Hoops Tonight - USA-Australia Reaction: LeBron, Curry & Team USA "clunky" in Olympic exhibition

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Slash baseball. All right, welcome to hoops today. You're at the volume heavy Monday, everybody, Oh Bob, you guys had an incredible weekend. I am finally back from Vegas. Four nights is a long time to be there, but it was an incredible trip. It was a productive trip. The Mahakz interview was supposed to come out today, but it might end up coming out tomorrow. We're just still doing some stuff with the footage, so keep an eye on my Twitter feed for that. I'll tweet it out when

it's active. On Saturday night, I got to go see Dead and Company at the Sphere again. They played like the perfect set list. They played all my favorite songs, says you guys can imagine. I was on cloud nine. It was an awesome end to that incredible trip. And then yesterday I just got to kind of decompress and relax and hang out with my wife and just kind of get ready for another week. And here we are.

Team USA Versus Australia is what we're leading with today, US's second exhibition since all the guys got together in Vegas a couple of weeks ago. We're going to dive into that game from a bunch of different angles and talk about their progression as they get ready for the Olympics. After that, I tweeted out asking for mailbag questions, and a bunch of you guys gave me a bunch of good ones. We're gonna be bouncing all over the league. We're gonna talk some Celtics, We're gonna talk some more

Land of Magic. We're gonna talk some Lakers. And Warriors. We're gonna talk some Denver Nuggets. We're gonna get into a bunch of different topics around the league before we get out of here for the day. You guys had the joke before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops and O YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLTS, you

guys don't miss SHO announcements. And then don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcast on Hoops tonight, and then keep dropping mail back questions in those YouTube comments and we can keep hitting them throughout the rest of the summer. All right, let's talk some basketball. So if you looked at the scoreboard, you would have thought the starters played much better. Right, They were up nineteen thirteen at the first time out, very different from the

twelve to four deficit they were in against Canada. But actually most of that came down to just making shots in my opinion, Like Lebron hit two threes, Anthony Edwards

hit three threes. They were just kind of a red hot out of the gates, and there were a couple of them that like there were good looks like there were like plays where the ball would start on the strong side and Australia would load up and it would work its way to the weak side for like a catch and shoot opportunity for Lebron or a catch and shoot opportunity for Anthony Edwards. But a lot of it

was like kind of stagger. They're still dribbling the ball up that right side of the floor and kind of hanging out around the wing and either just swinging the ball to the opposite side for a post up or just running a single ball screen. They're still not really getting that five out flow from side to side that I really want to see with this group, especially with

how talented their bigs are. And some of that has to do with the personnel, right, Like I talked about after game the Canada game, Anthony Edwards was the most impressive player in that game. He was the most impressive player again out the gates tonight. He had three threes and at a today I should say three threes in a driving floater, so he had eleven points before the

first time out. But like that is separate from what I'm looking at in terms of plugging and playing with this particular lineup, Like as much as I love Anthony Edwards, he's not a great ball mover. A lot of possessions in this game where you would see the ball like two or three passes and then it would end up in Ant's hands on the wing and then it's just jab step pump fake, jab step pump fake, and he's gonna get a great look there. Right. He's Anthony Edwards.

He's freaky athletic. He's jump shooting has just been so locked in as of late. But in order to get that true five out side to side flow, you need guys that make quick decisions and when they don't have a great opportunity, get the ball to the next player

so that he can run action. Right, And like, it's not just Ant either, it's Joel Embiid two Like Bam and Ad are guys that have a lot of experience playing five out and know how to flow from side to side and know how to set good screens and roll into the middle of the floor, know when to short roll, no, when to roll harder to the rim. They have all of that stuff down, right, And Embiid like it makes sense for him in Philly in his career.

He's an offensive engine He's a guy that everything gets run through him, and it's just totally different when you're playing with this level of perimeter talent, and which you really need from that center position is someone that kind of just ties everybody together, flowing from action to action.

And so even though the US was up nineteen to thirteen, I still think they have a lot that they can get better at with that starting group in terms of just getting higher quality shots and getting more ball in player movement. Some of that too, is that they need more reps. They just need more reps. This is very different from other countries where it's like, these guys have

been playing together forever. How many times have you seen Patty Mills in an Australia jersey right, like the like, there's so much of this that that just comes from the consistency of these international teams and how they always

have the same roster versus Team USA. It's like four years ago, we're bringing kind of a hodgepodge group, and then this year we're bringing everybody, right, and then four years from now we're probably gonna bring another hodgepodge group, right, Like it's gonna be just a bunch of random guys.

