Hoops Tonight - Giannis & Bucks dominate, Thunder-Nuggets, Warriors issues + NBA Power Rankings

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sixty eight hours after issuance. See dkang dot com slash basketball for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome to hoops toight here at the volume heavy Monday. Everybody. Hope all of you guys had an incredible weekend. We have a jam packed show today. We're gonna hit two games from the weekend. We had that highly entertaining thunder Nuggets game that I want to dive into.

I have two major takeaways from that game. And then the Bucks in the Rockets played yesterday and what I thought was one of the more impressive all around performances from the Bucks on both ends of the floor. A lot of interesting concepts from that game that I think poortend well for what Milwaukee could look like at the end of the season. So we're going to talk about

those two games. Then we're gonna do our power rankings like we do every Monday, We'll hit the top ten teams in the league ranked, and then last but not least, we're gonna have four mail bag questions at the end of the show. You guys are the Joe before we get started. Subscribe to a brand new YouTube channel. Mean a lot to me if you guys would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button. Don't

forget about our podcast feed. Wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight, follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss the film breakdowns that I do in the morning, as well as show announcements. And then, last but not least, keep dropping mail bad questions in the YouTube comments so that we can keep hitting them like we're doing today at the end of shows throughout the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So this was just a huge win for Oklahoma City

obviously for two big reasons. One, this particular type of team, these Upper Western Conference teams like Minute Soda and the Lakers in Denver. These are teams that Oklahoma City struggled with early in the season, those big front lines, but they notched a couple of recent wins. Obviously, beating the Lakers, albeit at the end of a road trip, but they beat the Lakers and then this win against the Nuggets, so they're starting to demonstrate that they can win against

some of these bigger lineups. You saw down the stretch of this game them go with Jaylen Williams excuse me, alongside Shed Holmgren so that they could put Shed in help side situations. So you got to see kind of from a personnel standpoint, what it looks like to see a bigger forward. Even if jaaln Williams is not the exact type of player you would want there, he's at least a reasonable fact simile of it. So you got

to see some of those benefits, right. But so it's important not only because it demonstrates that they can hang with some of these bigger front lines, but the second piece of it is it's just a legitimizing win. This is the team that has the second best record in the Western Conference, the fifth best record in the league, and a win on the road in Denver, a really hard place to win under any circumstances. But they're also the defending champs, also have the consensus top player in

the league in Nicole Jokic. It just was a legitimizing win in a lot of ways. But I have two major takeaways that I want to get into. First of all, this is a great example of why Oklahoma City needs that upgrade at the forward position to reach where they want to reach in the big picture. The reason why I feel that way is the other four guys in that lineup could not have played better in this particular game. I thought Lou Dort did just an amazing job on

Jamal Murray down the stretch. Even the one tough bucket that Jamal hit on him, it could have been an offensive foul. Took the contact in the chest and just Jamal just basically shoved him off and got to his spot for that little fadeaway jumper. I thought he did a really, really good job on Jamal Murray. I thought

Chet Holmgren was ridiculous in this game. There was you guys, remember that playoff of the horn set where Aaron Gordon just cut off of the right elbow and Chet was in a trail position and Aaron Gordon's one of the freakiest athletes in the game, and Chet chased him down and pinned his dunk attempt. On the glass. He was awesome in vertical spacing situations, just sitting in the dunker spot.

Both Jalen Williams and Shake Gildos Alexander had driving plays where they just had basic like beat your man off the dribble, engage the rim protector, throw it up in the air, check can go dunk it. That's textbook vertical spacing when it's like, oh, all you have to do is engage this defender and then just throw it in the general vicinity of the rim and Chet's gonna go

get it. That is a super valuable form of spacing versus the type of player that won't be able to elevate over the top and go get it, or a player with a smaller window that you can throw the ball to. It's a huge asset there. And then obviously there were a couple possession where he ended up on Jokic late, especially when they were doing the offense defense subs.

But for the most part he was in helpside and he was doing a good job of shutting down cutters, with exception of a couple of wild yoks plays because that's what Jokic does. But Chet was ridiculous. And then Juwnsga just incredible shot creation down the stretch. Both of them were picking on Jamal Murray quite a bit and beaten them off the dribble to make good things happen.

And you know, I've talked a lot about how in order to make because Denver is a defense that has been defending above their pay grade, so to speak, for the most part, through the playoffs last year and into this regular season. And the main reason why is like they defend well, but they have weak defensive personnel on the floor in multiple spots. The Nuggets were also doing offense defense subs down the stretch with Michael Porter Junior. That's how Peyton Watson ended up in the game, right

they you had the Jamal Murray getting attacked. Nikolea. Jokic has some limitations defensively as well, But when they're all in the right spots and their scheme is set up and everyone's doing their job, and they're playing against offenses that have like one or two primary types of actions that they go against, they can actually defend at a

pretty high level. What Oklahoma City has that makes it uniquely capable them uniquely capable of punishing Denver's weaker defensive personnel is the lack of a weak perimeter option to hide Jamal Murray on I'll give you guys an example. So what you saw down the stretch of that game with the ghost screens to try to get Jamal Murray on the ball is a very, very similar thing to what the Lakers were doing in Game one of the

Western Conference Finals last year. If you remember, Lebron James was bringing Austin Reeves into the screening action and basically having him set ghost screens and pop to the three

point line. What a lot of teams will do in that situation is have their weaker defender in this case, Jamal Murray hedge and then recover, meaning they basically step out to stop Lebron or whoever it is, Shay Gils, Alexander or Jaln Williams from driving and then recover back to their man and hopefully the primary on ball defender can get back after that hedge. Right, that's the way that system works. That's how you protect your weaker defensive player.

But what killed the Nuggets for a brief stretch in Game one of the Western Conference Finals was Austin Reeves was really capable of setting his feet quickly on those slips and knocking down a three point shot. So while Jamal was hedging, Lebron was hitting Austin wide open on the three point line and hitting the shot right. So the Nuggets adjusted, Mike Malone adjusted by just sliding Jamal Murray over to Dennis Schroder, a player who is a very good guard, who has a lot of things that

he can do with the ball in his hands. But what Dennis Schroder is not is a movement shooter. And so when Dennis Schroeder would set the screen for Lebron and pop to the three point line, Jamal Murray didn't have to worry about Dennis like doing the Klay Thompson quick you slide step three point shot off the move. That's just not a shot that's in Dennis Schroeder's game, right, and his release is kind of slower and dragged out.

