The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. Here at the Volume, Happy Thursday, everybody. Round two coverage of the NBA Playoffs. Here at Hoops Tonight is brought to you by Chase Freedom Unlimited. How do you cash back? Well? In our latest case of deja vu, the Nuggets beat the shit out of the Phoenix Suns in Phoenix, and to be honest, if campaign doesn't hit five threes in the first half, it might have been even worse than that.
And the Sons are going home. Devin Booker and Kevin Durant both started the game ice cold, and that game was over at halftime. What I'd like to do today is talk a little bit about the Nuggets looking forward and there are chances to win the NBA Championship, and then do a little bit of an obituary on the Phoenix Suns. And I'm gonna defend Kevin Durant because I know that dude is just going to go through the ringer and the media tomorrow and I don't think that's
necessarily fair. You guys know the Joe before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt. So you guys don't miss any show announcements, and if for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these shows and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, don't forget. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight. All right, let's talks
some basketball. So the Nuggets and I've been talking about this for a while, but after two rounds of the NBA Playoffs, I think they've legitimized some things. They check a lot of boxes that I look for in a championship contender. So first of all, a bona fide superstar that can consistently and effectively and efficiently generate shots for himself and his teammates in a physical playoff environment. That's Nikola Jokic, and he's in the top tier of those guys.
What specifically makes Jokic such an effective player at this level is as the games get more and more physical, he actually rises to the top of the pile in those environments and he can efficiently score close to the basket in a way that's replicable from game to game. Why does that matter? As we go back through NBA history, we look at last year with Steph Curry, it's kind of the outlier. He's the best perimeter player of all time, the best shooter of all time. He's kind of the
exception that proves the rule. But he can thrive by scoring from the perimeter in late playoff rounds. But most players like that tend to fade as they get deeper into the postseason. But we go back the year before that and it's Giannison Tennekumpo, just a paint monster. Go before that, it's Lebron James Finals MVP, a paint monster. It just a ridiculous efficiency in the paint in that
postseason run. The year before that, Kawhi Leonard the biggest and strongest pull up shooting forward that we have in the league. So he just gets to pull up jump shots that are easier and closer to the rim, and he plays with strength, right, And then if we go through two years before that, it's Kevin Durant who's seven feet tall, and you get to great looks inside the then we go back and it's Lebron, and then we go back and it's Steph again. And then we go
back and it's Kawhi Leonard. You guys get the point. There's a specific type of player that thrives at this level, and the only perimeter oriented guys that thrive are the all time greats, right, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, two guys that I think are top ten perimeter players of all time. So they checked that bonafide superstar box resoundingly well with Nikola Jokic. Then you need a secondary star that compliments your main star. Well, Jamal Murray, we had some question
marks surrounding him towards the end of the year. He's dealing with some new discomfort, was kind of inconsistent well, twenty six, five and seven, obviously not counting tonight's game. On fifty seven percent true shooting in the postseason so far, that's excellent. That's all star level production. And he compliments Nickola Jokicz perfectly. Now what does that mean? So, for instance, you put Russell Westbrook with Lebron James. He can't do anything without the ball, so you need to put him
on the ball. But he's not very efficient on the ball. So there's like all these clunky basketball fits, right, Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, some similar type of issues there. You need to be an off ball player to succeed next to Lebron James. That's why Anthony Davis has worked so well because he can run, screen and roll with Lebron. Right, That's why Kyrie Irving works so well because he could
just come into your possessions by himself. What makes the Murray Jokic partnership work so well is all their actions they run are symbiotic. Nikola Jokicic is an amazing role man and a great a great dribble handoff guy. And Jamal Murray is your textbook movement pull up shooter guard that can also attack the rim. And so he's the perfect complimentary basketball fit alongside Nikola Jokic. And most importantly, you know, I love it when I see superstars that
are great at the thing the other is bad at. So, for instance, Lebron James with Anthony Davis, Anthony Davis is the defensive monster to cover for the older Lebron that tends to float in and out of games defensively. Right, we look at Steph Curry and Draymond Green. It's the defensive monster that's a great, you know, facilitator on offense next to this offensive minded superstar that can be an
average to a slightly above average defensive player. Right, So it's a couple of Min's Perfect Lebron James Kyrie Irving. Lebron at that phase in his career would get fatigued over the course of games, and so he needed someone to help him with shot making at the end, and Kyrie Irving was able to be that guy. Well. The one thing that Nikola Jokic can struggle with sometimes is longer distance shot making, right when the paint is really packed and he needs to go to an eighteen foot
you know, type of move. He can make those shots, but it's not his specialty, right, And that's where Jamal Murray can kind of bring something that he doesn't have. So they have the bona fide superstar and the complimentary second star perfect. From there, you need to have off ball threats. Michael Porter Junior was one of the very best spot up players in the league this year. I've said this on the show several times, but KCP is one of my favorite two guards that covered him with
the Lakers for a long time. Great defensive player, a guy that thrives in the playoffs and just knows how to run the floor in transition, hit movement threes. It can do that dribble handoff stuff. He's a great spot up player, competes on the defensive end, and he's a great crackdown rebounder. Is an excellent two guard in the league.
