Hoops Tonight - NBA Power Rankings, Luka Doncic's MVP case, what's wrong with Kevin Durant & Suns?

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sixty eight hours after issuance. See dkang dot com slash basketball for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome to hoops and I here at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are having a great start to your week. We got fun show today from Christmas evening the Dallas Mavericks on the

strength of a fifty point game from Luka Doncic. Kind of you au miliated the Phoenix Suns in Phoenix, and so I want to talk a lot about both teams from that particular game. We're gonna be doing a deep dive there. And then because of Christmas Day in the jovonn video yesterday, we haven't had a chance to do our power rankings yet for this week, so we're gonna be doing an update on our power rankings. You guys have the drill before we get started. Subscribe to a

brand new YouTube channel. It mean a lot to me if you guys would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feeds. Wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason Lts. You guys, don't miss any show announcements or the film threads I do from time to time, and keep dropping mail bag questions. This weekend. I'm taking Friday through Monday off, but I want to

have some content coming out over the weekend. So on Thursday, I'm gonna be recording a long mail bag episode that will kind of release over the course of the New Year holiday. So drop a bunch of basketball related questions about whatever you guys want, and then let's get weird too. Any non basketball stuff. Drop it in the mail bag

in this YouTube videos comments. We'll put together the out from this video and we will record that on Thursday, so that we have some content over the weekend before we head into the stretch before the trade deadline and then the stretch before the playoffs. Things are going to be heating up here over the course of the next couple of months, all right, let's talk some basketball. So

this game. It was interesting because that last night I turned it on after a long day, you know, Christmas, after I finished recording those two episodes, and you know, it's funny. Obviously, so many people work on Christmas Day. It's not just me. So I'm not complaining to buy

any stretch. But obviously it was a weird day for me because like, I'm like at one Christmas event, then I'm driving back to go record, and then I'm going over to my parents' house to see my family in town and we're trying to find time to celebrate, but that I like have to run back to record after Lakers Celtics, and then I finally go back to my parents and we finished celebrating, and then finally I get home last night and my wife's passed out in the

bed and it's like ten thirty and I'm just like, oh, look, the Suns are playing, and I turn it on and it was pretty bad. Specifically, when I turned it on, it was one sixteen to one ten if I remember correctly, and the wheels came out. I won sixteen to one twelve, I think. And Devin Booker has like a driving right

handed layup and then the wheels just come off. They give up a bucket on almost every trip down the floor, having trouble blitzing and rotating off of Luca, and then just like a bunch of really careless turnovers on the other end. They looked somewhat disinterested, and so I was like, ah, man, like Luca putting up fifty suns, are in some trouble. This is the game that I need to do a deep dive on today. And so sat down today and I just watched the entire game, and the truth of

the matter is is Luca just broke Phoenix's defense. And you know, for all the struggles Phoenix have had has had, it's primarily on the offensive end of the four. They've actually been one of the best rebounding teams in the league over this recent span. And they've been a slightly above average defense for most of the year, and that you know, in that middle of the pack range. I

think before last night's game they were fourteenth. Even during the stretch that they were struggling, they've been a decent defense, not good, but they've been a decent defense, and they were in shambles in that second half against Dallas. And you know, one of the things I thought was super interesting that Luca was doing is he was taking advantage because they were loading up on him in the half court,

blitzing pick and rolls. They had kd zoning up on ISOs. Remember, zoning up means ignoring his man entirely, but going on the opposite side of the painted area so that he doesn't get a defense of three seconds. So he's basically like it's like a soft double team, essentially allowing the primary on ball defender to press up on the jump shot,

knowing that Kadie's waiting behind him in help. And so in the half court, Luca wasn't really getting opportunities to look to be aggressive, at least as a score, not as frequently, right, But he was having a lot of

