Hoops Tonight - NBA Power Rankings: Ja Morant's RETURN makes Grizzlies DANGEROUS

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Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG dot co. Slash ft ball All right, welcome to Hoops tonight. You're at the volume heavy Monday, everybody, ol ball of you guys had a great weekend. We've got a jam pack

show for you. Today. It's Memphis Grizzlies Day. We're moving into one team at a time in our power ranking slash season previews, and today we're hitting the Memphis Grizzlies off the top, We're gonna do just like we've done for every other team. I'm going to talk a little bit about their offseason, talk about just some specific storylines surrounding the team this year, some thoughts that I have about them on both ends of the floor, and then I'll give a little bit of a prediction of what

I expect from them this season. And then after that the way this is gonna look a little different than what we did last week. Last week we were doing three teams per show. What we're gonna do this week is we're gonna do one team. Then we're gonna do a film session. I have eighteen clips of film we're gonna look at from last year in the brief stretches

when John Moran was available. We're going to talk a little bit about some of these concepts that we talk about in the show, but with a visual element to it.

And then at the tail end of the show, I grabbed about a half dozen mail bag questions from you guys from all the videos we did last week, and so that's going to be the cadence for the next two weeks now before we start adding in some preseason reactions, because a week from Friday, we have our first preseason game, right, but for the next two weeks, you guys can count on Monday, Wednesday, Friday a team, a film session for that team, and then a mail bag that's going to

be our format for our next six shows. You guys know the drop before we get started. Subscribed to Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore jsonlt so you guys don't misshow announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight, and then keep dropping mail bag questions in those YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout the remainder of this year.

All right, let's talk some basketball. So we're changing tears, right, So the first nine teams that we hit from twenty to twelve or teams that are obviously very good, but teams that I don't think have a legitimate championship ceiling. The next eleven teams that we're covering all I think have a championship ceiling. Now the top four teams, which we're gonna be getting getting to a few weeks from now, those are teams that I think are just traditional bona

fide top tier championship contenders. These are teams that check all the boxes you look for in teams that are actively pursuing the championship. They have flaws, but nothing that

is like super super obvious and glaring. Right, Whereas the teams from five to eleven, These next seven teams that we're hitting, these are all teams that I think have a championship ceiling and legitimately have the talent and firepower necessary, but they have some bigger holes, some bigger issues that make them a little bit more vulnerable to specific matchups.

And as soon as you start to need a lot of matchup luck on your way through the postseason, then you start to need some things to break in your favor. Every team gets luck on the way to the championship. Boston was pretty clearly the best team in the league last year, but they still got luck on their way to the championship. Right, That's part of the deal. You want luck, but some teams need luck, Like Boston could have won that title last year even if they faced

tougher competition along the way. They just happened to benefit from some luck. If you look at these teams, in this tier from eleven to five. They need that shit. They need a team that kind of has their number to catch a tougher matchup in the second round and get eliminated, kind of like what happened to Denver last year to Dallas's benefit, right, Like, there are a lot of these different things that can break one way or another.

An injury here, a bad match up there that can break your way, that could kind of clear a path for you to rise to the top. That's how I viewed this group. These are all teams that can win, they just need a lot of luck along the way. So, without any further deo, let's get started. Number eleven. The Memphis Grizzlies not too much turnover in their roster. A couple of guys off towards the tail end of their rotation. Jordan Goodwin, Lamar Stevens and Zira Williams are all gone.

They added Zach Ede in the draft. They added a bunch of late draft and undrafted type of guys where it's really difficult to see them playing a huge role this year. But obviously the biggest change is the return of John Morant. This is John Morant, who's missed roughly eighty percent of this team's last one hundred or so games for various reasons, including injuries and off court stuff. And if he obviously can have a little bit better luck on the injury front this year, it should make

a very, very different Memphis Grizzlies team. Now, a simple stat to demonstrate for you guys just how important John Morant is to this team. Last season, when John Morant was on the floor, the Grizzlies were plus eleven on the scoreboard. They were minus five hundred and eighty five. When he was off the floor, they went six and three.

In the nine games that Jamran played in, they went twenty one and fifty two in the set what's at seventy three games that he didn't play in, So just fundamentally alters them from a bad basketball team to a very good basketball team. Just with that addition of Jaman. There's an additional injury bad luck last year obviously, as we know, Marcus Smart missed a good chunk of the year. There's a bunch of stuff that went wrong for the Grizzlies, and they're hoping to have a better run through things

this year. Now. The upside to Jaw having his tough year was a couple things. First of all, the Grizzlies got a high draft pick, right, you got to pick in the top ten. That nets you Zach Edy, right, A player I think will be really effective in some matchups. Yeah, he's gonna have some matchups that he'll struggle against. We're gonna talk a lot about that today, just like what specific looks Zach Edy can play against versus where he's gonna struggle. What Memphis needs to do to actually keep

him on the floor as much as possible. Right. The one of the upsides is the remainder of their kind of like core line up, right, So, like they're starting group that Jaron Jackson, Marcus Smart, Desmond Paine, and John Morant a lot of foot speed and they can really cover ground in rotation. You guys are going to see some examples of that in our film session today. But like, they're fast, and I think that that'll unlock a lot of opportunity to make good use of the good things

that Zachi Edy brings to the table. But they also found some young talent in their system last year. That's the benefit of getting a lot of reps for players that you don't know much about You learn a lot about him in a season like last year. So Vince Williams Junior. A big, athletic guard that can defend a couple of different types of positions. He shot forty one percent on unguarded catch and shoot threes last year. Also,

just a really active off ball players, great cutter. He can jump quickly off of two feet and dunk in traffic, which makes him a useful cutter. A lot of guards struggle with that. He's great at screening and slipping into the paint where you can finish in traffic. He's just a really solid role player wing, and you know, those are just hard to find in the league, and anytime you can find one of those, that's a legitimate value

add to your roster. And then Gigi Jackson, who hurt his foot and he's probably gonna miss the start of the season, but he's a really interesting and versatile forward. He had twelve twenty point games last year, four thirty point games, and had a career best forty four points in a game against Denver towards the end of the season in April. He's a guy that I could see them using in a bunch of different contexts, but especially

in situations where Zach Edy can't play. He's a guy that I think would be really interesting at the four next to Jaron Jackson to try to kind of piece that lineup together. So some upside to the fact that John Moran missed most of last season, and that's gonna be the most interesting lineup conundrum for this team this year. What are they gonna do with that four or five position right now? I actually really like the three guard look for them. I was skeptical about it. Three guards.