And so the Nuggets were just never in a situation where Lebron could consistently pick on Jamal Murray in those ghost screen actions. Why can Oklahoma City do it? Because if it's Isaiah Joe, if it's shake gilj Just Alexander, if it's Jalen Williams. There's none of those guys that they could get away with just tucking Jamal Murray away on and hiding, and so Jamal Murray frequently ended up on the basketball against Shay and against Jalen Williams, and

those guys were able to make him pay again. In order to be able to truly cause problem for Denver's defense, you have to truly be able to spread them out and put yourself in a situation where you can attack their weak points when they're not in help side, as when they're on ball rather than in help side. It's just difficult to do. There's not a lot of teams that have that level of personnel. Even if you go to the top of the league. Minnesota doesn't really have

that personnel. Like they can probably get away with hiding Jamal Murray on someone like Jaden McDaniels, right, because Jaden McDaniels is a good offensive player, but not a guy who's gonna hit a bunch of movement threes. Right, You're gonna see teams like the Lakers. They're gonna be able to hide at a Jamal Murray on a Toryan Prints, right, They're gonna be able to find guys in the top of the conference that they can hide Jamal Murray on.

Oklahoma City is just kind of uniquely equipped in that perimeter talent to really put pressure on some of the weaker elements of Denver's defense. Now, but that's the interesting part is like Oklahoma City also doesn't have the front line.

Like as much as this was an entertaining game for Oklahoma City, if Oklahoma City played a seven game series against Denver tomorrow, Denver would be favored in large part because I'm not sure that they have the front frontline weapons to hold up against Denver's attack or the Lakers

attack or Minnesota's attack on that front line. Right. So, like, again, this is how matchups work, and when when you go into these series, there are things that you have in your corner that are your advantage, and then you have things that they have in their corner that are their advantage.

And it's just this is one of the things that uniquely makes Oklahoma City difficult to deal with is they just have a shit ton of perimeter talent and they don't have guys that you can really afford to hide players on, and they can cause a lot of problems in that sense, right, But if we look at that four man grouping that I just mentioned, door on the ball on Jamal Murray, chet Holmgren helping causing problems and help side defense, his vertical spacing, all the things that

chet Holmgren does, right, Jawill and uh A j dub and An Sga just being incredible with their shot creation from the perimeter down the stretch like that, like that, they they were just unbelievable, right that we had I talked about the driving lobs to chet Holmgren. There, uh shake Yos Alexander hit moreultiple pull up jump shots down the stretch of that game. Juw, I keep freaking mixing

up their names. That's my bad. But Jay Dubb ends up beating Jamal Murray and has that ridiculous up and underfinish on the right side of the basket down the stretch of the game. Right, Like, They're all that's great, except for you had to run offense defense subs down

the stretch of the game, right. You had to run offense defense subs because Isaiah Joe, as much as he provides you an extra perimeter option offensively, he put them in a predicament where Chet had to be on Nikola jokicch which is a configuration they've really struggled with over the course of their matchups with Denver this season, although Chet did get a big stop on Jokic late, which

we'll talk about in a minute. But then they went to jay Lynn Williams right Jay will and that put them in a situation where they could line up defensively the way they wanted to, but have some issues on the offensive end of the floor, where Aaron Gordon and Nicole Jokic can be more active around the paint right,

So it's like a give and a take. That's where it would be ideal if you could have a forward in that four spot that gave you the defensive rebounding capabilities of a bigger bodied forward while also having the offensive proficiency to maintain that dynamic that I was just talking about with the Thunder as it pertains to their

overall offensive talent. It's just what I look at as like the ultimate configuration of the team is like this lineup Shay, Jalen and Dort alongside Chet, with a big athletic forward who's a plus offensive player slotted between those guys that can allow them to kind of have the best of both of those worlds. That was one of

my major takeaways from that from that particular game. The second piece of it, Like before I move on to the second take I had mentioned earlier about like a month ago, I had mentioned, like, oh, you know what would be interesting, what about a lou Dort for for for Ruy Hachimura trade with the was the one that I had purported as a like kind of pitched as a potential idea, right, And my idea there was is like, you know, the Thunder have lots of other perimeter defensive

talent that can kind of take on that role and that kind of gives them their big forward that can help them in a lot of ways, Right, especially the guy like Ruey who proved to be a pretty impactful playoff player last year. Right. Well, I think I've kind of gone to the other side of that specific opinion,

just from the standpoint of how vitally I'm important. I think lou Dort is, and I think you know, when I saw that two man game down the stretch and I saw loud Dort's ability to navigate those ball screens, there was like a there were like late clock possessions where the Nuggets had to throw some tough shots up in large part because Dort just blew up initial actions

in the possession. And it's one of those things where I'm not saying that Rui's not that level of player that he can't help, or that he wouldn't be a good forward for that spot, and more just saying I think now that lou Dort is a truly non expendable piece of this lineup because of the fact that, like he's not just a good perimeter defender, he's one of the very best in the league. He's the one of

the hardest dudes in the league to screen. He's incredibly good at staying in front of great athletes and forcing them to shoot over the top. Yeah, you're occasionally gonna see plays like Jamal Murray hitting that step back over the top of him because he doesn't quite have the length of some of his peers. But he's just one of the very best at what he does, and I

don't think that they can replace that on roster. So I think if they do go about trying to upgrade that forward position, it needs to be at the expense of a player outside of those core four guys. Gotta keep Shay, gotta keep Jalen Williams, got to keep lou Dort, got to keep chet Holmgrid. It's got to be with Giddy and you know, uh, some combination of guys off the bench that you end up making that type of

a deal. Secondly, even in a loss, that game solidified for me Denver as the championship favorite because I thought Oklahoma City threw a magnificent punch in this game. They had a great defensive game plan and they basically stole the game because they scored on nine of their last ten possessions. There was an Isaiah Joe turnover where he tried to throw a hook pass that got intercepted, but outside of that, on nine of their last ten possessions,

