NBA Mailbag: Nuggets trade for Zach LaVine? Wemby & Spurs targeting De'Aaron Fox?

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twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction void in Ontario. Bet must win to receive award. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources to DKG dot co slash b Ball. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at the Volume. Happy Friday, everybody up. All of you guys are having a great week. It's mail bag day.

I've got about seven questions. It's gonna be shorter mail bag than usual this week where we're gonna be hitting a bunch of questions from around the league. You guys know the drill before we get started. To subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore jsonlt so you guys don't miss you announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight.

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with game Time Picks. Download the game Time app, create an account, use code Hoops for twenty dollars off your first purchase terms apply again, Create an account, Redeem code Hoops. That's Hoops for twenty dollars off. Download Game Time today. What time is it? Game Time? All right, let's get into our mail bag. First question, where do you land on the Nuggets trading for Zach Levine. I don't think he's an upgrade over Michael Porter Junior and with more

health concerns. Also, I saw a trade rumor of the Spurs getting Fox with the Kings let him go. I think he'd make an impact on the Spurs in a big way, and like the fit so on the Levine front. I've been talking about this with the Nuggets for a while. I think Michael Porter Junior's off balls scoring is so important. And do I think Zach Lavine is a better offensive player than Michael Porter Junior. Yeah, I do. I think he's a much better on ball player that also is

a good off ball threat. But when the Nuggets are at their best, Michael Porter Junior is part of the

size problem they give people. You end up having to put big bodies on Jokic and Gordon, and then you end up wanting to put a pretty big perimeter defender on Jamal Murray because there are a lot of switches that take place against the Murrayjokic two man game, just because Jokic sets monster screens and so that guy has to be able to peel off and box out and like battle in a post up mismatches stuff like that.

So you're usually putting your three biggest players on Jamal Murray, Jokic, and Aaron Gordon, and so a lot of times Michael Porter Junior has like a pretty substantial size advantage, and he could do damage on the offensive glass there, right, he can shoot over the top of them. He's an even bigger spacing threat because of his height in that

sort of situation. Right. And then also just when Michael Porter Junior is locked in, he's a pretty solid off ball defender in defensive rebounder, which are areas where Zach

Lavine can struggle sometimes. So I look at Michael Porter Junior and the gap between him and Zack Lavine as not substantial enough to justify the loss of losing a guy like Michael Porter Jr. Now, if I was under the impression that Jamal Murray was just going to be bad and that he's never going to be the same, now we change the discussion because Jamal Murray and what he does is actually more important even than when Michael

Porter Junior does. And if Jamal Murray's not going to do that, you got to find somebody to do that role. And a guy like Zach Lavine can help. But up until the Sun's game where Jamal struggled, Jamal has been playing pretty good as of late and has been gaining steam as a score both in volume and an efficiency. So like, I think the best bet for the Nuggets at this point is, Yeah, if you can make a small tweak somewhere to just bring in talent, that makes sense.

Flipping a smaller contract for a better smaller contract, whatever, That's fine if you want to anchor bench unit or give yourself another option in case like the Christian Brown minutes aren't what you want in a playoff setting or something like that, Sure, by all means make that type of move. But an aggressive move that involves Michael Porter Junior has some upside but also has a lot of downside involving the loss of a very integral part of

what's made the Nuggets the Nuggets in recent years. So I wouldn't give up Michael Porter Junior, not unless you were getting like a bona fide superstar back. Even then they would have to be a gifted off ball scorer. So like even the like Jimmy Butler idea I don't love because of just how important Michael Porter Junior is

as an off ball scorer. So again I'd bet on Jamal getting right and I make smaller moves on the margins to try and improve the talent the deer and Fox piece with the like with the Kings, let him go. It depends on how ugly things get right, Like it's really difficult to bail on a move, like you kind of go all in on this group by by bringing

into Marta Rozen. It's like a reinvestment in offense, and a lot of times it's gonna have to get uglier before a group is a front office is willing to admit they were wrong about something and kind of back out of that idea. But it could continue to get worse that get blown out by the Pacers. They got to go play that Lakers team that's beat him three

times already this year again on Saturday. Like if things continue to spiral and suddenly they find themselves three, four or five games back of the plane, they might end up, you know, kind of deciding to blow this thing up. And like there's another King's Uh, let's just go to the next king's question here so that we can get into it. Well, actually, there's second the second part of the question. I think he'd make an impact on the Spurs in a big way. I said this the other day.

