Hoops Tonight - Jokic unstoppable vs. Blazers, Joel Embiid drops 41, Nets struggle without Durant

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made it halfway through the week. Today we're gonna be covering Nuggets, Blazers and talking a lot about Nicola Yoki in the easy way that he dominates basketball games. And then we're also gonna be talking about the Philadelphia seventy sixers going into l A and beating the Clippers. And then I told you guys how I was gonna start doing more quick hitters. We have three more quick hitters

at the end of this show. John Wall thinking the two thousand seventeen Wizards would have beat Lebron's calves definitely have some thoughts there. J. J. Reddick and a real basketball work ethic. I wanted to talk about that for a second. And then everyone's acting all surprised that the Nets suck without Katie, which is completely absurd to me. So I wanted to share some thoughts on that as well. And then tomorrow night, we're gonna be going live immediately

after the final buzzer of Warriors Celtics. An excellent opportunity for the Warriors to send a message on the road in Boston tomorrow night. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss any show announcements. And then, last but not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these videos and you can't get over to YouTube to finish, you

can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight, all let's talk some basketball. So this game was with the Blazers and the Nuggets. Was a little close through about half, but Denver really took over in the second half ended up winning thirteen. It's kind of a funny game to watch because anytime you get two players like

Dame and Yokich. Now, Yokich is way better than Dame, but those two players are two players where you're primarily talking about their offensive impact, like uh Yoki is more of like an average defensive player. Dame Lillard is a bad defensive player, so they're gonna struggle to guard each other, and they kept putting each other in actions, and it was kind of funny watching how neither of them could

guard each other. Anytime Yokich had to come out to the level of the screen, Lillard was getting by him off the dribble, or if he didn't get out there, he's hitting pull up jump shots. And then on the other end of the floor, Yoki is running these like inverted picking rolls, and literally Dame is just trying to hedge out and switch and do all this hilarious stuff.

He just looks completely helpless trying to guard Yo kitchen actions, which is just kind of the funny thing you're gonna see when you see two players of this particular archetype go at each other. But to Denver's credit, they really locked in defensively in the second half, particularly, I thought Bruce Brown did a really nice job switching onto Dame and making his shots more difficult, which inevitably led to him missing some, which gave Denver an opportunity to build

a lead. Uh, we're gonna talk about Denver's a defense here in a minute, But I want to I want to talk about Yogi because I thought this game, in particular was a perfect example of something I've been saying

about him all season. So he finished the game with thirty six, twelve, and ten, but he was just thirteen for fourteen from the field, and the only shot he missed was an early second half three in the right corner where the shot clock was winding down and he had to like literally take a running, spinning three in the corner that had very little chance of going in. But he was thirteen for thirteen outside of that shot.

And one of the things I've been talking about a lot this season is that Yokich is the master of easy basketball. I think it's a huge part of why he's so polarizing and why so many people struggled to see his vow you they see it looks so easy. They don't see anything truly exceptional, and so they undervalue

the things that he does on the court. So what I wanted to do is go basket for basket through Yoki's night to kind of demonstrate to you guys, how Yokich can put together a thirteen for fourteen night for thirty six points. So first of all, he had two offensive rebound putbacks. There was one where Jamal Murray's coming off the screen drew you. Banks is up at the level of the screen trying to contest the shot. Shot goes up. Yo, kids just sprints to the front of

the rim and then taps it in. Um. So to offensive rebound putbacks, that's four points. I had a coach at Arizona Christian University, the last school that I played at when I was in college. UM. His name was Jeff Rutter. Excellent basketball coach. He is still there, um.

