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restrictions apply. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. Terms at sportsbook dot DraftKings dot com slash Basketball terms. All right, welcome to hoops tonight here at the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody. If all of you guys had an incredible weekend, Monday's Power Rankings day, right, so we're gonna be updating our weekly power rankings list, and then I've got a long mail bag for us to go through. We're gonna hit a bunch of teams
around the league for that. Just to give you guys an idea of the schedule for this week. We have the n season tournament, right, so we've got quarterfinal tonight and Tuesday, semi finals on Thursday, championship on Saturday. We're gonna be working at night on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. Tonight's games I'm covering in the morning, but I'm also working tonight. I'm just going on as a guest with some of the guys from watch playback sam as FONDII and Mike Weisberg. There,
we're gonna be doing the Pacer Celtics game. So go to my Twitter feed to Underscore Jason LT and you guys will find the link to the watch playback link to get into that room again during Celtics Pacers. I've never actually covered a game during a game, so that should be interesting.
We'll see how it goes. But we'll also have.
Some videos going on during the week this well this week as well, so keep an eye on my Twitter feed for announcements the plan on night time shows on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday for the n season tournament.
You guys are the Joe.
Before we get started, subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel. It would mean a lot to me if you guys would scroll down and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feed. Wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight, follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT for show announcements and film sessions. And then, last but not least, keep dropping mail back questions in the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout these shows.
All right, let's talk some basketball, So our power rankings list. We have two teams dropping off that were on the list last week. The Dallas Mavericks have lost five out of their last seven games, and they are bottom ten in both offense and defense over that span. One of those wins also was that Lakers game where they kind of got schlacked in the fourth quarter and it took a Kyrie Irving game winner in the final minute to
steal that one. So they've run into a tougher part of their schedule and they're starting to struggle a little bit. It's something to keep an eye on. And then the other team I dropped off the list was the Lakers. Good times are ahead for them. They got healthy, they got cam Bradish back, they got Jared Vanderbilt Bakery Hoatchamuraz coming back for the Suns game. They looked a lot
more athletic and deeper against Houston. I actually thought that Houston game was the most impressive they've looked so far this season. They're also some encouraging trends right like, the Lakers are third in defense over the last ten games, but they're still having issues with inconsistent effort and that killed them last week. They had two really poor efforts on the road in Philly and in Okla, home a city. I expect them to be back on the list pretty
quickly as long as they can stay healthy. But for now they are kicked off the top ten. So which two teams are gonna replace them? Well, I look at this tier in the NBA. I had a hard time with this today because there are a lot of teams. I'm gonna split today's power rankings into tiers just to kind of give you guys an idea of the way that I'm seeing the league right now. But I view like there's like this top tier of teams that have been the most impressive in the league. There's three of
them there in my opinion so far. Just to again, power rankings for me are just regular season I'm not talking big picture playoff stuff. I'm just talking like, who's been the most impressive during these actual regular season games? Right, So I've got like three teams on the top, and then I've got like this like very good tier, which is like teams that have been playing clearly better more often than not this season. And then there's like this long list of teams that, like on any given night,
they look great. And then in the next night, they look terrible and it's just been a really up and down experience. And the teams on that tier are the Lakers and MAVs. Like I just mentioned, the Suns and the Knicks. Those two teams have good records, but they've horrible schedules. If the Suns and Nicks have combined to be only four teams that are five hundred or better at this point in the season, the Heat, the Nets, the Pelicans, the Clippers, the Hawks, the Rockets, the Warriors,
the Raptors, the Pacers, and the Calves. All of those teams, in my opinion, are like all of them are capable of taking a leap and going up to that next tier or dropping down depending on how things go. They're they're just mediocre and with respect to how well they've played over this first twenty games of the regular season. But the two teams that I ended up bumping up are the Pacers and the Calves. So let's talk about why Number ten in my power rankings for this week
is the Indiana Pacers. They have a league leading one to twenty four offensive rating a preposterous one twenty eight offensive rating over their last twelve games. It's completely absurd how rapidly they're scoring points. There are seven to five in that span that wins over Milwaukee, Philly, Atlanta, and a super impressive win over My Me the other night without Tyrese Haliburton hanging one hundred and forty four points on the heat and that one just toasting them off
the dribble non stop and getting whatever they wanted. Tyres Haliburton looks like one of the best offensive players in the league. We talked a lot about him last week, and seven Pacers players over this twelve game span are averaging double figures. Now, they're god awful on defense and their god awful rebounding team, but they're fun to watch and they're really hard to beat, especially at home with how high powered their offense is. I have them at
number ten in this week's power rankings. Number nine the Cleveland Cavaliers. They've won seven of their last ten games, including wins over Denver, Philly, Toronto, and Atlanta in that span. They have the second best defense in the league over that span as well. Darius Garland, after getting off to a rough start this year's finally starting to get into
a groove. The main issues with the offense right now are their only converting spot up possessions at zero point ninety seven points per possession, which ranks twenty sixth in the league. And that was literally why they went out this summer to get Max Strus and Georgia's kneeing. So that's the scouraging And there's still a below average team in the short role, which was the major issue they
had offensively in the postseason last year. So offensively they're still just a little too easy to guard, but the defense is starting to click. Darius Garland's starting to get it going. A lot of encouraging trends there from Cleveland. So our next tier, this is the next five teams on this list. These are the very good teams. These are the teams that are having good regular seasons. They look good more often than not, but they haven't quite been as dominant as the teams at the top of
the league. And they're all poised to go on runs as long as they can have a stretch of good health, which has been an issue for just about every team in the league so far.
