Hoops Tonight - Luka Doncic drops 41, Mavericks big win vs. Kevin Durant & Suns

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Happy Friday, everybody, If all of you guys are having an incredible week, got a fun show for you guys. We're gonna be hitting Suns MAVs from last night. Super interesting game and to talk a lot about the new additions for the Mavericks and how they're helping them. So I've had that game circle down the calendar for a while because it's our first opportunity to see the MAVs

against a quality opponent post trade deadline. After that, we're going to go into the Boston Celtics and the Chicago Bulls. Big win for the Celtics pulled away in the early second half in that one. I also wanted to clarify some of my thoughts because I've had some pushback from Celtics fans surrounding the kind of dynamic between their paint attack and how much they post up, and I want to kind of dive into that a little bit after that.

At the end of the show, there was a debate that went around I think on Wednesday last week or this week Tuesday or Wednesday, involving kind of j J Redick in the state of modern sports media, and I had some thoughts on that front because it's been a super fascinating thing to me as i've been trying to

build this show out, as obviously I'm very new into this industry and I've been learning a lot about it, and I've just had some thoughts on that front.

And then, last but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments. We're gonna have a couple mail bags over the course of the next week or so. All right, let's talk some basketball. So, like I said, had this game circled on the calendar for a while. The MAVs had won six games in a row, but

they had played a couple of injury riddle teams. I think it was the Sixers and the Knicks, and then they had played a bunch of bad teams and also what they had a big, massive win against the Oklahoma City Thunder, but PJ. Washington and Daniel Gaffer did not play in that game. So I wanted to kind of like get a feel for the MAVs against a really good opponent. Now here's the Sons didn't have Bradley Beal, But even without Bradley Beal, there's still a really good

basketball team. I think Royce O'Neil has kind of added to their physical profile on the perimeter and giving them a better option there. Royce actually had a bunch of contested rebounds last night where even though he didn't shoot particularly well in that game, I was watching him and I'm like, this is something that's going to be important for them when they get to the postseason, Like a wing player that is a plus offensive player, but that also is going to win some physical battles for them.

And so again like I love that pickup, and in general, even without Bradley Beal, I still think the Sons are a really good team. And they controlled the game early. Devin Booker came out and he was red hot. You

could tell he was just hunting his shot. Stepped into like a pretty contested transition three on the right wing in the early possessions, and you could just tell like he was gunning for it. As a team, they shot eight for seventeen from three in the first half. Dallas wasn't super sharp defensively in that half, particularly in they're picking roll coverages. They were given away some easy swing

swings for catch and shoot threes on the perimeter. Hyrie was incredible in the first half for Dallas to keep them in it. He had his three ball going. He had that kind of like tough transition three going. It's a footwork thing that I work on with the high school kids that I trained too, Like, whenever you're shooting a movement shot, you want to try to get the end result to be up and down, which is all

about leg strength. And if you watch Kyrie on those shots, like he's sprinting up the floor in full speed, but he gets that left right footwork down and he goes pretty much straight up down. There's a little bit of a forward movement, but it's pretty balanced on that shot. A lot of people don't realize that, but that movement shooting, that pull up shooting, almost all that comes down to leg strength. It's like your base is one of the

most important parts of that type of shooting. But it was close game sixty three sixty I think at halftime, and then Luca just utterly assassinated them to start the third quarter, got crazy hot from three, hit a catch and shoot three on the right wing. Then he hit a couple of pull up threes. He actually hit one off a side step to his right, which I don't

think I've ever seen Luca do before. Like Luca, when you shoot as a right handed player moving towards your right, you kind of have to square up in mid air, like JJ Redick has done a bit about this on his show, I think with Cam Johnson from the Nets about like the idea of squaring up as a right handed shooter moving towards your right, and that's more of an athletic play right and Luca is a little bit

more of a groundbound shooter. That's why, like so many of his host up fadeaways are spinning over his right shoulder, so his feet are kind of more naturally square, or his step back is usually stepping back to his left with his right shoulder already in position to take that shot. And so it's kind of interesting just to see Luca kind of demonstrate that he's got that in his bag too. It just goes to show you how good he was feeling in this particular game.