they scored every single time. That is why the Thunder were able to steal this particular game right and like they made every pull up jump shot they took down the stretch. Shay hit a tough step back over Christian Brown on the left wing. Shae hit a tough left shoulder fade over the top of Peyton Watson. Jalen Williams hit like a tough one legged fade away over the top right, Like there were some tough shots in that stretch. You got to just tip your cap to the thunder

and give them credit for winning that particular game. But I though the Nuggets offense looked fantastic down the stretch of that particular game, despite not just a hlatious effort for Oklahoma City, but a good defensive configuration and one that we've seen a lot of teams utilize against the Nuggets, that being putting a forward on Jokic that presses up while you have your lanky or center kind of helping on the back line right, and they were just still

able to get wide open looks consistently. Nicole Jokic on the left wing, a little head fake to get Jay Lynn Williams to kind of leave his feet over to his left, which allowed Jokicic to rip to the left, and then he just threw this like sweet little lefty lob pass to Aaron Gordon that somehow just barely got

over Chet's fingertips for a dunk. Right like Aaron Gordon dribbling on the right wing and Jay dubb is ball pressuring the hell out of him, and Aaron Gordon just hits him with the crossover, gets downhill, swing past to Michael Porter Junior, rips baseline boom, one handed hammer along the baseline. It's like, that's just so easy. It's just easy basketball, right, Like Jokic's post up on the right block, lou Dort doubles skip past to Michael Porter Junior in

the corner. He knocks down a huge three late in the game. Even in the bad possessions that they had during the stretch, it felt like possessions that were more a product of, like the situation that they were in. Like Christian Brown made two pull up jumpers late in this game, a pull up three and a pull up two, and you want to you might sit there as a Thunder fan and be like, man, I can't believe you made those shots. But that's KCP. Usually, like if Denver

has KCP, that's him on the floor. Those are good shots, Like KCP. If you leave him open from three or from that eighteen to twenty foot mark, he's gonna make it. So like that's a high percentage look. In a playoff series for Denver, right, Jamal Murray off of a one pass away double team from lou Dort had a wide open three on the left wing in the final minute that he missed. That's a great look out of a double team. Right there is a play where Jalen Williams

was off the floor. Jaylen Williams was off the floor because of the offense defense, subs and Chet had to press up against Nicole Jokic, and Yokic spun off of him, and Michael Porter Junior was wide open on the right wing and Jokic just missed the read. Shay dug down. Jokic missed the read and bricked a floater high off of the glass, And it's like, how often does Jokic

miss a red? Like that? Just doesn't happen very often, right, Like, really, the only true bad possession in that stretch was the one where Michael Porter Junior got stripped by Shay gil just Alexander about thirty feet from the rim on the right side. The point is is like, no matter what I've seen this season, I've seen a lot of really

impressive stuff from a lot of impressive teams. But when it comes down to the chess match of playoff basketball, I just trust Denver's offense to consistently generate quality shots at a much higher rate than anybody else in the league, and as a result of that, I think it makes it extremely difficult to beat them four times in two weeks. And so even as frustrating as it's been for Denver, and like, look, they've been really mediocre started eight and one.

They are nine and nine since, fifteenth in offense, fourteenth in defense, that are not playing very well, But like, I just still am not even the slightest bit worried about having them as my number one contender at this point or my number one championship favorite, because their offense is just the safest bet in basketball right now. They're gonna get great looks and they're probably going to make them.

Like if Oklahoma City doesn't make a basket or score points on nine of their last ten possessions, and it's more like six of their last ten, Denver wins that game easily, and like and and again you tip the cap okay see in this particular game, But I just thought it was such a great indicator of what makes Denver so transcendently great. All right, moving on to Houston Milwaukee.

So you know, it's funny, I've always been fascinated about this with basketball but like every time you play in a basketball game, you find out pretty quickly what works for you and what doesn't, right, like even from lower levels, like you know, me playing in a men's league, right, Like we've played in our championship game on Sunday. By the way, it felt good to be back coming back from my achilles injury. I have been playing for about

eight days now, nine days now. First of all, I just can't believe how much I missed playing basketball and how important that's been for my mental health just to be to go play again. But shout out to my squad that we have in the Sunday League. We've won the championship for the fourth time in the last five seasons. You know, old old man basketball accomplishments for whatever those

are worth. Right. But it's funny because in that game, we were playing like we it was a championship game, so it was a little more physical as a team we've played a bunch of times, and like you start playing and you're like, oh wait, like when we run this action, they can't do anything about this, Like, oh, they're used to doing this, But as long as we do this defensively, that doesn't work anymore. And now that's

been removed from the equation. Okay, we can help off of this guy, we can't help off of that guy, right, And then pretty soon, over the course of the game, you identify like the three or four things that are like your biggest advantages, and then you do whatever you

can to kind of hammer those things home. And I've always found that fascinating because I pick up on that sort of thing every time I watch basketball games, like you start watching pretty quickly and it's like, oh, like this guy who used to be a post up folkrum for his team is not gonna get as much separation in this particular matchup that's an important part of this team's offense. What are they gonna do? Now? You know

what I mean? Like that? Or I'll just give you guys some examples from this particular game, because I thought this game was a great example of how those like specific matchups can completely swing away a couple of basketball teams compete against each other. So, first of all, what have we been talking about with the Rockets all season long?