Maybe two or three of the higher level stars, right, So like this is kind of just how it goes with USA basketball, and so it is a little clunky, and again, like I'm I believe Tatum, Lebron, and Steph know what they need to do, and I believe they are a functioning cogs in that system. I think Ant and Embiid are where that's kind of breaking up, And it doesn't really have anything to do with what they are as NBA players, because they're perfect within what their

NBA teams need. It's just more within this particular team's context and kind of like with the Celtics, it might

not matter. Like I actually did think the Celtics reached a pretty high level in that postseason relative to what their potential was, Like I think they squeezed a lot out of that sponge, but they were talented enough that they could have won the title playing worst basketball, right, And that's the thing this team USA team, They might win gold, the gold medal even with clunkiness with the starting group and with embid not really looking like a

great fit, and with having scoring bursts but being a ball stopper sometimes, like I think they can still win with that right there, is a threat of single elimination. I mean, look at this game today. It gets down to I think Australia got it down to six, right, and they might have even got it down to three. They got it really close there in that in that

mid fourth quarter. But like Patty Mills wide open corner three on kind of a chaotic sequence where he almost turned it over wide open corner three, he misses it. The US team goes down to the other end, Tyres Halliburton wide open corner three, he makes it like all of a sudden, the US runs away with the game, right, but like that could very easily have gone the other way. So,

like single elimination, anything can go wrong. The US team can build in more resiliency there and make themselves less susceptible to a single game kind of weird outcome if they improve on that offensive end of the floor again, I continue to be really impressed by the US defensively when they're playing hard, even with all their looks, even with their switching groups, even with their drop groups. I've

been really happy with the US's defense. I just think they can still get to a higher level offensively by moving the ball from side to side again, when they're this talented, they're gonna have shifts where they make shots. Anyways, there's that awkward possession where Lebron like is dribbling at the top of the key and he kind of just hits a simple dribble move in an ISO that develops

a catch and shoot three for Anthony Edwards. It's like, that wasn't really a great offensive possession, Lebron and Aunt just say it, right, Anthony Edwards a step back three before the time out. It wasn't really a great offensive possession. It was a dribble up the floor ISO. But it's like Anthony Edwards is Anthony Edwards, right. And so I'm not trying to be critical in the sense that these guys are so good they might win it all anyway.

I'm just saying, in terms of giving themselves more margin for error that I think they can still improve a lot on the offensive end of the floor. And again, every single time you see that bench group come in and you see Bam and Anthony Davis out there, and you see Tyre's Halliburton and Devin Booker out there, they just immediately start to look like a more classic functional basketball team, right, Like Anthony Davis and bam Adebayo have

a lot of reps running five out. They know how to run this kind of offense, and they're just a big part of it too. Is you need activity in terms of athleticism from your bigs in those looks. What that means is is like you gotta have a guy that runs into the action, executes the dribble, handoff sets a good hard screen, rolls hard slips out of it. If that's what the cut, that's the read that's available

in that situation. It's a lot of quick movement. And like as much as we love Embiid, and again I do think Embid's a better player than Ad and Bam within the context of what he is for the Sixers, which is the best player on his team right, but specifically in this context, like Embiid is not an active big. He's not running into actions and slipping out of them and like quickly getting open. He's not sprinting up and down the floor. He's not making multiple efforts on the

defensive end of the floor. He's not as active on the glass as an Anthony Davis is. And so when you see Bam and Ad get out there, it's like whoa look at these guys ad seventeen points and fourteen rebounds. He had seven offensive rebounds and two blocks. A thing that Bam was doing that I thought was really important.

He hit a bunch of jumpers around that elbow area kind of in that like fifteen to seventeen foot range around the foul line with the coverages that Australia was using, and they used a bunch of different coverages in this game. They were dropping on Anthony Edwards, but then they were like hedging and blitzing on guys like Halliburton and Booker

and Steph Curry. So like there were short role opportunities in drop coverage, there were like kind of like role opportunities around the foul line because on all drives and post ups and ISOs, the Australian team is really loading up the strong side, and so there were a lot of opportunities where you would see Bam just kind of

find a soft open spot around that foul line. And that's where he needed to make them pay for not guarding him, because they weren't just ignoring shooters, they were helping off of the bigs and they were overplaying in that painted area and so rolling hard into the paint could be an issue too, because there's just so much congestion in there. There's not really a lot of room

to take off and get vertical spacing opportunities. So like that short roll around that foul line is where you can make Australia pay for bringing their bigs up along the baseline to attack ball handlers and guys that are posting up and so Bam hitting those shots. Ad hit an elbow jumper kind of catching with hooks around the basket too, like just making yourself quickly available, catching and

turning and fighting firing a little left shoulder hook. Both Ad and Bam hit those activity on the offensive glass. How many times in this game did we see Bam catch around the basket and like miss, but then Ad would clean up the offensive glass or vice versa. Like they're just those two guys were so active on their roles and crashing the offensive glass that it just was a huge problem for Australia and it added a layer to the offensive attack from the USA team that just

made them so much harder to guard. And again, they're just more functional bigs in a five out offense. I'm not trying to pick on Embiid. It's just the reality of the fact that like Embiid needs to be the best player on his team and he needs everything run through him. And you really saw that in that second half.

