Hoops Tonight - Durant to Grizzlies, LeBron & Lakers next move, why Jokic and Embiid are overrated

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for confidential help in Michigan one eight seven seven eight hope and why or text hope and Why to four six seven three six nine in New York. In Tennessee redline dial one eight hundred eight eight nine nine seven eight nine in Tennessee. Visit www one dot one eight hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia. Yeah, all right, Welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by fan Duel here at the volume. Happy Monday, everybody. I hope all of you guys had a great weekend. We have a packed show

for you today and it packed week overall. We have a fresh report from Shams Sharania talking about a potential new suitor for Kevin Durant coming out of the Western Conference. We're gonna dive into that a little bit. There was also a little nugget in that report having to do with Kyrie Irving that directly affects the Los Angeles Lakers, So we're gonna spend some time on that as well. After that, we're gonna be going into a bunch of follow up stuff on my top list that we did

over the course of the last month. The second half of today's show, I'm gonna be going over the five archetypes of NBA Superstars. Why because the biggest thing that you guys seem to disagree with from my list was having Yokich the back to back m v P down at number seven. Now, to be clear, I don't dislike Yokich. There are players in the league that I dislike. Yokich isn't one of them. This is strictly a basketball philosophy

thing with the way that I see the game. So I wanted to spend some time diving into the archetypes of stars, what sets, what the advantages that big men produce, the disadvantages that big men produce, and why I'm lower on them compared to the other types of stars in the league. Then on Wednesday, we're gonna be doing a mail back episode, So you're gonna want to go to my twitter feed. I will tweet out later today a

question asking four mail back questions. I want you guys to drop underneath that tweet any questions or comments you guys have about my top list also for Wednesday. One of my biggest pet peeves about lists in general is people typically just yell and scream and patrols yell at the uh you know, right in the mentions like this is b s or this is stupid? Why is this guy there? And they never actually just tell you why they disagree and actually make a case for why somebody

else should be in that spot. So what I'd like to do is give you guys an opportunity to do that and get shouted out on Wednesday's show. So I'm gonna be taking two or three of you guys who go under that mailbag tweet and break down why you think I was wrong about something. Do it quickly, needs to be in the one or two tweets, but explain why you disagree with one of the decisions I made on my list, and the two or three of you guys that make the most sense, that are most reasonable.

I'm not I'm i am not unreasonable. I love to hear from other smart basketball minds and to try to add to my knowledge of the game. I want to give you guys a chance to see what you can offer there. So for Wednesday again, mail bag questions and any disagreements you have with the list, drop them on my Twitter feed under the mail back tweet that we send out later today. All right, before we get started,

you guys know the drill. Follow me on Twitter at Understore Underscore Jason lt so you can see show announcements and that mail back tweet that I just talked about. Remember to subscribe to the volume's YouTube channels, you guys, don't miss any more of our videos. And then, last, but not least, if you miss one of these shows and you can't get back to YouTube to finish it, just go wherever you find your podcasts under Hoops tonight and you will find the audio form typically a few

hours after these shows go on YouTube. All right, so we have a report from Shams and and it's a lot of recycled info right like Boston still in first place, Toronto and Miami or the other two primary teams considered a threat. I have no idea why Miami keeps getting mentioned in that list. I don't see how they're they're peaking Brooklyn's interest, but clearly they are so pat Riley must have something up his sleeve there that is interesting

to Brooklyn. But it's a lot of recycled info and a whole lot of no trades happening, right But there were two pieces of information in that article that we're very interesting that I wanted to touch on today. First of all, is the fact that the Memphis Grizzlies have entered the chat, so to speak, and are making an offer for Kevin Durant. Now, I don't think it's a very serious offer because they're not even including Desmond Bain

and I like Desmond Baine. Desmond Baine is a damn good basketball player, one of the best shooters that we have in the league right now. An excellent slasher because of how big and strong he is that when he gets a head of steam going down the lane, it's really tough for people to get in front. Also, his shooting threat makes people chase him off the line. Desmond Bayine is a damn good basketball player, But I don't

think he's a star. I think he's a lesser version of Clay Thompson on the high end of his potential. So I don't think Memphis is all that serious if they're not willing to include Desmond Bain in these types of discussions for a player the caliber of Kevin Durant. My guess is is that they're just kind of feeling things out there, just like any other team is around

the league. I think Memphis fits an archetype, pretty an archetype, pretty simpler, similar to Golden State in the sense that, like I talked to you guys about, there's kind of two strategies. The organic build route, right, that's the Golden State route. You grow things in house through competence. You stay fresh each year by adding talent. Your players stick around for a really long time, so there's great continuity. You have a continuity advantage over everybody else in the league.

