Hoops Tonight - Steph Curry CARRIES Warriors, Wembanyama's double double + Luka’s 49 downs Nets

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so far. Got a jam pack show for you today. We're gonna be hitting on five games. I didn't get to watch any basketball last night because I was watching the Arizona Diamondbacks in the World Series lose in absolutely heartbreaking fashion thanks to a Corey Seeger two run bomb off of our closer, who has never given up a run so far in postseason in the postseason this year

until that specific hit. So that was depressing, But I woke up this morning and I watched about six consecutive hours of basketball from a jam Pack Night of Hoops, and we're gonna hit on five games. Golden State Warriors have an impressive double digit win against the Sacramento Kings. The Spurs and the Rockets, a game that we would never have covered last year on the show produced an incredibly entertaining game. Victor Wiben Yama sends the game to

ot with a late bucket. The Spurs end up closing the deal in ot. The Miami heat in Boston, Celtics always played tough games. The heat throughout most of the game kind of made Boston feel uncomfortable and kept a little bit of a lead, but Boston's talent takes over in the fourth quarter as they come out with a win. The Oklahoma City Thunder came back from down ten with a couple of minutes left against the Cleveland Cavaliers. They hit four consecutive threes. We're gonna hit that game from

both teams. And then Luka Doncic hits four consecutive threes to steal a game from the Brooklyn Nets, as they have gone on to blowing two late leads, So we're gonna hit all five of those games from the perspectives of all ten teams. Then I have three mail bag questions for the end of the show as well. You guys in the drip for we get started. This is our new YouTube channel. It would mean a lot to me if you guys would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button. Help us get this

channel off the ground. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight. Follow me on social media Twitter, Instagram, TikTok. That's where I'm doing

video content and show announcements. This morning I posted a bunch of videos from my film session on Twitter, so I'm gonna reference a bunch of plays that you'll be able to see on my Twitter feed and the last minute at least any more mail bag questions, keep dropping those in the YouTube comments so we can hit them later on during the season. So Golden State Sacramento a classic kind of game where at the beginning it's the star that's kind of carrying things while the team figures

things out. The Kings kind of have a little bit of a lead. They're holding the Warriors at Bay, but Steph's going crazy. He goes crazy in the first half, goes crazy again to start the third quarter, goes on a crazy run to put the Warriors up eleven. In the middle of the third quarter, hits a step back three, hits a mid range pull up in a pick and roll, hits a driving layup against a double team against Harrison Barnes where he beats him to the baseline and lays

it up and just starts talking shit. Then caps it off with a movement three at the top of the key where he gets fouled, gets a four point play puts the Warriors up eleven. But what I thought was interesting because Steph was amazing, finished with forty one points. He's amazing. I can sit here and talk about how amazing Steph is all night long. But what I found to be super interesting in this game was the run that the bench went on in the late third quarter.

They went with an interesting kind of front coord combination of Tray Jackson Davis with Moses Moody and Jonathan Kaminga alongside Klay Thompson and Chris Paul, and they were really

good defensively during that third quarter run. Those three Tray Jackson Davis, Moses Moody, and Jonathan Minga were on the floor for four minutes and they were plus seven and locked the defensive rating of sixty three point six, which is outstanding, And what stood out to me mostly was the overall amount of athleticism on the floor with that group. Tracey Jackson Davis is basically like a really big wing

if you factor in his mobility. Obviously he functions offensively as a big man, but like he's got the mobility and lateral quickness that you see in a lot of wings, and he's got the versatility to kind of function as a wing when it comes to covering ground in rotation, which is something that the Warriors have never really had from the center position outside of Draymond in this era, it's almost always been bigger, slower players that are occupying

those minutes, right And there was a specific play that I thought demonstrated this really well that you guys can see on my Twitter feed if you go back where

I talk about this particular trio. But Tracey Jackson Davis gets a block in drop coverage at the rim on the left side of the rim as a result, which by the way, already impressive defensive play, but in the scrum, the ball ends up flying to the top of the key and to a wide open shooter and I think it was dearon fox ifrom member correctly, and both Moses Moody and and Jonathan Kaminga close out to the top

of the key. When they both close out to the top of the key, the ball gets swung to the corner. When the swing goes to the corner, Tray Jackson Davis rotates from under the basket where he was in drop coverage to chase it. Think it was Keegan Murray out of the right corner chase him off the line. Moses Moody realizes that him and Comminga are the same guy. He sprints back and guards JaVale McGee. Keegan Murray drives towards the left towards the middle and throws a kick

out passed back to the top of the key. Jonathan Kmingo, who's a freak athlete, digs down to contain that drive from the from the left side right and then recovers out to the top of the key to contest the three point shot and force a miss. So again, like the you get the high level rim protection from Tray Jackson Davis on that play. But in the chaos, you

leave two open shooters. But because you've got athletes on the floor, they're flying out to those shooters and they're chasing them off the line and forcing them into tougher shots. And that kind of like athleticism out of the front court. Again, like athleticism on the perimeter has its own value, but especially when you have bigger athletes, they can help you a lot when it comes to contesting shots and flying

around in rotation. And that's kind of an aspect that we haven't been used to seeing from Golden State in their bench groups. And I thought that was a really exciting kind of stretch of basketball to demonstrate what they could be getting out of the bench over the course of the season. Again, plus seven and four minutes for that trio, sixty three points, sixty defensive writing. Hard not to get excited about that. Another solid Jonathan kminga game he was plus nine and twenty six minutes, had a

nasty tip dunk, made some defensive plays. He had a play where he beat Davey on Mitchell in a post up. That's that match matchup attacking stuff that I like to see hit a very important corner three before the half that kind of changed the tone of the game. Jonathan Kaminga is a lot better than I thought he was going to be this season so far, and again, especially through eighty two games or reps, it's very possible that he could be that playoff Forwarden State's been looking for.

