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Hope you guys are having a great week. I'm really excited for this show. We are going to be ranking all thirty NBA teams, not individually by number, but by tears. I'm sorting them into tears based on where they're at in their current development slash path towards an NBA championship. I have the top tier contenders. Those are the teams that obviously have the best chance to win the championship
this year. That I have the fatal flaw contenders, teams that I do believe are contending for a championship but have a significant flaw that I expect to get them beat. Then we're gonna have the if they make the right trade contenders. These are teams that are not good enough yet, but if they address specific needs they have a chance. Then we're gonna get into the lack of self awareness tier. These are the teams that think that they have a chance to win a championship but definitely do not. Then
we have the interesting and scrappy tier. These are the teams that definitely don't think they're gonna win a championship, but are playing really good basketball and are fun to watch on any given night. And then lastly, we'll have the actively and intentionally terrible tier. So we're gonna be working on all thirty NBA teams today. It's gonna be fun one. We're gonna be going pretty fast, though, you guys know the joke 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 Lts, you guys don't miss any show announcements. And then, last, but not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these videos and you can't get over to YouTube to finish, you can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight, all right, let's talk some basketball. So these are the top tier contenders. Now again, nobody is perfect.
There is no two two thousand seventeen Warriors or two thousand one Lakers in this mix, but all four of these teams are a clear cut above the rest and should feel confident in their championship odds. This particular season. This is gonna be the Boston Celtics, the Brooklyn Nets, the Milwaukee Bucks in the Golden State Warriors. Not to be clear, as I'm going through these tears, the tears are the ranking. The individual teams within the tears are not in order, so I just have them in a list,
but the tears are where they are ranked. For instance, I have the Celtics first in this first tier. I wouldn't actually have them as the best championship contender. I'd probably ranked them Golden State than Milwaukee, Den Boston, then Brooklyn. But I'm gonna work. I'm just gonna keep them in tears because I think it's more interesting that way. So, starting with the Boston Celtics, I think that the humiliation from last year's NBA Finals flame out has helped a lot.
Jason Tatum has clearly spent a ton of time in the offseason working on his handle. Uh He's has He has his lowest turnovers per thirty six minutes since two thousand twenty. Then obviously they added Malcolm Brogden. So the general growing up an improvement of the roster plus the influx of Malcolm Brogden seems to have addressed their ball handling concerns. They are the fourth best team in the league right now at taking care of the bat basketball
at just thirteen point four turnovers per one possessions. But then we had that Golden State game or that Denver Nuggets game where just time and time again we've seen at the biggest stages and a little bit of those high stakes environments, they kind of lose their identity a bit.
They're sloppy on defense and the way you wouldn't expect them to be, like, for instance, last year, great transition defense all year, horrible transition defense in the playoffs when the stakes get heavy, they just lose their identity a little bit. And so the real question is can they keep their focus this year through four rounds of the playoffs and not lose that identity. They have to beat their own demons. The biggest enemy of the Boston Celtics
is the Boston Celtics. I think they actually have the most talented team in the n B A second team the Brooklyn Nets. They are top five in offense, top ten in defense. I think Kevin Durant is the m v P of the league if the season ended today. Kyrie Irving is having an excellent season. And then a lot of their important offseason moves have panned out. That Royce O'Neil trade that they made for that first round pick from the Jazz, that was a home run trade.
T J. Warren has fit in really nicely with his bit of ball handling and shooting. And then you do what Naby getting him um uh this summer. Previously he was with the Raptors. That him just providing another big, long wing that can knock down threes at a high rate and play a little bit of a bit of defense.
That is giving them a really functional basketball team. Now, my two main concerns with the Brooklyn Nets are they rely heavily on pull up shooting, and we saw what happened last year against Boston when those pull up jump shots stopped going in. How suddenly their offense loses a great deal of effectiveness. So that would be one of my concerns. The second concern is their lack of physicality.
