Hoops Tonight - Thunder-Nuggets Reaction: SGA & OKC dominate Denver + Mavericks CATCH FIRE vs. Spurs - podcast episode cover

Hoops Tonight - Thunder-Nuggets Reaction: SGA & OKC dominate Denver + Mavericks CATCH FIRE vs. Spurs

Oct 25, 202435 min
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Episode description

Jason Timpf reacts to Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Russell Westbrook, and the Denver Nuggets' 102-87 loss to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and the Oklahoma City Thunder to kick off their starts to the 2024-2025 NBA season. Later, Jason reacts to Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks catching fire in their 120-109 win over Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs.

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Transcript

Speaker 1

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to hoops today. You're at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great week. Got a jampackshow for you today. We were going to hit both of the tn T games. The Oklahoma City thunder go into Denver and kind of embarrassed the Denver Nuggets.

The awkward feeling over the entire arena for most of that game, A bunch of interesting stuff to get into there, and then Spurs MAVs was a little ugly in the first half the Dallas offense was kind of just looked a little clunky, looked.

Speaker 2

Like they were a little rusty.

Speaker 1

Obviously, Luca did not play in preseason, but they had an unbelievable performance in the second half that had all sorts of this stuff that asked me super super excited about what the Dallas Mavericks can be this year. We're going to get into that in a bunch of detail. You guys know the dripe before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. We don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore

json LTC. You guys, o't mischoon announce, and still forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight, don't forget it's helpful. Fe Levey rating and a review on that front. And then keep dropping mailbag questions and the YouTube comments will keep hitting them throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So with Oklahoma City, I had multiple mailbag questions during

the mailbag that we did last week. I went on a guest appearance on a friend of mine's show that asked me a similar question, and then the radio hit where I got asked a similar question a lot of people asking is all the hype around Oklahoma City legitimate? Like it just seems like everybody who covers the league that I know is picking them to at the very least be the one seed out West. I had them as my second favorite to get out of the conference

because of my optimism surrounding Denver. We'll get into that later on, but everyone's super high on Oklahoma City, and there's been some pessimism some people that are a little bit skeptical, right, And every single time I got asked that question and the mail bag and in those two guest appearances, I said the exact same thing. Absolutely, they're completely deserving of the hype surrounding this team going into

the season. I think this is the only roster in the league that can come remotely close to Boston's overall talent level, specifically the ability to field multiple different five man lineup configurations where all five guys can dribble, pass, shoot, and defend, which is kind of the key that unlocks everything that Boston does, which is like, we can field these lineups where we can hold up on the defensive end, but at the same time on the other end of

the floor. No matter what we run into, we have infinite counters that we can go to, different ways, that we can attack, different ways, that we can capitalize on different types of coverages, and the ability, most importantly to create space for our stars and for Oklahoma City. Chet is the guy that unlocks everything. Had a little bit of a rough shift in the beginning of this game, was getting shoved around by Jokic. Uh they were bringing

double teams. You know, obviously Denver goes up nineteen to ten. We're gonna talk about that in a little bit. But after that first shift, he was unbelievable tonight twenty five points, fourteen rebounds, five assists, and four blocks. That is a ridiculous stat line. That is a superstar stat line from Chet Holmgren. He held up pretty well against Jokic after that first shift, kind of upped his physicality and started just like you know, sometimes like you just keep getting

knocked down, you keep getting shoved around. Eventually you like there's this visceral kind of reaction where you're like, shit, I guess I just got to fight like hell and see if I can't do better, right, And he did better. He held up, but got a couple of blocks, Yokuic spun off of him. He blocked him on a donkey on another block where Yokic hit his like hat and did like chicken wing into that lefty hook, and he

just reached over the top and got him. He was torching him in transition, just running up and down the floor. He was attacking closeouts, creating space from the perimeter. He was just getting buckets. Just an unbelievable game from Chet Holmgren. And he's the guy that ties it all together because that specific position is where teams have the most trouble,

and that's what makes Boston so damn good. Right, is the specific ability of Al Horford to function as a spot up guy, to function as a pick and pop guy, to be a guy that holds up defensively. He can like switch on to other guys. Right, porzingis a guy that can run drop coverage, can protect the rim, but he also can like post up mismatches around the elbows. He can space the floor as a spot up shooter. That specific type of position getting a player that's truly versatile.

