Hoops Tonight - NBA Free Agency Reaction: Thunder ELITE contenders, Chris Paul-Spurs, Pelicans trade

or any simpler. Baseball, golf, UFC, there's something for every fan of every sport to bet on DraftKings. And I know it's early, but football season will be here before you know it. And the Kansas City Chiefs are currently the favorite to win the Super Bowl on DraftKings at plus five fifty. And if you're new to DraftKings, you got to check this out. New customers, bet five dollars and get one hundred and fifty in bonus bets instantly.

Download the Draft Kings Sportsbook app now and use code coops that's hops, that's code hoops for new customers to get one to fifty in bonus bets instantly when you bet just five dollars only on DraftKings. The Crown is yours. Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler or in West Virginia visit www dot one eight hundred gambler dot net. In New York, call eight seven seven eight hope and why, or text hope and why to four six seven three

sixty nine. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus. Age varies by jurisdiction. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. Deposit and eligibility restrictions apply. See terms and responsible gaming resources at DKG dot co.

Slash Baseball, all right, welcome to Hoops Toight. You're at the volume heavy Tuesday. Everybody. Oh Paul, you guys are having a great start to your week while we're getting part two of our free agency reaction today, we have three major moves that I want to hit in today's show. ISAIAHRT, I'm stigning to the Oklahoma City Thunder. We're gonna be spending the majority of time of the time on that one.

I think it's a super interesting move that fundamentally changes both the physical profile and the ceiling of the Oklahoma City Thunder. So we're gonna talk about that in extensive detail. After that, we're gonna get to Chris Paul headed to the San Antonio Spurs, and after that a trade that happened a few days ago, to Johntay Murray to the New Orleans Pelicans. We're gonna get into all those details. We are taking for July fourth, and we're trying to get some time off for me and for our staff

over the weekend. So I tweeted out a question asking for mail bag questions. I'm recording that today that will be airing over the course of the next few days. But unless something major happens, like if we get a major trade, I'm gonna get a video out. But unless something major happens, we're gonna be taking through Sunday off to enjoy the holiday. But we're hitting the three other

big free agency and trade moves today. We'll have a mail bag coming out tomorrow with some breakouts over the rest of the week, and then we back with our normal schedule starting on Monday. You guys are the drill before we get started. Subscribe to Hoops Tonight Tube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLT so you guys don't miss you announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you

get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. And then keep dropping mail bag questions in those YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout the rest of the summer. And then, last but not least, it's baseball season. We are in the swing of it, and there's nothing like getting out to a major League baseball ballpark, having a day out with some friends and family, having some good food, having some beer, whatever it is you like to enjoy at the baseball game. This was something we used to do

as a family when I was growing up. We would all load up and we'd drive up to Phoenix and we'd go see Arizona Diamondbacks game. And thankfully they had a cover over Chase feel that you could air condition that place. Because obviously this place that we're in the mix of it right now here in Tucson, it's like one hundred every single day for the foreseeable future. But I just remember that as a kid, that was just something that was always so important to me. I love

baseball season. The Dbacks making their World Series run last year kind of reinvigorated my love for the game. But you guys got to get out this summer to see a Major League baseball game, and this is where game time comes into the picture. They're an amazing ticket buying experience. I had a great experience with them earlier this year as we went to go My wife and I went to go see the University of Arizona and McHale Center

play their men's basketball team play. It was a last minute kind of thing, got a great deal, do exactly what I was getting myself into. They've got some features that I think makes their process preferable in my opinion. They have all in pricing, so you know exactly what you're paying. When you go to check out, you get a good view of the seat within the app, so you know what you're getting for your money. It's not convoluted. You can check out in as few as two taps.

They have special deals like flash deals and zone deals. I've always been really interested in the zone deals, where you can pick a section in the arena without picking your seat. Game Time picks the seats for you, and you get extra savings that way. So take the guesswork out of buying Major League Baseball tickets with game Time. Download the game Time app, Create an account and redeem code Hoops for twenty dollars off your first purchase terms

apply again, Create an account and redeem code Hoops. That's Hoops for twenty dollars off. Download Game Time today, last minute tickets loess price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. So, as I talked about over the those are you guys who follow me on Twitter have seen me tweet about it a few times, and I've talked about it on

the show once or twice before this. But like one of the guys that I've viewed as like a really interesting option for Oklahoma City going into this free agency

was Isaiah Hartenstein. I was worried about whether or not they'd be able to make a move on him, just simply because I know Hartenstein enjoyed his time playing for the New York Knicks, and I would imagine that there was a certain amount of money that if the gap wasn't as big, he probably would have stayed, but it just the Thunder were able to offer him just a whole lot of money, close to thirty million annually for

the next three seasons. And you know, I want to start We're going to talk about the contract details because there's a flexibility element to this, because I'm pretty sure the final year of this deal is unguaranteed, which will line up with the Jalen Williams Rookie extension as well as the chet Holmgren Rookie extension. So there's a flexibility element to this. But I want to focus on the

basketball first and then we'll get into some of those details. So, first of all, the Thunder had two major weaknesses in the last season, and those of you guys who have been following the show will have heard me talk about this ad nauseum throughout the year, but interior physicality. They were one of only four teams in the NBA that gave up an offensive rebound on more than thirty percent