You build a really strong local fan base, you start to generate a bunch of revenue from that. That gives you the flexibility to potentially go over the cap to resign players. That's that proven method, right, But then there's the push your chips in the middle method right, and Memphis kind of fits that mold too technically right, there are a very good team that has assets that's not quite good enough to win an NBA championship. There is a pathway that has been laid out by Massi Usury

in the Toronto Raptors in two thousand nineteen. You're gonna have a fifty nine win team with a damn good player that's leading and push chip in the middle, potentially risking uh blowback from your fan base, and you can put together a team that has enough talent to win a championship. There's risk player could leave after you trade for him. The player could be a malcontent, but it could also work out and you could have the trophy, just like Kawhi Leonard and the two thousand nineteen Toronto

Raptors did. Now, typically that's my favorite strategy. Like I told you guys, because of the current situation and dynamic between players and owners. I think players are fickle. They changed their mind every couple of years, So banking on loyalty I think is a mistake under most circumstances. However, this Memphis team seems to have some of those ingredients like Golden State does, and they have an opportunity potentially

to recapture that. So this is a rare example of a team for me that's in that zone to potentially make an all in trade where I would not make the all in trade. I think Jaren Jackson Jr. Is one of the most exciting defensive players in the league right now, and honestly flashed quite a bit of offensive potential again in this postseason run, knocking down threes and attacking closeouts because he's so damn big and strong going

to the basket. I think John Morant is going to be the best hyper athletic guard star archetype that we've seen in the league. I think he's got potential to be better than any of the guys who came before him. I'm very, very excited about Memphis. I just don't think putting Kevin Durant in that mix is for the best, especially when you factor in the specific scenario that caused Kevin Durant to want to leave Golden State. If you remember, it was about the attention that Steph was getting, the

way that the fan base treated him. The fan base is gonna be behind John Morant in Memphis, not Kevin Durant, not that they won't support him. I believe he'd be welcomed in. Everything would be fine. I just don't necessarily think Kevin Durant would be super happy in that situation. I think he wants to go somewhere where he has a clear cut I'm the guy type of advantage. I think that's just the point he's at in his career.

So it was interesting to see Memphis there. I think Memphis is an interesting potential for Katie trade, but I think it makes more sense for them to go the homegrown Golden State Warriors route. They've already made it a significant amount of distance down that path. They should stay on target there. Plus, I don't think they're all that serious if they're not including a guy like Desmond Baine. So the interesting thing here is why hasn't Katie been

traded yet? And there's really two possibilities. Either Brooklyn is dragging things out, just like they did with James Harden in hopes of getting a better offer like the Ben Simmons one that ended up coming from Philly. I don't really see that comparison there, because for starters, James Harden is not even in the same stratospheres of Kevin Durant as a player right and then also during the hardened

sweepstakes early on, there weren't any good offers. There are damn good offers on the table for Kevin Durant right now. I think I had Jalen Brown sixteen on my list. I think he's easily a top twenty player in the NBA, who's ascending, who was arguably the best player Boston had in the NBA Finals and and had a lot of really good games in this NBA Playoffs. He was the best clutch player in this NBA playoffs. Jalen Brown, He's

the best fourth quarter player. I should say so, Jalen Brown, Like, there's a good offer on the table for Brooklyn right now that they're passing on it. This isn't like when they when when they finally got James Harden to fetch someone the likes of Ben Simmons. That was Ben Simmons was the best player that was mentioned in any conversations of trade surrounding James Harden. So I don't really see the parallel there. And then there's so much potential negative

