Hoops Tonight - NBA Team Rankings: Why Jalen Brunson’s growth makes Knicks a contender in the East

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last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. Let's talk some New York Knicks. So little recap of the offseason. They lost Derek Rose and Obi Toppin, and they added Dylan Windler, was a shooting wing who won't play much, Nathan Knight, a backup big from Minnesota who probably won't play much as well, and then they added Dante. Devincenzo's very good role player. In my opinion,

he's an outstanding spot up player. He averaged one point twenty five points per spot up possession last year with the Warriors. There were one hundred and twenty six players who logged at least two hundred spot up possessions last year, and Dante ranked fourth in efficiency last year, fourth out of one hundred and twenty six players. So one of

the most efficient spot up guys in the league last year. Now, some of that's golden state, obviously, they tend to generate extremely high quality spot up looks with the nature of the way their offense works. But he's also just a lights out shooter. He was sixty four percent in effective field goal percentage on catch and shoot jump shots and seventy three percent effective field goal percentage on jump shots when he was unguarded. So a very very reliable spot

up shooter. And this is a team in the Knicks that was not a good spot up shooting team last year, and I think that Dante will help in that specific ERAa. He's also a great athlete, which helps him in a bunch of different areas. Helps him on the glass. He's an excellent rebounding guard six point two rebounds per thirty six minutes last year, including two offensive rebounds per thirty

six minutes. Really good at kind of like sneaking in behind the play to kind of disrupt stuff after the shot goes up, whether that's trying to poke the ball away from a rebounder or to sneak in from behind and grab offensive rebounds when guards aren't paying attention. It also helps him at the rim. He shot sixty three percent in the restricted area last year, which is awesome for a guard. Anything over sixty percent is awesome for a guard, and that's not just a Golden State thing.

His last full healthy season with the Bucks back in twenty twenty, he shot over sixty percent in the restricted area. That season as well. I think sixty two percent if I remember correctly. He was also really good in Golden State's five out offense attacking off of off ball screens. He was one point twenty six points per possession coming off of an off ball screen, which was third best in the entire NBA out of the sixty one players who ran that type of action at least fifty times

in the NBA season. He's got really good work footwork coming off of screens and rising up and shooting. He's definitely better with his right left than he is with his left right, meaning like when he's going to his left, he's better at rising and firing than he is going

to his right. That's very typical for right handed shooters, mainly just because most right handed shooters have the right foot forward, So when you're running this way, your right foot's already forward, so it's easy to quick turn and plant that left foot. But when you're coming towards the right handed side, for right handed shooter, your right foot's behind the play. You have to like swing that foot around and you have to get a lot better lyft, and sometimes you have to square up in mid air.

So that's pretty typical, but he was fourteen for twenty five coming off of wide pin downs for jump shots going to his left, and then he was four for thirteen going to his right, so not a big surprise there. He's also good off of dribble handoffs. He was twelve for twenty seven on movement jump shots coming off of dribble handoffs. So he's like legitimately a dangerous movement shooter and you have no choice in those actions but to

chase Dante close over the top of those screens. I think that's a valuable weapon and it's gonna be an interesting fit here with the Knicks because the Knicks don't really run a lot of action in general, let alone off ball action. That's gonna be one of the big themes that we talk about when we get into their offense. This is a team that is very much a brute

force offense. They're picking on matchups and they're just standing in spot up spots and giving a guy room to work, and it's it's very rudimentary in a lot of ways. And that's kind of unfortunate because Quentin Grimes is also a very good movement shooter, at least in terms of what he's capable of, but he didn't get a lot of opportunities last year. As matter of fact, the Knicks ran or took a shot off of an off ball screen just one hundred and ninety one times all year

last year. That was the third least in the entire NBA. And to give you guys some perspective, the Warriors ran those types of actions nine hundred and fifty eight times. So nine hundred and fifty eight shots coming off of screens for the Warriors, one hundred and ninety one for the Knicks. So an example of why we got to find out that Dante has that in his game and an example of why it might be a funky fit

with the Knicks. But in general, and again this is going to be a major theme in this particular season preview, I'd like to see the Knicks try to work that in a little bit to mix up their brute force attack that they use so often. But insummation, Dante's a really good player, and I think he fits a specific need for the Knicks ross as a guard off the bench. He's a very competitive player. He's a very good on

ball defender who plays physical ball pressure defense. I actually thought he was one of Golden State's best point of attack defenders last year. I think Knicks fans are going to love him, so very very excited about the Dante DiVincenzo fit. So let's take a quick look at the depth chart before we move any further. At the guard position, Jalen Brunson, Quinton Grimes, Evan Fournier, Dante DiVincenzo, Emmanuel quickly induce McBride, so kind of similar to the Memphis Grizzly situation.

