Hoops Tonight - Steph Curry & Warriors NBA Finals favorites? Are LeBron James & Lakers a threat?

your money out quickly. Use promo code Jason T and download the FanDuel app today to make every moment more This NBA Season twenty one plus in president Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana. Permitted parishes only, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Virginia or West Virginia. First online real money wager only. Refund issued as non withdrawable site credit that expires in fourteen days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sports book dot FanDuel dot com.

Gambling problem called one eight hundred, next step or tech next step to five three three four two in Arizona one eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org slash chat in Connecticut one eight hundred Gambler or visit FanDuel dot com slash

RG in Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey. In Virginia one eight seven seven seven seven zero stop in Louisiana one eight hundred to seven zero seven one one seven for confidential help in Michigan one eight seven seven eight Hope and why, or text hope and Why to four six seven three six nine in New York. In tennessee redline dial one eight hundred eight eight nine nine seven eight nine In Tennessee, visit www one eight dot one eight hundred gambler dot

net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to hoops To Night, presented by FanDuel here at the volume. Happy Monday, everybody. We are live on AMP. I hope all of you guys enjoy your holiday weekend, that you've got some time to relax and enjoy some good food and some time with friends and family. I was joking with my wife this morning. I love the holidays mainly because I value quality time with people more than just about anything else

in my life. And so when you get to slow down and spend some time with friends and family, especially friends and family that are out of town, that come back to town for the holidays. That's just time that I value a great deal. But it's funny how as you get older it gets to be so much work. Because when you're younger, it's just like you and your

immediate family. But then like you get into a relationship, and now it's your family and her family, and then the two of you become part of a group of friends, and now you have friends giving and friends Christmas and all these kinds of things. And then her parents are also separated, so like we have events with her mom's side of the family and events with her dad's side

of the family. We even her family has really close siblings, so we'll spend like a sibling's Christmas and his siblings Thanksgiving, And next thing you know, you've got like a half dozen events surrounding each of these holidays. And here I am on Monday morning, after five consecutive days off, and I'm strangely exhausted. And you know how it goes. You're always having to bring food, like you're prepping dishes, you're if you're hosting, you're prepping multiple dishes. There's clean up,

you're cleaning up when you go to events. You're cleaning up when you're hosting events, it's just a lot of work. Again, totally worth it, and I enjoyed a great deal, but man, I am strangely exhausted for a Monday morning. I am excited to be back to talking about basketball, though, something we haven't done since last week. On Tuesday, we're gonna be here's the schedule for today and for the rest of the week. So today we're gonna hit on four teams.

Are two biggest fan bases for the show, which is Lakers and Warriors, who are both on winning streaks, so we're gonna dive into them a little bit. And then we're gonna hit two additional Western Conference teams that we haven't talked about in a little while, the Denver Nuggets and the Dallas Mavericks, who have lost four games in a row and earn a little bit of a tail spence. So we're gonna be focusing on those four teams today and then tomorrow we're going live on YouTube after the

final buzzer of the Warriors and the Mavericks. Wednesday Double Live will be live after heat Celtics on AMP for the early slate, and then we'll be live I think the Lakers play I can't. I think it's the Blazers. The Lakers play the Blazers on Wednesday night. We'll be live on YouTube after that game. Then Thursday live on AMP at six pm Easter, we'll have our bi weekly

Power Ranker player rankings. We didn't do one last week because the holiday, but we're technically three weeks removed from our last player rankings list, so we'll be doing that, and then on Saturday morning, we'll have a YouTube video, So Friday's off. Saturday morning, we'll have a YouTube video that's breaking down Friday Nights Slate, which is absolutely insane. Tons of good games to talk about on Friday night that we will get to on Saturday. And you guys

know the joke before we get started. If you guys are watching this on YouTube or on the podcast feed, don't forget that AMP is the very first place that you guys can get these breakdowns. Also, I'm gonna be referencing two videos today, some footage that I put together and put on my Twitter feed, so you're gonna want to follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason Lts. You

guys can see those videos that we reference. Again, we have some limitations on the footage that we can use on YouTube, so I've got to send you guys to Twitter for that. But on that note, let's talk some basketball. So let's start with the Warriors. They're back on track since the five game losing streak. They are eight and three in their last eleven games. Over that span, their sixth in offense, eighth in defense, and fourth and net rating.

