Hoops Tonight - NBA Power Rankings: Will Jalen Brunson, KAT & Knicks TAKE DOWN Celtics?

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All right, welcome to hoops today here at the volume heavy Wednesday. Everybody hopeful. If you guys are having a great week so far, got a jampackshow for you today. We're continuing our season previews with the New York Knicks today at number four in our power rankings. And then at the tail end of the show, I've got a mailbag that we're gonna hit. We're gonna bunce around the league answer some of you guys's questions. You guys are the drill before we get started. Subscribe to Hoops Tonight

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into our top tier of championship contenders. As I talked about when we started the power Ranking series, I had a group of teams that I thought were good, that didn't really have a realistic chance to win the title. And then from eleven to five that group of seven teams there, which I believe was Grizzlies, and then I think it was like it was like Suns and Lakers and Bucks, and there was the Timberwolves that were in there. The uh we had the Dallas Mavericks in there, and

then there's one that I'm missing. But we hit a bunch of teams in that specific tier right then we move into this top tier of contenders. This is a group of teams that I think should all feel really

good about their chances to win the title. Like the teams in that five to eleven group, they have this like thought in the back of their head, like, yeah, we might be able to do this if some things go our way, you know, catch some favorable matchups, maybe we hit on a trade, Maybe this young guy pops, maybe this guy like starts playing better than he did last year. There's some pathways where things might go their

way and maybe they can make a run. These four teams in no particular order, the Nuggets and Thunder out West, and the Nickson Celtics out East. Those four teams should feel really good about their chances to win the title. So why why is that the case? Why do I feel like these four teams have separated themselves in terms of a tier from that group that I had at five through eleven. So I wanted to go into some of those specific characteristics. Number One, they're elite on both

ends of the floor. Interestingly enough, those four teams, the Nuggets, the Thunder, the Celtics, and the Knicks were the only four teams in the NBA last year to finish in the top ten for both offense and defense. And that's fascinating considering the Knicks and Thunder in particular have added a substantial amount of talent since then. But last year these were the only four teams that could confidently state they had an elite unit on both ends of the floor,

two tons of half court shot creation. Denver has Jokic, who I think is the best offensive player in the world. Oklahoma City has shake Kills with Alexander who's in that tier of offensive players, but is also surrounded by what I think is the most talented roster in the Western Conference. Boston has the most talent in the NBA by a wide margin, and the Knicks have three players who have averaged twenty five points per game at some point in their career, and they're all in their prime right now.

So tons of half court offensive firepower for all four of those teams. Three tons of physical side Boston's not particularly big on the front line except for when they're perfectly healthy, but Boston is huge on the perimeter. Right. Drew Holliday, big and strong, can guard up on fords. Derek White long arms is a guy that can guard a couple of different types of perimeter initiators. Right. Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum two of the most versatile defensive

forwards in the league, but there are both big, strong athletes. Right. Oklahoma City has the one of the best and most physical perimeter defender duos in the league with Alex Crusoe and Loudor right combined with two centers that can play

alongside each other. Now, they dramatically improved their physical their physical profile in one summer, and the only weaknesses for the Thunder were like experience, which now they have a year of additional experience, and they brought in some veteran experience, and two that physical profile, which they just dramatically improved with those particular deals. Denver has Michael Porter Junior, Aaron

Gordon and Jokic. You're going six ten six ten seven foot on the front line, and Aaron Gordon and Nicole Jokic in particular are incredibly big and strong. Now that you add Christian Brown into that lineup too, they're actually bigger and stronger in the in the starting lineup than they were last year. That is a physically imposing group. And then the Knicks put Josh Hart, McHale, Bridges og

And and Obi and Karl Anthony Towns out there. That's quite a bit, quite a bit of size and strength as well. To win four playoff series, you have to be able to win rock fights. You have to be able to win when things get ugly, and rock fights take size, strength and athleticism. That's a strength for all four of those teams. And then lastly, you have to be able

to play different ways. Boston can play two centers. They can go small, they can drive and kick you to death, but they also can hunt matchups better than most teams because they have so many different guys that can initiate offense for them. On defense, they have the ability to put length at the rim with Porzingis and run drop coverage, but they also have Tatum who can guard centers and legitimately throw a wrench and a lot of other teams