There is pretty rare a lot of the offensive minded guy guys that are pretty good out there, aren't as good defensively. A lot of the defensive guys aren't as good offensively. There's a small tier of players, you know, the Anthony Davis tier, Jokich, Joel Embiid. There's a small tier of guys that are really really good at that position. But it's rare, and Chet just kind of unlocks that ceiling for this particular team. Even surrounding the team as

a whole. There was some pessimism after the Hartenstein injury, right, which shouldn't have mattered too much. He's not gonna be gone that long, but that was just another thing that people were concerned about in Hartenstein. This team was already really damn good before Hartenstein, Before Caruso, I would have picked him as the one seed out West even if they had not made any changes to their roster last summer. The Hartenstein addition is more about matchup versatility and having

different looks that they can go to. Like, yeah, like, here's the thing. Denver looked really bad tonight, Like okay, see, may be better than Denver when this is all said and done, they're not that much better than Denver. Like Denver threw a complete stinker. Out there tonight. Mu Murray was trash. Michael Porter Junior was trash, the bench was trash.

It was a stinker from Denver. They'll play Denver again, and Denver will throw a better punch, and there may be a universe where the thundernead a Hertenstein looked a too big look to try to get that to try to take better advantage of that matchup. But the existing squad,

even without Isaiah Hartenstein, is already dominant. I was specifically impressed by okc's physicality tonight, just again that's the weakness for them compared to some of the other teams in the league, is like they're just a little young, a little thin, right. They got some big, strong guys like Caruso's big and strong, Lou doord is big and strong, Jayalen Williams is a stronger athlete than I think a

lot of people realize. But relative to some of the veteran teams around the league, they're a little bit thin, right. But they didn't play thin tonight. They held the Nuggets below one point per post up, were way sharper with their double teams after that first shift. They only lost the offensive rebound battle by four. They gave up seventeen, but they got thirteen of their own. They forred sixteen turnovers.

They won the fast break point battle by seven. It was just a physical ass kicking, which is something that you don't see often from the smaller, younger team. Shay looked so good. He had twenty eight points, seven rebounds, and eight assists. Really started to get One of the things that was impressing me tonight is just some of the downhill burst. Like so much of Shay's dribble penetration comes from change of pace, moves and chaining together dribble combinations.

So like he'll dribble at you, kind of get contact with that left shoulder, and then he'll like scissor dribble back over to the left and like kind of go the other side. Or he might look up at the rim and kind of give you that classic shoulder fake before he goes. But he was like toasting Aaron Gordon off the dribble just with speed, like just using his quickness,

and he showed a lot of bursts. He had a bounce in his step in that third quarter shift as he was attacking mismatches, had Aaron Gordon complaining to the refs. I said this on the show all the time, but that's one of the big giveaways that a defender is truly frustrated and feels a little helpless is when he starts looking to the refs for help when he's getting cooked. One other guys I wanted to shout out for Oklahoma City Aaron Wiggins. I thought his first half shift was unbelievable.

He was part of the turnaround to that game. Attacking Julian Strauther off the bounce, he had to pull up three in transition, he had to steal in two blocks. It was just a completely dominant first showing for the Thunder. And it's scary because I think they were like eight for thirty six from three, which is something like twenty like low twenties, like twenty two percent. That's gonna be something that works in their favor on many nights. Scary for showing for the Thunder. The flow of the game

was really interesting to me. So like Denver gets off to a good start, right they start doubling Jokic, Yoki just kind of shoving chat around. He's making the right read every time. Lots of active cutting, like if there's one silver lining, Like, if you're a Nuggets fan and you're looking for something to kind of like cling to as like a positive trend, that could be an upside for this team in the long run. Christian Brown looks fine.

He's gonna fit with the starters just fine. He's he uses his athletic tools really well as a screener and as a cutter and as a driver, even like driving closeouts from the perimeter, even driving when he's open on the perimeter instead of taking a three, just drive an open three point shot and try to get into the lane and make something happen. Like, Christian Brown looks to be a really nice fit, but Jokic just picking him

apart in the early part of the game. Okay, so he's missing some shots, Denver goes up nineteen to ten, right then Denver's bench comes in and then immediately everything falls apart, and you know there's gonna.

Speaker 2

Be like it was.