of their opponent's missus. They allowed seven point seven points per game on putbacks, that was the second most in the NBA. They allowed eight point eight points per game on post ups including passes, which was the second most in the NBA, this was a frontline that you could bully. That was the first weakness. The second biggest weakness was experience, right, and this year was a huge step forward for them. They got two rounds worth of playoff experience for all

the guys in house. They lost in heartbreaking fashion, which I think is actually beneficial to the development of a basketball player. Like you were up by one off of that ched Holmgren dunk in Game six on the road with an opportunity to go home to win Game seven and make it to the conference finals and shake Gelvis Alexander fouls PJ. Washington in the left corner, which leads

to the series being over right. That's a heart wrenching way to lose, right, And I always talk about like there's a difference between loving basketball and hating losing, and the greats are usually both. They're genuine fans of the game, like they just love playing, they love working on their game, they love tinkering with their craft, all that kind of stuff.

But then they also have this like psycho competitiveness, like fear of losing or hatred of losing, And like to me, there's a scar tissue that builds up when you take those losses that actually motivates you in those situations. You find yourself in a big game, in a big pivotal playoff moment, and you think back to what happened when you blew it last time. It leads to another level of focus and intensity because you're terrified that it will

happen to you again. That kind of that's why there's like a process to these teams getting to where they want to go. That's why almost every all time great team that you see has a really ugly loss early on in the process, right, Like that's just kind of like inherent in the process. The Nuggets made it to the conference finals and lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, right, but then they conquered them on their way to the title.

Last year. The Golden State Warriors in twenty sixteen lost after winning seventy three games, even going before the twenty fifteen title, the loss they suffered against the Clippers in twenty fourteen, the loss that they suffered against the Spurs in twenty thirteen, the Miami Heat losing to the Spurs, or to the Dallas Mavericks in twenty eleven, that was scar tissue that led to them bringing that level in the future. Like there are almost always heartbreaking loss is

early on in the process. I've missed a big one there, two thousand and eight Lakers painful loss before they win two championships in a row. Look at all of the painful losses for Dirk Novitski before he won in twenty eleven. It's just kind of like part of that growth. It's part of that process. And so everybody in that locker room gets two more rounds worth of experience. You added. Alex Caruso, a veteran of six playoff series. He's played

in thirty one playoff games. He started for the twenty twenty Lakers in Game six of the twenty twenty NBA Finals. Literally is one of the most you know, dependable type of playoff role players that you could have. I think that is a huge influx of experience. Hartenstein himself has played a major role in four playoff series. In general, as this team goes into next season, they are older,

they are wiser and more experienced. Right, That's not something you can like really address through the roster as much as just through just through getting through those wars. Because even Cruzo and Hartenstein, the main guys who need that experience are Shae Yielders, Alexander and Jalen Williams, who both got a big dose of it last year. Now, from the interior physicality standpoint, there were two routes that they

could go. They could get a big center to put Chet at the four, or they could get a big and athletic power forward to kind of anchor Chet at the five. And each one of those routes had pros and cons. Like going with the center, going the Hartenstein route, the pros are you get a bigger look, which will help against large front lines, right like against Denver Minnesota

teams that play really big front court players. You have a bigger look there, right, It alleviates some of the regular season wear and tear on chet Holmgren from having to guard centers and deal with just bigger bodies underneath the basket. It's cheaper, Like it's just easier to get a center than a power forward. As I talked about in our five Biggest Takeaways video after the Finals, I think the big athletic forward is the most valuable archetype in the league right now that you know Jason tam

type that Aaron Gordon type that Lebron James. Even. Part of the reason why in his old age he's been as successful as he is is he just plays an incredibly important position in the NBA. It's why I'm excited about a guy like Jonathan Minga for the Golden State Warriors. It's why a guy like I think Jeremy Grant could help a team next year in a big way. It's why Lori marketIn I think brings a certain amount of trade value around the league. There's just that specific position

is just becoming a very valuable position. The guy who's big and strong enough to kind of sort of hang with centers, but has the perimeter skill to function in a five out offense. That is the key to that kind of big power forward position. And so as a result, it's just really expensive if the thunder wanted to go out and get if they wanted to go out and get Lori market In, talk about what at least five or six picks right to get that deal done. Like

that's just it would have been incredibly expensive. They would have had to turn around and extend Louri market In probably somewhere in the neighborhood of like four years and one hundred and sixty million dollars right, which fundamentally does change the cap situation moving forward. As a basketball fan, I'd be lying to you guys about it and say that I wanted to see what that looks like, of course,

just to see Lori Markinen in that group. But it was an expensive option to go that way the center position. They were able to just go out and sign a center to a short term deal in overpay a little bit, because who cares, they can afford it on the cap in the short term. That was just an easier option for them to pull off while maintaining their long term flexibility. The cons Chet has to be able to function as a high level perimeter player. Now I don't want to

get into this yet. I want to save this for a little bit later in the show. But this is my one concern with going with the Isaiah Hartenstein type of look. Chet when he's on the floor with Isaiah Hartenstein, which won't be all the time, but when those two guys are sharing the floor together, Chet now has to function as a ball handling wing essentially, and we'll get

into some of the more of those details. We're going to be using the place software today to demonstrate some things for the thunder on both ends of the floor with Chet and Isaiah Hartenstein. So we'll get more into that. But that's one of the cons of going with the center. It puts a lot of pressure on Chet's perimeter skill. If you go power forward, the pros are spacing is always a little bit easier when you have five three point shooters on the floor, just is look at the

Boston Celtics, right. It puts less pressure on Chet's perimeter skills. You would continue to be guarded by centers who are primarily going to be operating in drop coverage. He's gonna have picking pop looks, he's gonna be able to space above the break while while his man sinks into the lane. There. It's just less pressure on Chet's ball handling and playmaking ability. Right.

