Hoops Tonight - James Harden Trade Reaction: Are Clippers new NBA favorites? What's next for 76ers?

basketball win. Strain together multiple bets from the same game, or build your parlay across multiple games for a shot at making your payday even sweeter. Basketball is more fun when you're in on the action. Download the Draftking Sportsbook AP now and use code hoops. That's hops. New customers can get two hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly for betting just five dollars only on Draftking Sportsbook with code hoops.

The crown is yours gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler or visit www dot one eight hundred gambler dot net in New York call eight seven seven eight hope and why or text hope and Why to four six seven three sixt nine. In Connecticut. Help is available for problem gambling called eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas.

License partner Golden Nugget, Lake Charles and Louisiana twenty one plus age varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. See Sportsbook dot DraftKings dot com, slash Basketball terms for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome to tonight here at the volume, Happy Tuesday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great week

so far. Well, James Harden finally got traded to his preferred destination and what was a shocking turn of events. I had a feeling that Daryl Moriy would go to great lengths to make that not happen, but Sham Sarai reported this morning that the owners of both teams got involved and got the deal done, and James Harden and PJ.

Tucker are heading to the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for Nick Batoom, Marcus Morris, and Robert Covington as well as kJ Martin so a hal including two first round draft picks and two second round draft picks and a pick swap for the Sixers in return. We're gonna be breaking that trade down from the perspective of both teams, and then I'm gonna break down Lakers Magic from last night. This is the first of two shows today. We're gonna hit hard in trade Lakers Magic here off the top.

This afternoon, we're going to hit Warriors Pelicans as well as Timberwolves Hawks. As the Hawks notched another impressive come from behind win. They're playing some really impressive defense right now, two impressive defensive teams from the Eastern Conference that we're going to be breaking down in today's show. You guys are the job. Before we get started, subscribe to our

brand new YouTube channel. I'd really appreciate it if you guys would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button as we try to get this channel off the ground, don't forget about our podcast feed where ever reach your podcasts under Hoops Tonight social media TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, we're posting video content as well as show announcements throughout the season, and then, last but not least, drop mailbag questions in the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting

them at the end of our shows, periodically throughout the year, and the last minut least before we get started. Now we have the NBA in full swing, the World Series is still going on, We've got the NFL and college football in full swing. And we still have concerts and comedy shows all around the country that are still touring. And the best way to get tickets to any of these is on game Time, the fastest growing ticketing app

in the United States. So for amazing last minute deals to see your favorite football team, baseball team, basketball team, download game Time. And again, it's not just sports, concerts and comedy shows to around the country. Game Time has you covered there as well. Download the game Time app and redeem code Hoops for twenty dollars off your first purchase terms ofply. Again, download the game Time app and

enter code Hoops. That's Hops for twenty dollars off. No matter where you live, get out and have some fun this week. Download game Time today, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball, So a little breakdown of the details of the trade. The Clippers get James Harden and PJ Tucker. The Sixers get Nick with too, Marcus Morris, Robert Covington kJ Martin an unprotected

twenty twenty eight first from the Clippers. It's a very high quality pick, considering they've got a lot tied up in some older, injury prone guys right now, so that could very well end up being a lottery pick by the time we get to twenty twenty eight some other undetermined first round pick that's being re routed from another team.

From what I read, there's like three different picks are considering there, and it's going to be the best of those three two second round picks in a pick swap, so a draft compensation hall for Darryl Moriy and the Sixers, which makes sense because you know, Nick Patum, Marcus Morris, and Robert Covington kJ Martin, those are all bench players, right that did not get a quality starter in return for this trade. So we're going to talk about that

in a in a little bit, so uh. Like I said at the beginning of the show, Sham's reported that ownership got involved last night, made the deal. Again, like I was under the impression that Darryl Mory would probably take a sweet time to find the best possible deal and try to not send James Hard into his preferred destination.