I really liked Chris Paul with that group too, And this is that concept where like having an adult to run the show in a lineup that has young players works like because again, when you threw Jordan Pool in with those groups, it's almost one of those things where like the total aggregate call it basketball IQ, call it like ability to slow down and execute that whatever you want to refer to, that trait is with those groups kind of dipped below a level where it became freakishly inconsistent,

and you would have stretches where Pools making shots, Kminga's making plays and they would look great, but then you'd have stretches where it would just absolutely crater when all of them are making bad decisions. And what's nice about having Chris Paul out there is he's kind of the

adult to run the show with the kids. And again, like I know they're not kids, they're grown as man, but I mean within the concept of basketball, to have that super experienced, methodical player out there to kind of get all those guys in the right spots goes a long way to helping those lineups be consistent. And again, when you juxtapose that with the Jordan Poole experience, that's what you're hoping for. You're not trying to win games

with the bench. You're trying to keep your starters and where they are at in the game, try to maintain that progress so that when they come back in the game they can build upon it. Though, and like there were times when the when the Warriors won games with their bench, and that's great, but the consistent experience is actually better here. Chris Paul is really good at just

finding the easy shots that exist on the basketball court. So, like there was a there was a sequence, there was a sequence in the early fourth quarter where he ran pick and roll with Dario sarag And on the first one, he just like gets downhill into Sabonus's chest, like caves' his chest in with a hard power dribble and makes a layup while the defenders coming from behind in back pressure, and it was kind of interesting because you could tell, like Chris Paul really hit the jets on that play,

and it felt like he was almost trying to send a message like I am willing to score here if you guys just let me go downhill unimpeded. Right, And then on the very next possession they run another pick and roll, but in this case, Chris more methodically is trying to set up Dario sarch for a shot. So when he comes down over the top of the screen, they both converge on Chris because he had just scored

by dropping his shoulder and getting downhill. Nice easy bounce past to Dario sarg in the short corner for a little seventeen foot jump shot that he's gonna make probably two out of three times when he's that wide open. That's just easy, easy basketball. And again like there are we talk about this all the time, but like offensive ratings, if you look at him for the league, you know, the best teams in the league are around one twenty and the worst teams in the league around one ten. It's

really not that much of a difference. There's less than a ten percent difference between the best teams in the league and the worst teams in the league. Right, And so what's actually happening there is like it's the little things on the margins that are the difference. There are easy shots that exist in games. The teams that find those easy opportunities more frequently have higher offensive ratings. There are difficult shots that take place in the game. These

are rescue possessions, late game situations. The teams that are good at converting those usually have higher offensive ratings. Right, Chris Paul is not the guy that's going to make a ton of really really tough shots and lift you up in terms of the super high level shot making. That's not what you need. That's what you have Steph Curry for. What you need is the guy that can execute and find the easy shots that are available to

be had in basketball games. Like, you're not gonna be able to run to Dario saraz pick and roll with Chris Paul at the end of a game and get a wide open seventeen footer. They're they're gonna either They're probably gonna switch the action and force Chris to make some tough shot but in the air at the beginning of the fourth quarter, when the game is more fast and loose, like those are there to be had, and Chris is the guy that's gonna make sure you get those.

And you're seeing that manifest in the scoreboard. So so far through two games, when Steph is on the floor, the Warriors are plus two point three net, so outscoring their opponents by two point three points per one hundred possessions in one hundred and forty two possessions according to Cleaning the Glass. Now that number is lower because they lost the Suns game, right, But like you expect to be positive over the course of the season, probably around

seven or eight points per one hundred posessions. When Steph's on the floor, that's great, right, that's what you can depend on thanks to Steph being one of the top five players in the world. Right. But when Chris Paul is on the floor so far this year and Steph is off, the Warriors are plus three point one net in sixty two possessions, so outscoring opponents by three point

one points per one hundred possessions. And again that's a small sample size, but so far you are winning the minutes when Steph is on the floor, off the floor, that's important. Again, I get like, when you want to have your best chance to beat the best teams in the league, you can't hamorrhage points with the bench group. Chris is giving you a better job of surviving those

particular minutes. And again, like in the it's not just without Steph on the floor there either, because like I would argue, Draymond Green is either the second or third best player on the Warriors, probably the second best player without poorly Andrew Wiggins has been playing to start the year, right and so, and really for the most of last

year as well. So like like you're really without your second an or your your best player and your second best player in this case, right and so what's interesting about that is like the Warriors love to tie Draymond Green to Steph Curry. And the main reason why that's a good idea is because Stephan pick and roll actions brings the offensive firepower to the action. It actually makes more sense to run Chris with more offensively skilled big men because he's not going to be as active as

a scorer and pick and roll. This is a concept we've talked about over the course of preseason, and but one of the problems is over the last couple of years. Often Steve Kurris had to play Draymond Green with some of the groups without Steph because they've struggled so much. That was a big part of the story last year, if you guys remember, and it's because they're just grasping it straws, like, how do we win these minutes we're getting,

We're losing these minutes. We got to get Draymond in with those guys, so maybe we can get stops and maybe that'll carry us over the top. But if you can actually go the way they want to go, which is keep Draymond tied to Steph so that you have that that offensive potential of those two and Draymond's defensive ceiling right, but then also be able to float your minutes when Chris is out there with Dario Sarz and Johnathan Kaminga or whoever it is, Tray Jackson Davis as well.

If they can float those minutes without Draymond and without Steph, that's where you get that classic Golden State mixture that they're shooting. So far through two games, the Warriors have a one h eight defensive rating. That's pretty solid, especially when you consider they're against the Kings and the Suns in those two games. That's not an easy task. Ninety five defensive rating in the half court that solid Israel

big solid as well, biggest areas of opportunity. They got out rebounded in both games, although I did think the guards competed better against Sacramento. The guards who got killed in the Sun's game, but I thought they competed better against Sacramento. And they need to find a way to get Andrew Wiggins going. There's something going on with him. He's just in a little bit of a funk. I

don't know if he's just not in shape. I don't know if he's just struggling to fit in with the with all of the other young guys being more aggressive. But when they were at their best, Andrew Wiggins was their second best player when they won the title in twenty twenty two. So that's something that I'd like to see them figure out on the Kings front. Darren Fox at thirty nine, he's locked in so far the Syeer.

He's seven for fifteen on pull up jump shots and four of them are pull up three, so he's got a sixty percent effective field goal percentage on pull ups. That's incredible. That was basically what Steph led the league with last year. So good start there on that on that front. Three for four in floaters as well. The one weird thing with Darreon Fox is he's still missing at the rim. And if you remember this was the

story last year. Last year, Darren Fox was like incredible at the Rim, if I remember correctly, he shot over seventy percent at the Rim, but then in the Warriors series he really struggled to finish at the Rim, and so far this year he's only eight for sixteen, So I don't know what's going on there. I don't know if it's a decision making thing, a spacing thing, but Darren Fox is missing too many layups and they're getting nothing out of Kevin Herder right now. He was zero

for five on threes last night. He's one for twelve on jump shots. So far this season, He's only attempted

two shots at the rim. The main thing that I'm seeing on tape there is he's just taking extremely difficult shots, Like he basically comes off these dribble handoffs and either gets rid of the ball or shoots, and when he's looking for shot attempts, he's given that one two foot work right, Like, if he's coming to his right, he's planting that left foot, planting that right foot, and he's twisting in mid air to square up and get that shot off. And it's just a really, really difficult shot.

