Hoops Tonight - Luka Doncic, Kyrie & Mavericks scorching, LeBron's title window + NBA Power Rankings

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varies by jurisdiction Boyden, Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. See dkang dot com slash b ball for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome to hoops tonight here at the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody. If all of you guys had an incredible weekend, I am so excited to get back into our groove this week. We got a jam packed show the Dallas Mavericks. We had an unstoppable

force versus an unmovable object. Last night. The Dallas Mavericks, on a six game winning streak, have been red hot for a while against a Houston Rockets team at home that was on an eleven game winning streak, and the Mavericks got a big win. We're gonna break that game down from the perspective of both teams. After that, the Oklahoma City Thunder won a incredibly entertaining back and forth game.

Late against the New York Knicks, Jalen Brunson looked like he won the game, and then Chase stole it back, and then Jalen Brunson got a similar look on the other end and missed it super entertaining. We're gonna break that game down later on in the show, we have an interesting quote from Lebron James, who went nine to ten from three last night against the Brooklyn Nets, was just toying with them late. He had a quote after the game about how much longer he's gonna be playing.

There's some discussion about how much longer Lebron's window is in terms of his ability to compete for championships, so I want to address that under the frame of the question will Lebron ever play in the NBA Finals again?

We'll talk about that, and then last but not least, as we always do on Mondays but didn't last week while I was skiing up in Lake tyhe we're gonna do an edition of Power Rankings, obvious with two weeks worth of new games to get into, so jam Pack show you guys are the drop Before we get started to subscribe to a brand new YouTube channel, I mean a lot to me if he has to take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts

under Hoops tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating in a review on that feed. Don't forget about my Twitter feed I underscore Jason LT. That's where I'm putting ShW announcements and film threads. I did a long film thread this morning on the first half run that Dallas used to go up by twenty one on the Houston Rockets. You can find that again on my Twitter feed at underscore Jason LT. And last not leaves

keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments. We're gonna have several mail bags during the week this week. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the story of this Rockets MAVs game was all about Luka Doncic. The Houston Rockets have gone small after Alpera and Schagun got hurt, and they're basically moving a Men Thompson into the starting

lineup and he's basically playing center for them. It's just this athletic wrecking ball that's doing as much as they can and obviously like they don't really have a great

option to throw in there. Jack Landale in his minutes was a huge problem in this game, which will be getting into So as a result, you've got lots of great perimeter defenders in that group, right like Dylan Brooks outstanding perimeter defender, Aman Thompson outstanding perimeter defender, Fred Van Vliet outstanding perimeter defender, Jalen excuse me, Jabari Smith Junior outstanding perimeter defender. Honestly, Jalen Green is really the only

weekly link in that group. But they're really good at sliding their feet on the perimeter and bothering guards. But Luka Doncic is not like other guards in the NBA.

He's way bigger than all of those guys, and honestly, one of the biggest advantages too, is like Luca, he one of the things that I think often goes overlooked when we talk about Luca's skill set is obviously has all this incredible shot making ability, and he does have great size, but he uses his brain not just as a passer, but he also uses his brain to get

defenders out of position. I talked about this a lot on the show, as it pertains to the way he sells his moves, like, for instance, he's not gonna do some big sweeping crossover right to left, He's gonna do a push cross. He's gonna turn his body entirely to the right, entirely, frame his body language like he's going one way, and then he's gonna just come across his body. He's selling it with his body, not with the basketball necessarily.

But in addition to that, something that we've never taught, haven't talked enough about over the years is how he can get defenders out of position with fakes and with footwork and about body positioning right. And this becomes a much bigger deal when you're going against smaller defenders, because especially smaller athletes with long arms and high motor athletes that are constantly playing super hard, you want to use

that aggressiveness against them. And it's he started this game just killing them with pump fakes and footwork and getting to spots and then just rising up with a little shoulder headfake, and one of Houston's perimeter defenders would just be two over zealous and jump and get off the ground and he'd either just pivot around and get to a different spot to take a shot or he'd go right back up into them and draw foul. And again,

like those two elements footwork and pump fis, I want to talk about them for just a second. Footwork is an incredibly important part of the game of basketball that doesn't get discussed enough because it's something that's not as you know, exciting as ball handling or shop making or athleticism or things along those lines. And footwork. I was actually talking about this this morning with my young players that I coach on Mondays and Fridays when we do

skills training. I was so impressed because we have a new group coming in right so seniors are out, the juniors that are coming up they are going to be the seniors next year. And then we have some new kids that are joining the program or that have been in the program that are joining the varsity elements of the program that were freshman and sophomore last year. And we're working on some basic footwork concepts, both for like movement shooting, also just like off the dribble stuff, just

basic footwork concepts. A lot of its attacking closeouts too, which I think is a super important part of the high school game. But I was talking to them about how impressed I was that the juniors coming up are so sharp with their footwork now and they used to be terrible with it, and all of the younger players right now are really struggling with it, and I kind of use it as an example to talk to the kids, like, look, this is what happens. Like in time, these movements do

become more natural for you. They become the second nature. They become a natural part of what you do as an athlete. The footwork coming off of a screening action for a three off, the catch is go is the exact mirror image going on either end of the floor right and looks a little different for a righty than it does for a lefty. And you know, the easiest way for me to put it is footwork is how you get two spots right. So once you get to the spot, your physicality, your lift, your shot making takes

over right. But to get to the spot, you need a certain footwork. Imagine you're coming off of a ball screen to your right hand side, guy's chasing over the top, big man sitting a little far back, but you see a little opening maybe five feet in front of you

and five feet off to the right. You need to have the ability to do a single push dribble in that direction, but to take off with a left right takeoff and get great lift to take advantage of that spot, because if you stutter step to that spot, or you go right left to that spot, it's gonna be janky, it's gonna be awkward, You're gonna have to pick up your dribble and you're gonna end up passing it out

from there. The ability to actually get two spots on the floor where you can where you can do work depends on footwork. For instance, there was a post up of from Luca on Jabari Smith. If I remember correctly, on the right block, I clipped this possession. You could see it in my Twitter feed on the thread that

