Hoops Tonight - NBA Team Rankings: How Trae Young & Hawks elevated playoff ceiling in offseason

Atlanta Hawks. I've got a full season preview of the Hawks for you guys, and then I've got three mail bag questions for the end of the show as well. You guys on the job before we get started, subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel, follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt. Don't forget about our podcast feed under Hoops Tonight, and I need mailbag questions, drop those in the YouTube comments, and last not at least before we

get started. The start of pro basketball is still about a month away or so, but there's no shortage of events to attend in the meantime. Obviously, your favorite baseball

team are out playing. We also have a lot of musicians touring the country and comedians touring the country, but also the return of Pro and college football, and so lots of stuff to go see, and the best way to get tickets to any of these events is on game Time, the fastest growing ticketing app in the United States, for amazing last minute deals on tickets to see your favorite football or baseball team, or your favorite musician, singer, or comedian. Game Time has your tickets. Again. It's not

just sports. There are several huge concerts and comedy shows still on tour. Download the game Time app and redeem code Hoops for twenty dollars off your first purchase again. Download the game Time app and enter code Hoops. That's Hops for twenty dollars off. No matter where you live, get out and have some fun this week. Download the game Time app. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. So we're gonna start with an

offseason recap for the Atlanta Hawks. They lost John Collins, traded him to the Utah Jazz, and they also lost Aaron Holliday. They added in the draft Kobe Buffkin Combo lefty like kind of like shifty guard out of Michigan. Good spot up player. He's up over a point per possession fifty five percent effective field goal percentage on catch and shoot jump shots. He also was sixty eighth percentile and pick and roll is good pick and roll playmaker in large part because he was one of the best

finishing guards at the rim in the country. Last year. He shot seventy two percent at the rim according to Synergy. That's outrageous. Over sixty percent is good for a guard just has all of the craft around the basket to finish over contests, and he has a decent pull up jump shot. He was forty one percent in effective field goal percentage on pull up jumpers. Again, obviously you want to be closer to fifty, but for a young player, that skill typically devotes you know, develops later on in

their skill development. So nice little pick up there in Kobe Buffkin. They also got Mohammed gouie A in the early second round, just a big athletic forward for athleticism off the bench. They also signed Wesley Matthews, a short, kind of stocky two guard that covered in very closely when he was with the Lakers a couple of years ago. Very very good defensive player, but has some offensive limitations, an inconsistent shooter and has a hard time beating people

off the bounce. But you know, when it comes to having a guy who can guard on the perimeter off the bench, he brings a certain amount of value. They also got Patty Mills. He did not play much last year and didn't shoot particularly well, and then he didn't shoot very well with the Australian national team this summer either, so I don't know how much he's gonna play, but

this is a team that desperately needs shooting. So, like you're gonna see one of the theme every team preview that we do, there's like a theme, a general weakness, something they need to address, and by far the biggest

weakness in this Atlanta Hawks team is their spacing. They struggle to create space for their stars to create and when you factor in the fact that they were seventh in offense last year, you know, that just goes to show you what they could be capable of if they got the necessary spacing, and Paddy Mills could in theory help with that. I just wonder if he's too old to be able to help at this point. Look at

their depth chart at the guard position. Trey Young, Dejante, Murray bogdan Bogdanovich Kobe Buffkin, Patty Mills, Wesley Matthews, and Garrison Matthews. At the forwards, DeAndre Hunter one of my favorite young forwards in the league, that classic big stocky forward, Sadiq Bay, Aj Griffin and Jalen Johnson. And then they're bigs right now, Clint Capella and Yakakongu, Bruno Fernando and Mohammad Guie. Their starting lineup is gonna be an interesting

thing to see this year. Obviously they're gonna start Trey Young, Dejante Murray, DeAndre Hunter, and Clint Cappella. But who's gonna start in John Collins spot? And I think there's two potential directions they can go there. They can go with Aj Griffin or Sadik Bay. But most importantly, they're gonna need shooting out of that position. All right, Let's talk about the offensive end of the floor for a minute. This is a heavy, heavy pick and roll offense in Atlanta.

