Hoops Tonight - Nuggets beat Heat in NBA Finals rematch, Nikola Jokic ultimate closer + NBA Mailbag

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to Night here at the Volume. Happy Friday, everybody. If all of you guys are having an incredible week, got a fun show for you guys today We're breaking down heat nuggets from last night NBA Finals rematch. Then we have a mail bag at the end of the show. You guys know the Joe before we get started. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel. I mean a lot to me if you guys would take a second to

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So this, ironically, as an NBA Finals rematch, kind of took on a similar feel to what the beginning of Game one of last year's NBA Finals did, which was a heavy dose of Aaron Gordon dominating the game out of the post. As a matter of fact, each of the first seven points that Denver scored basically came from

Aaron Gordon as a post threat. He scored the first four himself, and then there was an off ball screening action on the right side of the floor where they were trying to get a smaller player switched on to Aaron Gordon. They botched the coverage, and that's actually how Jamal Murray broke open for that three on the right wing. It was all as part of a reaction to the threat of Aaron Gordon out of the post. So seven

to zero lead early from that very similar. If you guys remember to the beginning of Game one of last year's NBA Finals, I thought Contavious call Well Pope was also incredible in that early run. Nuggets completely dominated the first quarter of this game, and KCP is just so good at running his lane getting to those wing in corner threes in transition that pump fake ripped through won dribble pull up going to his right that he's so

good at. As a team, the Nuggets converted spot up possessions in this game at one point three to three points per possession, which is just completely outrageous. They also

bullied them on the glass. There was this funny possession in the first half where Michael Porter Junior and Aaron Gordon were under the rim, just completely surrounded by Miami Heat players and they were just playing volleyball on the glass until Michael Porter Junior ended up putting it in. Miami fought back because they're just a gigantic pain in the ass they're specifically probably the best team in the league at preventing and fighting Jokic from getting the ball

at his usual spots. Bam is super good at fronting the post. He's just big and strong enough while at the same time like agile enough to get around the front of jokicch and then he squats down low. And then what they'll do is they'll run what's called what

I call a bracket coverage, basically where you front the post and then you offer backside help. So imagine a situation where a player fronts the post. You've now put yourself in a predicament where if the post entry comes through clean, he's at the rim already for a layup right, but it's a somewhat difficult pass to kind of float it over the top to where it's high enough to get over so that Bam can't reach up and deflect it,

but low enough that Jokic can grab it. And then when you bracket, meaning and when you bring another defender around the backside, it actually shrinks that window even tighter, because now if you throw the pass too far, you can run into an issue where that pass gets deflected.

This was an issue in the Lakers Clippers game last night where the Miami Heat or excuse me, the Clippers were switching a lot of the ball screen actions that the Lakers were running and putting smaller players onto Anthony Davis. But he would slip down and as he's slipping, the defender that's guarding him is actually on his top side, and they were offering backside help from the corners because

the Lakers kept playing with occupied corners. And so, yeah, that like a passing angle's there, but like we're talking a really really tight passing angle. And so that's an easy way, or I shouldn't say it's an easy way. It's a difficult way. It takes an enormous amount of hard work, which is why so many teams don't do it. But if you do it right, it is a way that you can use to fight Jokic out of his usual spots and make it tougher for him to catch

the basketball. There was a play I'd actually resultant in a foul where they bracketed it and Jokic made the catch. They got the ball to him nice enough high, because of course, Jokic is just a preposterously large target that you can throw to compared to most post players, right. And Aaron Gordon was the guy that they were bracketing

off of. He flashed to the high post and Duncan Robinson and Jaime Hawkes immediately when Aaron Gordon caught it, they were on him and swiping down at the basketball. This is a big thing that I talk about on the show, like when you put yourself in a predicament defensively where you put two guys on the ball, the best way for you to prevent the open three is

not actually another rotation. It's disrupting the basketball. If you disrupt the basketball, you make it so it's really difficult for that pass to even be made, which then makes that rotation that much easier. And of course, on that specific possession, they ended up committing a foul. But this is a I actually clipped this play for you guys to see. I wanted you guys to have an example so you can kind of visually see what I'm talking about. Go to my Twitter feed at underscore JSNLT you'll see

a textbook example of bam fronting the post. I think it's Nicole Yovich that's throwing the bracket coverage and then as Yokic makes three to Yovic's man there in the middle of the floor, which was Aaron Gordon. In comes Haimihakes and Duncan Robinson to just quickly trap and they

end up committing a foul. But that's an example of like not just the hard work that BAM's willing to do to front the post, but also winshield wiper rotations, which I talk about all the time on the show, which means a rotation is useless if you don't get there in time. And so when one guy's rotating, if you rotate in order, meaning like rotate, rotate, rotate, there can be a gap there. But if everybody rotates simultaneously, you can close those gaps and you can make things

that much harder. And Miami just did a really good job of that, just kind of making Jokic, you know, just a little bit frustrated by his particular standards, although I thought when push came to shove, when he needed to get to his spots, he was good. He was. When they got it to two there in the mid third quarter, Jokic started to run by, you know, bullying Bam to the basket. When they got it close slate.