That's a good off ball threat. Aaron Gordon is the worst shooter in their starting lineup, and he's shooting thirty nine percent from three in this postseason run, obviously not counting tonight's game. And he's an excellent cutter alongside Nikola Jokic. So they've got all of the off ball threats that you need to allow Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic to operate in space. Then you need a versatile defensive forward
that you can throw at Star wings. Aaron Gordon just did as good of a job as you can possibly do against Kevin Durant. And here's the best thing. Kevin Durant could not be more different than Lebron James. But if Lebron James and the Lakers win tomorrow night, and you have to have somebody to guard Lebron for seven games, Aaron Gordon is an excellent option to throw at Lebron specifically at this phase in Lebron's career where he relies so much on bully ball, that's a matchup that favors
Denver pretty well. Right, you need an elite defensive guard that you can throw at tough guard assignments like Devin Booker. Right, the Nuggets have two of those guys. Contavi's Callbo Pope. We talked about him. He's a little better in lockin trail situation than Iso, but he can thrive in isolation situations as well. And then Bruce Brown is an excellent point of attack defender that applies a ton of ball pressure and navigates screens well. They check all those boxes
extremely well. Really, the only weakness on this roster is that they don't have real rim protection. Nikola Jokic has had the worst defensive rating on the team in this postseason run. They've been bringing him out of his drop obviously to deal with KD and Devin Booker. Phoenix is a bad example of a team that can challenge him because they don't attack the paint very well. But you saw Anthony Edwards have some success getting downhill on him
and in the next round. They're definitely gonna have some challenges, especially if the Lakers advanced, because most teams like to switch the Lebron James Anthony Davis pick and roll, and the Grizzlies were able to because of Dylan Brooks and Jaron Jackson. They were comfortable having either of those guys on Lebron or AD. You know, Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins. You're comfortable with having either of those guys on Lebron and AD, so they could switch the Lebron James Anthony
Davis pick and roll. You don't want to switch Nikola Jokic onto Lebron. So there's going to be a drop coverage there that will allow the Lakers to run Lebron James Anthony Davis pick and roll. So they will be challenged as they go further along, and that is their one big weakness. But no team in this field is perfect, and so in my opinion, they check. Because they check every single other box, they have as good a chance to win as anybody else does. So shout out to
the Denver Nuggets. I'm gonna wait until after the second round series are all over before I rank my contenders again, but they have as good a chance as anybody right now, all right, moving on to the Suns, there is going to be a lot of talk tomorrow that's negative towards Kevin Durant. This is now the second consecutive postseason run that he's leaving early. He's won six combined postseason games
in the last two years. So on the surface, it has a bad look, right, but the reality is is, as you look at last year, they ran into the best team in the Eastern Conference, in the Boston Celtics, and every one of those games was close. They just
won all four of them. And then this particular series again as like even with Chris Paul and Deandrayton, they were at a talent disadvantage, but especially in this particular game, like look down the roster, You've got Jacques Landale, Campaign, Landry sham At, Tory Craig, TJ Warren, Bismack Biambo, Terrence Ross. None of those guys are starter level NBA players. Like Denver has five legit starters, Golden State has six legit starters.
You know, you've got Steph Clay, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Looney, Jordan Poole's a legit starting level guard in this league is struggling in this series, but the Lakers are an incredible defensive team. The Lakers have seven legit starters, like you've got D'Angel Russell, Austin Reeves, you've got a Jared Vanderbilt, Lebron James, Anthony Davis. But then you've got Ruy Hatchimura and Dennis Schroeder, guys who both would would start for a lot of the teams around the league, certainly better
than any of those Suns players I just mentioned. And both of you, like, it's just again, basketball is a team sport. I know that's the boring answer. I know it's easy to bill a series as, Oh, it's Lebron James versus Steph Curry, or oh it's Kevin Durant versus Nikola Jokicz, but it's never actually like that. And way too many times in NBA history we've seen teams struggle because of poor role players or lack of complimentary role players.