They are a great defensive team, but they are very thin, and so there are specific matchups teams specifically to have a great deal of strength on the perimeter, teams like Boston that I think are really bad matchup for Brooklyn that could get them into some trouble. That top of the East is very matchup dependent, Like I really like Brooklyn's chances of beating Milwaukee, but I really like Milwaukee's chances of beating Boston, but I really like Boston's chances
of beating Brooklyn. So it's kind of matchups could be a big indicator of how things go out East this year. But they are top three. The Brooklyn Nets are top three, and both half court offense and half court defense, they are built for these slow down NBA playoff games. They can execute in the half court, so they are definitely
a top tier contender in my opinion. Alright, Milwaukee Bucks, they really have done a masterful job this year of floating things despite really bad injury luck with Chris Middleton and Drew Holiday. The biggest issue with them is their spot up shooting. There the nineteen best team in the league at converting spot up opportunities at just one point per possession. But we're starting to see some encouraging stuff. As I expected, Joe Ingles has been a perfect fit.
They're not just attacking closeouts and doing stuff in spot up situations, but also um his ability to make reads on ball so they can run some actions with him as a second side creator. Chris Middleton getting healthy and getting a good stretch of basketball games where he gets his rhythm will go a long way towards remedying those spot up issues as well. And you know, just in general, I think I can't shake the feeling that the NBA world as a whole is kind of writing off your
honest right now. He is having kind of an ify season from a shooting perspective and from a metric perspective. The Bucks are flying under the radar right now. And we've seen even without Joe ingles Is support, even without Chris Middleton's support, we've seen how hard it is to beat Janice in that group of guys in a playoff series, even for a team is good at the as the Boston Celtics, even with all those personnel limitations, because Janice Antenna Combo in a seven game series is going to
put his damn head down and run you over. Time and time again for every bit of those seven games to try to get to the rim. And if you're not prepared to hold up to that, you'll lose. And even if you do hold up to that, it's gonna be difficult. And if you throw in some real spot up shooting with Chris Middleton and Joe Ingles, that fortification there on the wing could make the really difficult to beat. I still think they're a top tier contender. And then lastly,
the Golden State Warriors. I just think that I think the Warriors are dealing with a really, really, really bad case of championship malaise. Yes, they have some roster issues. I think they could use a backup center. I think they could use another wing off the bench, But I think the vast majority of their issues come down to
inconsistent effort. They just put up a defensive rating of one eighteen point three against the Orlando Magic or a bottom ten offense, the Detroit Pistons who are a bottom five offense, and the Phoenix Suns, who literally can't score without Devin Booker on the floor. They're just not playing hard enough right now. So I do think that eventually they'll snap into gear. Now that steps back, I think the veterans are gonna get on everybody's case and snap
into focus. I expect them to have a twenty game stretch at some point over the course of the next couple of months where they rip off, you know, seventeen and three or sixteen and four, And when they do that, all of their issues and the standings will go away and they'll kind of recapture that identity. I also expect them to finish with the top ten defense when it's all said and done, because I think that will be
the driving force of their turnaround. And make no mistake once again, like we were talking about with the honest, if you want to beat the Warriors in a playoff series, which is something you'll probably have to do, if you want to get out of the Western Conference, you're going to have to beat Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green, and Kevon Looney four times out of seven games. Yes,
their bench has some issues. Yes they've had inconsistent defensive effort in the regular season, but you know damn well, because we just saw it against the Celtics last year, and you just saw it against the Mavericks last year. When they are in those settings, they just execute on both ends of the floor at a higher level than anyone else in the league right now, and they're not gonna care about them sucking on the road during February
when they get to that point. They are the one team in this entire field that has earned the benefit of the doubt as it as it pertains to UH trying to figure out what their ultimate ceiling is. We know what it looks like, we know what these players are capable of. They just have the worst case of championship malays that I can remember seeing, which makes some
sense that this is a late term championship. This was a championship at the end of most of these guys' careers, so it's a little bit harder for them to get the engine started. I do eventually think they'll get the engine started. As of right now, to be clear, I still have the Golden State Warriors winning the championship, all right. Moving on to the next tier, This is the fatal
