Hoops Tonight - Steph & Jimmy’s Perfect Basketball Fit, Chet Holmgren Is BACK, Evan Mobley Is That Guy

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varies by jurisdiction void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkang dot co. Slash b ball. All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume heavy Monday. Everybody, oh ball of you guys had a great weekend, got a damn pack show for you. Today, we're gonna be hitting on three games from yesterday's slate.

As the Golden State Warriors win their fifth time and six tries in the Jimmy Butler era, We're gonna be breaking that game down from the perspective of both teams.

After that, the Oklahoma City thunder got revenge on the Minnesota Timberwolves for a loss that they suffer right before the All Star break where their offense broke out, and I want to talk about some trends involving their shooting that should be concerning for the other twenty nine teams in the league, as well as talking a little bit about chet Holmgren in the way that he kind of unlocks additional dynamics for them on both ends of the floor.

And then at the tail end of the show, we got a show down between two of the best power forwards young power forwards that we have in the NBA, between Jared Jackson and Evan Mobley. As the Cavs got a big win against the Memphis Grizzlies. We're going to be talking about that game and that matchup at the tail end of the show. You guys have the job before we get started. It's subscribed to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel, so you don't miss any more of our videos.

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on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're we're releasing content throughout the year, and then, last but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments so that we can hit them on Fridays throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball, So really quick recap of MAVs war The MAVs hung tough for the first few minutes, but then the Warriors basically dominated the rest

of the way. Steph and Jimmy had a nice little run in the middle of the first where they just showcased their great basketball fit, their natural basketball fit, the way their skill sets kind of just intertwined to help accentuate each other. We're gonna talk about that in a

few minutes. Jimmy led a bench group without Steph. The Warriors, by the way, plus thirty with Jimmy with a Steph off the floor through the first six games of the Jimmy Butler era, a sign of just how much stronger those units can be now that Jimmy Butler is a part of the group. But Jimmy led a group without Steph that grew the lead. He was getting to the foul line a bunch. He had a couple of nice dishes to Quinton Post by the way, shout out Quinton Post.

He had a nasty poster dunk over a couple of guys that let the crowd on fire. And then late third quarter, Steph just puts the game away with a masterful stretch of shot making and as a result, no starter plays over thirty minutes because the Warriors took care of business in the first three quarters, which used to be a hallmark of the Warriors dynasty. The Warriors again, like, that's a big part of what has made them so good over the years. They can take time off during

the regular season just by beating teams up right. We got an example of that last night. But the first thing I want to focus on today with the Warriors, it stood out to me as I was watching, and it's been standing out to me as I've watched them over the course of the last couple of weeks. Just how much more explosive Steph looks. And when I say explosive, I'm not just talking about scoring points and doing it

more efficiently than usual, it's the way he's moving. It's like was jarring to me as I'm watching last night, the verve he has going downhill, his ability to get into the paint, the finishes in traffic that he was missing earlier this year. So I was like, you know what, I'm going to dig into the numbers and see if there's been any difference in STEP's ability to score in

the paint since the Jimmy Butler trade went down. Pre Jimmy trade, so up to February seventh, he was averaging one point three makes per game in the restricted area on sixty percent shooting. Since the Jimmy Butler trade, he's getting two makes in the restricted area per game at eighty percent, from one point three up to two non restricted area paint makes, so shots that are still in the paint but that are outside of the restricted area.

This short range shot making right pre Jimmy trade one point one makes per game at forty two percent, two makes post Jimmy Butler trade at sixty three percent, So he's nearly doubled his output in paint, scoring at substantially higher efficiency. I think a big part of this comes down to belief, Like even separate from anything having to

do with Jimmy Butler and his basketball impact. Like, I think Steph just sees an opportunity that he didn't see earlier this season, and I think that just is bringing another level of engagement and excitement out of him. But it also comes down to having a legitimate secondary co star and how that makes life easier for Steph in

terms of his energy conservation. I talked about this if you guys remember after the Warriors Nuggets game or excuse me, the Lakers Nuggets game on Saturday involving Luca and Lebron, and how Lebron can be more physically aggressive in his touches because he has someone that can eat up so much usage in Luka Dancic. I think it's even showing in his pull up shooting. He's getting more lyft, he's

getting more separation on his pull up jump shots. Pre Jimmy Butler trade, he was shooting fifty four percent in effective field goal percentage, which is just field goal percentage weighted for threes. He was shooting fifty four percent in effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots and getting eight point five points per game out of them.

