Hoops Tonight - Thunder stifle Clippers, Bucks-Magic, + Lakers & Warriors trades, MVP Rankings

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eight hours after issuance. See dkang dot com slash basketball for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Friday, everybody, HOPEFU. All of you guys had an incredible week. We have a jampackshow for you today. We're gonna be hitting two instant reactions from last night's games.

The Oklahoma City Thunder got to win over the red hot Los Angeles Clippers all be without Kawhi Leonard, and then the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Orlando Magic at home in an interesting game. After that, we're gonna do our weekly MVP Ladder like we're gonna start doing on every Friday from now on, and then last but not least, at the end of the show, we have a long mail bag. We're gonna hitting like eight questions. We're gonna be bouncing all over the league hitting a bunch of

stuff in that segment. You guys are the Joe before we get started. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel. I mean a lot to me. If you guys would take a second scroll down hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feeds. Wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt. So you guys don't miss any show announcements or the

film threads that I do from time to time. And then, last but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the

Thunder pretty much controlled this game against the Clippers. There was a brief stretch there in the early third quarter where James hard To hit a couple of step back threes in a row and the Clippers ended up going up by one, but the Thunder just immediately regained control of the game. But they were up in by double digits like that after that. Honestly, like there was just this I've talked a lot about this concept on the show.

I view the perimeter defense battle like the ability to contain dribble penetration on one end and then to generate a dribble penetration on the other end. I look at that as like the push and pull that you see in basketball that most closely resembles what happens in football in terms of lying play between the offensive line and

the defensive line. Like if a team gets excellent push on the offensive line and then on when they're on defense, if they can get penetration into the backfield, that goes a long way towards making the game easier for every other position group, right, And that's kind of the way I feel about perimeter defense in basketball and this battle,

especially with Kawhi out. I would have loved to have seen Kawhi in this matchup because one of the best counters for a team that's got really good quick perimeter defenders is to have a guy that can generate drible penetration without necessarily having to beat people off the dribble, meaning like the ability to back a guy down into the post. Another thing with Kawhi two is, you know, dribble penetration gaps are easier to shoot through when you

have strength. So, for instance, like if I make a move and I get my defender to just barely buckle, but I have a strength advantage, I can shoot through that gap with physicality, Whereas if I don't have his strength advantage and I get the defender to buckle just a tiny bit, he can use physicality to regain control of that situation, and vice versa. Right, So Kawhi just would have been an interesting kind of wrinkle to throw

into this matchup. But the Thunder just generally controlled that perimeter defense matchup, which just that perimeter defense battle, I should say, which led to them getting higher quality shots and then winning. But I want to zoom in on the Thunder side of things on chet Holmgrin for a little bit here, because I thought this was one of his more impressive games as a pro, just from the standpoint of how much they leaned on him to start

plays rather than to finish plays. And you know, you know, Zubac is a good center who I think does a lot of things really well in a traditional sense, in traditional coverages, and you know, doing a lot of the things that you need a traditional center to do from the standpoint of play finishing, right, But chet kind of represents in a lot of ways what a modern center is going to look like if we fast forward twenty thirty years in my opinion, and that's like basically a

really tall wing, you know that that can dribble, shoot and pass with the best of them. And you know, one of the things that the Thunder realized pretty quickly in this game is like, why would we attack Terrence Man and Russell Westbrook and Paul George and Norman Powell and all these superior athletes and a mere coffee and stuff on the perimeter when we have a clear matchup advantage here, which is that if Kazubac just has no chance to guard sheet home grand on an island, you know.

And that's not a shot at at Zuba's, it's just a reality of what kind of matchup Chet can create. And like he was just attacking in space just like they, you know, kind of all space out to the perimeter and give at the ball, and he would just make

a dribble move and beat Zubots off the dribble. There's this crazy one where he had just beat Zubats to the right side and finished on the right side of the basket in the early third quarter, and then they cleared out the right side for him, and he dribbled left and like fake like he was gonna shoot a pull up jump shots. Zubats jumped and then he just threw it up off the glass and he went up

and dunked it with two hands. And so one of the things the Clippers did is they put Russell Westbrook on him and they're basically like, this guy's beating everybody off the dribble. Let's go small and let's just just bother his base. Right. That's a big thing that I talk about a lot on the show. And when you're a defensive player and you don't have a size advantage,

you have to attack the base. You can never hope to bother a guy like that up top because that's where his advantage is is in his height, right, And so if I can disrupt the base, like push on their legs or their hips to make it so that when they jump they don't get the same amount of energy transfer, or to swipe at the dribble pocket or the shooting pocket like as they're gathering the ball, to try to disrupt that flow up to the top of the shot. That's your best way to do it, right.