But sometimes you overpay and it gets done. And I think when all those draft picks were on the table it got really hard for Daryl Moray to say no. I would imagine that Steve Balmer probably got involved and was like, let's get this damn deal done so we could see what this team looks like, because like that is uh, it just it was hard to imagine again if you're not going to do it at the start of camp and you're not going to drag it out

to the deadline and try to get something significant in return, especially since again like Nick Patum started for the Clippers, but he's not what I would consider to be above average starter quality player in the NBA. None of those

guys are. And so the only way to get Darryl Moore to pull the trigger on this kind of in this weird no man's land post camp, but well before the trade deadline, is if you throw the entire kitchen cupboard full of draft picks at the situation and that appears to have been the case, and that's value because as we get to the sixers here in a minute, two draft picks, including a highly valued one from the Clippers, as well as two second round picks and a swap.

That's a lot of stuff that they can use to throw at a star or a high quality starter down the line, which we'll talk about in a little bit. Now on the Clippers front, let's start with just what is James Harden at this point in his career. Well, as I've said all summer, he is an excellent regular season innings eeter. We're gonna talk about his postseason shortcomings, but I still believe that James Harden is one of

the twenty best regular season players in the NBA. Twenty one points, six rebounds and eleven assists last year led the league in assists, sixty one percent true shooting one point zero eight points per pick and roll on huge volume one tho ninety four possessions. He was the fourth most efficient pick and roll player out of the fifteen guys to run at least one thousand last year, one point one to one points per isolation possession, fourth out of twenty five players to run at least two hundred

and fifty. He even scored twenty eight points on eighteen post ups, which is basically over a point and a half per possession. So within the context of the regular season half court shot creation, he's one of the very best players in the league still still to this day, and again, that is what James Harden does. He is a floor general that can get your defense into the other team's defense into rotation, and you guys can make plays out of that. He can feed guys in two

man game. He can beat switches with step back threes, beating people off the dribble. He is still very, very good in that regard, and I kind of had a feeling that James Harden would have a bounce back season last year, and he certainly did. Within the regular season context. He has a very analytically sound scoring approach, takes a lot of threes, especially off the dribble, to boost his true shooting percentage. He had a fifty three percent effective

field goal percentage on pullup jumpers. That's one point zero six points per possession, which is awesome. Did a nice job of mixing in more mid range jump shots last year, just kind of keep the defense off balance, not as many as I'd like to see him take, but he did take more than he used to, and he was outstanding off the ball in catch and shoot situations sixty five percent effective field goal percentage on catch and shoot

jump shots seventy two percent when he's unguarded. Like I said before, still one of the best floor generals in the league. Led the league and assists in large part by setting up Joel Embiid for a shit ton of easy jump shots and close out opportunities in pick and rolls and picking pops. And that's kind of an interesting thing to potentially see, especially with Kawhi Leonard, someone who's

capable of being a very good screener. You can imagine a lot of ghost screens or just picking pops, picking soft rolls for Kawhi Leonard with James Harden to try to just set him up with easier close out opportunities.

But the playoff struggles were real. Outside of the two fantastic games in the Celtics series is where he had forty plus point nights and hit two game winners, he shot below thirty percent, and six of the eleven playoff games in total, he had a two for fourteen game, three for fourteen game, a four for eighteen game, a three for thirteen game, a four for sixteen game, and a three for eleven game. That's pretty rough. So for the two games he was awesome, he had six games

where he was absolutely terrible. He shot just thirty five percent at the rim in the playoff run. That was where the majority of his efficiency tank. He just could not finish in traffic. He had four games with at least five turnovers as well. The Sixers were twenty four point four points better per one hundred possessions when James was off the floor versus when he was on. For

the whole playoff runt, including the good games. When he was on the floor, they were minus five per one hundred possessions, a one oh nine offensive rating, a one fourteen defensive rating in eight hundred and thirteen possessions, And when he was off the floor, the Sixers were plus twenty per one hundred possessions, a one to twenty four offensive rating in a one zho five defensive rating in one hundred and sixty four possession. So he was like

borderline and net negative within that context. Now, obviously he played huge minutes those are bench groups that were doing really well, but they were a pretty ad They were a below average offense and a below average defense when he was on the floor in the postseason, and he was directly responsible for that in a lot of ways on both ends of the floor. So here's how I

