Hoops Tonight - NBA Reaction: Giannis DROPS 59, Wembanyama 50, LeBron TRIPLE-DOUBLE in Lakers win

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to whom tonight. You're at the volume heavy Thursday. Everybody hope all of you guys have had a great week so far. Got a jam pack show for you today. We had a crazy Wednesday night slate. We had two fifty point games, a crazy Lebron James Tree. We'll double a couple other guys at big time nights. So what we're gonna do. We're gonna go over five great performances

from Wednesday so I can bounce around those games. And then at the tail end of the show, I have eighteen clips for a film session that I want to go over some stuff with Karl Anthony Towns in the way he's been unlocking things for the New York Knicks. I want to talk about Steph Curry's just ridiculous performance

down the stretch against the Dallas Mavericks. And then at the tail end we're gonna go over some stuff with Giannis and how he's been using inverted ball screens to cause problems for opposing bigs that try to guard him. So film session at the tail end, five great performances from Wednesday off the start, and then we're out of here for the day. You guys have the joke before we started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You

don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JCNLT so you guys don't miss you announcement. So forget about a podcast feed. Wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight, don't forget it's helpful if you leave you a rating and a review on that front. Also, New social media feeds for the Hoops Tonight channel on Twitter, Instagram,

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keep dropping mail bag questions into the YouTube comments. The questions for Friday I've already chosen, but we're gonna keep doing mail bags on every Friday, and I go back through the week to find questions in the YouTube comments, So make sure you keep dropping them there for next week's mail bag. All right, let's talk some basketball. So five great performances from Wednesday. Let's start number one. Jannis I'm tennant Kompo fifty nine points, fourteen rebounds, and seven assists.

Three things that I want to hit on from this particular game. First of all, posting mismatches, doing the work early in possessions to get the right guy that you're

trying to attack in space. Did a lot of that with Paul Reid in the first half, right, like just because like like one of the things we've seen with a lot of teams with Yannis, and this has been for a while, dating all the way back to I remember watching a FEBA game where nikolea Jokic did a pretty good job on Yannis, because like, if you give him enough space to make those left right slides to meet him at spots, and you're strong enough to absorb contact,

you can at least force him to shoot shots over the top right. And like we've seen teams try that, like let's put a big, huge athlete on him, sit further back, beat him to spots and absorbed contact. Well, there's no reason to do that if you don't have to, if you can get him switched off of you earlier.

In possessions. The second piece of it is inverted ball screens, and this is a concept I've talked a lot about on this show because it the inversion is in the defensive roles, and that is where it changes what is strengths for two players into weaknesses. So like guards that are guarding ball handlers are pretty used to getting screened, so they're good at navigating screens, they're good at seeing them coming, they're good at like preparing for screens while

also simultaneously keeping their attention on the ball handler. That's what they do for a living. Right, screen defenders big guys, they're really good at seeing a guy coming off of a screen and being able to corral someone at them in those situations. But as soon as you invert that process, suddenly you have big guys that don't know how to navigate screens, that don't know how to be aware of where screens are coming from while also being aware of the ball handler, and they can be kind of mixed

up in those situations. And then a smaller guard who is going to struggle with someone coming heads with the head of steam at them when they're in more of like a drop coverage situation, or in many cases, they don't even think to help because they're usually staying glued to the screener because they're so fixed on the ball handler because that's what they've been doing since they were

young basketball players. It inverts all of those roles. The main way you saw that in this game because Gianni's got both Jalen Dura and Isaiah Stewart with inverted ball screens. In those situations, you're watching Duran and Stuart looking left to right like trying to figure out where the screen is coming from, and they're just not able to quickly

process what's happening and how to react to it. And next thing you know, Joanna's assuming that on them at a down pass them at full speed and it's either a dunk or another easy kickout pass. Those inverted actions and they did a lot with aj Green, they did a lot with Pat Conaton in this game. Those inverted actions just give Yannis the ability to get downhill again.

If he's attacking Isaiah Stewart in a one on one situation, he might just give him five feet, beat him to a spot and force him to shoot over the top. But if you're able to get him mixing up into screening actions, it's more than likely that he's going to be going to be able to get more easy dribble penetration. And then the third piece of it is the hesitation jumper. So one of the most interesting kind of subplots of

the season. I've talked about it a few times, but one of the most interesting subplots of the season is that Giannis has cut way down on his three point volume. He's taking zero point eight threes per game, which is his lowest since twenty fifteen. But he's way more effective from the mid range this year than he's been in his entire career. And this is like the other piece

of it. Right in those one on one situations when the guy's giving him tons of space to try to beat him to the spot and absorb that contact in the chest, that's where Yannis can actually get into that little hesitation jumper and knock it down. And it's counterintuitive because you think, oh, it'd be better offer Gianis to work on threes because all he has, all he has to do is get to thirty three percent and now he's getting one point per shot. Well, here's the thing.

Jannis can't make threes. That's the problem. So like it doesn't matter what any whatever analytical advantage you get or mathematical advantage you get from taking threes, if you can't

make them. It is clear that Yannis is capable. We've seen it various points through phases like twenty twenty one where he shot free throws extremely well to this year with the mid range, like he's just more comfortable with his release in that fifteen foot range, and so like many times last night he had fifteen points just on off the dribble jump shots last night. So he gets

into that high hesitation and again the high hesitation. Just imagine like it's it kind of looks a little bit like a carry where you're like sitting in between dribbles with the ball with your hand kind of a little bit on the side, a little bit underneath the ball. It is a bridge move. It's a move I teach for my high school kids where it's like, you can go anywhere from this move. If you're in the high hesitation,

you can rise into a jump shot. You can cross back over to the left, you can go between the legs to the or to the right. I should say you can go between the legs to the right. You can go behind the back to the right. You can throw an in and out dribble, you can go into a step back dribble. You can launch yourself forward into a driving move, or you can just rise up into a jump shot. And so it's the They call it a hesitation move because it usually gets the defender to hesitate.

