Hoops Tonight - NBA Finals Game 2 BREAKDOWN

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plan for the next couple of days. I didn't do film in this particular episode, mainly just because all of the concepts that took place in game two were very similar to the concepts that took place in Game one,

where we went ad nauseum over these specific things. So if you're looking for visual representations of Al Horford being able to switch out on to Luka Doncic, or the problem with Jason Tatum being at the center position, the dry the hunting of Luka Dancic hunting Luca is going to be a big part of the show today, Like I have lots of clips of that in the Game one film session, So if you're looking for visual representations, you can see them there. We're going to break it

all down, just no film in this particular episode. Later this afternoon, Sam Vassini from The Athletic one of the basketball minds that I respect the most in the world right now, someone that's extremely well connected in the league. Always makes me a smarter basketball fan. We're having him on the show later this afternoon to break down the NBA Finals. I'm going to be asking him what adjustments Dallas can make, so on and so forth. That's going

to be airing tomorrow morning. So Tuesday morning, So today we got our little film session without the film. Then tomorrow we've got Sam Bessini coming on the show, and then obviously Wednesday, we're back with Colin after the final buzzer of Game three. So a little schedule stuff for you there, all, right. Before we get into the specifics, I want to kind of go over some of the metrics,

like I usually do. The data takes a little while to update after the game ends, and so I don't really get to get into that data the night of the show, but the next day I get to kind of go back and look at some of the numbers. And so I've got a bunch of numbers to share from you guys, not just from last night, but also kind of looking at the series as a whole. And then we'll get into the specific basketball concepts that took place in the game last night. So first of all,

jump shooting. Dallas out shot Boston last night. They got zero point eight to one points per jumper. Not a good shooting night by any means, but Boston shot worse zero point seventy five points per jump shot. And I thought they got better quality looks for better shooters too,

So that's obviously discouraging if you're Dallas. If you get that type of shooting night from Boston and you lose, Like, if you're contump lighting a pathway for Dallas to win this series, it probably involves you winning the game that Boston gets zero point seventy five points per jump shot. But they did not, and not only that, they were really not in even a position to try to win that game. Boston seemed to control it throughout spot up opportunities.

Talked a lot about this in game one, right, Like, if you engage a help defender and you kick to a person on the perimeter, that is a spot up opportunity. That is a great indicator that you are compromising the defense. You're getting the defense into rotation by pulling a help defender in and making a quality read to a shooter

out by the three point line. Right. Well, in game one, like we talked about, it was something like what thirty two to sixteen in favor I think it was thirty four to twelve in favor of Boston, So yeah, yeah, that's what it was. Boston had thirty four spot up opportunities in game one, Dallas had twelve. In Game two, Boston had thirty four again and Dallas had only sixteen. So we're at sixty eight to twenty eight in favor of Boston for spot up opportunities for the series so

far through two games. So Boston is getting more than double forty additional spot up opportunities for their role players or stars or whatever you want to call them on the perimeter as opposed to Dallas, and they're converting him at a much higher rate too. In Game two, Boston converted spot up possessions at zero point nine to seven points per possession Dallas at zero point four to four.

That even goes beyond the shooting, because again, if you are standing at the three point line and a guy closes out at you and you beat him off the dribble and get to some sort of scoop shot in the lane, may not be worth as many points as a three, but it still is converting a spot up possession into two points. It's effectively amounting to spacing because

you're a threat when someone helps off of you. So Boston is compromising the defense more than twice as often as Dallas is, they are converting those at a much higher rate. It is just a complete mismatch in terms of the quality of low books that Boston is getting compared to Dallas in this game. Isolation We talked a lot about this. We're going to talk about the specifics here in a minute in terms of the geometry of the floor and why it's leaning towards more ISO. But

Dallas is not converting in ISO. They had zero point five to four points per possession including passes in game one in isolation in game two only a little bit better zero points seventy to nine points per possession including passes. That's just not going to cut it, considering you're not getting the defense in rotation either. Kyrie has run nineteen ISOs so far including passes through two games, they've led to just twelve points at zero point six to three

points per possession. He's the main guy that has to improve offensively as they head home to Dallas, zooming out on the series on cleaning the glass. Half court offense through two games, points per play ninety six to eighty seven points per one hundred plays in favor of Boston if you include offensive rebounds one fourteen to one oh one points per one hundred possessions. So Boston just completely

dominating in the half court. Rebounds are dead, even though both teams have grabbed fifty percent of available rebounds, so there's a bunch of just kind of numbers for you guys to get a feel for some of the specific concepts the concepts that I'm that I'm talking about again, like you want to always try to tie the eye test to the numbers and vice versa. They can't exist without each other. If you're relying entirely on that and you're not paying attention to the data, you're missing out.

