The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight here at the Volume. Happy Friday, everybody. I hope all of you guys had an incredible week. We are also live on AMPS, so if you're listening on the YouTube feed or on the podcast feed, don't forget that AMP is the very
first place that you guys can get these shows. We are finally at long last three weeks later, at the end of our player rankings, we're gonna be paying homage to the great Nicola Jokic today, who has the most solid case for number one that we've seen in a long time. You guys know the drill. Before we get started, subscribe to the volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore
Jason lt so you guys don't miss anyhow announcements. And for whatever reason you miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finished, don't forget you can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops Tonight, last but not least, before we get started. Next Monday, I'm actually going to see the Grand Tarismo movie up in Phoenix, and then we're gonna actually be doing a full review of it here on the show
I'm excited to do that for you guys. The new movie Grand Tarismo is based on the unbelievable true story of a team of unlikely underdogs, a struggling working class gamer, a failed former race car driver, and an idealistic motorsport executive. Together they risk it all to take on the most elite sport in the world. Directed by Neil Blomkamp, the movie features an incredible cast led by David Harbor, alongside Orlando bloom jam And Hanso, Jerry Halliwell Horner, and Archie
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you were fueled from within. Grant Arismo, based on a true stories, exclusively in movie theaters this August twenty fifth with special sneak previews this weekend. Get your tickets today, rated PG thirteen. All right, let's talk some basketball. So, as I said in the intro, this year was as definitive a case for number one as you'll see in
the modern NBA. He was actually the front runner to win his third consecutive MVP about two thirds of the way through the season before he basically punted that award. Not anything we can be critical of him for. I thought it was more just Jokic just identifying that it was already kind of like a politic oriented award that a lot of people didn't want him to win, and I think he just took the opportunity to rest up
for the playoff run. And in that playoff run, he had an incredibly dominant run, especially dominant over his peers. He ran through six players that were on my top fifteen list, Anthony Edwards, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Lebron James, Anthony Davis, and Jimmy Butler. Just ran through those guys,
never was even remotely threatened. The only team to even take two games off of them was the Suns, and the Nuggets whipped their ass so thoroughly in the other four games that they outscored him by fifty seven points in the series, which was by far their largest margin of victory in the playoff run. So the keyword there is dominant. Most importantly, Nikole Yokuch was by far the primary driver of their success throughout the season and in the playoffs. Don't get me wrong, the Nuggets were an
extremely talented championship roster. You do not win in the NBA if you do not have a good team. Jamal Murray produced like a superstar in this playoff run, and I actually think I had him at sixteen in the list this year. Aaron Gordon had just this unbelievable defensive playoff run where he took all these primary assignments between
Kevin Durant, Lebron James Jimmy Butler. Did a great job at all those assignments, all while shooting thirty nine percent from three and bringing a bunch of other little dirty work things to the table. Bruce Brown played so well he got a forty five million dollar contract over two years. He's now a twenty plus million dollars a year player. And I could keep going down the line, but you guys get the point. The Nuggets were a very good team.
That said, it was incredibly apparent to anybody watching the games that Nikole Jokic was the singular cog that made the entire system work. On offense, he demonstrated what I consider to be supreme unguardability that flummixed every defense that he ran into. He flummixed the best defense in the league in my opinion, and the Lakers took the best defender in the league and Anthony Davis and made him look utterly worthless. It was just as dominant as it gets.