And so one of the things I'd like to see from Kevin Herder and he can actually take this as a play a page from Klay Thompson's playbook, but use relocation, dribbles, be more willing to use that crazy uh lock and trail defenders momentum against him to find higher quality shots, because that's that's that's again when you're out of rhythm. If you try to shoot yourself out of rhythm by taking more tough shots, you're just going to get more

and more discouraged. But if you actually try to get out of your you know, shooting slump by hunting down easier shots to build your confidence, that can go a long way to getting them out of it. So again, I just would like to see him put the ball on the floor a little bit more to try to generate higher quality shots. Malise Monk Malik Monk is also struggling to start the year, and that's hurting them with

Fox off the floor. So far, they are minus five net in fifty one possessions without Deer and Fox, so they're not getting They're getting outscored by five points per one hundred possessions as a team. Still not playing any defense one to thirteen defensive rating, and teams are shooting seventy eight percent against the Kings in the restricted area so far through two games. That is the second worst mark in the entire NBA. Moving on to Houston San Antonio,

this game was an absurd amount of fun. The Rockets were up by ten in the late third quarter. Doug McDermot go Doug, Doug Man, I'm having a hard time speaking today. Doug McDermott goes on a run to end the third quarter and start the fourth quarter. Uh has a hits three threes I think in total between the end of the third and in the middle of the fourth. Gets it back close and then downstretch was a down.

The stretch was a fun chess match. Van Vliet had a nice stretch, attacking the rim and finishing in traffic. Devin Vessel hit a couple of big shots. He had this like spinning turnaround jump shot against Dylan Brooks and then like wagged the finger at him and started talking shit again. Devin vassell I talked about him after the first game, but he kind of reminds me a little bit of young Devin Booker in his approach as a scorer.

But he's actually a little bit taller and has longer arms, and so he's actually got the potential to be even more difficult to guard with his release point. But he's a He made a lot of big plays down the stretch of this game, had a big alley up in ot as well, but then it basically settled into the into the rockets running clear side post ups for Prince Shangun.

So the Zach Collins had five fouls, and so imy Udoka really wanted them to run through Alprince Shangun on the on the left block, so they basically just kind of set up in like a four out spacing, so they had like a guy in the right corner, guy on the right wing, and then two guys basically at the lane lines extended to the top of the key, and then they just cleared the entire left side and let Shanghun basically just kind of back his way in and look for hook shots over Zach Collins and knowing

that he's not going to be able to play super physical defense, to push Shangun off of his spots because if he does, he's going to foul out. And it worked really well. They were getting hooks, they were drawn doubles and kicking out and get it playing driving kick basketball. From there, it was working for the Rockets. That was their late game offense down the stretch. For the Spurs,

it was pretty ugly. Again. Their perimeter players right now are still a little inconsistent, but they started to have success when they started feeding Victor Wembinyama on the right block and post ups against Jabari Smith. He had won in a like kind of middle third quarter where he spun baseline and dunked it on the right side of the basket. I put that one on Twitter. You guys

can see that there. And then in the final minute when the Spurs were down by two, it was right around thirty seconds left, same thing, posts up Javari Smith on the right block and kind of makes that same sort of hard baseline move. This time Jabari cuts him off, but he just bumps him off with that shoulder and hits a little right handed hook shot of a shot that's like literally impossible to guard, and that ended up sending the game to overtime. Now, in overtime, the Spurs

kind of solved the Shangun post up. Zack Collins said screw it and just started being more physical and forced him into some misses. And then the one of the things that the Rockets were doing that I disagreed with is they basically had those four guys that were spacing just stand in those four spots and there was no

kind of motion or interchanging taking place. And so the Spurs defenders that were kind of gapping those guys, they were able to split the difference, and they had seen that same action so many times they figured out how to guard it. They forced a couple turnovers on Shangoon. He forced an offensive foul, then they got a steal on a kickout pass, and they were running it down the other end for layups and dunks. Keldon Johnson had a big, two handed dunk down the stretch. So the

Spurs go up big. The Rockets then default back to that Van Vliet Shangoun pick and roll and they score seven quick points on it. Two pocket passes to Shangun one where he just threw down this ridiculous dunk over Zach Collins. Like I said, super super fun game because Shangun dunks on on Zach Collins and talks all sorts

of shit. Then they go down to the other end and they run Zack Collins in the post against Shangoon and he hits this like hard dribble to the right spin back baseline and gets pass him for an and one at that point though, really by the time the Keldon Johnson had that dunk, they were up big and the O team it was basically over at that point, but the Rockets did make some shots late to make

a kind of interesting. Victor wenbin Yama finished with twenty one points and twelve rebounds, two steals, and three blocks and a ton of huge defensive plays. And there was this. So I told you guys about the play where Devin Vessel hits the turnaround jump shot over Dylan Brooks and

starts talking shit. Well, on the very next possession they end up, he ends up attacking him again, and Dylan Brooks of course takes it personally because this young kid's talking shit to him, so he's locking him up sliding with him. Vassell ends up taking like a tough like seventeen foot fade away on the baseline and airballs it. Because Dylan Brooks is especially good at disrupting your base.

I've talked about this before, but like when you're giving up size to a guy, you can shoot over the top, push him on their base to disrupt their lift, and then attack the shooting pocket to disrupt their gather. And that's going to operate. That's going to be much more effective to disrupt them than try to actually contest the shot when the guy's taller than you, right, so he forces the turnover or not the turnover, the air ball and the rockets run out the other way. Jabari Smith

rises up and tries to dunk on Victor Webbanyama. Victor Weben Yama meets him on the top and blocks it. In the process he gets hit. Victor kind of falls back towards the baseline. Jabari Smith gets his own offensive rebound, thinks there's nobody around, and tries to lay it back up. Victor somehow recovers from the baseline to get back into

the play and blocks Jabari Smith again. Some of the most ridiculous defensive plays that we've ever seen are happening on a nightly basis with this Victor women Yama kid. It's ridiculous. He was also their most reliable offensive option down the stretch. Talked about those two right block post ups.