I did for this particular game. But the ability to as as Luca is backing Jabari Smith down on that right block using his right shoulder to kind of create a little bit of separation, there is a step through footwork element he goes to where he pivots over his right shoulder and pump fakes, but he has a really wide base and he plants that left foot in a way where he can go straight up if he wants, but he also can just plant it and pivot back the other way or step And in this case he

actually held his ground in pump faked, and when Jabari Smith left his feet, he was already set in his footwork to be able to go right back up into Jabbari and draw the foul. There is a balance element when you get to those spots. That is about having your base constantly underneath you. And the only way to have your base constantly underneath you is to have the appropriate footwork to get to your spots with balance and with a good, strong, wide base. And then the second

element of it is the pump fakes. So obviously the easiest way to take advantage of Overzelle's defense off the ball is to backcut right, Like if you're on the wing and the guy's up and deny he's and he's playing the passing lane, all you have to do is make it look like you're ready to catch and then cut back door, and you could take advantage of over Zelli's defense on the perimeter with body movement. But on the basketball it's all about fakes. Pump fakes, footwork fakes

things along those lines. And again like Luca. When he's dealing with these guys, he can shoot over them top, right, Like he can take difficult shots over the top, but he doesn't need to if he can take advantage of their over zealous approach to defense by using fakes to get them out of position. Luca's first three buckets in this game were right at the rim, and all three of them were like one hundred percent shots, not like, oh, I took a tough little hook shot over the top

and it may or may not go in. No, no, no. He was getting easy layups right under the basket by using fakes to get smaller defenders out of position, and once they leave their feet, I just might as well be a mic and drill at that point, right, Like he's just taking an easy layup right underneath the basket.

So he was killing them in switches again because Houston was switching everything with that lineup significant size advantages all over the floor, using those footworks, that that footwork in those pump fakes to get easy shots around the rim.

So then Houston brings in Jock Landon and Lucas starts picking on him and switches, and Jock is giving him space and offering a token contest at the end, but Luca just doesn't even see that contest, especially with his eyes, and he just started killing him with pull up jump shots over the top. Luca took twenty two pull up jump shots in this game and made twelve of them. He took fifteen pull up threes and made eight of them. Yet thirty two total points on twenty two pull up

jump shot attempts. That's one point four to five points her pull up jumper. That's completely absurd, and that doesn't even count all the times that he got to the foul line by pump faking on one of those shots. It's arguably the biggest difference between this year and last year with Luca is he's just so much more effective with his pull up jump shot game, which has just made him that much harder to guard. He's actually shooting

thirty seven percent on the season on pull up threes. Honestly, it was just comical how much better Luca was than everybody else on the floor in this game. It kind of reminded me of some of the games when Lebron James was at his peak and when he was better than everybody in the league, where he would just kind of mess around, like you'd be in this like dead serious NBA game between like two teams are really good

and Lebron would just be like trying shit. And those of you guys who were who were watching the league during that phase when Lebron was in his prime, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And like Luca like purposely banked in a three point shot in this game

just for fun. Like imagine how unbothered and unthreatened you'd have to feel on the road against a team on an eleven game winning streak to just be like, dah, I'm gonna try to bank in this three in the first half, the game was still in question at that point. He banked in another jumper in the first half, and then in the second half he had this step through move where you're like pump faked at the three point line, step through with his left foot. Again a footwork element there.

He just when he's on his base, he always knows he can take an additional step to get to his spot as long as he landed on that jump stop right. So he steps through with his left foot and then scoops up underneath and just throws up a scoop shot from like twenty feet away from the basket and puts it in. Just trying that is absurd. Let alone making that shot, the level of confidence that were wires to do that in the NBA at all, let alone in

this important of a game. It completely crazy, because again you gotta remember, all these games are must win games for the Houston Rockets as they try to get into that ten seed. It was just unbelievable. Other mass pitching in Kyrie Irving had twenty four points and seven assists with only one turnover. PJ Washington hit a couple of huge above the break threes during that second quarter run

when the MAVs went up by twenty one. Honestly, PJ Washington's three point shooting is going to be a huge swing factor for the MAVs when they get into the postseason. This year, Dante Exum five for five from the field. He's shooting over sixty percent on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots this year. Not effective field goal percentage, not weighted for threes, just field goal percentage. Shooting sixty percent ninety one percent when you weait it for threes in

effective field goal percentage. He's getting one point eight one points per unguarded, catch and shoot, jump shot and the like. Again, if you look back at what he did overseas the previous two years, this has been a trend that has continued. He's fixed his jumper while he was overseas and he's brought it back to the NBA and it's made him

a very impactful player. And honestly, it gives the MAVs all these different options that they can go to, because, like you know, I like Derek Jones Junior, he started the game guarding Jalen Green did a really nice job, had a rough offensive game, but a really good perimeter defense game. You can go with a guy like that. You can go with the guy like Josh Green, you

can go the guy like PJ. Washington, you can go with the guy like Dante X. And they have all these different options that they can go to, and that like honestly will allow as long as Jason Kidd plays the right buttons based on the matchups and based on how guys are playing and honestly can make them better. So the MAVs dominate to get a big win. They're seventh straight. I want to talk about defense for a second.