Here early in the season.
Number eight, the Philadelphia seventy six ers, they did just drop two games in a row without embeid. But they've hit a super difficult phase of their schedule and they've actually fared pretty well their last eleven games Indy, Indy, Boston, Atlanta, Brooklyn, who's actually kind of feisty, Cleveland, Minnesota, Oklahoma City, the Lakers, the Pelicans, and the Celtics. So just a ringer of an eleven game stretch. They only went five and six, but they went five and three when Embiid played over
that stretch. And what did I tell you guys all the time about like the good and bad stretches of teams, Right, like the good teams when they face a tough stretch of their schedule. If you go five and three, that's awesome in my opinion, especially when you're playing a great team, a good to great team every single night.
Right.
They are fourth in offense over that span. Special shout out to de Anthony Melton. He's always been an excellent point of attack defender, but he's giving them consistent scoring production over this stretch seventeen points per game on forty four percent from three on seven attempts. He kind of like reminds me of Contavious calledwell Pope for this team, he's less of like an off screen shooter, more of
like an off the dribble type of guy. But he reminds me of KCP in the sense that he's like just this really dependable, above average starter that like is in my opinion, almost a hallmark of an NBA champion
type of team. Is you look at it, there's always stars, there's guys off the bench that play big roles, but they always have like above average starters in those spots, like kind of like KCP and Michael Porter Junior Aaron Gordon last year for the Denver Nuggets, number seven, the Oklahoma City Thunder, they are ten and three in their last thirteen games. Over that span, they beat Atlanta, Cleveland, Phoenix,
Golden State twice, the Lakers, and the MAVs. They've been the best defense in the league over their last thirteen games.
But here's the thing, Like we've been talking about all season, all three of the losses over that thirteen game span or against bully ball front lines, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Philadelphia seventy six ers in Sacramento with Sabonis, who obviously plays a power game underneath the basket, they did get a win over a power front line and the Lakers albeit undermanned at the end of a long road trip,
but that's kind of the secret sauce for them. They have to get out and run against those bigger teams as much as possible. They have to be more scrappy in the half court, they have to double and rotate better than they have been, and they have to rebound
better than they have been. But I still worry about the thunder and the big picture until they really get a until they bolster that front line with a real forward, and I mean like someone in that six eight to six ten range that's a freak athlete that can help control the defensive glass and help chet anchor that defensive interior. Until they get that, I won't really take them seriously
as a top tier contender. But in terms of like based on matchups, they can beat just about anybody else in the league that doesn't have that massive frontline because of the huge combination of just relentless ball handling and passing and shooting and point of attack defense and athleticism and motor and they have an awesome home crowd. They basically bring everything to the table except for the ability
to beat the power frontlines. Around the league. They struggled, like chet Holmgren just had a nightmare of a time against against Rudy Gobaert in that game against Minnesota. It's just clearly a weakness for that particular team. Number six, the Orlando Magic. Now they've dropped quite a bit, but it's been a weird week. And honestly, all these teams are like smashed up on each other, So don't hyper focus on who's where in this list, because all of
them are like this close to each other. And I bumped the Magic down just because it's a weird week. They've played a couple of games against the Wizards and then they just got apps smashed by the Brooklyn Nets on the road. McHale Bridges just lit them and lit them on fire from the opening tip of that game. And my theory there is like they had played three straight bad teams, Like they had won nine games in a row, but their last three wins were against Charlotte
and Washington twice. And I'm a big believer and like, sometimes what will happen is you play against bad teams and you form bad habits, and then you go play a good team and you get smacked because you're just not quite quite ready for that speed. So yeah, like I bumped them down just because of the week schedule week and them taking that bad loss to Brooklyn. But they're every bit as good as all the teams in this tier. It's just they're all smashed up on each
other and we're splitting hairs. At this point, they are still second in the Eastern Conference. We're gonna find out a lot about the Orlando Magic in the last couple of weeks or in the next couple of weeks. This is their upcoming schedule, Calves Pistons, Calves Celtic Celtics, Heat Bucks Pacers. They come home for the Sixers and the Knicks. Then they go on a four game West Coast road trip where they play the Suns, the Warriors, the Kings,
and the Nuggets. So the end of by like mid January, mid late January, we're gonna have a much better idea of just how real of a threat the Magic are for a potential playoff run. Number five, the Denver Nuggets. Jamal Murray came back from one game and then immediately tweaked his ankle and missed the next two. So that's kind of a bummer because without Jamal Murray, they just don't really quite have the overall offensive firepower that they need to match up with everything else they bring to