It just puts a lot of challenge on everybody to play hard all the time. Because again, when you're not big, big is there every night, right, Like your size, You're not going to show up to a game in February and not be giant, right. But when you are undersized, you have to make up for a lack of size with activity and foot speed right, and athleticism in length

and that sort of thing candeb and flowed right. So a lot of times like three guard looks I can get a little worried about around the league, especially especially teams that like have a little bit of like an age related issue. Golden State, for instance, A lot of three guard lineups, but they were a little older, a little slower, and they struggled as a result of that. Right,

I actually really like this look from Memphis. They got guys with good motors who play hard, and they compete in the physical areas of the game, specifically Desmon Band and Marcus Smart. Although we're going to talk a lot about John Moran on defense today, I didn't watch a ton of Memphis last year for obvious reasons, and going back to watch a bunch of men Memphis over the course of my prep for this video, was really really impressed by John Moran on the defensive end of the floor.

So we're gonna spend some time talking about that later. But those three guys with Marcus Smart, Desmond Maine, John Moran all on the floor together, they only played two hundred and sixty nine possessions for obvious reasons involving the injuries and stuff with jaw. But according to Cleaning the Glass, in those two hundred and sixty nine possessions, they outscored opponents by ten point one points per one hundred possessions.

That's really really good, and they were exceptionally good on defense. They had a one h four defensive rating with that group. As I mentioned, a lot of foot speed. Marcus Martin Desmond Bain take the two primary point of attack assignments and they just work their asses off. They deny catches off the ball, They fight guys off of spots and make them catch in places that are a little bit

unusual for them. They're great at disrupting rhythm. They a lot of times Memphis will just try to switch between those two, so like Bain and Smart will switch any actions with the two best perimeter players. But then they'll like hedge and recover with jaw and like the last Xavier Tillman to like obviously when he was on the team last year, to just kind of chase and navigate around things, and just to try to keep Desmond Bane and Marcus Smart on their matchups. But they do a

really nice job. John does a really nice job in the hedge and recover. Jared Jackson is good at obviously to help and help stuff around the basket, blocking shots, but he's also good at getting out in space, both on switches but also blitzing. There's a lot of really good blitz looks that I saw from Memphis over the course of my film session. I've got I think two examples of it that you'll see in the film session today. But it's not hard to figure out why they defend well.

They just got guys that are active and quick, and Marcus and Desmond are both so strong that they can guard up and they can guard some of these scoring forwards around the league, and so not hard to see why they were an effective defense with that group. But we also know that when Memphis has three guards on the floor, they want to go big understandably, right, Like, if you have three guards, you want to have lots of size on the front line to try to balance

that out. So they played a lot of Xavier Tillman next to Jaron Jackson last year. But Tilman is a unique player, right, Like he's not the most vertical like athlete in the world, but he moves pretty well as smart defender, can keep up reasonably well in space, can guard some forwards, right, So, like he's a very different type of player than Zachi Dye Zaki. He's going to be a little bit more of a challenge to try

to like build that type of scheme around. So the questions will the questions will be There's two that I kind of look at here, how often can they actually go with Edie at the five, and what will they look like when he's not at the five? So how often they can get away with actually playing Edie at the five will depend entirely on how effective their scheme is with him on the floor. So like, for instance, can you keep him out of ball screens certain matchups?

Kind of like what Boston would do with porzingis if you can get away with putting your center on the worst forward, not necessarily the center for the other team, but the worst forward for the other team, a guy that doesn't dribble super well, that teams want to kind of tuck away in the opposite side of the floor, then you can keep him out of screening actions, right.

That'll prevent him from having to navigate up and down from the to the level and back to the basket and to handle super quick guards in space and in those sorts of situations. If they tuck him in the corner, if they tuck Edie's man in the corner, he can be the low man right where he can kind of help on ball screens but recover out to the shooter. And then if they actually set screens with that forward,

that forward will have to pop above the brake. That's the issue that we learned from the finals with Dallas in Boston, right, Like, because of the paint being clogged by the center, if they use the forward to set the ball screen, he can't roll into the paint because there's just too many bodies in there, so he has

no choice but to pop above the brake. And as we saw with Boston, if you concede above the break threes to mediocre shooters that have to do it on the move slipping out of a screen, they don't really

make the defense pay very much. So I would imagine that meant will try to tuck Zach Edy on a weak defensive forward, specifically with teams that don't have a ton of ball in player movement and teams that have a weaker forward that's an like an iffy above the break shooter and a guy that's not going to run action. In those cases, you can tuck Edy there because then you have Jaron Jackson defend the ball screen and you

can have Ed just kind of sitting in help. Right, If they do have to put Edy on a center, say, for instance, the forwards are too skilled offensively, and so you need to use Jaron Jackson there. Then that's where you can have a couple of different looks. Right, you can have a low drop coverage. This is where you're asking your guards to chase over the top and you're

keeping ed back at the basket protecting the rim. Right, But that just puts a lot of effort on your guards, a lot of responsibility on your guards to chase over the top, to stay attached so that they can funnel into your big name. But the upside there is is you're defending the action two on two. The more you defend the action two on two, the less you're asking Edie to fly around in rotation. The less you ask Edie to fly around in rotation the better, because that's

where I think he could struggle. When you defend actions two on two, there aren't easy wide open kickout passes. When there aren't easy wide open kickout passes, they can't play drive and kick. If they can't play drive and kick, then you're not in rotation. Edie doesn't have to run

around as much. Now we've seen teams like Milwaukee take a slower footed big a guy like Brook Lopez and bring him up to the level sometimes against really good pull up shooters, right, bring him up to the level, and then they have Giannis kind of use his superpower his ability to do both, like to be able to step over and help on the role man, because again, if you bring your center out to the level of the screen, that means the screener is probably gonna get

behind him. If the screener gets behind him, that's where your lowman has to come over and help, right. Well, Jared Jackson can do that too. I think Jared Jackson has the ability to get in there to help in lowman situations while also recovering out to the corner Giannis did for Milwaukee. So those are the three different looks

that I could see working for Edie. Again, guarding a weaker forward against teams that don't have a ton of ball in player movement because they'll tuck him away or where Edie can help and recover, or they'll bring him into the action but who cares because you'll have to pop above the break where he's not going to be able to do anything anyway, right, or in ball screen coverages low drop or high drop, just depending on what

