Hoops Tonight - NBA Power Rankings: Chris Paul, Devin Booker & Phoenix Suns seek NBA Finals return

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eight line. In Tennessee visit www one dot one eight hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to hoops tonight, presented by Fanduel here at the volume. Happy Tuesday everybody. I hope all of you guys are having a great start to your week. Moving right along with our power rankings today with number seven, the Phoenix Suns Latinama had the best record in the league last year and a disappointing, embarrassing loss at home in the

second round to the Dallas Mavericks. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the volumes youtube channels so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on twitter at underscore Jason Lts. You guys don't miss any show announcements. And last but not least, it for whatever reason you can't get over to youtube to finish one of these shows, we do have them in podcast form, wherever you get your podcasts. Under hoops tonight,

let's not waste any more time. Let's let's talk some basketball. So last year the Phoenix Suns Sixty four and eighteen, best record in the league. They were fifth in offense and third in defense, first overall in net rating, meaning they were the most dominant basketball team on the scoreboard throughout the regular season, you know, before the playoffs. For those of you guys who, uh, we're following the show.

Back then I consistently said that I thought they were the most talented roster in the league from top to bottom. I no longer think that's true that I think Boston has barely eclipsed them in terms of in terms of overall talent with the acquisition of Malcolm, Malcolm Brogden, but they are still among the top tier teams in the

League in terms of top to bottom talent. The types of rotation players they have are just better at the things that they do than most of the mid level rotation players that you see elsewhere in the league, even

though don't have the top end talent. Now the question that I had going into this playoff run was, if you guys remember, there's kind of like a philosophical thing that I've been believing in in recent years, and it's that as the League has gone more spaced out, as the League has gone more in on perimeter players, now you're seeing most lineups including four perimeter players and one

player that's doing dirty work as a big right. Back in the day you might see two or three on the floor and a lot of bruising players and the paint really clogged and it became more important than ever to have the best player on the floor that could navigate that cramped environment better than your opponent could. But as the game has become more spaced out, it's become more important than ever to have multiple players on the floor that can pass, dribble and shoot, and Phoenix capitalized

on this throughout the entire regular season. Everyone thinks about their high pick and roll, and don't get me wrong, we're gonna talk about that in depth, but it goes deeper than that. It's the players of around them in their ability to play off of that attention. You guys refer to. I refer to this concept as close out, attacking or extending the advantage, basically getting a defense and rotation multiple times so that you can get a wide

open look at the end. And if you guys remember, right before the playoffs, I said this would be an interesting case study in the direction the League is heading. Is the league ready to be less superstar reliant? Is the league ready to start to push the teams up to the front, the teams that have more talented players rather than the most talented player? And I said that this playoff run would be a great indicator of that. And what ended up happening? Chris Paul struggled, Devin Booker

got cold and they lost in the second round. So the reality is maybe we're heading in that direction still, maybe one day soon role players will have, you know, as much impact on the game and mass two stars, but we're not there yet. Luca, the best player on the floor, strangled and destroyed and humiliated the Phoenix Suns,

even though they had a significantly more talented roster. That is where the League is still at and I think we're still probably a few years away from any sort of change, if there ever is going to be one. The Chris Paul Injury ended up being what reird it's ugly had. It was very similar to what happened last year. If you guys remember, or two years ago, Chris Paul Pretty much through two games of the NBA finals looked like a bona fide superstar and was dominant on both

ends of the floor. But then those last four games against Milwaukee he looked unrecognizable. Not just not efficient, not just struggling to make the shots he usually makes, he was straight up being locked down to the point where he was struggling even to get shots off. This this

year's playoff run followed a very similar path. Through his first eight playoff games this year, Chris Paul averaged twenty three points, five rebounds, tennis sists and shot fifty eight percent from the field and in those games the sons went six and two. But then over the course of the last five games against Dallas, where they lost four of those five games, he averaged nine points to go with three rebounds and six assists, and shot just from

the field. So clearly, when that superstar level impact disappears from Phoenix, they fall apart. And to be clear, it's not just Chris Paul. Devin Booker, who was one of the best pull up jump shooters in all of basketball last year, shot just three for sixteen on pull up jump shots in game six and in game seven of that series. So his bread and butter, the thing that he depends on, depends on so much to create offense for himself, left him and he struggled to impact the

game in other ways. And when the star power fell off for Phoenix, the entire team fell apart. And once again it's just the latest indicator that, as the game has evolved, the best basketball player on the floor concept remains incredibly important to winning basketball games, especially at the highest levels. In the NBA playoffs. Looking at the off season, they signed Damien Lee from the Golden State Warriors. He was thirty three percent on catching shoot jumpers last year.