And one of the things that you used to always say to me was, hey, you can always get twelve points a game if once a half you get two free throws either by hard cutting to the basket or setting good screens or crashing the offensive glass, a transition layup us by sprinting the floor, and a putback just by crashing the offensive glass, getting the ball and putting it back into the basket. If you do each of those things once per half, you can average twelve points

a game. And it was essentially his way of saying, like, hey, if you're interested in box score numbers and he'd say this to all of the players on the team, but he's like, if you're interested in box score numbers, this is an easy way to load up the box score without having to look for your shot within the offense. And for me in particular that year it was it was an important message for me because I was playing

with two All American guards. In the previous year, I was an All Conference score so like, I was trying to fit as a role alongside two of the best guards in the country, and I needed to look to impact the game in ways that went beyond my own scoring. And so that message always resonated with me. And simple things like Nicola Yokis just battling for offensive rebound putbacks that pumps up your stats a little bit. I wanted to dig a little bit deeper into this. So everything

for Yokis was in the flow of the offense. Specifically, twenty eight of Yoki is thirty six points or in the flow of the offense. So check this out. So he had four points, uh cutting back door so um putbacks like we talked about earlier. Then he had five points in spot up situations. There was a couple of plays where uh, he caught the ball in the three point line. Nurkic was sprinting out at him, and he just drove around him and drew fouls, and he made

three of the four free throws. And then there was another play in the second half where he picked him popped to the left wing and then Josh Hart closed out on him and he just drove to the middle and made like a little floater in the lane. Y All said four points in transition. There was one where Nurkis took a three and Yokis just ran by him. And then there was another play whereas a different Blazer took a shot and Yoki's just sprinted down the floor

past Nurkics and got a layup. This is something I've been crediting Yokis for all season. He's still not a great transition defender, but he's trying his ass off to run up and down the floor and he's making a lot of plays that way. He had seven points just as a rollman, nice little floater on a pocket pass from Jamal Murray, a picking pop three from Jamal Murray,

all super high percentage shots. And then there's a really cool play in the second half where Aaron gore it in Nickela Yokis ran high a ball screen at the top of the key and on the play uh Nick Nurkics switched out onto Aaron Gordon and so Jeremy Grant was guarding your Ki and as Gordon was trying to work off the dribble on Nurkitch, Yo Kids just pinned Jeremy Grant on his left hip and provided an opening at the rim. So when Gordon got to the left and drove to the basket, he just had an easy

little drop past to Yokich who's still holding off. Jeremy Grant catches the ball with his right hand and just feeds it into the rim in one solid motion. Just super super easy stuff. In pick and Roll he had four points just cutting by use of Nurkics, but both plays were giving goes starting a top of key swing pass. On the swing pass just sprint to the front of

the rim. It's a thing that usually happens with defensive players that when their player passes the ball, they usually step up out of their stance as an opportunity to relax and save energy. That's a great time to cut. That's why Steph Curry and other guys who were great off ball players have a ton of success. They wait and wait for you to relax, and then that's when they move, and it's usually right after they give up the basketball. That's four points just by cutting to the basket.

He had two points on a little pin down jumper starting on the block, brust down, Brown goes down and sets a pin down jogs up to the free throw line. Nurkics gets caught on the screen. Yoki's just turns around and shoots a free throw basically, and he's gonna make of those when he's that open right um. And then there was two points where Dame fouled him after after he grabbed a defensive rebound, so literally just uh contested a shot from Dame, got a miss held onto the rebound,

and Dame hacked him. That's twenty eight points without a single high difficulty shot attempt. Twenty eight points. And that's stuff that any NBA player that plays that position can do. Any big can sprint up and down the floor. Any big can you know, learn how to make little pop shots and floaters in the lane. That's what makes yokis so unique is he's got the skilled don't get me wrong, but he doesn't make it more complicated than it needs to be. He thrives by hunting down the easy opportunities

on a basketball court. Even his post ups and ISOs were easy he had, so he added eight additional points and post ups and ISOs. There was a tough shot one in particular, Iso nurk Kits in the first half and he took like a spinning hook shot in the lane. Yeah, it's a tough shot. That's a superstar play. That's what

you hope for from Yokich. But the other two baskets, they were post up on Lillard where Lillard got switched on to him and he just sealed them under the basket, entry, pass, catch, finish, easy basketball. And then in the second half on the right wing, he had a little face up jumper on nur Kits where Nurkics was basically conceding him the shot because he was open. And so that, in a nutshell, I wanted to go through all those baskets, because that, in a nutshell is why I think Nicola Yokich is

so polarizing. People don't see anything exceptional. You know, there's the highlight passes from here there, here, and then there's the tough one legged fade away every once in a while. But everything really kind of looks easy, and I think that that just goes over a lot of people's heads um. But you don't get bonus points in basketball for flair two points. Two pointers are worth two points, three's are worth three, and free throws are worth one. It's that simple.

