Hoops Tonight - Top 10 NBA Contenders: Why Nuggets & Celtics will meet in NBA Finals

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responsible gaming resources. All right, wellcoon hoops tonight here at the Volume, Happy Thursday, everybody, hope all if you guys are having an incredible week at a jam packshow for you guys today, we are going to finish up our contender rankings with three to two and one to start the show, and then after that for the YouTube audience, we're gonna do deep film sessions on the two esp

games last night, which we're both highly entertaining. We had our showdown in the Western Conference top of the Conference between Minnesota and Denver. Is Denver just classic Denver style out executed Minnesota down the stretch and pulled out a win to give themselves sole possession of the number one seed in the Western Conference. And then after that, the Dallas Mavericks went into Miami and kicked their ass in a highly entertaining two way performance from them in the

first half. So we're gonna do a film session on the entire game from the Minnesota Denver game and then just the first half of that Miami Dallas game. And then at the end of the show, I've got four mail bag questions from you guys that we're gonna hit, talking a little bit of Celtics, a little bit Laker, some other stuff, some thunder, and some other stuff around the league. You guys know the Joe four we get started. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel so you don't

miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore jcnlt so you guys don't miss show announcements as well as the film threads that I do from time to time. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight. It's also helpful v lev rating in a review on that podcast feed. And then, last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions in those YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them

throughout the rest of the season. We also have a fun surprise for you guys tomorrow, the Nerd Sash guys are coming on the show. We're going to do a We're going to do a preview of the Clippers MAVs first round series, as well as some other topics from around the league. That should be fun before we head into our final weekend. All right, let's talk some basketball. So my number three contender, and you know, this was a spot that I've been arguing with myself about for weeks.

At this point, I've probably had five or six different teams in this spot at different points in the season. I've thought about the Bucks in this spot in the early portion of the season, thought a lot about the Clippers in this spot in the middle portion of the season. In the recent stretch of games. A couple of weeks ago, I was really high on the Suns just because of how well they match up with Denver, which I view as basically a prerequisite to get out of the Western Conference.

Not a big shock, obviously, but the team that I ended up landing on here and they won me over

ironically with their defense, because it's a team that I've already believed in what Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving can do, but the unbelievable backline athleticism and the way they can impact the game with guys like PJ. Washington and Maxi Kliba, and then Derrek Jones Jior has been a very good perimeter defender for them during this stretch. This defense and rebounding run that they've been on has got me all

bought in on the Dallas Mavericks. And so the team that I landed on is my team that leads the second tier of championship contenders because I have view Denver and Boston on their own tier. The team that leads that second tier of contenders for me is the Dallas Mavericks. So they are fifty to thirty right now. They are locked into the five seed in the Western Conference. For the season, they are seventh in offense and seventeenth in defense,

twenty second in defensive rebounding. But since the trade deadline, since bringing in PJ. Washington and Daniel Gaffer, they are twenty one and seven. That is the second best record in the league behind Boston. Over that span, they are third in offense in that span, sixth in defense, and

sixth in defensive rebounding. Since March seventh sixteen to two, best record in the league over that span, fourth in offense, number one defense in the league by a pretty sizable margin about two points per one hundred possessions over that span, so basically the last fourth of the season they've been the very best defense in basketball. Rebounding has slipped a little bit in that span their eleventh in defensive rebounding,

but playing some unbelievably good basketball right now. They also are tied for the best clutch record in the league with the Lakers at twenty three to nine. An excellent late game execution team, they're strengths. Lukadancic is the second best offensive engine in the league behind Nikole Jokic. I would also personally have him second in my MVP rankings behind nikol Jokic. I know MAVs fans are convinced that he should be the MVP, and I do think he has a very good case, but to me, this is

literally the difference. There are six games back in the standings, and yeah, I know Dallas has had injury issues, but

IML Murray has missed twenty three games as well for the Nuggets, And to me, like, if you're going to make up a gap for six games. Luca needs to be like, clearly indiscernibly better than Nikola Jokic, and he's

just not so. With them both playing at a similar level in the regular season and Denver just being that far ahead in the standings, I think you got to give the nod to Jokic, But a very very good MVP type of campaign from the from Luka Doncic, and I expect him to get what, if not won multiple

over the course of the next few seasons. He's averaging a career high thirty four points per game on a career high sixty two percent true shooting, a career high nine point eight assists per game, a career high forty one percent unpull up jumpers, a career high thirty eight percent unpull up threes. So just an unbelievable season from him. The best part is, too, is we know that Luca's

game translates extremely well to the postseason. We've seen him in multiple playoff runs with his size and his strength and the versatile way that he attacks continue to caught massive problems for playoff defenses. If anything, he goes up a level when he gets to that point instead of many of his peers around the league that tend to actually struggle when they get to that point. They have

a perfectly complimentary secondary shot creator and Kyrie Irving. He's struggled in the postseason since leaving Cleveland, but I still think he has that level in him. And this is a better team than some of the other teams that he's been on, so I don't think that'll be as big of an issue. They have solid perimeter defense personnel. Derek Jones Junior is a really good option for guards,

really quick, really long, really athletic PJ. Washington for forwards, and that again is going to be a big deal in the Western Conference when you have to go through the likes of Lebron and Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard and so on and so forth. And he's probably going to get that Kawhi Leonard matchup to start the LA Clippers series. But they also have excellent back line personnel PJ.

Washington and maxic Leeb. I've got a bunch of examples today that I'll be showing you guys about the level of impact they can have as defensive rebounders and help side defenders on the back line of Dallas's defense, they actually remind me of the KCP. The Derek Jones Junior PJ.

Washington dynamic actually reminds me a lot of what Denver has with KCP and Aaron Gordon in the sense that, like they can construct a quality defense with some limited personnel, like because Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Junior are averaged to slightly below average defensive players, right, and then you go to Nicola Jokic and he's the guy that's in that average to slightly above average type of level. But they construct a top ten defense because they have excellent

defensive personnel. And then the other three guys just do their job within the scheme. They have excellent scheme discipline and Dallas, you know, to their credit, to Kyrie and Luka Doncic's credit, they've had great scheme discipline all season, doing their jobs on the majority of the Knights. And then when you add that again, when you add that perimeter defense dynamic of de Derrek Jones Junior, and PJ.

Washington with options off the bench too, guys like Josh Green, they can guard on the perimeter with back line guys like Maxi Kleiba and Daniel Gafford and Derek Lively. Gafford and Lively, it's been a mixag with them this season, but for the most part, I think they've been fine. I just think that all of those athletes. That is what actually moved Dallas ahead of Phoenix. For me, is

there just ability to hold up in rock fights. I've watched Phoenix a couple of times in the last couple of weeks get punched in the mouth by really physically aggressive teams and then kind of failed to meet that challenge. That was the big one for me that ended up pushing Dallas over the top. They're also a much better transition offense than they were last year. They were twenty seventh in transition frequency last year. They're eighth in transition

frequency this year. And there's two factors that play into that. Much better athletes like we talked about earlier, but also better defense. You've got to get stops to get out in transition. That was a huge part of Dallas's second quarter run against the Miami Heat. We're going to get to that when we get to our film session at the end of the show. And then, lastly, on their strengths late game execution, They've been tied with the Lakers

for the best clutch team in the league. Just combination of that defensive personnel we talked about and just having two incredibly high level shots creators that excel in that part of the game. Their weaknesses again, Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncis. Has been solid within the scheme defensively this year, but they do represent entry points for opposing offenses and teams will target them. That is going to be a situation that could get them into rotation a little bit.