Speaker 1

Oh, Denver's bench has always been bad. It's been bad pretty much the entire Jokic era. But this was abominably bad. This was They were truly awful on both ends of the floor. On the defensive end of the floor, Julian Strather was getting attacked on switches by SGA every time he could get a chance. Aaron Wiggins was going right at him. They were beating him in help side situations where he was functioning like in like guard guard screening actions where he got caught in no man's land and

guys were getting open. Like Strather was really bad. They started going to Dario Sarich and getting a bunch of really good stuff. Like there was a play in transition where like Jalen Williams saw Darius Arch in front of him and he was like, I don't need to pull this out run offense. I'm just gonna go right around this.

Dude went right around him, got an end one the bench the like Rust did okay, Like Russ had a nightmare offensive game, but like on defense, you got to see at least a little hint of like some of the stuff that Russ can do as applying back pressure, Like he got a couple of chase down blocks. He got one of them in a ball screen. You got to steal in a ball screen on Shaye where he just like pursued behind and got it ripped through a

rip away. Like you could see some of that upside there but like the rest of that unit was really bad defensively, even Peyton Watson gave up a blow by to Shae another example of Shay showing that really good like burst dribble burst when he's trying to like beat someone off the dribble. But the offensive end was somehow even worse than that. Russ had a really rough offensive night.

Was like badly missing wide open threes, had a turnover in two man game with Yokich that led to a runout for OKC, missing layups.

Speaker 2

It just straw.

Speaker 1

The wasn't hit and shots, sarage wasn't making anything around the ram. To make a long story short, they got nothing out of the bench in terms of offensive production, right, So then Oklahoma City flips the script and they take a little lead. But what I thought was fascinating was when Denver starters came back in, they could not reassert control on the game like Oka See really tightened the screws defensively. At that point, Chet got more physical with Jokic,

started to hold his own a little bit. We talked about how he blocked him two times in the second half. Okay See's closeouts were super sharp. This was something that stood out to me all night. Even the perceived openings out of double teams of Jokic, You're just having a

top tier athlete who's really good at covering ground closing out. Yeah, Like, did any of you guys play like football in high school or something like that where he did like an open field tackling drill where it's like there's a you know, cone set up like ten yards apartner's a dude like maybe fifteen yards away from you, and you have to try to tackle him in the open field. That in basketball is the closeout. It's one of the hardest jobs

in the sport. Defensively, it's like there's just so much space, you have no idea where he's going. There's this threat of the shot. It is a very very difficult job. And when you have sharp closeouts and you can chase people off the line and contain them, that gives you the ability to load up the strong side. And that is what makes elite defenses so difficult to deal with, is they load up on your best players and they make it feel like there are some openings on the

weak side. But then when you work the ball to the weak side, they fly around and they chase you off the line. This is where the limitations of Michael Porter Junior and Jamal Murray really started to show.

Speaker 2

Tonight.

Speaker 1

I switched my attention in the fourth quarter, when the game went completely out of hand, I switched my attention over to Minnesota Sacramento. We're not going to talk too much about that game tonight. It was a really interesting one though, Julius Randall just having mismatches all over the floor, just bullying Sacramento's perimeter players, and then Anthony Edwards just just completely took over the game down the stretch and hit a big time pull of jump shot and Drew

Foul closed the deal. They ended up getting the win. But at the time that I switched over MPJ, Aaron Gordon, and Jamal Murray were combined ten for thirty four from the field. And that's really the issue because, like again, there's like a baseline operation of your offense that over the course of eighty two games you're gonna run into fifty sixty games against teams that are not really really

great defenses. And in those games, you're gonna get a lot of wide open catch and shoot threes for guys. You're gonna get a little bit easier function of your offense, and it's gonna come down more to an easier job capitalizing on the attention that's given to your stars. Right, But then you run into these elite defenses, right and against the elite defense truly elite defenses in Oklahoma City

is a truly elite defense. When you run into these types of defenses, the openings aren't wide open catch and shoot threes. They're contested catching shooter threes and opportunities to drive closeouts and probably run into more help and you need to make something. You need to make something in that short to mid range that like high level close out attacking that I talked about all the time on

the show. Are these are like, that's what the Michael Porter junior position is, right, That's like what McHale Bridges did for the Suns back in the day. It's the idea of it's like what Ruy Hachimura does for the Lakers. It's like you're functioning on the weak side, but against elite defenses, your job is to take an advantage and turn it into a bucket. And that's not usually a

