Hoops Tonight - NBA Team Rankings: How Grizzlies can save season after Ja Morant suspension

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See Sportsbook dot Draft, Kings dot com, slash Football terms for eligibility terms and responsible gambling resources. Bonus bets expire seven days after inch issuance. Eligibility and deposit restrictions apply. All right, welcome to tonight here at the Volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great week so far. We are live on AMPS. If you're watching on YouTube or listening on the podcast feeds, don't forget that AMP is the very first place that you guys

can get these shows. Today's Memphis Grizzlies Day. They come in at number fifteen and our Power Ranking is gonna do a deep dive season preview on them. And then I've got two mail bag questions for the end of the show as well. You guys are the drop before we get started, Subscribe to our YouTube channel, follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt don't forget about our podcast feed under Hoops Tonight and I need mail bag questions. Drop those in the YouTube comments so we can hit

them at the end of our shows. All right, let's talk some basketball. So, like usual, we're gonna start with an offseason recap. The Grizzlies lost Dylan Brooks to the Houston Rockets and free agency, and Tyus Jones was included in the Marcus Smart trade. He's now a Washington Wizard. They added Josh Christopher, who's a bench guard from the Houston Rockets. Talented guard, really good with the ball in his hands, not so good with the ball not in

his hands. But he's a really athletic guard as well. Probably not gonna see much room or time in the rotation given how deep the Grizzlies are at guard, but he's an interesting kind of a pickup for them to

potentially have some success within the long run. It's got to learn how to shoot, though he's shot just twenty two percent on catch and shoot jump shots last year just set seventeen percent when he was unguarded, so that's probably the biggest thing that's going to hold him back from getting minutes playing alongside Desmond Bane, John Moran, and

Jared Jackson. They also signed Derrick Rose. He only played in twenty seven games last year for the Knicks, career low five point six points per game on forty six percent true shooting, but he was good in pick and roll. He ran one hundred nine pick and rolls for the Knicks last year, leading to one hundred and thirty points. That's one point one to nine points per possession, which is in the ninety sixth percentile. He also shot fifty three percent in effective field goal percentage on pull up

jump shots, although only thirty five of them. Because like we said, he was out of the rotation for most of the year. He might play some backup guard while John Moran is suspended, but I don't expect him to be in the rotation when Jott gets back. There is a logjam at the guard position for this Grizzlies team. One of the big themes for this show is going

to be the imbalance in this particular roster. They are deep at center and they are deep at guard, but they do not have a starting caliber forward on the roster. They've got forwards right, guys like Jaron Jackson and Brandon Clark, but they function more as bigs on both ends of the floor. So I mean Jared Jackson can shoot, but I mean he's not gonna attack close outs and play

driving kick the way a guard can. Right, So, for all intents and purposes, they've got a lot of centers and a lot of guards, but they don't really have forwards, and specifically at the guard position, they're stacked, and it's

going to be hard to find minutes for guys. And you know, the reason why this is going to be such a hot button topic in this particular show is like, you guys who followed the show for a while know that the one team that I kind of root for really is the Los Angeles Lakers, and I covered them for a year and a half when they had no forwards, and I've seen how damaging that can be to a basketball team when you don't have guys that are between six six and six ' nine that can dribble, shoot

and pass and guard multiple positions and help with crackdown rebounding and things along those lines. If you don't have those guys, it's hard to be a functional basketball team.

And I think that's something that has been a problem for the Grizzlies even in the past, but losing Dylan Brooks, who kind of was one of those guys, is a you know, he's a little bit shorter on the shorter side, he's six foot six, but he's very big and strong, and he took a lot of those primary forward defensive assignments. Like losing him, you now don't have a single starting caliber forward on the roster, and I think that's something that's going to be a little bit of an issue

for the Grizzlies this year. The lockdam at guard is pretty significant. You have John Moran and Desmond Baine, which you also have Marcus Smart and Lukenard. You also have John conchar and Josh Christopher. You have Derek Rose in there. That's seven guards who can probably play minutes if you need him to. And so that's one of those things that's going to be potentially an issue as the season progresses. Now, what Derek Rose will help with a lot is he's