If you're paying a ton entirely to the data and you're not paying attention to what's happening on film, you're missing out. We got to try to tie those two concepts together whenever we can. And again, when I'm talking about Dallas struggling to get those skip passes to shooters or kickout the clean kickout passes to the corner, you're seeing that manifest in the lack of spot up opportunities

for Dallas. So we're going to talk about three major concepts that are kind of playing playing out in this series. The first is the main issue. This is the number one issue that I think is determining the outcome of the series more than any other concept. Dallas can't contain

the basketball. What that means is the guy dribbling with the singular defender in front of him when the defense is loaded up, Meaning if the guy's dribbling on the right wing and there's a guy kind of digging down a little bit from the corner, and there's a guy digging down a little bit from the wing, and there's a guy on the ball, and on the weak side, you've got two guys with a foot in the paint kind of stepping in and out to avoid the defense

of three seconds are loaded up. Right from that position, Dallas cannot contain the initial ball handler. Now, A big part of it is match up hunting, right, Like they're hunting Luca, they're hunting Daniel Gafford, they're hunting the specific matchups that they can go at. And you know, we're going to talk about it in a little bit more detail in a minute. But it's like it's a little weird, right because Luca is the primary culprit here and yet he's doing so much for his team on the offensive

end of the floor. But Boston just has a really simple entry point, like just get Luca onto the basketball, beat him off the dribble. Now, once he gets beat off the dribble, right, once he got, it's beat off the dribble, he engages a help defender. Once he engages a help defender, one of these guys on the weak side is wide open and there's a single defender that's trying to kind of navigate that two on one on the weak side. Right, the kickout pass is made from there.

It's either a wide open catch and shoot three or a guy closing out at him. And when a guy's closing out at him, he has an opportunity to beat that guy off of the dribble. Right. I told his story in a very short version with Colin Cowhard last night, but I want to give a little bit of longer version of it because this, to me is a very

interesting basketball concept. So again, when you're dealing with young basketball players like I do when I'm coaching my high school kids, you're always trying to help them become better decision makers, right, like read and reacts like the number one thing that you need to work on with kids so that they can learn how to play with other

basketball players. Right. And a simple concept that I use to try to emphasize the value of passing, meaning like emphasize why it's so important for you to when you're getting into traffic to notice when there's a guy standing on the wing who's wide open. The reason why you have to throw that pass consistently is because of this concept.

What I would do is I'd set the kids up in King of the Court, right, and usually we go five spots, right, but generally speaking we start in the corner because that's the most frequent kind of spot up opportunity you'll see. But we'll go from the wing as well, right, And like you'll start in the corner, and I'll have the kids start with a defender right up on them, right, so they hand the basketball and they're playing isolation defense.

And we'll play King of the Court for like five ten minutes, and then I'll stop the game and I'll bring everybody in and I'll be like, how often are you guys scoring right now? And they'll be like, not often, because it'll be like twenty twenty five possessions and they'll

have like two buckets between all of the players. And again, this is the high school level, right, And like at this particular level, the talent isn't as developed as you see at later levels, right, but they're not scoring very often, right, And so then I'll back them away and I'll be like, all right, start underneath the basket, throw the pass, close out, and now they're sprinting out to the perimeter. And if

they close out short, the dude's shooting a three. And the kids can knock down a three point shot right when they're open. Right, if they close out too hard, they can make a move and beat that person off the dribble and make a play. And I'll pause them again after a few minutes, and I'll say bring it in, guys, and It'll be how often have you guys been scoring? And it's like a lot more often. It's like forty to fifty percent of the time that they're scoring when

the defender is sprinting out at them. And I use that to kind of hammer home a very simple concept. That's why you make that pass. Because none of you are good enough to just consistently beat your man one on one when he's engaged and up on you in a set defensive situation consistently. But if you make that pass, you infinitely increase your chances of being able to score

the basketball. Now, again, at the NBA level, that gap shrinks, right, the gap between the ability to score against a set defensive player that's loaded up on you versus in a spot up situation is a smaller gap, but it's still a gap. Like there's no isolation player in the league that's getting you know, one point twenty five one point three points per possession in like not including passes, just straight like buckets on an island. No one's doing that.