success in semi transition. Now we talk about this concept a lot, but semi transition is like whatever is not a runout layup, meaning like a one on zero, two on one, you know, pass past layer, you know the stuff you do in high school for drills when you're working on layups and transition, right, something that is not that but also not a half court possession. It's like

between the two. It's like usually off of a miss, usually it starts as like a four on three with the other three guys kind of lingering back into the play. And usually what it is is it's a gap where you don't have an opportunity to like just necessarily drive unimpeded to the basket. But at the same time, the

defense isn't in their configured half court set. Right. We just talked about all the things that Frank Vogel was doing to Luca in the half court, but if before they even get set up to do those things, he was finding some opportunities, mainly just to attack an iso.

Like there was a play in the fourth quarter where he just was dribbling down the floor and his on ball defender is Grayson Allen, and he's kind of opened up with his left shoulder open and there's no help side defense because guys aren't matched up, and Luca just hits him with like a basic hesitation move, gets all the way to the basket and lays it in. That's step back three that he's been taking a lot. He

was hunting that in that semi transition phase. These were not like, oh, get a switch, pull the big out take a step back three with five on the shot clock. He was taking quick fire step back three's in semi transition, and those have like a whole debilitating, discouraging element to them, because your defense just feels hopeless when he's when you're getting him to take one of the tougher shots that he takes the step back three early in the possession,

and he just keeps making it. And then you know, one of the things I've talked about with Lucas is a lot of his pull up shooting is the same angle. Like his post up fadeaways always fades over his right shoulder right. If he's gonna take a turn around jumper, it's over his right shoulder step back, he's always going to step back going to his left. But then in that stretch he had a ball screen that they set in semi transition where the MAVs just weren't or the

Sons just weren't even matched up. Chimezi Metu was guarding nobody, and so they were able to go up and set a quick screen on Luca and it was basically like a two on one offensive possession, and he actually went into like a like one of those pull up threes.

You see the hyper athletic guards take where he like comes off the screen to his right, plants left right, elevates pretty high off the ground for a Luca jumpshot and he sticks that too, And it just got to the point where I think when I turned it on and or one sixteen one twelve, the damage was already done. Like the Sons didn't really have any belief in their ability to win the game at that point, and so it was interesting to go back and look and be like, oh, yeah,

that's why. It's because you couldn't do anything with the guy. Like as soon as they the Sons went on their little run in the late third quarter, which was primarily fueled by Grayson Allen who just got super hot shooting the basketball and Katie was making some good passing reads as well. They get hot, they take a brief like five point lead, and every single time Phoenix got the lead to five, Luca would just go down and hit

another step back three and it's two again. Oh, they got it back up to four, Luca hits another shot, it's one again. It was just this onslought that just sapped the Sons of any sort of belief, which I think directly led to their discouraged effort there down the stretch. It was just a really, really impressive psychological domination by Luka Doncicz. And again the theme of the game was the Suns had to blitz Hi pick and roll, and when they blitzed him pick and roll, they were just

getting a lot of really key contributions. Derek Jones Junior was doing a great job in that short role position of attacking the rim athletically and finishing over Kevin Durant at the rim. Derek Lively had some possessions in the role. He also had some possessions where he wasn't the roller. He was in the dunker spot and as guys got up and missed shots, he was cleaning things up on the offensive glass. Derek Jones hit a couple of big

corner threes. Grant Williams had a turnaround jumper in the lane. Tim Hardaway Junior had one of those semi transition driving layups that he got. I can't remember who's guarding him on that particular play, but gets an easy bucket there. They were getting lots of contributions down the line, and that there is the key because this to me feels

like a real MVP type of campaign from Luka Doncics. Now, whether or not he wins it is dependent on so many other things, mainly because the league is so damn stacked with talent that it's just really difficult to separate

yourself these days. But Luca looks like an MVP, and we're gonna talk about all these specific basketball things, but most importantly, the biggest element of the case, in my opinion, is he has instilled his teammates with a sense of belief and confidence that what they're doing will lead to victories in basketball games. And this is a team, by the way, that was limited in talent when they were

fully healthy. But Kyrie's missed significant time, Josh Green's missed significant time, Maxic Cliba dislocated his toe has been out forever.