the table. Right despite that, they've won four out of five. They beat the Clippers, of the Rockets and the Suns and Reggie Jackson again just a pro man. And like last year, the fit was weird, but this year, like I think, just having a full training camp and getting all these reps with Jokic. As Jamal Murray's been out in this five game span, He's averaging twenty two points and seven assists per game on sixty three percent from the field and fifty four percent from three, And I
like that they're taking it slow with Jamal. The only thing that's going to be a downside there is if he keeps missing time like this, he's not gonna make the All Star team, which I know is one of his goals this year. But I still think the Nuggets are far and away the best championship contender in the field right now. I shouldn't say far and away, but I think they're clearly, undiscernibly better than Boston and everyone else behind them at that point. Number four, the Milwaukee Bucks.
They've won nine out of eleven. They took a tough loss in Chicago where Caruso hit this like drifting three going to his right that sent it to ot, but they did bounce back and beat Atlanta the other night. They're up to twelfth in defense and tenth in defensive rebounding over that eleven game span, two encouraging trends after their week start to the season. In both of those categories. They have some quality wins in there too, Atlanta, Miami, Dallas,
and Toronto. They're like signature win yet, but they have some equality wins in there. And Giannis has started playing like an MVP again. Thirty one points, twelve rebounds and six assists on sixty three percent shooting and three stocks per game, three blocks and steals per game over the last eleven something to keep an eye on with the Bucks.
Chris Middleton still has not logged a single twenty point game this season, obviously operating under a minutes restriction, but in my opinion, him getting back to more or less what he was in twenty twenty is basically a requirement for this team to be able to win a title. So the last three teams on this list, these are the teams that have been clearly a level above the
rest of the field in my opinion this year. One of the teams might not be as obvious in terms of their record, but their very best player missed a bunch of time with an ankle injury, and they have arguably the most impressive list of quality victories this year.
So I lumped them up with this group. But all three of these teams, in my opinion, have demonstrated dominance over the course of this regular season in a sense that it's just on a night in, night out basis, you just feel like they're getting a great punch from them, and you feel like they can beat anybody, and you feel like they have the top end firepower to outplay any stars in the league. Number three the Sacramento Kinks. Now, they took this weird loss of the Clippers. They had
this wild comeback win. Malik Monks hits a game winner against the Warriors. It was like this kind of frenetic comeback. Right, they had play the Clippers the very next night and they ended up losing that game, a Clippers team that's been pretty bad since the Hard and Trade, Right, So I don't overlook too much of that. I should I should say that I don't look too much into that. But they did bounce back. They beat Denver and then they beat Minnesota the previous Friday, so they have a
couple of really quality wins. Sandwiching that they're seven and two this year against teams that are five hundred or better, which is awesome. And the crazy part is they're doing it with the dirty work. They are up to fifteenth in defense over their last twelve games. That doesn't sound like the Sacramento Kings does it first in defensive rebounding
over that span. So they're just cleaning up all of the dirty work right now, and then Deeron Fox is still out playing most of the stars in the league. On any given night, the Kings are actually nine and four when Deeron Fox plays. That's kind of what I meant like there. They have seven losses, but three of those losses were when Deeron Fox didn't play, So I think that that specifically is It's kind of like when the the Sixers dropped three games over their last eleven
when Embiid didn't play like he. Deeron Fox is on that caliber now, where when he's out, like it's just a significant loss to that particular team. Number two, the Minnesota Timberwolves. They had a disappointing loss in an n season turn games of the Kings. But again, like the Kings have been doing that this year, just like going in on the road to really good teams and just kicking their ass. It's been kind of one of their
part of their brand this year, so to speak. But the Timberwolves, they bounced back and went four straight after that, most impressively beating the Thunder the other night in the game where Rudy Gobaert did an absolute number on chet Holmgren held himTo like six for twenty, shooting a couple of wild defensive possessions there, getting a lot of contributions from guys down the roster, nos Reed and Troy Brown
Junior both a big shots in that game. This team has a lot of like down the roster consistency in terms of effort and execution, Like they were able to beat Charlotte the other night without Anthony Edwards, same type of deal. Like this team is still the best defense in basketball, and you can just tell from the from the top down. From day one of training camp, They've been just so locked in on all of those details.