He went right to his you know, left shoulder, over the left shoulder, right handed hook over Bam and abayo, and he got a bucket. So again, like you know, efficiencies all relative when Jokic is just gonna be able to get a basket at the end of the game when it matters. But they actually did make Jokic work hard, and obviously the Jamal Murray injury ended up playing a significant role as well. He sprained his ankle. Looked like landing on air. I never go back and rewatch injuries

because it's just a personal preference of mine. It always freaks me out just because I play basketball too, and I don't like to see injuries because it just makes me queasy. But it looked like on the live watch that he stepped on Aaron Gordon as he was going out of bounds. Aaron Gordon was cutting along the baseline and it was ball screen action. He threw a pass back to nickok at the top the qy. You made

the jumper. I think it put him up like seven or eight points at that point, but then he ended up landing on somebody and sprained his ankles. Hopefully he's okay, but I mean between the fronting and the bracketing and the rotating and then Jamal Murray being out to just remove that like other angle of that offensive threat. It just allowed Miami to kind of linger around, right, and so Miami kept it close until the mid third quarter.

I think it was sixty five sixty three at that point, and then Jokic goes right to work on Bam and Iso gets all the way to the basket and scores. And then Michael Porter Juniors just was red hot in this particular game. We're gonna talk about him in a second, but he made a couple of big shots and they end up going up by as much as sixteen there in the early portion of the fourth quarter, and like this is where this is an example of you know, I talk a lot about Denver's starting lineup as like

the perfect fitting group. There's a concept I talk a lot about on this show involving diminishing returns, which basically involves when you take a player that is k people of doing a lot and you put them into a smaller role, there can be some diminishing returns. They talked about this a lot with like Bradley Beal on the Suns, right, Like, well, who would you rather have as a third man in a lineup alongside Devin Booker and and and KD would

you rather have KCP or Bradley Beal? Right, Like, Bradley Beal is a better player than KCP, but as a tertiary option and a guy that has to primarily focus on on ball defense and a lot of like dirty work responsibilities, that gap closes, Like I'd probably still have rather have Bradley Beal, but that gap is closer, right Whereas if I threw them both on the Washington Wizards, like and they had to do a lot more on the on the ball, like, that gap grows and Bradley

Beal becomes more valuable, right, Like That's that's kind of an example of the diminishing returns that I talk about. And so what kind of makes the starting lineup for the Nuggets work so well is the fact that specifically guys like Aaron Gordon and KCP are focused into a role where everything that they're great at is exactly what the Nuggets need out of that role. Well, the one guy who is like a little overqualified, or I should say probably a little bit more than that overqualified for

his role is Michael Porter Junior. He's the guy that primarily operates off the ball offensively as a spot up the right, one of the best spot up players in the league, and then also does a ton of dirty work. Excellent rebounder, excellent health defender. He did a nice job reading the back line tonight, just like you know, anytime Denvers would throw three on two or two on one,

that back line responsibility. You're usually guarding two players and you're kind of splitting the gap, and he's got the length and the instincts to make plays back there. Michael Porter Junior has done an amazing job playing his role for the Nuggets. But he's the one guy in that lineup other than Jokich, because Jokic can scale up as a scorer. But he's the one guy in that lineup

that can scale up if he needs to, Like if Jamal Murray goes out of the lineup and you need someone to step up as a scorer, Michael Porter Junior is your guy. He can do that. And so I thought tonight was a great example of him being able to scale up his offense as the team needs him to, because that's something that he can do. He's that one guy that's actually slotted into a role with the Nuggets where he's actually a little better than what they're asking

him to do. And I thought tonight was a good example of that. Also Ragie Jackson, you know, he had a bit of a rough night tonight, but he's not a terrible option to step into that role temporarily for the regular season. That said, hopefully Jamal Murray's not out too much longer. They got a tough stretch of games here coming up to between the Lakers, Suns, and Celtics, and you'd like to have Jamal Murray for those games. I know I personally would really like to see Jamal

healthy for that Boston Celtics game. So hopefully he's not out for too much longer. So Miami makes a late run in the game, Terry Rozier really started to get going in screening actions and they actually got it down to four. I thought that was super encouraging on the Miami Heat front, because Terry's really struggled so far with the Heat and like they desperately need him to do that. They need him to do exactly what he did down

the stretch of that fourth quarter. Just be a guy who can be a legitimate half court shot creation option to kind of alleviate some of the workload that's on Jimmy Butler went on anice little run, hit a couple

of jumpers, kind of snake in the pick and roll, gets it down to four, and then they just immediately go to Yokic in the post against Bam and he gets to his spot and he gets to his over his left shoulder for that righty hook and he makes it. And that's just the predicament that Denver puts you in. Okay, you competed really hard and you kept it close, but you know you needed another stop and you couldn't get it thanks to what Jokic brings to the table as

a post up player. By the way, koly Joki is shooting sixty one percent by himself as a shooter out of the post, So when he actually takes a shot out of the post sixty one percent, think about how crazy efficient that is. Like you throw the ball to Jokic, game on the line, you know, big possession late kind of like what we saw. You're as an opposing fan like, oh shit, Like there's a two out of three chance. This is going in and that's just a really helpless feeling.

