Hoops Tonight - Suns Death Lineup: The Kevin Durant role that makes Phoenix DANGEROUS

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responsible gambling resources. All right, welcome to ho tonight here at the Volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having an incredible week. We just got a quick show today. We're gonna hit the Cleveland Cavaliers, who've won eleven of their last fourteen games and got a big win over the Milwaukee Bucks last night, albeit with

out Jannis and Tenna Kumpo. And then at the tail end of the show, I finally got around to watching that Suns come back against the Kings, where Kevin Durant moved to the five, they went small, and they looked incredible on both ends of the floor as they came back to win after being down twenty two points in the fourth quarter. A lot of really interesting stuff there, and what I think could be an interesting lineup for the Suns to use kind of sparingly as a weapon

down the line. I want to dig into that concept. Do you guys know the Joe Bob Get start and subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel. I mean a lot to me if you guys would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feeds. If you're more into the podcast format of the show, you can find that wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight follow me on Twitter

at underscore Jason LT. So you guys don't miss any sho announcements, as well as the film threads that I do most mornings. I did film threads on both of these games that you can find on my Twitter feed at underscore Jason LT. And then, last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments. I know we've kept pushing the mail bag back, but I talked to the team and the idea was is, if I'm going out of town for five days, we might as well run it while I'm out of town. So we're

gonna be recording that tomorrow. So still one more day to get mail back questions in. I'm going to hit a ton of them, So keep dropping those mail back questions in the YouTube comments, all right, let's talk some basketball. So obviously Jiannis was out, but the Cavs blitzed the Bucks from the opening tip. They were up twenty two to two. And I want to focus in on the defensive end of the floor because they here's the thing, even without Giannis, And obviously Giannis is an incredibly important

player for the Bucks. He's the one fast guy really in that starting lineup, like truly, truly, like transcendently fast type of player, right, And so he's gonna it's obviously gonna hurt for him to not be out there, but there's enough offensive skill in that lineup for them to be decent, right, especially on the offensive end of the floor. Like Dame is a transcendently great offensive player, Chris Middleton

is a good, very very good offensive player. Brook Lopez is a is a big man who brings enough offensive versatility to make scoring a possibility. Malik Beasley's been one of the best shooters in the league this year. Andre Jackson Junior was the one kind of like offensive week point in that lineup. But they literally could not generate a quality shot to save their lives to start this game.

So it came down to a bunch of specific matchup dynamics. So, first of all, Isaaca Coro was on Damian Lillard, and he's one of the few players in the league that's big enough or i should say bigger than Dame, but also quick enough to stay in front of him. And what they were doing is in any Brook Lopez action, they were hedging and recovering with Jared Allen and Isaacacorro would sprint and meet Dame at some point on his drives, as Dame would try to beat the hedge with either

a split or by dribbling around. By dribbling around, Jared Allen and Isaac Correr forced a couple of turnovers that way. There was a time where Dame just straight up tried to iso Isaacacro early in the game and he just chested him up, put his body in the way. And Dame and Chris Middleton in particular were playing a lot of grift basketball. They were kind of just dribbling into guy's chests and throwing junk up and trying to get fouls. We'll talk about the Bucks later, but they didn't really

attack this game in any sort of serious manners. A lot of stuff coming out of Milwaukee despite their record. That's kind of weird, and last night was definitely one of those games. But Isaac accoron Dame was the first major matchup, the second matchup, and I thought the one that was arguably the most impactful during this run was Dean Wade on Chris Middleton. First of all, same thing when Chris Middleton was attacking Dean Wade in isolation situations,

Dean Wade was playing classic positional defense. He was sliding his feet, taking the contact in the chest, keeping his arms up high so that he doesn't get called for a foul. And he's got good size, and so he's forcing Chris to take tough shots over the top, and he was frustrating Chris as he was beating him to spots, and Chris was just trying to throw junk up at the rim to try to get fouls. But the big thing that Dean Wade was doing was his ability to switch.