viewed the trade from the Clippers perspective. PJ. Tucker is a better perimeter defender than Nick Batoom, than Robert Covington and Marcus Morris. He's a really good option to throw out guys like Lebron and KD who at this phase in the career aren't his latter really quick and easier to kind of physically contain at the point of attack. But there's a trade off with PJ Tucker. He typically

goes unguarded on the other end of the floor. You just know the Lakers are going to do something like put Anthony Davis on PJ Tucker and have him just park his ass in the paint. Make everything more complicated, right, same thing goes for any of the teams that have a legitimate rim protector, even for like Phoenix. You're going to see them put on Nick on PJ Tucker and he's just gonna park his ass underneath the basket, blocking

shots and grabbing rebounds. So, like PJ. Tucker, very good option in that regard on the defensive end of the floor, but still comes with offensive limitations. I do think that James Harden now on the PJ. Tucker front. To be clear, Nick Patoum has his own issues. Robert Covington was borderline unplayable and Marcus Morris's borderline unplayable. So, like again PJ. Tucker, for all his shortcomings, I believe is out of a deal that has four forwards in it. I think he's

clearly the best forward. So they got the best forward back in the deal, right, and then James Harden will make the Clippers a much better regular season team. I genuinely believe he will. He's going to get them much higher, higher quality shots in the half court. He's gonna shut up the shut set up their stars for higher quality isolation and close out attacking opportunities. He's going to be able to control pace, He's going to be able to

be really effective off the ball. All of that makes sense to me, But I do think that he could potentially end up being a net negative in the playoffs if he doesn't reverse that trend that's been going throughout his career, especially compared to more athletic groupings that they could throw out. There got groups like Westbrook, Man, Kawhi PG and you know Zubak or something along those lines. They're going to have groupings that I think are going

to be more successful in the playoffs. I also don't understand the idea of bringing James Harden into the equation with your commitment to Russell Westbrook. You signed him last year, signed him again this year to a two year deal, and he's been playing really well to start this year. Eleven points, seven rebound, seven assists, sixty five percent true shooting from Russell Westbrook so far. He's shooting his jump

shot well. He's five for eleven on jump shots. He's been an awesome matchup attacker in ISOs and in the post he just is so big and strong compared to other guards. He scored twenty nine points on twenty one

post ups in ISOs, including passes. So like, if he's going to stay in the rotation, his role is going to change basically from what it has been, which has been a really natural fit with the Clippers pushing the pace controlling the flow of the offense, applying pressure, getting quality shots for his stars, and you know, doing some stuff off the ball right, crashing the offensive glass and

stuff right. That's been his role, and the reason why it's working is because the Clippers need his rim pressure and his playmaking, right, that's what they've needed from him in that position. Now you're taking the ball out of his hands and giving it to James Harden to run the show. Now, Russell Westbrook's role looks very similar to the way it looked with the Lakers. Very rarely is he going to get to run the show, like when James is on the bench, Right, He's gonna have to

be in break rhythm situations constantly. We're suddenly in a second quarter grouping. He's gonna be asked to run the show when he's out of rhythm because he's barely done anything before that. And he's going to have to be a deeply impactful off ball player on offense and on ball player on defense. That was his role when he was with the Lakers, and we all saw how that went. And so whatever sort of positive kind of like influx of winning impact you've been getting from Russ with the

basketball fit. I do think the James Harden piece kind of directly counters that out, and I'm really curious in the big picture if they're gonna find a way to

make that work. And again, like I've been saying since the minute Russell Westbrook put on a Lakers jersey, if he can be really selective with his off ball shot selection, meaning like taking the right type of stand still catch and shoot threes, if he crashes the offensive glass, if he operates as a ball screener, if he just works his ass off on the defensive end, on the ball, off the ball, crashing the defensive glass in switch situations against bigger players, if he does all that stuff, it's

gonna go great. But keep an eye on that Russell Westbrook situation taking a turn very similar to the Lakers, because that's a possibility now that you've brought in in the same way that Lebron James and Russell Westbrook were redundant, James Harden and Russell Westbrook are redundant. And James Harden's a better player than Russ right now. So at least in the regular season context, I'd argue Russ is a

better playoff player. So I do you think that there's some potential downside there as well, so to kind of like tie a bow on it. From the Clippers' perspective, unless James Harden reverses his postseason trend of cratering and efficiency, the trade doesn't make the Clippers a better playoff team, but it will make them a better regular season team.

