Hoops Tonight - Are Jayson Tatum & Celtics NBA's best? Joel Embiid's MVP play + 76ers turnaround

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in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by Vanduel here at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are having an incredible week so far. I apologize sincerely for the technical difficulties that we had during last night's show. So because of that two things. First of all, thank you guys for watching that video and putting up with it. Um. I promise

we're working on making sure that doesn't happen again. But as a result, we're gonna change our schedule up a little bit this week because we're gonna be doing some um stuff behind the scenes to make sure that we

can go live without having those problems again. So tonight's live show is canceled, and what the rest of this week is gonna look like instead is today we're gonna talk about two Eastern Conference teams that are that are on hot streaks, the Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia seventies Sixers. Then the back calf of today's show, we're gonna hit the two teams that we were supposed to hit last night but that we cut off because of the technical difficulties.

That's the Indiana Pacers and the Minnesota Timberwolves in light of the Carl Anthony Town's trade. So those are the four teams were hitting today. Then tomorrow we're gonna cover all of the teams and games that we were going to cover in tonight's show. We're just gonna do it instead of going live, We're gonna pre record it and release it Tomorrow. Friday, we're going to have our Quarter of the season awards, and then Saturday morning we'll have

a video cover covering the Friday night game. So they all end up being six shows this week. By the time it's all said and done, you guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason Lts you guys don't miss any show announcements. It's also where I'm putting

footage breakdowns these days. I did one today specifically talking about Malcolm Brogden and what he's been doing for the Celtics, So you're gonna want to follow me there to get that video. And then, last but not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts Under Hoops tonight, and I

know those talks in basketball. So the Boston Celtics. We talked about them last week, but we really aren't talking about them nearly enough for how good they are, especially since that's when I want the primary focus of this team too, of the show to be, is on the best teams in the league. So we're gonna talk about them again today and probably again tomorrow after the Miami

Heat game. Um, they're thirteen in one in their last fourteen games in that span, No other team in the league has fewer than four losses, so that's how incredibly dominant they've been compared to the rest of the league. They are first in offense, with a six point three point gap between them in second place over this fourteen

game span. They are still fifteenth in defense in this fourteen game span, but they've had incredibly dominant stretches, and honestly, they're scoring so well that their defense they haven't been devoting as much energy to it for spurts of these games because they just haven't felt the urgency. But when they felt the urgency, every time I've watched them, they've been able to hit that switch, shut everybody's water off,

and get the win. Um In this fourteen game stretch, they are first in net rating with the seven point four point per one possessions gap over second place. Isn't that completely insane? Their average margin of victory in their thirteen wins was fourteen points, and they beat a lot of good teams. They beat that King's team that was red hot. They beat the Dallas Mavericks, they beat the Pelicans, they beat the Hawks, they beat the Nuggets, they beat

the Grizzlies, and more. Everyone's playing extremely well they have six players averaging double figures. Jayson Tatum is averaging one, eight and five on sixty percent true shooting, Jaylen Brown six and four on sixty four percent true shooting, and then Malcolm Brogden, Al Horford, Marcus Smart, and Derek White are all over twelve points per game During the stretch, Malcolm Brogden in limited minutes is averaging fourteen points per

game on sixty percent true shot. If you extrapolated out to a per thirty six, which is like a normal shift and probably the amount of minutes that he'll be playing in a playoff setting, he's been averaging twenty three points and six assists per thirty six minutes. The Malcolm Brogden trade has been an absolute home run. That legit additional ball handler addressed a very specific weakness for the Celtics. In addition to that, Marcus Smart improved as a ball handler,

Chase and Tatum improved as a ball handler. Even Jaylen Brown up to excuse me, up to four assists per game in the stretch. He's handling the ball a lot better. So as a team, they've kind of addressed their biggest flawed As a result, they've just been kind of kicking everybody's ass, but Brogden in particular, I think a spearheading that. So this season he scored a hundred and thirty eight points on hundred and thirty four picking rolls including passes,

which is in the percentile. And he's really accomplishing that with the combination of three things. He's got a deadly pull up jumper shooting on the season on pull up jumpers, including from three excuse me, those numbers are from this, uh, this fourteen game stretch. He also has like a really nice left handed finish he uh. You know, it's funny because there's a bunch of different ways to go about

finishing on the left side of the rim um. A lot of players will like Lebron does this a lot, you know, Taylor Horton Tucker is the most exaggerative example of this. But like they'll get to the left side of the rim and they'll just kind of position their body between the defender and the rim and they'll almost shoot like backwards behind their head with their right hand.