Post Jimmy Trade up to sixty percent in effective field goal percentage with nine point seven points per game, so significant uptick and efficiency and output as a pull up jump shooter as well. By the way, just classic Steph Curry. Sixty percent effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots is outrageous and it's actually kind of hilarious looking back that we were looking at fifty four percent for

him as a little bit of a down year. But that's just another conversation, and that's just what it's like when you're dealing with the all time greats. Everything you talk about in terms of the realms of normalcy for other players is just like a totally different era of statistics that were totally different area of statistics that we're looking at with the player of his caliber. But again, you have to have the legs to get separation, you have to have the legs to get the lift after

you get the separation. That's the same sort of legs you need when you're finishing in traffic. And I just think we're just seeing a boost from Steph that's coming partially from the belief he has in this group and secondly from the partnership with Jimmy Butler. So on that note, I want to talk a little bit about Jimmy's natural

basketball fit was Steph. One of the first things that stood out with me stood out to me watching the film was just a dynamic that Jimmy has as a screener in actions with Steph, and how his one the threat he brings, and how that can cause him to

have more screening gravity than normal players would. So like, if an inferior player sets a screen, the guy who's defending him is going to be primarily focused in that action on defending the guy coming off of the screen, right, Whereas if you're a threat the way that Jimmy Butler is, the guy who's guarding Jimmy's going to be more concerned about leaving Jimmy to help in those actions. Steph's first layup in this game was a curl off of an

off ball screen from Jimmy Kessler. Edwards was guarding Steph, and he's kind of on Jimmy's backside if it's anybody else, if it's Wiggins, He's pushing off of that guy and dropping to catch Steph as he's cutting to the basket, but Kessler's hung up on Jimmy because he's been told before the game, you got the Jimmy Butler assignment. Here's a list of all of the game plan stuff with Jimmy Butler. Here's what your job is dealing with Jimmy Butler.

And that just puts Kessler Edwards into an entirely different frame of mind when he's dealing with Kesler and screening actions with Steph Curry. The second piece of it is dealing with the reads that you have to make in those screening actions, which Jimmy's just so incredibly smart with. They ran another backscreen for Steph a little bit later in the first quarter, two and a half minutes later,

so he sets a backscreen for Steph. They do switch it, but when he sets the backscreen, what happens Now STEP's man is on Jimmy's top side, and so as step is cutting through, all of a sudden, this big opening is created in between Jimmy and the rim because Jimmy's defender is stuck on his top side. He ends up getting the ball and getting an easy dunk, slipping out of that action because he has that inside seal. We talked a lot about this with Jimmy Butler. He's one

of the best players in the league. I was talking about this after their first couple of games that they played together at like creating a passing angle in post seal situations that are not traditional. Like a lot of times you think of a post up as like a guy standing ten feet from the basket with a defender on his backside, you just throw it into him. But a lot of times with guards, and a lot of

times in those switching actions, there's different angles. Guys trapped on your top side, a guy's trapped on the side you're getting bracketed. With backside help, you can create these pretty tight passing windows. And Jimmy's just as good as anybody in the league, if not better, at high pointing the ball, getting it in traffic, coming down with it, and being able to make a play there. We've talked about the short roll stuff as to go onto the ball with Steph and his ability to make reads out

of the middle of the floor. We've talked about zone stuff. When teams go zone against the Warriors, Jimmy can operate right in the middle of the floor. It allows him to be really impactful offensively while Steph is on the floor, but then he can shape shift and just turn into a unit leading offensive player when Steph is off the floor. So good at getting to the foul line. Did it again last night. He's at nine point two free throw

attempts per game so far with the Warriors. So good at playmaking out of help, driving out of those ISOs and post ups and making those kickout passes to shooters are getting underneath the basket for fouls or easy baskets. He's run thirty seven post ups in ISOs so far as a Warrior and has generated fifty one points including

passes one point three to eight points per possession. That is extremely high level shot creation that the Warriors are getting out of Jimmy Butler so far, and it's manifested in the big picture so far. Just taking the raw data from six games, the Warriors have a one to twenty one offensive rating with Jimmy Butler on the team. That's more in line with what you'd expect from a