It provides more matchup versatility for when they run into teams that really test their ability to contain the ball, right, like if they ran into a in the West, a team like the New Orleans Pelicans now that they have de Jonte Marie Anzion Williamson, or like Sacramento is a team like this, Teams like Boston and Indiana out of the Eastern Conference teams that have a lot of dribble drive speed that having that smaller look with at the five and another athletic forward next to him just is

a little more resilient defensively in those types of situations. But quick caveat, it's worth mentioning that most of the top teams in the West don't bring that type of dribble penetration, right Like Jamal Murray is not a dribble drive type of guard. I know the Nuggets want Russell Westbrook, which is something I saw yesterday, which it's kind of funny to me that Lebron and Nikola Jokic could end

up making that same mistake. But the teams at the top of the West are either like Denver where they don't have great dribble penetration, Dallas who doesn't have great drible penetration, or teams that have great dribble penetration but have lots of non shooters for you to sink into the lane on, or at least guys that you're willing to live with shooting, like Minnesota and Memphis. John Moran

and Anthony Edwards are incredible drible drive guys. But that's kind of the head of steak and you can really pack the paint on them. They're not teams that have like like bunches of guys that are going to be slashing and challenging your perimeter defense. So there's no doubt that having a forward next to chet gives you a

little bit more defensive versatility against dribble drive teams. But they may not even have to deal with that until they get to the finals anyway, just by virtue with the of the way the Western Conference is laid out, cons of going they're out of the forward. Like we talked about earlier, getting a forward is super super expensive and I don't need to go in any more details there. It's just it's the most valuable archetype in the league. It's really hard to get, like we talked about earlier.

So the way I look at it, by going the center route rather than going the power forward route, it was a low risk way for Oklahoma City to beef up their front line while also maintaining some flexibility for the future. Now, again, as I mentioned, the initial reporting is that I believe that final year is I believe

that final year is non guaranteed. So again, like they can line up the cap sheet to where if they need to clear heart and sign off the books when they're signing JDub and Chet, they should be able to do so. So that's that's where that flexibility piece comes from. Whereas if they got a market in and they had to extend in four years now, there's just some overlap there. I could put them into some issues with the second apron. So let's talk about the basketball fit though. So it's

not just that they picked a center. They picked Isaiah Hartenstein. So where does Isaiah Hartenstein specifically fit within this team on both ends of the floor. So the initial reporting I've seen is that Oklahoma City does not intend to start Isaiah Hartenstein. They intend for him to come off the bench. But obviously he's going to play twenty five to thirty minutes a night and will have a lot of crossover with Chet Holmgren. Inevitably they will play together

quite a bit. So really it's about having multiple looks. They'll have a small look right well, they'll have Shay on the floor with Jay Dubb, Alex Crusoe, Loudort, Chet Holmgren. There's a lot of perimeter speed there. Five guys who can all defend multiple positions and can space the teams out on the other end of the floor. That's their small look now, without a real forward that will have. It's a really small look, but that is a look that they will have and it will work in most matchups.

It's really just some of the bigger teams that will give them issues there. But then they'll also have a big look where chet and Isaiah Hartenstein will share the floor together.

for their favorite teams players over and over again. Everybody hates a homer and every league has one of them. But right now, you can put all that intel to the test by bringing those patterns directly into a mock draft and make your mock draft feel like the real thing. Check out fantasypros dot com slash volume today to get an edge over your league mates right now and forever.

who's defending ball screens. When you have real length on the back line, that buys you flexibility for the ball screen defender to come higher up into actions more aggressive on the ball because the lowman has has to be in two places at once. The lowman the guy that's on the back line when your screen defender is running up to defend the ball screen. And again I'm going to show visual example of this in a minute. He is responsible for the role man coming down the lane

and for the man in the corner right. And so there's a certain like stunting and recovering element. There's a lot of like really hard closeouts. There's a lot of ground coverage both vertically under the rim and in terms of covering ground out to the corner that comes from that position. And like going from a Josh Giddy in that type of role or an undersized you know, a guy who's not as big like a Jalen Williams or

Shake Kills as Alexander. Those guys did decently enough. It's not like they're not capable of being the lowman, but they just don't bring enough height or athleticism to that position. And what that does is that puts a lot of pressure on Chet when he's defending those ball screens to make sure that he doesn't let the roleman get behind him, because if he does, that puts a lot of pressure

on the back line of Oklahoma City's defense. When you have Chet on the back line and Isaiah Hartenstein defending the ball screen, you can have Isaiah Hartenstein be aggressive out at the level attacking the ball handler because Chet brings so much ground coverage and verticality to that lowman position. So let's go over to the play software and we're going to take a look in more detailed at what