Brogden does more of that traditional like he gets his right shoulder into you and then he extends his left arm way out and He's almost got like a scooping like hook left handed layup that he knocks down seemingly every single time, just using his body as a shield to get that separation. And then he has a willingness to use the role man. So it's kind of like the perfect combination crafty finishing around the rim, excellent pull up jump shooting, and the willingness to pass to that

role man when the screen defender is helping. That's gonna make you effective and pick and roll. So I put I put together a bunch of clips of this on my Twitter feed again at underscore Jason lt where you can kind of see an example of a breakdown of the success that Malcolm Brogden has been having in pick and roll this year. But the bottom line is, as we know, with the Celtics, they have, you know, the deepest roster in the league, and they've got a ton

of guys that can play good driving kick basketball. So having another guy on the roster that can legitimately create advantages not just for himself but for his teammates, and presenting those advantage in situations to really good basketball players, you're gonna end up scoring a ship ton of points and that's what the Boston Celtics are doing. Jayson Tatum's

passing is coming around. Finally. You guys heard what I said before the year, Like, I think it's so important, especially in the Celtics system, to have guys that are willing to make that first pass to just get the defense into rotation. And to start this season, Tatum was really hunting his shot, but over the course of this four team game span, his assists are backup where they should be around five per game UM and kind of

targeting that that specific role a little bit better. When he passes out of pick and roll this year, the Celtics have scored a hundred and eight points possessions, which is in the seventy nine percentile, and when he shoots or passes out of ISO, the Celtics have scored a hundred and eleven points on a hundred and four possessions, which is in the seventie percentile. Jalen Brown has been one of the best pick and roll creators in the

league this year. He's good for a hundred and twenty seven points on a hundred and fifteen pick and rolls, which is in the eight six percentile. I was watching a bunch of footage on it this morning. It's it's just classic what you'd expect with Jalen Brown, a good combination of downhill athleticism getting to the rim and a

deadly pull up jump shot. In this fourteen game stretch, he's taken sixty pull up jumpers and he's made thirty three of them, including eight for nineteen from three, which is so Jalen Brown playing some of the best basketball of his career. And then Marcus Smart. Honestly, guys like in Celtics fans, I'm sure would speak to this from what I can tell from what I've been watching. Marcus Smart is kind of the secret he euro of the

Celtics offense this year. His combination of a really good handling, quick first step, and ability to get defenders trapped in jail so he can use them to get over the top of screens. That in combination with his posting up because he can he typically draws a good matchup just because of the way that the Celtics present matchup problems

for teams. He's the guy that is starting so many of these Celtics possessions by getting the defense into rotation and then everybody's capitalizing on that attention and then he's always been a really good passer. It's always been one of his best skills. But the game is really just coming together for him, and the numbers, the resulting numbers

are insane. He has scored a hundred. The Celtics have scored a hundred and fifty five points on a hundred and ten Marcus Smart picking rolls this year, which is the best in the league, literally the best in the league for guys in that range of volume. He's also scoring one point three or the Celtics are scoring one point three points per Marcus Smart post up, which is

in the ninety percentile. So you're getting just incredibly high level creation from Marcus Smart just simply drawing good defensive matchups and using pick and roll and post ups to generate advantages first team and everyone creating off of those

advantage situations. You know, it's funny because as we kind of zoom out from the Celtics for a second, we all have like our our rules, um our little philosophies that we have as basketball fans are a basketball coaches are as basketball players, And one of my big ones has been to never overreact to regular season trends, you know, like um, especially for teams that are proven in the playoffs.

