Hoops Tonight - Why Luka Doncic had MOST IMPRESSIVE 2023 NBA season for Mavericks

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was to everybody of ball. If you guys are having a great week, we have a jam pack show for you today, we're gonna be covering our bragging rights champ of the year, the individual NBA player that had the best season, the guy that should feel as though he's on the mountaintop based on what he accomplished last year. After that, he got a bunch of good mail, bad questions from you. Guys are gonna be bouncing all around the league talking about a bunch of interesting stuff, tweaking

the end of the week schedule. I don't know if I was hallucinating or what the deal was, but I had mentioned that we might be covering the GM survey on Friday, and that doesn't come out till October, So clearly I don't know what I had seen. I could have sworn I like was scrolling and i'd seen something talking about it, and clearly I didn't actually see that. So obviously I can't cover the GM survey on Friday because there is no GM survey, not for another month.

So what we're gonna do at the tail end of this week before we head into our series our season previews next year or next week? I should say, Tonight, Wednesday night, we're gonna be covering the WNBA matchup between the Las Vegas aces in the Indiana Fever, so Asia Wilson versus Caitlin Clark gonna be a lot of fun, big time game. We're gonna be breaking it down on

YouTube right after the game later this week. I wanted to take some time to do a video breakdown on the specific things that has made Caitlin Clark such a devastating offensive player. She now leads the WNBA in total assists by a pretty wide margin. She is leading the best offense in the WNBA over the last ten games. A lot of really really exciting stuff coming out of Indiana, So I want to spend some time talking about the

basketball of what has made Caitlin so good. So that's going to be what we're doing at the tail end of this week and then starting next week on Monday, that's where we're going to kick it into high gear with our season previews power ranking style, kind of working our way through the NBA hierarchy while also taking some time to get into the weeds and see how those

teams are going to play this season. You guys are the Joe before we get started, and subscribe to Oops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLTS. You guys, don't misshow announcements. Don't forget about O podcast feed wherever you eatch podcast on Hoops tonight, don't forget it is helpful for us if you leave your rating and review

on that front. And last, not least, keep dropping mail back questions in those YouTube comments and we can keep hitting them throughout the rest of the fall. And then really quickly before we get started, I want to talk to you guys about game time. You know how live events are. There's nothing quite like being in the arena. It's crazy. I'm a huge Dead and Company fan. I've loved that music for a long time. John Mayer, I think is the best guitarist of this particular era, maybe

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hops for twenty dollars off. Download game Time today. What time is it? Game Time? All right, let's talk some basketball. So obviously I take the player ranking side of things very seriously. It's interesting because I don't think it matters quite as much as it used to. Basketball is a sport that, compared to other professional sports, team sports, is very dependent on your best player. There's more impact on the win and loss from that best player than you

see in other sports. But I actually think that's starting to not cease to be the case, but it's being the case less so than it used to. And the main reason why I think that is is just defenses are so much better than they used to be. They're so athletic, they cover so much ground that it's easier than ever to get the ball out of your star's hands.

And then it becomes so much more important for you have guys off the ball that can capitalize on that attention and specifically dribble shooting pass, which is something that off ball players in NBA history have been less talented with, and I think it's been really interesting. I think the

Tatum with the Celtics is a great example of this. Like, if you go back through NBA history, it's like the twenty twenty three Championship, Jokic, Best player in the World, T two, Steph first or second best player in the world, Giannis and twenty twenty one best player in the world, right, twenty twenty Lebron best player in the world, twenty nineteen Kwhi, you know, second, third best player in the world kd in twenty eighteen second best player in the world second

or third seventeen Kdi second or third Lebron and sixteen best player in the world Steph and fifteen you know, second best player in the world. Like it's usually like one of the absolute top tier guys that leads his team to the title. And I think it was really fascinating to watch the Celtics not just win, but win convincingly while having a legitimate top ten player, but not a guy that we think is on the same level as the guys at the very top of the league, right,

And I think that's really fascinating. And it's because of that more team oriented path to success in modern NBA basketball, with spacing and driving and kicking and capitalizing on attention that is drawn by the primary action at the beginning of the possession, right. And so obviously it's not as big of a deal as it used to be. That said,

having the best player still matters a great deal. I thought Ka in particular, at least in the Western Conference, flex those muscles to help push his team from series to series, and so we and he made it to the finals, got about as close as you can get to winning, right, three wins away from getting the actual AREO B. And so even though the league is trending a little bit away from the idea of like the best player mattering that much, I still think it matters

quite a bit. And so player rankings are a fun way for us to kind of discuss that over the summer, and it's something that I've always cared about quite a bit, especially going back to when I was a kid. I used to argue about this stuff all the time with my teammates when I was in college, you know, just shooting the shit on the sidelines while we're taking our shoes off, or while we're on the bus or on the way to dinner or something like that, you know

how it goes like. It's always been something that I've been a fan of, and so I take it very seriously. And my criteria this year was a little different, and as I was trying to find a criteria that made the most sense within the context of what the NBA actually demands from its superstars, right, and so what I settled on was the idea of like a draft that would take place in a kind of like in a vacuum. Everyone's starting from scratch, but you need players to lead

you from October to June. That was the best way that I thought I could quantify what we would actually need from a player for this coming NBA season. But as we know, there are other ways to look at it. Right. There's the what if we had a game tomorrow, Like, who are you picking to lead you in that sort of situation. I still the same top two in that situation with Jokic and then with Luca. But like all of a sudden, I'm gonna have guys like Lebron shoot

up that list. Guys like Steph are going to shoot up that list. Guys A KD You're going to shoot up that list, right, Guys A Kawi are gonna shoot up that list. You know, guys that aren't necessarily work courses for the regular season the way they used to, but guys that are still you know, alpha dog type of talents in a smaller sample size. Right. But I actually last year used a different criteria than either of those.