offensive attacks. Horford at center gives them a switch look where they can switch one through five and really shut down screening actions. They can change their defense or their offense to meet the challenge, the unique challenge that is in front of them. The Knicks, they will have Cat at center looks, and they'll have Cat at the power forward looks with an extra center on the floor. They'll

have switch looks, they'll have drop books. They were one dimensional offensively last year, but by bringing in Michale Bridges Karl Anthony Towns, that makes them much more versatile offensively this year. They will have many different ways to attack offensively, which we're going to talk about here in a minute. Oklahoma City now they have a two big look, but when they go chat at the five, they still have this look with tons of speed and skill that they

can go to as well. They'll even have a bunch of different looks they can go to in closing lineups. Like you can imagine a scenario where they go with the same closing lineup as last year, but instead of having you know, Aaron Wiggins in instead of Josh Giddy Josh Giddy in there, they can have Alex Cruso in there. They can have a big lineup where they go Chetton Hartenstein, and they can decide whether they want to go to Dort or Caruso depending on the matchup and what specifically

is needed there. Like, there's so many different ways that they can kind of construct things for them, and they have three different dudes who can legitimately initiate offense for them at a high level. They are very versatile. They can change to meet the challenge in front of them. And then Denver they have a good deep drop look and they have a good high drop look. Again, I think a lot of people don't realize this, but Denver

was top ten in defense last year. With Christian Brown in the starting group too, they're going to be better defensively. He is able to guard some bigger forwards in a way that Kentavious call what Pope was not. This is one of the things that allows them to keep Aaron Gordon in help more often, which will make them even better on the defensive end of the floor. And then on offense, they have so many different ways they can attack you. Jokics post ups, Jokich Murray two man game.

They have like a well rounded five out attack where they get lots of off screen stuff for Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Junior. Like look at Game one of the Finals in twenty twenty three where they just spam Aaron Gordon post ups because they like a matchup. Like the Nuggets just have a ton of different ways that

they can play on both ends of the four. Again, versatility wins because you have to face four likely very different types of opponents on your way to the trophy, and having that malley ability is a big part of what allows you to beat four different types of team teams. Again, these are the differentiators for these four teams, elite on both ends of the floor, tons of half court shot creation, tons of size and strength in the ability to play

different ways. Those are the things that these teams have that the teams in that next tier are lacking in various ways. All Right, let's start once again. Power Ranking Style number four The New York Knicks an offseason recap for them. They lost boy In mcdonovich, Alec Burkstante Di Vincenzo, ISAIH Hartenstein, and Julius Randall. They added mckail Bridges, campaign Landry Shammitt, Karl Anthony Towns, and some end of the bench guys, which we'll see how they panned out pan

out over the course of the season. On the Cat Deal, I've talked about this bunch on the show we've done. I did a really deep dive with Sam Vessini on his podcast about a week ago, so you guys can check that out. We talked about it in detail during the Minnesota pod as well as the Night of the Trades. We've got lots of that content out there really quick synopsis. They needed a center, and you can't do much better than Karl Anthony Towns. He has his defensive limitations, which

we're going to get into in a minute. We're gonna have a whole segment of the show. How do you guard with Karl Anthony Towns at center? We're going to get into that. But he's just one of the most

talented players in the league at that position. He can shoot well enough that he can play alongside another big, so he gives you a ton of lineup flexibility, and if you can work it out with him at center, he gives you a bunch of ammo for some legit matchup problems For some of the other teams in Eastern Conference, like with Philly, that pick and pop is an excellent counter for a deep drop big like Joel Embiid right

for the Pacers. Same thing for Miles Turner, who's a rim protector wants to drop to the basket for Milwaukee. Same thing against Brook Lopez. Lopez and Embiid in particular can really struggle to cover ground in rotation, and that's something where having Kat's ability to pick and pop and get them in rotation consistently and have those big, slow bigs closing out at him could be something that really helps. Or if they rotate from the weakside closing out on

other shooters. Right, Boston, It's complicated. It depends on whether or not you can actually get Porzingis to guard Cat. But we're gonna get into that more detail because I have a whole segment just on the matchup with Boston that we're going to do at the tail end of

of this power ranking sect. But that's the thing, is like, you're just going to get legitimate matchup advantages that you didn't have last year without a stretch big, and you have a different look that you didn't have last year with two bigs that you can go to by virtue of this when Mitchell Robinson comes back, if they end up keeping him again, Mitch and Kat together that should be a very physically imposing group that still provides a