They were switching the Dame Middleton pick and roll and putting Dane Wade on Dame. Dean Wade got to stop sliding his feet on Dame. They were switching any sort of pick and roll with great with Brook Lopez and Chris Middleton. So then Dean Wade would just rotate onto Brook Lopez and just kind of battle and they were doubling him out of that there was a possession. To Donovan Mitchell's credit, who's having a great defensive season, Dean

Wade got Lopez on a switch. Lopez backed him down on that left block, and Donovan Mitchell sprinted in double teamed got him to get rid of the basketball. Pass went right. It was only one pass away, easy kickout to Malik Beasley. Donovan Mitchell is an elite athlete at the guard position. Sprinted out like crazy and chased Malik Beasley off the line and forced him into a dribble,

pull up jump shot. But that ability of Dean Wade to not be super easily scored on in a switch against a big or a guard was a really useful tool for the Calves during that defensive effort. That really frustrated the Milwaukee Bucks last night. And then they just were pushing in transition on every single stop. And Milwaukee's transition defense is awful. They let teams get out in transition over seventeen percent of their possessions, which ranks dead

last in the league. According to Cleaning the Glass. But that's a good game plan from Cleveland, they were just running down their throat every single time. A lot of bad floor balance from Milwaukee. There was a possession where at one point they had all five offensive players below the charge circle and big shot. It ended up leading to I believe, if I remember correctly, it was Max Strus getting a runout a foul, but that was all

it was. It was just incredible defense from all five guys, completely bought in, frustrating the Bucks and then sprinting it down the other end in transition, and then a mix in of some Donovan Mitchell shot making. Hit this ridiculous step back on Isaac Accoro where he damn near made him fall down, or not on Isaac Correr, excuse me, it was on Andre Jackson Junior. I don't know I'm mixing names up today, but it was a step back on Andre Jackson Jr. Made him nearly fall down that

he knocked down. He had to pull up three and pick and roll over the screen. He beat ma League Beasley in the mid range with a pull up jump shot. It was just that bit of shot making mixed in with running out for wide open layups and dunk and then excellent defense. All of a sudden they're up twenty two to two and the Bucks quit and the game is over on the Bucks front. Like again, I it

kind of it just was. It felt like one of those games where they realized Dannis was out and they went into the game with no real belief that they

were going to win. And you could see it in a bunch of different areas Dame and Chris Middleton just dropping their shoulder into defender's chests and then just trying to draw fouls by just throwing up weird shots, like Dame was drawing multiple defenders at the ball screen but just swinging the ball out of it, not really doing anything to try to compromise the defense in that situation.

And then they were jogging back in transition. A lot of basic things too, like floor balance stuff, where guys are you know, it just it just was an incredibly sloppy a basketball from the Milwaukee Bucks. Again, it's one of those ones that you just kind of crumple up and throw out. But again, like Milwaukee's got a really good record, but there's just some weirdness surrounding that team.

I'm not sure what it is. But at the same time, I want to cut them the same slack that I've been cutting a lot of teams, which is, this is the NBA in January, this is what it can be like. Sometimes you're right smack in the middle of things. So you've been doing this for a long time, and you still have a really long way to go, And I think that that can go a long way towards just kind of like causing wildly oscillating levels of effort from

team night to night. Right, you get a Boston team that beats the Timberwolves and then gets their ass kicked by the Bucks. The Bucks kick the shit out of the Celtics and then go get their ass kicked by the Calves. Right Like, it's just this weird dynamic where it's the oscillating effort that's primarily dictating whether or not a team, you know, kind of comes out with the with a win on any given night in this time of year. So I want to cut the Bucks some slack.

You just kind of crumple that one and throw away. But it definitely was a disappointing effort. Now on the Caves front, Evan Mobley went down after the Orlando game

eighteen games ago. Then they quickly dropped three of their next four and then Darius Garland goes out of the lineup, and then everybody in the league's like, hmm, this is interesting, Like, I'm sure even if the Allen Mobleye front court works in terms of the playoffs, it's just really difficult for them to score and pick and roll in that situation. You have two small guards in that lineup. Now you have Darius Garland and Evan Mobley out for a long time.