How many times in that second half did you just see Embiid like dribble the ball up the floor into a post up and then like try to spin into a hook shot and get blocked because he just didn't even see the double team coming, or take a really bad contested hook shot in the lane, and as he tries to run everybody over to get inside, like it

it's just clunky. And that's the thing is like like Australia is like pretty hard doubling on Himbiid because they know that he's not gonna handle it particularly well, and it just it just looks clunky. And so again it's not really a commentary on Embid within the context of the Sixers. It's just strictly within this team, Bam and Ad are just more natural fits and it doesn't really matter because they're gonna need him for the Serbia matchup. Like I still think in the long run, you want

Ad in that starting lineup. We got to see a little bit of the starters with Ad in the second half, but with that Serbia matchup. As much as I love Ad and he does a good job on Jokic, Jokic can still kind of bully him around on that block. He can't do that with Embiid And so he's important to have on the roster. He's a very important weapon. He's a specific adjustment that you can use against some

of these bigger European front lines. But yeah, in terms of like just getting to what they want to get too offensively with their perimeter players, is just a little clunky. The late run from Australia, so they were again they were dropping on it, but then they were blitzing and hedging on Steph and Devin Booker. There were a lot of these short role opportunities for Anthony Davis and bam Adebayo,

and there was just a lot of turnovers. The guys just weren't kind of cutting at the right time, and the role men weren't identifying that very well, like they would catch and turn and then there was like some of it too, is just like clunkiness. Like there was one in the late fourth quarter where eighty cot on the roll. It made like a nice move to like throw a bounce past to Bam, and Bam just like

fumbled the ball right like in some of this too. Again, like I talked about earlier, the Australian team, these guys all play together, right, they play together all the time. This USA team doesn't have that continuity. They don't have that chemistry. They're still building that out that comes in time. They had eighteen turnovers today after fifteen in the game against Canada, So thirty three turnovers in two games with ten minute quarters like that obviously is not good enough,

but that's to be expected given the circumstances. I understand that part is something that will improve naturally as they continue to get more reps together. But once they got into that run, the US was really deliberate. On the other end of the floor, they had a post entry to Bam at a bio on the right block. He quickly drew a double team kickout pass. Devin Booker had a really nice cut from the slot to make himself

available to Bam. Bam hit him there. Devin Booker made a nice extra pass to Drew Holliday at the top of the key, who made a nice extra pass to Tyre's Halliburton in the corner as Australia was in rotation wide open three knocked it down very next possession, a little ball screen action from Anthony Edwards in BAM on the left wing, and Australia helped out of the strong

side corner, which happened to be Tyre's Halliburton. He knocked it down again and then the game was over, and that was a huge defensive mistake from Australia because you never want to help out of the strong side corner in general, but you definitely don't want to help on the same guy who just made a three from the same spot and I ended up being burned Australia. It's so funny how we talked about matchups and we talked

about personnel and all these different things. A lot of times basketball games come down to execution, and like to the US team's credit, they executed really well down the stretch and they pulled it out. But yeah, we're gonna be covering the Serbia game on Wednesday. That one's gonna be really fun with Yokitchen there. But still I'm looking for more ball and player movement from both groups, but especially with the starters and then just kind of maintaining effort.

I thought that was the other big one. They were up twenty four, and they kind of let their foot off the gas. You always got to be careful, especially in modern basketball with the three point shot, with guys getting out in transition quickly, things can flip on you pretty quickly, just like they did today.

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A couple of things, Uh, Embiid, I think it's playing because he's the fifth best player in the world, and I think that I think that one, he's got the just more star power than Jalen Brown, and I think that that kind of gives him a certain leg up in these discussions. Two, they absolutely need him for the Yokic matchup, Like he is a specific matchup tool that they need. Why was Kawhi Leonard on the roster? He's

Kawhi Leonard. He's you know, a guy that, when he's healthy, is considered in that same tier with all those guys at the top of the league, right Like, this is a guy that like is gonna hit fifty five percent of his pull of jumpers forty percent of its series. Is an elite defensive player like he's when Kawhi is healthy, he's better than Jaylen Brown. I don't know what else to say, Like, Yeah, if I'm a general manager, I'd rather have Jalen Brown because for an eighty two game season,

I want Jlen Brown. I just trust him to be available more more right, But like in terms of their ceilings, Kawhi is a much better player than Jaylen Brown when he is healthy, and so that and also just kind of brings a certain cachet like if Kawhi Leonard call his agent, calls Team USA and goes like hey healthy and wants to play, like, they're going to answer in a different way, different way than they will for a player that's outside of that tier the way that Jaylen

Brown is. As far as the Derek White piece, I didn't think it was that complicated. They're running a lot of drop coverage. I thought they'd be more of a switching team. They still do with the Anthony Davis BAM groups, but they're running a lot of drop especially with them beat on the floor. They only have one guy on the roster who's like a professional screen navigator and Drew Holliday.