Steph Curry looks like a bona fide m v P candidate, averaging thirty seven and seven over this span on fifty shooting forty seven percent from three and seven percent from the line. Andrew Wiggins is playing like an all star. Twenty one points and five rebounds on fifty three percent from the floor at percent from three. Clay Thompson, whatever you slump you're worried about to start the year, that's over this eleven game stretch, he's averaging twenty on from

three on ten three point attempts. Clay is fine. And then Draymond Green over this span has been amazing on the defensive end, but also on the offensive and creating stuff in their offense. We're gonna get to it because if I'm in a reference of video that I put together of their offense in the first quarter against Minnesota, and Draymond was incredible in that sequence. During this eleven game span, he's averaging nine assists to just two turnovers.

In Jordan Pool has been fine as well. He's averaging sixteen points per game on from the field. The offense was clicking at an insanely high level against Minnesota. In that first quarter they had a one sixty eight offensive rating. Now, with Minnesota's defense in particular, this is a bad matchup. You know. One of the things I talked about a lot when they made the Gobert trade is that when they could functionally run drop coverage, they'll be tough to beat.

So there will be matchups where they have success when they can really pack the paint. But teams that have good pull up shooting and teams that are really good at spacing you out and driving and kicking are going to give the Timberwolves problems all season long. Why because Rudy Gobert's defensive value is somewhat limited if he's taken away from the basket, because he can't cover for his teammates when he's away from the rim. And then on

the perimeter. They lost a good chunk of perimeter defense, so they don't quite have the mobility to hang with really good driving kick teams. Now the Warriors aren't really a driving kick team, but they functionally do a lot of similar things in the sense that they are spacing you five out with most of their sets, and the paint is usually unoccupied. You're forcing these guys to guard

in space. And you know, Gobert actually wasn't that bad against the Warriors yesterday, but man Carl Town's was absolutely in the blender in that first quarter. And that was a big part of how Golden State had so much success in the first quarter. And you know what was interesting too, is it wasn't it wasn't like they were spamming in action. There was so much variety to the way the Warriors were cutting Minnesota to pieces with all

of their with their sets. So there was a the you know, you had your typical Warriors split cut stuff where you know, post entry to Draymond on the left post and then Clay Thompson goes to screen for Steff, but instead Steph just cuts back door and he gets

a wide open floater and makes it. They ran a version of Spain pick and roll where they had Clay Thompson and Draymond set two high screens at the three point line and as step was coming over the top, Clay relocated to the left side wing as Draymond was rolling, they kicked it to Clay. Clay pump faked shooter defender UH pursued past him and he drove to the basket

and got a wide open look at a floater. There was your classic high pick and roll with Stephan Draymond where he hits Draymond on the short roll, quick drop off passage and Michael Green for verse layup. Then there was a play where Draymond Green did a fake drible handoff with Steph, got to the rim, bounced past to Jamichael Green dunk. There was the you know even later in the quarter as Minnesota started to adjust and send a defender over during that UH, during those Draymond Green

short rolls, they just started kicking the shooters. There was a really nice play where Jordan Pool came over the over the screen and on the role Minnesota helped out of the corner. He just threw a rifle baseball pass that hit Dante DiVincenzo right in the shooting pocket in the right corner, and he made it three. Draymond was doing stuff in transition where he just pushed the ball off the floor and then like Clay Thompson would just cut back door and he hit him for a layup.

It was vintage Warriors basketball. It was an offensive clinic and everything that we've grown accustomed to seeing from them over the course of the last couple of years. Now, the bench is still an issue. You know, they're getting outscored by eighteen point four points per one Hunter possessions the season when Steph is off the floor, But when they're starting lineup is that good? When they're absolutely obliterating

teams with that lineup. They built themselves enough margin for error where that they can live through those bench issues. Like we saw what happened last night. They went to the bench. You know, Minnesota got it back to fourteen, you know got you know, they've made it look a little bit more competitive, but there was such a big gap there that it changes the tenor and tone of the game. Now it feels like a blowout and as a result, you know, Minnesota it doesn't defend quite as hard.

