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All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume heavy Friday.
Everybody, hope all of you guys are having a great end here week. We are diving into the film from Game two of the Western Conference Finals.
Today.
We're gonna specifically be focusing on the success that Shay
Gilders Alexander was having against Minnesota's defense last night. The specific things I want to be calling out are the way that he consistently beat ball pressure, the way that he used that ball pressure to get defenders into the sidecar where he was able to use his physicality to get separation, the repeated use of snaking ball screens and snaking help defenders against the zone basically just meaning reversing angle immediately immediately after he comes off of the screen.
And then a couple of examples from late in the game, or Shay actually beat a loaded up Minnesota defense. But what I think is the example of what Minnesota should try to do as they head on the road into Game three. You guys are the Joe before we get started. Subscribe to the hoops and YouTube channel any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LTC. You guys don't miss announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed where we get your podcast on our hoops tonight.
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Of those shows. All right, let's talk some basketball.
So all we're gonna do here in terms of clips is go through every single made basket that Chae Gills as Alexander had tonight, and every single assist. I want to dive into the specific ways that he was having some success. And again we'll dig into some of the details on both ends of this coverage. So starting out, just a simple step back jump shot over over Jada McDaniels here in the left corner. There's because of Hartenstein.
Obviously you have Gobert. This is like kind of a traditional ice coverage in the sense that as Hartenstein's going to throw the DHL, watch how Jaden overplays the high side. That's textbook coverage. You're trying to force the ball handler, in this case, the DHO guy to go against the screen towards the baseline. In that coverage, you're always going to see the big man drop down into the short corner and essentially they're going to try to force you to hit the roll man around this elbow or to
take some sort of contested mid range jump shot. That's literally what the coverage is designed to concede. This is fine, that's not the kind of thing that like, Shay's made some really tough jump shots, but that's not the kind of thing that's like actually really really hurting you in the big picture. It's the incessant stuff right at the rim, the fouls, that kind of thing where they're getting burned. This is a perfectly fine coverage that I think you
can live with over the course of the series. Here this is an example of something that I don't think works, just a simple first step move driving to the left from Shae against Ant.
Okay.
So the big difference here is, as you can see, there's no none of that loaded up feel that you're getting from Oklahoma City. When you're getting these ISOs, these straight ISOs between Ant and you know, case On Wallace, or Aunt and Alex Crusoe or Aunt and lou Dort, you're not seeing okay, see, you leave this much space for Aunt or Julius to operate. That's the main difference in the defensive scheme that I've been noticing over and over again, even that last video.
We just watched that last clip that Ice coverage. It two on two.
They're guarding ball screens two on two, they're guarding one on one. You're gonna see a little dig from Gobert. First of all, highlight the quickness of the first step. This is one of the elite lateral quickness athletes in the league. And Shae just toasts him a little bit of like a jab step fake that you can see here right. Hobby just jabs to the right and then go gets downhill. Rudy's gonna throw like kind of a fake dig, but that's useless. Jaden McDaniels because he gets compromised,
offers a late contest. But as you can see, they're not meeting Shaye with any sort of help defender until he's already at the rim. Very different than what we're seeing on the other end of the floor. We did see Minnesota throw more, you know, kind of congestion and help at Shaye late in the game. We'll talk about that in a minute. Nothing too crazy here, just a left shoulder fade. Let's fast forward transition push ends up
on Dante DiVincenzo he's got size on him. Really cook Dante in the first two games, he was just hopeless on an island. Just bumps him, spins off, fades over that left shoulder, knocks it down.
Beautiful war Here.
This is the I talked about how last night in the live show there are like seven or eight shots that Ant took that I just hated. Here's one of them. Twenty one to fifteen seventeen seconds on the shot clock. Let's just walk into a contested twenty eight footer like that. That's not good basketball. We go down to the other end of the floor ball screen. On the ball screen,
Jaden chases over the top. Shae snakes it, meaning like he works it back across the angle, freezes go Beart with just a little high hesitation like right there, just freezes go Beart.
Go bear lunges out.