They had another player where they drew up an ISO for him against Dylan Brooks on a baseline out of bounds and he ended up faking a backcut and then popping back out to the perimeter knocking down a jump shot. Thought it was interesting too because after the game tying shot against Jabari Smith Junior, you could see Dylan Brooks get a little frustrated, and in my head, I'm like, I bet you Dylan Brooks asks for the matchup in

OT and he got it. You got the matchup against Victor, and then Victor scored on him just by making a backcut move and then shooting over the top of him. But again, like for him at this point in his career to be that confident in a late game situation down by two to go get a bucket, to be as confident as he was in OT, this kid is just in. This kid is going to be insanely good.

Eighteen points and nine rebounds a game. So far, He's got eleven post ups and eleven ISOs so far the season for eleven points, So he's a point per possession and half court static, half court shot creation four point five stocks per game, which is absolutely insane, and the Spurs have a plus seven net rating, meaning they're outscoring teams by seven points per one hundred possessions with him on the floor. Man talk about a franchise altering talent.

Also was confident at the free throw line, down the stretch. Just's he's way more advanced than I expected to see at this point. I was thinking earlier. I don't want to say anything after two games, but like there's a chance that within a couple of months we're like, oh, this kid's already one of the twenty best players alive. Like that, that's how quickly this kid is. That's how quickly this kid is progressing and where he's at in

terms of his ability to impact winning relative to potential. Remember, with most young guys, it's like you see the numbers, you see the you see the highlights, but the winning impact isn't there. And that's the exact opposite of what we're seeing with Victor like he's straight up impact in winning at an extremely high level as a rookie in

the NBA, which is super uncommon. Devin Vassel twenty four points per game so far in sixty five percent true shooting, seven for fifteen on pull up jump shots, and six for six at the rim. Pretty damn impressive start of the season for him. He had some big shots down the stretch of this game. Also had a big alley up to Zack Collins in ot. The Spurs are in good shape. They're gonna be fun team to watch this year.

For the Rockets, I thought it was really interesting that they won to Shangoon for the most part down the stretch. He's averaging twenty eleven and seven on fifty eight percent true shooting so far. He kind of fell apart in ot with some turnovers and bad decisions out of the post. But again, like I blame that more on the schematics setup. Like if you run the same exact action without any wrinkles, you know, a dozen times, a defense gonna is gonna

figure it out. Like you can mimic the action, but add wrinkles to make it so that it's like even if you look at down the stretch when Lebron was attacking Nurki pick and roll in the Suns Lakers game, Like it was three pick and rolls in three layups, but all three of them were in different spots on the floor, and all three of them had different kind of slashing angles, like one from the left wing run, one from the middle, and one from the right wing.

Like that just that just gives a little bit of a difference in the way that the alignment is set up, so that maybe it's a different help defender involved. Maybe it's a you know, a different angle for the screen or whatever. It might be one of the one of the ones that Lebron hit with ad a d re screen on the opposite side to get better separation, like do something different when you're spamming in action to prevent

a defense from getting too locked in on it. Right, But the rockets are a lot of fun, and they're better than they were last year. I'm just confused by the process of it all, Like like Jalen Green was completely uninvolved in the offense in the fourth quarter in overtime, and like he was your lottery pick two years ago, So what's the purpose here? Like I get running it through Shanngoon, but like running so much through Van Vliet.

You know, Like my question is, especially if you're gonna lose games your own two and the Rockets are fun, but they're not gonna make the playoffs or anything. This is not a team that's gonna win a ton of

basketball games. But so like, all you're doing is just finding out that Fred van Vliet can make you a mediocre basketball team, rather than letting Jalen Green get his repetitions that he needs so that you can find out whether or not he can lead you to be a great basketball team or no he can't, we might have to move him and look to go another direction. The only way you're gonna find that out is by giving

him those opportunities. And it is kind of a bummer to me that two games in he's basically turned into a spot up player. And by the way, he had two driving layups and down the stretch of this game on random possessions where he looked to be aggressive, and it's like, this is the type of top tier athleticism that he has that makes him such an intriguing prospect to begin with. All right, moving on to heat Celtics, So the heat jumped him early. Bam was killing him

in the half court. He had a lot of success attacking Krisops Porzingis. That was the first time that I saw Christops look a little you know, tissue paper e in the on the defensive end. But it's a tough matchup. Bam is a much better athlete than him and is stronger and has a lower center of gravity, so it's basically just hitting him with that right shoulder and creating separation, hitting that little short jumper over the top, or using his strength to get leverage around him to work along

the baseline. He was killing him early. Tyler Harrow made a lot of shots in just kind of like the breakdown areas of the game. In that first half, he had two jumpers in transition. He had another one off of an offensive rebound from Kevin Love. Again, like Tyler Harrow is one of those guys like if he's in a really good drop coverage, a really deep drop coverage where he gets good looks in the mid range, and when he's attacking closeouts, he can be really devastating because

of his ability to shoot. He's also really good with those escape dribbles that I was talking about earlier that I want to see Kevin Herder use more, but it's a little bit tougher for him when he gets into a really tough half court situation static, you know, running pick and roll against an elite defense when they're really loaded up on him. That's where it can get a little tougher for him. ISO's well, but he can get buckets in the flow of the offense, and that's there's

value there. It just really comes down to again with the Heat. They get into this fourth quarter situation and you know, the Celtics are basically throwing the kitchen sink at Jimmy Butler, and there just wasn't another guy who could, really, like at a high level, create shots in the half court against the Celtics when they were really locked in. But Heat go up twenty six thirteen. Tyler and Bam are hot early. They did a good job of getting Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown at a rhythm. They're so

good at that. For whatever reason, the Heat just are capable of making Jimmy or excuse me, making Jason and Jalen just not play well. And I think there's a little bit of a mental thing going on there. We talked about this a lot on this show, but like there are teams where matchups where a specific team is

just kind of in the other team's head. I feel like Golden State's a little bit in Sacramento's head, for instance, right Denver's a little bit in the Lakers head, and I think the heater a little bit in the Celtics head. But the difference is they just have an absurd amount of talent and they rid that talent in a big way. In that fourth quarter. Derek White was awesome. He had twenty eight points. He had fourteen points in the fourth quarter. Derek White's red hot with his jump shooting so far

the season. Seven for eleven on jump shots, three for five on off the dribble jump shots, block Jimmy Butler in transition on dunks twice, one in the first half, and then a big one late in the game. It's funny. I went on with the Jenkins and Jones guys last week and that episode just posted this morning, so you can find that on the Jenkins and Jones feed. It's also on our Hoops Tonight feed if you look at