That's three of their most important rotation players and their secondary creator arguably easily their second most important player, and he's kept them afloat they're eighteen and twelve, They're right in the mix of things, and a huge part of it is just every single guy on that team has a belief that what they're doing is going to work, and as a result, they're incredibly bought in, They're incredibly focused.

It's interesting to see the juxtaposition of the kinds of extra efforts that you're seeing guys on the Mavericks make, and then you're seeing Devin Booker yelling at his teammates for not getting back after turning the basketball over, which, by the way, Devin's correct to be upset about. But the point is is you're seeing similar types of supporting casts. These are all castaways. The Sun's got all these veteran

minimum guys and the Mavericks got all these veteran minimum guys. Really, Grant Williams is the one guy we can point to is like, Okay, they got him to a sign and trade and got him at a decent salary number. But the difference is they're the guys on the MAVs they're locked into their roles, and the guys on the Suns it just it's just not coming together the same way. And that, to me is the is the strongest part

of Luca's MVP case that set. By the way, before we get to the Lucas stuff, they're thirteenth in defense over the last fifteen games, and like Luca has been making solid defensive rotations. He's closing out with an intensity that you're not accustomed to seeing from Luca. He's been found found himself in a lot of low man situations and weak side situations where he's like guarding two guys and having to kind of like split the difference and try to bait a guy into making a pass and

then closing out. And he's doing a really nice job of it. And it's from the top down, it's trickling down. It's outstanding leadership in my opinion, very very different from the Luca that we saw that was so disengaged towards the tail end of last year. And I think it's a direct you know, it's a direct driving force between a lot of the success for a lot of the success they've had this season on the Luka Doncis front.

Everything starts with pull up shooting. He has made forty four more pull up jumper or taken excuse me, he's taken forty four more pull up jumpers than anyone else in the league. He's the only player in the NBA he's taken over three hundred pull up jump shots and he's getting one point zero nine points per shot on them. A couple of things. He's taking these pull up jump shots as threes instead of twos, which is driving up the efficiency, right, and that step back three one of

the things I like. He's quickened his release a little bit too. He's making it more of like an athletic move is as opposed to kind of like a user size and lean back move. His release looks a little bit quicker, but he's just dialed in and he's locked in with that pull up jump shot. And again we talk about making the shot at a at a at

a phase that's untenable. If you're taking a lot of long twos, for for instance, like Kevin Durant does, and even if you're shooting a higher percentage in LUCA, they're worth fewer points. It can be something where the defense is like, ah, we can live with that shot, right, But when it's one point zero nine points per shot, it can get to the point, especially on a night like last night, where he's so locked in, it can

get to a point where it's like it's untenable. We have to zone up on this guy and iso blitz him in pick and rolls, just find a way to get the ball out of his hands. That's the primary driving force with him from the perimeter, and then he handles pressure extremely well. So the smaller, at like quick defenders that are handsy, they don't bother him. A lot of that is just he's really good at protecting the basketball and he's big as hell, and then he can

beat anyone off the dribble right now. We talked about this when they beat the Lakers a while back. But like, like it doesn't matter if he's starting from a triple threat from the elbow or off the dribble from thirty feet, if he uses a ball screen isolation, it just doesn't matter because of his size in his command of the basketball, he's gonna get an angle and he's gonna shoot that gap, and he's gonna get dribble penetration, and then from there

he's got every shot in the book. I was pulling up the Synergy sheet today and Synergy has this page called shot types, and when you pull it up is where I get a lot of there's different there's play types and there's shot types. Those are the two primary