Steph Curry led offense. That's why it was so important to get him a co star that could help him on that end when he's on the floor and anchor units when Steph is off the floor. And then on the defensive end, like you're just adding an additional defensive playmaker to the starting unit. Even further, like I think Andrew Wiggins, if you're just talking about guarding the other team's best player, picking him up full court, doing all

that kind of stuff. Andrew Wiggins obviously has a little bit more youthful exuberantz to show in that type of role, But in terms of overall defensive playmaking, Jimmy's one of

the best we got in the league. One of the most important layers of this, too, is in the old version of the team, Brandon Pajemski was viewed as a guy that had to like lead a lot of bench units as a score a lot of a lot of the ask for what Steve Kerr and the staff needed from Pods was geared towards shot creation, and like, that's not the strength of Brandon Pizempski's game. I do think in the long run he'll become a better offensive playmaker

and offensive play starter. That's a big picture goal. He needs to get better as a jump shooter, he needs to get better at running action, that sort of stuff. But the strength of Brandon Pazemski is a basketball player right now is he's awesome at all the little things. Excellent rebounder, excellent defensive player, excellent connective passer, and play finisher. That is the area of his game where he's at

his best. And so now that Jimmy Butler's on the team, you've kind of facilitated an environment where it makes sense to start Brandon Pajemski. Now that you're starting Brandon Pajemski and he's now locked into a role where he's functioning as a role player, it's accentuating his strengths, which is he's really good at all of this little shit continues

to just grab a million rebounds, very very good. There was a play where Steph Curry got PJ Washington on a switch on the right wing, and Pj just tries to rip through Steph and go to the basket. Pods was glued up to Kyrie irving on the Week's side of the floor, preparing to get run off of a Chicago action. He was thinking he was gonna have to chase Kyrie off of a dribble handoff on the other end of the floor, and he sprinted under the basket

and vertically jumped walled up and stopped PJ. Washington there and got to stop it. It was a remarkable defensive play. I'm watching Jimmy Butler as he's tracking a cutter through along the baseline. Another cutter comes in behind him. The pass comes in. Jimmy identifies it because he just sees everything happening on the floor, peels off his man and jumps the passing lane and gets the steal. I seen Draymond Green help hard off of Kessler Edwards to stop

someone at the basket. The drop off passes there and he turns and forces a traveling violation. You have three extremely high level defensive playmakers that are anchoring that unit now because of Jimmy Butler, and because of the way he's now made Brandon Pajemski's role makes sense. They were already a top ten defense before this trade. They are third in defensive ratings so far through six games with Jimmy Butler. It just all makes sense now because you

balance the roster. You turned several role players on a group that had fourteen to fifteen guys that could potentially play rotation minutes into a high level, do everything. Swiss Army Knife one of the most impactful winning basketball players that we have that we've had in the league in the last half decade, and it's just balanced things out. Starting group so far with Moody and Pods next to Draymond, Jimmy and Steph ninety seven possessions plus eleven net ratings

so far great on both ends. Again, I want to see a lot more before I start talking big picture about the Warriors. I want to see the next couple of weeks and what they're capable of. But this is really exciting early returns on this partnership, all right. Moving on to thunder Wolves again, really quick breakdown of the game. It was just game of runs. The thunder went on a massive forty two to seventeen run early in the game. They were doing a lot of switching. There's Smalls held

up really well on Nasree. They were forcing him into tough shots he was missing. They did a good job shrinking the floor, making those guys playing traffic chet Holmgrin was doing a great job both in his switches and in his kind of at the level ball screen coverages against Anthony Edwards of baiting him into these like tough

contested step back threies. We're going to talk about that dynamic in a little bit because it reminds me of something we were talking about in our one and one on one tournament and how length can just be kind of like the the answer to questions in terms of dealing with guys that are dynamic perimeter shot creators. Shay