the just this same channel's feed. If you scroll down the one that looks like a little bit different thumbnail. That was when I went on with the Jenkins and Jones guys. But we were talking about we were ranking the first options, second options, third options, and fourth options in the NBA, and we got into a little bit of a debate because we were trying to decide who is the best fourth option in the league. And it's definitely on the Celtics. The question is is whether or not

it's Derek White. Chrisops porzingis and so I on the show was like, I think it's Derek White. And the main reason why is just I just have a ton of respect for Derek White and what he could do as a perimeter defender, and he's one of the best

guard shot blockers in the league. And so many times over the last couple of years when the Boston Celtics offense is broken down in the playoffs, it's been Derek White who's been able to get them flowing again because of his ability to get dribble penetration and hit little pop shots in the lane and stuff like that. And so I think Derek White is a deeply impactful winner.

I think he's one of the top fifty players in the NBA, and in this conversation with Jenkins and Jones guys, I was like, I think it might be Derek White, but then all of them were like, no, it's Porzingis. And then I watched the season opener for the Celtics and I'm like, oh, yeah, it's definitely Porzingis. Like it's just his ability to protect the rim and space the floor in their offense. It just impacts winning at an

incredibly high level. But then I see a game like last night and I'm like, fuck, Derek White is really good too, you know. And the moral of the story here is like, if I don't know which one of those two guys is better, and it's because both of them are freaking good, that's a really good spot to be in. If we're in like a legitimate argument over who your fourth best player is and the two options are Derek White and Chrisops Porzingis, you're in damn good shape.

And the Celtics are in really good shape. Derek White already has four blocks this season. Jalen Brown got going offensively in the fourth quarter. He had twelve points in the fourth. They had a pull up transition three that was nice. Had a really nice contact left hand layup on the left side of the rim, and then he hits the dagger on the right side. Again. You're gonna see a lot of that this year. Like Tatum was

kind of down a little bit this game. Jalen Brown played better right, Derek White was scoring a lot more, Drew Holliday not as much, although Drew hit a big pull up jump shot attacking a close out in down the stretch of this game. But that's what it's gonna be like when you have five guys that are like this any given night, two or three of them are going to be in the high twenties low thirties for points, and then the other guys are going to be in

the teams and it's gonna be different every night. And the main thing is, like that kind of oscillating rhythm is fine during the regular season, but I usually prefer teams that have a more clear hierarchy because they end up being a little bit more consistent in the postseason. So like, I'm less worried about it for the other

four guys. I just want to see Jason Tatum like consistently in that you know, like twenty eight to thirty two points a night thing to just kind of show that they're clearly leaning on one guy that's kind of the tip of the spear, and Jayson Tatum got a little uninvolved in the offense. Lady did have some big plays.

The Celtics were attacking Kyle Lowry a ton on the defensive end late in this game, and Jayson Tatum had two nice attacks on Kyle Lowry, a crossover right to left, two handed dunk down the lane, and then he posted him up on the right block and drew a foul going strong towards the middle. But he was kind of uninvolved in the offense outside of that, and I just I want to see them lean heavily on Jason Tatum, especially down the stretch of games, because that's what you're

gonna need from him in the postseason. Anyway. Jason Tatum has already posted up eleven times this season, including that big late post up against Kyle Lowry that got him to the foul line. He only did so one point seven times per game last year, so like essentially three times as many post ups so far per game from Jason Tatum. I think that's really encouraging because I think that's gonna be a big half court shot creation weapon for Tatum when we get to the postseason. On the

heat front, there's still the heat. They can still defend. They can still get you out of rhythm. Again, Tyler Harrow twenty eight, but like his half court shot creation numbers are still below point per possession. So like again, it's like Tyler Harrow is going to be an innings eater in the regular season. I just I don't think he has enough firepower to be your number two. And again, I've talked about this to death, and I know heat fans are probably getting sick of it, but eventually they're

gonna have to get more firepower in here. We'll talk about that more in a second. Bam looks like he's continuing to prove offensively. He's run fourteen post ups so far this year and scored fifteen points out of him including passes, five points on five ISOs, So that's twenty points on nineteen half court shot creation possessions. That's impressive. They're just still operating at too much of a talent disadvantage. Tyler Harrow couldn't generate clean looks in the fourth quarter.

He was one for six Bam was one for five in the fourth court. What'd you expect from limited offensive players. They're gonna have stretches in the ebb and flow of the game, or they can score. But when things really get tight late and defenses lock in, it's only the truly elite guys that can score. And the Celtics just threw the kitchen sink at Jimmy to get the ball out of his hands on his drives, rotated really well out of that kept getting these guys stuck in static

shot creation situations and they couldn't make plays. And again, like the coaching and the conditioning and the culture and Jimmy Butler can only take you so far against the best teams in the league. This team needs another offensive weapon. The Celtics held the Heat to a ninety six offensive rating in the fourth quarter, and that was with Tyler Harrow and Kevin Love both hitting basically garbage time threes

late in the game. And so at the end of the day, it's still that specific problem that's going to hold them back so far through two games, one ten offensive rating pretty mediocre, one thirteen defensive rating just bad, to be honest, and they've been the worst rebounding team in the league. Through two games, they're getting just forty four point five percent of available rebounds. So again, I'll never count this team out. I just I trust their

top tier guys too much. But this is part of the reason why I wanted Dame to be in Miami. I just thought it'd be really interesting to see them kind of be on the same talent level as Boston and Milwaukee. But instead, both of those teams got better, and the heat seemingly got worse, and we'll see if they can overcome it at some point during the season. All right, moving on to Oklahoma City and Cleveland two more games, So okay. So he controlled this game for

the most part. They had a double digit lead for most of the second quarter. In the beginning of the third, say Gills as Alexander was torching them. But then Cleveland fought their way back into the game late third, early fourth with some really impressive perimeter defense, something we don't

expect from this team. This has been a weak perimeter defense team that is excellent in rotation and excellent at the basket protecting the paint, right, and it's a lot of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Scarland just kind of floating around defensively, not giving up a lot of dribble penetration, but them just having the back end talent to kind of clean it up right. And what I really appreciated down the stretch of this game as it was their

