Hoops Tonight - NBA Team Rankings: Why Anthony Edwards’ rise will turn Timberwolves into contenders

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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 hoops tonight here at the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody. I hope all of you guys had an incredible weekend. We are live on AMPS. If you're watching on YouTube or listening on our podcast feeds, don't forget that AMP is the very first place that you

guys can get these shows. Continuing our power rankings today with one of my favorite young teams in the league at number sixteen, the Minnesota Timberwolves. And then I've got a few male back questions for the end of the show as well. You guys are the jopefore we get started. Subscribe to our YouTube channel, follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt don't forget about our podcast feed at hoops tonight, and I need mail bag questions, so drop

them in the YouTube comments. All right, let's talk some basketball so quick offseason recap for the Minnesota Timberwolves. They lost Jalen Nowell. He's actually still a free agent right now, believe it or not. Torian Prince is now a Laker. They lost Austin Reeves as well. In the draft. They added Leonard Miller in the early second round, a G League ignight prospect, big interesting forward prospect basically, but he's super raw, super young, not really good factor in the

immediate future, but we'll see in the long run. They're also super thin that forward this season, so we might get to see a lot more Leonard Miller than you're probably expecting, just by virtue of the depth that they have at that position. They also signed Troy Brown Junior, a role player that I covered with the Lakers last year. Good defensive player, he competes and does his job. He's kind of like a league average athlete, So he's gonna compete and he's gonna have the ability to stay in

front of most ball handlers. But when he runs into the really high end guys that are like bigger, stronger, faster than him. He can have some trouble that limits his defensive impact, but he's not gonna hurt you on that end, and you can at least bet on him playing his ass off every time he's on the floor. He's a little streaky as a shooter, but he did have mostly a good shooting season with the Lakers last year,

but there were high highs and lows. Like he briefly before the end of the season it was like he couldn't miss for a while, and then at the end of the season he couldn't make anything and struggle shooting in the playoffs. So that's kind of like the nature of most role players. But he's not like a knockdown guy either. He finished the season at one point zero five points per possession in spot up situations, which is slightly above average. So you're gonna get quality bench play

out of Troy Brown Junior. And that was kind of the thing with Troy. It was like when he was in the starting lineup because of the issues the Lakers had with personnel before the trade deadline, it wasn't great, but when he kind of got slotted properly as just a guy who would play off the bench in a limited role. Then he all of a sudden made all

of a sudden, made a lot of sense. Right. He's also a former lottery pick, so he does have a good amount of confidence, and he's got a little bit of the off the dribble, you know, juice, whatever you want to call it. He can make some plays off the bounce, and he will surprise you sometimes with the plays that he's able to make. He's perfectly fine bench wing. They also signed Shake Milton, who played with the Philadelphia seventy six ers last year. He's a spot up shooter.

Shot sixty three percent in effective field goal percentage on catch and shoot jump shots last year. He's not very good when you make him put the ball on the floor, though, and that's a big part of why he wasn't the

best spot up player that he could have been. He actually was writing about a point per possession in spot up situations, five points per one hundred possessions behind where Troy Brown Junior was for perspective, despite being a better shooter, Remember, attacking closeouts is an important part of spot up situations. But he's a perfectly fine bench guard again, So a couple of decent bench players there chart right now at guard,

they have Mike Conley, Anthony Edwards, shake Milton Mikhail. Alexander Walker is one of my favorite bench guards in the league. We're going to talk about him a little bit more later in Jordan McLaughlin at forward, Kyle Anderson and Jade McDaniels, then Troy Brown Junior, Wendell Moore Junior and Josh Manott, and then the big Rudy go Bear Karl Anthony Towns and the return of Nas Reed, who was a big loss for the Timberwolves at the end of the season

last year. Their starting lineup is almost certainly going to be Mike Conley, Anthony Edwards, Jade McDaniels, Carl Towns, and Rudy Gobar. Now, before we go any further, I want to talk about the cat situation for a minute because

I've never been a fan of two big lineups. I think whatever benefits you get from them are offset by some of the limitations that come along with it, by limiting your foot speed, limiting your overall perimeter juice in terms of the kind of aggregate ability to attack closeouts and play driving kick basketball, and there's theoretically some upsides, right, like theoretically that will help you on the glass, but this was not a good rebounding team last year, and

in the long run, I tend to think that two big lineups get exposed in a lot of different ways. And for the record, it didn't go well last year. They played with Rudy Gobert and Carl Towns on the floor at the same time for one thousand and ninety five possessions last year, and they had a zero point nine net rating, so they were barely positive. And we saw a large sample size of Rudy Gobert at the center without Cat with their great perimeter defenders, and they

kicked everyone's ass. Like Kyle Anderson is one of the best defensive forwards in the league. It's just very versatile guys is kind of a like a really high IQ off ball player. He defends well on the ball. He's not going to be in your top tier perimeter defenders, but he's great playing passing lanes and in health defense. He's just a really smart defensive player. Jade McDaniels might very well be the best perimeter defender in the league.