screens that I use on Synergy. And you know, play types are gonna sort it through to like spot up possessions, pick and roll, ball handler, transition, cutting, offensive rebound, putbacks, ISO post up, all these different play types, right, and then even then you can sort him out to different sides of the floor, different driving angles, that all these

different things. Synergy is a great tool. But on the shot types element, like there's they have jump shot, and then it's split down and then it's like there's catch and shoots, and there's unguarded catch and shoots, there's guarded catch and shoots. There's off the dribble jump shots, there's what they call early jumpers, which is basically like when you isolate and you shoot it quick in the possession. There's floaters, there's hook shots, there's layups, there's dunks. That's

sorted all out there. And what was crazy is every single shot a type shot type on that list, including contested, uncontested, catch and shoot, off the dribble, floater, hook everything, He's up over a point per possession, every single shot type. Luca's shooting fifty nine percent on floaters this year, seventy eight percent at the rim. And so it's just an incredibly efficient set of shot making that makes it untapnible to leave him in any sort of basic traditional coverage

or single coverage. As a result, career high in points per game, career high in true shooting percentage. This is just the best we've ever seen from Luca, And like I said, when you combine that with the leadership and the way it's held this team together through some pretty tough circumstances. I mean, we'll see. We got to do our MVP rankings later on this week or next week, and he's going to be higher than where he was,

and we'll see again. A lot of things have to break right for him with in terms of competition, like other people that are up for the award, But this looks like an MVP type of season from Luka Dancics to this point. For Phoenix, there are some personnel limitations there, but I do see a lot of improvement, a lot of room for improvement, I should say, all over the floor.

The defense can be better. One of the big issues in this particular game is Kevin Durant, who's been a very good low man throughout his career, especially after he went to Golden State. He had a really bad game. He was particularly the two things that stood out to me. He was slow in that low man rotation, so he's getting there too late in a lot of cases, and then when he got there, he wasn't using his verticality

to make guys make shots over the top. A lot of the times He's like trying to get him down low or he'd have his hands down and guys were just going over the top and finishing. And it's like Kevin Durant when vertical is a pretty damn big obstacle

to try to go through. And so by virtue of Katie just being a little more focused, getting there a little bit earlier and then using his verticality to make guys make tough shots over the top of him, I think that could help a lot in their help side defense.

Grayson Allen and Devin Booker in particular, were really sloppy in their off ball rotations, which is like absolutely crucial to running a successful blitz in pick and roll because you end up with these four on threes in the backside, and like Kevin Durant can protect the rim for you, but in order to take away the three point shots elsewhere, you need to get more solid rotations out of those guys. So I think the defense can be a lot better

on offense, Devin Booker's just not playing very well. He doesn't look comfortable getting to his spots, which leads me to think he doesn't have his legs underneath them all the way. He's not shooting well. He's forty three percent from the field in twenty one percent from three in his last five games. Kevin Durant all season has been kind of inefficient in ISO, which is tough because that's

one of their most frequent play types. Kevin Durant's getting only zero point eighty to eight points per possession in ISO this year, which is down from what we expect from Kevin Durant. Right and then as a team, the Sons are not converting spot up possessions. They're getting just one point zero three points per possession in spot up situations,

which ranks twentieth in the NBA. Brad Beal returning should help in a ton of these areas because a big part of what makes a big part of what makes Kevin Durant a little bit less quick in his rotations on the backside as a low man is he still is being leaned on for the majority of the offensive creation. I know there's been a lot of talk about Kevin