another grown up in the locker room. I think that bringing in Derek Rose and Marcus Smart was a very deliberate move by this front office to try to get professional basketball players in the room. I think that you know, one of the significant issues for the Grizzlies last year was the distractions, right you know, you guys know I've talked about trash talk on the show. I don't have a problem with trash talk. I don't think there's anything

wrong with trash talk. I'd be lying to you if I sat here and said that I've never talked trash into basketball game before. Of course, it's part of the game. But I think there's a difference between competitive trash talk that takes place on the court, which we see all over the place in every basketball game in America, and then performative trash talk that's directed towards the media. Like, for instance, is John Morant gonna walk up to Steph Curry in the middle of a game and say, I'm

fine in the West. No, I don't think he's gonna do that, but he went to the media and said it right now, Dylan Brooks, he does a little bit of both. But there's a lot of performative talk to the media. And that's the thing is like Steph says, I'm fine in the West, but in order to win the West, you've got to beat Lebron and Steph and Kevin Durant and nicolea Jokic. He ran into two of those guys in the last two years and you lost to both of them. So it was a performative stunt

in the media for whatever reason. Right, nothing wrong with it. He's just a kid. He's a kid, and he had to learn that lesson, right, Dylan Brooks, same kind of thing. It's like, you know, trashing Lebron and say, oh, like waxing eloquent about how he's figured out how to guard Lebron. You just have to be physical with him and send

him left. But in a one position game with a series at two to one with a chance to tie the series, when you needed to stop, Lebron went left and beat you for an end one and then you lost the series. So, like all that performative stuff, it was just a distraction. You'll notice I haven't mentioned Desmond Bain. Desmond Bain is a legendary trash talker already in the NBA. But the difference is he does it on the court. He's not doing it performatively for the media for the fans.

He's talking trash on the court like a competitor. He's looking back to Lebron in a game and saying those footsteps aren't scaring anybody, right, Like That's that to me is way more normal part of the game of basketball. And all of the greats have a certain amount of trash talk element to their game, at least most of

them do. But I think it was important to kind of differentiate between those two and understand that the Grizzlies were talking and acting like a team that had been there and done that, but they had never actually been there and done that, and that culture needed to turn over, and there were two phases to that. It was get Dylan Brooks out of the locker room and then get some grown ups in the room to help joh Moran

with his development. And that's I think the purpose behind bringing in Marcus Smart and Derreck Rose, although with Marcus Smart there was a second purpose there, which is Jamran is suspended for very similar reasons involving his behavior for the start of the season for twenty five games, and you need somebody who can step in and help you there.

And Marcus Smart is a legitimate, like you know, like not just a starting level NBA guard, but a very good starting level NBA guard, And he comes in and helps you a lot in that specific situation. That was your big splashy roster shakeup for this summer for Memphis Grizzlies, Marcus Smart was an excellent or is an excellent defensive guard. He won Defensive Player of the Year two years ago. Marcusmart had a little bit of a defensive decline last year,

but that was kind of a team wide issue. And those of you guys who've heard me talk about the Celtics know that I don't necessarily attribute decline to any of those things. Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum, and Marcus Smart all became lesser defenders without declining his athletes. What does that tell you. It tells you. It's a commitment thing, It's a culture thing. So I still think that Marcus Smart is going to come into Memphis and be an

excellent defensive guard. He's also a good playmaking guard. He's one of only thirteen players in the league last year to average at least six assists per game but fewer than two point five turnovers per game. He's good at manufacturing rim pressure and pick and roll and attacking closeouts. He's good at making kickouts to shooters and making drop off passes to the dunker spot. He's a great pick and roll player. He ran three hundred and fifty eight

of them last year. One point one eight points per possession. That's off the charts good. That's ninety fifth percentile. As a matter of fact, those like there were moments where the Celtics offense just looked better when Marcus Marter or Derek White were running the offense because they were looking to drive and kick, and Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum were going through these growing pains of learning how to

run an NBA offense. Right, So, like Marcus Smart is a good offensive player who's going to help you there. Here's a shot making numbers from last year. He was efficient at the rim, but at low volume sixty six percent, which is great for a guard in the restricted area, but only one point two makes per game, so not much there. Thirty nine percent effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots, which is not good, but fifty

one percent on floaters, which is very good. In fifty three percent on effectiveield goal percentage on catch and shoot jump shots, which is solid. Was not particularly great attacking closeouts though he only scored zero point ninety four points per possession in spot up situations, which is in the thirty third percent tile And I don't even think that's necessarily about his passing ability, because when Marcus is driving to pass, he can make a lot of plays there.