the matchup looks like. But I think they're going to be able to use him as long as one they're not playing super fast teams that kill and transition. Teams like Sacramento, teams like teams like Oklahoma City, teams like Indiana like those are the kinds of teams that are gonna get in a foot race up and down the

floor and cause Edy some problems. And then teams with a lot of ball and player movement that flow side to side and ask Edie to guard lots of action and to make lots of decisions and to defend a lot in space. Those are teams that I think can cause Edie some issues. But against most of the teams in the league, I think they're going to be able to get away with putting him in one of those

defensive situations that I talked about earlier. But he's going to bring so much to the offensive end of the floor. And that's the main reason too. You got to look at it here, is like even in situations where you're losing some on the defensive end of the floor, he's going to bring a lot offensively. He's going to set really good screens that are going to get John Morant going downhill He's going to catch and finish everything around the rim. At Purdue, Zachied shot forty five percent on hooks,

sixty four percent on layups, seventy six percent at the rim. Overall, that's really good. He's going to get a bunch of offensive rebounds on plays where John Morant challenges the rim protector and misses layups. He's a good free throw shooter. He's got a back to the back, back to the basket game, and this is what I like about the concept of having him with Jared Jackson. Jared Jackson had another monster year as a post player last year. He

made our high volume list. There are eighteen players in the NBA that attempt at least two hundred and fifty post ups, and Jared Jackson got one point zero seven points per possession, which ranked seventh out of those eighteen players. So like an upper half high volume post up player in the league. Last year, Jared Jackson was shot forty

nine percent on hook shots. Like, we're gonna show you a couple of clips from a game against the Pelicans this year where Jaron Jackson basically ice the game in overtime, just going to work in the post, and so If he's getting the best post defender, Eadie could get some

really favorable matchups. Edie's gonna get some favorable matchups. There's gonna be some situations where he draws a defender in a switch and they're gonna be able to throw him the ball, and he's gonna be able to play with his back to the basket, get to that left shoulder hook and pass out of double teams and make a lot of really good things happen. I think it's gonna be a positive fit in Memphis. I know there's some concerns and there are gonna be some nights where you're like, WHOA,

this guy just can't play. But I think more often than not, he's gonna be a positive impact from Memphis. Now, when Edie can't play, where do you go from there? Well, Brandon Clark rejoined the team towards the tail end of last year. Looked more or less like Brandon Clark. That could be an option Gigi Jackson, although he's injured to start the year. I like him as a big, athletic

four that can also knock down three point shots. Santi al Dama, though ironically, was their statistically best look last year next to those four guys, he played forty three possessions alongside Jaron Jackson, Marcus mart John Morant, and Desmond Bain. They were plus ten net rating great on both ends of the four Again, really small sample, that's like barely a not even half of a game, But in those minutes they looked pretty good With Santi al damas, Santi

just brings an offensive skill element, a spacing element to it. Again, this was a team that their one big achilles heel in the last couple of years has been spacing right like. This was a bottom five spot up efficiency team, not just last year when everyone was hurt, but the previous year as well. Teams packed the paint, teams test John Moran's ability to make kickout passes and guys' ability to

capitalize on that. Santi al Dama, in his growth over the last couple of years, has given them a really good option there. But again, in those situations, you're not as big, you're not as athletic, but you have more of that offensive skill in those situations. I really like what this team looks like offensively with the three guards. Marcus Smart, you know, he has a little bit of the Dylan Brooks, like, every once in a while, Marcus Smart will take a really bad shot or co opt

a possession he shouldn't take. But Marcus Smart offensively is just on another stratosphere as a dribble, shoot, pass decision maker than Dylan Brooks was right, and so like, I actually love his fit there. He makes really quick decisions. He's a gifted playmaker, and he's not afraid to be aggressive if that's what the situation calls for. And I thought the best indicator of this was the Grizzlies were an excellent clutch team last year when John Morant was playing.

They went three to one. They were really solid on both ends of the floor. They had a one to fifteen offensive rating and ninety four defensive rating. They were plus twenty one per one hundred possessions in clutch situations last year with John Morant on the floor. They really One of the things you'll notice is on the large sample for this Memphis team, they're a little rudimentary in what they do, Like they freelance a lot. The vast

majority of their possessions. You'll just see either Jaw or Desmond or Marcus just run some sort of like two man game on one side of the floor, and they'll

just kind of play basketball out of that. They don't run up the floor and run sets very often into large sample like joh will just come up and run a clear side ball screen, Desmond Bain will drible up the floor, do a give and go with Jaron Jackson or Xavier Tillman on the wing just to start the possession, or Marcus Smart will drible up the floor just start backing his man down in the post until a second defender comes over, and then they'll just play basketball out

of that. It's pretty rudimentary, but at the end of games, Taylor Jenkins really like kind of strangles control of the offense and starts to get them to run sets, and they run a lot of horns, a lot of three man action. And this is where Marcus Smart being in there helps a lot, because what they'll do is they'll have Marcus Smart as that third offensive player in the action.

So instead of just a ball screen with John Moran and a big, they'll include Marcus Smart in that action because he inevitably ends up getting open and then from there he's really good at playing advantage basketball. Marcus Smart is a guy that if you leave him wide open, he can hit the three, but he's really good at

driving closeouts and making that next pass. And so they would set like the Horn sets up where John Moran would come off of like a Tillman screen, and then they would have a second screening action with Marcus Smart, and then they would kick back to Marcus Smart, who would then rip through and they'd have Desmond Baine on that side of the floor. So the guy that's getting the first read from Marcus Smart is Desmond Bain. Desmond

Bain is deadly on the catch. He's one of the better high difficulty closeout attackers in the league, meaning like obviously he can knock down the open three, obviously he gat a one dribble pull up, but he also if you give him a hard close out, he can hit some really advanced pro scoring moves in the mid range to get two decent looks, and so that makes them really hard to guard in the clutch. There was a play a sequence against the Pelicans in a clutch game.

We're gonna go over it in our film session where they just spammed Horn's chest so they would have John Moran at the top of the key Marcus Smart at the left elbow, Xavier Tillman on the right elbow. John would dribble off Marcus Smart, and then Marcus Smart would come off Tillman and John Moran would work downhill try to see if he could get into the lane, but then he'd swing it back to Marcus. Marcus would drip through the close out and they'd keep Desmond bain in

that corner. So he was benefiting from that attention that Marcus Smart was bringing. I like they play a really really good brand of basketball on both ends of the floor when things get tight. I really enjoyed watching them. I think it's going to be an interesting team that has a pretty high ceiling this year. A couple other things you'll see. They will run sets off ball for Baines.