that comes with it. We've talked at LA about the toxicity at training camp. If you drag this out in hopes of getting a better player, you will ruin a significant chunk of this season. You're gonna have young players and other role players sitting in the film room with Steve Kerr at the front and Sean Mark standing on the side, and Kevin Durant sitting behind you, the guy who has openly said basically and and and basically stamped

by the owner that this is a real thing. That Kevin Durant said that he doesn't like those two guys. He doesn't like Sean Marks, he doesn't like Steve Nash. That's toxicity. There isn't after here for Brooklyn. There is a phase of this process where you're detached from Katie and Kyrie and you can build the basketball culture that you dream of building. Any time you wait, you're just delaying the after. You're delaying how long it's gonna take

for you to get to that period. Now again, if the offers were absolute garbage and there's nothing you could get by all means, hold out, see if you can get something decent. There are good offers on the table for Kevin Durant right now. And they are passing on them. So this to me feels like cutting off your nose despite your face. It feels like you're not happy about

the dynamic of the situation. It feels like you're not happy about the power and leverage that Kevin Durant having this situation, and it feels like you're dragging it out

just for the sake of dragging it out. I don't really understand the second possibility here, and the one that I think is more likely is that the Boston offers in first place and they're simply waiting until a predecided deadline like there, let's call it septemb They might be sitting there going, okay, September fIF if we don't have anything better, we're taking our best offer, which is Boston.

That's confidential information, probably for for negotiation purposes, and they hope they can pull something more out of one of these teams before then. But if nothing happens, they pulled it trigger in September, there's literally no point in rushing. The only guy that really affects is Kevin Durant, and how late he has to move into the summer, right,

But I think that's the more likely scenario. This whole idea that they would actively sabotage their own rebuild or bring Kevin Durant and Kyrie into a toxic training camp. That to me seems way less likely than we're just waiting a little bit longer to see if we can get something a little bit better. So my guess is that sometime in mid September this trade ends up going down, and my guesses it ends up being Boston, because I

don't think Toronto is gonna throw in Scottie Barnes. I don't think New Orleans is going to be able to throw in Brandon Ingram or Zion Williamson, So that means Boston is the natural fit. Um. So there was a bit in there from from Shames about Kyrie, saying that Brooklyn has made it clear to rival executives that they intend to keep Kyrie. So the question is are they telling the truth or are they bluffing. I once again

believe they're bluffing because of simple logic. If they are keeping Kadie long term, then yeah, it makes sense to keep Kyrie because then you can probably sign him to a deal next summer that's on better terms, because maybe he was more available this year or whatever, but they're not keeping Katie. Katie wants to be traded, and I find it highly unlikely that they get full buy in from k D to not just come to camp, but to recommit to the Nets long term. That doesn't seem likely.

So that means they're eventually going to trade k D. If you are eventually going to trade k D and you're letting Kyrie finish his contract here, that's bad asset management. Because Kyrie probably feels insulted that you didn't give him a deal last summer. He's gonna want a long term deal next summer. You're probably not gonna give it to

him because you just didn't give it to him. So he's probably gonna go somewhere else looking for that big deal, and the Lakers are gonna probably do what they can to try to offer it. So the reality is is Kyrie is an asset that you are losing after this season no matter what, and the Lakers reportedly are willing to give you two first round draft picks for it. So do you really think that the Nets thing they can get Katie to recommit long term? No, do you

really think that they plan on burning an asset? Worth two first round picks to lose him for nothing next summer. I don't think so. So the reality is is this is just another attempt to re established negotiating leverage over the Los Angeles Lakers. I suppose. I don't don't really see the point. Why in the world would they bring Kyrie Irring back on an expiring deal when he's gonna want the same damn deal you just didn't give to him.