So you Udoka has been leaning a lot on Alburn Shangun, right, mainly because he's been the most dependable offensive engine for this particular team, Fred VanVleet and pick and roll, hit and miss right depends a lot on whether or not that pull up jump shots falling right. Jalen Green has a lot of ups, a lot of downs. It's one of those things where you look at the efficiency in ISO and you're like, oh, he's having a good season, and then you watch them other nights and you're like, man,

this guy just doesn't see the floor very well. It's classic young guard stuff. It's a lot of bad. You know, Dylan Brooks is having an amazing season, much better than he was offensively in Memphis. That said, you know, not a guy that you look at as an offensive engine. Right. The Jabari Smith junior has pretty much turned into a

prototypical three and D wing at this point. He's not doing a ton of stuff with the ball in his hands, and so their safest option is alper in Shangun, and he's like a diet nicolea Jokic right, like offensive folkrum that can run a ton of stuff in screen and roll both out of dribble handoffs and out of traditional ball screens, and then can also work out of the post. But he's a great passer excellent touch around the rim, can stretch the floor of the pick and pop jump

shot like you just he's Diet Jokic. The biggest difference is he's just smaller. But that's arguably the most dependable element of Houston's offense, and brook Lopez just erased his post up attack, just completely erased it in this game, and you could see how it caused issues for Houston offensively the rest of the game because what is usually a dependable element, Shanegun's been one of the best post players in the league this year just wasn't an option anymore.

He could not. He was brook is just too big for him. He couldn't get too comfortable hook shots. Most of the work that he did out because he still still got to his twenty eight and five or whatever, which is the season averages, because Shenggun's really good and he's gonna make plays, but most of it was out of pick and roll. He did had some success in the short role, had some success making passes, but they erased Shangun's post up game because brook Lopez is big

enough to handle him right. The other thing too, brook Lopez just was like, I'm not gonna guard you when you pop to the top of the key, and so Shangun missed his first pick and pop three, and then he missed another one, and then he just stopped taking him and started catching the ball wide open at the top of the key and flowing into dribble handoffs and

stuff like that. Right the point being, it's a great example of how, like one singular matchup Brook is too big for Shangun changes that dynamic of an offense for an entire game, and like it actually became a problem throughout several stretches of the game when Shanghun did try to force things in the post against Lopez and he wasn't able to score down there, especially down the stretch of the game. And I just thought it was a really interesting example of a little thing that changes the

dynamic of a basketball game. Here's another little thing. Who do the Bucks usually start at the two? Malik Beasley. Malik Beasley was sick and so he didn't play in either game this weekend. They had a back to back Saturday Sunday. So Andre Jackson Junior, who hadn't played in a single game over twenty minutes yet this season, which is his entire NBA career, ends up playing big minutes in both games and starting both games. What is Andre Jackson junior? He is a young, high motor athlete who

is especially gifted at defending on the perimeter. So what were they able to do? They were able to put him on Fred van vliet and have Brook Lopez it way back in his deep drop coverage. Now if that's Malik Beasley who's been getting absolutely torched on the ball in the deeper drop coverage all season, giving up easy pull up jump shots. Now instead you're getting good back pressure and overall much better ball pressure from Andre Jackson

throughout the game. Changes the dynamic of the game now as a result, like you know, Dame's in a more achievable role on a young guard like Jalen Green, right, and in general, like you're just making Houston work harder to get up the floor. Shangoon can't post up Fred van Vlietz dealing with a long athlete on him all game long. See how it just kind of changes the dynamic of the game. And then the interesting thing about it, because not only was Andre Jackson good defensively, but he

just found a way to contribute on offense. The Rockets put Jalen Green on Andre Jackson Junior, and he was sitting in that lowman position getting ready to help, ignoring Andre Jackson in the weakside corner. He's just crashing the offensive glass out working him. Had multiple He had four offensive rebounds in this game. Multiple of them were coming out of the weakside corner, catching Jalen Green not paying attention. He had a corner three in this game when he

got left out there. There was even this play it was I clipped this one and I put it on my Twitter feed. But he gets the ball, so they run basically a ram screen for him, so they screened down I think with Lopez, if I remember correctly, they screened down for him. He comes up and catches the ball to run a dribble hand off with Dane, and he just fakes the dribble hand off and quick rips back and pit with that pivot to his left, basically the fake dribble handoff that you see Draymond Green do

all the time at the Warriors. Right as a result, gets downhill I think it was. I think Jalen Green might have been guarding him, but he got downhill on him and engages the rim protector Shane Goon and does a nice little drop off pass over the back of his shoulder to Brook Lopez who's filling in behind him, and he gets an easy and one layup, And I'm like, this is this is what you're looking for. He's not going to shoot as well as Malik Beasley, but he

is a significantly more impactful on the ball defender. And in this particular game, it's not something that you're going to be consistently getting from him because he's young and he's limited in some ways, but in this particular game, he demonstrated for you positive offensive impact. And like, I find it really interesting because this is this is a concept that I think I've been you know, every year

in the NBA, I learn new lessons. We're always getting new information in our perspective changes, right, and specifically, one of the big things that stood out to me this year is the value in especially in the regular season, but the value of a high motor athlete. And it does extend to the postseason as we look back. You look last year, you know, I put Aaron Gordon and Kntavious Calbo Pope in the high motor athlete category, right

going to the Warrior. I put Andrew Wiggins and Gary Payton in the high motor athlete area right go back to the Bucks. Obviously, Yannis is a high motor athlete, Drew Holliday high motor athlete at the guard position. Those are all it's a you have to have real top tier athletes on the roster that also play hard all the time. It's a necessity in my opinion, to be

a successful regular season team. And what's interesting is as we've seen taking Drew out of the equation and bringing in Dame and Malik to guys that are both undersized. You know, Molik's a good athlete, not a great athlete. You know, Dame at this phase of his career is a good athlete, not a great athlete. But two smaller, somewhat mediocre athletes for their position into those spots. Chris Middleton coming back from injury. Giannis has been just unbelievable

this year. But that's Janni's in brook. Suddenly they look a little slow, right, Suddenly they look like they struggle to guard on the perimeter. And so this is actually kind of interesting because it reminds me what happened with the Lakers earlier this year, same problem. You know, it's Torian Prince instead of Jared Vanderbilt, and it's Austin Reeves and D'Angelo Russell. The front court guys are athletic, but the perimeter guys are not athletic. And so what did

they do? They remove Austin Reeves from the starting lineup. Should it have been Austin that's a different conversation. But they bring in Cam Reddish six ' eight, freak athlete. And even when Cam was out, Max Christi six ' seven, excellent athletes. And so because they bring these athletes in, all of a sudden, that primary athlete takes the toughest perimeter assignment, which makes everyone else get an easier perimeter assignment.