wide open catch and shoot three. That's usually a contested three, or maybe a wonderable pull up might even be like a wonderable rip through the right where you like pound into a spin, move over your right shoulder and hit like a little fade away, or you manage to make a counter move and get all the way into the rim and drop off a pass to a big for a dunk. Or maybe it's even attacking that close out and making another kickout read for an even easier opportunity

for the next guy. It's like you have to break down these elite defenses in waves. And one of the problems is like over the years, that's what Denver's done, right, It's been against the truly elite defenses. Michael Porter Junior can hit a heavily contested catch and shoot three. He can hit a nice little wonderable pull up. He can

attack close outs and make plays. Jamal Murray has been one of the best contested shot makers in the league over the last you know, three four years, And so when those guys aren't capitalizing on those advantages, and again I want to I want to give Oklahoma City credit.

They defended extremely well, but this isn't the first time Denver seen an elite defense and had they've had success against elite defenses in the past, and so that's really the thing is, like when I talk about Denver and what they're capable of in the long run, the bench is gonna have to be better than this. Like they had a decent shift in the like late third quarter stretch where they were competing and they made some plays, got out in transition a little bit, but then they

were just immediately Jalen Williams started picking them apart. I think there's actually early fourth quarter, but Jalen Williams, like you know, immediately started picking the part hit three. He had a driving dunk. But like those phases, of those phases of the game, they're gonna have to find a way to at least not completely hemorrhage leads again, like Denver's bench has hemorrhaged leads to a certain extent the entirety of the ookch era. But it can't be this bad.

As far as the starters go, I'm not really all that concerned because Jamal Murray has a tendency to start season slow and come in out of shape and be a little banged up, and then usually right around January he kind of turns it up as a last ditch effort to try to get into the All Star Game, and then ramps it up in the playoffs and then he kind of turns into Jamal Murray when the time comes.

Obviously he had a really rough playoff run last year, but even last year, it's like, hits two game winners in a Lakers series, goes on the road into Minnesota in games three and four, just turns into a dominant shot maker. Again, had thirty something in Game seven before he fell apart down the stretch, So like we know that that's still in there for Jamal. Same thing goes for Michael Porter Junior. Like I just don't think he's gonna be that bad in the long run. This is

something that you know early in the season. I think good is good to react to in the sense that, like when teams are ahead of schedule and they're playing a really good ball, it's worth calling out, it's worth

paying attention to. But there's also gonna be some teams that just aren't necessarily clicking on all cylinders yet, whether it's a guy who's injured who just came back in the lineup and he's out of rhythm, or maybe it's a you know, a couple of guys didn't come into camp in shape and they're playing their way into shape.

Some of it is age too, like just on a real basic psychological level, Denver's gonna view the regular season through a different lens than a team like Oklahoma City is in terms of night to night effort, And so I'm never gonna overreact.

Speaker 2

Is that ugly? Hell?

Speaker 1

Yeah, did I ever think I had picked before the season that Denver was my team to get out of the West. They sure as hell don't look like it tonight. And there's no doubt if we're twenty thirty games into this and they're a five hundred team that, yeah, I'm gonna have to reapproach that and maybe make a kind of a tweak in my expectations for that team moving forward. But I'm sure is hell not going to overreact to one saying game when it comes to the bad again

the good, we want to acknowledge it. That just means the teams ahead of schedule. It's a great sign of urgency to start the year. I'm a big believer in teams that attack the season from day one, and most championship teams do. But in terms of teams that have rough outings early in the season, it's not worth overreacting to Minnesota. Their offense looked really janky against the Lakers,

totally different matchup. Obviously, Julius Randall didn't have the size advantages that he did against Sacramento, but all of a sudden, that second half against Sacramento tonight, Minnesota's offense looks great, and the give and take between Julius and Ant kind of seems to come together as they're taking turns picking apart Sacramento's perimeter defenders. Right, So, like, it's not worth

overreacting to any one single game. That said, on a fundamental level, if Jamal Murray, I'm not worried about Mike quarter Junior.

Speaker 2

I think he's gonna be fine.