It just it just doesn't make any sense that the Brooklyn Kyrie dynamic has been the most like it's been the NBA, just like truly thinking that their fans are stupid because the things that they've tried to put off on us in these reports breakdown under the simplest bit of logic. I've always found it hilarious. So for the Lakers, let's say, let's say, for the sake of argument, that they are going to keep Kyrie, let him finish the season, and then go sign somewhere else next year and lose

him for nothing. It does not appear that Buddy Yield and Miles Turner from the Pacers are being actively pursued, so that trade is still on the table for the Lakers. The Jazz are actively trying to trade Donovan Mitchell. I think he's gonna end up in New York sooner than later. There's potential there that a three team deal takes shape. And when that three team deal takes shape, you might see those Jazz role players that the Lakers were targeting

sent elsewhere. But that doesn't really matter that much because I think the Lakers prefer the the Indiana Pacers deal. So I don't think you need to rush to the Indiana Pacers deal because no one else is actively shopping for Miles Turner and Buddy Yield, so they can continue to wait and see what happens with this Brooklyn thing.

And if it gets precariously close to camp and they still haven't traded Kyrie and they still haven't traded k D and they're gonna foolishly embark on this season with those two guys under control, then you can default to this Indiana Pacers deal. Obviously, if you had risk of losing both, then it changes that dynamic. But I haven't seen any reporting or any indication that teams are fighting to try to get Buddy Yield and Miles Turners. So if the Nets end up sitting on Kyrie. The Lakers

will have a backup plan there. It is still in their best interest to eight on that situation and see if Kyrie becomes available, because once again, like we talked about, it's simple logic. Why in the world with the Nets keep Kyrie irving if they knew they were gonna lose him next summer and he's worth two first round draft picks right now, it's simple logic. They're gonna trade him as soon as the Katie trade goes through the Lakers

of the logical fit you hold out there. If it gets to mid September and nothing's happened, then you call up the Pacers and you see if you can make a deal for Miles Turner, Buddy held. The bottom line is is like I was watching another UH clip from that Seattle pro am the other day and obviously got shut down early because it's some wet floor. We've had a ton of humidity here in Tucson two because of

the monsoon's It's crazy. You get basketball players playing in humidity, they just start to sweat more and it just gets all over the floor and then people are slipping all over. The plays I played in the game yesterday we spent half the day wiping it down the damn floor. But in that game, Lebron had a nasty left handed alley oop dunk and I watching that and I'm sitting there thinking like, this is insane. How good this guy still is?

And last year there were three players in the entire NBA that averaged at least twenty five points, five rebounds and five assists on at least from the field and from three, which is low markers. By the way, points per game is not that crazy in the scoring world. Five rebounds and five assists, those are pretty achievable markers. From the field and from three, those are pretty achievable markers. It's Katie, Luca, and Lebron. Those are the only three

guys who did that last year. That's how good Lebron still is. And so the reality of this situation here is they the Lakers have to feel some urgency to take advantage of that level of player being under their control. Even Anthony Davis, after taking two months off, was guilt tripped by Twitter and definally getting into the gym, and he appears to be having his most active offseason since he came to l A. So you've got potentially Anthony Davis coming into camp in shape for the first time since,

and you've got Lebron James still looking damn good. Feel some day emergency here. Understand understand that that something has to be done. I believe they're going to do something, but I certainly hope that they don't talk themselves like Brooklyn into bringing the situation to camp and see what happens.

That would just be such a reckless waste. Alright, So the number one thing that you guys disagreed with from my top twenty five list was having Nikolaogitch, the back to back m v P and world destroying basketball player that he is way back at number seven on my list as opposed to somewhere higher. Now, every time this has been brought up, I tell you, guys, it's just

a personal basketball philosophy thing. I don't value what big men do on a basketball court as much as I value what perimeter players do, particularly big perimeter wings in this league. But every time it's come up, we've only kind of glanced by the topic or briefly touched on it. I've never had a chance to really dive into this concept.

So what I want to do today is. I want to go over the five archetypes of NBA superstars, give you guys some examples of players that fit into those archetypes, talk a little bit about their typical strengths and weaknesses. Then I can get into exactly why I view big men as less valuable as the big perimeter players that

are in this league. And last, but not least, to the Yoki fans, don't be super upset about number seven because the number on the list has a lot more to do with how stacked the league is with talent. This is a league that has Lebron James and Janis Antenna Compo and Steph Curry and Kevin Durant and Luca don Shitch and Kawhi Leonard and you guys get the point. There's just the league is more talented than it's ever been, so I wouldn't think of it as number seven the