He's certainly in that tier. If you're listing your top tier perimeter defenders, the very best the guys are in the conversation to be the best. He's in that list, right, and then Anthony Edwards. It's a commitment thing and it's an off ball IQ thing, but he has the potential to be one of the best perimeter defenders in the league and had many stretches last year where he was.

When you put those three guys next to Kat or not Cat, excuse me, when you put those three guys next to Rudy Gobert, regardless of who the fifth guy was, they kicked everyone's ass on two and twenty four possessions last year plus ten point four net rating. That's a that is a clear demonstration of how easy it is to get stops in the NBA when you have great perimeter defenders of many different archetypes and an outstanding rim protector.

When you combine those two things, you become incredibly difficult to beat, even if you do have offensive limitations, which they did. But Mike Conley was honestly a really nice fit with them when he came in at the trade deadline last year. And I mean, like we looked at Rudy Gobert in Utah, and a lot of people were talking about some of the limitations that Rudy Gobert had. But what did I always say? Those are of you guys who followed the show for this long, Like I

it wasn't Rudy Gobert's fault. The Utah Jazz had a horrible core of perimeter defenders, and like, it's too much to ask to blame everything on the rim protector when nine times out of ten he's getting pulled out in rotation. You know, he'd help on the first guy, but then it's driving kick, driving kick, Rudy Goberar's not at the rim anymore, and they'd give up layups and wide open threes. In a lot of cases, it would just be drive

Rudy Gobert, help kick out wide open three. And so at a certain point, like you got to look at the combination of the like everything that's happening on the defensive end of the floor. Rudy Gobert is an excellent rim protector, an excellent drop coverage big so put him alongside great perimeter defenders that can get over the top of the screen and funnel them to funnel the ball handlers towards Rudy. You're gonna get a lot of stops,

and they did. Now we're gonna preview the team today as though Carl Towns is on the team and they're going to bring him back, and there they have all ready to this point, but they're gonna at least try, and there's a good reason to do that. They got a little bit of a sample size with Carl Town's coming into next season, or coming into the end of last season when Rudy go excuse me, when Carltown's came

back from the calf injury. They got about one hundred and fifty six possessions with Carl Towns and the starters I just mentioned, so Mike Conley, Anthony Edwards, with Jade McDaniels, Carl Towns and Rudy Gobert. That group of five guys played about a game and a half in terms of overall total volume. They played over a longer stretch, but one hundred and fifty six possessions is about a game

and a half. In that game and a half, they were amazing defensively one hundred point six defensive rating and a bad offensive rating one oh six point four, but

still a plus five point eight net rating. So what that tells me is there's enough of like a little bit of an interesting kind of production stat there from the end of last season for at least them to be like, let's try this thing, right, But to be clear, I think that their best bet is to move Kat at the deadline or before then if a better opportunity presents itself. But for forward depth, because if you look

at their depth chart, they're actually really deep. Right, Like we look at the guards, We've got Mike Conley and Anthony Edwards excellent guards, right shake Milton a good bench guard the kill. Alexander Walker is one of my favorite bench guards because he's like a really good spot up player and a really good point of attack defender. He's like the ideal off ball guard because he can take primary point of attack assignments and he can play off

the ball knocking down shots and attacking closeouts. That's a great guard corp. And not even get to Jordan McLaughlin, who's a good guard prospect. So you've got five good guards right go to the bigs. You've got Rudy Gobert, Carl Towns and Nasri. That's three starting level NBA centers, right, But if I go to the forward position, it's Kyle Anderson and Jada McDaniels, a really good duo. But then it's a huge drop off to Troy Brown Junior and

Wendell Moore. Right, So at the end of the day, they're they're kind of like a surplus of bigs and not enough forwards. And then there's the just the overall basketball concept of trying to make it work with two bigs. There's also this massive sample size of no Carl Towns, and you're actually really good with Rudy Gobert at the center with all these perimeter defenders. You know, I look at the long run for this team in terms of offensive creation, and I look at this as a Anthony