It doesn't seem like yokis just dominating a lot of games to people. But you know, you look up and it's thirty ten and ten for Yo Kitchen, the Nuggets win, and and that that fundamentally is all that matters. And it doesn't matter that he's not hitting all the crazy tough jump shots that you know Joe l em Bead is hitting. It doesn't matter that he's demonstrating the high level shot making that you're seeing from guys like Kevin

Duran and Lebron James or Jayson Tatum. It doesn't matter because he's so damn big and strong that he can get these easy shots, and he just knows how to hunt those easy shots. Nicola Yokets this year is averaging eleven and ten and the Nuggets are plus three D and sixty seven in his minutes, which is the best

individual plus minus in the entire league. So, like, honestly, Yoki fan and should just be running around town or you know, running around the internet, just screaming scoreboard at the top of their lungs, because that's all that matters. Who cares what you think he looks like. Who cares that he doesn't make the same number of highlight plays as some of his peers around the league. He puts up the numbers, the team wins all of his shifts, and he's winning on the scoreboard better than any NBA

player in the league this year. One last note on them on this particular game that I that stuck out to me, I wanted to shout out Mike Malone for just the overall level of offensive organization he's implemented. Everyone is always in the right place. When we look at the Nuggets, we focus a lot on the on ball actions, right. We look at Murray Yokis pick and rolls. We look at Yokich Murray pick and rolls. We look at Bruce Brown, you know, Yoki's pick and rolls. We look at all

these different things. But the reality is there's a five man unit out there that's moving on all these possessions, and we don't give enough credit to guys like k CP and Michael Porter Jr. For always relocating to the perfect spot to give your kitchen opportunity for a kickout and that all a lot of that credit goes to Mike Malone as well. And then Aaron Gordon is just so good at cutting and finding these little soft spots

around the rim for him to find quick finishes. They're a well oiled machine and that's why they're the second best offense in the league. Now, I said before the season, I expected them to be the best offensive offense in the league, but they're one tenth of a point per one hundred possession behind Boston, So they've got a little bit of work to do to make me right. And then, lastly,

big picture with the Nuggets. Last night was rough defensively in the first half, but they were really good defensively in the second half. The Nuggets are third in defensive rating over their last fifteen games and they have now moved up to seventeen for the season. Now, if you guys remember before the season, I said that Denver is so damn good offensively that I don't necessarily think they need to be a top ten defense, but I do think they need to be within ten to fifteen, and

closer to ten if possible. And so you know, and again I know it's like, oh, who cares, we've been playing defensive late. But the reason why I care about the full season is there are lots of examples in the NBA of teams for ten fifteen games playing hard and then letting go of the rope on that end of the floor. You know, the Lakers defended incredibly well to start the season and then immediately stopped, even with

Anthony Davis. So it's one of those things where like, I look at the big picture of the season defensive rating, because that tells me, over an eighty two games sample size, if you're top ten and defense, or for the Nuggets, if you're between ten and fifteen, that tells me that you put in a good deal of effort and focus to establishing defensive habits, and over the course of that eighty two game season you did better than half the

teams in the league. That is going to be an indicator to me that when the ship hits the fan in the playoffs, you've got enough of a backbone of habits and and work ethic that you're going to lock in defensively and that will carry you through spurts when your offense doesn't work. So obviously trending in the right direction, but I'd like to see a little bit more. Another ten fifteen games of them playing at this level, then their defensive rating will click up to twelve in the league.