They ran over thirty five hundred of them last year. Only only the Chicago Bulls ran more pick and roll than the Atlanta Hawks last year. That said, they were middle of the pack in efficiency. They scored just one point zero zero one points per possession in pick and roll, which ranked seventeenth in the NBA. Their primary pick and roll ball handler is Trey Young. By himself, he ran seventeen hundred and twenty six pick and rolls, by far

the most in the NBA. Luka Doncic was second on that list with one thousand, three hundred and seventy five, so literally almost four hundred fewer than Trey Young ran, So he's by far the highest volume pick and roll player in the league. Trey was not particularly efficient one point zero five points per possession Among the fifteen players in the league last year to run at least a

thousand pick and rolls, Trey finished ninth in efficiency. Now, the main reason for that, like I said, and it's going to be the theme of this particular show, is that the Hawks are not a very good spacing team. They're not good at converting kickout passes to spot up shooters into catch and shoot threes, are attacking closeouts into better opportunities. They don't convert those into points very well.

Converted spot up positions possessions last year at zero point nine to eight points per possession, that was the third worst mark in the entire NBA. They were bottom five and three pointers made, they were bottom ten in three point percentage, and they weren't attacking closed out as well when they put it on the floor. Part of this was lineup construction. They were running two bigs and neither

of them can shoot. John Collins, for the record, was the worst spot up player in the entire NBA last year. There were sixty eight NBA players last year to log at least two hundred and fifty spot up possessions, and John Collins finished dead last on that list, sixty eight out of sixty eight players, scoring to zero point eight to six points per possession every time he got a chance to attack in a spot up situation. The problem there, too is Dejonte Murray and DeAndre Hunter were both also

below point per possession. So you've got three guys, four guys if you count Clinck Capella in the starting lineup that were all bad spot up players. Trey Young was the only good spot up player in the starting lineup. So from the perspective of lineup construction, you've got Dejontay Murray, who's a good pull up shooter but not a good

spot up shooter. You've got Trey Young was good at both. Right, then you've got DeAndre Hunter who's a good spot up player but just not quite good enough attacking close outs and knocking down catch and shoot shots to be over a point per possession. And then you've got Clint Capella who can't shoot either. So you're in a situation where

teams are really packing the pain. And when you watched the Hawks last year, you could see that they were primarily a team that would attacking pick and roll or attack switches in pick and roll, right like Dejonta Murray or Trey Young ending up switched onto a big man, and what you would see is defenders digging down into the driving lanes knowing that if they kick out to DeAndre Hunter, he had a little bit of a slower release, so he would be someone you could close out on

and force him to put the ball on the floor. Same thing goes for Dejontay Murray. You get the drill here, and then John Collins is the worst spot up player in the league, right, So it just really started to cause problems for them in their spacing, and it's a miracle that they were seventh in offense in spite of all of that. But I think a lineup change is

going to go a long way. By getting John Collins out of the picture, you're going to bring in a wing into that position, someone who's comfortable playing from the perimeter.

And both Sadik Bay and aj Griffin were well over a point per possession in spot up situations last year, So both of them are going to be comfortable catching and shooting and catching and ripping from the perimeter off of kickout passes in pick and roll, something that they didn't get enough of out of the starting lineup last year. That should allow them to run more traditional four out one in spacing and allow their ball handlers to have better opportunities to score in pick and roll. Now, de

Jontay Murray and DeAndre Hunter also need to improve. That's part of the process there. Hopefully they identified that, their analytics department hopefully identified that. Hopefully Quinn Snyder has identified that, and they will emphasize that throughout this season. Quick look at their other shot creators. De Jontay Murray, remember that one one thousand pick and roll lists, so the fifteen

players ran at least one thousand pick and rolls. De Jontay Murray finished fourteenth out of fifteen on that list. The only player in the NBA high volume pick and roll who was worse than de Jontay Murray last year was Jalen Green, so he just in general needs to be a lot better. De Jhonta Murray was also well below a point per possession in ISO situations three hundred and twelve points on three hundred and thirty ISOs on tape.

Once again, the biggest issue identified was spacing. It's Dejontay Murray in those high hesitations looking to attack, and this is a guy who's a freak athlete who has the ability to get to the basket and guys are just digging down into driving lanes and de Jontay Murray's having to take these tough pull up jump shots over the top of the defense because he's not getting to the rim in that clogged paint situation. Now here's the thing.

De Jontay Murray actually shot forty five percent on pull up jump shots last year, but they're all a long twos. He's not a guy who takes pull up threes and makes them consistently. So that means we talked about this lot when we were talking about unguardability, Like forty five percent sounds good on paper, like yoh, he's making almost half of his pull up jump shots, but when they're all two's, that's only nine tenths of a point per possession.