perimeter defense that got them back into it. And why that's exciting is like when you pair elite perimeter defense with elite rim protection, that's when you reach like a true level of defensive potential that can carry you to a championship in the big picture, right, And it comes down to a couple different things, because like Karris Slivert has always been a very good perimeter defender, and he gave Shay Gildas Alexander all sorts of problems in the second half of this game as he kind of like

was I would say Karris Slivert deserves the majority of the credit for slowing down the Thunder offense in the second half of this game. But Donovan Mitchell legitimately through two games is playing his ass off on defense, like he's trying harder on the defensive end than I've ever seen him try. And then Max Struce is just a solid perimeter defender who is also a smart team defender

in rotation. Dean Wade was very good defensively down the stretch of this game, containing the ball against Jalen Williams, helping and recovering off the ball. They just as a unit contained the basketball really well, and especially with cutting off the head of the snake the way that Karis Lavert did on Shake Gills Alexander. For the most part, they prevented the Thunder from getting those easy driving kick opportunities. Remember the Thunder, our team that is a ton of

aggregate ball handling and shooting. Everybody in that lineup can shoot, Everybody can dribble, and so like, if you let them play drive and kick basketball and beat you off the dribble and get the defense into rotation, they're gonna pick you apart. But if you can contain them. You know a lot of those guys like Josh Giddy and Jalen Williams at this phase in his career as a young player, chet Holm, we're gonna at this phase in his career as a young player. Lou Dort is a guy who's

better attacking closeouts in a set defense. They're not gonna beat dudes off the dribble a ton. They need to get that initial advantage right, and the Cavs just basically took that away and shut them down for an extended stretch there. In the fourth quarters, they built a ten point lead. On the other end of the floor, Donovan Mitchell had a really impressive stretch. He had a driving and one over lou Dort. In transition, he had Dean Wade on a backcut. One of the better passes I've

seen Donovan Mitchell make. Coming along the right wing, he sees Dean Waye and kind of loops the ball out to the side and just hits him in stride to throw down a dunk on shake yials just Alexander. He hit a couple of pull up jumpers too. Calves are up one hundred and ninety, but then the thunder finally

start getting Cleveland into rotation. First play, Krislovert gambles first steal on Shakekials as Alexander in the left corner, Shake kind of like taps it to himself over the top, catches it, gets downhill to the rim, draws a crowd, throws a kickout pass of Lou dor at the top of the key, wide open three knocks it down. It's one hundred and ninety three. Calves go get a bucket. On the other end,

it's one twelve to ninety three. Dort runs down and transition along the right side and runs a ghost skin screen with shake yale just Alexander. Now again, they were containing the ball if you think of the key like this, or the three point line like this. They were containing the driving lanes towards the basket. But lou Dort did something that I thought was really smart. He just went really fast towards the short corner and on the play

shake kises Alexander, sets a screen for him. Both defenders run with Dort just pitches it back to shake Yij's Alexander for a wide open three. Those ghost screens are really hard to guard because most often they're gonna switch, and it's just really hard for a guy who's running full speed to hand off to someone else who's standing still. But he's standing still, it has to guard the player who's running full speed, and so inevitably it just kind of it's almost like gravity. It just kind of pulls

both guys in that direction. That's why ghost screens work so well. And so he pitches it back to shake yes as Alexander wide open three, and he knocks it down one O two ninety six. Very next possession they come down, they run a kind of a version of Spain pick and Roll where Jalen Williams runs a ball screen with Chet right but as Chet is rolling again. In Spain pick and Roll, sometimes the shooter will backscreen for the roleman so he can go to the basket for a dunk.

Sometimes the rollman will downscreen for the for the shooter coming up. In this play, Chet sets the ball screen on Jalen Williams turns and on his roll to the basket sets a pin down for Isaiah Joe. Isaiah Joe curls the pin down because he's a shooter defend in trail position. He gets downhill. It's a pitch back to a wide open Jalen Williams at the top of the key. He knocks down at three. Now it's one O two at one O two to ninety nine. Uh then lou Dort takes over. Is one of the best. Uh I

missed one. So then on the very next possession, uh Max Strews cuts down the lane and throws a wild

layup up and falls into camera row. And like I always say, when you when you miss layups and you try to draw fouls, it's it's kind of a poor strategy for your transition defense because if you're probably not gonna get the call because refs are trying to limit the flopping and all that stuff anyway, and the risk reward factor is kind of shitty because if you don't get the call, it's going to be a fast break the other way because you're gonna lose floor balance because

you have a defender laying on the ground in camera row. So Streus is laying on the ground. Thunder run the other way five on four in the transition defense, remember you always go to the basket first and then you flare out to shooters chat. Holmgrean ends up trailing to play wide open and he knocks down the three. Now it's one o two to one oh two and we're tied. And again, like, what's crazy about that sequence is that's back to back to back to back threes for the Thunder.

But all four of them were from different players off of different action. And what's interesting about that is it wasn't just one guy got hot. This is just the level of skill that this team has, and they're capable when they run action well and they can get the defense into rotation, they're capable of generating high quality shots for guys that are going to make it. Like in that lineup it's Isaiah Joe, He's gonna make shots. Seyo to Alexander, he's gonna make shots. Jalen Williams if you

leave them open, he's gonna make shots. Cheded Holmgren is shooting seventy one percent from three so far at this season. Like, these guys are gonna make shots, and they have the ability to generate them as long as they can get the defense into rotation. So it's one O two, one oh two, and then lou Dort takes over the game as one of the best perimeter defenders in the world.

It is something I've said that made me so excited about this Thunder team, the idea of pairing lou Dort, who I believe is a top tier perimeter defender, and chet Holmgren, who had seven blocks in the game yesterday. When you combine those two pieces, specifically lou Dort in his ability to navigate screens, lou Dort is damn near impossible to screen. When you combine that with real rim protection, you can cause real problems for the best offenses in

the league. And so lou Dort takes the game over with back to back defensive possessions on Donovan Mitchell. First one's in pick and roll on the ball screen, lou Dort just refuses to be screened. And this is Donovan Mitchell, one of the best athletes in the league. He's trying to get downhill. Lou Dort cuts him off, gets over the top of the screen and beats him downhill. So as a result, Jalen Williams and Everyone's able to stay home on their shooters. Donovan Mitchell finds himself in trouble

because he's going down hill in pick and roll. He doesn't have a shot and he doesn't have a pass, so he ends up just jumping and just throwing the ball away, turns it over. They go down the other end and shag giffs. Alexander and Isaiah Joe run a ghost screen a pick and pop action and on the action shakiffs Alexander draws two pitches it back to Isaiah Joe Isaijah skips it over to the left wing to

lou Dort. Dean Wade's kind of caught no man's land between the shooter and the corner and lou Dort, I think there's Jay Williams, Jaylen Williams in the corner. He's kind of split in the difference. Max Struce it kind of doesn't understand whether or not Dean Wade's going to the corner to the wing. Lou Dort sees the opportunity, he drives the close out, gets inside, makes a layup to put him up one fourteen to one to twelve, and then the next possession, Donovan Mitchell says, screw it,