The regular season to that point hadn't been that impressive from Cleveland, and so you're like, hm, like this kind of felt like a teetering point, Like it was a teetering point where it might be one of those things where now is the time to kind of reconfigure or are they gonna kind of salvage these things. Nope, they salvaged things. They went eleven and three over their next fourteen games since Darius Garland went out sixth in offense

and third in defense. Most of their success comes off of similar stretches to what we saw last night against Milwaukee. They defend like crazy and they get out in run. As a matter of fact, they're only twenty fourth in the NBA and half court offense, so they're not really great at scoring. As a matter of fact, they're bad at scoring in the slow down half court environment, but there're seventh in fast break points per one hundred possessions of this season. They get out and run, and that

bolsters them on the offensive end of the floor. Most importantly, they don't just run for the sake of running. There are a lot of teams that run out and transition and take bad shots. The Calves do not do that. They run selectively when they see good opportunities for them to get great shots. They run off their defense in particular, they're not just just playing with unnecessary pace. Right, They're at one point one to seven points per transition possession.

That ranks eighth in terms of efficiency per possession among all NBA teams. That's excellent overall, Cleaning the glass. Hayes this metric, it's a cool metric. They call it transition points added per one hundred possessions. It's just a way to kind of like singularly capture your volume of transition and your efficiency into like one metric. Right, Because there are a lot of teams that run in transition a ton,

but they don't necessarily score. And then there are selective teams that run a lot or don't run as often, but when they do, they get layups and dunks, right, and those are the teams that are more efficient. Right. And then there's a metric that cleaning the glass eyes that kind of combines all of that stuff. Well, for the Cavs, they rank third in the league in that kind of combined metric, meaning they are the third best transition offense in the NBA. So the question is why

is Cleveland's defense so successful? And the reality is really simple. It's complete and total buy in down the lineup from everyone, including their star. Donovan Mitchell is flying around and helping recover situations. Dean Wade we talked about earlier, is competing in switches against players bigger and smaller than him, and he's guarding wingswell. Isaacacorro and Max Struz are competing at the point of attack with physicality and relentless back pressure

and just using their quickness and size. Right a Cooro specifically is one of those guys. He has his offensive limitations, but he's just such a useful defensive player. With his ability to guard the quick guards in the league. With his size, that can become a problem. Right. And then Jared Allen, He's capable of switching, he's capable of dropping, he's capable of hedging. He's just a versatile defensive big.

He kind of fits into that mold that I talk about in terms of team construct where you want to have a defensive kind of folk rum at the center position that can defend in multiple coverages, otherwise you become very matchup dependent. Right. The defense is real too, regardless of opponent. As a matter of fact, they allow just one hundred and twelve points one hundred and twelve point four points per one hundred possessions against the top ten

offenses in the league, which ranks number one in the NBA. Now, to be clear, they've been in an easier stretch of their schedule as of late, and things will get tougher, but they're playing some really good basketball. They're now going on the road to play four tough games. They're at Atlanta, at Orlando, at Milwaukee twice. Then they come home for the Clippers, and so we're gonna find out really quickly how much of this is real for them. At least

in terms of this particular group. Obviously, with Garland and Moblei Garland and Mobley still being out, specifically, it's gonna come down to a couple. It's gonna come down, dude. Can they get enough stops to get out and transition often enough to their half court offense, and then in the half quarter they're gonna get enough shot making from guys like Donovan Mitchell right like that that's gonna be

what's gonna carry them against these better opponents. Because what's gonna happen is, specifically, teams like Orlando has really big perimeter offensive players are gonna try to attack the smaller Cleveland perimeter defenders. Right the Clippers are gonna space them out and test some of their other perimeter defensive players. And if they don't get as many stops, they're not gonna be able to run as much, which is going

to put a strain on their half court offense. And they're at Milwaukee twice, and Milwaukee's gonna want revenge, So

those are gonna be some tough games. They can go three and five or three and two in those five games, that would be a huge win for this Cleveland Cavaliers team all right, moving on to the Suns with KD at the five, and so they were down twenty two with you know, some like seven or eight minutes left if I remember correctly, and I just kind of cataloged every single possession or the majority of the possession as

the Sons came back to win. And you could find that again in that thread on my Twitter feed at underscore JSNLT. But you know, my main takeaway from watching that group, well, makes it all work because they're pretty small, right, Like you've got Kevin Durant, but after that, it's like Eric Gordon, you know, he's not necessarily the tallest guy in the world. You know, Grayson Allen not necessarily the tallest guy in the world, Bradley Beald not necessarily the