I was talking about here. So I have a set up here in a typical kind of like ball screen setup, right, So this number three, the small forward is spacing out above the break on this side. This guy's going to be in position where you can dig down at the nail potentially or stay home. He's going to be somewhere in this range. Right, we have the strong side corner shooter. This guy might be a little bit up the lane line, but this guy is under pretty explicit instructions to not

overhelp in this particular situation. Out of the strong side corner. We have the ball screen coming, and we have our ball handler. Right. So in this case, let's imagine that this is Chet and this is Josh Giddy. As the ball screen comes in the event that they're icing, what the main point of attack defender will do is play this high side and force this ball handler to work downhill this way, right. But what I want to look at, I want to start with the ice and then we'll

look with our regular coverage after that. At that point, Chet's responsibility is to basically be to cover both of these guys as this ball handler is funneling back this way and this guy's pressuring from behind. This guy's rolling into this space. Right as he's rolling into this space. If this is Josh Gitty, he is gonna have a hard time bothering a lob pass here and a skip pass to the corner. That's a lot of ground to cover for Josh Gitty, and so as a result, he's

not gonna come up this high. And now Chet has to drop a little bit further back to keep this roll man behind in front of him. He can't let the roll man behind him because if he does, that's gonna put a lot of pressure on this lowman here right. This guy's gonna keep working downhill. This guy's gonna keep pressuring over the top. Chet's kind of working and playing that middle ground. Right. But now imagine a situation where it's Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren is now the fore man.

In this case, if this guy is icing the ball screen and trying to force him back towards the sideline, he can come really high and aggressive because if this five man gets behind him into the zone, Jet can stand right here and provide a good vertical deterrent to any sort of pass over the top. And if this guy the ball, he throws a skip pass and it gets over here to the foreman. Chet has the length and athleticism to cover that ground and recover and while

he's closing out. While that ball is in the air, Hartenstein can recover back into the lane and so again, by virtue of having a real height, length speed advantage at this foreman position, you can trust him to actually be two places at once. Over here, by being aggressive on the ball handler, you can get the ball out of this guy's hands. Right Whereas if this is Josh Gitty and Chet has to be a little bit more

cognizant of the roleman. Now this guy has some space to operate in this part of the floor where he can get to floaters mid range games. Maybe try to bait Chet up and then hit this guy. Maybe Josh Gitty's out of position, or maybe he's just not tall enough to bother the rollman. Again, this was an area where they struggled last year. So by virtue of having Isaiah Hartenstein to add to that look, you give yourself an aggressive pick and roll coverage because Chet can function

as the lowman in their defense in general. In general, like, we've seen this type of setup work in a bunch of different cases, right, Like, this is what the Nuggets did. They put Nikola Jokic aggressive up in a high drop because they trusted Aaron Gordon to be able to be two places at once in the back line. The Milwaukee Bucks for years did that with brook Lopez bring Lopez

into a higher drop coverage. We trust Giannis to be able to be both places at once or even when brook Lopez would deeper drop against specific matchups, Giannis was just able to help off of that week side corner and provide another layer of rim return deterrent, excuse me, while also being able to recover out to that corner. So again, having Chet at the four just gives you an entirely different type of athlete at the lowman position

than what you had beforehand. On the offensive end of the four, Isaiah Hartenstein becomes now instead of Chet, basically your main screening folkrum in five out, and this is something that Isaiah Hartenstein excels at quickly flowing from side to side in ball screens. This is one of the things I talked about with Dayron Sharp from the Denver Nuggets.

The Denver Nuggets just drafted like that. Quick ball reversal is so important from the big man in five out in terms of getting the ball from side to side. The thread of the back door cut there's a lot of like dribbling into dribble handoffs, right, Like Isaiah Hartenstein will dribble at the guy who's coming at him, or at the two guys who are running action that are about to flow into him from there. He's supposed to if there's a slip cut out of it, to hit that.

If the guy goes to set a screen and then his man stays on the high side, he gets slip through. Hartenstein's job is to hit that cut. If the guy who's the primary, the guy who's supposed to be coming off the dribble handoff, if he's being top locked, like if his defender is just literally denying him the use of the dribble handoff and he has to ba cut,

Isaiah Hartenstein has to make that read. If he dribbles that way and nobody's open, it's his job to quickly interpret that and reverse like like kind of do a little half spin move switch ball handling hands, go the other way and kind of signal to the two guys on the opposite of the floor, Hey, I'm coming your way now. There's a lot of decision making and playmaking responsibility on the five man in ball screens or in the in five out offense, and that is legitimately something

that Isaiah Hartenstein excels at. As a matter of fact, he averaged four point three assists per thirty six minutes in this last playoff runt, operating as that type of fulcrum for the Knicks. And that was the next team that didn't have a ton of ball and player movement by virtue of the injuries that took place to them and them leaning so much on Jaln Brunson. So let's go back over to the play software and we're gonna I

want to demonstrate this concept for you guys. So we're gonna set up in like a typical five out type of setup. We'll get all of our defenders matched up here. Now, well, most of this stuff will run and flow out of like a transition push. So, like, imagine the three man dribbled the ball up the floor in transition and the five man's trailing. He's going to kick the ball back to the five man. Now Hartenstein has the ball. Okay,