I think they viewed Jalen Brown as another switching forward, which they already have a lot of, and so they opted for a guard that kind of fits that specific role as like an off ball cog who also can chase over the top of ball screens and gives them two options there in case something happens with Drew Holliday. You got some flak for suggesting Canada should not have let up in the friendly against the US. Why do you think it's important for teams to push themselves even

in pre tournament games. I'm just I just think about it from the competitive nature side of it, Like, if you're Canada, you want to beat USA, there's a chance that you don't even get to see them overseas by vergi of maybe just being in a different pool and in single elimination going different routes, right, So like like there's no guarantee you get to see him again. And what a cool moment, Like if you got if I was there in the arena, guys, that was a basketball moment.

The arena was completely packed, there were all these celebrities and famous basketball people there. Both teams were trying super hard, Like that would have been a cool game to win if you're Canada, and I just thought it was strange that they they pulled the plug the way that they

did while the game was still in reach. Again, I'm not criticizing the decision in the sense that, like I'm not saying it's wrong, but as a basketball fan, I wanted to see Canada go back to their starters and then two, I just can say that I feel pretty confident that the actual Canada starters wanted to go back in. It was a decision from the staff because they are

competitors and they wanted to beat the USA team. Who is the better win now player between Kaminga and Pozemski seems to me like backup point guard is a bigger need than wing depth for the of the Warriors with their current roster. Sounds like both would need to go for Lori. But if you could somehow keep one of them, who do you trust more to help Steph win? Now?

I give up both of them if that's what it took, But if I had to choose keeping one, I'd keep pots Like Kaminga is going to be a better player than Pazemski in the long run. He just has too

many athletic gifts. But right now, Pazemski is much more of an easy plug and play guy that like fills a very specific role, a guy who can run five out, a guy who can defend at the point of attack, a very good reboundary kind of fills that Dante DiVincenzo role from last year, right like or from two years ago, I should say like, I think Brandon Pazemski is much more capable of being a good rotation piece right now

within the Warriors than Jonathan Kaminga. So take advantage of Jonathan Kaminga's long term potential by using him as a trade piece. I know that there are still some Warriors fans that are hung up on Kaminga, but like and again, I would give up both of them if that's what it took to get LORI. But if I had to keep one, I'd keep Pazemski. I think he's just a better fit in the short term. Jason Denver fumbled big time by not winning this year. Things undoubtedly get way

harder for them had they won. I think you could have put Jokic in a top twenty discussion now I think he's firmly not in that. Couple this with the fact that he may not win another ring, and then in parentheses he says would say that he doesn't so a couple things. I'm not ready to punt on Denver. I do think that they are a different basketball team. Now.

One of the specific things that I've always talked about is you have to pick your poison with Denver, right, You've got to double the post, You've got to defend pick and roll three on two, you need to put your a lot of times, have a big man running that low man spot so that he can navigate the Aaron Gordon problem along the baseline, right, Like, there are things that they do, but a big part of that is KCP and Michael Porter Junior on the week side.

They both are just incredibly efficient spot up players to the point where if you do send extra defenders, because that's the whole dynamic, right, you let Jamal Murray Yokis played two man game two on two, you're screwed, yeah, or three man game. I would even call it with Aaron Gordon on the baseline, If you defend that three on three, you're screwed. If you defend Yokich one on

one in the post, you're screwed. If you switch and let Jamal Murray work on an island, you're screwed, right, But if you send extra defenders, here are these two like other worldly spot up players on the other side of the floor. With KCP it's more close out attacking. With Michael Porter Junior, it's more three point shooting. But by the numbers, the two of those guys are two of the very best spot up guys in the league.

And so when you when you take a player like that and you turn them into let's say, let's just say Christian Brown. Right, if it's Christian Brown, that goes from being a like, cannot leave him open spot up guy to like somebody that's here, you go eighty second percentile for Contavious called what pope one point one six points per possession in spot up situations. That's really really good. That's hard to replicate. And so let's just say they

slide Christian Brown into that spot. Now, all of a sudden, it's becomes a very simple thing. You're going to ignore Christian Brown the same way that you ignore Aaron Gordon. Those guys are still going to be active as athletes, and they're still gonna make a lot happen. But as long as you're big enough around the rim to kind of contend with those guys vertically, you won't have to worry as much about chasing Christian Brown off the line now.

