Hoops Tonight - Wembanyama & Spurs surge past Kevin Durant & Suns, Mavericks & Grizzlies deep dives

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so far. We got a jam pack day for the show. Today, we're doing two episodes, and this particular episode we're gonna be hitting Spurs suns from last night Victor Wembin Yama versus Kevin Durant. Then we're gonna do a deep dive on the Dallas Mavericks and a deep dive on the Memphis Grizzlies, two teams that are performing unexpectedly to start the season. The Grizzlies are zero and four, the Mavericks

are three and oh. We're gonna do deep dives on both of them and what I've learned from film so far this season, and then later this evening, we're gonna be doing a breakdown of the two ESPN games in the Wednesday Night Slate, finishing off with Lakers Clippers in the evening, which should be a fun one. The Clippers have had the Lakers number for a while. Lakers aren't playing very good basketball right now, so I have a feeling they might get their butts kicks, but we'll see

how it goes. You guys know the Joe before we get started, subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is our brand new YouTube channel. We're trying to get it off the ground. I sincerely appreciate you guys' support over the first week and a half or so. We're already over twenty thousand subscribers. I am incredibly thrilled with how the show launch has gone on this channel. If you guys haven't done so yet, it would mean a lot to me if he took a second to scrip down and

hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever Euchre podcast under Hoops tonight. Follow me on social media, particularly on Twitter, is where I've been doing when I'm doing my film sessions. I'm clipping stuff that I noticed and I'm putting it on Twitter. I posted like fifteen clips this morning, and so I'm gonna be referencing them

throughout the show. I recommend following me there because that's gonna be a good way to kind of get a visual representation of some of the concepts that I talk about on the show. And the last, but not least, any more mailback questions. We're hitting three of them at the end of the show today, but I need more of them for the future. Put those in the YouTube comments. All right, let's talk some basketball. So Victor Wemnyama versus

Kevin Durant. You know, we forget that Kevin Durant's an alien two, right, Like, We've had three players try to iso Victor WebM Minyama so far to start this season. There was a Dylan Brooks step back jump shot that

he missed badly. There was a Paul George step back jump shot that he missed badly, and then there was Kyrie Irving trying to recreate his twenty sixteen step back jump shot, which was also way off on the right, and then you know, figures, we forget that Kevin Durant in and of himself is a unicorn in his combination of length and size and ability to move in his

coordination as a score. And he ends up in a late clock situation in a late first quarter, and he tries to call a ball screen to get Victor wemen Yama switched off of him, and Victor does a really nice job navigating the screen and then applies a little

ball pressure to disrupt Kd's rhythm. But Kdie just goes, well, guess I got to iso Wemby here, don't have enough time to do anything else, hits him with a hard dribble drive to the right and a step back jump shot along the baseline, gets it off over Wemby's contest and knocks it down. It was one of those like kind of iconic basketball moments you see him over the years.

It reminded me of this clip that you can find if you look around of Wilt Chamberlain blocking back to back Kurreem abdul Jabbar skyhooks, and it's one of those things where Kareem was kind of like that generation's you know, Victor in a lot of ways, and then you know Wilt is the previous generations, and like he's winning that individ duel battle, right And that's the thing is, like, it's kind of weird seeing Kevin Durant at this phase in his career where he's kind of like the elderly scholar,

the guy that we're like, oh yeah, I forgot. He's freaking incredible as we've kind of turned our focus towards the future, and it just kind of felt like a cool moment to watch that game last night. The Sun's controlled the game throughout. Kevin Durants is on a ridiculous offensive run right now, twenty seven to seven and five on fifty nine percent true shooting, despite his co stars

being out and facing unbelievably aggressive defensive coverages. Again, like the Suns right now, with Devin Booker and Bradley Beal out of the lineup, are playing a lot of players that teams aren't gonna guard at the three point line. Josha Kogi is not getting guarded out there, Jordan Goodwin's not getting guarded out Their use of Nurkic made a couple threes in crunch time last night, but they're all open. They're not guarding him out there. Drew Eubanks is a

non scoring threat. And then to here little who knocked down a couple of threes in the game last night, also not being guarded when he's at the three point line.

And so as a result, teams are able to to zone up on the strong side, meaning like ignore a player off ball to then come on the other side of the block so that they don't get a defensive three seconds call and just basically make driving not an option for KD so that he has to take pull up jump shots right and then they're basically just filling the gaps on the weak side to make those skip passes difficult. They're doubling him on ball screens, they're doubling

him a lot on ISOs as well. They're able to throw the kitchen sync at KD because there's just not a lot of offensive skill around him. Right now, that said, they do you know, this is what the third game in a row that the Sons have played without Booker and Beal, and so they're starting to get that little you know, driving kick thing down on the back side

of that to generate high quality threes. They did not shoot very well in the Jazz game or in the Laker game, but they did shoot much better in this particular game generate a lot of high quality threes that guys were knocking down. Kind of were stiff arming the Spurs around like ten points for most of the game, but then Greg Popovich breaks breaks out a three to