on the other end. Royce O'Neil hit a three on the left wing got it to eighty one eighty, but Dallas regained control pretty quick from their good team effort. When Luca was off the floor at that point, Daniel Gafford was super active. He generated two extra possessions just being active on the offensive glass. There was one where he kind of caused a loose ball crashing on the baseline side and forced Royce O'Neil to go out of

bounds to save the basketball. And then Josh Green made a nice athletic play swiping in from the weak side wing to get that steal led to a Kyrie Irving catch and shoot three that put them back up by four. Then Kyrie actually drew a foul after that to get to the foul line, kad started attacking Maxi Kleba in Iso and Maxie was holding up super well, which became a theme even as we get into the fourth quarter. We're gonna talk more about Maxi and a lot of

the Dallas defensive personnel here in a little bit. Daniel Gafford had a big block and help side defense. I also thought Tim Hardaway Junior had some good stretches on defense against Devin Booker, just getting late contests as he was coming over the top of ball screens, and then some good driving kick possessions. He had a driving kick to a corner three on the right side, and then he also had a kind of transition driving layup where he hit a bank shot. A good team effort, beautiful

basketball on both ends. Dallas kind of regains control. But we go to the fourth quarter and it's a five point game, and then the MAVs close it out with efforts on both ends of the floor. They start with a Luca post up on the right block on that possession, had zones up and comes over on the opposite side of the block to help and Maxi just slipped right in front of the rim.

one O two to ninety three. So at that point there's an open double of Kevin Durant on the perimeter. Dallas sends two defenders, no ball screen or anything. They just sent mexiclib over to just double team Kevin Durant on the perimeter. And there was this really interesting possession where you know, Nasir Little and Joshakogi you are running around trying to find an opening. Grayson Allen's just like standing in the left corner, might as well have had

his hands in his pockets. He's not doing anything. Royce O'Neill's kind of floating around the perimeter and they can't find a way to beat a blatant on ball double team,

and it ends up leading to a Joshuacogi turnover. And that's when Kyrie Irving got the ball and had that ridiculous sequence where he did like the behind the back dribble that then sp went into that nasty spin move and went right up at the rim and laid it up and they were up by eleven, and from there the MAVs basically stiff armed them and won by double figures. But I thought it was super interesting on a couple

of different levels. One Dallas's defensive rotation, which we're going to get to in just a second, and then two Phoenix's offense when Bradley Beal is not on the floor, and how they can struggle, especially in fourth quarters to deal with double teams and traps and stuff like that.

That has become a consistent theme throughout the end of the season, and I thought that was just kind of like an interesting play sequence in that game that kind of demonstrated both teams and some consistent themes that we've seen in the past for Phoenix and what I expect in the future for Dallas, excellent defensive rotations in back line athleticism for Dallas or spacing principles, and a kind of like a Mendoza line of offensive talent that Phoenix

can dip below when Bradley Beal's not out there. That makes it easy to double team the ball out of their stars hands. So I want to start with Dallas's defense. Let's get there first. They have the number one defense in the league over this seven game winning streak. Now, there's a lot of bad teams in there. Like I said, I don't think Dallas is actually a number one quality defense, but they absolutely look like a team that can reach a level defensively that is good enough to give them

a chance to make a run in the playoffs. And so let's get into why I want to start at the point of attack.

bad miss. It was far to the right and he hit it off the heel of the rim and it went over the back of the rim. And if you watch the play, like PJ. Washington's just sitting in defense and he's kind of like not conceding the Jeff step jumper. But there's a reason why KDI took it, like he

had the space to do it, but PJ was able to close and get a really good contest because he had the length there. And if you look at Dallas's perimeter defenders before that trade, they got guys with length. They got guys that can guard on the perimeter, but they didn't have their length. Was like a skinny or shorter guy in Derek Jones Junior right, or a fire hydrant guy in Josh Green.

big forward that can guard on the perimeter. So they have different types of players that they can bring in that situation, which allows them to give different looks on the ball, so they can actually make sure that they have multiple perimeter defenders to throw at multiple different perimeter options for the other team. And again, like that matters because you're going to get cooked sometimes, but more often than not, if you make.