But again, it's going to be about game plan discipline. As long as they stick to their like let's say they need to hedge and recover or front the post or whatever it is. As long as they do that job, there's good enough personnel around them that it shouldn't be a problem. Their backside offensive personnel has some guys that you're okay with shooting threes, So guys like Maxic Kleb,

but PJ. Washington, Derek Jones Jr. Derek Jones Junior shot well when he's completely unguarded this year, but you can

he's got a little bit of a slower release. You can chase him off the line a little bit, and then some of their short role guys, guys like Daniel Gafford, Maxicalle, But like if you challenge them to make reads in that short role in four on three, they're good, not great at it, right, So like this, it's it's interesting with teams like Phoenix, I think teams are gonna try to guard actions one on one and two on to try to force their scorers to make shots because they

have such unbelievable shooting talent off the ball. Dallas, I think teams are gonna be more willing to double and trap against them and just try to bait their lower level offensive players to try to make plays. And again, like I think it's worth it, Like I would rather have Dallas's configuration. I'd rather have the athletes, and I'd rather have the defensive ceiling that they have than to have the offensive ceiling that Phoenix has. And so I think it's a trade off that is more than worth

it for Dallas. But that to me is like their one offensive weakness is like if you if you get the ball out of Kyrie and Luka Doncic's hands, you can get the right guys to take shots in the right spots for your defense? What does the path look like? All about defense and rebounding. I trust Kyrie and Luka Doncic to win that shot quality battle over the course of a seven game series. But the West have some really has some really high powered and high IQ offenses

at the top. They're gonna need to figure out a way to sold them down for their offense push them over the top. That's gonna be the challenge. Will Dallas defense hold up when they get to the later rounds

of the postseason. Number two in my list of contenders, the Boston Celtics sixty two to seventeen best record in the league with a six and a half game lead over the rest of the field first and offense, second in defense, ninth in defensive Rebounding their strengths, they are the most talented roster in the league by a mile. Each of their top six players is a high level two way player. Jason Tatum is a top ten player in the league and one of the best perimeter defenders

in the league. Jalen Brown came into the year as a top twenty player, but he's been playing at a top ten level for the last couple of months of big development as He's built out a really successful post up game in playing some of the best defense of his career. Derek White is one of the best three and D guards in the league and also a solid

second side creator. Drew Holliday one of the best defensive guards in the league with the versatility to guard bigger players, and he's shooting forty six percent on catch and shoot threes this year. Then Christaps Porzinge's thirty nine percent on catching shoot threes, and he's been the best volume post up player in the league this year. They're twenty five players in the league that have run at least two hundred post upsps. Porzingis is number one at one point

three to one points per possession. Yokich is at number two with one point one five, although he's run eight hundred and twelve possessions, so he's preposterously high volume. Porzingis is at only two thirty one, But to the point is in his mismatch attacking post up situations, especially against switching defenses, Chrisops Porzingis has been deadly and then Al Horford, the sixth best guy on the team, still an excellent positional defender at the center position and a plus offensive

player at thirty seven years old. They constantly have mismatches on the offensive end of the floor, and outside of like the very best guys in the league, the you know, Jokic Luca types. Outside of those guys, they really match up well defensively with everybody in the league. And there's not really many guys in the league that can match up with Jokich or Luca anyway. So that's not a problem that's unique to the Boston Celtics. They are one of the best on paper basketball teams I can remember

seeing in the NBA. But they have one weakness. They're extremely reliant on jump shooting, and they have a tendency to go cold, especially in big games. Their last nine losses this year, six of them were to the Nuggets, the Clippers, the Bucks, and the Lakers, all in major national TV showdowns, and in each one of them, they went cold shooting jumpers, especially down the stretch of the game,

and could not find another way to consistently score. There was kind of a brief stretch there post All Star Break where they were scoring better in the paint and being a little bit more versatile, but that didn't last. They are now eighteenth and points in the paint per game post All Star Break, and twenty ninth in points in the paint scored per game in the NBA for the season. It's really a simple for Boston. This is

their path. If they can keep the cold stretches of jump shooting few and far between, they're just gonna win the title. They're that good. They're too good for everybody. If they're hitting their shots. I think they have a higher ceiling than Denver by a pretty significant margin. I just trust Denver to be at their ceiling more consistently, which is why I have them higher on this list.

They have more resiliency in their ability to maintain their production offensively on a possession by possession basis, regardless of matchup, regardless of circumstance. That's why I have them higher. However, there's one other factor that works very heavily in Boston's favor. That is something I want to keep an eye on

in this postseason run. If Jannis can't play in the first round of the postseason, and obviously we know Julius Randall can't go, they're gonna annihilate everyone in the Eastern Conference. Like if Jannis can't go. I think Milwaukee's gonna lose in the first round in all likelihood, and then you look at like the Knicks without Julius Randall. I think they'll be really good, but I don't think they can

beat Boston without them. Miami always has the talent in the ability to kind of throw Boston at a whack, but with the development of Chris porzil at, addition of christophs Porzingis, and the development of Jalen Brown as post threats, they're more equipped to handle some of the switching stuff

that Miami does. This is just a better team than the Boston team last year that lost to the Miami Heat in seven games, And so I just think I think that there's a pretty solid chance that Boston just annihilates everyone in the Eastern Conference, and if they do, on the other end of that, Denver's almost certainly going to have to go through three great teams before they get there. So, for instance, I have a feeling by the odds that the Lakers are in all likelihood canna

end up with the ten seed. They could very well get eliminated. I'd say it's like about a coin flip chance, But I do think the Lakers are the best team

in the playoff in the play in bracket when they're healthy, so they should be capable of going and winning that road game and then winning the next one. If they do, they're the eight seed. So Denver would have to face the eight seed, which is my sixth best contender, which is the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round. If they won that series, they'd play the winner of Clippers MAVs, and that is literally my fifth and third best contenders

on the list. When that on the other end of the bracket, they're gonna be facing someone like a Phoenix, someone like an Oklahoma City, Minnesota so like. And then if they if they happen to get through all those series, they're gonna be looking at Boston waiting for them on

the other end. So they could have to deal with Lebron James and Anthony Davis for seven games and then turn around and deal with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George or Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irvin for seven games and then at the end of that, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal and Devin Booker or Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobaert and

Carl Towns like. It's just an entirely different level of competition in that Western Conference, and so there's a chance that when Denver gets to June, they could just be worn out compared to where Boston is in the level of difficulty they're gonna face in that Eastern Conference. There's a chance that Boston could literally sweep and just go twelve oh through the East, and that's on the table. That's not happening for Denver. Denver's not going to through

the West. They're going to drop five or six games on their way out if they even get out of the Western Conference with how good it is, and so I think that's an advantage that works really heavily in Boston's favor. I think it's easily their best chance to win the title since they had Kevin Garnett on the squad in the late two thousands. Number one, though the Denver Nuggets fifty six and twenty four sole possession of the number one seed in the Western Conference, seventh in offense,

eighth in defense for the season. So that's what's crazy. They continue to ride that wave of defense that they kind of built in the postseason run last year and just brought it into this season. Their strengths. They have by far the best basketball player on earth in my opinion, Literally nobody in the league can stop him from getting to a shot that he will make more than half

the time. I'm not talking about points per possession. I'm not talking about shot value based on the addition of the of that extra point that you get from a three point shot. I'm talking about straight field goal percentage. He's the most reliably great offensive player for a small handful possessions that I've seen in my time watching the league. Not even Steph for Lebron had the ability to get to a go to move with a field goal percentage, not a shot value, but a field goal percentage over

sixty percent. Jokic is shooting sixty one percent on hooks this year. He's shooting sixty two percent on floaters. He's shooting seventy percent at the rim. Every other star in NBA history has had a certain like shot variance element that plays a role in their game. Sometimes MJ got a good look and he just missed. Sometimes Steph got

a great look and he just missed. Lebron. Even with Lebron as great as he is, and I think Lebron at his peak is a better player than Jokic at his peak when you factor in his abilities on the defensive end of the four and in transition. But even Lebron didn't have a short turnaround jumper or a hook shot that he could get to and finish at over fifty percent from the field. There is an inevitably, an inevitability, excuse me, with Nikole Jokic that you literally feel helpless.

Rudy Gobert is. I don't think he's the best player defensive player in the world, but he's clearly a top five defensive player in the world. And Jokic just dog walked him under the basket every single time he wanted to. Last night, it was it was absolutely insane. I couldn't believe what I was watching. I have all the clips in the film session. We're gonna be going over it here in just a few minutes. But like, here's the thing.

