Hoops Tonight - NBA Power Rankings: Nuggets "laser-focused," Celtics surging, Clippers sleepwalking

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that game down from the perspective of both teams. After that, as we always do, on Monday, we'll have our power rankings, and then after that, I've got about that looks like about ten mailbag questions for us to hit. Get some good content out there before I head out of town tomorrow, before we come back on Wednesday, you guys know the Joe. Before we get started, subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your

podcasts under Hoops tonight. It's also really helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Don't forget about my Twitter feed out underscore json lt. I threaded some clips of MAVs Pacers there today. I also will put show announcements there and then, last but not least, keep drop mail back questions and those YouTube comments.

just completely off the charts good. And so here we have an example of what's it an unstoppable force versus immovable object, and the Pacers just completely lit them up. They had a one to twenty seven offensive rating in the game. Early in the game, the issue I thought was overhelping, specifically with Derek Lively. Pascal Siakam was being really aggressive physically, especially in like semi transition. Whenever he saw a little bit of a space alongside him on

the perimeter to try to hit the gap on PJ. Washington, he would just like hit him with the hard in and out dribble and try to get downhill to his right hand, or he'd attack him in the post. And in those situations, Derek Lively's in a spot there where Miles Turner. You know, most of the time in these situations, Miles Turner was sitting in the dunker spottle, though there was a couple of them where he was on the three point line too. But Derek Lively's in a position

there he's got to make a decision. His decision that he has to make is am I going to help? Or am I going to stay home? And that decision is one of the most important decisions for rim protectors and defensive anchors to make, because here's the problem. When you look at shots that an offensive player is taking in a matchup, it kind of depends on what the defense is doing the individual defender on the ball as

to whether or not it's a high percentage shot or not. So, for instance, if PJ Washington gets absolutely dusted off the dribble, then you have to help because if you don't help, it's a layup, which is a one hundred percent shot, and yeah, you're gonna be leaving Miles Turner. But maybe if you get lucky, you know PJ can get back into the play and rebound, or someone else on the team can rotate and you know, clean up the miss. If you're lucky, bet option there is to take the

shot away. But let's say PJ Washington is sliding with Pascal Siakam and he's kind of chesting him up and he's forcing him into like a tougher scoop shot over the top, which maybe in this case a really well

defended possession, maybe it's only gonna go in half the time. Well, at that point, it's your job, as the rim protector defensive anchor to make the decision that actually it's more important for me to keep Miles Turner off the glass here, because if I sell out to try to block the shot, I might drop the percentage chance of him making it from fifty to something.

even though PJ. Washington was right there on Siakam and forced him into a really difficult scoop shot that he missed. But as a result, Miles Turner was able to just go up and get the offensive rebound. And then there

was another one where I thought that PJ. Washington was completely in position and he hard helped, and you know, it was more of a three point look for Miles Turner because he was in the corner, and some of that is schematic, And I could tell just by watching the MAVs throughout the rest of the game, you could tell Jason Kidd kind of had them under the impression that specific guys like Miles Turner they were kind of just.

And then in the second quarter, Tyrese Halliburton just completely took over the game in pick and roll and was just picking the Mavericks part hit a. This was a stretch where Daniel Gafford was on the floor, which we'll get into in a minute, but Daniel Gafford was running like a really like it was like a really weak drop coverage where he wasn't exactly bothering the ball handler

or bothering the roll man. Will get a little bit further into that in a second, but started with the pocket pass to Miles Turner right up to the basket for an and one on the left side of the rim. After that it was a pick and pop to the top of the key, knocks down a three, and then the very next possession in this case, obviously Jason kidds

asking for more help on the back line. Tim Hardaway Junior basically abandons Andrew Nemhart in the left corner to essentially, I'm assuming help tag the roller, although I didn't think he did a particularly good job of it. And Tyres Haliburton, because he's literally the guy in the league, one of the four or five guys in the league that just makes perfect reads, damn here every single time down the floor, hits Andrew Nemhard in the corner, knocks down a three.

That run was what kind of built the gap because it was very back and forth there in that first half, because specifically Luca was like red hot to start the game. He picked up the Ben Matherin matchup from the opening tip and just was isoing him every sing a single time down the floor. I think he scored on him four of the first five sessions of the game, So

that kind of kept the game close. But that little pick and roll run from Tyris Halliburton there in the second quarter built that like initial little gap in on the scoreboard. They end up going into the half up by seven, and then in the third quarter kind of back and forth. The game hovers in that seven to

eleven point range. But in their fourth quarter, Kyrie Irving gets Doug McDermott on a switch hits him with a nasty step back jump shot to cut the lead to four, and all of a sudden, we have ourselves a basketball game. And then Ben Sheppard and Obi Toppin hit back to