Then we can start to really look at the Nuggets as a bona fide top tier championship contender. Tip off the new year with fan Duel, America's number one sports book. New customers get one hundred and fifty dollars in free bets guaranteed when you place your first five dollar bet. Just download the Vandal sports book app. It's safe, secure, and super easy to use. Then you can bet on everything from the money line to point scores to three's drained.

My favorite bet this week is the Atlanta Hawks on the road in Dallas on Wednesday. You can get them plus three and a half. The Hawks are in one of the phases of the season where they're having fun and actually playing good basketball, and Dallas is super thin in the front court and on the wing because of injuries, so I think it's a game where Atlanta's talent will carry them through. Plus FanDuel even lets you combine your bets for a chance at a bigger payout with a

same game Parlaight. Vanduel is also now live in Ohio, so make sure you get in on the action with great offers for you now throughout January, so don't miss your chance to get one and fifty dollars in free ats with promo code Jason t Make Every Moment More with Fan Duel, an official sports book partner of the NBA. Alright, moving on to the Sixers and the Clippers, this was a one point game at the end of the third quarter, and then Tyrese Maxie just completely took over the fourth quarter.

He started with a ridiculous step back three over Nicholas Patum, and then he had two threes against Moses Brown and drop coverage when he was too far behind the screen. Those three pull up threes basically built the initial margin that determined the outcome of this game, because suddenly you look up and you're down by down by nine or ten, and now James Harden and Joel and become in the

game and it's basically over at that point. You know, we always look at a Tyrese Maxi is the transition threat. He's one of the best speed guards in the league. But he's actually turned himself into a really great shooter, particularly off the dribble. This year, he's shooting thirty nine on six point three pull up jumpers per game. Now, that seems a little low, but he was over forty last year. I expect him to finish over forty percent

this year. He just shot terribly in the first several games when he came back from his foot injury, which is to be expected because, like I always say, pull up jump shooting and all the skill areas of basketball have to be tuned in. They they you have to build your rhythm, established that that touch and dial everything in. And so that's why I'm not overly concerned about that. But even with that, six point three pull up jumpers

per game is great. I mean to give you an example, like guys like Lebron James and Jayson Tatum are in the low thirties. So he's doing really well there. Uh. Tyrres Maxie is my favorite example to push as far as me. Uh, in my take that I've had all season that I think Philly has the most talented top four in the NBA. Think about your bench group for whatever team that you root for. Think about the guys

that are running your bench lineups. You know, UM, a lot of teams have to keep one of their superstars on the floor at all costs, at the expense of ever having them on the floor together, not having them on the floor together that much, because if they don't have much talent to run bench groups like a lot of these groups, it's like you're you're throwing Tyres Maxie out there with two really good shooters like Shake Milton and Georges Kneeang and Matistible to help on the defensive

end of the floor. Um, guys like Montrez Harrold, who are so good as picking, picking and rolling to the basket and finishing around the rim. They can run a bench group like that without James Harden or Joel Embiid and buy time for those guys to rest and have a good chance to win those minutes because of how good Tyrese Maxie is offensively. Then you know, all of a sudden you're downtn and here comes James Harden and Joel embid who are gonna wear you out with pick

and roll and you're gonna lose. And we haven't even gotten Tobias Harris and the capability that he has to create his own shot, defend multiple positions, and do all the things that he can do on a basketball court. I think they are the most talented top four in the NBA, and that's a huge advantage for the Sixers.

They're not as deep with talent as teams like Boston, but they're they're top heavy um, and that you know, is going to give them a lot of advantages in a in the in the in the playoffs this year. I want to talk a little bit about the embiad hard and pick and roll because they absolutely towards the Clippers last night with it to close the fourth quarter. The issue there is you can't switch it. You've got to put a giant body on Joel embat Um, and that giant body is not going to be able to

guard James Harden in a isolation situation. And so what that means is James James Harden almost is guaranteed to get over the top of the screen and get downhill. When he does, that is going to force the screen defender to step up, which is inevitably going to force you to help out of the week side. And so you're seeing a ton of drop offs to Um and Beat in that short roll and a lot of good