You can beat Jokic when your shot is falling, like Phoenix when they went in and beat Denver in overtime in that game, if you make your shots, you have a chance to beat them, right, Because yeah, in shot value, situations when they go in. Sometimes those threes are worth more. Sometimes you're gonna beat them. But over a seven game series, Jokic's shot is far more likely to go in more often than yours, and that's what makes him so difficult

to deal with in those situations. And he's surrounded by a perfectly complimentary set of role players. Jamal Murray as the two man game kind of shot maker or matchup hunter. He shoots forty six percent on pull up jump shots. That's not effective Fielgal percentage percentage. So even Jamal Murray, his shot making peace goes in damn near half the time,

and that adds to the inevitability of that offense. Both KCP and Michael Porter Junior are up over one point one to seven points per spot up possession, so they're both top tier spot up guys in the league. So you just can't leave them open, and they both can run second side action with NICOLEA Jokic Aaron Gordon as

the vertical spacer and matchup attacker. We've seen Denver you put a small guy on Gordon, they'll just abandon their offense and just throw the ball to Gordon down low and bully ball until you find a way to counter it, like them working along the baseline. Any sort of help against Jokic, whether it's a pass to Gordon under the rim, or even Jokic can just throw up a hook and God forbid Jokic misses the one out of three times he takes that hook over his left shoulder, Gordon's gonna

probably clean up the mess. On the back line, they have a good backup guard and Reggie Jackson that can help in the very small spurts that they'll need him to in this postseason. And then athletes off the bench, Christian Brown and Peyton Watson, who really anchor that switching defense that they use in the minutes that Yokich is off the floor. And they had an excellent night last

night against the Timberwolves. They actually there was a few minutes there to start the fourth quarter where they extended the lead by one without Yokich and without Murray on the floor, mainly on the strength of their defense and Christian Brown, Payton Watson were just wrecking balls last night, So you got to see that up close and personal. And then execution. Everybody knows their role, Nobody steps out outside of it. Everyone has good scheme, discipline, and does

what the coach asks them to do. They have counters on top of counters for any defensive coverage they run into. They're also a very good defensive team. They have multiple coverages that we're gonna actually go over a bunch of them, all of them in today's film session. They have a good high drop with Tag, they have a good deep drop, and then they can switch when Yokich is off the floor. Their weakness, they really only have one, just like Boston,

but Denver's weakness is different. Their bench units struggle. They are minus eleven point two per one hundred possessions without Yokich on the floor. They go to this lineup with Jamal Murray out there and they just switch everything and

Jamal really just looks to hunt his own shot and they kind of get killed in those minutes. But here's the thing. They were minus twelve without Jokic on the floor last year, and the way they addressed it is

they ramped up the minutes for everybody. So they only had three hundred and ten possessions last year in the postseason with Jokic off the floor, and then they just ratchet up the defensive intensity in those really short bursts, and they were actually plus four net per one hundred possessions in those three hundred and ten possessions with Jokic off the floor last year in the postseason run, so

scale the minutes up. Jokic actually played forty two minutes per night in the Western Conference finals and finals last year. So you're only talking about a six minute window, basically three minutes per half the start of the second quarter, start of the fourth quarter every night, and they just ratchet up the defense in those minutes. They get enough stops, they keep the game close. Yokic comes back in and does all the damage to end the night. There, So

even their biggest weakness doesn't necessarily concern me. Again, I think Boston does have a higher ceiling when they are healthy or excuse me, when they're hitting their three point shots. Misspoke there, when they're hitting their shots, they have a higher ceiling than Denver. But I think that Denver is more consistently at their ceiling, more reliable at their ceiling.

That makes them my number one championship favorite. The NBA season is in full swing, and when I can't get enough of the action on the court, I spice things up betting on Draft King sports Book, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. Right now, new customers bet five bucks and get one hundred and fifty dollars instantly in bonus bets. Right now, the championship favorite is the

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code hoops. The crown is yours. On that note, let's dig into the film from last night's Minnesota Denver game. And so just to give you guys a heads up, this is gonna be This is gonna look a lot more like what the format is going to be when we get to the postseason. So when we get to the postseason at we're gonna go live on YouTube after the final buzzer of these games when we go, we'll

just mostly be doing just just monologues. Right. We might occasionally, like a major sequence at the end of a game, we might grab the footage and go over it for the sake of just adding a little production quality in those game in those shows, but for the most part, those are gonna be audio only, or I should say without film. The next morning, though, I'm going to wake up and watch film and I'm just going to drop clips into a folder and then basically we'll do this.

We'll do like film satchs won't be every morning, It'll probably only be a few times a week, but I'm just gonna drop clips and then kind of just share with you guys my findings in film. It's not gonna be as structured as the shows at night. It's more gonna just be for you guys to follow along with me as we're doing our postseason coverage. And so this

is a good example of that. I have something crazy like forty clips from this particular game that we're gonna go through, and it's just gonna just demonstrate a bunch of specific concepts that I have my eye on. It's gonna be it's gonna bounce around. We're not gonna stay in specific topics. It's gonna go in a linear fashion through the game. It's just a way for me to kind of share with you guys what my film sessions look like when I'm watching through these games. All right,

let's get to the film. So this is the opening possession against Minnesota, and it's gonna give you, guys an example of the base coverage that Denver is going to use most likely against most teams. The one of the big topics that we're gonna be going through today in this film session is the pros and cons of going with the high drop with the tag versus the low drop where everyone stays home. And you're gonna see some

examples of both of them in this film session. So here this first possession, this is what high drop with the tag looks like. So we got a little screen there. It's gonna be a dribble handoff with Gobert and Conley, Jamal Murray on the ball. NIKOLEA. Jokic, the slipper in this case, is gonna be go bear the difference between

a low drop and a high drop. In the deep drop or load drop, Jokic is gonna keep go Bear in front of him, and because he keeps Go Bear in front of him, you don't need to tag the roller from the weak side. But when Yokic comes up into a high drop, go Bear is gonna get behind him. And so when go Bear gets behind him, and in this case, Minnesota is actually trying to run stack, pick and roll. They're trying to screen Yokics, but it doesn't serve a purpose because Jokic is so high. In this case,

the tag is coming from Michael Porter Junior. Okay, so as you can see, Go Bear slips behind Nikole, Jokic is up at the level. MPJ is gonna tag Go Bear as soon as the pass goes to anywhere else or by the time Jokic recovers, Michael Porter Junior will then close out on the weak side. Here's a good close out. He's able to contain Jaden McDaniels. The ball gets rotated around to nas Reid, who ends up missing a shot at the basket. So that's basically the base

concept of the high drop. Essentially, Jokic comes up to the level to dissuade the pull up jump shot and to cut off the driving lane. Somebody on the weak side, depending on who's most well positioned for it, is going to tag the roller and then rotate back out. Here's an example of the read and react offense from Denver. So on this side of the floor, Gordon has the ball and Yokic is gonna run down and Jamal Murray's

gonna run a little screening action with him. But Jaden McDaniels is going to cheat the action and come over onto this strong side of the screen. So again you can see Jamal Murray getting set up to screen Jokic. Yo. Get they're kind of just getting in here and mucking things up. But when Jada McDaniels jumps way out to the high side, you can actually see Jamal Murray make

a read. He goes you can see Jamal Murray's looking, he sees Jay McDaniels all the way in the so he just slips back out to the three point line. And that's one of the cool things that makes Denver's defense offense so hard to guard, Like they have these set actions, but everyone has the freedom to make reads out of it, and if you see a guy overplaying, you just slip. And all of their guys are good enough passers to be able to capitalize on those slips.

Here's another example of the tag with a or a high drop with the tag. Okay, so we're going back to Conley with Aaron Gordon on the ball. This time, Jokis is gonna come high. Go Bear is going to slip behind. Michael Porter Junior is gonna come tag off of Jade McDaniels. And then here again, this is one of those ones where Go Bear should never have put the ball on the floor. He should have read that Michael Porter Junior was there and thrown the pass instead.

