Hoops Tonight - Knicks becoming elite? New York dominates Nuggets, Warriors heartbreak, NBA Mailbag

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responsible gambling resources. All right, Oh, cood to hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Friday, everybody hopeful. If you guys are having an incredible week, got a jampack show for you today. The New York Knicks continuing their dominance after trading for og Annobi comple just demolished the Denver Nuggets last night. We're gonna be breaking that game down and talking about the recent success of the New York Knicks.

After that, I want to talk about Jonathan Kaminga and his recent success with the Warriors now complicates their trade deadline situation. There is a pretty insane trend from the young Jonathan Jonathan Kminga as he is on the rise in this league. And then lastly, we have four or five mil it looks like six or seven actually mailbag questions from yesterday's show that I'm gonna go through so tons of stuff to get into around the league today. You guys are the Joe before we get started. Subscribe

to our brand new YouTube channel. It 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 feeds. If you're more into the kind of like a podcast format of this show, you can find it wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also, as I just found out, very important for you guys to review, not just rate the show, but leave a review. So it mean a lot to me those of you

guys who listen on the podcast feed. If you guys could take a second to rate the show and leave a review there a well, follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason Ltis. Guys, don't misshow announcements as well as the film threads that I do in the mornings, and then, last but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions and the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the

Nuggets ran into a buzzsaw last night. They the Knicks put ogn andob on Jamal Murray and he immediately just started putting physical ball pressure on him and funneling them into their help scheme. He also ognnob was really impactful defensively in this game. He also forced Jokich into a couple of turnovers. There was one where he was guarding Murray out at the three point line and he took just like one single lunch step and dug down at

the basketball and knocked it free. It was kind of a crazy athletic play just from the amount of space he covered wall still being able to get back to Jamal and he forced a turnover that way. There was another one where he was two passes away in a rotation and he did what's what I call a windshield wiper rotation where you basically see the next defender in the chain leaving his man to go and you go

at the same time as him. And how they can throw off an offensive player when Joki is expecting an opening to be there, and when he throws into that opening, oj Nobi just jumps the gap and gets out in transition and gets an and one. He was super impactful in this game defensively again, Jamal Murray specifically, he's strong and he's an awesome shot maker, but he's not like the most athletic guy in the world, and so I actually like when teams use bigger, stronger wings on him.

I remember, even just covering the Lakers last year in the postseason run, Dennis Schroeder like had a lot of success against Steph and then he ran into Jamal and it was like, Oh, he's just like too small. He's just not big and strong enough to be able to bother Jamal in any serious way. Right, that's where you add in a like literally a og Nnobi type big strong wing where those like really hard step back moves where he's creating contact and stuff just don't generate as

much separation. The Knicks in general kind of struggled with Jokic earlier. Remember Isaai Hartenstein didn't play in this one, and Jericho Sims is really good athlete but obviously somewhat of a limited defensive player, and he kept like leaving Jokic to contest shots elsewhere, and every time he did, Jokicic was just getting wide open offensive rebound put backs right under the basket, right, So, like Jokics had it going,

but they basically shut everything else down. That Denver was trying to do and then the next offense was cooking. Dante DiVincenzo I thought was the big difference maker that like Julius Randall and Jalen Brunson were playing well. Jalen Brunson was picking on Jamal Murray and switches and Julius Randall was getting buckets on Aaron Gordon at a big an one float early in the game. But the big

like swing factor offensively early on was Dante DiVincenzo. He just came out gunning, hit a couple of tough, contested threes, and then beat a close out to drive into the lane. He's been one of the best closeout attackers in the league this year, which we're going to talk about when we do our deep dive here in a few minutes. But they basically just ran him off the floor, and you know, real quickly. On the Denver side of things, this is a kind of thing that can happen a

lot in the NBA regular season. I refer to these as buzzsaw games, and it even extends into the playoffs, especially. My favorite playoff bet for a buzzsaw game is Game three for the team down to oh going back Home, because one of the things I've i've you know, really focused in on in the last five years on the NBA is the idea of like oscillating effort, and essentially, like there are in the regular season there's oscillating effort

and urgency slash desperation. But you get to the postseason, everyone's playing hard, but urgency and desperation can kind of swap back and forth. Right, So, like in the regular season, it's like are you playing hard? How how much does the other team need this game? So on and so forth.

Right get to the postseason, every team needs every game, but there is a desperation element and like a lot of times you can find betting opportunities where it's like, oh, this team's up three games to one and they're going on the road. It's like, okay, so you're you're taking a desperate season about to end team at home, Like that's just a good bet, you know what I mean?

Or down two to zero at home, it's like that team has to win that game or they go down three to zero, which is the historical death sentence in the NBA. Right, So, like it's a little more predictable when you get into the postseason, but in the regular season,

it can still happen. And like, this is a Denver team that just went into Boston and beat the Boston Celtics and then just ran into an absolute buzzsaw in New York, a team playing excellent basketball, really wanted to win that game to legitimize some of their success that

they're having, and they end up losing. So this is a great example of a game where I want to focus on what New York is doing really well rather than focusing on Denver, a team that I'm not particularly worried about, even though they got blown out in that particular game. So oh Jannanobi played his first game for the Knicks on January first. Since then, the Knicks are eleven and two thirteenth and in offense, number one defense in the league by a mile. From the opening tip.