So for instance, like last year's Warriors, you know, they had a really a really bad regular season by their standards because of injuries for the most part, but they got up to a really hot start and then things kind of fell apart with injuries, and UM, there's a lot of pessimism surrounding the Warriors going into that playoff run. And I picked them in three out of the four rounds, and the one time I picked against them was against the Mavericks in the Conference finals, and I said at

the time, I didn't feel good about it. It It was more about the Luca matchup and what he had just done to the Suns than any sort of negativity towards the Warriors. And the main reason why it is just like regular season basketball just doesn't mean that much to that type of team, that veteran experienced team that's been there so many times, and I just had a feeling they'd put it all together, and they did, which is why I picked them over even the Celtics when they

got to the finals. You know, a similar example to that is the those Cavaliers teams with Lebron and like two thousand seventeen and two thousand eighteen, like just really miserable regular seasons where they're just b sing through every single night. And I remember that two thousand seventeen team in particular, really struggled in the second half of the year, just not playing any damn defense, losing a bunch of games they had no business losing. And then what happened.

They got into the playoffs and they literally whooped everyone's ass both of those years and made it to the finals. And so, you know, it's kind of like a lesson of mine, like not to overreact to regular season trends. But there's one specific regular season trend that I always pay really close attention to, and that's if there is a team that is just whooping everyone's ass, like it's not even close, that team usually keeps whooping everyone's ass

until they get the trophy. And the two recent examples of this that I would use are the Lakers. All year long, people hyper focused on roster flaws. They don't have enough shooting, there's not enough spacing, they play big too much, well, Anthony Davis get hurt, Is Lebron James still the best player in the world. All of that negativity was surrounding that Lakers team, and they were twenty

four and three, and then guess what happened. They got to the postseason and they beat everyone's ass, never even remotely threatened. The shooting didn't matter. Lebron was the best player in the world, Anthony Davis played like a top five player in the world, and they kicked everyone's ass, and so all of that negativity surrounding them ended up

not making any sense. Meanwhile, there was all this hype surrounding a Clippers team that had never won a title and had a disappointing regular season, and they ended up losing to the Denver Nuggets in the second round. So that's kind of less number one. And then the second example of that was the two thousand fifteen Warriors kind of a similar thing. They won sixties seven games had they were, and they were beating teams, like soundly beating teams,

and all of this pessimism was directed towards the Warriors. Oh, they relied too much on jump shots. Steph Curry and Clay Thompson are you know, not good defensive players. And all the negativity that was directed towards them and then guess what happened. They kicked everyone's ass in that postseason run. Yes, they had some injury luck, but they got the trophy at the end of the day. So, like you know, even last year, Celtics are a good example of this.

From the you know, middle of January to the end of the year, they kicked everyone's ass. And really, if it wasn't for an outstanding Steph Curry performance and a really bad Jayson Tatum for Forman's, they probably would have won the title last year. So when a team is just killing everybody, we should probably pay close attention to it. Now. To be clear, I'm not picking them over either of Milwaukee or Golden State because of the respect I have

for Janice and the respect I have for Steph. But with the ascent of Jayson Tatum this year and the ascent of Jalen Brown and how good they've been, I don't feel good about it, and I would not be surprised if I ended up being wrong at the end

of the day. Alright, moving on to the Philadelphia is seventy six ers, So they're up to twelve and nine now, thanks in large part two of three and one stretch with no Joe hell Embiid, no Tires Maxie, and no James Harden, and they've succeeded in that stretch based on three things their defense, Tobias Harris and Joel Embiad obviously, and I'm not just talking about the three and one stretch, but in general, since the Maxie and Hardened injuries, the