That's something that the defense is going to live with and something that's going to hurt your efficiency on a per possession basis in the long run over the course of the season. And so again, getting more traditional spacing should make things easier on everybody, not just Trey Young, but also Dejonte Murray as well, and then Desonte just has to learn how to play off the ball. He shot just fifty percent an effective field goal percentage on

catch and shoot jumpers. That's not good forty seven percent when he was unguarded. So like literally, he's under a point per possession on catch and shoot jump shots when they're leaving him wide open. That's something that he's got

to rectify. If he's going to play on a system like this, that a heavy pick and roll system where his teammate is the guy who's running more pick and rolls than anybody in the entire NBA, he's got to be able to catch and shoot or at the very least do what Dwayne Wade did in the early twenty tens and learn how to drive close outs and work as a cutter. He's got to find some way to

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after issuance. Eligibility and deposit restrictions apply. DeAndre Hunter a very impressive shot creation for a twenty five year old as a third option, a career high fifteen point four points per game on fifty six percent true shooting, and he was at a point per possession in self creation situations one hundred and seventy one points, one hundred and seventy one pick and rolls, sixty four points on sixty five ISOs, forty eight points on forty eight post stuffs.

Almost perfect symmetry there, right, So anytime you can toss the ball to your third option and he's good for a point per possession against the static half court defense. That's excellent and so that's an exciting element to the development process of this Atlanta Hawks team is DeAndre Hunter continues to get better and by far the most impressive part of the DeAndre Hunter process of his development is his pull up jump shot. It's actually crazy. I'll give

you guys a wild stat here. There were three players in the NBA last year who attempted at least two hundred pull up jump shots and made more than half of them. Take a guess to who those players are. The first two are obvious, Kevin Durant Kawhi Leonard, the two most efficient mid range pull up jump shooters in

the league. DeAndre Hunter is the third guy. He shot fifty four percent in effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots overall, made more than half of them, and that's a huge part of what makes him successful in his self creation situations. And like on tape, there's not a lot of redundancy there. Like a lot of pull up jump shooters, it's like they're only comfortable out of a left handed hesitation pull up right. DeAndre Hunter's got at all. He's got a little a hard step

back in his left hand. He's got a step back in his right hand. He can hit him out of hesitations in his right hand and is in his left hand. You can tell he's got you know, either a very good skills coach or he's worked really really hard with the player development team with the Atlanta Hawks, and he has done a great job building out a reliable pull up jump shot from the mid range. Again, he just

has to improve as a spot up player. By the way, remember that sixty eight player list of guys who ran at least two hundred and fifty spot up possessions. DeAndre Hunter finished fifty third out of sixty eight, which is not good enough, so obviously he's got to get better. As a matter of fact, in that sixty eight player list, you've got DeAndre Hunter at fifty three, de Jontay Murray at sixty and then John Collins at sixty eight, so you can kind of see where the spacing issues came from.

Their starting lineup just was full of a bunch of guys who didn't know how to play off the basketball. So that's the biggest area of improvement right now for de Jontay Murray. A few things I'd like to see from the Hawks offensively from a process stand point. This year, I'd like to see them running transition more. This is a super athletic team. Clincapella is one of the best bigs in the league at running the floor. DeAndre Hunter

is an outstanding athlete. De Jontay Murray's an outstanding athlete, Sadiq ba or aj Griffin, whoever they put in there as an outstanding athlete. Trey Young is a great passer who can throw kick aheads. They need to run. Last year, they were nineteenth in transition frequency. That's leaving points on the table. That's being too methodical and attacking his set defense too frequently. So I'd like to see them run more, and then I'd like to see them add more complications

to their pick and roll attack. The Atlanta Hawks were one of the most boring teams to watch last year, in large part because they were very stagnant in their offensive approach, and you'd see it, I mean, and it extended into the Celtics series. It'd be like, here's Trey Young like screen rescreen, screen rescreen, try to get something open, and the other three guys are just standing around. That makes you easy to guard. So the question is what

are complications in pick and roll. Now, for the record, I know Quinn Snyder's on top of this. He is a much smarter basketball mind than me. I know that he's picked up on this and his time being around the team, and my guess is he's going to with a full training camp now being with the team for a full season from start to finish, I am convinced that he's going to add these things. But I want to talk about what they are and how they can

help for a couple of minutes. So to me, a complication to your pick and roll attack is an action that you run either before or during the pick and roll to make it harder to guard. So let's give you some examples. A before example would be like a pistol action. A pistol action is a dribble handoff that flows into the ball screen. Imagine the primary ball handler that you want running the ball screen, starting in the corner.

