41] Speaker 2: always hit it a high percentage, but I think he's
[25:42] Speaker 2: going to get a few more of those. Playing alongside
[25:45] Speaker 2: of Lebron also ghost screens like Tyree's attempted just nine
[25:49] Speaker 2: threes last year on ball screens as the screener where
[25:53] Speaker 2: he like sets the screen and slips out right. That's
[25:56] Speaker 2: one of Lebron's favorite actions to run with guards, particularly
[26:00] Speaker 2: the guards that can shoot. He ran it a ton
[26:02] Speaker 2: with Austin Reeves over the years, ranted a ton with
[26:05] Speaker 2: Malik Monk like that's those are shots that Lebron loves
[26:09] Speaker 2: to set up with small guards, so like that can
[26:11] Speaker 2: really shoot. So like nine attempts, I think we could
[26:14] Speaker 2: see as many as fifty from Tyrese. MAXI as like
[26:17] Speaker 2: a screen and roll guy this year. He's just never
[26:20] Speaker 2: played with a real playmaking forward that it's at a
[26:24] Speaker 2: position that defenses don't want to switch smalls onto. That's
[26:27] Speaker 2: the dynamic guy I think could really help weaponize Tyrese
[26:30] Speaker 2: off the ball. I think the combination of additional scoring
[26:34] Speaker 2: talent too, as well as Lebron's playmaking ability, will allow
[26:38] Speaker 2: Tyreese to do two things. One, cut out some of
[26:41] Speaker 2: the extremely difficult shots he was taken. There's no reason
[26:44] Speaker 2: to take super super difficult shots when you're surrounded by
[26:47] Speaker 2: the type of talent that you're surrounded by. And then
[26:49] Speaker 2: two to index more of a shot diet towards off
[26:52] Speaker 2: the catch threes rather than off the dribble threes. And
[26:55] Speaker 2: that dynamic could be the thing that really catapults him
[26:57] Speaker 2: up a level of efficiency. Like fifty nine per true
[27:00] Speaker 2: shooting at his scoring volume is nothing to like just
[27:03] Speaker 2: you know, ignore or make light of. But we know
[27:06] Speaker 2: that the best guards in this league tend to operate
[27:08] Speaker 2: more in that Like, you know, if you're talking about
[27:10] Speaker 2: Steph Curry, you're talking about Jalen Brunston and Jalen Brunson
[27:12] Speaker 2: can dip down a little bit, But if you're talking
[27:14] Speaker 2: about like specifically guys like Steph Curry and shake Els Alexander,
[27:18] Speaker 2: they're consistently, like you know, higher than sixty two sixty
[27:21] Speaker 2: three percent true shooting like Shay last year had a
[27:24] Speaker 2: was in the high sixties, right, So for Tyrese to
[27:26] Speaker 2: go from that like fifty nine percent true shooting up
[27:29] Speaker 2: to like sixty one sixty two, that's what it's going
[27:32] Speaker 2: to be. Skewing a little bit more towards off the
[27:34] Speaker 2: cats versus off the dribble, trimming some of the super
[27:36] Speaker 2: super difficult.
[27:37] Speaker 1: Shots out of his diet.
[27:39] Speaker 2: That that he was really struggling with even the mid
[27:42] Speaker 2: range shooting. Like Tyrese was inefficient on floaters and short
[27:46] Speaker 2: pull ups. He was forty four percent on one hundred
[27:49] Speaker 2: and sixty nine floaters last year. That's not good compared
[27:52] Speaker 2: to the better floater shooters in the league forty two
[27:55] Speaker 2: percent on one hundred and thirty two pull up twos
[27:57] Speaker 2: inside of seventeen feet and again this is just fight
[28:00] Speaker 2: him clearly having great touch, great layup shooter, you know,
[28:03] Speaker 2: even though he'll take like he pulls his rim numbers
[28:05] Speaker 2: down with really tough layups. Like this is a guy
[28:08] Speaker 2: that has amazing touch who doesn't shoot well on a
[28:11] Speaker 2: lot of these shots because he just takes so many
[28:14] Speaker 2: super super tough shots and like a lot of the
[28:17] Speaker 2: floaters that he misses, it's like he's running full speed
[28:20] Speaker 2: and he's like got like a completely had his team
[28:23] Speaker 2: going downhill and he's throwing a floater up off balance
[28:26] Speaker 2: while like taking a bump or you know, a sprinting
[28:30] Speaker 2: into a pull up two at the elbow where he's
[28:32] Speaker 2: drifting and landing like four feet away from where he
[28:34] Speaker 2: took off from. Like this is where his speed is
[28:37] Speaker 2: kind of a downside for him. At the speed is
[28:41] Speaker 2: certainly a foundational strength, but like I think he could
[28:44] Speaker 2: actually benefit from slowing down on occasion when he.