In a lot of cases, right like you're hesitating, the defender's hesitating, everyone freezes for a second, and you have an opportunity to rise up into a jump shot, and so Giannis uses it almost to set his rhythm right. The defender is playing off of him, so it's not like Yannis needs to make some sort of move to get to a jump shot. But a lot of times having a move anyway that you go to will help

you set your rhythm. So, for instance, if he just walks into a jumper, it might feel clunky and awkward, but if he's in the gym going I took, you know, one hundred hesitation mid range jump shots per day the entire summer, he can ground himself mentally in a way that goes, I'm going to sit in this hesitation dribble and then rise up into this jump shot and it's gonna feel like I'm in the gym by myself. And so he's actually gotten pretty damn efficient with that shot.

He's shooting forty nine percent on off the dribble jump shots field goal percentage overall, forty five percent on jump shots, and he's getting zero point nine to five points per jump shot attempt, which is by far the best of his career. That has been a huge thing that has helped piece together a reliable over the top game for Giannis. This year. He's also shooting a higher percentage of hook

shots two. Although he's not using him as much as I'd like, Giannis is playing some of the best basketball of his career. He's absolutely hooping his ass off. It was kind of funny last night watching Isaiah Stewart. Every time Yiannis would make a shot in the early part of the game, he'd throw one of those like kind of condescending waves at him, and then Giannis just kept

making him. And then Isaiah Stewart had yet another characteristic, complete and total breakdown on the court as he yanks Janis out of this guy and ends up getting a flager at two and getting ejected. But that's Isaiah Stewart for you. A big shot. One other thing with Giannis that I thought was really impressive last night. Sometimes, like making simple basketball plays doesn't get the attention that it deserves.

And there were a couple of big plays in this game where Yannis just hit Torreon prints on like swing passes, meaning like he's dribbling at the top of the key and Torreon's guy's kind of digging down to the nail to try to help contain Giannis's drives, and Yanis just rifles a swing past to Torrean prints right in the shooting pocket, and he's able to rise up and shoot.

It's not anything special. He's not running a fancy pick and roll and whipping a cross court pass, or like drawing a double team and making some beautiful read It's just simple basketball. I'm dribbling at the top of the key. This dude's digging down into the lane. If I throw this pass on time and on target, we can get a three point shot. I don't have to put wear and tear on my body. We don't have to put

everybody else through all these different screening actions. Like the entire purpose of running a screening action or any sort of five man action is to try to get a close out. Here's one that's being drafted to us, just by the way that they're guarding to Orian Prints. Let's lean on that. Those are little things that make you a more efficient basketball player. A lot of times we think of dramatic improvement when it comes to improving as a playmaker as a score. Many times it's just the

simple things. A lot of times, improving as a score can be generating three, four, five additional easy looks a game just by improving your basketball instincts getting open jumpers off of a decent relocation, or running off of a screen, or running in transition, or getting two to three back cut layups a game just by beating overplays like they become better scores by just finding more easy stuff. Same

thing goes with playmaking. A lot of times, it's like, oh, like a lot of the best playmakers in the world have four or five assists a game that are just easy. It's like, oh, I dribbled off this ball screen and just whipped it behind the back pass to the popping big because he's wide open every single time that you run a pick and pop against the drop coverage, like, I don't need to do something surgical here, Let's just take the easy reads that are available in the game.

And I thought that those swing passes to Torian Prince were a classic example of that. Last night, Bucks get two wins in a row. The Bucks are now one point five games back of the four seed in the Eastern Conference. This is why, with all these questions surrounding trades for the Bucks, I've kept saying the same thing. It is way too soon to bail on the season for Milwaukee. It's been a disaster, no doubt, you should feel lower on this team than you did to start

the year. They haven't looked good. I'm not trying to change that. But this is not over. There is so much time left. There's a lot of different things that could go one way or another over the course of this season. Who knows what kind of trades that could be available to them, who could become available in the buy out market, like, who knows what this looks like in the long run. They're one point five games back to the four seed, and most importantly, they're starting to

show more competitiveness. I'm seeing more fight out of them, even in their last couple of losses. There's just more fight. There's fight in the next game, there's fight in the Celtics game. There's just fight coming from this team. And look at their next eleven games. They have Charlotte, Houston, Chicago, Indiana, Charlotte again, Miami, Washington, Detroit in Atlanta. It's completely reasonable to think that they could be right back in the

mix of things by the end of that stretch. Second big performance from last night, Victor Webbin Yama goes for fifty points eighteen for twenty nine from the field all about the jump shot. Right with Victor, he had eight threes. Twenty eight of his fifty last night came off of jump shots. Some of it's about action, right, like the picking and popping again is like I've been harping on the pick and pop. It's always open. It's literally always open.