Sometimes like they'll bring the ball off the floor and bain will just come off of like some sort of wide pin down so that he can come catch around the elbow and look to shoot. They'll usually run a set in a dead ball situation, usually like a five out action, something like a Chicago or something like that,

or just a pin down into a dribble handoff. But again during the large portion of the game, it's a lot of freelancing, but they get really deliberate about their execution in crunch time, which is what good basketball teams do. I was really impressed by their defense though, again, as I mentioned earlier, Marcus Martin Desmond Bain, they just work

so hard on the ball. Marcus Smart usually takes the toughest matchup, but both guys are capable of guarding bigger, stronger forwards, so they can switch those sorts of things. They they force guys off of their spots. They do a really nice job there. But again, I want to just shout out John Morant. By far. The most shocking thing to me as I was watching the film today was like John Morant just competes his ass off on the defense of the floor, a defensive end of the floor,

and does his job. Is he a guy that's going to guard at the point of attack and chase over the top of screens and be a shutdown defensive guard. No. Is he a guy that's going to be like a anchor to your defense. No? But again, what you need from star guards is not all defense level contributions. You just need them to not hurt your overall team concept. Right, What that usually means is when they relentlessly attack you,

which they will, and teams still do that. They try to attack John Moran at the end of games, but all he has to do is prevent the switch while also preventing his man from getting an open look that is usually a hedge and recover that requires foot speed and just commit to those details. John did a really nice job last season showing out stopping those that a ball handler from turning the corner and then recovering out

to the shooter. I want to give you guys a much more detailed example of that when we get to our film session, so I'm gonna wait for right now. But he also had some really good on ball possessions when he got forced into switches. And if John Moran's gonna compete like that defensively, they could be a top ten defense this year. And if they're a top ten defense this year, sky's a limit for this group. I think they're gonna be really good. I think John Mouran

has a legit superpower. He's incredibly difficult to deal with one on one. His short range scoring is one of my favorite things to watch in the league right now. Like it's not about like getting to these nifty to

fifteen foot pull up jump shots. It's just he wants to get really really quick first, like that first step dribble penetration going to his left, and then he wants to just plant that foot hard right around like six or seven feet from the basket, and then instead of trying to go through everybody at the basket, he just kind of pops up off the ground and leans back a little bit and shoots that little floater over the top,

and he's just deadly with it. He was thirteen for twenty on floaters last year in his small sample size. That's sixty five percent. Like that is a really really useful go to scoring move. They have all sorts of skill in playmaking around him to capitalize on the attention he draws. I think de Marcus smart fit makes a lot of sense. I think they're gonna be a top ten defense this year. Really, it just comes down to how good they're gonna be offensively against the best defenses

in slow down situations. I think they're gonna win a ton of regular season games, though I would be personally surprised if they didn't finish above the plan. My main concerns are health. Like we talked about earlier, John Moranch just missing so much time. He needs to be available. This team needs him. And then two, that half court defense when they face elite defenses in the playoffs. They've been a bottom five spot up team two years in

a row. Teams are going to pack the paint and try to dare John Morant to pick them apart with the pass. Obviously they've struggled with that in the past, but we haven't seen that with Marcus Smart in the picture yet. And I liked what I saw in the small sample in the regular season last year. So I think this team is really good. I think they have

a legitimate championship ceiling. They're at the bottom of that list for me right now, and most of that is I just haven't seen enough of them compared to some of the teams that are above them. But this team has a dis Guy's a little bit for this team. I'm excited to see what they can achieve this year. All right, let's get into some of the film, Okay. So our first clip is an example of some of

the offball action they run for Desmond Baines. So, like again, as I talked about earlier, for the most part, So many of their possessions are just gonna start with John Moran bringing the ball up the floor and just Xavier Tillman setting a ball screen Marcus Smart clear the side. They would like just play advantage basketball off of a simple action to start the possession. When they run stuff in the half court and the meat potatoes of the game,

it's usually an off ball action for Desmond Bain. So here's an example of that. And as you can see, it's very simple. They're running. All they're doing is they're running Desmond Bane off of a They're running Desmond Bane off of a little screen from Tilman here. So he's gonna like loop back around Tilman this way right, But if you watch, you can actually see a man you will quickly jump it. He jumps way through this gap here and as a result, Desmond Bain is able to

batcut it. And when he backcuts it, John Murray hits him with a really nice left handed pass like this is left handed pass from Jaw hits him in the pocket and even though R. J. Barrett makes his rotation, his stance is open, so Desmond Bain's able to get into his body and just shield him with his left arm there and finish. But that's an example of an off ball set that they'll run for Bain, here's an example of just your classic flow offense that Memphis will

run again. So here we go. Look, we're just dribbling the ball off the floor. We're not gonna run a set. Let's just throw the ball to jaw. We're gonna throw the ball a jaw. Now we're gonna clear the side. Now we're just gonna run a ball screen. So again, like this is the way they play for the most part over the course of the regular season. In the meat and potatoes of games, they just play two main game and then just try to play off of that. Here we're going to see a they kind of ice

the coverage. They're kind of funneling him towards the sideline. One of the ways to beat ice is mid range pull up shooting. You're gonna see John Morant just hit a little step back jump shot here on the baseline. Alrighty, this is another example of off ball action for Desmond Bain. Let's fast forward here a little bit. We're gonna swing the ball to jaw. Now we're gonna run this off ball action oh, this is our ball screen again. We got repeated, my bad guys. Let's get back to our

off ball action. There we go. As you can see, we have John Ran here, Desmond Bain's starting on the left wing. Xavier Tillman is gonna go set a screen. As he sets that screen, desmon Man gets that little bit of separation, gets to his spot here at that right elbow, and he's one of the best mid range pull up shooters in the league. Just gets his lift and takes off. Here's an example of some of the

freelance offense that Desmond bain will run. So again, we got a typical half court possession here, no advantage, nothing in transition. We're not running a set. We're just clearing the side. So Marcus Smart's gonna clear the side. Desmen Bain's just gonna throw the ball to Tilman and then he's gonna cut hard. Again. That's another way to counter ball pressure too. Instead of dribbling against the ball pressure, just pass it and cut it. Still functions just like

a ball screen. Watch as he comes off. Now we have two on the ball and Tilman's rolling into space. There's a little bit of an off ball action here. As you could see, John Morant and Santi al Dama are sitting like a double wide pin down from Marcus Smart. That brings these two guys a little bit late in their help rotation, so Tilman can get all the way to the basket and finish. This is a little detail

in basketball that is so underutilized around the league. But if you run off ball action, it makes it harder for guys to help. Look at what these guys are doing. All of these guys Gary, Trent, Emmanuel quickly and I think that's Siakam. They're all keyed in on this little off sequencing. Joss pointing, Jos's pointing at Santy. He's like, let's go set this screen. This is just freelance basketball. This isn't even a set. It's literally freelance basketball. He's

pointing at him to screen down. They run him off. As a result, these guys are just slow to get into the lane on their tag until Man gets a layup. Here's another example of freelance basketball in the form of just a Marcus Smart post up. So we're gonna get just dribble on the ball off the floor. We're gonna pass the ball over here to Marcus Smart, why don't we just post up? Okay, like, everybody, get out of the way. We don't need to run a set. Just get out of the way. We're getting in the lane.