The players are more the players involved in the deal are more or less irrelevant, Like, yeah, you gave up three forwards, but you got back the best forward in the deal in PJ Tucker. And I do think PJ. Tucker is a better playoff player than Nick Patum. So there's on the PJ Tucker spot I viewed as a slight upgrade for the postseason. On the James Harden spot, it entirely comes down to how he plays. And you guys know how that story has gone. Here's the reason

why I wouldn't have made the trade. When you factor in James Harden's playoff limitations, when you factor in the Russell Westbrook fit and how that complicates as a result of this trade, and then lastly, you poured in the rest of your draft compensation, so you've severely hindered your ability to make another deal at the deadline based on a specific need from a specific position group. So I would argue that it would have been better to wait for the deadline to see what kind of high level

role players become available at that point. Then you throw the two picks, the two second round picks, the swap, and those salaries at whoever that player is. But to be clear, there is upside here. If James Harden plays better in the playoffs, this will be a trade that improves the Clippers. It's just you're effectively gambling on James

Harden's playoff performance. Moving on to the Sixers, I like the deal again, like I didn't like the idea of sending him for nothing, you know, like I wanted a Daryl Morey to be patient for some sort of role player return, quality role players, because I didn't think the draft compensation was out there. But the Clippers showed you that they were desperate. They were willing to give two

first round picks, a swap, and two seconds. You gotta take that deal because at the end of the day, it's those salaries that you have now, whether it's Tobias Harris and some of these wings or just the wings again, whatever the salary combination you need to put together, you could theoretically just take the same three guys and package him with all the same picks and throw them at

the right player at this year's deadline. And again, that twenty twenty eight Clippers first round pick is very likely to be a high value pick with the kind of up and down nature of the way the Clippers throw all their money in free agency at expensive you know, kind of injury prone stars, right, and so it's on the table that that could be a great pick. So who knows who it's going to be that comes available.

We talked about the Bulls guys Tomar de rozan or zach Lavine og Ananobi from the Thunder, from the Raptors, Pascal Siakam. These are Raptors guys that used to play with Nick Nurse. So don't be surprised if Nick Nurse pushes for one of those guys. Good Jeremy Grant from the Portland Trailblazers. Who knows, But the Sixers are in a position now where they can push their chips in the table and make some sort of bigger splash your deal at this year's deadline, and in the short term,

Tyree Smaxy's literally been incredible. I'm not gonna into it right now because we just broke it down yesterday, but for the Sixers, fans did a whole deep dive on on Tyre's maxine how awesome he's been so far this season in our last video, but like, he's demonstrating that he can be the number one perimeter option for your team and do it at a high level. Marcus Morris and Robert Conington aren't going to play much in the

short term. Maybe against you might see some Marcus Morris against like power power wing teams like the Orlando Magic, the Milwaukee Bucks, or the Toronto Raptors. Nick Batoum will play right away. He's a solid regular season wing and can shoot. Last season, he was fifty eight percent effective fiegal percentage on jump shots one point one to one points per spot up attempt, which is great, and he

was an okay perimeter defender. Could make a shot in the playoffs though, but I don't expect him to play too much when they get to the postseason. Kelly Eubrey is playing really well for the Sixers right now too, so they're kind of looking good at forward. So I think they'll be fine for the regular season and they're ready to pounce on a potential star deal. Also, kJ Martin, you know they ended up going for Jalen McDaniels last year in hopes of just finding another athletic forward that

could help him. There. kJ Martin's other guy who could see getting some of those minutes off the bench in the big picture. So I really like the deal for the Sixers. It feels like they are fine for the regular season and positioned to make a all end deal when they get towards the deadline. All right, let's move on to Lakers' magic the Christian would effect. So we talked about this after the loss to the Kings last or two nights ago, But the Lakers have a problem

right now with defensive rebounding. Their backcourt is extremely unathletic, as I've been talking about all summer, and because Jared Vanderbilt and Ruby Hachimura are both out with injuries right now, you're leaning heavily on Tory and Prints at the three, and he's thin and not a good rebounder. He's a okay perimeter defender and a very good spot up player, which brings advantages on the offensive end of the floor.