And so one of the things that they did I thought was interesting is they had Chet set a screen on the ball, get Russ switched off of him. There's a play where he isolates Terrence Man at the top of the key in a triple thread and again, like Terrence Man, super quick athlete, right, you expect him to beat Chet to spots. Chet straight up ripped through and beat Terrence Man to the right. And then Terrence Man, recovered because he's got great speed, gets back in front

of Chet. But Chet was able to get close enough to the rim for him to kind of slow himself down and shoot like an easy bank shot over the top. And we're up to sixty eight self creation possessions for Chet at this point in the season, now that I'm counting as any pick and roll ISO or post up including passes basically if Chet is initiating the action in

a half court set. And out of those sixty eight possessions, the thunder Of scored seventy five points, which is one point one points per possession, which is astounding under any circumstances, let alone for rookie. I think Chet has a superstar, top tier superstar potential. I'm super super excited to cover this kid in his career and see what he's capable of. I thought he was amazing last night against the Clippers

moving out of the Bucks in the Magic. So it's interesting because down the stretch of this game is reasonably close, and the Bucks won the game down the stretch executing on offense, and they were spamming a lot of Dame Giannis pick and roll, which was funny because that's not how they won the game. They won the game with a couple of different types of offensive possessions. There was a late clock situation where Dame took a step back three over Gary Harris and drew a foul and got

to what that Dame is very very good at drawing fouls, gets to the foul line, generates three points that way. There was a baseline out of balance play where they had if I remember correctly, Brook Lopez set a backscreen for Pat Conaton and Wendell Carter Junior just was or it was Jannis Yiannis set a backscreen for Pat Conaton and and Wendell Carter Junior, even though Jannis can't shoot. Was like like, just not attention to the basket and

just let Pat get right behind him. Laid it in and then there was a crosscreen action they ran for Jannis that actually really liked to help him get a deep post catch on the left block, and he just went to like a little right handed hook shot over the top. But they did run a ton of Dame Gianis pick and roll, and I'm glad just because, you know, some of the sloppy stuff that happened is stuff that they're gonna be able to figure out in the long run, and they got some really good looks out of it.

So first one, they ran down the stretch, Jannis gets a They ran on a cleared side on the right side, and Yannis ended up getting basically a wide open dunk and he just missed it, which like, how often do you see Yannis miss basically an uncontested dunk, right, So that was the first one quality possession just didn't result

in points. There's another one they ran where they dug over with the low man and and Dame had a skip pass to the left corner and instead of throwing the pass, he tried to force it into Giannis and it led to a turnover. And then after that Dame

made the read. They ran on the opposite side of the floor from the left side moving towards the right, and dam identified that they were coming over to take away that drop off past Gianni's and he made a skip to Malik Beasley in the right wing, and Malik Besley was able to pump, fake rip and make a little floater off the glass and a couple of different things that you're seeing. First of all those second two

that I just mentioned, they didn't clear the side. I think clearing the side opens up that pocket pass makes it harder to help on the pocket pass. Think of it like this. I have if I'm setting up on the left wing, and I've got shooter right corner, right wing and right elbow extended, so that's where all the shooting is, and I have Giannis come and set the ball screen on my right hand side while I have the left side of the floor cleared. Is I come

off to the right. If that pick and roll defender shows in any way and Yannis rolls to the open space on the left side of the floor, there's just so much room for him to go to work there.

And the only way they can get there and help in time is if they zone up, meaning they bring that defender all the way to the strong side of the floor, which opens up a whole other list of issues for your defense, right And I did think it was interesting that when they ran it with a full with an occupied corner, it was easier for that guy

to get involved with disrupting that pocket pass. But even with that being the case, when they do run it in the middle of the floor and there is a shooter in both corners, that's where making that skip passes an important read for Dame because one, you've done your job,