two zone in the middle of the fourth quarter. They get three stops in a row on it, and then Devin Vessel has a nice little scoring run where he rejects the ball screen with Josha Koge on him and gets downhill, hits a and one over use of Nurkic, and then he hits a nasty step back three over Eric Gordon and suddenly it's a three point game, right, And so then the Spurs go back to Manda Man and Keldon Johnson's guarden Kevin Durant on a couple of possessions and kd gets him twice in a row, one

on one to put the Spurs back up by five. But then down the stretch the Spurs just straight up steal the game. They're down by five, they run a baseline out of bounds play where KD and you do want to Nobby accidentally miscommunicate to switch. Uta is a little slow to get out, and Victor just hits a really nice shot, a little movement jump shot, a little seventeen footer kind of move into his right, rises up

and knocks the shot down. On the very next possession, the Suns once again rotate the ball around and hit you to want Nabby for a wide open three in the left corner, and again it's maker, miss league. You just shot fifty one percent on corner threes last year, missed this one. Suddenly it's a three point game and the Spurs have the ball, and so they run this

play like a ball screen action with Victor. Webbin Yaman, Devin Vessel, and Reggie Miller on the TNT broadcast said a really nice I've been calling out how Victor was bailing out of screens early, and this is something he's gonna have to work on, because, like there's a tendency when you're setting ball screens to want to get out quickly because you want to be ready for the basketball, right, So you want to roll quickly, you want to pop quickly and you want to be ready to catch the

ball right. But at the end of the day, your opening is actually going to be a bigger result of how good of a screen you set, because if you don't set a solid screen and the on ball defender is able to stay with the primary initiator, then then they don't need to overhelp on the backside and you just won't be open. But if you set a solid screen and you allow your ball handler to get separated from Josha Kogi or whoever it is that's at the

point of attack, then the backside has to help. And when the backside has to help, that's when if you pick and pop to the top of the key, you're gonna be wide open. Or if you're rolling down the lane, you're either gonna be open for the pocket pass or the skip pass is going to be open. It requires you to set a good screen, and this is something

that doesn't get discussed nearly enough in the league. Like, for instance, a matchup like Jokich and Anthony Davis, Like we talk about all these differences between them, but one of the key differences between them is Nikole Jokis is an excellent screener and Anthony Davis is a bad screener for his position, and so that sort of thing is a huge area of opportunity with big men in the NBA, and it's something that Victor has to get better at.

But anyway, he bails out of the screen right and so when Devin Vessel dribbles over to the right side of the floor, the on ball defenders on him, so the play completely falls apart. But on the play, Devin Vessel settles for a tough pull up three and Kevin Durant gets caught ball watching and doesn't box Victor wemen Yam out, who slips right behind him for the tip

dunk to make it one fourteen to one thirteen. And then on the inbounds play again, like a lot of times traps on the inbounds what they'll do is the guy who throws the inbound pass, the guy guarding him will then quick trap right, and then a lot of times like teams will rotate down and take away the inbounder as he comes in and make you throw it over the top pass. But the Spurs didn't even do that.

They ignored a kogie when he slid back in bounds, and so he was right there waiting for the basketball, but Katie just didn't see him, didn't even and then he also didn't see Keldon Johnson looping around behind him for that steal takes the ball away. Then Keldon Johnson just goes right downhill and attacks the rim and makes the shot to end up essentially winning the game. KD misses a prayer at the buzzer that was an extremely difficult shot. Now, this is kind of the reality of

Phoenix's offensive limitations without Devin Booker and Bradley Bial. This is the second time in the last three games that the Sons basically controlled a game throughout and then blew it late, particularly struggling on the offensive end of the floor, because they've actually been a really good defensive team without Devin Booker and Bradley Bial For the season, the Suns are sixth in defensive rating. They are eleventh and half court defense. According to Cleaning the Glass, they have the

third best transition defense. They are allowing again, like they don't have a ton of interior side, so they're struggling a little bit. In the paint. They're nineteenth and opponent's points in the paint allowed per one hundred possessions, but they are sixth and opponent three three pointers made in second and opponent three point percentage. You're seeing a lot of the elements that Frank Vogel brings to a team taking place, physical point of attack defense, right chasing teams

off the three point line, especially on the ball. He's always into ball pressure and chasing over the top of screens to try to funnel to his rim protection. Now, his rim protection is not great, but he's doing a great job of making opposing stars feel uncomfortable. And then another thing, and again, remember I covered Frank Vogel pretty closely when he was with the Lakers, when I covered the Lakers full time, and another element of Frank Vogel's

kind of defensive philosophy is leave the right guy open. Essentially, at any given moment, if there is a guy that he doesn't trust to be able to consistently knock down shots, he will basically ignore that guy and overhelp on the other side of the floor. And the idea there is make their stars feel uncomfortable, guard their good shooters, leave their bad shooters open. They're gonna get wide open shots, but they'll get wide open shots for the wrong guys,

And that's a great example of that. They're second in opponent three point percentage, so that what that's telling me is that when teams are getting three point looks, it's for the right shooters, right, and that that's textbook Frank Vogel basketball. I definitely did did not do a good enough job in my season preview and just kind of accounting for what Frank Vogel's defensive philosophy and just his ability to get buy in would due to this basketball team.

