Jokic's MVP Case, KD's Nets Pick, Lakers Switching Defense

this is actually gonna be releasing on Friday morning. Friday night they go to Minnesota to take play the Timberwolves, but i have one of my bigger Christmas events of the year with my wife's family, so I'm actually gonna be missing that game. Again. Thankful for Rage that he's

available to cover for me. But on Saturday morning, I plan on doing a podcast and I'm really gonna do deep dive on the film from both Wednesday night in Dallas and Friday night in Minnesota today, as is usually the case on an off day, I'm gonna hit on a couple of league wide topics, and then I'm gonna do a deep dive on the Lakers concept. You know, the two league topics I'm gonna hit on are gonna Beyokich in his m v P case, something that's being

pushed by Zach Low and Ben Taylor. And I'm also gonna be hitting on Kevin Durant choosing Brooklyn over New York and why I don't think it's that crazy, what we're that big of a deal, and why I actually think Kevin Durant made the right decision. Um but uh, And then the Laker topic is going to center around their defense and doing more switching and why I think that's so important. So let's let's start with Yokis now again.

Like I said this, this movement is being pushed by Ben Taylor and Zach Loow, two guys that I really really respect to my favorite people in this business. If you've never listened to Ben Taylor's YouTube videos, A highly recommend you check them out. And I don't need to tell you anything about Zach Low. He's one of the best in the business. Um. That said, I vehemently disagree

with them in this approach that they're taking here. They're basically to make a long story short, their take is Yokich absolutely should be very much in consideration for winning the MVP Award because not only is he having a fantastic individual season by any statistical measure, by any advanced metric measure, but also the Nuggets kill everybody when he's on the floor, and when he's off the floor, they get killed, and that, by its very literal definition, is what an m v P is, and that's why he

should win the award. That's kind of the little cliff notes version of what their take is. And obviously, I respectfully vehemently disagree, and the main reason why is that, you know, the MVP Award is what it is, and I'm kind of getting sick of, you know, having this exact same conversation every single year as it pertains to that fringe candidate that's on a team that's not near

the top of the standings. Because look again, yes, I understand that Most Valuable Player by its very literal, semantic definition, has a certain meaning, but this award throughout the entirety of modern NBA history has meant something different. It has almost always involved who's having the best individuals season in

conjunction with whose team is having the most success. That has always been the case, and there's always been a threshold there to where we don't even consider guys that are unlimited teams unless there just isn't candidates at the top. And this season there are candidates at the top, bona fide traditional MVP candidates, Kevin Durant, Steph one seed in the East, one seed in the West. The two of

them are having traditional dominant NBA seasons MVP seasons. You can't gloss over that to then start bending the rules to try to include someone else. For instance, I I pushed back on the concept of Yokih struggling his team struggling when he's off the floor, when Kevin Durant is basically having that same problem in Brooklyn. The differences Kevin Durant is is expanding his role to cover for that. Kevin Durand has played over two hundred more minutes the

Nicolo Yokich this year. He plays about five minutes more per game. That inherently allows his team to win more games because he's not allowing himself to be off the floor. Now there's a whole other conversation to have about his health and whether or not that's smart. But in terms of that same definition of most valuable player, that's Kevin Durant's telling you that I'm willing to do more two,

you know, make up for my team shortcomings. Yokich is only playing like thirty two and some change minutes per game. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that. That may very well be the smartest strategy with the superstar, but you don't get to do that and then complain that you're getting killed in the other third of the game that you're sitting out. So I don't really necessarily

think that's that's relevant here. And then the case everyone uses to try to shoehorn Yokich in is Russell Westbrook. In two thousand seventeen. Russell Westbrook was on a limited team. There were obviously better players in the league that season, but he did a ton to carry his team to get to that uh, you know, middle of the pack playoff Burthen So he ended up getting the award. But there are a bunch of differing a bunch of things about that season that are very different than this season.

In that season, russ was twelve games over five hundred. Yokich is five hundreds, so even within that threshold, which so many people think was a mistake looking back. I don't necessarily think it was a mistake, but so many

people think it was a mistake looking back. Even that team had significantly more success than Nicola Yoki's team is having now with an equally limited roster in terms of what he had flanking him on the wings and trying to help him go about the process of winning basketball games in that same season, and this is a big part of why russ one we didn't have a traditional

MVP candidate Lebron in two thousand seven team. That was the season in Cleveland that he completely took his foot off the gas defensively, So it was hard to make the case for him because he wasn't trying on one end of the floor and his team was under performing. They were They only had I think fifty seven wins that season, so he kind of took himself out of that traditional bona fide m VP candidate phase hardened in Kauai.