They are in your jersey in a very phizzy way, and a lot of different facets of the game, specifically at the point of attack. Dante DiVincenzo and og and Obi are too excellent point of attack defenders who also are plus offensive players, which is, you know, not relatively related to this specific point, but it starts on the defensive end. Those two guys are in your jersey, aggressive

physical ball pressure. They set a tone, They get guys out of rhythm, and that's like a vitally important piece of that defense because they don't really have rim protection. Like I really like the Precious Chewa inclusion in that trade, especially in light of the Mitchell Robinson injury. But like even with Isaiah Hartenstein and Precious to Chew as your two primary centers that you're playing, you're not really all that much in the way of like legitimate rim protection.

And so in that case, it's vitally important to be very competitive at the point of attack because you need to prevent as many straight line drives as possible to prevent to create more achievable help situations for your back line guys, because you're back line guys aren't gonna be three four feet above the rim like Anthony Davis where you can get beat off the dribble because he's just such a rim deterrent, right, So, like Dante Devinceenzo Ognnobi

set the tone early. It's the foundational piece of their defense. From there, I think their defense comes from their overall physical imposition on the game. Ognnobi and Julius Randall are super strong. You know, Dante Devincenzo and Jalen Brunson are very strong for guards. They play a physical brand of offense too, Right, Like, they crashed the offensive glass more aggressively and more successfully than any team in the league. They were already the number one offensive rebounding team in

the league before the Ognnobi trade. They've continued that trend into January. They get thirteen offensive rebounds a game. Precious to Chua in particular, has been really, really good in their offensive rebounding attack. He's getting something crazy like thirteen rebounds per thirty six minutes since he came over, and I want to say like six offensive remits, like five or six offensive rebounds per thirty six minutes. So they've just added another layer to that attack. Right, they hit you.

They hit you, and they hit you and they hit you, and you get tired and you miss shots. There's a concept I've talked about a lot on this show. Right, Opponents are shooting just thirty one percent from three against the Knicks since the trade. That's the second best mark in the league. They've allowed the fourth fewest wide open threes in the league. That means the defenders at least six feet away since the trade and teams are shooting just thirty six percent on those wide open threes, which

is the fifth best mark in the league. And this is where a lot of guys are gonna be like shooting luck, Like, oh, the Knicks are winning games because opponents are missing shots, and I just fundamentally disagree with that. I do think shooting luck is a factor in shot result, but it is a smaller factor than a lot of

the more controllab controllable factors on the table. I think if you're physical at the point of attack, physical chucking cutters and boxing out, physical attack like attacking the offensive glass, physical, and your like bully ball attack from guys like Julius Randall and Ognob and even Jalen Brunson got a little bully ball in his game, right, Like when you're hitting

people all the time. It's a very different type of basketball game than the types of basketball games that they're playing elsewhere in their eighty two game schedule, and that stuff just leads to, in my opinion, a different type of shot than what you'd expect. I've said this a lot of times on the show, like a wide open three for the same shooter in the same spot of

the floor is never the same, never the same. It's it's it's swung in a lot of ways by the factors around that that are taking place around you in that game. Now, obviously there's luck because let's just say, for the sake of making easy math, let's say a guy shoots, you know, fifty percent on a wide open three against everyone else, and then you know thirty five

percent on a wide open three against the Knicks. Like, obviously, even in that case, some of them are going in, some of them are missing, So there is variance there. But in my opinion, the gap between thirty five and fifty is quantified mostly by process and not by luck. And so that's just something that I want to point out, and it's just a kind of like my personal belief

system as it pertains to the game of basketball. Like I think the Knicks a big part of their defense is they just from the opening tip, play a super physical brand of basketball. It wears teams out, It changes those open shots into more difficult shots, teams shoot more poorly in them, and that's a big driving force behind their defense. In the success they've had since the trade on the offensive end of the four. And by the way, we've had stretches of dominant Knicks defense early in the

season as well for similar reason. So that's a pretty consistent theme on the offensive end. Geland Bronson is still playing like a superstar twenty eight, four and eight in January. Julius Randall twenty five eight and six in January. Ohg Nnobi has basically been a fifty to forty ninety guy on fifteen and a half points per game. Dante DiVincenzo again, I wanted to call attention to his close out attacking. He's getting one point two to three points per spot

up possession. For the season, He's been the second best high volume spot up guy in the league. Among high volume guys. Right, there's been sixteen players that have had at least two hundred spot up possessions. Dante Divincenzo's one point two to three is second best behind take a guess, Michael Porter Junior right where he usually is the best

spot up guy in the league. Right, So you're getting a the guard version of Michael Porter Junior within this season for the Knicks in the form of Dante DiVincenzo while also getting outstanding point of attack defense on the other end of the boy, he's been one of the best three and D guards in the league this season.