Like we talked about earlier, it's more just what every single Celtics fan will tell you is Marcus's big weakness, which is occasionally he just tries to do too much on offense. He will turn a simple situation into a complicated situation. He will take a really tough shot when there's no need for it. He will look off his stars to try to make a play offensively and when you probably should have the ball in a better player's hands. That's just kind of the nature of the Marcus Smart experience.

He's super confident and super competitive, which helps him in every single phase of the game, except for offensive decision making from time to time. But I think most Celtics fans would agree that the total package of Marcus Smart is totally worth it, and he's very much a talent infusion in this roster and is going to make them better. So on the surface, when you look at it, just from the simple standpoint of adding talent, bringing Marcus Smart to the equation is a very very smart move for

this particular team. But we got to go back to the depth chart for a minute, because let's talk about the depth chart at guard. Like we talked about earlier, we have seven playable guards, John Morant, Desmond Bane, Marcus Smart, Canar, Derek Rose, Josh Christopher and John Conchar. The bigs we have Jaron Jackson, Steven Adams, Brandon Clark, and Xavier Tilbman who played really well in that first round series against

the Lakers. Like, that's four playable bigs. Two of them at least are starter caliber and Steven Adams and Jaron Jackson. Brandon Clark is an interesting player that might potentially be able to start for a different team around the league if he gets if he recovers well from his achilles injury right, Like, he's got that level of talent. Brandon Clark is a very very interesting player. But as we go to the forward position, I've got Zira Williams, who is a young player who is still not ready to

be in a starting forward role. I've got Jake Lavia, another twenty one year old forward who's got some offensive skill but isn't quite ready, right, And Santel Damo is really good who played really well for Spain this summer, and a guy that I think is a very interesting player. But he's more of like a four than a three in the sense that, like, you can't play him alongside too bigs, So I don't think he can play when John Mourant's out at the starting three, and that leaves

you with David Roddy. David Roddy in the Intel is saying that David Roddy's probably going to start at small forward while John Morant's out of the lineup, And like, here's the thing. I like David Roddy. He's a good physical defender and a smart offensive player, but he's got some limitations, not a great shooter, and probably he's best served coming off the bench, right. So I just named four bench forwards, at least in terms of the perimeter

interpretation of the forward. And so what confuses me about the Marcus Smart trade is just the overall kind of process behind it, because when I look at when I look at the big picture of this team, right, I've got John Morant, this primary shot creator who's an on ball type of player, and I've got Desmond Baine, who's a primary shot creator as an off ball sort of player.

So they compliment each other really well. And I've got Jaron Jackson who's kind of like the perfect modern five right, Like, can have some off the dribble, Jews can play out of the post, has a good catch and shoot jump shot at this point, and arguably the best rint protector in the league. I don't think so. I think he's pretty far down on that list, probably in the four or five range, but it certainly in volume of blocked shots,

he's the best rint protector in the league. Right. So, like, you've got all of these specific pieces, but you've got two guards, and you've got this center, and what you're missing is a dynamic forward that can slot between those guys that's between six six and six ' nine, that is a good spot up player that can guard multiple positions and help you on the glass. And they spent two draft picks, two first round picks, going after Marcus Smart, who's a very good player but is a redundancy at

this point. He won't be at the start of the season. He's gonna make perfect sense filling in for John Morant when he's out, and I expect the Grizzlies that hit the ground running to start the season and win a shit ton of games. But as is always the case when I'm talking about this in this particular show, I'm always looking at the bigger picture of the NBA playoffs, especially with the way the league has changed. Because with the way the league has changed now, regular season results