are ball handlers. When you walk onto the court when your local pickup run or your local men's league, or even when if you're playing in college, when you go to practice, when one of your teammates is on you, and you're like, oh, yeah, this dude has no chance to guard me. He doesn't have physical tools. I'm bigger, I'm stronger, and faster, whatever it is, you have that tool. From the beginning of the game, you just know I'm gonna be comfortable against this guy. I'm going to get to my spots.

on the offensive end of the floor. Josh Green has shot the ball really well the last two years, Like this is a guy that you could leave open in the playoff run in twenty twenty two, and like last two years, he's been a dead eye spot up shooter, which is a testament to how hard he's worked and has made him a much more useful player for them, especially as a three and D guy. Derek Jones Junior is really he's not as as accurate of a shooter as a guy like Josh Green, but he's actually a

more efficient spot up player. One of the main reasons why is he's really good at that slashing cut off of or slashing drive off of the wing. There was actually a play like this in the first half of this game. Luca's working. It was either an ISO or a post up on the left l bow extended and Derek Jones Jr's guy digs down to the elbow, and when the off ball defender digs down to the elbow,

there's a baked in driving lane. It's baked into the coverage because if you throw a quick swing pass and you quickly rip to the right, that defensive player is not in position to beat you to the spot. And if he does, he's not gonna be able to slide. He's gonna have to turn and run, in which case you can make a counter move towards the middle and easily cross him over and get back into the lane.

And Derek is really good at reading those driving lanes and attacking quickly off the catch and getting to the basket in a spot up situation. Again, this is something I talked about all the time on the show. Three point shooting is only one part of being an effective off ball weapon. Having the ability to cut without the basketball, be an offensive rebounder, and then also driving closeouts. Those are ways to be effective spoted players. Derek Jones Junr.

Has been what I think he's like one point zero nine points for SPOTU possession this year.

as well. He had a big one in the fourth quarter coming off of the right wing where he got to his left hand, had a couple others in the game. He's also good at identifying when he has a mismatch.

But the point is Dallas now has a pretty deep and solid two way perimeter defender corps at different position in groups too, right Like PJ. Washington brings it more as a forward and Derk Jones Junior is kind of more of a wing, and Josh Green can bring it more as a go But like, they just have like a lot more options there than they did before the trade. The next layer of Dallas's defense is their back line. The addition of Daniel Gafford gives them two really good

athletes at the center position. I liked that they started Derek Lively. I mean, at least to this point. I think Derek Lively's playing a little bit better. I think you see that in the plus minus numbers two. Ironically, he could be their best option, which is crazy for a rookie, right, And it just goes to show you how one you know, really smart draft pick can change the fortunes of a franchise.

That's considerably higher than where they were before that stretch as a team before that stretch sixty nine point four percent. So again, small samize, but I want to keep an eye on it because having just some more athletes and also healthy being healthy, I think has helped. But I'm just curious to see if they can rebound better over the course of the end of the season because that was a big problem for them early in the season. And then a two other pieces on the defensive end,

they rotate really well. How many times did you see in that game We talked about that one possession with the double team of Kevin Durant where they didn't leave any openings, And if you watch the other three guys, they're constantly positioning themselves, kind of splitting the difference between options, making it so that whichever guy they passed to they can rotate too, right, But how many times in this game did you see a trapper double team of Devin

Booker or Kevin Durant coming off of a ball screen and then a scramble situation where they phoenix moves the ball around and they get the ball to like use of Nurkitchen the post or something like that. But by the time they get it there, there's already a defender who has rotated back and his positioned behind you of Nirkkitchen, the advantage is gone, or it gets worked around to an open Eric Gordon on the weak side, but they're able to chase Eric Gordon off the line, and now

that buys you the time to make another rotation. Really sharp rotations are especially important for teams like Dallas that have good defensive personnel but not like outstanding defensive personnel team like Dallas that's going to have in all likelihood to two or three depending on the lineup, kind of ify defensive players on the floor. Defensive rotations are going to be a key part of their success, and they

were really really sharp against Dallas. And then lastly, you need Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic to at least put in the effort and to do their jobs, which is what they are doing, and that's the formula for them. Incredible offense with playoff resiliency that you get from Luca and Kyrie, and then two way athletes around them that can finish plays and do the dirty work. I thought it was a really impressive first showing in a quality

matchup for Dallas with their new additions. They are heading out on a four game road trip now, They're at Indiana, at Cleveland, at Toronto, and at Boston over the course of the next week or so, so we're gonna learn a lot about Dallas over that stretch, all right, Phoenix. Look, it's like so many games from earlier in the season

when Beal was hurt. They start out hot and then teams start bringing super aggressive coverages in that late third quarter, fourth quarter stretch on Kevin Durant and Devin Booker just double teaming them, and then their offense falls apart and it trickles down into every area of the game. Then they start to out rebound as well. Then they start to not defend as well, and that's why they've been so mediocre without Bradley Beal on the floor this year.