same way as it was ten fifteen years ago. We have ten fifteen legitimate star level players in this league, and this is just the way it works when you're trying to rank those guys. And again, this is just my take on it. Some people view Yokich is more valuable. I viume is less valuable. Let's get into the weeds and figure out why. Um. So, as far as the superstar archetypes go, I had five, the hyper athletic guard, the big scoring wing, the big playmaking wing, the center,

and the aliens. Now for aliens, I put down Steph Curry and Janice. We're not going to spend a ton a ton of time talking about them. They just don't fit into any of these other molds. Steff as many things. He is not a hyper athletic guard. Janice is. Some people call him a center, but he's not really. But some people call him a wing, but he's not really. But he's bringing the ball up the floor, but he's dunking on everybody, Like none of it actually makes any

sense with either of those two guys. And for the record, I think there are the two best players in the world right now, So I definitely don't mean that as a sign of disrespect. We're not gonna spend too much time on them. Primarily going to focus on the verse four. So the hyper athletic guard, the this is John Morant, this was Russell Westbrook, this was John wall this was Derrick Rose. We've seen this archetype come through the league

a million times. It's a freak athlete that no one can keep in front off the dribble because they're the quickest players in the entire league, which presents a huge mismatch problem and leads to all of the ridiculous highlights that we see from these guys. That specific dynamic. That inability to contain them off the dribble because they're quicker than everybody leads to a bunch of cascading positive effects.

Puts revs in a bind. They have no idea how to officiate these guys when they go flying through the lane and they're smaller than everybody and every bit of contact shows up more on them than it does on other players. It requires defenses to abandon their core principles to pack the paint, which ends up giving up a ton of open threes. And most of these guys, at various points in their careers have had long, extensive stretches of great playmaking because of what defenses have had to

do to try to keep them out of the paint. However, they typically can't shoot. John Morant is the best shooter of the group, and that's not saying much. Although I do think that's the big reason why he does have potential to enter higher ranks to the league that the other guys never did, and they're typically terrible defensive players.

Even the better athletes of the group, John Wall and Russell Westbrook never really put together consistent stretches of good defense in this league, and for the most part, all four of those guys have been bad, and John Morant

in particular, was really bad in this playoff runt. I actually view this as the least values valuable superstar archetype, the hyper athletics small guard, and for all the good they bring, there's just so much bad that holds them back that I view them as the least valuable of the of the superstar archetypes. The next is the big scoring wing. So this is like Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard,

Paul George. You guys get the point. Big guys typically between six and six nine, can dribble the hell out of the basketball and can score from any spot on the floor. These guys can do some mismatch hunting too. It's not the same type of mismatch problem that the super quick guards present, but they can attack smaller guards, particularly in post up situations or shooting over the top, and they can attack slow footed bigs that they can pull them away from the basket and try to drive

around them. The big plus with these big scoring wings is they're typically immune to spacing concerns. So almost every other player that will talk about require space to operate, but these guys are players that specialize in shooting over the top of defense. So who cares if you pack the paint If what I do for a living is

shoot over the top of you. These guys, in their immunity to spacing concerns, allows you to play role players that are better defensive players, better reboundies, better athletes, maybe lesser shooters because that spacing doesn't matter as much to them as it does to other types of stars around the league. They also typically are dominant perimeter defensive players because they're great athletes. Kevin Durant a little bit different here. He's not as good on the perimeter, but he's an

excellent rim protector. But he's also much taller than the other guys on this list. But Kauai and Paul George classic examples. They're freak athletes that devote their resources and time and effort to becoming great defensive players, and as a result, they can impact games a great deal as perimeter defensive players, but they're usually pretty average to below

average playmakers. They see the game through the lens of creating their own shot rather than through the lens of creating their team shots, so that means they can get tunnel vision from time to time, fail to understand the rhythm and flow of the game, and they can take some bad shots right. They're also dependent on their shots going in in order for their impact to truly be felt.