don't mean as much. We're seeing teams like Memphis and Sacramento finish really high in the regular season and then get beat by lower seeds that are experienced playoff teams when they get to the playoffs. More than ever, in the regular season, it matters less because teams are aware that it's better just to be healthy when you get there. And so the young teams that are athletic and young and play hard every night are winning more regular season

games and getting higher seeds. And then the older veteran teams that are more comfortable in the playoffs are coasting and load managing and just getting through the season, and then they're beating the young teams when we get there. And so when I levy this criticism, I don't think it's gonna hurt the Grizzlies in the regular season I mean, we'll talk about it in a little bit, but I expect them to win over fifty games this year, and I right away, even without Jaw, I expect Marcus Smart

to come in and then to start winning. But in the bigger picture, if you're gonna get out of the Western Conference, if you're gonna beat teams like the Lakers that just loaded up on talent this summer, I still think they have the same top end weaknesses, but they're certainly better than Memphis. And then we've got Golden State, who has retooled a little bit. They're probably not as good as some of the other teams at the top of the West, but they beat Memphis two years ago.

Denver is gonna be good as shit again, right. Phoenix is brought in Bradley Beal and better role players than they have last summer. So they're all better. Right, That's what you gotta get through. And so it's less about can I win fifty games, it's can I beat those teams? And right now, you don't have a starting caliber forward

on the roster. Now here's the thing. Memphis has a lot of draft picks that they have access to in the future, and so I wonder if this is kind of like a a part one of a bigger, kind of splashier move, right like, but if they intend to flip you know, Luke Kennard's contract and maybe Marcus Smart as well, but who knows, is something else for a forward at the deadline, and maybe this makes a lot more sense, But this team's ultimate ceiling involves Jaron Jackson

at the five, two really good forwards in John Moran and Desmond Bay and making the two first round pick trade for Marcus Smart kind of seems like a move that is in a different direction in that sense, especially when you will let Dylan Brooks go, which I agree with. You can't pay Dylan Brooks twenty plus million dollars to be a very limited offensive player. Dylan Brooks was literally one of the worst offensive players in the league last year.

There were eighty one players in the NBA eighty if you have a ten game limit, so eighty players in the NBA last year that attempted at least thirteen shots per game. Only one failed to score fifteen points per game, and that was Dylan Brooks. So he was the least efficient, you know, like volume guy in the league last year. So like you needed to let him go, and we talked about all the culture stuff earlier, with the distractions,

you needed to let him go. But he was your one starting caliber forward, and now you don't have anybody to slide in between there. So now you're gonna have guys like David Roddy, who's a good bench player in the NBA, playing starters minutes. And then what's our second problem?

Do you guys remember, Do you guys remember when I was talking about the Lakers in a mailback question a few games ago or shows ago, and I talked about Anthony Davis at the four and the problems that that presents because the Lakers' four best players are Austin Reeves, Lebron James, who has to play a four, Ruey Hachimura who has to play a four, can play some three,

and Anthony Davis, who should play the five. If I move ad to playing the four for a few shifts a game, now I've got three of my four best players playing the same position. Do you see how that creates a logjam? Just so you can force minutes for a center in there, Like it doesn't make any sense, right, That's kind of the situation. With the Marcus Smart heal, you bring him in. At first, it makes perfect sense. Marcus Smart, Desmond Bane, David Roddy, Jared Jackson, Steven Adams

were winning a shit ton of games. Everything looks great. But John Morant comes back into the picture. He's one of the thirty best players in the league. So you got you gotta play him, right. He's your franchise players, your best player in the long run, so you gotta

play it. So now that slots Marcus Smart to the three, and now I've got a backcourt with a skinny John Morant, Desmond Bain who has a six to four wing span, and Marcus Smart, who's sixty three, all on the floor at the same time because my three best, three of my four best players are guards. Now, when you have that redundancy, you have to play them all at the same time, or you lose minutes in the process because you have to play size that that's kind of the problem.