was cooking everyone, including Jayden McDaniels. The Wolves ended up needing to blitz him during that run because Shay was cooking everybody, so then they started to pick him apart with four on threes. Kenrich Williams did some really nice work during that stretch as a short roller posted the

low man. It was a Nikhil Alexander Walker tag where he like posted him and got in the basket for anice little lefty scoop shot made a play on the short role where he drew defenders in and made a kick out to case On Wallace, who hit a three. The Wolves were playing a lot of small ball groups with like three sometimes four guards in the lineup because

of the injuries to Julius Randall and Rudy Gobert. They're just playing a lot more smaller groups, and so it's kind of weird seeing a dynamic where the Thunder had physical advantages over the Wolves and they were taking advantage

of that during that stretch. But then the Wolves responded with a thirty to six run of their own, and it kind of the same thing that's been the theme for them all year, which is when they ratchet up their ball pressure and they really start getting physical on the perimeter, they can cause teams to completely lose their composure, and the Thunder did during that stretch. Jalen Clark, who was a revolution in this game. He's just a bowling ball of like a guard wing do everything hybrid role

player type of guy. He had four steals in this game, was wrecking havoc at the point into attack. Just with physical ball pressure, noz Reed and Anthony Edwards finally started hitting shots. They completely regained control and they actually end

up taking a little lead. And it goes back and forth really throughout the rest of the second half until in the middle of the fourth quarter the Thunder had one last run in then they go on in eighteen to two runs, spearheaded by six made three point shots. Chet Holmgren hit a three, beating noz Reed for helping in the lane. Jay dub and Shae each hit a couple of tougher threes, Shay hit one in transition, Jay dub hit like a twenty eight footer along the right wing.

But it was Alex Caruso who really ended that game by getting hot. He hit three threes in the run, a couple of kickouts off of help, and then he was running two man game with Shae Gilvis Alexander where he was slipping out of it to the above the brake line about like off the left wing and he was hitting movement. He hit a movement three slipping out of that action with Shay. That was a big time performance from Alex. Crusoe has had some rough offensive nights

earlier in the season. The thunder shooting, I thought was the story of the game. Out of the twenty eight catch and shoot jump shots they attempted in that game, they made seventeen of them. That's pretty crazy. We've talked about their spot up shooting the season and it will continue to be a storyline heading into the playoffs. Like, no matter how well they shoot now, said the same

thing with the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier. Doesn't matter how well you shoot now, you got to hit them in a big playoff series when there's pressure and you're on the road. Sometimes like obviously, no amount of shot making in the regular season will make up for the reality that guys are going to have to hit shots. That said, the Thunder of sneak even shooting the ball really well for

a while now. The answer is if you're going to shoot poorly in the playoffs like you did last year against Dallas, and you want to get to the point where you shoot better in the postseason in the future, everyone's got to get better at shooting, and that starts with behind the scenes in practice and then in regular season games. The final challenge is doing it in postseason games. But you're not going to just randomly do it in

postseason games. It's going to start with that process, and it's clear that the Thunder have been putting in the work behind the scenes. They're up to ninth in catch and shoot jump shot efficiency this season. They're fifth in three point makes over the last fifteen games. They're third in three point percentage over the last fifteen games. They're shooting over thirty eight percent from three as a team

over this span. I've talked a lot about how in the regular season, a team like the Thunder can sometimes overachieve a little bit relative to what their talent looks like in a postseason context, simply because everyone in their core eight rotation is twenty six years old or younger, and so they just have a bunch of young guys that are attacking the regular season with a certain amount of energy that you're not going to see from some of the older teams around the league. That's just a

reality that you have to acknowledge. But when I look at the Thunder I look at their weaknesses, and their weaknesses generally come down to like vision making on drives and the ability of their role players to knock down shots, and they're showing growth in those areas. Another way for me to put it is like, yeah, you still got to do it in the postseason, but them doing it this well in the final straight stretch of the regular season is a really strong indicator that they could do

it well in the postseason. And if they do, if these dudes hit thirty eight percent of their threes in the playoffs, then they become just as dangerous as their regular season record would lead you to believe that they are. I wanted to focus in on chet Holmgren for a minute because his impact was screaming off the screen in this game. Obviously, his impact on defense is felt the most.