He's been one of the guys on offense that's actually played pretty well for the Lakers this season, but he doesn't help you in those physicality areas of the game. And so right now they're struggling with getting stops and failing to secure defensive rebounds on the back end, especially

a predicament where Anthony Davis. One of two things that is happening with Anthony Davis, he's either switching onto the perimeter and getting a stop, but they can't get a rebound on the backside after because he's pulled away from the basket, or in pick and roll Ads getting too consistently engaged on the ball because the perimeter defenders are dying on screens and not doing a good job fighting

over the top. So AD's having to leave Wendell Carter Junior, whoever it is, on the back line, and he's giving up solid rebound position in the process. As long as they can get the shot over Ad, Wendell Carter Junior, whoever it is that's in the back line, depending on

who they're playing, is getting easy offensive rebounds. And so one of the things that we pitched after what happened in the Phoenix Sun series is hey, just play christian Wood more, because christian Wood kind of brings to you the offensive potential of the ability to knock down an

open shot and make a play attacking close outs. He had a really smart play down the stretch on d Lo's kind of soon to be game winner that put the Lakers up one four to one oh three, where Anthony Davis made a kickout pass to him out of a double team, and he pump faked and then did a wrap round pass to d Lo that hit him right in the shooting pocket for the shot that ended up winning the game. Was a really smart, kind of

like offensive skill play from christian Wood. He's not hurting you on offense, and he's providing some key elements on the defensive end of the floor, particularly defensive rebounding. So far, christian Wood when he's playing with Anthony Davis and Lebron in the front court, the Lakers are plus ten in seven minutes, a one to twenty seven offensive rating, a fifty defensive rating. That's a plus seventy seven net rating.

They're grabbing fifty five percent of available rebounds and almost all of those are in crunch time minutes when the game slows down against the opposing team's best players, and in really physical, intense, playoff esque basketball. Now again, will they outscore teams by seventy seven points per one hundre

posessions all season with that trio? Obviously not, But to me, that's a really encouraging example of a lineup they could use in late game situations to confront their rebounding issues, at least in the short term until Jared Vanderbilt and

Ruey Hotcha Mura come back into the equation. Jared Vanderbilt is kind of like the perfect guy theoretically in this position because he can provide a lot of that high end perimeter defense and help you with crashing in defensive rebound situations while at the same time just upping your overall athleticism. And again, that will come down to his offensive performance, and he made some strides in preseasons, so we'll see how it actually shows up in the regular season.

But I think in the big picture Vanderbilt ends up being the guy, but in the short term while you're waiting for him, and then maybe in the big picture if he continues to play this well. Christian Wood's a really good option there at the three, and he's doing a lot. He's providing that defensive rebounding piece, right, he's

also providing secondary rim protection. Talked about after the game, how he's waiting for Ad to go up to block shots, knowing that if they pump fake or if they get an offensive rebound, he's there on the back end to either I shouldn't say, get an offensive rimund. He's there after the shot over Ad to either get the defense rebound or if they pump fake Ad out of his shoes, he can step over and provide that second layer of rim protection. And then he's also been pretty solid on

the perimeter. He guarded KD down the stretch of that game against the Suns, and then he also had a couple of key perimeter stops, including a big one against Pala Boncaro down the stretch of this game. He's just good at baiting guys into pull up jump shots and

then using his deceptive length to contest shots. And basically what it amounts to is it's a big lineup right with a second big next to Ad, but one that can respectively respectably space the floor and attack close out, so you have the advantages rebounding and defensively that you get from more size on the floor with the offensive advantages you get from more perimeter skill. Late game execution