I used the bragging rights method, essentially the idea that this is a list to demonstrate what actually happened on the court, like how these players actually performed when all the stakes were, you know, what they were in that specific season. And I got a lot of pushback, right, Like I had Luca way down at ten because he missed the playoffs. You know, the way that that list kind of worked out, I ended up having a whole other list of complaints, right, And so we went away

from that method this year. That's it. I still think it matters, right, Like, why do we play the games. We play the games because you're trying to win. You're trying to hoist Larry O'Brien trophy, right, And the best player in the league doesn't always win, but he usually gets pretty close. And so what I wanted to do is just shout out the player that I thought had

the bragging rights for this particular season. So basically what this means, this is the singular NBA player that I think had the best season this last year, from start to finish, including the postseason, including the quality of competition, who you played against, all the different things that are wrapped up into that specific context. Now, last year, I thought it was the same guy who would have been the best in all the lists, which was Nikola Jokic, right,

But Nicola Jokic got eliminated in the second round. This year, struggled to knock down jump shots, had a pretty rough defensive series, not his best moment. I didn't think he had the best season from start to finish. The player that I picked as the bragging rights champ for this season was Luka Doncic. Here's a list of his accomplishments just from this season. He won the scoring title, averaging

thirty three point nine points per game. He was the most efficient high volume pull up jump shooter last year in the NBA among players who attempted at least five hundred pull up jump shots. He made First Team All NBA. He was third in MVP voting, made the All Star Team. He had a seventy three point game, he had another fifty point game. He had thirteen to forty point games. He had eight games with at least fifteen assists, and as we know, in the postseason, he ended up taking

his team all the way to the NBA Finals. And I thought he had the biggest moment, like the coolest individual singular moment of any NBA player this season. I thought was Luka Doncics' game winner over Rudy Gobert in Game two of the Western Conference Finals. Nasty series of dribble combinations that baited Rudy into over playing a drive to Luca's right hand side, so that Luca was able to get some separation on a step back going to his right knock down the shot. And it was crazy

because in the wild part was in the moment. Every one of us who was watching that game knew that that was going in the minute Luca got the switch. It just kind of felt inevitable. It was kind of like the pathway of that series too, Like Minnesota was keeping the games close, but it just felt like Dallas was the better team, and Luca really stamped that with that game winner. But there's here's like that still just

barely scratches the surface. I just wanted to shout out another I've got another half dozen crazy stats for you guys to demonstrate just how good Luka Doncic was. This year, the MAVs were eleven point nine points per one hundred possessions better with him on the floor versus off the floor. That number went up to seventeen point four points per one hundred possessions in the postseason. Lucas scored one hundred and forty eight more points than any other player in

the NBA playoffs. The second place on the list was actually Kyrie Irving. Interestingly enough, Luca had twenty four more rebounds than any other player in the NBA playoffs. Luke had fifty five more assists than any other player in the NBA playoffs. He had by far more points, rebounds, and assists than any player in the NBA Playoffs. He had seventeen more steals than any player in the NBA Playoffs. Some really good off ball work from him last year

in the postseason. He scored in pick and roll thirty four more times than any other player in the NBA Playoffs. He scored in ISO four more times than any other player in the NBA Playoffs. Once again, Kyrie Irving was second place in that list. Just an unbelievable year from an unbelievable player in Luka Doncic. It was really cool to watch him lift a defensive minded roster with some limited offensive players aside from Kyrie Irving obviously, to all

the way through that brutal Western Conference. Just ran into a really bad matchup against the Boston Celtics in the finals. And Boston, by the way, like I thought, they were better than everyone in the league except for Denver, and so it just was a really tough matchup. I actually predicted that Boston would blow them out multiple times in that series and ended up being what happened. It's just

kind of a tough matchup. It's it's kind of interesting how that works, Like, like Minnesota, all these centers, they give Jokic all these issues, right, then they run into Dallas and it's like Minnesota's pimeter defenders are too thin, so Luca just bullies them and they easily dispatch of Minnesota. Then you go to the finals and it's like Boston is a roster that's thin on the front line, but

really strong in perimeter defense. And so it's like, all of a sudden, all these big bodied perimeter defenders that can deal with kind of Luca's bullyball attack and ended up being a tough matchup for Luca, and that would have been a better matchup for Jokic, right, And that's kind of the interesting part of the way basketball works, Like we always think about who's the best team and who's going to win, but more often than not, it

comes down to matchups. It kind of goes back to my rant at the beginning of the show, Like I just as I've learned more about the game and learned more about the way NBA offenses and defenses work, I've just become more and more aware of the fact that, like it's not as straightforward as just add up your parts and seeing whether or not that can carry you all the way to mid June. It's really about like

matchup versatility. How vulnerable are you to certain types of teams, Because if you've got to beat four of them, inevitably you're going to run into a team that can attack your specific weakness and you've got to have the ability to overcome it. And so it was a really fascinating type of postseason. But in spite of that, I thought that Luca was by far the best individual performer of last season, and I think he deserves the bragging rights

title for this particular NBA offseason. Let's get to our mailbank. So our first question from my guy NMZ, who does really great work covering the league on Twitter. If you

guys haven't followed him, I recommend you do. With two thirds of the league qualifying for some form of postseason play, is it also time to abolish conferences for seeding Some playoffs series will be tougher logistically, but one could argue that thirteen of the best twenty teams are out West, and as fans, we want to see more of the best teams complete compete. Yeah. I was looking at the standings earlier today and as I was looking at it.

