Hoops Tonight - Caitlin Clark drops 41, Iowa beats LSU for Final Four, Suns-Pelicans + NBA Mailbag

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Highly highly entertaining stuff. Lots of debate about how Kim Moulchi and LSU decided to guard Caitlyn Clark. So I dove into the film and have a bunch of thoughts on what I would have done, Mostly just talking about the pros and cons of different types of coverages and the realities of dealing with the player of Kitlyn Clark's caliber, and just some information from the stuff that I pulled on tape. After that, we're gonna talk about the Phoenix

Suns going into New Orleans and smacking the Pelicans. How unusual is this? Devin Booker has played the Pelicans twice this year and has two fifty two point games against them. Kind of rare to see something like that. And then at the end of the show, we got you know, five or six mail bag questions that we'll be hitting that go around the league. You guys know the jope before we get started. Subscribe to a brand new YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.

Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason ltus. You guys don't miss anyhow announcements or film threads. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if he leave a rating and a review on that front. And the last but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments. We're gonna do a few more mail bags over the course

of this week. So forty one points, seven rebounds and twelve assists against the team that knocked you out in the title game last year. Not just defeating the defending champion, a champion, but avenging a loss to the team that beats you and did it in resounding fashion and unbelievable performance by Kitlyn Clark against LSU. Now here's the question. Kaylen Clark was cooking against LSU, obviously, and seemed to be making it look easy for most of the night.

And so there was a lot of question about whether or not LSU had the right defensive strategy to deal with Caitlin Clark. And that was especially apparent when we saw the second game and we saw Juju Watkins of USC getting very aggressive coverages from Yukon and Gino Arima. So it presented this question of whether or not that was the appropriate way to deal with what Caitlyn Clark

was doing. And so what I did to kind of try to come at this with as much information as possible as I went back and I charted every single

pick and roll in ISO that Caitlyn Clark ran in this game. She ran seven ISOs and eighteen pick and rolls. The ISOs were pretty few and far between, and they were more or less the same things. She hit up ISO three against Haley van Liz, where she gave her a little bit too much space, which was really the only possession that I didn't think Hayley did a good job, but that for the most part, Haley did a really

good job within the scheme. It was the scheme that was getting burned, not Hayley, but for the most part in the ISOs, Caitlyn was beating her defender off the dribble and then running into all of LSU's size at the rim, and so it wasn't really the best strategy. Pick and roll was the best way for her to at least get the rim protectors a little bit further away from the basket, namely angel Reaes Right, So Kaitlyn ran eighteen pick and rolls total including passes in Iowa,

got nineteen points out of them. Now, that's one point zero six point per possession, which seems low compared to our mediocre compared to some NBA numbers, but at the college level, that's in that just by looking at the over the season numbers this year, when it comes to Kitlyn Clark in the way she stacks up against other pick and roll ball handlers, that's about where she was for most of the season including passes, and that was in the very top tier of pick and roll ball

handlers around the country. So like, that's excellent, especially in the NCAA tournament, which, by the way, Kitlyn Clark is getting almost one point three points per possession and pick and roll in this NCAA tournament when she shoots the basketball, so she's been cooking in these particular situations and shooting

over sixty percent herself. Right. So I saw four different coverages in a pick and roll from LSU in this game, and then there were three possessions where she rejected the screen entirely, so we didn't get to see what the coverage means. What that means is screen's coming on this side, but instead she drives the other direction and just effectively

turns into an ISO at that point. The four different coverages that I saw was going underneath the screen with out nail help meaning there's not help waiting on the other side of the screen, and then going under the screen with nail help, and then over the screen with drop and over the screen with a hedge. Now again the drop is the screen defenders hanging back in the lane. Now LSU was kind of hovering around the kind of like semi circle area just below the foul line, so

it wasn't a super deep drop. They were there to try to contest a little bit, but they were sitting back, they were not up at the level of the screen. For the most part. There were to kind of go through them one by one, so under without help. There were four possessions. These were all early in the game, and every single one of them Caitlin Clark took a pull up three. There were four of these possessions. Caitlyn took a pull up three on every single one of them.