And as crazy as it sounds, they're actually more efficient on a points per possession basis when Jokic passes out of the post than when he shoots, so I'm not really sure what you can do with him. So and

they got it. You know, there were a couple buckets from Miami laate that that got it somewhat closer, but they never actually had the ball with the chance to side the game, So you know, it was all for not on that end of things that I thought that hook shot from Yokic effectively iced the game solid win. Hopefully Jamal Murray's okay, and again, tough schedule coming up, really really bad timing on that front, especially since like it looked like Denver was kind of trending up towards

getting potentially into that one seed conversation. But I mean,

if they could somehow rip through these games even without Jamal Murray, that would be that would be about as sound a demonstration of their ceiling as we'd find at this point in the regular season. One other things I wanted to say on the Miami Heat side of things, bam Adebayo is going to have to develop better touch around the rim. In this game, he missed six shots

by my account, that were right around the rim. Short jumpers, little pushots, layups, like, it's a different game if he makes two or three more of those, as we were talking about, as it pertains to the scoreboard, he's shooting just forty seven percent on layups this year, just thirty eight percent on hook shots. Those of you guys are remember in the NBA Finals last year that was a significant issue for Miami as they were trying to keep

that series close. Just every time Bam caught around the rim, it just wasn't nearly as much of a sure thing as it was for a guy like nikolea Jokic. It's been the one thing in his development that's been most concerning, because you know, the jumpers, especially further away from the rim, are kind of like just gravy. You know, it's great when they go in, but that's not what you paid

Bam at a baio for. And obviously we all know he's in the top tier of defensive anchors in the league, but that specific weakness, that inability to finish around the basket is something that just prevents him from getting into the tier of players that he's capable of getting to. All right, let's move on to our mail bag. We got about a dozen questions or so to hit tonight. I say tonight because I'm recording this late on Thursday night, but this will obviously be up on the feeds on Friday.

So first question, I was wondering what you think about how much playing around players like Steph Curry influences your career after the fact. Thinking about Dante DiVincenzo here, He's been having an awesome season from three, which I would attribute to his own hard work, but I wonder if being on the Warriors had any influence over what he had decided to work on over the summer. Much love from New Zealand, Jason, keep up the great work. Thank you so much for the kind words and for supporting

the show. So this is something that I've always had. It's a little bit complicated because I dislike the idea of like giving too much credit to a star for a young player's development, because I want to give the young player credit for accomplishing what he's accomplished in the league. I think I think we can get a little over the top with a when like fans are like, oh, you know, Lebron made this guy, or Steph made this guy, or Kobe made pau Gasol or whatever it is. You know,

all the takes that you see. And I want to be clear, like we're going to get into it. I do think that that sort of thing does matter to a certain extent, But I do think it gets a little tricky when we take all of the credit away from what a young basketball player is able to accomplish. Here's the thing, Like, everything in basketball, in my opinion, is contagious. It's a big part of like and that

goes both ways. Right. Positivity can be contagious. Negativity can be contagious, Like when you're in a locker room where you know some areas of the locker room are starting to kind of, you know, revolt against the coach or revolt against you know, a specific thing that's taking place, like that that misery loves company. Guys will kind of congeal together and they'll start to kind of cause problems. Right,

And that goes both ways. But I do think that leading by example, having a guy that leads by example in your locker room can go a long way to shaping a young basketball player Dante di Vincenzo. Obviously, just watching him tonight against the Warriors, the movement, shooting, just the whole style that he plays with. Now you can tell that he picked up a lot from Stephan Clay very likely worked out with him. But I'd extended even to some of the other guys, guys like Jonathan Kamena

and Moses Moody, like I mean Brianon Pitziemski too. I had a comment in the earlier show today, the Live show about the Warriors Nicks, about how I couldn't remember the ages. Someone confirmed it for me in the comments. All three of those guys are twenty one years old. Think about that, Like we have a question later on in the mailbag talking about asking about me when I played in college. I remember the player I was when I was twenty one, and I just can't even fathom

doing some of the things. And I'm not even talking about talent. I just mean intellectually as a basketball player. I can't even fathom doing some of the things that

these kids are doing at age twenty one. And I do think that that plays like a big part of that is like growing up in the NBA alongside the likes of Steph and Clay and Draymond and even Andre Guadala and how he helped early on with Moses Moody and Jonathan Kminga like like we are talking about, we are talking about the ideal environment for you to learn how to play NBA basketball, and I do think it's manifested in a big positive way for guys like Jonathan Cominga,

for guys like Moses Moody, and for obviously Dante DiVincenzo as well. I again, I think it goes too far when we give the star all the credit, but there's no doubt that, like if you were if you were trying to plot a course for your basketball career, you can't do better as a role model, as a as a leader than Steph Curry to learn how to play the game from, to learn how to be an NBA player from, to learn how to be a professional from