Sixers have been pretty good. And it's been because of those three guys, Joel Embid, Tobias Harris, well, those two guys in their defense. So they're up to third the league in defensive rating, in large part because they fixed their transition defense. If you guys, remember they had the worst transition defense in the league to start the year. There's them in the Brooklyn Nets that were right there

at the bottom of the league. But since the beginning of November, so for a month now, the Sixers have allowed just one point zero seven points per transition play, which is second best in the league. So shout out to Doc Rivers for addressing and fixing that transition defense problem. Remember, defense will carry you through offensive struggles, it will keep you in games and give you a chance to win, and it helps you churn out wins in particular against

bad teams. So for instance, like you gotta back to back uh set of games against the Orlando Magic and Joel embiids out, Tyrese Maxi's out, you know, James Harden is out. You don't have a ton of talent. But they defended extremely well. They had a one oh five defensive rating in both of those games, and they were never really truly threatened and they won both of them. Um, Tobias Harris, we shouted him out in that game where

they beat the net last week. But he's really done a nice job stepping into a larger role because of the injuries, and he's been awesome. Remember he got a Max contract because of what he could do in a larger role, and then he was almost immediately slotted down into a smaller role. And so it's good to see that he has, you know, stayed sharp in those more on ball responsibilities so that when he had to step

into this role he could succeed. Since the James Harden injury, Tobias Harris is averaging twenty points per game on fifty six percent true shooting. The Sixers are six and one this year. When Tobias Harris scores at least twenty points. He's been really good at isolation situations one point one three points per possession, which is the eighty four percentile including passes. And then he's scoring really well out of the post, although he's not passing well, and he's been

really good attacking closeouts. Just another big, strong wing that is skilled, in versatile and that sort of thing is just gonna find a way to succeed in the NBA these days. Joel Embiid So obviously he's been out of the lineup a little bit recently, but when he's been healthy, he's been amazing this season. He had thirty eight and

seven against the Hawks on Monday. He's scoring a career high thirty two points per game on a ridiculous sixty shooting percentage, which is the second best efficiency mark of his career, and he's been outstanding defensively. Just a bona fide superstar. You know, I know, Joel Embiad is not my favorite player, but um, that's more just aesthetic stuff, like some of his demeanor stuff and some stuff with his foul baiting which drives me insane. But you know, I've I've I tried to do my best to be

fair about this stuff. And he's probably been one of the five best players in the league this year when he's been healthy. It's been health concerns that have been the problem there. And then Shake Milton. You know when when when Tyres Max and James Harden went down. Yeah, you lean more on Tobias Harris, Yeah, you lean more on Joel Embiid. Yeah, you can go more on wings.

You're seeing a little bit more matist bol, right, But you needed somebody in that back court to step up, and d Anthony Melton honestly has struggled a little bit, but Shake Milton has just been shooting the laces off the damn back basketball during this stretch since the Tyrese Maxie injury, Shake Milton is averaging twenty three points per game on fifty seven percent from the field from three and nineties six percent from the foul line, kind of

like replacing in that Seth Curry role that the Sixers used to use. Um he's got a six shooting percentage over this band. They needed somebody to step up, and Shake Milton has been that guy. If they can get de Anthony Melton to find his shot, they'll be cooking with gas and they'll still be really effective during this

stretch without their back court. This is a super talented roster that has done a nice job of covering for their health issues with guys stepping into larger roles and succeeding locking in on the defensive end of the floor, which is under their control. And Joel Embid their superstar, playing like a bona fide superstar. Alright, moving on to the Pacers, these are gonna be pretty quick. So obviously

we were gonna shout them out last night. We're talking about the Lakers, but they deserve some a little bit of a shout out. So they're playing really good, bad all right now. There fourth in the East in the standings right now, so they have home court in the first round, their tenth in offense and defense, Ben Mathurin's

having a really nice rookie campaign. He's been thriving in the advantages that the Pacers create for him, so he's not having you know, like like most young players, he's struggling when he has to create his own shot in in stagnant situations like in a half court pick and

roll set or in a late clock isolation set. Things along those lines, but when like on out of bounce plays and when they run their sets, when they get or in close out situations, when he's catching with the defenses in rotation, he's doing a really nice job of scoring in those situations with just a simple combination of a good three point shot, a really nice floater with good lift and and shoots it high and soft, and

then ability to finish around the rim. Uh. That combination, those three things together have made him really good at