When he puts the ball on the floor, Michael Porter Junior is able to kind of disrupt him enough for him to throw a bad pass and to turn it over. And so again, one of the things that's an advantage of running the high drop is it puts the onus on the guy in the short role to be able to reads and that's not a strength of Go Bears, and that allowed them to force a turnover on that

specific play. And again I went back and forth about this because I was thinking at first, I was like, well, deep drop, it's like what Minnesota did, or excuse me, what Milwaukee did to Minnesota. That one time, and Conley and Aunt weren't able to make enough shots, and so like that's like the upside to that style. But the upside of the high drop is it puts the onus on their playmaking, which can be a weakness on this particular team. And so we'll see some more examples of that.

And I kind of came around over the course of this film session. I kind of came around to the high drop being the best option. And I'm curious to hear you guys thoughts as well. If you disagree, drop them in the comments. This is an example of Minnesota's base coverage against Denver, and so what we got here, and it'll be Carl Towns instead of nas Reid when they're healthy. But it's the power forward on Jokic with

go bear on Gordon and sitting in help. And the idea here is you're forcing Yokic to make over the top shots instead of pivot through shots that are at the rim, because again, Jokic is gonna shoot sixty percent on a He's gonna shoot seventy percent when he gets underneath the basket, and so you're basically buying that extra ten percent by leaving Gobert and help. But here's the problem. Jokic is gonna make that shot sixty percent. That's just an example of how there's not really a good option

for guarding Nikola Jokich. This is another high drop against Anthony Edwards, and I really liked it against Ant. Our first two examples were against Conley. I really liked it against Aunt surprisingly because it baited him into his biggest weakness, which is playmaking, and so it's gotten better, and it's gotten a lot better at playmaking this season. We've talked

about it. But he's twenty two years old and he's got to score first mentality, and so this is gonna be a journey over the next few years for him to kind of figure this stuff out. Now, when we get a high drop high drop with Tag, you see Michael Porter Junior coming over right, Gordon's pointing. They're communicating, we're in the drop right. The read here to actually

beat this coverage is the skip pass. And I think in the entire game, if I remember correctly, I think Ant only made the skip pass twice with the you know, probably a dozen or so times he saw this coverage, which I think goes to show you how it challenges the playmaking there. Ant has a tendency when he gets these high drops or blitz is to just get rid of the basketball. So in this case, he comes off, he sees the high drop, so he knows there's not

really an opportunity for him to score. He just throws a swing pass to Conley, so essentially the advantage is taken away from that. Here is an example of Cacp's incredible defensive ability, holding up on Nasried in the post, stripping him clean as he tries to again, he's absorbing the contact, absorbing the contact, and then as soon as Nasrid exposes the basketball and his step through to get to that hook shot, he just reaches in and grabs it.

Watch expose the ball, grab it again. When you're guarding a bigger player, it's all about attacking the pocket rather than trying to contest up top. If you can test up top, you're not gonna have much success because they're just taller than you. Attack the pocket. You can capitalize

on their weakness, the weakness of most larger basketball players, which is ball handling. Here's an example of deep drop against Ant Okay. So they run the first action with high drop or no, so this is deep drop. So again, notice Ant's Jokic is not at the level of the screen, and so because he's not at the level of the screen, he can keep Gobart in front. As a result, Michael Porter Junior doesn't need to tag. Jamal Murray doesn't need

to tag, so because everyone's home. That leaves Ant on an island with Gobert and Michael Porter Junior throws kind of a token tag there, but he didn't really need to. So this puts Ant on the island as a scorer. But Ant's just an unbelievable player and he's gonna make shots there sometimes. This is an example of excellent back pressure from Jaden McDaniels on Jamal Murray and pick and roll.

So again, as Jamal comes around here, Gordon's gonna step in because go Bear is gonna end up offering some helping. Gordon is gonna step in for like a little baseline cut. But Jamal Murray throws a bad pass because he's pressured by mcdaniels's. McDaniels was all over him. He's knocking him off balance and he ends up throwing a pass way too low, which turns into a turnover. Jane McDaniels, again, in my opinion, is the best perimeter defender in the league.

Here's an example of Aunt beating the high drop. Again. I only saw this twice in the game, but this is what it looks like when it's done right. So here we go. We're gonna get ant with the ball screen. Go Bear is gonna set ag is gonna tag Go Bear on the slip, so we have it actually rejects the screen, but Yokic is still up at the level. Gordon tags Go Bear Ant makes the skip pass to Conley. So again this ball screen, he could come this way and Yokah is being drop over there, but Yokic comes

in high drop. On the rejection of the ball screen, Go Bear slips, Gordon tags skip past to Conley. That's the read that you have to make to actually beat this coverage, but it just he didn't make that read often enough. This is kind of a funny little action. I thought this was interesting and I don't know if they did this on purpose, but you could talk me

into it if you were a Denver fan. This they just kind of lazily walk up the floor, which baits all these Minnesota players into lazily walking up the floor, which puts Jokic on an island against Nasrid underneath the basket. Notice none of the Denver players are running up because if they did, these Minnesota players be running with him. It clears all this space for Yokic to quit go

to work against a reed underneath the basket. Again, that might just be an impromptu, accidental thing, but you could also talk me into that being on purpose. Here's one of the downsides of the high drop, and that is that if Yokic is further back, so let's wait till he comes off the screen first. So if Yokic is back here and ant hits the jets, he has a better chance of like anticipating the drive direction and beating

him to a spot. But when he's up this high aunt can use his quickness to just go around him. And so in this case he just goes around him and gets all the way to the rim, and it just puts more it puts more responsibility on that back line. Help all right, This is an example of how in ball screens with Jokic, your job as the guard is just to occupy the rim protector and get a shot up on the rim. So Reggie Jackson with Kyle Anderson

on him, we're gonna get a Yokic ball screen. Here as Reggie Jackson moves down, all he has to do is occupy go bet to buy Yokic an opportunity to crash the offensive glass, so he gets in. This is a layup that he's missing. It's a really difficult layup. But now you have Monni Morris and Kyle Anderson trying to contend with Yokic underneath the basket, which is just

too much of a challenge. Here is the first of Peyton Watson's six blocks, and I think I have all of them in this feed, but like it just unbelievable stuff. Here the ball gets worked around to nas or excuse me, this is a Nikkeil Alexander Walker. So Nikil Alexander Walker is rejecting the screen and he needs to do a better job of setting up Peyton Watson for the screen. So he's trying to cross away from the screen just

like that. What he needs to do is actually work his way closer to Kyle Anderson because if he does, Peyton Watson will have to prep to fight over the screen. If he has to prep to fight over the screen. He's gonna have to take this left foot and put it way on Kyle Anderson's high side. And as soon as he does that, if Nikil Alexander Walker crosses over, he's gonna toast Peyton Watson because because he's just way

out of position to contain that drive back to that side. Instead, he rejects the screen way too early and Peyton Watson just slides with him and meets him at the rim. There are some absolutely preposterous defensive plays from Peyton Watson in this game. Here's another one where he helps on a double team. Go Bear's gonna get a switch here onto Christian Brown if I remember correctly, yep gets a switch.