We will get more to the unguardability element here in a few minutes, because I want to spend a good chunk of time breaking down what exactly makes NIKOLEA. Jokic unguardable, because I think there are two specific traits that a player has to have, and I think there's only two players in the league that have those traits. But to make a long story short, Nikola Jokic kicked everyone's ass and got the trophy. No matter what he's he's got
the top spot on my list through to next June. Yes, that means that even if he plays poorly for some stretch of the regular season or misses some stretch of the regular season with injury. And let's just say Jason Tatum is averaging forty and just kicking everyone's ass in the regular season. I don't care. You know, I said this about Jokic before when I had it, because I had a much lower last year. Because again, and you
guys know how I feel about this stuff. I have my like kind of existing worldview of basketball, but I'm not married to it. I'm gonna adjust that worldview based on new information. Right, So, like I had Embiiden Jokicic both very low last year. I had him I think seven and eight respectively. Why because I believed that you could not win in the NBA with a really slow footed center. I thought that the teams would run you off the floor in transition, spread you out and driving
kick you to death. I didn't think it'd be possible to do it. It turns out I was wrong, Nicole Jokicic proved that that's no longer the case now. Well, it remains to be seen in the long run whether or not he's kind of an outlier among centers. But you'll notice I even moved and beat up this year because now I actually see that you can structurally win a championship with a slow footed center. We react to
new information, right. But again, like I was slower to give Jokic, you know, a big picture credit because you guys know how much I value championships. Well, now Jokic has the championship, which makes him enter in an entirely different class of conversation for me personally. And I know
everyone've used the game differently, that's just for me. I I'm cool with being slow to give credit to guys who are not champions, because you know, when you get the trophy, that's when we layer all the praise and the respect and the credit onto you. And that's what we're doing to Nikole Jokic today. So quick season recap. You played in sixty nine games this year, averaged twenty five points twelve rebounds in tennisis seventy percent through shooting percentage.
Guess what. That was the highest true shooting percentage in the entire league among any player who played at least twenty five minutes per game, including big guys who just stand under the basket and dunk everything. Nikol Jokic most efficient player in the NBA this year to play significant minutes. Some play type data for you guys. The post up was by far to Koli Jokic's most common play type. In fact, Kolokis ran six hundred and thirty four post ups this year, which was by far the most in
the league. To give you guys, actually, I'll just let you guys, guess who do you think was second in the league and total post ups ran. The correct answer is Nikola Vucevich. He ran four hundred and forty nine. So to give you an idea, Nikola Jokic ran almost two hundred more post ups than anybody else in the entire league. He scored a staggering one point two to
two points per possession on post ups including passes. On our high volume post up list, which is a minimum of two hundred reps, there were twenty players on that list. Jokic ranked second. Here we have another trivia question for you guys. Who do you think finished first? And it's not who you'd think and it's not a big guys, only about six foot six. The correct answer is DeMar de Rosen, who just had an absurd post up season.
He had an absurd iso season two but he averaged one point three points per possession on post ups on high volume, which is just outrageous, So kudos to DeMar de Rosen. Second most common play type for Nicole Jokich was rollman possessions, obviously as a product of the two man game that he frequently runs with not just Jamal Murray, but with KCP and Michael Porter Junior as well. Joki shot sixty eight percent on rolls to the rim. That efficiency number is key. We're going to get to that
more when we talk unguardability. But he averaged one point three to seven points per possession in those situations, which is in the ninety first percentile. Just a deadly floater there in the mid range, deadly pick and pop, you know, jump shot catching, rip, that kind of situation. He's also one of the top tier passers in the league, which is vital in the short role as the defense coalesces around you. One point two points per spot up possession.
He shot sixty four percent in EFFECTI field goal percentage and spot up situations. Once again, that's just your classic stretch big as well, which opens up a bunch of things for your offense. Inverted pick and roll was another big one I wanted to hit on. You did it mostly with Aaron Gordon, but he'd sometimes use guards as well. This was a significant play type for Yo kid. You
ran it almost two hundred times this year. It was you know, again, we talked about this yesterday with Jannis because Jannis, you know, we think of him as a perimeter ball handlers, so we don't call it inverted pick and roll, but technically it's kind of like an inverted pick and roll because Yannis functions as a as a big man in their system most of the time. But I talked about how for Yannis it works really well
because what you're doing is you're taking you know. So for instance, like Trey Young ran almost two thousand pick and rolls this year, right, Like we had fifteen players in the league ran over a thousand pick and rolls. Right for guards, it's such a common play type that guess what guard defenders are constantly doing. They're constantly chasing over the top of screens, right, That's what they do
from the collegiate level, primarily up through the pros. They are just every single day practicing and in games chasing over the top of screens, and so it's something that they're good at. The gigantic forwards that you have to put on guys like Giannis and on guys like Nikola Jokic, they don't do that. They practice defending in the post, they practice being the screen defender, operating in some form of drop coverage. They guard on the wing against wing scorers.