A home run signing for the Knicks. And the last guy I wanted to shout out was Duce McBride, like his minutes of skyrocket ever since the Emmanuel Quickly inclusion in the trade for og and Obi, and he's just come in and been a guy who's competing at the point of attack and knocking down his three point shot and like shooting the shit out of the basketball, basically doing a really good job of a of a kind of like a smaller version of what Emmanuel Quickly did

as that bench guard. But the best part about all of this for the Knicks is they're playing a brand of basketball that is proven through NBA history to translate to the playoffs. They bring physicality in every level of the game. They thrive when things get ugly. That to me is a strong indicator of a playoff translatability, right. And so what I'm gonna say about the Knicks is

the same thing I said last year. It's gonna come down to Jalen Brunson and Julius Randall going toe to toe with the best players in the league, like going to to toe with a Tatum and a Derek White or a Jalen Brown right going to to toe with a Damian Lillard and Giannison Tena Koumpo. And like last year, what happened was is Jalen Brunson did he outplayed Donovan Mitchell. He went to to toe with Jimmy Butler, but he

didn't have that secondary support from Julius Randall. I think Ogannobi will help there as well in his own kind of way, but you're gonna need o Jannobi and Julius Randall combined to kind of give you the reasonable facsimile

of a secondary star. And again, like Julius Randall was injured last year, I want to be clear, and Julius Randall's also very much a rhythm player, so like a big indicator of the Knicks kind of like playoff ceiling this year is gonna be Can Julius Randall get their healthy but not just healthy, but like healthy for a while beforehand so that when he steps into those April games, he's just in shape and in rhythm rather than kind of like what he was last year, where it's like

he's on the floor, but he's not really Julius Randall, if that makes sense. But shout out to the Knicks playing some really good basketball. Loved that og andnob trayed right when it happened to me. It was an excellent example of team building in the sense that, like there was no superstar available, smaller move on the margins to improve the aura of your franchise. Obviously being the New York Knicks helps as well. You basically have everything but

the bona fide superstar. And if they can pull off that type of move down the line, that's where they can really launch into that like perennial contention kind of thing. But I really really like the measured approach to team building that the Knicks have gone with over the last couple of years. All Right, I want to move on to the Golden State Warriors and Jonathan Comingo. So the Warriors lost a heartbreak game to the Sacramento Kings last night.

Shout out to Harrison Barnes, who was incredible in that particular game. Shout out Dearn Fox who took over the game down the stretch. But like there were several key mistakes down the stretch from Steve Kerr. I thought, I

want to point to one particular one. There was a sequence where the Warriors were only down by one in about the middle of the fourth quarter, and a timeout was taken and Steve Kerr decided he wanted to buy Jonathan Kaminga some rest, I think, and it was clear that's what he was going to do because Jonathan Kamingo was playing a great game. But Kamingo had only played twenty six minutes up to that point. So I remember being like, why does he need rest? He's twenty one

years old and he's played twenty six minutes. Like, the kid's fine, they're six minutes left in the game. You need him out there. So they go into Dario Sarge instead, and Harrison Barnes was on fire and they put Dario Sarge on Harrison Barnes. I'm like, watching the TV, I'm like, this seems like a disaster waiting to happen, and ironically it wasn't even Barnes. Barnes was actually cooking Klay Thompson

down the stretch. But there was a transition cross match when it was a one point game, and again a transition cross match is like anytime there's some sort of like chaotic transition possession, the defensive principles change from you know, guarding your matchup to guard the nearest guy. Like that's the principle of those are the principles of transition defense.

Sprint back to the basket, fan out to the nearest guy basket first, then nearest player, and everyone just kind of guards anybody because it's more important to avoid those like wide open shots that you can give up in transition than to give up a mismatch right which you might be able to double and rotate out of right.

So in this particular play, it's a transition cross match where Darren Fox is bringing the ball up the floor and no one's there to guard Darren Fox, and so Draymond Green and Dario Sarage, in classic transition, they're already back. They're communicating to each other. Draymond points Sarge to pick up Darren Fox, and so he does, and Darren Fox just his eyes light up, and Sarage is kind of panicky and backpedaling, which, by the way, is sorrych's job.

In that position, it's like you're already compromised by virtue of this mismatch at least make him take a jump shot right, But Darren Fox just settles into like basically what amounts to a wide open pull up three. He hits it, he celebrates on his way down the floor, and then the very next possession he hits another pull

up three against Brandon Pizemski. And like, I'm a big believer, like I was talking about earlier, as it pertains to the Knicks, these kinds of things are intricately connected, and like, I don't even think Darren Fox attempts that second three over Brandon Pazemski if he didn't just make the same

type of shot over Dario Sarich. And so that substitution to get Kaminga out of the game, to bring in a player who's completely overmatched defensively under any circumstances, I thought was a driving force behind how they dug themselves in a little bit of a hole. Because now all of a sudden, you're down seven, right, you're down seven

with not a lot of time left. Then you bring Jonathan Minga back and you battle all the way back, right, you end up taking the lead and you're up by one with the less than a minute left, and there's a baseline out of bounds play, by the way, which

was really interesting. They went with kaminga Wiggins Draymond down the stretch of the game and in those last like four minutes, and like, theoretically that should be a pretty athletic group that can rebound, but like the King's got several key offensive rebounds on that final possession, ending in Steph kind of landing on the floor and getting an out of bounds call and Steve curt doesn't challenge it.