extending those advantages and finishing plays. They they run this baseline out of bounce like you pacers fans will recognize that they've run it all season, but basically, uh, Like, he'll start on the left side of the floor and they'll either set a single screen at the block or they'll set like an elevator screen where they've got two like a screener at one block and then on another block,

and they'll shut the door as Ben runs through. But he'll run through the right corner and he'll either turn catch and turn and shoot, or he'll curl around it and work along the baseline to get back to the basket and score. And uh, they ran it twice in twice in that fourth quarter against the Lakers the other night. Both times he read the defensive player and curled around

and knocked down a float or along the baseline. Again, both of them were a little bit off, but he shoots it so soft and so high that he got that He got the bounce on both of them. Um. He's also having a lot of success attacking the Raymond transition. Again, He's got a long ways to go as a primary shot creator, but that's the same for all young guards in the league. But he does look like a really nice pick up for Kevin Pritchard in the pay Sers.

Miles Turner has completely returned to form. He's playing the best basketball of his career. His last eleven games. He's averaging twenty points and nine rebounds, two point three blocks per game, and shooting from three on over four attempts. Overall's shooting fifty from the field. Miles Turner has been so damn good that I I'm stunned that the Lakers have not been begging the Pacers to make that deal now.

My guests uh Joan Jovan Buja went on um Alan Silwa's podcast this morning I Believe and specifically said that the Lakers are leaning towards a deal that would send something like Kendrick Nunn and Patrick Beverley in a first instead of a Russell Westbrook centric deal, and uh, if they do something along those lines, uh that I would be interested to see if they like kind of threw another minimum contract in there and tried to target just Miles Turner rather than Buddy Heals, giving them a legit,

big identity that they can go to. But the shout out to Miles Turner, He's and awesome. And then the big guy with the Pacers, we gotta shout out as Tyrese Haliburton. He's quickly become one of the best passers that we have in the league. And you guys know how much I value high level playmaking. It's always been my favorite NBA skill set because you know, all all NBA players, especially in this era, are getting so good at basic things three point shooting, wonderable pull ups, floaters, driving,

and kicking. The league in general is getting a lot better at extending advantages and finishing plays. So having guys that can beat that initial wall of the defense to get them into rotation is so incredibly valuable, and Tires is doing that an extremely high level. UM. He's got a fifty five effective field goal percentage on pull up jumpers this year, which is the You know, again, if you want to be a successful pick and roll ball handler or advantage creator in general, you have to have

a pull up jump shot. You have to be able to dribble and beat people off the dribble, and you have to be able to see the floor well enough to pass. And Tyree's adding that legit pull up jumpers opened up everything for him this year. He's one of the highest volume pick and roll guys this year. So he's only in the sixty three percentile in terms of point per possession, but he's run four hundred and forty

pick and rolls this year. It's one of the foundational pieces of that Pacers offense, and he's getting more than one point per possession out of it, which is really good. That means that in a set defense situation like half court, everyone's trapped. They can wear out and spam tyrese Alibert and pick and roll and get good stuff out of it. So shout out to the Pacers playing some good basketball.

I would imagine they'll pull the plug eventually. Um, But the one the one thing that's weird there is, uh it be It would be a lot more interesting to look at them if Malcolm Brogden was around still, But then again, you gotta keep things open for guys like Benedict mather and to develop Alright, moving on to the Minnesota Timberwolf. So Karl Anthony Towns had a cash strain. Thankful it wasn't worse. Obviously, we were all terrified when

we saw that video clip the pace. The Wolves really need to take their time with this one, because you have enough talent with Gobert and with Anthony Edwards and D'angela Russell, you have enough talent to play functional basketball during this stretch, so there's no reason to rush Carl Town's back. We've seen examples in NBA history, particularly with Kevin Durant in two thousand nineteen, where a cash strain when you rush back can turn into an achilles issues.