Marcus Smart identifies that that relocation there from Conchar. Watch his contract. After he makes the pass, he cuts through. So he cuts through the lane. Now it's tougher for Scotty Barnes to keep an eye on man and ball and look at Scotty Barnes. Scotty Barnes leaves Conchar to double team Marcus Smart. Marcus Smart throws the bounce pass that forces R. J. Barrett to rotate and help. Now Santy al Dama gets an open look, he travels. They

end up calling a travel here. But that's a really good close out opportunity for Santi al Dama without really having to run offense, just by just throwing the ball to Marcus Smart and letting him post up. So as you can see, like it's a lot of really simple and easy basketball and the meat and potatoes of the game, like two man game with John Morant, two man game with Desmond Bain. Let's post up Marcus Smart. As soon

as we get some sort of advantage. Let's play out of it and go from there with the other additional detail of some smart off ball cutting in relocation as well as the off ball screening action like we saw in the Desmond Bain sequence. Here's an example of them running a set on a sideline out of bounds, and in this case it's Chicago action which ends up getting a good look I believe for Desmond Baine. So this is textbook Chicago action. Chicago action is just a pin

down into a dribble handoff. So all you're gonna do is have your center at the top of the key. As the as the first screener screens down for Desmond Bain, it's gonna flow into a dribble handoff. As a result, it pulls, it generates a wide open three for Santi Aldama on the weak side wing. You can kind of see how it develops here. As as Santi sets that first screen, RJ. Barrett has to switch it. Actually it doesn't switch. That's my bad. You have Yaka Purdle has

to show high. The reason why Yaka Purdle is showing high here is as Desmond's coming off the dribble handoff. Watch this Schroeder's trailing the play. So if Peardle's not here, Bain's gonna curl or he's gonna get a decent look at a jump shot. But because Purdle has to show high now, RJ. Barrett has to stop the roll. If r J. Barrett stays out on Santi Aldama, then Tilman's going to roll into the paint and Bain can throw

that pass over the top. But because r J. Barrett has to tag Tillman, because Peardle's up at the level, Santi al Dama is going to get a wide open catch and shoot three. That's a simple three man action Chicago action on a sideline out of bounds that generates a wide open three. Santiam just brings a really nice offensive skill element to the game for this group. I'm gonna be looking at this entire crunch time sequence between

the New Orleans Pelicans and the Memphis Grizzlies. I'm gonna be looking at some stuff on both ends of the floor. As I talked about earlier, they were twenty one points positive per one hundred possessions in clutch situations with John Moran last year, really good on both ends. So we're gonna be talking about both. So we're starting once again. You're going to see every screening action is going to include John Morant because they were looking to attag jaw

quite a bit. We have Marcus Smart on the ball. Look at this ball denial from Marcus Smart. Watch how Marcus Smart from the catch is just in Brandon Ingram's jersey, making him catch further out and making him uncomfortable. This is a situation where Brandon would like to come off clean on the catch here, but instead he's forced him into his catch almost thirty five feet from the basket. Right from there. We're gonna get a ball scream with Valanciunis.

But this is the beauty of Jaron Jackson. He can come out and guard in space. One of the things that thought was interesting though, and this is something that I want to see a lot from Memphis this year, especially when they're playing against stars that are in a good groove and causing them problems. It's an advantage if you can force the ball out of the star's hands. This is where your speed in rotation can be really helpful. Marcus Smart's gonna double team, so Marcus Smart comes out.

Now we're just double teaming the ball. Imagine any superstar here that we just don't want him to have a catch. You double team the basketball. You force him to get rid of it. Look at the spacing though, Xavier Tillman splitting the difference, John Morant splitting the difference. Desmond Bane is keyed in on CJ. McCollums. So as a result, there's not an obvious read for brandon Ingram to make.

He ends up making a red desion. But by the time Zion catches, there's a rotation from joh Jock comes over and now there's three on the shot clock, and so Zion has to go quickly. But this is no longer an easy one on zero generated from a double team. Zion has to go over big strong Xavier Tillman, who forces him into a really tough lea tanded shot over the top, and they end up getting a stop, really

good defensive possession there. I like that. I like their two on the ball look because of their ability to rotate. I want to see them do more of that this year. Here's an example of Jaron Jackson attacking and transition off of this, he ends up getting a kind of a cross match in transition against Jonas Valenciunas, who had typically been guarding Tillman. He ends up getting him in space and just going right at him and getting to the

basket and drawing a foul. Notice when he kind of gets downhill, watch Jonas Valanciunis immediately get out of position on Jackson's left hand side. So as he makes this aggressive move, boom, he takes this little shuffle step over to the right, and then all Jaron has to do is go to that classic low gather that you see those guards do where you just take the ball low and through, and he gets right across the arms and ends up getting two free throws out of it. Here's

another clutch defensive possession. John Moran had been hedging and recovering on most of these actions, but on this case he actually gets caught in a switch and does a really nice job on CJ mccomi. So here comes Trey Murphy. He sets the screen this again, this had been a hedge and recover. Now Tredy's gonna screen and slip out of it, but Desmond Bain ends up staying. They end

up switching. Now John Morant's on CJ, and watch John Moran do a really nice job one on one beating CJ to the spot and forcing him to pick up his dribble. Really nice defense there from Jah. Now Desmond Baan once again all keyed up off the ball stays attached to Troy Murphy attached attached, forces him into a tough step back three which he airballs, but just an unlucky kind of bounce there. Like Jared Jackson is inside position,

Xavier Tillman is inside position. If that ball gets on the rim, they probably get the rebound, but because of where Jonas was, he ends up getting the offensive rebound and he ends up getting a goaltending call here on John Urrant. But another nice defensive effort there from John on the backside too. Here's an example of that action that I told you guys about them spamming at the tail end of these games. This is Horn's chest. So

let's get up here a little wrinkle too. Instead of instead of having the wings start up hime in Horns or the I should say, the guys that stay at the elbow, instead of having them start up high, they had him start down low and then flash high. And they do that. They do that to get these guys in trail position instead of on the top side. Now, so Marcus Smart's gonna set the first screen right, first screen now Xavier Tillman sets the second screen on Marcus Smart.