Hey Jason. There's been a lot of earned discussion about Pala Bancaro and Jay dub Jalen Williams this season, but two pretty impressive sophomores who have gotten sort of lost in the shuffle this year, or Jabari Smith and Keegan Murray what have you thought of of those two seasons so far and how good do you think they can be in about five years or so. Love the show, keep up the great work. Thanks again for supporting the

show and for the kind words. Jabari Smith and Keig and Murray are kind of different players in my opinion, I've been impressed with Keieg and Murray mainly just because he kind of manifests in a lot of specific ways that help in the modern basketball world. Like, for instance, like let's take the Kings. The Kings are are a team that rebounds the ball really well. A big part of that is not just Keith and Murray, but also Kevin Herder in the way that they crash from the perimeter.

Like there's a lot more long rebounds in the modern NBA. Keigan Murray is a guy that you know, he was a guy played in college for a long time, right, and he just does a lot of these like little things that help a basketball team win. Obviously, he can come off a screens and he can shoot. Obviously, he's a high level spot at player. I think he's at like one point one points per spot at possession this year,

which is obviously really really really good. Both guys right now, Jabari Smith and Keegan Murray struggle a little bit with self creation. Jabari Smith is a level above Keegan Murray specifically in the post, but both of them can struggle a little bit. I do think that Jabari Smith has a significantly higher ceiling than Keegan Murray for two reasons. One,

he's a much much better defensive project. Keegan Murray is a good straight line athlete, but he struggles with lateral quickness, and he's not a guy that has the level of defensive potential that a guy like Jabari Smith does. Jabari Smith has the potential to be like a legitimate, you know, top tier perimeter defender in this league. That's the potential that he has. It's just a question of whether or

not he can get there. One other thing with Jabari Smith, I think he just has a little bit more of like what I would call like natural scoring chops, Like it's almost like a combination of audacity and creativity mixed with your skill set. And obviously Jabari has the work ethic.

I mean, just go look back at last year with the Rockets and how poor he was putting the ball on the floor and how much he struggled, you know with just kind of like basic shot creation stuff, and like this year you're just seeing more of his ability to make quick plays out of the post against mismatches and get to quick spots for short mid range jump shots that he can knock down. Like he's just taking

significant leaps on that end of the floor. Right, So, like I U, there are two really really good young wings. To me, they're very different, like to give you guys just an example, and these are not perfect comps, but like in the same way that like you have McHale Bridges and Cam Johnson as like two versions of you know, six seven six eight wings that to me is what Jabari Smith and Keegan Murray are kind of kind of represent.

Jabari Smith is more and a McHale Bridges are like a trajectory where I really do think he could add some legitimate off the dribble game, a guy that could potentially average twenty points a game in the league one

day efficiently and and also be an excellent perimeter defender, Whereas, like you know, Cam Johnson is more of like an offensive minded wing that you know, there's a like like

it just kind of fits more into that mold for me for like a Keegan Murray type. Again not perfect comps, but those are just some some examples. But I love both of those guys. I was super, super impressed by Jabari Smith at Summer League this year when I went to go see him in Vegas. Just I can't believe how much he's improved in such such a short period

of time. And honestly, specifically with Jabari, like he's made improvements in ball handling, and like that stuff just is super incremental, Like it takes thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of reps to become a good ball handler when you didn't used to be. And so all that says to me is that he's a gym rat and that he's competitive enough to want to develop that part

of his game and to get better. And so that just tells me within five years or so that he does have the potential to reach the level of like a guy like mckail Bridges, which by the way, Jabari has better measurables, and so he could even be a better version of that next question, how good of a hooper are you? And what's your player comp You said you played in college, and that's impressive, honestly, Plus how

many threes have you made in a row? So I won't go into too much detail here because it's more of a conversation for the offseason if I wanted to spend some time kind of breaking it down for you guys. But the gist of it is I was a late bloomer, didn't grow up playing basketball. I was the worst player on my high school team. Literally on senior night, there were six seniors on the roster, and all five of the other seniors started the game, and I didn't play

a single minute. And by the way, the coach was correct to do so, I was not. I would have severely hampered their ability to compete in that game. I really really really dove into basketball in my late teens, and my third year in college I finally walked into an open gym at a juco and played well enough to get a scholarship. That was kind of how my career started. I ended up playing three seasons because of

the way that the NCAA clock clockworks. I had an all conference selection my second season in junior college, and then I played a three and D role basically for a NAIA team as my third year I was a pretty mediocre college basketball player. I had my moments, but I also had my flaws. Specifically at the Naia level, they really exposed some of my offensive limitations. I stayed on the floor at Naia because I could guard. I'm a good athlete and I'm like sixty six with like