It's better to have your star talent dispersed. If you look at the Lakers, where their best players are a guard, two forwards in a center sense, but if you go center three guards for the for the Grizzlies have some issues. If you go three forwards one guard for the Lakers, you start to have some issues. And so that's where like in terms of just roster balance, I'd like to see the Grizzlies address that in the coming seasons. But let's talk about offense and defense, like we did with

all of the other teams going into the season. I want to start with the defense with the Grizzlies because it's specifically important, not just because that was what they were best at, but also because that was their best offense. Because the Grizzlies actually finished the season eleventh in offensive rating, but they were twenty second in half court offense according to Cleaning the Glass. They relied heavily on getting stops and steals to get out and transition for easy baskets.

As a matter of fact, they were the number one transition frequency offense in the league. They scored or they attempted one nine field goals this season in transition according to Senergy, that was number one in the entire NBA. They were fifteenth in transition efficiency, so they were middle of the pack and converting those possessions, which doesn't sound great, but it was one point one to four points per possession, so they're middle of the pack transition efficiency, it was

still a one to fourteen offensive rating. To give you an idea like, the best half court offense in the entire league this year, according to Cleaning the Glass, was the Dallas Mavericks, and they scored one hundred and five points per one hundred possessions. So even a middle of the pack transition offense is almost ten points per one hundred possessions more efficient than the best half court offense in the league. So it was a really smart strategy

for Memphis. Bad half court offense, but we're athletic and we're great at defense, so let's get stops and let's run like crazy down the other end. And they had a lot of success that way. But you have to have a great defense in order to play that way, which the Grizzlies absolutely did. They were third in defensive ratings last year, number one in half court defense according to Cleaning the Glass. They allowed just ninety four points

per one hundred half court possessions. They were the second best team in the entire NBA and protecting the paint, they allowed just forty six point six points in the paint per one hundred possessions. They were third in the league in blocks per one hundred possessions. Opponents shot just sixty two point one percent in the restricted area against the Memphis Grizzlies, which was the best mark in the entire league. So they guard the paint extremely well, and

there's two reasons for that. One is Jaron Jackson, best shot blocker in the league. That obviously deserves a whole lot of the credit, but a lot of it was by design. This is a pack the paint team. They played two bigs and they help off a shooters, They dig down into driving lanes, they make you see a crowd in the paint, and obviously the trade off with that is you give up a lot of threes. They gave up the sixth most three point attempts per game

and the sixth most three pointers made per game. But to Taylor Jenkins credit, they were helping off the right people. They were top ten in opponent three point percentage, which is what allowed them to have the defensive rating they did. And they also forced a lot of turnovers eighth most in the league, to be exact, fifteen turnovers forced per one hunder possession. So you pack the paint to just

think it through. If you pack the paint and force a lot of missed layups, which causes floor balance issues which lead to fast break opportunities, and you block a lot of shots and you force a lot of missed threes, what's happening? Long rebounds, block shots, and missed layups caused flour balance issues, right those were just gift wrapping transition opportunities for the Memphis grizly. So they did an amazing job of using their defense to make up for their

offensive shortcomings whenever they could. Biggest area of opportunity in the Memphis defense right now is rebounding. They were twenty second in defensive rebounding. I think it's a couple of different things with that. Again, they're giving up a lot of threes, which means a lot of long rebounds. This is a huge interior team that offensive rebounds extremely well Steven Adams, Jaron Jackson and Brandon Clark and Xavior Till.

But those dudes are bullying people underneath the basket. On offense, they average over ten offensive rebounds a game just between those four guys. But long rebounds are about guards. And you've got a skinny guard, another guard with a short wingspan, and Dylan Brooks, who is a somewhat undersized wing. Now you don't even have that guy anymore. So that's gonna

be an even bigger problem in this particular season. Now, one of the things that's nice is David Roddy is a better rebounder, a much better rebounder than Dylan Brooks was, So that should help a little bit. But that's where athleticism at the forward position comes in long rebounds. It's it's athletes that get long rebounds. You need big, tall, long armed athletes to grab those sorts of rebounds. And

so that's another situation where forwards well helped. This is a team that should not be twenty second in defensive rebounding, but they are, and it comes down to giving up a lot of threes and not having the appropriate amount of wing length to secure long rebounds. So, moving to the offensive end of the four, we talked about transition earlier. I won't get into that. Obviously, another huge way they supplement their week half court offenses by attacking the offensive glass.