Imagine a horn set, okay, where you've got your two bigs at the elbows and your primary your point guards up at the top of the key. He's going to go down and run a dribble handoff with the man in the corner. Then the man in the corner as Trey Young is going that's that big man at the elbow is going to turn and set a ball screen as de jhn Te Murray is grabbing the drible handoff

and coming off of that ball screen. Why is that important Because Trey young defender and Dejontay Murray's defender now have to either switch or fight through a screen before the pick and roll, which makes it harder because obviously an astatic pick and roll situation. Let's say I'm guarding Trey Young, he's dribbling on the left wing, and here comes Clint Capella to set a screen. I see it coming. I'm guarding Trey. I can prepare to sidle up over the screen, get over the top of it, and apply

that back pressure. Right. But if I have Trey Young and I'm running down and he runs a quick dripple handoff and suddenly I'm guarding de Jontay Murray and Dejonta Murray's in full speed and I'm not in position, I can get caught on that ball screen more frequently. Right. That's an example, pistols an example of that type of complication.

Another one I put down is ram action. Raym action is when you have your ball screen or start under the basket and you have an off ball guard, set a pin down on the screen defender so that your ball screener can come up with separation from the big man. Because in a lot of cases, especially against pull up shooters like Trey Young and de Jante Murray, you want your screen defender up there at the level of the screen. Why so that if he gets over the top of

the screen, you can contest the pull up jump shot. Right. But if the big man is getting hit by an off ball screen, they're not gonna want to switch it because it's a guard on a big right and you want your screen defender to guard pick and roll. So if you can land a screen on that guy, now your ball screener is going up to set the screen and the screen defender is trailing the play because he

got screened. And now that either buys an opportunity for that pull up jump shot or now is the screen defender I have to close out, which might open opportunities for the split to snake the pick and roll or to hit the pocket pass right. So those are just two examples of an action that flows into a pick and roll that make it harder for the for the on ball defenders in the case of pistol action, or harder for the screen defenders in the case of ram action.

But those are two examples during the action. What kind of complications can you have during an action to make pick and roll harder to guard? One is just having weak side action. So say, for instance, you're running pick and roll on the left side of the floor. On the right side of the floor, you just run a pin down for a shooter. Why is that important Because now those two help defenders are occupied guarding that action.

If they're just standing, if one's standing in the corner and the other standing on the wing, their defenders can have a foot in the paint and be watching your pick and roll. But if they're interchanging, now they're at the very least having to pay some attention to what's happening behind them, which will occupy them and make it more likely for you to be able to get into

the paint. Then the second one is one we've talked about a lot on the show, which is Spain pick and roll having a shooter underneath the basket that relocates to the top of the key as the big man is rolling to the rim. They also can screen for each other in that action, either the rollman screening for the shooter or the shooter back screening on the roll man.

But no matter what, generally speaking, just the roll gravity of the big man is he's rolling towards the basket generally will occupy the shooters defender and you typically get an opportunity for a catch and shoot wide open shot at the top of the key, or at least an opportunity to attack a close out there. But those are just examples of things that you can do to not be so stagnant, to not be so predictable. And for the record, this is not earth shattering stuff here. I'm

not discovering how to fix the Atlanta Hawks offense. This is stuff I guarantee you Quinn Snyder has already noticed, and I guarantee you him and his staff are putting together as we speak, a bunch of things to try to make things easier for this offense, because this is a team that has too much firepower to only be seventh in offense, especially with all of the different things

that are holding them back at this point. The last thing I think they should add is a little bit more variety in their attack too much pick and roll, in my opinion, find other ways to generate offense. You've got guys that can attack switches. Both DeAndre Hunter and Sadik Bay were well over a point per possession in

post up situations last year. So run a one to three pick and roll instead of a one to five pick and roll that's almost certainly gonna end in the switch then instead of just having it because like right now, they're running the one five pick and roll or two to five pick and roll, and it's always an ISO in the switch situation, and when they switch, it's de Jonte Murray and Trey Young taking pull up jump shots over the top most of the time because everyone's digging