Edwards led bona fide superstar team. And we're gonna talk about Anthony Edwards later, but he's ascending right before our eyes into true superstardom. Not only did he play amazing in that last playoff run, but I mean one series, but then he also shockingly became the best player on

tm USA, Like he was the best player on tm USA. Now, it wasn't a shock to me if you guys, remember I did my player rankings before Team USA and Anthony Edwards was my highest ranked player out of all the Team USA guy, so I expected it to be the best player. But like I'm one of the like, I'm higher on Anthony Edwards than most people in my player rankings list. When I had him at fifteen, a lot of people complained, And I'm not saying I'm right. I'm saying I'm just I'm in a spectrum of opinion on

Anthony Edwards. I'm higher on him than most. And he went in there and alpha dogged all those guys. That team was built to be a Jalen Brunson and Brandon Ingram team, and he alpha dogged Brandon Ingram out of the rotation because he couldn't play off the ball. So like Anthony Edwards is ascending, he is the fulk crum of this offense in the future. Mike Conley can help for a year or two while he's developing Jade McDaniels, so we're gonna talk about later. He's got some offensive

pot that he demonstrated last year. I look at this as a defensive minded team centered around an excellent rim protector, and outstanding perimeter defenders with a downhill threat, and in that situation, I want more perimeter players. I want more perimeter talent. Carl Towns can play on the perimeter, we know that, but it's not the same as having a real guard out there that can keep a driving kick system moving as we know. And the truth is Carl Anthony Towns spot up numbers are not as good as

you would think. So I look at it in the long run as an Anthony Edwards led team, and I think Carl Towns is your best vehicle to bring in the role players that could supplement that. Not this year, but in the next three to four years. I believe the Minnesota Timberwolves can contend for championships. That's how high I view Anthony Edwards in the context of an elite playoff defense. And so I think Carltown's eventually needs to

be moved. But again, we're gonna proceed as though Carl Towns for the sake of this video, We're gonna proceed as though Carltown's remains with the team, because he certainly will probably at least through the deadline or so, and maybe even through the end of the season. If things go well. So when I looked at the I went back and I watched a full game this morning between the Timberwolves and the New Orleans Pelicans, one of the few games last year where we got our existing five right,

Conley Edwards, McDaniel's cat and Gobar. And in that particular game, their defense was really impressive and they ended up they came back and won in the fourth quarter. But the offense was a little bit clunky because for the most part, Carltowns does just spot up except for a handful of possessions. Will they throw it to him on the block for a post up and a handful of possessions, will the throw to him at the elbow at the free throw

line for a face up. He's mostly playing off the ball, which is again, that's redundancy, that's a waste of what he's actually capable of. Carl Towns is it belongs in a system where he's the sole big. And for the record, and like this is something I'm gonna say in defense of Carltowns. When the Timberwolves played with Carl Towns this year and no go Bear or he was the big, they were good plus four net rating in about a thousand possessions if I remember correctly. That's good. Carl Towns

is a very good basketball player. But when I look at this particular team and their long term ceiling, I look at it as a Rudy Gobert anchored for out one end system, and so that's kind of the direction I'd like to see them go. But again, it's a little clunky. It's a lot of it's a lot of like spreading the floor and having him just spot up and then the occasional post touch. He's being underutilized in

a lot of ways. And you got to remember too, for Carl Towns, he's coming back from an injury, and I don't think he wanted to rock the boat all that much. Carl in spot up situations last year just one point zero five points per possession. That's fifty seventh percentile. That's okay. That's a slightly above average spot up player. So he's not doing as good out there as a better role playing forward would do who was an experienced spot up player. Right, six percent effecive fieldgal percentage on

catching shoot jumpers. That's good. It's good, but it's not great, right, And like that's kind of the angle that I'm going at there. But let's stop talking about shipping catoff for a second. I'm sure timber Wolves fans are getting annoyed with me at this point. For the full season, Let's look at the full season. Last year, the Wolves were twenty third in offensive raiding. Biggest thing that hurt them

was their ISO efficiency. They ran eight hundred and nine ISOs last year, which was the thirteenth most in the league, but they converted them only at zero point ninety five points per possession, which was the twentieth best in the league. And the biggest culprit here is Anthony Edwards. And again, like, I'm not being critical here because Ant's young and he's

learning how to play the game. But what if I told you what Anthony Edwards was, or I asked you guys to tell me what Anthony Edwards was as a basketball player, Like, describe him to me what he's great at. What would you guys tell me. You'd say he's, you know, one of the best athletes in the league. You'd say he's a huge, strong guard that can bully people downhill. You'd tell me he's got all this defensive tent, he's