He runs down to the post and gets the touch, makes an aggressive move into the lane and Peyton Watson offers help, literally leaves his feet, leaves his feet and help so he's literally off the ground. Here, Go Bear's made the feed and somehow Peyton Watson literally meets him back at the rim and blocks him. Just a ridiculous defensive play. He's like in two places at once. It's like having a sixth defender on the floor. Here's another

just completely absurd defensive recovery from Peyton Watson. This one didn't even count as a block because they called him for a foul. So Peyton Watson is completely dealing with Conley Here. There's a bounce past to Kyleie Anderson. Just watch the speed with which he recovers back to Kyle Anderson. That's completely ridiculous. That is an absurd defensive play. Like Peyton Watson is going to be so good as soon as he figures out how to be a plus offensive

player in Denver scheme. This is an example of something that Minnesota desperately needs, and that's Jaden McDaniel's scoring. So in this kind of broken offensive rebound sequence, Jade McDaniel's catches and just goes straight to work on a switch against Aaron Gordon. So we get a switch Aaron Gordon. Remember these these Denver units without Jokic are going to go to a switching attack. This is one of the

best foward defenders in the league. And Jade McDaniels just gets into his body and leans back and makes a little floater over the top. Jaden's got great length and the way that he kind of scores is by like leaning back to shoot over the top. He always has done a good job of that. Here's another Peyton Watson block of Naz Reed on a curl on a pin down. So there's a simple basic basketball action that you see at every level. Jordan McLaughlin's gonna set a pin down,

Nasorita is gonna curl around it. Peyton Watson is chasing and just meets him at the rim. These plays are so ridiculous. This is an example of both coverages. So we're gonna get a high drop on Ant that doesn't amount to anything, and then we're gonna get a low drop that Aunt actually gets a bucket. So again, here we go. Here's the high drop. We have Peyton Watson on the ball. Jokic comes up high as he comes off, go Bear slips behind Yokic. We have a tag from

Michael Porter Jr. And Ant doesn't make the skip pass. Instead, he just turns around and throws an exit pass here at to Moni Morris. Advantage is gone. So again that's another high drop that you're able to shut down the action by basically taking advantage of Anthony Edwards in some of his limited playmaking. Then we're gonna go right back to Ant. This time, Jokic doesn't bother and stays in a low drop. Because he's in a low drop, there's a like kind of a token tag from KCP, but

he stays home. Yoka just here. Everyone's Everyone's home. Yokic is on Gobert CACP is on Nasried, Michael Porter Juniors on jad McDaniels, Jamal Murray's on Monti Morris. But Anthony Edwards just gets a bucket. Now, there's a case to be made that the two buckets that he got in the deep drop coverage were both really tough shots. And so that's the upside is you're gonna turn it into

a tough shot maker. And by the way, I mean this is one of the reasons why I'm lower on Minnesota than most is like I don't trust their ability to consistently beat any coverage when it comes to the postseason, and that's a big part of why I'm not as high on them as other teams. Here's an example of relentless pursuit by Jaden McDaniels on Jamal Murray to force a turnover. So he's chasing, chasing, chasing, chasing, gets caught a little bit, chase Chase, Chase, No let up here.

He's still going, still going. And then as soon as Jamal Murray slows down, Jade McDaniels shoots in there and forces a turnover. I can't even imagine how much of a pain in the acid be going against him for forty eight minutes. All right, this is the first Rudy Gobert was just on the menu tonight for Nicolo or last night for Nicola Joki. It's just barbecue him all over the place. And this is the first example of that in transition. Just this is again top five defensive

player in the world. He just doesn't even see him there. He just goes right throughom. That's an easy basket. That's just easy. Here's another nice bucket from Jaden McDaniels, scoring on an island. So we have the high drop, the high draft gets swing swung back to Jade McDaniels, and Jade McDaniels just hits Jamal Murray with the series of moves and gets to the basket. Again. They're really gonna need that from him. Here is a really really good

high drop possession from Denver. All right, so we have Conley coming out there. Gobar sets the screen. Yokic comes into high drop, Go Bear slips behind. We have the tag from KCP. Conley makes the swing pass to Anderson. Anderson is going to make the extra pass to Anthony Edwards. Look at that rotation from Michael Porter Jr. Michael Porter Jr. Identifies the rotation. He starts making his rotation as soon

as the swing pass has made boom. So Anderson doesn't even have the ball yet, but mpj knows that Edwards is the next rotation, and he's already out there. And so here we are. They ran ball screen and we're at two point six seconds on the shot clock and there's no advantage. That's just a really good defensive possession

from Denver. Here's an example of one of the ways that you can beat This is the second time that that Ant made the skip pass in the high drop, but this time they don't actually beat it with a shot. They beat it on the offensive glass. So high drop, Go Beart slips and PJA tags. Ant finally makes the skip pass that I've been calling for. Skip pass gets made. Kyle Anderson not a good shooter, he misses it, but

watch Jokich. Jokic is here, Go Bear is here. So Gobart has a massive offensive rebounding advantage here and he's able to get that position on jokicch and finish easily at the rim. Here's an example of the classic Denver tic tac toe that we see on offense so often. So again, in the high drop coverage, your job is to stop them from turning the corner just as much as it is to stop them from taking the pull up jump shot. And so when Jamal Murray really drags

the ball ball screen around. He's watched Jamal Murray here. He's going to drag this all the way around, which forces Gobert to go pretty far in that direction to contain that drive because he has to, because Jade McDaniels gets caught a little bit and so he drags it out. And because he drags it out, Jokic gets a really good clean catch here. And on this clean catch, Nase Reid has to tag. When he tags Aaron Gordon is going to easily slip along the baseline for the reverse dunk.

That's a very very important part of dealing with the high drop coverage. That dragging the defender as far over as you can. That was the big if you guys remember correctly, that was the big counter that Steph Curry used in Game four of the Western Conference Semis last year against the Lakers. After they got dominated in Game three, Steph started really dragging that ball screen action out further

to make ad go further away from the play. This time, Denver is going to beat a high drop coverage by using Aaron Gordon flashing to the high post. So here's our ball screen, here's our high drop. Jade McDaniels is trying to recover. Go Bear is tagging off of Gordon on Jokic. Gordon just kind of sits in that soft spot right there in the middle of the floor, and then on the catch, he takes an advanced dribble to draw Anthony Edwards in and make the swing pass to

Michael Porter Junior on the week side. Again, like Denver, you're on the high drop, they're finding a way to get it to the soft spot. Every single time Minnesota against the high drop, they're struggling to get the ball to the right spots. Ant had some good success going through Jokic at the rim in this game, and I thought this was another example just sticking his arms out. He drew some fouls this way too, just didn't really wasn't really bothered by Jokic at the rim. That was

an advantage for Minnesota in this matchup. Here's another example of Jokic just powering right through Rudy Gobert like he's not even there. Again, like I said, it was almost like he was trying to make a point in this game. Here's another advantage that I thought. This is another matchup advantage for Minnesota. KCP is the primary defender on Aaron Gordon to start the game, but really he struggled when Ant just tried to power through him. So again, KCP

is doing everything right. He's absorbing contact, he's meeting him at spots, he's in the right spot. But Ant can just power through him to get where he wants to go. When I saw this play, it reminded me of one earlier in the game, and so I went back and pulled that one too. This is in the first quarter, if I remember correctly. Yeah, so end of the first quarter, Ant catches here on the weak side, he just hits KCP with a jab step and then powers right through him.

So like that's the thing I would imagine over the course of a series like that could be a matchup where Denver might have to get a little more creative and have to use someone like a Christian Brown a little bit more, or someone like a Payton Watson a

little bit more. Maybe even have to put Aaron Gordon excuse me on Anthony Edwards for stretches, or just like I said, capitalize on his limited playmaking ability by just kind of throwing the kitchen sink at him and not leaving him on an island as often as you can. Here's another Jokic possession, powering right through Gobert, this time on a pick and roll situation. So actually it was a broken play, so he kind of runs over Gobert. That should have probably been an offensive foul, but he

just goes like. The point here is that Jokic sees Gobert at the rim and he just has no problem going right through him. Here's another example of Gobert struggling to handle a Jokic. This is here's the setup for this play. Jokic is six for seven on threes in the last three games. So we get a double team, a kickout, and we're gonna get a ball screen so or ex Yeah, we get an off ball screen. On

the off ball screen, though, watch Gobert close out. Because Jokic has literally been dead eye from three as of late. He has to leave his feet on the close out. That gets him completely out of position. As soon as you watch Jokic, he understands his size advantages. The strength is his advantage. So you can see him kind to drop in that shoulder and getting low. Now watch, he just wants to get leverage inside leverage on Gobart, so you see right there. As soon as he gets this angle,

he leans into him and creates that advantage. Here we have yet another example of Anthony Edwards failing to beat the high drop coverage. Okay, so again Yokic high drop, go bear slip justin Holiday tag and we're just gonna get a straight swing pass around him. Monti Morris, no advantage. Look here though, count the Nuggets. We have Nikhil Alexander Walker completely unguarded this whole possession. You can't even see him. He's just standing over here, unguarded. But that read isn't

getting made now. I want to give the Nuggets a little bit of credit here. This is not an easy pass and when you apply good ball pressure like this, it's even harder to make that pass. That's what makes the those big playmaking forwards that I talk about such an advantage when you get to the postseason. These guys are staying in six ' eight, six ' nine, and they can just throw those over the top passes that

much easier. Another high drop, another contested shot, and then here we're gonna get another example of Yokis just powering through go Bear going in transition the other way. Little a nice little feed here from Peyton Watson and just again Jokicic just just doesn't even see go Bear underneath the basket. Here's an example of the high drop when it gets botched, primarily from being laid on the tag.