They jack up some bad shots and things just kind of stay at arms distance. That was an arms distance game where Golden State was never truly threatened. And that's what happens when you have the best starting lineup in basketball and forget out starting line up. That lineup is the best lineup in basketball with uh, without any competition. UH. Their defense is getting better. I talked about how the

starting lineup wasn't defending well enough during that losing streak. Well, their defensive rating is one of six point six with Curry, Clay, Draymond, Wiggins, and Luney on the floor over this um over this eleven game stretch, and they're outscoring teams. This is insane. That lineup Curry, Clay, Draymond, Wiggins, and Looney is outscoring teams during this eight and three stretch by thirty one points per one possessions. They're building leads so big that

their benchy shoes are just irrelevant. This is how crazy this is. There are twenty two five man lineups in the NBA this year that I have have played at least one hundred minutes, and the Warriors starters are best by a mile. They have a plus twenty eight net rating for the season. There's only one other one of those lineups. Of those twenty two lineups, only one of them has a net rating over twenty. That's not the Warriors, and that's the Bucks. They're starters are plus twenty three, so

they're five points better than the next best lineup. And then there's nobody else that's nearly as dominant as those two lineups. Don't look now, but the Warriors are five over five hundred and they're only three games back from first place in the West. This is what happens when

the West is as wide open as it is. And you know what I what I kept talking about is like they're there are still conversations to have about young players and who you want to keep, who you want to trade, whether or not they need to target a specific type of player to bolster their bench, you know, different lineup configurations, who you play with. Who you know is, should James Wiseman have to play in the G League as a number two overall pick ers? That kind of

unfair to him. There's a lot of like ancillary conversations to have about the Warriors, but their actual struggles, the struggles that had them three and seven at one point this season, those were solvable just by the starters playing better. They played great to start the season. They had a bad stretch and they went ohing five and they played great again, and all of a sudden, they started winning again.

That group is so dominant that they can solve a lot of their problems, and by the Warriors time to figure out what they want to do with their bench. That lineup is why I have the Warriors as my championship favorite. That line up is why I never got scared for the Warriors as they were struggling, and that lineup is gonna be what carries them with their best chance of repeating this year. Also, Warriors fans, I forgot to mention this earlier, that whole first quarter offensive stretch

that I was talking about. I broke down a bunch of plays from that sequence on my Twitter feed with actual footage. You can find out on my Twitter feed at underscore Jason lt. Don't forget to go check that out. All right, let's talk about the Nuggets. So we haven't talked about them in a while. On the surface, things look somewhat underwhelming, right Like, they're twelve and seven, They're only six and four in their last ten. They're back at twenty fourth on defense, which is nowhere near good

enough for a team that legitimately wants to contend. So you can be pessimistic about them, and that's a big part of why the Nuggets haven't really gotten a lot of talk this year. But guess what twelve and seven works as in today's NBA twelve and seven is the fifth best record in basketball. That's how wide opened the league is. When you get past the Celtics and Bucks, there's such a big drop off to everybody else, and everyone else is just kind of clustered up in there

that you know. I mean, even the Lakers are three games back from sixth in the West or whatever it is. I can't that was what it was as of yesterday. I'm not sure after last night's games, but they were kind of like right back up in the mix of things. And here you go, the Denver Nuggets. You're working Michael Porter Junior back from injury, You're working Jamal Murray back from injury, Nikola Yokich is stepping back into a smaller role. All this stuff is happening, and you're still the fifth

best record in the league. That's how that's the glass half full way of looking at it, and even gets better because they're eleven and five when Yoket's plays. They dropped a couple of games recently when Yokis was out of the lineup with COVID, And you know, we were just talking about those dominant lineups, right. So I've got the Warriors that are plus twenty eight per one hundred possessions. I've got the buck Starters that are plus twenty three

point hunter possessions. Well, guess who the third best lineup in basketball is. It's Nikkela Yogets, Jamal Murray k CP, Michael Porter Jr. And Aaron Gordon. Their plus seventeen point four net in a hundred and seventy two minutes this year, which is the third best in the league among lineups that have played at least a hundred minutes together. They're

also dominating and crunch time. They're six and two in games where the score has been within five points with less than five minutes remaining, and uh in those crunch time situations, they have a plus twenty one net rating, which is the third best in the league and the best defense in the league and clutch situations, which is encouraging because what has been my theory all along. You know, the Nuggets are they're not defending as well as they can.