Now again, the question will be are they going to be able to maintain that level of physicality and attention to detail when Bradley Beal and Devin Booker get back in the lineup. My guess is yes, but we'll see. But every game is felt like Kevin Durant is being heroic on offense until eventually the other team wears them down with super aggressive coverage. Is then they start to miss shots, and then they start turning the basketball over.

The Sons are turning the ball over at a rate of twenty one point two times per one hundred possessions in the fourth quarter, which is the second highest rate in the league for teams turning the ball over in the fourth quarter, and again like it really just will ease, like because Kevin Durant in general has not quite been as good at his as his peers at managing like super aggressive coverages. Like I've always thought that Jannis and Jason Tatum in particular were a little bit better at it.

Lebron's definitely a lot better at it, Luca is obviously a lot better at it. So like compared to the other like big you know, wing initiators in the league, Katie hasn't been the best at that. But it's just not really that relevant because the Sons aren't winning a title of Devin Booker and Bradley Bal aren't playing anyway, and Bradley Bal excuse me, Devin Booker said on the

broadcast last night that he'll be back soon. Now who knows what that means, but him coming back is going to solve a lot of the problems on the Spurs front. Victor women Yama once again super confident in a clutch situation, four key points in crunch time. It's a huge story early here in the season. These are the leaders, the league leaders for clutch baskets made. Now, remember that's within

five minutes less than five points. Lebron is number one with eight clutch field goals, but then Victor wem Minyama is tied for second with Luka Doncicc at six clutch field goals made. He's six for nine from the field

in clutch situations. He's got two blocks in his steel in clutch situations, three offensive rebounds in clutch situations, once again crashing the offensive glass for key bucket late last night, and the Spurs are plus nine and fifteen minutes of clutch basketball with Victor wem Minyama on the floor, and like he just looks confident, he wants the ball. He's taking like difficult shots and making him like that. Based on that of bounds play, He's been actually hitting those

movement jump shots at a high rate. I almost like trust him more on the move than in a standstill situation. He has a remarkable ability to slow himself down and get really good lift as he rises up to knock those shot down. There's a lot of leg strength. I think people have underestimated with how thin Victor Womenyam is, how pliable, flexible and strong he is, especially in his lower body, with his ability to rise up and knock

down shots. He had four more blocks last night. I saw this crazy piece of lineup data when I was digging into it this morning. According to Cleaning the Glass, with Victor wemen Yama on the floor, the Spurs have a one hundred and three defensive rating, which is awesome. That's an excellent defensive rating. When he's off the floor, the Spurs have a one hundred and thirty defensive rating,

a twenty seven point per one hundred possession drop. So you're seeing the Victor Wembenyama effect on both ends of the floor here early on. And I don't even think he's been as aggressive offensively as he could be in the big picture. Just you know, he had so many plays last night that I would consider to be like true wow plays at the NBA level. There was that dunk that he had at the end of the first half where he beat or kd on the close out

and then rose up with his left hand. He had another play late in the it was either late third early fourth where he kind of like got pirouetted through the lane and had his back turned and then just like looked up and saw the rim and just threw it in off the glass behind his head for an and one. He is absolute musty television. And I can tell you on this show we're going to be covering him throughout the season because I just want to watch. And if I'm going to watch, for sure is hell

going to talk about it. And I'm gonna enjoy covering this kid's career. Devin Vessel made two huge plays late. We talked about it, that rejected screen against Joshakogi and then that step back three over Eric Gordon on the left wing. He's thirteen for twenty nine and pull up jump shot so far the season. That's forty five percent, so that's really really good. And he's also nine for nine at the rim, just being really selective about when he goes, not over penetrating making reeds when he doesn't

see an option there. And then Kelden Johnson, he was the victim of Frank Vogel ignoring him last night. He was being left wide open at the three point line. He attempted nine threes, seven of which were wide open, meaning the defender was at least six feet away. He's finding out quickly that that's the way teams are gonna guard him until he demonstrates that he can make them, but last night he did. He made four of them, including three kind of important ones down the stretch of

the game. All right, let's move on to our first in depth kind of like dive in on the Dallas Mavericks. So just a quick heads up for people. I want you know, I'm always wanting this show to be the best it could possibly be for you guys, because obviously there is no job for me here unless you guys come watch this show. And I really really want to work on giving better coverage of the rest of the league.

And one of the things that happens is we do these instant reactions, right, and I end up covering the top six or seven teams really frequently, and like we'll hit of those teams will hit like two thirds of their games, right, and then the rest of the league

we end up not hitting nearly as much. And what ends up happening is then we do talk about them at the end of some show in some instant reaction, and we spend five six minutes on it, and I just don't really feel like we get enough into the weeds to really kind of dive into some of the interesting concepts that surround these teams, and so what I'm

gonna start doing more is fewer instant reactions. We're still gonna do them, they're gonna be a part of the show, but we're gonna do a lot more of what I'm about to do right now, which is like just taking like like a three or four game sample of a team and then just doing a deep dive and just spending ten to fifteen minutes on one team, not focusing on an individual game in what happened, but bigger picture trends, which players are playing well, which lineups are performing well,

things they're doing well or poorly on both ends of the floor, areas of opportunity, things I'm noticing schematically. And so that's what I want to try today. And I'm interested in hearing your guys' feedback because I want again, I want to cater the show towards what you guys want, because you guys are the ones that make this all work. Right,

So let's start with the Dallas Mavericks. They are three to no. They beat the Spurs in the nets in their first two games, crazy crunch time games right where Lukadancic basically saved them down the stretch but then they notch a really quality road win on the road versus the Memphis Grizzlies without Kyrie Irving, as they controlled the game throughout and went up doubled figures in the fourth quarter and basically won without any sort of stress involved.