They both were very very good on good teams, but hard and only one fifty five games, so it wasn't like some clear, you know, top of the league type of juggernaut Kauai. You know, he was the Spurs won over sixty games that year, but he was considered more of like a cog in a system, not a very important cog. But he wasn't the same level of offensive engine that you were getting with Lebron or James Harden or any of those guys, So he wasn't a traditional candidate.

And then Katie and staff basically canceled each other out, which is something that's happened throughout m v P history. Happened to Lebron in two thousand eleven. When you leave your team to go play alongside another top tier NBA superstar in both of you are playing at an m VP level, neither of you get credit for the award. That's always been the way that it's worked. And guess what, Isaiah Thomas got or votes for m VP this season

than either Stephan Katie for that reason. So that two thousand seventeen season with Russ really isn't relevant here at all as it pertains to Yoki. Yoki isn't winning nearly as much, and Yokich is competing against significantly better traditional m v P cases. He doesn't have that same foundation that Russ had to lean back on. And so again this is the most important part here, because I've been

on Yokich a lot. Here. You know, just because I say Yokich isn't the best player in the league, because I'm deferring to guys that have a more you know, uh, to have a more solid playoff resume, that have been there at the highest level, And just because I'm saying Yoki is not the m v P this year does not equate to me hating on Yoki does not equate to me not understanding how good Yokich is. I have every understanding of what Yoki is. I know that he's

vastly improved as a defensive player. I know he is a great wingspan, and he really bothers people around the basket it and he's really good in his pick and roll coverages with Denver. I know what he brings offensively, scoring inside, being able to attack mismatches, his ability to score from the perimeter, his array of floaters and gnarly little crazy one legged jump shots all over the place.

I know what he can do as a passer. I've frequently said that he is in a tier of passer that is super unique, with only four guys in the league. It's basically him in CB three and Luca and Lebron. I am all in on the Yoki's train as a player. I'm just pointing out the absurdity of saying he's better than Steph Curry, or he's better than Kevin Durant, or he has a better m v P case this season than Steph Curry Kevin Durant, who are both playing at the top of their games and both of their teams

are vastly outperforming the other teams in their conference. He has absolutely no case for m v P in my opinion. He can be on the ballot, he can be a guy who finishes fourth or fifth or whatever, but he has absolutely no leg to stand on over the guy in front of him in my opinion. Moving on to Kevin Durant. So after Steph Curry breaks the record in Madison Square Garden the other night, and I'm not going to talk about Steph today. I've talked a lot about

him recently. You guys know how much I respect Steph and and how much I appreciate that record and what it means for the league, and how much he's changed

the game. But so Rich climbing comes out after and he basically complains that Kevin Durant, who on the same night with a bunch of really young players and only eight Brooklyn Nets who were available to play, won a game against the Toronto Raptors in which he played incredible, he didn't get nearly as much attention or credit or whatever you want to call it to Steph breaking the

record in Madison Square Garden. And you know, I think he was being critical of the media and just the way that we give attention to this kind of stuff. But you know, the far more interesting thing to me there was the response to rich Climate, which was a lot of people coming out saying like, if that's what you wanted, why didn't you go to the Knicks? And you know what's funny to me is I I think Kevin Durant made the right decision to out to Brooklyn.

And the main reason why is because he's not Lebron. He's a different type of person. He's a different type of human being. It has nothing to do with what they are as basketball players. It just has to do with their personalities. It's no different than like, you know, a guy like me not necessarily loving big cities and enjoying living in the in the desert here in Tucson with the mountains and kind of a peaceful, quiet type of lifestyle compared to living in a big city. And