So this actually is a slip a switch because we're in the we're in the early fourth quarter period here, and Yokic is off the floor, so this Denver lineup's gonna be switching everything. But on the switch, Reggie chased a little too far over the top and so nas Reed got an easy slip. But mpj's late. I want to cut MPJ some slack here. So it's not a traditional pick and roll coverage. It's a botched slip, but he does need to be paying a little bit better attention.

All right, This is an example of the one of the most important stretches of the game in my opinion. So Jamal Murray was on a minutes restriction. So usually this stretch of the game you're getting Jamal Murray out there with Jokic off switching everything in and Jamal Murray trying to create all the offense. Right, But because of the minutes restriction, Jamal Murray's not out there. So it's the same bench unit that struggled all year with Jamal Murray,

except for this time it's Reggie Jackson. And like I talked about in our contender rankings, the way that this group managed to kind of float the boat last year without Yokic in the postseason, because remember they were plus four per one hundred in the postseason after being minus twelve per one hundred without Yokich in the regular season. They ratcheted up their defensive intensity and so the defense

was everything for the Denver Nuggets in this run. They went into start the fourth quarter at eighty three to eighty the two points for the Michael Porters in your late tag. But they're gonna go this stretch and Yo, Kitch and Murray are gonna check back into the game with about seven minutes left and the lead is going to increase from three to four. So they actually won this shift mostly because of their work on the defensive end and some great chemistry between Eric Aaron Gordon keep

calling him Eric Gordon. The some great chemistry between Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson operating on the on the low block on the other end. So again switching everything right, Gordon switches on to Conley, and then we're gonna get naz Reid setting a screen on on Gordon. That's gonna

get switched Watson on to Conley. Watch Watson absorb the contact and force the turnover again, the same kind of thing that that happened to Jamal Murray earlier in the game with Jade McDaniel's physicality, fall pressure gonna make a guy more likely to make a mistake. Here we have Peyton Watson blocking Naseerit again, this time in a straight post up on his move. So he gets beat on this move, gets beat to the baseline side, and he's just so athletic he just meets him at meets him

at the rim. Every time I see these highlights, it's just unbelievable. Christian Brown gets a block as well. In the broken part of the of the play, we go the other way and transition. This is an example of the wave after wave of athleticism you face with Michael Porter Junior and Aaron Gordon. So erin. Gordon's gonna make a movie here against Nikkeile Alexander Walker, and he's gonna miss Watch Michael Porter Junior just sneak in there and

get the offensive rebound. And again a big part of that there is Gordon's Gordon misses this shot, but he has drawn. He's on Jordan McLaughlin has drawn to Kiele Alexander Walker and help, and Rudy Gobert comes and makes a late attempt to try to block the shot. That is what clears this space for Michael Porter Junior to get in there and work. This is a beautiful spinning feed from Peyton Watas and to get a dunk for Aaron Gordon. So catch us here on the wing rip through.

McLaughlin comes over, spins around, drop off past to Gordon for a dunk. Really good chemistry there between the two. Here's a really nice possession of switching defense from the Nuggets. Brown switches on to McLaughlin, Gordon switches on to McLaughlin, but as a result we end up with nase Reid on.

Christian Brown got a hold up guards on switches against the Bigs and again this will probably be Carl Towns in a real series, but still the same kind of principle, and Christian Brown just Steymy's naseried forces him to take a shot over the top and he misses. Great work there from Christian Brown. Underrated, kind of like strong low center of gravity athlete. Christian is this time, Eric, I did it again. I don't know why I'm doing that.

Aaron Gordon returns the favor to Peyton Watson makes a move, draws the help drop off, draws the foul, So now Yokic is gonna come back into the game. Peyton Watson goes one for two, so Yokic is back in the game and the lead is gone from eighty three eighty to ninety one eighty seven in a literally a five minute stretch without your two best players on the floor. Really really impressive stretch there. From the Denver bench. Here's an example of the unstoppable Yokich Murray two man game.

As he comes off here, he's gonna pull it back out and they're gonna run it again, and this time Gobert he draws go beart In and Yokic instead of rolling into the tag, he just kind of finds that soft spot around the foul line and knocks down a jumper. This is so Anthony Edwards is just checked back into the game. It's a six point game, largest lead for Denver in a while, six minutes left. You desperately need

a good shot. But he's twenty two years old and he's got a score first mentality, and he's got to learn that this is not a good shot. Comes off of like a little screen here for Mike Conley and Jael Murray's right there and he just takes a contested

pull up three as soon as he steps in. Just just don't like the shot selection there from Ann This is you remember earlier when we were talking about that Nikhil Alexander Walker play on Peyton Watson where he did a bad job setting up his man for the screen. Here's an example of a much better job setting up your man for the screen. So again, watch Jamal Murray wants to get Jaden McDaniels to the point where he's starting his footwork to fight over the top before he

crosses over. So notice that see that little hop Jada McDaniels took that hop is because he worked over to the screen right there. Hop he's hopping that left. Just like I told you earlier, you got to take your screen side foot and you have to get it over the top of the screener's top foot. That's the footwork for fighting over the top of the screen. You've got to make him engage that footwork before you cross back over.

The Alexander Walker did not do that. Jamal Murray did, and as a result, he's able to beat Jada McDaniels cleanly off the dribble. Then from there, Yo Kicch is rolling hard, which keeps Gobert back pedaling, which opens up the floater, and Jamal Murray's just so good at all those coverage beaters shot like the shot making pieces to beat coverages. Yo kich torches go bear again here with

a spin move towards the baseline. Now our leads up to nine and then here's an example of how hard it is to guard Denver because of their three man actions and their ability to slip. So as we're getting ready to run our two man game here, but they're setting it up with a quick pin down, right, So essentially, Christian Brown is setting a screen on Jada McDaniels to try to generate a little bit of separation so that when Jamal Murray comes off this dribble hand off, he's

just in a better position with Jaden trailing more. Right, So in this case, Mike Conley is trying to help guard that he's pointing. You could see immediately he identifies it. Mike Conley right away knows this is going to be Jaul Murray coming down and a pin down setting into the dribble handoff. Conley points, hold up, here comes here, it comes here. Comes Everyone's keyed up this way, everyone is. And because everyone's keyed up this way, Mike Conley is

getting ready to hedge. And because Mike Conley's up like that and Jada McDaniels is still chasing, Christian Brown has inside position on everybody to slip to the basket. And this is the one guy on the planet that'll never miss that pass. And there are a few guys a few other guys in the league, but Yo Kich is in the short list of guys that are never going to miss this read. Christian Brown slips it dunks on Gobert for the first of two times in this game.

There's a little full court pressure from Minnesota late in the game. Game is already basically over, but little full court pressure. And on this action they're gonna make a kick head pass to Christian Brown. Christian Brown jumps right into go Bear's chest and then finishes over and with his left hand. Just fucking disgusting part of my language. Then we get a Brown lob in transition, this time from Michael Porter Junior game games out of reach here,

But these are just highlights. We're showing you some highlights for fun. And then lastly, this was a really fun one as they run a little screening action for nasried Peyton, Watson recovers blocks, it, gets the kick ahead pass, throws down the dunk. All right, we're moving on to MAVs heat now a quick run a quick little like follow

up on that Minnesota Denver one. So again, I think the takeaways from that film session are the high drop is probably their best option against limited playmakers against guys that are, but then against that same type of archetype, baiting them into taking tough shots is also a good option. They have good individual defenders that can defend there. I talk about scheme versatility as an advantage all the time.