The only time it's ever not open is if teams don't run a traditional coverage, like if they switch or if they rotate from the weak side. And if they rotate from the weak side, you have easy kickout passes

for threes. And if they switch, that's where you can get mismatches that you can look to attack, especially when you have the type of talent that Victor wimben Yama is right, But like when you pick and pop against a traditional screening coverage, meaning like the big sets the screen, the guard comes off and the big pops to the

top of the key, he's always open. It's literally always open because of the assignments of the the guard is chasing over the top, he's staying attached to the ball handler. The big man is dropping and containing the ball handler. So if the big slips out of the screen to the top of the key. He is literally always open, and that's why I love that action so much for centers. That's what Carl Anthony Towns has been doing so well

with the sixers, which we'll talk about. Last night in the Laker game, Anthony Davis once again picking pop. It's just literally always open. And so if you have a guy who's willing and able to take and make that shot, it's such a thing that opens up things for your offense. And then trailing and transition is another big one I've talked about. I'll show you guys an example in the

film session with Carl Towns, but he did. Victor did a lot of that last night, like trailing the play, catching at twenty five feet and then just rising and shooting. But the reality is is you can't do anything with Wemby. If he's making his jump shot. The action's cool and he gets open, sure, but like it doesn't matter if he's open or not because the release point is too high. And then at this point too, when you start hitting the way Victor has been over the last couple of games,

guys start chasing him off the line. Now he can drive closeouts. He had a bunch of baskets driving closeouts for like dunks and stuff. Last night. This goes to the stuff I've been talking about with Nicole Yokich all season, like the big man shooting threes. You want to know what else biggs don't do. Remember when we talked about the inverted ball screens and how big guys can struggle

to navigate screening actions. You know what else? Big guys suck at closing out because you know what, when they were kids, they weren't closing out often to the three point line. Most of the time. They're containing working more about like helping behind on the back line in the paint. Right. So guess what, there's going to be a lot of opportunity for Victor women Yama with the Alex Sar types of the world sprinting out at him to beat them off the dribble and to get dribble penetration that way.

Victor had just six points in the first ten games of the season out of spot up situations. He hit fourteen in the last two games. And again, they're not all just catching shoot threes. There's a lot of those that are driving closeouts, and so like, with how high his release point is, I just think this is really fascinating. This is an interesting trend that I'm seeing around the league, really athletically gifted athletes that are investing in the jump

shot as their foundation. I put down five examples Victor Wemnyama, Jason Tatum, Anthony Edwards, Jalen Green, and Houston deeron Fox and Sacramento. These are guys that are apex athletes in one way or another. Victor with his insane length and mobility for his size, Tatum with that combination of size and strength, Ant is like freaky athletic and strong. Jalen Green freaky athletic, dearon Fox, potentially the fastest player in

the league. These are guys that have insane physical traits that should, in theory, be weaponized more aggressively towards the basket. And all of those guys are taking more than ten jump shots a game. Ant's taken over fourteen, Tatum's taken over thirteen. They're taking tons and tons of jump shots,

and I think this is really, really fascinating. It's an interesting trend that we're seeing around the league that these young, freaky athletic players are investing so heavily into the jump shot as their foundational skill, and again, I think it mostly comes down to the analytics side of things. It's

hard to argue with the results. I mean, if Victor Weben yam I got twenty four points at the three point line last night on sixteen attempts, there's a point where the math comes into your favor, Like had a really bad jump shooting game last night, but like over the course of the season, the jump shot is taking a jump shot has been one of the most efficient shots that the Minnesota Timberwolves can get this season in

any type of situation. And so again there's a conversation to be had about like, Okay, well what about when we get into the small sample size and like all these dudes are taking threes and then they can go you know again, like there's a sixty ish percent chance that you're going to miss a shot like that in a big situation, in a big situation at the end of the game, And there's a complicated conversation to be

had about that. And yes, I do think these players need balance for that reason, but I've seen a lot of it, like Tatum's working a lot closer to the basket, attacking mismatches in the mid range at certain points in the games. This year, I've seen Victor webin Yama do it when he needs to. These guys can do it. I just think it's really interesting that these players are investing so much in the jump shot is a foundational

skill for them. In the regular season, Victor is starting to get it, going first nine games eighteen points and ten rebounds on forty one percent from the field twenty three percent from three, his last three games thirty six and twelve on fifty nine percent from the field fifty four percent from three, and the Spurs have won five out of eight and are up to six and six in the Western Conference. Man, there are a lot of good teams out West. Number three from our five great performances.

Last night, Jatum thirty six points, nine rebounds in tennis. That a lot of the same stuff that he's been doing all year. He had twelve points in like straight ISO situations. That's the most he's had in a game since the Knicks game on Opening Night. He's becoming so great at using his super strong upper body to win leverage battles, to get dribble penetration, and then he's getting defenders out of position and drawing a lot of fouls.

He drew two more fouls and ISO situations last night, and then the jump shot just continues to go in at a high clip. Twenty one of his thirty six points last night came on jump shots. He's getting one point zero nine points per jump shot for the whole season. That's up from last year one point three to three

points per catch and shoot jump shot. That's insane. The big one there is he's he's doing what I call like a delayed closeout shot where and this almost exclusively works for taller players, but like it's where a lot of times when guys close out, they will close out hands high, but then they'll sit low when they get there, and there's like a little bit of like a hesitation as the defender goes shot first, then worry about the

drive right. And one of the things you'll see Tatum do is he'll catch on the perimeter and actually like let the dude close out, but then like look down as if he's going to drive, and then he'll just

rise up into that jump shot. So it's like it's like a catch and shoot with just the slightest hesitation on the catch that lets the defenders sit low in a stance thinking he's gonna drive for second, and it turns into a little bit of a delayed hand up on the shot, And as a result, he's hitting a lot of contested ketch and shoot jump shots this year. As a matter of fact, he's hitting fifty percent of

his guarded catch and shoot jump shots this year. And I think that's a super interesting element of like turning like spot up situations that aren't necessarily the highest quality spot up situations into points anyway, by weaponizing his height and using that hesitation to get the defender to sit down into his stance, still only getting zero point nine to six points per off the dribble jump shot. But