down off the ball, right. But if you run a one three pick and roller, a one four pick and roll with Sadik Bay or with DeAndre Hunter, you get to switch. You dump it down to the block and you're getting something different looking just something different. Then the same two guys running the same ISOs are the same two guys running the same pick and rolls, And these

are guys that are good at it. Not to mention that sort of thing pays dividends when you get to the postseason, especially when you have the opportunity to attack matchups in those particular situations. But more than anything else, I just think they should do that to become less predictable. Let's talk about the defensive end for a little bit. The Hawks were a bad defense last year. They were twenty second in defensive rating twenty second and half court

defense according to Cleaning the Glass. They were the fourth worst paint defense in the league. They gave up fifty three paint points per one hundred possessions, which ranked twenty seventh in the NBA. They gave up twenty point four restricted area makes per game, that was the third most in the NBA. Most of it comes down to two things,

in my opinion, dribble penetration. So the guards like and Dejontae Murray used to be an all defense level player and he hasn't made an all defense teams since twenty eighteen, and he's become more of an offensive minded player. Trey Young's one of the worst defenders in the league. Obviously, that's going to lead to a lot of dribble penetration. And then the other big thing that's killing them right

now is Rollman possessions. So they gave up four hundred and fifty eight made baskets to the roleman in pick and roll last year, which was the fourth most in the entire NBA. What does that tell us to me? The roleman getting lots of touches also can be attributed to point of attack defense. What causes the roleman to be open if the screen defender is engaged by the ball handler right, screen defender Clint Capella in this case has to show high or has to come away from

the paint to contain a ball handler. More frequently, that is what opens up the pocket pass and the lob pass right. So that's one of those things where it's the rollman getting the basket, but it's not necessarily the screen defender's fault. That's a point of attack thing. If you stay attached more at the top of the key, or at least get over the top of the screen and funnel better, then your big can drop further back.

And if he drops further back, now he can contain the rollman while protecting the rim against the ball handler. So point of attack defense is the main point of weakness in the Hawks defense. In my opinion, they also were not a very good rebounding team. They were eighteenth and defensive rebounding, they gave up two hundred and forty six putbacks last year, which was the ninth most in the NBA. They were also bottom half of the league

in both transition defense frequency and transition transition defense efficiency. Really, the only thing the Hawks did well was guard to the three point line. They were top ten in opponent makes, opponents attempts per one hundred possessions and an opponent three point percentage. So that's the one thing they do well defensively is guard three guard the three point line. But when you do everything else poorly, it's gonna be really,

really hard to be a very good defense. Let's talk personnel for a second, though, because they have a solid rim protector, they have legit wing athleticism. So to me, it's Trey Young and de Jonte Murray. Those two guys have to lead the way. Dejonte has to recommit to the defensive end, and Trey Young just has to do a job. Quinn Snyder is going to craft a job for him. Hey, dude, this is all I need you to do. Just do it like you don't have to

keep your man in front. It doesn't matter if guys shoot over the top, but you have to do at the very least be able to provide something for me within this defense. And whatever that is, he's got to be bought in that will help them everywhere else. Again, if they if their point of attack defense improves, Clint Capella will be able to stay at the rim more. If Clint Capella can stay at the rim more, you

can guard pick an two on two more. If you're guarding two on two more and pick and roll, you're gonna give up fewer baskets to the role man right, And then in general, it's gonna help you a lot in rebounding because if you can guard actions two on two instead of three on two, you're gonna be in rotation less. If you're in rotation less, then you're gonna be matched up for box outs. A lot of times when you're in rotation is when you give up offensive

rebounds because guys aren't matched up. They're running and flying around. Everything comes down to point of attack defense. As I've said a lot on this show over the years, point of attack defense is becoming one of the most important elements of NBA defense because of how spread out things are, and when your point of attack defense is weak, everything else suffers. And look, Klinkapel is not Anthony Davis, but

he's a good rim protector. You can have a good paint defense, You're capable of that, you just have to improve at the point of attack. So in summary, this will never be a great defensive team with Trey Young in the lineup, but they can be closer to fifteen if they work on those specific things that I mentioned. On offense, they were seventh last year despite horrific spot up play. Getting rid of John Collins should help that, and then just in general their main starters improving as

off ball players. Last year the Hawks were forty one and forty one. My prediction is that they end up with closer to forty five wins this year. I do think the Hawks are gonna be better this year than they were last year. And I think they're gonna be in that group kind of fighting to get out of the plan so in that like five, six, seven, eight range, and again they're all gonna be this close. The league is so deep this year, you're not gonna see big