I talked a lot about him filling the role of that, like handling Ant coming off of ball screens in the first quarter of this game, and him baiting Ant into

those pull up jump shots. Remember when we did the one on one tournament breakdown, how I talked about how I think Kevin Durant would beat Anthony Edwards because Ant brings the best combination of like downhill force and over the top shot making that you see from any player in the league right now, Like he you can't keep him in front of you, and he's a forty plus percent off the dribble three point shooter, Like, what are

you gonna do with that? Right? But one of the things I talked about is like Kevin Urant is kind of the kryptonite for that because he's got such long arms that he can give space to contain the drive, but just take one step forward and stick that left arm out and he's gonna get a great contest on any jump shot. Same thing goes for Chet, and you

saw that in this game. Chet was able to play back a little bit and then Ant was just trying to go to step back moves to get separation, and yeah, he'd get a little bit of separation, but Chet's arm is right there and it turns into a tougher shot, a shot that Aint can make, but it's a tougher shot when you talk about like like Anthony Edwards with his pull up three point shooting, like if he gets great separation, it feels like it's going in every time, but once you get get a heavy contest on it,

that percentage is going to drop by ten fifteen percent. It's the same like even in the drop coverage possessions when he's coming off in the defenders chasing over the top, same sort of thing, like Chet's just hanging a little bit behind the level, but he just can take one step four and he's getting a great contest there. But Chet did a ton of damage on offense in this game too. We talked about him spacing Nas read out earlier with catching shoot THREEZ. He had a couple of those.

He also hit a three in the early part of the game coming off of off ball action, just came out of the right corner off of a wide pin down. Nas went under just rose up and knocked it down. He gave a straight iso bucket to Jade McDaniels right in the middle of the floor. He was beating switches and the paint. He had a ball screen with j dub where it led to his switch and he ended up with Jalen Clark on him again. Jaylen Clark I talked about earlier is a bowling ball of a wing.

Big strong dude. Chet just buried him with a little ducking post up, created a nice easy passing angle and just got an easy basket right at the rim. He had an easy tap in offensive rebound on a play where Mike Conley got switched on to him, just waited for the shot to go up, just jumped right over Conley and just calmly topped it tapped it into the basket. He runs the floor better than most bigs. He had an easy allue you dunk and transition in the fourth

quarter running his lane. They weren't really running plays for him. He was just in the flow of the offense and poured in an easy nineteen points on only eleven shots. He had three blocks. He's just a ridiculous talent to add to this team and it was already the best regular season team in the NBA. The Wolves played well and they kept us thaying close. But I did think the thunder Throat showed a lot of their high end

on the defensive end in rotation as well. They were doubling naseried post ups and closing out on the weak side a lot of the same stuff we've talked about, where that first rotation closing out to the passing lane where it just baits on the kind of like inconsistencies of mediocre shooters who want a pump fake or they

don't like to shoot unless they're completely wide open. They were already this like fast fly around rotation team, and schit just brings this other layer of length and athleticism that wasn't there again, like they they were the big team in many of their lineup groupings against Minnesota tonight. Some of that is Minnesota's injuries, but it just goes to show you how different this team looks physically. When isaa Hart and Side and chet Holmgren or healthy. All right,

last game for today, moving on to Grizzlies. Calvs. A fun game that Cleveland basically controlled, but Memphis just did a good job at keeping things relatively close by shooting the ball super well. Memphis shot dramatically better than Cleveland did in this game. On catch and shoot jump shots, Memphis got one point four points per attempt. Cleveland only got zero point eighty eight points per attenp They just

had a rough shooting night. But the Stars for Cleveland just so badly outplayed the Stars for Memphis, and I thought that was the story of this game. Donovan Mitchell really outplayed John Morant. Both teams have huge frontlines, play a lot of two big lineups packed the paint, rotate out. They're making you make jump shots, and Mitchell is just

a way better shot maker than John Marie. Like Donovan Mitchell is just pouring in a variety of like step back threes, pull up threes in ball screens, ISO threes, just creating his own jump shot in traffic, and John Moranch just couldn't keep up. He had a few nice transition buckets down the stretch when the game kind of had already gotten a little loose. But like I thought, Mitchell just proved to be the better surgical scorer in a tight half court environment like that. Ty Jerome was