But spot up players at the top of the league do the good spot up players there at one point two one point three points per possession. Right, in general, if you took all of the league's possessions for spot ups versus isolations, there's a gap there. And so that that's the concept that I'm referring to here. Boston is able to beat that first player off the dribble. From there, everything is closed out basketball. They are playing basketball with

a defender sprinting out at them. And these are thirty million dollar players. These are thirty million dollar players that are making these types of decisions with the players sprinting out at them. The second concept that I use from that high school group, we work a couple of different types of setups in King of the Court. So, for instance, when I try to get them used to working in tight space. I'll have them work from the top of the key, and the rule is they're not allowed to

go outside the lane lines. So they have to try to make an efficient move in a tight space situation. And then when they see an angle, it's not going to be a big angle that you can go swooping around. It's usually a little bit of an angle that you have to shoot through the gap with physicality, and the defender is going to catch your shoulder and you have to power through that because if you go too far outside of that, you end up outside of the lane line,

and then it's an automatic turnover. In this game that I play with the kids, right, so it's like a tight space setting where they're learning how to work when they can't veer off into the other parts of the floor. Why is that important Because in a real basketball game, you're not playing in a wide open space where half the floor is cleared and there's nobody else there. There

is a defender digging down from the wing. So making them stay inside the lane line is how I demonstrate to them that they can't go too far out to where the help defender would be swiping down at the basketball that's the second piece of what makes Boston so hard to guard. It's not just advantage basketball, it's advantage basketball in space they're doing it. It's like, if you conceptualize that drill, just imagine if the lane lines were

like an extra three four feet further apart. Because that's the advantage of having Derek White in the strongside corner that you can't help off. Of having Drew Holliday, of having Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum, all these different guys, Al Horford, Chris Topsporzingis, Sam Houser, Peyton Pritchard, all eight of their core rotation players are great shooters. So like, as a result, there is just so much they're operating with an advantage with tons of space to work, and that is what

makes them so difficult to beat. Now, what if we're talking about Boston and their roster weakness, what's the one roster weakness they have. They don't have a Luca, they don't have have a like, just a transcendently great offensive player. So if you can contain the basketball and you can force them to constantly play against a loaded up defense, some of those players shortcomings might come to the surface. But the primary problem is is Dallas can't contain the basketball.

It doesn't matter how good of a defensive player Derek Jones Junior is if he's closing out all the time, because Luca gets switched on to Jason Tatum or Jalen Brown, and Tatum or Brown just cleanly beats Luca off the dribble, engages the health defender gets kicked out, and now Derek Jones is trying to cover a player when he's at a complete disadvantage, right, And so that is the fundamental

basketball concept that is breaking Dallas's defense. They cannot contain that initial drive because they're getting switched with Gafford or Luca, one of their lesser defensive players out on the perimeter against one of the J's. One of the Jays is beating that guy off the dribble driving kick from there. That's the problem. It's not just Luca. Everyone's getting beat. Gafford's getting beat, Kyrie was getting beat, Kleebo is getting beat. He was the one who got beat at that on

that late possession. That kind of was the dagger, Like they're getting beat all over the place and Boston is exposing not the top end of Dallas's perimeter defense. The top end of Dallas's perimeter defense is fine. Derek Jones Junior is great. He did an amazing job on Anthony Edwards. PJ. Washington has been okay, but he's a capable perimeter defender.

It's not about that. It's the depth. It's Boston tests the depth of your perimeter defense, and Dallas does not have depth of perimeter defense, and that is how they're getting exposed in this particular situation. I don't know how they fix that issue. There's not really a schematic thing that they can do. They just simply have to do a better job. Luca on those possessions with Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum has to find a way to keep Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown from engaging health defense. And

that's difficult. If I asked you, guys, how is it that you can prevent? Like, if I ask you guys just straight up, like, do you think over the next five games which Dallas has to win for Dallas has to win for the next five do you think Lucas just going to contain all these guys on the dribble at some point? It's hard to imagine now there are a couple of schematic things they can do. They can try pre switching, meaning when Luca's man comes up, let's