Scheme versatility, to me is the ability to adjust your coverage based on the matchup, and there are a lot of teams out there that can only defend in one or two different coverages. The Nuggets have a bunch of different ways that can defend even in those bench groups. With yokichaff the floor really good switching individual defense that is the anchor of that type of defensive group. And again, they won those minutes last year after being terrible in

the regular season. They're gonna need to do it again this year. Just ratchet up the minutes for your best players so that you have these brief, small windows where you need those guys to lock in and they're capable of doing so. But yeah, I thought it also just kind of shined a light on some of the offensive limitations of Minnesota as it pertains to just kind of baiting them into their worst tendencies, settling for bad jump shots, not having the high enough level playmaking to beat coverages.

But great example of why I think Denver is the best team in the league, and a game where they anchored down that one spot heading into the postseason. All right, let's head over to MAVs heat. So Luca It hits two threes in a row to start the game. I don't have those in here, but this was just a funny one. The third three point attempt he takes, he takes it against Jimmy Butler just to step back in ISO.

This is just funny to me because the guy who always identifies where the miss is coming first is the shooter. He knows because he knows what it felt like coming off of his hands. So he misses the shot, but he knows he left it short, and so as soon as he shoots it, you can see he's like, oh, shoot ball still in there. He's like, ah, I left that way short. So he just runs right after it and ends up getting the offensive rebound put back. Here's an example of Derek Jones Junior in his high level

close out attacking. So Derek Jones Junior actually is a forty percent unguarded catch and shoot three point shooter. Although you can chase him off the line. Luka Donc just draws a straight double from the top. It goes down to a Gafford. Gafford draws three kicks out to Derek Jones Junior. He gets chased off the line, but he rips through and hits a little tough, little right shoulder fade in the lane. Derek Jones Jr. Is a very

good spot up player. He's really good at ripping through, finishing the ram, and he's got those little in between shots. He's getting one point zero seven points per possession in spot up situations, which is well above average. That is what's made him their best kind of like option as that perimeter defender slash guy that can function as a

spot up player in their offense. This is an example of Luca playing advantage basketball, which I think is something we haven't seen a ton from him in his career. But he's gonna pass this off and this is what it looks like when Luca attacks a close out. So he's gonna flash back over here, pump fake, get the defender out of position, and again you can kind of see this whole possession because he's closing out, he's at

a position his first thought is Luca's gonna drive. So you see him kind of like lean back right, boom, he takes that big retreat step. Then Luca leans back in pump fakes. Now he leaves his feet and then he just beats him off the dribble. Then we get the pass fake, right, we get the little pass fake, the look away pass fake, the Kliba which gets gets him the angle to get around Bam and finish at the basket. And he's just playing a lot more. He's already like I think fifteen to twenty more spot up

possessions this season than he did last year. So obviously he's just getting more of those opportunities with a more talented roster. Here's an example of Maxi Kleba making a help side play down on the block. So BAM's going to work against Luca, He's gonna go take a shot and then Kleeba's gonna come over and block him at the rim. And again, like the big thing for me that pushed Dallas to that third spot in my contender

list was Maxi Klebu and PJ. Washington and just the wrecking ball defensive players that they're capable of being here's PJ Washington blowing up an inbounds pass pass over the top. The BAM's trying to create a seal there for that little or not Bam Jimmy's trying to create the angle for that over the top pass. PJ breaks it up, then Luca gets the loose ball, and then we get a dunk from PJ Washington. Again, defensive playmaking. There's an example. This is a bucket for Miami, but this is an

example of PJ Washington's defensive potential. He leaves his feet on a pump fake from Caleb Martin, boom off the ground. Caleb Martin is one of the faster kind of wing players that we have in the league, especially in straight line speed. PJ Washington is in the air and somehow manages to get back in front of Caleb Martin. Look at that, and again those guys are helping because they're thinking he's gonna get beat, and like he just somehow doesn't get beat, which just goes to show you the

level of defensive potential that PJ. Washington has. Here's an excellent MAVs ball movement possession that begins with the Kyrie Irving backcut. So again. They're clearing the side here, and they're basically setting this up for Kyrie to fake like he's running out and then he's setting his man up and then he's gonna bang backcut right there, draws the help kick out past the Dante xem xam pump fakes.

This is that advantage basketball I'm talking about. You can actually see Luca pointing Hey the next read, but he ends up throwing it to Luca anyway. Luca drives it. Luca makes the kick out to Kyrie back to PJ. Washington on the wing for three. Nice little ball movement possession there from Dallas. Here's Luca beating a coverage with the pull up three, this time Hey with high Smith ducks underneath the pick and Bam is too far back. This also might have just been a switch. Yeah, it's

a switch. So it's a switch and Bam is too far back on the switch and Luca just beats it with a pull up again. This is This is like an example of a soft switch instead of a more aggressive switch, leaving Luca two open. This is it's so funny. As I watched MAVs film, it's so much less about like sets and you know, nifty actions and slips and things like that, and it's so much more about like

individual greatness. And this is just a great example of a little detailed in ball handling that goes a long way with Kyrie Irving. So he's going to do it behind the back dribble here on Heywood Heismith and then I want you guys to watch how quickly he pivots his body to catch the behind the back drible. I want to shout out my first Juco assistant coach, Chris Klass, and he taught me this kind of like principle. But

we used to do a cone dribbling drill. It's actually still to this day my first warm up drill that I do, and on it there's the actual drible combination you do to start the drill, but there's always an

advanced dribble. And what he taught was like you'd hit like an in and out behind the back, but then you'd follow that up with an immediate advanced dribble with your left hand right and then in and out behind the back, and then an immediate advanced drible with your right hand, and then the purpose behind it is like it doesn't matter if you do the behind the back drible and you shed the defender if you can't immediately

capitalize in the driving angle that it creates. And so there are these little details, especially on the higher level dribble combinations, that you need to have down in order to be able to actually take the advanced dribble after you make the move. So Kyrie's going to make it behind the back move. Here. Watch how he turns his body Boom. Okay, look at this. Look at how fast it is. So he makes the behind the back dribble.

But because he pivots so quickly, now the ball is in his left hand and his body is positioned to drive, and so he's able to take advantage of that little angle he creates. The vast majority of offensive players in this league will make that behind the back dribble and then Heywood high Smith would just be able to recover and cut him off. But like Kyrie, that little pivot there's just a little detail in ball handling that I don't think people realize is a big part of what

makes Kyrie so hard to guard. Here's another little piece of iso fundamental work here. Kyrie Irving's gonna start on the right wing out of a triple threat. Josh Green drives, We're gonna get a kick back here now Kyrie Heywood high Smith. He wants to make a rip through move. The idea rip through a move is you have to be lower than the defensive player to actually get that advantage. Watch how low Kyrie Irving gets. We'll slow it down here.

Watch how low Kyrie Irving gets on this rip through that allows him to get the angle, and then from there he's going to go to a euro step on Kevin Love to find the little gap on the other side of the rim for the reverse layup. Just ridiculous stuff from Kyrie Irving. Here's an example of scheme discipline from Dallas and just some really good individual defense from

Kyrie Irving. So in a transition cross match, we get Jimmy Butler on Kyrie Irving right, and it's clear that they want him to try to deny that catch if he gets that switch. So as he comes over here, Kyrie's going to go to a three quarter front, and he's in a three quarter front to not allow that pass gets worked back around. Now Kyrie again squatting down low fronting the post. This force in over the top pass.

Kyrie Irving does not try to catch the pass. Instead, he turns around and immediately tries to find a spot where Jimmy's gonna expose the basketball. So again he's not going for the ball, he's staying down waiting for Jimmy to catch, waiting for him to expose it, and he swipes it clean. Really really good individual defense there from Kyrie Irving, and then he actually turns it the other way into a transition pull up three, which this has been one of Kyrie's big go to moves over the

second half of the season. Here, all right, I've got five more clips from this game and then we're gonna go into our mailbag. So this time we have Derek Jones Jr. And Help coming off of the strong side quarter and blocking Caleb Martin's strong side corner. Help is really difficult because it's sketchy to leave a guy this open, But if a guy's got his back completely turned, it's kind of it's a risk. It's a high risk play, but he's able to turn it into a positive result.