was solid in this game. Remember we talked a lot after the Kings game about oh, they need to, you know, run more through Ad because these guards are missing these shots. And what did I say. I pushed back, and I said, Lebron's doing his job. He's drawing multiple defenders and getting the defense in rotation. And then the Lakers are generating wide open threes. Like against the Kings, it was like wide open. Gave Vincent threes, wide open Tory and Prince threes,

wide open D'Angelo Russell threes. Those are wide open threes for great shooters, and they just missed them. And then everyone's like, you gotta go through a d more, You gotta go through a d more. And I said, it doesn't matter even if he gets a bucket in the post. Whoever the coaches is gonna start throwing the kitchen sink at Ad and you're gonna have to make shots on the weak side. Well, what happened? Anthony Davis posed up

left block one oh three to one oh two. Or one of three to one oh one, the magic double along the baseline, ad has to get rid of the ball, swings the ball to christian Wood. Christian Wood makes the extra pass to D'Angelo Russell. Same wide open three that d Lo missed in overtime that would have put the Lakers up by two. Same one, wide open a little bit on the right wing, and he knocked it down this time. Again. Like I told you, guys, settling for

jump shots off the bounce is totally different. Like when Lebron James takes those step back threes and by the way, too, two of them down the stretch and he made one of them. So that's three points and two possessions. Right. But like when Lebron James is settling, that's settling. Right. Technically, he could make a more aggressive downhill move to try to draw multiple defenders for a kickout three or try to get all the way to the rim. Right, that's settling.

I'm one hundred percent with you, guys, And Lebron's going to have to shoot the way he's been shooting, and we're gonna talk about it in a second, because he's shot really well in crunch time. He's going to have to shoot that well in order for that shot to make any sense. But if they're drawing multiple defenders, the right read is to kick to shooters. That's the team construct. Lebron Anthony Davis rim pressure. Teams are gonna pack the paint. Guys have to make shots. And again, like it's a

make or miss league in a lot of ways. But like again, maker misses a lot about process and which players like. If you generate high quality shots for good shooters in the big picture, you're going to make them

more frequently. And after I said after the Kings game, if the Lakers continue to generate wide open threes for D'Angel Russell gave, Vincent, Andorian Prince and Austin Reeves or whoever it is, if they keep generating wide open threes, they're going to win a lot of games because those are good shooters and they should eventually get to the point defensively where they can get enough stops on the other end of the floor. But Dilo made it, that's

the difference. They won this game because of that. It's not about who initiates. As long as Lebron or ad are both drawing multiple defenders, it's going to be the same result, guys have to make shots. Lakers in the clutch so far the season two to one a ninety eight defensive rating, which is really excellent when you consider how bad they were in the King's game. They had like a one to twenty four defensive rating in the Kings game in clutch times, so they've been really good

in the clutch when christian Wood's on the floor. The other two clutch games are the Suns game. In this magic game, christian Wood was out there for those ones. They were excellent defensively in the clutch, so basically really good defensively in the clutch in the games where christian Wood played not so much. In the game where he didn't offensively, that also coincided with the game where all

the skilled players misshots. That's the perfect recipe for the Lakers to blow a four point fourth quarter lead as they lose to the Kings. Right, But the Lakers so far are have a plus twenty net rating in clutch situations through three games. Lebron in the clutch so far is twenty points when the game is within five with less than five minutes left. That is tied for Luka Doncic for the most in the league. He's eight for ten from the field, two for four from three, and

two for four from the free throw line. And again, I thought he did his job against the Kings too, drawing multiple defenders and kicking to wide open shooters. This is big because last year Lebron was not a good clutch player. He had a rough season in that regard. This is a small sample size, but so far this season, Lebron has been much better making shots and making decisions at the end of games in clutch situations for the Lakers. Anthony Davis. I don't remember where I put him in

my player rankings. It was either six or seven. I think I had him at six if I remember correctly, But a lot of people will reacted and said, you have him too high. And what I keep trying to point out to everybody is like, you're pairing legitimate offensive production with top tier defensive production. But let's look at the offen production first. Anthony Davis so far the season

twenty six points, fourteen rebounds, and three assists. He's third in rebounding in the league, third in blocks in the league at two point eight per game, and he has a sixty one percent screw shooting percentage. So he's been efficiently scoring twenty six points per game while also being one of the best rebounders top three rebounder in the league. And he's putting together one of the best defensive seasons so far against some small sample size that you'll see.