They made two hundred and seventy two offensive rebound put backs last year. That was the sixth most in the NBA. They averaged fifteen second chance points per game last year, also sixth most in the NBA. But let's talk about

their half court offense for a little bit. So regardless of how good you are at half court defense, and regardless of how good you are at forcing turnovers, and regardless of how good you are getting out in transition and running, eventually you're gonna find yourself in a slow down playoff game, and in a slow down playoff game, in the half court, you're gonna have to be able

to generate shots. And in this particular situation, the biggest problem, and again this team was twenty second and half court offense according to Cleaning the Glass last year. It starts with spacing. For this particular team, the Grizzlies play way too many players who are not threats off the ball. They converted spot up possessions at zero point ninety nine points per possession last year, which ranked twenty seventh in the NBA, so the fourth worst mark in the entire NBA.

That allowed the Lakers to do what they did, which is to pack the paint entirely on these Jam Morant pick and rolls, which just makes it really difficult to play like. This was a really heavy pick and roll offense. They ran threey one hundred and sixteen last year, that was tenth most in the entire NBA, but they converted them at just zero point ninety seven points per possession, which ranked twenty fifth in the NBA. Why because it's really hard to score and pick and roll when teams

are ignoring shooters off the ball. Jaw was one of the least efficient high volume pick and roll players in the league last year. He was out out of the fifteen players that ran at least a thousand high volume pick and roll list that I've been talking about all summer. He was tenth in that list at one point zero four points per possession. The Lakers held jam Moran to just zero point eight seven points per pick and roll, despite John Morant making fourteen pull up jump shots in

that series. If you Memphis fans, you remember that series, Joe was hitting a shot when they were going under picks, and they still couldn't even get over nine tenths of a point per job pick and roll because they're packing the paint. It's a great pick and roll player. Nobody can keep him in front off the dribble. He's an excellent passer. His jumper is progressing nicely. He was up to forty four percent effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots this year, and I expect another leap

this year. I bet you he's up to forty eight percent or so. This year. He shot forty seven percent on floaters on massive volume. As a matter of fact, he made one hundred and twenty seven floaters last year, which is third most in the entire NBA. But you've got to give him space to work. Like I understand, I get it. Steven Adams is a great screener. The dude averaged like five offensive rebounds a game last year.

That's awesome. But like, at a certain point, you've got to give your skill players what all the other great skill players in the league have, which is room to work, especially when you're talking about a supreme athlete like Jaw who literally no one can guard. And it's amazing that he's been as productive as he has been despite that. Desmond Bain was the most impressive offensive players for the

grizz in that Lakers series. If you guys remember, he really took over games four and five of that series. I thought he was the best player on the floor for the last or for those two particular games Game four and five, aside from the crazy stretch from Lebron at the end of regulation and in ot and Game four to steal that game. But he was the most reliable guy on both teams getting to spots on the

floor for half court offense. He uh uh again, Like specifically, I think it's interesting the way that Desmond Baine became their most efficient half court player at the tail end of the Lakers series, because John Moran's a better player than Desmond bay. Like that's just a fact. Like Desimond bin played better than him in that series, but at least at the tail end. But John Rant's a better player.

But if you're going against a packed paint dribble drive, guys are going to really struggle and guys that can make shots over the top are going to succeed. Desmond Bain sixty one percent effective field goal percent on catch and shoot jumpers in the regular season. He shot sixty nine percent an effective field goal percentage on catching shoo jumpers in the Lakers series. He's also Desmond Bain has worked really hard to add an off the dribble game

to his game. Two years ago he was like or three years ago, I should say, like not a good pull up jump shooter at all whatsoever. And then this year fifty six percent effective field goal percentage on pull up jumpers. That's great out of fifty six players to attempt at least two hundred and fifty pull up jump shots. Last year, Bain ranked sixth in effective field goal percentage, so on a lower volume tier, but among the top fifty or so pull up shooters, he's top ten. He's