Handling double teams is the big thing that stands out when Beal is off the floor. When Beal is out there, they usually only have one or maybe even zero negative offensive players on the floor, and so they can really quickly operate out of those aggressive coverages. But when Beal is not out there, all of a sudden, it's like at least one limited offensive player on the floor, if not two. And that's how you end up with that early fourth quarter stretch when Dallas blew the game open.

Josha Kog and I Sire Little were both on the floor together. They were getting in each other's way in the middle of the floor because both of them kind of wanted to short roll into that area as a result of a roller cut into that area. Because they

know they have limitations as shooters. They kept ending up above the break too, like multiple times for both of them, and they're just bad.

And then the other part of it is I think they can get a little stagnant in terms of their off ball player movement, like that play that I talked about.

That's not a criticism of Phoenix. That's the same for every single team in the league that has a real shot to win the title. You know, not even just stars, even extending down to role players like you need, an injury to a significant rotation piece is going to make it significantly harder for any of these teams to win, and certainly is the case with Bradley Beal. All right,

Celtics Bulls. So I talked about, you know, last week, the idea of the Celtics having so much margin for air and being able to try stuff right, because they're going into last night they were what six games up on the two seed in the East and then four games up on the one seed in the West. So they just have a comfortable margin work with, right, and they also have a super easy schedule down the stretch

of the season. Well you saw that a little bit in the first half, like they straight up ran five possessions of that three to two zone that they've been working on as of late, and they got cooked in and I think they gave up nine points in the five possessions of the three to two zone. Chicago got in a rhythm. They had thirty nine points in the

second quarter. Kobe White made like a drifting three on a kind of a breakdown defensive rotation situation where he had a drifting three on the left wing, put him up by three sixty two to fifty nine going into the half. But in the second half, Boston tightened the screws in their main demand defense for one quarter and the game was over. And again that's the flexibility that they have with their talent and with the margin that they have in the standings, and they were really sharp

in their extra efforts on defense. They had several blocks at the rim. The Celtics had eleven blocks in this game. As a matter of fact, they're second in the league in blocks, just so many athletes. There was this play Alex Cruzo got a steal and threw like a two

handed overhead bounce pass that hit. I think it was Ayoda soon MoU in transition and he was ahead of the field, but Jalen Brown and Derek White were trailing to play and I remember as him watching it and I don't even know what's gonna happen yet, I'm like, this is a bad idea, Like you might as well pull this one out, and like Derek White and Jaylen Brown both just sky way above the rim and block

desum MoU at the rim. Also, the Celtics broadcasters were talking about Vusovich and how he was kind of killing them in the first half, and I think it was Skala Briney mentioned like they have to do a better job on Vusovic's rolls to the rim of digging down and making it harder for him to catch there, harder for him to elevate when he gets there. And they were just doing a better job when Vosovich caught there in the second half of digging down from the weak

side and disrupting the basketball. Drew Holliday had to dig down from the left wing where he actually knocked the ball, loosing cause a turnover. They just did a much better job defensively and then again helping off of if he shooters. The Bulls are twenty fourth and three pointers made per game, so that's the team that you want to pack the paint on. They got it going on the defensive end, which led to success on the offensive end as well,

and then they pulled away in that third quarter. Obnoxiously good jump shooting in this game, the Celtics made nineteen pull up jump shots. They scored fifty points on thirty four attempts, comes out to one point four to seven points per shot. Think about how insane that is. In pull up jump shooting, anything over one point is good.