I love the idea of Deer and Fox going to the Spurs. Actually, let all three of these questions are related, so let's just kind of go into them one by one. Dear Jason, I understand that adding a point guard of Deer and Fox's caliber could turn the San Antonio Spurs into a contending team now, but why rush the Spurs drafted Stefan drafted Stefan Castle, a defensive guard with the

offensive upside of Darius Carlin or Drew Holliday. With Chris Paul starting, Castle hasn't had the opportunities to freely develop his offensive side, and once CP three leaves or gets traded, will be able to do just that. Additionally, the Spurs have several picks in the upcoming twenty twenty five draft, which is a lotted as a deep draft. I wouldn't put it past them to find another diamond in the rough as they did with Castle. I agree that Victor's

level of play and a good trade. I agree that with Victor's level of play in a good trade, the Spurs could compete right away, but I think they should wait till until the next season. So a couple things. It's complicated. Victor Eminyama is ahead of schedule, and so

if you can't, other young players develop much more slowly. So, for instance, like let's say Victor is right now available or able to be the best player in a championship team, which I believe he is right now, you don't rip off the numbers he's been putting up and having the positive impact on the scoreboard that he's been having unless you're ready for that. Right a player that gets drafted in twenty twenty five, when is that guy going to be ready to con play at a championship level? Probably

a while. We've just seen so many examples of that over the years, where young players struggle when they get to that level. The development arc for Wemby is different. The development arc for Wemby is like this, and the development arc for other players is more steady and slow. So you've got to find a way to kind of bridge that gap. Here's the thing. You're not giving up all your draft capital in the trade. You're not giving

upway all your young players in the trade. Let's say, for instance, it's like, you've got all these young players that you really like, right, You've got Stefan Castle, You've got Jeremy Sohan, You've got you know, a Devin Vessel. You don't want to give up all three of them.

But yeah, Like if you could give up one or two of them and you have a ton of draft picks, and you give up three or four of them, but you still have a bunch of draft capital, then you provide Victor wemin Yama with instantaneous support a player that can meet him at his level or at least near it right away, so they have an opportunity to compete while still having draft capital that you can use to try to improve the team on the draft, while still

having young talent. You might have to pick one. You might have to look at the situation and be like, do we like Devin Vessel more, we might like Steph Castle more. Well, we're gonna fight like hell to keep Steph Castle, so be it. But you got to figure out what you prioritize internally. And it's not about giving up the entire farm. There's way too much discussion when it comes to these trades of like giving up the

entire farm. You can't. It's not possible. Like there's just there's rules that the Stepien rule stops you from giving up all of your draft capital. Like there's a lot of different rules in place to stop that from happening. It's about cashing in some of that to give yourself a better opportunity to win in the short term while still being savvy in the big picture with your player

development and your scouting department. Did the Kings make the same mistake in acquiring Derozen in the same way the Suns did when they got bal Seems like both teams over indexed on offense and skill and are now dealing

with the same roster limitations. At the time of the Demart de Rosen trade, I said that I liked it in the context of something to upgrade the front court, but that I didn't understand what they were planning to do on that front, right, And that's been the issue, right, Like there's upside here that I talked about when the when de Rosen got signed DeRozan taking on offensive workloads should in theory, free up Deer and Fox to do

more work defensively. That matters if your front court can't stop anything and That's really the issue, and it is the same thing we talked about with Bradley Beal, which is diminishing returns. Demart Derozen can help this offense and can help dearon Fox, but would you be better off spending that twenty million dollars salary slot on a really high level role player that defends and competes and does all these athletic things in which player contributes more to winning.

That's why I was saying I like DeRozan in the context if they could also have brought in a forward that competes in defense and rebounds, because now I'm getting the upside of DeRozan offensively while still having guys that can compete and fight in the physical areas of the game. But if I go just for Derozen and I don't anchor the front court, now I have the diminishing returns of DeRozan, meaning I'm getting an upside, but not twenty

something million dollars worth of upside. Right. The one thing I'll say, though, is DeRozan is on a very cost controlled deal and he does provide a very important piece of offensive shot creation that many teams around the league would He is a very tradable contract, and who knows, maybe you end up calling up someone like Orlando at the deadline and be like, we'll give you DeRozan and just give us a couple of your younger, better athletes

and some draft compensation. Orlando gets to make a better push for things, and then you can maybe start rebuilding the right way. That's the advantage Like Deer Fox shit ton of trade value. Demarto Rosen probably more trade value than people realize because he's on such an inexpensive contract and he provides such a specific offensive ability, right, So like, if it gets uglier, you're actually set up for a

really nice rebuild. You could bring in a shit ton of young talent and draft assets by flipping DeRozan in Fox should it come to that point. But again, it's like we talked about with the Suns. Would the Sons be better with Bradley Beal or Contavious Caledwell Pope? And like when like when Devin Booker's out, you love having Bradley bial because you need another guy who can really create shots. But when Devin Booker's in, I'd argue you want a guy who's a professional role player over a

third creator. In those situations, the redundancy just makes it a little too a little too difficult to reap the rewards from when you are building things around Darren Fox, Malik Monk and Demarto Rosen three guys that Darren Fox is capable of being a good defender, but he's inconsistent with his effort there, and DeRozan and Fox are just bad. I have three great offensive players that are kind of getting in each other's way a little bit and not doing enough work on the other end of the floor

to make up for it. Why are offensive ratings so much higher than a few years ago. Why does the middle of the pack team today have a comparable offensive rating to the twenty seventeen Warriors. Obviously it's a shift towards analytics and eliminating bad shots, but is there something

more to it. It's that it's the eliminating of bad shots in the analytics, so just there's fewer mid range job shots uncon more quality attempts at the rim, and more quality attempts at the three point line, which are just worth more, right, But a big part of it is just player skill development. Shooting in general around the league has improved monumentally and as a result, teams are just really hard to guard. I talk about the back and forth evolution of offense and defense in the NBA.