Right they are the number one offense in the league so far one hundred and twenty one point three offensive rating. They're scoring one hundred and six points per one hundred half court possessions, which is also the very best mark in the league. And it all starts with Lukadancis. He's playing at a MVP level to start this season. Thirty nine points, twelve rebounds, and ten assists, seventy percent true shooting.

His jump shot has been on fire. He's shooting seventy percent in effective field goal percentage on jumpers so far this season. A Lukadanciic jump shot is worth one point four points per possession right now, which is insane. You're seeing a lot of again, like seventy five percent effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots. He's sixteen for thirty on his step back three to start the season.

You're seeing a lot of Luca beating switches in the Memphis game the other night, like they kept switching Jaron Jackson or Xavier Tillman onto him in pick and roll, thinking like, oh, Luca's a bullyball player. We can switch this action and basically force Luca to try to back down players that are just as strong as him. Right. Well, Luca's counter for that is the step back three. And when he's hitting it in the low thirties, it's less

than a point per possession. It's something that the opposing coach can live with. But when he's hitting it at sixteen for thirty to start the season, it becomes untenable. And you saw it once again in that Grizzlies game. Just step back three, step back three, step back three. We looked at the Brooklyn Nets game. Step back three, step back three, step back three. That's becoming essentially his go to move against switches, and he's just making it

at an extremely high level. He's shooting seventy five percent in the restricted area as well. His shot creation has been absolutely ridiculous. He is picking everybody apart for the amount of help that they offer. Wherever it is on the floor, he blitzes. He's able to just quickly step back and throw that two hand over the top skip

pass to the right guy. He had a really nice one against Memphis where he took that step back against the blitz and noticed the wide open player on the right wing and kind of looked at him to get Desmond Bayn to kind of nudge up, and then he hit the roll man with the overhead pass that ended up getting swung to the corner for a wide open three. He's just got complete mastery of half court offense at

this point. The shot creation data is insane. He's averaging one point one to four points per pick and roll in ISOs, and again, this is beating those switches that we talked about. One point four to six points per possession. Luca ISOs have led to fifty four points including passes so far this season's that's literally, by far the most in the league. Here's how much. Second place is Tyrese

Haliburton at twenty seven ISO points created. So Luka Doncic has twice as many isolation points that he is directly created either by his own shot making or off the pass, twice as much than the second most in the league. This is like unbelievable, unprecedented perimeter shot in the perimeter initiation that we're seeing out of Luca one point three to eight points per post up. All this is insane, right, but again you got to have the off ball production

to make it all work. Derek Lively has been an excellent pick and roll lob threat for him. He's four

to five from the field on rollman possessions. One of the early season kind of like big exciting things for MAMS fans, Like, like we talk about this when you're in a situation where your payroll is tied up and you don't have flexibility to go out and free agency and pay for players or have the ability to bring guys back because of their current salary, you know what I mean, at a decent fair number where you end

up not losing them, right. One of the things you end up having to do in that situation is you have to hit on veteran minimum signings because when you're over the cap and you don't have the ability to bring certain players back with bird rights, it pretty much comes down to mid level exception, veteran minimum exception, bi annual exception once every other year, right, and then occasionally you can do something like they did with Grant Williams

and make a sign in trade, right, But you're limited in your ability to make these types of moves, and so hitting on veteran minimum signings is like an absolute must, right. And they've just had a lot of guys that have played really well for them that they didn't have to move mountains to get. Derek Jones Junior started all three games. He's doing a really nice job of punishing nail help. Now.

Nail help again is like just imagine you have a corner three point shooter, corner three point shooter, three point shooter on the wing right, and then you're having your guy come up and set a ball screen. Now, Derek Jones Junior is typically not a great shooter, right, but he's a very good athlete. And what a lot of teams have been doing is cutting and driving out of

that weak side wing as opposed to shooting. And so they're putting athletes over there rather than putting them in the corner in the unker spot like you would like you'd expect, right. And what's crazy is he's also making the above the break three as well. Now, what is nail help if Lucas calling for that ball screen, right, or if he's even on a switch attacking an ISO or just dribbling the ball down the floor and attacking

his individual matchup. If he's on the right wing and Derek Jones is on the left wing, and Derek Jones's defender SAgs down to basically where the free throw line is, where the nail is, he's taking away the left handed drive from Luka Doncics, right, But that's a closeout opportunity

that's basically gift wrapped for you, right. And now, a lot of the reason why coaches will go that way is they'll think, oh, and above the break three point shot is not going to be made at a high enough clip to really bother us, right, But Derek Jones has done a really nice job of driving that as well. He's made the shot. He's four for five on above the break three point shots so far this season, had