It's crazy because there's legitimately thirteen teams that are going to be trying to make the playoffs out West, and the one team that's kind of weird in there is San Antonio. But like, and do I think San Antonio

is going to be like a top four seed or anything. No, absolutely not, but like I think they are going to be kind of in the mix and the play in just simply because Victor wemen Yama is one of the most profoundly impactful young basketball players that we have in the league, and you finally gave him a really high level ball handler in a role that's primarily going to serve to set Victor up. And when you come find that with probably an increase in his minutes and just

the sheer frequency that he plays. And I shared a stat with you guys when we were talking about player rankings, and I don't have it off the top of my head, so I don't want to butcher it. But over the final portion of the season, I can't remember exactly the

number of games, but like, it was crazy. They were getting their butts kicked with Wemby off the floor, and they were positive with Wemby on the floor over a pretty substantial sample size towards the tail end of the season, which just goes to show you what he's capable of overcoming. And he's going to be surrounded by even more talent in this particular season. Don't forget Harrison Barnes is just a really good veteran player that they've added to the mix.

That's going to be a really really interesting team. And so, honestly, like, if you think about it, that's thirteen teams, and three of them are just going to miss the playoffs entirely.

Five of them are going to miss the eight team field, and that kind of sucks when we go over to the Eastern Conference and in all likelihood we're going to have multiple play in teams that are just bad and very likely a bad team that gets into the late And so I absolutely do think that it would be better for the league in the long run if they just got rid of the conferences and found some way to do. You could figure out a way with the schedule.

You could read configured divisions and have it so that you play, you know, four times each against these divisions, but then three times in your division, but then three times against everyone else or whatever the specific workings of it would be. But if you did something like that, I'm not concerned about the travel. The increase in the quality of care that these players get in terms of private jets and the type of physical training that they get,

I don't think the flights would be an issue. I think it'd be really fun to see more cross conference matchups. Like I think it'd be great to have three or four Celtics Lakers games a year instead of just two, right, you know, like that sort of thing. Like I think that there's a lot of really good basketball that can be brought out of that, And then I think it

just be better for seeding. Like it really sucked last year that when we went into the playoffs, it was like four blood bats series in the Western Conference and then like like a bunch of dog shit in the first round in the Eastern Conference, as every team was you know, with exception of that Calves Magic series. It just was a lot of like like kind of funky matchups. So like even the Indiana Milwaukee series, which would have

been entertaining, was bad because of Gianni's being out. But like in that case, you have multiple you had two really bad first round series out in the Eastern Conference, and that's just that's just that's not that's not a good television product, right, And so I think it'd be better and there'd be more parody if you had it set up with more of a uh more of a balanced approach to the bracketing in the postseason. That said, I just don't think it's going to happen. I don't

think the league is going to make that change. I think it's logistically pretty tough. Beyond even the travel, it's just a reorganization of the league that can be extremely complicated, and there's I would imagine people in the league office just think that over time, with the talent influx, that the Eastern Conference will balance out, the Western Conference will balance out. I would disagree with that just simply because I mean, I saw this chart the other day on Instagram.

Was kind of crazy. It was like showing all like the total number of like good weather days around the United States. Some of you guys might have seen this on Instagram, but like it was like they were like kind of a darker blue purple when they had like

lesser days that were good weather. And then it was like the orange and red color when it was like more days with good weather and it was like between sixty degrees and eighty five degrees with like within a certain range of humidity, and like, by the way, Tucson was one of the where I live here in Tucson was one of a few places outside of California that had two hundred plus days of good weather. I've always been a big Tucson fan. I thought that was a

cool moment. But California is where all the good weather is. It was crazy to see the map. It literally looked like a bunch of red and orange along the California coast and then just a bunch of purple and blue everywhere else, because it's either hot as shit here, cold at shit there, rains all the time here, you know, human as hell there. Like it's like all these people that play in the NBA, they start making money. I

don't blame them for wanting to move to California. I don't blame them for wanting to get out to the West coast where the weather's just better and a little bit more consistently good. And so I don't see a universe where like the Eastern Conference balances with the West my entire lifetime. It's been like this the entire time I've been following the NBA, It's been like this. The East will have phases where the top of the East is good, but it's never been able to balance out

in terms of depth with the Western Conference. I don't think it's like necessarily a franchise competence thing. I think I think the talent just kind of naturally funnels its way to the better weather on the West coast. So I don't think it'll ever actually happen, but I think it should, and I think it would be good for the league. How do you feel overall about Joe Mizula. I know you disliked him since he did think he valued the possession, but I'm curious if that changed after

the title. He was in some ways the most important part of the run in him being the first coach in a while to go for back to back. So

learning about coaches takes time. It's been one of the more interesting things that I've come across as as I've worked in this industry, simply because like what it takes to really learn about a coach, there's a beat writing element to it, Like these guys that are in the locker rooms, that are asking questions to the coach, that are going to shoot around, that are going to practice, that are deeply involved with the process. It's easier to

pick up on that stuff. But like here in Tucson, is I'm just watching a lot of film, like and like, yeah, like there are times when I try to watch postgame pressers, but like in terms of like the amount of film that I need to watch, a lot of times I just prioritize the games, and so I try to pick up what the coaches are doing from the way their teams play, right, And what got frustrating for me with Joe Miszula is I just hated the way the Celtics

were playing for large portions of the last couple of years and just the sheer number of bad possessions that they were putting together on offense. And it was during this postseason run in particular, not just this postseason, really in the springtime. I started to kind of like get more aware of it in like that Marchy late February