incredibly dominant as a scorer in this game. I thought he was much better in this game than Desmond Bain was dominated the fourth quarter as a scorer. I think he had sixteen points in the quarter if I remember correctly. This was the stretch that I really pushed Cleveland over the top. It was kind of like hanging in that

five to seven range. This run from ty Jerome ended up pushing the lead up into double digits, and that's what really gave them their first breathing room and a couple of tough transition three where he just was he's got Tidrum clearly has like that I sense blood in the water. If I hit this shot, I can really change the dynamic of this game. Type of vibe. And because he took a couple of tough ones that you knew he felt good and he just wanted to drive

the nail into coffin, so to speak. And then he just keeps doing the same exact thing to these teams again. Memphis runs a lot of drop coverage with Jared Jackson and with Zach Edie, and Tidrum was just doing the same thing every time, setting up his man for the screen so that he's on his trail side coming off to the screen, waiting for the defender to catch up to his backside and then like trapping him on his backside and methodically working into the lane and just shooting

that little push shot in the lane. Made a bunch of them in this game. He's shooting sixty five percent on floaters this year on one hundred and sixteen attempts, by far the best floater shooter in the NBA, and it's not close, Like he is way better at this than anybody, and it's given him a spot as one of the most respected back up guards in the NBA. If you put Ty Jerome against a team that runs drop coverage, he's going to be able to get to a floater and he's going to make more than half

of them. It really is a valuable weapon to have for a bench unit in this league, especially since you're going to run into a lot of backup centers in the NBA that teams have to run drop coverages with because they don't trust him coming out to the level

on the perimeter. But by far the most interesting part in this game, in my opinion, was the showdown between two of the best young power forwards that we have in the game at this point Jaron Jackson and Evan Mobley, and I thought Evan Mobley really showcased how his versatility makes him a better all around basketball player than Jaron Jackson. In this game, Jared's bigger, and he's stronger, and strictly when it comes down to like scoring the ball out

of the post, he's a more imposing threat. He can dislodge defenders with his big, strong shoulders. He can do it to some of the bigger defenders in the league. I talked about how he did a bunch of damage to the Suns recently by ducking in on Kevin Durant in the post. He's got really good touch with hook

shots over both shoulders. He can spin and connect spin moves, so he can spin from left to right, but then spin back from right to left, and he can just kind of barrel downhill until he gets somewhere close to the rim where he can get a little hook shot. But outside of that, the limitation start to show when he has to pass out of the post. He's very inefficient as a playmaker. Right once you start to task him to play in traffic, the flaws can start to

come to the surface. Mobile's just so much more polished as an all around player, and I thought that was showing last night. First of all, his individual defense on Jared Jackson. Jared tested him a few times early in this game, tried to drop that right shoulder and go to a lefty hook. Evan Mobley just rose up and blocked him. Then from the opposite block, Jared tries to post him up again, and you can tell he's nervous about Evan Mobley's length and how that ended up leading

to a block on his last hook shot. So he ended up rushing a hook and just kind of flipped it up and shot it way over the back of the rim. It was an air ball. Then he tried to iso him again in the second quarter, and you knew he wanted to create extra space because Mobley's length was causing problems for him. So he really dropped the shoulder and he extended the arm out and he drew an offensive foul. So then Jaren was just like, all right, no more, I'm not going to go after Evan Mobley anymore.

They started picking on Dean Wade and some different matchups in the game. Evan Mobley is a substantially better rebounder. This has been a consistent weakness with Jaron Jackson in his NBA career, like he gets into box outs, but he struggles to disengage from box outs and actually go

get the loose ball. Evan Mobley dominated this game as a rebounder, even individually against Jaron Jackson at a big inside seal for a foul in the fourth quarter of this game, and then on offense, Evan Mobley just brings so much more as a play initiator for this team. They ran a bunch of inverted ball screens in this game, and we got it to see a classic example of just how dynamic that action can be. And again we talked about the inverted ball screens. The upside is the

way they invert rolls. You're asking Biggs to fight through screens, and you're asking guards to help on screens against Biggs, and there's a simple dynamic that takes place when you have Donovan Mitchell screen for Evan Mobley. Donovan Mitchell screens for Evan Mobley. If his man steps out and helps, Mitchell can slip out of it and he's gonna get

