Hoops Tonight - NBA Power Rankings: Kawhi Leonard's return + Paul George makes Clippers elite

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hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by Fame Dull here at the volume. Happy Tuesday again everybody. We are continuing with their power rankings today with number four the Los Angeles Clippers. We will get right into it. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt S. You don't miss

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And on that note, let's talk some basketball. So as we were working up through our tears, if you guys remember we had the non contenders, the teams that I just deemed the amount of luck they would need to end up with the trophy at the end is too great because there were too many teams in front of them that would just by virtue of the sheer number of them, one of them would have more luck or be more fortunate in combination with the talent that they have and the luck that they'd have. So I didn't

view them as potential contenders. Then we had our puncher's chance contenders. These were teams that did not have as much talent as the top teams in the league, but had top tier talent like superstars like a Lebron James and Anthony Davis or a Nicola Yokich or a Donovan Mitchell. Right, we those were the teams that we were looking at in that regard. Then we had our if things go right contenders. These were teams that had tons of talent, but they needed things to go right for them in

order to contend. These were teams like the Brooklyn Nets, who when you look at their roster on paper, it's stacked. But we don't have to get into all the reasons over the last couple of years why that can't be necessarily depended on the same goes for the Philadelphia seventy six man. You've got James Harden, you got Joel Ebid, you got Tyrese Maxie, you got Tobias Harris. But there's health concerns there. There's James Harden and his age and

his body holding up concerns. There's concerns with the psychology of the top players on the team, and whether or not they're tough enough to really handle a sixteen win playoff front though, that was the kind of issue we were dealing with with that tier. Now we're heading into the top tier contenders, and I've got four teams here, and these are teams that have every single box checked as it pertains to contending for an NBA championship. They

have top tier talent. Like with the Clippers, were talking Kawhi Leonard and Paul George with the Warriors, were talking Steph Curry. Right with the UH Bucks, we're talking on a santenna Kompo with the Celtics were talking Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown. They got the stars, they got the depth, they got talent down the roster right, have got the experience.

They've won big playoff series before. These are teams that have all the boxes checked, and they can even potentially weather some bad luck, kind of like the Warriors last year losing Steph Curry to his sprained foot, losing Draymond Green to a backstrain, losing missing Clay Thompson for a big chunk of the season. These teams can weather some of the storm. None of these other teams on this

list are capable of weathering that storm. And that's the big thing that separates these teams from the rest of the field. So we're gonna be covering the l A Clippers today. This is one of my favorite teams in the NBA to talk about because this team is the personification of my core basketball beliefs. Now, again, you have

to differentiate between core basketball beliefs and what your roster needs. Right, Like, just because I believe in five out basketball and switching everything on defense, doesn't mean if I was coach of the Lakers that that's what I would do, because with that team, they don't They just simply don't have the

personnel to run that style, right. So the Clippers are uniquely equipped to have the players to run that style, and they have a forward thinking front office and a forward thinking coach that runs the style of basketball that I believe in the most. So that's why I enjoy this team. That's why I was excited to dive into them today. So last year they were forty two and forty um, they lost in the playing tournament. They were

twenty five in offense, they were eight in defense. Kawhi Leonard did not play Paul George only played in thirty one games. Not much to take from that particular season, So I'm not gonna spend a ton of time on that season. Most of the numbers and the footage that I reference is going to be from one season because that was the year that we last saw Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Reggie Jackson, Nick Patum, the core group of this team on the floor together. We did have we

did learn some things. Terrence Man took some leaps. He looks like a really good athlete that could play both ends of the floor, attack closeouts. Starting to shoot a little bit better too. You can defend, defend pretty well. Of her coffee also is starting to look a lot better. Norman Powell was a super interesting acquisition that adds a

lot of dynamic. They kind of had a core lineup that they went down with in a lot of cases last year or two years ago, which was Reggie Jackson with Nick Beto, Marcus Morris, and then Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. They're gonna have some different directions they can go there if Nick Batum ages faster than they like, or if he just doesn't have it on any particular night. You can slide Norman Powell in there if Reggie Jackson is getting attacked too much and post mismatches. Norman Pale

is a better defender. Is a little stout, not super tall, but he's got a bit of a bit more of a physical presence, so you can slot him in there. Just a lot more flexibility with their lineups thanks to Norman Powell. So we did learn some things last year that will that will project towards this year. But for the most part, we're gonna be focusing one season when we're talking about what they like to do in the way they like to play. So this offseason they signed