I'm not going to take a ball screen. I'm just going to try to shoot over to lou Dort, and loud Dort's one of the best individual defenders in the world. He slides his feet and forces Donovan Mitchell into an air ball in Oklahoma City wins the game. So again, super high level offensive talent on display, an incredible perimeter defense on display from OKC as they come back to

win the game. And again you're adding real rim protection with chet Holmer, and he had a huge block late in the game on Evan Mobley when it was one oh two ninety six that directly led to the Jaylen Williams Threy to get it back to three. And you've got this outstanding perimeter defender that can't be screened, and you're seeing the elite defensive potential. The thunder have a one oh two point five defensive rating so far through

two games, which is outstanding. Chet holmern averaging three point five blocks per game and shooting seventy one percent from three. That I said before he uh, I said when he came into the league that I viewed him as essentially like the ideal modern center, the guy who could legitimately be your defensive anchor while simultaneously giving you true five out spacing and opening up driving lanes. And he's doing that, and in the big picture, he's going to be an

excellent wing scorer as well. It's not showing too much of it. He's done some of it, but I think his first NBA basket was like a half spin back fade away over his left shoulder, Like he's got really high level wings scoring potential and well and as well in the big picture, and that might be something they lean more on in the big picture when he gets older, I can't possibly conceptualize a better fit with his OKAC

core than Chet On the Cavs front. It's tough to take too much away from these two games because both of them been so freaking wild. Like the Nets game, they were down big and had no business winning and then they stole it. And then in this game, they were up big and then they blew it. So hard

to make heads or tails out of that. The perimeter defense, though, is exciting again, Like Lavert's always been pretty good there, but if Donovan Mitchell has his best perimeter defense season as a pro, and you'd add Max Shrus into that equation. He didn't shoot well today, but he still was a positive and a bunch and made a lot of winning plays.

And then if Dean Wade is gonna be able to play like that, especially with his length, like you can have some you can have some exciting defensive potential with this team as well. And when you combine that with the return of Jared Allen with real rim protection right next to Evan Mobley, that they could be even more

imposed defensively than they were last year. My biggest scripe right now with the Cavs is offensively they're a little too reliant on Donovan Mitchell, and when he's not hitting shots, they're struggling to score right now. And like that's kind

of what these games have looked like. It's like Donovan hits a couple shots in a row, makes a couple of plays in a row, and the Calves going a big run, and then he goes ice cold and misses a couple in a row and throws a couple bad passes in a row, and then they immediately start to hemorrhage the lead. All right, let's hit our last game and then get out of here for the day, and we'll get hit our male bad questions and then we'll get out of here. So the Nets in the mav

So the Nets lose another heartbreaker. If you guys, remember they were up six late against the Calves and they blew that one. This one, they were up five late and they blew this one. Cam Thomas and Roy Soneil go crazy in the fourth quarter. But then Luca hits back to back to back to back threes to steal

the game. Last one's literally a prayer. They get him to give up the ball twice, but he just throws up this like right handed push shot from twenty seven feet on the right wing that banks in, and then Cam Thomas once again gets a decent look at the end of the game but can't make it, and the Mavericks are now too oh down big late, though offense wasn't the issue, the MAVs scored thirty seven points in

the fourth quarter. As good as Luca was down the stretch, Kyrie was every bit is good to start the fourth quarter. The Maps scored twenty points in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter, with Kyrie basically creating every basket. He's got great pick and roll chemistry, with Dwight Powell already hit him for a couple of layups. Powell also hit a three in the corner off of a driving

kick from from Kyrie to cap that runoff. But again, like, that's the crazy thing with his team is like you your reward for surviving the Luca minutes is here comes Kyrie and he's gonna be almost every bit is impactful. And then if you survive those minutes, here comes Luca again. Right, And like, so far through two games, they've been impossible

to guard in every configuration. One twenty one offensive rating so far for the season one twenty one offensive rating with Kyrie on the floor and Luca off, one twenty five offensive rating with Luca on and Kyrie off, and with both on the floor of one to eighteen offensive rating. So there's no point in the game where they're gonna

experien and offensive rules. Now, the question is that they're gonna be able to get enough stops right and on the defense veend, it was mostly just sloppiness, Like they straight up lost Royce O'Neil way too many times in that fourth quarter or the first one was strong side help from from Grant Williams, like literally I think it was I can't remember who it was it was driving down hill. I think it was Spencer Dinwitty, But like they just left Royce O'Neil in the strong side corner,

which you don't want to do, right. You want to force the defense to make a skip pass across the court. If they're gonna give up an open three right that gets him going the second one in transition, they just don't guard him like Tim Hardaway Junior I believe was supposed to be guarding him, but he's like facing completely away from him elsewhere on the floor and Royce O'Neil's just standing by himself on the right wing. They throw, they pitch it ahead to him, Me knocks down the three,

and then on the last one Josh Green again. Now again, like you gotta think of it like this, nail help is an important part of NBA defense, but it's all relative to what your situation is. Right, Royce O'Neil had just made two threes and Josh Green was like sinking way down to the nail and help. And so when they threw that swing pass to Royce O'Neil, Josh screen had to close out hard, and so Royce just threw a pump fake at him and it ended up side

stepping into another three. Right, Like Cam Thomas made some tough shots, and your defense is going to have to withstand tough shots. Right. Like I talked about earlier in the show, all these teams have offensive ratings over one hundred. Like, no, one's just not scoring the basketball. It's not how you can literally shut a team down. Guys are going to score, but you have to find ways to close down other opportunities. You can't give them the easy ones that come over

the course of the game. If cam Thomas makes the tough shots, but you don't leave Royce O'Neil open, then you don't need Luke got to make a prayer at the end of the game to win the game, right, So, like, those are the areas that they've got to improve. Now a positive sign, they've rebounded pretty well. Remember that was a huge problem for the team down the stretch last year. They've grabbed forty nine percent of available rebounds through two games.