It extends down the roster. They've been a juggernaut so far this year, and it's just a great example of how defense still wins in the NBA. The two best teams in the leg League have been the Celtics and the Timberwolves. The two best defenses in the league have been the Celtics and the Timberwolves. And I don't think that's a coincidence in my opinion. Still, it is the best way to win regular season games in the NBA
because your effort travels. It's the most consistent thing. In like you, it is way easier to be a consistent defense than a consistent offense because consistent offense depends on shot results so much. But defense is an effort and effort and communication and focus thing, and as long as you bring those pieces every single night, you can win
in the in the NBA regular season. But yeah, like on the strength of that defense and the leap from Anthony Edwards contributions down the bench, Carl Towns has been a like a revelation this year in the sense that I thought he was kind of the odd man out, the guy that would probably end up getting traded at the deadline, and he's been so good and help defense, and so good on the defensive glass, and so efficient on offense playing next to Anthony Edwards that like now
it just looks like he's a natural fit there. And so a lot of really exciting things from the Timberwolves here early in the season. I have them at number two in the power rankings and then number one. The Boston Celtics. Another undefeated week, three to zero since Chris Porzingis went down with his caff injury, which is encouraging, And there was a report that came out today that he's planning on playing in the semi finals should the Celtics beat the Pacers tonight.
So that's good.
The Celtics are now the second most This is a crazy stat that I came across this morning, and let me just frame it like this. Actually, last year the Celtics were twenty first and points generated out of the post per game. They generated just four and a half points per game out of the post.
Last year.
They were also sixteenth in the NBA in efficiency. So they were twenty first in volume, sixteenth in efficiency. There's your frame from last year. This year they are second in producing points out of the post per game, second only to Denver, and they are second in efficiency, scoring one point one five points per posed up including passes. Big part of it has been Chris Porzingis obviously coming in. He's just been ridiculously good out of the post this year.
Forty kristops for Zingi's post ups have led to sixty eight points. That's one point seven points per possession. That was one of the big things coming over from Washington is he had a great year last year beating switches in particular in the post. But just just Boston needed somebody like that that when they switched Tatum, pick and rolls another option that they could go to to beat switches, and that's what Porzingis has brought to them. And then
Tatum as well. Tatum has been about twice as productive in terms of volume compared to last year producing points out of the post, and so between that they've added a legitimate post top attack to their game and something that really wasn't a part of their offense in years past. So the Boston Celtics two weeks in a row at number one. All right, moving on to our mailbag. First question, Jason, You're always so good at looking at the big picture
stuff with basketball, not overreacting to individual games. I was wondering if there ever was a if there was ever a time where you would overreact to big losses like the Lakers just had, and if so, how you learn to be more patient. This is coming from a Warriors fan who has who was devastated after the King's loss, but is now over the moon after the Clippers win.
So here's the thing. I when I was younger, I had the same feeling, like I remember when I was like a teenager, late teenager, like I would overreact to every single win and loss, you know what I mean. And it's kind of been like a steady decline from there. It really, you know, it's funny because I had this, like I have this like somebody pitched this theory to me the other day and I found it was really interesting.
A theory having to do with age. Essentially, like every year of your life is a smaller amount of your life proportionally as you get older, And so that's why it feels like time goes by faster, because like if you're twenty and a year goes by, it's roughly what five percent of your life, right, But if you're forty and a year goes by, it's two and a half percent of your life, right, And so essentially it just
feels like it goes by faster. And that's kind of like the thing that's happened to me over the years with the NBA is like at the more NBA seasons that I've covered, the more NBA seasons that I've followed very closely as a fan, the more things I've seen, and it all just starts to feel small by perspective.