They come in out of the baseline out of bounds, and Kevin Herder and Demonasibonas just running like a basic like kind of flares screen action, headed towards the corner, the strong side corner where the inbounder is, and so basically herders at the top of the key. Sabonis comes up and sets a pick. Herder runs to that strong side corner. Steph is guarding Kevin Herder, Draymon's guarding Sabonis. Steph dies on the screen, and when he dies on

the screen, Draymon then gets put into predicament. He can either go guard Kevin Herder or he can stay home and concede that shot. Now, in the event that so, Draymond decides to run after Kevin Herder. Now, what you're supposed to do in that situation is when that switch takes place where the big screen defense basically runs out to the guard. The guard has to do. It's called a peel off switch, where he basically peels off of his man and basically decides to box the big man

as far out of the lane as possible. But instead Steph stays on Demonis's high side. So when Draymond runs out to the corner, Demonis just slips right down underneath the basket, and so both of them messed up there. Steph shouldn't have died on the screen, and when he did, he should have peeled off onto Demonis Sabonis and tried to box him out of the lane. Draymon probably needs

to be like shit, Steph died on the screen. I'd rather give up a drifting jump shot for Kevin Herder in the strong side corner than a layup right, But that's not what happens Stephan. Draymond botched the coverage. Sabonis slips down the middle of the lane, he gets a wide open layup. The Kings go up by one on the final possession, and again there's a lot there was a lot of talk after the game about about like

should Steve Kurve call the time out? And like, to me again, when you when you focus on something like that, that's that, to me is kind of missing the plot of a game that ends one thirty four to one thirty three or whatever. Right, Uh, But like here's the thing, there's pros and cons to both. If you call a timeout, you give the Kings a chance to game plan for you defensively. That means Mike Brown's probably gonna sit down in the huddle and be like, how do we make

sure Steph doesn't take this shot? Right? So there's that probably ends in a double team in someone else shooting the ball anyway, right, But then the upside for the

Warriors is they can be better organized. So, for instance, like Jonathan Kaminga, when Steph got trapped and blitzed and was being dragged out to that like left side over by half court, Jonathan Kminga was all the way in the right corner and so like your second best offensive player on this particular night, was in a position where he could do absolutely nothing to help you in that

final possession. Whereas if Steve Kerr draws up the play, he probably draws it up in a way that involves a two man game for Steph and Jonathan Kamingo or Jonathan Kaminga is at least involved in some way, shape or form, even maybe just as a as a decoy. Right, So like that's the upside to potentially calling a time out, right, But like there's a version of that where you call a time out, you have Jka set the ball screen,

here comes the blitz. Steph does the exact same thing where he tries to use a behind between the legs, retreat, dribble to try to escape the blitz, and maybe he turns it over again. Right, So, like to me, it's not really worth focusing on. And the whole point behind not calling a timeout is your breeding chaos. And like Steph is one of the best chaos players in the

history of basketball. So like, if I was in that position as the coach of the team, I'm probably looking at that going, you know, six or seven seconds left, Steph has the ball, or I think it was like fifteen to twenty seconds whatever it was, But Steph has the ball, it's a chaotic environment, Like I trust him, right, Like, if there's one thing you could say, it's like when Steph was sprinting away from that blitz, maybe then you look to call a time out, just because in general,

it's really difficult to with six seconds left get the ball out of a blitz without the tip pass getting tipped, or without the pass having to be super looping and allowing a rotation, and then to somehow get a shot out of that, right, So like, if anything, he should have called the time out after the blitz. But again, that's a split second set of circumstances. So again I'm not really of the opinion that that's what should be

focused on. But that ends up being how the Warriors lose the game in heartbreaking fashion as Steph dribbles the ball off his foot and deeron Fox runs down and you know, after the final buzzer attempts a three to sixty win mill and gets rim stuffed. But excellent win for the Sacramento Kings. First time winning in Golden State in the regular season since twenty twenty, which is crazy, and the Kings have been a little Jekyll and Hide over the course of the last couple of months, but

they are a really good team. Darreon Fox is one of the best players in the league, and especially that pull up three point shot has been the driving force

of so much of his success this season. But what I wanted to talk about in this particular game was Jonathan Kaminga, because he's taken a leap right four eyes last five games, averaging twenty six points and six rebounds on sixty five percent from the field, fifty six percent from three, and eighty one percent from the line, and on the basketball side of things, just no one can keep him in front off the dribble like he's doing most of this in like straight ISOs, straight post ups

and transition rim runs, like it's all his ridiculous combination of size and quickness. Right, it's actually ironic because Kaminga turned the ball over in a late post up of Harrison Barnes on the right block where I almost thought

he was too quick for his own good. He made this aggressive move towards the middle and Harrison Barnes was trying to cut him off, but Kaminga spun back to his left before Harrison Barnes could get there, and so he ended up spinning right into Harrison Barnes while also taking contact from Sabonis and middle help, and Kaminga struggles to see middle help. Sometimes totally normal for a young player, right, and especially one who kind of plays on an island