See that right foot, that little shift from Rudy as he goes from squared up on Shae to opened up the other direction on Shae. Shae then crosses over again and elevates and draws the fount And this is this is example of what I've been talking about in terms of like non basketball plays, and there's gonna be a few examples of this today, and again, I know there are gonna be a certain segment of Shae Gilvis, Oxander or Oklahoma City thunder fans who are gonna get sensitive
about this. But like, I think we can have a nuanced discussion about Shae, which is like, he's incredible, but he relies on a lot of non basketball plays. It's not just Shae. So does Brunson, So does Austin Reeves on the team that I root for. So does Luka Doncic on the team that I root for. I am of the opinion Luka Doncic make this exact same move a million times.
I don't want Luca to be doing this either.
I think the NBA would be better if if everything was done within the spirit of the game of basketball. A simple way to think about it is nice move from Shay he breaks Rudy off. But in theory, if you're playing basketball, you're trying to get away from the defender or power through the defender to go all the way to the rim. The only time you would ever power into a defender is if you were trying to get all the way to the rim because you had
a size and strength advantage. Any basketball player in this situation would try to get separation from Rudy Gobert to try to make a shot, and instead, watch how Shade jumps into him, extending his arms out, trying to get the foul. The entire purpose he knows Rudy's right there. He's not shooting that shot to try to get a shot off. He's shooting that shot to try to commit a faul, to try to draw a foul. And like so I'm of the opinion that in general, league wide,
we need to legislate out non basketball plays. It's not a good television product to watch Shaye drive into Rudy Gobert and take a jump shot. That's that's not fun basketball to watch. And again I'll put there's like three or four examples from the film today of calls like that that I think need to be removed from the game. But that is a separate discussion from the fact that Shae is an incredible basketball player.
Ball gets worked back around to Shay.
Here, you're gonna see a perfect example of a dislodge in the post. This is this is what's so important about post play. So, like, Shay does not have a size advantage here, he is smaller and thinner and shorter armed than Jaden McDaniels. Right, But if you watch as he works into the lane, he's going to bump him off with a hard dribble right here.
Boom bump. That little bump.
Right there, you can literally see it dislodge Jaden, cave in his chest and send him back. Look at where his right foot ended up almost right underneath the basket. That's what gives Shay that space to then lean into the one like fade away and get plenty of separation. And he's just such a deadly shot maker that close to the basket. Another snake move here, good clean look for ant off the catch. One of the shots in the first half.
That I liked. He just wasn't making them go down to the other end.
Ball screen reject rescreen. Here's the snake right boom crossover. You can see the freeze with the headfake right the high hesitation he's selling the pull up jump shot which gets Rudy to hop up. Same exact kind of sequence. But here's another grift, a non basketball play like no one would take this shot. No one would ever take this shot, Like, oh, let me go into the rim. Protector's chest, even though I'm giving up six or seven inches of height and just try to shoot over the
top of him like that. That's not a real basketball shot. U Shay's gonna beat Dante off the dribble. Here again, Dante got cooked the entire series to this point. But like once again, this is one of the big talking points that I want to hit in terms of Minnesota's defensive scheme. Look at how far out Dante's meeting Shay. That's twenty six feet from the basket. You're giving one of the best drivers in the history the game a long runway.
To beat you off the dribble. He's able to turn.
The corner, bump Dante off, knock down a little mid range pull up. Just individual greatness from shake ye Oldes Alexander. Here again with the side step three over Jaden McDaniels. Nothing too crazy about this. He slows down, just kind of methodically dribbles down and then goes into high speed off of that step back, gets just enough separation to rise up and.
Knock it down.
Here's another example of Jaden just applying too much ball pressure on Shae Like this is you can't keep him in front I don't understand this. You're picking him up full court and he's able to just get you out of position and draw foul. And again like non basketball play, like Shae's once again taking acting like he's going to shoot a jump shot, Like no one would ever shoot a shot here ever in a real basketball game, unless they were simply trying to get to the foul to
the foul line. Like it's another non basketball play. But from the standpoint of the technique from Jaden here, I just don't understand picking him up this far away from the basket when you just can't keep him in front off the dribble. Little drop coverage work here from Shae a classic example of just putting the defender in the sidecar. So watch how we get lots of ball pressure against Shae in the form of Jaden once again picking him up really our away from the basket. Shay's easily able
to get downhill. Now he can control the physical dynamic of the drive. He's going to work back into Jaden with physicality, see that right there, Like he could have just gone downhill, but he's gonna work back into Jaden with physicality, keep him trapped on his side. Then push off a little bit. You can see the off arm into Jaden mcdaniels's chest. And by the way, this is the kind of thing that people are complaining about. Is like, Shaye plays with physicality, which is great. I have no
problem with this being a non call. I want Shay to be able to do this. Basketball is a contact sport. But for all the people out there that are like, oh, he had his head and shoulders ahead of the defender and he got bumped on his drive. Per the rule book, that's a foul. Per the rule book, this is an offensive foul. If you guys want to get into the rule book, we can have a whistle every five seconds.