She made two of them, so it was one point five points per possession in four possessions or six points in four possessions. Early in the game, there was a possession where Kate Markin Kate Martin was on the left wing and five J. Johnson actually jumped down in nail help, meaning as Caitlyn came off the screen, Flaje was waiting for her at the nail. Caitlyn just made a simple swing pass to Kate Martin, who's been a deadly unguarded

three point shooter all season. According to Syenergy, she was at forty three percent on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots, which is right where she's at for the entire NCAA tournament as well. She made the three. They didn't try that again the rest of the game. No more nail help because what they would do is they'd just keep Kate Martin on the wing one pass away from where they were running those ball screens. So if you helped, you were just leaving a really good shooter wide open.

So they tried that once burned for three points, so that's three points per possession in one possession. The most frequent coverage they used was just a traditional drop coverage with Hayley van Lyft chasing over the top of the screen, and they had a good amount of success there. It stops Caitlyn from taking pull up threes, mainly turned her into a passer, and a lot of those pocket passes were either turning into turnovers or at the rim against

length that were missed. They scored seven points and eight possessions there. That zero point eighty eight points per possession, So the general coverage they used for the majority of

the game actually worked pretty well. Then there were two possessions late in the game when Caitlyn really started to get going where they offered a hedge, and now that means Angel reaes as the screen was being set, was coming up and hedging just to stop Caitlin from taking the three high drop hedge whatever you wanna call it, coming up to the level of screen bothering and then

rotating back to the basket. On those two possessions, they both resulted in pocket passes, and one was a turnover and one was a miss layup, So that was zero points per possession on two possessions. And then the three times that she rejected the screen meaning she didn't use the screen but she drove away from it, she had a driving and one layup, and then she had two misses, so three points in three possessions or one point per possession.

So honestly, when you look back at it, it was a lot of really small sample sized stuff, like three of the coverages they only used repossessions or less, and then the main coverage they used actually worked pretty well on tape. Hailey van Lyft did her job when she was going under the screen early it was very clear that that was actually the coaching staff's decision because other defenders that ended up on Kate for random possessions ended up going underneath as well. That was what they were

doing at the beginning of the game. That's not Hailey's fault, and it was a bad idea. If there was one thing to really shine the light on in this particular game, it was the early game possessions when they were going underneath screens that didn't make any sense. But when Haley was chasing over the top, she was doing a good job. She was staying attached, she was fighting over the top

of screens. There were several possessions where Kitlyn came off on the other side of the screen and Hailey's just right there waiting for her. She did her job. It was mainly just a product of the coverage that the openings that were there ended up being there. So the question is this was the most frequent one I see. What was the one coverage that I did not mention

in that list? A blitz. So a blitz is where you have Hailey van Lyt the top and you have Angel rees Hard Hedge and both of them try to trap Caitlin and basically force her to immediately get rid of the basketball. LSU did not do this a single time in the game. So the question is, why why didn't LSU try blitzing? To me? When I look at it, the reality of LSU's defensive scheme, the way that they're set up. Angel Reese is one of their best rim protectors,

if not their best rim protector. She had three blocks in this game. They want to keep her at the rim. It's the same reason why you might not necessarily want to blitz with a Brook Lopez the way that Adrian Griffin. Adrian Griffin wasn't necessarily blitzing, but he was bringing Brook Lopez way up high to the level of the screen to start the season. The same reason why you don't want to do that is that's just not the best use of what Brooke does well defensively. Same thing for

Angel Reece. Now, Angel Reese is a player that can force a lot of turnovers and cause a lot of problems. I would have personally tried blitzing, but my guess is Kim Molkie's thought was I want to keep angele Rees as close to the rim as possible. And again, the hedge worked, but it was in a really small sample size. They did it two possessions, both late in the game.

If you start the game hedging or blitzing, or you go to the hedge or blitz early in the game, and you stick with it, there's a chance that Iowa just gets going a different way. You're gonna be running four on threes on the back end with Angel Reese twenty plus feet away from the basket right and again, like in a small sample it might work, but in a large sample eventually there's like a tic tac toe that forms. The players on the floor kind of figure out the reds and they can get going out of

that and get really easy shots. My guess is Kim Moulkie was thinking, I'd rather just see if Caitlin can make enough shots. I want to see if we can fatigue her and wear her down, especially because we play physical, we attack the offensive glass. I think she wanted to wear Caitlyn down and see if she was capable of making enough shots, and she got burned, and by the way, you can get burned the other way. This is where

I want to use Steph Curry as an example. Steph Curry in the twenty twenty two finals against the Boston Celtics primarily faced a high drop coverage, but in that drop coverage because Steph can shoot so deep a lot of times, Al Horford and Robert Williams were coming out to twenty twenty two feet, but Steph was hitting pull up threes at twenty four to twenty six feet and Steph burned them, namely in Game four, Steph burned the deep drop, made a ton of shots and it cost

them the series. And a lot of people were like, why are they running drop, including myself, mainly just because I wanted to see them mix things up and try something different. And here's the reality. You go back to twenty fifteen against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the finals, they go, we're sick of watching Steph hitting all these pull up threes against Matthew Delavadoba. We're gonna blitz and so they did.