flaw contenders. These are teams that legitimately have good reason to believe that they can win a championship, and they should feel confident in their locker room. But I expect these teams to get beat because of significant flaws that are historically proven throughout NBA history to get team speed
in the playoffs. Starting with Denver, they have the best offense in the league, or more accurately, they're tied for the best offense in the league at one seventeen point one points per one hundred possessions, which is just what I expected before the season. I told you guys, I expected Denver to be the number one offense, but I
said that didn't matter if they didn't get enough stops. Defensive, there is a historic precedent in the NBA in this millennium, you do not win a championship unless you have a top ten defense. The only two exceptions are the Shack Kobe Lakers and the k D Staph Warriors in two thousand eighteen, who, by the way, were the eleventh best defense in the league. So we have two examples where
that wasn't true. One they were eleventh and they had two of the top three players in the world, and the other one they had the two best players in the world and Kevin in a Kobe and Shack. That's not a luxury that the Nuggets have. Functionally, when you get to the playoffs, teams target your weaknesses. That's just a fact. Strategically, over seven games, when you have that much time to scout and you're running, you know, over the course of a series five offensive possessions, you're targeting
the defensive weaknesses every single time that you can. Now Denver has loaded up on some solid defenders. Really like the Bruce Brown acquisition. I thought flipping Will Barton for k CP was really smart. Said that before the season. I think he's a perfect fit with Yokich and he has been erin Gordon's having a great defensive season. But they're best lineups. Denver's best lineups feature three players that
will relentlessly be attacked in a playoff series. Nicola Yokich through spamming pick and roll with players that force him to come up to the level of the screen and try to drive about around him or just attacking him and switches when they have out opportunities, Jamal Murray attacking and switches, and Michael Porter Jr. They will get attacked and NBA history tells us they will lose as a result. They've been a bottom ten defense this year when they
play against the top ten offenses in the league. They are twentieth in defensive rating according to Cleaning the Glass. I expect them in a playoff series to be put in a predicament where they're best players are attacked, and I think it will result in their in them losing like Shack and Kobe, like Katie and Steath. You only win a championship with a bad defense if you have an otherworldly talent advantage, and the Nuggets do not, and
so that's the biggest thing standing in their way. Memphis Grizzlies, they cannot score in the half court. They are a great team. They're tied for the second best record in the league. They're probably the most physically imposing team in the league. They're damn good on the glass. They have the number one defense in the league, but they lack total offensive skill and ball handling and shooting in most
of their lineups. John Mary is the only guy who can consistently create shots for himself and his teammates at an extremely high level. So as a result, they have the seventh worst half court offense in the entire league. When they get into the playoffs, teams will find a way to trap them in the half court, and when that happens, I expect them to struggle to score, which I think will get them beat. Uh. The only real chance they have is if Desmond Bane comes back and
some of that off the drible stuff he flashed. Now he is back, but gets back to what he was earlier in the season, which is a really high level dribble creator. And if that translates to the playoffs, it might improve them um in those half court situations. But right now to this point in the season, through half the season, they've been a really bad half court offense. That's going to be an issue when they get to the late rounds of the playoffs. Next to Cleveland Cavaliers. Again,
lots of reasons to be excited. Second best defense in the league, seventh best record in the league. The Donovan Mitchell trade was an absolute home run, but their best lineup features two small guards and Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell, both of which are bad defensive players. Despite the fact that the Calves as a team have a great defense, again, when we get into the postseason, we see these things get attacked. The best example I can give you, guys
is the Utah Jazz the Utah Jazz. Functionally, in the regular season a couple of years ago, UM had an excellent defense. I think there were third in defensive rating two years ago. But then what happened It might have been last year. Was either last year the year four, I can't remember exactly, but they had the third best defense in the regular season. I think it was last year against the MAVs UM. But when they get into the postseason, it turns out that all those small guards
that they have can get attacked. And so what ended up happening. They got attacked all of a sudden. Rudy Gobert isn't just hanging out by the paint blocking shots. Instead, he's covering ground in rotation and being dragged away from the rim, and teams are either getting high quality three point shots or rim attempts. When Rudy gets pulled away from the rim. Next thing, you know, their defense falls apart.