You know, I always talk about defensive personnel and just the job that teams do chasing over the top of screens or defending and drop coverage, or rotating on the weak side, or help and recover situations close outs, all that kind of stuff, and that's all important, but most of that has to do a defensive talent and execution, right. Another half of the defensive equation, honestly, one that we talk about way more when we get to the postseason

and not so much in the regular season. His game plan, and you could argue it's every bit as important as the stuff with the defensive talent. And I thought Jason Kidd had just a really really smart game plan for Houston in this game. He put Daniel Gafford on Men Thompson to start the game and just had him completely ignore him. So when Thompson was setting ball screens, he'd be sitting back in a drop Thompson is not involved in the play, just sitting right basically right under the basket.

And that just really gummed up Houston's offense. And then when Derek Lively came in and Jock Landale came in, they were worried about or not worried about jack Landale's ability to score in the short role, and so with Derek Lively, they had him blitz and they were blitzing ball screens, basically staying home off the ball and jack Landale's catching in the middle of the floor. He had a couple of buckets in there, but there were based

on a per possession basis. I think he had like maybe four points in the short role at least during that first half run and probably had like six or seven catches down there. So like it was working out to Dallas' advantage just to basically when Gafford's on the floor, park his ass underneath the basket. When Derek Liveley's out there, be aggressive, dare jack Landel will beat you on the roll, and it worked really really well, like Houston's offense was.

Houston's offense has been really really good over the course of this recent win streak that they've been on. They've been like up over one one hundred and twenty points per one hundred possessions. Is flying up and down the floor using their athleticism, knocking down shots, and they just completely stalled out Newston's offense with a really smart game plan and that's a huge part of it, like identifying your opponent's weakness and building your defensive strategy around that.

That is again every bit is important as defensive personnel and being smart with those strategic elements when you get to the postseason could be the difference between a long playoff run in an early exit. Since February fifth, the MAVs are nineteen and six. That is the second best record in the league over that span behind the Boston Celtics, the eighth in defense, eleventh in defensive rebounding over that span.

So again, this is a significant sample size twenty five games, more than thirty percent of the season by percentage, and they're eleventh in defensive rebounding and eighth in defense. That's real two way basketball that the Mavericks are playing. You can even make a case, if they move high enough in the standings that Luka Dancin should be more seriously taken into consideration for the MVP Award. That's the type

of run that Dallas has been on. I think they need to win a few more games here down the stretch, but there's every haste to make that he belongs in that conversation. Now here's the question, where would I place Dallas in light of their recent run among the West hierarchy. And you know, I looked at this for a while this morning to try to kind of come up with the concrete opinion. Here's where I'm at. Obviously, Denver still at the top. I still have them in their own tier,

at least as it pertains to the West. I view Boston in their tier, but they're out east right. The teams at the bottom of the West that I don't take seriously Golden State, I don't think they have a real title threat in them. Sacramento I, especially in light of their injuries. I didn't view them as a serious threat before their injuries. The New Orleans Pelicans, I don't think they're good enough on either end of the floor, especially defensively on the front line, to win enough games

in the postseason. And then Houston, if you're gonna include them as the eleventh seed, as a threat to the tenth seed, those are teams that I view as the bottom tier in the West that I don't think have a real chance to go on a run. Everybody else though they're all really freaking good. Minnesota, they've been one of the best teams in the league all year long. They're the best defense in the league. No one can guard ant like Dallas Minnesota. It's tough. You could make

the case for either. Right the Clippers. They dominated most of the season and they're completely loaded with talent and two way players. During the middle third of the season, they were the best team in the league. Basically Clippers MAVs. You could make the case for either. Right. Phoenix, they're probably the best maps with the Denver Nuggets. I think they are the team most capable of beating Denver in

a seven game series. They are completely loaded with talent and playing much better basketball here down the stretch of the season. Phoenix, Dallas, you could make the case for either one of them. Right. Oklahoma City, they're literally the number one seed in the West and any pessimism surrounding them has to do with size and youth. Right, and then the Los Angeles Lakers. Since January seventh, a thirty nine game sample size, they have the fifth best record

in the league. Everyone thinks the Lakers suck because they're lower in the standings because they had a rough stretch right after the Ncason Tournament where they let their foot off the gas and made a bunch of bad lineup decisions where they bench their three to their top five players for a while. That threw off everyone's calculus with the Lakers for half of the season. Recently, they have been the fifth best team in the league, So like,

you got to throw them in there too. Now, I'd say the Lakers belong on the bottom of that tier, but they're in that tier all those teams. Though you could make a case for anyone like there isn't like when it comes to trying to slide Dallas in there. They're somewhere in there, but it's hard to make a case that they're just over all of them. And so I kind of land right where I've been for most of the last few months. I think all of those teams have a chance to make a long playoff run