Are they a top five defense? No, but they should be closer to fifteen. They're definitely capable of defending better than they have. They've added enough a talent on the wing, you know, over the course of the last couple of years with Aaron Gordon, I really like the Bruce Brown signing. Kentavius Callbo Pope, I think is a better UH defender than Will Barton. They have better defensive players, they just

have to go out and show that. And what they're showing is in crunch time when they really lock in, they're getting a lot of stops. But I wanted to take some time to go one by one through the Denver Nuggets line up to talk about where they're succeeding this year. So for Yokis, his numbers are down across the board. He's only averaging twenty two points per game and ten rebounds this year, which is well below where

he was last year. That also is going along with nine assists, but that's to be expected with the supporting cash changing last year. You know, with the type of talent he was playing with he had to be a lot more aggressive in post ups and isolations, and that's just not the case this year. It's a lot more in the flow of the offense. But he's still excelling in all of the usual ways in post ups one point one points per possession, counting passes sixty percentile, which

is well above average. Right um. The inverted pick and roll, which I've always talked about, where basically Yokich runs a screen and roll with a guard as the screener as opposed to the reverse of that. I put a whole video of that together that you can find on my Twitter feed that kind of demonstrate the inverted Nicola yoke its pick and roll. It's usually Bruce Brown setting the screen because he has so much experience as a roll man from his time in Brooklyn. But they also do

it a little bit with KCP. They do it with quite a bit with KCP, but they do it a little bit with Jamal Murray in a lot with Aaron Gordon as well. They always slip the screen. They're not really there to linger and make a physical play on the screen defender. They're just there too put a presence so the defender gets out of position and then they're

slipping to the basket. Every single time from there, Yokis literally will will keep the dribble live and just wait for the defense to commit to one of the players, and there usually is a wide open player there because with Yokich, the screen defender is hedging on him usually and then the guy who's guarding him is following him in that screen. Now it's a four on three on

the back line. Most of the time, that guy who's slipping to the basket ends up being wide open, and you're seeing a ton of easy layups for Bruce Brown and KCP at the basket because of what they're getting in that in that role situation. But if the screen defender stays with the slipping screener, Yokich will just continue to go downhill because now he has a driving lane because his defender got caught on the fake screen and now he's going downhill and no one can stop him

because of how damn big he is. Inverted Yoki's pick and roll this year with him as the ball handler including passes, is scoring one point zero seven points per possession, which is in the seventy five percentile in the league. Again, you're gonna want to check that video out on Twitter. And then the Warriors offense stuff that I was talking about. Um, he still can't make a jump shot to save his life, really, but he's cut way back on attempts, kind of like

what Anthony Davis did. He's attempting half as many threes as he did last year, but he's shooting just on them. Uh. Jamal Murray last ten games eighteen point four points per game and six assists. He scored twenty plus five times each day. He just looks a little bit more like himself in this ten game span. He's also shooting fort on ten pull up jumpers per game. If you guys remember the beginning of the season he was at around

this last stretch, he's around forty three percent. Like I've been saying, I want to see him up around forty six percent. That's when you'll know he's really back to where he is. But he's clearly trending in that direction and that's good to see after his injury, to see him kind of getting back to what he was. Michael Porter Jr. Hundred one points in seventy seven spot of possessions, which ranks in percentile in the league. Aaron Gordon is the workhorse of this lineup. He's a monster on the

offensive glass. He's averaging a career high two and a half offensive rebounds per game. He is excellent running the floor in transition. Uh he's been outstanding for them in the dunker spot in particular, So like he's not he's not having a good perimeter shooting season, and so they're they're sticking him in the dunker spot a lot, especially since Yokich is typically operating out of the top of the key, so it's not really causing spacing issues for them.

And then he just does really he does a really nice job of relocating. Now, the way that dunker spot relocation works is when the ball is on your side of the floor, you have to go to the opposite block. You always want to be sitting outside the block on the side opposite of the ball handler. It just makes it so the defender has to leave you further to

be in help, which creates an opening for you. Then as the ball crosses over the midline of the floor, you want to relocate to the other block, or if someone drives baseline, you want to relocate to like the charge circle, so kind of in front of the rim. So there's just some basic concepts of how to relocate when you're in that dunker spot. Aaron Gordon's got such

a natural feel with Yokich already. He just knows how to find those openings and Yokis will just hit him with these baseball passes and then he's one of the best straight vert jumpers that we have in the league, so he can just elevate from wherever he catches and just dunk the basketball. And he's been extremely effective as a cutter out of the dunker spot as a result. The k CP was the last guy I wanted to talk about. He's one of my favorite players in the

league from my time covering him with the Lakers. He's just a professional two guard. He's great defensive player, deadly three point shooter. He's having an outstanding three point shooting season. Great attacking close outs, and he's great in transition, whether that's running to the corner for threes or running to

the front of the rim for layups and dunks. He scored eighty eight points on sixty three spot up possessions this year, which is in the nine percentile, and they haven't done it much, but he's been really good as a movement shooter this year. They've run nine plays for him running off of screens for shots, and he's knocked down seven of them. Um, he has a couple of the uh For Denver in particular, they have a couple of games coming up against Houston, but then their Denver