got an alpha dog mentality. What you wouldn't tell me is he's a dead eye pull up jump shooter, right, Like he takes a lot of them, But you wouldn't tell me like, oh, An, it's just the just a dead eye pull up jump shooter. No, he's not, but he takes a ton of them. To give you an idea, Anthony Edwards took six hundred and three pull up jump shots last year. Only three players in the entire NBA

took more, Demarto Rosen, Luka Doncicz and Diaron Fox. The difference is is Damar made almost half of them, Luka Doncicz made almost forty percent of them, Deeron Fox made forty two percent of them. Anthony Edwards made thirty five percent of them. So he's a high, high volume pull up jump shooter, but not particularly efficient at least in the regular season. He's been very efficient with this pull u jump shot in the playoffs, which we'll get to

in a minute. But I think that was a big factor in the efficiency for this particular Timberwolves team from last season not doing particularly well. There were fifteen players in the entire NBA last year who at least three hundred ISOs. Anthony Edwards ranked fourteenth out of fifteen players in efficiency because he settled for too many jump shots and he missed too many of them as a matter of fact, and this is kind of a perfect comp You guys want to know who fifteenth on that list

was Lebron James. Lebron James was the worst high volume ISO player in the league last year. Why because Lebron James, who has been a very good pull up jump shooter for the last half decade, couldn't make a damn pull up jump shot last year. He was atrocious last year and he was settling for a lot of them. Just go ask Laker fans what they thought about Lebron's jump shot last year and you'll understand pretty quickly what I'm

talking about. ISO guys like Anton Lebron, who run a lot of them and settle for a lot of jump shots but aren't making them, are going to suffer in their efficiency, and that's why they both finished towards the bottom. I do like Anthony Edwards's pull up jumper. It's a really nice counter to his driving attack. He gets great

looks because guys are on their heels. I don't want him to stop taking them, but just maybe not six hundred of them, right, If that's four hundred and on the other two hundred possessions, he's a little bit more downhill aggressive. Maybe that ends up being something that upticks his efficiency where it should be. And again, the settling for jumpers is a classic young guy problem. It's a

young guy problem and it's an old guy problem. People in the prime of their careers don't do it that much, right, Young guys because they don't know any better. Old guys because they're old. But it is gonna eventually have to learn that that Like, he's doing the defensive favor when he's taking six hundred pull up jump shots in a season, but he did shoot really well in the postseason, and I think that's that's kind of what I see in

the long run. What I see in the long run is like a good pull up jump shooter who uses

it as a counter to a devastating downhill attack. He was fifty five percent an effective field goal percentage in last year's postseason, the year before that fifty seven percent, So his career an excellent pull up jump shooter in the postseason, and he's coming off of an excellent performance in team with Team USA, nineteen points per game in all thirteen games including the exhibitions, fifty seven percent true shooting.

He made forty nine percent field goal percentage on his pull up jumper, so he made almost half of them fifty nine percent waited for threes. Now, remember Steph was the only pull up jump shooter in the league at volume last year to shoot over sixty percent in effective field goal percentage, and it was at fifty nine percent with Team USA. So he is riding a hot streak with pull up jump shooting. If that translates, then then we're talking about, you know, a guy who's the top

tier superstars. So and then it's not exactly shocking at all why he elevated himself with that Team USA group, But it's really interesting to see that development piece. I just wanted to see him tone it back in terms of shot selection a little bit. He ran ninety pick and rolls with Team USA, scoring one hundred and twelve points one point twenty four points per possession. As off the charts, a point a quarter per possession and pick

and roll is insane. He's making a leap. Like I said earlier, right in front of our eyes and superstardom. And again, like when I talk about, you know, the Timberwolves in their long term ceiling, like you gotta remember this was a bad offense last year because they're just letting Like I watched I was watching that Timberwolves Pelicans game this morning, and Ant took four pull up threes in the first like three and a half minutes of the game, like, and no one's complaining at him, Like

his teammates are letting him there. The entire Timberwolves organization believes in Aunt so much that they're letting him work through his mistakes, which is great for his development. But obviously last year that was gonna hurt their offensive rating because you have a young guard who's learning how to play on the fly, right, But in the long run,

that's gonna pay dividends. And I think this year is going to be the year where the Timberwolves feel most serious about their chances, and in that event, I think Ant is going to make those strides and I think the offense is going to improve as a result. Let's take a brief look at two of their other primary shot creators and then another guy that I think could become one this year. So Mike Conley ended up being

a perfect fit alongside Anthony Edwards. Why because he's a deadly spot up player one point one to one points per possession and spot up situations. Mike Conley had a seventy percent effective field goal percentage in a Timberwolves jersey on catch and shoot jump shots. That's outrageous. Seventy seven percent when he was unguarded. You just can't leave Mike Conley open. That's a high value add next to a