You've created a closeout opportunity. Two Malik Beasley shooting the shit out of basketball, so dudes are gonna chase him off the line, and three like that just gets the defense and rotation and from there you've got enough ball handling and shooting on the floor to make good plays out of it. But I again, are where we are right now is not quite where the dam Giannis pick and roll needs to be to win the title. But I

love that they're spamming it. I love that they're trying to build that chemistry because that's the action that's going to get you the trophy one day, if you could figure it out, and if you can, if you can defend well enough to tie everything together on the magic front. A lot of self inflicted wounds in the fourth I talked about Gary Harris fouling Damian Lillard on a three. Right after that play, Jonathan Isaac stepped out of bounds in the right corner, just that classic negative step thing

that you see all the time. Pallo Bancaro took like a really tough transition three that I thought he settled. Ford took a wide open catch and shoot three later that he made. He's been shooting the ball pretty well this season. Shot selections A big piece there. The Pat Conington backscreen on the inbounds play. That was just bad defense from Wendell Carter Junior. His number one responsibility in that situation is the basket, and he just wasn't doing

his job. There was another play where Wendell Carter Junior had a deep seal in the post and Franz Wagner threw like a one hand rifle pass that was just really difficult to grab. So we're talking five pretty significant self inflicted wounds there in the fourth quarter that took them out of any chance to win that game. Kind Of typical for young teams, right like they're going to

struggle in those particular types of situations. I didn't want to talk about Froz Vagner for a second though, because he had twenty nine to six and six in this game and really had a lot of success picking the Bucks apart in pick and roll. He just is so big that he can get downhill and actually finish around Brook Lopez. There was a play where Wendell Carter Junior rolled hard into Lopez and occupied him, which allowed Franz to get

to his little floater in the lane. And then when Bobby Portis was in the game, they were blitzing and switching and Franz was just killing him. Every time they blitz, he'd drop it off to move Wagner and he'd get downhill and he'd make a play right or if there were two plays in the second half, Reportis had to switch out onto Franz, and Franz just cooked him one on one and got all the way to the basket for his little, you know, hook shot that he takes

over the top. Franz is playing really good basketball. It was fun watching him go to work against that team because that's a team that has a lot of size in the Bucks and so for a guy like him to you know where, his biggest advantage his size. To continue to thrive in that type of environment, I thought was really impressive. All right, moving on to the MVP Ladder.

So for those of you guys who missed it last week, we had Joel Embiad at number one, Jannison Tenna Kumpo at number two, Tyre's Halliburton at number three, Shay Gildos, Alexander at number four, Luka Doncic at number five, Nikole Jokich at number six, Deer and Fox at number seven, Jason Tatum at number eight, Lebron James at number nine, and Kevin Durant at number ten. And like I said, I'm gonna be doing this every Friday, primarily going We're

not gonna do deep dives into every single player, but we're gonna do mainly just descriptions of why I have made changes to the rankings. So two guys are dropping out of the list this week versus Lebron. He averaged twenty four nine rebounds and eleven assists this week, but they went zero to three in the three games that Lebron played. He's still been pretty good on offense, although

his jumpers cooled off. But my main issue with Lebron right now is just outside of the n Season tournament, he just hasn't given a shit about playing any defense. And we've talked a lot about this, but that low man responsibility is vitally important in any NBA defense, but it's especially important in this Laker defense that's doing so much blitzing and pick and roll. You just need a guy there that's really, really active, that's trying to make plays.

And we've we've seen what it looks like when you know when like Tyres Haliburton didn't have a single turnover during the n Season tournament, until suddenly Lebron blows up a play as a low man in pick and roll, like he is capable of being so devastating. They're totally understand for the record, like he's old. Got to find a way to conserve energy somewhere. Lebron's conserving energy on defense right now. I don't think he sees the regular

season as that important. Totally fine, but the purpose of this list is to draw attention to players who are playing well within the confines of the regular season. So as of right now, I'm dropping Lebron off the list. Kevin Durant is the other guy I'm dropping off. His numbers are still super good thirty two points, four rebounds, five assists, still super efficient, but the Suns are in a free fall. They can't score the basketball. They've lost

seven of their last ten games. They've been a bottom five offense in that span. And the biggest issues that I'm noticing are one, They're running a ton of ISOs without being efficient with them. They run the eighth most ISOs in the league except for everyone else above them is like right around a point per possession or more, and the Suns are down at zero point nine zero points per ISOs. So they're running a lot of ISOs and they're not getting anything out of them relative to

the rest of the league. They're also not generating enough threes. They're only generating twenty nine three per game over this ten game stretch, which is dead last in the NBA. And they never get out in transition. They get just seventeen transition possessions per game, which ranks twenty eighth in the NBA. So for right now, based on team's success, dropping Kevin Durant off the list all right. This week's MVP rankings for Hoops tonight. Number ten Jason Tatum. He