I've maintained all season I do believe that Tatum. I just think he's a much better jump shoter than he showed last year. And I just think that I think that even what we've seen to start this year isn't close to what he's going to be. I think he's going to probably finish the year closer to like one point one five points per jump shot overall, in one point zero five points per off the dribble jump shot, Let's keep an eye on it. But that's kind of

where I see this season ending for him. I just think I still think he's not hitting it the way that he's going to over the course of this season. But I want to dig into the playmaking for a bit. Tennisis last night, he's averaging a career high five point six assists per game, six or more assists in each of the last four games, and he's doing it every which way. He's doing a lot of like passing folkrum

stuff for off ball action. We're seeing a lot of this from stars around the league right now, and a lot of teams are using their center for this as well. But like he'll be the hub while like Derek White's coming off of a screening action, He's hitting him with

the pass right away. Or like they'll run action to try to get Jalen Brown a post up matchup that they like right in front of the rim, and like the Tatum will either like make a nice post entry or like the guy will try to front Jalen Brown and then Tatum will throw like a really nice over

the top pass. Tatum had a really nice over the top feet to Jalen Brown last night, for instance, Right, So a lot of like off ball passing, fulcrum stuff, short roll passing is a big one, like screening for the guards, but screening on the inside so you can get inside position and just throwing that hand up ball

comes over the top. And then they just formed these like three on twos on the baseline, usually where there's like shoot in the corner, shoot her in the corner, and like Mimi Queda just sitting under the basket for a lob and then there's usually like one guy steps up and then there's like two guys kind of splitting the difference there, and then Tatum has to make the read.

If one of them sinks in on the lob, then he's got to throw the corner pass, or if he stays out in the corner, he's got to throw the lob pass. And he's just gotten really good at making those reads and then lastly whipping kickout passes on drives, and he had a couple of really nice ones last night to skip passing a ball screen, like a two hand over the top cross court pass to Jalen Brown

in the right corner that went in. You know, another one where he drove along the baseline and just whipped a right handed pass beautifully to a relocating Sam Houser who was kind of looping around to the top of the key. A lot of the same stuff that I talked about from yamis where it's like a lot of the best playmakers in the world they supplement their playmaking with like four or five like really simple easy reads a game, like just a smart kick ahead in transition

to a guy that has an advantage. Now he's getting a three year layup or a swing pass when a guy's digging too much down into nailhelp. A lot of those simple things that supplement those playmaking numbers. But again, I think he's gone up a level in a real way as a playmaker this year. Tatum's off to a great start. Another great game for him last night, Number four Karl Anthony Towns crazy game between the Bulls and the Knicks. The Bulls jumped them, went up by twenty

two in the late third quarter. Zach Lavine is sneaky, looking kind of good this year. I'm really curious to see if there's a team that talks themselves into Levine being a legitimate trade target. I would still be terrified because one, he makes so much money that you have to put out a lot of contracts that could be quality role players to try to get someone like Levine, and then the health risk to me is still just too big for the type of risk that would be.

But who knows, you might be able to get Zach Levine without having to give up draft compensation. And so I wouldn't be surprised if there's some team that talks themselves into and especially a team that has a large contract or two that they can afford to get rid of. But Zach Larvine looks kind of spunky this year. That's an interesting trend coming out of Chicago. But the Bulls jump them, They go up twenty two in the late

third quarter. The Knicks battle back really fast with this crazy late third quarter run, and then it turns into this back and forth dog fight. In the fourth quarter, Dale Brunson hits a little mid range jump shot that should have been the game winner, but then Josh Hart, trying to get a rearview contest on Kobe White, ends up bowling him. I was talking about this with Paul r Our, producer, he's a huge Knicks fan, earlier this morning, and like you know, I understand that the want to

make someone feel uncomfortable in a situation like that. But like, you got to be so careful in those situations because guys flop. And I don't like this, but NBA officials, for whatever reasons, seem hell bent on like microanalyzing three point attempts when it's on a last second possession. There's just so many if he calls that get made in those situations, and so like, you gotta be very, very

careful in those situations. And Josh Hart just took it a little too close and picked up a foul, and then the Bulls hit three free throws, and then Jalen bruns Ha got a decent look on a little left shoulder fade, but it literally went as close to going in as it possibly could without going in, and it pops out and the Nicks end up getting a loss. But Karl Anthony Towns finished with forty six points and ten rebounds. It's his second forty point game of the year.

It's his fifth thirty point game of the year. He's averaging a career high twenty seven points per game a career best sixty five percent through shooting. He was absolutely barbecuing Nikolavusevich last night, especially in closeouts, just driving right by him and getting to the basket. But he was also torching him, just like facing up, hitting jump shots, feeding him as the trailer and transition, a lot of pick and pop stuff, like we talked about. I've got

a couple examples. I'm going to show you guys in the film, not from that game, but from the game against Philly on Tuesday. He is he had twenty four points in the Bulls game just on spot ups and rolls. Here's what's crazy. Karl Anthony Towns has been converting roles and spot ups, both over one point five points per possession to start the year. It's been a huge part

of the Knicks offense to start. We will get a little bit further into that in the film session and the last, but not least, for our five big performances from last night, Lebron James thirty five points, twelve rebounds, fourteen assists for the guy who turns forty in a month.