And beyond that, we've just seen so many trends of the regular season games not mattering all that much in both directions, with like teams like Sacramento and Memphis last year winning a ton of regular season games and then going out soft in the relatively soft i should say, in the playoffs, and then teams like ter older veteran teams struggling in the regular season and then succeeding when
they get to the playoffs. I do think it's tough because there is a lot of NBA history that shows that you'd rather be dominant, and a lot of times it is a dominant regular season team that ends up winning the title. But at the end of the day, like I think, especially in this day and age, with load management and how much more you know, cautious teams
are with injuries. It's more important to look at like if you see a night where your team is fully healthy and they're playing hard and everyone's kind of in a rhythm, but like they still get beat by a better team, and there are specific trends you see on the court, like, oh, they really struggle with this, or they really struggle with that, make them mental note of it. But like specific regular season results, it's like who cares? Like, I guarantee you there are a lot of Warriors fans
that are freaking out about this. Clippers lost the other night. I watched that entire game and I was hanging out at my parents' house. Actually I went to go see them on Sunday and or on I guess it was Saturday, and I sat down and watched that game, and like, I thought, the Warriors played great. You know what happened?
Like the Clippers, for all of their issues, they have some really good players and so they are capable of going on runs and like they just made tough shot after tough shot at the end of that game, and they got big stops. And you know, like I thought, the look Draymond Green got out of the corner is not a bad look. Kawhi Leonard's one of the best individual defenders in the world. It's not easy to get
separation against him. And in terms of what happened with Steph on that possession, and so, like, my thing is, like the Warriors have played a lot of good basketball in the last week, between going up big on the Kings and going up being on the Clippers and getting the big win over the.
Clippers a few days before.
Like, it's been a lot of good with some bad, And so I don't think it makes a ton of sense to overreact to to singular results like that when obviously we already knew that the Warriors needed to make some sort of trade at the deadline to upgrade at that forward spot. It's been something we've been talking about ever since the Lakers series, Right, So, like, what really have we seen this year from the Warriors that is deeply concerning? Right, Like, Draymond's better than he was last year.
Steph is Steph, like Clay Thompson's been an issue. Yeah, And that's something that if although he's been playing better as of late, but if that becomes an issue in the long run, yeah, like maybe it's something they'll have to do something about. But I even think that bringing in that type of forward slots Klay Thompson better and makes that sort of thing easier. Pazemski's been incredible. It
has been a godsend for that team. So like again, I just I don't really think it's worth it yet to have any sort of sweeping declaration about any team, right and in general, like you here the expression cooler heads prevail. That's kind of the way that I feel like we should all act as fans during the NBA regular seas, like after a big win, talk yourself down from it, after a big loss, talk yourself up from it. Try to stay even keel because that eighty two can
be ridiculous. Schedule losses are a huge part of it. There were so many schedule losses last week, like the the Clippers beat the shit out of the Kings one night after they had this super emotional comeback win versus the Warriors, that the Lakers got slacked on the tail end of a back to back in Oklahoma City, the I think it ended up being the Warriors beating the Clippers on the second night of a back to back.
Like the schedule plays a big role.
There's so many different things that can manipulate regular season results, and so in general, just try to pay attention to the basketball and pay attention to specific trends taking place on the court. Next question, Thanks for all your analysis on games and teams. I believe that Wemby is the real deal. What do you think is the next step in the Spurs process. A couple of things They absolutely have to have to have to get higher quality ball handling.
All of the ball with san Antonio this year has been has left a lot to be desired. As a fan, It's been really hard to watch san Antonio because of their process. They are fourth in turnovers excuse me, they have the fourth most turnovers per one hundre possessions. They have the sixth worst pick and roll offense in the league right now, and they are the fourth worst spot up team in the league. So ball handling is a
big part of it. Just decision making, getting Wemby in better spots and getting everybody in better spots, and then off ball shooting obviously, is a big part of just the spacing going on around there. But I think that's gonna be something that they target after this offseason, this particular offseason, because this year in particular has been a nightmare.
Next question.
As a fan of the show, I've heard you talk many times about how you believe young players can't be winning pieces coming to the later rounds of the playoffs. I agree with this take, but as a Warriors fan, I'm hoping Brandon Pizemski can be an exception in a limited role. Do you think this has some merit? Those are just my fan bias kicking in. Thanks love the show.