decent amount of spacing the las of Devincenzo. Obviously, it hurts. I mean, Dante Devincenzo's awesome Knicks fans don't need me to tell him that. I think he's one of my favorite two way guards in the league right now. But good players are expensive, and Kat is going to do more to help the Knicks than Devincenzo. Leaving is going to hurt the Knicks in my opinion, And thank you,

thankfully you have options that you can go to. Right Josh Hart is big and physical and can do a lot of switching with McHale, Bridges and oj Anoby, so that's kind of an interesting look. I love Duce McBride. I still like to see Duce McBride with those guys quite a bit. He played alongside Brunson a lot in the playoffs last year and had a pretty successful two man game with him. As a matter of fact, he logged eleven role man possessions in the playoffs and scored

fourteen points on him. All of them were ghost screens with Brunson shot forty six percent on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots in the playoffs, over forty percent if I think he was like forty five percent ish on above the break threes in particular, just I think he's an interesting look for them to go to there. And then the other thing they can do is that can size up with two big so like having Dante DiVincenzo out of the lineup makes him get a little creative.

But they have a bunch of different directions that they can go and most importantly, they have improved offensive flexibility. Last year was like a two thousand and one Alan Iverson esque approach to offense with Jalen Brunson. He logged a usage rate of thirty six point four percent in the playoffs that was by far the by far the highest out of anyone who played at least ten playoff games last year Luka doncitz by comparison thirty two point four percent, So like, that was pretty crazy high usage

from Brunson, and as a result his efficiency suffered. He went down to fifty three point six percent true shooting in the postseason. That was about six percent down from what he was in the regular season. This year, they will not need him to do that. He can function more as a initiator, just a guy who gets the initial advantage and then all of their talent can capitalize on it. The cat two man game even above the like the pick and pop, is the most simple concept

of it. Right talked about this at length. Every drop coverage involves the big having to keep the ball handler in front of them, right, and so if the big man, instead of rolling into the drop coverage, big pops out to the three point line, it's like the ultimate counter to a pick and roll coverage. You're either going to have to have your center close out from the drop coverage to the top of the key, which is a nightmare, or you have to rotate from the weak side, which

can leave openings on skip passes. Right, Like the pick and pop is like just such a great weapon to have in the back, But I think they can also use it to set cat up with advantage situations. Just simple basic ISOs, right, Like this is what Tyres Max and Joel Embiid do, right, run the ball screen pocket pass, Embiid goes to work from the elbow area, right. I think you can do similar stuff with that with Kat

above the break. Just have him run most of his ISOs out of two man game where he catches with the guy closing out of him. Basically, have him be an initiator who already has an advantage. We saw already in the preseason game examples of Brunson operating as a screener. You can't really do that if you don't have scoring threats off of him that can capitalize on the attention that Jalen Brunson. Gardner's right, Like, this is something they'll

be able to do this year. They ran Brunson as a screener on the first play of the preseason game and almost got Ojan and Obi a wide open layup out of it. Like that's something that they'll be able to get to. Five out concepts, not a whole lot like there were five out concepts last year, just without the necessary firepower to make it really work. Having Ognnobi and Michale Bridges in there as a bunch of additional ball handling and scoring ability kind of lock some of

those five out concepts. Posting switches. This was something that because of the Anonobe injury and because of the centers that the Knicks had, not something they could consistently get to last year. In the postseason, Ognobi and Karl Anthony town should be able to post mismatches in situations where they screened for Brunson and get switches. So just a ton of additional offensive flexibility compared to what they had last year. How do you build a defense around Kat?

I would think of it from the perspective of the way that the Denver Nuggets defend with Nicole Yogis to a greater extent, because Jokic is a better rim protector than Kat. But don't ask a guy that's not gonna be some big vertical deterrent to protect the rim. Ask him to be active with his hands on the ball handler instead. This is where I would use him in more of a high drop, meaning I would bring in ball screens. Towns further out and ask him to primarily

work on disrupting the ball handler. That leaves you in rotation. But you have lots of backside athleticism, right, So in that case, that means the role man is going to get behind Kat a lot. But if you've got ogn and Obi kind of setting up as that lowman tagging the roller and rotating, and you've got Michael Bridges and all of his foot speed and Josh Hard Orduce mcgride whoever it ends up being, or if they go big and it's precious to Chuwa or whatever it is, they

have lots of speed on that backside. That is a way that you can account for Karl Anthony Towns's limitations. Obviously, it depends on the matchup. If you're playing against a team that doesn't have great guard play, they're running ball screens and you're not worried about getting torched from the mid range or torched by a dude and downhill at you at the rim, then yeah, maybe you can run a deeper drop and try to stay at a rotation.