Very deep at guard at forward, and these first two guys are are kind of like hybrid guard forwards because they're both a little undersized. But I'm considering R. J. Barrett and Josh Hart both forwards in this system just with the functionality the way they fill a role on both ends of the floor. They're both bigger, stronger, better athletes. They play more forward esque kind of positions on the floor. Julius Randall and Isaiah Robi and then at the center

position Mitchell Robinson, Isaiah Hartenstein and Jericho SAMs. So a roster balance issue there. You've got six guards that can really play, and then you've got two somewhat undersized forwards and then forward, and Julius Randall that obviously has a lot of offensive responsibility which limits his ability to kind of devote energy to the dirty work, and as Isaiah Roby,

who ideally should not be in your rotation right. So in this particular situation, I wouldn't be surprised if at some point during the season that the Knicks were one of the teams that was looking to potentially move somebody like Evan Fournier from a position where they have a lot of depth, looking for a forward to help bolster that position. But let's move to the offensive end of the four for second. So this is a slow, brute force offense. They don't run in transition much. They don't

run a lot of action in the half court. They spend most of the time hunting matchups. They're gonna run a lot of Jalen Brunson pick and roll to try to either get switches or to try to get him looks for little short pull up jump shots and floaters in the mid range right, and then they're gonna run a certain amount of action with Julius Randall to try to get him switched on to a smaller defender so that he can post them up or face them up.

Those two guys are basically match up hunting the entire game, and you know, it's important to identify the ups and downs of that specific play style because that we've seen

championship teams that were brute force offenses. The twenty twenty Lakers were kind of an example of this, right, Like, when you have a team that matchup hunts a lot, they're gonna struggle a lot in the regular season offensively, because running a lot of action, having a lot of diversity in your attack works in the grand scheme of an eighty two game season when there's not a lot

of scouting. But what ends up happening is you get to the playoffs and teams scout your actions and get in front of them, and then all of a sudden, it does become an area where brute force offense is more valuable. Like we see this every year with the Golden State Warriors. They run way more action than everybody else in the league. They take way more shots and off ball screens and things like that, and then they get to the playoffs and suddenly it's like, oh shit,

we need Steph to run a million pick and rolls. Right, That's just kind of the nature of the way the game changes when you get to the postseason. But I think there's a happy medium there. I think there's a better version of this where you're a team that has that brute force attack but also can make things easier on themselves. And that's gonna be a theme for this

particular show. But let's focus on their brute force attack for a minute, because it does work, and I think it's a big part of why they were able to beat Cleveland last year. And I think Julius randalls struggles in the postseason for more indicative of his injuries and the way they disrupted his rhythm and is possibly a positive indicator for what this team could be capable of this season if Julius Randall can get there when he's

actually healthy. So they ran and fifty nine ISOs last year, which was the third most in the NBA, and they were good at it. One point zero three points per possession. That was the seventh best mark in the league. Jalen Brunson was the fifth best high volume ISO play in the entire NBA last year one point one zero points

per possession. That was fifth out of twenty five players to run at least two hundred and fifty ISOs, and you all saw it in the postseason, whether he was attacking Cheedty Osman in the first round or he was attacking Gabe Vincent in the second round against the Heat, and just in general throughout the season, it's just he gets the matchup he wants and then he kind of methodically works to some kind of mid range pull up jump shot, and he's got all the dribble combinations and

all the footwork. He can actually turn and post as well, better than most guards in the modern era can. Jalen Brunson has a really diverse matchup attacking approach, and that's why he's been so efficient in those specific situations. Julius Randall less efficient, but still over a point per possession. He was at one point zero two fifteenth on that