Hartenstein has the ball. Let's imagine this is Shake Gildas Alexander, and let's imagine this is Jay dub Right. So let's Just imagine like a basic five out motion concept like Chicago, and all Chicago is is Hartenstein has the ball, Shay is going to run down and set a pin down just a screen for j Dub and Ja Dubb is going to come off of that screen into a dribble

handoff with Isaiah Hartenstein. That is a basic Chicago action that you will see a lot of times in like semi transition after a quick push in five out offense. This is five out kind of flow, right, So where are the decisions that Hartenstein has to make As Hartenstein has the ball and is dribbling this way as Shay is setting the sc these guys are probably gonna try to switch this screen. So let's say this guy stays

on the high side. But let's say this the guy who's guarding j Dubb just lingers on Jadub as he's coming off. Let's say he just lingers on Jadub for a split second before this switch occurs and Shay slips it. As Shay slips that screen, it's Isaiah Hartenstein's responsibility to hit that bounce pass. He's got to be the guy

that makes that read. Right, Let's say that as Shae Let's say that as Shay's going running down, this guy's top locking him, and so Jdubb backcuts through, and as he back cuts through, this guy clears, and then let's say Shay then decides, okay, now I need to run the dribble handoff. So now Shae comes up after JDub cuts through to come off on the dribble handoff. Let's say that his defender is top locking him. If he's top locking him and refusing the use of it, he's

got a backcut. Isaiah Hartenstein is the guy that has to make that read. He's the guy that has to hit that bounce pass on time and on target. Let's say, as I mentioned earlier, if the entire play falls apart, so for whatever reason, these guys just do a really good job switching and they As Shae goes to set the screen, this guy stays on the inside position to take away the cut. He quickly switches on to Shay. As this guy tries to come off, he top locks him.

The entire play is butchered. Isaiah Hartenstein is the guy has to go, oh shit, this is falling apart. Let me dribble this way. He'll point at whoever the three man is let's say it's Alex Crusoe or or Lou Dort, and he's gonna be like, go set a pin down for Chet. Then Chet, He's gonna pin down for Chet, and then Chet's gonna come up. That's a decision that Isaiah Hartenstein has to be able to make. And then the last one that will hit is just the big

man ignoring him. So in the event that this guy, the defender guarding Isaiah is just sagging way back in the paint and we have our matchups pretty normal over here, and this guy's coming down to set this pin down, Isaiah Hartenstein might need to just attack this man. And that was something you saw a bunch in the playoffs.

If you guys remember he did it to Joel Embiid too, or like Embiid would just be playing center field and just ignore Hartenstein and sag back into this painted area and Hartenstein would just drive at him hard with his left hand and get all the way to the rim. Those are all the types of reads that your big man needs to make in a five out offense. And there's a whole other layer to it. When he's already

set the screen and now he's rolling into space. We've talked about like him needing to score in the short role. Like literally made sixty percent of his floaters in the regular season last year, made sixty six percent of his floaters in the playoffs last year, so like he can score on the role as well. Like Isaiah Hartenstein, I think in a lot of ways, represents kind of the

quint essential modern five out offensive big. He can set good screen, he can make all of the reads, he can make the back door passes, He quickly flows from side to side. He can score when he's on the roll. He can score when the center is ignoring him. He's not going to put up massive box score numbers, but he's just a really functional cog in that type of five out system. And again, like I don't even worry about him on the offensive end of the floor with

this unit. The only guy that I get concerned about in terms of how the offense will function when Hartenstein's on the floor is Chet Homegerd. And this is something I mentioned earlier, but I want to get a little bit deeper into it now. Going from being guarded by centers who are slower footed, usually dropping in traditional coverages on ball screens which allows him to pop free and clear to the top of the key. When Chet space is above to break his man, the center typically SAgs

way back into the lane. Going from that to that guy guarding Hartenstein, and now Chet's being guarded by a forward who is going to apply more ball pressure, who's probably going to be quicker footed, at least as quick footed as Chet. To a guy who's probably going to switch most actions as opposed to dropping in most actions. Going from that is going to put a lot more difficulty or just challenge on Chet in his perimeter skills.

And so we're going to go over to the placeoff where one more time, and I just want to kind of demonstrate this concept. So again, if this is Chet, we'll set up We'll just set up in like a five out kind of ball screen kind of situation here if this is Chet and Chet's guarding the ball screen, and this team's going to ice the sideball screen. By the way, the guys the reason why I keep talking about icing, every single team in the NBA wants to ice side ball screens. That's what they try to do.