March timeframe. But as I started to listen to Joe talk more and I tried to find more people that cover the Celtics on a really intimate level so that I can learn more from them, because they are the guys that are paying to every single little thing that their program does. Over the course of the year, it became clear to me that those were possessions that Joe Mizula didn't approve of. Joe Miszoula does believe in the high volume of three point shooting, but he believes in

the deliberate process of offense. They're learning more about the way that they prioritize spacing and like little things like for instance, like if you have a guard in the corner and a big on the wing, then when I beat my man off the dribble from the opposite wing, I'm more likely to run into a guard in help rather than a big in help. Whereas if the big is in the corner and the guard is on the wing, I'm more likely to run into a big in help

rather than the guard. And so even though I'm looking for driving kick opportunities, if I'm a freaky athlete, if I'm Jaylen Brown or Jason Tatum and i can get downhill and I've got a six ' three guard that's stepping over in help on the weak side. I might not even have to kick out for three. I might be able to go all the way to the rim

and finish. That's a little basic spacing detail, like take the time in your possessions to get guys in the right spots, to make it sure that when you're running action, you're running it in a way that flows into your player's strengths versus your player's weaknesses. This guy's great from the corner, but weak above the break. Okay, let's make sure that he's consistently in the corner as opposed to above the break. Like this guy's really good on the

short roll, this guy's not. Okay, then we want to make sure we're running screening actions with this guy in particular,

who's good at short rolling catching the ball. These are like little deliberate things that Joe Mazula was preaching behind the scenes, and it just took a little while for the Celtics to like really figure it out right, And honestly, like, I think that there is something to be said about the large sample and the sense that like the way that you have to play basketball in a meticulous sense in the small sample is different than the large sample. But we just didn't have to run into that with

Boston because they kicked the shit out of everybody. They didn't really end up being an issue where they were having to out execute teams in the small sample. And so for for Joe, and like, part of that too is not even Joe's fault. Part of that's like Jason Tatum has never been particularly great at like the really slow, methodical half court choc creation in crunch time situations, right, So like at the end of the day that some of the struggles that Boston has had in those areas

aren't necessarily Joe Mizzula's fault. And they've been so good defensively in the clutch and they're so damn hard to guard with their five out guys that their clutch numbers have been really damn good. And so like, honestly, like whatever you want to criticize that, a lot of people like are putting Joe Mazula more in like that Budenholzer category,

more of like a system type of coach. But like, I think over time he'll get even better at the at all of the little details, all the little things that that he hasn't really had to show with the Celtics, and I think that it's a case of his philosophy working because I told you, guys, like the Celtics were a team I used to hate watching, and I actually genuinely enjoyed watching them play in this postseason because they did play with a lot of deliberate offensive process, and

they were particular about getting their spacing right and they got a lot of really good shots and it made them really, really difficult to beat. Did they play any of the super super good teams in the league that I wanted to see them play now, But like, we'll get to see that this year and it'll be just another challenge for these guys, and I'm curious to see

how they react. But I Joe Mizula was a play was a coach that I became more fond of over the course of this season, and in general, the Celtics and the way they play is something that I've become more fond of over the course of this season. One of the three most important things the Chicago Bulls can Slash should do in order to pull themselves out of the hole they created. Love the show, Ben a fan for years, Keep killing it, Bro, Thanks so the support.

I really appreciate it. You know, it's interesting because I'm a big believer in the process of rebuilding centering around finding the top tier talent, right, Like step one is like, who's going to be your guy, Like the guy that you build the entire system around, right, especially on the offensive end of the four. From there, it's like, well, what's that guy's strengths and weaknesses. Let's find a number

two that compliments him well. And then from there we want to find role players that fit within the way that those players like to play. So if it's Luca, I'm looking for play finishers. If it's more of a five out kind of guy, I'm looking for guys that contriberle shooting pass in a system. Right, So, like it all depends on what your your framework is. Now, the Cruso for Josh Giddy trade it like, there's always going to be a part of me that wonders if you

could have gotten a little bit more for Cruso. But at the same time, like, it doesn't make sense to hold a really high level role player when you don't have the actual top end talent to make it work. And so that's actually an example of a deal and what they're giving themselves an opportunity to see is like, Okay,

let's cash in this asset in Alex Cruso. That doesn't really help us in the short term because he's a ceiling razor among supreme talent, right, Like, we know what he can do alongside the best players in the world, because we saw it with Lebron and ad in the with the Lakers, where he can like almost reach you to another height because of all of those little things that he does, right, But that benefit just doesn't matter

to the Bulls because they right. And this was an extended period with the DeRozan with that core, with Derozen and Vucevich and zach Levine where they just weren't able to even keep their heads above water, let alone be even into a some sort of deep playoff run where you could see what those guys are like in that setting. And so as you pivot, it's like, okay, well, let's

see what Josh Gitty can do. And then from there you start to give more high volume ball handling responsibilities to guys at Kobe White, to guys like Josh Gitty, and you find out what they're capable of with the ball in their hands. Let's say you find out that Josh Gitty is actually like a legitimate offensive engine to

start around. Well, it's like, okay, well now we feel like Josh Gitty might actually be good enough, but we're going to give ourselves a number two that's more of like a role man because we know we need Josh