and get out of the West. And I think all of those teams have a chance to lose in the first round. Hell, the Lakers have a chance to lose in the play in tournament. So like, so it's Phoenix by the way, So like, really, I think it's gonna come down to matchups. It's gonna come down to who plays who. But here is the most important part. Given all these factors, the most important element is going to be who's playing the best at the right time. Dallas

is playing their best basketball right now. That's a huge factor there. They can ride that momentum into the postseason. That could be the difference maker with that tier. But yea, as I look at the West, Denver at the top, Golden State, Sacramento, New Orleans at the bottom, and then I have Minnesota, the Clippers, Phoenix, ok See, the Lakers, and Dallas all in there, jumbled up. They're all any one of them could be the one that comes out of the West. Any one of them could lose in

the first round. As good as Dallas has been, you can't make a case for them to be definitively above Oka see definitively above the Clippers, definitively above Minnesota. There's not a definitive case there to make, even in light of their recent run. But I do think that them getting hot at the right time bodes really well for them all right. Moving on to the Oklahoma City Thunder versus the New York Knicks. This is a really fun back and forth game. The Knicks went up by twelve

points in the third quarter. At one point they made their first five threes. In the third quarters, they went on a run. The thunder bench brought them back. Jalen Williams just was ridiculous. Had everything going. He was scoring at the rim, he was making these like push shots in the lane. He had probably the best dunk of his career so far, this like transition push where he dunked on Dante de Vincenzo and Miles McBride like in like a sandwich contest, and he just went up over

both of them. It was one of the most impressive athletic plays of his career to this point. He made seven pull up jump shots in this game, all of them from two point range. Now, James Harden has recently just barely snuck past him in this list, but he's still the second best pull up jump shooter in the league this year, at a minimum of three hundred attempts, getting one point one to one points per pull up jumper. Crazy thing is most of them are pull up twos.

He takes five point one pull up jumpers a game, only one point four of them are threes, so the vast majority of them are from two point range. He shoots forty two percent on those pull up threes, shoots well over fifty percent on pull up twos, and that's a really high value shot, especially when you get to the postseason, because I'm a big believer that there's more resiliency in pull up close range shooting than there is in pull up long range shooting when you get to

the later rounds of the postseason. So Jalen Williams starts to run shot making, dunking on people, Josh Hart does a really nice job just kind of bringing some intense full court ball pressure on Jalen Williams, which hinda slowed him down just a little bit. And then Oklahoma City just went to Josh Gitty, and Josh Gitty was just again kind of a similar thing to what we were

talking about with Houston versus Dallas. New York just plays a lot of smaller guards, and Josh Gitty was just taking advantage of the small guards by just barreling down the lane and spinning over his left shoulder and making a little push shots close to the basket. He had sixteen points, thirteen rebounds, and twelve assists in this game. He also had a couple of huge threes late in the game during their second half run when New York

was leaving him open. Really really impressive night from Josh Gitty. Late game was a complete hit show. Both teams were missing a bunch of free throws. As a matter of fact, the two teams combined to go thirteen for twenty five from the foul line in this game, and so we have this like chaotic finish at the end of the game. Jalen Brunson misses the free throw and there's this crazy rebound situation. The ball goes out of bounds, stays with

the Knicks. The Knicks run this really smart action like a staggered ball screen where they get Chet Holmgren switched down to Jalen Brunson and then set another brush screen with Josh with Josh Hart that just allows Brunson to get a little bit of an angle on Chet and he just gets into Chet's body and extends out and makes this really nice left handed hook shot or left handed scoop shot excuse me, off the glass that puts

the Knicks up one only four seconds left. On the other end of the floor, Mark Daginal draws up this super interesting kind of like decoy action with Jaylen Williams and Shay, so everyone else is out at the three point line. Jalen Williams and Shay are basically right at the left elbow if you're facing the basket, and bounds

is on the left side of the floor. And essentially what they did is they had Jalen Williams fake like he was gonna set a pin down for Shay, but then Shay turned around and set a back screen for Jalen. Jalen rolls to the rim. The Knicks actually defend it really well, chasing over the top, and Shay actually breaks to the right block and ends up with Miles McBride on him with plenty of time, plenty of space on the floor, and he just pivots right over his right

shoulder and takes a right shoulder fade. Sheity didn't even really have much going in this game, because Jalen Williams is playing so well, and obviously he's coming back from an injury. He's a little rusty, but he just gets his lift on that right shoulder fade and knocks the shot down and puts the thunder back up one they go to the other end. It was off of a different action, but they more or less, get the exact same mirror image. Look for Jalen Brunson. So this time

it's on the right kind of block extended. But Jalen Brunson is a left handed shooter, so he pivots over his left shoulder, takes the same type of fadeaway shot over the same kind of like dominant shoulder on the baseline, and it's dead on straight but he leaves it short and the Knicks end up losing. So I want to go back to Jalen Williams for a second. I want to use three plays to demonstrate just how crazy Jalen Williams is going to be in this league, just how

crazy good he's going to be. First, the transition done. So on this play, Precious a Chewa is in the front court. He's trying to knock around an offensive rebound. I can't remember who it was with somebody on the Knicks misses the three. On the tap out, Jalen Williams is dribbling the ball up the right side of the floor and you can see him look to his left and identify that Precious is trailing to play. He looks up the floor and he sees Miles McBride is right