back massive threes. Ben Sheppard off of a coming out of the right corner, just a little kind of wide pin down where he comes up to the wing and catches and shoots a three, and then Obi Topen actually hit one turning over his left shoulder above the break a pretty high difficulty catch and shoot shot from Obi topping, but both of those guys hit timely shots all night, and those two particular threes pushed the double to push

the lead back up to double digits. To shout out Ben Shepard for a second, because I thought he had two really important two way sequences in this game. In the first half, there was a sequence where he hit a three on the right wing, and then on the very next possession, as Kyrie's pushing the ball at the floor, in transition, he offers smart help as Kyrie's kind of got his head down engaged on the on ball defender, and he ends up picking Kyrie clean, which leads to

a dunk on the other end of the floor. So like a little five to zero run basically by himself, which was a big stretch in that game. I think it was tied when he did that too, and it pushed it up to put them up five, if I remember correctly. And then in the second half we talked about that huge three coming off the wide pin down. On the very next possession, he had Kyrie in an iso.

Kyrie was sizing him up and he Kyrie opted for the jab step jump shot and Ben's got some long arms, got a very good contest and forced Kyrie into a wedgie, like the ball stuck into the side of the rim, so an ugly miss, which you don't typically see from Kyrie irving all that offen. So credit to Ben Shepard some really good two way sequences in this particular game.

And so at that point, Tyrius Aliberton checks back into the game and he just closes the deal, picking the Mavericks apart in pick and roll again just like he did in the second quarter. In this stretch, he was really picking on Maxi Kliba and again remember Dallas, Like they run to drop with Daniel Gafford and Derek Lively, but with Maxie they do a lot more switching depending on, you know, how successful the screen was, and Maxi just

could not handle Tyres Aliburton on the switch. He got beat to a step back three going to the right, he got beat to the basket for a scoop shot. Next thing you know, you look up to the scoreboard and the Pacers are up by twenty and the game is over. So really really impressive win for the Pacers to get their sixth win and eight tries. A couple of other elements on the Pacers offense that I wanted to hit on. They ran the floor super well in transition,

something they've done well all season long. Their bigs were in the middle of the floor, but they always have corner shooters.

was on the left winning in transition. Just you watch him, he's they get the defensive rebound, he's just sprinting up the floor like head down and then he turns around of the ball just in his hands, and then he's already got a speed set all game long. And I've noticed this with Ben, just out really good footwork moving off the move at getting straight up and down nice and balanced. But they just run the floor and transition super super well. And then again I talked about the

other advantage of kick ahead passes. Let's say that Ben Shepherd doesn't have a shot there because the Mavericks defensive transition defense rotates out to him. In that situation, all Dallas defenders are suddenly looking up the floor to the corner where Ben.

a catch a guy not looking with the screen. That's where that's where you can find a lot of opportunities in transition and in semi transition. But in order to do that, you have to make the kick ahead pass. Now, the reverse of that is guys are running their lanes and the on ball guy just brings the ball up the floor off the dribble. Now the defense can essentially backpedal and transition and everything is in front of them.

So that kind of gives you an idea of the difference between or just an idea of the value of making those kick ahead passes. The other big thing that sit out to me two other things Pascal Siakam's rim pressure.

bag when you get to the postseason. And there were a lot of possessions where they got great shots, not by running some sort of action, not by using Tyres Halliburton's offensive genius, but just by Pascal Siakam being bigger and faster than the guy guarding him and able to just kind of get downhill into the lane, make the defense collapse and make good things happen from there. And then lastly, a lot of really smart actions from Rick Carlisle that they were running to take advantage of specific

issues in Dallas's defense. One thing that I noticed a lot in the first half is they were screening Luca and then using Luca's man it was Ben Mathern in this case, to then set the ball screen. So a very common basketball action that we see is what's called a ram screen, which is basically where you screen the screener to go set a ball screen. And usually it involves big men. And the main reason why is big

guys struggle to navigate screens right. And the reason why you do that is if you can create a separation between the big man and the big man's defender, it makes it easier for you to get an advantage in the ball screen. Imagine I'm the big guy who's on defense and there's the big guy that's on on offense next to me. He runs up to go set a ball screen, and it's Tyre's Halliburton. So you have to be up at the level because he's such a good

pull up shooter. I'm just gonna run right up there behind him, right and whatever my coverage is, whether it's a hedge and recover, whether it's a high drop, whether it's a blitz, whatever it is, I'm just gonna run up and go get into my spot right then I'm gonna communicate call out the angle of the screen, and it'll give us a better chance to defend the action.