Speaker 1

If Jamal Murray can't play like an All Star, like play like the Jamal Murray at least eighty five percent of the Jamal Murray we saw in the player run in twenty twenty twenty three, then yeah, this team, this team can't win it. This team can't win the West, This team can't win multiple playoffs series out West, because the problem is is like teams will continue that used to be The dynamic with Denver is like you leave Yokic on an island, he kills you, you double team him,

he kills you with the pass. And they've got all these great advantage attackers on the weak side, right, And so that's the thing, Like, if if Jamal Murray's not going to give that to you, if he's not going to give you the two man game element with Jokic the shot making piece, yeah, then yeah they're not going to be very good. But we can't make that sort of call after one singular game. But super super dominant performance from Oklahoma City certainly a discouraging first outing for Denver,

But they've got to give him some time. Like if we're if we're twenty games into this and it looks like this, then we can have a different conversation. But it's not a conversation for tonight.

Speaker 2

All right, Moving on two Spurs MAVs.

Speaker 1

The second half of this game was the most fun that I've had watching the MAVs in the entire Luca era. They hung a one thirty five point two offensive rating in the second half.

Speaker 2

There's just so much.

Speaker 1

More ball handling and overall offensive talent on this team. And it just changes the way they look when they're playing offense. The starters in the early third quarter, they're getting Luca the ball coming out of action instead of just walking the ball up, like having him coming out out of the corner off of a wide pin downer

a Chicago action or Drible handoff. Right they ran Chicago action with Clay coming off of the Drible handoff with Kyrie setting the first screen, and they got a wide open three for Kyrie on the right wing that he knocked out. That is a five out concept with ball in player movement that involves all of your offensive skill. They ran a lot of double drag. They ran double drag with Kyrie and Gafford screening for Luca while PJ. Washington was running an off ball action for Clay in

the right corner. Luca missed a step back three on this possession. But that's a really advanced concept. And the entire paint was like vacated, and the entire left side of the floor is vacated. Like there's there's gonna be universes where where they can get like quick ISOs for Kyrie on the weak side out of that or I thought Clay was open in the corner to the I think it was Champagne.

Speaker 2

He was guarding him.

Speaker 1

He tried to tried to go like up over the top of the screen and Clay was actually opened for a second. That that was kind of an interesting concept. They ran a traditional like just like wide pinned down for Clay to come off to the elbow. He came off to the right elbow and he was wide open. Got a really good look out of it. There was a line up in the late third quarter that went on the run, went on the run. It was a bench group, so no Luca, no Clay either. It was Kyrie,

Jaden Hardy, Naji Marshall, Maxi Klee, but Derek Lively. That's a lot of ball handling, Like Kyrie kin dribble, Jadon Hardy can dribble, Naji Marshall can dribble, and Maxi as a big has a good amount of offensive skill. They would like to have Lively at the top of the key. This is a five out concept. Lively at the top of the key, catching the ball and looking as Nase and Jaden were like screening for each other and cutting off of him and all of that vacant space behind him.

So Lively can function as a passer and like look to catch any defender that like botches a switch or trails too much on a screen. Nase got an easy layup out of that action. At one point just kind of brushed off a Lively shoulder. He kind of threw it over the top. He ended up getting an easy layup. Nase had a transition probe where he was like dribbling up the floor in transition made a really nice kickout pass to Maxi Kliba in the left quarter. He knocked

it out, knocked it down, started the fourth quarter. Completely different group comes in, completely different layered amounts of offensive skill. Luka, don Chis Klay Thompson, Quentin Grimes, a movement shooter right, Maxi Kleiba with that group and Daniel Gafford at the five the first bucket they got. With that, they had the same sort of idea where they had Daniel Gafford catch the ball up top again. This is a five out concept where he's functioning as like the passing folkrum.

Gafford has the ball a top. Luca comes out of the corner on the left side of the floor and just backscreens for Quinton Grimes. When he backscreens for Quinton Grimes, Luca's man doesn't want to help. Quinn Grimes gets a wide open layup out of it, just an easy layup where Luca is a screener. Luca's not even touching the ball, He's just setting an off ball screen and using the thread of his offensive ability to get Quinton Grimes a wide open layup. The next possession, they run the exact

same thing. This time Jeremy Sochan Sohan hangs back to help on Quinton Grimes coming off. Then Luca comes off the dribble handoff, and when he comes off the dribble handoff, he gets a wide open look from three. This is that like Finland action that you've seen the clips going around on social media with JJ Reddick and Lebron in the Mind the Game podcast, Lakers running a bunch of the this last night. I saw him his sins running

it last night. It's a really common plan. It's basically the function the functionality of like using a shooter as a screener before he comes off the actual action because it helps generate separation between him and his defender as that defender has to help on that first screen that he sets, so they run it twice. Right, we get Gaffer, we get Grimes back cut, layup, we get Luca coming off when Sohn helps and he hits the three at the top of the key. The next possession they switched

to stack again. Stack, pick and roll is just the ball screen, so it's Gafford and Luca running a ball screen, but Klay Thompson setting a backscreen for Gafford as he's rolling to the basket.