in front of him, has stopped the ball. The other three guys, the other three knicks are all kind of flaring out to shooters. No, Nick actually just runs to the rim, which is always like, it's basketball, it's rim, basketball shooters. It's like an order of operations when it comes to to transition defense, and a lot of coaches

teach stopping the basketball first because if you stop the basketball first, that buys time for other guys to get back if you can make him turn or change direction or something like that. But either way, basketball always comes before wing shooters. But he identifies he looks up the floor. He's precious to chew a trail and the play looks up the floor, sees Miles McBride in front of him, but sees everyone else kind of splaying out to the three point line and behind the half court line, like

ten feet behind the back court line. Jalen Williams goes, fuck it, I'm going for it, and he just like hits the Jets bodies Miles McBride shoves him off, rises up it just and just throws it down. There's a token contest off the side from Dante DiVincenzo but he has absolutely no chance. Just a ridiculous athletic play. And again it's the recognition of what's happening on the floor.

It's the size advantage, just as the ball handler with his size, strength and athletic tools, and then the incredible straight line force in athleticism that he brings to the table. Second play a fourth quarter hesitation pull up jump shot on Alec Burks. This actually might have been in the

third quarter. I can't remember exactly what it was, but he gets Alec Burks in isolation at the top of the key and he's kind of working mixing off the dribble, and he hits him with a hard between the legs dribble step back, and when he makes the move, Alec Burks like stutter steps back and like lands with his heel all the way back on the foul line. And so Jalen Williams is realized, like, oh, like, he can't

guard me without being way back on his heels. So he knows he's gonna have an easy pull up jumper. So he gets the ball back into his left hand and takes a hesitation dribble, just a high hesitation dribble, just to kind of reset his rhythm and then he rises straight up and down and knocks down the jump shot. What this demonstrates to me, in order to guard Jalen Williams because of his crazy downhill force, which is what we talked about earlier, you have to be on your heels.

You have to be constantly looking to give ground back into the right or back into the left. If you play up on him, he's just gonna go right around you. And so he gets these really high quality pull up jump shots, and that's a big part of why the shooting stats look the way that they do. Obviously, he's a great shooter, but he's also just getting awesome looks because of his incredible athletic tools that he brings to

the table. He is literally, as a second year player, the second best pull up jump shooter in the entire league minimum of three hundred attempts, and James Harden is like right there, and he's been above him at various points during the season. Last play one two to ninety six, just under five minutes left, and he thunder run a Spain pick and roll, which is basically you just have a shooter underneath the basket that relocates to the top of the key as you're running your ball screen and

the shooter in this case is shake Yalds Alexander. The ball handler in this case is Jalen Williams. The screen setter in this case is Aaron Wiggins. Josh Hart is on on Jalen Williams. Jalen Brunson is guarding Aaron Wiggins right and then I want to say Miles McBride was on was on shake kills Alexander. So as Wiggins goes up and sets the screen, Jalen Williams comes off hard to his right hand side and brings two to the ball. He brings Josh Hart trailing the play and Jalen Brunson

comes over. Basically it amounts to a trap, okay. So in this case, Aaron Wiggins is a roll into the basket and this is the beautiful part of the play design with shake Yealds Alexander. Miles McBride is in position to help. He's underneath the basket. He's there to help in case that role man comes down unguarded like Aaron Wiggins was coming down, but the plate is has Shay gillis Alexander flashing to the top of the key, but you can see Miles McBride identify it and he kind

of stays back to help on Aaron Wiggins. And if you watch Jalen Williams, he gives a head fake, he looks with his entire body at Shay and when he does that, Miles McBride lunges towards Shay. Aaron Wiggins slips behind him. Jalen Williams hits him with the with the pass right and stride so that you can slip inside and make the right handed layup on the glass. And the most important part there is again the floor recognition, but also that high level pick and roll playmaking to

be able to manipulate the defense with your eyes. And again like he had I think seven or eight assists in this game with just one turnover. Like this has been a consistent theme with Jalen Williams, is like he's way advanced as a playmaker for a guy his age. I legitimately think this kid is not just really good, not just star potential. I think Jalen Williams has legitimate potential to become a top ten player in this league.

There just aren't that many prospects that come through the NBA that have this combination of real downhill athletic force, outstanding to deadly pull up jump shooting, and high level playmaking. How many guys? How many guys can you like genuinely say that about in the league. There's just not that many. It's hard to even find a comp you talk about a guy like Jaylen Brown, and Jaylen Brown, obviously this phase of his career, is a much better player than