So when you re lie in knocking down pull up jumpers over the top of defense for a good percentage of your offense, all it takes is for you to have a bad shooting night and a good amount of your impact goes out the window. That's what happened Katie against Boston. His pull up jumper left him and suddenly his impact was massively limited. He ends up getting swept Kauai against Denver, and the bubble in his jumper stops falling, particularly in fourth quarters, doesn't have another punch that he

can go to. His impact gets limited. Suddenly Yoki outplays him. Right. So these big scoring wings, just like any of The other archetypes come with pluses and minuses. The big minus there as they are dependent on shots going in for their impact to be felt. The big playmaking wing this is Luca don chitch Er, Lebron James James Harden and his prime would have factored into this list as well, but he's no longer at that level. They can score nearly as well as the big scoring wings, it just

looks different. They usually rely a little bit more on size and strength than they do on skill. Um. They have some of the same matchup hunting potential as the big scoring wings, so they can attack smaller perimeter players and post up situations, or they can attack slower footed bigs if they pull them away from the basket. They keep role players engaged and confident by persistently feeding them in their sweet spots on the floor. They are offensive engines.

They don't have tunnel vision looking for their own shot. They look for their team to get shots. They typically are more reactive rather than predetermining what they're going to do. They're typically making reads rather than just looking to score. This creates spacing for them. Their passing ability, their relentless willingness to make reads keeps them in single coverage opportunities because teams are scared to help, which is what allows

them to be super efficient. Luca and Lebron are so good at that specifically, however, they have such a huge offensive workload that they tend to take possessions off on the defensive end of the floor. Because guys like Kauai and Paul George don't have a ton of playmaking responsibility, and because they usually give up the basketball when they're not actively looking to score, they have a little bit more energy for the defensive end of the floor. Luca

takes just about damn ar every defensive possession off. Lebron, to his credit, has had extensive stretches of his career almost a decade earlier where he was a great defensive player and in high leverage situations typically turns it up on that end of the floor and can be an impact defensive player. But that's a typical thing that happens. Happened to James Harden, happened to Luca don Chiz, happened

to Lebron. For long stretches. They have such a huge offensive workload that they tend to let go of the defensive rope. The last thing with these kinds of uh this archetype is they're highly dependent on competent role players, particularly attacking close out, so either knocking down threes in spot up situations or attacking that close out to extend

the advantages the defenses. In rotation. Of all of the archetypes, I think the big playmaking wing depends the most on competent role players to reach the peak of their impact centers. So this is Nicola Yokich, Joel Embiid, Anthony Davis. I'd even include Carl Town's on this list. All four of these guys made my top twenty five players list. They are a massive mismatch problem against almost every living defender.

Because the league went smaller, we swapped out big, strong, power forwards that were all built like Drew Gooden for another perimeter player, so the league got faster and smaller. Most of the centers we see now are vertical spacers, more mobile, more thin, right, So as a result, there's just very few bodies in the league that can hang with these guys, and as a result, they are a massive mismatch problem on every single possession. Similar to the

hyper athletic guards. This forces teams to abandon their core defensive concepts to construct a custom defense to deal with these massive mismatch problems, usually double teaming every single time, packing the paint at all costs. This takes time to figure out too, So one of these days, when if Yoki does end up winning a title, I think this will be a big part of how he does it.

It will be so difficult for teams to adjust to how to guard him that he might be able to get an early series lead that he can hold onto. None of them have been able to pull that off yet, but we will see. They operate close to the rim, so they're less prone to bad shooting nights. Like we talked about with these uh, these big scoring wings, they're immune to spacing because they shoot over the top. But there's no guarantee that they're gonna shoot well every single night.

As a matter of fact, it's expected that they won't on a handful of nights in every single playoff series. Right, as a big man, if you're operating with most of your shot attempts between you know, like seven seven to ten ft from the rim, you're just gonna shoot a higher percentage more consistently, and you're less prone to the nightmare bad shooting nights where you go five for twenty two or anything like that. They can protect the rim

if they're allowed to stay there. I wouldn't count Carl Towns in this group, but yeah, if you let Anthony Davis or Nicola Yokich or Joel Embi just camp around the basket, they will cause problems for you if you repeatedly drive into them. However, they are slow footed, so they strugg all in transition and if you spread them out in a five out dribble attack. They typically can only play one style. Bigs and guards on this list excuse me. Wings and guards on this list, they can

play fast, they can play slow. The wings on this list can operate from different spots on the floor. They are malleable and can adjust their games to the dynamics happening around them. Big men cannot do that, at least not to the same extent. They typically need the game to be slow. They typically like to operate out of the same spots on the floor. You're Yoki out of the high post and beat out of the low post. Right, They're a little bit more stuck in their ways now.