I a couple of weeks ago, I was talking about the Lakers after they had a couple of bad losses in a row on their road trip, and one of the things I said was like, yeah, Lebron hasn't been too good to start this year, and when the Lakers come out flat like they had on the road in a lot of those games like it certainly is going to manifest in like a lot of issues that Lebron can exacerbate when he's not playing as hard as he's capable of playing, or when he doesn't have the athletic

juice that he's capable of having. But what I said in that situation was, He's not the one I'm worried about. Lebron is He's just such a smart player and such a competitive player that no matter what's going on with him, I always feel like he's going to find a way to get to a really, really high level of impact. He's never been the one that I'm worried about. Well, Lebron's last seven games twenty seven points, nine rebounds, tenn asists on fifty seven percent from the field, fifty percent

from three, eighty four percent from the line. That's sixty eight percent intro shooting percentage. So Lebron's putting up MVP numbers now over the course of the last two weeks. That didn't take long for him to get back up to speed. Again, He's never the one I'm worried about what. Am I worried about Delo? Sometimes? Yes? Am I worried about Ruiey? Sometimes? Am I worried about Gabe? Am I

worried about a lot of different guys on the Laker roster? Absolutely, But Lebron and Ad I just trust them to be at the level they need to be at. That's why I look at this team as such a trade candidate, because like, the foundation has been so rock solid since January of this year, in twenty twenty four, that I feel like it has to be invested in at some point. Lebron's shot creation data has been insane. Lebron has been the best pick and roll player in the league to

start the year. He's getting one point three zero points per pick and roll including passes. That's number one in the league by a mile among the forty players that have run at least one hundred pick and rolls this year. So among those high volume pick and roll players, he's been the best by a lot. The guy in second place is like nine one hundreds of a point behind,

almost a full tenth of a point behind him. He's at one point one zero points per ISO including passes, that's seventh among the nineteen players to run at least fifty and he's at one point zero nine points per post up, which is fifth among the fifteen players to

run at least forty. So Lebron just has completely turned a season around, just like just like we talked about with Yokich the Nuggets, Lebron has completely turned the season around over the course of the last few weeks and is playing once again at that superstar level, which is what the Lakers have needed out of him so badly. How his jump shot continues to be dead. He's at one point two to one points per jump shot this year,

but especially off the dribble. He's getting one point two to one off the catch, but he's also getting one point two to one points per off the dribble jump shot. He's off to his best pull up shooting start of his career, bullying smaller players. He was torching Jalen Wells last night, who got the Lebron matchup from the opening

tip for the injured Memphis Grizzlies team. And then one of the other big things that's really turned things around, uh or I shouldn't say turn things around, but like that. Has been different this year for the Lebron and the Lakers compared to last year is we saw a lot more of what I begged for this summer. If you guys remember from the Olympics, Lebron operated a lot as that passing fulcrum for the top of the key as

off ball action was happening around him. And in those situations, Lebron is able to conserve his legs but weaponize his brain on the offensive end of the floor. In my go listen to the season preview that I did for the Lakers before the year, this was something I begged for. Take the lesson from the Olympics. Lebron chills athletically for

extensive stretches in the regular season, but meant lead. He is still incredibly locked in as a competitor, one of the highest basketball IQ guys in the league, in one of the top two or three passers in the league. So if you put him at the top of the key and you put the ball in his hands and you have everybody running action around him, he can make

the reads to either one, make the kill pass. So like a guy gets open on a cut and he's gonna hit him for a lamp or a guy get breaks open at the three point line, he's gonna hit

him for a shot. But at the very least, Lebron will set up the other offensive players for the Lakers with advantage situations, opportunities to drive closeouts, opportunities with the defenders sprinting at them instead of geared up on them with ball pressure, which again, this has been an issue we're gonna talk about in a minute with the Lakers, but the Lakers have struggled with ball pressure consistently this year,

consistently for a couple of years now. If you can have Lebron operate and let d Lo and Austin, these guys that can struggle with pressure move around off the ball and maybe get a catch for the defenders sprinting at them instead of hand checking them full court, they're gonna have better opportunities to score that way. And that's been a huge part of how leb like. That's been a huge part of what's made this offense work this year is they are using Lebron in a way that

makes sense for his age. He can pick his spots and be aggressive. He had his plays where he looked to bully last night he had his plays where he looked to slash last night, but for the most part, it's knocking down jump shots and operating as a passing fulcrum from the top of the key, which weaponize Lebron's skills that he will bring every night, as opposed to relying on the skills that are very dependent on how his legs are feeling on any given night or how

hard he feels like playing on any given night. I think it's been a really smart approach from the Lakers this year and something I've been calling for all summer. On the Lakers front, big picture, they've won three in a row against some bad teams since they're bad road trip, so the season has basically come down to they're undefeated at home. In the home games, they've beat three good teams and three bad teams, and then they had an abysmal road trip and that leaves them sitting at seven

and four. So like, it's weird because if you told me of looking at their schedule and they've played one of the harder schedules in the league to start the year, if you told me looking at their schedule, like they're gonna be seven and four through eleven games, you would think that I'd be higher on them than I was to start the year. But I'm kind of in a weird spot with the Lakers because I'm actually lower on them than I was to start the season because of

that lack of speed. I think there's been so much that I've learned. I've talked so much about the concept of like ground coverage and covering ground and rotation, covering ground and transition, all the elements that speed bring to the table, dribble penetration, all that kind of stuff. Another big one is like, hey, you got a double team these best players in the league. It's like the only thing you can do. And so if you can successfully double team but rotate out of it, then you can.