a bunch of them. I think he made three of them against Memphis if I remember correctly, which is funny because he's zero for five from the corner, so he can't make a corner three save his life. But he's making that wing three point shot a lot. But he's also slashing to the rim off of those possessions. He had two driving layups at the rim in the last game. Attacking out of that slot. He's converting spot up possessions at one point two to seven points per possession, which

is excellent. And he's also taking some of their primary point of attack assignments. So like hitting on the Derek Jones signing, just something little like that can change the trajectory of a basketball team. Josh Green has been excellent. He's shooting the ball and attacking closeouts really well. He's like a real downhill rim pressure guy attacking closeouts, and you actually see the defense on his rip throughs really react to him, and he's good at making that secondary

reid attacking closeouts. Tim Hardaway Junior has been j R. Smith ESQ with some of his freelance offense. He's eight for fourteen on pull up jump shots and three for four on pull up threes. It's not really part of the offense when it's happening, it's kind of just like That's why I say it reminds me of Jared Smith, because like sometimes the ball just ends up in Tim Hardaway's hands and everyone just stands around and he goes one on one and really it's it's a great when

you have guys like that that are bucket getters. It is actually a useful tool in the offense in bench groups as long as he's knocking shots down, and early in the season he's knocking them down. Grant Williams has been another signing again now through this one through the sign in trade, that has been a hit so far forty five percent from three on seven attempts per game. I think he's been a useful defensive player and a very good rebounder for them as well, which we're going

to talk about in a minute. The main area for opportunity in the MAVs offense, and again, like the MAVs are the best offense in the league, the best half court offense in the league, biggest area of opportunities. Kyrie Irving's got to get going. He's passed the ball really well. I thought. I thought Kyrie was excellent down the stretch in that in that Spurs game, in particular in the early fourth quarter, setting his teammates up for easy baskets.

He's got good role chemistry with Dwight Powell, but he's just not making his jump shot right now. He's five for twenty one on jump shots, and he's also missing at the rim. He's just seven for fifteen at the rim. So that'll push them to another level when he gets going at the rate that Luke is going. But to be clear, like as bad as his individual scoring numbers have been, when Luke's off the floor and Kyrie's on the floor, of the MAVs offense has been very good,

so I don't view it as an issue. It's just something that can raise their ceiling in the big picture when he gets better again. The biggest question coming into the season was could they defend and rebound at a high enough level to allow their offense to win games for them, And they've rebounded extremely well. They've grabbed seventy five percent of available defensive rebounds. That's the sixth best

mark in the league. After the Kyrie Irving trade last year, they were twentieth in defensive rebound percentage, So they're rebounding much better than they did at the end of last season. Derek Lively has been great there, getting a lot of contested rebounds around the basket. Luka Doncic and we're gonna talk about this in general, he's way more engaged on the details compared to where he was last year, He's

competing on the glass. He's closing out hard to the perimeter and funneling guys the way that he's supposed to. He's averaging fourteen defensive rebounds per one hundred possessions so far this season. That's thirty one percent more than he averaged last year. So there's unquestionable, bit unquestionably been a higher level of commitment out of Luca, and then Grant Williams and Tim Hardaway have both really helped on the

defensive glass. They're both really good with ball pursuit and they're they're both physically equipped to handle NBA players crashing from the perimeter, which can be a problem for some other teams that don't have that type of physicality. Those two guys are combining to grab twelve point seven defensive rebounds per one hundred possessions. Josh Green is really the only guy on the roster who's not contributing in a

big way on the glass. Right now. The Mavericks are allowing just eleven point six second chance points per one hundred possessions, which is the sixth best mark in the league. On the defensive end of the floor. They're eighteenth in defensive rating. After the Kyrie Irving trade. Last year they

were twenty seventh. So again, they went from being one of the very worst defense and rebounding teams at the end of last season to being a very good rebounding team and an average defensive team so far this season. And that's enough when your offense is as good as they are. They're twenty second in half court defense. They're the eighth best team protecting the paint. Josh Green and Derek Jones have been doing a really good job of

applying ball pressure in funneling guys to the rim. They're offering smart help at the rim, essentially prioritizing the paint in allowing three point shots on the back end as a result, And again, like that's gonna manifest in the three point numbers right Like they're giving up the twenty sixth they're twenty sixth an opponent three pointers made per one hundred possessions. They are twenty fifth in opponent three point percentage, So they're giving up a lot of threes

and teams are making them. But that's like the one week point. They're guarding the paint well they're rebounding well, they're actually forcing a decent amount of turnovers. They're forcing fifteen point two turnovers per one hundred possessions. That's the twelfth most in the NBA. So, like, I like that approach. This is not a team that's going to be a

top ten defense. They're not physically capable of it. They don't have the players, they don't have the rim protection, they don't have the perimeter defense to be a top ten defense. But what they can be is a team that makes your opposing stars uncomfortable, funnels you into their packed paint defense, and forces you to make good decisions and make shots on the back end, which can be a problem when on the other end of the floor, Luca's killing you and it slows down the rhythm of

the game. It gets you in your head. We've talked about this with the Nuggets as well. Like, I'm a big believer in like, when you're making offense look easy, it gets in the head of the other team. And so like, you put the onus on them to make the right decisions and to make those kickout passes. They're gonna miss a lot of them. Grab the rebounds when they're there, right, and then when you have opportunities to force turnovers like you have, take advantage of that as well.