imagine those bench units when Luca's guarding Hauser. When Howser goes up to set the screen, you have to send somebody else up there. But the problem is is it is legitimately a depth of talent issue. If that became a thing, they would just go to Derek White and Drew Holiday. Those guys would beat somebody off the dribble. There is a lack of depth of perimeter contain on

this roster, and Boston is exposing it again. Like if you had to look at all the teams that could come out of the Western Conference, Dallas is probably the worst possible matchup out of the top teams in the West that Boston could have faced. I mean worse for Dallas. I mean in the sense that their defense is just not set up to be able to contain this type of attack from Boston. Boston's driving kick decisions have been

mostly excellent. Turning back to the Boston side of things, like juxtaposed with twenty twenty two, I remember talking about rim decisions constantly. With that Boston team, like they would drive and engage the help defender and then try to shoot over them. They beg for a foul and fall into camera row and then they go out the other way. And that Boston team, this Boston team is an excellent transition defense. That Boston team was a bad transition defense.

And one of the big things that would happen is they were an excellent half court defense. But you know, Golden State in particular, but a bunch of teams, even Milwaukee did this a lot too. They would just get out going in transition off of bad rim decisions by the Jays right and by Marcus Smart. And they've just done a much better job of that in this season. It just kind of looks like a more grown up version of the Celtics. They've generated thirty six wide open

threes so far through two games of the series. That's eighteen per game. That's an outstanding Drew Holliday's been doing some really interesting stuff in spacing as a cutter. He had six points again in this game just on cuts. He had two of them out of the dunker spot, where like he just staying kind of just outside the block and catch and then drop step and go reverse on the opposite side of the basket, even in traffic, even against bigger players. By the way, Drew Holliday was

amazing last night. He had twenty six points without a single bucket in iso, pick and roll or in the post. Every single one of his twenty six points was in the flow of the offense, transition, screening and popping or rolling out of the dunker spot. He had a cut off of the weak side wing on a table a Tatum double team in the post in the second half on the offensive glass, just got to the foul line

just by sprinting in to crash the offensive glass. Like he just it was such a beautiful example of like a like superstar role player game. Like he just did everything without having to co op the offense and still led the team and worning with twenty six points. It was just an unbelievable night from Drew Holliday. But yeah, they're doing a really solid job of making the right decisions. Like there was an interesting quote from Joe Missoula after the game last night. It was not after the game,

is during the game. It was one of the like kind of video clips of him in the huddle during a timeout, and he talked about how they can't be going fast before they've manipulated this spacing. And to make that simple, it's like when they get up the floor and they have a tendency to trust their talent too much and they just quickly look to attack. It limits their success. But when they're deliberate, when they get up

the floor, they get a favorable matchup. Take the time to get Luke on an island, then set everything up so did you have your shooters in the places where they're most comfortable, and then look to go like you'll see that You'll see there was a i want to say it like it was a Derek Lively switch and Tatum actually missed a pull up three on this one.

But you can see them like they get the switch they want and then Tatum kind of slides further over to the wing and he does that so that you can't have as much nail help from the opposite wing, right, and he'll push the shooter deeper down into the corner. Like they'll take their time to get their spacing set

and then go to work. And then from there it's just about it's about being deliberate in that execution, which dramatically increases your shot value, especially for a team like this that's leaning a lot on like the aggregate, they're leaning on the possession battle, they're leaning on the math, right, and so by taking the time to be deliberate with that spacing, it's gone a long way towards raising the

ceiling of their offense. And then Tatum and Brown just you know, aside from the occasional bad pull up jumper that Tatum's taking, and again, like Tatum's it's a very up and down postseason from him. He's doing all these things incredibly well, but then his shot selection and his jump shooting has just been atrocious, right, and struggled finishing

at the RAM last night too. But aside from the occasional bad pull up jumper that Tatum's taking, like both him and Jaylen Brown have been been doing a masterful job of just getting the defense in rotation, which is their job. Their job is just to engage the help defender from there. That's where Drew Holiday, Derek White, all these guys, that's where their value comes to the surface. You've got to get them those advantage situations. And the