or their December schedule schedule gets a lot tougher. And Houston in particular just won two games in a row against the Thunder, which is not an easy win, and against the Hawks, who are legit Eastern Conference playoff teams. So Houston's playing some decent basketball right now. So a couple of tougher games like what seemed to be easy games, but you don't want to sleep walk against Houston. It's just such a good physical matchup for Yokich that I

expect them to win both those games. And then December gets a lot tougher, So we're gonna learn a lot about doubt Denver in the month of December. Alright, moving on to the Lakers. So, um here here's the way I want to do this for the Lakers. There's a optimistic glass half full way of looking at things. Then there's the pessimistic glass half empty way of looking at things, and then there's the reality, which is somewhere in the middle. And I'm gonna go through each of those. So here's

the US have full way of looking at things. The Lakers are over five hundred since they're oh and five start, they are five and one in their last there are I've been one of their last six games. They are seven and six in their last thirteen games. In that thirteen game stretch, their twelfth in offense nineteenth and defense seventeenth and net rating. Anthony Davis's last five games thirty three and eighteen on sixty four percent shooting, three blocks

and two steals. That's straight up m v P level production. He's also nineteen for forty two outside of the restricted area, which is great for two reasons. One, that's way more efficient than he had been in the last couple of years, and then it's low volume. You want Anthony Davis unless he's straight up Kevin Durant like he was in the bubble. You don't want him high volume outside the paint. You want him low volumes. So for for more than half of his shots to be in the restricted area, is

a good thing. In forty eight of his nineties shots in this five game stretch have been in the restricted area. Lebron's last four games, remember what I said, starting with the Cleveland game. He was sick before that, and then he had the foot issue. Before that. I said the Cleveland game looked like he was more physically healthy. And

since that stretch he's played four games. Obviously, got hurt somewhere in the middle, but in Lebron's last four games, starting with that Cleveland game, he's averaging twenty nine points, nine rebounds, and forces on from the field from three and seventy from the line. This is kind of one of the silver linings that come from injuries. And I tweeted this out when he first came back in that first game against the Spurs. Did I expect him to look in a percent good shape? No, of course, not,

that takes time. Did I expect him to look a hundred percent and rhythm when it comes to his handle and just his overall field for the game. No, of course, not. That's gonna take time. But Lebron was in a bad shooting slump, one of the worst ones of this recent phase of his career. And one of the things that's nice about an injury like that is you don't want to sit on your butt. You want to stay active.

So you're gonna you're gonna do things like cardio to try to keep your blood flowing, and you're gonna do some lifting. But you're not gonna play back skid ball right until while you're resting that. But you will shoot a ton of shots, because even with a growing injury, you can shoot stand still jump shots all day long. And I was expecting that Lebron would use that downtime to really hone in the details of his jump shot and get out of that slump. And that appears to

be what happened. From three made seven of them, which is one shy of his career high. Uh in last night's game. All right, yeah, I was yesterday in the afternoon. So um. He's also having a sneaky great ISO season. He scored seventy six points on sixty seven ISOs this year, which is four percentile. He did a really nice job against the Spurs with like a basic combination and ISO of a jab step pull up and a jab and go.

Now it's funny because you think is so at basketball you think a lot of like intense mixing up off the dribble and dribble combinations to get to step backs or turnarounds or you know, driving all the way to the rim and thinks along those lines. You think of a ton of variety. But you know what's funny is Lebron he has that stuff for the record, and you've

see that when he's really in his groove. Like if if Lebron really gets back into form, you'll see really diverse shot making from him over the course of the season. But he's been effective in ISO this year with two moves a jab step jumper and a jab step to the rim driving, uh, just a rip through to the basket. And it's funny because that's been like the story of Lebron's career, simplicity and effectiveness over some of the aesthetic stuff.