Suddenly the defense looks better. And I thought that was really fascinating because this weekend was a great example of that for the Bucks. You take one of those athletes out and you replace him with a bigger, taller, stronger athlete, and Andre Jackson suddenly he's taking the primary point of attack assignments. Everyone else has a more achievable job. He's doing a better job just applying ball pressure and fatiguing the rockets. Over the course of the game and you

see the positive results. And I think that's a great example of like again for both teams, for both the Lakers and the Bucks. It's like, can Cam Reddish be your starting too for a championship run? I don't think so. Can Malik Beasley or Andre Jackson be your starting too for a championship run? I don't think so. So both of those teams are gonna have to look at for

some way to upgrade that position. But I find that dynamic with what happened with Chris Middleton, excuse me, with Andre Jackson this weekend as just another great example of that specific theory, which is like, don't underestimate the importance of in your starting five having somebody that it's taller, longer armed, and that can really move on the perimeter, and how valuable that is just as a baseline for your defense. To put it simply, all these teams want

to run drop coverage. They all do, especially because they want to keep their big center as close to the basket as possible to protect the rim into security defensive rebounds. So that creates a challenging job for the perimeter defender. He now has to get over the top of the screen every time because if he doesn't, he's gonna concede wide open pull up jump shots to NBA guards which hit them these days, right. So it's just a really

tough job. And there are a lot of guys in the league who can do it, but will they do it? Will they put in the necessary work. So when you have a young athlete who has a high motor, who's willing to do that job night in and night out, and he's in your starting lineup, so you can set that tone from the start of every game, it's just an important foundational element. We were talking about the Thunder earlier. Every night you're getting lou door on your best player.

You know, like if the Thunder go play Golden State tomorrow, Steph's sitting in the locker room and he's like, fuck, man, I have to that Dude's gonna be up in my business all game long. This is gonna be such a pain in the ass. Rights. You know he's going to play. If the Oklahoma City is going to play Milwaukee, you know, Dame sitting in the locker like, here comes Lou Dort

for forty minutes. Man, this is gonna suck. You know what I mean like, it's just a huge part of what makes a great defense in my opinion, And again we've talked about this concept on the show before, but like, when you see a lesser player slot into a lineup and look deeply impactful, it's usually a sign of just how important his role is and how devoid that roster

is of that role. When you see inferior players step in and make starter level impact, it just goes to show you how important that role is and why it's so important to go try to find a starter caliber version of that particular player. I want to shout out a couple other guys or matchups in this particular game. The other thing that immediately was clear was Jabari Smith is too small to guard Giannis, and Giannis absolutely torched

him just bullying him in the post. Had a couple of key baskets on him at the end of the game, including a huge left handed hook shot out of the post on the left block. Chris Middleton at the end of the or started the fourth quarter, hit three straight tough pull up jumpers. He was picking on Tari Easton and switches hit two in his face, hit another late clock one over Jabari Smith and then there was a Jabari Smith jumper over Dame Mi Lillard that got the

lead down to three. Fourth quarter, and he immediately Chris Middleton hit a massive three over the top that brought the lead back to six. He had an up and under reverse layup in the first half, slashing out of the right corner. Just game after game, Chris Middleton is starting to look more and more like Chris Middleton, which is super encouraging. But to that point, and again I wanted to I went so long on the Andre Jackson thing, and I apologize because that probably confused this a little bit.

But like again, every basketball game, you find these clear your advantages that you have, and it was clear that like Lopez was just going to disrupt a lot of the normal Shanngun stuff. Andre Jackson just providing real athleticism

on the perimeter. Javari Smith was too small to guard Giannis. Right, Chris Middleton, you just when he won the championship with the Bucks, he just was giving you eighteen to twenty with just timely shot making, just the ability to give him the basketball a few times a quarter, and he's gonna be able to get to a pull up jumper. He can make about half the time that that is the advantage. It's like it's just squeezing extra drops out of the sponge, right, and like that's part of what

makes the Milwaukee ceiling so high. Is like that's pretty far down on the totem pole. But it's also a very dangerous thing that they can do. And then lastly, you could see at the end of the first quarter of this game, Damian Lillard figured out that nobody on the rockets could keep him in front off the dribble, even Dylan Brooks, who did a good job on ball. Dame found ways to use the screen to get past

him and get downhill. Specifically, what Dame was doing that was really smart is he was using the screen twice. So imagine this, I'm on the left side of the floor. Brook Lopez comes and sets a screen. I'm getting ready to rip through to the right to get to the right side of the screen. Dylan Brooks does an amazing job because he's great at it. It's sidling up over the top and meeting you on the other side of

the screen. Dame would then hit like in and out between the legs and go right back to the left. Brook Lopez would turn and rescreen Dylan, and it's it's, you know, like we talked about earlier, already challenging enough to get over one screen, but it's really hard to get over a second one, especially when you just expended a bunch of energy and balance getting over the first one.

Then there's this nasty sequence. He goes to the right, Dylan beats him over the screen, comes back to the left through the legs, catches Dylan on the screen, gets downhill. Shane Gouon steps up behind the back, dribble to his right hand, pump fakes Shan Gunin, jumps out of his shoes, and then he steps through with a left handed layup. It's just ridiculous, and that you could tell that was

what kind of like triggered the confidence. And then from there he was just literally getting downhill, getting all the way to the rim, getting layups and fouls time after time after time. And then at the end of the first quarter he won't even call him for a screen. He's like, this is Aaron Holliday. Aaron Holliday can't guard me. Just hard right to left, move, got downhill, drew the contact, rose up and knocked down a shot for the and one. Then he got the pull up three point shot going.

He made three pull up threes in this game. It just it was one of the few games we've seen this season where Dame legitimately looked like the MVP level offensive engine we know he's capable of being, and so all of that comes together to me to demonstrate what was a best, the best picture I've seen this year of what the Bucks top end potential could look like. Damian Lillard as a MVP level offensive engine, a point of attack defender at the two, not a shooter necessarily.