That's pretty good. And again they're two and oh, I know the Nets and Spurs aren't playoff teams in the purest concept of that, right, but wins are not easy to come by in the NBA. And so like, in my opinion, you can't hope to be in a better position than where they're at right now. And again, like I do think that defensively they have the personnel to be better than they actually are, and a lot of it is just little, tiny execution things that they can

improve over time. And the offensive shot creation piece is legitimately a weapon. Like I mean, we've talked a lot about the Suns potentially being the best offense in the league, and they very well may end up being so. But like Dallas is every much every bit as much potential

to be the best offense in the league. That's just when you've got that type of top tier shot creation relentlessly coming at you all game, with good spacing concepts, and with players at the end at the end of those plays that can finish those plays, you're going to

score a lot of points on the next front. Cam Thomas follows up his thirty six point night against the Cavs with another thirty in this game, get twelve in the fourth quarter and hit a game time jumps out like a really nice step back jump shot through his legs against Josh Green on the right wing to tie the game with about a minute left. Cam Thomas is now now nine for nineteen on pull up jump shots this season, four for six on floaters. His shot making

is real. We've just seen too many examples of it so far through the last two years. And again, the biggest indicator is that his teammates trust him at the end of these games. This is back to back games now that down the stretch of whether it's Spencer Dinwoodie or McHale Bridges, they're looking at Cam Thomas and being like, you do it and I think that's a huge indicator of where where he's at right now. Is an offensive shot creator. The Nets just have to figure out how

to get stops in crunch time. They've had big leads down the stretch in both of these games, but they have a one to twenty three defensive rating in the clutch so far this year. So you've played well enough to be two to zero and instead you're zero to two, and that's the primary reason, and that's what they're gonna have to clean up. All right, let's get on the

mail bag. So first mail back question, is there one singular skill possessed by a player that you think is better than the rest, maybe like Steph's three point shooting, Giannis's rim pressure, or Yokich's court vision. I think it's easily steph shooting. He was the only player in the league last year to hit over sixty percent in effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots, and he was the only other guy in the league to attempt

at least eleven threes per game last year. So there's two in the entire league Steph and Damian Lillard, and Dame shot five percent worse than him. So like it's Steph and then it's a huge gap, and then it's everyone else. I think his shooting is the best individual skill relative to the field in the league. Next mail back question. I am a twenty eight year old and casual hooper. Unfortunately, my squad continues to separate across the

country as work spouses in life happens. Pulling up to La Fitness Slash elsewhere for runs with randoms as a nightmare old heads who can't run, cherry picking isostep back threes, et cetera. How do you suggest building a new squad to keep love for the game going. So I put this mail back question in here because I felt this one. I felt this one. I know exactly what you mean.

Pick Up hoop sucks. It just does. It's always going to be an inconsistent experience, even when you play in areas that are talented, because talent doesn't necessarily equate to guys who know how to play the game. And so here's what I would do if I were you, because, like I know, when I go play pick up basketball because I live in Tucson, two Son's big town, Like we have over a million people here. It's like one point two in the metro area or something like that.

But Tucson's not a big basketball town. Like there's players like me that take the game very seriously, they're few and far between in this city, whereas, like when I lived in Charlotte, for every guy like me, there's twenty five others that took the game super seriously and then another fifty that were at a level just below that or like that, Like there's just a ton of players that give a shit about basketball, that that that live and breathe that shit when you live in Charlotte, That's

just not what it was here in Tucson right now. As far as confronting that the quality of play, just embrace the fact that when you go play pick up it's gonna be a crap shoot. Some days you'll go and it'll be great, and some days you'll go and it'll it'll be a shit show. Right, But that's just it is what it is at this point. Right Find a good men's league and find seven or eight guys that you know how to play with, and play with those every single time you play in your men's league.

You'll build chemistry with those guys and that'll become the part that you look forward to like, I have a men's league here in town, a men's league team that I play and play with, and it's all guys I used to play in college, and they all take it very seriously. We have a ton of continuity. We've won the league three of the last four times. And so regardless of how shitty my pick up basketball experience can be on a day to day basis, I know I can go up there on Sunday and have fun playing

with guys you know how to play. And then the other thing I'd say is coach. Find get into coaching. Coaching is a great way to recapture some of the joy from competent basketball when you were younger, within the concept of something that you can actually do at an older age, because in general, older age basketball is gonna be messy, right because we all have stuff going on, we're all busy, we all have other responsibilities. It's tough to get the same groups to the gym every single day.

It's just difficult to coordinate, right. But when you're coaching a high school basketball team, the same kids are gonna be there every day and you can kind of scratch that competitivevich through the coaching side of things that you do through the playing side of things. All right, last mail back question for whom would you trade d lo and Ruey? I love Luca, but that's unlikely. It sounds

like you're describing zach Lavine. But I'd rather have Trey Young because he'd set up a d better and they'd still have the length to make up for his size and defensive shortcomings. So I hate all of those options. Not a huge fan of zac Lavine. Luca obviously is impossible. Trey Young is a long shot, but I don't think he really fixes many of the Lakers' problems. The deal. My favorite deal that involves Ruey and d Lo is

you wait till January fifteenth. You call it the Chicago Bulls, and you offer Ruey and d Lo and I don't know, maybe you can get it done for a second round pick. Maybe maybe you have to throw in it first. But you get DeMar de Rosen and Alex Crusoe salaries almost match up. You might have to throw in one other smaller contract to make it work, but you bring back DeMar Derozen, who helps with your half court shot creation. He's great passer and a good over the top shot maker.

Something that the Lakers struggle with, right, and then Alex Cruso gives you that like dominant a perimeter defender and like you like because of Alex Cruso playing bigger than he actually is and his way his ability to defend on the defend on the perimeter, navigate screens. We literally just saw last night Alex Cruso flat out steal a game with defensive playmaking and a huge corner three as the Bulls came back from down bag to win a game.

So like, like I kind of envisioned a scenario there where now you have Crusoe, Reeves, Derozen with Lebron and Ad and just a ton of offensive skill, good perimeter defense. The only thing that would concern me there a little bit is like the wing rebounding thing, but Alex Cruso is really good at that and Lebron and Ad can make up for a lot of that, and then you still have your forwards coming off the bench and you kind of kind of can configure it in different ways.

So that would be my dreamd Lo Rui trade would be for Alex Crusoe and Zach Levine. All right, guys, that's all I have for today as always as since really appreciate you for supporting the show and I will see you guys on Monday. The Volume