tallest guy in the world. And Devin Booker is the second tallest guy in the lineup at sixty six or six y five or whatever he is, right, So, like it's a small lineup, but the reason why it works is all about Kevin Durant. He's just an unbelievably incredible defender. When he's locked in like that, it's actually insane, Like he can guard Sabonis straight up Sabonus was trying to bully him, couldn't move him off the spot. He can guard deer and Fox straight up locked him up in

an ISO late in the game. He can switch, he can drop. He had a block on Malik Monk and drop coverage. That was one of the things that was successful against Sacramento is they were doing a lot of switching, but then randomly they wouldn't, and when they wouldn't, they

were forcing turnovers and forcing mistakes from Zacramento. There's a play where like they switched a bunch of dribble handoffs in a row and then suddenly Devin Booker was like, nope, I'm gonna shoot the gap on this one, and he forced an illegal screen off of Harrison Barnes who was moving when he knocked him over. Kevin Durant would like switch, switch, switch, and then suddenly he would drop, and when he would drop, it like catch Sacramento off guard. He's doing a really

nice job of kind of throwing off their rhythm. Also, just not switching for the sake of switching, but switching when guys would get screened was a big thing that was helping. And then Lastly, Kevin Durant's an outstanding low man help defender. There was a play where I want to say, Eric Gordon got driven by by Malik Monk along the right side on the wing, and I have

this play clipped and Kevin Durant identified. I talk often about how help defenders have a complicated decision because if you just help all the time, you make these easy kickout raads. So you have to make a decision based

on how compromised the on ball defender is. Is he completely compromised, then you gotta go help, because it's better to give up a catch and shoot three on the weak side then a wide open layup, because a catch and shoot three on the weak side might for a really good shooter like Grayson Allen's one of the best catching shoot guys in the league. Catching shoot three for him is worth one point four points per possession. But

guess how much a driving layup is worth. If the defender is compromised, probably gonna make it at least nine out of ten times. Right. There will be the occasional play where the offensive players two sped up and he shoots the layup over the front of the rim, or something like that right, but nine out of ten is one point eight points per possession, so it's a very important decision that Kevin Durant has to make there to

either help or to stay home. And on this possession, he realized that Eric Gordon was pushing him underneath the basket, and so he kind of stayed back to watch out for that corner pass. Malik Monk at the last second decided to jump back, and Grayson Allen had done a really had done a really nice impromptu switch onto Demonisa Bonus and kind of fronted him in the post and he was in position to help and knock that ball

away as Malik Monk went up underneath the basket. It was a really nice low man possession from Kevin Durant, who can also clean up the defensive glass there, who can also block shots when the defender is compromise, who can also do things like even when open offensive players

are there, he can block passing angles. There was a play where Darren Fox got downhill and Grayson Allen and Kevin Durant kind of like trapped him and Kevin Herder kind of cut right in front of the rim and he was wide open, but there was no passing angle there because Kevin Durant is basically has him swallowed up, which allowed Eric Gordon to stay home on the weak side and get his steal as Daron Fox tried to

force his skip pass to the right corner. The point is Kevin Durant and his ability to guard quick guards, guard biggs, garden, drop coverage, you know, switch garden, help and recover situations, clean up the defensive glass. All of that capability makes a lineup like that function in a way that it just wouldn't for anybody else, right, And so that's where Kevin Durant is being basically, for lack of a better word, a superstar can clean up and

patch up holes that a lineup would otherwise create. From there, it's all about speed and skill. Again, we're talking about four players in Eric Gordon, Bradley Beal, Grayson Allen, and Devin Booker, who are all fast, who can all dribble, who can all shoot, who can all pass air. Gordon did his credit spend some time on Demonasabonis and Sabonis had no interest in attacking him, and then in all those off ball actions, really sharp communication from Bradley Bial

Devin Booker and Grayson Allen. There were several there were some complicated interchanges like triple switches where like three people were involved in the action and all three of them just kind of ended up in the right place through communication and through effort. Grayson Allen in particular was outstanding and help defense. He had a couple of turnovers he forced on Demona Sabonis, like digging down when he would turn his head as he was trying to bully Kevin Durant.