Gitty on the ball. So like maybe it's more of like a player that's in like the Shane Goon kind of archetype, the Anthony Davis type of archetype, like a power forward center that is a guy that can compliment Josh Gitty with these supreme gifts on both the floor, but doesn't necessarily need to dominate the basketball where Giddy's standing in the corner where teams are gonna put their center on him and not have to worry about guarding him. Right,

And so this is essentially a waiver. You're trying Giddy, trying Giddy to just see how it looks giving Kobe White more ball handling responsibility. Let's just see how it looks, and then from there it's either gonna make some sense or it might be one of those things where we end up flipping Giddy. You could revitalize Giddy's value, like that's where this Caruso tray could end up working out

in a big way. What if Giddy goes for you know, nineteen ten to nine over the first half of the season, and a team out there that like desperately needs ball handling ends up making some kind of move for him, and then you get draft compensation back, right, That is what could potentially open the door for you to potentially find that top end piece. But you're basically starting from scratch. There's no use in finding useful role players at this

point because it doesn't fit your timeline. It's more important for you to cash in those guys for draft assets if you have them, like what you did with Caruso. From there, you're giving reps to guys that haven't had high volume ball handling reps, and you're just continuing to look for talent in the draft. It's like step one is admitting that you know that you have an issue, and it took a little too long, but for them to finally admit that the Vucevich, Levine and derozencore wasn't

enough was a good step in the right direction. I don't know if he'll be able to find a Levine trade partner. But eventually he'll be an expiring contract, and at that point he will be someone who carries some

value and so you can cash him in at that point. Again, it's far away, but at this point it's like making sure that you're taking in assets as much as possible by getting rid of anything that has any sort of value around the league, trusting in your scouting department to find talent, and you're seeking those foundational pieces the guys

that you can build the rest of the roster. I've been meaning to ask you about your experience of the Golden State CAZ days, given that Lebron and Steph are your one and two favorite players, But you recently said that you hated Steph back then. Which moment slash event made you fall in love or out of hate with Steph and earlier with Lebron. So I've told everybody the story about Lebron. It was that's how I fell in

love with the game of basketball. I was raised in a household that was very much baseball and football focused. My little brother played football West Point, my older brother played junior college football, was a very good high school player. They were big baseball guys too. That's just what they did, right, and that's what my family did. And I just randomly got tall. Nobody in my family is over six to one,

and I'm six to six. So like it just was kind of one of those things where I kind of was just naturally inclined to the game, but I randomly in two thousand and six, and it was game seven too. It was Game seven of the two thousand and six second round series between the Cavs and the Pistons when the Pistons, it was Game seven and Pistons beat that

shit out of him, like it won't even close. But that was actually my first like real time sitting down and watching NBA basketball and kind of falling in love with it. And so then I just started like following Lebron's career and obviously you guys all remember what happened in two thousand and seven when he took him all the way to the finals, and so just immediately fell

in love with the game. And Lebron just became like my sentimental attachment to the game because he was the player that got me to fall in love with it. And so as you can imagine a kid that never did anything with basketball as a kid to like picking it up as a teenager and then getting my school paid for for it, and now that's what I do

for a living. Like the game of basketball is so important to me, and so like Lebron is like always going to be like my emotional weak spot in terms of analysis, in the sense that like I love other NBA players, but not the same way, just because Lebron will always have an attachment to like my childhood love

for the game, right, if that makes sense. Now, as far as the hate thing with Steph hates the wrong word, obviously, I hated having to compete against him, not individually but as a fan, having to watch my favorite team compete against him, and I just was He's so damn good. And as a roster they were so damn good, especially

when they added Kevin Urant. Like it just was annoying, right, But it's you know how it is, Like it like as time passes, you start to grow up and you start to like twenty sixteen, twenty fifteen, that would have been I graduated high school and own nine, so I would have been like, what twenty four something like that.

I still kind of a kid, right, Like I was still handling it the way a twenty four year old would as a fan, you know, And so like, as I got older, and as I dove deeper into the game, and as I started to coach, and as I started to cover the league, It's like you grow to appreciate these guys in a different way, right, especially now that I'm where we are not rooting for them to compete

against each other as much anymore. And so at that point, like, uh, there's several key things that really drove me to like Steph. One his competitiveness. I like I am. I've always been just like super annoyed with people that don't show the requisite amount of fight in sporting events. And what I've always loved about Steph is like I never felt for a second like he wasn't giving everything he had in a big moment just simply because the dude hated losing

more than anything else. I had a conversation with Ethan Strauss on his podcast a few months ago, and we were talking about Steph, and he was pointing out like that Steph's favorite sport might be golf, and how like a lot of the all time greats are guys that like are more competitive than they are lovers of the game right, like Michael Jordan's another example that Lebron famously loves football, Like I've found that to be very fascinating, But it was like it was the first the overall

just sheer competitiveness to the making the most out of his specific set of gifts, like I was always super impressed by, like the weight training regimen from Steph Curry. A lot of people don't realize this, but that was the main drivers of his success. Famously, after twenty fifteen, he went to twenty sixteen and he raised his scoring average about like six points a game when he had already won MVP, and then got six points a game better.

