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Happy Opening Night in the NBA. We've had many long months of hypothetical basketball, theoretical basketball, historical basketball, everything other than meaningful basketball to talk about on the show. And I'm very, very excited to break down a real life NBA game today. The Denver Nuggets on Ring Night put forward the championship effort to beat the Los Angeles Lakers. Are gonna be breaking that game down from the perspective
of both teams. And then later tonight we're gonna have a separate video breaking down Sun's Warriors, So come back to the feed later on tonight to get a breakdown of that game as well. You guys are the joke before we get started. We launched a brand new YouTube channel this year. Hoops Tonight is now on its own YouTube channel. It mean a lot to me if you guys would take a second to just scroll down and
hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our social media feeds as well, wherever you get like TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, That's where I'm doing like video content over the course of the year, show announcements things like that, and then our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. And we're doing mailbags throughout the year at the end of shows this year, so drop mailbag questions in the
YouTube comments. Right, let's talks some basketball. So you know a lot of people going into this game tonight, we're hoping for essentially the birth of a rivalry between the Nuggets and the Lakers, and there is you know, the ingredients are there, right, Like You've got big names, superstars on both ends, all time great players and guys like Lebron James and NICOLEA Jokic, You have like a win where the Lakers beat the Nuggets in the Conference finals
convincingly four games to one, or it's the same course Lebron and ad versus Jokic, Murray Michael Porter Junior, but they're not quite in their primes yet and it's different groups of role players. Fast forward to twenty twenty three, the Nuggets sweep the Lakers, but like Lebron's a little out of his prime and they've swapped out the role players. So like in theory, you look at it, it's like
kind of the same cores one to one. There might be something here that could be a rivalry, but in order for it to be a rivalry, the Lakers have to get up to the Nuggets level, and right now they are just not. I look at the Nuggets more as like a measuring stick right now than a rival. It's a a status as a basketball team for the
Lakers to aspire to. And I mean you could kind of feel it coming off the screen in this particular game that the Lakers, even though they had a core identity in last year's postseason, they're still kind of figuring stuff out with this new group, especially with some specific
role players that they've brought in. In addition to that, just the kind of convoluted nature of their ball handling, and they've got so many different guys on the court that could kind of run the show, and like it's like, who's gonna actually grab the reins here and run this thing. It's like, okay, Austin's running two or three actions in a row. Now de Lo's running the few actions that are okay. Now we're attacking with Lebron out of switches
at the high post in a face up game. Anthony Davis is taking over for long stretches, and like kind of everybody's kind of figuring out where they fit in in the offense. That's not the case with the Nuggets. The Nuggets know exactly what they are. They are the quintessential basketball team. Jokic is the offensive full crumb. He's running everything. Jamal Murray is the primary ball handler. He's initiating the action as the perimeter player every single time
down the floor. Knavious call of Pope is the second side shot creator. If Jamal Murray runs an action and he doesn't get a good look, he's gonna swing it over to the other side, and then they're gonna run the same damn thing or some other form of dribble handoff with Kntavious Calbo Pope to get something going. Michael Porter Junior not running anything like he had occasionally a transition
push where I get an offensive rebound put back. He had a handful of plays where he looked to be aggressive, but for the most part he's just spotting up at Aaron Gordon's just doing dirty work on the back line, like cutting along the baseline, attacking on the offensive glass. Uh with the occasional switch posting up. They know exactly where they who they are, They know exactly where they fit in in terms of the overall roles of the team.
They are the quintessential perfect fitting basketball team. It's one of my favorite things about the game of basketball. The Nuggets are a very talented team, but they are not as talented as some of the more talented teams at the top of the league. But you are more than the sum of your parts when you fit naturally as a basketball team, and it goes beyond even just the players. I think Mike Bloone doesn't amazing job getting them to
commit to his defensive scheme. Their defensive rotations were sharp tonight. They were super physical at the point of attack. They were frustrating guys like Daniel Russell and Austin Reeves. It was a very very impressive performance on that end. On the other end of the floor, their sets are sophisticated.