same list of twenty five five volume ISO players. More of a power kind of face up game, so a lot of jab step jumpers and little step back jumpers and face up situations, and then he likes to rip through. And then when he rips through, if he gets cut off, that's when he'll turn his back and kind of turn it into a post up at that point, and he was a very very good post up player last year one point zero six points per possession, which was well above average as a team. The Knicks also run a

ton of pick and roll. Jalen Brunson was one of the best pick and roll players in the league last year. Remember that high volume pick and roll list that I've been referencing all season, that one thousand minimum possessions list, There's fifteen guys who ran at least a thousand pick and rolls. Jalen Brunson came in at fifth on that

list at one point zero eight points per possession. Really impressive when you consider the fact that the Knicks don't have fantastic role men and they don't have fantastic spot up talent, and when you factor that in, that tells you that there's a lot of really high level shot making going on from Jalen Brunson. He was fifty two percent an effective field goal percentage on pull up jump

shots last year. There were fourteen players in the NBA who attempted at least five hundred pull up jump shots. Jalen Brunson ranked third in effective field goal percentage on that So one of the very best pull up jump shot maker in the league right now is Jalen Brunston. I again, I had a lot of people complain in about where how I had him so high on my list, and I had even yesterday like I had people complaining about me having Jalen Brunson over John Morant. Here's the thing.

John Urant's gonna be better than Jalen Brunson in the long run. He's just got too much natural ability. But here's the reality. Jalen Brunson right now is a devastating playoff player. He led them to a win against the Calves. He was the guy who damn near beat the Heat in Game six and almost pushed that series to Game seven. Jalen Brunson right now is flat out a better basketball player than John Muran. It's not gonna be like that forever,

but he is right now, Like we can. You have to separate the potential and the theoretical basketball player from the actual basketball player that's actually on the floor leading teams to victory. Right now, Jalen Brunson beat the Calves, who were one of the very best teams in the league last year. The John Morant playoff experience has been beating a bad Minnesota Timberwolves team two years ago and getting beat by veteran teams as soon as he faced them.

And that's not to say that John Morant's not going to eventually have that opportunity and succeed. I expect him to eventually, but he's a kid and he's not quite what he's going to be yet. Jalen Brunson right now is a better, more reliable playoff player. I don't think that's a hot take. I think I'm very very confident in that specific stance, and I believe that that is the truth about those two as basketball players right now.

I just think again, like, well, when you get to the playoffs, they are very specific things that work at a higher level than the regular season. And we've just seen too many examples over the years of young teams succeeding in the regular season and then struggling when they get to the real basketball and to me, Memphis kind of falls into that specific group. Let's see where we're at. Pick and roll. So Julius Randa also is pretty solid in pick and roll as well, one point zero seven

point possession. He only did it about three times per game. Might want to look into doing that a little bit more this year. Remember we talked about like the dynamic of running pick and roll with a bigger player, You have to use a bigger defender, right, Julius Randall's a bully ball player, so you have to put a big, strong forward on him. Big strong forwards they do good guarding bullyball players, but they're not going at navigating screens.

It's not something they practice when they're younger. So putting them in screening actions is actually a great way to get Julius Randall downhill against a slow footed big Have Mitchell Robinson set screens for Julius Randall, or have guards set screen for screens for Julius Randall more often, same type of thing. If guard gets a solid screen on

that big strong forward, he's gonna get separation. Now Julius Randall's going downhill against a smaller player, or getting a switch against a smaller player that he can then take down to the post. That's another thing I'd like to see them do more, just to kind of add more variety to their offense. RJ. Barrett and Emmanuel quickly ran most of the rest of their pick and rolls. Both of them were just to touch below a point per possession, which is below age. So those two guys not great

in pick and roll last season. The two main areas of opportunity I want to hit on, so obviously spot up efficiency. They were seventeenth in converting spot up possessions into points last year. Dante DiVincenzo will help with that, and then offensive organization, which is the second thing I want to hit on. This will also help with spot up possessions, which we'll get to in just a second. So we talked about this a lot. In the gosh which video was it, I can't even remember which team