the way that Jonathan Kaminga does. He actually had a turnover A few possessions earlier were similar play where he kind of drove middle and did not see middle help. But again, like he's so damn quick that he had Harrison Barnes beat and counter moved back into Harrison Barnes before Harrison Barnes could finish being beat, which goes to show you just how incredible his athletic tools are. And

then you combine that with ridiculous rim finishing. He's shooting sixty seven percent at the rim this year, which for a young wing is incredible. He's great at drawing fouls. He's easily been the second best offensive player on the Warriors over the course of the last couple of weeks. I say all that to say this, things are getting really complicated on this Jonathan Kaminga front. Now before Warriors fans go like, oh, Jason, you're flip flopping like you

said you should trade him. This is new stuff. This is new information. To give you an idea, Jonathan Kaminga has gone for twenty plus points in five straight games. He had never even had two in a row before this stretch. He had thirteen to twenty point games in his career before that point, never consecutively. So this last week and a half or two weeks sample of Jonathan Kaminga being like twenty six and six, a consistent twenty

point a game. Guy, this is new. This is not This is not some sort of like trend that's been taking place forever. And so basically what I'm saying is is Jonathan Kaminga is playing himself through his own leap into making the Warrior situation complicated now to me because I've also been preaching all in a lot on the Lakers front, and like the Lakers and the Warriors situations are pretty different, right, Like the versions of trades that

I've been pitching for the Lakers involved D'Angelo Russell. You know, it was really good, But like, like Jonathan Kaminga is as an asset around the league, like many orders of magnitude of higher value. Right, It's like the Lakers are looking at giving up d Lo and a distant draft pick. It's not the same as giving up jo the Kaminga. The Warriors are looking at giving up a guy who could be on the rise to superstardom right before our eyes. Right,

Lebron James is thirty nine years old. Steph Curry is thirty five, So there's a little bit different level of urgency, right. The Lakers are also just closer to contention, right, Like they're higher in the standings. They have twelve wins against five hundred to better teams. The Warriors only have seven. So for the Lakers, it's pretty simple, like, of course you want to trade Dangela Russell and a future draft

pick to try to win it all this year. But for the Warriors it's officially complicated as Jonathan Kaminga has continued to get better and better while the trade options have gotten worse and worse. It's like og and Obi's off the table, right, and then it's like, oh wait, Pascal Siakam's now off the table, you know, like all of these little even just Terry Rogier off the table.

It's like all these options are diminishing while the trade value or future potential of Jonathan Kaminga is skyrocketing, and as that is happening, it's just making things more and more complicated. And now I'm not sure it is worth it to make an all in move for the Warrior. So the question is what do you do? And in my opinion, it's complicated because as Kminga's potential becomes more interesting, you have to remember that Steph plays a role in this.

Steph is one of the ten greatest players of all time. I think he's the fifth best perimeter player in modern basketball history. I have him just behind Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, and Michael Jordan. And he's thirty five years old. He's having a down season, but I'm not necessarily concerned about whether or not he's still Steph. I think he's still Steph. And so there's like this certain element where

it's like, you owe it to Steph to try. But at the same time, Jonathan Kaminga is officially looking like he's too good to be traded, So how do you weigh that? And my answer is you got to do something a little bit on the kind of like ancillary level of moves. And so I got a couple that I offered Moses Moody and Gary Payton, the second for

Dorian Finney Smith. So basically turning bench wing and a guard that can't stay healthy into a three and D player, like a legitimate three and D player that you could start at the three next to Jonathan Kaminga and improve the spacing of the team and improve Like I think Andrew Wiggins has been playing pretty well over the last couple of games. I thought he did a good job

on to Jonte Murray in the Hawks game. I thought last night he had a couple of huge above the break threes and made some plays with his athleticism on the offensive glass and around the rim, Like I think Wiggins is trying to figure it out, but like Dorian Phinney, Smith would just be kind of like more of a steady option in that sort of way, and that obviously maintains Wiggins on the roster as a bench wing and an option you can go to if Jonathan Kanminga does

turn into a player that struggles in the playoffs. Could say other part of this, like, as much as my optimism surrounding Kaminga's star potential has improved, do I think he's going to be a star in the playoffs this year. No, but that's just how NBA history works. Like, you're unless you're one of the truly all time greats, you know, the guys like Kevin Durant, Right, Like, unless you're one of those guys, you don't just walk into the playoffs

in your early twenties and dominate. This is not how it works, right, So, Like, I don't necessarily think Jonathan kming is gonna be some playoff star right away, but his potential in the long run is what's making this complicated, And so having Wiggins on the roster still is a value. Drianfinny Smith gives you another wing, so that's option one.