It's multiple screening actions flowing into their two man game, which makes it so that Jamal Murray always has the player trailing several feet behind him, which gets him into a position where he can either take and make easy pull up jump shots or draw multiple defenders to open up things for Nikola Jokics. The Denver Nuggets are already a finished product in so many different ways. They are the bar that the Lakers need to get to, and the Lakers, on the other hand, they have some very
very clear weaknesses that they have to work out. Their transition defense is an issue. They still have issues with perimeter size and getting long contested rebounds. They have these clear flaws that they have to work out. The hierarchy of their offense is still kind of convoluted over the top shot making. We're gonna talk about it in a minute,
but like again, I'm impressed by the Lakers fight. They fought and weathered some runs, and I mean they I think they had it within three in the fourth quarter, right, But like, here's the deal was, were all the games close in the Western Conference Finals? Yes? They were, But the Nuggets won all four of them because when things slow down, they can out execute the Lakers at a much higher level in those specific situations, and the Lakers have a long way to go to catch up. We'll
talk more about the Lakers in a little bit. I wanted to again, I was really impressed with the the Nuggets defense. They were bringing Jokic up high and pick and roll on the specifically on the D'Angelo Russell pick and rolls, but often on the Austin Reeves pick and rolls as well. They were rotating really sound on the back end. They were being physical with D'Angelo Russell and talking shit to him. That's kind of the strategy they use in the Western Conference Finals, and what do you know,
he ended up struggling. We'll end up talking a little bit more about D'Angelo Russell in a minute. Nikole Jokicic just dominated Anthony Davis. He just physically cannot guard him one on one, which is the wildest thing in the world.
I'm not sure that there is a player in the NBA that can even make Jokic really work all that hard one on one I was I had somebody throw the name Joel Embiid out there, and like, it's hard because you don't you only see him play twice a year and yok and b does kind of have the size to kind of absorb some of those drop steps
from Jokic. But even then, it's like if Joel Embiid was the magic elicksur for Jokic, He's just not even in the same stratosphere as a defensive players some of the guys at the top of the league, and so like Jokis just puts you in a real predicament in the sense that you physically cannot match up to him
with any individual defender. And then when you combine that in a true two man game with a guy like Jamal Murray who is as a legitimate weapon and pull up jump shooting situations, you can make you pay if you duck under picks by knocking down pull up threes, can make you pay if you trail picks by knocking down pull up jump shots, and floaters can make you pay with the pass if you bring multiple defenders over, can make you pay on the switch if you put
a small defender on him. Like he just had the perfect complimentary game to what Nikola Jokic brings to the table. I thought Jamal Murray looked like an All Star this year. That's the whole kind of storyline surrounding Jamal Murray this year is can he be the regular season impactful player that he was in the playoffs. I've been saying all summer, Hell, yeah he can. The dude got hurt and last year he was coming back from an injury. The year before
that he was out with an injury. Year before that, he literally was coming off of an incredibly short layoff out of the playoffs in the bubble, which directly led to some of the physical issues that he had that season. This is his first healthy, normal season as the player that he was in the playoffs last year. I expect him to produce like this all year long. Aaron Gordon looked fantastic. He was beaten guys in post up mismatches, just like he did in the NBA Finals. You just
can't switch a smaller guard onto him. He can work his way inside in the post and score on him, beating him on the offensive glass cutting along the back line. In transition, he had a bunch of big plays. Aaron Gordon was just awesome. The Denver Nuggets are a well
oiled machine. Their bench had some issues in the second half, but their bench had issues all year last year, and it ended up just not mattering and so like again, like we can talk about the hypothetical ceiling that dam and Yamis can reach, and we can talk about the hypothetical ceiling that Drew Holliday and Christops Porzingis can lift the Boston Celtics too, And we can talk about the hypothetical ceiling that Bradley Beal can lift the Phoenix Suns to,
or what the Lakers might be able to accomplish over the course of the season. But at the end of the day, the Denver Nuggets are right now one of the best teams of the last decade and they are currently clicking at that level. They are going to click at that level all season long, and as long as they are healthy when they get to April, they're gonna just be a royal pain in the ass for anybody
to beat. And That's why I picked them as my championship favorite, even among the super talented teams that we have at the top of the league. Let's talk some Lakers for a few minutes. This matchup is tough for them. They struggle with perimeter size, right, Like you got Austin Reeves and D'Angelo Russell as guys that are, you know, decent, like they're six four sixty five, but they're both not fantastic athletes, right, Like Contavio's called what Pope's a better athlete,