averaged twenty three to seven and five last week. Is scoring consistency has taken a hit. He averaged excuse me, he scored thirty plus five times in his first six games, but he's done it just five times total in the last twenty games. Now, that was really disappointed in his inability to regain control of that Warriors game as things were going down the stretch. I know his ankle was tweaked early in the game, but I thought he had advantages and I didn't think he exploited them as well

as he could have. Number nine Jalen Brunson, our first newcomer on the list this season. Last ten games, Jalen Brunson twenty seven points, five rebounds, and seven assists, forty nine percent from the field and forty four percent from three, and the Knicks are now a top ten offense. They are sixteen and eleven, and they have the ninth best record in basketball. Jalen is hooping his ass off. He's at number nine in our MVP rankings. Number eight Tyrese

Halliburton drops all the way down. I think he had I think he was in third last week sixteen points, three rebounds, and twelve assists, really cooled off, shooting the basketball everywhere really right now, thirty seven percent from the field. He's in the twenties. From three, Pacers went one to four. Just like the Lakers. The Pacers have completely fallen apart since the Ncason Tournament, a clear indicator that there's a real emotional letdown after playing those super high stakes games

and then going into regular season basketball. There number seven another newcomer this week, Steph Curry, after straight up stealing

the Celtics game with late game shot making. The Warriors are now thirteen and twelve when Steph Curry plays, despite just a ridiculous amount of issues between main core players not playing well, between Draymond Green removing himself well from the team with poor decision making, to a lot of young guys in the lineup, there's just there's just a boatload of things going wrong with this team, and yet they've still been about five hundred in a really difficult

league on a really tough schedule. Because Steph Curry is the same old Steph Curry twenty eight points per game on sixty five percent true shooting. He's just floating things well enough for the Warriors to be able to survive until they can make a move to upgrade the roster. Number six Lukadancic thirty five, eleven and nine in the last week, but the MAVs went one in two, so I dropped him down a little bit. Dearren Fox thirty

at number five. Deer In Fox thirty points, four rebounds, five assists per game in the last week and the Kings went two and one, moved him up to number five. Number four Nikola Jokic twenty one, ten and eight in the last week and the Nuggets went two and one, with that one loss being the buzzer loss to the Thunder. The Toronto win the other night felt like a get

right game for Nikola Jokic. He went cold from three there for a little whilember I was complaining about that, and I was specifically complaining about him not taking them anymore, which was frustrating. Three for five against Toronto. I just think that that's a very very important shot for Jokic

to be considered the best player in the world. It's all of the things put together that makes like without that three point shot, he goes from being the most inevitable, unstoppable offensive player in the league to something less than that, and it's just an important element. I thought that was encouraging. Against Toronto he had thirty one points as well. Nikola Jokic up to number four. Number three shake Gils was

Alexander twenty nine points, eight rebounds and six assists. Last week the Thunder went three and Oho hits the game winner against Denver hangs thirty one on the red Hot Clippers that have been so good defensively lately. Just a great week for shake Gil's as Alexander. I have him up at number three, number two. Giannis there was a weird game in there where he didn't play much that threw off his averages, but he still averaged twenty four to twelve and eight over the course of the last week.

The Bucks went four and oh, so I moved him up to number two. Actually, I think he was at number two last week and the number one Joel Embiid forty two points, fourteen rebounds and four assists. In the last week the Sixers go three and one. Lost to the Bulls. But the Bulls are playing really well and they had just played a bunch of the Sixers had just played a bunch of bad teams, which typically can kind of set your team up for some failure because

you built some bad habits playing against bad teams. Right, here's the thing for the Sixers fans and Embid fans, because I had a lot of them complaining at me in the last twenty four hours after our video yesterday. Do I hate the foul grifting? Yeah, I fucking despise it. It's but I don't blame Joel for that. I blame the league. And he's still been by far the best regular season player in the league this year. I've had him number one in my MVP list both weeks. I'm

a huge believer in what Embiid is capable of. Everything about his foulgrifting is a take about the NBA. It has nothing to do with Joel Embiid, all right, Moving on to the mail bag. Got a bunch of questions there are and be going all over the place. First question, could you see the Pelicans moving on from Zion getting some quality players to surround brandon Ingram instead? So here's the deal. It really just depends on what you can get back. Of course, you start making calls. But here's

the thing like, Zion's career is not over. It looks bleak,

but it's not over, and he could still get it together. And if he does get it together, he could potentially become the player that we all want him to become. So that's the risk. Like when you send out Zion, you take a risk that he ends up figuring things out right and becoming a top tier superstar. Right. So for me, it's one hundred percent about what you get back. If you can get back a significant upgrade in that front court to put alongside Herb Jones and Brandon Ingram CJ.