But in terms of the tougher matchups in the league with higher quality pick and roll ball handlers, I would just bring Cat up to the level as much as possible. I think they need to do more switching two through four. In the preseason game, they were having McHale Bridges chase even in guard guard screens like that involved Josh Hart or O Jannobi. That's not something I agree with. I would not have any unnecessary screen navigation in this group,

especially when you're already going to get into rotation. Some with CAT the most importantly have to contain the ball. If you contain the ball, you don't need to protect the rim as much. If there aren't straight line drives with guys really getting ahead of steam, rim protection isn't as important. This is just kind of like a general philosophy I have about basketball. It's like I always talk

about things in terms of a bracket. If you have in a pick and roll coverage, if you have a great guy chasing over the top of the screen and makes the drop coverage his job easier. Right, So if mkale Bridges is chasing over the top, that makes Cat's job easier. Same thing goes with just a simple driving

kick attack. The bracket of your perimeter defense versus the bracket of your ability to protect the rim, the better you are at the perimeter at the point of attack, the less there is stress on your back line to cover ground at the rim or cover vertical territory at the rim. Right. So, like again, I think it's gonna be a lot of stuff involving rotation and chasing guys off the line. But I would bring Kat up to the level and use him more as a guy that

is attacking the ball handler than protecting the rim. What's my outlook on this team. I think they'll win a lot of regular season games. The East is super weak and its bottom half. The Knicks have a ton of talent, all in their athletic prime. The fan base is all jazzed up. They're gonna have a great home court advantage. I think they're gonna get the two seed behind Boston. I think they'll finish above Philly and Milwaukee in the standings. As for the playoffs, I think they match up super

well with Philly and Milwaukee. Kat is just such a nice counter for slow footed centers. As we talked about earlier, ogn andob is one of the better bodies that you can throw in the league at you be honest, McHale, Bridges and Duce McBride are a couple great options for Damian Lillard. Tyrese Maxey went off on them, but they put Ojan Andobi on him a lot, and he'd likely guard Paul George in this type of matchup. McHale Bridges is the guy that's gonna end up getting that matchup. Now.

I think that's a better option for them. I think Philly probably presents more issues for them than Milwaukee does, just because of the embiid problem and them not really being able to match up with him super well. But as we saw the especially at the end of games, they were able to really swarm Embead into limit his effectiveness last year. So like I think they match up pretty well with Philly and Milwaukee. Let's talk about Boston though. Boston is why you get this aggressive. Boston is why

you make these types of deals. They are the ultimate barrier to a finals run for the Knicks. Right. The main question for me in this matchup is can they get Boston in rotation? This means can they actually force Boston to consistently put two on the ball so you can get quality catch and drive, catch and shoot, catch and pass situations on the weak side. If the Knicks go with their starters. Let's talk about Cat for a second,

because Cat is the key here. If they go with what they started the preseason with with Josh Hart in the lineup, we know how the Celtics will guard that. They'll put Tatum on Cat, they will switch the Brunson cat two man game, and they'll put Porzingis on Josh Hart, and they will dare Josh Hart to make above the break threes. We just know that's what they're gonna do. It's what they do to everybody, right. I also think if they go with Horford at center, they'll just switch everything.

But we'll get to that more here in a minute. So let's say that the Knicks counter this by going to duce McBride instead of Josh Hart. Duce McBride shot forty five percent on above the break threes in the playoffs last year, pretty decent volume, shot forty percent on above the break threes in the regular season. You put him out there, You're not putting Porzingis on duce McBride. Now, Porzingis is probably on Karl Anthony Towns at that point.