Jamal Murray's better athlete. Michael Porter Junior has size on either of them in any specific help defense situation. Right, Torrian Prince has some of the length, but he's kind of thin, right and ECTU Torrian Prince had some impressive perimeter defense possessions on Jamal Murray today. I thought that was encouraging. Torrian Prince was one of the bright spots for the Lakers in this particular game. But you could
tell the Nuggets have a mental advantage as well. They're talking shit, they're getting guys out of rhythm, they're being physical, they are feeling themselves because they know they have the Lakers number. It kind of reminds me again this is not a direct cump because the Nuggets are the defending
champions and the Clippers have never won anything. But the Clippers in twenty twenty kind of had a similar mental advantage over the Lakers, where he can tell they just feel like they're better, and that manifests on the floor in a lot of different ways. Confident. I mean, I know all the analytics guys like to pretend like there's no such thing as the hot hand or confidence or
anything along those lines. That stuff is real, in my opinion, and like the psych cology of basketball really does matter, and I think the Nuggets have a psychological advantage here. They can attack mismatches in size all over the floor, whether it's Jamal Murray didn't do too much post up attacking in this game, but Aaron Gordon can beat them, even the Michael Porter junior transition basket. It's just because
he's bigger than everybody, right. And then Nikola Jokic has the number of the very best defender in the world and the best defender on the Lakers and Anthony Davis, so they're put into a tough spot. You saw their point of attack defense be a problem in this game. Again, point of attack defense is the ability to contain ball handlers on the perimeter and the ability to navigate ball
screens to funnel players into your rim protection. Right, And like you saw, you know again, when Torrian Prince was on the floor. It looked okay, but you saw it like when Gay Vincent was guarding him, when Dangela Russell was guarding him. Jamal Murray's consistently drawing fouls and consistently
getting separation. And that's an issue that's gonna manifest over the course of not only the season, but in the postseason if the Lakers don't either get Jared Vanderbilt both healthy and capable of being a threat offensively or make some sort of deal around the deadline to improve their perimeter defense, because when they it's not just teams like the Nuggets. Any team that has high level guard play and good screeners is going to put the Lakers in
rotation a lot. And when they're in rotation, Anthony Davis can't protect the rim. And when Anthony Davis can't protect the rim, they have a pretty big steep drop off with their defense. And so again that's gonna be something to watch with the Lakers all year long, but specifically in this matchup their ability to defend at the point of attack and then over the top shot making. Again, like Lebron hit a three, Anthony Davis, you know, I think he hit one three in this game. I'd have
to look at the box score. But like, there wasn't a ton of like high level over the top shot making from the Lakers in this game, just like you would expect after what we saw from them last year. But time and time again, when the Lakers would make a run and get the game back to five, seven, four points, whatever it was, it'd be another Jamal Murray pull up jump shot, another Contavious call Well Pope curling jump shot coming off of a screen, another Nicola jok
It's popping jump shot at top of the key. They are just an incredibly skilled basketball team, and when things really slow down and they execute their skill manifests in those half court possessions. So like again, the Lakers are clearly a level below the Nuggets, and that is something they're gonna have to resolve over the course of the season.
We're gonna be monitoring that closely. We're gonna look at all the different things that kind of take shape over the year, what deals they might have to make, rotational changes, different lineup structures and things like that. But at the end of the day, the Nuggets are just better and it's gonna take a little while for the Lakers to get to that point. That doesn't mean doom for the Lakers.
They play eighty two games, they're gonna be more talented than at least twenty five of the thirty teams that they play over the course of the season. Right, they're going to have opportunities to get through this season and be in a position to attack this Denver team over two weeks as opposed to one game. And there were positives. Right,
Anthony Davis looks great. That's the crazy part, and that's how good Nikol Jokicic's ad was really damn good in this game, and Jokic was just better than him because he is just better than him. But at the end of the day, that's a positive. Anthony Davis looks great. I thought Lebron looked great. They limited his minutes. I think that's a good thing. There's no reason for him to play too much with the amount of talent that's
on this team. It allows Lebron to be I noticed it in particular, like Lebron has a tendency to float through games. He'll play thirty six, thirty seven minutes, but he'll take these long stretches where he's kind of disengaged. Lebron was more engaged in his minutes because he was playing shorter shifts, and like the Lakers were a big positive when Lebron was on the floor in this game.