McCollum and Jonas Valanciunis, then by all means you look into it, but it just it just one hundred percent depends on what you can get back, you know what I mean. Like like even if you look at a guy like Lori Markinen, for instance, I look at it and I'm like, Okay, is Lori good enough to make the Pelicans a championship contender? Like I don't know. So

it's like I'm not even sure if that's enough. So at this point, I just think I think the right decision is to just kind of hang tight on Zion for a little bit, but yeah, if we're still here about a year from now, then then it becomes something that's a little more urgent. Next question from Eric. As of today, the Chicago Bulls have won seven of their last eleven games. What has been the biggest factor of

their recent success. Additionally, can you give me a quick analysis of Kobe White and talk about what he's been working with what has been working with his game. This is my third NBA season watching you cover the league. Best NBA show out there by far. Thank you, Eric, and I sincerely appreciate you supporting this show. So, first of all, the Bowls are actually eight and three in

their last eleven games. The short answer is they're defending and rebounding really well. Their sixth in defensive rating over the span and third in rebounding percentage, getting really good point of attack defense from guys like Aaya to Soon Moon, Alex Caruso, Demartin Rosen has kind of started to get it together after getting off to a rough start to the season. And then yeah, Kobe White's just he's popping twenty four to seven and seven over this eleven game span.

He is shooting fifty percent from the field, forty seven percent from three and eighty three percent from the line over that span, and it's really just a classic combination of downhill speed mixed with the in between shot making piece, specifically the pull up two point shot and the pull up three point shot. We talk a lot about this concept of like defending on your heels versus defending on your toes, and like, if you're a pull up shooter that has no threat to beat a guy off the dribble,

he can press up and take the shot away. If you're a driving threat with no threat to knock down the pull up jump shot, I can play back and I can try to bait you into pull up jump shots. Kobe White four point three restricted area attempts per game over his last eleven games, shooting sixty two percent. That's like really really good for a guard. And then he's sixteen for thirty two on pull up threes over that span.

That's over that's fifty percent, and then twelve for twenty six on pull up twos, which is in the mid forties. So it's just he's just making all of his pull ups or making his pull up jump shots at a really high rate, and he's finishing at the rim really well, which is just gonna make you really really tough to guard. And then he's passing really well in pick and roll. He's got good role chemistry with Nikola Vucevic. He's got

this like one arm skip pass. He's like he's got the size and the ability to pal him the basketball so he can pick up the dribble and rifle that one arm pass across the court to the corner when they tag the roller. He's just playing really, really well. He honestly reminds me this recent stretch. He reminds me a little bit of Devin Booker in some of his like versatile perimeter shot creation. The jump shot doesn't look

like Devin Booker. It actually looks a little bit more like Anthony Segnman's in the sense that the release point is a little more compact and he's like more of like a quick pop release versus Devin's got a little bit more of a drawn out release. But he's he's hooping and the Bulls are hooping. There. They you know, a lot of impressive wins over their last eleven as well, going into Philly and beating the Sixers, go like beating the Lakers the other Night Bulls are playing some good basketball.

Next question, Hi Jason, thanks for your videos as always, with how well Jalen Brunson has been playing along with last year's playoffs, do you think he has shown us an to put him into that tier of players who can be the best player on a championship team. I don't think it's impossible, but it's definitely a long shot. To me. What that means is you have to be really good at every other position. That's what I've talked about,