[28:47] Speaker 1: Does create enough separation.
[28:49] Speaker 2: He kind of only plays at one speed and that
[28:52] Speaker 2: I think is something that is like the next step
[28:54] Speaker 2: for him. And again I'm being nitpicky here because I
[28:57] Speaker 2: think really highly of Tyre's Like we're talking about player
[29:00] Speaker 2: that was third Team All NBA last year and again
[29:02] Speaker 2: average twenty eight points per game on nearly sixty percent
[29:05] Speaker 2: of shooting. So this dude's already awesome. He's already one
[29:09] Speaker 2: of the best guards in the NBA, and the next
[29:12] Speaker 2: step for him is increasing his efficiency, which I think
[29:15] Speaker 2: is going to come from a combination of tweaking the
[29:18] Speaker 2: shot diet a little bit, but also again adding a
[29:20] Speaker 2: little bit more change of pace, slowing himself down when
[29:23] Speaker 2: his speed does get him separation. That's a beautiful thing
[29:25] Speaker 2: about being fast as you get away from your defenders.
[29:27] Speaker 2: So when you do on occasion like slowing down a
[29:30] Speaker 2: little bit, I think could go a long way towards
[29:33] Speaker 2: helping Tyres. Again, like, he's just too skilled to be
[29:36] Speaker 2: shooting as poorly as he does on some of these shots.
[29:39] Speaker 2: The second takeaway I have with Maxie's pull up shooting
[29:43] Speaker 2: is that he's clearly a relentless worker. I've told the
[29:45] Speaker 2: story on the show. My first year in Summer League,
[29:47] Speaker 2: my first like NBA player that I saw, we went
[29:50] Speaker 2: the out on the streets. I should say, I was
[29:55] Speaker 2: going up to the UNLV Rec Center to play some
[29:57] Speaker 2: basketball on like the first day that I got there,
[29:59] Speaker 2: and I've seen tons of NBA players in Vegas and
[30:03] Speaker 2: they're always just like hanging out, no shame. The offseason,
[30:07] Speaker 2: Tyres was like coming out of the gym, like sweating
[30:09] Speaker 2: his ass off after a crazy workout. The dude is
[30:12] Speaker 2: just clearly a workout warrior, like very clearly does the
[30:16] Speaker 2: things you need to do to rectify skill deficiencies. And
[30:20] Speaker 2: there's an upside here that this dynamic could change and
[30:24] Speaker 2: he could at some point have a breakout season as
[30:26] Speaker 2: a pull up shooter. And I do think that that's
[30:27] Speaker 2: a real outcome on the table. I remember when he
[30:30] Speaker 2: had that what was it, that fifty point playoff game
[30:32] Speaker 2: a couple of years ago, where I was like, man
[30:34] Speaker 2: like when the pull up jump shots going, He's just
[30:36] Speaker 2: so unguardable, and like, I do think that upside is
[30:39] Speaker 2: still there. Tyres is one of the most gifted young
[30:41] Speaker 2: guards in the league. He's insanely fast, probably the fastest
[30:45] Speaker 2: straight line guard in the NBA, insanely gifted jump shooter.
[30:48] Speaker 2: He's growing as a passer. He doesn't turn the basketball over.
[30:51] Speaker 2: He have aged seven assists per game last year on
[30:53] Speaker 2: nearly a three to one assistant turnover ratio, made an
[30:55] Speaker 2: all NBA team last year at just twenty five years old,
[30:58] Speaker 2: super super impressive young guard in this league. Now, I
[31:01] Speaker 2: have three quick, big picture topics with Maxi that I
[31:05] Speaker 2: want to hit.
[31:05] Speaker 1: One his defense.
[31:07] Speaker 2: Tyres is a guy that leaves a lot to be
[31:09] Speaker 2: desired on the defensive end of the floor, which is
[31:11] Speaker 2: super common for scoring guards, skill guards and small guards
[31:14] Speaker 2: right the all the things that you expect to see there.