I think that's encouraging, right. And you saw him be able to attack from the high post, attack and transition as a just a downhill threat, right, like making solid reads when the Nuggets would offer nail help kicking the shooters. I thought Lebron looked great in this game. I think that's a positive, right. I did think it was interesting that the Lakers kind of took off in the second half when Lebron started being more aggressive offensively. It's something
to keep in mind. We were talking about the hierarchy of the ball handling for the Nuggets and how clear it is. I'd like the Lakers to do the same thing, to simplify their ball handling structure and lean more on one guy. Try to get one of Austin or DL to operate primarily as an off ball player and just kind of simplify that decision making process. Right, So, Dangela Russell looked fantastic all preseason and then looked pretty bad
in this particular game. Right, had some spot up. Three is that he knocked down he made some plays, but definitely wasn't as impactful as he was in the preseason. Why is that time and time again, when the intensity ratchets up and the physicality ratches up, that's when D'Angelo Russell struggles to finish around the ram, struggles to get separation and pick and roll, struggles to make passes out
of pick and roll. And again, there's value in D'angela Russell kind of reminds you of me of James Harden. He can eat regular season innings and he can provide basically a mediocre offensive fulcrum when you need it, right, but in intense games, and again, this is season opener, This is not the same as a game in February. This game had a playoff feel in terms of the
overall physicality in those environments. He's going to go down a level and that's something keep an eye on over the course of the season because the Lakers do have the ability to slot Gabe Vincent and Austin Reeves in the backcourt. They have three forwards they can afford to get rid of one. Right, You saw ruy Hot Chamura look kind of like the odd man out tonight, right, So,
like you could see a scenario. And again I'm not saying you do this now, but if fifty games from now, if you're in February and Dilo is still kind of struggling in the big games and ruy Ha Chamura is still struggling to find his role off the bench, that's two pieces you can package together with two first round draft picks, and you can bring back a thirty million dollar player, a good thirty million dollar player, and that could give that could potentially be a ceiling razer for
this team. But again, like as good as the Angela Russell is, and he's gonna have a lot of great knights, and he's gonna have a lot of great sequences time and time again, when the physicality ratchets up in these bigger matchups against the better teams at the top of the league, he tends to struggle a little bit. I thought the second half bench unit end of the third quarter,
early fourth looked good. There's a lot of Lebron, James and Christian would match up attacking against smaller defenders, either at the high post and out of the post. I thought that was an interesting thing that you can see the Lakers do more over the course of the season. You saw d'An Angela Russell kind of operate making those post entries and then basically just spotting up on the wing, and Lebron's really good at punishing the nail help there,
which just quick passes into the shooting pocket. So I thought that was encouraging because the bench units kind of struggled during the regular season, and again, in the big picture, not every team is Denver like this is a really good team on the road Championship ring night. It's a hard game to win. It doesn't spell doom for the season,
but it's the measuring stick. It's the level they have to get to over the course of the eighty two Obviously, my Arizona Diamondbacks just made it to the World Series, which I'm super excited about. So we still have a couple of weeks of baseball. We have the NFL that's
deep in the swing of things. Obviously, college football is in the heart of the season, and now we have the return of the NBA and college basketball right around the corner, so there's no shortage of events to attend right now, and all summer long we've had concerts and comedy shows, and so with all of this, there's a lot of tickets out there for these events, and the best way to get tickets to any of these events is on game Time, the fastest growing ticketing app in
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and have some fun this week. Download the game Time app today, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. So I had a radio hit this morning in Phoenix, and it was funny because we ended up talking d backs for about a third of it, But it's just you have to understand, like a man, baseball was like such a huge thing for me growing up. It was like literally all I did until I picked up a basketball because
I kind of got into basketball late. So like I'd go to school, go to liter League practice, and then I'd go watch the d Backs every single night. So this playoff run has like thrown me for a loop because it's like it makes me feel like I'm a
kid again. Tonight, honestly to God, was really difficult to navigate doing my job while also watching one of the most stressful baseball games that I've ever watched, you know, the d Backs on the road in Philly against the terrifying bats of Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber, and I would love to never see a Zach Wheeler sweeper or four seamer or two seamer ever again in my life.