That's Horn's chest right. So Marcus Smart is actually open earlier. But John Morant's exploring to see if he can score on Trey Murphy here. But as he comes off, Jonas Valancunez is in help. John Moran ends up making the kickout pass the Smart. Now look at CJ McCollum. This whole sequence, CJ McCollum's getting backscreened, so he's at a position. Now he's still looking at jaw. Here comes the past.

Look at where CJ's head is. This is just really hard to play defense like this because of the screening action. Now he's at a position, he closes out hard to that right hand that left hand side, and Marcus martch just beats him with simple rip drew ripped remove. But the entire design of the possession is to make it so that when Marcus Smart attacks this advantage, it's Desmond Baine that's in that corner waiting for the kickout. So again, if we watch Marcus Smart on the catch here. Let's

go back to the beginning really quick. Desmond Bain is in this corner deliberately to be the beneficiary of this action. Marcus Smart sets it, We get the backscreen from Tillman, takes Job a minute to get it there, but he does eventually get it there. When he gets it there, Marcus Smart just simple rip the remove boom, draws brandon Ingram Desmond Bain wide open corner three. Beautiful offense from the Memphis Grizzlies. And again, that's a totally fundamentally different

action if that's Dylan Brooks instead of Marcus Smart. Right, just the way that's guarded, the way the whole thing comes together, and the way that that tic tac toes into an open three, it's just going to end in a higher quality shot far more often with Marcus Smart as that kind of like in between folkrum than it would be with Dylan Brooks. Here's another really good defensive possession. Here's another example of a hedge and recover from jaw.

So we're gonna get Trey Murphy setting the screen and slipping out. So John Moran is just gonna just briefly show his face. Boom, Why does he do that, so that if Trey Murphy does screen, or if Brandon Ingram does try to turn the corner, he runs into Jaw instead, right, But then watch Job immediately bail out of it, and now he's back into his help and recover situation. So if Brandon had thrown that pass to Trey Murphy, Jaw's in position to rotate and recover Marcus Smart's physical defense

on the ball. As soon as Brandon tries to turn back, Joh kind of stunts at him, forces him to go back to that right hand side. Now he gives up the basketball and I was complaining at the refs. That's how you know you're playing good defense when the dude starts complaining at the refs. CJ. McCollum goes for a hard rip through move on Desmond Bay, but he's just all over it, swallows it up and blocks the shot. I saw so many really impressive defensive possessions from this

group when I was watching film today. I'm really really excited about what this team can be on the defensive end this year. We're just gonna get a simple ball screen here. I love the way they disguise this though, right, So it's kind of set up. If you look where Yonas Valanciunas is, it's kind of set up as if the ball screen's coming towards the middle. But Tilman's gonna kind of reverse this on him by sprinting around and

actually screening on CJ. McCollums right hand side. This forces Yonas to close out hard to the level of the screen over there. Right. Watch how hard Yonas has to come up. So because he has to come up that hard, it's really hard for him to change direction back going the other way. So John Morant's actually able to split it because of how far out Yonas Valentunas comes. Now it's dead to rights, gets into the lane, draws the foul.

That's Jaw's superpower right there for you. Now here's another example of a blitz that works out really well because of the rotation in the overall foot speed of this lineup. So here comes we're setting a double ball screen here again, three man actions are a little bit more complicated. We have Bane on the ball, we have Smart on Ingram, we have Jaron Jackson on Yonas Valanciunas. Jared Jackson comes out Smart chases. Now we're blitzing right, we're in this blitz.

But look at how we're splitting the difference here. Tilman is splitting the difference between Zion and Yonas. Josh splitting the difference between Trey Murphy and Yonas Valanciunas. Now we're in rotation. We end up making this pass to Zion. Zion's on a three point shooting threat. Josh stunts. Look at that little stunt step there, and then he recovers back out and now he's playing the passing lane. So Yonas can't make the kickout pass, and now Yonas has

to go on Tilman. The whole thing's dead. So we're gonna watch that in full speed again. But watch how quickly they rotate out in a blitz where you put two on the ball suddenly turns into a non advantage for the offense. Let's watch it here. So first of all, notice that instead of asking Desmond to chase through the first screen, Marcus Smart switches any action that involves Baine and Smart. They've been switching, and I think that's really smart.

He comes out. Now we're blitzing, we're splitting the difference. Notice two, Desmond Bain is denying the catch as I talked about in our original segment. Smart and Bain both do such a good job of bal denial and forcing guys off of their spots. Quickly rotate out of it, Boom rotate. Jaron Jackson's back, Jared Jackson gets back to Zion. So now Zion's not open. Nobody's open as a result, Now we have brandon Ingram doing a ripped remove on

Desmond Bain. Watch Marcus Smart digs down, boom steals. We're going the other way. Marcus Smart actually gets an and one on that sequence. Here's another example of Horn's chest. This time it was well defended, though, so again it's reversed, so Marcus Smart's on the opposite elbow this time. John Moran comes off, Marcus Smart comes off of Tillman, and it's really well defended. Right, Herb Jones is kind of

sinking down into the lane. Jonas Valanciunas is off the floor, and now the Pelicans have gone small, so they're just a little bit quicker in rotation. Nothing's open, really well defended. Okay, now what this is where John Moran has his superpower that we talked about earlier, his ability to make that hard left hand drive and then just to elevate off the bounce. Watch him just make a really aggressive dribble move and then just once he gets into his chest.