And he attributed most of it to lower body weightlifting and the fact that it just made it so that he could get lift in separation better. And like obviously we've seen what he's done with his upper body, we've seen what he's done to become a useful defender over the course of his prime, and that's just a lot

of a lot of work. And it's a testament because there's a lot of guys that have similar physical gifts that just didn't do that and didn't reach their potential and Steph's going to go down as one of the ten best players of all time in my opinion, as the only guy in that list that's below sixty five and certainly the only guy that doesn't have supreme athletic gifts. And so it just that was what drew me to Steph.

And there are a lot of skill stuff too, Like I've always been really impressed by STEP's ability to quickly reset his base off the dribble. There are some footwork things that I've stolen from him, specifically like outside foot when you're moving lateral, Steph will like hit a dribble combination into a step back and cover a shit ton of ground, but then like go straight up and down

at the end. But if you watch, like if he's going to the left, like he'll stick his left foot way out and he'll catch his body and reset his base to go straight up and down, which is a

footwork element but also strength element. But there are elements of that that I've tried to steal with the way that I played the game, and over time, I just found out pretty quickly that as I looked around at the other players around the league, like there wasn't anybody that was doing the kind of stuff that Steph was doing, and all of a sudden he became one of my favorite players, and I really, really really enjoyed rooting for

him over the tail end of his career. It's been a much better experience than rooting against him the way I did with Lebron when he was or with Steph when he was younger. One of the best ways for offensively limited rosters to squeeze the most juice out of their personnel. Teams like the Heat or the Wolves are clearly great defensively, but lack some offensive firepower to push them over the edge. So you know, it's interesting because there's the half court element, and then there's the total

game element. Right So, like any team that has offensively limited personnel but as defensively minded personnel, there are ways to elevate your offensive performance on the margins. So for instance, getting out in transition as much as possible. Okay, so you're freaky athletic and good at defense, Well, don't play in the half court if you don't have to, right Like, that was a big thing with the twenty twenty Lakers.

They were a little bit limited in half court because they had a bunch of big, strong dudes, and some of them couldn't shoot very well, but like they were just so damn good defensively, and they were so damn good in transition that it just didn't matter. And then in the half court, Lebron and ad were able to make enough shots right Like with teams like Minnesota. Minnesota is a great example of this, Like they need to

get stops and get out in transition. Like it was so funny to watch that Denver series, Like whenever they were getting stops and forcing turnovers and getting out in transition, they were killing Denver. But then every time the game slowed down into the half court, Denver was killing them. It was like a super interesting dynamic. So first is like exploit the margins as much as possible. That's not just transition. That's also like attacking the offensive class bigger

and more athletic, you can do damage on the offensive glass. Right. There are different ways to squeeze those things out in the margins in the half court. It's schematics, it's ball and player movement. If you have a player that's limited as a shooter, don't let him stand at the three point line, let him function more as a cutter and as a screener. Right, if you have two non shooters on the floor, you can actually run five out. This is one of the most common things that I see

people get wrong in the YouTube comments. I see people be like they do run five out. They have this guy that can shoot at center, and it's like, running five out has nothing to do with how many players can shoot. Five out is entirely about where players are while the action is being run. The simplest way to put it is like in five out, you never have a player just chilling in the dunker spot or like a big man that's just just like permanently perched around

the basket. In five out, your big guys are up around the elbows and they're working as dribble handoff fulcrumbs. Guys still go to the basket, They cut to the basket, they screen and roll to the basket, they drive to the basket, but they're not permanently occupying that space. There are lots of different ways. Five out offense manifests in

a bunch of different ways. Right, Like we see Golden State, it's like two non shooters, a lot of guys coming off of screens looking to shoot right Boston, it's more individual two man game to try to get a defense in rotation. You'll see guys end up in the dunker spot. You'll see guards end up in the dunker spot, just because as they're kind of going through the action, they'll briefly make themselves available. If it's there, they'll catch and finish.

If not, they'll quickly get the fuck out of there. Right, Like it's guys aren't just like perched around the basket. That's all five out is Five out is ball and player movement with your non shooters functioning as full crumbs away from the baskets, cutting and rolling into the paint rather than standing in the paint. That's the main difference, right. But like within that, you can craft roles that make sense.

It's just different from team to team. Right, So, like Golden State with their non shooters and guys setting screens and guys flying off a screen shooting, they can't play the way Boston does because they can't get to dribble penetration. But Boston can't play the way Golden State does because they don't have guys like Stephan Clay used to be Clay that could fly off of a screen and rise up and shoot a jump shot. Right Like there Boston has a bunch of go catch and shoot guys, not

a bunch of great movement shooters. Right. So two different forms of five out offense that that that essentially center around the same concept of the paint being something that you temporarily occupy, you don't permanently occupy. Right. But like with your team, so like with with the Minnesota for instance, right like they do their best to try to have Rudy Gobert screen and roll into space, and they try their best to have Jada McDaniels occasionally come off of

a dribble handoff. But there are just certain limitations in terms of ball handling and shooting from the non Anthony Edwards, non Mike Conley, non cat Karl Anthony Towns players that they just have a certain ceiling in the half court. That's where you try to maximize it as much on the margins by getting out in transition, by attacking the offensive class. But in the half court, it's just like, don't like it's like Jared Vanderbilt with the Lakers. You