That was absolutely terrifying. But after we talked to some d Backs on the radio this morning, we talked some sons and before the interview, I was doing some research on the Sun's preseason just a Deeper Dive, and Devin Booker was thirteen for twenty three on pull up jump
shots in preseason, I'm like, that's freaking insane. So like, last year in the regular season, he was a hair under fifty percent on effective field goal percent to jump pull up jump shots, and then he went up way up to like almost sixty percent in the postseason, and then in the preseason he's at like almost seventy five percent in EFFECTI feel percentage. I'm like, man, it feels
like Devin Booker's kind of taking a leap. And then last year in the regular season was the first time that it really dawned on me just how advanced of a playmaker Devin Booker has become in this phase of his career. And so as I was sitting down on the computer, I'm looking at Devin Booker's age, and I'm like, he hit all these crazy pull up jump shots last year. Remember that Game three, Game four sequence against Denver when
he got like so outrageously hot. It was one of the hottest shooting streaks that we've ever seen from a pull up jump shooter in the postseason. And I remember, though, the whole thing was like, and I'm guilty of this as well. We're all like, he's just not going to keep making these right, Like he's got to eventually start missing, right. And don't get me wrong, I don't expect him to shoot seventy five percent on him forever. But you know,
people used to say that thing about Steph. He's never gonna be able to just consistently shoot threes at this level, right, And I started looking at the Basketball Reference page and I'm like, holy shit, Like Devin Booker is only twenty six years old, and Steph Curry in two twenty fifteen MVP season. His first MVP season was when he was twenty six years old, And all I could think of is, like, you could make a legitimate case that Devin Booker was
the best player on the Suns last year. And I still think Devin Booker is a better player than Devin or scuse me, I still think Vin Durant is a better player than Devin Booker. Overall. I think he deserves that kind of like benefit of the doubt right now.
But here's the thing, Like, if Devin Booker takes a leap and he becomes a better player than Kevin Durant, not through some sort of decline from Kevin Durant, but just through his own ascension to bona fide superstardom that completely changes the calculus for everything surrounding this Phoenix Suns team because he is now playing like a top five player in the world and has been for a really long time. He played like a top five player all preseason,
he played like a top five player all postseason. This is not a blip. This is a trend of Devin Booker ascending to the level of the players at the top of the league. And again, like we talked about all that pull up jump shooting, but down the street actually was three playmaking possessions from Devin Booker that turned this game around. So we have a classic high pick and roll on the right side of the floor to
go to the ball. Again, we talked about this concept a lot, especially with the Suns, you know, the idea of defending pick and roll three on two and the need to have a guy in the weakside corner that can like knock down shots right And we're gonna talk about Josh cog in a minute, because he hits this one. But like what ends up happening in a lot of these cases is when you put two to the ball. So like Devin Booker's got the basketball, he's dribbling to
his right, coming off of a ball screen. The guy who's guarding him is trailing him from behind. In this case, I think it was Gary Payton, so Peyton's coming from behind. Kevon Looney, the screen defender is up at the level of the screen to try to stop the Devin Booker pull up jump shot that's going in every single damn time. Well, the low man is the player that is guarding Joshakoge in the weak side corner, and he's coming over and
he's basically defending the action three on two. And in that case, if you don't have one a playmaker that has the ability to make that cross court skip pass to the shooting pocket for the shoot during the week's I corn I've talked about that all summer long and all preseason long, the playmakers that are capable of making the cross court feed over the top of the defense when teams guard pick and roll three on two, because it's difficult to get high enough to make that pass.
Usually the low man's a little bit of an athlete. Now that's not necessarily the case with the Golden State Warriors in this in this particular game, but like there's typically a lot of length on the ball. There's length in the pick and roll defender, right, it's usually an athlete that's coming up to the level of the screen, an athlete trailing the play, and an athlete that's the lowman.
And it's difficult to get enough separation from the perimeter defenders to elevate over the top and make that pass. And Devin Booker was able to make that pass. Then on the very next possession they run this interesting kind of like variation of Spain pick and roll with Eric Gordon, where Air Gordon has a ball, it gives the ball to Devin book where they clear out. Nurkics comes up and sets the ball screen. After Nurkis sets the screen literally,
Eric Gordon goes over and screens Kevon Looney. And on that play, because Air Gordon screens Cavan kaval Luney can't help Devin Booker on that pull up jump shot. Steph Curry, who's the guy guarding Eric Gordon, has to basically hedge or show on that Devin Booker pull up and because of that, when he shows, Eric Gordon pops to the three point line. Kavan Looney, because he's a big man, is accustomed to kind of staying in the ball screen action. He kind of leaks back towards the middle. Steph has
to close out all the way to the wing. Devin Booker, on time on target hits Eric Gordon in the shooting pocket. Steph is too slow to close out and he knocks down the shot. And then finally the biggest possession of the game, after Steph hits the three on the offensive rebound to get it back to one or back to two, they go down another Devin Booker use of nurkis pick and roll two to the ball. Right, we have Gary Payton chasing over the top. Looney's showing high. Booker just elevates.