guy like Anthony Edwards at such a downhill force. Right, he already had good existing pick and roll chemistry with Rudy Gobert. Rudy Gobert just sets really good screens and helps you get separation. And Mike Conley's actually one of the best pull up three point shooters in the league. In a Timberwolves jersey, fifty seven percent effective field goal

percentage on pull up jump shots. That's awesome. As a result of that, one point one six points per possession and pick and roll with the Wolves on decent sample over two hundred possessions, that's ninety fourth percentile. So Mike Conley was like the perfect guard slot alongside Anthony Edwards Carl Towns last year, still a good post up shot creator. He ran one hundred and fourteen post ups for one point one to one points per possession that was in

the seventy first percentile. Good hook shot was the foundation there, and then he passed the ball well, made forty nine percent of his hook shots and made the right reads when teams doubled him. Was not great Naiso last year,

zero point eight nine points per possession. A lot of ripthroughs to the right, dudes sliding with him and staying in front, and him settling for this like really tough floaters over the top, which he only made about forty percent of the time, which is not a super efficient shot. So the face up games not where it needs to be. But he's still a good post up player. The guy I want to take a closer look at his Jade McDaniels.

He is on the short list of guys, like we mentioned earlier, that is considered in the Conversation for best perimeter defender in the world. Right, that's what we think of Jade McDaniels as But he actually showed a decent amount of offensive pop last year. Averaged a career high twelve points per game, a career high sixty one percent TRU shooting. He ran only it's really low volume for the record, but we learned from this and a lot

of interesting stuff on tape. He only ran sixty two pick and rolls last year and those led to sixty five points. That's one point zero five points per possession. That's solid about once a game you could throw Jade McDaniel's the ball and he could get you a point right per possession. That's value there, And a big part of it is, like it's a couple of different things.

First of all, perimeter defenders. He's getting your third best perimeter defender, so probably a guy who doesn't navigate screens super well, so he gets good separation, loves to drive left. And then what he does is he gets into your body with these long steps and gathers early, and then he takes like these like fallaway shots, like these like short fallaway, one footed shots, but they're not like one

foot fade aways from fifteen feet. He's taken them from like seven eight feet away from the basket, and he can make them. As a matter of fact, he had a fifty one percent effective field goal percentage on pull up jumpers last year on one hundred in one of them. That's decent volume. That's not nothing. Again, that's more than once a game. He also was really good in spot up situations fifty nine percent effective field goal percentage on catch and shoot jump shot sixty two percent when unguarded.

So a good spot up player and actually kind of like a sneaky good rim finisher is like he'll get these dunks in traffic that you're not expecting where he just kind of jumps over everybody and finishes shot well at the rim. Last year, him continuing to make those strides on the offensive end of the floor, alongside Anthony Edwards with what he's capable of as a defensive player, That's what I look at as like the triumvirate of

the Timberwolves future. Anthony Edwards a superstar, Jade McDaniels is like the Scottie pipp into him, and then Rudy Gobert is the defensive anchor and the guy who can set good ball screens. Those three together, I think are a really really interesting foundation in the long run. On the defensive end, the Timberwolves finished tenth in defensive rating, but they were seventh and half court defense. According to Cleaning the Glass, that's really impressive. Middle of the pack and

transition defense for both French frequency and efficiency. Not as effective in the paint as you would think, but for a specific reason, and I want to dive into this concept a little bit. So they allowed forty nine point seven points in the paint per one hundred possessions, which was fifteenth in the NBA. Obviously you expect that to

be higher with Rudy Gobert. Right. They give up eighteen point three restricted area makes per game, which was the ninth most in the NBA, but on those shots, teams only shot sixty five point six percent, which was the eleventh best in the NBA. This was a schematic approach from the Timberwolves that I thought was really interesting, and you noticed it in ISO and in pick and roll situations. So in pick and roll they prioritize keeping Rudy Gobert

as close to the role man as possible. They trusted their point of attack defenders to get over the top of screens and force the ball handler into tough shots. In driving kick situations, you guys might remember a game last year where where Kyle Anderson was bitching and moaning at Anthony Edwards and Rudy Gobert for overhelping on drives and actually cost him this particular game. I think it was an overtime loss if I remember correctly, but both