Although he is a lot more um you know, aesthetically polished than a lot of his detractors are willing to admit. But you know, the baseline of it is it's move counter move. You know, I talked about this with my high school kids that I train all the time. You know, as long as every move is built on an equally effective counter move. Then just those two things are enough to build an offensive foundation. So, for instance, I'm in

a triple threat. You're guarding me if I am a legitimate to rip through to the right and go to the rim or ripped through to the left and go to the rim, and I'm also a legitimate threat to just jab and rise up and knock down a jump shot, I've put you in no man's land. Now you have to make a decision. If you play off of me to contain the drive, I'm gonna knock down this jab

step jump shot. If you press up on me to take away the jab step jump shot, I'm two and sixty pounds and I'm six ft nine and if I

ripped through, I'm getting past you. And it's just funny to see that kind of effectiveness because he's had a down season by almost every measure right, and yes, he's got his jumper going recently, but he's run sixty seven ISOs this year and he's been one of the best is A players in the league just based on two moves that have been effective for him and the fact that each move is the opposite of the other, forcing defenders to have to make a decision one way or another.

Lonnie Walker has also been a great third option during this stretch. In this UM thirteen game stretch, he's averaging nineteen points on shooting all in saying is that that's like legit, like third star type of production. But here's the last half empty way of looking at things. The Lakers are five and oh against teams that are below five hundred, but there two and eleven against teams that are five hundred are better. A D has been beating up on pretty weak front lines. That's just a fact.

He's been unbelievable, but he's beating up on pretty weak front lines. Three of their seven wins the season are against the Spurs, who are the worst team in the NBA in my opinion. Now again I'm being intentionally pessimistic there, but those are the two radical sides of it. So where's reality. The reality is the Lakers have two of the top ten players in the league, and to start the season, they both played well below their personal standards.

Anthony Davis is playing more like a fifteen best player in the league. Lebron James was playing more like a fifteenth best player in the league. In their defense, A D was dealing with back spasms and Lebron was dealing with foot stuff and he got sick. But the fact

remains they didn't play well to start the season. They were also playing any incredibly tough schedule to start the season, the toughest schedule in the league to start the skis this season that you're not gonna beat the best teams in the league, the good teams unless Lebron and Anthony Davis both played at the top of their ability because of the other limitations on the roster. So that was why they were struggling so much to start the year.

Lebron and a D, you weren't good enough. Dominant schedule. Yeah they got a couple of wins. Yeah they beat the Nets, Yeah they beat the Pelicans, Yeah they beat the Nuggets. There's some quality wins in there. But for the most part, they struggled against that part of their schedule because Lebron and a D weren't good enough. Now the schedule is lightened up, Lebron and a D have it going. They both are playing really good basketball here in this last couple of weeks, and they've racked up

some wins. But you know, and then also the role players are shooting better, although they're not still not shooting well. In this third team game stretch, the Lakers are and three pointers made per one possessions. But the schedule is about to get way tougher again, really starting right away, even these next two games and the month in November or against the Pacers and Blazers, who are both above five hundred, and then they have the toughest schedule in

the league in December. In December, the Lakers play the Bucks, the Celtics, the Sixers, the Raptors, the Calves, the Nuggets, the Sons, the Kings, the MAVs, the Heat and the Hawks. So like, the reality is is even if Lebron in a d maintain this level of play, they'll hang in some of the They'll hang in all these games if they play like that, but their best case scenarios to maybe win half of them because of the talent limitations

that they have. That's you know, when you are five and oh against teams that are below five hundred and you are two and eleven against teams that are above five hundred or or at five hundred, what that tells me is you have a talent issue. Because when you're five and oh against teams that are below five hundred.

That means you're taking care of business. That means you are well coached, You bring effort every night, and you're making sure you don't lose games you're supposed to win, right But then they're bringing that same level of effort, although there was a couple the weeks there where they let the rope slip, particularly on defense, but for the most part in those other thirteen games, they're bringing consistent effort.

They just don't have the horses to win those games, especially when Lebron and a D weren't playing as well as they were. But coming into this month of December, they'll be lucky to win half the games even if Lebron, James and Anthony Davis play really well because of the types of opponents that you're playing Bucks and Celtics. Lebron and a D could combine for seventy in both of those games and they probably will lose both. So there

you go in two sixers. That's a tough one. Calves they're tough to beat right now, Nuggets, that's tough, the Suns. You know, these are all games that that the Lakers are gonna have a hard time winning even if Lebron James and Anthony Davis play well. Now that so it's clearly a talent issue. Now what's interesting there is you can kind of see the path that I'm starting to draw. Russ has not been great as of late, and he has not been a huge factor in their recent success.