worked really hard to build that out. Again, three years ago not a reliable part of his game. Now it is. He was a seventy eighth percentile pick and role player this last season. Two years ago he was thirty second

percent tile. So Desmond Bain has worked really hard to add that pull up jump shot and to add that off the dribble juice to go with his ridiculous catch and shoot game and so big shot against the Lakers team that was packing the paint, running that deep drop coverage with Anthony Davis at the rim, he was the guy that he was able to get over the top of screens and bump guys off with his shoulder and rise up for those little fifteen foot jump shots and

knock him down. He was actually giving Austin Reeves a lot of problems over game four in game five of that particular series with his strength. He's put in the work and it's paid off, and that's like, that's the really really exciting part. Like he had thirty six in

game four and thirty three in game five. Like you've got John Morant, who's this, you know, guy who's gonna be a perennial top twenty player in the league, potentially even the top ten if if he figures some stuff out, And Desmond bain is working his ass off and like going right with him progressing, and he you know, he with the giant leaps he's taken every summer. Like at this pace, he's very capable of becoming an NBA alsar

one day. And I haven't even talked about Jared Jackson, who we're gonna talk about right now because we as much as good as John Moranan and Desmond Baane have gotten, Jared Jackson's improving rapidly too. He had a great season. He led the leagues in he led the lead league in blocks again for the second consecutive year. This time, like seven tenths of a block more than he did

the previous season. He's also making huge strides offensively fifty three percent in effective field goal percentage on catch and shoot jump shots, fifty eight percent when he's unguarded, so like, if you leave him open, he's pretty legit stretch big at this point. He also was a legit post up threat this year. One hundred and ninety seven post ups, one point zero four points per possession, fifty three percent

on hook shots. Dumped the ball down to him, he can get a bucket, and that translated to the playoffs. He was attacking Lebron James in that first round series. He actually stayed over a point per possession in that playoff series against the Lakers out of the post. I can't remember the exact number. It was like twenty seven post ups. It's not nothing so like that. There's real there's real development there. You know. The biggest weakness that's standing out to me with Jaron Jacks right now is

this rim finishing. He just shot just twenty excuse me, shot just sixty six percent in the restricted area last year. Biggs should always be over seventy percent. But again spacing plays a role there two big lineups, You're going into his secondary rim protector every time. And again that's the

kind of the theme here. It's just it's too difficult to consistently score in the NBA against the level of defensive talent that you're gonna see, especially in later playoff rounds, if you have multiple players on the floor that the

team doesn't have to guard. And what's interesting about it in the long run, And I talked about this a little bit earlier, but like there's a lot of really complimentary stuff going on with the stars, like John Moran, an on ball primary shot creator, but that's downhill towards the rim. Desmond Bayne, an on ball and off ball primary shock. Remember desmon Vane was an excellent spot up shooter this year. He also had the thirteenth most buckets made in the league coming off of off ball screens.

He's one of the best movement shooters in the league. So you've got an off ball guy that complements John Morant perfectly, who's also making these huge, huge strides as an un ball shot creator. And then you've got Jaron Jackson, who not only is a post up fulcrum who not only is a defensive fulk crum but also is a legit stretch big, which is so important in the modern NBA. So you've got everything you need to be like a bona fide championship contender except for what slots between them.

And right now, part of your problem is you're slotting Jaron Jackson at the four, playing a non shooting big next to him, and you've got weakness at the forward position between Jaron Jackson and Desmond Bay. That's gonna put you in a predicament with your spacing in the half court. Nine times out of ten, this season feels like a

gap year from Memphis to me. And that's less about the Josh suspension and more about those issues at forward and with spacing like I was talking about, and again we got to look at the depth at the top of the West. But like, you're not gonna beat teams like Phoenix or Denver or the Lakers this year if you have a glaring flaw and this team has too. But the exciting part is they can address those things.