That's not to say you got You don't want to upgrade that to a guy who can shoot, But what you saw is that it's immensely valuable in this defense to have an athlete next to Dame in the back court. Chris Middleton giving you eighteen to twenty ish points on scoring in the margins, Giannis who's just been insane, like the dude just continues to be a complete and total wrecking ball in the entire NBA. And then Brook Lopez in a deep drop coverage hitting picking pop threes like

that's what you need. You need all of those things, and if Dame doesn't play at an MVP level and Chris Middleton struggles to consistently get to twenty points and you don't have an athlete next to Dame at the two. That's where they go from being championship caliber team to something beneath that. But those are the that's the configuration, MVP level, Dame point of attack defender, Chris Middleton. We

saw in twenty twenty one MVP Giannis Classic Brook. That's the formula, and I thought it was cool getting to see that this weekend because it's something we haven't really seen much from the Bucks in this particular season. All right, moving on to a power ranking, so we had three teams fall out this week. The Cavs they went one

in three this week. They lost two of their top four players of significant injuries as well, So it's kind of unfortunate because they went from being a team that was in my power rankings two weeks in a row to suddenly being a team that has a lot of tough, tough decisions that they have to make in the coming weeks. The Lakers fallen out after being all the way up

at number three or four whatever had last week. My biggest fear after the Ncason Tournament was that the Lakers would just immediately left their foot, let their foot off the gas. That's exactly what happened. They lost to an injury decimated Mavericks team in a game that they straight up did not play hard in the first half and dug a big hole the late late game they started trying, but then at that point the Mavericks were confident. They

made a bunch of shots and they beat them. They dropped a game in San Antonio, and yeah, three started were out, like Anthony Davis was out, Cam reddis was out, D'angela Russell was out. But that Spurs team is terrible, and the Lakers had enough depth to get it done. And quite frankly, from what I saw on tape, they just didn't play hard. Lebron in particular, had like one of his worst defensive games of the season in that Spurs game. And like, now here's the thing with the Lakers.

No matter what happens, I'm always gonna have them on my contenders list because I always think they're capable of doing what they did in the n Season Tournament, which is lock in on defense, reach a defensive ceiling higher than anybody else in the league and get enough out of Lebron James, Anthony Davis and Austin Reeves offensively to get you over the top. That is their path and

that is what makes them dangerous. But this season, outside of the n season tournament games, the pool play games, and the n Season tournament itself, they have been the worst effort team in the NBA, the worst. No one's playing less hard than the Lakers outside of the ncason Tournament games this year. And so so what's gonna happen is they're gonna end up hovering in the mid forties for wins and they're gonna end up having to go on the road in the first round to play a

really good team. And I, personally, I don't think it's the right strategy. Everything about NBA history tells us that teams that take the regular season seriously are teams that win at the end because you establish habits and processes and chemistry that carry you over the top. You have to treat the regular season as effectively preparation for the postseason. If you treat the regular season as a necessary evil, like the Lakers have done, you just make you just

make it harder on yourself. And so again I I I'm not taking them off the contender tier, but I have a feeling we're gonna see a lot of disappointing regular season basketball from the Lakers, because this is a team that clearly knows they have a punch they can throw that can beat most of the teams in the league, and they don't seem interested in throwing it most of the time. And so that to me, is going to keep them off of a list like this. I'd like

my contender list is a playoff list. This Power Rankings list is a regular season list, and the Lakers are not going to be on this list very often if they don't take regular season games seriously. And then, lastly, the pacer same exact thing they won or won most. They won their half of the bracket in the n Season Tournament by defending. It was their best defensive week of the season, and then they straight up stop defending. This week their three game losing streak, they had a

one to twenty six defensive rating. Specifically, their help side defense just completely fell apart. Again, if they're ever going to achieve the goals they want to achieve, they have to maintain a defensive identity as well. All right, here we go quickly through our top ten. Number ten the Dallas Mavericks. They beat Memphis, the Lakers in Portland this week lost to Minnesota. They've won five out of six overall,

despite being pretty banged up. Lucas playing like an MVP, and the guys around him are making shots, the two most important parts of Dallas's offense. They're also up to seven and seven against teams that are five hundred better this season. Number nine the Orlando Magic. They beat Cleveland, but then they lost to Boston twice. Really rough week for Franz Wagner struggled against the Celtics defense. Number eight the Denver Nuggets. It's been an underwhelming start to the season.

Right They were eight and one in the first nine games, but they're just nine and nine cents, fifteenth in offense and fourteenth in defense over that span. But they did go three and one this week, and so they had the eighth spot for now. Number seven the Oklahoma City Thunder. They beat Utah and Denver lost in Sacramento. Second best record in the West, fifth best record in the NBA,

A real signature win. They had five games this year that they had won against my contender tier, but they were all iffy right, like they beat Golden State three times, but Golden States had a boatload of issues. They won against Phoenix, but that was with no Bradley Beal or

Devin Booker. And then they beat the Lakers, but the Lakers were at the end of a road trip and on the tail end of a back to back, but Denver was at home a day's rest, controlled most of the game, played great, and Oklahoma City just hung in there and executed perfectly down the stretch and got a win. I thought it was really impressive. I have them at number seven, number six, the one team to beat the Thunder this week, another winning streak, two impressive wins against

Brooklyn and Oklahoma City. They also beat Utah, but then they lost to the Clippers. They just have so many impressive wins this season, like that Oklahoma City win. They are ten and seven this year against teams that are five hundred are better. Number five the hottest team in the league, the Los Angeles Clippers. And for those of you guys who missed it last week, I had Lot Murray from the Athletic, a buddy of mine, a guy

who have played some basketball with over the years. Two he came on and just did a deep dive on the Clippers. So if you're a Clippers fan looking for more Clippers analysis, you can find that a little further back on the feet. They've won seven games in a row, twelve out of fifteen overall. They beat the Kings twice in that span, they beat the Nuggets and beat the Mavericks,

so they've got a bunch of quality wins. They are fifth in defense over that span, and the scary thing is their offense is just about guaranteed to get better than what it has been so far in the James hard And era. Number four the Philadelphia seventy six Ers. So, as I mentioned last week, the Sixers are entering into a very easy part of their schedule. They go undefeated this week, beating Washington, Charlotte, and Detroit twice. They're up to eighteen and seven, which is third in the East.