We are definitely in a phase where offenses are doing more damage and gaining ground, but the defenses around the NBA will evolve and meet them there. Like I talked about, it's going to come through sharpness and rotation and the ability to chase teams off the three point line and emphasizing speed in roster construction. Those are the things that I think are going to send the pendulum back the other way. But the pendulum is definitely very firmly on

the offensive end at this point. Commenting after the Celtics lost to Orlando, But it feels like this year's team has struggled way more with Tatum off the floor than last year. This has extended with chrisps porzingis back. Are you seeing anything there that is different? Two things inconsistent defensive effort, especially in this last stretch. They haven't too

many stretches where they're just not competing defensively. Kind of to be expected middle of the season for a defending champ that's already in great position in the standings, and then too, Jalen Brown just hasn't been very good this year and until he kind of gets to the point where he's a little bit better and sharper on both ends of the floor, I think they're going to struggle without Jason Tatum, but I don't expect that to be an issue. I do think Jalen Brown will eventually get

it together. First off, I started watching basketball pretty recently, and until recently I was just a lucastan and a lot to do with your show, I'm becoming a basketball fan. One thing I've heard a lot is Spain pick and roll. Can you please explain this to a new fan of the sport? The simple concept? Thanks again for the content.

We had somebody two weeks ago and the mail bags say like, hey, what if we did like just a basic segment where I just break down basketball concepts And I said, I'd be happy too as long as you guys present them to me. So like you tell me, hey, I don't understand this, can you explain this? I'd be happy to do that as part of our mail bags on Fridays. Spain Pick and Roll is a very very

simple concept. All it is is a ballscreen. So my big is setting a screen for my ball handler, and he's rolling to the basket right, and the guard the ball handler is trying to turn the corner and get downhill in the ball screen. But I have a shooter instead of spacing, standing directly under the basket, and that guy is going to backscreen for the roleman's defender. So let's just take the Lakers for example, and let's pretend Lebron James is the ball handler, Anthony Davis is the big,

and Austin Reeves is the screener. Okay, so Austin Reeves is under the basket, Lebron's turning the corner, Lebron's man is chasing over the top, Anthony Davis's man is dropping right, so he's dropping back and he's trying to keep Lebron and Ad in front of him, right. But as that's happening, Austin Reeves is screening him in the back, which makes it so that Lebron and Ad can go past him, right.

So what inevitably ends up happening. This can be defended a bunch of different ways, but what most teams end up doing is the guy who's guarding Austin ends up helping, and he ends up being the guy that helps the big who just got backscreen. And so what inevitably ends up happening is Austin can then slip up to the top of the key and he's wide open for three. Lebron can swing it back and Austin can get a three.

But the way the Reids work is if they don't help and you set a good screen, if Austin sets a good screen, Lebron's just gonna get a dunk. Lebron's just gonna go right to the rim because the only guy that can block him is Anthony Davis's man and he just got screened by Austin Reeves right. Or if Lebron doesn't like his chances at the rim, Anthony Davis can roll, and he could just throw it right up to Anthony Davis, right. But the Spain pick and roll.

All it is is a ball screen with a shooter running a backscreen into the role man as he's going downhill. There's a bunch of different variations out of it, Like I've seen versions of it where the big Man actually rolls into Austin's man and he's trying to get Austin open. But it's basically that interchange between the shooter and the screener turning a two man action into a three man action in a ball screen, which again anytime you run a three man action and just increases opportunity for the

defense to make mistakes. Last question, First off, I started, Okay, I had a Wolves question and I accidentally copy and pasted the same Spain pick and roll question, But basically I had someone just complaining about the Timberwolves offense. Talked about this a little bit yesterday, but to me, it's a broken roster construct because Jada McDaniels, Julius Randall, and Rudy Gobert. You're starting three, four five combine to make two point nine threes per game on thirty three point

nine percent. That was the number before yesterday's win against Dallas. When you allow the other team to put their biggest, strongest interior defenders in the paint and not have to concern themselves with the outside shooting of the three or the five, you are making life hell for your perimeter players and everyone goes, what does Anthony Edwards always settle for jump shots? That's why, and I talked about this yesterday. But like yes, Anthony Edwards has ground to make as

a playmaker. He needs to get better at kind of surveying the floor and reading the defense and managing games as the primary ball handler. But it's not supposed to be this hard either. This is a really hard way to play basketball, and inevitably, I would like to see Minnesota accentuate Anthony Edwards's greatest trait, which is his downhill athleticism, by creating space for him, by providing more shooting and

offensive skill in the front court. And until they do that, they're going to continue to have these kinds of ugly stretches offensively because they're just too easy to guard in the half court because there's just not enough of perimeter threat coming from the front court. All right, guys, that's all I have for today is always I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. I hope you have a great weekend and we'll be back

on Monday with power rankings. Howpout to you guys. Then the volume