I've lived in big cities in my life. I've lived in Phoenix and in Charlotte, and I genuinely like it here better. But you know, there are people out there who love the hustle and bustle of being around those environments. You know, like Lebron went to the Lakers because he thrives in that attention. He loves being constantly in that swirling WorldWind of media pressure and fan pressure, in in

all of the expectation. He enjoys that. You know, Kevin Durant, he loves the basketball primarily, and he actually doesn't like it when things infringe on the basketball. You know, there was that moment a while back where Katie had that quote where he referred to the environment around Lebron as toxic. I never interpreted that as an insult to Lebron for

being toxic. I think that had a lot more to do with just Katie prefers the environment that he cultivates around him, which is primarily based on basketball low drama. Doesn't like the attention. That's why he picked Brooklyn. If he wanted, if he was wired like Lebron, he would have picked the Knicks for Kevin Durrett. He cared more about the basketball situation, and I bet you he preferred the fact that Brooklyn would be on the back burner

in their own city. Now, his his business partner, partner Rich Kleiman, he might have a different point of view on that, but that's kind of his job. His job is to help Katie with his brand or whatever the heck his list of responsibilities are. But his approach isn't the same as Katie's I would predict, and again I'm just guessing here, but I bet you Katie is extremely happy with his decision to stay in Brooklyn. I bet

you he has no regrets about not going to New York. Hell, he damn near won the title in his first year in Brooklyn and in uh in this season, things are really starting to come together, so he's probably feeling fantastic right now. He probably doesn't care that he's not the center of attention, and you know, people might point to the Golden State thing and him not, you know, kind of getting the same amount of credit as step there as a reason why he left. But to me, credit

and attention are two very different things. You know, I think Katie wants us to appreciate and acknowledge what he brings to the table. That's not the same as Katie wanting to be surrounded by paparazzi all the time, or like loving being the headline every day or loving being the center of attention. Those are two entirely different things.

I think k d personally, just again just guessing. I think Kadi just genuinely wanted to go to a place where he would be appreciated, you know, in terms of his art and what he brought to the table as a basketball player, and leaving Golden State was part of

that journey. And again when it came in time to choose between the necks of the Knicks and the Nets, I genuinely think he just thought Brooklyn was a better opportunity for basketball to be the focus for that whirlwind of of all of that drama and and attention, to be lesser than what it was in New York, and that that would be good for him. And you know, honestly, like like I came into the season, saying Kevin Durant

was the best player in the world. I think that's kind of a toss up now between him and Steph Curry. But that said, I would argue that his decision to go to Brooklyn has worked out exactly the way he planned in the sense that he is starting to be finally appreciated for what he does on the court. And I think it's really really foolish for all of us to, you know, talk about what, for all of us to assume that he might want something else when he doesn't.

This isn't like the Dame Lillard situation, where he's very clearly leaking all of this information out to the public and it's convolution being his own story. And there's a lot of like he said, she said stuff going. No, No, Katie's just over there playing basketball. He has no interest in leaving. He loves it there, and he's on the team that has are I mean, I think I'm pretty sure they're in Vegas. They're still the favorites. So Katie is doing just fine. So let's talk some Lakers when

we get out of here really quick. If you guys looked into my Twitter feed today, I was doing my little film breakdown let that I usually do, and uh, there's a play in there, a couple of plays actually in a conversation between me and Cranes and pizzas from like a film room having to do with something called a stack spain pick and roll, which is a variation of pick and roll in which there is already a man underneath the basket and when they run the highest

screen and roll, you have the ball handler barreling down the lane, you have the role man barreling down the lane, and then you take the man under the basket and he just sprints up to the top of the key.

And the reason why they do that is it pulls that help defender the man who's guarding that man out of the lane if he follows the shooter, or what is usually going to happen is that man will see the pick and roll coming at him and will offer help, in which case that guy under the basket is usually

wide open at the top of the key. And the Lakers used a really really interesting wrinkle to try to cover it, something that caught my eye because of the fact that we've struggled with the role man all season. If if you're a Laker, fan, you have watched opponents hang on the rim NonStop this season because of our

inability to guard and pick and roll. And this wrinkle stood out to me because I saw our big man, Anthony Davis in this case just Steake glude to the role man the entire time, which took away the lob. But what the Lakers did to offer help on the pick and roll is they just had the guard help. And in this situation, when this person filled into the top of the key, the guy guarding the ball handler would just abandon the play and sprint back out and

guard the guy in the perimeter. And there was an example of this play where the Lakers ran it perfectly and Avery Bradley and Wayne Ellington executed a switch and Avery Bradley was able to contest Reggie Bullock, who was the shooter in this case, and force a miss. But there was another version of this play where Reggie Bullock instead of running to the top of the key, Reggie