a six ten wingspan, so I could guard. I just would guard the other team's best player. That was basically

my role on that particular team. I didn't really develop into a like what I consider to be a better version of or the best version of myself as a basketball player to my late twenties, just because, like I fell in love with the game, but I didn't grow up playing it, so like, you know, the feeling that I would imagine most young basketball players feel when they're twelve thirteen years old, when they're starting to kind of figure it out and love the game, Like I was

hitting that in my mid twenties, because like, I didn't play when I was young, and so I had some success in college and that was like my first experience with the game, and so I just dove headlong into it after that and made significant improvements. Like I in Anaia, I was really exposed as a guy who couldn't dribble, who was an inconsistent, streaky shooter, and a guy that couldn't read the floor. And so that those were the three things that I massively improved on as I got

later on in life. And now when I play, I'm I'm like a playmaking wing. Like I'm a guy that you know that initiates offense and can score and pass and do all those things. It definitely did not used to be the case. How many threes have I made in a row in a college game. My record for threes made in a row is six, and I did it in a game when I was in junior college

and it was during the game that I had my career high in points, which was thirty one. But yeah, that was I Also I said I was streaky and inconsistent. I had a stretch when I was playing Naia where I missed twenty two threes in a row over the

course of a week. Like actually, my coach once again made the right decision, had to sit down with me and be like, hey, like, we need you to kind of tone back your shot selection a little bit, which, by the way, it was right to do because I came in as a junior college scorer who got exposed in any Ia as a guy who like couldn't score at that specific level. Anyia like older guys, much better coaching. You know, Juco. The athleticism was insane. I played in

an insane conference when I was in Juco. The talent level was unbelievable, but everything was so much more loose and spread out. It was just easier to play. And then when I went to Anaia and like help, defense is always loaded up, and every team just like shell drills, you know, sixteen times a week and just there every you're just if you happen to beat your guy off

the dribble, there's just another guy right away. If rotations are super sharp, like it was, just Anaia was a really, really tough level of basketball, And honestly, it was good for me because it exposed all of the things that I sucked at and helped me understand what I needed to get better at in order to be a better basketball player. Next question, what do you think goes into

a down shooting season? Curious about the process it takes to maintain your shooting percentage during a season in career. For example, Lebron being thirty six thirty seven percent from three to the last few years, then having a thirty percent season and follow it up with a forty one percent season. Uh. Thanks, love the show, Congrats on the success again, thank you for the kind words and for the support. I think it's a combination of a coupled in different factors because

I personally experienced this. The year that I made the All Conference team, the I shot like forty eight forty nine percent from three in conference play, Like I was just I was just like super confident and like I always felt like I had it going every single game. I just was so laser focused and locked in. And

then it was literally a non conference play the next season that I missed twenty two in a row. So that kind of gives you some perspective on like how wild those swings can be. Now, for me, the big thing was a role change on the JUCO team. I was the secondlyading scorer on the team. The offense was built around me and this other guard named Miles Gatewood, a really good player, really good guard. Him and I basically everything in the offense was set up for us.

When I went to ACU by the Naia that it played at. I played alongside two All American guards and both of them were just unbelievable. Tolly Buda, the point guard on that team, is the best basketball player that I've ever personally played with. And like, all of a sudden, my role was different. Early in the season, I had a like a big scoring burst in my very first game. We played a game against nau SO Division one school and NCAA Division one school. We actually beat them, and

I had a big scoring burst in that game. And so in the early portion of the season, I was really aggressive as a scorer, but my efficiency like just immediately tanked and pretty quickly. Like I mentioned in the last question, my coach was sitting down with me about like not looking basically told me like don't shoot unless you're taking a wide open three or running your lane in transition, you know what a coach would do for

a flawed player like me. To that coach's credit, he funneled me into what I was good at, which was like defense and rebounding and you know, playing a small

role on offense at that specific level. Well, as I shifted into that small role, like shooting became a real challenge for me because instead of hunting my shot and getting six seven three point attempts per game, I was getting maybe one or two three point attempts per game, And so and they would come like I wouldn't touch the ball for a while and then all of a sudden, I'd have a catch and shoot three opportunity. And that was a real struggle for me. And so I think

it's a combination of a bunch of different factors. A guy like Lebron, the role has been the same all the time, and so his swings a lot of it is really just like happenstance, Like shooting is a is a is a like, for lack of a better term,

it's a mind fuck. Like you, it's kind of like it's kind of like baseball in the sense that like, even if you're really really good at it, you're gonna miss more than you make, and so you can do everything right and the result can still be a miss, and so it can spiral on you, right, Like I honestly felt that way watching Lebron, where like you could just tell last year like it was like they just weren't going in and you could just tell it gets

mentally discouraging and it's like, it doesn't matter if you took and made four hundred threes in practice the previous day. If you go into the game and you get you know, two or three looks and you happen to miss two of them, and then on the third one you're not confident, right, Like, it can really pile up on you. Now how to handle it? Like I remember in that the NAI season that I'm talking about, I mean, I was obsessive about it. I was in the gym every single day, shooting on