just dies on the screen. When he dies on the screen, Ben Mathurin runs up and he's now setting a free and clear screen on Tyre's Hallburn and he's able to come off, and you know, get to his pull up jump shot or get to the next help defender in line to try to make a read. So really smart actions there. Last thing I noticed that they were doing was they were doing a lot of backscreening the role man in their Spain in their pick and roll action,

which is a variation of Spain pick and roll. So Spain pick and roll is basically you have a shooter underneath the basket while the big man's setting the screen, and then they basically roll in replace, so as the big man's rolling to the basket, the shooter is relocating

to the top. And the two variations of it are sometimes the role man will intentionally run into the shooters man to try to get the shooter open, and sometimes the shooter will intentionally run into the screeners man, which will get the screener open.

and the MAVs. Fourth and offense, thirteenth in defense and eighteenth in defensive rebounding, so some of the best defense and rebounding stretches that we've seen from the Pacers this season. Playing some solid basketball. They have a tough schedule coming up, though. They have the Pels in a home and home, and then they go to Dallas for a rematch, and then they're home for Minnesota, and then they're at Orlando and at Oklahoma City. So a bunch of bigger, more physical

front lines. It's going to be a good test for them. On the Dallas front, they were scoring well enough to keep pace with Indy for most of the game, but then they went ice cold in the fourth court. They had a six minute span after Kyrie's pull up jump shot.

thirty two points in every single quarter. They could not find a coverage that worked. They I wanted to kind of dive in on the Gafford and Lively thing. They're both very different. I think Lively is actually a better pick and roll defender than Daniel Gafford right now. Daniel Gafford, you know, I talked about this after the trade, and I used the concept that the comp of like a Montrez Harald type of guy. Daniel Gefford's, in my opinion, is bigger and stronger and longer and a better athlete

than Montrez Harrel. So it's not like really that clean of a camp. But the reason why I use that comp is, I mean, Montrez Haral is an excellent rule man with great hands who goes up around the rim actively, is good offensive rebounder, right, but on the defensive end of the floor, the dude was just was just tissue paper. Now Daniel Gafford has the potential to be much much better because he's got the physical tools that a guy like Montrez didn't have.

the two on two action that's taking place. Obviously there are threats all but in the two the two threats that are on the ball are the guy coming over the top of the screen and you have to worry about a pull up three. You have to worry about a floater, and you have to worry about him getting downhill all the way to the rim, right. And then there's a role man that's coming off the others after he's has the screen is rolling hard down the middle

of the floor. There you're worried about, you know, maybe a pocket pass and a little floater or a mid range jump shot or any sort of lob pass at the basket. You know, if you step up too high, Tyree's gets to pass over the top. There's dunk there, right. So you kind of have to do one of two things. You have to either concede whatever the ball handler is doing to take away the role or you have to take away whatever the ball handler's doing and concede the

role man, right. And it's a difficult job. Some of the very best defensive players in the world can be both the Go Bears and the Anthony Davis and bam adebios and such Victor Wimanyama. Those guys they cover so much ground that sometimes they can like stunt up and bother the ball handler while also getting back and making

plays at the rim. And one of the problems that Daniel Gafford was having a problem with today or last night is when he would come up high out of his drop coverage on a guy like Tyre's Halliburton, he wasn't coming up high enough to actually bother Tyrese at all, and so Tyree's was able to make easy over the top passes. But then at the same time, he's not

back far enough to do anything to the roleman. And again, like if you are active on the ball, like if he steps up higher and he uses his length to get up more into Tyrese Haliburton, he can force that pass to either be deflected or to take a funky angle or to maybe he has to double pump or throw it super high like something to disrupt that pass to make it so that it's easier for the back line guys to rotate.

getting over the top at that point. If you're also not bothering the role man at all, you're effectively in no man So there's like no man's land and pick and roll coverage if like the best in the world can kind of do both. But like your job is, you've got to make something difficult there. You either have to get up higher on the ball handler to bother him more, or backpedal to take away the role and hope he misses his floater, right, like you got to

do something and too frequently. And again, I want to be clear with Daniel Gafford. He's got the tools to be a lot better than he has been. It's just more often it's just schematic him being in no man's land. And then two just a little bit slow to kind of read and react to some of this stuff. And so but just by upping his activity and then just by being a part of a better defensive team where he can like kind of pick up what's happening around him, I think he can get better. And then again the

clave switching didn't work. That's an important anchor of Dallas's defense, and then their transition defense was bad. Indiana was just running out on them all night long. For the record Dallas's transitions defense, I want to say they're twenty third in defense transition defense points allowed per possession according to Synergies. That's pretty bad. This road trip was always going to be a test for Dallas and this is just the