Speaker 2

They run Stack.

Speaker 1

Clay gets wide open at the top of the key, he hits a three, Luca hits a transition three. After that, Luke hids another three out of a ball screen after that the possession after that, they run stack again, and I think it was Keldon Johnson and CP three wanted to switch. It's common thing you'll see with stack where it's like the big man will stay on the big man, but the guy guard the guard and the guy guarding the shooter will switch, will just interchange as they're coming off.

But Keldon Johnson like screamed up to close out at Luca and CP three was like slow, So Luca Klay Thompson just didn't even bother setting a backscreen on gafferd He just ran into the three point line because no one was guarding him, and Luca just throws him an easy little pass on the left wing and he knocks down yet another three. I have not seen this level of offensive variety in the Luca era, not anything close

to it in the Luca era. And I don't think people have any idea how scary this can get, because this was so much of a brute force offense that relied so much on Luca's individual greatness, and they are putting in a schematic approach that still will amplify Luca's individual greatness, but will also generate all of these easy shots. And again that's the variety element that's so important. Again,

they ran into issues in the playoffs last year. There was a limitation to this offense when they ran into really good defenses, really good defenders wearing Luca down. This is why they made this change this offseason, and again when the moves were made this summer. If you guys remember,

and again, it's pretty simple change in philosophy. Right, You're turning defensive minded play finishers guys like Derek Jones Junior and Josh Green into guys with real offensive polish like movement shooters like Klay Thompson and Quinton Grimes who could fly off the screens and be a threat to shoot, but also can play make out of it. Guys who can put the ball on the floor and make plays. Naji Marshall, Spencer Dinwood, you didn't really play much tonight,

Jaden Hardy didn't. Wasn't a change to the roster, but who continues to improve every year. If you guys remember at the time of the Klay Thompson deal, this is what I said. I said, I love this move. Within the context of a change in offensive approach, there are diminishing returns when you use skilled offensive players strictly as

play finishers. Right Like, if you ask any of you guys who's a really good shooter to shoot Stan Steel corner threes versus Hyrie Irving, the gap isn't gonna be as big.

Speaker 2

If you're a good shooter, if you can shoot.

Speaker 1

Knock down just stand still corner threes, that shrinks the gap. But as soon as I start running action, you're gonna look like you're not an NBA player, and Kyrie's gonna look like Kyrie Irving. Right In order to there's a there's that's the diminishing return. The diminishing return is when you don't allow these skilled offensive players to actually weaponize their skill, then you you get it actually enhances the returns you get on your talent set when you have

those guys actually functioning as part of the offense. And that's what I said this summer. If they trade for Clay and they just stick his ass in the corner and they run spread, pick and roll, I don't like the move because Clay's not nearly as good as defender as Derek Jones Jr. And yeah, he's gonna hit you know, an additional five percent maybe seven eight percent of his corner threes. But like, it's just not it's you're not getting the value that comes from that, right. This was

incredibly couraging. This was the most fun I've had watching this team in the entirety of the Luca era.

Speaker 2

That second half.

Speaker 1

If you guys haven't watched it yet, if you haven't had a chance to rewatch it, just go rewatch this second half of this Dallas team and just look at the variety, look at the offensive organization, look at how everybody is involved.

Speaker 2

It was beautiful.

Speaker 1

I have no idea what this team is gonna look like defensively, Yet I mean that Spurs performance was abominable offensively. I was honestly really disappointed. Wemby looked bad. We'll talk about it here in a minute. But like, like, well, we'll see. Because Klay Thompson obviously isn't gonna be as good as a perimeter defender as Derek Jones junior, it would be absurd to expect him to. Derek Jones is

a professional perimeter defender. Klay Thompson in his prime was a very good perimeter defender, but now he's kind of on the tail end of his prime, if not even outside of his prime, So like it'd be ridiculous to expect that. But at the same time, if you become an unguardable offense, it doesn't matter if you experience a little bit of a dip on the defensive end of the floor. It's a great debut for Clay really thrived

in the chaos. Eight of his twenty two points came in transition, Like you only had three spot up opportunities in the game. The majority of his opportunities came in the chaos. Like again, like really good defenses are not going to just let Clay be open. They're gonna stay glued to him, right, But in chaos, when it's like live ball, turnovers, transition pushes, offensive rebounds is another big one.