John all Um. It's hard to see. It's hard to say what kind of player he's gonna be until we see him play real NBA basketball games. Not a big shock there, But if John Wall has anything left in the tank, the Clippers are the place where we're gonna find out because in this particular system, it's going to play to his strengths. This is a guard that loved to put rim pressure, to pressure the rim, and this is a team that is going to set him up with tons of space to operate and by virtue of

the lineups he'll be playing with. He'll have great matchups. He'll have the ability attacking bench lineups to go against weaker defenders in a spaced out environment. We're going to find out if John Wall can still play in this league. They did lose Isaiah Hartenstein to the Knicks. Um he was a pleasant surprise last year as a backup big. He was really gifted in the short role if you remember all those like nifty floaters and stuff he was making, But that was where he was having a lot of

success last year. It has hurt to lose him. Um. The guy they signed to replace him, Moses Brown, is definitely more of a project, not as much of a dependable backup center. But at the end of the day, this is a team that went down with their small lineups. Every time the Chips were down, they didn't even play a big and then use zoo Bach off the bench. So at this point I don't really view it as that much of a loss Um. And then the big difference is gonna be Kwhi, Leonard and Paul George back

in the lineup compared to UH last year. Now it's funny because there's been kind of a perception around the Clippers, around the Lakers as a team that's never healthy and Lebron James and a d are never healthy. And it's and it's kind of funny because the Clippers have gotten off the hook in that regard. And the truth of the matter is Kawhi Leonard and Paul George have had just as big of a problem staying healthy and being on the court as a Lakers guys have been and

a lot of pressure. Just like there's pressure on Anthony Davis to take care of his body and be available this year, that same pressure is on Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. Looking at the depth chart at the guard position, and this is classic Clippers. They only have two guards in their rotation and maybe two bigs in their rotation

and just a ship ton of wings. So at the guard position they have Reggie Jackson and John Wall on the wing, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Norman Powell, Marcus Morris, Luke Kennard, Robert Covington, Nick Bottom, a mere coffee, Terrence Man just stacked at that position. Once again, all the good teams in the league are going in that direction, unlike the Lakers, who are obsessed with bigs and guards.

And then at the biggs they have Vika Zoo, Bats, Zubats and uh and Moses Brown, although I don't think Moses Brown is gonna play all that much um looking over at the offensive end of the ball. So, like I said before, this is the definition of modern basketball, and this is why I love watching this particular team.

I dove into a bunch of footage from the season over the last couple of days because that's the best place for me to find anything that translates forward with this Clippers team, and they're just a joy to watch and it can be you know, it's it's kind of like Brooklyn where you're not enjoying the ball movement in terms of you know, running sets. I shouldn't even say ball movement. That you're not enjoying the player movement, but what you appreciate is the level of skill and the

willingness to make the extra pass. When the Chips were down in playoffs, they did go small. They played Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Nick Patum, Marcus Morris, and Reggie Jackson in large part to start big games and to end big games, and then they would just switch everything with that group, which we'll talk about on the defensive side of the ball, and then they would just drive and kick. When it came to sets, they had an even They were like

an even more sparse version of the Nets. The Nets would run sets out of dead ball situations and they would run a bunch of stuff to get Kevin Durant the ball at the elbow. But for the most part they would dribble up the floor and just play spread, pick and roll and spread isolation right. Well, the Clippers

are even more sparse than that. They would bring the ball up the floor and run isolation out of dead ball situations out of time out, So they still did occasionally run things a lot of stuff to get Kauai an advantage at the elbow, very similar to what Brooklyn would do with Kevin Durant. Big Shot Quais more of back to the bat player than uh than Kevin Durant is, but they both like to operate out of that mid

range when they have an advantage. The big time that you would see them start to run sets was when Kauai would go to the bench and the and the way they kind of organized this in that season is Patrick Beverley would come in, although this year that will end up being John Wall and then they'd ride most of their offense on Paul George and Luke Kennard towards the end of the first quarter, started the second quarter, and then they would start to run some more stuff.