we were covering. It might have been Minnesota. But complications on offense are just little actions that you run to set up an action, right. We talked about like how before a play you can run a ram screen, so for instance, like downscreen for the ball screener, so that the screen defender is trailing the play when you run pick and roll, which gives you a better chance to

get downhill. That's one thing you could do. We talked about Spain pick and roll, but putting a shooter in the middle of the floor and having him relocate to the top and maybe throw a little screen at the role man as he's rolling to the basket, or having the rollman screen down for the shooter. Those are little things you can do that make things easier for you

to get better opportunities in pick and roll. What about action that flows into pick and roll, maybe like a dribble handoff that is so that at least the two guards involved might have to navigate a switch or have to fight through a screen before they get to the pick and roll. Little things like that just make it a little bit easier. And again, like we talked about brute force offense, and yeah, you're right, in a seven game series, they're gonna find ways to shut those actions down.

But this team does very little of that even during the regular season. And the problem with that is it just makes it harder than it needs to be. And like, again, there's nothing wrong with the brute force offense, you guys know, I believe in it as a playoff weapon, but have that be something that you use as part of a bigger picture in the offense. This team, I think needs to look to add a little bit more complication to what they do offensively. And here's the other thing too.

Having movement shooters like Quinton Grimes and Dante DiVincenzo. That opens up more off ball action. So like if you're running pick and roll on the right side of the floor and Julius Randall and Jalen Brunson are playing two man game to try to get some sort of advantage, if your other three shooters are just standing on the opposite of the floor I should say two shooters and Mitchell Robinson's in the dunker spot, those three defenders don't

have to be paying attention. They can have a foot in the paint and be staring at your two man game. But if you're running some sort of interchange, if you have Mitchell Robinson and Josh Harder or whoever it is, it's on the other side of the floor setting a pin down for Quentin Grimes or setting a pin down for Dante DiVincenzo, Suddenly those three help defenders have to be at least paying attention to what's taking place on the week side of the floor. And this has been

a thing with Tom Thibodeaux forever. He's more of a defensive minded coach. He's a pack to paint guy. We're gonna talk about that in a minute. He's a very traditional approach in that sense. But like at the end of the day, like it doesn't have to be this hard. This team is capable of being a better offensive team than they actually are, and I'd like to see them add some more complications to their offense to make that easier.

Now here's the thing, when we get to the postseason, the brute force approach, I do think is capable of working to a higher level than it did, And for the record, it did work. They upset the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round. That was a very good team that they beat. Without home court advantage, right, you had a chance in a one possession game at the end to push Miami to a Game seven, and in that situation you would have had Game seven at home and

had a pretty good chance to win this series. So they were this close to being a conference finals team last year. And that was despite the fact that Julius Randall was awful, awful, awful seventeen eight and four in the postseason. I'm forty nine percent true shooting. He made his wide open jump shots. He was ten for twenty one on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots. But he basically missed everything else. He was sixteen for sixty six

on all other jump shots. He shot just fifty six percent at the rim, which is bad for a big forward like him. He was zero for four on hooks and floaters. His post up offficiency tanked. He had a bad postseason, and I'm not blaming Julius Randall. He had an injury. He went into the postseason with an injury and was completely out of rhythm. Again, all of you guys who have actually played the game know exactly what

I'm talking about. There is a process that goes from being off the court with an injury to being on the court as you return. Then there's a process to get from there to in rhythm and ready to go. If you had an ankle sprain and you were out for a week and a half and you've only done some light shooting and you go to play, you're not gonna be the best version of yourself, not even close. You won't be close to the best version of yourself.

There's a version of you that has command of the game, command of your game, and you only get there after a couple of weeks of really good rhythm where you get great work in every day, you don't get any sort of nagging, injury or set back. You have good nutrition to build up that to recover from those workouts,

and over time you build your conditioning. And then when you get to that point where conditioning is set and your rhythm is set and your jump shot feels good and your timing is set, that's when you start to

play like the best version of yourself. And if Julius Randall goes into the postseason with a month straight of playing good basketball, maybe he plays better than he did, and that literally could have been the difference between them being a team that lost in the second round and makes a deeper run into the conference finals, or maybe has a chance to contend with Boston and potentially make it to the finals. I think this Knicks team is

capable of being very, very good. A couple of complications added to their offense, making better use of their off ball players and getting to the playoffs with Julius Randall and Jalen Brunson healthy could be the difference between this team having a chance and them not having a chance. All right, let's talk about the defensive end of the four for a second. So they were nineteenth in defensive rating last year twentieth and half court defense according to