He drove closeouts really well. Super Good Athlete, really good one leg jumper. Kind of reminds me of what I was talking about with K CP yesterday talking about the Denver Nuggets. He shot eight two percent at the rim last year, which is outstanding. He's a good athlete, capable defender. Just adds depth. I'm not sure that he'll play much, but it does add depth. They also signed Joshua Cog from the Minnesota Timberwolves. He shot just pent on catching shoot three is a big part of why he fell

out of the rotation for Minnesota. He's a better defensive player than Damien Lee was. Um, but once again, I don't necessarily think he's gonna play all that much. I just imagine with how deep they are on the wing already, which we'll get to here the depth chart, I just both of those guys their ancillary pieces. They're in UH injury insurance, but I don't see either of them playing as significant role this season. Um they traded for Jocquelandale

from the San Antonio Spurs. They also lost Javale McGee, but they did resign bismack Beyonmbo. So they kind of a similar three big type of UH type of rotation. My guess is Beyonmbo ends up getting more minutes than Landale, but we'll see when he gets into training camp. For All intents and purposes they're running you back, and I don't blame them. They won sixty four games, but they

did not address the key issue. Now, in their defense, I think they saw Kevin Durant as that option, but they were unrealistic in their expectation that they could get Kevin Durant. In my opinion, I never thought that Brooklyn would be interested in what they had to offer, and so from that standpoint, I I it's unfortunate that they didn't address the issue and I'd be really interested to

see if they try to during this season. One of the biggest questions I have for this particular Phoenix Suns team is whether or not they look even remotely similar after the trade deadline. I could see them doing something along the line of flipping like a Cam Johnson and a Jay crowder for a better wing in hopes of getting a more impactful two way wing somewhere on the roster.

You know, you could see a big part it's gonna be how much Michael Bridges Develops as well, because they need more offense when Chris Paul and Devin Booker Struggle. But at the end of the day, the this roster right now, is currently constructed, does not have enough top end talent that's reliable deep into the playoffs to beat the best teams in the League. That's why I have

them down at number seven. You know, this tier. We talked earlier about all the tiers of championship contenders, and I had the non contenders and then I had the puncher's chance contenders, which are the teams that didn't have as much talent as the top teams in the league, but they just have this world beating star that, if he gets hot, he could beat anybody, like a Lebron, like a UH Nicol Yogis, like a Donovan Mitchell, like

a you know like that. That's the type of of of team that I was referring to in that tier. We are now entering into the second tier, the tier that's beneath the top tier contenders, and I'm referring to this tier as the if things go right tier. These are teams, and I only have three of them and I think all three of them will make sense to you guys after you hear them, and you'll get to

both of them this week on Wednesday and Thursday. This tier of basketball teams, to me, is teams that have unbelievable amounts of talent and absolutely should be able to contend based on what they look like on paper. But there's big question marks. And the other two teams on this tier, their question marks are different and a lot of them are related to their stars, which are higher

level players. But with the sons, it's whether or not Chris Paul, Devin Booker, Michael Bridges and Deandre Ayton together can manifest as the impact of a true superstar in a playoff series. They have not been able to do so in the previous two seasons. This is their big wild card this season. There are plenty talented. They have enough talented to hang with, talent to hang with the best teams in the League, but do they have enough star power to get the job done? That's their biggest

question mark. Looking at the depth chart, at the guard position, they have CP three, Devin Booker, Landry Shammitt and campaign on the wing, super deep mchaal bridges, Jay crowder, Cam Johnson, Tory, Craig Damien, Lee, Josh a cog and then bigs deandre Ayton,