wide open. He generated an open three for Donovan Mitchell he generated an open three for Max Struce out of action where the guard ended up helping on Mobley as he was coming off of the screen. But then if he doesn't help, There's a play in the game where Donovan Mitchell screened for Evan Mobley and he got downhill to his left hand. What happens the big doesn't know how to navigate a screen and you're setting a screen

on him. The guard doesn't want to help because the guard, the screening guard is slipping out and getting three point shots. What happens when Mobley comes off of a screen and there's no help, he can get downhill, gets all the way downhill and ends up getting an easy dunk with his left hand. Connective playmaking was the big piece that was standing out to me in this game. I think I think Mobile had seven assists if I remember correctly,

had a bunch of assists in this game. He ends up catching the ball in these advantage situations as a cutter or a lot of times at the three point line. There's a play where he ends up flashing right to the middle of the floor. They call it teeing up right.

There's two different ways for a big to make themselves available in help side situations in the dunker spot where you're on like kind of the baseline side, just outside the block waiting for the ball, or as someone drives the baseline, you don't want to get in their way, so you flash right in front of the basket to make yourself available. He ended up catching the ball right

there in the middle of the floor. All the bodies converged on him, and he ended up making a nice easy kickout past to Sam Merrill in the left corner. He knocked down to three play where he catches the ball in the left corner. He struggled to knock down threes in this game, so he drives a close out out of the left corner, easy drop off past to Jared Allen, who was flashing right to the middle of the paint. He ends up getting a big dunk. And

then sometimes you just have to beat the coverage. There's a ball screen with Mitchell and Jared Allen late in the game where Santi al Dama's guarding Evan Mobley and they put two on Mitchell and they use Aldama to tag Allen. Evan Mobley's wide open at the top of the key. It's a big possession late fourth quarter. He's got to beat the coverage. He's got to knock that shot down. And even though he struggled to knock down the jumpers all night long, he hit the big one.

And he has been shooting the ball really well for the most part this season. I thought his versatility was on display in a big way in this game. The beautiful thing about having an offensive player like Evan Mobley is you can run action for him, and you did, and you got good stuff out of it. But he also can function almost entirely as a connective piece and tie everything else together from the talent do you have elsewhere on the lineup. Evan Mobley used to struggle with

playmaking in the middle of the floor. That was a huge problem in the next series. Evan Mobley used to struggle with finishing in traffic off of cuts. That was a problem in the past. He's better at those things now. He's playing off of two feet, confident going up and dunking everything with two hands. He's going up with an aggression and a confidence in traffic that wasn't there in

the past. He's just become a much better player. And as I've talked about, when we talk about the Calves and this is a big win without Darius Garland at home against a good Memphis Grizzlies team. Most of it comes down to Mobley's just better now than he used to be. Darius Garland's just better now than he used to be. You've seen some of the upside of DeAndre Hunter, just a big, physical athlete that he is, his ability

to switch on to bigger players. One of the big things that I'm excited about with DeAndre Hunter is his ability to make tough shots, which becomes valuable when you get into the postseason and only tough shots exist for your team. Had a couple of really nice playoff type of mid range scoring moves today. Had a mid ranger

over a mismatch in the middle of the floor. He put John Morant in jail on an action where he got him trapped on his backside and just kind of worked to the middle of the floor hit a little floater. They've just they can piece together lineups now that have five really high level offensive players in various different configurations. Movement shooting like Max truth Oh, you need him to fly off of an off ball screen and knock a

shot down. He can do it. You need someone that can run more action and do some more scoring in the middle of the four DeAndre Hunter is there is an option. You want a bigger, longer defender that can knock down, catch and shoot threes, Well there's Dean Wade. They're bench groups having a luxury like ty Jerome to be able to pick apart drop coverage teams. They've got a lot of talent down there in Cleveland. That was an impressive win last night against the Memphis Grizzlies. All right, guys,

that is all I have for today. Is always, as sincerely appreciate you for supporting me and supporting the show. We are taking tomorrow off, but we will be back on Wednesday with some more reaction content. Almost see you guys. Then the volume. What's so guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. They would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review.

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