Cleaning the Glass, so not good, slightly above average. And transition defense, they were an average transition defense from the standpoint of efficiency, but they did a very good job of keeping teams out of transition, limiting transition opportunities, so I'd call the most slightly above average transition defense. Like

most to Thibodeau teams, they overly defend the paint. They're guarding pick and roll three on two, they're helping out of the weak side corner, they're digging down into driving lanes. They overprotect the paint. They allowed just forty six point three points in the paint per one hundred possessions. That was the best mark in the entire NBA, best paint defense in the league, yet a bottom twelve defense. You

can see where this is going, right. Opponents shot just sixty three point five percent in the restricted area against the Knicks, that was the fourth best mark in the entire league. But you can guess what the tradeoff was. They gave up thirty seven opponent three point attempts per game, that was the fourth most in the entire NBA. Thirteen made opponent threes per game that was the fourth most in the NBA. And then obviously, when a team allows a lot of threes, it allows a lot of long rebounds,

which can hurt you in rebounding situations. This was the second best rebounding team in the league overall, but they were only the twelfth best defensive rebounding team, So that might be something they want to shift in their approach. And it's gonna be hard to convince an older coach that's been in the league for a long time, like

Tom Thibodeau, of this. But the reality is is professional basketball players make threes at an extremely high clip now, and if you were, you have to as a team do a good job in order to be an elite defense. You can't just be a good paint defense anymore. It used to be that that was enough. That's not enough anymore. You have to guard the paint well, and you have to guard the three point line well because those are

the two most efficient shots in basketball. And it used to be that the paint was the most efficient shot in basketball. Huge gap, then the three, then everything else, because there wasn't that much shooting talent in the league. Now, shooting talent in the league is so good that you could argue defending the three point line is more important than defending the paint. You could argue, now, I think foundationally you should start with the paint then guard the

three point line. But in this particular case, like you

can no longer just concede three point shots. The NBA is two good at converting those shots into points, and so you're actually better off guarding two man game two on two, guarding ISOs and post ups one on one, staying closer to shooters and forcing guys into taking into making tougher contested shots at the rim, because if you can hold them to fifty four percent on a driving layup over a contest, that's actually a more efficient shot or a better more efficient shot for your defense than

a kickout three to a guy who's making thirty seven percent of them, because that's gonna put you at like fifty four percent or whatever in effective field goal percentage. So like it, it's a situation now where it's becoming a more precarious decision to make. You're actually better off in a lot of cases allowing teams to get dribble penetration over contests. Then you are giving up catch and

shoot threes. Now, obviously there's a line there, like if you're just getting toasted at the perimeter and you're giving up wide open layups, then you have to help because now that math equation is shifted too far in the other direction. But it may be time for the Knicks to potentially change their defensive approach a little bit. But it's not just overhelping and protecting the paint. They don't have a lot of size and athleticism on the perimeter,

which hurts their point of attack defense. Like the guy they throw out opposing wings, the guy they had guard Jimmy Butler for the most part was Quentin Grimes, who is, you know, a good player, but a below average wing defender. You know, RJ. Barrett is a good defender, but Jalen Brunson is average at best in point of attack situations. Julius Randall is average at best. And those two guys have such a huge offensive low that the not devoting a lot of energy there. Right, they don't have a

classic wing defender on the roster. They don't have a Jaden McDaniels. They don't have an Andrew Wiggins or a Jared Vanderbilt. They don't have like a six ' eight six ' nine long armed freak athlete that they can throw at the other team's best perimeter player. That player does not exist on this particular roster, and it's a real shortcoming of their defense. The Knicks were one of the worst pick and roll defenses in the league last year.