Like you, if you can somehow get a really good three to slot between Barrett Randall and then Mitchell Robinson comes back next year, I'm looking at that and I'm like, yeah, maybe Jalen Brunson is not one of the top fifteen

players in the league. But if I have him and you know, Julius Randall playing at the level he's been playing in the last month, and let's let let's just throw Let's say it's you know, Dorny and Finney Smith like a guy that can guard on the perimeter in is like a really good He's shooting over forty percent from three this year, and then now RJ. Barrett is

like your point of attack guy. In the backcourt next to Brunson, And I've got two really good point of attack guys Mitchell Robinson, who was a really good playoff player for the Knicks last year. Randall is like your Matt Attacker Brunson. Again, you wouldn't put them as a championship favorite, but you'd give them a puncher's chance. They

were really really well rounded there. But again, like the you know, it's complicated because when people have this conversation like, Okay, is he good enough to be the best player on a championship team? Really in terms of the guys that it's like, if I have this guy, have a good chance to win. There's like a few of them in the entire league. So I don't think it's a shame to not have one of those guys. And if anything, that's why you don't do something stupid like go after

Donovan Mitchell. If you're gonna make it all in trade,

it needs to be for one of those guys. And until then, right now, it's better to make more like use of your assets in a smaller scale just to kind of keep this team relevant and do the best you can while maintaining your flexibility to make a move down the line, Hi, Jason, with how good Tyler Harrow has been playing as of late, do you think Miami should stick with the group they have and make a run or is there something else you would need to compete with the top teams in the East this year

as good as Tyler Harrow has been playing, that specific archetype, that like kind of skinny perimeter shot creator that can tend to struggle in the physicality the playoffs, not the guy that I'd be looking at there. They I still

think that the Heat should be making a move for a backcourt score. They're the kind of team that should be aggressively going after someone like Donovan Mitchell. Again, like, do not if you're a Heat fan. Here's what you can't afford to once again via Jimmy and Bam and Eric Spolstra, out execute and out smart teams and find yourself in the conference finals and just be out gunned again. It just can't happen anymore. You gotta get them real

firepower in the backcourt. Next question, Hey, Jason, Laurie, marketing, in my opinion, is extremely underrated in a league with lots of guards who also who play ISO. Laurie has very valuable off ball skills with a reasonable contract. If you went to the Kings, where would that put them in your contenders list? Man, he'd be great with the Kings. I love the the emphasis on the off ball scoring piece. What's so valuable about off ball scoring is it doesn't

disrupt rhythm for any of the other players on the floor. So we talk about this a lot with Steph Curry, but it's like, you know, the ability to be such a threat off the ball actually just makes things easier for everybody because they gain rhythm by operating in more

space with the ball in their hands. Right, And like when you look at a team, like, you know, a couple of the two teams that I look at for LORI markin in that would make it, that would make them contenders are the Kings in the Thunder the Pacers. I wouldn't necessarily say they'd be a contender, but they'd certainly become way more interesting. But these are all teams that are a little small on that front line that need a big four to put next to their center.

In this case, Harrison Barnes is too small for that position. Now with play finishing, think of it pretty basically like this if I all these openings occur when I'm an on ball shot creator, right, So, for instance, like if I'm looking to be aggressive, there are guys digging down off the weak side. If I'm a really good pick and role player, I'm gonna like get a guy tagging the roller in a lot of cases or defending the action three on two. What you end up getting is

a lot of these advantage situations on the backside. And like a lot of times you kick it out to a guy and like he's either like good at shooting but can't put the ball on the floor, or put the ball on the floor but can't shoot, or or like maybe he's a ball stopper and he's too slow to make decisions, or like just bad in general attacking closeouts and making reads like whatever. The situation is. That limitation can bog down an offense. Even if you're upfront.

Guys are your play initiators are doing a great job, and so having a guy like LORI markin in that's like, oh, you dug down and I made the kickout pass, He's gonna make it like forty five percent of the time or whatever, you know, or like chase him off the line, he's capable of high level clothes out attacking and like

really squeezing points out of those types of situations. So most most importantly, like I talk about the low man responsibilities in terms of defensive rebounding and help side, and like just having a much bigger, stronger athlete in that position could go a long way towards fortifying any defense as well, especially in an off ball role like that. So again, the Kings are a great example of a team that should be looking at him. Again, the Thunder

as well. And with those two teams in particular, because Dearon Fox is playing at a superstar level this year, because Malik Monk has proven himself as a playoff shot creator, because of what Shay Gilders Alexander can do, and what Jalen Williams has been accomplishing, those teams have the top end potential to where Lourie market and would be slotted properly as a play finisher where he would be most impactful.