I talked about the big block that he had on the leak Monk, and then I talked about Devin Booker and how he cost a couple of turnovers with impromptu non switches when they were switching interchanges and the Devin Booker would just go like, Nope, not switching this one, and it would just throw the Sacramento Kings out of out of There was a play where Malik Monk just threw the ball out of bounds. And then I talked about the Harrison Barnes illegal screen on the dribble handoff.

But it was just down the line up a hillacious effort, a ton of speed and then Kevin Durant tying it all together. And then on offense. They were running hard in transition. Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant got run out

dunks during that stretch. And then, like I said, everyone can dribble shooting pass at a high level, and so Kevin Durant or Devin Booker, Kevin Durant would like get an ISO and drive on a guy and then Darren Fox would double team, or Devin Booker would run a ball screen and draw two defenders in the ball screen, and then from there they would just play driving kick basketball with the other four guys, except for all of them can dribble shooting pass, and so it'd be like,

oh shit, you just ran at Eric Gordon, and he threw the extra pass to Grayson Allen on the wing and he knocks down the three. Oh shit, you Grayson Allen, you close out. He makes the extra pass to a Eric Gordon, another guy closed out. Now all of a sudden, Grayson Allen's open again and the ball goes back to Grayson Allen. He makes it. Kevin Durant was getting open threes as well. They got wide open on the majority of those possessions down the stretch, even someones that they missed.

Kevin Durant missed a wide open three on the right wing when they were in their zone that the Kings ran a few times down the stretch. So it just again like it discombobulated Sacramento on both ends of the floor because it's a non traditional way to play basketball. But at the end of the day, that's what I see that lineup being used as. Is it tenable long term? Of course not. You're not gonna be able to play Kevin Durant at the five big picture for massive minutes.

It's too fatiguing, it's too much to ask. So how do you use a lineup like that? You use it as a death lineup. Okay, this team's bothering us with size and they're up five in the early second quarter. Let's throw out the death lineup and let's regain control of the game. Let's throw giant wrenching things and retake control of the game. Okay, it's a close game late, and you know, based on this particular matchup, we like the ability to go small. You go small in that situation.

That's the way the death lineup is used, or was used by the Warriors, and what they didn't start games with it. It was literally something that they brought out selectively to regain control of the rhythm of a game or to close the game. And that's kind of what I see that lineup. As for the Suns, and there were some issues, like there was a player Keegan Murray got an offensive rebound over over Eric Gordon just because

he's bigger. Right, there was a player deer and Fox got an offensive rebound over Grayson Allen just because he's a better athlete, right, Like, They're gonna have some limitations, But this is one of the concepts that I talk about a lot on this show. Lean into your strengths. Don't try to be what other teams are if you're not as good as them at that. Don't try to be Denver because Denver's better at being Denver than you are. Be the best version of what your team's strengths are.

The Phoenix Suns are not physically imposing. The Phoenix Suns are not going to bully teams, but they probably have one of the most skilled five man groupings that you can put together in the NBA. So that's a great look for them to have. While you're busy doing your thing, We're going to lean into our strengths and try to regain control of the game that way. That's why I

really really like that lineup. By the way, twenty five possessions so far this year with Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Grayson Allen, Bradley Beal, and Eric Gordon, they are plus sixty four point five points per one hundred possessions in those twenty five possessions, just unbelievably dominant. Thought it was really really interesting. It's gonna hinge on a defensive effort, especially from Kevin Durant, but I love that as a wrench for them to be able to throw for certain

stretches of games. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. We'll be back tomorrow. I've got a bunch of stuff. We're gonna do a mailbag, We're gonna do some mid season awards stuff. It's gonna be basically just a bunch of like kind of middle of the year content as I'm in Breckenridge, and then we'll be back on Wednesday next week with game breakdowns, and then I'm in town. I think my wife and I might go on We usually go skiing for her birthday, so

maybe in late March. I might hop out of town for like a really short trip, like a two or three day trip, but other than that, I plan on being in town until after the NBA Finals, And so it's just gonna get into that, to the rhythm of that grind. From there, I will see you guys on Wednesday. Well I should say i'll see you tomorrow and then we'll take a little break and then I'll be back on Wednesday. From there, I appreciate you guys. I will see you tomorrow. The volume