So there's no doubt that Denver got a little bit easier to guard with Contavious call what Pope going out, But most basketball teams have that same problem. Denver had this uniquely fitting starting five. Now they have four of those guys and they're going to have a downgrade at one of those positions, but they're still going to be really, really difficult to guard. Yolkic is still the best player in the world. The Yokich Murray two man game is

still incredibly difficult to deal with. Aaron Gordon is still a handful underneath the basket. They're not going anywhere. It's just their margin for error has gone down a little bit. A couple things. I think Christian Brown is probably spending his entire summer focusing on ball skills like the ability to run second side action, the ability to hit catch and shoot threes consistently into drive closeouts, because he knows

that could potentially be his role. And then who knows, like Gary Trent Junior is still out there and of all of the spots that I think, and I want Gary Trent Junior to go to the Lakers, that would be ideal because I think they need an athlete at that two guard spot. But I don't think he's going

to go there. And if I was Gary Trent Junior, and I did have to take something like a veteran minimum contract, which like hopefully it doesn't end up being the case for his sake, I think he's probably gonna end up getting the tax payer mid level. But like if he ends up going to take a discount, if you were to play one year in Denver alongside Jokich, he could go on a deep playoff runt and then sign a much more lucrative deal next summer if that's

what he wants. Whereas right now, Gary trentz kind of in that weird kind of limbo where if he goes next year and has kind of a tough year where he's maybe he takes more money at a mid level exception somewhere, but he's playing for some bad team and he continues to kind of show some of his bad habits that he has shown it in the last couple of seasons. That could put him in a situation where he suddenly becomes a veteran minimum guy in the future.

And so, like we've seen before, guys take veteran minimum deals on really good teams that make deep playoff runs and then get more lucrative deals after We just saw it with Derek Jones junior right going to the Clippers and getting a little bit of a paycheck. And so Gary Trent's a guy that, like fingers crossed, maybe a team like Denver could get to to solidify that two

guard spot. But the reality is is like it's probably the more likely outcome is it ends up being a lot of Christian Brown, and there's an upside there, Like as much as Christian Brown is not as good offensively as KCP, I actually do think with his size and strength advantage, he's a little bit more versatile defensively and he does change the athletic profile of that team in a real way, like he was the one guy in that Timberwolf series that kind of contended with Anthony Edwards athletically.

And so I don't think Denver's going anywhere. They've obviously had a disappointing offseason. The Dave Ron Holmes Achilles terror is devastating. I had heard that they pretty much intended for him to play a lot of backup center next year. They viewed him as an NBA ready kind of guy,

and so super super unfortunate. But don't take away from the fact that you still have Jamal Murray, you still have Michael Porter Junior, you still have Nicole Yokich, you still have Aaron Gordon, you still have the gist of what makes the Nuggets the Nuggets in house. And I also think that Jokic is going to be on a little bit of a revenge tour this year, and I think that he's going to be the best player in

the world. And so I just have a really hard time writing off the Denver Nuggets, And as of right now, they're still my favorite to win the West going into next season when KD comes back, who looses the starting spot. So I think KD is the easiest plug and play guy in the league because he's such good shooters. Theres a good close out attacker, but can also run action, can also beat matchups, and he's also a very good

defensive player when he wants to be. So like I would probably just slide Tatum to the two and move Kdie into the starting lineup and I'd take Aunt off the bench. Don't think we're going to see that. I just got into the starting lineup, hit a bunch of shots again today, I expect Ant to start. But if I was coaching the team, I would go with Steph Tatum, Kadi Lebron, and Anthony Davis at the five and I would switch everything, and I think that group would really

get the ball moving side to side. And then I'd let Ant come in with a bench group and be like, here are the keys you and emb'd want to take turns playing one on one. Go ahead and be my guest. Do it with the bench group, right, Because I just I think that starting group needs to get more side

to sideball and player movement. Since the Celtics won, do you think some of Missoula's philosophies will become more pervasive around the league, things like heavy ball and player movement, driving kick and an emphasis on getting back on defense, attacking the margins, etc. Love the show, keep up the

great work, Thank you for the sport. I think you know Missoula won me over in a big way in this postseason run, and a big part of it too, was like I I didn't acknowledge enough during some of the downsides with Boston over the last couple of years that they were learning, meaning the players. Just because the Celtics went down and took five or six bad threes in a row doesn't mean Joe Mizula is in the huddle saying, dribble up the floor and take bad threes, right.

Joe Mizula preaches being deliberate about setting up your spacing. Joe Mizula preaches being deliberate about getting the right matchup in the right spot of the floor to get the defense in rotation. Joe Mizula preaches attacking and playing quality driving kick basketball from there, getting paint touches, but then making good decisions when you get into the paint, chasing the great shot, not the good shot. Joe Mizula teaches

all of that stuff. It just took a while for the Celtics to really embrace it the way that they did right and like their ugly moments and on it. They were dominant this year, but their ugly moments blowing the Cavs game, blowing the Warriors game, there they're what were they two and four against the top three teams in the Western Conference, Right, Like, their issue that they had this season primarily centered around not doing what Joe Mazzula was asking them to do, as far as like

it being copied around the league. Everything has to do with your personnel. You got to be really careful with taking a coaching philosophy and inflicting it on a roster. You want to look at your roster and you want to build a coaching philosophy that fits that roster, right, And so for instance, Boston has a lot of guys that have real downhill athleticism that can beat people off the dribble and from there they've got a lot of shooting. So for them, driving kick basketball makes a ton of sense.