Now you're opening up the pick and pop. Now Boston is putting two on the ball with Kat, with a Brunson in a ball screen with Cat. Every time down the floor. That is where you have the potential to play Porzingis off the floor. Why is it important to play Porzingis off the floor because he is one of the best switch beaters in the entire NBA. To attack your mismatches on the other end of the floor, I think the key to guarding Boston well is to switch

and contain the ball. If you let them get to their easy screening actions, they're going to get you into rotation with just a ghost screen or a pick and pop, and then they're gonna pick you apart in their driving kick. Right. Anything you have to hedge or drop against, they're gonna

get you in rotation. But if you can switch and you can contain the basketball, that's where you can potentially get them to settle for jump shots, maybe take some lower quality threes, go cold, and then you have the opportunity for brunts and to potentially alpha dog them on

the other end of the floor. Right then on the other end of the floor, you can turn it into take them trying to attack Cat and Iso Tatum trying to attack Brunson and Iso, and then you have Michael Bridges, Oh Jan Andobi, guys like Juce McBride that can cover ground in rotation on the weak side when they get beat right. But if Porzingis is off, the Celtics will likely go to Horford at center, and with that group they switch everything. And now Brunson's probably going to have

to attack Horford every time. And Boston, similar to the Knicks, has a lot of length and speed on the back end to rotate as well, with Derek White, Drew Holliday, Jason Tatum, and Jaylen Brown. So honestly, like, the more and more I try to talk myself into a Knicks defeat of Boston, the more and more I just think Boston is the better team. I think Kat is a slightly better player than Porzingis, but Porzingis is better at some specific things that make him particularly valuable to Boston.

For instance, Porzingis is better at posting switches than Kat. That's a significant thing that Boston can use in the playoffs when things bog down in the half court. He's also better at protecting the rim than Kat. O Jan Andobi and Michale Bridges are two very good forwards, but Tatum and Brown are substantially better, and Jalen Brunson is obviously better than Boston's guards. But the two Boston guards together, Jew Holiday and Derek White, they kind of keep that

battle pretty close. Brunson is the key. He's the one guy who's capable of out executing Jason Tatum in the half court at the end of these games. But the Knicks have to keep it close for that to be a possibility. And Tatum is no slouch. He's just as capable of out executing Brunson in those situations. So there's a path. You can see the path right play play chrisops porzingis off the floor, get into a lot of

switching on defense, bait Boston into taking bad shots. Brunson starts picking on Horford on the other end, keep the games close. Brunton out executes Tatum in the clutch. That's kind of like the pathway, but it feels like a very slim pathway among all the possible outcomes. The Knicks are certainly closer to Boston than they were, and I think they do have, in all likelihood the best chance of getting this done, but the talent is stacked against them.

It's going to be a challenge. So how can the Knicks increase their chances? How can the Knicks make it more likely that they catch the smaller of those outcomes, which is them finding that pathway to victory. I would just attack the regular season like nobody's business. Boston is the defending champion, they have massive talent advantage over the rest of the league. It's possible that they approach the season with a little bit more of a lackadaisical attitude.

I personally think Boston will stay locked in. I think they're pissed off at everybody because they're not getting enough respect for their title. But there's a chance that they come into the season with a more lackadaisical attitude. You have to be playing better basketball than Boston will when you get to that matchup in May, in early May or late May, right, and that's going to require an

obsessive attention to detail that starts now. One of the big things I'm gonna be looking at with the Knicks early in the season is just how dominant they are. The example I want you guys to think of is Houston in twenty eighteen. They were sharper than Golden State all year. We all knew Golden State was better, but they were sharper than Golden State all year. They stayed significantly above them in the standings. They had the best

record in the league. If I remember correctly, I think they won sixty five games, and so when they ran into Golden State they were able to jump them a little bit. Now they ended up losing, but maybe if CP three doesn't get hurt, it goes differently. I think Golden State so wins no matter what. But Houston gave them, gave themselves a really good chance to win by just taking the regular season more seriously than Golden State did.

And I don't think these Celtics are really good. I don't think they're as good as the KD Staph Warriors. So like control the controllables, attack the regular season, be sharper and jump Boston when you get there in May. That I think is the best way for them to increase their chances, just attacking the regular season and being one of those truly dedicated day in, day out types of teams. All right, let's move on to our mail.