Rudy Gobert and Anthony Edwards. I think it was against the Brooklyn Nets. They toasted off a game giving up wide open threes by overhelping. But this is a concept that is important, Like obsession with shutting down the paint made so much more sense years ago than it does now, because when you're obsessed with shutting down the paint, you give good looks to NBA players in the year twenty

twenty three. NBA players in the year twenty twenty three are knocking those things down, and so it actually is better to give up driving lanes, enforce contested layups or contested short range shots in the paint, trusting them to miss more than half of them, which is less than a point for possession, rather than giving up these wide open catch and shoot shots on the perimeter while you're getting torched. Right and like, that was an approach for

the Timberwolves all season. Trust your perimeter defenders, Rudy stay with the role man whenever you can, unless you absolutely have to. Oh, if Kyle Anderson, someone's driving on Kyle Anderson and he's on his hip and he's got an angle to go to the basket, but Kyle's gonna get a contest, just let him do it. If he finishes a tough scooping lay up high off the glass over Kyle Anderson, great shot, nice shot, two points for you. But if Rudy steps over and gives up a dunk,

that's not good. Or you help out of the strong side corner and you give or help out of the weakside corner one of the two and you give up a wide open three, not a good job, right, So, I think I think the Timberwolves actually have a really smart modern approach to defense, and I think it's a big part of why they were so successful. Perimeter defenders are are the equivalent of rim protection in the modern NBA, containing ball handlers will protect the pain for you, And

it was a really smart approach. They did a really nice job preventing teams from getting good looks at three. They allowed just thirty two point five three point attempts per one hundred possessions. That was the fifth best mark in the entire NBA. As a matter of fact, they actually got bad luck. Teams shot thirty seven percent from three. That was the twenty fourth worst mark in the NBA. So team shot really well against them. Now in a

large sample size, they don't like blaming luck. They're probably leaving the wrong shooters open. That probably is a little too much of like overhelping it the wrong time, right, But that was a significant factor in their defense not being where it should have been because they finished tenth in defense. I don't think they were the tenth best defense in terms of what they were capable of. I think they were as capable of it. They were capable of being a top five defense. So clearly there was

some stuff that got lost in there. Another big part of it was rebounding. They were twenty seventh in rebound percentage. They gave up three putbacks per game last year, which was the eighth most in the NBA. And then lastly was turnovers they gave up. But they had fifteen turnovers per one hundred possessions last year. That was the sixth most in the NBA. So turning the basketball over that's going to always compromise your defense by giving ups of

like runouts the other way. And the Timberwolves were a very good transition defense off of steels last year. They were middle of the pack in general, but off of steels they did a really good job of sprinting back. As a matter of fact, I remember correctly, they might have been best in defense off of steels according to Cleaning the Glass. But even the best off of steels is a really high offensive rating and much higher than your defensive rating are, then you would hold their offensive

rating to in a static half court situation. So turning the basketball over too much, that's going to cause problems. Giving up too many offensive rebound put backs, that's going to cause problems. And then you hope that you hope that maybe that thirty seven percent three point shooting was luck. Your rebound better, You take better care of the basketball team, shoot more normal next year. Now you got yourself top five defense. And again those numbers are for the full season.

When they had Anthony Edwards, Jad McDaniels and Kyle Anderson next to Rudy Gobert, they were absolutely stifling, like devastatingly good on defense. So regardless of whatever they decide to do, with kat all four of those guys are still on the roster. That punch will always be in their back pocket. If they end up in a certain matchup and they need defense, they can bench cat and play their perimeter guys next to Mike Conley and they have a really

good chance to win games that way. So to tie it all together as a prediction, the West is a total shit show, so picking the order of seeding is impossible. Like for the record, I think the Wolves are gonna be a lot better this year than they were last year. Here's the problem. The MAVs are gonna be a lot better than they were last year. Full training camp with Kyrie and Luka Doncic, and they added good front court players to help with the dirty work. That's gonna help them.

The Kings are gonna be a little bit worse than they were last year in my opinion, but they were a three seed last year. The Thunder they're adding Chet Holmgren and all their guys are a year older. They're going to be much better than they were last year. The Clippers, if Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are healthy all year, they're better than last year. Right. The Warriors

they added Chris Paul, you know they like. I just think in general, in terms of chemistry, getting Jordan Poole out of the picture, they'll probably be better next year because they remember they couldn't win on the road because they all hated each other. Or I shouldn't say they all hated each other, but the schism that was going on between Jordan Pool and some of the other young guys and the older guys that affected things. I think the Warriors are going to be more focused and be

better this year than they were last year. The Suns and Lakers are both just more talented than last year. Both of them added more role players and they were already really good. And the Nuggets are the defending champs. I just listed what's at one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight teams. So like, even though I think the Wolves are gonna be better than last year, theoretically everybody else is too. So it's hard for me to be like, oh, they're gonna be a five seed, because it's it's just