Jaylen Williams. But like Jalen Brown, if you're talking about his strengths and weaknesses, like outstanding downhill athletic force, good pull up shooter, mediocre to bad playmaker. Right, talk about Jimmy Butler, it's like outstanding downhill force and it's like good pull up shooter, you know, great playmaker. Right, There's we haven't really seen a prospect that can bring all

three at an extremely high level to the now. Jalen Williams has a long way to go to get to that point, but I really do think he has that potential. I think he can be like a better version of Jimmy Butler, a Jimmy Butler that's a more consistent jump shooter. And by the way, that's not something that That's not something that I believe to be hyperbole. He has the character for it, he has the work ethic for it, He is the athletic gifts for it. The touch is

clearly there, the playmaking is clearly there. He's doing it in a smaller role too, playing alongside all this talent. Like you could make a case if he's playing and if you've swapped him for Jalen Green right now and he's playing in Houston, he's probably averaging twenty five points a game right now, Like a lot of it in the box score. Stuff has a lot to do with

just what a circumstance is. But I just I continue to be completely, an utterly blown away by how good this kid is right now and how good he's capable of. Being excited to watch him in the postseason. He's going to be a kid I'm excited to watch develop over the coming years. All right, Lebron's post game quotes. So Lakers get a big win against the Brooklyn that's bouncing back from a tough loss on the road against Indiana,

and he hits nine threes in the game. Couple are really tough off the dribble ones a drifting kind of like fade away in the left corner and then a step back on the right wing to get his eighth and nine threes of the game. He had forty something in the in the game. Just he's averaging something crazy like twenty five twenty five points per game on sixty three percent true shooting, which is just completely outrageous for a thirty nine year old guy. But he had a

quote after the game. He was asked about how much longer if he was like playing, he says, not very long. I'm not gonna play another twenty one years, that's for damn sure, but not very long. I don't know when that door will close as far as when I'll retire, but I don't have much time left. And so the question that we posed today is will Lebron ever play in an NBA Finals again? Now here's the thing. Of course, it's a possibility. I saw Stephen A. Smith say either

this morning. I saw it on Twitter this morning, but he said that he thought that this was Lebron's last chance this year with the Lakers. I disagree with that, Like, I mean, he might fall off a cliff next year. But I mean, here's the thing. You can try to get ahead of the Lebron decline thing. I'm not going to be that guy. I feel like the people who have been trying to get ahead of that just keep getting proven wrong every single year. Maybe it happens next year,

maybe it doesn't. But here's the deal. The Lakers have access to three first round draft picks when they get to the draft this year. As long as they improve the roster with whatever they do this offseason more than Lebron declines, it's a net improvement for the Lakers. So of course they're still going to be in the hunt. I think they need a coaching change. They need to be as healthy next year as they are this year.

Lebron needs to avoid any sort of severe injury. But whatever decline Lebron experiences, as long as as long as they improve the roster around that, he's very much going to be in the mix still. So I don't think this is his last chance. Per se. That said, do I think Lebron will ever play in the NBA Finals again as a likelihood, Like if I had to apply a percentage chance to it, it's going to be below

fifty percent. And the main reason why is I don't think this team is good enough defensively to win the play in tournament and to win three rounds, all without home court advantage, all against really good teams. I wouldn't count them out. I would for the record, I'd put below fifty percent chance to make the finals for literally every team in the West except for the Denver Nuggets.

But like, it is somewhat unlikely that they get through it this year, And as for the offseason, I don't trust the Lakers' front office or ownership group to make the necessary tweaks to the roster to push them over the top. So to me, it's more likely than not that we don't get to see another finals appearance from Lebron, which is kind of a bummer because, like, honestly, I thought they should have been more aggressive at the deadline

this year. Here, they've been the fifth best team in the league over the last thirty nine games since January twenty seventh, and they've been like we're gonna go over some numbers when we get to the power rankings, but like, they've been the second best a three point shooting team over that span. They've been the second by percentage, they've been the second best point in the paint team over that span, Like, they have a lot of really good

things that they bring to the table. As a matter of fact, to put it simply, I don't think the Lakers are that far off. I think it's about specific weaknesses with them, not talent deficiencies. I don't think the Lakers have a talent issue. They have a roster balance issue. They have a shit ton of offensive skill in every single position group, and they don't have anybody who can

guard on the perimeter. They have like zero top tier athlete types that play at the one or the two, and that's been the or at the three for that matter, because the Jared Vanderbilt injury. So like, I really don't think they need that much to really enter into those conversations. But I just don't trust this particular franchise to do it. Again. I've talked about this on the show before, but like,

to me, incompetence trickles from the top down. This is the same owner that let Alex Cruso walk like there's there's not a GM in the league that wouldn't have gotten on hands and knees and begged for Genie Bus to keep Alex Crusoe because he's so obviously such a monumentally important piece to winning basketball games, and Genie Bus just let him off, right. I don't need to get

into it. But if you go down, if you go down from the top of the organization, you see the incompetence come through, whether it's the medical staff and their incapability to keep people and fans updated on just what's happening with the players on the roster, whether it's like Typo's on a damn statue, whether it's hiring someone like Magic Johnson who clearly was not interested in doing the job. Regardless of what we want to point the flashlight at.

From the top down, there's been incompetence and so like to me, when you weigh the realities of their predicament this season against what they need to achieve this offseason, with whether or not the leadership is capable of executing that,

I don't have great optimistic feelings about their ability to get there. So again, I'm not righting Lebron off. No, I don't think this is their last chance, but I personally would be surprised if I got to watch Lebron James play in the NBA Finals again. All Right, moving on to our Power Rankings. The one drop off from our two weeks ago list are the Cleveland Cavaliers. They are three and five since our last rankings on March eighteenth.