Bismack Biyombo and Jack Landale. So moving on to the offensive end of the floor, and again, uh, the way we do this is we talked about the offense, we talked about the defense, we talked about what the best case scenario is for this team, what the worst case scenario is for this team, and then we talked about their biggest x factor, the player or concept that has the biggest variance between what the team will end up

looking like at the end of the day. So obviously on the offensive end of the four with the with the sons, you can't start anywhere. But with pick and roll. They were sixth in ball handler frequency in pick and roll and seventh and ball handler efficiency in pick and roll. That's obviously very good. They were second in Rollman frequency in second in rollman efficiency. This is is a big testament to Chris Paul. Most of the pick and roll teams in the League don't utilize their rollman very much.

Phoenix US utilizes their rollman a ton and a huge part of this is Chris Paul in his ability to navigate pick and roll and all of the passing angles that he knows and understands to get deandre in the ball in places where he can put the ball in the basket. Also Testament to deandre. And he's got great hands and can catch and finish easily around the rim. Both of those are are are deeply important to be

utilizing a rollman and pick and roll. The most common variation of pick and roll that they uses Spain pick and roll. We did a whole video on this couple of weeks ago. I can't remember exactly where it is. Um, it was when I had the big ugly dresser behind me. It was one of those videos. But I did some video breakdown and I actually included some footage, Um, from the Phoenix Suns in that clip. So you can find a deeper breakdown of that if you guys go back

further into our feed. But with Phoenix Suns, with the Phoenix Suns, Spain pick and roll is their foundational offensive concept and, Um, I'm gonna go too deep into it, but the gist of the concept is having a shooter underneath the basket when you run pick and roll and having that shooter either just simply replaced to the top of the key or backscreen for the Rollman on his way to the top of the key, and it basically makes your makes the defense make a decision about whether

or not they want to send a second defender towards the Rollman or stay home with the shooter, leaving the Rollman with a wide open lane running towards the rim. It just is a complication in pick and roll that makes it extremely difficult to guard. It's one of the most common pick and roll concepts that you'll see around the league. As I've been doing this uh this series, almost every team that we've watched has had a team had stretches of the game where they run Spain pick

and roll. It depends on it depends on personnel you need in order to run Spain pick and roll properly. You need a legitimate pick and roll ball handler that can shoot off the dribble that forces the guard to chase over the top. From there, that guard needs to be able to navigate and make reads, so he also needs to be a gifted passer. You need a roll man that has vertical spacing and the ability to catch and finish around the rim, and then you need a

legitimate shooter that forces the defense to make decisions. If he can't shoot as he's replacing to the top of the key, they'll just ignore him and stay home. On the Rollman, the Phoenix Suns have the ideal personnel to run Spain pick and roll because you've got Chris Paul, an outstanding off the dribble shooter and an outstanding passer that's gonna work his way down the lane, deandre ating, an excellent roleman and DEF and Booker, one of the

best movement shooters that we have in the league. When you put the three of them together, it's a deadly concept. Now where the suns deserve extra credit here because, like, if you're gonna run Spain pick and roll every time down the floor, you're gonna run into some issues just in terms of predictability and defense is getting used to how to guard you. Phoenix is really good at at adding complications to their Spain pick and roll to make

it harder to guard. So the most frequent one that I see is just screening actions that flow into the Spain pick and roll. So a lot of times they'll like pre screen for Devin Booker. So Imagine Devin Booker on the wing and Paul and Eton are getting ready to run a pick and roll. They'll have like Jay crowder go and set a cross screen for Devin Booker to then cut down to the basket and then immediately flow into the Spain pick and roll. Now devin Booker's

man is already trailing the play. So with him already trailing to play, it's like running a three on two and a half. You know what I mean, because that third defender in the pick and roll is late to get there, which makes it way harder for him to guard it. The way that the coach is probably drawn up as his scheme for how to guard the Spain pick and roll right, little complications like that, more screening

actions just make it harder to defend. It just makes your defenders have to to make more decisions in order to stop the action. Now the other thing that they'll do is it's not as simple as just booker backscreening for Eighton as he's rolling down the lane. They'll sometimes have eighton screen for Booker as he's rolling down the lane. Sometimes booker will go like he's gonna go to the top of the key but then flare out to the

wing really quick. The idea there is booker's defender might be prepared to hedge and, like and like, bump and Chuck Ayton as he's rolling down the lane and then go out, but as he's lunging to tag Aighton, booker just sprints out to the wing and he can get a shot there. Bottom line is it's it's never the exact same thing. It's always these little complications that are added into their pick and roll concept to keep defenses on their toes and to make it so it's not repetitive.