who are they jump in? Right? So if I had to make a prediction right now, even though I do think the Wolves will be better, the West is gonna be a blood Bath. They're gonna be right around five hundred and they're gonna be in the plane again. But they're gonna be more dangerous this year than they were last year in my opinion. But that's just the nature of the NBA Theta these days. That's not a shot

at the Timberwolves or anything like that. All right, guys, I have three mail back questions for you before we get out of here tonight. First one, obviously, there's a lot of luck involved, but there are. But are there any common traits you see among stars that can stay healthy year over year, Like for a guy like Jokich, is there something in his build that gives him that edge. I do not think there's any rhyme or reason to

injury luck. I literally think it's luck, like I've been told my whole life, and I still firmly believe that working on leg strength is the best way to prevent lower body injuries, like just having a really solid base because that's how you absorb impact when you land right. But Jamal Murray has a legendary leg strength program, like absolutely legendary, and that guy towards ACL like, go look up stories about what Jamal Murray's dad had him do

to build like strength. That dude works harder on your legs, on his legs than probably anybody listening to this video. That dude's insane towards ACL. Everyone says Biggs get hurt all the time, but Nikole Jokicic is like the iron Man. You know. Everyone says freaky athletes that jump super high will get hurt. No, Lebron was a freaky athlete, maybe the freakiest athlete of all time, and didn't get hurt until he got old. So I don't really think there

is a rhyme or reason to it. I think it's just luck, and I wish I had a better explanation than that. But that's that's pretty much how I feel about it right now. Next mail back question from Michael Why do certain fans believe that point of attack defense doesn't matter in the modern NBA? In regards to Steph Curry, some people downplay the importance of point of attack defense wise that, I do think people value point of attack defense.

I do think the matchup attacking thing is a little overplayed because a couple of different things you need point of attack defense in terms of a person who can fulfill that role, but it doesn't necessarily have to be Steph. Just like, for instance, if I've got two wings on my roster and one of them is Lebron who's older and wants to rest, Like I can have Jared Vanderbilt, who's theoretically playing the four, I can have him chase around on the perimeter and have Lebron play the low man.

You can find responsibilities on the floor for lesser defenders, and like you'll you'll see that with the Warriors, like if he's if Steph is on the floor with Gary Payton, they're gonna have Gary Payton run the point of attack defense and probably have Steph Garden off ball shooter. Right, That's just that's the way that they usually set these sorts of things up. Now, matchup attacking is the downside, right, Okay, Okay, it's a playoff series. Uh, you run a couple of

screening actions, get a switch. Now we're posting up so and so on the block. There is value in that for an offense, but I actually think it has more to do with the other end of the floor. Like when the Lakers relentlessly attacked Steph. I think it was a big strategy to try to fatigue him, Like I think they were trying to wear him out so that he'd misshots, and he did. But why did that work. That worked because Jordan pull and Klay Thompson fell apart.

So Steph literally had to do everything and he couldn't because the Lakers were attacking him relentlessly on the other end of the floor. The truth is that attacking a player stagnates you. If you spend an entire game matchup attacking, that's really stagnant offense. The ball's not moving, it's a lot of iso, a lot of post up you don't actually want to. That's bad for your offense in the

long run. Like generally speaking, if they're if they're just attacking, you know, uh, let's say let's say for this particular team, Like let's say that they're just attacking Mike Conley every time, I'd be like, go ahead, you're gonna stagnate your offense. You're becoming predictable. Mike Conley's gonna figure out how to get more stops in the long run will help and rotate. But if you only have one offensive option, then they can attack and fatigue. Let's look at the twenty twenty

two Warriors. Jordan Poole played much better in that playoff run, Steph had more offensive support, Andrew Wiggins played better in that playoff run. So as a result, attacking Steph was a fool's errand it's gonna stagnate it your offense and cause problems, and he doesn't need to do everything. On the other end, go look at the game logs for the Warriors two years ago and look through the points. There are a lot of games in there where Steph was just a cog in the system. And that's because

that team was better, played better. And so if you would have attacked Steph, you never would have fatigued him because he's one of the most conditioned athletes in the league and he didn't need to do everything that year. So I think some of that stuff is overplayed. Like as long as you have point of attack defense in the line up, as long as you have help defense in the lineup, as long as you have rim protection in the lineup, you're gonna get stops even if you

have a weak defender in that group. It's like, it's just it's it's that That's a perfect example of why basketball is an art and out a science. It's so much more complicated than it looks like on the surface. Why was Steph getting attacked a narrative in this series this year? But why did Why didn't the MAVs have any success with it? Luca is the best matchup attacker in the league, right, Why didn't he have any success with it? Because they didn't need Steph to score thirty

five to have any chance of winning. The Warriors literally needed Steph to score thirty five to have any chance of beating the Lakers in any game. So like and like and again like another. It's mostly the same rosters, the same top seven guys. That's the other crazy part about it. Like it was the same guys that were a lesser basketball team this year. But that's the intricacy of the organism of a basketball team. One thing gets

a little bit off and then it falls apart. One guy's in a little bit of a funk, suddenly more responsibilities than another guy. It falls apart. Andrew Wiggins not in as good a rhythm because he took an absence from the team, and it can fall apart that way.