Next question, what do you think about a Lakers trade concerning D'Angelo Russell and Jackson Hayes for Alex Crusoe and Andre Drummond another contract filler as well, as Ruy Hachimura to the nets for Dorian Finney Smith. Hypothetically, what would be the ceiling for the Lakers if they did this? Thank you? So this is an example of what I would consider to be a slam dunk, home run touchdown, whatever the fuck you want to call it, Like perfect trade deadline for the Lakers. And the reason why I

say that is I've been preaching this all season. Austin's your one, Lebron's your four, ads your five, and you need upgrades at the two and three, and you need a playoff playable backup center. Christian Wood and Jackson as have both had moments this year, but I don't think either of them looks like a guy that could hold down a playoff unit. So what you're pitching to me is Alex Cruso, big upgrade at the two, Dorian Finney Smith, big upgrade at the three, Andre Drummond, big upgrade at

the backup center. So like, yeah, that'd be great. The problem is is, like to get Chicago to do a deal like that, you'd have to at least add one first round pick, and there's gonna be a lot of suitors for Alex Cruso and So I don't necessarily think that's super realistic, but if that could, if that did go down, it would be a home run for the Lakers. Next question, after watching Carson breakdown Laurie Markinen's game, I

believe he'd be the perfect trade for the Warriors. With Steph's gravity and Laurie's ability to cut, reposition, screen, and mismatch Hunt, I think he's the perfect fit to the Golden State offense. As GM of the Warriors, what would you be willing to trade for that perfect complimentary piece to Stef's game? And as the GM of the Jazz what would you be asking for for Lourie? So I would agree that Louri Markinen is the cleanest and most

obvious fit for the Warriors front line. Obviously, he's not as good defensively as a guy like Pascal Siakam, but I think in terms of overall fit, he'd be a better offensive weapon for the Warriors. Here's the problem. He's gonna be the most sought after piece at this deadline, him and Donovan Mitchell probably if either are even gonna be made available for trade, you know what I mean.

Like the reason why I've been talking about Pascal Siakam is because I find him achievable, He's on an expiring contract. It just feels like a certainty that Toronto will trade him. In general, I think, especially if and Donovan Mitchell hit the market, all of the big suitors are gonna be going after those guys, which might open up a window for a team like Golden State to slide in and get Pascal Siakam. Right now, the question is how could

you get Lori. It's pretty simple. You would need a team like Utah to put a whole lot of value on Jonathan Kaminga. And again, I really like Jonathan Kaminga.

I'm just not sure if that's enough. And like, what if it gets tricky and they're like, oh, we want Moses, Oh we want Jonathan Kaminga and Brandon Pazamski or something like that, then it because it becomes a little more tricky because Pazamski has been so important to them over the course of the last couple of weeks, and you would need the salary filler of Chris Paul and you're ditching two guards in that situation, right. So it's not so much whether or not Lori is the best fit,

because I believe he is. It's more just price. To me, I've been targeting Siakam because I see him as the most achievable option for the for the Warriors at this deadline. Next question, I'm a Warriors fan and I want to know if Pascal is really the answer in a trade. He isn't a great three point shooter, and I fear it will lead to spacing issues. What does Pascal offer to the team to negate that issue with someone like the Lakers? Do the exact same strategy with Raymond and

piscal and the floor? Would it be different? Thanks Jason, I love watching her show. Keep up the good work. So this is the thing. Specifically with the Warriors. I

don't find three point shooting is as important. Obviously, a three point shot would go a long way with someone like Siakam, as Sam's fonti Ari and our show put so well. The other day, he talked about how like hey like, if Siakam was a reliable three point shooter, he'd be like Kevin Durant light and the reason why he says that is because Pascal Siakam is an excellent off ball defender. He's an excellent, excellent on ball defender. He's an excellent shot creator in just about every way

aside from his consistency from the perimeter. And this is where I point to a guy like Andrea Guidala. How is it that the Warriors were able to succeed all those years with Andrea Guadala on the floor alongside Draymond Green. And a big part of it was, first of all, Igudala was getting such high quality shots and he had so much big game experience he was comfortable taking them.

And that's the thing. I actually do think Siakam would shoot well for the Warriors, just based on the quality of the shots he would get, just him being confident and comfortable in that situation two inverted spacing when you've got Steph Curry and Klay Thompson chasing a running around on the perimeter, and guys having to show over the top of screens, like a big part of it would

be you'd need Wiggins to regain his form. But I actually do think Wiggins will get right at some point this season, especially if they trade Kaminga and open up his rotation minutes more. But what I look at it as is you're gonna get a lot of one four on threes. In those four on threes, it's actually more important to have guys that are athletes that can cut along the baseline and that are good at dribble shooting

and passing to quickly capitalize on that advantage situation. Then the second piece of it is the two man game.