But the gist of their entire offense is Devin Booker and Chris Paul using deandre Ayton as a screener, rolling to the Rim and making reads out of it. It's not always Spain pick and roll. They'll also do things like they'll have uh, you know, Chris Paul come off of a pick and roll with deandre Ayton and then immediately flow into a dribble handoff with booker coming out of the corner, and then booker will come off of

eight and and roll down the lane. But at the end of the day, like I said, the core concept is Eighton as a screener, then rolling to the R him and booker and CP three making reads out of that. One of the most important aspects to how this entire system works, like I said, is their off ball players. We talked about this earlier with the importance of role players in their ability to dribble, pass and shoot. So let's say that UH Phoenix is killing you with their

Spain pick and roll right. So like uh Booker's man has to continually hedge or help on the role man as bookers replacing to the top of the key. What's the most frequent what's the most obvious way to counter that? You send a fourth defender. You ask the defender in the week side corner to be the one that comes in and tags and helps with Aton, and then you have booker's man stay home. What does that open up?

It opens up the skip pass, a pass that CP three will relentlessly make if you offer help out of the week side. And this is where it's advantageous to have players like Mikhail bridges, who's greated attacking closeouts, players like you know uh, players like Cam John, who's excellent at attacking closeouts. You know even Jay crowd or even though he can be very streaky. He's very capable of getting hot, knocking down threes and attacking closeouts, things along

those lines. These sons were fifth in spot up efficiency this year, in meaning in those situations where a defender is closing out a son's player and driving to the basket or shooting. In those specific situations they scored better than all but four of the teams in the League, and I I put the great the lion share of that credit on just the quality of role players that they have. In post up situations, they were fifteenth and frequency and sixth and efficiency. Most of these possessions were

deandre Eton punishing mismatches out of pick and roll. So they get, I think, about four post ups the game, but three of them were deandre and usually that other one is either Michail bridges on very rare occasions, or a little bit of Devin Booker, but essentially like what Chris Paul will do sometimes, and you know Luca actually did this to the sons quite a bit and we'll talk about it here in just a it when we get to the defensive end of the floor, but sometimes

Chris Paul will deliberately, instead of coming over the top of the screen and going downhill into the Rollman, the the screen defender, the person who's defending the roll man. He'll go out wide and drag the screen defender out with him to force a switch. And the idea there is think of it like this. If Chris Paul goes straight downhill towards the rim, then the screen defender can somehow split the difference between eight and rolling down on his right side and Paul coming towards him on his

left side. But if Paul goes out towards the wing, now I kind of have to corral him because he's such a good pull up jump shooter and if I don't he's gonna stop and pop from fifteen feet every time. Now, as I work my way out, I can no longer deal with the rollman and so, as a result, whoever's guarding CP three now has to peel off of CP three to dive down to the big man and box him out of the lane while I go out to

Chris Paul. Then what happens? Chris Paul will pull the ball out to the three point eight and will quick seal catch and turn and finish over his left shoulder. Eighton posted up three times per game last year and scored one point zero four points per possession, which is excellent as a post player in this league. I think

he was right around the seventy five percentile. The other big thing that, and again this is a lot of this, is coming out of Spain pick and roll, but they were one of the most frequent off screen teams in the League. They were fourth in frequency and average one point zero two points per possession. Some of this is like Landry Shammitt in some of the plays that they run for him where he's coming off of double screens

and stuff like that. That's pretty traditional movement. Shooting. Jay crowder in a lot of off ball situations will get like a pin down and come up to the wing and he'll come up and shoot a catch and shoot three. That counts as an off screen action. The most frequent one here, though, is Devin Booker and Spain pick and roll. Technically, if Devin Booker is rolling, is starting under the basket and he replaces to the top of the key and Eighton on his way down to the rim bumps into