I want to say that the Jazz had like a one thirty defensive rating um UH in that playoff run after being the third best defense in the league to start the year. There's a difference between you know, what you can functionally like kind of like do what kind of defense you can put out as a fac simile of defense in the regular season versus what actually works in the playoffs. It's kind of the difference between defensive versatility and you know, a defensive base concept, you know
what I mean. Like in the playoffs, you need to have defensive versatility, you need to be able to go to different defensive coverages. And you know, when you have two small guards like Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell, when you get into the postseason, I don't care how good defensively they were in the regular season. Teams will find a way to attack those guys. And the big guy that I've seen them get attacked, they seem get attacked
most frequently in these late game situations. In particular has been Darius Garland because he's so incredibly small, and you know what you're seeing it is in those clutch situations. Calves are second in defense, but they're seventeen in defense and clutch situations, and it's because clutch situations mimic playoff basketball. It's a lot more matchup attacking, and that's where those
small guards end up presenting problems. As I've been preaching all year, I expect that Eventually, the Calves will have to consider flipping Darius Garland for a wing so that they can get away from that specific fatal flaw. Next is the Philadelphia seventy six Ers, their fourth in defense,
sixth best record in the league. I think they have the most talented top four in the league, between James hard and Joel and beat Tyres, Maxie and Tobias Harris and Joel Embied and James Harden both look fantastic this year, but Olan Bead and James Harden have a history of not playing well in the NBA playoffs. Joel Embiid his perimeter jump shot consistently falls apart in the playoffs, and as we've seen, that has become a huge part of
his game. So if that happens again, that's gonna be problematic. And then James Harden, we don't have to get into his playoff resume, but just consistently like probably the most consistent example of playoff decline in NBA history from a superstar player. So again, if they do play at that same level, if m B does continue to knock down his perimeter shot in the playoffs, if James Harden does
continue to play at this level in the playoffs. I think the Sixers have a damn good chance to win, But the best indicator of future performances, past performance, and what we've seen in the past is that those two guys experience is significant decline when they get into the playoffs. Then the last two teams I have in this team tier are the l A Clippers and New Orleans Pelicans. Again, two teams that I absolutely have think have chances to
win the championship, but health is their biggest concern. Kauai, Paul George, Zion Williamson brandon Ing just can't stay on the floor and stay healthy. Makes it really difficult to evaluate them, makes it really difficult for that team to build any continuity. They're gonna have to play a certain way when they get in the postseason that they're not gonna have enough reps from the regular season to lean on.
That to me, um takes them off of real championship contention and puts it puts them more on the fringes Alright. The next tier is the if they make the right trade contenders. Again, these are teams that have incredible star talent but monster roster deficiencies that need to be addressed at the deadline to give them any chance to compete for a championship. The first team I have in this tier is the Dallas Mavericks. They have everything you need
except for that third drible creator. I think Luca is more than good enough to be the best player on a championship team. Their defense has been bad as of late, but you gotta look at the personnel at Mexicaliba being hurt. That's one of their best back line defenders. You know, Josh Green has been a very important defensive player this year. Dorian Phinney Smith is literally their best defensive wing. When those guys come back, I expect their defense to stabilize, um,
but they need to address that backup creation role. I'd be looking to flip Christian Would at the deadline for a creator because I don't really like Christian Wood's game, and I don't think he's a guy that you can really rely on in a playoff setting. UM, you can go super aggressive and pair him with like Tim Hardaway Jr. And some draft picks and try to go after Zach Levin. That'd be an interesting piece, but you better be convinced that he can be your secondary star. Otherwise you're tied