And when they blitzed, it turned out Steph was really good at getting the ball over the top to Draymond Green on the roll. Turns out Draymond Green is really good at rolling down the lane and making decisions. And it turns out Andre Gudala and everyone else on that roster is really smart on the backside as cutters and as corner three point shooters and things like that, and it burned the Caps. So again, like when we look at this, it's like, why didn't they blitz, Why didn't

they blitz? Why didn't they blitz? Well, Caitlyn's an elite passer as well, and that just might burn you in the same way. And so again, like, if there's anything to be really critical of, I felt like she should have mixed things up more. It should have been here's a random blitz, here's a possession of zone to kind of throw things off. Here's a classic drop coverage possession. Here on this possession, we're gonna, you know, deny the screen and try to funnel her to help on the

other side. Whatever it is hard nail help, you know, pre switching, putting a guard on the big girl as she goes up to set the screen so that you can just switch that screening action. There's so many different things you can do, and for the most part it was the same. It was like they went under to start the game, and then they went over late in the game, and there was never really much help. There were a handful of hedges in there, but that's really it.

There just wasn't enough in terms of mixing it up to try to make Caitlin do different stuff on every possession. Because again, once you get comfortable once you know what the coverage is and you're facing it every time down on the floor, you kind of just kept getting a

rhythm going against that particular coverage. And this is honestly just the classic question when you're dealing with this type of player, this particular type of player, the elite scorer who is also an elite playmaker, and playmakers is the operative word there because Juju Watkins of USC she's an elite scorer, but she had one hundred and forty turnovers

this year to just one hundred and twelve assists. So for Yukon, it actually made more sense to be a lot more aggressive with her, like that is the coverage you want to do against that particular type of player because you want to test her playmaking ability. There's a player in the third quarter of that game where she came off of a ball screen and Page Beckers came over with hard nail help, like full on double walled up on her hard double team, and Juju just shot

over the top of it. That same type of nail help happened in the first quarter of the LSU Iowa game, and it was five J. Johnson that came over and katelin Clark made the pass and Kate Martin made the shot. That's the difference. You can get away with a lot of those really aggressive coverages against a player that's a lesser playmakers. By the way, it's the same kind of thing we talk about with like Kevin Durant, right, Like

you're playing the Lebron Luca types. A lot of coaches are like, make them score, maybe they'll get tired, and they don't want to get in the blender of those guys as playmakers picking you apart. But then you go up against the you know, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant types, you want to throw as much defensive attention at them as possible and play into what makes them uncomfortable, which

is being a passer. Right, and so again, like I'm not even necessarily saying that when it comes to Juju Watkins, that's the only way you could you could play against a player like that. I'm just saying, like you're looking at two different types of players. The elite scorer, they were throwing the kitchen sink catter, the elite scorer and playmaker.

They tried to dare her to beat them scoring the basketball and they lost, and again, like it, it's very possible that they could have tried more aggressive coverages and lost anyway. If anything, it's likely given the amount of talent and just the reality of trying to defend in a four on three every single possession down the floor. And again, my one complaint is I would have mixed it up more. And that was one of the things

Yukon was doing. Yukon against USC. They were running drop on some possessions, they were offering nail help on some possessions and not on others. They were blitzing on some possessions, they were hard doubling on some possessions. It was all mixed up, and it did a better job of keeping her off balance. One other note with LSU Angel Reese was seven for nineteen on shots in the paint, all

on attempts that were right around the rim. She's shooting forty nine point three percent at the rim for this entire season, including both tournaments, in below forty percent. In this NC DOUBLEA tournament, she missed twelve shots in this particular game right around the rim. I thought that was probably the biggest factor in the game. I mean, we talked so much about the defense. Like I talked about,

on a per possession basis, they did a good job defensively. Obviously, the box score numbers looked big and the lead was big, but the reality was is the problem for LSU is they were missing too many shots around the rim, and that was a consistent theme throughout the season. Kaitlyn Clark shoots in the mid sixties at the rim, Angel Rees shoots below fifty percent at the rim right like, and that just ended up being the thing that kind of

stalled them out offensively. Now, what do I expect to see in the Final four, at least in the Yukon Iowa game, because of the two teams that I've watched more closely. I expect, you know, Rima to bring just a better mix of coverages. I think you will see blitzes. I think you will see hard hedges. I think you will see hard nail help. You're gonna see all of that, but it's gonna be mixed in an attempt to keep Iowa off of balance and to keep Kaitlyn Clark off balance.