first test. But they failed their first test and so their next chance is at Cleveland tomorrow night to right the ship. All right, let's get to our power rankings like we do every Monday. So we had two teams drop out this week. The Suns dropped games to the MAVs and the Rockets, coming out of the break offense has a tendency to stall out for them when Bradley Beal is out, although they did have an encouraging fourth

quarter against the Lakers the other night. But they are out of the ear yesterday, I should say, but they're out of the power rankings for this week. And then the New Orleans Pelicans. Every time I swear that I feel like I'm about to jump on the Pelicans bandwagon, they go and drop a couple of games to mediocre teams. And they just dropped back to back games to the Heat and the Bowls, so they're out of the power rankings for this week. Number ten the Dallas Mavericks. The

additions of Daniel Gafford and PJ. Washington have up to the athletic profile of the team. They are also healthy now and they are competing better defensively and on the glass than they have all season. Last night notwithstanding, but they did fail the first trip, the first test of their road trip in Indiana, and their defense got absolutely shredded. Two more tests on this trip in Cleveland and in Boston.

Number nine the Indiana Pacers. They've won six of their last eight games, capped off like I said, with the big win over the MAVs yesterday. They are also, like Dallas, defending and rebounding better than they have most of the season. Tyres Halliburton is looking a little bit more like himself with each passing game. I've been talking about this, but like soft tissue injuries and then like bone issues, and like feet and knees or boner ligament issues and feet

and knees, there's always like a two phase recovery. There's recovery once, which is like getting healthy, but then recovery too is like actually trusting your body again, because when you make really explosive moves, it takes a certain amount of comf in your body to hold up, and a lot of times you will kind of hold back if you don't trust your body to hold up. And so I just remember this personally happening to me when I

broke my foot when I was in college. Like I just I went through half the season where I just didn't even trust myself to take off off my right foot right and specific I had any of you guys who have had hamstring issues, I buy a hamstring issue when I was younger. I was like twenty, like nineteen twenty years old. But like hamstring issues in particular, like you're so nervous you're going to reinjure it that like it causes you to kind of play with a certain

amount of hesitancy. Played on a minute's restriction in his first six games coming back from the hamstring, only fourteen points and six assists per game on fifty percent from the field thirty five percent from three. How these last five games back to playing big minutes, twenty points and twelve assists per game, forty eight percent from the field and forty two percent from three, so looking a little bit more like Tyrese Halliburton with each passing Game number eight.

The New York Knicks, they're still in a free fall without their frontline down through because of injury. They did beat the Sixers, but they got handled by the Celtics

the other night most of yesterday. I should say, most of the data and film that we're getting out of the Knicks right now is completely useless as it pertains to their playoff potential, because this whole team is about like incredibly physically imposing frontline plus Jalen Brunson, and right now it's like Jalen Brunson with none of their frontline guys. So it just doesn't really give you much to work

with in terms of learning about this team. A couple of silver linings, though, I think Precious to Chew is actually doing a really nice job filling in at power forward, and then Dante DiVincenzo is shooting the shit out of the basketball in super high volume. He's scaling up his offense with guys out with injury, and he's doing well. He's really been a great pick up for them. This season.

Big shout out to the Knicks, who've just completely turned around their their fortunes over the course of the last couple of years. Number seven the Cleveland Cavaliers. They've lost three of their last five. Donovan Mitchell missed two of those games with an illness. It was good to see him back out on the court against the Wizards yesterday. In this five game span, though ironically it's been there defense that's been the issue. They have a one twenty

defensive rating in their three losses. Here's their silver lining though. Jared Allen has been absolutely crushing as of late. His last fifteen games nineteen points and eleven rebounds per game on sixty percent shooting from the field. And then Darius Scarland. He's another guy who's really rhythm oriented, and typically when he comes back from injuries it can get to a

slow start. First five games coming back, eleven points and five rebounds per game excuse me, five assists per game on forty six percent from the field and thirty percent from three. His last seven games sixteen points in eight assists per game, forty seven percent from the field and thirty four percent from three. So starting to get it going. Three point shots looked really good over the last four games, forty percent in his last four. Number six the Minnesota Timberwolves.

They bounced back against the Nets on the tail end of a back to back on Saturday, but they're pretty lost to the Bucks on Friday. That exposed a lot of issues with their half court offense. Bucks ran a super deep drop. They were not able to hit the pull up jump shots and floaters necessary to get the

defense into rotation. But even above and beyond any of that, because some of that is just their personnel, Like I really do think that that's kind of the way that you can kind of play Minnesota into some issues.

my issue with the Timberwolves all season. There's a little bit on the predictable and kind of inconsistent decision making side of things when it comes to their half court offense, and I did not think their performance against the Bucks was very encouraging on that front. Number five, the Los Angeles Clippers, they're sleepwalking out of the All Star break. They got smacked by the Thunder and they got smacked

by the Kings. Although Kawhi Leonard was out for that particular game, Tyler himself said that the next few days of practice will be mainly about getting the team mentally focused again. The Clippers have alternated wins and losses over their last eight games, and they are twenty ninth in defense over to that span.