You can get away with getting the ball out of the stars hands while still forcing lesser players to take contested shots. But the only way you can do that is if you have the requisite amount of speed in the lineup to cover the ground you need to get out of those double teams looking at like a team like the Warriors against the Celtics. Usually putting two on the ball against Tatum is an absolute death sentence. But if you have the speed to recover out of it,

you can still bog things down in those situations. And so my kind of like influx of appreciation or understanding or whatever you want to call it of the way that speed excuse me leads to success in the NBA. That specifically has caused me to be lower on the Lakers, despite the fact that they've been seven and four, because they still just have too many stretches where basically, this

is what happens with the Lakers. If Lebron and AD don't engage themselves athletically like what they like what they did in the fourth quarter last night. If they don't do that, the team looks dreadfully on athletic because Lebron and Ad are the athletes. Lebron and AD are the

guys that bring that for this group. So there are stretches last night where you know, maybe Lebron's not battling on the glasses hard or AD is not super engaged, and then they just get absolutely mauled on the offensive glass. They gave up thirty four more points in transition last night. They've been basically the worst transition defense in the league. Like whenever Lebron and Ad aren't engaged athletically, the rest of the team looks dreadfully slow and the wheels fall off.

Ball pressure continues to big down their guards every single time. Their guards can't beat it off the dribble and actually create penetration off of it. They struggle with it right. But then when Lebron and Ad engage themselves, they look like a real basketball team because they can cover for some of the athletic limitations of their team. But so many of these games are coming down to Lebron and Ad flexing their individual muscles to regain control of these games.

And last night was such a great example of that, And I think that's a dangerous build for a team that has an older star in Lebron James at age thirty nine. If there was more athleticism to balance out the skill among because the role players have a lot of skill, Ruby is skilled, Austin is skilled, Dilo is skilled, Dalton connect is skilled. They have a lot of skill in their role player corps, but there's not a lot

of athleticism there. If they had more athleticism to balance out the skill among the role players, then they wouldn't have to rely on their stars to leverage their athletic gifts as much as they do. So that's why I'm in a weird spot because on one hand, I'm lower on them than I was to start the year. But on the other hand, I'm also optimistic in the sense that, like if they hit on a trade and if they get Jared Vanderbilt back and they become a faster team.

I still love the Lebron and Ad duo at the top. Austin Reeves once again hit just a ridiculous step back three on the left wing last night that ended up being one of the more important shots in the game. Austin's a hooper, He's a gamer. I count on that guy to make plays. They just need athleticism, and so I'm lower on them. But if they can supplement that athleticism at some point during the season, all of a sudden,

they become a very interesting and dangerous team. In my opinion, I do love the Ad shooting element this second game last night, where he Ad basically closed the game popping to the three point line. Love that he's confident in those situations. I think it's such an important thing for them to lean on because one like I talked about earlier in the show it is always open. The pick and pop is always open in two like make things

easier on yourself. Once you start when eighty's constantly rolling and not popping, it just gets kind of complicated with the spacing and it makes life more difficult for everybody ad being willing to pop, especially if he continues to hit them over the large sample. That could be something that continues to open up those off ball actions for the guards to get to work and for more opportunities to cut into the painted area. All right, let's get into our film session, then we'll be out of here

for the day. If you're listening on the podcast, Feen, you're going to want to head over to YouTube to see that part to actually get the visual representations of what we're talking about. All right, so we are starting. We are starting with the Philly Knicks game from Tuesday night. So this is an example of trailing bigs in transition. So again, this is where we're working against the instincts of a big. Joel Embiid is the guy guarding Karl Anthony Towns. Watch the way he runs down the floor.

He's thinking transition defense like a big, right, So he's gonna sink into the paint or into the well inside the arc. When he catches he's like look at him. He's like, oh shit, because he forgets that Karl Anthony Towns is willing to shoot out here. But it's his natural instinct. His natural instinct is to drop into this area in transition, and Kat's able to just kind of settle into an easy trailing three. It's one of the big ways that Cat's been burning bigs around the league

to start this year is transition trailing action. Here's the action that I've been seeing all around the league this year, which is like, let's put our center at the top of the key and let's throw them the ball. So let's do that first. Here's a high post entry and then basically what you do is you have your two guards up top screen for each other. So in this case, brunts in for Bridges. That puts Kelly Ubra into trail position.

Now Michale Bridges sprints, Ubre's still in trail position. So now Karl Anthony Towns, because he can shoot, has embiid right up on him in Bridges, is going to come right down into this area. Right there's that over the top pass as Kelly's in trail position. Now we have our three on two. Bam, here's our three on two right,

And here's the thing. Lowry actually steps up and technically he could have thrown this kickout pass to Og, but Lowry's small, So mcaale bridge is like, screw it, I'm just gonna go up with this, and he does and he gets a lay up. That's the type of action that I'm seeing all the way around the league to start this year, and I think it's just such a smart approach to using your center and creating space underneath

the basket. This is one of the things I talked about in the show on Tuesday Night, where like Nick Nurse has been having in these ball screens just having Embiid stay glued on Cat. So basically, here's our ball screen, right, we have our ball screen and Embiid instead of dropping look at him, he's just staying attached. Why because Cat's wide open on the damn pop every single time. Then they're forcing the help from an off ball parte player. Right.