They are just two games back of the best record in basketball, and they're beating the shit out of everyone. They now have the best net rating in the league, outscoring opponents by twelve point one points per one hundred possessions. Number three the Milwaukee Bucks. They bounce back from their disappointing nd season tournament loss to the Pacers by going four to oh this week, beating Chicago, Detroit, Houston, and getting revenge on Indiana. They had a lot of success

this week with Andre Jackson in the starting lineup. We did for those of guys who are watching this as a breakout clip. In our early part of this episode, we did a deep dive into everything that Andre Jackson did to help the Bucks in general. I thought the Rockets game was their best overall effort, one of their best overall efforts of the season in terms of what I view like the future of this team to look like.

So again, if you want to hear a deeper dive on that, go a little bit further back in this particular show. But I got the Bucks at number three, number two. The Minnesota Timberwolves. They got absolutely handled on the road in New Orleans. But New Orleans is a good team at home. I think they're nine to four at home this year. But they did bounce back with good road wins or excuse me, back to back good wins against Indiana and Dallas. Carl Towns is on like

a crazy tear. He averaged twenty six points a game this week on fifty six percent from the field forty four percent from three, ninety percent from the line, with fourteen rebounds per game. He's now up to sixty three percent true shooting for the season. And also shout out to Nas Reed who made thirteen threes off the bench this week for the Timberwolves and then lastly at number one the Boston Celtics. They went four to zho all against good teams this week, beat Cleveland twice straight up,

dominated Orlando twice as well. Jalen Brown in his last six games twenty four points per game on fifty seven percent from the field. To give you some perspective, in his first eighteen games, he shot just forty five percent from the field. So Jalen Brown very efficient in a small role, a smaller role this season than what he had last year. And you can see just how much it's elevated their ceiling as teams barely been able to keep games close against the Celtics over the course of

this week. I thought Boston did enough to regain the top spot for now. There you have our power rankings for the week of December eighteenth. All right, let's move on to our mailbag. What are the advantages of having a system player like Tim Duncan, Steph Curry, Michael Jordan versus heliocentric players Luka Doncic, James Harden, Lebron James, and Nikola Jokich. As always loved the show. So here's the thing.

I wouldn't necessarily agree with the monikers, because a system player has a negative connotation when it shouldn't, and then helio centric players they have a negative connotation when I believe they kind of should. So, first of all, a system player, to me, if I had to identify that, it's a player that plays a specific style but is deeply impactful in that style, and it requires the team to kind of build their offense around that style. So examples are like Steph Curry. And then I look at

Nikole Jokic as this type of player. To me, you had listed Nikole Jokic in the heliocentric category. I don't

really see it that way. I look at heliocentric players as players who bring the ball up the floor and make every single decision seemingly at least relative to normal shot creation, right, And in those cases there's real negative connotations in the sense that like or drawbacks, I should say, in the sense that, like, because one player has the ball the vast majority of the time, most players struggle to get in a rhythm alongside him. So specific types

of players play finishers. So guys who are vertical spacers and catch and shoot guys will find a com role in that sort of system. But guys who are like driving kick guys, guys that have a little bit off of the off the bounce game, they can struggle in that type of system, right, And that's that's not a shot at any specific player. It's just really all the guys that take a heliocentric approach to things, right. And then I think there are guys that are heliocentric and

small doses, not in large doses. So like James Harden, for instance, when when he was in his prime, was a large dose heliocentric player, meaning like he just did it every single possession all the time and it never ended, right, Whereas Lebron, It's like Lebron was like, I'll go heliocentric for eight minutes in a playoff game, you know, but then he'll you know, Lebron like look at Lebron his

entire Laker era. Half the time he's screening and rolling in the basket as an off the ball player, right, So, like I think, I think there's the value in heliocentrism is it's a simple brand of basketball. That guy can't guard me, I'm gonna find a way to get him in the action, either in a two man game or one man game with a clear side of the floor, and I'm gonna make decisions out of that. And it can be ruthlessly effective. But if you do it too much,

it can become predictable. So there's a sweet spot in there. What I've always appreciated about Lebron is a heliocentric player is he'll do it for like eight possessions in a big playoff game, but he'll go away with from it when it's not working, and he'll wait to break it out until it's a moment in the game where it really has value. And that that that, to me, is

a more valuable form of heliocentric basketball. In the big picture, I think that'll be the best version of Luka Doncic when he gets a real co star that can that he is forced to kind of play a more, you know, sharing style with and then he'll be a heliocentric guy in brief stretches of games, and in those stretches he will be lethal. Right, That's kind of the way I

look at it. The system side of it, it's more, it's way more of a positive because like with Steph and Nikola jokicch and their systems that they run there, they're deep involved with keeping everybody engaged in the offense and specifically making plays. So it's not just a Steph dribble seventeen times, kick to somebody in the corner and they take a shot. Steph is consistently generating four on threes, which allow smart basketball players that can dribble, pass, and

shoot to make plays in four on threes. Nikola Jokic similar type of deal, drawing double teams in the post, drawing multiple defenders in the short role. Like it's the same kind of thing. Jokic is mostly operating without the basketball. He's making quick decisions. He very rarely is how often do you see Nikol Jokic dribble the ball off the floor, back a dude down in the post and hold the ball for seventeen seconds on a possession before he makes

a decision. It just doesn't happen. And I look at that as a clear positive thing, not a negative thing. Hopefully that kind of breaks down those archetypes a little bit better. Here's a Warriors fan. Sorry, Jason, but we have the receipts. Show after show you've said, it's not time for the Warriors to panic. Trust the Vets. They will come around. Guys of Kaminga and Moody just aren't ready, et cetera. Now tonight you're saying something needs to change.