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expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. See dkg dot co slash bball for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. So I want to move over to Dallas on the offensive end, because this is the second major topic that I want to do, or the third. I should say. The second was decision making. Dallas just doesn't have many options to counter Boston's defensive

game plan. Joe Mizula has quite literally put together a scheme that is designed perfectly designed to slow down this Mavericks team. I talked a lot in the series preview. If you guys remember about tilting Dallas's offense towards their lowest value shots, which are above the break threes for Derek Jones Junior, PJ. Washington and Mexicoliba. Right, that's if you're gonna beat Dallas, that's what you have to do, and Missoula has done a great job of that. We've

talked a lot about Tatum on the Center. I'm not going to get too much further into that, but Tatum on the Center makes it so that if you want to attack Porzingis and Horford, you have to use Derek Jones or you have to use PJ. Washington if they attack Horford, Horford switching on to Luca and doing an amazing job on an island guarding Luca. If it's Porzingis. They mixed in a lot of blitzing last night. But

like when they're blitzing with Porzingis, Derek Jones Junior and PJ. Washington, whoever it is, it usually is Derek Jones is popping above the break and he can't make it now. They did get a couple lobs last night for Derek Jones off of plays where he rolled to the rim, but it was on places where Tatum got a little distracted on his backside defense and he just wasn't in the right spot. But that's something I think Boston can take

away too. But when Derek Jones is in the screening action, he's popping above the break where he's a bad shooter, and Luca is trying to navigate that situation with Tatum parked right underneath the basket. So putting Tatum on the center has butchered the four out one in spacing. The entire point of the four out spacing is you've got shooters in the corners, shooter on the opposite wing, Lively comes up in sets, you both roll into the drive and roll into open space underneath the basket. So the

screen defender is backpedaling. How many times do we see Gobert backpedaling as Gafford is dunking on his head because he's got a running start coming downhill and Luca's throwing in the basketball right By putting Tatum on the center, it fucks all that up because now you've got shooters in the corners. But instead of Lively coming up to

set the screen. He's standing down in the dunker spot, and the guy that's above the break is now setting the screen, and now you're either both rolling downhill into all that mess because Lively and Tatum are down there, or he's having to pop back out above the break where he's not a very good shooter. Right. So that's the first single adjustment that's done the most damage to Dallas's offense. But they're doing it with help too. There

were a couple possessions last night. Usually transition cross matches this is where we're seeing it happen the most, But transition cross matches where porzingis or Horford will end up on the center, right, transition cross match just means everyone's pushing up the floor with pace and you're just grabbing the closest player, right, Like transition defense principles are very different.

You just grab the nearest player. Well, you get the basket first, then the ball, then the nearest player, right, So like you get these cross matches in those situations then like Luca is looking to attack and they're just sagging way off of the wing. Like there was a play that I clipped an example of him put on Twitter this morning where Luca is running a ball screen on the right wing and attacking Porzingis. But on the play here comes here comes Derek White, just basically ignoring PJ.

Washington on the left wing and guarding the action. Three on two. Now Luca made the kickout pass and PJ. Washington actually drove on Derek White and made a nice little contested floater in the lane, but it wont a great look. That's the main Again, everything is tilted either through Tatum on the center or through their help side defense to try to end with the ball in PJ. Washington or Derek Jones or Josh Green or Maxic Kaliba standing out twenty five feet from the basket, where they're

mediocre shooters and mediocre clothes out attackers. That is what's making all of this work. Even with the post up stuff. Like I talked about a bunch of adjustments for Dallas after game one, they really didn't do any of them, Like they didn't run rams screens like. The one thing they did do is Luca did look to attack the

guards more. Remember I talked about that after game one, like try rather than attacking Horford, go after Derek White and Drew and he did, and they scored a lot more in the post in this game than they did in Game one. But even in those situations, they're digging down to try to have the possession end with one of those mediocre players catching out above the break. So it's really a brilliant game plan from Joe Mizzoula that has tilted Dallas's offense towards their lowest value plays. There's

a quote from Missoula post game. It was kind of a cool moment because he's rambling and he's like literally like talking super fast and just listing all these different things at like lightning speed, and you could just tell he's got like a photographic memory. But he was listing out the first quarter and he was like, I'm paraphrasing, but he was like, yeah, you know, we fould Josh