They lost to Miami twice, they lost to Minnesota, they lost to Denver, and they have a really bad loss to Charlotte, bottom ten in both offense and defense over that span, So we're dropping the Cavs for now number ten. Gasp. The Los Angeles Lakers are cracking into our power rankings for the first time in forever. Six and one since our last rankings, including yet another win over the Milwaukee

Bucks in Milwaukee without Lebron. Since January seventh, a thirty nine game sample size, the Lakers are twenty five and fourteen. That is the fifth best record in all of basketball during that span. Again, over a sample size of almost half the season. They are fifth in offensive rating over the span, second in three point percentage. Over that span. They're shooting over forty percent from three as a team. Since January seventh, they are second in points in the

paint per one hundred possession over that span. So a really nice combination of accurate perimeter shooting in interior dominance. But here's the most encouraging stat in the justification for why I have the Lakers at tenth in the power rankings according to Cleaning the Glass against the top ten teams in the NBA in point differential, they have seventeen wins,

which is the most in the league. They have a fifty five percent win percentage, which is the fifth best in the league, and they have a plus one point five point differential per one hundred possessions, which is the fifth best mark in the league. The Lakers have been one of the very best teams in the league this year at beating the good teams in addition to playing really really good basketball. Outside of a brief stretch they were fifteen to nine including the n season Tournament win.

They are twenty five and fourteen since January seventh, which is the fifth best record in the league over that span. There's a three and ten strech in the middle, which was right when everyone relaxed after winning the tournament and obviously when Darvin ham was tweaking with the lineup and

taking the three of their top five players out. I am again do I think the Lakers are a legitimate championship contender Like the teams at the top of the league now, but we're gonna give them a shout out here for how good they've been playing over the course the last couple of months. At nine, the New Orleans Pelicans. They're losing to the Orlando Magic, Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Boston Celtics since our last rankings, so they're dropping

a bit. Obviously, brandon Ingram got hurt, and that plays a role here. The offense has really fallen off. They're twenty first in offense over their last six games, and their defense hasn't been as good either. They're down to

ninth and that span. Here's the thing. I really wanted to drop the Pels too, But like when you look through the rest of the league, the league is so good and everyone's kicking the shit out of everyone, there is not a team that I could reasonably put above New Orleans for now, even though I know that relative to most people, I'm lower on New Orleans, there's not even a team that I could res in noably put above them, because everyone's kind of hovering around five hundred

because everyone's really good and everyone can beat everyone, and it's making for some bunky results. At number eight, the New York Knicks, so mixed results since our last rankings are four and three. Had a nice road win over the Golden State Warriors, but they lost through the Denver Nuggets, and the San Antonio Spurs obviously lost a complete heartbreak

to the Oklahoma City Thunder yesterday. Concerning stat with the Knicks, they're just five and seventeen this year in that same list the top ten point differential teams on cleaning the glass, they are just five and seventeen against those teams. Obviously, injuries that played a role. I think like when it comes to the upper level teams, execution and effort and coaching and all those things can only carry you so far when you run into superior talent. And here's the

thing Jalen Brunson has had to do. A ton. A lot of guys are being asked to do more than usual, and just getting back your best players will go a long way to helping that. And here's the silver lining. They are thirty nine and thirteen against everyone else, which means they're building the habits and the consistency in the basketball culture to where if they add in the talent, they should be able to push over the top number seven.

The Milwaukee Bucks also mixed results three and three since our last rankings, one in three against the quality opponents they faced, though they had a nice win against Oklahoma City, but then the loss of the Celtics, loss of the Lakers, loss of the Pelicans. We can zoom out. Now take a look at the Doc experience. Doc Rivers has been the coach of the Milwaukee Bucks for twenty eight games. In those twenty eight games, the Bucks are fifteen to thirteen.

That is the sixteenth best record in the league over that span. If you guys remember, I talked a lot about goals for the Bucks under Doc Rivers. I wanted to see an offensive rating at one twenty because I thought they needed to be a truly elite offense to win. And I wanted to see a defensive rating at one point fifteen, which I thought was a good mark to demonstrate a good enough defense to get the job done in the postseason provided that their offense was elite. Here's

where they're at since Doc went joined the team. Fifteen point one offensive rating. That's sixteenth in the league over that's fan so they've been very mediocre on offense. But here's a silver lining. One twelve point six defensive rating over a twenty eight game sample size, eleventh best in the league. So for what's that, roughly thirty thirty five percent of the season, they've been a top eleven defense.

That's real, that's not something to completely ignore. Overall, they've they've struggled against some specific matchups, particularly guard heavy offenses. It's why they've struggled with the Lakers for instance, right, But overall they've been really good on that end of the floor. And again, the offense just hasn't come around. But if the offense comes around, that's where it could

really take off. And I think, honestly, it's been a little bit of break rhythm with Giannis's hamstring injury and I think like and obviously with Chris Middleton being in and out of the lineup all year, So there's some factors there. They're really good offensively to start the season. I do believe that that offense is still in there, but they got to get to that point in order to capitalize in how good they've been defensively. Number six,

the Los Angeles Clippers. They're going against an easier part of their schedule and they're getting back on track As a result, they're five and two in their last seven since our last rankings. They got the Blazers twice and the Hornets once. Some easy ones in there. They split a home at home with the Philadelphia seventy six ers. They did lose an ugly one at home to the

Indiana Pacers in that span. But on Friday Night and one of their most impressive wins in recent months, they went to Orlando and got in this rock fight, this really fun rock fight of a basketball game, and just through really high level defense and really high level shot making, the Clippers got to win one hundred and ninety seven on the road, and they looked more or less like the Clippers, and I thought that was a really encouraging game for them. It's still in there. They just need

to recapture it before they get to April. We've seen teams like Denver last year kind of run into similar stretches where they dominate and then they let their foot off the gas at the end and somehow they get it going in time for the postseason. That's got to be the mold for the Clippers. Number five. The Dallas Mavericks. Not going to talk too much about them because We just did a whole deep dive on them again, Mavericks fans.