So I hope they take their sweet time figuring this out and getting Carl Town's healthy. The nice thing, the silver lining, whatever you want to talk about, the glass half full way of looking at it is this will actually force the Timberwolves to play some more traditional lineup. So before we go any further. I just wanted to give you guys some line up data about the Gobert Towns fits. You guys can kind of see what it's

looked like in different combinations. These numbers are per cleaning and glass by the way, which which filters out garbage time. So when Rudy Gobert and Carl Towns are both on the floor, the Wolves have a minus one net rating in eight hundred and thirty two possessions. Remember net rating is just differential per one hundred possessions, meaning they're getting

outscored by one point per one hundred possessions. Um defense is good, not great with both of them on the floor, which is concerning because that's why you make it go

bear trade. And then their offense is pretty bad. When Carl Towns is on and Rudy Gobert is off, they are dead even in six hundred and fifty seven possessions, a hundred and nineteen point five offensive rating, which is incredible, in a hundred and nineteen point five defensive rating, which is atrocious, So kind of what you would expect Gobart off in Towns holding things down on the center position, especially with all the perimeter defenders they lost in that

deal with Gobert on in Towns off it's been bad there, minus eight point nine points per one hundred possessions and four hundred and thirty two possessions. Awful on both ends of the floor. That's got to be concerning because that's where you've got to go now with um with Carl Town's being out. So now as we kind of talk about what that's gonna look like, remember what worked for

the Jazz. What worked for the Jazz was Rudy Gobert, everyone chasing guys off the three point line and funneling to him, and then on the offensive end tons of ball handling and shooting. Because Gobert's offensive limitations can be a problem, but he's a great screener, and he's a great vertical spacer, and he's a great offensive rebounders. So as long as the aggregate lineup spacing and shooting and ball handling is good enough, you can still run a

really successful offense with him. The problem is, this is what's crazy. When Gobert has been on the floor without Carl Towns this year, the most used lineup for the Timberwolves has involved nas Read So they're playing two bigs even without Carl Towns on the floor, which just doesn't make any sense. That lineup is Jordan McLoughlin, Jalen Noel, Torrian Prince, nas Read and Rudy Gobert. That's the most

commonly used Gobert no Town's lineup. They've played twenty seven possessions, so obviously a little bit low volume, but they've only had a seventy offensive right with that group just to not enough ball handling, not enough shooting. Um. There are

some go Bear lineups that have worked. If you plug in Anthony Edwards for nas Read and now it's Jordan McLoughlin, Jalen Noel, Torrian Prince Anthony Edwards already Gobert their plus thirty two net and they have a hundred and forty two offensive rating, albeit in a somewhat small sample size only nineteen possessions um. So again, like the Gobert lineups have primarily been bench groupings, they're playing him a lot with Jalen Noel, playing him a lot with Jordan McLoughlin.

That's gonna change. The Gobert by himself lineups are now going to be a lot of like D'Angelo Russell Anthony Edwards, And what I'd like to see them do is just go with two wings and so go with like Torrian Prince and Jada McDaniels, for instance, or you know, Kyle Anderson and Jada McDaniels, and just lean on like you know, a better version of the Jazz because the Jazz just didn't quite have the perimeter defenders. But Kyle Anderson is

a really good perimeter defender. Torrian Prince is a really good perimeter defender. Jaden McDaniels is a good perimeter defender. Even Anthony Edwards when he's locked in, is a good perimeter defender. So they could functionally have some groupings that

are better versions of what the Utah Jazz do. They just need to actually put those groupings together now that Carl Towns is out of the rotation and they actually moved those Golbert lineups into those starting groups um specifically when they and now I've tried to find some data. They don't have a ton of data when those types of groups are playing again because the starters have usually

included Cat. But when they've played dil ant, Torrian Prince, Jada McDaniels and Rudy there plus forty four net rating, although in a early small sample size, um, you could also see a little bit of Jalen a Well mixed in there, because he's a little bit better ball handler and has a little bit more of that natural scoring feel.