Like I said earlier against Minnesota, a lot of downhill athleticism on that team, a lot of power players. They perfectly executed their deep drop coverage. Brook Lopez dominated the game defensively, but the Sixers game in particular was a very different challenge. I was watching some film on that this morning. Tyrese Maxi brings that downhill speed, but he's one of the best shooters in the league, and so much more of a challenge for their perimeter defense against

the drop coverage. I thought Malik Beasley had one of his best defensive games of the season, specifically making Tyree's work hard to get to his spots, applying really good back pressure. He's been getting better and better each game because again, he's got decent athletic tools. He's not overly big, but he is fast like he does have the ability

to move. He's just been a guy that hasn't been that focused on the defensive end in his career, and you're actually watching him kind of learn on the fly how to be this guy, and I thought he did a really nice job against Tyrese Maxey. I also wanted to shout out Jay Crowder. I thought he had a bunch of good possessions on Tyres Maxie, especially in the

first half. And like, here's the thing, Like Jay Crowder, I think has been written off by most people as being a little bit too old, but like this is the best I've seen him look physically on defense in a couple of years too, And I think that that's been kind of an underrated pickup. Underrated by myself too, because I didn't think he had anything left in the tank, and he's just been He's just been particularly solid for them on defense as of late. But most importantly, the

Bucks offense is humming again. If you guys remember during the gosh, I can't even remember which video it was. I think it was the Uh. I think it was right before the break, But I talked about how I had a goal that I hoped the Milwaukee Bucks would hit for the tail end of the season as an indicator of like kind of like a benchmark that they need to hit to feel like they're on track. And that was a one twenty offensive rating and a one

fifteen defensive rating. For those of you guys who were listening, one twenty being like, we're humming on all centers offense, a cylinders offensively in the one to fifteen being like, we are a solid defense, which I think is all they really need to be is if they can reach that level offensively. Well, the defense has been incredible ever

since Dockword took over post deadline. So far they have a one to twenty offensive rating in a one oh five defensive rating, and if they can sustain that, forget about it, Like then now we're talking about a team that's on the same tier with Boston In Denver, now we'll see it's too small of a sample size to really judge it at this point, but they are on track to hit those specific markers that I'm gonna be watching here down the stretch of the season. Number three

the Oklahoma City Thunder. They had an undefeated week. They beat the Clippers, the Wizards, and the Rockets over this span. A one to twenty six offensive rating and a one oh two defensive rating that's outrageous plus twenty four net. Really impressive win over the Clippers. Just ran them off the floor in the third quarter. They scored thirty six points. In transition, all five starters scored at least twelve points. They blocked eleven shots. The Clippers had no shot guarding

them in ball screens. The thunder scored one point four to eight points per possession in pick and rolls, including passes, which is outrageous. They had one point one six points per half court possession in that game. So just completely picked the Clippers apart. Big week for them. Umber two the Denver Nuggets. They look laser focused coming out of the break. They had an undefeated week as well. He half court two way dominance that we expect from Denver,

and that get win against Golden State last night. They got hit with some paymakers in that game too, and it just didn't matter. Klay Thompson was red hot earlier in the game, and Golden State has been a famously good third quarter team, and it just didn't matter. And then Nicole Jokic with a preposterous thirty two points, sixteen rebounds, and sixteen assists in that game, only been done three

other times in NBA history. James Harden had a fifty three sixteen and seventeen once, which is completely ridiculous, and then Oscar Robertson did it twice back in the old days.

They only averaged forty six points in the paint per game, which is twenty seventh in the NBA. We did a deep dive on this just a few days ago, and if you guys remember, I talked about specific things, four specific things that they could do to up their points in the paint, running out for layups and dunks. They had seven possessions against the Knicks where they ran out in transition and made a two point shot, hosting up for bowlly ball shots at the rim instead of constantly

fading away. Jalen Brown is the guy's a really good fatoa jump shooter over both shoulders. I thought he set the tone early in the first half, back like backing guys down and getting layups at the rim out of the post. And then Chrisops, Sporzingis and Al Horford also had post up baskets right around the rim. The third one was cutting instead of spotting up all the damn time. So like again, spotting up an important thing to do. Three point shots have high value, but when a defender

turns his back on you, it helps. You can also get a one hundred point shot or one hundred percent shot. That's funny, Okay, you get a one hundred percent shot, which is if you cut back door, you can get something easy around the basket. And again, like a really good spot up shooter, the best in the world are going to convert spot up possessions at like one point five points per possession, right one point four points per possession.