And the reason why I say that is this Laker team has been absolutely atrocious on the perimeter Defensively. Lebron is still coast mode. Totally get why he's a million years old, right, but Torrian Prince and gave Vincent are helping you on. Torrian Prince, gave Vincent, D'Angelo Russell, and Austin Reeves are all getting cooked on the perimeter consistently. They're dying on screens, they're not boxing out, they're not

paying attention to their man in the ball. A huge problem in this particular Magic game was guys like Markel Foltz and Jalen Suggs crashing from the perimeter, not just on offensive rebound situations, but also on cuts. Like a guy'd be driving the lane and Torrean Prince would just kind of be standing looking like this, and the dude would just cut right behind him for a layup. That's

happening way too much. The perimeter defense is atrocious for the Lakers, and yet they still have been the thirteenth best defense by defensive rating in the regular season so far, in the seventh best defense in the clutch so far. Literally because of Anthony Davis and what he can do to clean up messes, to clean up the defensive glass.

He's putting on the mother of all cleanup jobs on the defensive end of the four while also putting up twenty six to fourteen twenty six points and fourteen rebounds, while also doing a really nice job creating his own shots. So far this season, he's rany. He's run thirty two post tops in ISOs so far, leading to forty one points. That's a point in the third per possession. That's excellent. He's finally starting to make his touch shots around the rim.

Coming into last night, he was just six for twenty in the paint outside of the restricted area, so like short paint shots right, He's six for twenty going the last night. He was six for seven last night, starting to get his touch back there. I think he's the best defender in basketball. I think he's proving that he belongs in the conversation with the best players in the league.

But in the big picture, the Lakers are still playing pretty bad basketball, and they're gonna be in trouble if they don't clean some things up before they see the Clippers on Wednesday. Austin Reeves is slumping hard. This is a guy who I thought was easily the third best player on the Lakers last year and was probably the second or third best player on Team USA this summer, and he's playing like shit. He doesn't look explosive off

the bounce. I don't know if he's dealing with a nagging injury or if he's just a little fatigued from everything that went on this summer. D'Angelo Russell hinted in his postgame interview that Austin's kind of trying to get his legs back underneath him, but it's affected him in a bunch of other ways. Because he's been a much better defensive player in his career than he's been this season. He's really struggling on that end. His rhythm and confidence

looks shot. He's really struggling to be impactful offensively with the ball, and he's missing all of his catch and shoot threes. It's been a rough season for ust now here's the thing. I don't think that players become bad overnight. I think Austin's gonna get it together and he's going to be fine. But until he does get it together, that's the Lakers' third best player playing like shit, and that's gonna hurt them in the big picture in terms of their night to night ceiling. Overall as a team.

The perimeter defense is awful. I've talked about this. Navigating screens has been bad. Handling perimeter athleticism from guys cutting and crashing the glasses bad. The transition defense has been bad. Everything has been really bad on the perimeter. Defensively, D'Angelo Russell's the worst culprit. He had a really rough game

last night. Jalen Suggs just took it to him. He made up for it by making a bunch of big plays in the fourth quarter on the offensive end of the floor, but he gave damn near just about all of it back on the defensive end. I mean, even his game winning shot came right after a play where he lost Jalen Suggs on a basic dribble handoff for a wide open three and so like d Loo is

still all over the place. This is this a guy who said he wanted to be like Derek White on defense and he just hasn't put his money where his mouth is yet. And then lastly to shooting, this is a team. I don't think they're gonna be a great shooting team, but they also shouldn't be a bad shooting team. I mean, the three of the starters they've been using are all well above average catch and shoot three point