You could also offer the same package for Tias Jones if you're looking for offensive creation, like once again this year, like Jonathan Minga being basically your second best offensive player not named Steph, although Clay's starting to play better too, But like you can argue Clay and Jonathan Kaminga as your other offensive options next to Steph is not great, right Tyas Jones has been one of the best pick

and role players in the league this year. He's getting one point one to two points per possession that rank sixth out of thirty six players to run at least four hundred. I think that's a deal that you could get done just based solely on the value of him Moody and what that could mean for the for the for the Wizards. Right, So, like those are just a couple of options. Now do those put the Warriors into contention? Probably not, But like I said, you owe it to

Steph to try. You owe it to Steph to try to give him more to contend with. But the bottom line is it's the rise of Jonathan Kminga. Even though it complicates this regular season as it pertains the timeline, it's undeniably a good thing outside of the context of this season. Like he looks to be on a star trajectory in a very two way sense, and like to put it simply, at the beginning of this year, it's

like Jonathan Kaminga can be a star. Like that's his potential now, Like is like it looks like he's headed that way, and that to me is a big leap in a positive direction for the Warriors. All Right, moving on to our mailbag. First question, in your opinion, what has happened to Jordan Poole is his steep decline in overall play all about his attitude to his new situation or his skills that much heightened by playing with Steph in the Warriors system. So, for disclaimer up front, I

haven't watched a ton of Wizards basketball this year. I've only watched a couple of their games. But here's the thing, And I started to notice this last year. In the twenty twenty two season, Jordan Poole played a very under control brand of basketball. He did occasionally take tough shots, but he was playing more within the flow of the offense.

Starting last year and then extending into this year, Jordan Poole has been leaning into like almost like his brand as being like this very flashy is the wrong word. I hate the negative connotations of it, but let's just call it beautiful, like focusing on the aesthetics of basketball, right, And like, here's the thing like making tough shots, is it looks great, you know, hitting that wild spin move into that turnaround fade away. Man, that makes for a

great Instagram reel. And I'm not downplaying that. I love that beauty in the game as well, but basketball is usually more productive when it's boring, and Jordan Poole actually has a lot of the capability to play some boring basketball too, And I just think for him it's typical young guard growth in the sense that like he's kind of lost track of his priorities a little bit, and give him a couple of years and he'll figure out that he cares more about winning, because he is a

champion at the end of the day. But he'll figure out that he cares more about winning and being the best basketball player he can be than he does about some of the more beauty oriented elements of the game. And I think he'll get on track. I don't think. I don't think the twenty two season was fluky. I just think it's more an indicator of inconsistency from a young guard, if that makes sense. Next question, Hey, Jason, can you please talk about the Sun's recent win streak.

They've been playing through adversity and deleting huge leads that other teams have had doing it with high level defensive energy and offensive brilliance. KD should be all defense this year with how much effort he's putting in. Thanks for all the great content. Reese from Perth Australia. Australia, Reese, thank you so much much for supporting the show. I sincerely appreciate it. And it's cool. It's always cool to see fans out outside of the United States, especially just

even beyond the support of this show. Just it's cool to see how global of a sport basketball is. It's something that I think it's underplayed when we talk about NFL versus NBA, and like, you know, the NBA's global sport. It's just it's not even on the same playing field as the NFL in terms of its potential in the grand scheme of things. And so I again, Reese, thanks again for supporting the show, and shout out to Australia. My buddy Matt actually played Australian rules football out there.

He was one of the groomsmen in my in my wedding, played center at the University of Arizona and went out and played AFL football out there for a little while. So the Suns, first of all, they're on my list to hit very soon. I just haven't gotten to them yet. Obviously my vacations have thrown a giant wrench into things, but we will do a more deep dive on the

Suns soon. They have a tough back to back on Sunday Monday against the Orlando Magic and the Miami Heat, and we'll probably we'd be talking a lot of Suns on Monday and Tuesday coming up. But they've won seven in a row. Most interesting part is their top ten in both defense and rebounding over that span, So really encouraging on the dirty work element side of things. Like again, like that's when we talk about like how the Suns were supposed to look like the twenty twenty one Brooklyn

Nets and they have it. Like people forget that the twenty twenty one Brooklyn Nets defended like they guarded, and that to me is like it is a two way perimeter skill game that ends up winning in the NBA, not just a one way perimeter skill game, if that makes sense. Some impressive wins in that seven game winning streak. They went into Los Angeles and smashed the Lakers. They went into New Orleans and won easily against the Pelicans. But they're really turning a corner when you zoom out,

Like Bradley Bial's played fourteen straight games. For all to talk about his health, He's been available for about a month now, they're eleven and three in those fourteen games that Bradley bial has played, is they're basically won at a fifty three win pace. In games that Bradley bial has been available, I think they're thirteen and seven in those games easily. The most exciting part of all this, though,

is Devin Booker has gotten going. He started the season hot and then cooled off massively after that injury that he had, and like just now in this last you know, like month or so, he's starting to look like the

Devin Booker from the playoffs last year. And that to me is you know, kind of a prerequisite to the Suns being a real threat because again, like if Devin Booker is gonna be what he was a few years ago, where he's kind of like a second tier star, I shouldn't even say second zer, almost like third tier star, because to me, it's like there's the top top guys, and then there's like the other superstars, and then there's

the guys that are right below superstar. And like Devin Booker used to be in that tier, but recently he's been showing like throughout the regular season last year, in the playoffs, last year's starting to show this like higher level. Like now he's like kind of like a Tier B superstar, right, and like it's important for him to get to that level because so is Kevin Durant and two of those guys just gives you a much better chance to win. I know, big shock, but Devin Booker getting getting going.