Earlier on the feed, we did a deep dive on Dallas for Shuston and just how Luke has been dominating

and how good they've been defensively, all that kind of stuff. You can find that on our YouTube feed. But brief synopsis, Dallas has been the second best team in the league since February fifth, and they're doing it on both ends of the floor. Some really encouraging stuff there. They've been a good defensive, rebounding and defensive rating over that span. Number four Minnesota Timberwolves. They're five and two in their last seven games since our last rankings, including some really

impressive wins. They went into Denver and man handled the Nuggets the other night, albeit without Jamal Murray. Since Carl Towns went down, they started playing way better after they put nas Reed in the starting lineup. They're now eight and four in those games, sixteenth in offense, sixth in defense, Anthony Edwards averaging twenty six points, seven rebounds, and six assists. I advocated for starting nas Reid because I thought it

was the best option for Minnesota under the circumstances. I like Nikill Alexander Walker for particular matchups, but I just figured, especially in the regular season, it makes sense to lean into nos Reed. Really interesting comments from Anthony Edwards about how nas Reed and his ball reversal has helped him with his shot selection. So this is a similar thing I've seen with the Lakers, for instance, with Jackson Hayes.

The dude catches on the wing and he just are above the break and he just naturally is part of his basketball kind of character. He just kind of flows into a dribble handoff on the other end of the floor. It helps get the action going from side to side.

And Anthony Ewards talked about how naz Reid doing that for the Timberwolves has helped him kind of like feel more about feel more aware of the offensive flow and less dribbling the ball up to four and shooting and more running some action and then maybe shooting if the ball makes its way back to him. And I thought that that was really interesting and a good indicator of the fit with nos Reed in the starting lineup number three, the Oklahoma City Thunder. They're five and two since our

last rankings. They beat the Suns, the Knicks, and the New Orleans Pelicans in that span held up pretty well without shake Kids Alexander all things considered, now he's back in the lineup, really just shined the light on how great Jalen Williams is going to be again. We did a deep dive on the thunder in an earlier segment today.

You can find that on our YouTube feed. Number two the Denver Nuggets five and two since the last rankings on March eighteenth, two and oho with Jamal Murray in the lineup, but in the five games without him, they went three and two. Reggie Jackson just wasn't playing well in the first four games in that set, and that was really leading to some mixed offensive results. But Reggie Jackson broke out in a big way against the Cleveland Cavaliers and they looked awesome again. Big time win at

home over a really good team. Number One the Boston Celtics five and two since our last rankings. Couple of impressive wins in there against the Milwaukee Bucks and the New Orleans Pelicans did have a couple of really ugly losses in Atlanta. The first game the Guards sat out and they went really cold, less than one point per

jump shot. Lost a game that blew a big lead in that game, and then the other I think it was two nights later, they played full full strength against or it might have been a back to back, I can't remember exactly, but they went into Atlanta full strength minus Al Horford and they lost an overtime dogfight to de Jonte Murray, who had forty four including the game winner in that game. Jump shooting was more or less

the issue in both games. They took one hundred and one jump shots in both games and only got one hundred and seven points. And again, that's more or less the thing with if there's one rub on Boston, it's like, if they go cold with their jump shooting, you can beat them, right and that that's been a consistent theme throughout the season. That's not a hot take, that's just a statistical fact. At this point this season, they've taken six thousand, six hundred and sixty seven field goal attempts.

Three seven hundred and forty four of them have been jump shots. That's fifty six percent of their field goal attempts, most in the league. So they just have a certain amount of you know, they have a certain amount of like their fate just kind of tied up in jump shot results, just kind of the reality of the Celtics. But again, I don't want to highlight the Atlanta wins or losses without making sure we highlight that they got big wins over the Bucks and the Pelicans in that span,

although the Bucks sat out some guys. One last though on that front, I watched both of the Atlanta games, and the one thing that bothers me still is like, at the end of these games, they don't really have a bully ball option that they can go to to get a really good look close to the basket. And so that's the thing, Like, is Boston a better basketball

team than Atlanta. Yeah, but if they get into a mid range jump shooting contest with Dejonte Murray over a small sample size, Dejonte can get hot and make them and beat them, right, And so like, as long as the Celtics more or less have been a good clutch team for most of the season, I'm not trying to like pretend like that success hasn't been there. But we have seen from time to time they can go cold, and when they go cold, they struggle to find alternative

methods of offense. But still at this point, five and two in their last seven games, number one in our power rankings. All Right, guys, that is all we have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow. Should be a fun one. We got a big game tonight between the Pelicans and the Suns, and then I plan on doing a little breakdown of Iowa versus LSU. That should be fun. Obviously, I don't profess to be as well connected with women's

soups as I am with the NBA. That's obvious and goes without saying, but I'm a huge basketball fan. I view tonight as musty television, and whatever basketball thoughts I have from the game, I'll share with you guys in tomorrow's show. Also plan on doing a mail back tomorrow to make sure you guys get those into the YouTube comments. All right, guys, see you tomorrow. The volume