Booker's man. They call that and off the catch rep and booker was getting tons of three point shots out of that this season Devin Booker, Landry Shammon and Jay crowder. We're all in the sixty five percentile or better as off screen players this year. But I wanted to before we move on from offense, I wanted to talk about the stars for a second because with Devin Booker, and you know for our player rankings I had him at fifteen and again I did like fifteen solid minutes on

Devin Booker. So if you guys want to go over into our feed and scroll further down, you can hear all of his metrics from the different spots on the floor and how efficient he was the season, some stuff that I learned on tape about his approach. I went a lot deeper into booker in that specific video. All I'M gonna say here is he absolutely has an elite skill that mimics what a lot of superstar star superstars doing this league, and that's free level scoring, particularly as

an off the dribble shooter. But he's something less than a superstar. I don't think that's a hot take. I would imagine most of you guys would agree with me. He doesn't impact the game enough outside of his off the dribble shooting to be that type of player. And what ends up happening is when you're off the dribble shooting fails you, which it can, and it happens for

superstars too. I've seen off the dribble shooting fail Kevin Durant against the Boston Celtics, a guy who shot fifty on off the dribble shots all season and that fell into the low thirties against Boston. Kawhi Leonard Against Denver. His off the dribble shooting failed him late in that series. But those guys impact the game in a lot of ways outside of what they do. Kevin Durant as a defensive player and as a playmaker, Kawhi Leonard as a

defensive player. For Devin Booker, even though he does compete on the defensive end of the floor, and we're gonna get to that later, when his off the dribble shooting fails him, he just doesn't have other punches in his bag that he can go to to impact winning. You know, I was talking to a buddy of mine, Jeremiah, is a huge, huge Suns Fan, this morning and he made a really interesting comp he said that he said that

Devin booker reminds him of Chris Middleton. Now I actually think devin booker is a little better than Chris Middleton in large part up here, because I think he's more confident, which makes him more consistent. But there's a similarity there in the sense that, you know, in the way that Jeremiah put it, he's like like like. Middleton needs his

nice right like. If Middleton was the best player on his team the with his inconsistency as a pull up jump shooter, he just wouldn't be able to impact winning enough to lead a team to any sort of legitimate goal. And the same thing goes for Devin Booker. They need that superstar above them that can pull more weight on a night in, night out basis so that they're inconsistencies don't hurt them. That's not a criticism. I still think he's the Fifteenth Best Player in the League. I think

he's better than Chris Middleton. But I did think that was an interesting camp from my friend Jeremiah. That makes a lot of sense to me. Like devin booker is is has an elite skill that can carry you to an NBA championship in the right setting, but you're not going to get to that setting unless you have a superior star level player that can pull more weight during the regular season, and with CPF ree it's just the

physical breaking down. Like I mean what when you look at the way he played against New Orleans, that was some of the best basketball he's ever played in his career. He does take care of his body better than he ever has in his career. His game is as well rounded and polished than it's ever been in his career.

The problem is is his body, excuse me, his body fails him time and time again, and this year it was his quad injury, allegedly, but I mean I believe him like that's a ridiculous fall off to go from twenty three, five and ten, or your first eight playoff games on dropping down to nine, three and six like that. He's right, I I believe him, but the reality is is he broke down this year. He broke down last year, he broke down half of the years before that. It's

it's the reality of the Chris Paul Experience. At this point I think you almost have to count on it. which brings us to Eighton and bridges. These are the two players that Phoenix has invested heavily and financially after Devin Booker and Chris Paul. They need those two guys to develop and they just simply haven't. I'm gonna talk a little bit more about Michael Bridges later on because he's our x factor for this particular team, so I don't want to get into the weeds with him there yet.

But those two guys have to be able to create their own shot consistently. It can't just be eighton punishing mismatches in pick and roll switches. They need the ability to throw the ball down to the block with him to initiate offense. It can't just be mcaal bridges attacking closeouts and shooting, catching shoot threes. He's one of the best close out attackers in the league. He's a great catch and shoot player. The problem is is when Paul and Booker Start to fail them, they need someone that

can initiate offense. Micail bridges has that level of talent. He just hasn't developed it yet. They need more out of Eton and bridges. That's their only hope to ellipsing this eclipsing this seventh ranking that I've given them, to reach back to what their what everyone uh perceived their perception, excuse me, their potential to be earlier in the season.