spread out standings. In my opinion, I think everyone's gonna be really crunched up on each other, and I don't think it's gonna be one of those things where you can easily predict seeding. I think they're gonna be around forty five wins, and I think they're gonna be right around the upper edge of the play in tournament, if not out of the play in All right, let's talk male bag questions. I've got three of them for you

guys today. The first one is from Jordan. If you could play big minutes on an NBA team for this next year, which one would it be and why? So we're gonna have some fun with this one. First of all, I would never be able to play in the NBA. I'm a very good basketball player, but I'm not an NBA player. If you put me into an NBA training camp tomorrow, I would get eaten alive by those guys. Again, I've worked really hard to become a good basketball player,

but there's levels to this shit. I'm good enough to go play overseas, I'm not good enough to play in the NBA. And even when I say good enough to play overseas, I'm not one of those guys would be over there making millions if I would have stayed over there and played, I probably could have made a living and played. Maybe if I got lucky, I could have made it to one of the top leagues. But I never would have been one of the guys that was like a fringe NBA player that's over there making millions.

There's levels to this shit. I'm not an NBA player that said. If I absolutely had to play for one NBA team this year and I had to pick one that i'd have the best chance to earn minutes, It'd be the Golden State Warriors. And the main reason why is because they're small. I am six six and I have a six to eleven wing span. I jump really well, and I always was a really good rebounder. I finished

three my conference and rebounds twice. I actually had a twenty twenty rebound game when I was in college, a bunch of like, you know, you know, eighteen point sixteen rebound games, like twenty four point fourteen rebound games. Like I was a very good rebounder when I was in college.

And so that combined with the fact that the Warriors make basketball easy for people, and the fact that Steph's gonna get chased by multiple guys, and I'm gonna have like wide open opportunities to attack closeouts and take catch and shoot threes. Like that would be my best opportunity because I could help them on the glass and maybe make some plays on offense. But to be clear, if you put me in the Warriors training camp here in a couple of weeks, those guys would eat me alive.

That's just the reality of NBA basketball. But it's fun thing to have fun and think about here. Second mail back question from Prince Samurai. You said shortening the season to sixty six games would help with urgency and participation. What would we do for individual NBA records? Wouldn't Lebron's scoring records, Steph's three point record and others like it be forever out of reach for new players? Honestly, I

just don't care. I mean, what about expansion. There were guys who made All Star teams in all NBA selections when there were many fewer teams in the league, right, Like does that diminish the credit that should go to a championship team? Like what about what if we start accepting the fact that during Michael Jordan's titles the league was smaller and then they expanded and had a bunch of expansion teams, right, Like, there's a bunch of conversations we could have as the game has changed. So the

reality is the game has changed. Like Ray Allen played in a league where three point shooting wasn't is emphasized. That's not to take away Steph. Steph is the greatest shooter of all time, and I think he would have been a better shooter than Ray Allen even if they played in the same era. But the point is is, like the game changes, and shortening the regular season would

just be another way for the game to change. Even if we stay at eighty two games forever, it's possible that Lebron's scoring record gets broke because I don't know, maybe maybe they had a four point line. Maybe pace gets even crazier, Maybe skill level goes up another level, and maybe NBA games start finishing around one hundred and fifty points a team, and maybe dudes are averaging forty and in fifteen years some guy passes Lebron. Like, that's

just the reality of the changing game. So, like, I understand, it's a good question, But my counter to that would be, who cares like you know, obviously, in a perfect world, if we could keep static circumstances and track everything equally, but that's just not how it works. Like Lebron's scoring record, he didn't go to college. You know a lot of the dudes that he passed on that list went to college.

That's not fair either, right, So if you if you're just in general in life and this goes well beyond basketball, if you're hoping for fair, you're gonna be disappointed because it's just not gonna end up that way. Last question from Felipe, what do you make of Anthony Davis saying he wants to play the four. This is something that I saw the other day, and I think my friend Jovan Bujas said that that ad will probably start at the five, but then just spend some of his shifts

at the four. Here's where I get concerned with Anthony Davis at the four. It's a simple question of defensive responsibilities, right, Like, you're gonna have your primary point of attack defender who's gonna guard their on ball guard. You're going to have your lock and trail defender that's gonna guard their two guard who's probably gonna be running off of off ball action more frequently right, more dribble handoffs, more off screen action.