This time, they don't help as much. They don't aggressively help from the week side corner, so Nurkic is able to catch on the run. Nurkic catches on the run and makes the driving layup. One of the biggest narratives surrounding this Phoenix Suns team is like they need a
point guard. They need a point guard. And don't get me wrong, like I think you saw the absence of Bradley Beal tonight when Kevin Durant was kind of not having a very great game by his standards, and so every single time Devin Booker went off the floor, there was kind of a crater in the sun's kind of offensive flow, so to speak, right, and Bradley Beal is gonna help with that just because it allows you to constantly have two of those guys on the floor. But
they don't need a point guard. It's like talking about the Celtics needing point guard. At the end of the day. It's your top tier ball handler, your number one guy that you're giving the basketball to at the end of the game, and his ability to make plays off the bounce for your team and to constantly get the defense in rotation, which allows you to make the right reads out of that and get quality shots. As long as
you have that, you don't need a point guard. And so I again like, if Devin Booker is going to play like this the way he's played now for the better part of a year, it's not about what you can get from the point guard position. Devin Booker is your primary shot creator on the stretch of these games. Devin Booker finished the game with thirty two points, six rebounds, and eight assists on thirteen for twenty one shooting did have six turnovers as something to keep an eye on,
but I just have been blown away by him. And again, like Kevin Durant struggled a little bit with the physicality of Golden State, leaned on a lot of really tough, like fade away jump shots out of the post, and he wasn't making them. And look, here's the thing, Kevin Durant's gonna figure it out. Kevin Durant, like just last season shot sixty percent on pull up twos. So Kd's
gonna figure it out. But like, if Devin Booker's going to be better than KD, that's fantastic news for the Suns because now you're not talking about, you know, a single top five player and then another top fifteen player and then another top thirty player. You're talking about two top six or seven players before you get to Bradley Beal.
That completely changes the math, especially since the only other team that has two top ten players in the league are Lebron j Anthony Davis, and they're both on the tail end of that top ten, right, And if you have two players that are that are in legitimate conversation for being top tier superstars, that kind of flips that talent equation into a crazy direction. I wanted to shout out Josha Coog, So we talked about the corner three and again that that's the big thing, Like like, when
this team is healthy, you have that question. It's like, are you gonna put if we have BeO Booker Durant at the foe, you need another perimeter player out there. And ideally that's a guy who can guard at the point of attack and a guy that can consistently make the defense pay for not guarding him in situations like that.
Tagging the roller situation that Josha Kogi got the wide open corner three, well, you know, the conversation kind of coming into this was like, do you want Joshak Cogi used this like wrecking ball of an athlete who could do all these things but is going to struggle to make the offensive plays. Or would you rather have, you know, Grayson Allen, a guy who's like gonna be more reliable allegedly although he couldn't shoot tonight, but a more reliable
or an Eric Gordon as another option. The guy's gonna be more reliable to knock down those shots, but not bring the same level of defensive upside that you get from joshak Coog And that was a big moment tonight for Joshakogi to show that in a huge possession at the end of a game when he was completely ignored in a three on two situation and pick and roll that when Devin Booker trusted him to knock down the shot,
he rose up and he knocked the shotdown. And when you combine that with everything else he does, because he wrecks havoc at the point of attack with his physicality and his athleticism slashing off the wing, like just catching and ripping and going to the rim. We're gonna talk about that in a minute, but it has to do with this specific type of athlete, the transition drives that he had in this game, getting all the way to
the room, crashing the offensive glass. He had four offensive rebounds, finished the game with seventeen points, and like, if he's gonna knock down the big corner threes when they matter, then forget about the some of the other issues that this roster has. If Josha Kogi is going to be available to help in those situations and reliable on the offensive end, that just solves a bunch of your problems. And this kind of goes back to the conversation we
had surrounding Bruce Brown in the postseason last year. That bit shorter, a little bit stockier, stout, athletic wing with long arms, right, Not the tall, lanky kind of like high center of gravity Herb Jones, Jade McDaniels type. I'm talking more like the fire hydrants, the guys that are like six ' six sixty seven, usually about two hundred and twenty pounds or more, usually super long arms and freaky athletic.