the shooting machine. My buddy Harshall, who was my roommate that season, him and I were going up to the gym at night and doing the shooting these shooting drills like we've just we'd been there at eleven thirty pm with a with a speaker blasting, just shooting and shooting and shooting and shooting. And like, I was obsessive about it. And what's crazy is even with that, I barely got up to I think I shot in the low thirties from three in conference play that season, because again the

role was so funky. I was just I was barely getting touches, which was the right decision with the level of player I was at that point. But again, like a couple different things, it's a combination of role shifts, Like I really do think like, for instance, I'm Elik Beasley, Like he's just getting different and better shots for Milwaukee this year than he did for the Lakers last year. The Lakers were constantly running him off of off ball actions and asking him to shoot those are tougher shots.

Milwaukee was just like you're a spot up guy, but just if you're open, or if you even have an inch of space, you let that thing fly. And so you can see a role shift from Alik Beasley got him back on track, right. So it's a combination of the role and then honest to god, it really is

just a really mentally challenging thing. You know, Like Steph Courage just went they were a shooting slept there for like a week or so, right, Like you don't think that dude wasn't doing all his drills and doing everything behind the scenes right, and yet still the results were off. Like there is a certain amount of just you know,

I don't even think it's variance. I think it's it's mostly just the mental aspect of it and the way that it can misses can pile up on you, but the same thing happens in reverse, the makes pile up on you. You make a couple in a row, you feel really good about yourself. You feel really confident all of a sudden, like you can kind of ride that wave for a little bit, right, And so, but I don't want to underestimate or undersell the work element of it.

So like lastly on that Lebron front shoots thirty percent or whatever last year and then shoots forty one percent this year, You bet your ass. Lebron was in the gym all damn summer, like I got to get my jumper fixed, right, And so he was able to ride that out for a long stretch of time in the summer, and then he went into training camp and saw the results. Now he's confident. And now just watch Lebron shoot this year.

Doesn't it just look different than last year. He's rising into shots confidently in a way that he didn't used to. Even tonight I was watching him, it was so funny. The Lakers ended up in a dog fight with the Washington Wizards because they're just because they're just the Lakers, and uh, Lebron ended up basically saving the game with a chase down block at Jordan Poole and then he hit a step back three over I want to say, over Kyle Kuzma on the right wing, and like it was,

it was a tough shot. It might have been over Marvin Bagley, but like like he stepped into it confidently and he just wasn't doing that last year. And so again to kind of tie it all together, it's a combination of just like the really challenging mental aspects of shooting, and then your role and then the way you fight it is. All you can do is work. I'm a big believer in like I want to be thinking when I'm shooting about how I worked hard, Like I want

to derive confidence when I'm shooting from the fact that I've made this shot a hundred times already today. You know, It's a big part of why like to this day, and I tell to the young basketball players in town that I work with, including the high school kids I coach, like, if I go play pick up, like I will show up to the gym thirty to forty five minutes before the pickup starts, and I will do my full shooting workout. Why so that when I step onto the floor to

actually play, I just feel confident in those shots. And like, again, I haven't like I'm an older guy now, I'm thirty two years old. I'm just playing for fun. But it's just I'm incapable of approaching basketball any other way. It's just the way that I'm wired. Next question, Hey, Jason, loved the show. I was wondering, do you think we will see all kinds of shenanigans in the fifth and sixth spot and even teams intentionally losing and going into the play in from the seventh or eighth spot just

to avoid the Nuggets. I believe that a seventh or eighth spot, if not crossed with the Nuggets, can go all the way to the conference final. But does it is it worth the risk of a single elimination game? So first, from the play in spots, no doubt at all. You got to try to get out of the play

in spots. There's just too much variance there, like for instance, Lakers Warriors, like, you've got to try to get out of that spot because go let's say for instance, you're the Lakers and you end up at the ten seed, you gotta go too Golden State to win and then go to like a Phoenix or a New Orleans or a Dallas or a Sacramento. Like that's just a lot to ask to even get into a first round series,

even if you like the matchup when you get there. Also, you gotta go through the good teams no matter what. And in the Western Conference, they're all good teams. I even think those playing teams are good teams. I think the Lakers and Warriors are good teams. They're not great teams, they're not as good as the teams that are above them, but they're good basketball teams. So like it's not like the Eastern Conference, where you know, I think we could see some teams in the seven and eight spot that

are are a little bit more flawed. As for the stuff around the fifth and sixth spot and stuff like that, it's really hard to say because like I thought the Nuggets were about to skyrocket and take the one seed, but then Jamal Murray turns his ankle, and who knows what's gonna happen. But at the end of the day, I am a big believer and like, don't mess with

the basketball gods, Like you're better off playing basketball. The best you possibly can to build out the identity and the habits and everything you need to win playoff series regardless of who your opponent is. Then you are like trying to mess with that a little bit, to try to jerry rig the matchups. Next question, the revisionist history concerning the state of the Lakers team and pointing and

painting Lebron as some victim is ridiculous. Lebron is just as much responsible for the state of the Lakers as the front office, if not more so. Throughout his career, Lebron plays a huge role in players acquired or traded. Every star player does, but it's clearly on another level with Lebron. When it works, he's a genius legm. But when it doesn't, the front office is sabotaging him. He wanted Westbrook, that's a fact. Okay, So a couple things.