Was Steph not since KD If they had a guy that they can really run two man game with Steph in terms of like getting switches and attacking matchups, and Pascal Siakam has been one of the best post up players in the league this year, and so having the ability to get Steph's defenders switched on to him and take him onto the block, I just think all the other offensive benefits will greatly outweigh any sort of shooting inconsistency from Siakam. Hey, Jason, I have a mailbad question

for you. What do you think about a ruie for Buddy Heeald trade helps both teams tremendously and fills a need each team needs desperately. I know it's not going to solve all of Indy's problems, but it definitely can help. As for the Lakers, they're giving up a better player. But as you've said in previous shows there's a logjam at Rui's position since Lebron and him have a similar archetype. Maybe Indy could include a pick or some other assets

or players. Just wondering what you think about it. So

here's the thing. I agree with you from the standpoint of fit that if you traded both guys for each other, it would make both teams better. Because one, Ruey's a big upgrade over I'm blanking on his name now, the power forward for the Obi top and excuse me for the I'm terrible with names in general. But as an upgrade on Obi top and at the forward position, bigger, stronger player, better help defender, you know, just a better player.

And Buddy Healed as an off ball shooter is just a better fit in a starting lineup alongside a guy like Lebron James and Anthony Davis than a guy like you know, D'Angelo Russell in a two spot next to Austin Reeves or something like that. Right, here's the problem, like two things. One, it would be a poor use of Ruiy as an asset because Rui's just a better asset than Buddy, and you just should be targeting higher

level players. Two, Buddy is another skill guard, and we've already seen with the Lakers what it looks like when you have Austin Reeves next to another skill guard or Dangelo Russell next to another skill guard. So to me, it's not so much that I don't think it would help either team, because of course it would. It just would be a poor use of the asset for the Lakers and they should be targeting an athlete for that position instead. All right, last question, Jason mailback question. I'm

going to keep trying to get one in there. I'm a Nuggets fan, and it seems like the Nuggets are just kind of mid right now. Murray has been typical regular season Murray, injuries, in up and down play. Jokics doesn't seem very focused and has been a bit up and down rather than consistently dominant. Haven't seen that from him since twenty nineteen. I know you were talking about Yokic's jump shot, but do you think there's something else going on? Are they satisfied with winning the chip and

not putting in the effort they should. Is there maybe

some locker room stuff or personal stuff going on that you've heard whispers about. I genuinely think once the playoffs come around, will be fine. But I'm starting to get a bit worried. If you were a Nuggets fan, would you be worried? Thoughts, I am completely, utterly not worried about the Nuggets. I still think they are by far the safest bet to win the title this year, by far as the stretch, but I think they're clearly and discernibly the safest bet to win the title this year.

The stretch actually reminds me a lot of the stretch they had before the playoffs last year. You know, this is a team that like knows they're capable of reaching a certain ceiling, and they've demonstrated ability to ramp up

when they get to the postseason. The only thing I'd be worried about with Denver that would take them off of my number one spot in my Contenders is a season ending injury to one of their core five guys, Like if Jamal Murray gets hurt, Kntavio's Cabopop gets hurt, Michael Porter Junior gets hurt, or Aaron Gordon gets hurt, any one of them, I would drop them from that number one spot because I do think the downgrade to the next option is just a huge downgrade for any

single one of those positions. But if they're healthy and when they get they could be you know, forty five and thirty seven and be the five seed in the West, and I'd pick them to win the league. Like It's just what I would do, because that's how much I trust their defense and in general, I would imagine that they're the ebb and flow of the standings. If they ever get two point where they lose too many games, they'll lock back in and they'll get back to winning.

I'm just entirely not worried about it. All right, guys, that's all I have for this weekend. We will be back on Monday for two Christmas Day instant reactions. We're gonna go after the Warriors game and after the Lakers game to live videos on YouTube. Then Tuesday we're gonna break down the rest of the Christmas Day games, and then Wednesday, we've got Yovann Bujac coming on the show for our Laker Deep dive that we do every two weeks or so. So I appreciate you guys for supporting

the show. I hope you all have a great weekend. I hope you enjoy the holiday and you get to spend some time with your families. I'm very very thankful for you guys, and I look forward to seeing you all on Monday. The Volume