up to him for a long time. UM Or you could just flip Christian Wood straight up for you know, someone like Jordan Clarkson from the Utah Jazz to try to give yourself some backup um ball hand like you could either go with a heavily protected first round pick if you think that's what he's worth, or try to go for something like two second round picks. Another guy would be looking at his Terry Rosier from the New
Orleans or from the Charlotte Hornets. If you can get him in there in that third creation role alongside Luca and Spencer Dinwoody, I think you have a better chance no matter what. Just somebody that can help them run coherent offense when Luca is off the floor and lower Lucas usage. Right now, this season, the Dallas Maverick score d and twenty one points per one h possessions when Luca is on the floor and just one oh six when he's off the floor. It's a significant drop off
offensively when he's off. They can address that. That's their big need at the deadline. Next the Los Angeles Lakers. They have everything they need except for competency with wing size, They've got all the star power in the world. Lebron and Anthony Davis I think are definitively top ten players in the league. Uh. The Ringer just released their NBA rankings the other day and they have Lebron and A
d both as top ten players in the league. I sent out a poll the other day just seeing what the um pulse was of the fan the all of the basketball fans that follow me and over of the people who voted in the poll said that they believe Lebron and A d were both top ten players. So there you go. You're checked in the star department. Their guard corps actually really solid. Dennis Reuter has been one of the best veteran him them signings in the league
this year. Austin Reeves is an excellent backcourt piece. Lonnie Walker has had a very good season for the Lakers. Kendrick Nunn is even starting to play better after a nightmares start to the season, and then Russell Westbrook. I mean, it's a complicated and polarizing topic, but as a bench guard, he's not the worst option in the world. I think. I think as long as the Lakers don't ever play him in a closing lineup, it's fine to keep him around. Um, you guys know how I feel about USS. I'm not
gonna get into it any further. And then when you look at the front court, they're actually really solid between Lebron James, Anthony Davis, Thomas Bryant has shown that he could be an excellent backup center for that group. And then when you Gabriel flies around and just does stuff with his length in athleticism. But at the forward position
on the wing, they're incredibly thin. The only two forwards they really have or Troy Brown Jr. Who's really undersized and does better guarding guards than he does guarding wings, and want Toscano Anderson, who can guard upon opposing wings, but he really can't shoot, so he hurts you on
the offensive end of the floor. So they desperately need somebody in that seven to six nine range, preferably two guys that can shoot the ball competently on the offensive end of the floor and that can play defense on the perimeter, particularly against bigger wings. If I was running at the if I was running the Lakers, I'd go after both Kyle Kuzman Boy and Begdanovitch. Both are reportedly
valued for right around the first round pick. The Lakers have two first round picks that are both extremely highly valued around the league because of the incompetence of Genie Buss and Rob Polinka. Now, matching salaries would be a little bit challenging. Kyle Kuzma makes thirteen millions. You could go straight across with a guy like Patrick Beverley for Kyle Kuzma, But if you wanted to get Boy and Begdanovitch, you might have to get a little bit more creative.
You might have to loop in a third team to get some cap space to help absorb salary. But I think that they should go after both because if you put that backcourt with that front court with Lebron James and Anthony Davis and Kyle Kuzman, Boy and Begdanovitch on the wing, that to me is a contender that is just below that top tier. And if Lebron James and Anthony Davis play to the level they're capable of, then
they're absolutely top tier can tenders. And I have to keep reminding everybody because people don't understand, but the Lakers have been damn good at pretty much ever since they beat the Brooklyn Nets back on November or whatever it is. They've been one of the top ten teams in the league.