I also think Yukon has a few more lengthy defenders on the perimeter that will make things a little more interesting. Obviously LSU's interior size is kind of their advantage. I think we're gonna see just a little bit more layingth on Caitlyn Clark as well. It's gonna be real challenge and it's gonna be really fun game. We do plan uncovering the women's final four on this show. It should be fun, all right. Moving on to Suns Pelicans, This game was crazy. The Suns just lit him up from

the opening tip. They had fourteen points in the first two minutes and fifty eight seconds on pace for damn near sixty point quarter. They were consistently getting the Pelicans in rotation, a lot of the same stuff that I've talked about with the Suns, where you just inevitably end up drawing in help and then you're playing driving kick basketball with just incredibly talented offensive players. The Pelicans were

making a lot of mistakes early in this game. Devin Booker and Kevin Durant each got two wide open jumpers in the opening minutes. There was a Nurkic offensive rebound that got Devin Booker a wide open fifteen footer. There was a play on the left wing where Herb Jones was prepping for a specific type of coverage and wasn't paying close enough attention to his man, Devin Booker on this play, and Devin Booker got a wide open corner

three just because he was a step light. KD got two wide open kickouts because his man got pulled into help situations. All four of these jumpers went in. That was a big part of extuly me. Katie made one to miss the other. But like three of those four jumpers went in, they got into rhythm pretty quickly. They just kept leaving Devin Booker open. After that, we talked about the two mistakes early, but Devin Booker's next three out of that that he made came in a stack

pick and roll situation. So stack pick and roll is when Devin Booker's coming off of the Nurkits ball screen. But as he's coming off of the Nurkits ball screen, Grayson Allen underneath the basket is coming up in backscreening Nurkic's man so that he can get open on the role.

The way the Pelicans were guarding it was Zion Williamson was guarding Grayson Allen, and so what Herb Jones and Zion Williamson were doing is they were switching that Grayson Allen Devin Booker element, So basically, Zion Williamson would have to split out and guard Devin Booker and Herb Jones would essentially take Grayson Allen as he's flashing to the top of the key. And in both of these situations, Zion Williamson is closing out at Devin Booker right, so

it's a difficult defensive match for him. Just by the way the coverage is set up, they're basically pulling Zion into this ball screen situation right. So Booker's next three came out of a stack pick and roll situation where Zion was supposed to switch out, but he was too late. Devin Booker made the three. They ran another stack pick and roll a few possessions later. This time Zion comes out hard. This was on the left side of the floor. Zion comes out hard, but it's a bad close out.

Devin Booker goes right by him and gets an easy layup. And by the way, this is one of the many reasons why I don't take the Pelicans very seriously as a playoff threat. Regardless of what the defensive numbers look like. Their defensive front court is bad and good offenses are going to find a way to score easily against them, just like the suns that Sons did. There was another three in there on the left wing where they left Devin Booker wide open in transition where they just weren't

matched up. There were tough shots in there too. Devin hit a step back three in the first quarter at the top of the key, but like he's in full rhythm at that point, there's not really much you can do to stop a player once he's that confident and in that kind of groove. So four minutes left in the first cour the Pells bench group comes in and they start. This is before the bench came in four minutes left in the first quarter. The Pells are trying to slow down Devin Booker at this point, so they

start blitzing it. As soon as they start blitzing Devin Booker, the Sun score eight points immediately on the next three possessions. Eric Gordon corner three in the right corner, Grayson Allen corner three in the left corner, and then a Grayson Allen close out opportunity from the left wing where he drives and gets a nasty dunk like a posterizing dunk, so like no matter what they did, they were just

in the blender. Late first quarter, the Pells bench group comes in and I don't know how this happened, but somehow Zion Williamson drew the Devin Booker assignment in this bench group. Devin Booker took him through one simple flare screen and got another wide open three. We're not even ten minutes into this game. Devin Booker has nineteen and the Suns are up by twenty one points and the game is over. This was an unseerious effort from the