They do not chase over the top of screens very often, and so they're not very good at it. And so inverted pick and roll basically takes defenders and puts them in positions that they're not comfortable with. It's funny because when we talk about matchup hunting, we always think about isolation, but every single one of those matchup hunting situations brings The goal is to bring a defender into a situation
where he's uncomfortable. Right, So, if we're attacking a big on a switch, it's because big guys are not used to guarding quicker players on the perimeter. Right. If we're attacking a small guy in the post, it's because the small player is not particularly good at post step defense because he doesn't practice it a lot. Right. You know, a lot of times screen navigation gets targeted in a
bunch of different situations. If a guy really struggles to just guard a wide pin down, you'll see a team spam a wide pin down because the guy keeps dying on the screen or whatever. Pick and roll, same type of situation, and inverted pick and roll, you're taking advantage of the fact that the actual on ball defender is not good at navigating screens, and so nikolea. Jokicz brings
up Aaron Gordon into the screen. Now I've got two big, slow guys trying to guard an inverted pick and roll, and it's just an extremely difficult task for guys that
don't have a lot of practice with that. So you'll see in those situations Yokic will either just get downhill because his man will dive on this die on the screen and he's just getting really close to the rim, or there's a botched interchange which leaves Aaron Gordon wide open on a lob, or they have to bring the third defender in and Yokic just hitting the corner the pass of the week side corner. He just picks people
apart in those situations. He ran one hundred and ninety two inverted pick and rolls this year, amounting to one point zero nine points per possession, which is in the eighty seven percent toime. Now, once again, whenever we see super top tier half court shot creation, it's almost always foundationally led by unbelievable shot making. These are the shot
making numbers for Jokic this year. Fifty seven percent effective field goal percentage on catch and shoot jumpers, fifty nine percent effective field goal percentage on pull up jumpers although we only took forty four of them this season. Sixty seven percent on runners, sixty seven percent on hooks. That's the shot that makes Jokich completely unstoppable. Table that we're gonna get back to that in a few minutes. Seventy five percent in the restricted area on four point six
makes per game. All top tier numbers for those shots, some of them off the charts, specifically the runners in the hooks, which we'll get to in a little bit. Now, let's talk about the unguardability thing. So yesterday, those of you guys who listened in the Steph Curry Show, I talked about how Steph and and Nicola are the only two truly unstoppable offensive players in the league in my opinion, And so I want to dive into that concept a bit. First, in my opinion, it takes two things to be truly
unguardable on the offensive end of the floor. First of all, you have to have a shot that you can consistently get to, either in one on one coverage or two on two coverage, meaning like in an action or in an isolation or post up situation. But you have to be able to get to and make that shot not just at an efficient rate, but at at a rate so efficient that it becomes painful and unsustainable for the defense to accept. Okay, So, for instance, I'll give you
guys an example. There are a lot of players in this league that can get to and make tough mid range pull up jump shots at about forty five to fifty percent right, And in those situations a lot of times, like you'll a guy will make a tough shot and you'll run back on defense and it can be slightly discouraging, but you'll see the coaching staff of the defense be like,
we'll live with that. Why Because let's say, for instance, like that Paul George on tough contested pull up twos is having a crazy hot night where he's making them a lot more than usual and like, generally speaking, he's in the low forties there, Let's say he's making fifty percent of them. That means that he's scoring one point per possession, and in a league where offensive ratings are well over a point per possession, that's a trade off
that the defense can live with. And so if you're forcing guys into tough shots and they're not hitting them at a high enough clip to be truly damaging, that's a trade off the defense can live with. That extends to different spots on the floor. So for instance, if you got a heavy basket attacker who's only shooting fifty percent at the rim. A lot of our hyper athletic guards do stuff like that. That's kind of like the
predicament that Russell Westbrook is in right now. Right pull up thirty point shooters that shoot in the mid thirties like low thirties, like Trey Young, for instance, Trey Young just shoots a ton of pull up threes and just makes them at a percentage in the mid to low thirties. So that means that in effective field goal percentage, once you extrapolate that out to a point percent per possession basis, it's only about a point per possession. The defense can
live with that. But if you have a shot that you can convert well over a point per possession, one point two to one point three points per possession, it gets so damaging that the defense has no choice but to take drastic measures to stop you. So for Steph Curry, that's his pull up three point shooting is movement three point shooting. Right, he's hitting those in the mid forties. So if you let Steph get decent looks in those situations, he's gonna get you close to one point three points