Then you're going to have a pick and roll screen defender, right, that's your big man, typically your five. Then you're gonna have a low man. It's gonna be the guy that you put on their worst shooter that they're typically gonna tuck away in the week side corner, and your man's that man. The lowman is going to be primarily helping at the paint at the rim out of that position.

In between those four spots, though, is the three and the three in the modern NBA is more like another two guard, if not a smaller, more perimeter oriented small forward right. And so in that situation, that guy's going to have to navigate a lot of screen actions and

chase around on the perimeter a lot. And so, if you have a situation where you want to play Lebron James, Anthony Davis and a center at the same time, presumably you're asking the center to be your pick and roll defender, Anthony Davis to be the role man or the lowman. Now I'm asking Lebron to chase around on the perimeter at is twenty first season, or Anthony Davis to chase around the perimeter so Lebron can stay as the lowman, or Lebron's off the floor. Is that Murah is he

now chasing threes around? You get the point Like it's one of those things where fundamentally as a team, like whoever plays the three has to be willing to chase around on the perimeter. Everything makes more sense if you slot Anthony Davis at the five, because if Anthony Davis is at the five, it's gonna be Lebron James and Ruy Hatcha Mura playing the four. Those two are gonna split those minutes, right, They're gonna primarily be low man.

Anthony Davis is gonna have Jackson Hayes or Christian Wood come off the bench for him, right if he If they come off the bench, they become your pick and roll defender, your threes. The guy who chase threes around, that's gonna be your Jared Vanderbilt, that's gonna be your I'm blanking on his name. The guy they picked up from the Minnesota Timberwolves, Torian Prince, right and uh. And then as you go to the two guards and one guards, that's where you get your lock and trail defenders and

your point of attack defenders. But everything slots better in terms of defensive responsibilities of eight, he's at the five. Now, if you are gonna play Ad at the four, you have to play him next to Christian Wood. Why because Ad can't shoot anymore. Christian Wood is a very good three point shooter, and so at the very least, you can run a four out one in concept with Christian

Wood on the floor at the five. But in that situation, if you're gonna run Ad at the four, the way you would have to look is Lebron would have to be on the bench. So this would have to be when Lebron subs out of the game halfway through the end of the halfway through the first quarter, You're gonna have to bring in a three, a legit three, either Jared Vanderbilt or Jared Vanderbilt is like a four offensively,

but he's like a three defensively. But you need to put Jared Vanderbilt in there, and you Oratrium Prince, and then Anthony Davis becomes your low man. Christian Wood's gonna have to be your pick and roll defender, and Christian Woods not a very good pick and roll defender. So even in that case, you're probably gonna have to have Anthony Davis behave defensively as a five, and that defeats the purpose. So like again, I understand it why Adi wants to because more size on the floor means you know,

less physical ask for Anthony Davis. But at the end of the day, like everything slots better with this Laker roster with Ad at the five because they have an amazing forward core between Lebron, James, Ruey Hotcha Murrah, Jared Vanderbilt and Torrian Prince. They've got really good forwards and the only way you're gonna find minutes for all those guys is if Ad plays most of his minutes at

the five. Again, think of it this way. If you're ranking the top four Lakers, it's Lebron, James, Anthony Davis, Ruey Hotchi Mura, and Austin Reeves. Right, Austin Reeves is probably the third best, Lebron's probably the second best eighty one, and Ruey Hatchamura is probably your fourth best player. So in this case, two of your top four players are power forwards or play that traditional big forward look, right, instead of that skinny forward who chases around on the perimeter.

So just in terms of slotting, if you think of a ten man rotation, which the Lakers will probably use in the regular season, or maybe a nine man rotation, but maybe a ten man rotation in the regular season, you need two centers, two big forwards, too small forwards to you know, off ball guards, and two on ball guards. Right, And so as soon as you move AD into the four, Lebron's playing thirty four minutes a night, is AD gonna play fourteen minutes at the four? Okay? Now where does

Ruey Hatchamura play? You can kind of see how that gets more complicated. So like, even though it's what AD wants, it's very obviously not what's best for the team. And so I don't know how they're gonna rectify that, but Darvin Ham's gonna have to deal with it, apparently if his star wants to play that way. All right, guys, that is all I have for today is always I sincerely appreciate your support. I hope you guys have an incredible weekend, and we will be back on Monday with

number sixteen. The volume