But there are teams out there where driving kick doesn't make a ton of sense, right, And like a big part like for instance, with Dallas last year, they had all these play finishers, and so it made sense for them to you know, be a little bit more deliberate in the half court and you know, use your off ball guys more as play finishers rather than advantage extenders. Right, Like,

that's what makes sense for that particular roster. And so that said, like I do think that more teams that have that type of roster U should embrace more of a driving kick style. I think that you will see more and more of it. Anytime you see a team hoist the trophy. It's copycat league people try to people try to pull from what's being successful elsewhere around the league.

As far as the emphasis on attacking the margins, this is something that I've always been a huge believer in, and it's something that's boring to talk about, and it's something that every single player knows. It's just it's strictly a discipline thing. Like, yeah, if you become an elite defensive rebounding team because you're scrappy and you box out and you pursue long rebounds, that will help you win games.

There's no dramatic schematic element to that. It's just committing to the work and doing what you need to do to be a good defensive rebounding team. Transition defense. There are some you know, kind of schematic elements to it, right, like you want to get back and stop the ball and protect the paint, and then you want to fan out to shooters from there. It's a lot of talking

and communicating, but at the end of the day. It's effort got to sprint back in transition, You gotta There's gotta be a focus element of it too, when you're on offense, identifying floor balance, Like, Oh, this guy's driving in a pick and roll on the right wing. I'm on the left wing. I can't crash because the role man and the ball handler are gonna be underneath the rim. When this is over, I'm the only guy who's back.

I'm gonna start kind of drifting here a little bit as as soon as I identify the ball is not gonna make its way to me. Right, Like, there's a focus element, but most of it is just sprinting. You gotta put in the work to get back in transition. Like being delibered about executing offensively is an attacking the margins thing, Like the vast majority of NBA teams are more efficient when they run action versus when they freelance.

Being more deliberate about running action is an easy way to kind of squeeze more out of the margins of the game. Right, Like, we can go on and on and on and like being really good with your execution on sideline and baseline out of bounds plays, like being

really good with your execution in late game situations. They're all all these different areas of the game where you can kind of, you know, squeeze out a little extra right, And I just don't understand why every team doesn't do that or at least like put in a ton of effort in those areas, simply because like, those are things that are under your control. You can't control if Jokic is just better than your center. You can't control if nobody on your team can guard Anthony Edwards. You can

control if you get back in transition. You can't control if you're at least a competitive defensive rebounding team. And again, there's a personnel element to rebounding too, side strength and athleticism. But as long as you do all the right things, you give yourself a better chance. And so again I love that philosophy. I do think that that's something that

every team in the league can do. But as far as the specific offensive philosophy of Boston, it is kind of unique to their personnel, and there are teams that will try and fail at it because they don't have the right kind of guys. Do you think the MAVs will start nausey over Clay and have Clay be the sixth man. At some point in the season they announce that they will start play first, But to me, I feel Nausey fits better with the starters and have Clay

Field the the Tim Hardaway junior role. So I've been hearing the same thing that Klay Thompson is going to start. I don't know how that works defensively at all whatsoever. I feel like a lot of it's a concession to Clay and just his circumstance and the fact that he

wants to start. But like, in the long run, you need somebody that can guard Anthony Edwards the way that Derek Jones Junior did, that can guard the other team's best guard, and that who's gonna guard Shake Gilds Alexander and Jalen Williams, right like it just it's a lot to ask for Clay and Kyrie Irving to do that.

If you take PJ. Washington and you utilize him as your primary point of attack defender, now you've removed your lowman, right that that dynamic of the center lively in this case, being able to come up to the level of screens because PJ. Washington is behind him and that dynamic of that low man. You lose that if that becomes Clay, And Clay did not have a great season last year as a defensive rebounder and as an off ball defender, and so that like putting him in that role I

think could lead to some messy results as well. Naji's not as good of a point of attack defender as Derek Jones Junior is, but he is a good point of attack Defender's physical and can slide his feet, and then he's a much higher level offensive player than Derek Jon. Derek Jon Jr. Really good ball handler for a role player guard has some like off the dribble pop and so like, I don't know if that means Naji starts, because I don't think Nase is just like a shoe

in starting caliber player. He's kind of more of like a rotational player anyway. But the moving Clay into the starters is going to lead to some issues on the defensive floor. There's no doubt. The question is can they get enough offensively out of it for it to be worth it. Feels like KCP to the magic has been completely overlooked. What are your thoughts on the move as well as them rafting Tristan da Silva. I was just talking about this earlier with the Nuggets, but KCP was one.