I think that's where Norman Powell's at this year. It's usually in that one point three to one point four range. But like a backdoor cut for a layup is going to get you two points the vast majority of the time, and so It's not something that's open all the time, but when you see those opportunities, you can get baskets there.

Drew Holliday had a basket and I think it was a Jalen Brown post up where he cut along the baseline when he saw his man turn his head instead of waiting at the three point line, Jalen Brown had to cut off of the left wing out of a I think it was a Porzingis post up. Just slashed down the middle of the floor.

in this game, but they also added some versatility. They were able to score in the paint more effectively than they have for most of the season. I thought it was a really encouraging game for the Celtics. They are at number one in our power rankings for God knows how many consecutive weeks. Now, all right, let's move on to our mail bag. Hey, Jason, can you discuss how

you would suggest defending a team like Denver. You always mention about how fluent and unstoppable Denver's offense is, but if you do, but if you had to strategize a defensive game plan for Denver, how would you do that? Awesome job in the show, I always enjoy your basketball knowledge, best in the business. Thank you so much for the kind words.

help defender post defender. To really match up with Nikole Jokic, you might have to be just really sharp in your double teaming in rotations, right, But if you can't have ball personnel in the post and on the perimeter, it might reflect differently.

made shot after shot after shot after shot. But in my opinion, your best chance to beat Denver is Nikole jokicch and Jamal Murray hopefully fit taguing at some point and starting the misshots, because tough shot making is all about leg strength and getting a lift in physicality, right, and so in my opinion, I would rather There's there's two specific reasons why I would rather try to defend Marie and Jokis one on one and two on two

versus sending multiple defenders. One fatigue, like I just mentioned, wear them out hopefully they miss shots. But two, it keeps the other three players out of rhythm. So if for whatever reason, the ball does end up in a Michael Porter Junior's hand in a transition three situation, or the ball does end up in post up of Aaron Gordon on a random possession here or there. Maybe just because they haven't touched the ball as much in that particular game as they usually do, they won't be as

confident as in rhythm as they usually are. And again that strategy that I'm the strategy that I'm pitching, which is basically defending them two on two and one on one and just forcing them to make tough shots. Teams have tried that against Denver and it doesn't work. So I'm not trying to sit or an act like I've

solved Denver. But as a like, if I was a coach thinking about it from the same point of what strategy I would want to implement over the course of a playoff series, I would try to leave them on an island as much as possible. But there's another side to that. I also am a big believer in disguising coverages, flipping coverages, trying to disrupt rhythm just by keeping them

off balance. So like, I would probably do a good amount of two on two, one on one coverage, but I probably would have Looney on the ball with Raymond roaming on the back line sometimes ignoring Aaron Gordon to offer more help. Jokic was killing Looney with the chicken wing drop step in that game, and it's like he needs to be chicken wing drop stepping right into Draymond Green just like they're ready physical, trying to get a

deflection something like that. Right I throw Zone looks at him like I would do all sorts of things and randomly blitz Jamal Murray like five times a game, you know, like you just just tried to find ways to kind

of just keep them off balance a little bit. But the primary coverage that I would go with is a two on two or one on one with my best on ball defender on Jamal chasing over the top, and with my most physical post defender on nakodijokicch and just be like, Okay, yeah, that's a really tough shot you hit. Got to keep making them again. I'm not trying to pretend like that's going to work. Hi, Jason Bigfenners show,

keep up the work. We all know that Jokic is by far the best player in the world today and maybe has been for two plus years, But how does this version of Jokic compare to the best versions of other great players in the last ten to fifteen years. Hard to pick him over prime Lebron, who would beat him, who would beat him in most categories apart from half court offense. But do you think this version of Jokic

is better than any version of Katie and Steph? I think this version of Jokic is much better than Katie and Steph. To put it simply, Katie and Steph, neither of them ever had a point in time where you could definitively stay they were the best player in the league. There were Kevin Durant fans during the prime of his career who thought he was better than Lebron, and a lot of those people were just people who didn't like