shooters that are all just not shooting particularly well. So when Osin Reeves gets it together, when as a team they start defending better, and when they start knocking down shots, that's when things will go up a level from there. But to be two and two in spite of all of that not a bad place to be for playing really bad basketball. But they are going to drop to two and three on Wednesday if they don't fix a

bunch of those issues quickly. Because the Clippers are playing some good basketball right now, moving under the Orlando magic. I love this team. They can't shoot right now. The twenty fourth and three is made per game in twenty second and three point percentage, and that's definitely hurt their half court offense. At times, it's a lot of Franz Wagner and Pala Bancaro, Wendell Carter and Markel Foltz missing jump shots right now, But that again, like that's kind

of gonna be something they deal with throughout the season. However, They've got a lot of advantages, particularly with their size and athleticism. They are huge, they are athletic at every position group. They play hard, they play physical. These are some crazy stats about their defense right now. They're the best defense in the league in defensive rating and they're the only team in the league allowing fewer than one hundred points per one hundred possessions. They are third in

rebounding percentage. They are sixth in offensive rebounds per one hundred possessions. They are fourth in opponents points in the paint per one hundred possessions. They are seventh in defending the three point line, both in three pointers made by opponents and opponent three point percentage. They are third in steals per one hundred possessions. And they are the second best transition defense in the league. So they are just cleaning house in all of the margins of the game,

with all of their size and athleticism. Again, Wendell Carter is a good starting center in this league. Palo and Franz bring this huge rim pressure element to the team. Palo's a very good post player throughout his NBA career. Franz as this big playmaking forward right, and then Folts and Suggs bring real downhill athleticism. D'Angelo Russell and Austin Reeves got their asses kicked last night just by those two guys beating them off the dribble, beating them off

of cuts, beating them on the offensive glass. Markel Folts was even just picking them apart in pick and roll. There was a sequence down the stretch where he actually played Austin Reeves off the floor where he basically gets downhill and makes an easy layup over Anthony Davis. Then he Anthony Davis steps up and they both go to the ball and he throws a lob to Wendell Carter Junior for the easy dunk right. Then then Markel Foltz just starts caving Austin's chest in for an easy hook

shot in the lane. They were just getting bucket after bucket after bucket. They couldn't do anything with that Markel Folts Wendell Carter pick and roll and they actually played Austin Reeves off the floor. And that's the cool part is like Folts is your third best prim initiator and he took over the offense late and made a bunch of huge plays to get them back into this game.

And they probably had a good chance to win that game if if Jalen Suggs just makes a better rim decision there down in that final possession, he just decided to challenge ad big mistake. There's an easy drop off pass to Wendell Carter right in the dunker spot. It's probably what he should have done. But this is a fun team. They are two to one right now despite

both Franz Wagner and Paulo Bancaro playing poorly. They're both shooting below forty percent from the field, and they bring a bunch of athleticism and size off the bench as well, like Cole Anthony and Gary Harris are a pretty athletic backcourt,

especially for a bench group. Gary Harris is seven for eleven on catch and shoot three so far this season catch shoot jumpers, I should say, and that lineup is tied off, so you got Cole Anthony and Gary Harris, but then you've got Mo Wagner at the center position who's playing well. And then you have Joe Ingles and Jonathan Isaac in there as like good lanky, rangey wings on the perimeter. So that lineup right now is plus twenty three points net in fifty three possessions, excellent on

both ends of the floor. They feel like a playoff team to me. I mean like they're gonna win a lot of games even if they don't shoot particularly well. And if those guys start to take steps up as jump shooters, especially as Franz and Palos start playing better offensively, they're gonna be even tougher to beat. Don't be surprised they play the Clippers tonight. Don't be surprised if they beat the Clippers tonight. That's on the table. That's something

that team is capable of doing. All right, guys, That is all I have for this portion of the show. Like I said, I'm gonna be back later this afternoon breaking down Warriors, Pelicans and Wolves Hawks. I will see you guys. Then the volume