Off the bench, I think it's totally fine. It's like I've been talking about this with Lakers fans, like can Cam Reddish or Max Christy contribute for the Lakers in the playoffs? Maybe off the bench, but I think if they're starting for you, if you're leaning on them for thirty something minutes a night, that's where it can become an issue. And so I think for a guy like Poziemski is clearly in a bench role, I don't think it's ridiculous to think that he can contribute in smaller minutes.
So like Christian Brown can contributed in smaller minutes for the Nuggets last year in the postseason, right, So, like, again, this is all.
To me.
In those bench rolls, it's not as big of a deal. It's like I'm more talking about like starting lineup or like sixth man heavy heavy usage. Like that's where I start to worry about a player's age in the late rounds of the playoffs. Next question, why is Victor not the defensive player of the year so far? He's the league leader in stocks historic and absurd block rate, and
he's asked to guard one through five. Teams are literally avoiding taking shots around him in the spurs of zero capable defenders with him.
It's really as simple.
They haven't won enough games, and the defensive rating with him on the floor hasn't been that great. I think it's like right around like one fifteen or something like that, which is like good considering the personnel around him, but not that great, right, And that has literally nothing to do with Victor. It's just to me that award kind of associates or generally gets kind of directed towards a
winning player and a winning situation. So I don't think it's a problem because Victor is gonna get I'm sure Victor will wins several of them in his career. I just don't think he's gonna get him this year. Next question, do you think the Lakers should have Lebron run point? So the whole expression like run point or this team needs a point guard to me, doesn't really mean anything.
It's just there's offensive initiators and playmaking finishers, right or play finishers, I should say, right, And so every team has multiple of them, right, And like right now, I do think it's a little convoluted with the Lakers between d Loo and Austin and Lebron and Anthony Davis. But I do think they're gonna end up consolidating that by getting rid of Dangel Russell at the deadline, which will
simplify that process to Austin, Lebron and Anthony Davis. And you know, if there is a player that comes back in that deal, like let's say it's a Jeremy Grant or a Lourie markin In or somebody like that, if they end up getting a player like that that can score, they're gonna be scoring more in like ISOPO situations rather than pick and roll, so I think it actually will fit in more cleanly with the way that that team plays. And so again, like, do I think Lebron should take
more control over the offense? I mean yeah, but I feel like he has, especially in crunch time, and he's
been awesome in those situations. So like, to me, given what the regular season is, you're just trying to get through the eighty two games, I honestly think the way they've been doing things is fine from the same point of like a delineation of responsibilities, understanding that you have all these guards and like you have to play the Angelo Russell until whatever time comes in the future where you decide to trade him. Right, My only concern really
has just been offensive organization. Like we talked about this at length, so I won't get into it right now, but stuff like the five out offense versus cleared side post ups and cleared side ISOs and that sort of thing I did notice in the Rockets game. If you guys remember, I did a breakdown after the Thunder game about different things the Lakers should be doing in the post, specifically cleared side post ups for ad on the left
side of the floor. We can get to his right hand, and Ran I want to say, I can't remember the exact number of post ups, but they were one point five points per possession against the Rockets when ad posted up on the left block where he could get to his right hand, and then it was zero point eight points per possession on center and right block post ups, which I thought was a strong indicator of that theory.
It's just easier for Anthony Davis to read the floor and to get to his strong hand from the left side. And then Lebron ran I think six or no. He ran eight post ups in that game and either scored, passed to his score, or drew fallen. Six of his eight post ups, most of them out of that left block, where he's most successful. So I thought that was an encouraging sign for the Lakers as well.
Next question.
For some reason, Tyler has a reputation as a good coach. Is that really justified? What has he done to earn it? If the Clippers flow is so bad on offense relative to their skill, wouldn't it be good to have a coach do something about that?
Dido defense?
Do I agree with everything Tyler's done, not particularly like he's a little oh so Here's the thing. Tyler's reputation or Tyler's brand I should say as a coach is.
He's big on he he's big on.