Green on thre point blah blah blah blah buth. Really, for the most part, we defended extremely well, like everything was ending with above the break shots. PJ. Washington hit one, blah blah blah, and you could tell like Missoula was happy with the result. What was the score was like twenty eight to twenty five, I think after the first quarter, But Missoula was like, who cares, we're giving up the right shots. We're giving up the right shots. Luca contested

pull up jumpers. PJ. Washington above the break three is like they were giving up the right shots. And again it's process over results results. Anything can happen in a single game sample size. Process is what gets you four wins. And Joe Miszula is it has a good game plan, he's sticking to it and it's done a brilliant job. Is slowing down this Dallas team. Now this is the reality reality of Dallas's predicament. Dallas's role players can play better,

they absolutely can't. But they've received just twenty eight spot up opportunities total in two games. It's hard to get your confidence as a shooter when you're not getting many opportunities. And like that's the thing. Like Kyrie and Luca can play better, for sure. Kyrie has been atrocious on offense. He's gotta get it going. Luca's been atrocious on defense. He has to do a better job those two. Flipping those two sides of the script would go a long

way towards flipping the dynamic of the series. But in terms of game plan Missoula is not going to overreact. Even if Derek Jones and PJ. Washington hit seven above the break threes in Game three and they win, Missoula's not going to overreact. The corner threes will not be there, The lobs will not be there. If they are, it's going to be because Boston let their foot off the gas in terms of their defensive execution, but in terms of the well executed Boston game plan, those things will

not be there. So the reality of the pathway for Dallas is the only way they can win this series. There are a couple of schematic things we'll talk about, but only two things will turn the series around. You have to contain the basketball better to stay out of rotation, and you have to when you get stops, push the ball with pace, force those cross matches that disrupt boston

set defensive scheme. And then Luca and Kyrie have to go full twenty sixteen Lebron and Kyrie and just hit super nova status on the offensive end of the floor. That's the only dynamic ship that can turn the series around. There are some schematic things I wrote them down ram screens. We didn't see any in Game two that's where you just have Derek Jones hard down screen for Jason Tatum

as Lively flows into the ball screen. Then as Lively sets it and you're going downhill, I would just have Derek Jones turn around and set a stack screen as he pops back out to the three point line. Just mess up the Tatum angle of that pick and roll to try to create some space for lobs. But they are not doing it for whatever reason, I don't know why. Be more deliberate with your spacing. I talked about that play where PJ. Washington drove on Derek White and hit

the floater. On that possession, Derek Jones was in the left corner. PJ. Washington was on the left wing. Kyrie was in the right corner. Kyrie is a good above the brake shooter. PJ. Washington's a good corner shooter. Flip it. Have PJ in the corner, have Kyrie on the wing. If you're lucky enough to get Porzingis on too Lively. You need to have the right spacing. We talked about it with Missoula. Be deliberate about your spacing. Those are

little things that they can do better. One of the listeners actually recommended this after the Game one show, and I thought it was a really smart idea. What if you run your pick and roll with a cleared side, So have Derek Jones set the pick, have Lucas starred on the right wing. Okay, clear the side so that you have all three guys kind of situated on the

opposite end or you know, dunker spot corner opposite wing. Okay, you can add that guy setting a pin and flair to try to create a skip pass for the corner three. And then basically, when Luca comes off towards the middle, have Derrek Jones pop to the corner where he is a capable three point shooter from the corner. Do the same thing with PJ. Washington when he's in those spots. Those are a couple of schematic examples of things you can do, but none of those three are trump cards.

None of those three are going to magically turn things around. The only thing that's going to magically turn the series around is contain the basketball. Better, get more stops, get out in transition to avoid Boston set defense as much as possible, and then Luca and Kyrie have to be better offensively. That's the only thing that's going to turn the series around. All right. Before we get out of here, I wanted to talk for a few minutes about the

Jalen Brown Jason Tatum debate. So, Jalen Brown has been playing better basketball than Jason Tatum for a few weeks. Now, you won the Eastern Conference Finals, MVP, and he's been the best player the Celtics in the NBA Finals to this point, and so naturally it's turning into like a discussion about, you know, which is the best player on the team. Now here's the thing. Tatum's better than he's

showing right now. He's in a bad shooting slump. There's some weird stuff there too, Like this is the in the last four seasons in the playoffs, he's declined as a jump shooter. He was like one point one points per jump shot in twenty twenty one, he was like one point zero eight in twenty twenty two, he was like zero point ninety five in twenty twenty three, and then he's zero point eight something, zero point eight two I think in this playoff run. So like his jump

shot is just kind of trending down. God knows why. I literally couldn't explain it. To you. But he's in a shooting slump right now, like he's we all know that Jason Tatum is not a very good pull up shooter, and we all wish that he would lean on that less and lean more on his physical gifts. But he's not this bad either. He's better than this. This is he's badly slumping right. That goes without But I still think that Jason Tatum is in that tier of superstars

that right, that's right below the top guys. For me, the top tier right now is basically just Jokic, Luca, and Jannis. It's like those three guys, and then there's another group beyond that which is all like the flawed superstars. It's like Shay, we'll see he's just too young. I don't know what to make of him until we see more stuff out of him over the next couple of years. But I was super impressed by him in this playoff run.