But to be clear, at this point, when they have Rudy Gobert with the starting backcourt, so Anthony Edwards in D'Angelo Russell, no Carl Town's, no nas reads, so Rudy Gobert with the starting backcourt and no other big they are minus fifteen net rating in sixty in sixty three possessions, which is pretty bad. So they're going to have to figure out how to be successful with those groupings. They should be. That doesn't actually that data doesn't even make

sense to me. They should be better than that. They're gonna have to figure that out or the losses will pile up. And this is where I want to talk about Anthony Edwards for a minute, because he's been one of the main culprits of the Wolves rough start. Um. You know, I was really high on him coming out

of last season. I believe I remember correctly. I had him twenty in my player rankings, but he was he was somewhere in my player rankings, which is higher than most people had him, and it was I just saw him as a superstar on the rise, a combination of like I called him Mini Lebron because he's so big and strong as a downhill threat that bodies just bounced off of him on his way to the rim. And then he had a good pull up jump shot to

end last season. Combine that with what he can do defensively when he's locked in, and you see a superstar in the making. But his pull up jump shooting has been bad this year, just straight up bad. He's shooting just thirty or percent on dribble jumpers this year, and as a result, his pick and roll shot creation has

been bad. The Timberwolves have scored just a hundred and eighty seven points and two hundred and seven Anthony Edwards picking rolls counting passes, which is in the thirty six percentile. Just not good enough. And I was watching a bunch of film on it yesterday. He's still deadly when he's going downhill and he's finishing really well around the rim. It's just the pull up jump. It's just the pull

up jump shooting. That's causing problems. And the other thing too that I've noticed too is if he doesn't like the spacing, Like, if he likes his spacing, he's going

downhill and he's scoring. But if he doesn't like the spacing and he doesn't get to his pull up jump shot, instead of like going downhill anyway and trying the defense even closer and making that kickout pass or at least the defenses in rotation, he'll come off the screen, decide he doesn't like the spacing and just throw a swing pass.

And so I like to see Aunt just be a little bit more aggressive, even if he doesn't like what he's seeing, just understanding what advantage he can create just by you know, taking that extra dribble downhill with some with some force and then elevating and kicking to somebody on the wing, giving them a rotation situation rather than just to kick out pass that doesn't accomplish anything um and it's also only getting about a point per iceo,

which is only slightly above average. D'Angel Russell has actually been pretty solid as a shot creator. So I don't you know he D'Angel Russell is what he is, you know, I I don't think he's considered part of the future in Minnesota, but he's a perfectly fine shot creator in the NBA, especially on the second side. You know, coming into the season, we talked about when they traded when they made that trade, because Patrick Beverley has been bad for the Lakers this year, but he was good for

the Timberwolves last year. And you know, Timberwolves fans have some complaints about Malik Beasley and his commitment on the defensive end of the floor stuff like that. I actually thought Mollie Beasley was pretty good for them last year, and he shoots the ship out of the basketball. They were depending after that trade on guys like Jordan McLoughlin and Jaylen Nowell to take steps up into those roles,

and they just simply have not been good enough. Uh, those two guys are going to have to start playing better if the Wolves are gonna have success on the level that they had last year. I was low on the Wolves coming into the season, as you guys know, I'm still low on them. But there is enough talent on this roster to be successful without Cat as long

as they lean into that Jazz model. Lots of ball handling and shooting around Carl, around Rudy Gobert, and then focusing in on the defensive end of the floor, getting into that, you know, a classic jazz style screen and roll to the basket, try to get Anthony Edwards and Deangel Russell downhill and funneling guys to go bear on the other end of the floor. As long as Anthony Edwards gets back on track with the better spacing in Jalen the well ends up kind of taking that step up.

I'm not I don't think much of Jordan McLoughlin, but I actually like Jealen no Wells game a lot. If he kind of steps up into that role, they will hit a groove um pretty soon, I think, And I actually think in the long run, I think this is not a Carl Town's commentary. This is just a commentary on the team. I think in the long run, they're gonna hit a stride here, and I think they're gonna play some pretty good basketball. You know. Um, it's just

a fundamental team construct thing that I disagree with. If you have two bigs, the lineups are too slow footed and there's not enough ball handling. So I think I think they're gonna actually hit a little bit of a stride here without Gobert. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. Again, I sincerely apologize for the technical difficulties yesterday. We will be back tomorrow covering all of tonight's games as always. I sincerely appreciate your support

and I'll see you guys next time. The volume