They give up six hundred and twenty seven made shots to pick and roll ball handlers, which was the fifth most in the entire NBA. And I don't think it's Mitchell Robinson's fault. I actually think he's a solid drop coverage big I watched a lot of film on him this morning. It does a really nice job of showing on ball handlers and recovering back to roll men and

protecting the rim well. I think it's a point of attack issue, and so, as I mentioned earlier in the episode, I would like to see the Knicks eventually kind of balance their roster a little better by moving one or two of their guards for some type of forward defender that can help them take primary defensive assignments. Little prediction on the season, I think if Julius Randall can make it to the playoffs healthy and in rhythm. They have a legitimate chance to make it to the conference finals,

and they were pretty close last year already. Like we said, I think there's a top tier in the East. I think you have Miami, Boston, and Milwaukee. But I think the Knicks actually have a lot of potential in that second tier to be a team that gets out of the Eastern Conference. They have that brute force matchup attacking approach. They have that high level defensive capability if they can

orient their defense properly, you know. And like when I look at teams that I have ranked above them in this list, like teams like Philly, like they're gonna be better regular season team, right, Like they have the better player in Joel Embiid, but they get to the postseason and they go down in effectiveness because of Embiid's limitations,

because of James Harden's limitations. Even though I don't think James Harden's gonna be there this year when it's all said and done, But like that's the thing is, like the Knicks are kind of in that unique group of teams that actually becomes more dangerous when you get to the postseason. And so I actually think they have a decent chance to get out of the conference should things break right, and I would feel a lot better about that if they make a trade for some sort of

athletic forward at some point during the season. All right, let's take a look at the mailbag. So before we get to the mailbag, ad one thing. I wanted to talk about Grizzlies fans and then complaining about the low ranking. So many people like back to back seasons where they were a top two seed. How can they be a middle of the pack team. We have to differentiate between regular seas success and postseason success. We have to figure

that out. Like, let's look at the rankings. Who we had Sacramento, Cleveland, Memphis all win a shit ton of regular season games. Then what happened? This happens every year. I mean even the in twenty twenty one or twenty twenty two, you have this Phoenix Suns team that just runs through everybody in the regular season and then loses the Dallas in the second round. Right now, like it doesn't mean anything anymore for a team to win a

lot of regular season games. Let's take the Knicks for instance, who do you think deserves to be ranked higher A Grizzlies team that was a two seed twice and then barely beat Minnesota literally could have lost that series if it wasn't for Minnesota choking away games in crunch time, then losing to Golden State, or losing to the seven seed Lakers that everyone took talk shit about and made fun of all season, or a Knicks team that went and beat the Calves without home court advantage, a very

very good Calves team, a Calves team that was better than a million times better than the Minnesota Timberwolves team from two years ago that the Grizzlies beat. The Knicks have clearly demonstrated they are a better and more dangerous playoff team than the Memphis Grizzlies. They have, And so that's the thing. Like, yeah, I'm sorry, guys, but like I'm not going to rank teams higher just because they want a shit ton of regular season games. That's never

going to be a thing that determines this list. I'm ranking teams based on their playoff potential. And right now, a Memphis Grizzlies team with a young, immature point guard, you know, a really good two guard who's not an All star, a really good rim protector, who's not one of the best in the league at it and no forwards. I'm not going to pick them over proven playoff teams until they demonstrate that. And I don't think they have that juice this season. I think they've got to make

some changes, as we talked about in that video. And so again, like, if you're expecting me to rank teams highly just because of their regular season record, this isn't the show for that. That's not the way that I that's not the way that my personal process works. And I understand that Grizzlies fans might disagree with me. And look, here's the deal, Like maybe they'll go beat everybody and win the title this year, but that would be a big, you know, move away from what they did in the

last couple of years. All right, let's talk mail back questions. First one from Luke, what are your thoughts on the Warriors potentially signing Dwight Howard Assuming they returned the best starting five in the league with a bench including CP three, Gary Payton and the young guys Dario Sarich and Dwight, it feels like they'd check every box that you look for in a championship contender. So couple things. I obviously covered Dwight very closely with the Lakers in twenty twenty

and again in twenty twenty two. He was awesome in twenty twenty, like legitimately was one of the top five players on that team. Only came off the bench as like a personality test for him because he had come off of a couple of weird seasons in other cities. Right with that Lakers team, he consistently brought energy off the bench. He was an excellent drop coverage defender in their system. He had great pick and roll chemistry with Lebron. He played hard all the time. He had great energy,