Bick Melbag I think Dre needs to play the five most of the season when he's paired with Trace or Loon, there's not enough shooting on the court. Maybe in three guard lineups with Steph Healed and whoever their third best shooter is, but you put Dre at the five, and there's a lot of space for JK Wigs, Steph and the other guard to operate. The Warrior season crumbled last year with dray and Lune playing together without enough shooting,

too easy to double off them. Trace might pair a little better with Dre, given he's a lop threat, but it still gives two players defenders that can that defenders can ignore and focus on Steph. So we all agree that I think most Warriors fans agree that Draymond at center is going to be their best look, there's no doubt,

and they're going to close games with that. It'll be Wiggins coming and Draymond and Steph and whichever guard makes the most sense, whether that's you know, Buddy Heal's red hot tonight he's closing, or it's the Anthony Melton, or it's Brandon Patiemski, whoever ends up being. They're going to do some combination of that, right, But it's about eating

innings in the regular season. When you're smaller, you have to compensate with obsessive effort because you're constantly covering ground to make up for it, whether it's in transition or in rotation. But when you're big, you're big no matter what. And so the idea behind going big is you make it easier on a night in and night out basis for you to do your job because you don't have

to cover as much ground when you're big. Just being big vertically, by just standing, you're able to get to more defensive rebounds, You're able to protect the rim a little bit better, You're able to absorb contact a little bit better. So that's the idea. It's about being big for the sake of eating innings over the course of eighty two games, which I understand. Again, we all know that what they have to do when it comes down

to winning time. But this is just about treating the eighty two game season with the appropriate level of like conservative nature to make sure that you have all your guys when you need them, and that I do understand. I do lean Tray Jackson Davis over Kevon Loony just because I think Trace brings motor and I think he brings speed, and I think that gives them the ability

to kind of convert defense into offense. And I do think this team is going to be able to force a lot of turnovers and get out on transition, especially with Draymond playing helpside defense more this year as a four man. So I am curious to see how it all turns out. But I do understand why they have to go big to start the year. I genuinely cannot fathom how the Nuggets are above the MAVs, So let me just explain why I have the Nuggets above the MAVs.

I just think the Nuggets are a more talented team. I think Jokic is slightly better than Luca. I do think Kyrie is slightly better than Jamal Murray, but I do think that Murray and Jokic compliment each other a little bit better and have more pop as a two man game, So I'm gonna give them the slight edge after that though, I think Gordon is a better player

than PJ. Washington. I think Michael Porter Junior, at this point in his career, is a better player than Klay Thompsonnuggets will have a better defense than Dallas this year. I think Mike Malone is a better coach than Jason Kidd, So like, I also think the Nuggets just present more matchup issues to teams because of the Jokics problem. So I just think the Nuggets are a better basketball team. That's why I have the Nuggets over Dallas right now.

This guy refused to explain how the Nuggets and Thunder beat Dallas and instead goes on about the Celtics, who they can only play in the finals. Denver ran into a matchup issue with Minnesota, and that was exacerbated by the fact that both KCP and Jamal Murray got hurt in the Lakers series, and the Nuggets were a bit worn down, a bit like worn down just by a long playoff run the year before, long season hard series

against the Lakers in the first round. Right, like they get worn down, they break down officially in that Minnesota series, Like imagine that too, Like your guards are how you navigate Minnesota's ball pressure. And both of them were dealing with bad wheels and then KCP was an ankle and Jamal Murray was a calf. Just makes things harder, right, But here's the thing, they were still up twenty in

Game seven. They just blew it right. If they had survived, I would have picked them against Dallas because Dallas doesn't have a soul who can remotely guard Jokic and Aaron Gordon is one of the best options in the league to throw at Luka Doncic. So like Okay and then as far as Oklahoma City goes, Oklahoma City was a free throw away from playing Dallas in Game seven at home. They had a lot dunked to Chet that put them

up by one heading into the final possession. In Game six in Dallas, Dallas one, Dallas one, fair and square, Luca made a play. PJ. Washington got fouled. He made the free throws game over right, but that was a very small margin. If Oklahoma City gets a stop on that last possession, we're heading to Oklahoma City for Game seven,

where they're favored. And they added this summer two additional role players that are high level veterans that will help them on both ends of the floor and address specific needs for them. I think Oklahoma City would beat Dallas in a series this year, So there you go. Like I I didn't explain it in the last one, but I think the Nuggets present more matchup issues for Boston. I would pick Denver over Dallas right now. I would pick Oklahoma City over Dallas right now. And I just

gave you some of the basketball reasons why. There was an interview with Jason Kidd this week in which he talked about applying some triangle offense concepts with the MAVs after visiting Phil Jackson. He really specifically emphasized less dribbling and more quick passes instead of holding the ball as a key takeaway. Besides that, he also mentioned wanting someone other than Luca to bring the ball up and to