Still a lot of isolation, still a lot of just dribble up and play basketball, but definitely more frequent with the sets. They would run things like classic double screen actions for Kennard coming off to shoot on the catch

they would run. They would put like Marcus Morris and zoobots on the two blocks and then have Kawhi Leonard or excuse me, Paul George and Luke Kennard stand directly under the basket and they kind of just mess around for a second, and then they both just spread off of the tooth the two screens and they pick which side they want to go, and Kennard would get good looks off that, Paul George would get good looks off that.

That's designed to confuse you because you don't know which way they're going, so it's hard to set up your screening actions and things along those lines. But make no mistake, it's exceedingly rare that they run something. This is a brute force offense through and through five out, pick on your worst defender, drive and kick the basketball. And what's crazy is in that season they were third in offensive rating, and their offensive rating actually went up about two points

per one possession in the playoffs. That's the value of brute force. In the regular season, you're not gonna get as much easy stuff. You're not gonna get layups and wide open shots out of your set often the way that you do during the playoffs. But during the playoffs, most of those sets cease to function anyway because of scouting in the way that teams can get in front of your sets. So if you can attack matchups and consistently generate advantages with your best players, that is actually

the best way to go in the playoffs. With exception of a small handful of teams like the Warriors who have succeeded in that regard or the Miami Heat who have succeeded in that regard, But for the most part, that brute force offense is the most effective. In the NBA playoffs. They were eight in isolation efficiency in one excuse me, frequency, ninth in efficiency. Kauai was a little bit down that year zero point nine four points per possession,

which was in the sixty five percentile. Paul George was awesome one point zero seven points per isolation possession eighty six percentile. Reggie Jackson was awesome s percentile one point one three points per possession. They were ninth and can roll efficiency. You see them run a lot of pick and roll with zoobots, but the vast majority of their

ball screens are designed to get switches. So like what you'll see a lot of times down the floor, and they were doing this relentlessly against the Mavericks and the Jazz. But like they they have Paul George bring the ball up the floor and just have Marcus Morris come up and set a ball screen and Gobert with switch because and there's a couple of different things, like if you Gobert doesn't want to switch that he wants to run

a drop coverage, right. But one of the easiest ways is a ball handler to force the switch is to take aggressive lateral dribbles. So for instance, if you come off the ball screen and you work slowly, it's going to allow them to run their drop coverage. But what Paul George and Kawhi Islander do really well. Is Oreggie Jackson does this as well. That sometimes forced the switch

when the ball screen comes. Rather than trying to do anything, they'll just take two or three really quick dribble side to side, which basically forces Rudy Gobert or whoever is the screen defender to run out on you, because otherwise you're just gonna shoot a wide open three. It's an easy way to force a switch in a pick and

roll situation. And then a lot of times, especially in the playoffs, refs just let a lot of contact go on those screens, so you'll see like Marcus Morris almost like hug you know, Kauai's defender, whoever it is, because the switch is coming and they just kind of let them play that way. Um, But for the most part, that's how they run their ball screens. They're not running ball screens to roll to the rim and hit pocket passes.

They will only do that in the bench lineups when they have Zoombak out there and the and the teams are running drop coverage. The second the second biggest area where they attack you is in post ups. They were actually fifth in post up frequency, seventh in post up efficiency, Kawhi Leonard, Zobots, and uh Marcus Morris, We're all in the seventy seven percentile or better as post up players.