Switching, defense, small lineups, and he has excellent spacing principles, meaning like he is probably one of the better top two or three driving kick coaches in the league. What I mean by that is like he's just he empowers his players to work in a spread floor and beat people off the dribble and play kind of freely from there. It's brute force, but in a way that I think makes sense for the personnel that they have. The problem is as they've gotten really small in this time post
hard and Trade. It's all the switching and the going small, like taking Zubac out of the lineup has put them into some precarious situations. The numbers haven't updated since the last game, but I haven't checked the updated numbers, I should say, but they were giving up an offensive rebound on almost half of opponent shot attempts in crunch time since the hard and Trade. That's like a huge problem
in my opinion. So some of this thing is like a couple things is tightly responsible for the offensive issues that they're having since the Hard and Trade. In my opinion, no, just because it's just hard for a bunch of stars to learn how to play together. Also, there's so many egos in that room that they're gonna kind of do their own thing in a lot of ways there, right, So, like, I try not to blame too much of that on
the coach. It's like when Lakers fans blame Frank Vogel for offensive organization when it was a Lebron Russell Westbrook, Anthony Davis team, and I wanted to be like, like, you think Frank is telling Lebron how to play offense? Like those dudes are figuring it out on their own. And that's kind of what I think is happening with
the Clippers. But that said, some of their defensive principles and some of their lineup decisions that they've had post the Hard and Trade don't really match with the personnel. But we just have to see how it goes in the long run, because to me, the hallmark of a coach is how he responds to changes in personnel, you know, because that's the thing is every coach has like their kind of overarching belief system, right, But then you change personnel around that, and so like you kind of can't
just inflict your belief on the personnel. You have to tweak your you know, kind of beliefs in system to your personnel, if that makes sense. Next question, how do you beat Denver? Also, do you think any roster in the league consistently beat Denver in a series? As a Celtics fan watching the Nuggets, I just can't seem to find a way Denver loses if they're healthy. So Denver's the best team in my opinion, which means like there is no team that can consistently beat them in a series.
In my opinion, there's two different ways to beat them. And if I was like trying to construct a basketball team to beat Denver, there's two different routes that I would look at. One is like spread them the hell out with five guys that can all dribble, shoot and pass and drive and kick them to death, so you can take advantage of some of their limited defensive personnel. Team like Boston comes to mind as a team that
could do that. Also, they just have a lot of rotation athleticism to be able to kind of fly around as they're working around the Jokic problem on the offensive end of the floor.
Right.
The other two teams I look at are Miami and the Lakers. And the reason why I look at these particular teams is Anthony Davis and Bamana bio in theory, if they are surrounded by the appropriate amount of athleticism, can can give Jokic and Murray problems, right, And the Lakers had no success with that last year. That was a big problem for them. But I think like for both of those teams, for both Miami and the Lakers, they need to make a trade to kind of successfully
unleash that. I like with Miami, the Jimmy Butler bam at a bio combination and their ability to guard the Jokich Murray two man game. If you guys remember in the NBA Finals in Game two, those two guys did an amazing job and did a good job slowing down Denver in that win. Right, And so with Miami, they need more offensive firepower, So they'd need to make a trade to bring in enough firepower to outscore Denver on the other end, Right, for the Lakers, it's that one more.
It's the guy that's like because the problem is with Ruy Hachi Mura, with Jared Vanderbilt, with Torrian Prince, all those guys, Max Christy, Cam Reddish, they all have gaping flaws. And with respect to their ability to be in the starting lineup right, like Cam Reddish, Jared Vanderbilt, and Max Christi, it's can they be consistent enough offensively right?
And then.
Ruya Mura and Tourian Princes are they athlete to kind of contend on the perimeter defensively right? Like Rue's a good help defender, good rebounder, good post up defender, good ISO defender, but he really struggles to navigate screens right.
And so all those guys kind of have flaws. If they could bring in a Jeremy Grant or one of the Toronto Raptors forwards, or a Lori Markenen or a Dorian Finney Smith, a real dynamic, starter caliber forward that's next to Lebron James and Anthony Davis, I think they'd
have a better chance. But specifically the Lebron A d front line and the Bam Jimmy frontline I think are two front lines that, if they were surrounded by enough talent, could give Jokic and Murray some issues, but I'd put the Celtics at that top of that list for right now with their ability to spread them out and drive and kick them to death. Next question, what I don't understand is that it took a small sample size of good basketball for Austin Reeves to get hyped into a
big contract. How come a small sample size of bad basketball isn't enough for someone to change their minds. He had a decent playoffs and a couple of good FEBA games, Yet people act as though he's been awesome for years and is just slumping for a few games. We've seen players in the past have a good season or two. If given the opportunity, tons of players would do it.
Wow. I disagree with this.