per possession. Because around forty five forty to forty five percent in field goal percentage from three is in the load to mid sixties in effective field goal percentage. So it's not just efficient, it's damaging efficient, and there's nothing they can do about it other than throw the kitchen sink at right, Nikole Jokic, it's the floaters in the hook shots, because he hits them at damn near sixty
seven percent. That you find yourself in a situation where if you let Jokic catch in the short roll, he's gonna take a pop shot. He's gonna make two out of three of them, and it's unsustainable. It is too damaging. You have to send multiple defenders towards him. If you leave him in single coverage in the post, he's going He's two damn big, two damn strong. His footwork is too polished, his control of the ball is too good.
He's going to work his way close to the rim, get to a little hook shot over his left shoulder, and he's gonna make two thirds of them. Sixty seven percent on hooks comes out to one point three to four points per possession. That is downright damaging to defense, and they're going to have to take drastic measures to stop it. That is step one. You have to have a truly damaging shot that you can consistently get to
Step two. To be unguardable, you have to be able to consistently capitalize on those drastic measures from the defense by generating quality shots for your defense, for your teammates. So Nikole Jokic is killing you with his mid range little floaters, and he's killing you in the post. You send multiple defenders at him. What happens next. Nikolejokic just on ball as a passer, is constantly aware of where all the defenders are. He sees plays developed before they happen.
He's big enough and his ball control is good enough that he can get the ball on time and on target to the kill pass, the specific pass that beats the drastic measure from the defense. And for Steph Curry it's obviously different. Like for Steph it's less on ball and more off right, it's him flying off of a screen and two defenders chase after him. We've referred to this as the gravity concept. And the reality is is the Warriors get better rim looks than anybody in the league.
They were third in restricted efficiency restricted area efficiency this year. They were first last year, first in twenty nineteen, second in twenty eighteen, first in twenty seventeen. You guys get the point. The Warriors get better looks at the rim than anybody in the league. That's because of Steph, even though it doesn't even though the assists get registered to w However, the big guy is at the top of the court that's making those reads. As Steph and Claire
running off of screens. The actual fear of Steph is what generates those open looks. And then Steph also is a great on ball passer as well. We talked yesterday about his fourteen assist game in Game four against the Lakers, where they threw the kitchen sink at him. He could make a three point shot to save his life, and he still generated thirty eight points in twenty eight picking rolls with his on ball passing. But you get the point. For both guys, you just have to pick the lesser
of two evils. If you let them work in traditional coverages, they're not just going to beat you. They're going to beat you to the tune of a point in a third per possession, which is going to cost you the game. And then if you send the kitchen sink at them, you're gonna stand there and watch them pick you to pieces with their peers. The trade off is much more simple. Okay, Joel Embiid is crushing us in post up situations, Let's throw the kitchen sink at him. Doesn't handle double teams. Well,
there's an option there that's clearly better than the main option. Right, Okay, Trey Young's hitting one out of every three pull up threes, Like you know, like, what are we gonna do? Stay in your traditional drop coverage. He's just not gonna make enough of them for it to be truly damaging, especially
over the course of a playoff series. Every player down the line has some sort of weakness in that department where you can theoretically go with a path to guarding them that should limit their efficiency enough to give your
team a chance to win. Now, at any given one night, those guys might beat you either with the pass or with the shot, but in terms of consistently night in and night out, even because that's the thing with you, Even if Jokic is missing a couple of those shots, even if Steph is missing some of his threes, They're still guarded like they're going to make them consistently because
the fear is still there. And those two guys are the only two that I can think of in the league that truly resoundingly check both of those those boxes. You saw everything that Nikola Jokic did translate to the playoffs. His efficiency and floaters and hook shots went down just to touch, but he made up for that by making every damn three point shot they took, and just a ridiculous arsenal of one legged fadeaways and funky leaners and
all these different shots. The shot making maintained as he went into the playoffs, his aggression went up a level he went into the playoffs, which led to the increase in points per game production. He was up at thirty points per game in the playoffs. It was as impressive an offensive playoff run that I've ever seen. The only one I can think of that I thought was more impressive was Lebron in twenty eighteen, and he didn't win
the title, which makes Nikola Jokic is more impressive. Every series I watched, from the Minnesota Timberwolves to the Suns, to the Lakers to the Heat, none of nothing those four teams could do even came remotely close to making Yokic feel uncomfortable, let alone to make him actually fail to succeed. It was just utter dominance. There's two final things I want to hit on with Nikola Yokis before we get out of here today. One, Yokic as a screener.