Kawhi Leonard averaged an outrageous one point one two points per possession out of the post in campaign, I wanted to spend a couple of minutes talking about Kawhi Leonard's fade away, and I did this in the player rankings, but I wanted to do it again for the people

who didn't hear that. You know, I think Kawhi Leonard is the perfect player to watch for post scoring from the wing, and the main reason why is he has turned what is difficult shots for most people into effishing shots by relying on his strength rather than his athleticism. So a lot of players around the league, even all time greats like Michael Jordan's, would generate most of their separation on fade aways by elevating. And what I'm talking

about here is back to the basket. Let's say I'm on the left block, I'm dribbling the ball with my left hand, the defenders on my back side, and I'm either going to turn over my left shoulder to shoot the fade away or I'm going to turn over my right shoulder to shoot the fade away, and I might fake one way or the other before going the other way. It might be immediately on the catch, it might be after a couple of dribbles. That that's the general post

fade away, right. It's Kwie Leonard's bread and butter. The way that Kawhi Leonard does it though, that makes him unique from the rest of the league is he generates his separation by plowing into your chest with his shoulders. So he's gonna hit you with a really hard pound dribble and try to cave your chest in with that right shoulder, and then when he turns around in fades, he'll try to go straight up and down rather than

fading as much. A lot of players won't initiate contact and will rather just fade a great distance with their athleticism. The hard part there is you really have to get your legs into that shot, and if you don't, you'll leave it short. You'll miss that shot. And so what the advantage there for Kauai is he's doing the physical labor of the shot in the backdown and then the actual jumper itself is a nice, easy wide open ten to fifteen foot are going mostly straight up and down,

and he gets that shot with his strength. It's a great lesson for big wings. If you're a big wing, if you're between six four and six eight and you want to put work out of the post a little bit, that's a great way to get to your shot. Initiate con tacked first, then turn around in fade. The Clippers were the best spot up team in one by a mile. They averaged one point to four points per spot up possession. Second place was Brooklyn at one point one two, so

twelve points better per one possessions. This is the value of five out basketball. Yes, the Clippers have great shooters, Yes the Clippers have guys that can attack close outs and extend the advantage. But by playing five out in building a culture with that group of guys who are willing to if they have the basketball, create the advantage, if they get the basketball to extend the advantage, and then having shooters at the end that can finish plays, being willing to make the extra pass to get a

great shot. That is generating higher quality spot up possessions than anybody else in the league. It's not just talent it's the quality of spot up possessions they're getting when defenses get in rotation. Even the very best defenses in rotation will eventually leave something open. You might have to swing it three times, you might have to drive and kick four or five times on a possession. It's going

to take a little bit of work. But if you continue to drive and kick and force the defense into rotation, eventually their slowest player will miss an assignment and somebody will get an open shot. The Clippers the that's the big difference between them and the Brooklyn Nets. With the Brooklyn Nets, it's a lot of Kevin Durant and and

Kyrie Irving looking for their own shot. The Clippers system, yes, Kawhi Leonard looks for his own shot in isolation a lot, but so much of it is an equal opportunity drive and kick offense. Everyone is in a rhythm, everyone feels comfortable with the basketball, and as a result, they get really high quality spot up possessions and they knock them down. That particular type of offense is super effective because it's impossible to scheme against. There's no scheme for five out

driving kick. There's no defensive magical trick you either have to help on those drives or you let them get to the basket, and if they get to the basket, they're gonna make layups. The only way to stop a five out driving kick offense is to contain on the perimeter. It's to sit in a defensive stance and to not allow that initial dribble penetration. That's why I always talk about how dribble contain is quickly becoming one of the

most important skills in the league. But the reality is that when you do that, it's extremely difficult under any circumstances because they're gonna find a matchup even if you even if you were playing a team like the Clippers and you were running five out, as long as you like, you're quicker, guys can find their way onto Marcus Morris and try to drive by him, or you're bigger, guys can try to find their way under Reggie Jackson and try to attack him in the post. You'll find a way.

There is always a little bit of a weak link somewhere on the floor for every one of the thirty teams in the league, and that's what makes the Clippers so good. They are relentless in finding the right guy and attacking him. That is scheme proof and that's why it translates well to the playoffs. You can't scout your way around it. The only way to stop it is drib will contain and if you don't have the personnel to do it, you will not be able to stop them.