First of all, Lebron's two major impacts on the Lakers from a LAYGM standpoint were the Russell Westbrook trade, Yes, that's a fact, and the Anthony Davis trade. So the idea that he's just as much responsible for the state of the Lakers as the front office is something I vehemently disagree with because Lebron also facilitated Anthony Davis trade

which led to an NBA championship. So whatever you say about the Russell Westbrook trade, that's kind of canceled out the rest of the stuff that the front office did.

Between letting brook Lopez walk for nothing, how good would Brook Lopez be alongside Anthony Davis, just watch him next to Giannis, right to letting Julius Randall walk for absolutely nothing, to the way they constructed that first roster with all this playmaking around Lebron with no shooting to like the immediate after they win the NBA Championship, immediate lack of understanding or appreciation of what the role players did, and

immediately starting to get off of all of them. The as far as the Russell Westbrook trade goes, here's where here's where I would give pushback. I agree Lebron James. I shouldn't even say agree. It's a fact that Lebron James pushed strongly for the Russell Westbrook trade. I personally was completely stunned that he did. So here's the thing. The general manager of the Lost Angelis Lakers is responsible for making personnel decisions, and if you are the general manager.

Just put yourself in the GM's shoes. And Lebron comes up to you and goes, I want Russell Westbrook. You look him back in the face and you go that's a terrible idea because of XYZ. Because you are the basketball expert. Your job is personnel. And the problem is Lebron wanted Russ, but he had support from the front office and they put the deal through. When there was a there were like it was never the direction that

they should have gone. The Russell Westbrook trade was clearly a bad idea in the moment when it happened, and we all knew it. I said it right after the trade. I was like, KCP and Kyle Kuzma are both more valuable to the Lakers team than what Russell Westbrook could bring to this team. And you had to give up both of them and a first round draft pick to get him. It was a complete disaster. And I absolutely think no that Lebron pushed for it, and that obviously

it was a bad idea. But at the end of the day, that is yet another element to what makes that front office so frustrating is that they couldn't. They couldn't even like your job as the front office is to filter suggestions from everybody that works in your front office, and from your star players and from your coach. You filter through all of that, and from your owner, right, you filter through all of that. The fact that Russell Westbrook didn't get caught in the Lakers filter, that's the

discouraging part. And so here's the thing. Criticize Lebron for

pushing the Russell west Per trade all you want. That does not alleviate the complete and total other, you know dozen other shit show things that that front office did that help them lead to where they're at, even like after the Denver Nuggets series, a clear need for a two way athlete on the perimeter, and you let Lonnie Walker and Dennis Schroeder go and do nothing to replace those guys, which by the way, I was okay with over the summer because I was like, fine, do it

at the deadline, and then they didn't do it at the deadline. So, like, it's been a consistent issue with this front office, a fundamental misunderstanding of what Lebron, James and Anthony Davis need around them to win basketball games. And it has been frustrating because that's the thing like that's the general manager's job literally by definition, is to understand player personnel, understand their stars, understand what they need

to succeed, filter suggestions, and build the roster accordingly. And they just haven't done a good job of that, I mean even And then I include the ownership group because it's like the ownership group is the one that disrespected ty Lou when they had a deal in place because they didn't want to pay him like a championship coach, because they were being cheap. Let Alex Crusoe walk for absolutely nothing because they didn't want to be a pay

him because they were being cheap. Like from the top down. With the Lakers, it has been incompetence and it's only through Lebron's play on the court that he's been able in with Anthony Davis as well, that they've been able to overcome it the way that they have over the years too. Literally a championship in a Western Conference finals birth, which, by the way, I would argue is an underachievement given

the like if you had told me you were gonna get five years of Lebron James and Anthony Davis together, like you're thinking two titles, right, like that that's what you're thinking, and they should have, and like there's a case to be made that if you had, you know, a top tier NBAGM in control of that position, that

they probably do have multiple championships. Next question, seeing the guitars in your background for a while now and for a while now, just wondered how much experience you have playing. Also wondered what are a couple of your favorite bands and albums, old and recent. Love your content as always, thanks again for supporting the show. I play guitar very recreationally, like maybe three four hours a week. I'm not particularly

good at it. I've been doing it for like ten fifteen years, so like I can play little bit, but like not in any sort of meaningful way. One day my body will fail me and I won't be able to play basketball as much as I do. And on that day, that's when I will devote all of that energy towards guitar and I will try to get significantly better at it, just as just because that again, like I talked about earlier, it's just kind of how I'm wired. So that will be when I tried to get better