This Memphis team is really easy to guard in the half court there, but as long as they address that need at forward, especially two guys preferably as skinnier forward. Be it'd be great as Aira Williams can make these leaps, but preferably a skinnier forward that can get over the top of screens and knock down shots, like a Jade

McDaniels type, right. And then a stronger forward who's bigger and can and and can help you in post up situations against power players and help you as a low man as a rim protector, and help you with defensive rebounding. Think is like think like the Aaron Gordon archetype, right. And another guy who might even be available for trade this this year is a guy like Jeremy Grant, a really good athlete who can play off the ball, has some off the dribble bounce pop and it slots really

no ically between those guys like. They need to find those two needs, and if they do, I think they have the chance to contend year in and year out, because that's how high I think of John Morant, Desmond Bayne, and Jaron Jackson. But they've got to provide them the appropriate players to slot them properly and orient them properly as a modern basketball team. That's it. I still think

they're gonna win about fifty games. I still think they're gonna get home court in the first round, and they might even win a first round series if they get a good matchup. But I don't think this team is getting out of the second round, and I wouldn't be surprised if they lost in the first round. All right,

let's move on to our mail bag. So first mail back question from kleb who do you think would have won between the Rockets and the Cavs in the twenty eighteen finals if the Rockets had won Game seven instead of the Warriors, and now Harden and CB three's legacy would have looked differently if they won or Lebron won. So I thought a lot about this, obviously, I was thinking about it at the time, and the answer to

me is pretty simple. Had Chris Paul been able to recover and play in the NBA Finals, I think they would have beat the Caves. The CAS team was not very talented, but had Chris Paul stayed hurt, but they somehow beat the Warriors in Game seven, which everybody wants to attribute to just them missing threes, but really the Warriors were just playing a better brand of basketball. And if you watch the threes that the Rockets took, they were taking a lot of bad shots in that game.

Had they gone into the NBA Finals with just hardened in role players against Lebron in role players, you bet your ass and picking Lebron James. He was the best player in the world at that time and twenty eighteen, Lebron is the best individual basketball player I've ever seen. But the bottom line is is that's what if, and that's not what happened. And Chris Paul did not return, but they couldn't beat the Warriors, and then the greatest team of all time, the Warriors went in and kicked

the shit out of the Caves. But yeah, that's the answer to that question. Chris Paul healthy, I'd picked the Rockets over the Calves. Chris Paul not healthy. I'd picked the Calves over the Rockets. All right. Last mail back question from Ralph. Hey, Jason, my first time commenting. I hope you haven't gotten this question too much, But why do you think nobody uses the sky hook anymore? Hate to break it to you, Ralph, You're the first guy to ask me about the sky hook, but let's talk

about it. So it's really simple to me. Like, the reason why uh, nobody uses the sky hook is because the half hook accomplishes basically the same thing and as much easier to make. So the sky hook just think of it like this, like I'm gonna move my mic a little bit to make this possible. But the skyhook, I'm way out on the side, right if the baskets here, I'm going way out on the side with the shot right,

and it's just a really difficult maneuver to make. A half hook is more like the baskets where you guys are, and I'm turning my shoulder and I'm shooting like that, and it's more like a floater, and it more closely mimics the end release more closely mimics that of a jump shot, and so or a floater, right, so it has more of like a natural shooting release to it, and so a half hook, even though it doesn't quite generate the same amount of separation as a sky hook does,

you can still get it off as long as you bump the guy with your left shoulder and then go to the to the half hook, and it's a shot. Guys can make it a significantly higher percentage so I think that's the main reason why as a matter of fact, I would look at the skyhook as more like a

funky shot release in the terms of like a jump shot. Right, So, like, what's a good example of this, Like think of guys like Kevin Martin or Sean Mary and the guys who just had really funky shot releases, Like Kareem just had a really funky hook shot that uniquely worked for him, or he could knock that down at a high rate.

But like if I gave, you know, all of the best bigs in the league, you know, one hundred shots on regular standard sky hooks, they're not gonna make half as many as they would with half hooks because it's just a more natural shooting motion. So and for the record, like I think if Kareem comes up today, I think he takes a half hook instead of a skyhook and probably still kicks everyone's ass with that. So that's again

my two cents on that. But at the same time, like I don't know, maybe some guy will come in and start making skyhooks and change the league again, who knows? All right, guys, that is all I have for today is always as sincerely appreciate your support. We will be back with number fourteen tomorrow. The volume