So the Lakers have won five of their last six. Right in at span, Russell Westbrook is averaging twelve points per game on thirty three percent shooting from three and from the free throw line. He is averaging nine assis per game, although with four turnovers. But the Lakers have lost his minutes and four of the six games, including games against really weak competition. So all signs continue to point towards Russell westbrook salary being the best vehicle with

which to improve the roster um. So when I look at that and I see talent issue, schedule getting tougher, Lebron and a d looking great, Lakers won five out of six, Russ isn't really a part of that success. All signs screamed towards making the trade. But all of the intel that we've heard is pointing at the Lakers

waiting until December to really make that decision. That date is the date that when players who signed deals during this last offseason become trade eligible, so theoretically they'll have some more options. But I haven't really seen anything get thrown out that's per picularly interesting to me. Dave mcmenanman um Dave mcmeneman excuse me from ESPN reported that the Lakers brass doesn't really see Buddy Yield and Miles Turner as players that will make their closing lineups, so they

don't see the Indiana deal is very likely. I I tried really hard this morning to kind of see that

point of view. I could potentially see that being true with healed right, Like, if you make that deal, you know, Turner a d Lebron, maybe you go with more versatile defensive players like Austin Reeves and Lonnie Walker instead of Buddy Yield, Like I could see it potentially, But Miles Turner would unquestionably be their third best player right now, and there's no way he wouldn't close, especially considering the way he's shooting the basketball and how good he is defensively.

He's shooting a career high forty three on four three point attempts per game. And then he'ld shooting at the very least would give you an option to throw out in those situations. He's shooting in the high thirties on on over ten attempts per game from three right now. Um, he's been one of the best spot up players in the league on a per possession basis, and it gives

you an option when players aren't playing well. So, for instance, yeah, like you have these three guys Troy Brown Jr. Ostin Reeves, and Lonnie Walker that are playing pretty damn good basketball and have been getting a lot of minutes for the Lakers. But they're young. And what happens with young basketball players. Young basketball players are prone to bad nights, Like there are going to be nights where Lonnie Walker just doesn't have it. Jumpers not falling, his head's not focused on

the defensive end of the four, nothing's going. You're not gonna stick him in the closing lineup and on that type of night because young players have a hard time shedding their mistakes and staying focused on the next play. That's that's not a Lonnie Walker thing, that's an all

young players thing. But it'd be nice on a night where maybe Lonnie Walker doesn't have it to be like, you know, Buddy Yields a better option, or on nights where Buddy Yield is defending really well, or the matchups with your opponent dictate that Buddy is playable and crunch time, now you can have that as an option. A legitimate shooter on the offensive end, and who's killing you on

the defensive end. Right, So I'm getting a Miles Turner who would have far and away be the third best player on the team, and then a legitimate backcourt threat that I could play in crunch time depending on the matchup. You know, and like look like, would I prefer a wing? Yeah, so would every Lakers fan, So would every reasonable basketball

mind in the world. If you're looking to bolster your team and you can choose between a center which is somewhat matchup dependent, and a guard which is somewhat matchup dependent, or a versatile wing, all of us, for all of our teams are picking a wing. But I haven't seen a single wing thrown out in one of these deals, these potential deals that is nearly as good as Miles Turner, at least not a uh not at least not a realistic one. I've heard you know, O g Na Nobi

get thrown out. Why would the Raptors give O g Na Nobi to the Lakers. What could the Lakers offer that would legitimately entice them to make a move like that. If so, then yeah, by all means, go get O g Na Nobi. But I haven't seen a realistic wing centered trade that has any player that's nearly as good as Miles Turner is right now, and so just by the by the sheer talent influx, to me, that still looks like the best deal. Like I like Boyan mcdonovitch.

It was a name that I talked about a lot this summer, but I liked it as part of a larger jazz package that also would have brought back maybe an extra wing like a Rudy Gay or a great shooter like a Malik Beasley. I don't necessarily like the idea of Boyan Pagdanovitch targeted from the Pistons right now

and using picks for just him. Right with Miles Turner, you get a legitimate backcourt threat and a great center that will slot really nicely alongside Lebron James and Anthony Davis significantly improve your defense and increase the talent on the team, But most importantly, waiting until December fift with the type of schedule they have, puts the Lakers at significant risk to lose all of this ground that they

just made up in this recent stretch. Um, So I I still I I think that the clear answer from the beginning and and currently now as well is call up the Pacers, offer him the two picks, get Miles

Turner and body heal. Hell, I'd do it right now, because if you did it right now, then the Pacers would be shorthanded tonight and you might be able to get yourself a win there right Um, but clearly their intent on waiting, and we'll see, it's very possible that the Lakers are sitting at like ten and seventeen by

the time of deal actually gets done. And that's a damn shame considering how wide open the league is right now and the fact that the Lakers are still right there with a chance to make a run because of how poorly everyone else has played in the Western Conference. One note on the Pacers, They've been playing really good ball lately and they deserve a shout out. We will get to them in tomorrow's show, We're gonna do a lot.