Yokich has some transition ability as a play starter, getting rebounds and starting the break as a great outlet passer. That's to his credit. Anthony Davis is kind of immune to all of the foot speed stuff. He can cover ground in perimeter and he does run the floor and transition really well and get stuff from Lebron over the top, quick post ups in transition and things like that. So it's not harder fast rule, but generally they can only

play one style. They're susceptible to fatigue as they're running up and down the floor. Again, Anthony Davis is kind of immune to this, but Carl Towns and Nicol Yokich and Joel Embiat, if you get them in a track meet, they will be the first ones to break. They're inefficient away from the rim. This is not Carl Towns, this is the other three, but Anthony Davis, Yokich in this past season, and e beat overall. As they get further

away from the basket, they get very inefficient. So they're susceptible if you pack the paint to going through long extended periods of missing shots, and then most don't handle the ball or pass it very well. This is why I think Yokich is the best of the bunch. He's the guy that has the high level playmaking that these guys don't have. But their inability to pass the ball and their inability to dribble the basketball typically means they

have to be play finishers rather than play starters. They need people to get them into their preferred spots on the floor or they can't be as effective. That's it. Those are general rules for bigs. We're gonna dive in it a little bit more with Yo gets here in a minute. And then you're aliens like Janice and Steph. Even they have some weaknesses. I won't dive deep into them because we just did this for our player player rankings.

But Janice typically needs to play with a shot maker, someone that can hit shots over the top because in late game situations he struggles to shoot over the top of defenders. And then Steph needs smart role players because of the fact that he creates attention away from the rim. He needs guys that can put the ball on the floor and run quick three on twos and quick four

on threes, things along those lines. And then obviously Steph can't deeply impact games defensively because of his lack of athleticism. If I had to rank them in order, I'd put playmaking wings at number one, scoring wings at number two, bigs at number three, and then hyper athletic guards at number four. As much as I am down on bigs, I'm even more down on hyper athletic guards. I think they become exceptionally predictable in the playoffs and easier to

game plan for. Their defensive issues become an issue. They're easy to attack and mismatch situations. I'm lower on hyper athletic guard. It's so why am I lower on biggs? So? First of all, slow footedness is really easy to game plan against. You instruct your wings to run the floor on every missshot, and you instruct your rebounders to make quick outlet passes and deliberately make an effort to be aggressive early in the clock even if you miss shots.

Setting the tone of the game as an up and down track meet, even if it affects your own efficiency for small bursts, it will eventually lead the big men to fatiguing and you will start to get easier and easier opportunities. There play five perimeter players, and you can force the big to repeatedly guard off the dribble, you will get dribble penetration. Then the big man will have

to guard in rotation and you will find openings. It's about to guarantee Yo kich If you can let him sit in a drop coverage and you d i've into him, he can be impactful as a defensive player around the rim. But golden state in this playoff run and everyone else who plays against Yoki, if you can pull him higher out of his drop so that he has to come to the level of the screen or to switch and cover cover individually in switches, you will go right around him.

And Steph repeatedly went right around him. And it's not just stuff that can do that. Just about any competent ball handler in the league will be able to beat Yoka Jo off the dribble. Once you beat him off the dribble, what happens. Help has to come. Once help has to come, then what does Yoki have to do. He has to sprint across the floor to get to another shooter as he covers in rotation. Now you're testing

his foot speed again. If you go five out against these types of players, you will get dribble penetration and you will get high quality shots. As a result, they have legitimate defensive weaknesses in these playoffs situations. Think of it like this, slow footed wings and guards get attacked. Like remember when Kyle Korver was playing on the calves, how frequently he would get attacked with the Utah Jazz. How they try to pull Boyon Macdonovitch away from the

rim and attack him. Every slow footed player in the NBA gets attacked. These guys are exceptionally slow footed, so it's even more exaggerated in that in that in that regard, you're gonna give up some baskets as a seize mismatch. But the way I look at it is, there's not a player you can leave in single coverage against your kitch anywhere in the league. Really not a player that's