Bullock is the guy who's under the basket. So in that stack Spain pick and roll, you would have you know, Powell at the top of the key with Jalen Brunson. They'd be running the action and Reggie Bullock would be the guy directly under the rim. The idea there is he's a great shooter, so if you have him being the guy running to the top of the key in the Lakers offer help from that guard, you're gonna get

your best shooter a wide open three. Well, Reggie Bullock and the MAVs had a wrinkle on this, or they just had Reggie Bullock run out to the corner instead of to the top of the key. All of a sudden, Wayne Ellington didn't want to switch the way he was supposed to in this action, and Jalen Brunson got a wide open layup. Why Because Anthony Davis was glued to the role man as it was his role in that coverage, and there was no help at the rim. So that's

pretty convoluted. That's pretty in the weeds. Why do I bring it up? I bring it because this is the problem with trying to run variations of traditional coverage is against a modern spread, pick and roll attack. We I'm a huge believer in switching. That's something that I've talked about a lot on this pod, and I'm gonna explain a little bit more today why I'm such a big

believer in that. You know, NBA teams, they're really really, really really good at after they've attacked the same thing at jazillion times, at figuring out counters in different ways to attack something, in ways to to expand their advantage. So, for instance, drop coverage, we have seen over the course

of the last five years drop coverage become borderline obsolete. Now, at the beginning, it was only the really really good guards that would give us problems, right, we would have the Chris Paul's of the world, the Jamal Murray's of the world. You know, the really really high level midrange you know Steph Curry types. Anybody who was really really good at shooting off the dribble and making those floaters

and things along those lines. They would kill us in drop coverage because the drop coverage big would have to step up to help on the guard at some point, which would open up the lab. What's interesting, though, and this is where this is where it gets. It makes me concerned in terms of this coverage that we use so much being viable in the future. All as is the case, if you give anybody enough reps, all of the guards in the NBA now are good at attacking

drop coverage. Jalen Brunson really good at attacking drop coverage. Deer and Fox and Tyrese Haliburton really good at attacking drop coverage. They're all so good at it now. And we've seen every single team we've gone against give us hell in those pick and roll coverages with our big dropping into the paint. That what you're seeing now is

it's no longer a situational thing. It's no longer a deal where Okay, we can run drop against everybody, but then when we get to the playoffs and we run to Phoenix, now we have to do something a little bit different. Okay, we ran into Golden State, now we have to do something different. No, we're reaching the point now where it's always gonna have to be different, and that's just part of the evolution of basketball. Like when I was in an ai A, every single guard was

because they're all older. Every single guard was incredible shooting. Every single guard was incredible with their floaters and things like that. We used to run a variation of drop coverage that we called level where the big was basically in a drop but the guard would still go underneath. And it worked because we had a six ft ten Brazilian guy in the middle. It was great with verticality and was great at disrupting and bothering people around the rim.

And even those really really good guards at the at the n A I A level weren't good enough to consistently make us pay in the mid range. That same coverage might not work even in college at this point. Over time, these things change. The reason why I think witching is the best modern coverage to use is because it's the definition ng. It's the definition of giving an inch but taking several inches. The idea that you are.

You know that if you just switch every action, you're going to give up some kind of mismatch, but in that mismatch in the aggregate, you're generating more good than bad. One of the common things that happened in the first quarter against the Mavericks was Avery Bradley. When they would switch would end and and the Lakers you switching as like an emergency fallback. They will try to run one of their drop coverages or their ice or whatever you

wanna call it. But when if it fails, if the guard gets too caught on the screen, they'll just yell out switch. They're not preemptively switching. They're not deliberately switching all that often. It's usually a fallback. I'm a proponent of using it full time. And the reason why it's just like what we saw on that first corner, and I'm gonna I'm gonna break down three plays for you really quickly and then we'll get out of here. So all three of them were I believe it was Lebron.

I think they in each play Lebron was on Porzingis for whatever reason, and they ran screens that ended up with Avery Bradley on Porzingis. So on the first one, Porzingis gets a post touch on the right block, there's

no movement on the possession. Every Dallas Maverick just goes and stands on the three point line and kristaps Porzingis, even though he has the six ft tall Avery Bradley on him or six ft two or whatever he is, he settles for a tough, contested fade away into the lane and he makes it tough shot, really nice shot. KP would probably tell you that that's a high percentage shot for him. Then on the very next possession, same

exact action ends up in the switch again. KP's got it on the left wing against excuse me, at the top of the key against Avery Bradley, And on this play he ends up taking a similar fade away against Avery Bradley, but Lebron comes over just a little bit closer and stunts at him and actually comes over at the end and tries to contest. He doesn't actually block the shop, but KP makes another really tough contested fade away.