The Celtics average slightly over one point in pull up jump shot situations, but like again, pull up jumpers are the reason why just barely over one point is good there when like a one to twenty offensive rating is more like what you want in a grand scheme of a game. Most of the time, pull up jump shooters are like coverage beaters or rescue possession type situations. The Celtics actually can lean on them in high doses in Knights like this when they're making them at such an

insane clip. Jalen Brown was just insanely hot. In the first half, the Celtics were running horn sets. You're where they have two players at the elbow, two players in the deep corner, player up top. They're running horn sets to get Jalen Brown with Nikola Vusovich switched on to him, and then he would just beat Nikola Vusovich with like a hard downhill move into like a step back three. He also hit like a left shoulder fade over Alex Cruso out of the post. We're gonna talk more about

that here in a minute. But he had a really, really nice stretch in that first half. He had twenty points to kind of keep them in the game while their defense wasn't as locked in. And then in that third quarter run Jason Tatum and Derek White got their pull up jump shots going Howser ended up hitting a big three in transition on the left wing. All of a sudden, they're up fourteen and they never looked back.

Really sharp performance to start the Celtics season. Out of the break, I wanted to I'm gonna stay on Boston for a minute because I wanted to clarify some comments that I made earlier about Boston's lack of an interior attack. This is something I've been talking a lot about. I've been harping a lot on Boston's offense because I think it's the main thing that is going to be the determining factor of their success in the postseason, and Boston is an elite offense, elite of the elite, but they've

been elite in the large sample. They have also had a tendency to go really cold in individual games, especially in high profile games, and their offense has fallen apart in those situations. And so I've been talking about them needing to have a counter, something that they can do that is more physically aggressive towards the rim when the jump shots aren't falling. I've had a lot of Celtics fans since I've been kind of getting on that wagon

talking about how the Celtics are. Actually they actually post up more than any team in the league. For the record, it's true, Boston posts up more than every team in the league except for Denver. Denver's the one team that

posts up more than them, and they're the most efficient post up team in the NBA. Boston scores one point one five points per post up including passes, but all of their post up offense including passes, only amounts to twelve point eight points per game. Denver is also Denver's also a really good post up team. Right they're number one in post up frequency, but they're also number two in points in the paint per one hundred possessions. Boston is twenty seventh in points in the paint per one

hundred possessions. Why because posting up is one of is only one way to get into the paint. There are many many different ways to get the basketball into the paint, just like driving is only one way to get in the paint. Remember when all the talk was going on about the Lakers and their foul discrepancy in how they drive less than any team in the league. People think that driving is the only way to get in the paint.

That's not how it works. The Lakers make the second most shots in the restricted area per game in the NBA. Fifty six percent of the Lakers shot attempts come within eight feet of the rim. Despite the fact that they don't drive the basketball very much, why is that they are top ten in points scored on cuts. Boston is twenty first. They are first in two point field goals made on rolls to the rim. Boston is twenty sixth. Boston is mainly a pick and pop team. They take

a lot of threes in pick and roll right. Boston is twenty fourth in field goals made on offensive rebound situations. Even in transition, Boston is second in transition threes made per game, but they are seventeenth in transition two's made per game. They run the floor for threes, whereas the Lakers are third in transition twos scored per game. I'm not trying to compare the Lakers of the Celtics. Celtics

are way better than the Lakers. They'd kick the shit out of them if they played in the series tomorrow. I'd pick them in four or five games. What I'm trying to make a point about is about the offensive versatility. Yes, the Celtics posts up a lot, but they do not generate nearly enough points in the paint, which is a more resilient form of scoring in what happens when we

get to the to the postseason. Again, like, even if you look at their post ups, they're a post up team that takes a lot of fadeaway jump shots out of the post. They had eighteen post ups versus Chicago last night. Eleven of them either ended up in fadeaway jumpers or kickout jump shots. Like they're they post up for jump shots two, which is why their points in the paint are so limited. I'm not worried about it

in a large sample. Boston like to steal a word phrase from my friend Sam Vesini, who came on the show last week, like they're ass kickers. They're total ass kickers on the offensive end of the floor. They are by far the best regular season team in the league, and I think they'd easily dispatch in the playoffs all but a small handful of teams. But we know one thing for sure, Boston can go cold. They went cold against Denver, they lost. They went cold against Milwaukee, they lost.