Moving on to the defensive end of the four super traditional with the rest of the league, they drop with Aton and then they switch one through four when necessary. You'll see them try to stay home when they can, especially with specific matchups, but they are a lot more willing to switch on the perimeter. They're one of the best teams in the League, in my opinion, at chasing over the top of screens. Obviously Chris Paul and Devin Booker lead the way in this department. They do the

best they can. Um The one that I'm most impressed with here that I wanted to shout out as Michael Bridges that series against Dallas and again, like Luca, ended up winning the day, but the job that Michael Bridges did chasing uh Luca over the top of screens was so incredibly impressive, especially when you factor in the fact that, as a bigger player and as a skinny player, that's like the two factors that make it hardest to chase

over the top of screens. The types of players that chase over screens really well are usually short and stocky, low center of gravity, difficult to bump off their line and they fight through contact really well. But that's just Michail Bridge and this is why he's one of the

best defensive players in the league. He's got the physical tools of a range e athletic wing with the mobility and commitment to the physicality that you see from bulldog guards around the league and and that's what makes Michael Bridges, you know, the defensive player of the year candidate that he is and I just I just find him to be extremely impressive and one of the things, and we'll talk about this a little bit more later, but like one of the things that was interesting about that Phoenix

Sun series with the Dallas Mavericks is early in the series Luca was coming off those ball screens trying to get downhill, but bridges are staying glued to his backside. So the way that they confronted that is, instead of trying to go downhill on the screen, he started flaring out wide on the screen to force the switch. Liking his chances attacking Eighton more than he liked attacking Michael

Bridges so many. Williams is an excellent defensive coach. He Uh is prioritizing the right things on the defensive end of the floor and he has a smart scheme. They were second in defending the three point line these days. Like I say, if you're a smart basketball team, if you have defensive limitations, you're either picking the three point line or the paint. If you don't have defensive limitations and you're an outstanding defensive team, you're guarding both extremely well.

The son's guarded the three point line better than everybody in the League except for the Dallas Mavericks. They were seventh in defending the paint. They were ninth in transition defense, according to cleaning the glass. That's a big one that I look at for coaching too. That's getting your players commitment, committed to the job of transition defense, sprinting back every time, not complaining to the refs, communicating with each other, knowing Um,

knowing your responsibilities in those transition scrambles. They're a well coached basketball team with a smart defensive scheme. The defensive end of the floor is typically not an issue for them, although it ended up being so against Dallas, but we're gonna get to that here in just a minute. They have really good options for matchups. Jay crowder is like a big, physical, low center of gravity forward that can play your stronger rim pressuring forwards, like your hitl words

in your Lebron James. But then they also have Michael Bridges as like this, longer, more athletic, still pretty stout, hold his ground, type of player that can guard that type of player but also have success against the shiftier players that Jake crowder would struggle with, guys like a you know, like a Paul George, a guy's quicker, more athletic, that kind of thing. Um Uh, deandre Ayton as well,

does well and switches. I mean again, Luca Don Chitch was having his way with him, but at the end of the day that's Luka Don Chitch and he's gonna do the same thing to most of the best defensive players in the league. But deandre Ayton as a weapon that can switch out and pick and roll, also defend

and drop pretty well. His commitment to defense can wax and Wayne over the course of the season, but I think he's I personally think he's gotten a lot better over the course of the last two years in that regard. And then this is where I wanted to shout out devin booker because, Um, and I shouted out this during the player rankings in in in a little more in depth way, but remember when Rudy Gobert was complaining about Donovan Mitchell and talked in comparing him to Devin Booker

and his commitment to defense? That sort of thing is real and it's not just about impact, because obviously having devin booker play hard on defense and commit helps them get stops. But it's not just that. It's setting the tone, and this is something that I talked about all the time on the show, and it's so important for stars to apply themselves on the defensive end of the floor, if for no reason then to make it easier for you to hold the lower level players accountable to their job.