have Luca attack from different areas on the court. Beat writers have speculated this might mean more mid post and low post touches for Luca, as well as more handoffs. Since Kyrie and Luca ranked first and second among fifty seven players are ran at least three hundred handoffs last year. Do you think these are things that are beneficial ways to improve the Dallas offense. As for defense, I think Dallas'

potential woes have been a little overstated. Clay is no longer elite defensively, but he isn't below average or a cone. By the way, I know, MAVs fans sound a little salty in the comment, but it's because it feels like everyone is underrating the moves we made and our chances, just like last season. Hope you aren't too annoyed with the comments, Jason, thanks for the breakout. Don't worry about the comments. I've been doing this for like what two

and a half years now. February first will be three years since I started with the volume, so I'm kind of used to it at this point. I've just basically learned that every fan base is mad all the time. Like literally every video up to this point has had fans complaining about where teams are ranked. So like it is what it is, like, go look at the Minnesota video or like the Milwaukee video, Like everyone's pissed off all the time. I'm kind of just used to it.

Every fan base thinks their team gets unfair coverage, so I never take that sort of thing personally. Also, I know that for every one person who complains in the comments, there's you know, a thousand or so that actually watched the video and don't complain, so I try not to read too much into that. I do love the idea of having Lucas start possessions off the ball and specifically

coming off of handoffs. This is actually a five out concept, and this is an example of an easy five out concept they could add this year to kind of juice things up for them offensively. It saves wear and tear from ball pressure. There's just no reason to have Luca bring the ball up the floor against the guy who's gonna turn him once or twice and make him make all those additional cuts over the course of a game. That's another forty another fifty cuts that can wear a

guy down. I'm not saying you don't have him bring the ball up at all, but I think it is helpful to have Lucas start some possessions in the corner and then literally have the ball handler bring up the floor the ball at the floor, and then just run that like kind of five out delay action, like a Chicago action where like Kyrie brings the ball up the left wing, Luca's in the right corner, Klay Thompson is

on the right wing. You have Kyrie bring it up the left wing, you dump it to Lively who's trailing at the top of the key. Derek Glively turns towards the right corner, Klay Thompson pins down and screens for Luca. Luca then comes off of Clay and off the dribble hand off and comes downhill into the lane. It's the same type of reads that Luca makes in his ball screen, right, like Lively's rolling off that dribble handoff going to the

rim for a dunk. Inevitably, by virtue of Chicago action, Klay Thompson is probably going to be open on a skip back, right. Like, I love involving Clay in screening actions with Luca as much as possible, but it's just a simple way to like save him wear and tear and ball pressure, have him attack with a little bit more of a complication. And once again one of the things I talked about yesterday, Remember, running action just makes it so that there's more like more likelihood that the

defense will make a mistake. If you bring the ball to the floor and just run a ball screen. It all of a sudden just becomes entirely about Luca's superpowers. And we all know that Luca has great superpowers, but running offense is what forces defense to make lots of decisions which can lead to more mistakes. Well, what I want to see is I want to see lucas superpower combined with defenses making mistakes. That's what I want to see because that's where I think you can squeeze a

little bit more out of that sponge. So, like, I think that makes a lot of sense. You can always default back to Luca ball at the end of possessions. You run some stuff doesn't work, Oh there's ten on the shot clock. Throw it to Lucas at a ball screen. Now we're playing, right. But like, I think, just exploring more of those five out concepts will just help juice their off a little bit, might increase their pace a little bit too, because Luca tends to bring the ball

to the floor a little slowly. Have someone else bring up the ball at the floor. That might be a little bit more pace to the offense. It's so fun to watch the Lakers actually drop plays instead of freestyling all season. So a couple things. The Lakers actually ran

plenty of action last year. In fact, even though JJ Redick has added some stuff, those those dribble weave concepts we were talking about in the Monday Show, a lot of the stuff they ran in the first two preseason games were the same concepts that they were running last year, some like post up split cut stuff and some like horn sets that they run Like a lot of that was the same stuff they were running last year. The key is running action more frequently, which they have, and

two adding complications and counters, which will take time. These are like little wrinkles that you add to sets, both on and off the ball, depending on what a defense is doing to cover it. Right, Those are things that take time though to implement, and then most importantly overall attention to detail and accountability. So like, for instance, one of the things that JJ Reddick's been talking a lot