So now as Brunston's going downhill, Paul George is basically functioning as the drop player, right, He's functioning as the drop big where Embiid would typically be here, these guys would all be matched up and then Karl Anthony Towns would be wide open. Instead, they're having Embiid stay home. Paul George helps That forces Kyle Lowry to sync down on Josh Hart. Now we have our kickout pass. Here's our closeout. We got our close out pump fake two dribble,

pull up, nice and easy shot for og Ananobi. So like that's the thing. It's just really difficult to guard that pick and pop because if you guard it the way that the Sixers did, you're gonna end up causing other problems elsewhere in your defense. All right, let's get into the end of that Warriors MAVs classic from Tuesday night. I was talking in the postgame show about how like guys just keep making big plays. I thought this was

a random one last night. So we have a transition cross match here, right, So transition defense, everyone grabs the nearest man. It's less about matchups and it's more just grabbing the nearest man. You Basically in transition defense, it's off the ball, guard the basket, then just get matched up regardless of who you're guarding. And so that puts Lively on Buddy Heeled, So then Buddy Heel gets the ball and actually hits a really nice Look at this

dribble combination. I'm gonna slow it down a bit. Look at this dribble combination on Lively between the legs. Left handed crossover back to the right gets him off the dribble. And then that little step. Look at the little gather step that he takes into Lively space. If he just goes straight to the rim, Lively is the superior athlete and he's gonna beat him up top. But watch, I'm gonna slow it down even further. Watch the step that he takes into the lane right on his gather right here.

Watch look how he gathers in right there into Lively space to make it so that Lively can't just go straight b line to the rim. Then he extends out and takes the layup. Really savvy basketball from Buddy Heeld big bucket in that game. This was some of the things I was talking about in the post game two about Moses Moody overhelping in a ball screen. So like Moody's way in the paint here early in the possession, it's just an easy skip pass to Klay Thompson on

the opposite side. But that's kind of one of those things too, where I was talking about with the MAVs with their spacing, if they situate it so that the low man is obviously coming off of Clay, they can generate a lot of those skip passes for him. Luca had a really rough defensive night. This was a classic example of that. Watch as Steph is running through, We're gonna get a ball screen first, Buddy drives. Here's the Steph cut. Okay, so we have Quentin Grimes on Steph,

we have Luca on Moody. Watch Luca, this whole possession just stands there and again, like look, there's all they're doing is slipping this screen, and like Quintin Grimes is chasing and Luca's just standing and Moody just slips right behind him. Now, again, you could argue that's supposed to be a switch. But let's say it's a switch. Luca's

not ready for Steph either. He's too flat footed. He's not in position to do anything even if he switches that Steph's running off of Draymond and getting an either an open three. He's got to be lower in a stance, active, ready to move, and Moody just ends up getting an easy dunk. Again, Steph gravity does that to a lot of people. But if you're going to guard that properly, you need both defenders one hundred percent engaged. This I thought it was a really interesting ISO bucket for Clay

against Andrew Wiggins. So the straight ISO against an elite defender, but a simple action gets gets him the bucket. So first let's watch it full speed and then i'll show you what I noticed in the slow down, which was super fascinating. So Clay's gonna just drive pump fake and drive past Wiggins and get all the way to the basket. So Wiggins should, in theory be athletic enough to show a little bit on a pump fake and not get toasted. But what I want you to watch is his right foot.

In order to push off your right foot, it's got to be planted on the ground. If it's in the air, you're not pushing anything off right So watch Wiggins is right foot on the pump fake. So we get to the ISO and we fast forward a little bit. Here's our ISO. Watch the pump fake. Watch Wiggins right foot so he's played. So if Wiggins were to if Clay were to rip to the right now, Wiggins would be able to easily push off of his foot and beat him to the spot. But watch as Clay pump fakes

his right foot come off the ground. Watch so when his right foot comes off the ground, he loses his leverage in that spot. And look at how often his right foot comes off the ground. It comes off the ground three times. Watch on the pump fake once twice, three times. And so as a result, his weight isn't on that right leg and you can literally see as

he tries to push. Watch as Wiggins tries to push, he has to actually drag himself with his left leg rather than push with his right, and that makes him slow. Watch right here right there, See there's no weight on that leg. So now he's dragging himself with his left leg to try to recover. And then he finally gets a plant with his right foot there to try to recover,

and he's dead to right. So such an interesting example of how a pump fake, just a simple pump fake, got Clay just barely enough of a leverage advantage to beat a much faster player off the dribble. Fascinating little example of basketball fundamentals. This I thought was an interesting example of Steph's gravity that goes under the radar a lot of the time. So Steph's working in ISO against Grimes and gets to a step back, but watches the

action is happening. Watch Gafford. Gafford is ignoring Looney to basically offer a soft double. He's not double teaming Steph, but he's making it so that if Steph drives past Grimes, he's running right into Gafford. Notice from the beginning, I'm gonna play the whole thing. Notice from the beginning, Gafford never actually drops to Looney. He's on Steph the whole time. Right then he looks to Looney. So what's the problem here? Yeah, you force Steph into a jump shot, but you gifted

Looney inside position. Looney's able to easily box out, and now that Looney has inside position, he's able to get the easy offensive rebound put back. I think he just draws a foul in this one. But yeah, again, so like that's an example of Steph's gravity that won't show up in the box score for him as anything positive. It's a missed shot, but he basically Gayve Looney easy offensive rebound position because he was gathering Gafford into help. This I thought was the biggest play of the game

last Tuesday night that went completely under the radar. It's one twelve, one oh five with four minutes left. The maps are up seven. This thing looks like it's close to over. Luca has Steph in miss a mismatch in the middle of the floor. Watch Steph pokes the ball away, gets a steal from Luca in the mismatch, sprints down the floor and the ensuing chaos will speed up a little bit. In the ensuing chaos, d Anthony Melton gets a wide open three, big time shot for d' anthony two.