You know, too many times I hear Lebron fans say things like, oh, Lebron can't play defense, he is too big of an offensive role, and I do agree in the sense that, like, yeah, you don't want to unleash Lebron to guard Kevin Durant for forty eight minutes. Like yeah, you want to try to give him a somewhat less labor intensive role. I don't want Lebron chasing everybody through

screens all day long. But the reality is is I do want him engaged in play, whatever his role is, doing it to the best of his ability, because that's what gives you the credibility to hold the rest of your team accountable. That's what gives that that's what gives your team a culture of defensive commitment and the credit. I want to apply a lot of credit to Devin booker because even though he's worked hard to become an average defensive player in him, being an average defensive player

at the two isn't gonna Swing any playoff series. It does set the tone and I do think Devin Booker deserves a lot of credit for that. But they do have defensive weaknesses in personnel that got exposed against the Dallas Mavericks. So they gave up a hundred and fourteen point three points per one hundred possessions against Dallas after giving up like something crazy like a hundred and seven in the regular season or a hundred and six, something like that. A huge part of this is the way

that Luca was able to target specific matchups. We talked about this when we were talking about scheming a couple episodes ago. I can't remember exactly which team we were talking about, but I told you guys about how, like you know, a defensive scheme and defensive scouting can help you get in front of sets. So, for instance, Spain

pick and roll. I uh, you know, any coach, over a seven game series is gonna come up with a Strat g with which to at least make it more difficult than it is during the flow of the regular season when they're getting whatever they want out of it every single time. You know, uh, regardless of what the offensive said is, if you scouted enough times and you know where players are gonna go, you can get in

front of those things. But when it comes to brute force offense, in this case Luca Don Chech attacking mismatches, there is no scheme for it. Your scheme is leave him on the island to attack one on one, in which case he might burn you, and he did, or you can send help and he might burn you, and he will with the pass. That's the reality of playoff

mismatch attacking offense. It's scheme proof. That's why teams like Dallas, who were fourteenth, I think, in offense during the regular season, hung a hundred and fourteen points per one hundred possessions against one of the best defenses in the League in the playoff series because he was able to pull eighton out to the perimeter and attack him in isolation. He was able to get post mismatches against Chris Paul and

post mismatches against Devin Booker. Too often we look at the team concept and what the team can do against the UH, the other team in a five on five setting, and we forget the fact that it doesn't matter if this guy can't guard this guy and all he has to do is seek him out and as long as he finds that matchup and as long as they space the floor pop properly, you're gonna have issues. It's kind

of like the concept of the weakest link. But this is why I gravitate towards your big playmaking wings more than any other superstar archetype. I like your three level scores that can defend. You know, I like your big men, like Yo kitchen embid, but these perimeter players that can consistently pick a part of defense with surgery, and I only think there's two of them in the League right now.

Basically Luca and Lebron, but I've always gravitated towards those kinds of guys because they just find a way to win these playoff chess matches. It's like I was talking about, with Luca pulling eight in away. He understood that as he navigated into their pick and roll coverage, it wasn't working.

With Mikhail bridges glued to his backside. He was having the most success when he was getting eight non switches, and so instead of working downhill, he's coming off these ball screens and he's flaring out way wide, dragging eight and out with him, forcing bridges to roll down the lane with Dwight Powell or Maxi Cleb or whoever it was that was in that position at that point in time.

Luca Don Chitch was able to discover and attack the weaknesses in the Phoenix Suns Defense and turned them into a below average defense in a playoff series, to the point where they couldn't get a stop to save their lives in game seven when they fell apart. So it's just it's a testament to Luca Don Chich. It's an explanation of what's of what works in the modern NBA and it's something for us to keep in mind looking

forward when we're evaluating defenses. If I'm looking at a Phoenix Suns team that is the, you know, fifth best defense in the League, or whatever. They were third, third or fifth? Uh, let's see, they were third in defense, so we're looking at the third best defense in the league. But they have these personnel weaknesses right with like Devin Book and and, uh, you know, deandre Ayton on switches, or Chris Paul, whoever it is, in post up situations.