Durant being more featured in the offense. And there's no doubt that Devin Booker seems like he has the ball a lot, But Kevin Durant is still very very much involved last night notwithstanding, and he's actually leading the Suns in usage percentage over the course of this recent stretch

when they've been struggling. So like that to me, when Bradley Beale can come back and actually remain on the floor, it just makes so many things easier because one, you're adding a ton of aggregate ball handling and shooting to the lineup, which is going to help you in every single play type. It's gonna make Katie's ISOs easier, it's gonna make get Devin Booker's pick and rolls easier. It's

gonna make the team spot up efficiency skyrocket. It's going to allow for more resources to be devoted to the defensive end of the floor for guys like Kevin Durant and Devin Booker who haven't been as good as they need. And so here's the thing, like I've seen a lot of people talking about, like, oh, you know, because Kevin Durant had there there was that report that out came out that the Suns are monitoring Kevin Durant's mood. And

here's the thing. I don't think Kevin Durant's going to be on a different team before the end of this year, not unless it turns into an absolute catastrophe. And I think Kevin Durant knows that he kind of has to make it work with what he's got in this situation, and I expect him to. They have the tools. The problem is, and this is important context, Like it's easy right now to be like, go, they're two week off of KDE and Devin Booker because they leaned too much

into these stars. But it's like that was never the design of the team. The design of the team was Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal. Right, that was the way this was supposed to work. And so again, like I think it's a little unfair to be like, oh, this whole thing is a failure when it was never intended to work like this. It was intended to work with Bradley Beal in the picture. Now, once Bradley Beal's in the picture, are they suddenly going to become a

great team. We'll see we've barely seen it, so I have my skepticism, but I'm not gonna jump to that conclusion until I see them play. And you know, it doesn't like as long as they can continue to linger around that play in and kind of and just remain within striking distance of the playoffs, if Bradley Beal can come back in a few weeks and they can go on a run, everything's gonna be fine. So at least within the context of what this team was capable of

throughout the regular season. So I think it's a little too early to come completely consider this a failure. That said, there is a harsh reality here. Yes, the Suns have a lot of room for improvement within the locker room, but there is not anything really else that they can do with the roster. They might be able to make an ancillary trade for somebody like a PJ. Tucker, or maybe they can go get an athlete from somewhere else in the league. It turn one of their bench skill

guys into an athlete. They might be able to get a buy out guy here or a buyout guy there, but there's no high level reinforcements coming here. That's the harsh reality. So it's up to the guys in that locker room, specifically Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley bial to be like, what do we gotta do to make this work? Man? Because like you can get mad at Schimezi Metu, you can get mad at you know, Joshua Kogi for doing something. You can get mad at Jordan

Goodwin for doing something. But at the end of the day, those are your teammates for this season for the most part. Like you might be able to make slight tweaks, but even the guys you bring in are gonna be castaways from elsewhere, which means they're going to come with flaws. And so it's on the stars in that locker room to try to figure out a way to make it work. All right. Moving on to our power rankings, So may

one team drop out this week? The Orlando Magic. Both Pala Moncaro and Franz Wagner have cooled off considerably, which has caused their offense to crater and as a result, they've lost six of their last nine games. So the Magic are out of the rankings for this week. But at number ten, we have a new team, a team that hasn't made the list yet this year. They may have made it once earlier in the year, but the Miami Heat. They're six and two in their last eight

games and their offense is cooking. There'scoring one hundred and twenty points per one hundred possessions. Tyler Harrow's been on fire since returning from his injury twenty six points, six rebounds, and four assists per game, forty eight points or excuse me, forty eight percent from the field, forty six percent from three to eighty five percent from the line. So really really high level efficient scoring from Tyler Harrow. Bam Adebayo is back and has looked great. Two other guys I

want to shout out Duncan Robinson. I every time I watch the Heat, I'm blown away by how him fixing a simple flaw has made his greatest strength even better. Always was outstanding shooter and a guy that could shoot on the move, but the ability to chase him off the line and some of his limitations defensively causes impact. A creator struggled in the rotation for a while, learned

how to dribble and make plays. And by the way, before we go any further, that's not like a oh I went to I called up piquim olaju Wan and learned how to be a post player in one weekend. No, that's not what this kind of stuff is. When it comes to ball handling and shooting footwork as well, for whatever that's worth, which is what makes the Hakeem Camp always so funny, But that kind of stuff does not get developed in a month, doesn't get developed in two months.