You're right, but you're late. Dub Nation has been saying that for the whole year, and now you and Kerr are starting to buy into it. I reacted to new information. I don't know what else to say. You know how the Warriors won two games this weekend with who they beat Portland and Brooklyn, and Brooklyn's a solid team. By the way, I was always a believer that when healthy, if they could just kind of get some steady play

for a few months, that they would be fine. Because I'm a big believer that Draymond Green, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins as your four starters. I would agree with most Warriors fans that Kerr stuck with the looney Draymond front court for way too long. That said, like, I really do believe they would have been fine. They had like the sixth last eight shacked. It was before the two games this weekend, But they had like the sixth

easiest remaining schedule this year. Like, I just thought they were gonna get wins. What happened is this, Draymond got suspended. When Draymond got suspended, that is new information, and it changes the dynamic of the season. Right. For instance, at the time I said that recording out, it was they were three games back of the ten seed. Now they're two games back of the ten seed because they got

they went to and Oh this weekend. But at three games back of the ten seed, when you have Draymond Green, when you start playing good basketball over a longer stretch, I just expected them to be a well over five hundred team and to climb back into the playoff race and be able to patiently make a decision at the deadline. Draymond suspended his suspension and we just got to report this morning he's going to be out for at least three more weeks. Like that means he will miss the

better part of you know, fifteen games or so. That's just a huge chunk of games. And without Draymond going let's call it seven to seven over a fourteen game stretch is just going to be really difficult. And if they do go five eight, then they'll no longer be two or three games back in the ten seed. They'll be four or five games back in the ten seed. Now, it's just really challenging to get back into the standings from that far back halfway through the damn season. That's

all I was saying. Obviously, my opinion changed because Draymond Green's suspension removed the second or third best player from the team for damn near quarter of the season. It is a significant piece of new information. I generally speaking, wasn't going to panic on the Warriors for the same reason the Lakers had their late season stretched last year. The Warriors have clear salary filler and assets to make a deal. Chris Paul is clear salary filler. Jonathan Kaminga

is a clear asset. So they if they choose to punt the whole damn thing and go in on young guys, they have Kaminga. They have Moody. They have Tray Jackson Davis, they have Brandon Pazemski. They got rebuild right if they choose no, we want on a rebuild around Steph. They've got a clear package Kaminga and Chris Paul draft compensation. You're gonna bring back quality players and then you'll be able to make a run. And would they probably be in the lower half of the standing. Sure, but that's

not a death sentence anymore as we know. So that's why I was more bullish on the Lakers before the Draymond injury than I, excuse me, on the Warriors I should say before the Draymond injury than I was after the suspension, I should say than I was after the Draymond suspension. Hopefully that clears that up a little bit. Next question, Despite having the best record in the East, despite Boston having the best record in the East, I feel like they aren't really playing their best basketball yet.

Do you feel like they could be ramping up for a better push in the playoffs? Historically it seems like they have had great starts and fizzle out by the end. Do you see them as a team that is cruising now to make a push at the end. I predicted before the season that I think the Celtics are going to finish the season with the number one overall seed and comfortably, and I believe they're going to do so. Right now, they're a half game up on Minnesota right

for the number one overall seed. But Minnesota is in a really difficult stretch of their schedule, and I think they're gonna build a three or four game gap over that span. Philly is going through a very very easy stretch of their schedule. There's the Eastern Conference is weird too, because like it's kind of reminds me of twenty twenty in the sense that like the top of the East is really good, but the bottom of the East is really bad, significantly worse than the bottom of the West.

And so the teams at the top of the East are really going to put up some crazy net rating numbers this year. That's why you see Philly and Boston just have these crazy net ratings and everyone else is below them. It's just because they're beating the shit out of every bad team at the bottom of the conference. Right, So, like some of those numbers are a little bit weird,

but I'm not worried about Boston in the standings. They're gonna finish with the number one seed because I think they're better than Philly, and the Western Conference is just tougher, and they're just gonna beat the shit out of each other and all their staying in their records in the standings will go down. That said, do I think Boston can play better basketball? Yes, I did a deep dive on the Celtics with Chris Mannix last week that encourage

you guys to go check out. But one of the big things that I'm seeing right now is offensively, they are not optimized because they are not taking great shots. They take a ton of difficult off the dribble jump

shots despite not being particularly good at it. Tatum is the big culprit there, just continues to take a shit ton of pull up jump shots despite being not very good at it, and Jalen Brown same thing, and as a result, they just have a lot of possessions where they get lower value out of them than they probably should. So the big thing is going to be if by the end of the season they can become a more optimized offensive version of what they've been to this point. Lastly,

Yoker Yoker. The Jokers struggled some over the last week or so. Do you think it's just a function of shooting variants or is there something you were seeing defenses do that has been effective against him? So Yo Kitchen his last six games is averaging twenty one points per game on just forty four percent from the field, and he's basically stopped taking threes. He was taking a ton of them to start the year and in the postseason last year, and to stopped taking them, to me, everything

stems from the jump shot. To me, it's a bigger concern that Jokic straight up stopped taking threes, not entirely, but has gone significantly lower volume taking threes because it just makes him that much easier to guard. You know, a big part of Jokic's postseason success last year was nailing pick and pop threes in attacking closeouts when guys closed hard at him at the top of the key.

We are now watching Jokic get left open at the top of the key, and again, that just means more bodies in the paint less passing angles, harder for Yokic to drive closeouts. The game has just become tougher for him since then I don't think it's a big picture issue yet, but we have seen examples, not last year, but the year before of Jokic going in entire season

in postseason not shooting the ball well. So that would be my main concern because I do believe Jokic is the best player in the world, but not by some gigantic chasm. So if Jokic goes down a level because his jump shot failed him and he becomes easier to guard as a result, that could mean some other player could become better than him. That could mean some other unit could become better than Denver's offense. Right, those are the potential pitfalls and things that could open up in

Denver's armor and lead to some vulnerability there. All right, guys, That is all I have for today To give you guys a quick breakdown of the schedule for the rest of the week. We have Tomorrow night we're going live after Celtics Warriors. Then Wednesday, we have Sam's FONDIII from the Light Years podcast coming on the show to do a deep dive on the Golden State Warriors as they

head into this transition period this season. Then we have film breakdowns on Thursday and Friday, and then on Christmas Day, we'll be going live twice during the during the five games that we have going on that day, and then the late evening games I will cover on Tuesday morning. As always, I appreciate you guys, and I will see you tomorrow night. The volume