The Bruce Browns, the Terrence Man's, the Josha Kogi's. We're seeing that type of player become immensely valuable in the modern MBA. And a huge part, huge reason for that, in my opinion, is as the game is spread out more and become more perimeterive oriented and more skill oriented, you have a lot of thin players on the floor, guys that aren't especially strong and stout at their position, and when you have a low center of gravity, it's extremely difficult to cut that player off on a drive.
Does that make sense? Like if you have a high center of gravity, if I slide my feet and I initiate some sort of contact like a hip check or a little bit of a hand check. I can probably contain you in that situation. But if you have a low center of gravity, even if I do put my hand on you, or I do kind of hip check you, you can blow through that because you're your center of gravity is low and you're bringing a lot of power
to that drive. And that's what caught. That's what allowed Bruce Brown to like just rip through D'Angelo Russell all the way to the rim. That's what allows you know, Bruce Brown or Josh Kogi or Terrence Man to crash the offensive glass and be very difficult to box out because there's thinner, skinnier players that are trying to wrap their arms around and box a player like that out.
That brings that athleticism to the table. Again, we gotta keep an eye on that because the teams are teams aren't going to respond to this one game with Josh Kogi hitting that corner three and then just start guarding him all the time, like they're going to ignore him a lot in those situations. And we'll see in the bigger picture if he can make enough of those shots. But I thought It was a super encouraging first game from Joshakog and in general, a super impressive win for
the Suns. You got nothing from Grayson Allen. Eric Gordon was ice cold until he hit those two late threes. I think one was on an offensive rebound, and then we talked about that kind of like weird funk Keys Spain pick and roll possession that they ran. Kevin Durant was seven for twenty two from the field, and as a team, you had nineteen turnovers and you went on the road into one of the hardest places in the NBA to win on the road, and you gotta win.
Huge win for the Phoenix Suns. I thought it was really impressive showdown with the Lakers on Thursday in LA. It's gonna be fun when the Lakers are gonna want to get a bounce back win. It's a bad matchup for the Lakers because they have weak point of attack defense. I think that Thursday night game is gonna be really fun. We will be breaking that game down immediately after it's over.
One other positive note for the Suns, I thought Nurkic again defensively, he was a mess and that's something they're gonna have to figure out. Did have a big late block though on Jonathan kaminga Jonathan Kamenica kind of randomly just decided to co opt to possession in semi transition to kind of forced things. But Nurkis made a nice play helping from the left elbow and came down and made a nice block. But he did rebound the hell out of the basketball. He saw his size be really imposing.
Nurkic is legitimately very big, had that big play on the role late where he kind of caught the pass from Devin Booker on the slip and went to the basket, and you saw his screw be a factor in this game, his ability to get his perimeter players separation, and then just in general, shout out to Frank Vogel. He's done a really nice job breeding a culture of physicality and commitment to the defensive end of the floor from the
Suns in training camp to this point under the Warriors. Obviously, Draymond's out, and again, like I know, Warriors fans are always so up and down on Draymond. I think it's just because he's friends with Lebron and a lot of the stand culture surrounding Steph Curry really struggles to identify that players could be friends with rivals and stuff like that. But the reality is is Draymond is every bit is important to the Warriors defense as Steph Curry is to
the Warriors offense. That has been statistically proven over the course of this last decade. I don't think it's debatable at this point. When you take him off the floor, it just gets infinitely harder for this Warriors team to get stops. And like you even saw that just from the standpoint of offensive execution, like they went with kaminga late, I think in large part because they needed another athlete
on the floor alongside Looney. But like I could see a universe where if Draymond's out there, you might be able to get away with Dario sarch at the four, And if Dario Sarrich is at the four, that opens up a bunch of other things for you offensively, right, And so again, like I don't think you could have gone with Sarge down the stretch because of that, Sarge
had a little bit of a rough night. But I think that Draymond being out really does have a lot of collateral damage that Warriors fans in a lot of cases don't acknowledge that's not an excuse for the loss. It's a quality win for Phoenix, But Draymond being out certainly plays a big role in the way that the Warriors play on both ends of the floor. Some positives though. I thought Jonathan Kamingo showed some really impressive individual defense