stuff out of that. To give you some numbers to kind of explain how effective this has been, twenty five players in the NBA this year have run at least five hundred picking rolls including passes. James Harden his fourth out of in points per possession in points per possession at one point one UM including passes, and that's helped in large part by Embeat in the short role. He's the only player in the league that's logged at least two hundred rollman possessions. And what's funny is almost every

team is bringing the screen because you can't switch. Like I said, they're bringing that screen defender over, they're taking the ball out of James Harden's hands, and then they're bringing a guy over to tag and beat at the free throw line. And what's happening there is Embat is taking and making a ton of quick isolation jump shots in that little short roll spot. It's kind of more of like an ISO than it is a short roll thing, but they're logging it a short roll possessions because it's

coming out of a pick and roll. But James Joe Lymbiad is so deadly with that short jump shot right around the free throw line that they're just getting a ton of baskets out of that spot. Um the you know, So to give you an idea of just how effective and beat has been there at the foul line on pull up two's this season or on twos this season two point jump shots that are inside of the three point line, Joel Embiad is nineties seven for two hundred

and eight, which is forty seven percent. So when Joel Embiat catches and shoots that short little jump shot around the free throw line, he's making it half the time. And then when you factor in how many times he's able to draw a foul, when you factor in how many times he's able to beat a guy with a pump fake and get to the rim or draw foul there, that that is just deadly. And James and and and the counter there is if you stay with them, bead

and fight him off of that position. James Harden is able to get downhill because his defender has to chase him over the top of the screen. So even if you managed to survive that Tyrese MAXI on slot to start fourth quarters, you have that hardened and beat pick and roll waiting for you to close out the fourth and that makes them like super scary. And that's why I had Phil. If you guys remember before the season my top tier contenders which was Golden State, Boston, Milwaukee,

and the Clippers. And I've since dropped the Clippers off of that list and I put the Bucks into that spot. But before the season, I had the Sixers as the best of the rest. I had them at fifth in the league. And the main reason why was I thought that, you know, and be dealt with some health issues last year. James Harden wasn't in shape for most of last year. I was dealing with hamstring stuff. James Harden's in better shape this year. Joel Embiid hopefully will be more healthy

this year. I expect the Sixers to be a really tough out the playoffs, and it comes from the talent of those top four guys. One last note on the Sixers before we move on to the Clippers for a minute, George's kneeing. I talked a lot yesterday when we were talking about the Clippers about the value of high end,

competent wing shooting. And every single time you'd see last night, like, oh, the Clippers were jogging back in transition and they weren't really matched up super well, and Georgia's kneeing catches on the left wing and just nails a transition three, and you're like, oh crap, Like we literally can't leave him open.

And he made another huge three in the fourth quarter shortly after that, and I'm sitting there and I'm thinking, like, that's why, That's why I've been preaching so much about that position for the Lakers and for a lot of teams around the league. We talked about it for the Bucks. We've talked about it for the Warriors. Off the bench, we've talked about it about a bunch of teams this year.

You need to have guys on the wing with real size so that they can navigate physical playoff environments that are dead eye shooters, because that being a shot that goes in fifty of the time and set a thirty five percent of the time is going to lead to a significant difference in your final result over the course of a game or over the course of a playoff series. But again, that's not even one of your top four guys there, and that's a player that's so immensely valuable

to that Sixers team. Moving on to the Clippers, I remain not worried. Um. They're the sixth best defense in the NBA, So that's a classic hallmark of a championship contender. They have matchup versatility because of the winging size that they have and their ability to play both small and big. Now they do have some issues. They desperately need a backup center. That's going to be a problem. Moses Brown

isn't quite up to that task. Um. But the most used lineup that the Clippers have played all season is their starting lineup Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Marcus Morris, Reggie Jackson in a Vikazoo back and they've only played a hundred and sixty three minutes so four perspective that Portland, Sacramento, Houston, and Chicago all of their starting lineups have played over four hundred minutes together this year. That's a huge part of why their offense is twenty seven in the league.