So whatever your impression is of the Lakers, it's probably been poisoned by a two intense start to the season when Dennis Shrewder wasn't available, Thomas Bryant wasn't available, Lebron is playing like crap, and Anthony Davis wasn't making any jump shots. So it's a different team now than what they were to begin the season, and we gotta adjust
our expectations there. But even if they couldn't get both of those guys just one, if they could just flip Patrick Beverley in a lightly protected first for Kyle Kuzma, that would monumentally improve their opportunity to win this season. They have the eighth best record in the league over the last thirty games, despite Lebron and Anthony Davis missing significant stretches. There, if you get both of those guys back on the floor and you fortify that wing position,
you have a championship contender. End of story. Um next Miami Heat. They have ton to get excited about. Their ten and five over the last few team games, just one and a half games back of the sixth seed to get out of the plane. Bama to Bio has gone up a level, particularly as a score, but they're still way too thin on the front line. They definitely need to look to try to get a big, strong forward, kind of a different archetype. The Lakers are more in
the market for a skilled forward. I'm for the heat. I'm more concerned with a physical forward, So I'd be looking at guys like O g N and Obi on the aggressive end, and guys like Jake Crowder on the less aggressive end, but a big, strong forward that can help fortify their interior presence. Okay, so we're moving on to the next year. From this point forward through the rest of the show, it's gonna be much more rapid fire. Obviously, these are lower level teams, so I'm not gonna spend
as much time talking about them. This is the lack of self awareness here. Every single one of these teams is trapped in mediocrity and unwilling to admit it. They probably have some sort of, you know, misperception that they have an opportunity to win this year when they actually don't and they have severe, you know, severe severe flaws that would need to be dry before they could ever
even hope to contend. First the Chicago Bulls. Their stars do not compete physically, especially on the defensive end of the floor. Secondly, the Atlanta Hawks. They have major locker room issues. Their energy seems off half the time I watched them. Feels like any moment now Nate McMillan could resign. There's just a major chemistry issue in that locker room. Next to Portland Trailblazers, they have the sixth worst record
in the league over the last twenty six games. Dropped another game at home last night to the Orlando Magic. Next the Minnesota Timberwolves. Their best players can't play together. Anthony Edwards lineups are way better when D'Angelo russell is off the floor. All of their one center lineups are positive.
So if it's just nas read positive, just Carl Town's positive, just Rudy Gobert positive, but any combination of the two of them is negative, which goes right back to one of the fundamental team building things that I always talked about on this show. Don't build your team around two
centers on the floor at the same time. You need to be able to um compete in the up and down nature of the modern b A. I think Anthony Edwards and Rudy Gobert make an interesting core, but I think they need to reconfigure the rest, probably resulting in then moving Carl Town's Indiangelo russell Um. Next is the Phoenix Suns. They lost two years in a row in UH Deep playoff runs because their stars couldn't compete with
the likes of Janice or Luca don chich Well. Now CP three is worse than ever and Devin Booker is having health issues, so that fundamental flaw that they have is only worse now than it's ever been. Plus they've lost a lot of depth on the wing with the Cam Johnson injury and the Jay Crowder trade request. They're just a worse version of a team that was already fatally flawed. Next is the New York Knicks, kind of a similar predicaments of the Phoenix Suns. They have lots
of talent. Mitchell Robinson's really good, Quentin Grinds is really good, are j Barrett is really good. They defended a high level, but you're not beating any of those top teams in the Eastern Conference of Jalen Brunson and Julius Randall are making all your offensive decisions for you. Next is the Sacramento Kings. They don't play any defense, and as a result they can't beat any good teams. They're just eight and and against teams that are five are better. Next
to Washington Wizards, everyone of the team is overslotted. Bradley Beal, I really like if he's the second best player on your team, but on the Wizards, he's the best player on the team. I really like Kyle Kuzma if he's the third or fourth best player on your team, but he's the second best player on your team, and so as a result, everyone's kind of uh playing, you know, above their pay grade, and as a result they can't
win games. And then lastly, the Toronto Raptors. They just don't have nearly enough ball handling and shooting and so as a result they can't score in the half court and they can only win if it's a track meet, which just is never going to happen when you get into the playoffs. Alright, Moving on to the interesting and
scrappy tier. These are teams that are further along in their development than the tanking teams and have multiple good NBA players that are young and exciting, but they are close to being good enough to like push their chips in to try to go after contention. And there's no misconception in the front office where they think they're contending
right now when they're not. Um. The front offices for these teams probably know that they're gonna lose in some early play round, but they look at it as a valuable experience and part of that process towards getting to the next level. The three teams that I have in this yere are the Indiana Pacers, the Utah Jazz, and the Oklahoma City Thunder. I just did a deep dive on the Oklahoma City Thunder yesterday. You can find that
they're I'm not gonna talk anymore about them today. The Utah Jazz, it's basically team made up of trade filler from the Rudy Gobert and the Donovan mettal trades, and this season is basically a tryout for the front office to decide which one of these pieces they want to hold onto for the future and which one of these pieces they want to ship off for um for resources over the trade deadline. But they're young talented, exciting LORI
market in looks like a franchise cornerstone piece. UM. Really excited to see what Danny Angel does with that group over the next decade, half decade, I should say. And lastly, the Indiana Pacers, Um, it makes sense for them to wait, they're I think they're all in trade would be for a wing right now. They're way too heavy young guards and Miles Turner love would love to see them get a legitimate wing in there that can take wing de pensive assignments and give them a little bit more of
a rim pressuring element. But they have such an exciting young backcourt that they can even afford to trade some of them for assets. Um, They're definitely a really exciting young team. Tyrese Haliburton in his past First Culture has transformed that backcourt all right. Lastly, the actively and intentionally terrible tier. These are teams that basically serve one purpose, giving young players low pressure reps so that they can evaluate and see what they project to be as NBA players.