So like, I like the approach that to me is the kind of area of opportunity for this team is be like right in that fifteen to twenty range on defense, be the best offense in the league, and be a great rebounding team. If you do those things, you have a puncher's chance to do some real damage in the playoffs. And again, like that was kind of why I put

the MAVs. Everyone called me crazy when I said they had a one percent chance to win the title, and I consider them to be like the ninth or tenth best, like actual championship contender. And it's because you can't count out that high level offensive initiation if they can get enough rebounds and if they can get enough stops. We literally just saw that last year with the Denver Nuggets, even if it is a long shot, all right, Moving on to the Memphis Grizzlies ozh to four obviously not

what you'd expect. This was a team that won consistently without John Morant and the lineup last year, and they brought in pieces to try to rectify that right with the Marcus Smart trade right, a lot of focuses on the offensive end right now, and the offense is brough twenty seventh in offensive rating, a lot of specific issues. The shot creation with Marcus Smart and Desmond Bain has actually been okay. Desmond Bain is having a really good season so far. Marcus Smart is actually having a really

good offensive season as well. If you look at the the uh the numbers, they have a one oh six offensive rating with both been Baine and Marcus Smart on the floor, which is bad, but like not that bad, right, like, especially if you're a great defensive team, and the offense has actually been pretty solid when one of them's on

the floor and the other guy is off. But they're playing a lot of minutes with both of them off the floor, which is confusing to me because you think they'd stagger them a little bit more considering they're their two best perimeter initiators right now. And the Grizzlies have a ninety two offensive rating when both Desmond Bane and Marcus Smart are off the floor. But at the end of the day, like this team was always going to

struggle to score in the half court. That's kind of what their identity is they just don't have enough offensive skill outside of their initiators to consistently be a great half court offense. What they've always done to bolster their offense is kill people on the offensive glass and kill people in transition. Right. Last year they were fifth in offensive rebounds per one hundred possessions. This year so far twenty fourth. That's what it's like not having Steven Adams

or in your lineup anymore. Right, And then in transition they were fifteen. They were second in the league last year in transition points per possession excuse me, and transition points scored per game and at one point one to four points per possession, so really efficient number, and the second most frequent transition team. This year, they're fifteenth in transition points per game and scoring at a rate of

just one point zero eight points per possession. So usually their offense is bolstered by all of this transition offense, in all of these offensive rebound opportunities to make up for their other limitations in half court offensively, because even when John Muran was out there last year, they were a bad half court offense. That's not what I'm expecting from this team. I don't think they're going to fix that, right, but they are not getting the easy stuff now, the

offensive glass without Steven Adams. That's hard to replicate. However, you can be a good transition team like you were last year. There's a very specific reason why they haven't been as good this year, and it comes down to the defensive end. Again, Like, this is a team different from the Dallas Mavericks, who, like you're just trying to strive for mediocre on defense because that gives you a

chance with your elite offense. This team has to go the route of the twenty twenty Lakers in the twenty twenty one Bucks, which is, like, we are an outstanding, ferocious defensive team that forces a lot of turnovers and gets out in transition after defensive rebounds. Right, that's what

you're expecting from this Memphis Grizzlies team. Right Then, in half court situations, you're hoping for Joah Moran and Desmond Baine to just make enough plays to push you over the top, like Lebron and Ady did in twenty twenty, like Giannis and Chris Middleton and Juw Holliday did in twenty twenty one. Right, Like that formula works as long as you are an absolute top tier defense twenty twenty Anthony Davis one of the best defensive playoff runs I've

ever seen. Yannis twenty twenty one, one of the best defensive playoff runs that you'll ever see. Right, that's what you have to have. You have to have that top tier defense. And this team has been mediocre on defense. Mediocre in a sense that it's actually kind of flown under the radar, right, Like all the talk has been

around Memphis's offense, but they're fifteenth in defensive rating. And this is a team that has always defended well when Jaws out of the lineup, because they usually are removing a negative defender and putting a positive defender on the floor. Right. According to Cleaning the Last, they're twenty third and a half court defense. And I found this really interesting, so I spent a bunch of time watching the film this morning.

Grizzlies fans, go to my Twitter feed at underscore Jason lt I clipped like fifteen clips to demonstrate this concept that I'm about to go over. But to me, the number one issue I'm noticing on tape is way way, way too much unnecessary overhelping, specifically at the nail off the ball, and then on the back line when they're overreacting with that lowman help, that bringing that third defender over on ball screens when they really don't need to. And I want to give some specific examples. So first

of all, nail help. You saw a bunch of examples of this at the Dallas Maverick, right, So just imagine Luka Doncicic or whoever it is that has the ball on the right wing right, and then you got like Grant Williams or Derek or excuse me, Derek Jones Junior on the left wing right, way too many possessions primary culprits. I notice on taper has been baying in Jakelbavia, But I don't really think it's their fault. I think this is a schematic thing, right, So it comes down to