[31:18] Speaker 2: One thing I'll say with Maxi, he does want to
[31:21] Speaker 2: be like it is more like a like I will
[31:26] Speaker 2: take a player. I'll say that like this is like
[31:28] Speaker 2: this with Tyres Haliburton too. Give me a player that
[31:32] Speaker 2: has defensive deficiencies, but that plays hard on that end
[31:35] Speaker 2: of the floor over the opposite every day of the week.
[31:39] Speaker 2: Like Tyree's like you ask him to hedge and recover,
[31:42] Speaker 2: He's thrown a hedge and he's getting his hands out
[31:44] Speaker 2: as he's recovering back to try to get a tip.
[31:46] Speaker 2: He's looking to make plays with his speed in passing lanes,
[31:49] Speaker 2: Like there's a lot that can be refined there. He's
[31:52] Speaker 2: certainly physically limited, He's absolutely a target. Your defense would
[31:56] Speaker 2: be better if you had some big, stocky Davion Mitchell
[31:58] Speaker 2: instead of tyres Maxie there, But for everything that he
[32:01] Speaker 2: brings offensively, he cares about the defensive end of the
[32:03] Speaker 2: floor and puts in the effort there, which to me
[32:06] Speaker 2: is easier to work with as a coach and as
[32:08] Speaker 2: a team that's trying to win a championship than the
[32:11] Speaker 2: alternative two his passiveness in the next series.
[32:14] Speaker 1: We talked about this.
[32:15] Speaker 2: In the next series, we got some criticism for not
[32:17] Speaker 2: being very aggressive against the Knicks, but he was consistently
[32:20] Speaker 2: getting two on the ball coverages, and I thought that
[32:24] Speaker 2: it was a little bit shortsighted to act as though
[32:27] Speaker 2: Tyrese wasn't doing his job, which is compromising the defense
[32:30] Speaker 2: by bringing two to the ball. And all I can
[32:33] Speaker 2: think about is, like, this is another area where Lebron
[32:35] Speaker 2: James can help. If your game plan is we're blitzing
[32:38] Speaker 2: Tyrese Maxi the way it was for the Knicks, go
[32:40] Speaker 2: have Lebron set a screen for him and have him
[32:42] Speaker 2: run the short role, and you're just going to pick
[32:44] Speaker 2: teams apart, especially with all the surrounding talents. So like,
[32:47] Speaker 2: I don't criticize Maxi for what happened in the next series.
[32:50] Speaker 2: I thought he faced super aggressive defensive coverages that the
[32:53] Speaker 2: team couldn't capitalize on. Lastly, his fit with the new
[32:56] Speaker 2: look Sixers. We talked a little bit about Lebron' so
[32:58] Speaker 2: I won't focus too much there. Anything that I'm worried about,
[33:01] Speaker 2: I shouldn't say worried, but that I'm focused on this
[33:03] Speaker 2: year with Tyrese maxid is. I want to see him
[33:07] Speaker 2: continue to be aggressive. Yes, I wanted to trim out
[33:10] Speaker 2: some of the really really tough shots. Yes, I want
[33:12] Speaker 2: to see him change pace a little bit, slow down,
[33:14] Speaker 2: make things a little bit easier for him with some
[33:17] Speaker 2: of the shots that he was inefficient on last year.
[33:19] Speaker 2: But that doesn't mean I don't want Tyre's to be aggressive.
[33:21] Speaker 2: I think Tyree's could still average twenty six twenty seven
[33:24] Speaker 2: points per game next year, but at sixty two sixty
[33:28] Speaker 2: three percent true shooting, And that's really the key. Like
[33:31] Speaker 2: I want Tyree's to lead the team in scoring, Like
[33:34] Speaker 2: I think that that's still his role on this team.
[33:37] Speaker 1: And what I'm.
[33:37] Speaker 2: Worried about is that because he's the youngest one, because
[33:41] Speaker 2: he's somewhat deferential to Lebron, because Jalen Brown's a Finals MVP,
[33:45] Speaker 2: and coming off the season that he had Joel Embiid
[33:48] Speaker 2: is a regular season MVP. You know, I am worried
[33:51] Speaker 2: about him, kind of like seeding a little bit too
[33:53] Speaker 2: much usage to those guys, and I just want to
[33:55] Speaker 2: see him continue to be aggressive.
[33:57] Speaker 1: All right, guys, it's all I have for today.
[33:58] Speaker 2: As always, a sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us
[34:01] Speaker 2: and supporting the show. We'll be back on Friday with
[34:03] Speaker 2: our weekly mail bag. I will see you, guys, man

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.