Lebron but like And then there was Warrior fans. Like Warriors fans think Steph is the best player in the world and has been for the better part of a decade. But you were not finding many people outside of the Golden State fan base that thought Steph Curry was the

best player in the world. That's the difference between Nicole Jokicic and those guys like I would I'd venture to guess if I hold one hundred random NBA fans of all thirty NBA fan bases, including some casual fans that don't really have a team, I'd venture to guess more than ninety percent of them would say Nikole Jokic is the best player in the world. That just never was the case for Steph Curry, and that just never was

the case for Kevin Durant. So you have to go back to guys like Lebron kobemj Like, like, here's the thing. Jokic isn't on that level because he hasn't accumulated the accomplishments yet, but he is on that trajectory. Nikol Jokic is very firmly on a goat level trajectory. It's just a question of whether or not he can sustain this dominance over the course of the next decade. But if he does, like if nikoliokicch sustains his dominance, and what

is he like twenty six, twenty seven years old. Now if he goes like six or seven years and wins you know, four titles, four additional titles and wins you know, one or two more MVPs, like he just automatically cracks into that like top five six players of NBA history, you know, and Steph has gotten into that conversation because

of his longevity and his accumulation of accolades. But again, there was never a version of Steph Curry where definitively around the league everyone thought he was the best player in the world. Like I briefly got on that train

in like twenty twenty two, but it didn't last. It just it's just one of those things where you gotta you gotta, you gotta a compliment Nicole Yokic on the dominance, The dominance is just like like like literally you watch him and you're like, Wow, this dude's just way better than everybody. Now, again, the dominance has to extend the season to season to season, Like if Jokic goes into the postseason this year and gets outplayed by somebody and

gets beat, you know that that question changes. But I do think, I do think the overarching opinion of the basketball community is that Nicole Jokic is by far the best player in the world. Right now, do you know why Curry has struggled to score against Denver in the last two years. I find it funny that a funny that KCP keeps clamping his ass up and he really isn't doing anything. So I don't think it really Here's the KCP is a really good perimeter defender. I'm not

trying to undercut that. But I don't think it's any one thing that's slowing Curry down. I think it has to do with just the configuration of Denver's defense, Denver's back line. Denver's defense has good on ball personnel at the forward position and in the card spot, right, like KCP and Aaron Gordon. But the flip side of that is like they're other guys. They're all just like do

their job guys. So, for instance, guys like Michael Porter Junior and Nikole Jokic are really good help defenders, right, and so as long as they can stay in help,

they can be a really impactful defense. But the problem is Golden State doesn't have enough off ball offensive talent to consistently punish help and so Steph Curry is in this predicament where Denver's defense is kind of built to slow him down because they can have KCP just ball pressure the hell out of him, be super physical off the ball, and they can trap and hedge in all of his ball screens, and there's just not enough offensive talent to make them punish, to punish them on the

back line, because Aaron Gordon is an excellent health defender and Michael Porter Junior is an excellent health defender. Nicole Yoka is really active with his hands in ball screens and is really good at reading the Golden State off ball actions and jumping in front of me. Had a bunch of steels. I think he had four steals last night, right, So like, I don't blame Curry for that. I just think it's a bad matchup for the team and it manifests in curry offensive struggles. Next one, my man hates

TORYN Prince. I had my producer, of one of our producers, Paul was complaining, I mean joking about this last night. I want to be clear, I don't have any issue with Torrian Prince. I actually was really excited when the Lakers signed him this summer. I don't blame him at all for what's happened this season. This is a textbook example of a guy who for like the better part of a half decade was a bench player in the NBA.

they can play better in higher minutes. But Torrian Prince is being slotted into a role that's kind of above what he's capable of. If you slot him properly, then all of a sudden things start to make more sense. I have four more questions and then we're done. Hey love the show and have been watching for so long that even if I don't watch the games every day, I'll still watch her show. Thank you again, even though you don't cover the lower teams in the league. What

do you think happened to Jordan Pool? His work ethic was insane, for being a terrible player's first two years to being a key piece in the finals run. He also led the Warriors as number as the number one when Curry was out. He can easily be the number one, So what's up with him? I love the guy, but it's hard getting moved to the bench on the Wizards. I am so not off the Jordan pool train yet.

I think he is a really really good combination of like aid with skill, but also audacity, which I think is actually a good thing when it comes to guards. I don't think his success in Golden State was an accident. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I tweeted them out the other day because I kind of had. The reason why I pulled this question is

I was actually thinking about this the other day. But like, for three straight seasons in Golden State before he went to Washington, he was like a good efficient score and you're right, like he led the units in most cases when Steph was off. There were stretches where Steph got hurt, and he carried the team to being good enough to kind of float the ship. So like a couple of things. I attribute it to two things. One, he's a young guard who just got paid, So like, think about all

the think about where your headspace was. Those of you guys who are older, think about where your headspace was when you were in your early twenties and your priorities and all that kind of stuff. Like he's got he's learning how to be a pro in a lot of ways, and you know, like I just think it's way too early to jump off that bandwagon. And the second piece of it, the Warrior the Wizards are a shit show.

Like like what if we took Jordan Poole and we dropped him in Dallas and like in like Jaden Hardy's role and he was like the third ball handler for the Dallas Mavericks. You don't think he'd be awesome there. I think he'd be awesome there. So like part of it's just bad organization, bad team. And then another part of it is like he's gotta grow up a little bit.