Those kinds of situations are where Clay can find himself open and the mass haven't had a guy who's like straight up deadly in those situations yet, And that's what Klay Thompson is. He makes action harder reguard when he's involved again, like any screening action instead of it just being Luca ballscreen go interchanges, whether it's Clay backscreening for the role man, maybe it's a ram screen where Clay screens for the roleman before he goes up and sets

the screen. Maybe it's Clay in a double drag screening for Luca before he comes off. It's those kinds of interchanges where Clay is involved in the action is going to make so much easier for Dallas. Derek Lively was awesome. Fifteen points, eleven rebounds and six assists. This style of offense will really show you, guys, how much more he is capable of offensively. Six assists, guys, And if you

don't believe me, about how this is so different. He had one game all season last year where he had more than four assists, and he had six assists tonight. I bet you we have a bunch of games this year where Derek Lively has six plus assists because he's going to function more as a passer while there's all of this whirlwind action happening around him, which makes better

use of Derek Lively's skill set. If you just have him screening and rolling to the basket, he'll only get to use it when they blitz Luca, which they may not even do that much if Klay Thompson is on the floor right. So like these this is the kind of offense that will really weaponized this skill set. I thought Jaden already had a really nice shift in the first half. It was just a really, really impressive first

outing for the MAVs. And again, I like the this is where the exciting potential for the MAVs is is if they reach another level offensively than where they were last year. Go look at the offensive numbers for Dallas in the playoffs. Their defense kept them in some good late game shot making from Luca and Kyrie, but the offense ran into a wall against Oklahoma City, it ran into a wall against Boston. This is that variety that could give them more resilience in those specific situations. On

the Spurs front, I was really disappointed. Victor looked weirdly disengaged in the first half, like he wasn't being strong with the ball. Guys were just kind of taking the ball away from him. He was settling for a lot of really tough jump shots. He ended up going five for eighteen from the field. I talked a lot in preseason how I want to see them give him more opportunities to score as a roleman as opposed to just

straight post ups and perimeter catches. And he got one rollmand possession all game, and it was one where there was like it was kind of poorly set up and he rolled into a bunch of traffic. He happened to break open at the end of the play, but like

it just was ugly. It's kind of the yokatroll, right, Like I talk about that, where it's like, get him these opportunities to quit catch around ten to fifteen feet and to take easy short range shots, whether that's a short mid range jump shot, a floater, a quick catch into a quick post move with an advantage against a smaller defender. I just want to see more opportunities like that. And then I was hoping the ball handling would be at a higher level for the Spurs this year, and it

just continues to be so much bad ball handling. Seven turnovers from Julian Champagnee and Jeremy Sohan to Jeremy Sohan dribbling. The basketball experiment needs to end. It's driving me crazy to watch. I think the Spurs might actually be further away then I thought coming into this season.

Speaker 2

But again, one game. Don't want to overreact.

Speaker 1

We'll give them more time before we make any sweeping declarations, but it does they didn't seem like a team that was close to being good in tonight's game. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. As always, as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. Here's the thing, there's a bunch of games we missed on Wednesday night. It's literally impossible for me to actually hit every single game, but I'm gonna try the best I can, and I'm

cycling through teams. Are teams that I'm gonna get to follow me on Twitter Tomorrow morning, I'm gonna wake up and do some film studies, So like I plan on watching like Charlotte Houston is a game that I want to watch, Memphis Utah is a game I want to watch. I want to take a closer look at Sacramento, Minnesota from tonight, and I'll just be uploading some clips on Twitter. I may even just do an extra episode, but that

probably won't be worked up until Sunday or Monday. But I will be continuing to try to get around to as many of those teams as possible, and we'll just keep cycling through as we get through the season. I promise we're going to get to everybody. It's just important to me to get in detail, and I can't get in detail in every game without actually killing myself. So we need to take it a little bit, one night at a time. We're three nights into this thing, but

I promise we're going to get to everybody. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. I'll see you guys on Twitter tomorrow morning.

Speaker 2

The volume. What's up guys.

Speaker 1

As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting oops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.

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