at it. But right now it's strictly just a hobby. I grew up on the Allman Brothers band. That was what my dad kind of exposed me to, and then in my later life I've gotten more into the Grateful Dead and Dead in Company and a lot of that kind of stuff. Blues in particular has always been my favorite kind of like brand of or genre of music. I should say see Verry Vam is a big one for me. Jimmy Hendrix is a big one for me. Eric Clapton was a big one for me. Derek Truck's

is one of my all time favorites too. Those are a lot of the guys that have kind of shaped my kind of taste in music. Don't you think it's

odd how everyone was saying before the season that Milwaukee would have a bumpy regular season and now everyone is panicking because of some ups and downs. Don't you think that as a veteran team they should be judged in the playoffs? So agreed. I was one of the people before the season that said I thought the Bucks would have a bumpy regular season and that Boston would kind

of beat them by a lot in the standings. I will say that we have learned from the x's and o's that I mean up until recently, up until this recent stretch, that the point of attack defense stuff was a concern. But I think between Doc rivers just getting them to engage better, the improvement that Malik Beasley has made over the course of the season as a point of attack defender, Jay Crowder kind of weirdly having some

life in his legs. It's kind of erased some of those concerns and now more or less back to where I was before the season with Milwaukee. But I do agree that they're a veteran team that should be judged in the playoffs. I'm more concerned about whether or not Dame can get back to his peak level offensively. Next question or this is more of a comment Jason Tripping saying that Jokich over Curry and Lebron all time already. I never said that. I don't even know where you're

getting that from. I never said Jokich is over Curry and Lebron all time. He has a long way and more than one more championship he needs to win, and probably another MVP or two along the way, Like Jokic has ground to cover there. The conversation surrounding Jokich and Curry and Lebron is just simply about their peaks, which is completely different. It's like Lebron MJ. Like, Lebron might be the goat one day, but his case is going to be the resume in longevity. Like, Lebron's not touching

the dominance that MJ had in the nineties. He literally won six titles in eight years. He was unquestionably considered the best player in the league for a long time. Lebron was unquestionably considered the best player in the league for like three four years. Right, they're in the early twenty tents, and then he was still the best player in my opinion in the late twenty tens, but it was much closer between him and KD and Steph. Right, MJ was just lapping the entire field for basically the

entire nineties. And so again that that's the difference between those two conversations, right, And like, even when it comes to ranking goats or whoever your goat is, everyone'sia is different, So like that gets complicated. But for me personally, my all time rankings, Jokich is still He's still got a lot of ways to go to get to where Lebron

and Steph are. I'm just saying that his ceiling, his absolute peak that he's achieved right now is more on the echelon with the MJ's and the Kobe's and the Lebron's and stuff than where Steph and KD are to put it, simply because I had a bunch of warriors fans go like, oh, well, it's unfair. Why are you comparing Steph and KD when they were underneath Lebron. Here's the simple counter there. Steph couldn't even separate himself from KD.

KD couldn't even separate separate himself from Steph. That's kind of the point. Like I personally think Steph was better than KD for the majority of his prime, but that is very much up for debate, and if you asked one hundred people, it's probably gonna come out near fifty to fifty. That Like, that's the difference those two guys were competing against each other. They're kind of in a different pier than where Lebron was and where Yokich is now, where MJ was in the nineties, where Kobe was in

the late two thousands. Last question, how can you say Yoka's peak is higher when he's really just getting into it. During Stephan Katie's peak, they were either winning championships or having deep playoff runs. Jokic literally just won his first championship last season, and before that it's very limited playoff success. At least give him some time before you make claims like this. Let's just kind of recap here in the regular season, he's about to win his third MVP and

four tries, and he was the front runner most of last year before he basically punted it at the end of the season. Also, twenty twenty, he upset the championship favorite in the Los Angeles Clippers and went to the Western Conference Finals twenty twenty one down his two very very important other starters in the starting lineup. They literally beat the Portland Trailblazers in the first round like they won a playoff series down Jamal Murray in down Michael

Porter Junior. And then in twenty twenty two they lost to the eventual NBA champions and then in twenty twenty three they won the NBA title as soon as Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Junior re entered the equation. So Western Conference Finals birth where he beat the Clippers and lost to the eventual champion, and then injured team loses to the Suns in the second round, injured team loses to the eventual NBA champion, and then wins the NBA Championship.

So over a four year span, we're gonna have he's about to win his third MVP and four tries, and in his last four playoff runs either lost to the eventual champion twice, once a long time ago, the other one when he was significantly hampered, and then he won a title. So like again, the results in the regular season in the postseason with Yogics are significantly above I think where the public perception is. All right, guys, that

is all I have for today. I am going to most likely cover Nuggets Lakers on Saturday night, but I don't know if that'll be on the feed until Saturday night or Sunday morning, and then we're going live on Sunday after the final buzzer of Celtics Warriors. I will see you guys. Then the volume