I think he's played a big but they're definitely turning a corner and we will talk more about them next week. Next question, Jason, would you give us a trade scenario on what the Lakers would have to give up to get Bruce Brown and de Jonte Murray. So, Yovan Booja came on the show yesterday and we aired the show today, but it came on the show yesterday and we did like an hour on the Lakers trade deadline, and we did a bunch of scenarios surrounding to Jontay Murray and

Bruce Brown and even some other guys. So make sure you check that out on our YouTube feed. Also shout out to Yovan. He's been awesome for us and we just signed him to be on the show twice a month through free agency this year, so for Lakers fans, basically once every other week. We're gonna have you know, forty five minutes or so with Yovonn where we talk you know, not just reporting surrounding the trade deadline, but also also like just intel coming from within the locker room.

Yovonn travels around with the team like he's like gonna be with them on this Grammy road trip. He's gonna be able to give us some insights of what's happening inside the locker room. And then obviously when we get outside of the playoffs, he's gonna be big for us surrounding the draft in free agency. So shout out to jovon officially going to be a recurring guest on The Hoops Tonight Show for the rest of this season. Bext question, what is the value of screen setting in the NBA?

I feel like one of the reasons for Dame struggles can be because Jiannis is not setting good enough screens for him like Nurkics used to do in Portland. I also feel like it affects you, honest, because since the second defender doesn't have to step up as much, it clogs the pain for him. Do you think this is a reason why their pick and roll has not been as great as we thought. So here's the thing I've watched. God, I've watched so many Damianis pick and rolls this year,

and Dave, like Giannis, is not a good screener. It's not exactly surprising he you know, hasn't really had a ton of practice with it over the years, right, Like that was something that early on in you know, twenty nineteen, twenty twenty twenty one, like he just wouldn't do all that much, right, And so there's a certain element of like kind of like learning how to do it. But at the end of the day, the coverage that is implemented in most cases against the Bucks kind of dictates

whether or not a screen is as necessary. So, first of all, is screening important in the NBA. Absolutely, It's most important in when it comes to pick and roll in a drop coverage. The main reason why is, like

just visualize it. So a drop coverage, the big man guarding the screener, if this is the basket, the big man guarding the screener is back further towards the basket, right, and then the on ball defender is chasing over the top of the screen, right, So there's this gap there and to give the offensive player an opportunity to work

in that gap. You need to set a solid enough screen so that the offensive player can get over the top while dragging this guy behind, so that he can operate in this mid range to get to his wide open looks or maybe pull the drop coverage big up and make something good happen from there. So in that specific situation, like screen setting is vitally important, the in blitzing situations and in hard hedges and shows and things like that, it's actually more important to make yourself available

on the role quicker. And so a lot of these times, like like Giannis, he could set a better screen on Dame's man, but even if he did, like Dame's immediately running into the hedge, the hedger or the screen defender right, And so a lot of times like Giannis is slipping

out of the screen pretty quick. You'll watch, just just watch damianis pick and rolls, and you'll see like he runs over to screen the guy and he's immediately bailing out of it into the short role which he's just trying to make himself available for the pass as quickly as possible as Dame is facing a second defender, the second part of it is icing. So on ice coverage is a pick and roll coverage that you typically see

on the sides of the floor. And so imagine Dame on the like imagine you know the baskets here like I said, and here's your arc right and Dame is on the right wing and Giannis comes up to set a ball. A lot of times, what teams will do is ice those side pick and rolls, meaning the guy guarding Dame will jump high side and basically stand between Dame and the screen and not allow him to use it. And so at that point, same exact sort of thing.

Dame's job there is to quickly reject the screen, meaning drive away from the screen, which will then allow him to quickly engage the screen defender. And then as the on ball guy is now chasing him as he's rejecting the screen, Jannis has an opening in that gap created by the ice coverage. So once again it's more important for him to slip out of it as quickly as possible.

And so again, like, do I think Giannis is a fantastic screen or no, But I think specifically with a lot of the coverages that Milwaukee is facing, it's more important for Giannis and Dame to kind of figure out the angles for slipping and how to get the ball to him quickly and in space where he can see the floor and make quick reads whether or not he has an opportunity to drive or to make a pass.

Great question though, thought that was really interesting. Two more, what is the next step for Philly go for depth or another all star talent assuming Joel can figure it out in the playoffs and Maxie will be effective. So those are two big ifs. If Joel can be it can figure it out in the playoffs, and if Tyrese Maxy can be effective. To me, I look at it like this, like, who are the other two best? Kind of like front court folk CRuMs? Right, I should say

three best? Right, it's Anthony Davis, that Tiannas and Tenna komb Boats Nicola Jokic. What do those guys have, Like Anthony Davis has Lebron James and Austin Reeves and D'Angelo Russells. He's got all of this offensive skill around him to kind of set him up in spots. Right, Uh, Nicole Jokic is one of the best shot makers in the NBA.