Klay Thompson best perimeter initiation, you know, half court shot, creation season I've ever seen from him in terms of like filling the void when Steph was out making plays in the half court and then he got into the playoffs and couldn't make anything, Like, what are the odds of that? Like, I don't have an explanation for that. He just he got into a funk. Those of you guys who've played basketball for a really long time will

know what I'm talking about. Sometimes you're playing really well and then sometimes you have a week or two where you're just not playing very well. And like you can be a relentless worker and like be in the weight room and be in the gym working on your shot and be like, man, I gotta get out of this funk, and then you go play the next day and you suck again compared to what you're hoping. Like that's this game is so complicated. It is so detailed and intricate,

Like it's not something that is that simple. But to answer the question, you know, to kind of tie it all together, point of attack defense does matter? Steph Curry getting attacked in the Lakers series had a lot more to do with other issues on the Warriors roster than Steph itself. The best example of that is that the Mavericks had absolutely no luck attacking Steph the previous year. All right, last one, This s mailback question is from Chile.

Why is it that we see less and less players like Rondo's CP three, Steve Nash and Jason Kidd point guards with tremendous IQ that can navigate games for you? So I don't know. I don't think anybody in particular is to blame for this. But the reality is is that we had a bunch of guards come into the league that were more heliocentric shot creators. So back in the day, your stars didn't bring the ball up the floor, and so you needed a guard who would bring the

ball up the floor and set up your stars. But then in the modern NBA we've discovered no, you don't really need to do that. So now a lot of guys are becoming point guards that in a different era would not have been a point guard, Like James Harden is effectively a point guard. He calls himself a two guard,

but he's basically a point guard. But he's his six ' five two guard build right like Russell Westbrook fifteen years ago would have been a two guard in the modern NBA, he's a point guard because he's one of your best players. You want the ball in his hands, and you're gonna run a lot of spread, pick and roll in ISO. Like you guys can kind of get what I'm going out here. The league has transitioned, and we've seen all

these other guards doing it. Damian Lillard scoring guard, Steph Curry, you know, scoring guard, although he does it off the ball, Russell Westbrook scoring guard. All these guys are putting up thirty points a game. And so what do you think all the young guards are gonna do? All the young guards are gonna want to play like these guys, and

so you're gonna see more and more of that. And for the record, like the whole I'll take raise on Rondo for an example, that archetype is not as valuable now as it used to be because he's a bad off ball player. And by the way, when Rondo was a champion with the Lakers, he made like forty percent of his catch in two threes, Like it's something he couldn't do earlier in his career. But like you're the the non scoring threat, look to make a play first type of guard doesn't have as much value in the

modern NBA as it did fifteen years ago. And that's that's not a that's not a shot at those guys. It's just the way the game has changed nowadays. It's like you have to be a threat to score if you have the ball in your hand, like a real threat. All of the best perimeter initiators in the league are

over twenty five points a game. It's extremely rare to see a guy who's like, really in the conversation with the best players in the league, who only averages twenty three points per game, right, like Jokich is a freak. But it's because he plays with so many good off ball players that he kind of acts more as a distributor. And what did he do the previous year. He averaged thirty points game when he didn't have those guys. So you get the point. Like, but the game, it's just

a product of the game changing. But I don't think we're gonna see too many like setup guards in the in the future. I just don't think the league calls for that specific skill set anymore the way that it did in the past when they needed to navigate these congested half court environments and the other part of it, too, is like think about the way the post players have changed.

Like you go back twenty five years ago, and it's like you've got Shack and you've got a Chemolodge one, and you've got Karl Malone and you've got you know, Patrick Ewing, and like there's just you can go on and on and on. There's like a million post up bigs. Who's gonna feed them the basketball? Right? Like, but now it's like I don't need a guy who can feed the post. I need a guy who can run, pick and roll. I don't need a guy who can feed the post. I need a guy who can beat a

center on a switch. So I think I think it's just the nature of the way the game has changed. Guys. It's all I have for today. I hope you have an amazing weekend. We will be back on Monday with number fifteen. The Volume