He was a great leader in the locker room. He was a weapon to guard Nikole Yolkis when they got to the postseason. Dwight was great, but I covered him in twenty twenty two as well, and he had aged a lot in that two year span. And basically what twenty twenty two was like was it dependent on the year or on the game. Like one game he'd go out and he'd look like the Dwight from the championship

season and he'd be incredibly impactful. But then he'd go out two nights later and be destructive because he wasn't moving well and he didn't have that pop, and him being a step slow was hurting him on defense, and he wasn't finishing around the rim like he needed to, and it was kind of like really up and down. That was twenty twenty two. Now we're going into the twenty twenty four season, so we're an additional two years

down the line. So like, here's the thing. Maybe twenty twenty two he was dealing with some injuries that were unusual, and maybe he comes in and he's super healthy and he recaptures some of that twenty twenty magic. But in my opinion, the more likely scenario is that it's a more volatile version of twenty twenty two. Maybe he's good one out of every three games now. But here's the thing.

They with the way that they're oriented with Kevon Looney and Draymond Green, maybe they only need him one every three nights, and maybe Steve Kirk can limit his minutes and use him in really short bursts, and maybe it works. It's a fine pickup because there's just not anybody markedly better out there. But I don't think like I want to caution Warriors fans against thinking that they're getting twenty

twenty Dwight because they just probably aren't. And I've seen what it looked like in years since as someone who rooted for him closely, and I like Dwight, but I just don't think he's going to be a major needle mover for the Warriors. Now, as for the Warrior, this Warrior's roster, and we're gonna talk about it in a lot more detail when we get there, but the short version is I think that they're a better playoff team.

Obviously bringing in Chris Paul is a more reliable playoff player, getting the Jordan Poole situation out of the locker room, a couple smart veteran signing guys like Dario Sarch right, you know, Moses Moody and Johnathan Kaminga getting a year older.

But some of the core problems remain. Jonathan Kaminga is still gonna be really concerned about his playing time all season, and so you're you're lying to yourself if you're pretending there's not going to be any drama in the locker room this season, right, You're still incredibly small on the perimeter. This is a team that the reporting says is going

to start Chris Paul. If you start Chris Paul, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, and Draymond Green, you are probably the smallest starting lineup in the entire NBA, and that is going to hurt them in a lot of situations. I actually expect this Warriors team to struggle in the regular season in similar ways do they have in years past.

I don't see this as a top three seed. I see this as maybe a little better than last year, but probably in the five to six range, and they were a six seed last year, so but I expect them to be a more dangerous playoff team. So I like the moves they've made, but unless if they dramatically increase their size in athleticism, which they did not, I don't see them running through the regular season the way

they did in years past. And again, just like we talked about the gap between twenty twenty and twenty twenty two for Dwight Howard, there's gonna be a gap between twenty twenty two and twenty twenty four for some of these veteran players that they have on the roster. Now. I think one of the big swing factors. There could be Klay Thompson. There's a lot of intel. Zach Lowe reported yesterday that Klay Thompson's having a great offseason. He did not have a great offseason last year, came into

the camp out of shape. In general, I think he's highly motivated after getting out played by Austin Reeves in that Lakers series. So maybe Klay Thompson comes back and has this crazy throwback season and that influx of talent shifts things a little bit. But here's the thing. Why did the Warriors lose last year a lot in the regular season on the road because they didn't defend and rebound defense and rebounding comes down to size and athleticism. That's the key weakness on this rock and they did

not fix that. So I don't see this as a regular season juggernaut. I see this as a long as like a playoff puncher's chance team essentially. But we'll talk more about the Warriors when we get to them down the line. Next question from Kleb Theoretically, with enough work, could any NBA player become a star if perhaps just in another system. This is an interesting question. So I think that obviously every player has like a range of outcomes, right,

like their floor versus their ceiling. Right, But I think the ceiling is limited for players who are non stars versus players that are stars. And what allows players to push to that next level and potentially become a star. I put down three things. One a true love of the game. I think in order to put in the requisite amount of work, you have to love basketball at