Taylor Jenkins. Those guys are sitting at the nail in help, allowing really easy swing passes to the perimeter for guys to either knock down threes or just quick rip through. Right now, again, I the way I would do that is I'd stay a couple of steps closer to your

shooter and then you react to drives right. A lot of these times we're seeing the ball handler not even looking to be aggressive, standing in a triple threat, fully contained on the ball while the nail help is there and the swing pass is taking place, and then they're driving it or they're either knocking down the wide open three, or they're driving it, and now your defense is in rotation, which is the whole point of why you would offer nail help to begin with, to keep your defense from

getting into rotation by containing the ball better right. Whereas if you stay a little bit closer to home and now let's say Luca rips through to the right, you lunge in to offer that nail help right when you see your man in a compromised position. This is a team that has gifted perimeter defenders. They have Marcus Smart, they have Desmond Bane right like, they can contain on the perimeter. They just have to trust their ability to

contain on the perimeter. There was a specific play with Jake Loravia where he wasn't even at the nail, he was all the way on the opposite elbow like right behind the on ball defender. Basically, a soft double team that just gets swung across the floor for an easy close out opportunity. Right again, Like, there's several examples of this that I saw on tape, and you're seeing it in the numbers. By the way, the Memphis Grizzlies are allowing the second most made threes per one hundred possessions

on the second highest percentage. They are allowing twenty two wide open threes per game, which means the defender is at least six feet away. That's the fourth most in the entire NBA. Now, the trade off is that they're doing a good job protecting the paint, right they're keeping teams out of the paint. They're allowing just forty one points in the paint per one hundred possessions, that's the

second best mark in the league. But it's not working for them because they're giving up all these wide open shots on the backside. And again, this is a team that is capable of defending well enough at the point of attack and they're athletic enough on the back line in rotation to not have to do this. It's not just the nail help. I've seen a lot of over aggressive backside help as well. So now think of it like this, there's a two man action taking place on

the right side of the floor. You've got your low man who's guarding the guy in the opposite corner. He's basically leaving that guy to defend that action three on two. And then whoever it is that's guarding the man on the right wing is now having to guard two guys on the opposite end to the floor, and usually that that player's dropping to the baseline and that opposite wing is wide open. There is a play. It wasn't even a ball screen. Seth Curry has the ball on the

right wing against John Conchar. I have this play on my Twitter feed. You guys can find it. He rips through to the baseline, kind of gets a step on Conchar, but Conchard recovers and Seth Curry takes a retreat dribble. So Seth Curry has taken a retreat dribble and is contained by John Conchar. So worst thing that can happen there is Seth Curry takes a contested baseline pull up jump shot right. No, because David Roddy, who's guarding the man the weak side corner guy, just runs underneath the

basket offering help. So Seth takes one more advanced dribble and throws a kickout pass to the opposite wing for a wide open three. And like again, ask yourself, what would you rather give up a contested pull up jump shot from Seth Curry or a wide open three on the backside, This is a consistent shoe. There was another play in the in the bench group where Jared Jackson was helping at the basket. Because this is the third issue.

Jared Jackson, as good of a shot blocker as he is, he's too aggressive in that regard and he often offers shot blocking help when it's not needed, and it throws everything out of whack on the backside in terms of

their rebounding right. There was a play where Dante ExHAM is driving down the right lane and I believe Jake Lorovi is guarding him doing his job, slides his feet, taking contact in the chest, forces Dante xem into this wild like hook shot over the top that has no chance of going in and spoiler already missed it off

the side of the rim. But Jared Jackson, for no apparent reason at all, even though he had no chance to block the shot, just jumps out of his shoes to go try to block it, and so his man taps the offensive rebound out it goes right to I think Seth Curry on the left wing who knocks down a three, and so like again, like they're they're doing damage to themselves defensively, they're making it more difficult than

it needs to be. This is, again, not a Dallas Mavericks team that needs to require on defensive aggression to make up for the fact that they're not capable of being a great defensive team. This team is capable of being a great defensive team. They can defend ball screens two on two. They can contain at the point of attack and force guys to take contested shots over the top without constantly existing in rotation and giving up all of these wide open threes. And again, what do we

talk about on the offensive end of the floor. This is a team that needs to generate easy opportunities in transition. The only way to do that is to get stops in defensive rebounds and run, or force turnovers and run. What's the best way to force turnovers in the NBA guard actions two on two and one on one. Why Because then you're home off the ball, you're playing in

the passing lane rather than on the ball. And so let's say that Dante Exum dry and misses that right handed hook, and so the next time he drives, you know, Jared Jackson doesn't help. Everyone stays home. Laavia's chesting him up. And now Dante exam realizes he's in trouble and he looks around and he just throws a pass to one of the shooters. Except for now you've got someone in the passing lane who catches the ball, and now they're

running the other way for a dunkin transition. So like, not only would this be the weapon to improve their defense, it would also be the thing that would unlock their transition attack and get them back to where they were. Last year, the Memphis Grizzlies were second in transition frequency. This year they're fifteenth. It's a problem. And so again, like it's easy to just say, oh or oh to four,