Every time I watch Nikola Jokic footage, his ability to set quality screens always pops off the screen to me. Now, this is something I work on with my young players all the time. In our morning sessions, our training sessions for the school that I coach at. We work a ton of pick and roll right now, because it's something
that prepping on for this particular season. And in these situations, I'm always telling the guard the big guys, I'm like, I'd rather us get two or three illegal screens called on us per game, but generate better openings than to never get called for an illegal screen. But can ever set a good pick and the guard's consistently getting over the top and staying attached. When you set a quality screen, it generates a gap between the ball handler and the
on ball defender. When you generate that, that's what forces the defense to warp. If the guard can stay attached, then he can't take the pull up three. If he can't take the pull up three, then the big guy doesn't have to come out to contest the pull up three. If the big guy doesn't have to contest the pull up three, he can linger back at the rim, which allows the guard as he's defending, to funnel him over
the top into the rim protection. Then you don't have to bring the third defender over because the big is back in a position where you can guard both the roll man and the on ball the on ball guard. Right now, if I set a solid pick and I actually generate separation between the guard and the on ball defender. All of a sudden, everything in terms of the pull up jump shot and the floater and everything from the three point line into the mid range as we work
downhill is open. And if there's a good guard there, say Jamal Murray, who's gonna consistently make those shots. Now the big man has to show up at the level of the screen. If the big man has to show up at the level of the screen, that opens up the role. If the role is open, you're either gonna get dunks or you're gonna bring the third defender over to tag the roller, which is gonna open up the
week side corner. All of the openings, whether it's the pull up jump shot, the pocket pass to the big man, or the skip pa the weekside corner, entirely depend on the separation generated from the guard. And the only way you're gonna generate that separation against NBA level point of
attack defenders is if you set solid screens. And this is something that I constantly get, you know, kind of nitpicky with with Anthony Davis because he has a tendency to run up and kind of like act like he's set in a screen, but like not actually hit anybody and then and slip early into his role. It's a weakness for Anthony Davis. And it's crazy because I watch him and I'm like, man, you're already so damn good with your vertical spacing and you've got a decent little
pop shot yourself. Not as good as Jokis, but you've got a decent little pop shot yourself. Dude. Like, if you start setting solid screens, the whole world could open up for you in pick and roll. But when you watch nicoll A Jokis, he makes it a pain in the ass every single time for the on ball defender to get over the top of the screen, which is such a small thing that so many people don't pay attention to, but it is the fundamental part of generating
openings in pick and roll. You absolutely must set solid screens. Kolok is one of the best in the world at it. Lastly, I want to talk about Yokic on the defensive end of the floor. So first of all, Jokic defended really well for him for his little individual standard in this particular postseason run. He wore tie out of Pick and roll, kept his hands active, did a lot of little things that helped make the Denver defense work. A big part of it too, that a lot of people don't pay
close attention to his defensive rebounding. Nikol Joki is one of the best defensive rebounders in the league. That is the absolute necessity to close the defensive possession. You don't get a stop until you get a defensive rebound. It is.