Which all that is is this man instead of chasing over the top and then funneling into the middle of the floor, this man is actually going to stay way on the high side of the screen and try to force him back towards the sideline. There are times where ball handlers in the NBA do get to the middle of the floor, and I want to pretend like that

never happens. They'll just a lot of times like they'll dribble down and then this guy will chase, and then they'll use a retreat dribble which will get them back onto that high side so they can get over. They will get over, and when they do get over the top of the screen, the same exact kind of coverage principles apply. The only difference you'll see is sometimes if the ball handler gets way over here, they may ask

this guy to be the low man. Once the ball crosses that midline, this guy becomes the low man, as opposed to on an ice when they funnel this way, this guy is your low man. Right. So there are some differences in the floor contruct but most teams are going to try to ice that ball screen and funnel him back towards the sideline. Right, So as he funnels him towards the sideline, this guy's in his drop coverage,

he funnels towards the sideline he's chasing. Chet is gonna pop right here and he's gonna be wide open, and he's gonna have a slow footed center closing out at him that he can cook off the dribble and make stuff happen. That's gonna be Hartenstein. Now, now this this is going to be Chet guarded by a Ford. So now what's gonna end up happening is a lot of times Chet's gonna have this guy on him ball pressuring whenever he has the ball. When Chet goes to set

a screen. If Chet, like let's say Isaiah Hartenstein goes down to the dunker spot and Jalen Williams calls for a screen and Chet goes to set it, this is probably just going to be a switch. They'll just switch the ball screen and now Jadub will be going against the Ford and Chet will be going against the two guard. That's not going to be a drop or an ice the way that you see in most of these ball

screen coverages when he's at the five. That so that inherently is going to prevent some of those openings that Chet gets in terms of clean catches on the perimeter. The second piece of it is having to run action. As we talked about earlier. Let's imagine Isaiah Hartenstein is our ball handling Fulkrum right up here right, so he's our fulk Crum, and we have Hartenstein getting ready to run Chicago action. So Jadub run down. He sets a pin screen or a pin down screen for Shae. Shae

comes off the dribble handoff. These two guys switch. Isaiah Hartenstein goes to flow into it. These guys, let's say they deny it, or let's just for the sake of making it work, look kind of a different look than we've already shown. Let's say Shae gets over the screen, so Isai Hartenstein's that's a pick. Shae gets over the screen. He comes down into this zone. Let's say this guy offers Nail help. So there's just a lot of traffic

in here around Shae. Shae would make the kickout pass over here to lou Dort, at which point lou Dort would flow down into a dribble handoff where Chet would come off. This guy would switch. Now lou Dohrt's defender is guarding Chet on the ball, and as as shay Kind of cycles through and Jalen cycles up, Hartenstein's going to turn and go set the screen. So now Chet is running action as the primary ball handler in five out.

Because of Isaiah Hartenstein being the five man, that is going to put Chet in positions where he's going against a quicker perimeter defender who's pressuring the ball and testing the ability of his handle as he gets into the lane, testing his ability to play, playmake as they come off of those situations. So that, like I said, in terms of the offensive end of the four going with two bigs,

I don't worry about Hartenstein at all. My only real concern is will Chet be able to function offensively in more of a perimeter role where the ball is in his hands more to be clear, like in the long run, I'm a big believer in Chet in what he can do with the basketball in his hands, but I just don't think he's quite ready for that yet. So I'm really curious to see how he fares in that role

next year. And I do expect some lumps in the regular season, especially when they go to those big looks, but as long as they can figure that out over the course of the eighty two and Chet makes enough progress before they get to the postseason, that'll be a viable look for them, and they will always have the option of going back to their small ball look, which is going to be better this year because you have

Alex Cruso instead of Josh Gitty. Under any circumstances, it's a better look, and I expect them to be better defensively immediately with Hartenstein on the floor alongside Shed, I expect those big looks to be stifling on the defensive end of the floor. So overall, love to fit, love that it gives them more matchup versatility in the long

run by having a big look. I still think in the law, I still think i'd prefer if they had a forward look as well, where Chet has a big forward next to him, just because I think that that would give them a little bit more versatility, because I think they've got like a really good small ball look and a really good big look, but they don't have anything that's kind of in between that's traditional. That is something I'd like to see them address in the long run.

But Hartenstein gives you the ability to have at least some of those benefits in the short term, and you have the flexibility two years from now by virtue of the way that deal is structured, so you can be picky and you can be patient in the process of trying to hunt down whoever that Foreman was lastly kind of talking about the thunder and the big picture. I think the addition of Crusoe and Hartenstein makes Oklahoma City

a top tier championship contender. I probably still have them behind Boston and Denver by some small amount, at least until we see these guys play. And there are some other teams potentially Philly potentially, some other teams that make a trade this summer. There are some other teams that could be entering into that tier Minnesota and Dallas two potentially as we kind of look into it. But I definitely view Oklahoma City in that tier right now. They

just added two quality starting caliber players. They only had four of those last year. Now they have six of them, just like Boston does. So we'll actually rank our contenders later in the summer. We usually do that, like middle September, as we kind of get ready for training camp, we'll rank our contenders. But I want to wait until all of the signings and trades come through before we do that just because there's just going to be a lot of new information over the course of the next couple

of months. But I do at this point have Oklahoma City in that top tier of contenders by virtue of these two moves. I really wanted Hartenstein to the Thunder. We got it. It's going to be a lot of fun, all right. CP three to the Spurs. I love this move because it accomplishes two things. It gives Victor weben Yama a high level ball handler to make things easier for him on offense. To give you an idea, Victor only got two point five rollman possessions per game last year.