The Golden State Warriors, obviously without Clay, but with Steph Curry and Draymond Green, really struggled in that twenty twenty one season throughout the entire season and lost in the playing round. In large part because their role players just weren't even complimentary. Right, Then they swap out all those role players for like more savvy vets that thrive in their system. Get rid of guys like Kelly u Bray and Camp Bazemore, bringing guys like Otto Porter Junior right,
and Gary Payton second, Nimnya bi Elitza. Suddenly the whole thing works right. Like basketball, I always talk about this, it's not just five on five. It's like a living organism. Every single team has a bunch of different elements that have to fit together perfectly for it all to work. And like we just seen too many examples of this in NBA history. Lebron James and Anthony Davis are nine wins away from an NBA championship. They will be favored
at home tomorrow to beat the Warriors. They're in great shape to potentially win the title. They were dogshit for a year and a half because of a lack of complimentary role players. You flip Russell Westbrook for another skill guard that can thrive off ball and run some pick and roll with Anthony Davis, a forward that you can
deploy on other teams perimeter players. Get Russell Westbrook out who's a poor fit, right, Ruby Hatchamura a different type of skill forward that they can use that helps them on the glass. Suddenly they go from being dog shit to being one of the best teams in the NBA with a legitimate chance to win a title. Did Lebron James and Anthony Davis get better or did the team
around them get better? Like, again, there's gonna be a lot of people throwing dirt on Kevin Durant's grave tomorrow, But like, Kevin Durant is playing basketball at as high a level as he ever has. Yeahs, pull up jump shooting has failed him in back to back postseasons, But a big part of that is the amount of defensive attention he's facing because he's playing alongside below average NBA
bench players. And So what I said before the playoff run, and I'm gonna stand by it, is we can evaluate this whole thing going on here with the Phoenix Suns after they have another summer to appropriately surround Kevin Durant and Devin Booker with complimentary pieces. And again, like they're going to be able to because of the attention that Booker and KD. Garner, because Phoenix is a city that's
desirable to a lot of people, warm Weather City. Right, there are a lot of reasons why teams players are gonna want to consider the Phoenix Suns. And there are gonna be a lot of guys that could make ten to fifteen million elsewhere who will take a mid level exception to play for the Suns. And there are a lot of guys who could take a mid level exception elsewhere that will take a veteran minie contract to play for the Suns. They are going to be able to
be big time competitors in the free agent market. I think they need to find athletes that like to play hard on every single possession. I mean to compliment what you have, which is two incredibly skilled offensive players. I think that this Suns team needs to become an elite defensive team. And the main reason why I say that is because their offense will come and go. When you rely on pull up jump shooting the way that Devin
Booker and Kevin Durant do. There's a lot more variants in their game, and when you have variants, you need to be a great defensive team. It's kind of the same way I feel about the Lakers. The Lakers can go ice cold offensively for long stretches, but their defense
keeps them in the game long enough. You have to be an outstanding defensive team if you do not have reliable at the rim scoring the way teams like the Nuggets and Nikola Jokic do, right, And so that's where it brings me to Chris Paul and DeAndre and so Chris Paul and I'm not one hundred percent familiar with all of their cap dynamics, but I'm pretty sure Chris Paul's contract next year non guaranteed, so they can either get rid of him through some sort of waiver mechanism,
or they can guarantee his contract and include him in trade as a filler. We'll see what they end up deciding to do there. But here's the thing with DeAndre Ayton, Like, and I mean Deandreton told us, he told us in twenty eighteen. They were like, hey, what's your what would you consider to be success in the NBA? And he said, making it to my second contract. As talented as he is,
that dude just doesn't have fire inside. And that's why he's not consistently engaged physically on a night in a night out basis that's a really bad or dangerous trait to have alongside Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, who are more offensively minded stars, even though they did compete defensively for stretches in this series. And so I think you
got to look at potentially moving Deandreton. There's gonna be some more someone out there that could use him, right, Like, I was just trying to come up with one random example, and this might be a bad example, but what if you call up the Hawks and you're like, hey, I want give me, you know, Clint Capella and Sadik Bay for eight, and maybe you can get the Hawks to bite on something like that because they want a better offensive role man to run alongside Trey Young and Dejante Murray.
But the idea is, if you can flip eight and a legit NBA starter into two legit NBA starters, and then you can either flip Chris Paul into one or two legit NBA starters, or if you can't, you can wave him. And then if you can somehow in the mid level exception veteran minimum market get a legit NBA starter level player, if you can get three legit NBA level starters alongside Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. You have
a real chance to win the championship next year. And so again, what I said before the playoffs was not judging the Suns until next year. I'm standing by that. Don't get swept up in all the narrative based stuff on TV tomorrow. Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, we're operating
with significantly less talent. I picked the Nuggets and seven sheerly out of respect for what Kevin Durant and Booker are capable of, and I'm glad I did because those two guys put on straight up heroic performances in Game three and Game four to extend this series to six the way they did. But they've got some work to do this summer to surround those guys with real athletes. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight.
We will be back tomorrow evening. I have a special I've already recorded a little Game six preview on Lakers Warriors that'll be up in the morning, and then tomorrow evening. I will see you guys after a couple of a couple more Game sixes. The volume