He's not trying to go through you. He's just trying to lean back into that floater. And he's shooting at at sixty five percent last year, which is obviously off the charts. Coulde will he shoot sixty five percent of this year? Probably not, but I bet you he gets over fifty percent, and that is going to make him a pretty damn efficient score. This was a possession where New Orleans got a bucket, but this was another really well defended possession. Notice here we're going to get another

switch from Marcus Martin Desmond Baine. So watch we have a double wide pin down here. Smart and Bain are going to communicate a switch as he goes through. Look at Marcus Martin says, I got him. He's coming through. I got him. You stay out on Ingram. Okay, cool boom, We're back out on Ingram. Action is shut down. Nothing's open now. Herb Jones is turning to the other side. Yoah Morant does a nice job denying the ball that forces Trey into a back cut. Nothing's open. Nothing's open,

nothing's open. Look at this ball denial from Marcus Smart, denying the catch, making it so that Herb Jones doesn't know what to do. What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? They end up just throwing it to brandon Ingram and he bails him out with this like ridiculous fade away. Watch this fade away from brandon Ingram. But that is phenomenal defense once again, shoehorned by Desmond Baine and Marcus Smart just being a pain in the ass on the ball. Now here's at the end of

the game where Jaron Jackson started taking over. This time John Morant ends up getting blitzed, so Marcus Smart screens it's not a blitz, it's just a double team. So we get the double team. As a result, Jaron Jackson ends up flashing over here and he gets a one on one with Zion, drives at him on his left, gets cut off, spins back. Zion over plays that left hand drive and he spins off and hits the right handed shot off the glass. Very very good post upseason

for Jaron Jackson last year. And then on the next possession actually takes Ion out of the game. So they're super small. Now, as you can see, they have Dyson Daniels, Herb Jones, Brandon Ingram, I believe that's Trey Murphy. That's Trey Murphy, Herb Jones, Dyson Daniels, Brandon Ingram c Jim mccollms, all really small. They end up just going to Jaron Jackson. Jared Jackson, as one of the best left handed hooks in the game, just gets into the lane, hits that

left handed hook across the lane. A nice thing that they can go to at the end of games, right like you ball screen, attack them in space and cause all these problems that forces them to go small, at which point then you can attack them through attack them through the post with Jared Jackson. Here's that one last defensive possession for you guys to look at. Another great hedge and recover from Joh. Watch Zion's gonna come over. Call for the screen from Trey Murphy. Watch the hedge

boom hedge that stops the drive. That's the important part. If he doesn't hedge, Zion's whipping down the lane like this and causing all sorts of problems. He hedges and then he gets back he gets right back to the shooter, and now Xavier Tilman and Island was ion into all this traffic really strong. Help watch Marcus Smart, Marcus Smart's guardian, brandon ingram Boom gets his feet set outside the charge circle draws the charge. I was so impressed by Memphis's

defense in these situations. It was a really really fun film session to learn about that team. And let's get into our mail bag quick and then we'll get out here for the day. Hi, Jason Warriors fan here, You and JJ Redick are my go to guys for quality hoop content and I appreciate every bit of effort you put into the show. That's very, very kind of you to say you mentioned three things the Warriors need to do to get back into the middle of the pack

contention this coming season. I agree with all three pods, JK and Curry. I'm surprised that you didn't mention Wiggins. I believe he's a great swing factor in our front court and can affect the game on both ends when he's fully locked in and ready to go. What impact do you think and improved and motivated Wiggins can bring to the team. Thanks in advance, obviously, Andrew Wiggins, the version of him that we saw in twenty twenty two brings a ton to the team. He was one of

the best perimeter defenders in the league that year. I still think he's really good in that area. That hasn't been the primary area of his decline, but he brought that to the table. But he was a good three point shooter that season. Most importantly, he brought like legitimate scoring bursts like he was getting like it was not uncommon for Andrew Wiggins to end with twenty twenty two points in a game just by one hitting those open threes,

but also driving closeouts. And then he was doing a lot of semi transition attacking, like getting into the lane and knocking down that little floater in the lane that he would make when he would just rip through, take the contact and then elevate and knock down a shot. Wiggins was really good in that season, and there's no doubt that if he was that version of himself again, it would mean a lot for this Golden State Warriors.

Here's the problem. When someone tells you what they are at a large sample, don't fall for the small sample. So like, for instance, Andrew Wiggins was really really good in twenty twenty two, but he's been rough since, and he was rough before that. He's been in the league a long time now, and so I'm kind of the opinion that that was the outlier and that this is

more or less the real Andrew Wiggins. And so with that being the case, like obviously we're all rooting for that, it just seems somewhat unlikely, and I think it would be I think we're setting ourselves up for disappointment if we count on Andrew Wiggins being that type of player. Again, although I don't always agree, you are one of the few that takes thoughtful and thorough approach to analyzing basketball.

My question, Jimmy Butler has recently been compared by another YouTuber to Lebron James in terms of style of play, giving out James and Curry played during the Olympics and the rumors about Butler getting traded with the Warriors as a possible destination. How do you see the fit of Butler and Curry and do you believe that would make

them a title contender this year? Note, of course, this question assumes that Butler has a similar skill set slash playing style as James and that the James Curry fit in the Olympics can be replicated even if the talent is a tier below. So I don't actually see too

much of a similarity between Lebron and Jimmy Butler. I would almost look at Jimmy Butler if he were to play for the Warriors as like a juiced up version of Andre Guodalla, right, Like, Andre Gudala brings a lot of the similar type of like when he was in his prime, or I shouldn't say in his prime, but in his prime at the Warriors in that twenty fifteen to twenty seventeen phase. During those years, Andre Gudala brought

like high level playmaking. It was a great connective piece, elite on the ball defense, just like all of these little dirty work things which we know Jimmy Butler can do and do really well. The big difference is Jimmy Butler can also run action right like you're gonna dump the ball into the post to Jimmy and run split action with Steph running off of off ball screens with

Jimmy in the post as a scoring threat. That's a real weapon there, right, Just having Jimmy into man game with Steph Curry because Jimmy's gonna be guarded by a bigger forward, Steph's gonna be guarded by a quicker guard. Jimmy can attack quicker guards in the post, Steph can attack bigger forwards in space. Right, There's so much other

offensive elements that Jimmy brings to the table. But he could also function when Steph has the ball as like a juiced up version of Andre Gudala and so like, I think Jimmy would be a great fit with the Warriors, kind of fits their short term goals as well of trying to re just rebuild a championship caliber roster around Golden State. The thing is is that Miami's probably gonna be looking for a good amount of talent and return there, and it's just whether or not you can find a

deal that actually makes sense. But I think Jimmy would be a beautiful basketball fit with Golden State. The slow Mo praise meaning Kyle Anderson the SloMo praise is justified. But wasn't he just saying that Anthony Edwards had no one on his team that could make a play when the ball was forced out of his hands and using slow O Conley Connley's a good offensive players. That's not