But that changed the complexion of the game. Now it's one twelve, one oh eight. It's one twelve one o eight now instead of one twelve one oh five. Completely changed the game. And that was a mismatch that could have been a bucket for Dallas. Huge defensive play from Steph Curry. This was just an insane shot that Steph Curry hit against Quinton Grimes. Again, one of the biggest things that I took away from this game. Above and beyond anything else going on with the Warriors, is Steph

just looks great. Like I said, I looked at the end of last year as a slump. I expected him to have a bounce back year, having a big time bounce back year. Look at this superstar move against Quintin Grimes. Rip through over the top, step back, get enough separation, knock it down. This was another play where I thought, Steph. So they ran a lot of this action last night, where they would run an initial screen to get Luca onto Steph. So they get they run the initial screen

to get Luke onto Staff. Then they bring Gafford up into the screen. This was the action they spam down the stretch. But again, this is bad defense from Luca. So you know there's a switch coming. I get it, you know there's a switch coming, but this is too soft of a switch on both ends. Watch Luca just go okay, you go ahead, Steph. See how he just quits. Luca just says, you got it, Steph. And then Gafford's too far back, and Steph just settles into the gap

between them and takes the shot. At the very least, if you're Luca, you've got to stay attached with Steph up until the moment that Gafford is there. Luca was gifting Steph the transition between the switch and Steph Burndham. But look at again all these things. Technically there's an explanation. Okay Luca was switching or the slip from Moody, Okay, Luca was expecting to switch out on to Clay in the corner. I'm not debating that. The problem is it's

not about what he's doing. It's about the fact that he's not actually actively athletically engaged in the game on defense. He is sitting and doing the bare minimum, and that is what teams are capitalizing on at the end of these games and hunting him for and they're getting buckets and it's costing the MAVs games. It's a real problem. It's something that continues to be a problem, extending from last year in the finals. This was crazy, this defensive

play from Draymond. Look at how he's able to offer high help. So he's helping around this free throw line area and able to while offering that high help recover to Gafford at the basket. Notice once again, Gaffer too goes up with two hands. Draymond leads with his left hand. First, watch leads with his left but then he sees Gafford double pump, and as soon as he double pumps, he switches to his right hand and goes after the exposed ball.

Really really high level defensive play from Draymond. Takes a little moment to talk his shit, and these things are all connected, guys, because like here's the very next possession. Watch this. Draymond is once again a little too high and Gafford is behind him. But the fear of Draymond in his wingspan and his instincts causes Klay Thompson to overcook this pass too high. He throws it too high because Draymond is the issue there. If Draymond is not there,

if it's anybody else, you throw a lower pass. Here we go with this same exact action that I was talking about earlier. We get the Wigans screen to get Luca switched on to Steph. Now we're going to run into the ball screen. This is just embarrassing defense from Luca. Steph just literally just does a simple double cross and just goes right around Luca easily to the basket, tows him off the dribble and gets an had one on the scoop shot. Just every time down the floor. They're

going at him every time down the floor. This was the biggest stop of the game in my opinion. Look at the defense from Wiggins on Luca. I talked a lot on Tuesday Night's show about Luca's ability to absorb body blows from Luca without getting completely dislodged and actually knocking Luca a little off balance. This one right here, that blow, he just absorbs the blow. You can look at this last one here, this last bump boom. Notice on that last bump Luca doesn't gain any additional space

right here, not this one. The next one ready right here, Luca holds him off, and now it turns into this one legged fade away from fifteen feet Again. We all know this a shot Luca can take and make, but he's forcing him into the lowest efficiency shot that Luca takes, which is the contested long too. And then in this case we get the exact same sequence Wiggans screen get Luca switch. This time Steph uses the screen switch onto Lively beats him with that little left to right crossover boom.

Game over, fun fun game from the Warriors there on Tuesday night. All right, I just wanted to show you guys a couple of examples of inverted ball screens that Yiannis was running. Once again, I talked about how big guys just struggled to identify and navigate screens. Watch Isaiah Stewart here, Just watch him, watch his head. He's like, is he over here? Wait? Wait? No, is he on the left side? Where is he? Oh? Wait, no, he's

on the other side. Now Jannis is dunking. Look at look at how all Pat Connton had to do was fake that he was running to set a screen on the right and then switch and set it on the left, and it got Isaiah Stewart out of position. The other thing too, look at Kate Cunningham on the hedge. So Content fakes like he's setting the screen on the right side. That makes Cad think, oh, my hedge is over here. So Caid goes to hedge, but Pat actually sets the

screen on the opposite side. CAD's hedge is actually supposed to be over here, it's not. Now Pat effectively can screen both guys and then Jannis gets the dunk. But again, it's all about putting guys into positions that they're not normally in. Exact same thing here with Jalen Duran watch the watch the flip of the screen, this time with Connaton again fakes like he's gonna set it on the left side, causes the hedge on the left side, but then turns and screens the opposite side, and Giannis is

able to get downhill easily. All about putting people in roles that they're not typically in. All right, guess that is all I have for today. Is always a sincerely appreciate you for supporting me and supporting the show. I'm recording a mail bag later this afternoon that will go up on I think it's going up on Saturday and Sunday again. Keep dropping mail back questions. We're gonna get to them on the upcoming Fridays throughout the rest of

the season. As always, a sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. Now, I'll see you tomorrow the volume What's up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting Oops 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.