They're bad, and they know they're bad, and they're playing the long game. First is the Houston Rockets. They desperately need a veteran ball handler to get in there and teach their young guards game management. This is an important detail of being a ball handler that I think goes underrated,
especially in young players. You know, I talked a lot about the important skills of beating coverages in the NBA, right, Like, you've got to have a certain amount of ball handling off the dribble, shooting, finishing at the ram, and making reads right. But it's not just as simple as that. There is a that's what you do on a single possession, but over the course of a game, let's say, let's to make the Matthew easy. Let's say there's a hundred
possessions in an NBA game. Well, in addition to those one hundred possessions, let's say that I am on the floor for a thirty two minute shift out of the forty eight, So that's like roughly seventy possessions. And then
you know, I'm sharing those possessions with my teammates. So like, maybe I've got forty initiation possessions if I'm jailing green right, Um, in those forty possessions, it's important for me to feel the value of all forty of them versus the value of any one particular of them, So there is a
time and a place for specific types of shots. Like higher difficulty shots are better reserved for when you've built your rhythm and you're feeling very confident and you feel very good about that shot when you're rising up to take it, whereas like early in the game, when you're building your rhythm, it's better to make reads to try to get your teammates going so they feel confident throughout the game, or to seek out and hunt out easy shots so you can build your rhythm to be able
to make the tougher ones at the end of the game. But no matter what, there's a feel of the game, especially as it pertains to the scoreboard. Down eight up eight, close game. You're on a run, they're on a run. Whatever it is, those ebbs and flows of the game, and many in many ways are controlled by the ball handlers and their ability to slow the game down when the other teams on a run to really execute and get a good shot, for instance, right or the transition
pull up three. When you're on a run, you're feeling confident and you feel an opportunity to take to snatch
the other team's heart. That's maybe an opportunity to be more aggressive, but that feel is something that Kevin Porter Jr. And Jaalen Green really struggle with, and so getting in a a legit veteran ball handler kind of a similar thing to what we were talking about earlier with Oklahoma City, I should say yesterday with Oklahoma City, like I'd love to see them target a Kyle Lowry or at Chris Paul or something in the late end of their career just to bring in not to do anything specific for
them on their team, but do what like Ray John Rondo did for the and A Hawks, which is like, just go in there and be a mentor to some of these young players and help them feel the game out. Um the Detroit Piston, Charlotte Hornets, and San Antonio Spurs, no specific thoughts there, but they're also in this tier. And then the last team in this tier is the
Orlando Magic. And my one note there is I expect them to jump into that interesting and scrappy tier next season because of the level of talent they have on the wing and just how good they're young players are in the sense that they're too good to continue to lose basketball games, and they're becoming a very difficult team to beat on any given night. They've been over five hundred for the past like month or so. They just won last night in Portland, so I expect them to
move up to that next tier. All right, that was fun all thirty teams. How about that? Um? You guys know the drill. I'm gonna be h taking. I have one other video this week. It's going to be five burning questions for next season. I believe that one airs on Saturday, so keep an eye on the feeds there. As always, I appreciate your support and I will see you guys next time. The volume