Like you can go do ball handling drills every single day, one hundred straight days, and you're only going to see a marginal improvement. Same goes for every sort of shooting drill, same goes for footwork stuff. Like I know because I've done this myself, Like you know what I mean. Like

it just it's it's very incremental progress. And like so when I see stuff like Duncan Robinson going from a guy who couldn't dribble to two years later being a guy who does a pretty decent job of it, it's just a testament to the relentless amount of work that Duncan Robinson has put in to turn himself into a viable off the dribble threat. When you combine that with people having to panic chase him on the perimeter to chase him behind dribble handoffs and screens and to basically

put them in a trail position constantly. Now you've got Duncan Robinson going downhill and making decisions, which is putting the defense in rotation and getting Miami good shots. And then he's also just made a lot of leaps as

an off ball defender. He's got good size and length, and so just by being a player with good instincts that can read plays out on the weak side, which a lot of times those plays on the weakside, like we talked about earlier with Kevin rant with it's a lot or Luka Doncrich just to say, a lot of it has to do with like splitting the difference and like making it feel like you're guarding both guys when you're not closing out to passing lanes, like stunting and recovering.

All of these things are important elements of help side defense that Duncan's gotten considerably better at. And then Hi may Hawk has junior. He's just he's bigger and stronger than a lot of NBA perimeter defenders and he's weaponizing that to get quality shots despite not being the type of prospect that we're accustomed to seeing in the lottery, and it's he can bully his way to the rim

in transition when he's slashing. He's been an excellent post up player this year and so getting essentially when you put it all together, their core guys have been playing well and they're getting key contributions from role players and as a result, they're winning game six and two in their last eight Miami Heat. At number ten, number nine, the Dallas Mavericks utterly decimated by injuries, but a bona fide MVP season from Luca Doncis just kept them afloat

in the standings. Help is on the way. We talked a lot about the MAVs earlier today, so if you're just watching this Power Rankings video, hit the first clip that we released from this particular episode. We did a deep dive in the MAVs in on Luca's MVP case number eight, the Oklahoma City Thunder. They beat the Grizzlies without jaw and the Clippers without Kawhi. Then they got manhandled by the Lakers, and that continues to be the biggest weakness. They're small, and that's a death sentence in

the Western Conference. In my opinion, I don't think they're capable of beating the Nuggets, the Wolves, or the Lakers four times out of seven as currently constructed, and so I'd like to see them get aggressive at the deadline to try to get someone like a Pascal Siakim or

Jeremy Grant. Lori Markin is a guy that I think actually fits them best because of how good their perimeter defenders are, a guy that could really help them and help side defense and rebounding and as an outstaining play finisher that I'll just push their offense up another level. I'd like to see them get aggressive because this is a really good team with a fatal flaw, and you want to give yourself as many opportunities to try to push over the top as you can. Number seven Sacramento Kinks.

They beat the Washington Wizards and Phoenix Suns this week, but then they got crushed at home by the Celtics and the Wolves. And this is a theme that we've been talking about all year. What have I been saying about the Kings specifically against teams that have outstaining perimeter defenders that can contain the easy dribble penetration that Daron Fox and Malakmunk bring to the table. It causes their offense to stagnate and then they're not good enough to

defensively to make up for it. Once again, Boston and Minnesota are two of the very best perimeter defense teams in the league. They're not really in a trouble in a troublesome position in terms of Sacramento's foot speed. It's an interesting example, and that's another team. That's another team that I think should be looking to upgrade the four for that reason. They need to find another way to break defenses down when their dribble penetration gets contained. Number

six the Los Angeles Clippers. Their winning streak ended with back to back losses to the Thunder and Celtics, but Kawhi Leonard has been out for both of those and his MVP play has been a huge driving force for