He's got to grow up a little bit and kind of tighten up his decision making, tighten up like his overall like shot selection and just his approach to the game.

And another big thing with Jordan Pool is like I think he makes things unnecessarily difficult on the floor sometimes, and so just by kind of like learning how to identify the easy ways that he can impact when leaning more into those and using his like you know, that audacity that I was talking about more as a counter rather than as like the foundational part of his offense. I think that would go a long way to turning his slump around. I had multiple comments along this line.

Pretending like a deep drop of work against Boston is pretty funny.

Jayson Tatum can hit pull up threes. Some Boston fans in the comments rightly pointed out that a great counter to drop coverage is a pick and pop with chrisops porzingis the reason why I talked about it is because the Celtics have a tendency to occasionally go very cold, and so, like I said, if I was coaching against Boston, and by the way this, I want to be clear up front, I don't think. I don't think the Bucks

are gonna beat the Celtics in a series. I've picked Boston ever since that early stretch of the season when Milwaukee really struggled. If Boston played Milwaukee in a series tomorrow, I picked Boston every single time I'm talking about that would be their best chance to play Boston into their

worst tendencies. Would you be incredibly shocked if Tatum and White just missed a bunch of pull up jump shots and Porzingis only shot thirty two percent on pick and pop threes instead of thirty eight percent forty two percent or something like that, and they had a few cold nights, and all of a sudden, it's a series tied at two, and there's a game in Boston and they start three for fifteen from three, and all of a sudden, Milwaukee's up seven, and Giannis is bullying his way to the rim,

and like it's not inconceivable, right, That's all I'm saying. I'm saying deep drop is probably Milwaukee's best chance to play Boston into their worst tendencies, which is to settle for jump shots from the perimeter, particularly off the dribble. That's all I meant by that. That doesn't mean it's going to work. It's just their best available strategy. Whereas the Knicks and the Heat in particular, they are teams that that actually kind of plays into their strengths.

I meant. Jalen Brunston, if you run a deep drop coverage against him, Dude's gonna average thirty seven to thirty eight points a game in a series, because that's just that's like his best way to play the game, right, That's all I meant by that, And I Celtics fans to have really like Celtics fans have really struggled to differentiate the difference between like me talking about what they

need to do to win the title versus criticism. Those are two completely different things, like all of these teams have, Like Denver is the only team that you guys will hear me talk about that I don't like really nitpick, and it's because I trust them at a different level. But like all the other twenty nine teams in the league, I cover them the exact same way, Here's what they're good at, Here's what they're bad at, Here's what they need to fix in order to reach their individual ceiling.

That's all we're talking about with Boston. For them, it's their shot selection approach, trying to get into the paint more. And I don't want to be overarching because I know there's been a lot of Celtics fans that have been that have not only been receptive to it, but that have also provided really good feedback in the comments that have helped me understand the team better. So like, I'm just more referring to a certain segment of Celtics fans, But I want to be clear, I'm not trying to

be overly negative or undercut their title chances. I think this Celtics would beat the Bucks. I'm just literally talking about strengths and weaknesses, which is kind of the point of the show, if.

American team the year after I left. He was kind of in and out of the lineup with injuries of the year that I was there because he was coming off of an acl there, But Brandon Newman was the closest thing that I played with to a guy that kind of played like Chris Paul in terms of just like super methodical pick and role play with outstanding passing ability and the ability to hit all of those like kind of in between shots. Brandon's an outstanding player. Shout

out to Brandon. If you leave another comment, tell me how you tell me how you know him?

what an elite defense is about personnel. An elite defense is like Minnesota, who has Anthony Edwards and Jada McDaniels like two top tier perimeter on ball defenders, and Rudy Gobert, a like op tier rim protector. The Bucks have an elite defensive front line, but their perimeter personnel is average at best and closer to below average. What that means is they will have stretches ten fifteen games at a time where they defend better by defensive rating. But to me,

an elite defense is about personnel. I don't think Milwaukee needs to be an elite defense to win the title because I think they can be a transcendently elite offense. So it's not about what their ultimate ceiling is. I think this team what they're doing right now in this ranking sixth then defense since the Adrian Griffin firing, they are building out the good defensive habits that will give them the best chance of being a good enough defense when they get to the postseason to beat the best

teams in the league. But I think you're fooling yourself if you think Milwaukee's one of the best defenses in the league just giving their personnel. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, I appreciate you guys for supporting the show. No show Tomorrow, I'm headed up to northern Arizona to do some skiing for just the day. We'll be back on Wednesday for some game breakdowns and probably another mail back to drop some more mail back questions. The volume