These games could take four hours and we could have all the eleventh, twelve, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth man on the bench playing it closing time because everyone's fouled out.
This is the thing like, let Shae do this. I'm cool with this.
This is physicality, But just stop rewarding him for non basketball plays. But gives him in that little shove side step. That's what creates the separation for him to get into that little mid range pull up.
Again, nothing wrong with it.
I to me, basketball is of contact sport and the discretion of officials generally in NBA history, has allowed physicality. I want Shae to be able to play with physicality too, all right, more snaking the health defender.
As you can see as Julius.
Steps up, watch the crossover move from Shay. Here Boom snakes him and easily gets into the lane. Just just toasting these dudes off the dribble.
Uh.
Here's one of those post up front brackets that I was talking about, so as you can see, watch lou Dort post up front against Julius over the top pass. Dort comes flying in and knocks the ball away. That's the bracket the backside of the post front. Thundergo out the other way and we get another non basketball play from Shay as he goes to the low gatherer against Nikhil Alexander Walker, like no one would ever take the shot.
Like if you were if you were playing basketball anywhere and someone took the shot, you'd be like, what the fuck are you doing?
Like that's not basketball.
You're You're gonna just run into the defender and take a left handed floater at the foul line. Like that is a non basketball play that serves the purpose only to try to draw a foul. It just so happened to go in that time. Uh, this is another bucket I believe against Dante. Let's see in a switch. Yeah, so just drives against Dante along the baseline out of the zone. Here, so screen now he's got Dante on the zone. Just hard dribble drive to that left hand,
dribble pull up. Like again, this is what I'm talking about, Like mixed in with all the non basketball plays and ref bullshit, there's like beautiful shot making and beautiful basketball here, Like we can have a nuanced discussion, like Shay's a remarkable basketball player irrespective of the vowl drifting stuff. But I think there's a conversation if you had there snaking the help defender.
Again. Here, let's get down into a ball screen. Here we go with Nas ball screen dribble to the right.
See how he crosses over right there, immediately crosses back over and shifts NAS's weight out of position, bumps him off. This is fine. I have no problem with this bump off. Look at the off arm again, Like buy the book. That's technically an offensive foul. But I have no problem with this at all whatsoever. This to me is just playoff physicality. You to to the point about the head and shoulders thing, the I have my head and shoulders past the defender. Okay, yeah, you're right. He does like
he has beat Nas. Read here, Therefore I am okay with him him because he's beat nas Reed given him that off arm and giving him that shoulder to get him out of the way.
That's the whole point.
You've won the angle. You're now entitled to the space. Attack it with physicality, with the intent to go through and to get to a layup, not to take some shot you would never take under those circumstances.
Dislodge is NOAs Now.
He's got Nas out of position and he's going for a layup, and Nas has to come forward. This is not a grift. This is a legitimate, hard basketball foul. I snaked nas Reed, got him out of position, dislodged him. Because I dislodged him, he's got to recover. The only way he can recover is by not going vertical. If he goes straight up and down, I'm just gonna score. So he has to come back to me to try to make up the ground. So I'm gonna go to the rim and draw the foul. That to me is
like a good honest basketball foul. Same sort of thing here, another snake of the ball screen, same sort of thing as you can see here as he beats Jaden, immediate crossover, finds the soft spot in the drop coverage.
Nice contest for Rudy. Really nice shot there from Shae.