If given the opportunity, tons of players could do what Austin Reeves does, but they don't have the opportunity. He's average at best, and he's not better than D'Angelo Russell. What are we even talking about?
Wow?
I don't think I could possibly disagree more with this comment. Uh, let me just this is all I'm gonna do for this segment. I'm just gonna give you guys the real sample sizes here. Twenty seven regular season games. Twenty seven regular season games after Russell Westbrook was traded away from the Lakers, Austin averaged seventeen points and five assists on
over seventy percent true shooting. Sixteen playoff games, Austin Reeves averaged seventeen points and five assists on over sixty percent true shooting, and he had eight to twenty point games.
He played thirteen games with FIBA alongside a ton of talent and averaged thirteen points per game on seventy seven percent true shooting, seventy eight percent, an effective field goal percentage on catch and shoot jumpers, sixty one percent an effective field goal percentage on pull up jumpers, and seventy three percent at the rim. That's how good he was at FIBA, Guys, that is a fifty six game sample size of him being awesome, not like good, not even
like great, like awesome. That's awesome contribution in like high leverage games. That's like a playoff run in the NBA. Right the end of that regular season last year, every game was wildly important because they were trying to scrap and claw their way into a playoff spot and then literally for the World Cup of Basketball. Like it doesn't
get much more high leverage than that. And for fifty six games he was awesome, and you guys are ready to call him a bum because he's been playing at a slightly lower level for twenty one regular season games. Twenty one, twenty one to fifty six. That's the comparison of sample size. That's barely a third of the sample sizes of him being awesome. And this twenty one regular season game sample fourteen points, five rebounds, five assists on fifty eight percent through shooting, which is good.
It's certainly not as good as he used to be, but he's good.
So like again, the like Austin Reeves for a long extended period in high leverage games was awesome. So I am not going to jump off the Austin Reeves bandwagon after twenty one regular season games when the Lakers were down most of their athleticism, which was a big part of why they were losing and made everything harder on everybody else, all of a sudden, Austin is getting slotted on more difficult perimeter defense assignments, right, all of a sudden.
Just in general, the team doesn't have as much downhill rim pressure without the athleticism, which makes it harder on the perimeter initiators. In general, it's been a weird season, and he's still been pretty good. But like, yeah, stop saying he was barely good last year. Stop saying he only did it for a few games. He did it
for fifty six games. He was awesome in a bunch of different circumstances, and for two years before that, he was a quality role player working primarily off the ball like this is not in my opinion, it's far more ridiculous to overreact to the twenty one regular season games this year. Last question, Hi, Jason, how come the Timberwolves are better this year than last year? Last year they had a stagnant offense, no spacing. Now they're cooking or
wasn't any offseason moves? So what's different? A couple things. First of all, I thought the Timberwolves were one of the better teams down the stretch of the regular season last year. I was super impressed by their defense and physicality, how hard they played. They had kind of like a weird offense in the sense that like it's a little clunky,
it's the spacing is tough. But at the same time they have a lot of different guys in attack matchups in different ways, and so a couple things they've ridden that defensive wave into the season. I predicted they'd be a top five defense this year. They ended up being the best defense this year. So it's just been a
kind of like a more dynamic version of that. Right, and then Anthony Everargs has gone up a level, starting from that awesome playoff series against the Nuggets where I thought he played really well being the best player on the team at Foeba, and then coming into this season, his playmaking has gone up a level, his career high twenty six points per game. So just Anthony Everards going
up a level. Carltown's buying in defensively and on the glass, which has helped anchor that lineup and made it so that that lineup makes more sense. Right in general, the whole team committing to the defensive end from day one of training camp. Those are kind of like the three things that are driving it in my opinion. All right, guys, it's all I have for today. My picks for tonight. I'm gonna go with the Celtics to beat the Pacers on the road. The Pelicans have had the King's number.
The Kings have won what ten of their last thirteen games, I think if I remember correctly, and two of those three losses were against the Pelicans, two games in New Orleans where Zion Williamson slice and dice them.
So a couple things.
I'm gonna go with the Kings just because I think this third time through they should be able to schematically adjust for the Zion Williamson problem. And then at home in a high leverage game like this, I just think they're the better team and I think they'll get it done. So Kings to beat the Pelicans and the Celtics to beat the Pacers. That's all I have for today, guys. We'll be back tomorrow morning to break down those two games. Don't forget. Also tonight watch playback for Indiana Boston. You
can find that link on my Twitter meeting. The volume