New Orleans Pelicans. Use of Nurkic was just ignoring Yonas Valancunis and frolling the paint, which stopped Zion's dribble penetration and really bogged down their offense. Obviously, brandon Ingram being out plays a factor there. Right. The Pelicans are a statistically good defense. They're sixth in defensive rating on the season and fourth post All Star Break, But I don't actually think they can guard any of the good offenses in any sort of serious game. Their front court players

can't guard in space. They kind of require a certain type of matchup for their wing defenders. To be able to impact things enough for them to kind of hold down an elite defense. They need to be able to kind of like load up on a singular player. Anything that can really spread them out is going to put them in a lot of trouble. On the Suns front, It's no secret that they need Devin Booker to be at this level to be where they need to be Offensively.

Devin Booker had been struggling coming back from the ankle injury, shooting just forty eight percent from the field in twenty eight percent from three in the ten games before last night, just twenty four points per game as well. And you saw the offense struggle at bit a little bit, particularly in the Oklahoma City game, in the San Antonio game, even struggle a little bit against Denver. They just won

that game. But they broke out in a big way in this game, and the Sun's offense broke out with him.

But the Suns have a absolute murderer's row here to end the season. Their next seven games before we get into the playoffs are Cleveland, Minnesota, New Orleans again who's gonna want revenge, the Clippers twice, the Kings, and the timber Wolves. Now I think the Suns are good enough to do well in a lot of those games. Also just from personal experience having rooted for the Lakers last year.

Urgency plays a major role here, Like Cleveland doesn't have the urgency because they have a locked in playoff spot that the Suns do. Minnesota doesn't have the urgency because they've a locked in playoff spot that the Suns do. New Orleans They're obviously still in some sort of vague threat to drop into the play in but they're in better position than most of these teams, right, So they're less threatened. Right. The Clippers obviously same sort of thing.

They want to play better basketball, they have some motivation, but they're not threatened the way that Phoenix is Sacramento. That's gonna be a tough game, but Sacramento obviously is down to their most important players in the Minnesota Timberwolves say thing like at the end of the season, just like they play them earlier in the stretch as well, But same sort of thing, not really jockeying for positions. So they have a huge urgency advantage in a lot

of these games. So I actually, if I had to guess on a team dropping down into the nine to ten and letting the Lakers pass. I actually think it's more likely that ends up being Sacramento than Phoenix, because Sacramento has the same type of urgency, but they've got also a tough schedule and they're missing some important players. I think the Suns are really freaking good, and I think when they play that hard and they bring that level of urgency, it's really tough to beat them. All right,

moving on to our mailbag. So the context for this first question. I had an opportunity at the end of the show, at the end of the MAVs segment yesterday, to talk about where I'd rank them in the Western Conference, and I made the case that all of the teams that are in that tier, so like the Suns, the Clippers, the Lakers, the Thunder, and the Timberwolves, all those teams are more or less just as formidable, and so I don't think Dallas has done anything to separate from that group.

So that's the context of this first question. Here's the question. The case for the MAVs in a tier of their own in the West below Denver is Luca. He's the only player who has a chance shot for shot with Jokic late in a game, and when Luca isn't giving you tough, untoppable buckets, Kyrie is. Sons come close to that firepower, but it's not the same. Respectfully, I disagree.

I think all of these teams except if there's one team that you could say Luca is just clearly better than the Stars by a wide margin, and it's not close. It's Luca's better than Anthony Edwards, right, And even then, Anthony Edwards could break out any one of these postseason runs and enter into that tier, right, But obviously with Luca and Kyrie, the star power is just better. But like the Sons have Kevin Durant, Bradley Beial and Devin Booker,