don't have him standing in the corner. That's a waste of what Jared Vanderbilt is is good and bad at like You're better off having him screen and roll into space. Jared Vanderbilt was a bad offensive player with the Lakers two years ago. He actually was pretty solid before he got hurt in January because he was functioning more as a screener and as a cutter. What is a successful season for San Antonio play in and smashed by Oklahoma City Denver wenby establishing himself in the top ten, I'd

say the big thing is getting big game experience. Like you, it's hard to learn about what a player is good and bad at until there's real, real high leverage situations. Physicality ramps up, scouting ramps up. It's easier to free you to identify weaknesses. If you get let's say you get a play in matchup and you squeak into the play and you play first round series, but you get your butt kicked, You're gonna learn a lot more about Devin Vessel and Victor wimin yam and what their strengths

and weaknesses are. From there, you can learn more about how to accentuate their strengths and how to fight against and limit their flaws. But you got to have high leverage moments for you to see that. I'm a big believer in like san Antonio is at the point where, like you need to find out whether or not Devin Vassell can be the go to perimeter guy next to Victor Wimenyama. That's what you gotta find out. If he is, then your entire focus shifts to finding high quality two

way role players to fit their offense. Right. But if Devin Vessel is not good enough, then your attention has to turn more towards We got to find a number two for Victor women Yama, right. The only way to find that is to get into high leverage moments and see what these guys look like when the shit hits the fan. With Vando and Christian Wood seeming to both be out of the start of the regular season, even

though nothing officials come out yet. With Vando, how effect excuse me, how effectively do you think the Lakers will stay afloat? They lost key players like Spencer and Torrian Prince and seem to be doomed defensively. I think they're going to be fine in the regular season. I don't think they're going to be a top four seed or anything like that, but I think they'll be in that five to eight range most of the year. Again, they

won thirty of their last forty five games. They were the fourth best record in the league after January seventh with this group of guys. That was with Vanderbilt hurt. That was with Christian Wood hurt, that was with Gabe Vincent barely playing until the very end of the year.

Gabe Vincent being back and healthy will go a long way because that gives them a guard that can guard at the point of attack and kind of like level some things out in terms of distribution of resources, Like it'd be great if Austin Reeves didn't have to guard the other team's best guard every single night. Right that said, like, even with all the flaws that we've talked about, Lebron and eighty are still two the top ten players in the league, playing damn near at the top of their

games at this point in time. Austin Reeves still a baller. Daniel Russell said, what you want about him, He is a good regular season player. Ruey Hatchamura, I still don't know really what he is because he had an awesome playoff run two years ago and then an awful playoff run last year, but they're good enough to be a good regular season team. I think a lot of people are off the Lakers sent as a standings kind of team because they went three to ten in December and

it nuked their situation. But they were really good most of the year last year, and so as long as they continue to play like that, I expect them to be really good most of the year this year. Now whether or not they can enter into that top tier of championship contenders, that is all going to come down to whatever big trade they end up making at some

point this season. Do you think the Lakers would be better off if Lebron was more off the ball, averaging around twenty instead of his twenty five, letting dlo and Austin create, especially Givendlo's that del grades out well and playmaking talent, but became a top tier low man in the regular season. Stay blessed. I actually am the opposite with Lebron. Lebron, in my opinion, is still a devastating offensive player when he's devoting his resources there and his

jump shots going in. Obviously, two years ago he had that weird bad jump shooting season, but last year's great jumphooter and was one of the best half court shot Craaders in the league. So what I want to do is I want to alleviate Lebron's defensive job. If I can actually go to Lebron and be like, hey, dude, like you can chill on defense for the most part, I just need you to create shots. That's actually I think the best way to use Lebron at this age. You know, you want to use him for his brain.

At this point, I want the ball in his hands. I want him making decisions. It's specifically when he has to do most of the defensive work while Austin and Di lo are off doing everything with the ball, where I can see some diminishing returns because Lebron still won't try on defense in the regular season. So like, that's my main thing. Is the main thing I think the Lakers need to do is create an easier defensive job

for Lebron in the regular season. Maybe that's a too big look, that's Christian Wood is somebody who would help with that, so hopefully he's not out for too long. Getting Jared Vanderbilt back would be a huge boost in that specific regard, But just making Lebron's defensive job easier is the best thing you can do for the regular season, because Lebron still is one of the best offensive players in the league. In my opinion, what's Brandon Ingram's future

in the league? What team makes sense to give him the best chance to fulfill his potential. Brandon's in my opinion, one of the like kind of underrated on ball forwards in the league. He just kind of has to be on the ball. He's not a player that like really functions well off the ball in like ball and player movement, and so I think about teams that have really good defenses that would benefit from him pull up jump shooting in some of his more surgical shot creation in the

half court, but also kind of need talent. So a team the team two teams that I put up here were like teams like Cleveland or Miami. Now with Cleveland, I think that also would come hand in hand with trading one of the guards, probably Darius Garland, but I think that would give them a little bit more firepower, and that would also kind of fit their system in

a way that I think would struggle elsewhere. And in Miami it's just you're you're at a point where you're a little bit desperate and you got to make a talent play, and I think brandon Ing would be an interesting fit there. But I don't know. I don't know where he's gonna end up. This is gonna be really interesting to see because I think his value is in