this team. So I wouldn't read too much into it other than it's just a bummer that we didn't get to see the Clippers like It would have been great to see them play okay see in Boston at full strength with how well the Clippers were playing, because it would have helped us learn more about them, but that's just kind of the nature of the NBA regular season at this point. Number five the Philadelphia seventy six Ers,

same thing. Embiad's ankle injury kind of stopped us from getting to see another measuring stick game against the Heat on Christmas. But I thought the Minnesota win was super impressive, that that was the best defense in the league still is the best defense in the league, and they had no answer for Joel Embiid, And like, we can talk about officiating all we want, but as I've said, that has nothing to do with Joel. That is that's a

take I have about the league. I've had Sixers fans ripping me new ones and mentions and YouTube comments for like a week and a half now, and it's funny because it's literally an opinion that has nothing to do with Joel or the Sixers. It's one hundred percent focused on the NBA and the officiating. I don't think Joel Embiid is the only foul grifter in the league. I've been calling it out league wide for everybody, so Sixers fans, it's not an anti Sixers take. He's my front runner

for MVP right now. The sixers are fifth in my power rankings. Just you know, what he did to Minnesota obliterating the best defense in the league was super impressive. Is probably the single most impressive game I've seen from a superstar player this season. Number four the Denver Nuggets. How about a five and oer week. They're up to

seventh in defensive rating for the season. Now I happen to catch three of those five wins, and late game execution just continues to be their biggest advantage over other teams When they get into a close game late, I just feel like they're going to win the vast majority of the time because of their ability to consistently generate quality shots. Number three the Milwaukee Bucks. Lots of things

are falling into place for them. Their overall defensive effort is improving in terms of just execution within what their personnel is capable of. The Dame Giannis pick and roll is getting used more often and more effectively. They're running it on an empty side more frequently, Dames making higher level reads out of it. Chris Middleton, after going for twenty plus points zero times in his first seventeen games this year, he's done so four times in the last

eight games, so that's super encouraging. But in a weekend split against the New York Knicks, they got absolutely cut to pieces by Jalen Brunson, who averaged thirty seven points per game against them and had three total turnovers in two games. That continues to be their biggest flaw. They

are not capable of making opposing ball handlers uncomfortable. We saw this in the Pacers game as well, and in my opinion, especially with a team like Boston waiting for them at the top of the Eastern Conference, I don't think they're capable of beating Boston. I shouldn't say capable. They're just a significant underdog in my opinion against Boston unless they can upgrade at the two at this point, which we'll see what they can do at the deadline.

Number two the Minnesota Timberwolves. They beat the Miami Heat, the Lakers, and the Sacramento Kings. Then they lost to the Philadelphia seventy six Ers in the EMBIID game that we talked about. I want to shout out Rudy Gobert here for a second. I think he's having the best defensive season that he's had since twenty nineteen. He's been incredibly active on a night a night in, night out basis and has anchored that defense that has created a lot of more achievable roles for the other players on

that team. He also has thirty six offensive rebound putbacks this year, which is tied for Nicole Jokic with the third most in the NBA. Combined that with his active screening and him rolling hard to the rim and his vertical spacing, he's been a really, really impactful player and has been one of the primary driving forces between Minnesota or behind Minnesota in their break out season this year.

Number one the Boston Celtics obviously a disappointing loss on Tuesday Night against the Golden State Warriors, but then they kicked the shit out of the Kings on the road, kicked the shit out of the Clippers on the road, then go into the Los Angeles against the Lakers, team that really wanted to win that game, and one comfortably. They are clearly the best team in basketball right now,

at least within the context of the regular season. Chris tops Porzingis fundamentally changes the geometry of that team and I think could end up buying them the margin for error to overcome some of their late game offensive execution issues. Right now I have them at number one in the Power rankings. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. Remember to drop mail back questions for the episodes this weekend. We have the Nerd Sash guys coming on on Thursday

to talk some league wide stuff. I will see you guys. Then the volume