Devin Booker just had fifty two last night. Like I'm sorry, but there's not a tangible gap between Luca and Kyrie and kd Devin Booker and Bradley Beal on the Clippers front, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and James Harden on the Lakers front, Lebron James and Anthony Davis and all their skill that they have on the perimeter Oklahoma City, Shakeyaldes, Alexander and Jalen Williams, like I could, you could argue that Luca

is the best player in that group. I think it's probably him and Kawhi in terms of playoff players, and I'd probably give a slight edge to Lucas. So I agree with you that Lucas probably the best, but there's not a sizeable star power gap between any of those guys, and in the Luca Kyrie duo, they're not anything that's worth really mentioning. There's probably a small gap there, but nothing that's really going to be substantial when you get

to the postseason. So again, really like Dallas playing the best basketball right now, which is a huge indicator of their potential playoffs success. But I push back on the idea that they're just superior to all of the teams in that tier. Question for the best breakdown pot in the game. Thank you, that's a very nice compliment. Do you think there's a chance Tatum is saving his legs on drives to the basket for the playoffs like a

running back in football. He's shown some bad habits this year, but I find it hard to believe that he forgot his biggest flaw from the twenty two, twenty twenty two finals. So here's the thing. I do think that there's some reality to the fact that you are more physically engaged when the urgency goes up and Boston is not bringing that type of urgency. That said, I've never known Tatum to be the guy that's like, oh, the chips are down,

I'm playing bully ball now. So from that standpoint, like, I do think there's a level of aggression that he'll have when he gets to the postseason, but not in some massive way that significantly changes his shot diet compared to what we're accustomed to seeing. Next question, I'm a big fan from Australia and I've been watching since your first playoff breakdowns in twenty twenty two. Thanks for supporting

the show. My question fast forward five years. Oklahoma is the new dynasty in the NBA, SGA, Chet and j Dub are all still there, But who are the first, second, and third players on that particular team in your opinion? I've heard you say both Chet and Jay Dubb have top ten potential, and you have also expressed concerns over SGA's game translating to the playoffs. So do you think the best version of the Thunder is SGA's the second option.

Here's the thing, it's really hard to say. Chet's playing his first season of NBA basketball and Jalen Williams is playing his second season, So shake kildess. Alexander has played twice as many NBA seasons as the other two guys combined, So like, it's just really hard to tell where Chet and Jalen are going to get to. But here's the thing. I think Sja is a definitive top ten player right now. Right I think you can make a case he's top five, although I would wait to do that until he has

a successful postseason run. But here's the thing. Chet has the potential to be a top five defensive player in the league and a top ten ish offensive player in the league as just a guy that can be this wing scorer, slash stretch, big kind of guy, right like he has this guy's the limit for that guy. And then I talked yesterday on the show, We're gonna get a little bit deeper into it here in a second.

But Jalen Williams, I think has the best combination of downhill force, deadly pull up shooting, and playmaking that I've seen from a wing prospect. In a very long time, so he has the potential to be one of the best players in the NBA. So honestly, like it's not really about who's first, second, or third. They played complimentary positions, right Like j Dub is a second side creator, Shae's a primary creator. Chet is your perfect kind of like big that can kind of play with all of those guys.

So like, I don't really get caught up on who's the best because they're all really really good. And in a situation where the Thunder have three of the top ten players in the league, they're just gonna be really good and they're gonna kick everybody's butt, And so I don't really I I if I had to gun to my head, say who's gonna be the best player in

the long run, I'm gonna pick Shay just because he's already there. Therefore it's a safe bet. There's a lot theoretical going on with Chet and with Jay Dub at this point, whereas Shay is like already there, so he's the safest bet. But I wouldn't be surprised if he was the third best player on the team when we get into the future. That is the potential that chet

and j dubb have at this point. So I was talking about comps because I was trying to figure out a player that had a similar type of you know, skill set that he brings to the table as Jalen Williams and I at the A comp I ended up coming up with was like a like a better shooting version of Jimmy Butler. Now in the comments, I had two suggestions. One guy said, the comp you were looking for for Williams was Pacers Paul George. Another one was

Kawhi is the comp for Jalen Williams. So here's the thing. I have never viewed Paul George as the level of playmaker that some of the better wings wings in the league are, And then uh, Jalen Williams is a much more significant driving and finishing threat than both of those guys. He averages more drives and restricted area finishes than both by a pretty significant margin. There's like a real downhill force with Jalen Williams. Paul George can beat people off

the dribble with quickness and with his ball handling. We know that's a part of his game, but it's not like a real, real strength of his game. Kawhi Leonard brings power, but it's a back to the basket post up power. Kauhi is not really a slasher, that's not what he does. So like those guys can do that stuff.