They went cold against the Lakers, they lost. They went cold against the Clippers, they lost. It's not the large sample I'm worried about. It's the small sample size that I worry about for Boston in the event that they find themselves in the Eastern Conference semis or Eastern Conference Finals against Milwaukee or New York and the series is tied at two and Game five is in Boston and it's a super physical, rock fight type of game.

theme of my kind of basketball philosophy for a long time. The more important the basketball game is, the more physical it becomes, the more intense it becomes, and the more the skill oriented parts of the game become difficult, which is why I am so you know, high on teams that have interior physicality.

can't be your approach. Right twenty twenty one Johannis Sintena Kombo biggest, strongest player on the floor most of the time twenty twenty James and Anthony Davis big massive, physically imposing frontline. Twenty nineteen Kawhi Leonard, big massive, physically imposing forward like that is the way you win most of the time. And again, like I was literally, you guys know,

I coach high school basketball here in town. I was watching our kids playing a playoff game on Wednesday, and they ended up they were up by one with less than a minute left, and then the other team made a couple of plays, ended up winning by four and their season's over now. But in the game, it was interesting because I once again watching the game, super super intense, both teams season on the line, both teams bringing crazy, crazy level of effort on both ends of the floor.

You know what wasn't happening a ton of three point shots. And that's not to say that that's not an important part of the game. Of course, it's an important part of the game. And before you say this is how we've been playing and it's been working, that's not the case. In twenty twenty two, when the Celtics made it to the NBA Finals and got within two wins of hoisting the trophy. They were eight in three point attempts per

one hundred possessions, not first. They were fifteenth in points in the paint per one hundred possessions, not twenty seventh. They were a much more balanced scoring team in that twenty twenty two season than they were now. They have gone so so so far in that direction, to the point where now they've attached their fate to variants. Last night in Chicago, they scored one hundred and twenty nine points, only thirty of them were in the paint. They attempted

fifty seven jump shots in that game. Again, it's not about Chicago, like it's not about the eighty two game regular season. This is one hundred percent about a seven gamer against a healthy Knicks team, against a healthy Bucks team, against a healthy Nuggets team, or a healthy Clippers team. That's the lens that we have to look through. The look through. By the way, I have Celtics seconds my list of championship contenders. I think they're the most talented

team in the league. Well, why I am harping on this is this is going to make or break their season.

that's what it will look like. A way to prevent that from happening is to be more active in those specific areas. Run in transition for layups and dunks. Whenever you can take the threes when they're an option. Stop running for the purpose of taking threes. Roll to the basket harder more Jalen Brown, Drew Holliday, and Jason Tatum. When you're posting up, stop settling for fataways every day. Like Jalen Brown is the best fadeaway jump shooter in

the league. This year Outstanding Athlete you can go over both shoulders. Excellent fadeaway jump shooter, even the best fadeaway jump shooter in the world is not close to as efficient on that shot as Nikola Jokic is on a hook in the lane. Forget about that. It's not even close to as efficient as Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum

can be. In physical bullyball post up possessions, so like crashing the offensive glass, more running for in transition for layups and dunks, posting up with physicality towards the rim instead of finesse away from the rim, rolling to the basket more in pick and roll situations that like those are all like cuts to the basket off the ball instead of constantly spotting up, maybe taking advantage of a defender being out of position by cutting to the basket.

These are always that Boston can add points in the paint to make their scoring more resilient. That twenty twenty two Boston team. That's a great mark to be eighth and three point attempts per one hundred possessions fifteenth in points in the paint. That is an analytically sound approach. You're taking advantage of I value shots on the floor while making sure that you have some more resiliency when the shots aren't following. Boston was able to win ugly

better in that season than they were this season. And again, I don't want this to come off as Celtic's criticism. That's not what I'm trying to do. We're nitpicking here because we're talking about the very best of the best. Like if I wanted to talk about the Lakers, I'd have to get into seventeen other massive issues before they'd even have a chance to could be in these conversations. Right, Boston has everything else checked.

set of issues. I didn't have any problem with that criticism. Honestly, it's like nice to see players be authentic, honestly, because like so many former players get out and they, you know, are just always on the defensive of NBA players or NBA coaches and they kind of just take the company line on everything. And so I appreciated the authenticity in

that situation, right. But then JJ came on the next day on First Take and he talks about how fans don't want to be educated about basketball, and he brought in an example and he basically said, I did a deep dive on Zion Williamson.