But Tatum Emba Anthony Davis Lebron, Like, that's the group that we're looking at that's beyond that top tier, right. I think the more interesting thing here is not a negative Tatum angle. It's a positive Jylen Brown angle. Jalen Brown is just playing at an extremely high level, and he's entering into that tier, the tier that Jason Tatum's in, which is the tier of superstars that's below the top guys. Jalen Brown is making a case to be in that tier.

He's having the best perimeter defensive season of his career. We started to talk about it on our show over the tail end of the season. Jalen Brown just took a personal interest in guarding the other team's best player every single night. He's been doing a masterful job on Luka Doncic in this series in general on the defensive end, he had that awesome possession against Kyrie Laid. He's been

great at the rim. Jalen Brown's been incredible, right, But it's a lot of like just being really smart about his dribble drive attacks. He's been one of the primary guys that's been getting the defense in rotation, consistently making good decisions when he gets there. He got a couple turnovers more than you'd like to see last night, but a very very good offensive initiation type of game. So really, instead of it being going into the season, you would

have said Jalen Brown's a third tier superstar. Tatum's a second tier superstar right well, now it looks like they have two second tier superstars, and that's a credit to Jalen Brown's development. But again, Tatum's better than he's looking right now. He's in a bad jump shooting slump that

is kind of exacerbating some of the stuff. But again, both of them, and I tweeted this out out last night, the box score watching with Tatum and Brown has to stop, like these are not These guys are athletic weapons as well, and so much of what they're doing goes beyond the box score. Jalen Brown's individual defense on Jason Tatum and elsewhere on an Island has been incredible. Jason Tatum guarding the other the opposing center while holding up on the glass,

while also holding up on switches. I mean, Luca hit some tough, contested shots over him in the first half, but like they were well defended it. I saw a lot of Dallas fans saying this, like it's like, oh, well, Luca's attacking Tatum. On the other end, there is a huge difference between Tatum forcing Luca into tough over the top shots that he's making, which he would make over everybody compared to on the other end of the floor, Luca just getting cleanly beat off the dribble, which is

leading to high quality shots. Okay, Luca's hunting Tatum and hitting really tough shots. Tatum and Brown are hunting Luca and consistently generating wide open catch and shoot threes and driving layup attempts. It is not the same. But again, like we can't keep watching the box score with those two guys, they are doing so much more. Tatum's individual defense at the center position against Gafford on switches on the defensive glass, that is, it's the primary chess piece

that is screwing up everything for Dallas' offense. That cannot be underestimated. Jason Tatum has been one of the guys like Jaylen Brown that's consistently getting the defense in rotation so they can play drive and kick. So like, again, stop looking at the box score. Both of those guys are hooping. Do I think they're on the same level

as Luca. No. I mean both of them are being asked to fill relatively small roles that they're both probably a bit overqualified for, but they're excelling as a result, and that's a credit to Brad Stevens. I said this with Colin last night. Like Brad Stevens, Brad Stevens knows that Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown are both not as

good as the top guys. He knows that they're both pretty flawed, and so at the expense of future flexibility, he's gone all in on this group because he knows they need a lot of support with talent, and he's probably gonna get a trophy as a result. So it was clearly the right thing to do. But again, like, I don't think this Jalen Brown Jason Tatum thing is

like a negative Tatum thing. Jalen Brown's getting a lot better and Tatum's just in a shooting slump, and it's making the gap between the two look different than it did going into the season. And look, here's the deal. If you're a Celtics fan, Let's say Jalen Brown is as good as Tatum. Now I ain't a bad thing. That's not a bad thing. That's a really good thing for the future of that basketball team. All right, guys,

that is all I have for today. As I said, we're gonna be recording with Sam Vassini year later this afternoon. That'll be up tomorrow morning, so I'll have that and then I will see you guys, also with Colin Live after the final blazer of Game three on Wednesday. The volume