Offense is about four key factors advantage creation, play finishing, play rescuing, and rhythm and flow. Paul George and Kawhi Leonard have only played in fifty three of the ninety two available games for them this year. That directly disrupts your advantage creation because those are your two primary advantage creators. When they miss half the games, you get half as much advantage creation. That's your two best play rescuers, tough shot makers. If you lose them for half the games,

you lost half of your play rescuing. I talk all the time about how just making crazy shots to save possessions is the difference between a one oh eight offensive rating in a one seventeen offensive rating, or a good offense and a bad offense. You need guys that can rescue possessions. And then for rhythm and flow, if my team's gonna miss my stars for fifty three of the ninety two games, were always playing different lineups. Are best lineups only played a hundred and sixty three minutes. We

have never had an opportunity to build rhythm and flow. Now, the one thing there that's consistent is play finishing right Like this team has a ton of ball handling and shooting in general on the roster. But that just doesn't matter if you don't have the guys that can create the advantage initially, or the guys that can rescue the possessions when they break down, or have enough of your guys available enough to where you build that rhythm and flow.

I talked about rhythm and flow a lot on this show. And I have a random little aside you guys have probably seen in my background. I've got guitars and a Debt and Company poster and there's John Mayor and Bobby We're playing some guitar I grew up on. You know, all that old blues and rock, Allmond Brothers band, Stevie ray Van, you know, Debt and Company, stuff like that.

And Uh, I've become become a huge fan of Debt and Company because of John Mayer and his ability to play guitar in a way that you probably don't realize because he's always playing with these like pop type genre music that he's been doing in his mainstream stuff. And they just played a show down in Mexico this past weekend, and uh, a lot of Debt and Company fans were

complaining that they sounded disjointed it. And I've been following Debt and Company for the last half decade or so, and every time they start playing the start of their to or they're super sloppy, and then by the end of their tour they're dialed in and they're just so damn good. Like if you go to last year's tour and you look at their last show at City Field, they sound amazing, but if you go to their first show,

it's a little sloppy. And then of course they go down to Mexico and they haven't played together in months and they sound sloppy. And it's because there's literally, I think six members to the band. There's a bass player, there's two guitars, there's two drummers, and there's a piano player. So when you've got six different moving parts, it takes a while for them to get in sync. And that kind of that same concept exists in so many different phases of our life, but basketball is the one that

you know, obviously directly relates to me a lot. I I see that all the time with the game of basketball, there's individual rhythm. If you're a player that's been out with an injury and you need to and your jump shooter. If your skill or entered, it's gonna take you five ten games to get your rhythm back. Steph came back from injury. He sucked. Now he's playing better. Desmond Band came back from injury. He sucked. Now he's playing better. You get the point. That's the natural way that build.

You build rhythm on an individual level, but that extends to the team level. If I've if I've got a drive and kick offense with five players on the floor, there is a rhythm in a timing and a flow to that that you can't build if you don't have your players available. And so that's why the Clippers, despite having you know, probably a top six or seven roster in terms of offensive skill, our seven in offense, they've lost their advantage creators for a great deal of the season.

They've lost their um, you know, shot possession rescuing for a large portion of the season, and none of their lineups have been able to get enough reps to build

a real rhythm and flow. UM. I have dropped the Clippers from my top tier of contenders because of that, but I still view them in that second tier and I absolutely think they're capable of winning a championship because all they need to do is get their guys back, get healthy, and have a game stretch where they all play a lot and they build that requisite rhythm and flow. If they do, then they are a damn sure, absolutely capable championship contender. They have the defense and match up

versatility to thrive in that environment. They have two outstanding advantage creators. They have tons of shooting and close out attacking. They have two guys that create their own shot at an extremely high level to rescue possessions and in late game situations. That's all the boxes. I don't know want else to tell you. That's all the boxes. All of their issues I think come down two injuries. Yet I hope they tart to get a backup center in the trade market. But like a lot, there's a lot of