about in his press conference is a screening. So like one of the things I talk about all the time is, like, you know, focusing on sets is important because they obviously bring value and all the things we talked about by promoting more mistakes from the defense, things along those lines, right, But like the most important thing is how well you

actually run the set. Like if we run a basic ball screen, but my guard does a really good job of setting his man up for the screen by selling one way to then come back the other way, and I get a really good screen, Like a really good screen, Like that's gonna get me better offense than if we run a beautiful five out set but no one fucking screens, right, Like, those are little details that matter. Setting up your man for a screen screening properly, actually coming off of that

screen with power, like coming off with force. If you come off the screen soft, you're not gonna engage the screen defender. There's all these like little details that make sets effective. And that's the thing. Like they can run the same shit they ran last year as long as they run it better with more attention to detail and more frequently, and so like those are all these like little details that get Like basketball at its very core

is fundamental. If you like literally just run your lanes and transition really hard, make kickout passes when they're available, and drive closeouts properly. You can get good shots. Just by playing drive in kick and transition push basketball. You can be successful, like we talked about in spamming ball screens, if you're just really good with your details in the ball springs. Details matter, and so you have to coach details. You have to hold people accountable on details. You have

to that. That is the type of obsessiveness that every good basketball team has. All right, last one at some point, this guy needs to be honest about the Lakers. Here are the facts. Lakers twenty twenty three twenty twenty four season offense was not good. Playing team swept first round. Offensive rating one sixteen fifteenth out of thirty, defensive rating one fifteen sixteenth out of thirty, Net rating plus point zero six nineteen thoutd of thirty. Again, this is just

a really dishonest way to characterize the Lakers season. Over the Lakers last forty six games, they had the fourth best record in the league in the third best offense. That's not just a stretch run. That's not just the end of the year when the best teams are preparing for the postseason and the bad teams are tanking. That's forty six games. That's fifty six percent of the entire season.

And that's not just stacking wins against bad teams. That seventeen wins against the top ten in point differential teams, which is tied with Boston for the most in the NBA. And that's bracketed on the other end by them winning the nd season tournament. They were bad for less than a month. Now here's the thing. A three to ten stretch in a remarkably talented Western conference will be very damaging.

And that is what colored the Lakers the way they did, and that's why most of the casual fans who weren't watching them very closely didn't think they were very good. But they were very good in all of the games spanning that Just again, you can't afford to go three to ten out west forty seven games though. Just look at that three and ten, right, that's thirteen games. Let's say that they just go like with their normal win percentage of the season. So let's say they go seven

and seven and six. That's less than their normal winning percentage of the season. Let's just say they go seven and six, so barely over five hundred in that three and ten stretch. Now they're a fifty one win team. And again, during that stretch, they were actively trying to get their coach fired, like pouting, not playing hard, leaking stuff to the press. It was an ugly stretch, I'm not debating that, but it was a forty six game stretch after that where they took off and were awesome.

Not to mention the fact that it had a lot to do with the fact that they started using a lineup that never played before January. The lineup of Austin Dilo, Rui Braun and Anthony Davis, the one that carried them to that forty six game stretch, did not play at all. In the first half of the season, did not play. So here's the truth. They were bad for less than a month, but they were mostly awesome the majority of

the season. Are the Lakers in the inner circle contenders? No, they have too many flaws, but they absolutely belong in that next tier of teams. And I've been consistent about that. I didn't say I picked the Denver Nuggets to beat the Lakers last year in the postseason. I don't have any delusions of grandeur with the Lakers. I think that they're another one of the good teams below the contender tier. But they have a really strong foundation in Lebron James

and Anthony Davis. So if they can hit on a trade, if they attack the season with the appropriate level of attention to detail, they can crack into that group potentially if some things go their way, which is the same thing that can be said about every other team that's in that tier. All right, guys, that's all I have for today as always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We will be back. I'm actually later this afternoon recording with Claire Dalon about the GM survey

that's coming out on Friday. Tomorrow is going to be a bunch of preseason reactions, So preseason reaction tomorrow, GM Survey stuff on Friday. Then we have one more week before we get into the regular season. Again, as always, I appreciate you guys, and I'll see you tomorrow the volume What's Up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a

second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.