on Kevin Durant. Again, the decision making thing is there, like he had that weird semi transition drive at the end of Those are the kinds of things where it's like, hey, dude, there's four minutes left, Like get the ball to Steph Curry instead of trying to force the action right. He was actually really impactful on the offensive glass, even though he missed that a couple of free throws late that
would have helped. But overall, you're seeing more of the upside of Jonathan Anminga, and I thought his defensive possessions on Kevin Durant were super encouraging. Again, Chris Paul shot poorly, and I don't want to get on Chris Paul about that, because everybody on the Warriors shot poorly. The Warrior shot thirty six percent from the field, twenty three percent from three Stephan Klay couldn't make their three as Andrew Wiggins
was awful. Like I don't want to get on Chris Paul's shooting, I thought the fit from a basketball perspective made a lot of sense. Having him as a late game ball handler really seemed to allow Steph Curry more freedom offensively to play the way he likes to play normally, not have to have the ball in his hands all
the time. They actually got a really good look Chris Paul pull up mid range jump shot that put the lead to one late because they had Steph set up ball screen, and when you have Chris Paul coming off of a Steph led double ball screen, you're gonna get an open look every time because they're gonna prioritize covering Steph in that action. He got an easy, little fifteen footer, So I'm really interested to see how that kind of
shapes out in the long run. I think that Chris Paul fit has gone better than I expect did so far through camp and the first regular season game. Moses Moody played really well in the first half. I thought that was encouraging, But like the reason, you can't contend without Draymond if your best players don't play well, and they just didn't play well. I thought Steph didn't play
particularly well. He hit some big shots, obviously, but like I thought, he really struggled defensively and on the glass. They were throwing him in a ton of action at the top of the key, where he was having to hedge and recover. The Sons were consistently attacking him in almost every action. He missed a lot of box outs in this game. Again, every star has bad games. I didn't think it was Steph's best game. Klay Thompson didn't
play particularly well, Andrew Wiggins was mostly awful. So like, I just don't understand how you didn't even hope to win a game like this without Dreymond Green if none of your stars play well. And I mean that was the thing, Like even down the stretch, Klay Thompson left handed layup, left it short on the rim, like Steph Curry missed a couple of threes late, Like it just wasn't They just didn't have the firepower they needed from their best guys to contend in a game like this.
One other note on the Warriors. They're small and you know you saw that. I mean when Nurkic is towering over you. That's kind of an issue, right and you saw it happen a lot on long rebounds, contested rebounds. We talked about the inability to box out guys like Jordan Goodwin and Josha Kogi just because of their strength and athleticism crashing from the perimeter. They need their guards
to compete more, especially in games like this one. Draymond's out and we don't know how much longer he's going to be out, and so like, especially going into the rest of this week, I just want to see Stephan Clay in particular compete more on the glass and defensively because right now they don't have enough defensively to get enough stops to allow them to coast on that end of the floor. That was a that was a big
area of opportunity in this game. A lot lots of stuff for Steve curt to look out on film for them to get better at. They committed a ton of fouls. Again, that's been an issue NonStop over the last couple of years for the Warriors. They just failed too much. And you know, you kind of saw that in that third quarter run for the Warriors. I think they outscored the Suns forty to nineteen. They stopped, which allowed them to force Phoenix to make some shots which they missed a lot.
And then the Warriors we're able to run the floor, and when they get out in transition, that's when they're at their best. That's when they get energized, and that's when they start to get easy shots in transition, which allows them to set their defense, which allows them to get more stops, which allows them to get out and
transition more. It's like a cascading effect. But when they're constantly fouling, they're constantly setting up for free throws, and now the other team is setting their defense, and now you have to go down the floor and Steph has to have three dudes hanging on him while he's trying to run off screens again, and that just gets fatiguing, right, So, I just didn't think it was an overly well played game for the Warriors, and I'm sure they're gonna have
a lot to talk about in the film session. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. As always, as sincerely appreciate you for supporting the show. We would be back tomorrow with the show at the end of the ESPN slate, I appreciate you guys, and I'll see that the volume