Now again, you might tell yourself, like a person sitting on their couch might say, we have to stop leaving Avery Bradley. On KP, he's killing us. But as I was watching the tape, I'm like, this is exactly what I want to happen. Because on those possessions there was very little ball movement, there was very little player movement. All other four Lakers were saving their legs because they weren't having to chase guys around and do a ton of movement. They were sitting in a defensive stance, parked

in their spot, ready to help. And on the third play, this is actually a little bit further down, as a few plays later in the first quarter, KP gets it on the wing on the opposite wing, going against Avery

Bradley tries to post him up. Avery Bradley is fighting even harder now, really getting up underneath KP, disrupting his bass and on the On the play, Lebron and Russell Westbrook are both helping further into the lane, because that's what you do if a guy is starting to have trouble with a mismatch, you offer a little bit more help each time. You're not trying to get them to stop going to that isolation, because that's what you want them to do, but at least then it might make

KP feel a little more uncomfortable. So a KP raises up into a jump shot, but Lebron digs at the last second. Avery Bradly gets a good contest, so KP throws it across the court and hits. I think it was Tim Hardaway Jr. On the opposite wing and guarded by Russell Westbrook. Russ is in the lane. Russ sees it coming and closes out and chases uh Tim Hardaway off the line. Tim Hardaway right on the play, KP flashes back to the top of the key and Hardaway throws it to KP at the top of the key.

There's only five seconds on the shot clock. Now, because KP wasted half of the shot clock sitting in the post up position on the opposite of the floor, he ends up driving to the basket on a b which is always a poor decision. If you're a big guy, you never want to try to dribble past small guys because are quicker than you and they're up underneath you. It plays right into their advantage. May be heavily disrupts

the dribble. Kp ends up having to take some crazy fade away running one legged shot and he bricks it off the glass, and the Lakers run the other way and get a layup. And all I could think is that is the perfect progression of switching basketball. Now, you might tell yourself they got four points in three possessions, and they did, but over the course of that game they that that sets the tone that the Mavericks are

going to be stagnated by trying to attack switches. And on those switches, all four Lakers that are off the ball are not wasting their legs chasing guys around. There sitting in a defensive stance, ready to dig, ready to help, ready to box out. So it helps you with your defensive rebounding, ready to run the floor. So it helps you in transition, and I like my chances if I have the other guy isolating the all game long. Now

there are variations. If you're playing Steth Curry, if you're playing Kevin Duran, if you're playing the players in the world, you don't want them to sit on an island all day long, so you might have to get creative out of that with doubling, with you know, heavy heavy help with blitzing and recovering, with having guys on the back end having to cover more ground to cover for each other. That's part of the deal. But it's always going to be difficult to guard the best players in the world.

There's that a coverage in the world that successfully stops the best players in the world. Neither just drop coverage or any of these other coverages that we're talking about. But that was the genius. That was the simple genius of what Brooklyn did last year and the reason why I think they had so much success. They understood that defensively, they had guys they weren't going to be able to

run traditional coverages. They didn't have the personnelity, didn't have the athleticism, they didn't have the willingness even so, they changed their scheme into a switching scheme, which offloads a lot of the physical responsibilities into mental responsibilities communication focus, paying attention, talking, letting people know who's got who and where to be. As a result, they were able to defend at plenty high enough level in order to win

a championship. They stagnated. A lot of teams got into isolation contest with them, and they were isolating with Katie Kyrie and James Harden, not with Jason Tatum, or not with Drew Holiday or Jana Santana Coompo, And they were able to win those battles as a result, until injuries obviously just derailed them. I think this Laker team has the potential to be a better version of that Brooklyn switching team, and I am a big believer that this is the next phase, the next step in modern NBA

defensive basketball. I think we are actively seeing right now drop coverage and all those variations and little little uh tweaks around it. We are seeing that becoming obsolete, and I think it's time for the Lakers to be the team that enters into this era. All right, That's all I got for today. Guys. This is gonna be on Dash Radio tomorrow morning at seven am Pacific Standard time. This will be on my podcast feed here just in a few moments. We will be back tomorrow night with

just Roj. I think he's actually gonna be getting a guest. I'm not sure who it is for the postgame show against Minnesota, and I will be back on Saturday morning. Thank you guys as always for our support, for your support, and we'll see you in a couple of days.