going to consistently stop him. So you're probably gonna have to throw extra bodies to him anyway, And at least if you run your personnel and with the priority towards perimeter players, you'll be able to attack him. On the other end, that arrangement will work out for you in the long run. They will score baskets against mismatches on offense, but deep dynamic of the game will take on a track meat feel, and in the long run, you will get better shots because of that fatigue and lack of

foot speed. Post defense is brutal. Refs let everything go. It's also kind of like a psychological phenomenon for refs. All of you guys who have played the game of basketball know this. If you are big and you try to inflict your bigness on a smaller defender, the ref is gonna give the small guy a lot of leeway to hit you. That's just it's a psychological phenomenon. It happens with every single ref that I've ever come into contact with or seen on television. It's just what happens.

And in general, right now in the NBA, post defense is like the Wild West. Everything goes that actively limits the capability of big men, especially in the playoffs when they start to swallow the wristle the whistle. Like we talked about earlier, biggs need to be put in position by ball handlers so they're susceptible to ball denial. We

saw this with the Sixers in the Miami Heat. In this playoff run, Miami used a front system with backside help so they would have whoever was guarding and b jump in front, squat down low and stop the post entry. Sorry about that phone call from the wife. Sit in front and block the post entry and forced the pass over the top. It's a lob pass. Miami would offer backside help to take that pass away. They were able to straight up deny and beat the basketball and a

lot of possessions. That is a problem with post up players that you do not get with perimeter players who can simply dribble to where they want to go on the floor Yo kitchen and d Yo kitchen. A d can bring the ball up the floor, but it's less than ideal, and you don't want them running point for you all day. They're also slow to get to their

spots and kind of methodical. The bottom line here is that in ideal conditions, anyone of Anthony Davis or Joel Embiid or Nicola Yokich can't appear like they're the best player in the world in ideal conditions, but it's too easy to disrupt those conditions and expose their flaws. And that's why I prefer the bigger wings. Each one the bigs that I mentioned on that list has huge, massive weaknesses.

Carl Town's lights out perimeter shooter. Same type of interior match of Nightmare, but he's by far the worst defender of the group, and he's a horrific passer. He had twenty seven turnovers to just thirteen assists in this playoff run. Anthony Davis is the best defensive player in the group. He's immune to all of the footspeed stuff I was talking about, but he can't pass, and he's arguably the worst volume perimeter shooter in all of basketball right now.

Joel Embiat is really good defensively around the rim, but he's weak on the perimeter. He also can't pass, and if you make him go outside of the restricted area, he's gonna miss shots. He missed two thirds of his shot attempts outside of the restricted area in this playoff run. Now Yokich is the best of the group, but his jump shot is starting to fall apart lately. We talked about that in the list, and again he is the biggest or most susceptible of all four of them to

the foot speed stuff. He really struggles if you run him up and down the floor, and he really goes if you make him defend away from the basket. Again, like I said, bigger wings, they can thrive in any pace, any type of game. They can set themselves up on offense, so they're not dependent on ball handlers to get them into positions where they can be successful, and they're comfortable from all of these different spots on the floor. Again, like we talked about before, all of these archetypes have

different strengths and weaknesses. However, for me personally, I think in terms of a coach game planning against a star, I would rather game plan against a big man like a Yokich or an Embiid, Anthony Davis or Carl Town's then I would against a big scoring wing or a big playmaking wing. I think there are there are proven methods to attack the bigs, whereas there's just ideas that that you're just throwing stuff at the wall against these

perimeter wings. And so again that's just my basketball philosophy. There are gonna be some gms around the league that agree with me, and they're gonna be some that think Yokich is the best are in the world. Nobody's got it all figured out. We all have our own basketball concepts. As is always the case, I'm always interested to read the comments and see what you guys think about the game. I picked the brains of basketball coaches and minds that

I meet whenever I have a chance. This is just where I stand in my view of the game as of right now. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, I appreciate your support. Don't forget to drop mail back questions underneath the tweet that I send out later today. And I'll see you guys on Wednesday. The volume