It was an eighty second percentile spot up player last year, one of the best kind of like catch and shoot drive close out guys in the league. That was a specific weakness for Orlando, right, the ability to score from the perimeter, and that allowing Cleveland to really pack the paint against them. Right, So KCP just gives you more shooting. It's really that simple. It's just something to try to

make things easier for fronts and for Pala Boncarra. He's a professional closeout attacker and that is something that will make things easier for them on the offensive end of the floor. He's also a very good point of attack defender, just a much better version of Gary Harris in somebody that it makes the magic Basically, you're just upgrading a starting position into a championship level starter, a proven championship level starter that's doing it, that's done it in two

different destinations. So love the KCP pickup. I think he's going to make the magic better. As far as shist into, Silva is just kind of doubling down on what makes the magic great which is just lots of length and guys that kind of bring that versatile length on the perimeter right, just the forwards that can dribble, shoot and pass. That's what makes the magic the magic. And in testing to Silva's a natural fit there. Who do you think will rank higher at the end of their career Anthony

Edwards is shake Os as Alexander? I think it's more likely Ant. I just think he's a more superior athlete. I also think Ant is a more dynamic three point shooting talent, which I think will benefit him well in the long run. I think Gant can be a better defender to as things get Like I think when Ant is Shay's age, there's a decent chance that he's the best player in the world. Like that's how highly I think of Ant. So I think that Ant will be

a better player than Shane in the long run. Hey, Jason, do you think the way Ad is playing right now in the Olympics that the Lakers realize getting a big is necessary if they want to contend for another title?

And who can you see the Lakers trading for? This is tricky because what people are referring to there were some plays, the plays in this Australia game where Ant was the low man, where like Bam was up at the level of the screen dealing with like Paddy Mills coming off in action, and Ant was like tagging Roller and then closing out to a three point shooter in the corner. And yeah, it'd be great to have a d as A as a lowman, but it'd be great

to have Bam at a bio too. And that's the thing is, it's probably not gonna if you get a second big to play alongside alongside Ad, it's not gonna be Bam at a bio. Most importantly, you got to look at the context of the Lakers roster. They're playing Ad next to Bam without Lebron on the floor with Team USA. With the Lakers, i'd love to see an Ad at the four look that they used throughout the season is just like an inning Zeter kind of thing.

But the truth of the matter is you're always going down with Lebron and Ad, and Lebron at age forty, is effectively another big. He has to play the four, he has to be the low man. And so like the way I look at it, this ship always goes down for the Lakers with AD at the five no matter what. And so while I do think it's worth looking at backup fives that are an upgrade that could make life easier for AD, I don't think it matters if it's not within the context of what they can

actually use at the end of games. And so investing heavily, like investing heavy resources in a backup center, I think would be a waste. Who's the five you're going down with. You're going down with Austin Reeves at the one, Lebron and AD and then a two and a three, and that two in a three is not good enough right now.

It's a lot of ruy Hatchamura losing Michael Porter Junior in a huge fourth quarter possession because he doesn't know how to play the three, and D'Angelo Russell getting out hustled for a rebound er just not doing his job on the defensive glass because he sucks at role player stuff.

So like those two guys are the two upgrades that need to be made, and like any sort of resource allocation in terms of draft compensation or young players need to be directed at the two in the three, because those are the two spots that when the chips hit the when the shit hits the fan, and you're trying to get a stop against the Denver Nuggets in Game four, and it's ninety nine to ninety nine, and you got PTSD from all those times that Jamal Murray hit a

game winner in your face. The group you're gonna go down with in the final five minutes of that game is eighty at the five, Lebron at the four, Austin Reeves at the one. Who are you playing at the two and three? That's where they need to invest their resources. I would not agree with spending heavy draft compensation on a guy like Wendell Carter Junior. Like I really like Wendell.

I like the idea of him playing next to Anthony Davis even but I don't like it within the context of Lebron playing the three because he's forty years old and at the three point at the three right now, you need someone who can navigate screens. The Lakers need Lebron in ad to be four to five, and they need their two and three to be athletes that can

chase over the top of the screen. It is a must for them in order to achieve their potential offense on the defensive end of the four, and again eighty looks fantastic and Lebron's gonna be coming out of a tmusa thing, so he's gonna be like kind of geared up for this season. I'm a believer in the Lakers. If they can bolster the two and three, I don't think they're that far off, But I do not believe in their ability to do anything until they address those

two positional needs. And like when we talk about I'll just skip ahead to the Laker question, how far can the Lakers get as currently constructed. As currently constructed, they are what you saw last year. They're a team that's good enough to beat anybody except for the real championship contenders. I think the Lakers would have beat a team like Minnesota. I don't think they would have beat Dallas, especially not

without Jared Vanderbilt. They were one of those random teams in that matchup group where like past the past, the Nuggets, it was like Thunder, Well, the Thunder actually got the one seed, but Denver is my best team in the West. It was like Thunder, Timberwolves, Mavericks, Clippers, Sons, Lakers. Those teams were all on the same tier in my opinion, and they were all matchup oriented. It just turned out that Minnesota had a really strong matchup advantage against Denver