That is something we need to pay more attention to than what their actual defensive rating was, whereas like, let's say the clippers end up with the tenth best defensive rating in basketball, but their key lineups in the big moments of the game are like Paul, George Kawhi, Leonard Nick, Patum, Marcus Morris and Reggie Jackson. It's like, Oh, they only have one guy that can attack there and it's Reggie, and they're so athletic around it that they can recover.

Added that that that needs to be the way that we evaluate these kinds of things. We need to pay pay more close attention to what, conceptually, the defense will look like in a playoff setting. Versus what they're able to accomplish over a very large sample size in a regular season. The Dallas Mavericks, for another example of this, giving up a hundred and twenty points per one hundred possessions against Golden State after being the seventh best defense

in the regular season. Their personnel, golden state just found a way to put them in the blender and attack him that way. Um, okay. So let's move on to the best case scenario. So they're still gonna win a ship ton of games. They're too young, they're too athletic and they're too talented not to win a ship a ton of games. I would be shocked if they lost or I'd be shocked if they won less than fifty five games. I feel pretty confident that they'll be okay

in that department. Um, I have them at seventh because of playoff concerns everything that I just explained to you. Devin Booker and and Chris Paul is struggling to create shots the defensive shortcomings of uh in the way that really high end superstars can attack them. That's why I have them as low as I as I do. But even though CP three has been known to break down. He just needs to be better than what he's been.

It's okay, he doesn't have to give you twenty, three, five and ten if Devin Booker is great and Mikhail Bridges and deandre and make a leap, but he also can't give you nine points a game. They need to get more out of him than what they got over the course of the rest of that series. Devin booker needs to stay hot, his pull up shooting can't fail him in the biggest moments, and then that offensive development

from Eton and bridges that I talked about. This is why they're the things that can things that have to go right, type of contender. If those things go right, if if Paul doesn't completely fall apart, if booker stays hot and if Eton and bridges continue to develop as young, talented basketball players, they absolutely can win a championship. It's just those things have to go right and chances are they won't, and that's why I don't have them in the top tier. And that same reasoning will apply to

the other teams that talk about later on. Their worst case scenario is basically what you've seen the last two years. A Better version of the Utah Jazz, a team that succeeds a great deal in the regular season but has specific playoffs shortcomings. That team's target and relentlessly kick them out before they before they get to the trophy Um.

And then at that point, I mean if something bad like that happens again, I think we could be heading towards a blow up um, either in the middle of the season, if they have some sort of injury, or after the season. The biggest x factor on this team is Mikhail bridges. He's already one of the best defensive players in basketball. He has a really nice jump shot release.

He shot thirty eight percent on catching shoot threes and forty seven percent on pull up jumpers, which is amazing, although it's important context, the vast majority, the vast, vast, vast majority, of those pull up jump shots came attacking closeouts. He's got a really good one dribble pull up um going to his left. He also has a really nice, like two or three dribble, like short running jump shot that he makes kind of around the semicircle in the lane.

That's really, really pretty looking. He's got all of that skill, but he struggles to create his own shot against a set defense. He averaged zero points, six points per possession and isolation, which is really not nearly good enough. When Booker and CP three go cold, which is a possibility with this roster, they need someone that can become an offensive initiator, and there's two ways that I'd like to

see Mikhail bridges approach that issue. One, he needs to improve as a ball handler so that he can stare at defender face to face and hit quick, compact, efficient moves to get his defender. especially with his threat as a jump shooter and his height and his ability to shoot over the top, he should be able to do that. The second thing that I'd like to see him do more is post up. He was an outstanding post up

player on a per possession basis this year. It was just on ridiculously low volume, but he's got good size, he's good at shooting fading over his right shoulder. I'd like to see him weaponize that post game a little bit more, especially since he's gonna draw some smaller defenders with the way teams are gonna put their best perimeter defender on Devin Booker and they have to have a

big athlete to deal with Deandre Ayton. He's gonna get some good draws on the defensive end of the floor and I'd like to see I'd like to see him weaponize that more in the post. If Michael Bridges takes a leap to legitimate, to a all star, it would fix a lot of their issues that they have on the booker and CP three front. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support and we will be back with number six tomorrow and the volume one