we need John Morant. And don't get me wrong, John Morant, you need him to ever have some sort of championship ceiling, right, But this team is just also schematically setting themselves up to fail with what they're doing on the defensive end of the floor. And again, you could tell when these if you go look at these clips on my Twitter feed, and most of these possessions, the on ball defender is

doing good work. Force those guys to either take tough shots or turn the ball over by passing into to your defenders who are staying home run in transition, that will help your half court offense just enough to give you a chance to win games. This is a team that should be a top five defense and then hope to be in that fifteen to twenty range on the offensive end of the floor. That is their pathway to

victory as of right now. Then when John Urank comes back, that's when you can go over the top with what you can be capable of on the offensive end of the floor. And again, like I like it in the big picture because Marcus Smart is a much better offensive player than Dylan Brooks, and you can imagine a scenario where the Grizzlies half court offense could operate at a much higher level with three high level offensive players on the floor as opposed to just two in the bigger picture.

All right, guys, so let's move on to the mail bag. First question, is wiggins starting role threatened by Jonathan Kaminga and Secondly, if Moody continues to play well, does that impact Clay's contract negotiations. I do not think Wigan the starting role is threatened by Jonathan Kaminga. He's just too reliable of a veteran presence for a Steve Kurr in

a playoff context. I think with Jonathan Kaminga, the idea of bringing him off the bench and then sometimes closing with him is the perfect kind of like motivator for Jonathan Kaminga to rain in his decision making, because he needs to demonstrate quality decision making to be in the playoff rotation. Right. So I think what you're doing right now is the perfect strategy. Start Wiggins, close, which guy's playing better, keep it simple, right. If Moody keeps playing well,

it absolutely impacts Clay's contract negotiations. Clay Thompson did not have a good playoff run last year after a great playoff run in the championship year, right, And so if you have a second year in a row where Clay doesn't play well in the playoffs and Moody looks viable, then there's no reason for you to murder your cap sheet by overpaying for Klay Thompson, especially when you can probably find a decent deal elsewhere just because of his

value as a shooter. Second question, Alfred, Hi Jason. I play in a men's league, and I'm trying to get my teammates to focus on some of the nitty gritty winning type plays, like making sure we are boxing out, playing solid defense and at the base instead of going for the block every time and fouling sprinting back and transition, etc. I feel like I've been quite vocal about this every game,

but nothing seems to change. My teammates continue to run and dive into defenses on offense, turn the ball over, pout, don't run back. I can tell they're starting to be annoyed at me for winging it, and I feel that they are not listening because I only score two points a game. How would you best handle this situation? So, Alfred, I love this question. By the way, find people who love the game as much as you do and play

in a league with them. Here's the thing, Like, some people are crazy like me and approach men's league games with the same level of intensity I approached every game I was playing when I was in college. Right, and then there are a lot. The majority of people are, like, they like basketball. They like to play because it helps them stay in shape. They have some camaraderie with their guys, and so they go up on Sundays or whatever day it is that your men's league is and they have

a good time. If you are wired like me, don't play on a team like that, right, Like I have, I coordinate my team, I pick the roster, and I make sure I have guys that give a shit, And so when I go on Sundays, it's kind of like a fun thing for me because it kind of replicates as close as I can at age thirty two, now that I'm old and washed, it's as close as I can can come to replicating what my you know, competitive experience was like when I was younger, because I'm playing

with guys that also care, and I'm playing in a league where I'm challenged, right, and so like again, like, if you continue to partner with people that don't take it as seriously as you do, you either need to adjust your expectations or play with someone else, because otherwise you're just gonna go crazy because they're they're not doing anything wrong, they're being normal. We're the crazy ones. We are the ones who care too much, so you got

to find other crazy people to play with. It's basically what I'm saying. Last mail back question, Antonio, you always talk about the athletic guards vers skill guard player archetypes. Can of skill guard, say, for example, Austin Reeves, D'Angelo Russell become athletic? Is it just hitting the gym or a height thing? Awesome job covering the season so far? A good question, in Tonio. I think there's a lot of things you can do to improve your situation when

you have physical limitations at the guard position. For one, become a great positional defender that can do a little bit more switching. That's where you hit the weight room. The weight room goes a long way everywhere on the basketball court. It's like the number one thing that gets overlooked in training. Hit the freaking weight room. It will

help you, right. But if you're less athletic, you're going to be more of a positional defender than a ball pressure defender, right because if you press up on a better athlete, he's just going to go around you, right, So you've got to take give ground and meet them at spots and be able to absorb contact. So it's about anticipation and your ability to hold your ground. So

the weight room is the best you can do. That said, physical battles take place all over the basketball court, and there are certain battles that you're just going to lose. There was in when I was watching that Grizzlies Mavericks game today, there is a play where Derek Jones Junior drove into Derek Rose and had an easy layup. And it's like, I don't care how much Derek Rose hits the weight room. I don't care how much he's in shape.

Derek Jones Junior just is too athletic for him going downhill and he's gonna be able to make a shot right. And so again there's a limitation. But you do the best you can in the weight room and through technique and anticipation to be a good positional defender when you have physical limitations. All right, guys, that is all I have for this part of today's Hoops Tonight programming. We're gonna be back later tonight breaking down the ESPN slate.

As always, I appreciate you, guys, and I'll see you that the volume