who I was talking about. Slow Jaden McDaniels, Nikhil Alexander Walker, and Rudy Gobert were the main four guys that I had issues with. So here's the thing. I understand what you're saying. There's just a huge difference between being a dribble handoff folkrum for the Warriors with a bunch of movement shooters, where it's mostly about like hitting cutters and then the ability to attack the rim and make kickout passes in inverted spacing. That's very different than what was

happening to Minnesota. What was happening to Minnesota is they were packing the paint and now it's becoming an issue because Kyle Anderson can't hit shots over the top of the defense. Golden State inverts the spacing because of the fact that guys are coming off these dribble handoffs, Guys like Buddy Healed, guys like Brandon Pazemski, guys like Steph Curry, Klay Thompson in the past, they're coming off of those

dribble handoffs. It inverts the spacing so it's not as important for the role players to shoot as it is for them to be able to attack the rim and quickly make decisions in those situations. Very very different than the issue that Minnesota was having. And so again, Kyle Anderson is the type of player that I actually like in the inverted spacing of Golden State, but I don't like in the system that Minnesota had where the paint was clogged and it was more about the ability to

hit shots over the top of the defense. No way, Trey Lyles starts and DeMar hasn't been a two for a while now, and we're talking about the Kings. He almost exclusively played the three or the four for Chicago the last few years. My guess is the starting lineup looks like this deeron Fox with Kean Ellis, Demarta Roseen at the three, Keegan Murray and Demana Sabonis. It's possible that that's the direction they go. As you mentioned Demartin Rosen has played a lot of three at this phase

in his career. My issue is, if you have Demartin Roseen at the three and Keegan Murray at the four, with Sabonis at the five, your overall length and athleticism on your front line is like basement in the NBA, and so it's one of those things where you you sacrifice a lot defensively on the in on the glass in those situations. I do love the idea of Keon

Ellis guarding at the point of attack. He's just such a natural fit there and in that in the universe where you could put Keon Ellis at the two, to Martin Rosen at the three and like a bigger, stronger forward at the four, I'd be on board. I'm not so I won't be surprised if they try that, and that that lineup will be very good in some ways. I just worry about the overall size and athleticism. If you're running Demarta Rosen and Keegan Murray at the three

and the four, that that's pretty damn small and unathletic. Hello, Jason, always like listening to you when you analyze. As a Nick fan, I have a question about Julius Randall, and

that is the playoffs. I felt like last season, before he got hurt, I thought he was going to have a good twenty twenty four playoff runt, especially when he played alongside og Nanobe, because he was making quicker decisions and not holding onto the ball as long he attacks mismatches in the post with the strength and speed and has become more of a willing passer and committed to

playing defense. So my question to you is that going into next season, especially with the Knicks having a chance to compete slash win a title, do you believe that Julius Randall has a better chance of performing well in the twenty twenty five playoffs since he has og and now the addition of Michail Bridges. Appreciate your time and continue to do great work as always. I am actually a huge believer that Julius Randall's game is built to

play well in the playoffs. The problem is he consistently is hurt right before he gets there, or, in the case of last year, hurt when he's there right. But Julius is a rhythm player. In order for him to be a useful kind of bullyball Ford, he needs to be kind of like really dialed in with that little left shoulder fade that he hits when he kind of bullies his way in and then just kind of leans

back and shoots over his left shoulder. Also just handling the ball, not losing control of it, making good reads those kickout passes that you're talking about, And what ends up happening is he comes into the league hurt or comes into the playoffs hurt, and he just is kind of at a rhythm and he just kind of struggles to be as effective and efficient as he usually is, and he's missing all those threes, he's missing all those

short fadeaways. He's not in as good as shape, so he's not defending as well and it ends up making him look like a bad playoff player. But every single time he's coming into that situation hurt. I don't want to see Julius Randall get into a playoff run where he's played for three straight months going into it and so that he's actually operating like peak Julius Randall at

that point. The thing that I like about Julius Randall is like when games get ugly and you got a guy who's big and strong and can attack mismatches in the post, that is a huge value in the NBA playoffs, We've just never seen that really like fully realized for them because he's always injured when he gets there. So, like again, I believe Julius Randall can be a useful

player for the Knicks. He's got to be healthy and available, and he's got to be willing with this group with the shortcomings of their front court, like Mitchell Robinson's going to be out till December or January. You backup center

spot is really weak right now. Tom Thibodeau never really used precious to at the five, not very often at least, so like it's one of those things where if Julius Randall's gonna play a lot in the front court as a five, like a small ball five, he's going to have to defend and rebound at a really really high level. And that's just a lot to ask. And so if he commits to doing all those things, this team has

the talent to accomplish great things this year. It's just gonna be about whether or not those guys are willing to accept smaller roles. Again, anytime you have lots of talent in the room, everyone's got to really really be willing to accept roles or you're gonna get diminishing returns. All right, last question, how do you have Miami with two top twenty five players at eighteen, but Orlando with

zero top twenty five players above them? Well, because those two Top twenty five players includes a guy in Jimmy Butler who is kind of on the downslope and is hurt a lot right and has missed significant chunk chunks of the regular season as of late right. Also, Franz Wagner and Palo Bonkaro were both in my preliminary list for the Top twenty five. They just didn't actually make the top twenty five, but I didn't see my a gap between them and the guys at the tail end

of my top twenty five lists. So beyond that, the Magic have a lot of talent down the roster. They have a lot of really gifted two way role players, a lot of size, a lot of athleticism. Jonathan Isaac is a weapon whn Dell Carter Junior is a wepon. Jalen Sugg is one of the best three and D guards in the league. The KCP edition makes them It's a high level starter upgrade that makes things a lot

easier for them. He's also a movement shooter, which is something they haven't had in the past, which will accentuate a lot of their like inverted ball screens where Franz and Polo get a guard to set a screen for them, Like, I just think overall, Orlando's a better team. Now. That said, like, if Miami's healthy and Jimmy Butler's playing like Jimmy, then yeah, that and we're in the playoffs. Yeah, that's a that's

a different discussion. But heading into this season, looking at it from the context of October all the way through June, at this point, I think Orlando's a little bit of a safer bet. That's all aff Forday. One last thing I've been doing with my buddy Luke reactions to every episode of the Rings of Power. So if you haven't checked that out yet, wherever you get your podcast under two Sons Podcasts or on YouTube under two Sons podcast

you could check out some Rings of Power content. I will be back on Wednesday with another one of these videos. Don't forget to drop mail bag questions. As always, a sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show and now I'll see you next time the volume. What's up guys, As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting

OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.