in particular, but Minnesota sucks against rim protection. They got their butts kicked by Dallas. They would have gotten there. I think they would have gotten their butts kicked by the Lakers. I think it would have been the exact same thing. I think they would have just loaded up the strong side. Anthony Davis would have shut down the paint the same way that Derek Lively and Daniel Gafford

did against Anthony Edwards. I think that the same strength advantages that Lebron and Anthony Davis have would have caused the same problems for Minnesota's defense that Luka Doncic did. Like those teams were all beaten each other. But at the same time, we know the lakers particular weakness was teams that could really manipulate their spacing and take advantage of the weak side could beat them because of their lack of perimeter defenders. I think Luca would have picked

the Lakers apart. I think that would have been an issue right Like had the Lakers run into a playoff series, against really quick perimeter teams like the Sacramento Kings, I think the Lakers would have lost that series right So, like right now, the Lakers are capable of beating everybody except for the really good teams, but they're even vulnerable within that matchup tier in the middle of the league.

I think if they accentuate that two to three spot, if they turn that shooting guard spot and that small forward spot into athletes that can defend and at least are competent on the offensive end of the floor, that's where I think the Lakers have the potential to enter into that top tier in the Western Conference. A guy like Bruce Brown at the two I think would be huge. A guy like Dorian Finney Smith at the three, literally,

if they just pulled those two moves off. I know, Dorian Finney Smith and Bruce Brown are not necessarily that much better basketball players than and Ruey Hachimura. It's specifically about the fit. D Loo and Ruey are redundant. Dlo is redundant with Austin. Ruey is redundant with Lebron. Dorian Finney Smith is a three, a real three. Bruce Brown is a two, a real two. Those guys, and Bruce Brown needs to be a two next to a real skill guard like a Jamal Murray or in this case

in Austin Reeves. That makes sense. Dorian Finney Smith. He's not a high level offensive player, so he needs to capitalize on advantages. He needs to be the three next to multiple ballhandl Fulcrum's well, ad Lebron and Austin Reeves have you covered there? And so those are the kinds of moves that I think could like on the margins that can move the Lakers into a more serious level of basketball on both ends of the floor. I'm worried about the Lakers doing that because in order to get

good basketball players, you have to spend draft compensation. How did the Dallas Mavericks get Daniel Gafford in PJ Washington draft compensation? Are the Lakers willing to pay what it costs to get high level role players that accentuate what their best players do. That's going to be the question We're going to find out the answer to over the course of the rest of the summer. Two more quick

ones and then we'll get out of here. Tatum shooting percentage in his pull up jumper efficiency has decreased in each of the last three or four post seasons. And You've said it's just the peaks and valleys that come with shooting variants, But I think it's it's what he does in the offseason and all the weight training. Here's the thing, it didn't really matter how much you lift weights as long as you continue to polish up your shot. There are a lot of really buff guys around the

league that can shoot. That to me is a cop out. I mean Desmond Bane literally like looks like a cartoon character with how big his arms are on his body, and the dude's like just an absolute laser from the three point line like that. Kawhi Enard has built like an absolute truck and he can shoot like crazy. Right So, Like, to me, it's just right now, Tatum's going through some stuff with his form. He's got a little bit of a hitch right now. You could tell he's a little

bit just generally slumping in terms of his confidence. He airballed to a corner three in the USA Australia game today, So like, I think he'll get out of it. But right now, the big thing for me is I just see a little bit of a hitch as he's gathering his shot, as he's kind of coming up in front of his chest into a shooting pocket. He's just a little bit hitchy there, and that's the thing he's got

to work out. Last question, do you think Luca can be considered the second best player on the planet after getting exposed for all time bad defense in the finals and then he put in parenthes. He's so bad it's impossible to win with one thing here, Boston. Let's credit Boston in the sense that they are uniquely equipped to punish teams that typically need to hide one of their lesser defensive players. I think there are a lot of stars in the league that would have struggled against Boston.

I think Yok would have struggled on defense against Boston. I think a guy I think a guy like a like a Steph Curry might have struggled against Boston defensively. I think that I think that a lot of like the slower footed players would have struggled, right Like, I don't think they would have been as bad as Luca. I think Luca was exceptionally bad, and I think that's something that he needs to deal with. But I think

he's gonna deal with it this summer too. Like I think that was kind of a humbling experience for him, but I think Boston in general just kind of made that situation look look worse than it actually was. And I'm not ready to bail on Luca as one of the best players in the world because he had a bad playoff series. A lot of really good players before him had that bad playoff series and never rebounded. All Right, guys, that's all I have for today. We're gonna run this

mail bag as a breakout tomorrow. I'll be back on Wednesday morning. We're gonna break down Serbia versus the USA, Jokis versus b That would should be a ton of fun. I will see you guys.