That's why they averaged over a hundred and nineteen points per one possessions in playoffs, or a bunch of those games didn't even have Kawhi Leonard involved. It is the strength of modern offense and how hard it is to guard, especially in a playoffs setting. Um. The downsides there's you have to have the right personnel. So, like I said, I wouldn't be able to run that with a team like the Lakers, and it requires buy and you've got

to have guys willing to make the extra pass. Your initial creators have to understand that it's not just them driving into the basket and scoring a lot of the possessions. It's just their job to draw the help defender and get the get the train move in where they're attacking the closeouts, so moving on to the defensive end of the floor. Um, So they switch everything except for when ZoomBox is on the floor are and they always went

small when the chips were down. So we're gonna kind of focus on switching, and we talked drop coverage at length in the other videos in this series. There are a bunch of specific values that come with switching. First of all, stagnation. It throws everybody out of rhythm and it stops other teams sets because it doesn't matter what kind of screening action you're running. If a good switching team is communicating switches and getting out in front of it,

nothing will be open. That will turn you into an isolation team that stagnates a lot of teams around the league, even great teams. The Golden State Warriors in two thousand eighteen were stagnated by the Houston Rockets, and it required excellent isolation play from Steph Curry and Kevin Durant to overcome it. That's the value of a really good switching defense.

It lessons physical wear and tear of navigating screens. It's hard physically to just force your way through all these huge, strong forwards who are setting screens all over the floor. If you're switching those screens, it offsets that physical wear and tear into ment old focus, and as long as you pay attention, you communicate well, and you're practiced enough to where you know when to switch and what to do, you can get in front of that stuff without having

to hurt yourself physically. Um with a team like the Clippers, when you when you get them to devolve into an isolation attack, they just don't have any good options to attack.

So like, let's say you're in a fourth quarter Eastern Conference excuse me, Western Conference semifinals, game six, and there's six minutes left and they're switching everything, and they've got Marcus Morris, you know, Reggie Jackson, Nick patun Kawhi Leonard or Paul George or let's say they put in Norman Powell for Marcus Morris or I think they need to keep more Morris out there for size, But say they put him in there for Nick Patum. Okay, who are

you gonna attack? Where's the good match up? Like I've watched lots of footage of the Utah Jazz and the Dallas Mavericks attacking Reggie jacks and in post ups, and it's not like they were just barbecuing him. Yeah, they got some good stuff sometimes. Yeah, he's small and he's gonna give some ground, but Reggie fights. He's he's a good switch defender. Marcus Morris. Yeah, he's a little bit slow footed. You can beat him off the dribble sometimes,

but it's not it's not easy. And and if you have to isolate Marcus Morrison Reggie Jackson for six minutes straight, I like my chances on the other end of the floor going to work with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, probably getting better matchups than you're getting now getting there are downsides. You need to have the right personnel. A lot of teams don't have the personnel to switch. It

requires a lot of practice and focus. There are bad switching teams out there that botch switches all the time. The Brooklyn Nets are not a good switching team, for instance. But if you have the right personnel like the Clippers do, and you're bought in and you do it right, it can be a damn effective defense. Their metrics in and they were eighth in defensive rating, which is a little bit below their potential. They defended better in the playoffs

and they will be a better defensive team. I believe this year they're deeper and they're more athletic. They were ninth in defending the three. They were fifth in defensive rebounding. Now this is this is the key difference. Uh, this is the key thing I wanted to talk about as it pertains the switching defenses. So many coaches are reticent to use the switching defense because they're terrified of giving

up rebounding mismatches or post mismatches, but mainly rebounding mismatches. Like, Okay, you switch your biggest out on the guard on the perimeter. He forced him into a tough step back jumper and he misses. Okay, good, your defense did a job. But their center now has your point guard pinned under the basket gets an offensive rebound put back. I get why that's frustrating, but this team was fifth in defensive rebounding

because size doesn't matter as much as you think. First of all, there are more long rebounds than ever before because of all the long jump shots. So the big guys around the rebound around the basket are getting few of rebounds, and it's become more important than ever to have your guards and your wings crashing the glass. And most importantly, Tyler has them coached up. Well, they're boxing out, they're crashing the glass. That is allowing them to get

those to secure those rebounds despite their size. Mismatches a couple of areas. So again, the strength of their the strength of their defense is the defensive rebound extremely well, meaning they end possessions. They defend the three point line very well, meaning they take away the second most efficient shot in basketball. They're also seventh in opponents assists, means they stagnate teams and that disrupts the rhythm of the opponent.