how they've been really killing teams with that. JJ did a far more in depth version of that where he talked about specific actions that the Pelicans are using, namely empty corner pick and rolls with you know as Vala Tunis, and just in general like transition pushes and sweeping drives from Zion ghost screens too with guys like Trey Murphy and stuff like that. Really really well done by J. J.

for a second. First of all, I am super optimistic about the current state of sports media. The ecosystem and the tools that we have at our disposal are incredible. You can these days if you have a MacBook and an iPhone due to I think it's called like I can't remember what the technology is called from Apple, but you can actually use your iPhone as a webcam. Now, that's what I do when I travel, when I go on ski trips with my wife or whatever the hell I'm doing, I set up my phone and I can make a.

of options. We have incredible team specific pods, national pods, draft guys, film guys, CBA guys like you name it. We have everything under the sun now. Like if you go back like ten years, think about the kind of niche basketball analysis that was available five ten years ago versus now it is skyrocket. I am so optimistic about

the state of sports media. But the take JJ had he said when I made that Zion Williamson video, it only got fifty four thousand views when I criticized my former head coach and went viral and had tens of millions of impressions. This is where I think we have to be realistic. I think it's unrealistic to expect a ton of engagement from niche content like that, like the Zion video. Like a guy like me, it's gonna be

super interested in a video like that. All of you guys who listen to the show, you're gonna be super interested in something like that. But there's no doubt that like like shorter attention span type of content, that sort of thing is going to perform better in the masses. Like lower brow or low brow is probably not the way to phrase it, but like small, surface level content

is easier to digest buy the masses. It's no different than like if I was talking to my wife about the Grateful Debt and she's like, I like Scarlet Pegunias,

That's a cool song. And then I was like, well, let me talk to you about the chord progression of this song, and then the differences between you know, this tour versus last tour, and the tone that John Mayer was using and the kind of like vibe that he's going with with the way he's playing over it, and like the way that the he's Jeff Timenti is the piano player in Franklin's Tower now versus like I can get into the weeds about that shit. Carly's not going

to care. Why would she? She just doesn't care about that, right, Like, there's different levels of interest in this kind of thing. There are basketball fans that get invested in the playoffs and we'll turn on a broadcast and they'll watch superstars play. And then there are basketball fans that want to get

in the weeds and so to me, like I don't necessarily understand the comparison there, like JJ Reddick criticizing his coach on first Take or I don't even remember which platform he originally did it on, but that being talked about is going to be a significantly larger, you know, audience that's going to be interested in it, Like I could get, let's invent a fictitious person that's the very best basketball analysis analyst and history of mankind, and give him.

I think we have to be more realistic. That doesn't mean we can't be better, and I do think that what JJ's getting at in the big picture is important. I think specifically game broadcasts we can get so much better. It's so much more important for the color commentators that are on those broadcasts to be able to actually explain to fans what are happening on the court. JJ Redick does a great job of this. Standan Gundhi does a

great job of this. Even local guys like one of my favorites on League Passes, Antonio Daniels, who covers the Pelicans. I think he does such a good job of breaking down some of the x's and o stuff that is happening on the floor. But why do I care about broadcasts? Because broadcasts are where we go to get the games. Everything else it's you can go where you are, Like, I never have understood people who complain about first take and it being like surface level, Why are you watching it?

will listen to that person. If you're choosing to listen to ESPN and you don't like ESPN, that's a you problem. But game broadcasts, they're where we go to watch the NBA. That's where I think we need to do better. More guys doing color commentary, like the guys I mentioned that primarily focus on explaining to fans what is happening on the on the court. A big one to me too.

Studio shows, pre game, halftime, post game shows. I'd love to see better panelists that do a better job of explaining the x's and o's to the fans that that are watching the games. Way too often, between color commentary and studio shows, we get surface level analysis, you know, like and here's the thing, shows like inside the NBA, they're legendary in the in the industry. That's a huge

part of me growing up as a basketball fan. But like, yeah, it's not exactly the most tactically proficient show out there, right, And I think it would be beneficial for basketball fandom or whatever you want to call it to have better, you know, better game breakdowns and explanations of the tactics in those settings because I can't. I think we can make smarter casual fans that way. But like again, like to me, I don't understand how like like first take to me has nothing to do with the realm of

basketball analysis. It's just it's there for their audience. My show's here for my audience. J JJ's show is there for his audience. You can go where you want to go that there's no there's no reason to watch a show that you don't want to watch anymore. And then again at the end here viewership tells us that there are topics that have large audiences and there are topics that have smaller audiences. At the end of the day, this is a business. I talk about this on my show.