I've been watching a ton of film on Tyrese Haliburton to prep for this, So we will get to that when we cover the Lakers Pacers game in the second half of tomorrow's show, after we break down UM the Mavericks game. Speaking of the Mavericks, let's get to the Mavericks. So after getting roundhouse kicked by Milwaukee last night, UM, they've lost four in a row, their three and seven in their last ten games. There seven and offense during the span eighth and defense. Luca is as good as ever.

He's averaging thirty points per game, nine rebounds, eight assist, fifty seven percent try shooting, which is fine, a little low for him and not terrible. They've been a positive in this three and seven stretch with him on the floor. For the season, the Mavericks are outscoring teams by four points per one hundred possessions with Luca on the floor, and they're getting outscored by three points per one hundred possessions when he's off the floor per cleaning the glass.

But we kind of expected this to happen after they let Jalen Brunson go right like this system depends on having a third legitimate ball handler, which brings us to Mr Kemba Walker, who the Dallas Mavericks signed today. So I wanted to talk a little bit about Kemba and how he fits specifically with the Dallas Mavericks. So health has been a consistent issue for him over the years, but let's proceed as if he's healthy, because obviously Dallas

would not have signed him otherwise. When Kimba is healthy, he is a great pull up shooter who gets to the rim more than most guards in the league. I wanted to look at his two thousand nineteen season just to kind of give you an idea of what peak Kemba Walker looks like. So with the Hornets that year, he shot over ten pull up jumpers per game, and he had over uh he had three point two restricted area makes per game. For reference, That's about what you're

getting from Russell Westbrook right now. That's the level of dribble penetration Kemba Walker was getting during that two thousand nineteen campaign. And he's doing it and he did it on a higher percentage than Russell Westbrook is doing right now. And then at his best, he was about a six assist per game guy, which is fine for a score of the way he was during that season. He was in the percentile and picking rolls including passes, and the

ninety three percentile UH in isolations including passes. So he's a guard that can get to the rim, knock down, pull up jump shots, and can make plays as a scorer and passer in both isolation and pick and roll. That is the healthy best version of Kem Walker. So in theory, he's the perfect type of guard to slide into this Dallas Mavericks system. Is he the same player that he was in two thousand nine, Almost certainly not, Probably not that close either, But it's a much easier

role than he had in two thousand. Two thousand nineteen he was the top of the scouting report. He won't be the top of the scouting report here. Two thousand nineteen, he was catching the best perimeter defenders every single night. He's going to get the second defender in the bench unit on most of his rotation minutes um this year.

So it's just when you could when you factor in the role as a bench creator going against bench lineups with the ultimate green light that Dallas gives their ball handlers and the Mavericks spacing, which we've talked about a ton on the show in the last couple of weeks. It could work. They'll have to hide him defensively, but they already have some experience in that department, especially off

the ball. If they can just get him to slide his feet on ball so that the drible penetration isn't that bad, they there's some any tricks now in the league to hide players off ball that they might be able to make it work. So the bottom line is, if Kemba Walker has anything left in the tank, Dallas

is the ideal spot for him to show that. Because the matchups he'll be attacking are favorable, they'll have a green light so he can shoot through his slump whatever that is as he gets back into into his into rhythm, and then the spacing will have to operate with all their pick and pop bigs and the good shooters that they stashed in the corner. And then, last, but not least, it's a low risk type of move. You're signing him

at a veteran minimum contract. I haven't seen the details, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's non guaranteed so um, and even if it is guaranteed, what are you out a couple million bucks? So I thought it was a smart move for Dallas just to try something, especially with how bad they've been offensively. Um in this recent stretch. Dallas's schedule does lighten up a little bit in December. They still have some tough games, but there's a lot of winnable games in there as well, and some good

matchups for the MAVs specifically. So I think it's a good spot to integrate, integrate Keimba, and make up some ground in the standings. All right, Yes, that is all I have for today. You guys know the drill, Like I said, tomorrow will be going live after Maverick's Warriors, and then I broke down the rest of the schedule earlier this week. Don't forget to go to YouTube excuse me to my Twitter page to check out those videos that I put together. As always, I sincerely appreciate your

support and I will see you next time. The volume