the gutter right now. But he obviously was playing hurt or coming back from an injury last year, so I don't think that was necessarily the best way to evaluate him. So I'm I think it'll start with him in New Orleans, hopefully revamping his value a little bit, and then from there, I think there will be a team that's a little bit desperate looking for some talent that'll jump on him. Let's see here, we've got i Helpi at his peak

versus Curry. Who would you take in a playoff situation and who would be easier to build a contender around Curry? No question. Kawhi, for as good as he is, is not the type of guy that you can count on to consistently generate quality shots over a large sample. He's a better small sample guy because no one can stop him from getting to his spots, and he's one of the best individual shot makers that we have in the

league when he's healthy. But like, if I get Curry, I know that just off the jump, I'm just gonna get a bunch of really good shots all year long. I also know that with Curry I can get away with playing a lot of defensive minded personnel, as Golden State has done over the years. I don't think that one's particularly close. I would go with Curry. Who's your dark horse NBA Champion contender? Based on the moves that were made this offseason. So we have a couple of

new top tier contenders, right. I think the Knicks after they got McHale Bridges, I think that puts them in the top tier. You just Brunson, Bridges, og Randall, Robinson, that's just a really damn good top five with a lot of size and athleticism, rank and shot making, and that's just a really good team. In Oklahoma City getting Hart and Stein, I think that puts them in their group. But there's a bunch of different teams that are that

are in the mix there. Obviously the obvious ones like Dallas and Minnesota are two teams that I think could be right back in the mixes here Milwaukee if those two guards that they brought in end up working out for them on the defensive end of the floor to kind of make things easier. And if Jannis and Dame have a better season. Obviously, the Philly I don't think

you can ride out because of the MB factor. What if Embid just has healthy knees all year, and then what if he just kicks everyone's ass in the postseason? And they also have Paul George and Tyres Maxi right, So that's one. And then the Lakers if they landed a big trade because Lebron and n d are still the two of the top ten players in the league, and if you get them good two way players around them, I think that's a devastating combo. Let's see, what's your

favorite shot to make when you play basketball? Not your most efficient, but your most enjoyable shot to put in the basket. That's an interesting question. I would say the shot that I feel the best about when I make is probably a left shoulder fade, particularly from the right block when I'm facing over my right shoulder. The left shoulder fade is one of the toughest shots that I've ever worked on. The right shoulder fade as a right handed shooter is easier because you don't have to square

up in mid air. But when you're turning over your left shoulder, you actually have to swing your right leg all the way around. And one of the things I learned from Kobe is you deliberately swing that leg around and the momentum of your leg will naturally turn your body for you as you're turning, and it just alleviates some of the workload of actually getting squared up. But when I pivot over my left shoulder and hit a fade away, it's such a great feeling because it's such

a tough shot. It's all about legs too. Like it's interesting like when I make it or miss it, it almost always comes down to did I get enough lift? Like if I spin over that left shoulder and I get really good lift, it to me, it just feels like a jump shot at the end. But like that's the fascinating part about that specific shot. It's just all lower body work to get you to where you can

knock down a shot. It's definitely a satisfying feeling for me. Easily, my most efficient go to move those that right shoulder faith. If I need a bucket and a pickup game and it's game point. I'm calling for the ball on the right block and I'm bumping with my right shoulder and trying to get to my right shouder face because that's a shot that I feel like I can make a good half the time in a big spot. Like that last question, the Warriors team closely resembles the twenty two team.

Would you be surprised if they made a run like twenty two? That's an interesting question because they do resemble the twenty two teams, specifically, just swapping out rule players for a couple of guys that are a little bit more of a better fit, right, like getting a d Anthony Melton, who I think is like it's interesting. I've always looked at him as like KCP is more of a movement shooter. D Anthony Melton's more of an off

the dribble shooter or off the dribble player. But both of them are like two guys that are considered to be rock solid NBA starters. I think KCP at his peak was better, but I think d Anthony Melton is really really damn good. I think d Anthony Melton is the kind of guy that's gonna be a two guard. If you can say healthy, He's going to be a two guard and a really damn good team one day.

I mean, he's been on some good Philly teams. But what I specifically like about that is his ability to put the ball on the floor kind of makes a lot of sense within Golden State's offense coming off of screens. Kyle Anderson, in addition to being one of the most versatile defensive forwards in the league, is a guy that has a bunch of offensive limitations, but if you put him in dribble handoffs with Steph I think he could actually

be a pretty impactful offensive player. And we talked about earlier Golden State's offense and how they can usually work with two non shooters as dribble hand off full crumbs. They did it with Looney and Draymond, right, they did it with Bogett and Draymond right like we've seen that a bunch of times. They did it JaVale McGee and Raymond sometimes right like that dual fulcrumb kind of concept.

I think Kyle Anderson fits that really nicely. So in a lot of ways, it resembles the twenty two team because they went from the twenty twenty one team, which was clunky and weird, to a couple of role player tweaks, and all of a sudden it comes together. The main difference is Steph isn't the same player. Steph was, in my opinion, the best or second best player in the league in twenty twenty one twenty two, and he just

isn't at that level right now. So if Steph can get back to that top five player type of form, then I think we could be looking at a Warriors team that's one deal away from real championship contention. It's just a question of whether or not Steph can get it back to that point. All right, guys, that is all I have for today is always to sincerely appreciate

you guys for supporting the show. I will see you guys on YouTube after the final buzzer of Aces Fear the volume whats So, guys, As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, But if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.