It's a big part of how this show is structured. I'll get in the weeds, but you bet your ass. If there's a Lebron topic, I'm going to hit it, you bet your ass. If there's a STEPF topic, I'm going to hit it, you bet your ass. I'm going to cover the major the major markets. Why Because I'm competitive and I want to win. I want this show to be the best, And the only way I'm going to do that is if I do both. If I bring the in depth, niche stuff and I make sure

that I hit bigger picture topics. And I don't think it's fair or realistic to pretend like we're above the bigger picture topics. When I even I still remember even when I was younger, when I was playing basketball in college, like after practice, before practice, on the bus, you don't think we're having first take style debates about Lebron versus MJ or stuff like that. That's also an important part

of the sports media space that's never going away. Will it shift a little bit, will debate shows get a little smaller or maybe a little bigger. Who knows, Like, yeah, there'll be shifts, but there's always going to be a spot in sports media for that kind of thing. That's an important part of the business, and I'm thankful that we have a format here where we can do both. No one's stopping me from spending fifteen minutes talking about this because I have the freedom to do so thanks

to this new ecosystem. Fifteen years ago, if I happen to be working at a television company, i'd have timelines and I have to be out by this commercial break, and like you bet, like I might only have thirty minutes in a show or one hour in a show minus commercial time to figure out how to fit everything, and I might have to be way more picky and I might have to focus on some of the No,

I don't have that problem anymore. If I want to tell Paul's early producer now, if I wanted to tell him on Sunday, like I want to do twenty minutes on you know, some random college basketball game, They're not going to stop me from doing that. I can do that now. That's a beautiful part of the way the sports media space has changed. I think it's better than ever. I'm super super optimistic about it, and I don't have any problem at all with folks who make a living

on more of the surface level stuff. It's an important part of the space. If they can retain an audience and make money on it.

space is. Nobody turns on First Take expecting Zion Williamson film breakdowns that's an unrealistic expectation, right, And so I guess, like what I'm trying to say is like I'm a big believer in like the core belief system that's driving JJ in this endeavor. I just don't necessarily think it has anything to do with first take at all whatsoever. To me, Like JJ has an opportunity to improve some specific areas of basketball media for the better, and I

think those conversations are worth having. But I'm not a big believer in being critical of people who just do a different kind of sports media, because that's what they do. They're just a different kind of sports media. I remember a while back, is the last thing I'll say and then we'll get out of here. I was talking about a fan base, and this was years ago. This was, like I want to say, like twenty eighteen was well before I was even doing podcasts, and I was being

critical of some fan I think. And then Sam as fondo Ari has become a friend of mine, pointed out about how pointless it is to be fan police, because why would I think that like my version of being a sports fan is the right way to be a sports fan. It's just not that that's ridiculous. There's so many different ways to be a sports fan. You can be passionate, you can be vocal, you can be quiet, you can be a content creator, you can be a content consumer. There's like a million different ways to be

a fan. Why would I act like my way is the only way to do it, or that there's a wrong way to be a fan. The only wrong way to be a fan is to be violent or abusive, right, Like that stupid couple who called Katie a bitch and then tried to be nice to his face right after, Like, I have no respect for that shit, But like, there is no wrong way to be a fan. But I feel the same way about sports media and media in general. I don't want to play media police. There's not a

right or wrong way to do it. This ecosystem allows everybody to do it their own way. It's been so good for the space. We have so much better content as a result. I'm a huge fan of the direction we're going, and as I said, I am an optimist about where we're headed. All Right, I'm off my soapbox.

I appreciate you guys for listening to the show. The game plan for this weekend we are taking Tomorrow off, but I'm gonna be uploading a video after the Sunday afternoon game, which I think is Laker's son Ones if I remember correctly, and then the Sunday evening game I believe is Nuggets Warriors.