That's the same amount as Rudy Gobert, stonehands, Rudy Gobert and with who doesn't play with passers right, And that's half as many as the star bigs at the top of the league, guys like Anthony Davis, guys like Joel Embiid, because those guys play with high level ball handlers who consistently set them up with those opportunities. Here's a crazy stat for you, guys. Victor only logged two point two

cut possessions per game. Those are easy feeds around the rim for quick finishes right, Trace Jackson Davis are the Warriors who played less than seventeen minutes per game logged more cut possessions per game than Victor Webbin Yama in about half as many minutes. Guess who was the primary guard for most of those Tray Jackson Davis minutes. Chris Paul. So, like, is Chris Paul gonna make the Spurs into a championship contender? Obviously not, But he's just gonna allow them to function

more like a normal basketball team on offense. He's going to generate those higher quality opportunities for Victor Webbin Yama that most of his peers at the position get. And again, like, the big thing is, in the long run, they are eventually going to have a star ball handler next to Victor and we don't know who it's gonna be, and we'll talk about that in a minute, but he's eventually going to play alongside this type of guy. Why not let him get some reps learning how to do that

in the short term. While the second thing this accomplishes maintaining flexibility. Because it's a one year deal, a lot of the ball handlers that were available to the Spurs this summer didn't make a lot of sense. De Jontay Murray isn't good enough to be your primary ball handler. Trey Young is good enough, but he comes with a lot of other issues as we know, attitude issues, defense issues. Donovan Mitchell just re upped in Cleveland, so he's not

an option. Darius Garland's kind of an interesting option in terms of the fit, but I don't think he's good enough to be the best ballhandler on a championship team. Paul George was too old. Brandon Ingram isn't good enough either. This is the summer for fringe stars to be hunted by contenders, not for young teams to look for foundational pieces. And so this, for instance, we just talked about the Thunder. This is why the Thunder went for Hartenstein instead of

making some sort of other deal. They're probably looking at it, like, you know, we don't view Lori markin In as a guy on a max contract that is worth it in the context of Jalen Williams and Shay we would rather wait for a different type of player, right, So Hartenstein, they have the cat flexibility to do it. That was them kind of making the same type of decision that the Spurs are talking about this. There weren't a lot of foundation type of talent available this summer to try

to go after CP three. Gives the Spurs another year to wait things out, and maybe Devin Vessel takes another step forward. He had his best scoring volume in efficiency

year last year. Maybe he takes a step forward. It looks like he could be that guy in the long run Stefan Castle, who the Spurs drafted at the top of the first round, Like, maybe he learns how to shoot this year, and maybe that kind of turns into a guy that the Spurs project as a ball handler, or maybe a different a guy becomes available in the trade market and the Spurs can jump in there and

try to make a move. And like, the one thing is Victor is so talented already that he applies more timeline pressure in the sense that like, you don't want to wait five years to be good, because Victor could be a top ten player literally next year, and there's a certain pressure that comes with that. Right. But I

thought this was a savvy move by the Spurs. It just again is going to give them that flexibility to wait out a better ball handling option while giving them a giving Victor at least a facsimile of that to practice with for the season. And most importantly, it's gonna make the Spurs more fun to watch. These Spurs were like watching college basketball last year. Just the ball handling capability was so low it made them really difficult to watch. Victor women Yamo was the only saving grace of them

as a television product. Getting a CP three out there and having them look more organized on offense will help a lot. Last hit for today, Desonte Murray to the New Orleans Pelicans. This move was all about rim pressure. In my opinion, guy like CJ McCollum, you averaged nine point nine drives per game last year for the Pelicans.

Dejonte by himself averaged fifteen point one. Deshonte attempts over eight shots per game in the paint, and so this kind of like we talked about earlier, is going to go back to what we talked about after the playoffs and that five biggest things. One of the things that I took as one of my five biggest takeaways from that playoff run was rim pressure is the most valuable thing for shot quality, right, and there's a bunch of different ways to get rim pressure. You can do it

in the post. You can do it, cutting, you can do it crashing the offense of glass. You can do it rolling in ball screens. There's a bunch of different ways, but the most resilient way in the playoffs to do it is dribble drive penetration. Right, the ability to beat people off the dribble is the easiest way to generate that type of rim pressure. And so in these situations, like if you look at the Pelican, Zion Williamson was really the only guy for them last year generated sustainable

rim pressure. Yonis did a bunch on the glass in the post, but he was so matchup specific and like incapable of being played against certain types of teams that it didn't really add up to much in real tangible value for the Pelicans. Right, Like Zion was the only kind of dependable rim pressure they had. You guys watched in that Lakers playing game just how damaging Zion can be,

just because it can beat people off the dribble. And like even CJ and Brandon Ingram, they're like pull up shooters who are like in ISO situations, mainly going to step back or turn around jump shots. They both need screens to get all the way to the rim, as Jonte is a guy who can legit just beat the man in front of him off the dribble, and that is where he's going to bring the most value of value for this team on the offensive end of the flour.