The guy one of the best guys at making tough pull up, step back, iso pick and roll jump shots, right, and so that basically puts their their two man game in a very u in a position where it's very difficult to guard. And specifically the reason why I bring those guys as it translates to the postseason. And so here's the thing. If Tyrees Maxy can bring the same level of volume and efficiency to the playoffs this year that he does in the regular season, then yeah, that's great.

And now it's like, you know, I've seen a lot of rumors surrounding Bruce Brown to the to the sixers basically as and I don't know, I guess you're looking at him as an upgrade of that two spot right of where ded Anthony Milton is. But to me, that only works or makes sense if Joel Embiid and Tyree Maxy can do what you said, which has reached their

regular season impact in the postseason. But last year as a secondary offensive initiator off of James Harden catching the second best perimeter defender tyros Maxsey went down six percent true shooting percentage from regular season to the postseason. And

so that's where it gets complicated. And like that's where you have to have tough conversations because Joel Embid is still relatively young, but he's got an injury history and he's huge, and so like I don't think he's one of those guys necessarily that you can I'm not saying you can't, but like there's some there's some risk involved as it pertains to like can Joel Embiid still be

at a superstar level when he's thirty three? Right, So, like there's a little more urgency surrounding Joel, And so there are tough conversations for Darylmulready to have with his front office about, you know, is Tyree Maxy good enough at it as a young guard to be the number two next to Joel and Joel Embiid the same way that Jamal Murray is for Nicole Jokic, the same way that Lebron James and Austin Reeves is for for Anthony Davis, the same way that Damian Lillard is for for Giannis

and Ten and Kumpo. Right, And so that's where that's where it gets complicated, because like that's why I actually pitched Philly as like an interesting team for Dejonte Murray trade, because now you just have a lot more offensive skill in your backcourt. Another guy you can consistently beat people off the dribble and get the defense into rotation. To me, that's more of an offensive minded upgrade of that of

that two spot. But like at the end of the day, like who's the all star guy you'd be going after. I mean, like maybe you go all in for like a Lori marking in and you add a lot of shooting and size into that front court like there, But like that's the thing is, like I'm not necessarily sure

that there's that type of all in move available. But from a philosophical standpoint, it's just important for Daryl Morey in the front office to have a conversation about the timeline of like Tyrese Maxey's rise as it pertains to Joel Anthony and his prime and how I keep seeing Joel Anthony, Joel Embiid and his Joel shout out Joel Anthony on the Miami Heat back in the early twenty tens. But just it's just kind of like weighing that timeline there.

And you guys know how I feel about trusting young players in the playoffs. But that's for the sixers to decide. Lastly, before we get out of here, have you been talked to by a player that you have covered, If so, how was it So, Yes, I have, and it has been overwhelmingly positive. I have not I've seen examples of players like really going after members of the media that to this point hasn't happened to me yet. It's been pleasant.

People forget, like I've spent my young adulthood around the game of basketball, so like I've talked to lots of NBA players, have played with lots of NBA players, Like there are guys all over the league that I've played in games with before, So like, for me, it just kind of feels somewhat natural, just because I've had those kinds of conversations before. But I will say it's surreal from the same point of it being just kind of a sign of the show gaining some legitimacy, which is

obviously something that I don't take for granted. But at the same time, like, I know that there's an ugly side to that too, and I'm sure, I'm sure event it will eventually happen that I'll say something about a player and then they'll come after me. But that's just kind of the name of the game, right that. Like one of the things that I'm most interested in, if I ever do player interviews in the future, is picking players' brains about the media player relationship, because I think it's

super fascinating. Like, like, I know, I do the work, like I know, I study the film. I know that I don't just come up here and talk for the

sake of talking. But at the same time, like I'm not an NBA player, and even though i have a basketball background, and even though I have played, and even though I think I'm a good basketball player, I'm not an NBA player, And so like, imagine the roles were reversed, and I'm an NBA player and this dude who played in college but didn't make it out of the it didn't make it to the NBA is like, you know, sitting in his guest bedroom talking shit. You know, Like

I'd be like, what the hell, dude, you know? Like, so, like I do find that dynamic super interesting because on one hand, it's like that's my job. My job is to not just come up here and praise players, but to offer criticism. Like I try to be like incredible.

I try to just be fair as much as I can, but at the same time, like there's a certain like respect barrier as it pertains to the NBA, and like, I just have so much respect for NBA players and what they accomplished, and like, I just think it's fascinating and I would love to pick players' brains about that in the future, just specifically the relationship between players in the media. But yeah, I have talked to NBA players

since I started the show. It went well, obviously, to respect those players privacy, I won't mention anybody by name. All Right, guys, that's all I have for today. As always, I appreciate you guys for supporting the show. The game plan for the rest of this weekend is we're going live on YouTube after Lakers Warriors tomorrow night. That game is on ABC, I believe, and then we'll be taking Sunday off and then we'll be back on Monday for power rankings as well as game breakdowns. I'll see you

guys tomorrow night. The volume