a level that is different than other players. And for the record, and many NBA players have said this, not every NBA player loves basketball to this same extent that the guys at the top of the league do. You have to always be wanting to play basketball to be motivated to put in that necessary work. So that's step one too. A hatred of losing. This is that competitiveness piece. There's a difference between becoming the most skilled basketball player you can be and building out a list of call

them habits. But the willingness to do the dirty work, which comes down to not a love of basketball but a competitive thing. That's a hatred of losing. These playoff games are rock fights, and guys have to get their hands dirty, and so I think that's a big part of it. And then Lastly, I put audacity. So there are a lot of players that have skill, but they

don't have the crazy confidence that a rational confidence. I love the word audacity because it's like it's like I imagine being on the floor with nine other NBA players and taking a step back three, like, do you confident you have to be in your ability to look off four other players and attack a set NBA defense by taking a tough shot. Like, it's not just a skill piece, there's an audacity to it. You need guys who are crazy enough to take the big shots, and that that

to me, is a difference for the stars. And there's a lot of players that come up in the game of basketball that just are a little too like Meek, right, They're just a little too like willing to play in the background, right, And I think that that's an important part as well. So like even some of the most talented players of all time talented, you know, many of them are lacking that audacity piece and it limits them

from their ultimate potential in the long run. But yeah, like you've got to be certain, you have to love the game, you have to hate losing, and you've got to have a certain amount of irrational confidence. I think those are the three pieces that separates stars in terms of their high end potential from the guys that don't ever get to that level. Last mail back question, Hey Jason, do you play any video games at all? And if you do, which is your favorite? So nowhere near as

much as I used to. I did just buy a PS five a few months ago for the Jedi Survivor game. Many of you guys know I'm a diehard Star Wars fan. I will play just about any Star Wars game that comes out. I also I really enjoyed I've just in general been a big fan of sci fi and kind of like big picture of fantasy type stuff. So like, I really enjoyed the Mass Effect series. I really enjoyed the God of War games. Although I haven't played the new one yet, that's kind of on my to do list.

My favorite video game that I've ever played is Breath of the Wild, and I did just get Tears of the Kingdom. I just haven't actually gotten around of playing it yet. I think when we get into the season and I start working more at night, I will have some more time to do that. But the truth is is, like as I've gotten older, Like my schedule's just gotten more full. We talked about this when we did that

ad for Factor when we were talking about food. But like I between, like your your your family, your wife's family, your friends, your wife's friends, the friends you made together, like all of all of a sudden, your friends start having kids. Then your brothers and sisters start having kids. You know, I'm a I'm an uncle to like got how many now, like like five or six nieces and nephews like it? Just then they all have birthday parties. And then all your friends have kids, and then they

all have birthday parties. Like you know, my buddy Luke, who I do the Two Sons podcast with the Star Wars podcast, Like, now he has a kid, you know, like we're and what ends up happening is your social calendar gets full. Now I coach basketball too, so like twice a week I do workouts with a high school team here in town. I play obviously a lot, and then I have this job and all the time that that takes. And so you suddenly like don't have a lot of time to sit down and pick up a

controller and play. You know, I'm sure most of you guys who are closer to my age are are fully aware of what I'm talking about. And then like you have, like my wife and I have a house and we're remodeling now, we're remodeling our master suite, so there's a lot of work involved with that. So I just haven't had the time that I like to have for that sort of thing, but maybe that'll change in the long run. And I do enjoy playing video games. A couple other

ones that I really like. I've always enjoyed the Fallout games. If they ever make a sequel to that, i'd like to play them. Never was big into sports games unfortunately, So yeah, Like if you're wondering if I play NBA two K, the answer is no, and you'd probably kick my ass if we tried. I used to when I was younger, but not much anymore. But we'll see. Hopefully i'll play some more when we get into the season, because I want to play through Tiers of the Kingdom.

And then I kind of ripped through Jedi Survivor and I want to play it again on a higher difficulty because I just basically went through the story mode so I could kind of figure out the story, which was great, all right, guys, that is all I have for today. We'll be back tomorrow with number thirteen and some more mailbag questions. Don't forget to drop those in the YouTube count comments. As always, I appreciate you guys, and I'll see you next time. The volume