Here MAVs run out in transition and we get a dunk from Tim Hardaway Junior. Again, theme of this part of the the video is Dallas using their defense to get out in transition. And again, if you guys remember I mentioned this in the Contender rankings. They're twenty seventh in transition frequency last year eighth this year. A big part of that is their defense allowing them to get out and transition more. Here's a horn set for Kyrie.

We don't really see Dallas run this too many like set actions like this, but this is an example of something good that they get out of it. We get a backscreen for Tim Hardaway flowing into a pin down that flows into a dribble handoff and that bits Jimmy Butler into offering tag help. So again Jimmy Butler's coming over here to deal with Gafford on the tag and that just gives Kyrie Irving a wide open catching three on the week set, catching you three on the weak side.

Here we get another stop here, Dante Exum does a good job absorbing the contact from Bam. Gafford offers a eight minute a last minute contest. Here's an example of the athleticism on the back line that I talk about here. So if Gafford offers help, uh oh, you're screwed on the glass right no, because PJ. Washington is there to

clean it up. PJ. Washington gets it kick ahead pass, Gafford runs his lane, gets a dunk, and once again just really good defense and rebounding leading to transition opportunities. Miami went zone in the middle of the second quarter and Daniel Gafford here actually scores out of the middle of his zone. I thought this was impressive catches when he catches here, he didn't bring any of the corner guys in and so as a result, he has to kind of go to work and he just manages to

hit a little left shoulder hook. And then here's our last play of the set. Tyler Harrow misses a wide open three from the top of the key. We have a transition possession the other way, and Tim Hardaway Junior is not going to miss his pull up transition three. Now the Dallas Mavericks are up by twenty points in this game is over. So I thought that was just I thought that game in particular was just a really good example of how Dallas' defense has allowed them to

get out and transition a lot more. And again, like I want to be clear, like I've always believed in Kyrie Irving. I've always believed in Luka Doncic. I was a fan of the Kyrie Irving train, and if you guys remember what I said at the time, I was like, don't judge this this year. They need a summer to add a summer in a deadline to add all the pieces they need. But you need a best player, you need a number two, and then you need role players

that accentuate what they bring to the table. They've done a beautiful job putting that together since the Kyrie Irving trade. This defensive personnel is what's giving them, in my opinion, the best chance to win the title outside of the top tier of contenders. All right, let's get to our mail back. Then we'll get out of here. It's gonna be relatively quick. I get that the thunder are young and match up poorly against the Lakers, Nuggets, and Wolves.

The Nuggets, that can be said for every team in the West, really, but really, but they're literally a better and deeper version of the Suns and Clippers. They've shown throughout the season in the head to head games against both these teams that they deserve to be higher in these rankings, including stomping the healthy Sons with no shak Kilds Alexander. Plus they have health, Plus they have less

health concerns than both of those teams. So first of all, I again my concerns with the Thunder are youth in size. The Clipper have of each Azubach. The Suns have use of Nurkic that gives them an infinitely better chance of hanging physically with some of the bigger front lines in the Western Conference, especially Denver. That's really it, guys, like there's a level of fist fight, rock fight, you know, just kind of degenerated basketball down into an ugly mess

of a game. And in those situations, your offensive skill and speed tend to matter less than your size, physicality, and experience. And that's why I lean to those teams in those specific situations. I agree you're right, Like if the Clippers played the Suns in a series, it'd be close. I'd still pick Phoenix, but the Thunder half some advantages

in those series. My contender rankings are a reflection of their best chance to get out of the conference, and I think that Phoenix and the Clippers, because of their frontline size, have a better opportunity to hang in those situations than the Thunderdoo to potentially win three three rounds to get out of the Western Conference. What's up? Jason, big fan of the show, was having an art with

a buddy at work. He thinks a Lonzo Ball from his first season with the Bulls when they had decent success and lost to the Bucks in the first round would be a top ten point guard in the league

this season. I disagree. He also says that he would be a better playmaker than most of the point guards I use As a rebuttal, I explained to him that in the NBA, the most important form of playmaking, depending on the role, of course, is out of the pick and roll, and while Lonzo is a good passer, I don't view him as a pick and roll creator on the level of guys like Brunson and Halliburton, and then

of course the most elite guys. Would love to hear your take on this, even if it doesn't make the show. Keep up the great work. So first of all, thank you for the support. Here's the thing. I think Lonzo Ball is a really good basketball player, but I view him as an off ball guard for the most part, like he can defend really well He's a good transition playmaker. What I mean by that is like making those kick

ahead passes. He's a good play connector. He can run ball screens and set guys up with some advantage situations, but he just never was gifted enough on the ball as a score to enter into those best point guard conversations. Really turned into a good off ball shooter over the years, and was able to hit a three if someone ducked under a pick from time to time, but as an on ball shot creator, he never had that like scoring threat that the Jalen Brunson and Tyres Haliburton guys that had.

Right Like Tyre's, Halliburton has a lot of the same kick ahead pass playmaking stuff that Lonzo had, but like Tyre's, is just a guy that can beat switches consistently and will hit pull up threes at an insanely high rate. So that is really the fundamental difference between those two guys. With Delo playing this way, how big of a deal is the outcome of his performances in the playoffs for his future as a Laker? Do you think there's a

chance the Lakers keep this backcourt duo next season? This has been a tough one for me this season because Delo has won me over in a lot of ways. Like he I genuinely think he's gotten better. He got humiliated by Bruce Brown, he got in the gym, got his legs a bit stronger, which I think has helped with his rim finishing and his ability to get to his spots a little bit. Definitely has become a better shooter, has become one of the better shooters in the league

this year, but his weaknesses are still the same. When the physical intensity ratchets up and you put a long athletic defender on him, he can't get to his spots as well as he used to, and then everything comes down to is he hitting his catch and shoot threes and if he's not, his impact tanks. And what really concerned me is they desperately needed that Minnesota game, and they desperately needed that Golden State game, obviously with some issues with Anthony Davis. But in both games, Delo was

bad on both ends of the floor. He struggled to get to his spots and create shots against the longer athletic defenders that Minnesota and Golden State had, and he wasn't able to knock down his catch and shoot shots in a more physical environment when his legs were more tired. And that's more or less the same thing that happened

last year. And so even though I admired Delo and that he's won me over in all these different ways and I've gained to I've come to an appreciation of him, I still don't think he's a guy that you can have in your starting lineup if you're a serious NBA

championship contender. And so unless he manages to reverse that trend when we get to the postseason, I still think he's the guy that they need to eventually move and put an athletic, you know, kind of like bulldog of a two guard next to Austin Reeves to give them a more balanced dynamic in that backcourt. Last question, how many more years do Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown have together? If they can't win a championship this year, ie they lose in the finals or losing the Eastern Conference finals,

do you trade one of them? Love the Show, I wouldn't trade Jason Tatum or Jalen Brown under any circumstances, not unless, like you know, obviously, there was some sort of big, you know, mental emotional falling out and it became like a chemistry issue. That'd be another thing. But as long as everyone's happy, you stick with it, because again, you stand to gain more by these guys entering their prime in their late twenties and just getting better than

you do buy rebuilding. Because like Jalen Brown, like it or not, is a top fifteen player in this league. He's playing at an insane level in the last couple of years, and so you just you have a better chance of that of Jalen Brown just kind of fixing some of his flaws, or Jason Tatum developing into a higher level superstar than you do, of you know, going

out into the trade market and trying to get something better. Right, So, like, I will break up the Jalen Brown Jason Tatum duo unless there was some sort of real crisis involved that pushed you in that direction. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. We'll be back tomorrow with the Nerd SESSH guys for a preview of Clippers MAVs as well as some other topics from around the league. I'll see you guys then. The volume