But I think Jalen Williams has the potential to be a substantially better driving threat than both of them, So I don't really view that as the comp The thing that I look at with a guy like Jimmy Butler is the real, like downhill, like rip through, beat guys off the dribble type of force, especially that he had earlier in his career. But I'm really curious to see

where he ends up. And honestly, when it comes to player comps, there's no such thing as a perfect comp because every player is so unique, and Jalen's kind of unique in his own way. To me, he's almost like he's almost the way he has defenders on their heels actually reminds me a little bit of Russell Westbrook and it's like it's like he's getting into these easy pull

up jumpers, but he can make them. He's one of the best shooters in the league, and so what if he's like a bigger, better shooting Russell Westbrook, Like, wouldn't that be a crazy type of prospect in the NBA? All Right, two more and then we're out of here. How much easier is the East compared to the West. The Lakers are seventeen and eleven against the best teams

in the league. The Knicks are five and seventeens. The Lakers and most other West teams played six more games against good teams than the Knicks and most other East East teams. That's a massive difference. So one thing. In the next defense, they've had stars injured all year, so of course they're going to struggle against the best teams, so I don't really hold them against that against them, I think the top of the East is every bit as good as the West. I think the Celtics are really good.

I think the Bucks are really good. I think the Knicks are really good. I think the Calves and Magic are you know, takerm or leave them. But with the Sixers healthy, those four teams, Bucks, Sixers, Knicks, and Celtics I think are every bit as good as the top seven teams in the West. Not in the standings, but like the the Nuggets, the Clippers, the Timberwolves, the Suns, the Lakers, the Thunder, and who's the team I'm missing. There's one in there, the one I was mentioning earlier.

Doesn't matter anyway, those teams I put the four in the East on the same level as those teams in Boston and Denver obviously on their own tier, right, But it's the bottom of the Eastern Conference where the bottom

just completely falls out. There's just you play because you play teams in the Western Conference twice, right, So you play thirty games against the West, you play fifty two games against the East, and so you get four matchups with that shitty Hornets team or that shitty Pistons team or that shitty Wizard's team, right, Like, you get all of these games against bad teams at the bottom of

the conference. And there's a lot of truth to the fact that most of these Western Conference teams their records look lower simply because they're just playing better teams night in and night out. And there's no doubt that that's played a difference or played a factor into the way the season is shaped out. All right, last question, what is your take on Luca not being higher in the

MVP list. I know the league is stacked with talent, but with Embiid being out of the race, I can only see Yokic being higher than him and just buy a hair. With the MAVs being a top five seed in the West, now, it sounds like the media can't come up with a seating excuse any longer. Thank you for your take. Thank you for educating us fans every day. Love the content. Keep doing some great work. I really appreciate the support. Again, every time I see those comments,

it definitely helps push me along. I appreciate you guys. Here's the thing right now, on the recent Windstrenk win streak, the MAVs have the seventh best record in in basketball, which is definitely an MVP territory now where he wasn't a few weeks ago. Right, totally agree with you guys there, But in the event that you're trying to make it into a serious MVP situation or like be an MVP favorite to win, if you're not in that like upper tier, and I mean like one of the top seeds in

your conference, which MAVs are not. The MAVs are seventh in the league, but you know, Denver's a clear tier above them in the Western conference. Right, With that being the case, Luca would have to demonstrate a substantial gap in terms of the level of play. And the truth is, as good as Luca has been, and there's a lot of mass fans have been like I saw comments yesterday like no one's played better than Luca this year. I disagree. I think in the context of the regular season, Jay's

played really damn good. Nikole Yoka just played really damn good. Giannis has played really damn good. Like there's no, like tangible, massive gap between the level of play Luca and those guys and Denver and no can see better records by

a pretty sizable margin. So like again, I think Luca has put himself into the conversation, and I think, you know, top three finishes in the on the table here, and if he if they go on a win streak that ends the season and Luca averages you know, thirty five a game in that stretch, then yeah, he might just smash his way to the top. But there's a reason why he's not getting buzzed as the favorite at this point. There are teams above him that have better records and

that have players that are playing about as well. Right, And that's just gonna make them better MVP candidates as of right now. Don't worry. Luca's gonna get an MVP at some point. He's gonna get championships at some point. I'm a big believer in Luca. He's only twenty five years old. There's timing to this stuff, all right, guys, that's all I have for this morning show or actually coming back. What's the night game tonight? I'm trying to remember exactly what it is. We are coming back after

MAVs Warriors tonight. That'll be fun. It's a ten pm East and tip. We'll be coming live on YouTube right after the final buzzer. I'll see you guys. Then the volume