More ball pressure here, Like look at just literally picking him up forty five feet from the back. Look at how easy it is for Shaye just to go right around him, Like, it's just it's it was infuriating to watch that. This mort it's just a stupid game plan. But as he gets into the lane, here's another Like, I just don't understand how this is being rewarded with free throws. Look at this, Shae got two free throws for that. Watch it again. I'm gonna play it him
fast speed. Shay got two free throws for this. You can see how annoyed everyone is. And by the way, this is the very next possession. You can probably guess now why Jada McDaniels did what he did. And again, like there's no defense for that behavior. That's just childish behavior from Jada McDaniels, Like you're not accomplishing anything by shoving Shay. You're just proving to him that you're pissed off and showing him that you're in that he's in
your head. But at the same time, I understand the frustration. I understand the frustration that Minnesota's guys are dealing with more ball pressure getting beat here, like again, picking up Shae full court when you can't keep him in front, picking him up full court. Oh he dribbled out, Let's go pick him up full court again. Oh wait, now I'm right around him again, like like it just it, like legitimately makes no sense. I don't understand why they're
picking him up this far away from the basket. Great finish through traffic. There another non basketball move from Shay here, Like what is this? That's not a basketball move? You're just going to dribble into the defender and shoot a pull up without any separation? Like yeah, like, I just I don't understand rewarding that with free throws. All right, now, we're gonna look at Shay's assists from last night's game.
A couple of feeds to Hartenstein that were really nice, pretty basic ball screen feed here, as he's got a downhill against Jaden. He sees a nice runway for Hartenstein, pitches it back to Hartenstein. Rudy again trying to disrupt the floater up top instead of down low, and Hartenstein just doesn't have any problems with that. Yo Get showed in the last round that you can bother him down low.
Shae backcuts Jane McDaniel's here once again. More pressure, unnecessary pressure that leads to rim pressure in the form of a back cut. On the back cut, Julius has no choice but to step over. Shaye makes the nice little pass to beat the nail held bucket from lou Dort. The middle feed against the zone. Cruso did a great job here, scoring in the middle of the zone again like the zone is designed to concede catches here in the zone, Hartenstein on the baseline forces Gobert to be
accounting for him. You can like literally see Gobert on that Hartenstein backcut. You can see him back up. There's that little shot for Alex and he knocks it down. Another really nice pace baseline feed to Isaai Hartenstein ball screen drives baseline. Rudy's there once again instead of crowding the paint everyone's staying attached to their shooters off ball. That leaves Hartenstein wide open. They're just defending these ball screens two on two, great feed, simple zone defense. Look,
swing pass to Jadubb knocks it down. Now there's two examples right here of what I think is the defensive scheme that Minnesota should use on Oklahoma City in game in game three, so first of all, I would still be playing a little bit further off of Shae. But of the main thing is I just want you guys to see the switching of the ball screens. So switching ball screens so that Shae can't get automatic baked in
dribble penetration as he comes off of a screen. Then look at how Julius is sagging off of Shae and forcing him to drive intohim. See how he's sagging off instead of pressuring. Then look at all the defenders.
See this.
This is what I want Minnesota to do in game three. Now, Shaye makes the kickout past to case On Wallace. In case On Wallace knocks it down. But this is a contested three that he knocks down in a low pressure situation. They're up twenty one. This game is over right, Like This is an example of a shot where I want to see case On Wallace have to knock that down in Minnesota in a close game. Totally different defensive scheme.
Another example here, same sort of thing. Shay's gonna drive, He's gonna get swarmed, So let's get to the switch. Shae drives, gets swarmed. Look at this, he's getting sworn now. Jalen Williams rotate from nas. He beats the close out, gets into the lane and makes the layup again. They beat this coverage a couple of times, but this is the kind of coverage I want to see Minnesota deploy as we get into Game three. And then nothing too crazy here. Just this is one of those hard double
teams that Shay face down in the fourth quarter. I really don't like double teaming Shade this far away from the basket. But like now, like this is just such an easy read, Like, Okay, you're gonna double me when a swing pass gets a wide open three, Like they're gonna beat that every single time. All right, that's it for today again, as you guys can see, like just just some realities to the way that ball pressure is
causing problems. And then ball screens with Shay's ability to stake to help defender, so I'd switch drop back, less pressure, contain pack the paint, force these guys to make the kickout reads and to knock down the threes that they get out of those situations. All right, guys, it's all have for today is always a sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. I will see
you guys tonight after Eastern Conference Finals Game two. But some guys, As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it. The volume