A couple of areas of opportunity. They were seventeenth and transition defense according to cleaning the glass. That should be better given the amount of athletes that they have. They're also nineteenth enforcing turnovers. That should be better considering the types of defensive talent that they have on the floor. Um, but they do all those other things really well. They also don't fail too much. They were leventh and free throw attempts allowed. So a couple of areas of opportunity.

This is a very good defense. All right, what's the best case scenario. The best case scenarios they win the title. I think this is the biggest threat to the Warriors. They can take them out of their sets by switching everything kind of similar to the two thousand eight team Rockets did and run turn them into a isolation team. They won't run that stupid drop coverage the way that Boston did that got Steph Curry all those open jump shots at the top of the key. They won't play

bigs that Steph can attack in iso. Steph was one of the most efficient isolation players in basketball this year, averaging one point two points per isolation possession, but his volume was extraordinarily low because he's very picky. He only did it about once per game in the regular season, and the main reason why there is he's very picky. He typically will only attack in isolation when he gets biggs on switches. That doesn't mean he's not capable of

attacking other players. He can. He's just less efficient when he's attacking great defensive players in isolation, so is everyone else in the league. Kawhi Leonard was in like in the nineties for offensive writing and isolations in kwhilelands a great isolation player, he's just attacking better defensive players more

frequently in isolation. But they don't have bigs for Steff to attack except for in small pockets of the game when Zoobok is out there, so it will force Steff to run isolation against better defensive players they are, They're very difficult matchup for them. They have the on the other end of the floor, they have the ability to punish the Warriors back court with better versions of Tatum

and Brown. All those offensive frustrations we had with Tatum and Brown, with their inability to pass the basketball, with their inability to handle the basketball without turning it over, their unwillingness to make that extra pass. That's not gonna happen with Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. We talked about that earlier. That's the strength of this team. They move the basketball. They generate better spot up opportunities than anybody

in the league. This is a smarter team with more ball handling than the Boston Celtics that will run a better defensive scheme. Their defensive personnel is not as good as Boston's, but they are smarter on the defensive vent in my opinion. Now, to be clear, I would pick the Warriors in that series, but I'm saying the Clippers are their biggest threat and I'm explaining why they're gonna

switch everything. They're gonna stagnate the game. They're gonna attack your weakest defensive links relentlessly, and if they stay healthy, they absolutely are a threat to win the title. Their worst case scenario pretty basic, Paul George and Kwhilander get hurt, in which case they will lose in the first round or in the playing tournament. The biggest X factor for this team is John wall So John Wallen is prime.

Before the injury, was an outstanding driving kick player, almost impossible to stop from getting to the rim and grade spraying out to three point shooters. That makes him, excuse me, that makes him a very organic and natural fit with his Clippers team. If he is capable still excuse me of doing of what he did before his injury, He's

gonna be a devastating weapon in his Clippers system. He also caught and shot the ball pretty well in Houston last year or the year before last, when he was actually playing, he was thirty eight on catching shoot threes and then on the defensive end of the floor. He's a short, stout athlete. Not short, you know, um relative to guards, but short relative to the wings around the league. But he's strong as a low center of gravity, can

slide his feet well. He should hold up well in their switching scheme, and he's got a big swing between him potentially being useless or him potentially being a real weapon for this team. That's what makes him the X factor in my opinion. If John Wall gives you eight percent of what he was before the injury, this suddenly becomes possibly the most talented team in the league. So kind of wrap all this up, This is one of

my favorite teams to watch. They have at least almost as much talent as the top teams in the league, if not as much, and if John wallpans out, they could have more talent than the rest of the teams in the league. They are extremely modern in their approach on both ends of the floor, and they're gonna be a huge pain in the ask to knock out of the playoffs. That absolutely makes them a top tier contender. I think they're the biggest threat to the Warriors out West,

and they're absolutely capable of winning the title. Right now, I think they are the fourth most capable team at this point in the season. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support and I will see you next time. The volume