smoke and mirrors out. There's a lot of people complaining about TYLU, which is a lot of people acting like they're frauds. They're not frauds. They've just been hurt, and yeah, they're not gonna win anything if they don't get over at But it's a pretty easy path from there because they have the requisite talent on the roster. All right, let's get to our quick hitter. So John Wall he said, quote unquote, we was going to beat the ship out

of bron They did not want to see us. Now, for the record, this is not the first time that the two thousand seventeen Wizards have talked a bunch of pointless ship about the Calves. I remember Marquis Morris staying some Markuis Morris staying some stuff. This is not even the first time I've heard John Wall say anything. Um. And it's all based on the fact that in a couple of regular season games excuse me, spanning from two

thousand and sixteen to two thousand seventeen and eighteen. During that span, the Wizards won some games against the Calves in the regular season. UM. And that apparently has driven that delusion of grandeur within those guys on the Wizards to think that they could have won that. And I think it's hilarious because a couple of things. First of all, the two thousand seventeen Calves bullshitted through that entire season.

They did not play any defense, They did not fear anyone in the Eastern Conference, so they didn't care about seating the whole thing was just one big practice for the Kevin Durant Warriors, despite that, they still finished two games above the Wizards in the regular season standings and went two and one against them that season in the regular season. And so I just don't understand what he was looking at there that would have incentivized him to

believe that the Wizards could have won that series. Uh. And to give you an example, regular season matchups almost never translate to the playoffs, especially when you're looking at teams that have championship pedigree. For instance, the two thousand fifteen Hawks three and one against the Calves in the regular season. Lebron swept them with no Kevin Love and with Kyrie Irving missing two games and playing hurt in

the other two. You don't think the Hawks went into that series thinking, oh, we got them, we were up three one. No, no no, no, Like when you get into the playoffs. It's just an entirely different beast. So John wall is completely living in fantasy land. Last note here, never ever allow yourself to be swayed by regular season results for a defending champ. Ever, do you remember the top ten defense rule. I've talked about this a lot of my show you only win a championship if you're

a top ten defense. But in this century, there are two examples where a team outside of the top ten and defense won the title. It was the Shot Kobe Lakers and the Katie Steph Warriors, but specifically, both of those teams were already defending champs. When you like, the defending champ goes into that season with less motivation than any team in the league because they literally have the trophy. That's why I still have the Warriors at twenty two and twenty two as a top tier contender. For me,

there's a lot of president there for this sort of thing. Um. Now I do the Warriors in particular. I don't think they're talented enough to not have a top ten defense. So with them, I'm really watching that defensive rating over the course of the season. But I have not written them off despite them struggling this year. The two seventeen Cabs went fifty one and thirty one. They were below five hundred on the road, and then they absolutely obliterated

everyone in the playoffs. Then they lost to the most talented roster ever assembled, to the Katie Steph Warriors. But they were the only NBA t NBA team in the league that year to not to playoff win against the two thousand seventeen Warriors, that CALVS team would have swept the Wizards. I have absolutely no doubt about that. Um all right, J J. Reddick and his work ethics. So there was a clip that was going around on Twitter. I tweeted it out today, so if you want to

see the clip, you can find it there. But J. J. Reddick's on a podcast with Quentin Richardson and he said one of the biggest reasons that he retired was how difficult his offseason regimen was and that he didn't think his body could handle it anymore. And then he kind of broke down when his offseason regiment was and basically he did two days Monday through Friday. He takes Saturday off, and then he would make three two shots every single Sunday.

And the reason why the resonate resonated with me is I think that there's a disconnect with a lot of young players about working on your game in a real

professional basketball work ethic. And it's a lesson that I wish I would have learned when I was younger, because when I was younger, I had all the talent I was, you know, super up six six without shoes on two it and twenty pounds of muscle and six eleven wingspan, six ten wins span, whatever it was, and when on if you caught me on the right night, like I could shoot it and I could put the ball on the floor and make plays. So so I scored. I had a lot of really high scoring games like I had.