I like this move because when I think of like the idealized version of the Pelicans in the long run, I view them as a driving kick team. I look at them as a team that should use de Jontay Murray and Zion Williamson to break down the defense at the start to get the defense in rotation, and then these guys Trey Murphy is like a professional closeout attacker. Herb Jones made a lot of progress this last year

as a closeout attacker. Like I even prefer CJ. McCollum and Brandon Ingram operating with an advantage because of their high level of skill and so like to me, this is a move in the direction of the Pelicans being more of a driving kick team, which I think is going to be good for them in the long run. And then they can layer their pull up shooting on top of that. As we know CJ and Brandon Ingram are pull up shooters, but there's not as much resilience

there you saw in the Thunder series. It's like those pull up jumpers start to miss suddenly they both become relatively ineffective basketball player, right, And so like there's more resilience to drive and kick basketball than pull up three point shooting. It's like the difference between the Suns and the Boston Celtics, right, Like Boston was more diligent about driving, Phoenix wanted to settle for a ton of pull up jumpers and ended up being the death of them. Right.

So like, this to me is a good move in that direction. But Dejonte also brings high level pull up shooting as well. He shot forty five percent on pull up jumpers last year fifty one percent when you weigh it for threes one point zero two points per shot. He was one of only nine players in the league to attempt at least five hundred pull up jump shots and to maintain an efficiency over one point per shot. He's in a rare group of efficient pull up jump

shooters in the NBA. He also had the best catch and shoot season of his career. He got one point one seven points per catch and shoot jumper. He shot forty six percent from the field, like just straight field goal percentage on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots. So if that's a trend and not a blip, then we're talking about some real upside to this trade. And Dejonte's got like real scoring pop. He was one of the

best ISO players in the league last year. He got one point one points per possession out of ISOs including passes, according to Synergy. That ranked sixth out of nineteen players to run at least three hundred ISOs. Last year, he had thirteen to thirty point games, He had four forty point games, he had multiple game winners. He had at least eight assists in twenty five games. Like, he's just

a damn good basketball player. And like again, part of it is just Atlanta and their situation, and it's just the lack of success, lack of team success that came out of that situation. I think put Dejonte in a position where he's discounted. But he's a player I was a huge believer in. I really wanted him for the Lakers, and so I'm really excited for Pelicans fans because I

think they got a good one here. He's also a bit of an asshole, and I mean that in the best way, Like you need to have that asshole streak to be like an effective basketball player and knockdown, drag out fights, and he's just that type of guy, and I think Pelicans fans are really gonna like him. I have two main concerns and they're the same concerns I talked about when Dejonte was first being rumored for the

Lakers last year around the deadline. Just hasn't been very good defensively since leaving San Antonio, but the capability is obviously there. It's not like he lost his talent on that end of the floor. It's just about commitment. Hasn't done it since leaving San Antonio, where he was an

all defense guy. So he just needs to get that piece back, and hopefully by virtue of just being on a team that has this much talent and the Pelicans have a ton of talent now, just by virtue of being on that sort of team, I think that he'll have more energy resources to devote to that end of the floor. But that'll be a big piece. And then the second piece of it is he struggles to make layups, shot just fifty two point nine percent on layups last

year according to Synergy. That ranked thirty seventh out of forty four players who attempted at least three hundred layups last year. There's pros and cons to that, right, Missed layups usually mean occupied rim protectors, right, So like, there are opportunities for offensive rebounds that come from that. But

the Pelicans are not a good offensive rebounding team. They were nineteenth in offensive rebound percentage last year and they just lost two of their top three offensive rebus in Larry Nance Junior and Yonis Valanciuna, So that isn't really a value add for the Pelicans. The downside is missed layups, specifically from guards, especially when they're driving from above the break. That leads to bad floor balance, which can lead to transition opportunities that just to put it simply, just imagine

two guards above the break. If one drives in and misses, there's only one guard back, and that can lead to some transition opportunities. With Russell Westbrook when he used to miss layups, it was an overwhelmingly bad experience for the Lakers, So like, really for and to be clear on tape, it's mostly about decision making. Dejonte will just over penetrate, sometimes drive into rim protectors and try impossible layups that

end up hurting his percentage. So really it's going to be about just better rim decisions, better decisions about when to drive, not over penetrating when the help is already there, making sure you have a plan when you get on the dribble into the lane, making better reads when you get there in terms of kick out passes and drop off passes. As long as he does those sorts of things, he should be able to clean that up. But again,

those are the two things. Is he's got to recommit on the defensive end, and he's got to be able to make layups or at least better decisions when he gets to the rim. I had a third there. Last year's catching shoot season was a little bit of an outlier for him. That needs to be a trend and not a blip for him to continue to function as part of the driving kick that the Pelicans are going

to try to build out overall. I like the deal though Dyson Daniels is a really interesting young player, but Dejonte is just a better player within the context of trying to win right now, which I think the Pells are trying to do. And I'm just generally really high on Dejante. As I mentioned earlier, I wanted him for the Pelicans, so I'm happy for Pelicans fans that they get to root for him this season. All right, guys,

that is all I have for today. We're going to be back tomorrow with a mail bag, probably have a couple of mail bag breakouts over the course of the time that we're off. I hope all of you guys enjoy your holiday weekend and I will see you on Monday. Oh, I'll see you on the mail bag, and then I will see you after that. On Monday.