It is a huge part of the process that gets glossed over, and it's an important part of defense, especially for a guy like the Jokich that can actually grab and go and bring the ball to the floor himself and make the necessary kick ahead passes, which is a huge part of Jokic's defensive value that I don't think it's enough credit, however. I one of my long standing basketball opinions has been defense matters, but offense matters more.
And the reason why is as a coach, schematically I can get you in the right spot and get you playing hard and make up for a lot of your defensive shortcomings. I can't get you to play harder way into being a better offensive player. And yeah, I might be able to organize some sets that will get you some better looks, but you're somewhat limited by your shot making, right, and especially when you get to certain parts of the playoffs where defenses can get in front of sets. Now,
even that doesn't work so offensively. Your individual greatness matters so much more than the defensive end of the floor, especially within the team concept. That's always been one of my long standing opinions, and Nikole Jokic kind of established this, Like now, I want to emphasize a couple of different things because I've always believed you have to be a top ten defense to win the title. Nuggets kind of broke that mold, right, and they're the exception that proves
the rule in my opinion. That's within the team concept. But I'm zooming in on Jokic for a second, because Jokic specifically didn't hurt the Nuggets on defense this year. Why Jokic still has slow feet, He's still a below average rim protector. So how did they manage to coherently play defense with nikolea Jokic on the floor. It's because
they were schematically able to make it work. They brought Jokic up high to the level of the screen, and they had Aaron Gordon essentially as the low man function as the rim protector, and then they were just really sharp around that. And so as a result, they were able to coach up a functional defense around a limited rim protector well enough to win the title. So I kind of looked at that as like a vindication of that opinion, which is and we can translate that to
guys like Luka Doncic for instance. I mean Steph Curry is a great example of this as well over the US, and he was kind of where I got this original opinion from, Like, how do you win titles with Steph? You just surround him with good defensive players, put him in a position where he has a job to do within the scheme, and get him to play hard. If you can do those things, you can defend well enough
to win at a championship level. Now, the Warriors had so much defensive talent around him that they were still a top ten defense. And that's what makes this Nuggets team so unique, is like they kind of did that with a bunch of guys, Like they did that with Jamal Murray as well, Right, they did that with Michael Porter Junior as well. They just gave him a job
and they got him to do it well. And then guys that Contavio's Callbo Pope and Bruce Brown and Aaron Gordon were so dominant defensively it allowed him to get enough stops within the playoff context. But I think it's I think it was a good proof of concept of the simple idea that like as a when we are evaluating star players like Luka Doncic, his defensive shortcomings do
not mean he can't be a champion. It just means as we look back, the two guys who broke this because Giannis in twenty twenty one was arguably the best defender in the world. Lebron James in twenty twenty that was that unbelievable Laker defense. He was an outstanding defender in that season. Lebron James in twenty sixteen, still a top tier defensive player when he blocked three shots a game over that three three game span to come back
and beat the Warriors. Right Kawhi Leonard in twenty fourteen, Defensive Player of the Year. Right Lebron James twenty twelve, twenty thirteen First Team All Defense. You guys get the point. All of them are defensive, you know, weapons except for Stephan Nikola Jokic, the two players that I considered to be the most unguardable offensive players in the league at this point. Right. So the point is, as we look at Luka Doncic, can you win a title without being
a top tier defender? Absolutely, as long as he becomes truly unguardable on the offensive ended four. So I thought that was kind of an interesting concept that Nikola Jokics proved in this playoff run. But congratulations to NICOLEA. Jokics. Just like you guys know how much I value the winning piece, and I in particular was one of the final people to kind of get on the Yokich bandwagon because I was waiting for this in particular. But I think he's proven a lot. I don't see a solution
for him in this particular season. That's why he's going to be my championship favorite again this season. I'm excited to watch him play again. I've become a fan of his game. Shout out to Nicole Yokich, number one on our player rankings this year. We will be back on Monday, going into another top twenty five player list, this time covering legacies and careers. Surrounding the top twenty five players of the last twenty five years. As always, I appreciate
you guys, and I will see you on Monday. The volume