My career high in college was thirty one twenty plus, like a half dozen times average double figures from my college career had all those different things, but I was very inconsistent. So like conference play in JUCO my second year, I shoot fifty percent from three, and then I transferred to Arizona Christian and I shot eighteen percent from three.

So uh so, going from fifty percent from three to eighteen percent from three in literally a year when theoretically I would have gotten better, and it was because I was actually a super streaky shooter. What I was was a player that had some skill, but I did not have reliable skill. And that doesn't seem like a big gap. But one of the biggest lessons I learned is I

got older. Was that a huge gap when in my late twenties, UM, was when I finally kind of really realized and learned how hard you have to work at those things to be good at them. And it's it was way too late. I'm thirty one years old now, so it doesn't even matter how good I can play basketball.

There's no real outlet for that now. And one of the things that I wish I would have learned when I was younger is that specific type of work ethic you in order to be a reliable jump shooter and a reliable ball handler, you have to put in thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of reps over years and years and years, and you're only going to see incremental improvement on a daily basis. You're barely gonna notice it in the short term. You're only gonna notice it

in the long term. And I hope for all of you young basketball players out there, UM that listen to the show, that you learned that lesson now, don't make the mistake of waiting. The guys that make it to the league they learned that lesson when they're teenagers and that and they ride that too, you know, getting that vote of confidence from an NBA team in the early twenties, and then they write it throughout their career to become super skilled and reliable NBA role players. That's how they

do that. You know, there's a it's so easy for a lot of players to say, uh, to blame outside circumstances for not making it to the NBA or not having the best professional basketball career overseas, or the most successful college basketball career that they wanted to have, or because they got benched at this school or they didn't get as many rotation minutes as they wanted at this other school, and they'll blame the coach, and they'll blame this,

and they'll blame that, and they'll blame this, and they'll blame that, and chances are it was probably because you just didn't work hard enough. I am not an NBA player, and I've never insinuated that I am. But the reason that I'm not an NBA players I did not work hard enough when I was younger. And I hope you guys learned that lesson of those of you out here out there who are trying to play lastly nets without kat So. Kevin Durant has missed three games with his

knee injury. And the Nets are oh and three and two of the three teams they played here below five. And the part that's bothering me is everyone's all shocked. It's like, oh my goodness, the Nets are terrible without Kevin Durant. And this has been the case all season long, which is exactly why I said Kevin Durant was the m v P if the season ended today. Um, now, I think he needs to come back from his injuries sooner than later to stay in that discussion. Otherwise your

kisch is gonna run away with it. But um, the Nets this season have been about plus seven per one possessions when Katie plays and about minus five when he does it, and spent an issue all season long. And

I've been trying to point that out. And what has happened with Kevin Durant is he has so many enemies in terms of like the fans of the of the game because of I think, in large part the Lebron fan bases and the Steph fan bases who have painted Kevin Durant as their enemy instead of just another good basketball player that they should enjoy watching and cheer. Four.

And so Katie went to the Warriors and everyone called him a cupcake, and everyone said that his titles didn't count, and everyone said that, oh, he went to Brooklyn and now he's losing, when really it has to do with roster talent and Kyrie Irving and not anything that Kevin Durant is doing. And everyone has just built a massively

underrated image of what Kevin Durant is. Kevin Durant is a freaking incredible basketball player, like one of the ten best players of all time, and right now is playing better or as well as anybody in the league. And so if you remove him from a team, they're gonna be really bad. And that's the same for every single team in this league that has that level of player. And So if there's one thing that I hope that this season teaches the NBA fans is to just properly

respect Kevin Durant. I don't care what you think about his titles and how much you think they're worth. I don't care what you think about his social media personality. I don't care what you think about his friendship with Kyrie Irving. When it comes to what happens inside the basketball court lines, he's one of the very best to ever do it, and way too often that gets swept under the rug because people want to you know, dunk on him in a debate about Steph Curry or or

Lebron James or something stupid like that. Alright, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support. We will be back tomorrow night after the final buzzer of Celtics Warriors Volume